A Flying Paintbrush?!?

It's a very special day...Carolyn Ross's birthday, Mrs. Crafty Scrapper herself! And, in honor of this occasion and for all the wonderful things she has done for me, I've made her a little something something that she has been wanting for some time, made with lots of Wendy Vecchi goodness. I hope she likes this altered paintbrush!!!

 

 

 

 

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Are You The Winner?

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! Well...no chicken really, just some art goodies! AND, the cool part is this is my 300th post, so there is much cause to celebrate, and giving away something is perfect to do so!

Here is what you are winning again...

And the winner out of 78 comments is...

#51, Tarnished Rose

Tarnished Rose September 26, 2013 at 6:44 PM

LOVE your tag.
I knew I hadn't gotten an email lately with a blog post. 

 Glad to see you back posting. You do such wonderful work.

Please email me with your address!

Thank you so much for all the comments everyone. I wish I had enough loot to give to all of you.
I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Charming Halloween ATC's???

Hello again this week! Not only have I been busy with class kitting, but I've also been submerged in getting ready for the Artful Adventures in Tuscany with Tim trip! I've had this trip on lay-away for about 18 months, and I have finally paid it off with non-bouncing checks...PHEW!...so I am thrilled to the bone to finally be preparing for it. I've been packing, making, and doing like crazy, and one of the projects I've been working on is for a swap.

One of my besties, Paula, who is going on the trip too, is hosting a Halloween Charm Swap since we will be in route during that occasion, and she begged me to participate. ;0) I wanted to make some ATC's to go with the charms, and since the Making Art Challenge at the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group is about 'using Embossing Paste and mixing it with something', I decided to go with that as well. Sadly, this is the last MAC for the Wendy Yahoo Group. It's closing down due to lack of participation which makes me unhappy, but I've loved being apart of this group!

 

The new Tim Distress Paint colors from Ranger were bekoning me, so I used most of them plus Mowed Lawn directly on my craft sheet followed by a good misting of water.

I laid 3 strips of 3 1/2 x 12 inch manila onto the watery color, dried it with a Heat Tool, and then laid it onto the mixture again before drying completely. I had to add the paints and water a few times so I'd have enough. I cut 2 1/2 inch pieces from each strip.

Using my favorite script stamp from Wendy Vecchi, I stamped each ATC on the top portion using Dusty Concord Distress Ink. Then I dabbed one topper full of Picket Fence Distress Paint into the corner to mimic a full moon. Another good dry and they were ready for the next step.

Wendy's new Layered Tree Stencil was an instant love for me and was hollering loudly for me to use it. I used Walnut Stain Distress Ink with it.

Wendy's Embossing Paste can be mixed with so many mediums to color it. I used the new Mustard Seed Distress Glitter and mixed it with the Translucent Paste, and then spread it over Tim's new Stars Stencil, well a few of the stars anyway. I dried it with a Heat Tool. I love the glitter in the see thru stars...twinkle twinkle!

I stamped Wendy's dots and numbers, and Tim's bats onto the cards using Distress Inks as well as the borders of each card. Then I stamped the witch's hat onto manila using Jet Black. After I cut them up, I inked them with Mowed Lawn and colored the trim and buckle up with Glaze Pens. Finally, I stamped Wendy's lovely looking lady onto each card in Jet Black again, and gussied her up with Glaze Pens and a white Distress Marker.

For the charms I used Ranger's Shrink Plastic. First, I used all the Distress Paint colors that I used on the ATC's onto a scrap of Shrink Plastic, and then misted it with water to blend them up a bit. I had to let this dry a little by itself before barely drying it with the Heat Tool, so as to not start the shrinking...a little scary. I used a paper towel to soak up some of the extra liquid as well and it made the most beautiful patterns.

Next, I die cut the Plastic with the Sizzix Mini Tickets Movers & Shapers Die ala Tim Holtz. Then I stamped Tim's Halloween Ticket image from Stamper's Anonymous using Jet Black Archival, before punching a hole...very important to do that before baking. Finally, I baked them up in the oven at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes. They curled a bit, but a shot with the Heat Tool flattened them out perfectly. I added them to an Idea-ology Jump Ring with beads, ribbon, and a candy corn brad that I took the prongs off of.

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

12 Tags of 2013 - September (+ A Give Away!!!)

Hello everyone and happy happy Autumn! 

I've been so busy kitting lately for the biggest class I've ever had...Christmas Village Centerpiece... so I'm sorry to have been gone for so long. MASSIVE "Thank You's" go out to all of you who commented on the baby shoes! I was absolutely blown away by all the attention they received. I really thought I'd get some sad faces over those, but it was all good...again thank you tons!

AND, with all the kitting came a little clean up, which produced the freebie products that I was supposed to give away after CHA Summer! HELLO! None of you reminded me that I was supposed to do that! ;0) I totally forgot and I am so sorry, but don't y'all want some goodies?!? I'll choose a winner from this post's comments and let you know who won on Monday, September 30th.

Now onto my September tag for Tim's 12 Tags of 2013. I followed all the steps, but gave it an Autumn twist...my favoritest season!!! While I did like a few things about the tag, I definitely thought it was way too cluttered up, so I gave it another go. I know, so not me to do a redo. I am a firm believer that there are no mistakes in Art, but I just wasn't satisfied.

 

I used the Clockwork and Rays Stencils with the Distress Paint after I added the Embossing Paste leaves using Dyan's Leaf Flourish Stencil. I was definitely a little sloppy with the Clockwork one...you cannot even make out the clock, but I thought I should keep going on it.

Autumn colors of Stains came next and I was much happier because of the warm coloring, but then I just couldn't stop adding more stenciling and stamping. Why do I have to be so gaudy?

 

 

 

I added the new Distress Glitter in Mustard Seed to Translucent Embossing Paste to make the stars. I love how they came out, and I was much happier with this tag, although I liked the colors of the first one better. Oh well...live and learn.

We get a creative bonus this Autumn Season...Tim's Creative Chemistry 102! Woohoo! I can't wait to get started on it next week! I hope you all join in on the fun, AND...don't forget to comment for a chance to win the loot!

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

BabyPunk Shoes???

Hi Crafty People!!! Hope everyone is well out there. 

First, I'd like to say a big "Thank you!" to those of you who have sent me some happy mail recently...you know who you are! I am deeply grateful and humbled you would think of me. I LOVE blogland for many reasons, but the biggest one being that I have met so many people that I call friends! You all mean so much, despite never having seen your face. I treasure you!!!

Now back to business. When I went to the Create n Connect Summer CHA in July, I was so fortunate to meet many new and talented people. Eileen Hull, who designs her own Dies for Sizzix...check them all out here...was one of the people I met through my buddy Amy Bowerman, who was helping Eileen demo some of her new Dies for her Cherished Series, which is all about the little ones in our lives.

I was lucky to be given some of the precut Dies of the new goods...thanks Ladies! One of those was the new Baby Shoe Booty, and I just fell in love with it. I instantly had tons of ideas to bring these "Booties" to life, like maybe making ice skates, or high heeled shoes, or golf, football, and baseball shoes, or shoes for every holiday, or even roller skates!
(*Note - The Die is not up for sale yet, so I do not have a thumb to link it too, but you can see all information on it by clicking the above link. I think it will be out in February, 2014.)

So I went with roller skates and was debating on whether or not they would be the traditional pink or blue...for baby you know...except they quickly morphed into an industrial flying steampunk'd out pair, and I had to go with it. These are certainly not your typical gift for a cute, little, precious bundle of joy, so I'm very sorry if my project offends anyone. However if it doesn't, then grab a cuppa as there are many photos.

Eileen is well known for using Mat Board with her Scoreboards 3D dies, and I can totally see why. It is extremely durable and holds shapes and folds so well...no tearing here. I began by covered the pieces with Ranger's Foil Tape Sheets.

I ran all the pieces through Tim's Riveted Texture Fade from Sizzix.

Everything received a little coating of Pitch Black Paint Dabber, and after it dried I sanded some of it off the raised parts to reveal the foil underneath.

I traced half circles onto some scrap manila using various jars I had laying around, and after cutting them out I sprayed them with Ink Refresher on both sides, and began to crumple them up a bit. Yes...here comes Tim's Faux Leather Technique (Remember my video?)!

Perfect Pearls came next, along with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I used Glue N Seal to adhere the leather like pieces on.

Lots of brads, er rivets, came next.

It was pure joy to go crazy adding lots of Idea-ology and other metal pieces. I had a hard time stopping myself from adding more!

Finally it was time to attach all of the pieces together, and affix the wheels on, courtesy of some Match Box toy cars. I used a piece of soft balsa wood to hold the wheels by drilling a tiny hole on each side to allow for the axles.

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!