7-4-1776

It's getting close to the time the United States celebrates Her independence, and there have been a few challenges asking for red, white, and blue, so I thought I would make this plaque to commemorate the occasion. I also wanted to combine this with the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group challenge of "circles & hearts" from Wendy's Book 3. I will link it up to the Sunday Stamper and The Artistic Stamper's challenges of "red, white, and blue".

I made a boo boo and reversed my 4 and 7, but I guess it can represent a European style date.

First, I adhered a quarter sheet of Tim's 4th of July collage paper to an Art Part, and then adhered the top part completing the frame.

I cut strips from old blue jeans and adhered them to the frame, allowing the ends to fray.

On the sides of the frame, I stamped Wendy's ticking image in Manganese Archival Ink. I stamped the star border using Snow Cap Acrylic Paint Dabber.

I painted stripes of red and white on the ticking image using Paint Dabbers. 

I inked the flowers with Barn Door and then stamped the coordinating flower image on them in Jet Black Archival.

I inked the stems in Bundled Sage and stamped them with the dots image in Jet Black Archival as well. I arranged all my pieces and adhered them. I stamped the hearts and sentiment in Jet Black and then colored them in with Distress Markers. Glossy Accents was added to the white areas to highlight the images. Wooden bits, letters, and star Blossom Buckets were adhered to further embellish the plaque. A mini bungee cord was used to hang the plaque.

Supplies:
From My Stash- denim scraps, vintage wooden and paper letter tiles, bungi cord


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Kraft & Twine Time!

The fortnightly challenge continues this week at Frilly & Funkie with the Funkies. Our host, Linda Coughlin, of the Funkie Junkie, wants to see Kraft & Twine. Frilly or Funkie, from kraft cardstock to recycled corrugated cardboard, let's see how creative you can be. You still have a week left to upload your projects to be eligible to win a gift certificate to the Funkie Junkie Boutique. If you need a little inspiration, please visit the other Designer'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 

Tammy Roberts - Paperie Sweetness

For my card/tag, I decided to do another project for Father's Day. This one is loaded with texture...embossing, repurposed packaging, wood, metal, and twine. It's the ultimate 'tool man' card. I can just hear "o ah hah hah" every time I look at it. It even has a little envelope to tuck a gift card in.

 

I am also submitting this to some manly sized challenges. My Mojo Monthly's challenge is "Man Up", The Stamp Man's Challenge is "Make It For A Man", Simon Says Stamp & Show's challenge is "Show Texture", and the Compendium Of Curiosities II Challenge is "Repurposed Packaging". I have also been introduced to two new challenges by Chris, Art With No Boundaries, where the challenge is "Anything Goes", and Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent, for "Heavy Metal".

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

May Tags Received From ATT

I received gorgeous ATC's from the All Things Tim Yahoo Group in the mail while I was away with my family on vacation...love my happy mail!!! May's theme was "yellow".

Sandy Alsfasser (Texture galore, and check out those hub caps....love this Sandy!)

Stephen Jew (This looks and feels like real wood. Love the whole design, and those drops look like real honey or amber.)

Susan Salyer (Gorgeous butterflies and love the pin...really adds texture.)

Claudine Criner (Love Tim's new die with the background. Great design, and those fibers and key are fantastic!)

And...here is mine again.

If you are on the fence about joining in a swap, give it a go! You will more than likely be pleasantly surprised with what you get back, and probably learn some technique from your participants!
I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Metal Tags Tutorial

To see the new challenge at Our Creative Corner, please click here!

A couple of weeks ago, Linda, for the Friday Focus at Frilly & Funkie, showed you how to create metal embellishments that were fabulous and real show stoppers. I am going to add to that for this Saturday Step By Step, and give you a quick tutorial showing you a few ways to create metal embossed tags.

Cut a piece of Foil Tape Sheet to fit a jumbo sized tag.

Apply the Foil Tape and use a brayer to flatten it for better adhesion. Trim the fol and punch the hole for the tag.

Using a Texture Fade of your choice, emboss the image on the tag. From this point, you have many options. The following snippit samples show you two options.

Sample #1: Apply Acrylic Paint Dabber making sure to get into every crack and crevice, let dry, then sand the top until a shiny finish appears. You can add an embossing medium and UTEE  to the whole image, and then heat emboss, for a wonderful thick glaze.

Sample #2: Apply Vintaj Ink Patina, let dry, sand the top, then apply the Vintaj Glaze.

Add drops of a darker Alcohol Ink straight from the bottle.

Using an Alcohol Ink Tool, dab the drops of ink on the tag. Add more darker ink and gradually add lighter colors until you achieve your desired look and color.

You can stop at this stage. The following snippit sample shows you another look using all the same techniques as this, but with more lighter Alcohol Ink than dark.

Sample #3

Sand the raised edges of the embossed design using a very fine grit paper or use a Vintaj Reliefing Block. Apply Vintaj Glaze or use UTEE heat embossing. When dry, add your embellishments and ribbon.

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Frame's The Name Of The Game!

A new week, equals a new challenge at Our Creative Corner!  Our hostess again, Sue Butler of Scrumplescrunch, wants to see an "Embellished Frame".   Make the frame the primary focus. She wants it to be the first thing you see before the image or text. Your creation can be off the page, out of the box, or whatever obscure title you come up with. In other words, it does not have to be a card or tag. So have a play and have some fun and enjoy the experience. Try mixed-media if you dare!

If you are looking for mounds of inspiration for this terrific challenge, check out the Design Team's work, as well as our Guest Designer LeAnne Pugliese of WeeInklings.  I am absolutely floored by the creativity this week by the team...a real wow!

Linda Coughlin- The Funkie Junkie

Vicki Burdick- It's a Stamp Thing

Sue Butler- Scrumplescrunch

Ann Marie Hile- Stampin' Anne

Wendy Janson-  It's All About Stamping

Marcy Kaminski - En Papillote Arts

Holly Kean- Kean On Paper

Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) - Love, Life and Crafts

Meihsia Liu- Simply Paper Crafts

Tui Nathan- Stampin Time

Lori Rider- The Diva Stamper

Kristin Tierney- Lilly Beth Boutique

Sharon Wheet- Designs by Sharon

First of all, I have to apologize. I made this card in about 10 minutes, while on my way out the door to yet another conference. I have been gone a total of 15 days in the last 16 days, and while I did try to make a ton of projects before hand, I never had time for this one. It is certainly NOT my best work, but for a 10 minute card it is not that bad. I could have declined this challenge, but that is just not me. It would have to be a major issue for me to ever skip out. This is why there is a whole lotta DT members...in case one slops up. Please stop by their blogs...very impressive I tell you! I will be so happy to be home for a while next week.

Supplies:
From My Stash- black snap


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Brushless Watercolor

The new Compendium Of Curiosities II Challenge is "brushless watercolor" over at Studio L3.  I know I say it every week, but I think this is my new favorite Tim technique. Actually, I have loved doing this technique ever since I received my Distress Markers. If you haven't picked up CCII yet, you really are missing out on some of the best techniques in paper crafting. It's way less than $1.00 per technique...now that is a bargain, and talk about a learning process!  And...Eclectic Paperie is sponsoring this challenge as well, so there is a prize involved for some RANDOM participant. I love that it is random, and that the winner is not based on their project. Everyone is just participating to learn the technique and enrich themselves. That is what makes this so unique. That is what makes paper crafting so enjoyable to me...sharing  and learning in everybody else's work! Thank you Linda, and thank you Tim! However, I do love competing challenges as you well know...guess I'm a lover and a fighter!!!

I am also sending this to another no winner challenge....The Blogger's Challenge for "green, brown, and a neutral".

Supplies:



I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Dare To Live!

Here's more from Artistic Outpost's new release Kudzu Kafe. I thought the image of the little girl would look great in pink while using AO's Quote & Quoteables sentiment from Audrey, in the background, thus honoring a breast cancer victim or survivor.  The Kudzu sentiment further enhances this theme, and is perfect to use for that someone in your life who is struggling and needs encouragement during a seriously difficult time.

 

Since there is so much to read on this tag, I am submitting this to Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stamper challenge of "words".

Supplies:
From My Stash: black and pink cardstock


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!