Beautiful Backs ATC Swap

I am Hosting an ATC swap called "Beautiful Backs" the idea of this swap was to make an ATC with a beautiful front side and a beautiful back. Most of the swaps I'm in for ATCs, people sometimes forget the back side so I figured, let's do something with the back this time. Here was my submission for this swap. 

FRONT 

 

 BACK

 

Re-purposed Drawer

Went and hit some antique stores with a friend of mine last week and we found this drawer from an old sewing desk and well, I had to get it and re-purpose it. I made it into a shelf and used the Halloween Alice In Wonderland Graphic 45 Paper and some Tim Holtz clocks and some other items and just made it fun!! I really like the way it turned out. 

Before:

 

AFTER:

 

 

 

SHABANG!! Worked on Lots Today

So I have been working on my journal pages again and I finished one that has been sitting on my craft table for a few tables. I've been working on it and leaving it and working on it again and leaving it etc.. etc... I finally finished it today. Here is a look at that page.

Then I also worked on another journal page today with more of a "Spring" theme. I'm only working on the background so far and figured I would take pics as I go along. My journal pages usually go through many steps before they are finished so here is the first step. For this portion I used Dyan Reaveley's new Stamp set and clear embossing powder to create a resist and then I used the new Dyan Reaveley Vibrant Turquoise spray (love this stuff) and some of the tattered Angels glimmer mists on top of that. I then stamped the stamp on a another piece of paper and this time used a black embossing powder and used Tim Holtz Distress Stain on top of that. Once it dried I cut out the flowers and will place those around the page. I haven't put these down permanently yet, I want to do some stenciling first but this gives you an idea of how this is going to pop.

Take a look:

Lastly, remember those card kits that I was talking about last month in this post HERE, well I finally finished my last one. Here it is if you would like to take a look. :) Enjoy.

Inspiration Ring

I have been working on an inspiration ring project. It's actually a swap that is going on in one of my Yahoo groups and the idea is for all participants in the swap to make them and send them to the host who will swap them all out and put them together and we will each get one back from each player for a total of 14. I think this is a super idea and when it's all said and done we will have a whole ring of inspiration.
For my ring I did a Mixed Media project. This ring has many layers of sprays, inks, paint, glossy accents, markers,paper, napkins and Wendy Vecchi stamps (love her). It was quite fun to put together. Take a look...

Use a Stencil Journal Page

Yesterday while I was working on all of my journal pages I had all this distress ink and stain and paint on my craft sheet that was leftover. I really hate to waste, sooo I used the back of this tabbed page to "wipe" up the excess of all the colors that I was working with. The background turned out so cool and neat looking, even though the colors didn't exactly match. 
Since I had some bright colors, I stamped the Stampotique girl on another sheet of paper and colored her with Tim Holtz distress stains in some colors that matched a bit and YES, I cut her out with my fine tip scissors. It took awhile to do that but I did it while I sat and watched TV haha!! Using Dyan Reaveley Stamps I used the same technique with her hat. I also stamped some misc stamps around the background, I used Dyan Reaveley Dylusions and Tim Holtz stamp sets for that. 
Then, my favorite part was getting to use my new stencil from the Dyan Reaveley line, this one is called Luscious Leaves and I love love love this one!! I used Tim Holtz black soot distress inks to ink it across my page. The little buttons are some misc stuff I had in my stash, I thought they fit in perfectly. I added the tag and WALLAA!!!
This has to be one of my favorite pages, who knew some crazy colors of leftovers would make such a cool background?!!

Journaling Today

Today was a beautiful day outside and I don't know what happened but I was inspired to do some art journaling. I finished my April calendar page (just need to write in the days) and also worked on some other random pages. Take a look...

I used the black gesso for the base of this page and added layers with other colors of paint and also some scrapbook paper and stencils. I colored the days with Tim Holtz Distress Stains, they are great for this because you can see the lines through them so I can still write easily.

This was a packing tape transfer I did with the bird here.

 This was a page I had started at art journal class last weekend. I painted the background with acrylic paints. We were working with image transfers and the bird and house were in a magazine and I transferred it onto a piece of cardstock and after wetting it and removing all the magazine paper I painted over it with Claudine Hellmuth's glossy multi-medium to keep it nice looking. It's all grungy and torn looking but I really like the way it turned out. Then I added the other elements to the page and colored them with Tim's distress stains. I also stamped onto the words before I colored them. I might play around with it a little more. Who knows! My pages never seem to be finished, I always go back and doodle more.

Red Monochromatic ATC

I am currently in a Monochromatic ATC swap this month and my color was red it's one of my favorite colors to work with. I love the Tattered Angels glimmer mist colors and the Tim Holtz Distress stains products so I figured I would use them together for this one. I sprayed and distressed this paper with various shades of the red colors available in both products. The paper had the resist butterflies already on it and was completely white when I started. After I sprayed the paper I wiped it with a paper towel so that the butterflies showed through.  
While that was drying I cut the butterflies using a Tim Holtz movers and shapers die. I used dark red cardstock for the "under" butterfly and Wendy Vecchi "clearly for art" for the upper one. This is my first time using the clearly for art product and I was excited to use it. Once everything was cut, I alcohol inked the clear butterflies with Ranger +Tim Holtz alcohol inks and once that dried I stamped on them with Tim Holtz "Going Somewhere" stamp set and Adirondack black ink pad. I also lined the outside edges with a copic black marker to make them stand out more. Once that dried (Lots of drying here) I heated them with the heat tool and the cool thing about this product (Clearly for Art) is when it's heated it gets soft and you can form it however you want and then once it cools a little it gets hard again and stays put. It's SO cool!!! If you don't like how it turned out, you heat it again and reform it, easy peasy! I love this stuff!!!
Once the butterflies were formed and shaped I glued them to the base red cardstock butterfly.
While those dried thoroughly, I went back to the background and adhered those onto cardboard for thickness. I added the butterflies once they were dry and stamped the word "Fly" to another red pattered paper and embossed it, cut it out with fancy scissors and distressed the edges with Tim's distress inks in Black Soot. 
Lastly I used various colors of reds from Tim's Distress Stains once again to dye some white flowers a red . I also sprayed them with perfect pearls mist for shimmer, added a brad and adhered them to the ATC. 


Hope you like it, it sounds like a lot but it was fun to put together. This one is also going on the challenge for Simon Says Stamp  and also on Sunday Stamper

Back to Paper Crafts & Haiku Pages

I am currently in a swap on one of my Yahoo groups and it calls for four 4x6 Asian themed Haiku pages. We are going to send them in with a front and back cover and the hostess will bind them for us. This is the first time I have joined a Haiku swap so I was a little apprehensive. I don't think my Haiku is Asian themed but my pages are!! haha!   I decided to try some new techniques with these pages. I used the Vintaj metal embossing folder and made the little metal disks on the back of each page. I also have a friend that helped me with some stamped polymer clay Asian words. I was really excited to do these and I think they came out great. I used perfect pearls over the top of each clay piece to give them a little shimmer.
Here is a peek at what I came up with. 

The front of the page is the top picture here and the back of the page is the bottom picture. I created a sleeve on the back with some envelopes that I found at the thrift store (they were perfect for this) and made a tag with all the swap info. The Vintaj metal piece is on the tag there. 

Here is a closer picture.

 

 This is a closer picture of the front of each page.

 

This is my front cover for the book. 

 

One more Jewelry Set

I wanted to show this last Jewelry set that I made before I go back to paper crafts again. I made this set for my mom and I didn't post it before because she looks at my blog quite often and I wanted this to be a surprise  :).
So SURPRISE MOM!! haha! She got this set the other day and is loving it. I really appreciate my mother and I want her to know how much and I really enjoy making things for her.