With days to spare (and a special request)

With days to spare I went into overdrive for the 3rd week of  Compendium of Curiosities Challenge (CCC) at Studio L3!   Using this week's challenge -Alcohol Ink Monoprint - I created a ton of ATC backgrounds (about 30!) and 4 card backgrounds!  I have even managed to complete 6 ATCs!!!  I have other ATCs in progress and a few that are being "re-purposed" (or you could ATCs I screwed up and "saved" them by using in other projects! lol)

Now I find a fabulous way to use a fragment!  (The piece under the fragment is one of the re-purposed pieces I mentioned above!)   The tree image is a Penny Black Stamp using Staz-on Jet Black.  The sentiment is by Great Impressions. The birds in the top left corner are from one of Tim Holtz' Visual Artistry set.

Next up is an ATC that not only works for the CCC but also the Gingersnaps Challenge #57 - Wings The sentiment was stamped using Staz-on Jet Black from a Hampton Art Stamps. (The background of the main words is another re-purposed piece!) The background stamp is Hero Art's, "Sandra's Letter Background" stamp. I used Coffee Archival Ink.  The hearts and wings are grungeboard.  The hearts and small wings were inked with Distress Ink (Hearts -Barn Door; wings Vintage Photo, I think).  The large wings were covered with Distress crackle paint (Vintage Photo). 

And here is a glimpse of the "ton" of ATC backgrounds that are waiting to become masterpieces!

If you are lucky, I will show you the other ATCs later in the week, unless of course I get distracted and make something else!  Did you see Tim's (Holtz) post today? Did you know I can get distracted pretty easily? lol  And if you haven't looked at his post, you really should! Then you will understand!

Before you leave, I have a request.  My son-in-law, Tim, (not to be confused with Tim Holtz) is preparing to depart on a deployment as I type. He is in the US Army.  He will be gone for quite awhile.  My daughter is 1,000s of miles away from the rest of her family.  Please say prayers and/or send good thoughts for his safe return and for them both to looked after by angels. 

 I love you Rebecca and Tim. 

Take care,

Linda

With hours to spare

With hours to spare I completed an entry for the 2nd week of CCC at Studio L3!   Nothin' like working under a deadline!

I started a project earlier in the week, it just wouldn't come together.   In an effort to create something for the challenge this week, I created this ATC.  The background is a Kleenex box, the flower is out of grungepaper/board "leftover" from Tim's birdcage die. For the flower I misted Mustard Seed re-inker mixed with Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls. For the stem and leaves I used Forest Moss  Distress Ink directly on the paper then misted with Peeled Paint mixed with Blue Smoke Perfect Pearls.  The sentiment (Great Impressions) was stamped in Staz-on Jet Black Ink.   The lady bug is from my stash.  Everything was attached  with Glossy Accents.

Hope you all a great weekend!  Have a fabulous week!

Gettin' Ready

Editorial note: I really try to keep my posts short, but did not even come close to succeeding this time! Grab a favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy. If you want to see my creations, just skip to the bottom!

We may have 100 days or so until we leave for our FABULOUS cruise, but we are getting ready, NOW! Charlene and I started looking at excursions to see what we want to do in each of our ports. . .I am pretty easy to please (although my husband might disagree with that, lol) - my one big thing I want to do while on the cruise is have lobster somewhere. . .I mean if you are in Maine, you gotta have lobster at least once, right? Other than that I am willing to do just about anything. Charlene is the planner and is very organized about trips, so I sent her a list with 2 or 3 things that looked fun in each port and now it is in her hands. She also selected activities in each port and then compared the lists. She said they were very similar, so she is going to do some research and see if we book through the ship or find something independently. It's so much fun to imagine the possibilities!

When we get back from the cruise, my friend Chris is going to pick us up at the port and then we are heading up to Sleepy Hollow area and are going to the Blaze Saturday night! Charlene was there for the first year when they had 1,000 carved Jack O'Lanterns and said it was AWESOME!!! This year there will be 4,000 carved Jack O'Lanterns! Both Charlene & Chris love Halloween and decorating their houses! I am looking forward to the seeing the Blaze too!

What I am looking forward to at least as much as the cruise is seeing Mamma Mia on Broadway in NYC!!!! That is what we are going to do on Sunday evening! I bought our tickets on Thursday! If you heard a strange noise it was probably me cuz' I was super excited about getting the tickets! Our seats are FRONT & CENTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you are planning on seeing a play in NYC I would suggest you check out Telecharge.com, prices there were almost half the price that I found at other ticket brokers.


I guess since we've been talking and planning about the cruise so much this past week, it put me in the ATC mode yesterday! The plan is to make 150 or so, we'll see how that goes. Last year I planned to make 160 for the Mexico cruise but only got around to making about 75 I think. It turned out a perfect number, I only brought home 2 or 3 of my own.

This one was the first. . .the background is one the "oops" from the water stamping experiment on Monday. I stamped a "tire track" (Art Impression) in frayed burlap, the sentiment (Hero Arts) was stamp and cut apart, the motorcycle is by Jolee's. (Unless otherwise noted, it is Tim Holtz stuff) The others are all "cheaters", the backgrounds were all leftover from last year and are alcohol inks. The butterfly ones have a 7 gypsy transparency over them. The "believe" stamp is Wendy Vechhi's. Even though you can tell in the pictures, the butterflies are both sprayed with Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls. I received the butterflies in a swap awhile back.

The butterfly on the red "Mona" is a small Sizzix flower with 2 petals cut out, don't ask what color because it was in my stash and I don't remember, but it is stamped in Rusty Hinge.  (While making roses on Scrappin' Saturday, as she cut the petals SJ said, "Hey, that looks like a butterfly!"  She's right, it does!  Thank you for the idea!!!)    FLY was stamped on some scraps of the water stamping pieces, cut out and covered with Glossy Accents.    The sentiment was stamped on yet more "oops" water stamping pieces, cut out and attached with glossy accent.  The dictionary piece  (under the "T" [misc. brad], above Mona's head) had been attached to "fragment"  I tried to put a hole in it with my crop-o-dile.  It didn't work so well, but when the fragment snapped into two pieces, it left the dictionary piece in tact with a covering of Glossy Accents, so I used it!

If you are going on the cruise and you see an ATC or two you love, let me know and I will set it aside. And if you love it as much in person, it's yours!  If you are not going on the cruise and see an ATC you love, let me know and I will send it to you!

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

Guest Designer!

(Note from Linda to Lori - ask and ye shall receive!!!)

Remember curiosity and the cat? Well, don’t get curious around Linda because she will find something for you to do! I have a Spellbinders die cutting machine and I was curious to try the Nestabilities dies. I had stopped by Linda’s studio and casually mentioned it and she popped up and picked one out of a box of dies she had handy. So I went home and started searching for some ideas on how to use them. I found this flower...

This project can be found on YouTube in Part 1 and Part 2.  (note from Linda - "Part 1" and "Part 2" are links, if you hover over them and click you get to YouTube, not sure why they are not underline, they are in preview.) It’s a tutorial given by Linda with After Midnight Art Stamps and was designed by Jen Lowe of Jen Lowe D.esigns.


The video is pretty good and if you’re visual like me its easy to follow along. Being the novice that I am I really didn’t do much different than what the video said to do. I love the colors they used but I had a dark red book (KC& Company Life’s Journey tag book) I wanted to decorate so I used Bo-Bunny’s Back to Basics “Tuscany Prose” Reversible Heavy Weight paper. It’s reddish brown and golden tones worked perfectly and I like the words and flourishes. I cut 4 - 5x5 inch squares, embossed each using Tim’s Texture Fades Swirls Embossing Folders (raised swirls on the side of the paper you want to highlight with ink) Then I used the Spellbinders Nestabiliites Classic Scalloped Circles Large to die cut the scalloped circle - I used the biggest. Then I inked the embossed swirls and around the scalloped edges with a combination of Aged Mahogany and Walnut Stain Distressed inks. Then fold, cut, and assemble as directed in the video. I attached the 8 petal pieces of my flower off the side of the book which already had some moss green fiber at the binding. The last thing I did was add a few Prima flowers in dark pink, beige, dark moss green and two brads (dark moss green in the center of the flower & “wishes” to the little tag that secures the book - I don’t remember where that came from it was just loose in my stash). I probably should have distressed the book too but as I said I’m a novice at this and didn’t think about it until after I attached the flower. Oh well. I still like the result.

I have not touched my stash in several years and Linda is corrupting me by getting me started playing again. Well, not totally, I play but use digital media most frequently these days. That’s not going to change but I love what Linda creates and she has managed to get me on a Tim Holtz cruise so I may need to find a recovery group by the time I come home!


Anyway, thanks Linda for letting me share!

Charlene

Scrappin Saturday

Last Satruday was another Scrappin' Saturday.   There were 4 of us; Charlene, Sharon-Jane (SJ), Teresita and yours truly!   They each brought projects to work on: 

Charlene created an awesome flower that involved folding many nestabilites scallop circles that had been embossed with the Tim's embossing folders, then inked.   It looked pretty cool, but I didn't take a picture of it,  I will use the excuse that she wanted to add something to it she had at home so it wasn't complete.

SJ created some great cards - Nope, no pictures of those either. 

Teresita created a scrapbook page of her puppy Haley, enhanced a store bought card (it looked fabulous) and played with a few ideas for her niece's baby shower party favors.  You guessed it, no pictures of her projects either.

Charlene & SJ learned how to make grungepaper roses today (before Teresita arrived)!  Surprise! - I took pictures of the roses!!  Charlene's rose is in Rusty Hinge and SJ's is Mustard Seed

What do think?  Didn't they do an awesome job?

All three ladies played with Hanko Designs paper quilting - Charlene made a card with dog bones, Teresita made a dog bone to go on her layout and SJ made a house.  Again, no pictures.

Hope you had a great week so far and the rest of it is even better!  Thanks for stopping by!

Linda

Let the FUN begin!

The FUN begins!!!!!Today is the start of  Studio L3's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge (CCC)!  What is the CCC you ask?  Linda Ledbetter at Studio L3 is using Tim Holtz' book "Compendium of Curiosities" and randomly selecting a different technique each week for the next 35 weeks.   Along the way she will be giving out random prizes! So if you haven't already, go check it out (and while you are there check out her blog too, she creates some fantastic art work)!.  

Here are my creations - a couple of cards, a few pieces waiting to be turned into something and a lesson learned!

The finished cards!

Waiting to turn into something:

Lesson Learned:  Make sure you use a CLEAN stamp or you might be surprised by the color you get!  I think this turned out well and I will probably use it for something, it's just not quite the faux bleach look I was going for today! !

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit.  Come back soon!

Linda

A little envelope art (2nd Friday post!!)

I found an envelope for the graduation card in the post below.  The envelope looked a little old (not in  a good way) around the edges, so I decided to add some color.  Then on the back flap I thought it would be fun to add an Oregon "O". 

 Then the front looked a little plain.  So I decided to add a photo corner stamp to enclose Elizabeth's name.  The stamp didn't work so well.  I had 2 choices:  start over or keep going.  I decided to keep going.  I found some yellow and green tissue paper.  That was looking pretty flat.  I had some  beautiful handmade laying near by, so I grabbed some of it and added that too!  Much better, but not quite done.  Decided to add the lettering (stamps). Done!  I liked it, so I figured Dave would not care for it. (You've heard the term "opposites attract", that's us.)  He liked it!  Even said I  should start selling the to Oregon!!!    (BTW it looks better in person that it does in this photo.)

It no longer looks "old",  looks happy and cheerful!

A random challenge and graduation

Do you have times when you have projects you NEED to work on, (maybe a graduation card, a princess birthday card and an over the top thinking of you card and oh yeah an 8 x 8 wedding scrapbook) but you can't get motivated to work on ANY of them?  

How would you get motivated?  Me?  I do a "random" challenge.  I grab (or call) one of my kids and tell them (no I don't ask, I ORDER them) to pick one thing in the studio to use in a card. It can be anything, a stamp, an embellishment, a piece of paper, a color, a sticker, whatever catches their eye (or their imagination).   

Last weekend Erinn was the child I "ordered" to pick; she chose a recently acquired stamp (it was from the AWESOME sale at Stampers' Corner.)  A cute little fat bat stamp.

Sometime after I finished the challenge last weekend, I worked on the graduation card for our niece Elizabeth who is graduating from the University of  Oregon on Monday.  (I finished it this morning, just had to add the inside sentiment. It took lots of drying time to get the cap to stay on the duck's head.)   She has her first job lined up already. . .she is going to France to teach English for a year, hence the Eiffel Tower behind the birdcage. 

I am off to find (or make) an envelope for the duck.  (If you want details on either card, please let me know and I will be happy to share them.)

Have a great weekend!

Linda

Where does time go?

It seems like just a week or two ago I mentioned I was working on a new type of card (at least a new one for me).  It was actually over a month & half ago that I mentioned the new type of card.  Where does time go?

My first ever easel card was inspired by Tim Holtz' cards he created for the Hero Arts Blog Hop back in December 2009!   I created the background using the "smoosh" method (distress ink on the craft mat misted with water).   I used Hero Arts' "Dandelion Frame" with water misted distress ink.  Not sure who made the "happy birthday" stamps, no labels.  The metal butterfly is inked with alcohol ink. . . it was on clearance and intended for stepping stones and is  from JoAnn's, (the label is gone).

The second card was created using Hanko Designs quilting pattern, papers and charms!  The card base is core'dination paper.  It was really a fun card to make.  I love the quilting!   The sentiment stamp is Hero Arts' "Birthday and Always".

What new technique or style have you tried lately?

Have fun and play!

Linda

Dreams!

The other night I had a dream, which according to experts is not unusual. It something that everyone does,  but usually once I wake up, if I a m lucky, I vaguely remember fragments of a dream but not much else.  Remembering the outcome of a dream several hours later is unheard of for me, but that's what happened.   

Before I show you the results of my dream, let me back-up a bit and give some background.  I bought Tim's "Caged Bird" die when it was first available and sent some die cuts to a couple of ladies who live overseas.  I did not send them all the "leftover" pieces (the pieces from between the bars of the cage).  I used a variety of paper, including grungeboard and grungepaper.  I had lots of them and I couldn't throw them away, I just knew I would use them "someday".

Then I had my dream.  I didn't even remember the dream until after I was up for a bit and went into my studio.  As soon as I sat down, it came back to me. . .well the end results came back to me at least.   This is what I was compelled to create:

The first is a card front using the "leftovers"  from the top cage as are the leaves, the stem is leftover from the bottom of the cage.  I am not sure if is completed yet, time will tell.  The second project is an ATC using leftovers from the bottom of the cage as a background.  All the leftovers are grungeboard, except for the stem which is grungepaper. All the ink is Distress Ink, except for the stamp which is Archival Jet Black. The stamp is from the "Visual Artistry - Flights of Fancy" set.  The spinners, washers, brads, jump rings and foliage are all from Tim's Idea-ology line.  The clock face is leftover from a project we did on the cruise; I think it is Heidi Swapp.   The gems and the heart lock are from my stash.

Sweet Dreams!

Linda

A few weeks ago Charlene told me about a project she was working on.   Her church is having a beach party today (June 6) and she was in charge of the favors.  She wanted the favors to be picture frames.  She had a good idea of what she wanted and could even "see" them, but wasn't quite sure how to get there.  To keep with the theme of the party she wanted something "beachy" but not tropical.  She wanted to use dominos with alcohol inks. She wanted to know if I would help.   Are you kiddin' me?  Of course I want to PLAY!  All that ink PLUS spending time with Charlene - that has the makings of a fantastic day!

Last Saturday (May 29)  morning Charlene brought over stacks of glossy finish photo frames (75 to be precise),  some dominos, some Perfect Pearls,and some distress ink ! She wanted a little sparkle on the frames.  We tried perfect pearls, straight - not enough color.  We tried perfect pearls with water and painted it on - more color, but still not enough.  We tried adding Distress ink with a blending tool, we tried alcohol ink, we tried lots of combinations.  (The backs of the frames also had the same glossy finish, so the experiments continued on the back.) 

We ended up using one of my favorite techniques. . .applying Distress Ink to a craft mat, spritzing with water (and perfect pearls) and smooshing!  (That's Charlene getting ready to smoosh!)  We ended up with 2 color combinations - one pastel, one bright.

For the dominos, we lined 78 (more or less)  dominos on two craft mats, inked up the inking tool - one with bright colors and the other with light colors.  We were done in about 5 minutes.  Then we inked up the lighthouse stamps (I think they are Stampin' Up) and stamped half the dominos with each stamp.  (That took us a little longer than 5 minutes, lol!)

A fantastic day it was, but  it was time for Charlene to go home and take all the pieces with her. We did more that just play  -  we took a field trip to Stampers' Corner, picked  up a birthday cake for her daughter, dropped off the cake at her house and went out to lunch.

Charlene assembled all the pieces by herself  (and with her permission) here they are, well two of them anyway:

Didn't she do a fabulous job?  I love the "light" in the light houses!

Have you heard?

Ranger Ink started a blog!  And they are on Facebook and Twitter too!  You can check out their blog here!  This is so exciting!  I found the link from Tim's site where he hinted they may have some random prizes, so while you are there, be sure to leave a comment.

It's a rare project of mine that does not have a Ranger product on it.  The product I use most often is definitely Distress Ink, but I think my absolute favorite is Alcohol Ink. I LOVE the AI colors, especially the brights!  Sail Boat Blue AI is my kind of blue! What's your favorite Ranger product?

For Aunt Mary

My Aunt Mary's 90th birthday is coming up later in the month and my cousin, Eileen, is having a small party for her.  Eileen asked the guests to create an 8 x 8 pages for a memory book. Here's my contribution. . .

The barn, silo and tractor are some old PSX stickers I had.  The background is Distress Ink.  The tree trunk is stamped with Hero Art's "Designer Wood Grain" stamp using Distress Ink. 

The lower left is lacking something and I was going to ask you for ideas, but as I type this, I realized I did not really leave any room on the tree to sign it.  I think I will "scratch" Happy Birthday and sign our names in the area on the left.  Whaddya think?

Roasted fish?

or bunny or lamb or flower or  . . . whatever you want!

I was checking out blogs earlier and stopped by one of my favorite stops, Eileen's ArtSavesLives blog  (not my cousin mentioned in the previous post but someone I met on the Voyage to Mexico cruise with Tim Holtz).  She always has awesome projects and links not to mention a great sense of humor.   I had to do a double take when I saw her fabulous 4 x 4 canvas! (scroll down on Eileen's blog to see the canvas) I saw something that looked really familiar. . . the fish!  It is one I created sometime last year for a swap on the All Things Tim yahoo group!!!    

I used one of my fishies on my August calendar page

I told Eileen I would give the instructions on how to make that little guy (or anything else you want)!   First the disclaimer, if you try this at home (or any other place), do so at your own risk.

Now for the fun stuff!

The supplies you need are:

 * cut-out - can be any shape or size, can be free-hand or diecut.  As far as size I did not have much success with really small stuff (under an inch or so) or really big stuff (over 3-4 inches). I have used grungepaper, heavy brown grocery bags and cardstock.  I like grungepaper the best.  It is sturdier than the other papers I've used and it shrinks when it gets hot which I think adds to the overall look. 

 *Aleene's Tacky Glue - gold bottle (this is the only glue I have tried, so I don't know if anything else would work)
 * matches
 *container of water (just in case, I use a small glass bowl so not only do I have it "just in case" but I can put the used  matches in it and not worry)

 *candle - short pillar worked best for me

 * needle-nose pliers or other "holding device" you don't mind getting sooty (fingers will definitely not work for this one, lol)
 *cloth rags
 * sponges (I used $tree make-up sponges cut in half)
 * Acrylic paint - colors depend on what you are making

Step 1 - Light the candle

Step 2 - Spread the glue over the entire surface, there needs to be enough glue so you can't see the paper underneath it.

Step 3 - While glue is wet, pick up shape with pliers and hold glue surface as close to the flame as you can  (the non-glue side should be facing the ceiling)  moving slowly around until entirely burnt - about 2 minutes - give or take. 
Step 4 - Using a soft cloth rag, gently wipe off soot.  If it is done, it will be kind of a  metallic black under the soot.  If it is too "rare", it will look brownish.  If rare, return to flame for  another 20-30 seconds and re-test for doneness.
Step 5 - Once all the soot is wiped off, you can apply a little more pressure and squish the glue around (the outside is burnt, the inside is still wet) to give the object more texture.

Step 6 - This is the hardest part of all - once you have given it texture walk away from it and let it dry completely (I usually let the stuff sit for a day or two)

Step 7 - Use sponges to add color in layers.

Here are some more calendar pages and other critters I made -  

Some other notes - 

- The sunflower is the biggest object I made and was difficult to get all parts burned because of the uneven weight of the glue and trying to hold it with needlenose pliers.  Depending on the intended purpose, there is an alternative way of making the objects, especially big ones - before Step 1 you can glue a heavy piece of wire (18-22 gauge) or two between two cutouts, then proceed with Step 1.  After you completed the first side, you could glue/burn the second side and then have a totally dimenisional piece of art that can be used as a "sculpture".

- If you use to little glue and/or apply too much pressure you get a flatter surface as in my Jack-o-lantern above.

- In my examples the fish and Jack-o-lantern were made using grungepaper; the bunny, lamb, leaves and sunflower were all made with cardstock. 

If you have questions you can either leave a comment or send me an e-mail (link is in the side-bar).   

Edit:  6/3/10 9:55 p.m.

Just to clarify - "Roasted fish" is not my original idea (however, the title is my original idea! lol)- I discovered the technique in a  booklet I found at a thirft store called "Creative Living Book #99-207 - Aleene's Burnt Brown Grocery Bag" copyrighted 1991.