Hot Air Balloon Heart

Amour c'est magnifique! So true, so true! I love Love! Valentine's Day is a fun day to show love to your peeps, but actually we should show it everyday. Here is a card that can be used at any time of year and not just Valentine's. All the stamped images are from the Artistic Outpost's Paris Exposition stamp set. I love all the images on this set, but I really have a thing about hot air balloons. They have always fascinated me. I think the two balloons eluding to a heart works well here, even though it's not perfectly shaped. I had a super fun time dressing up Madame. She was very cooperative and seemed to enjoy modeling for me. She finally choose the vintage, zebra printed, mink stole with diamond brooch brad. And, as she has the perfect shaped head for millinery, she had to have this black burlap cloche because it donned a huge, handmade, red grosgrain rose, even Coco would approve!

The balloons were stamped on transparency with StazOn and colored in with permanent marker. The Eiffel Tower is stamped with Distress Ink and crackled over, along with the Amour. All the background images on the craft paper are Distress Ink stamped and heat embossed with clear UTEE. Watercolor pencils were used on Madame and the sky, and all of Madame's make-up was done with Glaze Pens, as well as her gorgeous blue eyes. Distress Ink borders all of the cardstock. I created the rose by tying lose knots in the ribbon and gathering it into a circle, finally adhering it at the bottom.

 

  

I am entering this card in Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stamper Challenge for "my eyes adored you". Don't you think her eyes are looking at someone adoringly? Oo la la!!! Hels is also sharing the love with some blog candy as she celebrates the Sunday Stamper's 4th birthday...so cool!!!

Supplies:
Uchida Marvy: Pigmented Artist Markers (red)
From My Stash: black and white cardstock, red ribbon, red thread, rhinestones, zebra ribbon, burlap

Jet Black Stazon	Crackle Accents	UTEE - Clear	Ink Blending Tool	Glossy Accents	Fall 2011 Limited Edition Distress Ink Trio
Tumbled Glass Distress Ink	Pumice Stone Distress Ink	Blue Glaze Pen	Red Glaze Pen	Sepia Glaze Pen	Watercolor Pencils
Paris Exposition Stamp Set	Craft Paper Card

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Love...Time Well Spent!

 Hello crafty souls!!! I wanted to show you the whole master-board that I used on the Queen of Hearts ATC, that I am also using on this ATC for the All Things Tim Yahoo Group February swap.  I used the whole 8x12 inch sheet with the exception of a 3x1 inch piece that I can still use somewhere else. It has been a while since I've used a master-board, but I will now do so often as it makes doing sets of ATC's a snap. You can do a series where you make changes to each, or do all of them the same way. I also am submitting this ATC to Lisa Somerville's Blogger's Challenge for "elements of time". Here's a quick tutorial for creating this master-board.

I dabbed on Alcohol Inks, letting the it dry a few minutes between coats, onto Glossy Cardstock.

I stamped several Valentine images using Archival and Distress Inks. I heat set them with a heat gun. I stopped here for the Queen of Hearts ATC.

For my Love Time ATC, I used the remainder of the master-board.  I cut my cards and added a winged image to the hearts. I rounded corners and added foil lace, a clock and spinner, and the computer generated sentiment.

 

 

Supplies:

32 Degrees North: Dresden Foil Lace

The Paper Studio: Clock Faces

Crackle Accents	Idea-ology Game Spinners	Mini Ornates Stamp Set	Glossy Accents	Gloss Finish Paper	Jet Black Archival Ink
Winter 2011 Distress Ink Pack	Worn Lipstick Distress Ink	Fired Brick Distress Ink	Aged Mahogany Distress Ink	Snow Cap Mixative	Watermelon Alcohol Ink
Red Pepper Alcohol Ink	Pitch Black Alcohol Ink	Alcohol Ink Applicator Tool	Love Struck Stamp Set	Cotton White Stazon	Urban Grunge Stamp Set

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

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
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 I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!