Love Makes The Heart Fly!

 Hello crafty people! I am back home from Dallas, after a colonoscopy (all is well) and my son's hockey tournament (they lost)...fun times...NOT!!! It's been full speed ahead since my return and I am busier than ever trying to play catch up.  I have decided not to revamp Friday's post, as I said I would, because I am very proud of my daughter for helping me out, but if you would like to see more photos or a step out for the ATC, email me and I'll fix you up. 

After several loads of laundry, tidying up, and unpacking, I finished creating a jumbo sized tag that I began while on my trip, to take part in a few challenges this week.  I wanted to combine an Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group challenge, which is "craft resist background", with the Ranger Ink Link Yahoo Group challenge "organized stickles". Instantly, I thought of a butterfly Tim had created in A Compendium of Curiosities, page 46, on Distress Stickles.  I had never used Stickles in this way, and I really like the results. I choose two background stamped designs of Wendy's to do a resist, although after embossing them, they really look quite different, but I like it as well. I am very much in Valentine mode, so I had to incorporate a little lovey dovey-ness, and  I was creating this butterfly and trying to lovify this tag, I was singing the Dolly Parton song "Love Is Like A Butterfly", in my head. Over and over it has played for the past two days, to the point of mental anguish. I tried changing it to Iron Butterfly's "In a Gadda Da Vida", still keeping with my theme...well sort of...but Dolly kept bowing her chest up...pun intended...and ultimately she won and my Valium supply is waning.  So imagine my surprise when I read the challenge at Simon Says Stamp And Show, to "show a song title". Well that was a no brainer for me, and I was thrilled I already had something perfect that I was working on presently, which saves me some creative time. Just read the lyrics from the chorus...no better song can there be for this tag!

 Love is like a butterfly,
As soft and gentle as a sigh.
The multicolored moods of love are like it's satin wings.
Love makes your heart feel strange inside,
It flutters like soft wings in flight.
Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing.

Each of the four wings were inked in a somewhat organized pattern with Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick, and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks.

Christmas Red Stickles and Worn Lipstick and Fired Brick Distress Stickles were added on top of the coordinated ink colors.

The wing outlines and body were coated with Diamond Stickles and Brushed Pewter Distress Stickles.

Art Parts (heart, lace, mini heart) were coated in Distress Ink and then stickles.

The background was created by embossing a background image (leafs and swirls) from Wendy's Sentimental Art Stamp Set with Clear UTEE, and the dots from Wendy's Seriously Art Stamp Set with Black UTEE. A strip of  butterfly tissue tape was added as well, and the whole tag was inked with all three Distress Inks mentioned above.

A rhinestone heart and heart paperclip were added to the butterfly, as well as charms to the tulle ribbon.

The "love" was a leftover from some embossed metal I had, and I coated it with the stickles and then Crackle Accents. The sentiment was computer generated and distressed with Black Soot Distress Ink. Film Ribbon, tulle, and the spinner were added. Metal lace was adhered to lace Art Parts and fixed to the tag.

Supplies:

Art Chix Studio: mini composite heart
Hobby Lobby: rhinestone heart
7 Gypsies: Gear
Uline: Metal Embossed Tag (lace, love word)
From My Stash: heart and key charm, heart paperclip, safety pin, tulle

Sentimental Art Stamp Set	Seriously Art Stamp Set	Scallops Art Parts	Dress Forms and More Art Parts	Glossy Accents	Worn Lipstick Distress Ink
Fired Brick Distress Ink	Aged Mahogany Distress Ink	Black Soot Distress Ink	Distress Embossing Ink	Vintage Lace Die	Fired Brick Distress Stickles
Worn Lipstick Distress Stickles	Christmas Red Stickles	Black Diamond Stickles	Brushed Pewter Distress Stickles	Idea-ology Film Strip Ribbon	Idea-ology Tissue Tape - Sketchbook
Ink Blending Tool	Idea-ology Game Spinners	UTEE - Black	UTEE - Clear	Crackle Accents

Have you been keeping up with the all the new products Tim is releasing at CHA? WOW!!! That man has totally out done himself. His creative and designing type mind astound me constantly. You can... 

PRE-ORDER those items at Inspiration Emporium and receive:

• 10% off MSRP price for pre-orders
• Free shipping on all US pre-orders (one time $10 shipping charge for international orders)
  
• Charged only when items are ready for shipment

 I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Playing With The Queen Of Hearts

It's the weekend...woohoo! And, I'm so glad. It's been one busy week in my little bubble.  I have just finished up a set of ATC's for the February swap at the Creative Block - Stamper's Anonymous Yahoo Group..."pink and red". I finished a month early! Huh? Yes, really! I have the Valentine bug real bad. Everywhere I cyber look, everyone is making the most gorgeous Love Day items, so I had to join in as well. 

I have always been enthralled with the Queen of Hearts. Maybe because of the song or what I think she stands for...I don't know...but I love all the different images you see with her.  To me, she is like the female cupid...well, not the Alice version though. I have wanted to make my own images of her, so I thought I'd start on an ATC. I am also submitting this little queenie to the Paper Issues Challenge for "valentines", and the Grungy Monday Challenge for "facets", which is a take on Tim's Technique Challenge from August 2008.  I did not have enough facets for the six ATC's I created, so I improvised and used Memory Glass instead. Tim said the technique would work for this, and it did, but I probably won't use them again this way, because they are so fragile and I am so rough handling. I'm a buff girl...what can I say?

Funny story...I'm out of town, and forgot to take the pictures of the completed ATC and left the camera card at home which has all of the step out pictures. I called home and asked my daughter to photograph the ATC's and text them  to me. She did, hence the top one, but could not get a clear shot of a solo ATC. I asked her to use the big camera, upload the pictures to her computer and email me...huge job for an 11 year old. I walked her through the process and she tried to email me 9 pictures. Well, she doesn't have software to lessen photo size and the email got all bogged up. So in the end, I had to use another email account to have her send me the best picture she had...the bottom one...and she did an amazing job of a very huge task. I have more photos and a step out tutorial of the alcohol ink technique, as well as a masterboard technique from the background, but I will have to do the update on Monday when I return home. I am truly proud of her, and now I can enter my challenges! What an awesome kid!

By the way, I would like to mention that all the sneak peeks are up at Artistic Outpost for the February Release of their four new stamp sets. If you love vintage, steampunky, or old world feel stamps then these will make you squeal with crafter's delight! They really are awesome and very detailed. 

Supplies:

Stamper’s Anonymous: Queen of Hearts Wood Block; Clear Stamps: Love, Post Card Mark

Staz On: Opaque Cotton White, Blazing Red

Hobby Lobby: Valentine’s Day Red Heart Rhinestones

1x3 Memory Glass	Alcohol Ink Applicator Tool	Gloss Finish Paper	Glossy Accents	Jet Black Archival Ink	Love Struck Stamp Set
Mini Ornates Stamp Set	Pitch Black Alcohol Ink	Red Pepper Alcohol Ink	Snow Cap Mixative	Watermelon Alcohol Ink	Winter 2011 Distress Ink Pack
Worn Lipstick Distress Ink	Fired Brick Distress Ink	Aged Mahogany Distress Ink	ATC & Corners Die

I wish you all a fun filled weekend, and I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

January Tag Swap - CBSA Yahoo Group

Hello crafty people! I learn more everyday about cyber world...it really is amazing! I just recently found out about another Yahoo group (like I need to be in another) called Creative Block -Stamper's Anonymous...cool name huh? Stamper's Anonymous (SA) is the company that makes all the Tim and Wendy stamps, which I love. They also have monthly swaps, and I joined in the January Tag Swap. The theme is "your favorite SA stamp"...easy theme but hard choice. So I decided to use my favorite quote, background, and image all on one tag. This one is very basic, so no long tutorial needed, but I did do a few step out photos.  I did have trouble with my heat embossing though. I think I must have left my UTEE under the heat too long, because it bubbled. I liked the look of it though so I left it...more shabby that way. I am always so excited to get my swaps back...you'd think it was my birthday every time!

I think 2012 is really the year of the dragon, but every year is an Artist's year!

Harlequin (looks like a gorgeous tile floor)and Time images were stamped with Embossed  Distressed Ink and heat embossed with UTEE. 

Grunge board was stained with Picket Fence and images stamped with Archival Ink and Festive Berries Distress Ink.

Umbrella Man was cut out along with an extra red umbrella that was adhered on top of the other. I had to ink over everything to made it crisper, so the background image on Umbrella Man was lost, so I stamped a dictionary print on him instead. I heat embossed the whole thing, and this is where the UTEE bubbled up, so the background image is not so crisp anymore, but I like the vintage look to it.

This quote is my favorite from this line. It was stamped and heat embossed with Close To My Heart white powder, then heat embossed with UTEE.

Umbrella Man fades into the background some in the photos, but the red umbrella and pop dots help to give him contrast. You can see how the UTEE bubbled up, but it looks like rain drops to me.

Supplies:

Stamper’s Anonymous: Tim Holtz- Start/Ending wood block, Harlequin and Umbrella Man Clear Stamp, World Traveler (dictionary print)

Ranger:  Inkssentials- Glossy Accents, Black Tag; Melt Art- Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE); Archival Ink- Jet Black

Tim Holtz:  Distress Ink- Black Soot, Festive Berries, Embossing Ink; Distress Stain- Barn Door, Picket Fence

Hero Arts: Clings- Time To Stamp

Core’dinations: Tim Holtz/Ranger- Adirondack Collection

Staz On: Opaque Cotton White

Close To My Heart: Embossing Powder- White

Doodlebug Design Inc.: Boutique Trims- Beetle Black Assortment (lace, striped)

From My Stash: red and white tulle, computer generated sentiment

 
I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!