All packed up!

ATCs are completed (only made 86!) and packed!  Door signs completed and packed!  Tags for CCC (see Linda's post here!)  packed!  Passport, credit cards, Royal Caribbean documents and checkbook all packed!  In fact, we are on our way as this is schedule to post as we take to the air on the first leg of our adventure!!  Woo Hoooooooooooo!  Yipppeeeee!


Today we are flying to LaGuardia in New York where John from A Car For Hire will meet us and whisk us away to our hotel in New Jersey.  He will return tomorrow and pick up and take us to the ship! Excited! Excited! EXCITED!!!!!!! ( If you are ever in New York and need a ride, call John.  The customer service is FANTASTIC.  I made the reservations a month or two ago and it has been fun working with John.)


The other day I showed a tag for the door sign, today you get to see the whole thing!  Both of them!  We borrowed the Chaos Tag board idea and gave it our own interpretation.  Some of the tags Charlene made, some I made, some we collaborated on.   Personally, I think they are AWESOME!  Charlene agrees!

I guess, I told a small lie when I said they were completed.  There is one more thing that needs done.  See the Umbrella Man in the middle, he needs Tim's autograph so guess they are not completed yet, but they will be soon! 

Take care!



CCC # 16

Just a quick post - we leave for the airport in 9 HOURS!  Oh my!

It is super-size week at Studio L3 for CCC #16.  This week the challenge is open for 2 weeks because. . .well you can read it on Linda's blog and I am trying to be quick!  If you haven't been playing now is a GREAT time to give it a try!

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Tim calls the technique "Wrinkle Free Distressing", I call it "smooshing". Whatever you call it, it's one of my favorite!  Here are the last couple of ATCs you will see from me for a while.   (Sorry for the quality of photos, I'd retake them, but they are already packed!)

Guess I will "talk" to you when I get back!  If things go according to plan, there will be an automatic post or two.

CCC #15 - Edited with new photos

Week 15 is winding down on L3 Studios Compendium of Curiosities challenge! I have played with the technique a couple of times this week and had lots of fun!   Week 16 (begins Monday, September 27) promises to be another fun week!  Hop on over and take a look at Linda's blog if you haven't already.

I am working on finishing our door signs (yes, plural as in 2 of them).  We didn't want to have to decide who got to keep it, so we are making 2!    We used Tim Holtz' and Jennifer McGuire's Chaos Tags as inspiration for our sign. Instead of each of us doing our own, Charlene and I have worked on various parts of it for the last month or so.  For the last tag we needed a photograph of the 2 of us.  We had a specific location on where we wanted the picture taken.  Yesterday was the first day we were able to get together for the picture.

I volunteered to finish the last set of tags (there are 10 sets in all).  Let's just say the day did not go as I expected it too. 

As of 4:30 (PDT), 2 1/2 hours before the CCC deadline, I have the tag background completed, which is using the technique for the challenge.   I will probably have the tags completed before the deadline, but I was starting to stress myself out.  To eliminate the stress I decided to post the "bare" tags.  So here they are:

The top is for Charlene's board and the bottom one is for mine (They both look better in person).  Once I get them finished, I will add pictures of the "transformed" tags!

Hope you have a fabulous week!

Linda

EDITED PORTION:  The tags are finished. . . .sorta. . . as I was uploading the photos I realized I did not put leaves on my tag and the Gloss Accents that is attaching the flowers is not quite dry, but it's getting there!

Now to go put the door signs together!  Sounds like another post to me! 

Take care!

Something besides an ATC!!

Over at Simon Says Stamp & Show, this weeks challenge is to show your "grunge" and I have something besides ATCs to show you!!!   Taa daaa!

The "canvas" is taken from a grungeboard album. 

I inked the "Fall" hanging with various distress inks, background  cattail stamp is one of Tim's, the flourish is from the "Element" grungeboard pack, the leaves and pumpkin are scraps, the metal flower, trinket pin and swivel clasps are all from Tim's Idea-ology line and rock candy stickles were used on the lettering.

The snowman, his arms and  hat from the "Seasonal" grunge board pack, the trees are stamped using one of Tim's stamps.  The snowman is covered with "Glittering snow-tex glittering snow", I don't remember the name of the snow on the ground, it was a glossy dimensional type paint.  The hat band is a piece of red ribbon. 

Hope you enjoyed seeing something besides ATCs!  If you miss seeing ATCs, you might get a chance to see another one or two before we leave in 4 DAYS!!!  Yippeeeeeeee!!! (because we are leaving in 4 days, not because you get to see another ATC! lol)

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!!

Linda

Another Ginger Gem!!!

I was checking out the "wrap-up"  on the red and black challenge over at Gingersnap Creations (if you haven't checked it out, you really should!) and saw Annette from Netty's Craftings  is the week's home page artist!  Congratulations Annette!!!

I scrolled down  and the first Ginger Gem is a STUNNING altered bottle by Evelyn. Next is some fantastic digital art by Gayle and I was thinking GS had some fabulous entries  for the red and black challenge!  My thoughts were confirmed as I scrolled through the gems and when I got to the last one I was quite surprised and honored, as it was this . . .

. . . my ATC for the challenge!

Thank you Gingersnap Creations for selecting my ATC as a Ginger Gem, I am truely honored!

Going digi

I always say I am not a digital "scrapper".  But I think I have to change that.  Lately I find I am using quite a few digital images that I print and use in projects.  I just realized designed a digital layout for some of my ATC backs!!   Who would've thunk it?

I don't know about you, but when I make ATCs, I end up with some that have really neat and clean back sides and others that are, well really messy.  They typically look something like this:

Not sure what I do that some come out looking so bad, but I do it really well, don't you think? lol  I dislike seeing a mess on the back of my ATCs.  I also have issues with leaving brads (or other things) exposed on the backside of ANYTHNG.  For ATCs my solution is to make a full-sized back.  That's where my digital layout comes into play!

Since the "messy" ATCs ended up with an awesome (in my opinion) backing, it just wouldn't be right for the ones with a "clean" backs to have a plain ol' label slapped on them, right?   I had to come up with another great idea.

I was about 5 minutes from home after work today when I got a call from my FAVORITE LSS (Stamper's Corner) telling me my Tim Alteration dies were in!  Of course I HAD to detour by the store to pick them up.  I really had to.  An idea came to me and I had plans for the "Tattered Leaves" die.  It was going to become the background for the "clean" ATCs!

Here they are: my digi design background and the background using my new tattered leaf die (which just happens to fit in my small xyron)!



What do you think?  Besides the fact I need to practice centering the text in the die a little better (it was so much easier to line it up on the practice  sheets [plain copy paper], lol).  I was pretty happy with the results, until I noticed something.   Are you good at spotting differences?  First one to correctly identify the error in the above picture will win a small pack of goodies. (I will ship internationally too!)  Just leave a comment on this post  The error I am looking for is not the centering (or lack thereof).

good luck!

Linda

PS - the leaf image in the full-size back  is from Microsoft Office.


EDIT - Terry is right, the date is wrong on the full background. (Terry please send me an e-mail with your address and I will get a package out to you this weekend!)   I was not too happy with myself when I realized I put the date we are leaving instead of the date of the cruise.  On the bright side, I only mounted 8 backs on ATCs so I don't have a lot of corrections to make.  Not sure if I am going to cross off the "29" and  hand write "30" or print 30  and "patch" them.   Any ideas or sugguestions?

And to answer Lori's question, YES it is a PAIN to try to align the printing in the die hence the off centered look of the leaf.  Not sure if I am going to do a lot that way, if I do, I may switch to plain copy paper as I was able to align the practice one up easier and just use lots of ink to add some fall colors.

ATCs keep staggering in!

My intention was to stop with the last ATCs, REALLY!  I mean we are leaving in 10 DAYS! Not that I do things until the last minute, but I have a couple of other projects to wrap up before we leave, so I was DONE with ATCs.  One of the projects I need to complete is to add the info to the back of ALL the ATCs.

I counted the ATCs so I'd know how many backings I need. . .I have 82, that's almost 100.  NO don't go there. 

At some point I noticed Linda at Studio L3 had a new post and dropped by for a visit.  Her post was for the Drunken Stamper challenge.  Dry emboss and paint.  Interesting challenge, but  I AM strong,  I can pass.

Earlier in the day I was cleaning (yuck) and found some definition on chipboard and thought "those would make great ATCs" but went on with the cleaning, putting those chipboard pieces out of sight and out of mind.

Finally, I sat down to work on a project that is NOT an ATC.  I prepped a mirror for the project and the next thing I know I am working on ATCs.   Not sure how the switch happened but those chipboard pieces were in front of me along with some dry embossed ATC sized  pieces of paper and paint.  I completed 4 ATCs (2 that meet the challenge) and have another 4 planned.

The first 2 are for the Drunken Stamper Challenge, the other 2 are just because! lol

So now I have 86 ATCs plus the 4 "planned" ones, that's 90. . .  On Monday Linda will have another Compendium of Curiosities challenge. (Are you playing along? If not, drop by and check it out, it's lots of fun!)  Hmmmmm,  Will I make 100 ATCs before I leave? 

Hope you had a fabulous weekend!

Linda

Another ATC and only 9 more posts to go

Yep, I created another ATC. . .the cruise is ALMOST here (we leave in 11 days and some hours as I type!) so you won't see ATCs much longer!  I really do know how to create things other than ATC! lol  This ATC is doing double duty for Compenduim of Curiosity Challenge Week 14 and Gingersnaps Creations color challenge # 68 red & black!

The "enjoy the journey" is one of Tim's stamps, I used black archival ink on red tissue paper.  The background is Barn Door and Black Soot distress ink with one of Tim's mask.  The "hardware" is all from Tim's lines a couple have pitch black alcohol ink.  The car is a "dress it up" button.

The "only 9 more posts to go" refers to how many posts I have before my big 100th post giveaway!    I will post a picture of some of the prize package soon!  I won't know everything in the prize package as I plan on getting something to add to the package in the "Mario Store" on the cruise!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Linda

Another 2 for 1

This time it's a tag for the Let's Ink It Up and the combined Simon Says Stamp and Show and Simon Says Stamp "Stamp-tember Hop" challenges!   Both challenges have some terrific prizes!  Hurry on over and check them out!  Then create and post your project (on the above sites) for a chance to win!


Let's Ink It Up's theme is Tags and/or Bookmark with a TWIST!  The twist is it must have a Vintage feel!  The Simon Says combined theme is Holiday Fun (any format!)

I used Tim Holtz tree stamp on a #8 tag, Distress Ink, Distress Embossing powder (in Pineneedles and Vintage Photo - front tree only), Sno-cap dabber, Hero Arts "dot pattern" stamp, Alteration ticket die, Christmas ticket stamp from Tim's 100th stamp collection, a mini paper clip (idea-ology) and red organza ribbon from my stash.

Take care and have an awesome week!

Linda

Cool! 2 (challenges) for 1 (ATC)

The "Spicy Supply Challenge" (GC 70) over at GingersnapCreations is "punches".  The challenge at Drunken Stampers is "cirlcles".   If you haven't checked out these cool blogs, you really need to and while you are there check out all the awesome creations for each of these challenges!

I created this cute little guy using some punched circles (see how nicely that fits into both challenges! lol) and some scraps!  I used one of Tim's texture fades for the background, then sanded the circles!  "Cool" was stamped using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink then covered with stickles (I think "diamond" but not positive.)  And yes, this is another ATC for the cruise!

Guess I need to get busy and finish all these ATCs with the backs!  Only 2 1/2 weeks to go! 

Take care, hope your weekend is everything you want it to be!

Linda

PS - ssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  I will let you in on a secret. . . when I make my 100th post (I am guestimating it will be after I get back from the cruise, but it could be sooner) I will be hosting a BIG blog giveaway.  If I have 100 followers BEFORE my 100th post it will be even a BIGGER giveaway.  

Have I mentioned I am going on a cruise with Tim (Holtz)?  Hmmmm, maybe it will include something I bring home with me.  So if you are not a follower, maybe you should be.  I will ship worldwide, so the drawing will be open to EVERYONE!  Maybe this is a secret you should spread around.

Playing around with grungepaper, CCC week 13

It's Monday so that means the awesome Linda L @ Studio L3 posted a new challenge.  It is also a holiday so I was home today and got to play! Charlene even dropped by for a bit and played!  (We are still working on the door sign for the cruise.)

Week 13 challenge was found on page 65, "Grungepaper Flowers".  While waiting for some stuff to dry (for our door sign) Charlene and I chatted and I created these "lilies" and Charlene cut out some stuff, but you will have to watch her blog for an update on what she did.

There are 3lilies  in the old thread spool.  Here's one by itself to give you a clearer view. 

I don't have a clue what I am going to do with my lilies, but until the idea presents itself, I will enjoy their beauty in the spool!

After I finished, I had these leftover.

I don't know about you, but I really hate throwing leftovers away.  So I asked myself:  "Self, what can you do with these?"  I didn't answer (bet some of you thought I might answer!lol) but played a bit and came up with this ATC.  I found some extra leftover petals and made the leaves.

Besides the grungepaper flowers on the ATC, there is DCWV (black) paper, glossy paper with alcohol inks, 7 Gypsy ATC transparency, Tim Holtz' Adage ticket and a button from my stash (covered with alcohol ink).

If you had a day off, I hope you thoroughly enjoyed it. If you had to work, I hope your week got off to a fabulous start!

Linda

A couple of techniques (including CCC Week 12!)

This week found me trying a couple of techniques, one I have done once or twice before and a new one!  The fabulous Linda Ledbetter, aka the hostess of the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge, is on the design team at Gingersnap Creations Blogs.  Last week she posted a "Simple Image Transfer with Gesso" tutorial on the Gingersnap blog.

This week's CCC was found on page 44, Chipped Enamel. (This is the techinque I have used before.) I had fun playing with this one and created quite a few pieces. 

Charlene and I are working on a door sign for our upcoming cruise with Tim and friends.  I used the transfer technique for part of the sign (pictures will follow once we have completed the sign) and had so much fun with it, I kept right on going and created some ATC backgrounds.

I combined the chipped enamel pieces with one of the transferred image backgrounds to create this ATC:

For the "how to" on the flower and leaf you will have to check out page 44 of the Compendium of Curiosities.  In the tutorial for the image transfer, Linda used a mini canvas (board), I just used a piece canvas cloth.  When the background was completed and dried, the image was really faint.  I liked the look much better when it was wet so after I stamped it, I spread a thin layer of Glossy Accents over the entire surface of the ATC to bring out the colors!  (I used glossy accents to adhere the flower and leaf too!)

Like I said, I kept on going, in all I made 7 ATC backgrounds, but as of yet have only completed one other ATC.  I treated this canvas with a little ink, a thin layer of Glossy Accents and some stitching. 

Charlene and I experimented a bit with image transfers and are very excited about the results, but that will be for another post as the experiment was for the door sign.  We had fun experimenting and both plan on using our "discoveries" on other projects, so you may not have to wait for the door sign to see it!

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

Linda

PS - the "Beleive" stamp is from "Rubber Soul" and "Autumn" is from Hero Arts.