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

Summertime Fun!

So is it hot enough for you?? It certainly is for me and although I am staying out of the Sun, I decided today would be a nice day to have some "Summertime Fun" indoors!  "Summertime" is also the current theme at Frilly and Funkie and we are just in time and also linking to Country View Crafts "Summer Sizzler."

Using the cool summertime "Boardwalk" stamps from Artistic Outpost, we decided it would be nice to have a little romantic twist! We started by making a foldable cabinet die cut and cutting out a Spellbinders sunshine burst in the inside for a frame inside a frame!

Alcohol inks were applied to glossy white card stock and all images were stamped using Coffee Archival. The sentiments were stamped on tissue paper and inked with the same alcohol inks.

The lovely bathers were stamped on watercolor paper and colored with Distress Markers and Stains. After I cut the "sunshine" opening, I decided to combine to of the dies for a frame.

Adhered a little dyed cheesecloth with gel medium and added the seashells and the "Atlantic City" emblem, which was placed in Tim's bottlecap die. 

Today was very overcast, so picture quality was more off than usual for me!  Thank you for stopping by and there is still a good week to join in Artist Outpost's July Referral Program, so hope to see you there!

Christmas In July AO Blog Hop!

Christmas In July and it is a Blog Hop with Artistic Outpost! It is never too early to start on those Christmas cards, tags or gifts ideas and the AO DT is here to inspire you! Join in on all the fun!

Gerrie, Lisa, Sue, Tracy, Linda, Alison, Terry (Me), Kate

I chose the MidWinter collection, which I absolutely love the vintage and homey style in these stamps! For the background, I stamped the pine needles randomly in Stazon Green on Shimmery paper, so pretty and adds that snowy feeling! Did shading with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo.

Tim's Clock was cut from Grunge paper and then painted white and again with a lighter green, crackled and then coated with Pine Needles stain. Added a little white paint for snow! The tinsel around the clock are actually trimmings from gold and green tinsel sprinkled over glossy accents. The beads/berries were colored with alcohol ink.

The lovely house was stamped on watercolor paper using Coffee Archival (tapping on to avoid the trees) and Stazon Green.  Squeezed Lemonade (windows), Barn Door (Chimney), Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky (Sky), Antique Lined and Vintage Photo for shading using the water brush. A layer of Rock Candy Stickles was applied to the ground, roof and chimney top, with a thicker coating on the roof edge!

Hope you enjoyed the little cool down and there is still plenty of time to ink up your AO stamps for the July Monthly Referral Program, so join in fun and a chance to win!








Boardwalk!

Hope you all are having a wonderful start to the week and enjoying the Summer! Yes, it is still hot here and this weather sure makes you think how nice it would be to live at the beach! The current challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges is "Mail Time" and there are still a few days left to join in for a chance to win a gift voucher from Flonzcraft or make the Top Three!  My DT Sisters have nailed "Mail Time" with some fabulous art, so stop by and have a look!

And speaking of the beach, I once again pulled out my Boardwalk stamps from Artistic Outpost for my Mail Time theme and it will actually be mailed!  I started by creating an inky background, a little stenciling, Spritz and Flick and subtle stamping of the little seashell.  The gentleman bather was first stamped and cut out! I did first mask, but managed when all was done to get some blue ink on his face! So not cool!

All main images were stamped using Sepia Archival and some were clear embossed. The Atlantic City was watered colored using markers and Distress Inks.  Such summer fun!

Will be linking this us to Lisa's Bloggers Challenge, "Create Your Own Background" and Simon Says Stamp and Show. "A Little Stamping."

I am so happy that you stopped by today and thank you for taking the time to comment! Enjoy the rest of the week!

Distress Inks: Stormy Sky, Peacock Feathers, Broken China, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain
Distress Markers: Tattered Rose, Tea Dye, Wild Honey, Broken China, Stormy Sky, Antique Linen
Distress Stains: Wild Honey, Broken China, Stormy Sky, Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo

June Tag - Destination!

Those of you playing along with Tim's 12 Tags of 2013, are you have fun with it? That is what it is all about, to have fun while learning something new! I am not one to play with watercolor, but have to admit that once I started, I wanted to color in more! For my "June" tag, I followed Tim's guidelines and just changed up some colors and stamps!



For the background, which I can never achieve a streaky look, I used Distress Paint "Tarnished Brass," Distress Stain "Broken China" and Distress "Vintage Photo" ink pad.  After I did the technique, I applied some "Peacock Feather" and then shaded with Vintage Photo.

I used Tim's Mini Blue Print stamps and these were colored with Wild Honey, Broken China, Pumice Stone and Vintage Photo markers!  Pretty much that was how it was all done!

Thank you for stopping by and commenting! I hope you have having a fabulous week!

Playing!

Today I decided would be a great day to play with some of my newer "Tim" stamps and have some inky fun!  So working from three stamps sets, this is what happened!

The "Artful Tools" were stamped with Clear Embossing Ink, covered with clear EP and heat set.  Then came the inking of the background with Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo and next the gears were stamped from the "Time Travelers" with Archival Sepia and then I wiped off the excess on the embossed areas with a dry paper towel.  The embossing was then removed using that "four" letter word, the iron!  Sorry I meant to take a picture of the naked background, but got too excited!

I used Tim's water brush to color the "Time Traveler" with Tattered Rose, Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo, cut him out and shaded with Walnut Stain!  The sentiment from Classics 5 was stamped on inked paper with Archival Coffee and then a little Spritz and Flick for some background interest.

Don't you love that sentiment and so true it is and that is why I decided to just play today! Will be linking this tag to Bloggers Challenge, "Tags" and Inspiration Journal's, "Don't Quote Me."

Hope your week is going well and you are taking that much needed time to stay young by playing!
Thank you for visiting me today!

Tim's Stamps; Artful Tools, Classics 5, Time Travelers
Ink; Archival Sepia and Coffee, Distress Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Tattered Rose, Walnut Stain