Merry Christmas

To all my friends out there who celebrate this holiday, have a very merry Christmas, full of love and many blessings.  Enjoy your family and friends, and do try to make time for some art.

As you most likely know, this past year Tim Holtz decided not to do the 12 Tags of Christmas; instead he did the 12 Tags of 2012.  Although this was enjoyed, many people, myself included, missed the Christmas tags.  The good folks who run ATT (All Things Tim yahoo group) put together a tag contest, challenging us to come up with an original Christmas tag, chock full of Tim's products and/or techiques.

21 members entered tags; all members could vote.  Only one vote per person, and the participants could NOT vote for their own tag.  Oh, and all entries were posted without identifying the creators, so it was really anonymous.  And we weren't allowed to post our work on blogs, photo sharing sites, FB, etc.  No, I did not win anything, and truth be told, I didn't expect to.  After viewing all the tags I found several I honestly liked much better than my own, LOL.  However, I did manage to scare up a few votes, which was nice.  A couple of the tags did not get any votes at all, and that made me feel sad.  Yes, some stood out from the rest, but none were poorly done.  This is why I don't care for contests in general, avoid reality shows (can't stand when people are voted off), and try to compete only with myself.

The voting being over, the results made public, so now I can share my tag, which I named Metallic Christmas.  Not as in heavy metal, but that everything on this tag sparkles and shimmers in some way.

 

 

The single snowflakes, snowflake border, snowman and joy are all Tim Holtz die cuts.  The background was embossed with aTim embossing folder and sprayed with several colors of Perfect Pearls mists.  The snowman was covered with a generous coat of Wendy Vecchi's embossing paste, and then sprinkled with distress stickles clear rock candy dry glitter (say that five times fast).  His hat was painted black, and while still wet covered with some generic gold glitter.  The trim on the bottom, origin unknown, has been lying around in my ribbon stash for ages.  I'm not positive, but I think the tinsel on the top is a Tim product as well.  It was out of its packaging, so I just don't recall. The word JOY was painted silver.  Then I dabbed it in spots with clear embossing ink and sprinkled silver powder in those spots.  I think that gave it a distressed, antique look.

 

Well, as the snowman is saying, may this holiday season, and the year to come bring you much JOY.

 



Cruisin' the Caribbean With Tim!

My body may be back in NY, but my head sure isn't.  What a wonderful week we had on the beautiful Freedom of the Seas.  But, the journey began before we got onboard.  First of all, a few weeks prior to sailing we received our cruise documents and the name badge holder from ScrapMap:

And inside the zippered compartment was the booklet showing which group we were in and the schedule of classes.  For the first time, we wouldn't have to wait until we were on the ship to get that information.  Whoo Hoo!  I could see right away that I was in the class group with just about all my favorite peeps.

I made some ATCs and pins to trade and just give away.  Here is my ATC, front and back (with apologies to The Beach Boys):



This is the pin I made.  I used an inchie stampboard and the cool Lady Liberty stamp I received from Gloria during last year's cruise.

And here is how I presented them:

I just did a simple ATC and attached the pin right to it.

I also wanted to give a little something to both Tim and Mario.  Knowing how they both are into Starbucks, I thought coffee cup cozies (if that is in fact what they are called; I really don't know) would be nice.  I had some NYC fabric from the City Quilter and actually sewed the suckers.  I am no seamstress and the stitches are wonky, not to mention I sewed Mario's so the writing is all upside down, but I think the graphics are nice enough to compensate for my lack of sewing skills.  Oh, and let me mention that they are reversible.  Here they are, first Tim's, then Mario's:







My friend and cabinmate Pat and I left for Florida a day before the cruise began, and stayed at a Disney resort....Port Orleans.....fun place, one big Mardi Gras, and upon entering we received these, to get into the spirit of things:

I thought I took some photos while there, but apparently I left that task to Pat, so whenever she gets her pictures uploaded I'll share them, but all I have are these two of our room.....and our luggage.  Why I thought the luggage was important to document, I don't know.

Saturday night we met up with Elena and Bernie and had a FABULOUS dinner at Joe's Crab Shack in Orlando.  I've wanted to eat there for the longest time, and really enjoyed it.  Thanks, guys!  Again, no photos taken.  What was I thinking?

Finally, Sunday arrived, and Elena and Bernie picked us up and we drove to the ship.  We were onboard in time for lunch, our cabins were ready right after, and our bags came fairly quickly as well. Pat and I were unpacked and settled in before dinner.  Afterwards we had the welcoming reception where we were introduced to Tim's great team, and had the opportunity to swap and get together with both old and new friends.  Here are some of the swaps I received.  I say some, because I keep finding more, hidden in pocket and luggage compartments, so I'm sure there are more.

I wasn't part of the organized charm swap, nor did I make any charms, but I still managed to receive quite a few from some very generous cruisers.  These are only a few.....the rest made their way into a project several days later.



And then, everyone who is a member of ATT got into this group photo with Tim.  Notice all the official ATT t-shirts?  Being tall, I am somewhere in the back row. 

Check out my friend Val's blog for a good look at the ship.  Clearly  she was better at remembering to take photos than I was.

To be continued......













Tag Display

I have been making and swapping tags for years.  Some find their way into journals, some on scrapbook layouts, some are pinned to my inspiration boards, and some are currently dangling from the ceiling of my studio.  And yet, with all that, I still literally have hundreds that I have yet to save and display effectively.

Then a very talented ATT member posted a tag tree that she'd constructed and all sorts of lightbulbs went off.  Click HERE to be taken to France's blog to see her beauty.  And to have any clue as to what I'm talking about below, LOL.

Now, France used a piece of wood and I'm an apartment dweller without access to a wood pile.  I'm also impatient and of the "use-what-you-have" school of thought.  Also, attaching the tags to the binder rings on their vertical side means the additional step of putting some plastic material on the backs of the tags.  Remember, I said my tags number in the HUNDREDS.  I wanted a way to display them using the one hole on the top without having to do anything else to them.  And I LOVE France's idea of using Tim's 2-ring binder.   I looked around, and here are the basic supplies I pulled out to use:

I have an 8x8 piece of sturdy chipboard, one of the large 2-ring binders (they attach with two brads), and one of those little wooden display easels.  I'm skipping over the step where I covered the chipboard with decorative paper.  (I used Tim's and covered both sides.  Honestly, I could have left it plain as the tags pretty much cover the chip, but I wanted it to look finished.)  Then I simply poked holes on the top and attached the binder with the brads it comes with.  The binder rings are spaced perfectly apart to hold two stacks of tags.

And here are some (too dark....sorry!) pictures of the completed project, with the chipboard on the easel:

See how easily the tags flip over so you can view them one by one:

This is kind of a prototype.  I'm only sorry the rings on Tim's binder aren't larger, so I could fit even more tags on the display.  I am now thinking of taking one of my old school looseleafs apart and making a really big display that just might hold ALL of my wonderful tags.  I also haven't glued the chipboard onto the easel, and I think I should so it's more stable.  But right now I have it on a table and it doesn't take up much space and shows off my tags just wonderfully.  For those without table space, I think it could also be hung from a wall (minus the easel, of course) and taken down for better viewing.

Many thanks to France for inspiring me.  My tag solution doesn't resemble hers at all, but I wouldn't have come up with mine without first seeing what she did.  Right here, this is one of the main reasons I love to blog and to visit blogs.....the sharing of ideas.

The Big Apple and The Big E

Yep, got myself signed up for another page swap.  Just can't resist them, and even though they cause me some brief anxiety as deadlines approach, I'm always so happy once the books are assembled.  As I've said before, collaborative pieces are my favorites.

This one was started by Denise at ATT, and I just know it's going to be special.  It's called Journey Around The World, and everyone is doing a page reflective of where they live. (Hence the Big Apple reference in my title).  If I have time, I may add an appropriate charm, but other than that, the pages are finished!

What I did:   the background is a NYC street map, so each page has a different section.  On the bottom I used two stamps to create the skyline; on the left, one from The Stamping Ground and on the right, a Tim Holtz stamp.  The yellow cab (popped up with foam dots)  and the faux postage stamp are also from The Stamping Ground.  I wanted a little Big Apple Attitude, and chose the impatient woman silhouette (high heels and all) from Wendy Vecchi.  Talk about your time consuming fussy cutting!  My craft knife got quite the work out.

Inside the film strip (a Tim Holtz die) are a very reduced in size NYC subway map and a Broadway show playbill....not all the pages have the same one. The tiny attacher adheres the strip to the page.  The very large letters that spell out the abbreviation of my home town were done with my very very favorite alphabet stamp set....vintage Tim from his days with Junkitz. 

Last of all, each page has a bit of an old NY subway car destination in the upper left corner, all from one of the pages in Tim's Lost and Found paper stack.

The back is finished as well, but that will remain a surprise for now.

What about the Big E?????  No, not one of my nicknames (I don't think).  My pal Marita is re-doing her studio and bought these 8" letters to hang on a wall.  I forget what they'll eventually spell out, but she sent one to a few of her art friends to decorate however we wanted.  I of course got an E, and have been staring at it for a few weeks now.  Yesterday, the first day of May, was a gorgeous spring day, and when I got home I was inspired to create this:

Not really my usual thing, but outdoors there was an explosion of daffodils, tulips and other flowers I can't name, so I got out paper flowers, fabric flowers, metal flowers, all sorts of paints and sprays and went at it.

The letter itself was covered with old text, which you can't even see any more, then painted with various soft and sparkly colors of mica watercolor paint.  I wrapped some pastel eyelash yarn randomly around, then started to glue on the flowers.  Then a couple of butterflies decided to join the party.  Here's a close up of one, cut from grungeboard with a Tim Holtz die, then covered with Beadazzles.

                                                                              
The final touch, was to add some black rub-ons (Jenni Bowlin), because I'm a firm believer that when you're working with pastels, a touch of black is important to keep the piece from fading away.

The Big E is packed and should head out to Oregon very soon.  Hope Marita likes it!



The Sketchbook Project And A Little Piece of Paradise

I returned from Punta Cana on Friday, slept for a few hours, then headed out on Saturday to meet Pat for our visit to the Brooklyn Art Library, temporary home to the Sketchbook Project.  We both submitted books, and several of our ATT friends did too, and we were anxious to see them before the exhibit leaves for its tour of the US.

Here are the books (about 28,000 of them), all scanned and cataloged and waiting to be looked at.

To view books, you can ask for a specific artist, a theme, or just tell the folks behind the counter to give you any books of their choosing, and you can look at four at a time.  I first requested my own book and Inge's (she's a long-time online friend and artisitic collaborator, and she lives in Belgium).  We each had the same theme, Dirigibles and Submersibles, and did very different things with many of the same materials.

On the left, Inge's book; on the right, mine.  Notice the same stamp?



Inge's book on top....this time, notice the same Graphic45 paper on both our pages?

Inge requested a photo of me holding our books.....sorry that Pat caught me without a smile!  I really was having a good time.  Honest!

The turquoise tag was for me!  Inge tucked it into the inner pocket of her book and I have to tell you....it was a real hoot to open it up and see the little ticket on it that said, "for Eileen Bellomo in New York."

I had a list of ATTers who told me they had submitted books, but sadly, I couldn't see all of them.  Either they were not yet cataloged and on the shelves, or were submitted under different names, or I had the spelling wrong.  We tried and tried, but several were never found.  So sorry!  But here are the books by Lisa, Barbara, Pat, and Paula:

And after a bit of a search I also found Marlene's:

I don't know this artist from California, but fell in love with his sketches:

Here's Pat, engrossed in a sketchbook:





And this is in no way a commentary on my experience, just a bit of Brooklyn graffiti we saw on our way home.

As I said, I just returned from 5 glorious days in the warm Dominican Republic sun, and not to rub it in for those of you still experiencing this awful winter, but......here's a little bit of paradise: