Thursday, March 27, 2014

Heading Down The Paper Trail

 
Hello Crafty Peeps! Today, I am on my way to New York City, where I will take a car to Connecticut, where Eileen Hull and Amy Bowerman will pick me up to join them on Eileen's Paper Trail (#PaperTrail)! She has purchased and redone a 1976 Serra Scotty Trailer, and she is traveling around the country doing demos and fun crafty stuff in it! I am so honored to join the fun for a little bit in New England. We will hit a few stores on our way to the Collins Group Spring Show in Massachusettes and then hit a few more stores on the way back! I know it's going to be a blast!
I've made a few more Artist Trading Blocks (ATB's) to take along on the adventure to add to the others I've already made. FYI...I'll be teaching these soon!
 
 
 
 
 
 
If you are interested in following along the #PaperTrail, check for updates on Twitter, Facebook, and on my Facebook Page


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

12 Tags of 2014 - March + Easter Card

Hello Crafters and Happy Spring!!! I sure hope you are getting some warmer weather where you live. I know it was one heck of a winter for a lot of you! To celebrate the new beautiful season, I've completed my March tag for Tim's 12 Tags of 2014.  It was great to learn and do a new technique with Tim's Smudge Stamping, which is also in his new book Compendium of Curiosities III. And, I thought I'd show you some Easter cards I've made as well using Ranger's Melt Pot to make the eggs you also see on the March tag.
I love the new Tim Holtz Sizzix Garden Greens Bigz Die with the Bird Branch Die....they are perfect together!
 

 

For the cards, I've used the same Tim Holtz  stamp sets, Stamper's Anonymous Nature Walk, Bird Feather, and Classic #17.  To make the eggs and nest seen here and on the tags, I've gotten the old Melt Pot out.
 
I stamped the small eggs on Shrink Plastic and cut them out.
I warmed up the Melt Pot with Clear UTEE, and put real grass into the pot to coat the blades. Then I added a few drops of Heat It Ink in Sapphire. I added the Shrink Plastic eggs and watched them shrivel down and turn blue.
Clean up is a breeze, and I'll save the hardened blue UTEE for another project. I just love using the Melt Pot!
I die cut the Sizzix  Bird Branch and Garden Greens with Tim's Distress Cardstock from Core-dinations. I didn't use the birds, so I'll save them for later. I sanded and inked all the pieces.
I stamped the birds and nest, cut them out and colored them with Distress Markers, and used Enamel Accents for the eyes.
I used a #12 Manila Giant Tag as a base for the card, stamped on it with Archival Inks, then inked it with Distress Ink, and gave it a few drops of water for a molted look. Finally, I layered all the pieces on and adhered them, and followed up with a Denim Blue spray from the new Distress Marker Spritzer.

Supplies:





I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!