My Word Is Love!

Here we are with challenge #2 at A Vintage Journey and the theme is "Say It With Words," chosen by Alison! The DT has many fabulous words to share with you, so be sure to stop by and feast your eyes! If you join in and we sure hope you do, remember we are all about being Tim Holtz inspired through his products, techniques and his vintage style! Country View Crafts is our generous sponsor, so come on over and join in our traveling adventures!

Don't you just love this saying from Tim's new "Nature Walk" stamps and the images are to die for! I just thought it would be perfect for my DT challenge project!

I had thought about stamping this saying on some wrinkled and distressed paper and tearing the edges, but then decided the Arch Frame would work quite nicely for the shape.

My Arch and Arch Frame were cut from grunge, embossed, painted with Distress Vintage Photo, inked over with Black Soot, raised areas wiped off lightly and then a light sanding to reveal the paint and part of the grunge paper. I guess you could call this "Painted Grunge." I love the look of this as it has kind of a leather appeal!

I used the Movers and Shapers Arch piece to cut another outer frame, which was painted using Antiqued Bronze Metallic paint, crackled, distressed with Black Soot and then cut away the outer perforated area.

Next was to take some plain card stock, stencil, ink and distress, stamp the sentiment in Black Archival. I had actually cut a duplicate frame from copy paper to know where to center my stamp! Sorry, I can't guess in such a tight squeeze!

Added some embossed, highlighted and shaded Movers and Shapers with a couple of gears and rusted out a pen nib with paint and clear embossing powder.

Now onto the winner of my Blog Candy, "The Compendium of Curiosities III," which will be signed and shipped directly to you from Tim via Mario is SANDRA, who is feeling lucky on her blog this week. WooHoo to you!

 

Congratulations Sandra and please contact me by the 23rd, so I have your current address. A big thank you to all of you who joined in my giveaway and also shared with others. Well I thank you so much for stopping by today and riding along! Enjoy!

Paper Chase!

Happy Anniversary to Country View Challenges! I was thrilled and honored to have been among the Top 3 for their January challenge and asked to be a guest designer for March! Well March is also my personal anniversary, so I am in good company! The challenge theme is "Paper Chase" and Country View Crafts is offering two prizes, so have a look and join in! Here is my take!

I decided to use the Crafty Individuals stamps that Chris had gifted to me as it seemed so appropriate for the anniversary celebration at CVC and the fact these stamps have quite the paper trail! Chris and I both love birds and have had many of these beauties for pets. My little birds were stamped in Sepia and clear embossed and then a subtle splash of color, Tattered Rose for the bodies. I used a marker to add yellow to the beaks and then shaded with Antique Linen around the sweeties.

Computer generated the "Happy Anniversary" in hopes of blending in with the chit chat stickers. I used Tim's background stamp and applied paint to colored paper. All edges have been distressed and I finished off with inking some pre-made flowers, highlighting with Treasure Gold,some distressed die-cut trim and a movers and shapers bird. My birds are taking flight to Inspiration Journal's "Splash of Color" and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "D is for Distress."

And talking about Anniversaries, I am offering my own blog candy right HERE. Thank you for visiting today and I hope you are having a great March!

Hearts and Flowers!



It is all about Hearts and Flowers at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and chosen by the lovely Claire! The rest of the DT also has some pretty sweet projects for your viewing pleasure so stop on by and get inky with us!


Taken Outside

Inside Photo



Let me tell you I had a terrible time trying to get good photos! It was a sporadic kind of weather day with slightly overcast skies and maybe the colors I chose were oddly reflective of the Sun, but this is more in the earthy brown tones and not the pinky mauve that you may "think" you see!

We started using some flowers that I purchased a few years back (good deal) and have just sat around in their pretty little glass containers! The background was covered in the tiny little flowers using Mod Podge and then covered in white gesso. The next step was to repeat the process using larger flowers and leaving an area free for the stamped image.

This is after the first covering of Sprays.

The heart is from Stamping Up and was embossed in Gold. After all the sprays dried, I highlighted the areas in white gesso and then Treasure Gold. The corrugated cardboard was also sprayed and I added some subtle crackle, which is hard to see and again highlighted with the Treasure Gold.

This Hearts and Flowers Love hanging will be linked to these challenges:
Country View Challenges "Monochromatic"
Frilly and Funkie "New Year's Resolutions" Mine to stop hoarding!!!
Our Creative Corner "No More Shopping Sins" I used those flowers and a decorative brad that have been sitting around!

Have a wonderful weekend and thank you for stopping by!

Sprays: Color Wash Espresso and Butterscotch, Dylusions White Linen

Tim's January Tag 2014!

Happy New Year to all of you and I hope it will be a wonderful and creative year! I can't believe it has been over two weeks since my last post, but my hubby took some time off and I have been working on getting better organized! Guess what is not working out for me? Well on to Tim's January Tag of 2014 and what a great way to start off the new year! And what do you think about all the new CHA sneak peeks??? Scary $$$.

Interestingly enough, I have a grandson turning 18 this month and had planned on using the pocket watch die, so when Tim's posted his tag, I was extra thrilled! The purpose of the car and the sentiment stamped on the car, is that we will be helping him to buy his first car that he has been wishing for!  I will also be linking this up to Country View Challenges, "Monochromatic." Pretty much played by Tim's guidelines.

I had an absolute blast with the pocket watch and did not cut off the edge as I was going to place the tag on a card front. The card front was from the Lost and Found collection and I inked and splattered this with water and paint.

After I stained the tag, I laid the stencil over the top and inked with two Distress colors. Then spritzed some water and paint. A little extra shading! Sorry the background pictures were taken at night!

The old jalopy was inked, splatted with paint and the sentiment stamped in Black and embossed.

I decided the chit chat stickers were better suited hanging off the tag edge to balance the little jalopy!

And I used a few "18's" and did add that tiny little JAN! Oh Tim does have patience as I lost the first one in action! Well I did try to get the above two side by side, but I battle with that and it always ends up very odd! Sure it is just me!

 

Thank you so much for stopping by and I will be catching up on all your blogs now that most things have returned to normal! Can't wait to get back in the inky swing!

 

Inks: Black Archival, Distress Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Weathered Wood

Stains: Weathered Wood, Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Old Paper

December Tag 2013!

Woo Hoo I am done with Tim's 12 Tags of 2013 and boy was December's tag a blast! I had so much fun, that I had to make a few extra plastic pieces! Mostly followed Tim's lead. A big THANK YOU to Tim for a fabulous year of fun and creative learning!

First I made my poinsettias and snowflakes and inked them and then shaded around the edges. Yes, I got carried away with the snow effect and I did it on purpose!

I was thinking of my Mom and a painting class we were in and it required the splattering of white paint and boy did she go to town! I asked her why she was covering it up so and she just said she was having so much for! So the snow was for my Mom and a nice memory!

Well I meant to take a picture of the tag background, after I inked and stenciled Tim's stars in random sizes and places and did soft stamping on the background, but I forgot! Hopefully you can see a little of this.  "Bah, humbug" is the challenge theme over at Country View Challenges and so we go!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by during this most busy time of the year. I do appreciate your visits and have a wonderful rest of the week!
 

Letters!

I was so thrilled to be one of Country View Challenges "Top 3" winners for September, but also honored to be asked to be a Guest Design Team member for November's challenge of "Letters."  Thank you Country View Challenges and here we go with my project and if you want, you can stop over there and give them a "Hello" and learn all the details for the current challenge.

It is so interesting how a project starts out and what you have in mind when you start! Believe it or not, this started out with a Christmas theme in mind! It was going to be "letters to Santa," but I kept drawing blanks. Well not really blanks, but how I wanted to use my new Santa Stamp was too much like something I had already seen. Not that my friend, Vada would have cared, but this needed to be very original!



Now with the embossed "letter" background, I was determined to use it Christmas or not! I used Distress inks and then spritzed some water. Next the raised areas were hit with Coffee Archival, distressed and curled up some edges.

The woman's face was stamped, watercolored and masked off for tag inking! A little white acrylic paint dot for the eye highlight, using a stylus.

Added a little "letter" stenciling, stamped some post scripts and those artsy faces to blend in the background. Keeping in the "letter" theme, I was going for a love letter type theme at this point. Hey it is my mind! I think they are both thinking of each other!

The top "letter" layer was first inked and then the actually stamp covered with Distress markers, torn around the edges and shaded. Added a little airmail stamping to this.

Did a second marker stamping for extra dimension on the "L" for "letters."

What a time I had cutting off the heavy duty pin that went with the winged heart! Actually called the man to the rescue. The heart was colored with alcohol inks and the word band and key colored to match the bronze look of the wings.

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you will join in the current "Letters" challenge at CVC, so pop on over there for more inspiration and all the details! Have a wonderful week!

Stamps: Tim Holtz, Classics 3, Classics4, Classics 5 and various older releases for postage
Inks: Archival Red Geranium Coffee (Faces, Faces, Postage, Air Mail, CB letters
Background colors: Distress Antique Linen, Old Paper, (letter panel), Vintage Photo, Black Walnut, Pine Needles, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Forrest Moss, Tattered Rose for skin color, Water colors Barn Door (lips) Peeled Paint (eyes)
Markers: Barn Door, Vintage Photo, Black Soot Peeled Paint, Pine Needles
Alcohol Inks: Pesto, Latte and Gold Fixative