The 6th Tag of Christmas

What I love most about today's Tim Holtz tag is the new technique I learned for painting with alcohol inks. It is really so so cool. And crazy. First you make a pallette by dropping a little bit of each ink you'll use onto a plastic tray. Then (this is the crazy part) you let the inks air dry. You fill an aqua painter pen with alcohol ink blending solution instead of the usual water, and use it to pick up the desired color from the dried inks. Since the function of the blending solution is to reactivate the inks, you can now paint onto any non-porous surface. I used this technique to paint on a transparency from Paper Imagery Designs, and also to colorize some silver glitter letters. I've always loved using alcohol inks, and now I have a new technique in my arsenal. Love that! And while Tim made a tag, I took his techniques and made a card.

The 5th Tag of Christmas

Every morning when I go to Tim Holtz's blog to see the tag of the day, I say to myself, this one is the best yet. And each one is, incredibly, better than the last. I'm not sure how he does it, but I have to give him big thanks, because he has been inspiring me to create like mad, and try things I probably never would have.

Today's tag featured a grunge board reindeer, which I do not have, and besides, I wanted to use a PID image somewhere, so I used Tim's grunge board wings and a PID cemetery angel. Obviously, I changed up many other things, but I did try to follow Tim's techniques as my supplies and abilities allowed.

Blog Give-Away!

I'm still making tags, inspired by Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. Visit Tim's blog to see what he created today: http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/. My tag is above. I certainly didn't use all of the same materials Tim used, but I think (hope) I kept to the spirit of his. Instead of a photo, I used a vintage piece of art from PID (http://www.paperimagerydesigns.com/. Normally I mingle or swap my pieces out at the PID yahoo group, but I feel like trying something different today. Leave a comment for this post and on Sunday, December 7, I'll pick a name at random to receive my tag. Leave your email address so I can contact you, or check back on Monday to see who won. Thanks for playing along!

New Art

As expected, I got inspired again by the latest creation in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. See yesterday's posting for the link. In it, Tim highlighted a portion of a black and white image with color, and spotlighted the colored portion with an oval piece of glass. Well, it's a big more involved than that, but you should really visit Tim's blog for the wonderful step by step instructions. I used that technique on this ATC, as all I have in the way of glass are some 1" squares of memory glass. The background is a piece I did yesterday, using Tim's alcohol ink on glossy paper technique. The vintage Santa piece is from Paper Imagery Designs.

This next piece is for PID's December ATC Jackpot. The theme is anything to do with the new year. Again I used an alcohol ink background and a PID image. Speaking of the jackpot, yesterday I found out that my name was picked as the November ATC Jackpot winner! That means that everyone who created a card for this in our yahoo group, will send it to me. Yea!

I spent a good part of the day working on some holiday cards. Here are three of them. All the cardstock and designer paper is Stampin' Up, all the Santa images, PID. The stamps are from various companies.

The other happy thing that happened yesterday is that my box of gifts from PID's 12 Days of Christmas finally arrived. Everyone else in the group was posting messages about having received theirs, and I was starting to think mine was lost in the mail. But it came, and I've squirreled it away so I won't be tempted to open any ahead of schedule.

And....today is my birthday! Life is good.

Celebrate The Season

Well, after all my ranting about wanting spring, I guess I really am still into the holiday spirit. I've been following Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas (http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/), and was inspired today to make a card based on the Day 2 tag. I used Tim's alcohol ink background technique, and a piece of his grungeboard for the title on the bottom. The little bird is glass, and is from Heidi Swapp. The image is from Paper Imagery Designs. (http://www.paperimagerydesigns.com/) Click on the first link to go to Tim's blog and see how the master does it!

I've been prepping holiday cards for a class I'm giving this week. I've been doing lots of holiday shopping, and holiday gift making. So, here it is, still officially autumn, only days after Thanksgiving, and I find myself completely done with winter! Can't explain it any other way, because I generally like the colder months. Most of what I've created lately has been for a specific project or PID challenge, but yesterday I sat down and decided to make something just for myself. I started with a 4 x 4 piece of cardboard, which I sprayed with glimmer mist, and then let the background dictate where to go from there. I added some flowers with a watercolor technique (ink the stamp with markers, spritz with water and stamp), and decided it just had to be a spring theme. The rest just came to me. The "NO MORE SNOW" at the bottom is pretty funny, since we haven't had any real snow yet this year. And spring isn't even close to being my favorite season. Go figure.
The blue trim is German scrap, and the image is from PID.(http://www.paperimagerydesigns.com/)

More Trash to Treasure

Last Friday, at my Stampin' Up team meeting, we celebrated Heidi's (our leader) birthday. Of course, since we're a crafty bunch there were lots of hand made cards and gifts. My contribution was a necklace with two pendants. I did all the beading, and made the pendants from small game pieces. I covered them with some old sheet music, colored the paper with glimmer mist, and did a little wire wrapping. Then I tried something new to finish them off and protect them. I dipped them in Mod Podge....a little drippy and took forever to dry, but there are no brush strokes, and the finish is nice and thick and glossy.

Here is a close up of the altered game pieces:

By the way, the sheet music is from Snow White. The first piece has the word "some", the second has "will come." As in, "some day my prince will come." Makes me smile. But, lucky Heidi actually has found a prince.

PID Monday Challenge

This week's challenge is trimmings -- rick rack, German scrap, twine, fibers, lace.

I used one of my favorite PID images on a transparency and layered it over a copy of an old postcard. The trim is some bits of lacey stuff I had in my ribbon stash, and I added two flowers which I colored with Glimmer Mist. Since I used a postcard and the lady looks so desperately worried, I added text that has (I hope) just the right amount of angst, lol. Sigh....when will that letter come?

PID Monthly Theme Swap

My PID yahoo group got so busy with swaps, jams, mingles, challenges, techniques, etc. that a sub group was formed for those of us who do a lot of sharing. FYI, here are some definitions:

swap: create a given number of pieces, send them to the swap host who then distributes them
to all participants

jam: we've been playing with three people; the first person creates a background on 3 ATCs and
sends all three to the next person. Person #2 adds a focal image and sends all 3 on to the
last person, who adds embellishments and sends them back to person #1. Then person #1
adds the finishing touches and keeps one card and sends the other 2 to the jam partners.
This can take weeks to finish, but in the end you have a collaborative piece that is a real
treasure. I've participated in several jams and I just love them.


mingle: a theme is announced, you create your piece and post a picture of it in the album. If you
decide to mingle out your piece you sign up and are given the name of someone to send it
to, just as someone has been given your name. I almost always mingle out my pieces
because I love getting new art in the mail!

Back to the monthly swap.....We just completed one using the PID image of Sarah, a lovely vintage photo. It was a 5/5 swap, meaning we each created five ATCs and received 5 in return. I think I love these swaps the most because it is so interesting to see how differently we all use the same image.

Above is my Sarah swap. I used the faux tin ceiling technique, minus the scoring for the background, and put Sarah in a frame that is dotted with a little bling. I added the ribbon on top, trying to give it the look of an old portrait hanging on a wall.

This is Angie's Sarah:
The next one was done by Brenda:

Dianna's Sarah:Our wonderful swap host Elena did this one:




Kim's Sarah:
Check out the group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperimagerydesigns/) and join us!

From Trash to Treasure: Altered Game Pieces

Last week I shared teaching duties with Heidi at her Meetup. (http://rubberstamp.meetup.com/264/). She showed the group how to turn an inexpensive chain bracelet and some brads into a wonderful piece of jewelry. My contribution to the class was taking some old plastic game pieces, altering them with alcohol inks, stamps, embossing powder and clip art, and turning them into unique pendants. Here are two of the completed pieces (I think they were done by Heather -- if I got that wrong, please let me know!)

And here are some of the brad bracelets. This is Evelyn's. She decorated the brads with some stamped images and some from my favorite source, Paper Imagery Designs. (http://www.paperimagerydesigns.com/)

This one was decorated with patterned paper.

And this one I finished at home -- the class was so full that Heidi and I couldn't sit! I added some rhinestone brads between the larger ones (also decorated with patterned paper) for some extra bling.

If you'd like to see some more, check out my friend Melissa's blog, Artful Textures. (http://artfultextures.blogspot.com/)

New ATCs

Wings Challenge at PID -- the angel (with butterfly wings) is looking up at, and watching over the wee garden fairies. Whimsical and fun. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperimagerydesigns

The background was done with a cuttlebug folder on textured cardstock. All images, PID.

Winter's Beauty ATC, also from the PID yahoo group. Dye ink emboss resist, glitter, crystals, and the flourishes are on a transparency that covers it all. I call it "Going to Grandma's (with a gift). Stamps are Stampin' Up, all images, including the transparency, PID.

Every month there is an ATC jackpot at PID. We post our cards and at the end of the month one lucky member is picked to receive them all! I haven't won yet, but enter monthly because you never know..... November's theme is "thanks." I am most thankful for good friends, and I wanted my ATC to reflect the idea that sometimes friendships may seem strange, the pairings unlikely. However, anyone or even anything that you share joy with, is a friend. A book can be a friend. A person who shares none of your political beliefs can be a friend. Or in this case, a bird and a child bring one another great happiness. This one was done with a lot of watercoloring, liberal amounts of Glimmer Mist, a leaf punch, and of course, the images are from PID.

Technique Thursday

This week's technique challenge at PID is emboss resist. Click here for a wonderful tutorial (thanks, Arlene!):

http://paperimagerydesigns.blogspot.com/2008/11/technique-thursday-emboss-resist.html

I had one little "goof" -- I was supposed to use clear embossing powder, but grabbed the white instead. Don't they look exactly alike when in the jar???? Oh well, I always say that in art there are no mistakes, just opportunities to get creative. I do always say that. I'm not sure I always mean it (smiling), but I do say it all the time.

Here it is, not even Thanksgiving yet, and the temps in NYC have been in the 60's, but for some reason, I'm in a winter kind of mood.

The flourish stamps are Stampin' Up, the image, of course, PID.

Winter's Beauty

The current challenge at PID (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperimagerydesigns/) is called Winter's Beauty. I decided to work a bit larger than my usual ATCs, so did a skinny, which is 3x5. The background is the faux tin ceiling tile technique, minus the scoring, which I learned from a wonderful blog called Mel Stampz. Here is the link to that technique: http://melstampz.blogspot.com/2008/08/faux-tin-tile-with-aluminum-foil.html

I swiped the background with several shades of blue distress inks, covered it all with embossing powder and heat set it. The blue sparkles are made with good old Crayola glitter pens! The image started out sepia toned. I glittered the coat, and used white flock for the muff, collar and even the snow.

I don't think the scan does justice to just how sparkly this piece is. The light bounces off almost every part of it, and I'm happy with the way it turned out.

My Paper Crafts Group

Once a month I meet with some members (whoever is interested that month) of my friend Heidi's Meetup group (http://rubberstamp.meetup.com/264/) to share our unique interpretations of projects from the current issue of Paper Crafts magazine. (http://www.papercraftsmag.com/). We each prepare two projects and bring enough supplies for everyone in the group to make one as well. One of the projects we select ourselves, and the second is picked in advance by Marty, Heidi's fiance. I love seeing how everyone interprets the second one. We're all looking at the same item in the magazine, and each of our designs is completely different.

Today's inspiration piece, selected by Marty, was an advertisement that featured a white Christmas tree and silhouettes of people and lots of flourishes. Here is Pat's card:

This is how Heidi interpreted the ad:

And finally, here's how I saw it:

I am fascinated by the way the three of us looked at the same page and came up with three totally different cards.

Now for the cards that we did based on projects that we selected ourselves. Here is my French-themed Christmas card:

Heidi's fabulous peacock card:

And Pat's stunning card which featured a wonderful camo technique from TJN (http://patstamps.blogspot.com/), and beautiful watercoloring:

Recent ATCs

My PID yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperimagerydesigns/) asked for projects done with the muslin transfer technique. The image was from one of PID's collage sheets, and was transfered onto muslin with gel medium. My friend Heidi (http://heididavenport.blogspot.com/) gave me the background for the card. It's a faux snakeskin technique from TJN (http://www.techniquejunkies.com), and I think the two techniques work well together.

This week's PID challenge was to make an ATC inspired by autumn -- autumn colors, leaves, etc. My friend Pat had sent me some beautiful feathers, and I also had some metal feather charms. The PID image is Lila (I gave her some bronze highlights!), and the background is the paper towel technique, to which I added some masking, and stenciling. After all my Halloween ATCs, I needed to do something a little more subtle!

Trick or Treat

I'm not quite finished with Halloween yet. Paper Imagery Designs's yahoo group(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperimagerydesigns) has a Halloween challenge going on, and I had to submit something NEW for this one. Since I love their image of baby Abigail, I turned her into an adorable little witch.

Halloween ATC Swap

By now you know that I love making and trading ATCs, that I love the images from Paper Imagery Designs, and that I participate in just about every swap, mingle and jam that the PID yahoo group offers. Today I received 7 fabulous Halloween ATCs in a swap hosted by Dianna. The women in this group are incredibly talented, as the pictures show.

These lovely and funny little works of art are by (in order): Lori, Marcia, Shelly, Elena, Kim, and Dianna, who did the last two.

For someone who never really loved Halloween all that much, I am really enjoying all the spooky cards I've created and received.

There are a whole lot of other creative things happening at PID. Why not consider joining us?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperimagerydesigns/

Making ATCs With Friends

On Tuesday I did a Halloween ATC workshop with Pat and Heidi, two of my Gotham City Stampers teammates. We used some great images and Halloween grab bag items from Paper Imagery Designs (http://www.paperimagerydesigns.com/). We each made several cards and then swapped with each other. I really enjoyed myself. What could be better than crafting with friends? The first two cards are mine, the next was done by Pat, and the fourth card is Heidi's.

New ATCs

I've been so busy crafting lately, I haven't had the chance to post anything. This past weekend I was on a creative retreat with my wonderful group, The Gotham City Stampers, but that is for a separate post, once I've uploaded my photos.

Back at home, I've been participating in so many challenges, swaps, mingles and jams with my Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperimagerydesigns/).

These are just a few of my latest creations.