Week Four of Stampotique's Anything Goes

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had the Merriest of Christmas' yesterday. 

I'm online for a bit to tell you that this week is week 4 of the Stampotique Designers Challenge over at the blog. Although this is the last week you can enter again to win a 30.00 gift card for the Stampotique Originals Store. 

For the challenge this week, I made a festive ATC for the holidays.

For this ATC I used a stamp called Goat Monster by the wonderful Kira Nichols

I colored my goat monster with colic markers and cut him out.

I used stencils along the edges and then went around them all with a white pen. For the bird I used a die to cut him out and then colored him with Smooch ink. I also used smooch inks for the holly and the words Ho Ho Ho.

Thanks again for stopping by and we hope you will join us for the last week of "Anything Goes" over at Stampotique Designers Blog

Making Some Christmas Gifts

I have been busy making many Christmas gifts the passed few days. I haven't even looked up from my craft table to clean, cook or do anything else. LOL.. anyway, I wanted to show you a few things that I have been making. 

I didn't do tutorials for these items because I have just been too busy to take photos. I've been working on one thing and while that dries, I start another item. Some items I haven't even taken a photo of yet haha! I feel like an elf at Santa's workshop.

I love it, I think the best gifts are truly home made and I love it when I get something that someone made so it's wonderful.

For the first item, I made something for my daughter. She is always giving me these things that she finds or has around her house that she thinks might be cool for me to use or alter in my crafts. She gave me this really nice bottle (I think it was a liquor bottle but since I don't drink I'm not sure) I wanted to alter this for her for Christmas. She loves steampunk so I went with a sort of steampunk look for this.

The only part of the bottle I show is that really cool white swirl on the front. I also added gems to that part. The bottle was white/clear and I painted the inside with black acrylic paint. 

Some of the foo-dads hanging from the cork are a few items that she has given me to use.

I used metal foil tape for the base and neck of the bottle and made some tattered flowers to add here and there.
I am entering this bottle into the
 Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Bling it on, is the theme this time

I also made an art journal cover for my daughter in law, her birthday is two days before Christmas so I will be giving this to her for her birthday.

I used a lot of stenciling and her favorite colors in the Dyan Reaveley sprays. This was a fun cover to do and I really love the boldness of it. 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a wonderful day!!

Artist Trading Blocks

I have something special to share with you today. I've got the "Block" buzz! 

I'm so excited that I have had a chance to create something with the new "Artist Trading Blocks" or ATBs for Sizzix by Eileen Hull.  These will get an official release at CHA in January and I'm honored that I got to play with them a little early thanks to the wonderful Amy Bowerman.

I knew I wanted to make a bold statement with these so I started by painting my pieces with Tim Holtz distress paint

(I'm showing all my steps with the green block but I used the same steps for the red one)

I also painted some letters of chipboard and grungeboard shapes that I will be using

I will be using Tim Holtz tissue paper but I wanted a crumpled effect so I just crunched it up into a big wad, I will be cutting this up to match the sides of the block

Next I added some shapes and letters to each side of the block

(forgot to take a photo of this step but I used glossy accents to adhere the shapes and letters)

Next I took some Claudine Hellmuth matte medium and used it to apply my tissue paper to each section of my block. I simply pushed the tissue around each shape to create crumples and giving each shape a 3D effect

Once that was dry, I used the paints again, I dabbed the paint here and there and used a paper towel to smooth it out. This gives the paint a bit of a transparent look so that you can still see the tissue paper underneath it but also makes the color more vibrant

Once that was all dry, I then took black paint and did the same thing but this time I only used it on the raised shapes under the tissue, this really made them pop

 I then used various stencils here and there on each block and also added a few more shapes, that I had previously painted,  over top the tissue

Lastly, I edged each section with black paint and added some white touches here and there. I went around numbers, shapes and letters with white paint for enhancement 

That's it, my ATB's are complete, take a look

On side 3 I added my name and blog and one of my favorite sayings, "Spread your wings and create", I have put it on several of my projects over the years and I just love it!

This is the view from the top of the boxes 

I hope you like the tutorial and I hope that you will grab up the die for these great ATBs once they are available. They are so fun to work with!! I am very excited about this adventure!

You can visit the Artist Trading Block website here:

Artisits On The Block

Make sure to follow them on social media
Twitter: @ArtTheBlock 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheArtistsOnTheBlock

Tissue Paper Ornament

Good morning to you. Today I am making another ornament. I also wanted to take part in the challenge over at:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Their challenge this week is tissue paper. 

I decided to do this ornament with Tim Holtz tissue paper and a fragment piece.

I used two layers of the tissue paper and stamped on it with the stamps I chose using archival ink. 

I drew a pencil line around the area where the I needed to stamp, this was my guide. 

I used archival ink to make a colored edge.

I then used glossy accents to adhere my fragment to my tissue piece.

After it was completely dry I cut around the edges. 

I added some metal wire and just wrapped it around here and there and made a hanger and jus tike that my ornament is done!

This is simple and quick and has a wonderful result.

Thanks again for stopping by the blog. Have a great day!!

Stampotique Designers Challenge - Anything Goes

As you all know I an honored to have made the Stampotique Design team and this month they have challenged us to "anything goes" Wow! How easy and fun is that? 

I made this project for the challenge and today is the first time my work is being showcased over at Stampotique Designers Challenge Blog. I hope you will check it out because I'm thrilled and excited to pieces!!

although the challenge is the same all month, you can post something new each week to be entered to win stamps for the fabulous Stampotique Originals. We hope you will join us in this awesome monthly long challenge.

In this project I used my Fabulous stamp from Carol's Collection.

and also Prom Queen by artist Daniel Torrent. 

The background was a "wipe off" page that I had used to wipe off my excess paint while working in my art journal. I thought this would be a good page to eventually use for something. Well, here it is! I really love using my "wipe off" pages, sometimes they can really turn into something special.

Thanks for coming by and don't forget to check out Stampotique Designers Challenge

This month.

Cheers!

Christmas Gift Tags

Hello again, I hope that you are having a fab day. Hopefully these winter storms have missed you and for those that have gotten hit, please stay safe and warm!

Today over at Unruly Paper Arts I have an article explaining how to make some quick and simple gift tags using Tim Holtz stamps and leftover scraps of paper.

I hope you will hop on over and check it out.

Here is a Link:

Gift Tags

Also, don't forget that the Reader Art Quests this month are:

1. Christmas Tag Books

2. The Complete Package

I hope you can join us for these fun themes. 

Take care and Merry Christmas!!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013 - December

Well, I've done it! I've made it through every single Tim Holtz Tag of 2013 and I'm so excited that I stuck with these because my display board looks amazing and I am so happy with it.

For this month's tag, make sure to check out the tutorial and all the details on how to make this one on Tim's Blog here:

12 Tags of 2013

Tim really broke the mold with this one, it's beautiful! One of my favorites of this year. 

Some things I had to change in order for mine to fit inside my display board was the poinsettia and the word stamp. 

For my poinsettia I used  the large Tattered Poinsettia die that Tim used, only I used the two smaller sizes and not the larger one. I then used Tim's movers and shapers Poinsettia in order to make one size smaller petal. I also used the holly leaf here as well. 

I also wanted to see how stamping would work and look if I stamped onto the poinsettia's petals. I used Tim's Reflections wording set here and stamped on the smooth, Clearly for art side of my petals. So this way when I turned the petals to the frosted film side, the words are correct. 

I also used two colors for my background, I didn't have the color stain Tim used (antique linen) so I used frayed burlap and tarnished brass.

Since the Verse stamp that Tim used was too big for mine, I made my own word banner. I used manilla card stock and two colors of Archival Inks (Wendy Vecchi) to color my banner.

I  then used Tim's "Simple Sayings" stamp set to stamp my words 

After everything was put together, I'm really in love with this one. It's so amazing!!  (I forgot to do the white paint, but added it after all the photos were already taken, oops)

and again here is my finished 7 Gypsies tray, displaying all twelve of the tags.

Thanks again for stopping by and sharing this year long journey with me. Make sure to check out Tim's Blog to get the full tutorial's on all of the tags.

Have a great day!!