Show and Tell

I thought I'd share a couple of things I made before I started blogging.  Most of what I create is given away but these were made with the intent to keep them.  The first is an accordion fold book containing old photos from my father's side of the family.  It contains pictures of my father, James, his brother, Herman, and sister, Susan, as well as his parents.  My grandmother was called Nana.  I never met my grandfather as he passed away before I was born.  The cover paper set the theme of birds and nests. My first initial, D, is on the brad in the center of the flower on the cover. The "T" on the back cover is the first letter of my maiden name, Turner. Many of the sayings were cut from pages of an old book.

The next is a scrapbook of my dachshund, Sweet William Luvomine, or Willie for short!  I made this while I was recuperating from hernia surgery.  I hauled all the supplies out to the couch and worked on a lap tray.  Should have taken a picture of that ~ NOT!!  I don't do much scrapbooking but I love making memory books.  I had bunch of cute pictures of when he was a puppy and had accumulated dog-themed papers, stickers, rub-ons and magazine clippings.  It was good to have something to work on and I love how it turned out!

The last item is a canvas.  This is actually a duplicate of one I made for someone who had lost a loved one to cancer.  I added a button, with a crystal accent, on this one but the original one had their loved one's initial in place of that.  The canvas was painted with a pale butter yellow acrylic paint.  I then wiped vaseline on certain areas and painted over that with light blue paint.  Once dry I wiped off the areas where the vaseline was and the blue paint came off to reveal the yellow underneath.  Then I dry-brushed the entire canvas with gesso. The images were stamped on tissue paper with archival ink and then applied with Paper Mod Podge.

Thanks for stopping by!

CC2C - Week 14

Hello Everyone!  For this week's challenge the technique chosen from the Tim Holtz book, A Compendium of Curiosities Vol 2, is Gilded Kraft Glassine on page 39.  It wouldn't be right to show you the details of the technique so if you want to see them you need to buy the book here!

The challenge is hosted by the Linda on her Studio L3 blog.  Our sponsor for this week, with a $25 gift certificate, is Linda at the Funkie Junkie's Boutique!  Thanks to both of you ladies!  I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge.

I've had the TH hot air balloon stamp for quite some time and wanted to use it for this challenge.  This is what I did...

I started out with a 5"x8" piece of manila cardstock and applied Ranger Distress Inks in various colors. It would probably be easier for me to tell you which inks I didn't use as I just kept adding and blending until I liked the colors!  Then I used the TH SA Mixed Media cling rubber stamps and added the honeycomb and dot textures. The other images are the TH SA balloon, of course, as well as TH SA Fairytale Frenzy (words), Visual Artistry City Central (cityscape) and Lost & Found (birds).

For the balloon I created the gilded Ideaology Kraft Glassine and then stamped the balloon five times. The pieces were mounted on cardstock, cut out, folded in half and glued together to give the three-dimensional look. I realized that smoothing out the glassine to glue it to the cardstock did take away from the technique and I almost gave up on the design and started over.  But I was really feeling good about the way this would turn out so I stuck with it!  The saying was stamped on manila cardstock and then cut out and distressed with Ranger Walnut Distress Ink.

The cardstock is mounted on a 5"x8" papier mache' plaque that I had in my stash.  I marked off the sides and painted them with black and white acrylic paint before mounting the manila cardstock piece to it.





I had to cut a small hole in the back in order to put the Ideaology clock key on the top. I added the Ideaology box corners and sprocket gears with Ranger Glossy Accents. The Ideaology "Dreams" word key is hanging from a garment pin attached with small brad and glossy accents.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping to take a look!



Franken-Jack!

Happy Monday to you all!  I hope you had a crafty weekend as I sure did.  I created a little something for week 2 of the Frilly and Funkie Altered Metals challenge.  It's not "Frilly", or vintage-inspired, but I think this qualifies as "Funkie", don't you??!!

I've been in Halloween mode since I made the Configurations Crypt. So when I thought of using the riveted metal embossing folder the idea collided with Halloween and this is what happened! I didn't turn out exactly the way I had envisioned. I was hoping for more of a Jack Skellington/Tim Burton look. When it was finished I wasn't sure that I was going to submit it for the challenge after all. But when I got up this morning, and saw it on the dining room table, it made me smile so I'm going with it!

I covered the chipboard with a page from Graphic 45 Curiosity Shoppe. Then ran the chipboard through the Vagabond with the new Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Candy Jars die from the Sweet Treats collection designed by Eileen Hull. Too cute! I'm really loving this die. For his face I covered a piece of black cardstock with aluminum tape and ran it through the Texture Boutique using the Tim Holtz Alterations Texture Fades Riveted Metal embossing folder. His lovely green hue is courtesy of Ranger Alcohol Ink in Citrus. After applying the alcohol ink I cut the face with the Tim Holtz Alterations Pumpkin Jack die and a combination of the Alterations Movers and Shapers Silly and Scary Jack-o-Lantern sets. I used cardstock behind the eyes and mouth and then mounted the face to a piece of chipboard also cut with the pumpkin jack die.  The bolts were hand cut from one of the scraps.  I used a black sharpie marker to color all of the edges. The hair is a piece of thin chipboard coated with Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Black Soot. It looked a little dull so I added Stickles in Dark Blue. (It's not really blue but a combination of dark blue and purple glitter.)  And the finishing touch was a dapper bow tie made with wire edge ribbon!  I'm not sure how I got lucky enough to have ribbon the exact same color as the Stickles.  I think it's because I buy too much stuff...but look how it paid off!  (I can figure out a way to justify anything!)

I kind of ran out of time when I got to the back so I didn't embellish it much.  The label is from the Tim Holtz Alterations Mini Labels Movers and Shapers set and I cut it from a scrap that I believe is a piece from the Teresa Collins Haunted Hallows collection.  Then I added the word sticker. Maybe I'll add more later! I know...I'll add another face...Franken-Jack's alter ego...Pumpkin Jack!

Anyhoo...I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it!  Thanks for stopping by!

CC2C - Week 13

Wow!  I can't believe we've been doing this for 13 weeks already!  It's just proof that time flies when you're having fun...and I'm having a blast and learning a lot!

The technique for this challenge, hosted by Linda over at Studio L3, is Spritz and Flick Distress.  The deets can be found on page 42 of A Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2 by Tim Holtz.  This week's challenge is generously sponsored by Simon Says Stamp.  There is a $25 gift certificate up for grabs and SSS has everything TH!!!  I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp & Show "No Rules" challenge for a chance to win a $50 gift voucher!!  Maybe there will be a shopping spree in my future!!!

Here's what I came up with...

The Distress Inks used were Broken China, Faded Jeans, Spiced Marmalade, Peacock Feathers, Seedless Preserves and Vintage Photo.  The stamps are from Tim's Visual Artistry Life's Possibilities, SA Good Thoughts, Kaisercraft and Treasure Cay.  I added the Adirondack Paint Dabber in Snow Cap with the Crafter's Workshop 6x6 Mini Harlequin stencil.  Then I added the Imagine charm from the Ideaology Philosophy Tags.  The decorative corners are from Michael's.

Overall I'm happy with the result.  I was nervous about adding the paint with the stencil.  I worry about overdoing things and then I look at everyone else's work and realize that I stopped too soon!!  So each week I'm trying to take it one step further than I think I should and see what happens.  I'm learning though and that's what this is all about, right??!!  Oh, and having fun too!!!

A Compendium of Curiosities-Configurations Crypt!

Whew~say that three times fast!!

The CC2C weekly challenge over at Studio L3 is Configurations Part 1 & 2 on pages 33 and 34 of that wonderful book A Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2 from the masterful Tim Holtz.  If you don't already have a copy of this book, get one!  Then you can play along with the rest of us!

There is a FAB-U-LOUS (do your best Jo Anne Worley impersonation while saying that!) prize package of Tim Holtz goodness, provided by Mario, up for grabs.  I think I just dated myself by mentioning Jo Anne Worley but whenever I hear the word "Fabulous" I hear her singing it out in my head!  Must be all of those TV game shows I watched in the 70's!

I knew I wanted to do something with a Halloween theme.  So I put the small configurations box on my craft counter along with some assorted Halloween themed things that I picked up at Michael's last year and just let it sit there.  After looking at it a few times it hit me...the configurations box was going to become a crypt!  So here it is...

 

For the box I used Tim's Seasonal paper stash: Distress Inks in Dusty Concord, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, and Walnut ink; Distress Embossing powder in Peeled Paint and Ideaology Hobgoblin tissue tape.  The creepy contents are from Lemax and Michael's Celebrate It line.  I added a couple of glass vials, colored with Adirondack alcohol ink, with 7 Gypsies apothecary labels.  The "31" plaquette and "Haunted" muse token are Ideaology.  And, of course, no crypt would be complete without spider webs and some spiders (from Jolee's Boutique)!

That's one big bottle of arsenic our friend is guardiing!  Anyone care to join them??!!  There's always room for more! Bwahahahaha!

Ciao Bre!

My beautiful niece left this past Saturday for a three-week trip to Italy.  She will spend most of the three weeks at an archaeological dig outside of Rome.  She was super excited and really looking forward to the experience she will gain on this trip.  She also plans to sightsee as much as she can while she is there.

We had a party for her last Thursday so I made her a pop-up Bon Voyage card.

The outside of the card is the Tim Holtz Alterations Vintage Valise die.  I cut the die from patterned Tim Holtz grunge board and the smaller pieces from Tim Holtz grunge paper.  The pieces are painted with Adirondack Paint Dabbers in Sandal, Espresso and Pitch Black.  I distressed the edges of the valise with Vintage Photo distress ink.  I fashioned a latch from extra die pieces to help hold the card closed.  I added brads from the Idealogy Mini Fasteners and then hammered the tops to distress them.  The tag was cut from the Sizzix Framelits Tickets set using Nomad paper from the Bazzill Wayfarer collection.  The sentiment stamp is from Inkadinkado.

The paper inside the card is also Nomad from Bazzill.  I cut two separate pieces for the top half and bottom half of the card so that I could use the image of the United States on the top half and Europe on the bottom half.  Inside the card I used Karen Burniston's Sizzix Bigz Zig Zag 3-D Pop-Up die.  I cut the die from acetate so that it didn't cover up the background paper.  If you look closely you can see the outline of it behind the airplane.  I love this die because it's so versatile!  I've used it in cards that open both horizontally and vertically.  Inside the card I used Tim Holtz Sizzix Vintage Camera Movers and Shapers die.  I painted the accents on the camera with a silver paint dabber. The stamp of the Roman Coliseum is from Stamp Cabana.   The color was added with chalks.  The airplane, from the Tim Holtz Visual Artistry The Journey cling stamp set, was stamped on glossy paper using black Ranger Archival Ink and mounted with foam tape.  The sentiment, Enjoy the Journey, is from the same Visual Artistry stamp set.  The passport stamp is an old one, from Inkadinkado's Dawn Houser collection, and it was also stamped on glossy paper.

As an afterthought, I stamped the small arrow from Stampendous in red on a separate piece of paper, cut it out and positioned it so that it points to Italy!

She loved the card as well as the cookie cake that I made for her.  Thankfully I have a day job and it doesn't involve making cookie cakes (obviously!)!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Hot Dogs and Royal Doulton

I love my china pattern.  Just as much today as I did when I picked it out 25 years ago.  And I never use it.  It stays safely tucked away in a cabinet, each piece wrapped in plastic with foam in between-out of sight, out of mind.  Most of the pieces don't even have the faint scratches that would be left behind by cutlery.  The pattern is Juliet from the Royal Doulton Romance Collection.  The pattern is discontinued now and I think that's part of the reason that I keep it safely tucked away. What happens if I break a piece of it? Will it be difficult or too expensive to replace?

Recently I've been wondering what I'm saving it for.  I don't have any children so there is no one who will want to inherit it.  If I break a piece of it, does it really matter?  I have eight place settings.  I've never even used all eight place settings at one time.

So yesterday I decided to use it.  Yesterday, of all days, when I cooked hot dogs on the grill for the 4th of July.  It could be the fact that I hadn't had a hot dog in a long time...or maybe it was the china...but that hot dog was really good!

So I'm going to keep using that china along with everything else that I'm saving for a "special occasion". Those "special occasions" start today.

I also took the time yesterday to make my July tag for the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2012.  I usually don't have my monthly tag done this early.  But the subject matter for the July tag begged that it be done on the 4th of July.  Here's what I came up with...

I didn't have any canned air so I used a straw.  The silver alcohol ink didn't work for me...I'm not sure why..I couldn't get it to splatter.  So I used a couple of stars from the precut Grungeboard Elements.  I painted them with the silver Adirondack Paint Dabber and then covered them with silver Stickles.  I used the Sizzix Alterations Strip Dies for the rosettes and the word Freedom.  I stacked the rosettes and added some red tinsel garland in between.  The number 4 is from Grungeboard Alphabet Soup.  It, too, was painted with the silver dabber and covered with silver Stickles.  The paper is Core'dinations.  I dyed the cotton ribbon with Distress Stain and added a piece of silver tinsel.

Attached to the ribbon is an Ideaology Trinket Pin that reads "Fragile", along with a star charm from Ideaology Adornments.

Our freedom is fragile, just like my china.  We must do whatever we can to protect it while, at the same time, taking advantage of every opportunity it affords us.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
― Ronald Reagan

Happy Independence Day, America.