MOVED

I've moved.  Literally.

My new blog address is

Messy Makin's

The door is always open

Tag it's April

  Whew coming in on the wire!  But I have a really decent sorta lame excuse..... I loved this tag so much, the ideas were swirling in my head of OTHER things I could create with this technique.  So I have three projects going at the same time.... not the wisest of choices but I didn't get them out of my head, they'd be lost in the void between my ears. 
So to view April's tag and inspiration, please visit Tim Holtz's blog.  It's amazing!   Those little flowers nearly kicked my butt.  However I kept at it and think I got the hang of it.  Much scrap paper was sacrificed to the paper gods tho'.  My photo isn't doing my tag justice and I grew frustrated and quit.  I had OTHER things to complete! 

THIS is what was in my head, screaming to be released...  I had some of those groovey burlap canvas panels that someone RAKed me. (LOVE).  I first smeared some Ranger Crackle Texture paste on the burlap.  I didn't care if it reached the edges, in fact I'm delighted it didn't.   Once completely dried, I added the tissue tapes.  With the burlap and texture paste, you really must burnish the tape down well.  Then I followed the Distress Paint and Distress ink steps.  BUT know this, the water flicking technique doesn't quite respond the same as it would on manilla.  However it was pretty cool.  I used a SSS poppy stamp instead of the dimensional flowers and made a sentiment tag.   I think I'm going to go back and add one of those groovy little bitty bottles with a "secret message" scrolled up inside or some sand or something.. but it's late and past my "bedtime".
Thanks for peaking in!

March Madness with Tags!

 Oh wow, I suck at daily posts don't I?  Any who, I've been playing and working on this months tag by Tim Holtz.  This technique is REALLY cool, but I didn't have any of the stamps or gadgets to create Tim's look.   So, left to my own devices I started playing.  And playing and playing!  In total I think I created 4 sets of tags..  I am my own worst critic.   The above two are my final tags and the ones I'm happiest with.

But this little technique journey was fun. And don't worry the tags wont go to waste!  :)

First thing I learned.  Creating with friends is always more fun!!  And impromptu crop day out at Cat's out in Mineral Wells.  It was a fun day!!  And she gave me a extra copy of her picture of Mario for my wall!!  Yeah.

Use what you have if you dont' have the latest and greatest. (This is my plug for supporting your local scrapbook stores, they really could use our support!)  So I did use an older TH set, a different mfg's stencil and some art stamps I bought sometime back at a stamp convention.  I figured out quickly, you REALLY need to ink the stamp well if you're doing two tags... unless you really want a very very faded look.   Not bad, but I wasn't in love. 

Play with the techniques and tools you do have!  I stippled ink with a brush instead of the airbrush technique for these two sets of tags.  You get a more solid even coverage but with practice you can achieve that airbrush effect. 

On these tags I used the old dip the tag into wet ink technique... I'm kinda stuck on that technique.  I use it a LOT but I love the effect.  I also tried a embossing paste application with the stencil instead of ink.  Ranger has a crackled texture paste that's quickly becoming a fave..

So after all of this... I'm anxiously awaiting the new stencils and I'm toying with the idea of getting the marker spritzer... but you know those stamps looked pretty awesome too..  Well that's it.  My little March Madness with tags.  Thanks for stopping by!  :D

Journal52 Week 4

At last Journal52 week 4 is finished... This really fell together quicky in my mind but the "theme" itself was a bit of a struggle.  Building Characters... first I started by reading it wrong.  I thought "building character" so many things contribute to building ones character, how do I choose?  So I just started playing with the inks again... I'm really in love with inks and water color effects.

 

I grabbed my old dictionary from the garage and tore out the page with Character on it, slapped it down and continued building with my colors.. Something out of character for me was the use of pink.  Raspberry pink to be exact.  

 

While things dried I pulled out my Tim Holtz Kraft Glassine pad, some manilla and one of my favorite character stamps.  This little girl is created by Daniel Torrente and distributed by Stampotique.com   I love his stamps, he has a wonderfully twisted mind.   I created a tag from the glassine, adhered a scrap of TH Tissue paper down.  Once it was dry, I smeared it thru some Raspberry pink Distress paint and some Brushed Pewter Distress paint...

Last step I pulled out some mix match alpha stickers, chippies and thickers.. Then got to altering them to fit my color scheme.  Very much out of my comfort zone here... I envisioned something else entirely but this will have to do.  (I am now practicing my own free hand lettering for the future!!) 
So there it is.  Building Character.. much like building layers.. takes time and years.  But I'm liking it!  :D

12 Tags of Tim Holtz - February

It's month #2 for the 12 Tags of Tim Holtz!  And it's February and nothing says February like Valentines & Hearts ( or ground hogs, ice, snow but I digress...)  so here's my version of Tim's tag!!
To see his fabulous tag, click HERE!!!

For my tag I started with my Milled Lavender, Pumice Stone and Spun Sugar Distress Stains.. I'm kinda in love with Pumice Stone and am very glad I've stocked up on it.  (Brushed Pewter is another FAVE!)   Now I didn't have the the heart stencils, and I'll be honest I don't see me getting them.  Not a huge hearts and kisses type of gal.  BUT I do own a tiny heart punch.  So I dug in my scrap bin and found a left over piece of TH Kraft Glassine paper.. punch punch punch.... Whalla, stencil!!

Grabbed my Spun Sugar, Crushed Velvet and Fired Brick Distress pads and blending tool... and followed Tim's lead.

Now I don't yet have the new fabby metal sticker embellishments Tim used on his tags... BUT I have a huge role of metal duct tape...and I used a border punch.  Distressed it with some black alcohol ink and some Black Soot Distress paint... 

 This next part was fun but required a few attempts!  Tim uses black card stock/paper to create this look.  I am currently hoarding my black card stock for another project.  I had some black gesso by Ranger Inc.. so I painted a swatch on some manilla.  It dried with just a little too much of a gloss finish for my taste.  I had a wee bit of chalkboard paint left and mixed it with the gesso, THAT worked wonderfully!

After that I followed Tim instructions on creating the chalkboard look.  The only chalk I had was side walk chalk from that famous crayon company, not sure if it's formulated like school room chalk because I wasn't getting the same look.  After playing around a bit, trying different stamps, this is my finished result.  I kept the heart "clean" and covered it with Christmas Red Stickles.  (Loose glitter and I don't get along)

 Lastly, for the "grunge heart", I lost my grunge board heart somewhere on my desk. Being too lazy to cut another and too lazy to do a deep cleaning of my desk, instead I found some canvas "buttons".  I cut one into a heart shape, then colored it with Fired Brick & Picked Rasberry Distress Markers and a water pen to blend the colors. Then I took a wishbone and tied it to the heart using some fabulous paper thread by Tim Holtz. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Thank you also for taking the time to comment.  I enjoy reading each and every comment and compliment.  You all are so nice!!  :D