August ATC's Received

I've received my August ATC's from the All Things Tim Yahoo Group Monthly Swap. 

Donna Jean Eno (I love this! The background paper is perfect, the charm so so cute, and the Grunge suitcase just seals in the theme! Fabulous ATC!)

Sandy Nolan (It took me a second to figure this out, but once I did, I was amazed! I love it! The doors are such a fabulous idea...WOW! The love all the stamping everywhere! Awesome design!)

 

Susan Salyer (This is totally grungy yumminess, and I love all the images and embossing, but the design is WAY COOL!!! Love the brad usage to make this little hidden gem of a mini book! This rocks!)

 

And, here is mine again.

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

It's A Gift To Be Simple

I found this the other day in my stash of cards. It's one of the last ones I made while a Guest Designer for Artistic Outpost for the Kudzu Kafe plate, and I never blogged about it. It's a little different for me, as it's very clean and simple, but that is the point of it...it's a gift to be simple!
I am submitting this to AO's Monthly Referral Program of "Anything Goes". 

Supplies:
From My Stash: black, white, and peacock cardstock, metal tab

Artistic Outpost′s Kudzu Kafe	Inkssentials Specialty Stamping Paper	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black	White Greeting Cards & Envelopes	Adirondack Dye Ink in Stream
Idea-ology Washers	Pearl Onyx Liquid Pearls

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Live Your Dream!

It's that Funkie time again! This fortnight, the challenge at Frilly & Funkie is being hosted by Sue Carrington of Stamping Sue Style, and her challenge is "How can you Resist?". Sue says, "I am a self confessed technique junkie. I love everything and anything that involves a new technique. I also have my ongoing favourites and "Resist" is one of them! You can use different things to create a resist effect...acrylic paint, glue, or embossing powder just to name just a few. So let's see if you can "Resist", and show us how you can incorporate this into your projects! Have fun!"

"Go big or go home!", seems to be my new favorite motto lately, because I am loving the Giant #12 Tags from Inkssentials by Ranger. I just love all that space to create on. Maybe it's because I am from Texas...hmm! Any who, I learned the coolest 'resist' technique from Tim while at Ranger U, called Adirondack Color Wash Faux Batik (Click Batik to see it's incredible history and how the ladies of long ago developed this Wax Art Resist). The loooong tutorial below (Grab a drink!) shows you how to do it. However, we used Mulberry Paper at Ranger U, and I didn't have any the color white, so I tried this technique with Tim's Tissue Wrap, and it worked. Although, I had to give it a go three times before I was satisfied with the results. ;0) The Mulberry Paper was perfect the first time, I think because it allows the Color Wash to penetrate very quickly. I will be buying white Mulberry Paper very soon!

I stamped two different sizes of the butterflies on the Tissue Wrap with Distress Embossing Ink.

I poured Clear Fine Embossing Powder from Ranger over the Ink and heat embossed it. It's faint but you can see the shiny images. Tissue Wrap takes heat quite well.

I sprayed Adirondack Color Wash onto the embossed Tissue Wrap. It resisted the embossed images and beaded up around them. I experimented three times trying different soaking times...the Hurry Hurry, the Waited 1 Minute, and the Waited 5 Minutes. I liked the Waited 1 Minute method the best. The Hurry Hurry method (as seen below) was not quite dark enough to really allow the butterflies to show brightly. The Waited 5 Minutes method made the wrap too dark. It could have been that the wash got under the wrap as there was a lot of color,  but nevertheless, I liked it lighter.

I did not have plain newsprint, so I experimented with regular newspaper (1 time) and white poster sized drawing paper (2 times)  that had a very similar feel to it as newsprint. I placed the still dripping Color Washed Tissue Wrap on the right of the sheet, and folded the left side over it, and made a crease on the fold. You will see the Color Wash bleed through.  I then used a very hot (caution) craft iron to melt the embossed butterfly images. The melted liquid transfers itself onto the newsprint, leaving it's home on the Color Washed Tissue Wrap, but having made a clean imprint of the original Tissue Wrap. That's why it's called Batik! It takes a little bit to get them all finished, but you can peek as you go to make sure it is all transferring over. I did not like the regular newspaper method. Some of the writing comes off from the newspaper, and I could not see my butterflies very when I used it, but in all fairness I used the Tissue Wrap that was soaked 5 minutes, so that may be a factor as well.

This is was it looks like when finished. The left side now has the embossed images on it. Cool huh?!? Now I have 2 projects with one technique. I liked this side so much it is now housed in my Art Journal...more on that later. The right side is the Hurry Hurry Method.

From left to right...the Waited 1 Minute, the Waited 5 Minutes, and the Hurry Hurry. I guess it's a preference, but I like the first one best. You can really see the details of the butterflies. The butterflies look very dark on the Waited 5 Minutes, and very light on the Hurry Hurry. I will still use both of these, but not on this tag.

I spread Glue N Seal all over a Manila Jumbo #10 Sized Tag, and laid the Tissue Wrap on top. I purposely made wrinkles to add texture and so no one would confuse this for stamping. When it dried, I tore the excess off of the tag, and made sure to make a few bare spots to add more color to.

I applied color to the sides and bare spots using Barn Door Distress Ink. Then I applied a little Black Soot Distress Ink to the edges as well for added definition.

I decided to add more design to the tag to really make the butterflies pop, so I stamped the Honeycomb image in Jet Black Archival Ink. I love this stamp! My Adirondack Color Wash Faux Batik is now completed, but I couldn't stand to cover it up with much. It was too pretty as it was. SOOOO, I decided it would cover something up instead.

I took an Inkssentials Giant Black tag and die cut Tim's word 'Dream' into it, from Sizzix. I used some of the left over Color Wash Tissue Wrap and adhered it to Manila paper. Then I used this as the background for Dream. I used Tim's Honeycomb Texture Fade from Sizzix as well, and embossing the image into the tag. I had to use it several times to cover the whole thing.

I didn't think there was enough color on this project yet...;0)...so I used the coordinating colors of Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers to very lightly add a little color to the edges of the Giant tag. Then I ran the white dabber around the edge of the whole thing. This tag was now ready for the Color Washed Tissue Wrap Batik Tag (Say that 5 times fast!) to be glued on.

For the embellishments, more Sizzix goodness was needed. I adhered plain Tissue Wrap to Manila paper and then die cut them using the Mini Butterflies Movers & Shapers dies. I inked their edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then added Silver and Diamond Stickles to them. A Prima flower and leaves received a little Color Wash, Distress Ink, and Stickles as well. I affixed all these onto the tag when they dried.

I wasn't ready to put the Color Wash up yet, so Seam Binding Ribbon was sprayed and waded up to dry.

I used the remaining Color Wash Tissue Wrap as a background for Tim's Chit Chat Stickers and Cash Key Charm to complete the sentiment. It was attached to a Trinket Pin and then to the ribbons. Finished!!!

 

Supplies:

Tim Holtz idea-ology Tissue Wrap - Terminology	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Papillon	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Ink	Adirondack Red Pepper Color Wash	Adirondack Color Wash In Sunset Orange
Adirondack Color Wash Dye 2 Ounce Spray-Butterscotch	Adirondack Color Wash Dye 2 Ounce Spray-Meadow	Adirondack Color Wash in Sailboat Blue (FJ)	Jumbo Manila Tag 8x4 (FJ)	Inkssentials Glue N Seal - Matte
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Barn Door	Black Soot Distress Ink (FJ)	Ranger Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool-With 2 Blending Foams	Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink (FJ)	Inkssentials Surfaces Kraft Tags #12 Giant In Black
Tim Holtz Sizzix Texture Fades - Bubble and Honeycomb Set	Adirondack Red Pepper Acrylic Paint Dabber	Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber in Snow Cap (FJ)	Inkssentials Manila Cardstock	Movers and Shapers Die - Mini Butterflies
Rayon Seam Binding	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Chitchat Stickers	Walnut Stain Distress Ink (FJ)	Idea-ology Cash Keys	Idea-ology Trinket Pins

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!