12 Tags Of 2012 - October

Quick...FYI...Have you seen Rick Springfield's website? Yeah, the guy who sings  Jessie's Girl! You know that one...every word...don't you? Anyway, I'm not promoting him, but instead his website. I heard my radio station talking about it. It's totally SteamPunk! Very inspirational and if you are looking for some generating ideas check it out. I did press a bunch of buttons on his machine, but not much happened though. Maybe you will have better luck.

Okay...back to business!
It's my turn to showcase the Friday Focus at Frilly & Funkie, and we are highlighting some of Tim's Seasonal Idea-ology, as well as some of Ranger's seasonal items too at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. I of course, used some of these goodies on this tag I made for my son, which happens to be my take on Tim's 12 Tags of 2012 for October. Can you see the resemblance? It's me and my three kids! ;-P

I never thought about it before, but if you stamp Tim's Reflections Images on the back of Tissue Wrap, you will be able to read it the correct way when it's on the right side. Kind of a DUH moment for me!

Note to Self: Don't squeeze the life out of the Paint Dabber!!! You know better than that!

It's just the pecan wood floor that I cashed all my teacher retirement in for! Thankfully none got on the cloth furniture! Yes...that's a dust bunny!!! Bunnies are for Easter, not Halloween...right?!?

Another discovery for me...maybe for you too...Ink Refresher works to thin Black Gesso like water does to make a Black Wash. I did a a test drive using some of Tim's paper. The left is with water being sprayed onto the paper first, followed by a paintbrush full of Black Gesso. The right is using the Ink Refresher the same way. Both look good (The water one might be a tad darker.), but the water makes the paper a little weak until until it's completely dry. Even then, it's not as sturdy and pliable as the IR paper. It was much easier to work with.

I did not even rub the IR in. Just soaking in a bit caused the Gesso to smoothly cover the paper. I would imagine that this would work on all Acrylic Paint, but that is just my guess.

After a thorough drying with my heat tool, the Black Wash looks great! I misted Perfect Pearls Mist on it to mimic stars, and then covered it all up with pumpkins. Hello! Why do I do these things???

How about that Tim....making his own glitter color??? Genius I tell ya! But, I'm not so good at putting it on. The black I did ok...the green not so much. It's clumpy and lumpy. But my son loves it, and that's what matters!

 

HALLOWEEN DONE!!! Time to bring on Thanksgiving and CHRISTMAS! YAY!!!

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Bee Artful Canvas

Here I go again waiting until the last minute, but guess what happened to me last night when I decided to go to bed early at 8:45 pm? While flipping through an old copy of Craft Stamper Magazine, I had a visitor named Mr. Mojo, who stayed with me until about 1:00 am (wink wink) while I doodled away in my Art Journal Planner...about 27 projects I think, mostly for Christmas! So much for sleep, but one idea was this canvas that I had given up on long ago. I had the preliminary background done on this and 4 others just like it about...um...18 months ago, but when it came time to do something on them I just stared blankly. So I put them away, and took them out several times, all with the same outcome, a total blank. Until last night! I knew I wanted to participate in Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stamper challenge of "A Taste of Honey", and the Unruly Paper Arts Reader Art Quest 2 challenge of "Dimension to a Canvas", but as I had no idea where to start on either, I shewed those thoughts away. Thanks Mojo dude!!! Please come back again soon!

Everything here was already on from a long time ago, except the Tim's Idea-ology Grunge letters and Claudine Hellmuth Gesso, that I used to gain extra texture.

Now comes a whole slew of Ranger goodness. I ran Tea Dye Distress Stain over the whole canvas, and then dried it with the heat tool. I also used a Marvy Permanent Red Marker to darken certain spots of the flowers.

My favorite color of Color Wash, Butterscotch, came next. I wiped portions of it away on both of the lady faces. I gave this a good drying as well.

I stamped Tim's Honeycomb image randomly in Jet Black Archival.

I thought it needed some lighter areas, so out came Claudine's Tradional Tan Acrylic Paint. I mixed it with water to dilute it a little. More drying.

I needed some contrast color, so Landscape Green came next. I highlighted the letters with Jet Black Archival, Perfect Pearls Mist, and some more Barn Door Distress Stain. I also inked the edges with Jet Black. I stamped the bees, and colored them in with Glaze Pens, and added a Crackle Accents to the wings. I wanted a little sparkle on some parts, so I used my fingers and Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls Mist to do that.

I wasn't sure if this was going to work, but experiment leads to technique. I adhered two sided tape (bologna) to a piece of metal strip, and die cut it with the Rosette die, which cut like butter!  I also die cut a piece of papertowel to adhere the metal to. I didn't want to use paper because the metal is already plenty stiff.

I embossed the circle with the Honeycomb Texture Fade.

I used Alcohol Inks to color the Rosette pieces and an Idea-ology Philosophy tag. After I dried everything, I started folding my Rosette. This was a little difficult with the metal being stiff, so I used a craft stick to help bend the folds. I didn't do a perfect job but it worked just fine. I didn't have the patience for glue, so the Tiny Attacher help me out. It flattened out beautifully. I attached an Idea-ology Hinge, Jump Rings, and the Philosophy Tag to the center circle. I used Glossy Accents to attach it to the Rosette. Finito! I'm in love!!!

Supplies:

From My Stash: face stamp, tissue pattern, lady ephemera, sheet music, Marvy Red Marker, snaps, bee stamps


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!