Tags, A Button Fairy, A Cool Technique, And More

I just got back from the optham opthomol opthamol oh, crap, the eye doctor, and had my pupils dilated, so I'm writing this with sunglasses on, squinting madly and looking generally deranged.  Well, I don't care how I look; you can't see me, but I am a little concerned about what I'm writing, basically through one half shut eye.  I'm just warning you that I'm not responsible for typos today.
First, some tags I did.  On Saturday I went to a rubber stamp expo and scored some very cool Frida Kahlo stamps and used one on the tags.

A couple of close ups:

I did two variations on the chalkboard technique.  On the tag itself, I inked it thoroughly with chipped sapphire distress ink and let it dry. Then I stamped it with white ink and a flourish stamp.  I dabbed some pastels over the white ink.  That's variation #1, and though much of it is hidden, you can see some of it on the left side of the tags.

For the second variation, I stamped the Frida Kahlo stamp with versamark on dark blue cardstock, then dabbed all the stamped areas with perfect pearls.

Frida has a necklace made from a resistor.  She's attached to the tag with Tim's tiny attacher staples.  Peeking out on the right side are a couple of strips of tim's tissue tape (which I LOVE).  Other details include some rub ons, a little sparkle in the form of flat crystals on the top left corner, and the word "artist" spelled out in tiny letters that are under little domes.

Over at PID, our weekly challenge theme is "In the Garden," and my contribution is a garden button fairy.  How I got it to fit the theme, was by attaching some little flowers to the buttons.  Pretty clever, aren't I?  (Yes, right now I really am LOL).

Those wings that really do resemble stained glass, will be fully explained tomorrow on the PID blog (Technique Tuesday, my weekly contribution).

And that isn't even the cool technique in the title of this post.  A few days ago I posted a picture of a beach themed canvas I did, and asked that the creator of the grungepaper fish I used identify herself.

Well, she did, and I am happy to give you a link to her tutorial on how to use GP and glue to make this amazing little critter.  Look to your left and check out that fish!

 Thank you Linda!  Even if you aren't interested in GP and glue (and why wouldn't you be?), go to Linda's blog anyway.  She is talented and a hoot besides.

As a designer for PID, I create projects for specified themes a few times a year.  For our June newsletter, my topic was shrines, boxes, tins...things that can be opened and closed.  A couple of these projects have just gone up on the PID blog.  Check the out if you care to.

And last of all, for those of you following along with my altered book journey, there's a short update on that blog re: making your own glazes.

Now, stop reading and go make something.

More Button Fairies

Well, I think I may have gotten these out of my system.  Yep, I'm ready to move on to another project. But, first have three more to show you.  Each one a little different.  This one, maybe more elegant than cute:

And this one more grungey than either cute or elegant:

And last, and maybe least (LOL), is this one.....I couldn't resist.....my Dia De Los Muertos button fairy, certainly not cute, not elegant, not much of anything but weird maybe.  Well, did you really expect me to stick with cute?????

Button Fairy

Well, this is a new art form for me....the button fairy.  Someone at the ArtHaven group started a swap of them, and I decided to give it a try.

All it involves is some buttons, maybe a few beads, wings, and a pretty face.  The adorable face I used is from a Paper Imagery Designs collage sheet.  The butterfly wings are from a Tim Holtz grungeboard set.  I covered them with a concoction of glossy accents and perfect pearls.

Most of the ones I've seen have a loop on the top for hanging, but I think a tie tack finding on the back would make these into nice pins.

And a great way to use up some of my hundreds of buttons.
If you'd like to know a little more about this, click here.