The Beauty Of The Season

Happy Halloween to those of you who celebrate! Chocolate chocolate chocolate is what I hope my kids score tonight! I can't believe tomorrow is November! The holidays are upon us now. The year has really flown by, and there is so much to do. Is anyone else already feeling stress?

Anyway,  there are lots of challenges this week that I wanted to participate in as always, but I've been bogged down with readying myself for classes this weekend, so I thought I would show a small project I did for Make N Takes last month, which happens to qualify for all the challenges I want to participate in. How convenient! ;0) Compendium of Curiousities II Challenge is "Kraft Faux Suede" from Tim's book pg. 40, which is also being sponsored by The Funkie Junkie.  Simon Says Stamp & Show's challenge is "Just Add Pearls", Sunday Stamper's challenge is "Autumn", and Artistic Outpost's October Referral Challenge is "Anything Goes".

 

Enjoy The Beauty Of The Season ATC

This is a real acorn cap from my MIL's tree. I've never seen any like this before her tree. The idea for the acorn comes from the marvelous Shelly Hickox.  I still have a few of these kits left, and have been thinking about offering my extra kits at a lower price here on my blog. If a few people are interested I will do that. Just let me know.

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon, especially with the Holidays so close at hand!

October ATC's Received

Happy mail is always greatly appreciated around here! I've received my ATC swap outs from the All Things Tim Yahoo Group for October's "SteamPunk Halloween" swap.  Talk about fun and amazing makes!!!

Julie Case (Amazingly COOL! Love the texture, love the metal, and that spider is crazy wonderful!)

Kathleen Spitz (WOW!!! So many fun and COOL elements on such a small space! Oh the texture! Fabulous make!)

Donna Jean Eno (Just amazing ingenuity here! Fabulous creativity!)

Claudine Criner (Oh the soft color with the metal contrast...so COOL! Love the wired gear!)

And these were mine.

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

12 Tags Of 2012 - October

Quick...FYI...Have you seen Rick Springfield's website? Yeah, the guy who sings  Jessie's Girl! You know that one...every word...don't you? Anyway, I'm not promoting him, but instead his website. I heard my radio station talking about it. It's totally SteamPunk! Very inspirational and if you are looking for some generating ideas check it out. I did press a bunch of buttons on his machine, but not much happened though. Maybe you will have better luck.

Okay...back to business!
It's my turn to showcase the Friday Focus at Frilly & Funkie, and we are highlighting some of Tim's Seasonal Idea-ology, as well as some of Ranger's seasonal items too at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. I of course, used some of these goodies on this tag I made for my son, which happens to be my take on Tim's 12 Tags of 2012 for October. Can you see the resemblance? It's me and my three kids! ;-P

I never thought about it before, but if you stamp Tim's Reflections Images on the back of Tissue Wrap, you will be able to read it the correct way when it's on the right side. Kind of a DUH moment for me!

Note to Self: Don't squeeze the life out of the Paint Dabber!!! You know better than that!

It's just the pecan wood floor that I cashed all my teacher retirement in for! Thankfully none got on the cloth furniture! Yes...that's a dust bunny!!! Bunnies are for Easter, not Halloween...right?!?

Another discovery for me...maybe for you too...Ink Refresher works to thin Black Gesso like water does to make a Black Wash. I did a a test drive using some of Tim's paper. The left is with water being sprayed onto the paper first, followed by a paintbrush full of Black Gesso. The right is using the Ink Refresher the same way. Both look good (The water one might be a tad darker.), but the water makes the paper a little weak until until it's completely dry. Even then, it's not as sturdy and pliable as the IR paper. It was much easier to work with.

I did not even rub the IR in. Just soaking in a bit caused the Gesso to smoothly cover the paper. I would imagine that this would work on all Acrylic Paint, but that is just my guess.

After a thorough drying with my heat tool, the Black Wash looks great! I misted Perfect Pearls Mist on it to mimic stars, and then covered it all up with pumpkins. Hello! Why do I do these things???

How about that Tim....making his own glitter color??? Genius I tell ya! But, I'm not so good at putting it on. The black I did ok...the green not so much. It's clumpy and lumpy. But my son loves it, and that's what matters!

 

HALLOWEEN DONE!!! Time to bring on Thanksgiving and CHRISTMAS! YAY!!!

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Bee Artful Canvas

Here I go again waiting until the last minute, but guess what happened to me last night when I decided to go to bed early at 8:45 pm? While flipping through an old copy of Craft Stamper Magazine, I had a visitor named Mr. Mojo, who stayed with me until about 1:00 am (wink wink) while I doodled away in my Art Journal Planner...about 27 projects I think, mostly for Christmas! So much for sleep, but one idea was this canvas that I had given up on long ago. I had the preliminary background done on this and 4 others just like it about...um...18 months ago, but when it came time to do something on them I just stared blankly. So I put them away, and took them out several times, all with the same outcome, a total blank. Until last night! I knew I wanted to participate in Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stamper challenge of "A Taste of Honey", and the Unruly Paper Arts Reader Art Quest 2 challenge of "Dimension to a Canvas", but as I had no idea where to start on either, I shewed those thoughts away. Thanks Mojo dude!!! Please come back again soon!

Everything here was already on from a long time ago, except the Tim's Idea-ology Grunge letters and Claudine Hellmuth Gesso, that I used to gain extra texture.

Now comes a whole slew of Ranger goodness. I ran Tea Dye Distress Stain over the whole canvas, and then dried it with the heat tool. I also used a Marvy Permanent Red Marker to darken certain spots of the flowers.

My favorite color of Color Wash, Butterscotch, came next. I wiped portions of it away on both of the lady faces. I gave this a good drying as well.

I stamped Tim's Honeycomb image randomly in Jet Black Archival.

I thought it needed some lighter areas, so out came Claudine's Tradional Tan Acrylic Paint. I mixed it with water to dilute it a little. More drying.

I needed some contrast color, so Landscape Green came next. I highlighted the letters with Jet Black Archival, Perfect Pearls Mist, and some more Barn Door Distress Stain. I also inked the edges with Jet Black. I stamped the bees, and colored them in with Glaze Pens, and added a Crackle Accents to the wings. I wanted a little sparkle on some parts, so I used my fingers and Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls Mist to do that.

I wasn't sure if this was going to work, but experiment leads to technique. I adhered two sided tape (bologna) to a piece of metal strip, and die cut it with the Rosette die, which cut like butter!  I also die cut a piece of papertowel to adhere the metal to. I didn't want to use paper because the metal is already plenty stiff.

I embossed the circle with the Honeycomb Texture Fade.

I used Alcohol Inks to color the Rosette pieces and an Idea-ology Philosophy tag. After I dried everything, I started folding my Rosette. This was a little difficult with the metal being stiff, so I used a craft stick to help bend the folds. I didn't do a perfect job but it worked just fine. I didn't have the patience for glue, so the Tiny Attacher help me out. It flattened out beautifully. I attached an Idea-ology Hinge, Jump Rings, and the Philosophy Tag to the center circle. I used Glossy Accents to attach it to the Rosette. Finito! I'm in love!!!

Supplies:

From My Stash: face stamp, tissue pattern, lady ephemera, sheet music, Marvy Red Marker, snaps, bee stamps


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

There's Two Sides To This Story!

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been a little bit since I've been on here. I've finally beaten back the horrible sinus problems, and hope they don't show themselves again for a long time! However, they have gone off with my mojo as well! So if you've seen it, please send it around to me again! Until then, I will have to make due with the little bit I've managed to scrape off the sides of my trash can, when mojo was so plentiful a little bit fell to the floor,  and was then cleaned up instead of stored away. Don't you hate it when that happens? I certainly do!

Alas though, here it is, another new fortnight...already!  "Hey hey, we're the Funkies! People say we funky around!" ....Sorry...I couldn't help myself. I've missed talking to you all! Okay, back to business now! Sue Carrington, of Stamping Sue Style, is hosting the challenge this time at Frilly & Funkie, and she wants to see Anything But A Card, And There's A Twist...Something Must Be Hidden! So, it's time to let your imagination run wild! You could be thinking of a 3D project, an altered item, or keeping it simple with a tag, but don't forget that twist. You must include somewhere to hide something. This could be a flap, an envelope, a pocket, or even a gift box with something inside. Have fun with this one! You still have a week left to play along, and if you need a little inspiration or even a lot, please visit the other Design Team's blogs. 

Linda Coughlin - The Funkie Junkie

Marjie Kemper - She Who Stamps and Scraps 

Teresa Kline - Paperie Blooms

Terry Horrall -  Terry's Work In Progress 

Sue Carrington - Stamping Sue Style 

Rebecca Deeprose - Paper Primrose

Well like I said before, the mojo is definitely lacking at La Casa de Houston, so when I saw the challenge at Simon Says Stamp & Show for "Inspired by Wendy Vecchi", a little low voltage light went on inside my head, and while it's not 100 watts, it's at least something! So my F&F piece is totally made of Blossom Buckets and Art Parts, and you already know how much I love my Parts...or is that Wendy's Parts???

Front Cute Side: Bursting with luscious green  healthy plants, a black bird, and glorious flowers!

I really wanted this to turn out much different, and try as I might I couldn't figure out how to maneuver a Flip- Flopper Over for my hidden part. I am really going to have to dive deep in my engineer/architect files that are hidden somewhere in the confines of my brain, lost at the moment. So instead of revealing my hidden secret with a Flip Flop, you get the Turn Around instead! WOW...right? :-(

Scary Back Side: A wicked old zombie witch, with poisonous snakes for hair, a mean crow who wants to peck your eyes out, and not a feather on one of her wings!

A ton of Art Parts were altered, reconfigured (These will be her hat.)...

...stained, inked, and stamped. Tim's skull was stamped with Ranger's Jet Black Archival onto Specialty Stamping Paper and adhered to the Art Part Head.

I am also submitting this duo sided piece to the challenge at the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group for "Creepy, Freaky, or Just Plain Weird", the Stamp Man Challenge of "Butterflies, Birds, & Bees", and the Blogger's Challenge for "Alter It". 
Supplies:



I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Maple, Oak, & Birch In Metal???

Nothing like waiting until the last minute to create my make for Linda's Compendium of Curiosities II Challenge of "Perfect Pearls Palette", based on the technique in Tim's book by the same name, and it's being sponsored by Simon Says Stamp...woohoo!  And, to up the challenge for myself, I threw in Hels Sunday Stamper's challenge of "Metals". 

I embossed a metal tag with Tim's New Leaves Texture Fade from Sizzix, (I love it!!!) then added a little Metallic Distress Stains to the raised portions. I gave this a little Vintage Photo Distress Inking, and then heat embossed that with Ranger's Fine Clear Embossing Powder. I wasn't sure Tim's technique with the Perfect Pearls was going to work on a metal tag, but as you can see in the next picture, it did! I am in love with how this turned out!

I really didn't want to cover up my tag...you know how I am about backgrounds, but I've been aching to use Mario III's Leaf Blueprint Stamps. I cut out a piece of plastic packaging from some Grunge Board to use as my base.

I stamped the arranged trio of Blueprint Leaves in Jet Black Archival onto the packaging. LOVE! I gave this a little heat to dry well.

I die cut the packaging, and now it's a tag too!

I painted and glazed some Vintaj leaves with Vintaj Patinas to add to the tag. I added some Seasonal Chit Chat Letters and some Dresden Foil Lace to the tag, and then added this plastic tag on top of the metal tag.

I stained some seam binding to finish my tag off.

 

 

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!