Lovely Day Blog Hop

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!!! And...It's time for the Artistic Outpost Design Team Blog Hop!!! Our challenge was to use the Lovely Day Stamp Set. I decided to finally bust out the Distress Markers and see what these babies could really do, and I am so NOT DISAPPOINTED! They are worth the money crafters. I also decided to blow the dust off of the sewing machine. The poor thing probably needs oil too, as it's been so long. Here is my trio of Lovely Day ATC's for Easter.

I colored my image directly on the stamp with the markers, then gave it a good huff of breathe, and stamped the image on the ATC, several times in different positions. I filled in the rest of the flowers and leaves with a coordinating color in the same family.

This is the cool part...I used Tumbled Glass Distress Ink for the sky and IT DOES NOT blend in with the markers, it resists it! How cool is that??? I was amazed! Next, I heat embossed the sentiment using Tumbled Glass and clear powder. I distressed the edges and inked those as well.

I flicked water on the sky part for some bleached droplets, and then sprayed Perfect Pearls Mist. The mist gave the markers a watercolor look...love this!!!! I misted the coordinating cardstock as well and then stitched the ATC onto the cardstock. I inked the cardstock edges with Pumice Stone.

I used the egg images from the Birds Of A Feather plate, and inked them with the white Distress Marker. It slowly turns white and looks cool while you are watching it. I added polka dots with the same colors of markers from the flowers. I misted them with Perfect Pearls then applied a heavy coat of Glossy Accents. After they dried, I cut them out and adhered them the ATC's. I hand wrote the word Easter with an olive green Sharpie Marker.

 

Don't forget to visit all the other AO Design Team's Blogs...talk about talent...wow!!!

 Gerrie Johnnic 

Lisa Somerville

Suzanne Czosek

Linda Coughlin 

Tracy Evans 

Yvonne Garner

Supplies:
From My Stash: light pink, light yellow, and purple cardstock, olive green Sharpie Marker

Inkssentials Manila ATC	Lovely Day Stamp Set	Birds Of A Feather	Distress Markers Set	Tumbled Glass Distress Ink
Pumice Stone Distress Ink	Perfect Pearls Mist	Mini Mister	Embossing Powder - Clear	Paper distresser
Glossy Accents

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

February Tags Received!

I love happy mail, especially when it contains wonderful artsy things! I received my tags from the February swap at the Creative Block - Stamper's Anonymous Yahoo Group. They are all outstandingly gorgeous! Thanks ladies!

Beth Canary-Lee (Love the stamps you chose, and that wing is fantabulous!)

Deborah Barnhill (A vintage and shabby chic beauty! Love the pop of red!)

Martha Schroeder (I apologize if I did this wrong, but I had to reattach the butterfly as it came off during mailing...sorry. The tag is stunning! That elegant and embossed fancy image is gorgeous, and I love the sheer butterfly!)

Here is mine again.

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Where In The World Is My Vagabond?

The wonderful folks over at Sizzix are having a Where In The World Is Your Vagabond promotion. How fun is this? You need to take the time to view some of the photos after you upload your own...hint hint. Some are hilarious, and some leave me in awe at the gorgeous places around the world where these fantastic machines reside. I love to see everyone's creative workplace as well. And speaking of that, I have had several ask me about my space, so I have included some photos of my wee little cave, although plans are getting close to underway for a new one...yay!!!

Day time use while Mr. V makes me work (although it's almost night in this very fuzzy photo). He cracks the whip a lot and does not give me many breaks during our 16 hour day, but he always allows for a venti, decaf, skinny Caramel Macchiatto.

Night time use (usually after midnight and he prefers 950 thread count on Egyptian cotton of course...the little bugger). Hey! How else can I keep the mojo going? I have diecut dreams and cardstock wishes just like the rest of you!!!

It looks messy, but it is my very organized chaotic place! It is about a 7' x  6' nook off of my family room, so the kids can still visit me and watch television on the weekends.

All inks and markers are on this shelf next to my desk.

All my Tim, Wendy, and wood block stamps are here, along with special books, ephemera, and my favorite papers.

This is where Mr. V and all his dies and fades work. Under him are all my embellies, mists, paints, stickles, embossing items, and alcohol inks. Hot glue gun, Mr. Dremel, the melting pot, and iron are here too.

A few more crannies, along with favorite projects and gifts from friends.

The sewing place and the trunks are full of idea-ology extras, and a large array of certain shot glasses (yes...the famous ones fellow shipmates) that hold metal bits. The shoe holder, well no more, contains completed tags and swap items that I treasure.

This is not the rubbish holder. This is the box under the desk that contains items just waiting to be masterpieces.

I love my cave and I am at the mercy of Mr. V, but I would not have it any other way! I finally love going to work!!!

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon, and I want to see your creative space soon!!!

Welcoming Spring In Plaid

It's time for another monthly swap, but this time it's for the tag swap at the Creative Block - Stamper's Anonymous Yahoo Group.  The requirements were to make a tag and only use three stamps, stamped only once, and in different colors. Sounds difficult, but it wasn't, and I decided to combine this week's Grungy Monday challenge of using Tim's technique from 12 Tags of Christmas 2009, Day 3 which is making "a plaid pattern" with Alcohol Ink, on the tag.

I used packaging from a 7 Gypsies product, because the paper had the same feel and consistency as Glossy Cardstock, plus it had a cool image already on it that also shows through the Alcohol Ink.

I absolutely hated how thick and foggy looking my vertical lines came out. I want to scrap this and start over, but I couldn't bear not to use something with all this precious Alcohol Ink on it, so I added a thin line of Alcohol Ink but from a Fillable Pen. I hope that still qualifies, but it really helped shape up my pattern much better.

These are the 3 images I choose (all Tim's) and the permanent ink I used. The Metallic Gold is actually orange, and I already knew that, but thought it would make a nice contrast.

I cut my tags from lime green cardstock and added a border around it with Gold Paint Dabber, then distressed the edges, and coated them with Black Soot Distress Ink. I had ribbon with individual butterflies on it that I used to Spring this up, as well as a computer generated title. I luckily had this orangey ribbon in my stash that matches the 'gold' ink.

 

Supplies:
From My Stash: 7 Gypsies packaging scrap, green cardstock, butterfly ribbon, ribbon

Alterations Tag & Bookplate Bigz Die	Alcohol Ink Applicator Tool	Alcohol Ink - Meadow	Sunshine Yellow Alcohol Ink	Adirondack Purple Twilight Alcohol Ink
Gold Mixative Alcohol Ink	Bottle Alcohol Ink	Idea-ology Design Ruler	Adirondack Alcohol Ink Fillable Pen	Cirque Alphabet Stamp Set
Cirque Mini Alpha Stamp Set	Sketch Stamp Set	Cactus Green StazOn	Jet Black Stazon	Gold StazOn Ink
Paint Dabber - Gold	Paper distresser	Black Soot Distress Ink

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!