Grungy Monday -- Get Out the Tissues

This week's Grungy Monday is all about tissues.....Tim's tissue paper and tissue tape, that is.  The challenge is simple:  use either or both products on a project.  No other conditions or restraints.  So, remembering to be clever and multi-task, I decided to make a birthday card for my GM entry.

I started out with the idea in mind of using the tissue paper technique Tim used on tag 12 of the 12 Tags of Christmas this year.  Except that I didn't go back to review the steps.  I just plowed ahead, and as a result skipped a few along the way.  But no worries; my unintentionally simplified version works too.

I stamped the background with one of Tim's flourishy stamps, filling it up (using black archival ink), then covering it with a piece of the music tissue paper (using Ranger's matte Glue N Seal).  Since I skipped the step where you lighten the stamped images with Picket Fence Distress Stain, you can see quite a bit of the stamping under the music.  Which works for me.  I also skipped the wrinkling the tissue paper step as well as the cover it all with stickles step. 

To add even more tissue to the mix, the image I chose is actually cut from a decorative napkin, glued down with....you guessed it.....Glue N Seal.  I covered her printed feathers with some real ones and added a bit of bling in the center.

The bits of sparkle around the edges comes from Suze Weinberg's Beadazzles (in Purple Rain).  In case you don't know, Beadazzles are a great mix of micro beads and glitter, and I stocked up on a huge number of them at a Ranger Warehouse Sale a couple of years back.  I don't even know if they are still manufactured, but they are a very cool embellishment.  And a tip:  after adhering them to your project, a light coat over top with....yep.....Glue N Seal, will keep them all in their place forever.

The birthday greeting was made from Jenni Bowlin's mini letter stickers.

If you look closely, you can see some of the stamping/music tissue paper through the image of the dancer, and I think that is very very cool.





From Casa Azul to The Golden Gate Bridge

This week brought me not one, but THREE Frida Kahlo journals, and I've managed to complete pages for two of them.  As themes go, Frida can be a challenge.  Much as I admire the artist and the woman, her work can be disturbing and her life was no fiesta.  Having said that, the colors that evoke the spirit of Mexico found in Frida's paintings are brilliant, and the folkloric images are vivid and full of life.  Contradictions. 

Kate's journal has a sub-theme of Frida in San Francisco, and she requested that we all include some iconic image in our work.  I used two:  the Golden Gate Bridge and a cable car.

I did a simple background on watercolor paper with color washes, pastels, inks and mica sprays.  I then did a very loose sketch of the bridge and went over the pencil lines with an embossing ink pen.  Copper perfect pearls was brushed over that to give the bridge a kind of vague, through the fog look.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

The cable car is a photo I found in google images, printed it out on plain copy paper, did some fussy cutting and a lot of pencil work to add some shading.  Diego and Frida were cut from a copy of one of her paintings.  I recall that Frida's father referred to the couple as "the elephant and the dove," so I decided to place that particular bird on Diego's head.  The cactus is a stamp.  Because Frida often included roots, vines, leaves, etc. in her work, I added those, and die cut them from a variety of papers.  Now, off to Casa Azul.

Janet created a portfolio style book, and asked that we include anything we think would have been found in Casa Azul, the home Frida and Diego shared in Mexico.  Well, I know Frida loved her elaborate folkloric dresses, and there had to be many in her closet, so that gave me the idea for my pages.

The title page:



 The blue strip was created by spraying denim color wash over a prima border stencil.  After it dried I went over the whole thing with faded jeans distress ink.  Then, of all things, I used a Stampin' Up wheel stamp of skulls over the top of it.  The area next to it is a collage of spanish text and sewing pattern paper, covered with a light wash of gesso and then peeled paint distress stain.  The wonderful letters are from an out of production stamp set, designed by Tim Holtz.  I love that set and am lucky to have snagged it when I did.

Whenever I'm starting a new round robin journal project I begin by gathering together materials I think I may use.....papers, collage sheets, charms, postcards, etc.  In my Frida box I found a strand of beads, handmade and of very colorful fabric.  I have no memory of where they came from, though I think someone sent them to me with a swap.  There is something very folksy about them and I thought they looked great highlighting the switch from the border to the rest of the page.  Plus, they echo the colors in the dress on the next page (that's me being arful and design conscious, LOL).   Speaking of which:

So, this is what is in Frida's closet.  For this background I did a series of the border stencils, each in a different color, by doing one at a time, masking off the surrounding areas.  Then I stuck some spanish text in between the border strips, and gave everything except the dark blue border a light wash of gesso.

The dress was created entirely from scraps from one of my many boxes of leftover pieces from previous projects.  The top is actually very fragile vintage wallpaper that I received as a RAK from my friend Angie.  I love that paper and have used it many times before.  The ruffle right below it was made from some paper towel that had been used to clean up after some spraying.  The bottom of the dress went through a few stages before I was happy with it.  It started out as a piece of sticky back canvas.  I covered it with a collage of text and then a coat of fired brick distress stain.  Then, using sharpie poster paint markers I drew a design similar to the one on the wallpaper top.  Some pom pom and bead trims finished it off.

The dress in on a wire hanger (with apologies to Joan Crawford, wherever she may be), and it is on a rod cut from a chop stick.  The lizard is a shrink plastic piece I did a while back, and I just knew it would eventually find its way onto one of these pages.  It was rubbed with embossing ink, then covered with gold UTEE before shrinking with a heat gun.  While it was still hot I sprinkled some beadazzles (a Suze Weinberg product that is a combination of micro beads and glitter) over top.

Now, I'm off to work on Maxine's Frida book.....with a theme of Day of the Dead.  Awesome!







What's In The Bag?

A whole lot of goodness, that's what's in the bag.
One of the really cool things that happens on the east coast is the Ranger Warehouse Sale.  Last year I went with some of my best art friends and we scored BIG.  I think I spent $20 and I still haven't used everything I bought.

I was really looking forward to the sale this year, but as fate would have it, Ranger was cleaning out its warehouse at the same time that I was on the Tim Holtz cruise.   Pat and I were disappointed, but our pal Heather said if she could get there, she'd shop for us.  

Good news.  Heather has a GREAT EYE for bargains.  Last year, even though we were all in the same place, she came away with some fab things we never even saw.  So we knew we were in good hands.
We both told Heather that if she wound up going, to just spend $30 for each of us.

This is how the sale works.  You enter the warehouse and are given a big white painter's bucket.  You fill it up.  Or fill two up.  Whatever.  When you're ready to check out, your bucket (or buckets) is weighed and you pay $5 a pound.  That's is.
All Heather did was take things in multiples of three, and when she got home she divvied the stash up.

Pat and I finally were able to get together with Heather this past weekend, and here is the low-down on what we all received.  For $30.  I have to repeat this a few times.  You'll see why.

Glossy paper, 2 packs of pre-cut shrink plastic (a Suze Weinberg product and very cool shapes in there), embossing pens in black, some Adirondack markers, and 4 packs of pop dots.

 9 paint dabbers and 1 colorwash....and here's the amazing thing.....all in colors that I don't already have!!  Told you Heather had the magic touch!

 Stickles, glitter and embossing powder.  What's in the shrink wrap?  Oh, only 6 bottles of Rock Candy Distress Stickles.  Yep.  On the right, mostly Glitz Stickles.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these products.  Some may be discontinued (or the packaging has changed), and in many cases there is no label or the label is damaged.  But the product inside is just fine.

And here we have 6 jars of Perfect Pearls, and 6 of Suze's Bedazzles, which are a kind of mix of teeny beads and glitter.  Very blingy, and can't wait to play with them.

 Above, two jars of Distress Crackle Paint, 2 distress ink refills, 4 small sepia accents, the clear resist pad and a reinker for that pad.

And last of all, 7 bottles of alcohol inks and 2 liquid pearls.  You can see the missing labels.  But who cares?  I know what they are!

So, how do you think I did?  (Or  I should say, how do you think Heather did?)   I've done an estimate of what I would have paid for all the above if I'd have shopped in a place like scrapbook.com.

My estimate is conservative, as I couldn't find prices for some items, so didn't even include them in the final tally.

Comment with your best guess as to what this stash is really worth, and the one who comes closest to my estimate will win some of the stash.  I'll give you until Friday night.  The winner will be announced on Saturday.

Flowers Everywhere

I was reading Suze Weinberg's blog post about seeing flowers everywhere, and it's the truth.  In fashion, in jewelry, in home decor, in scrapbooking supplies....flowers and the stuff with which to make them are everywhere lately.  I even got an email from West Elm today regarding an installation of the work of designer David Stark....flowers and flower-related items, all made from the pages of old books.

Last night I met with friends to share some techniques and make some art, and without pre-planning, we all brought flower projects.  Heidi showed us how to make some floral embellishments (I'm thinking they'll make great pins) made from twisting and rolling strips of fabric....just like the old fashioned rag rugs.  Instead of sewing, though, we used a glue gun.  Check these out (the first two are mine, the rest are pieces Heidi made for me as a gift

The great thing about this project, is you can use up some ugly fabric, because after all the rolling and gluing, we sprayed the flowers with Glimmer Mist, which totally transformed them.  Then we embellished them with leaves, feathers, and assorted other bling.

I was watching this week's Taco Tuesday video on making metal flowers and was inspired to bring this project:

It couldn't be easier.  Strips of Ten Seconds Studio metal are loosely folded, accordian style, and manipulated to form a flower shape.  A bottle cap is glued to the center.  Using a 1" circle punch, cut some paper for the inside and then cover it with a layer of Glossy Accents.  Add a pin back  for a brooch, or a magnet to dress up the refrigerator, or use it to decorate a special gift package.

And now for a sneak peek of the upcoming Technique Tuesday for the PID blog.  No directions yet.  You'll have to visit that blog this week for that.  But all these flowers are made from circles cut from a variety of papers.  

Like I said, flowers are everywhere.

Jewelry Inspired by Tim Holtz

Wednesday night I co-taught a jewelry class at Heidi's meetup group. I did these pieces as samples, but encouraged everyone to do their own thing, and they did some fabulous work.

The first two pieces were done with Tim Holtz's ornate plates. This one was colored with alcohol inks and decorated with some of Tim's foliage (also colored with the AIs).

The next one I left uncolored. The image is from Suze Weinberg's wonderful Instant Art collage book. It's covered with a coat of Glossy Accents, and blinged out with some crystals.

For this one, I used one of Tim's keyholes and a philosophy tag. The little clock I had in my stash, and the key is an old rusted one that I dabbed with a bit of gold alcohol ink.

This might be my favorite, because I love bird images. The charm is a Ranger memory frame. The image from my stash; can't recall where I got it. The roof is one of Tim's corner pieces, and I used one of his trinket pins to make it wearable. The little bird charm is from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads, and I toned down the original brass color with some blue alcohol ink. I made the little bird's nest with 24g wire and some white "pearls." After making the nests I saw a tutorial for them. Turns out there's a better way to do them, so my next batch should be even nicer.

More Jewelry

Yesterday I received some of the new Tim Holtz Idea-ology pieces that have just come out. And a pack of the new grunge paper. That stuff is awesome. It's just like grunge board, but thinner, and can be inked, stamped, painted, distressed, embossed, cut, curled.....I made some flowers with it and used them in two new jewelry pieces. I attached a dual pin back/bale (from Suze Weinberg), so they can be worn as a pin or a pendant.

I still haven't figured out how many pieces to give away on Sunday, so it's possible that one of these will go to one of you! Don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post for the drawing. But please, don't let that stop you from commenting here. I LOVE to hear from you!