Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A New Tag, A New Record

Hello all! Killing three birds with one stone again today, or rather, three challenges with one tag. =) So, let's see, first we have Grungy Monday, which this week features Rock Candy Crackle Paint and Stickles, created by the marvelous King of Crackle, Tim Holtz. (And special thanks to Hels Sheridan for bringing this new title of his to my attention. =P ) Here's the link to Tim's great video explaining how to use this stuff. Challenge number two is over at the Inspiration Emporium, where we've been challenged to use any kind of embossing. (I also entered the ATC from my last post, since it featured some dry embossing.) And last but definitely not least is the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, which is "anything goes"! Easy enough. =) So here's the tag:




I apologize for the huge photos. I haven't quite figured out this photo sizing thing and it seems my choices today are too small or ridiculously huge. =P Anywho, here's the supplies I used:
Ranger manila tag; Distress ink: Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, Bundled Sage, Forest Moss, Vintage Photo, Embossing Ink; Grungeboard; Tattered Florals die; Sketchbook tissue tape; Rock Candy Distress Stickles; K & Company butterfly embellies (not sure which collection these are from); ribbon; Pink Paislee flair; clear embossing powder; all stamped images by Inkadinkadoo except for "Listen to your Heart", which is a Tim Holtz mini.

The first thing I did was stamp the background image with the Distress embossing ink and then embossed with the clear embossing powder to create a resist image. This is the only point where I wish I would have done something differently, as I realized too late that what would show through was the manila color of the tag (obviously =P ). I wish I would have used a light colored ink, maybe Antique Linen Distress or something. Oh well. Then I colored the background using the Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Faded Jeans. Note to self: Tumbled Glass and Broken China are so close in color as to be nearly indistinguishable, especially on manila paper. =/ The party really didn't start on this background until I brought in the Faded Jeans. Then I stamped the other images with black Archival Ink. The flower was cut out of Grungeboard with the die, colored, and then the Rock Candy Distress Stickles were used on the "leaves". I love the way this turned out and the photos really don't do it justice. Here's an attempt at a close-up:


Not sure if you can tell in the photos, but the butterflies are also glittery, but that's not Rock Candy. They came pre-glittered. =) I added the tissue tape ruffle before gluing down the flower, aged my butterflies a little with some Vintage Photo and stuck those down, added the ribbon and...voila! Tag finished.

Before I sign off I just wanted to point out that this is my FIFTH post this month, making July the month with the highest number of posts since I started this blog! Hooray! You've got to celebrate the little things. =P

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

Saturday, July 23, 2011

ATC, Again

Hello Bloglandians! I hope everyone is having a good weekend. Today I'm posting my entry for this week's Grungy Monday and Simon Says Stamp and Show challenges. Just getting in under the wire on this one. =) This week at Grungy Monday the challenge is to use Grungeboard or (Grungepaper) in the project of your choosing. I have to admit I'm a little bit in love with Grungeboard. I even like the way it smells. =P Btw, here's the link to Tim's site. You need to check it out, if you haven't already. Also, the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge was to use any type of embossing. I was inspired by both of these challenges to get out my ATC die again and make an ATC out of Grungeboard and then emboss the background with an embossing folder. I was also asked by a friend to make an ATC and I decided to kill three birds with one stone and make her ATC using these techniques. See if you can guess what letter her name starts with... =P




The background was colored with Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks, then embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. Then I sprayed it with Perfect Pearls Mist in Perfect Pearl. The corners were cut from a shimmery cardstock in the DCWV Mariposa Matstack. Here's a close-up of the background before embellishment:


I'm finding these backgrounds so fun to make and sometimes it's hard to cover them up! The flower is from Prima, the E is a sparkly chipboard piece I've had in my alphabets forever, the swirl is a Sizzix die cut, and the butterfly was cut with my Martha Stewart butterfly punch out of a piece of Tim's Vintage Shabby paper stack, and then inked with Victorian Velvet on the edges. You can kind of see the pattern on the butterfly in this close-up:


I'm pretty sure that's all there was to it! I think I may be addicted to ATCs now...it's so fun to use the die and play with the backgrounds. =)

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

1st Baby Photo Layout

Right now I'm taking a really great scrapbooking class at Big Picture Classes (see button in my side bar) and we're on week 3, during which we're supposed to be examining our scrapbooking process. I've been meaning to scrapbook some of my cat's baby (kitten? =P) photos for a long time, so I finally decided to get to work this week.



This is definitely the cutest photo I have of my cat as a kitten, and I took it on the first day that I brought him home, so I wanted to make a layout focusing just on this photo. I was inspired by the blanket in the photo to stick with blue embellishments and make this a monochromatic layout. The background cardstock is from the Core'dinations Whitewash collection, which is REALLY cool. =) All the other paper pieces on this layout are from Tim Holtz's Vintage Shabby paper stash. The top piece is one of the border strips in the stash and I was so excited to find this pattern because it works perfectly. The big "baby" letters are some Heidi Swapp acrylic letters I've had for ages. The other letters are Grungeboard Minis that I painted with light blue acrylic paint and "whitewashed" with a little Snow Cap Paint Dabber. Then I decided they needed a little more contrast so I added some Broken China Distress Stickles. The buttons are some Basic Grey Kioshi embellishments, and the brads I acquired this weekend at the Scrapbook Expo from the Eyelet Outlet. I also edged all the edges of my cut paper pieces with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.





So part of the class this week was paying attention to how much time we spent on parts of the layout. I spent a rather disappointing 4 HOURS on this layout. Holy cow. I'll never manage a layout a day at that rate. It did take a significant amount of time to make the custom letters....the problem is I LOOOOOOVE making custom letters. =) It's become a bit of an addiction. I also wasted a lot of time figuring out what ink to use to stamp the "You're purr-fect" sentiment. I didn't have the right shade of blue, so I hemmed and hawed, then I had to quit working. When I came back to it I somehow had the genius idea to use a neutral color, and I finally stumbled onto the gray. I like the way it looks, but I didn't have a great matching gray pen for the journaling. Oh well.

Overall I'm really happy with the layout. I hope the lack of dark colors anywhere else makes my kitten really stand out. =)

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Grungy Monday ATC

Hello Bloglanders, and welcome to my first ever ATC! At the risk of being immodest, I'm kind of proud of it. =P It was inspired by this week's Grungy Monday technique, highlighting as always the genius of the fabulous Tim Holtz (this is the link to the post with the technique). Without further ado, here is the finished product:


I cut out the ATC from a manila tag using the Sizzix ATC Alterations die. I altered the technique a little bit because I wanted a background image, so I stamped the cherry blossom image with Coffee Archival ink, and let that dry well before doing the background. My background color is Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. The corners were colored with Vintage Photo re-inker and Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls mixed in a Mini-Mister. Here's the background before I added the embellishments:



The texture was a little bit different from what Tim ended up with, I think because I only have ultra fine embossing powder, so it looks quite pebbly. My boyfriend thought it looked like aged embossed leather. =P After I had the background how I wanted it I just embellised with some K&Company butterflies (which were the inspiration for the whole color scheme/design), a Tim Holtz Adage Ticket, and an Idea-ology Memo Pin. I had to age the butterflies a little with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.


This was extra fun to make, and I will definitely be using this die more to make more ATCs!

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

Friday, July 1, 2011

Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop!



Hello all and welcome to my post for the Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop! Incidentally, this is my first time participating in a blog hop, so I hope everything goes smoothly. =P Young crafters (of all ages!) are participating in this hop, and there's some great giveaways for some lucky commenters. Personally, I feel like no matter how old I get, crafting will always keep me young. I feel like a kid at Christmas every time I get a delivery from one of my online crafting stores. In fact, I refer to the packages as "presents". =) Also, I'm pretty sure taking some time out to craft is keeping me from aging prematurely from the stress of my "regular life"!
As you can see from the graphic there, the theme is "our favorite things," and we were asked to make a project incorporating our favorite product, technique, color....anything! Frankly, I think I suffered a little from so much freedom. I had a hard time settling on what I was going to do. Since it was clearly impossible for me to choose one favorite product from my stash, I finally decided on picking a favorite theme. The theme I chose was "butterflies". I have a weakness for butterflies. When I was doing this project, I discovered 2 butterfly stamps I didn't know I had. =) I also have this fantastic Mariposa Matstack from DCWV which I knew would have the perfect paper for my card. It's full of beautiful paper and almost every piece has a butterfly on it somewhere! So here's the final outcome:






In addition to being covered with butterflies, this card also features many other favorites. Besides the paper already mentioned it has:
  1. My newest favorite card layout. Found it in this fantastic magazine.
  2. Core'dinations carstock - those beautiful turquoise pieces are all from one sheet.
  3. Distress Inks - I used Vintage Photo to edge the pieces and Stormy Sky to stamp the flourishes and sentiment.
  4. My brand new (just received this week!) Martha Stewart butterfly punch. I've been seeing this on other people's projects for ages and finally broke down and got it. I'm so excited to use it on more projects! =)
  5. Flowers custom colored with my Copic Markers. (The one I used here was R37)
  6. Adirondack Alcohol Inks. I colored the sequins in the flowers' middles with Butterscotch. I love these inks!
  7. And last but not least, Rock Candy Distress Stickles. You can kind of see them on the butterfly in this close-up:


In addition to a new project, we can also include a link to a favorite post from the past, and I chose this one. It also has a butterfly on it. =)

Well I hope you all are enjoying the hop. You should have come from Neha's blog, and your next stop is Tania's blog. Don't forget to leave some comment love for these talented ladies! Also, here is the link to our lovely host site, Young Crafters Unite. Have fun!

Just want to end with one more pic that makes me smile:


As you can see, I keep all my important supplies under this window, including my Crafting Cat. =)

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*


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