Coffee Thank You

As a mom/cheerleader of kids who choose chilly sports (nothing like standing on the sidelines of a soccer field with a strong breeze and slushy rain falling on you OR sitting in an ice rink with concrete benches...brrrr) I fully appreciate the necessity of a little Starbucks run now and again.  I have been the lucky recipient of some gift cards this holiday season so to say thanks I made several of these:

I can almost taste the Cinnamon Dulce right now...

SDC 79- Ornaments

Still getting caught up on Christmas...

This little lovely was for the Stampotique Ornaments challenge.  I made similar little box ornaments several years ago for an advent garland (each one has a number on it, 1-25).  Quick and easy to put together.  :)

Since I went into such exhaustive detail in my previous Christmas tag post I won't put my dear readers through that again just yet.  Suffice it to say we've got a couple of strips of cardstock that were cut and scored.  I stamped and colored my ornaments with copics followed by a background stamp of pine cone/needles.  Squirted over the top of the ornaments is some crackle medium (looks pretty cool I think but took SO LONG - an hour or so - to dry for this impatient soul).  I glued the strips into a box shape and interlocked them.  Added a ribbon for hanging and kids, we've got an ornament!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

A little late, worth the wait?

Good tidings!

We had a very merry Christmas and enjoyed a wonderful time with family.  We are fortunate indeed.

I meant to post this a few days ago, but got caught up in the whirlwind of pre-Christmas festivities. First is a Christmas-y tag.  Inspiration came from the Tissue Tape technique challenge at Studio L3 (there's some washi tape ruffled at the top of the sentiment).

 

Playing with lots of new toys here.  First time breaking out the honeycomb embossing folder - love it.  I started with a #8 manila tag, embossed it, followed by a healthy dose of Peeled Paint Distress Stain (new!) and smidges of Gold metallic Distress Stain.

The reindeer die (new!) was used to cut grungeboard which I stained up with Walnut Stain Distress Stain.  I've had the grungeboard for a while but haven't done much with it.  I really like how leathery it looks.  A dusting of gold Glimmer Mist and shiny mini ornament finished her off.

I cut the fence (new!) from kraft cardstock which was then rubbed with a bit of Walnut Stain Distress Ink and capped off with smatterings of snowy white acrylic paint.  The snow at the bottom is a piece of white cardstock covered with white Crackle Paint.  After it dried I rubbed Tumbled Glass Distress Ink over the paint and then stamped little snowflakes over the top with the same ink.

The sentiment was wrinkled up and inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink then sprayed with a bit of gold Glimmer Mist.  Getting the washi tape ruffle was a little tricky.  I eventually ATG'd the back of the sentiment strip and ruffled it, right side up, to that before adhering to the tag.  A smidge of gold Distress Stain garnishes the top of the ruffle.  The star was originally a silver, but I used gold Alcohol Ink to color it.  The ribbons were stained with Broken China Distress Stain and a Walnut Stain/Gold Distress Stain combo.

Schwoo...long post.  Now you know more than you ever wanted to know about this tag.  (wink, wink)  I hope you were able to enjoy yesterday with family and/or friends.  Cheers!

Hearts for Newtown

I can't stop thinking about the community of Newtown, CT and how difficult it must be for its families, neighbors, co-workers and emergency workers who are dealing with the sudden loss of so many lives.  So very, very sad and a terrible realization that it could have happened anywhere and was so random.  My heart goes out to them. 

A friend sent me an e-mail the other day about Hearts for Newtown.  They are asking people to send in paper hearts with messages of love and support which will be placed around Newtown.  The hope is that the community will feel the love and support from the worldwide community as they pick up the pieces.  More info can be found here.

Peace.

12 Tags of 2012 - December

Since I had good ol' Noelle (previous post) out anyway I got down to business on my December tag.

Starting with a white tag I followed TH's instructions to mix some a regular ol' Distress Stain with a metallic distress stain; I chose walnut ink (because I am apparently genetically unable to follow his lead to a T - the only other 2 colors I have are orange and blue) & gold metallic stain.  No go.  The walnut was WAY too dark.  Pretty, but dark.  For version 2, I opted for walnut distress ink with the gold metallic stain.  I inked and dried a few more times to get a splotchy, shiny background.  Rubbed a little more walnut ink around the edges and then stamped my tree image with black dye ink. 

Next I scrunched up and stuck on some musical washi tape and stapled on some tinsel-y looking trim.  (Debated inking up the tape, but glad I decided against it.)  I liked his use of a sentiment, but am metallic paper-less so I opted for one of his tags which I scrunched and dabbed with more walnut ink. 

Noelle was stamped with dye ink and colored with Copics a bits of Stickles before I cut her out.  She is lifted off the background with dimensional foam dots.

I initially dyed the ribbon brown and metallic gold - too dark again.  The second version was a mix of Fired Brick and Barn Red inks mixed with a smidge of Walnut ink and gold metallic stain.  A couple of little lightbulbs later and it was a done deal.

These are Tim's tags.  Do you see the resemblance?

 

Click here to get all the info about them.  Ho! Ho! Ho!

SDC 77

Someone's feeling a little grinchy...

Admittedly I don't have my usual Christmas spirit this year.  I made this for the Let's Get Sentimental Challenge over on the SDC blog.

Quick and dirty, if you will.  I dusted off the ancient decorative scissors for the trees and blah-blah-blahed them.  The trunks are washi tape and Noelle was fussy-cut and layered over.  Done!

Thanks for peeking.  Time to head off to work!

Brown Paper Packages tied up with String

 Kraft paper is such a nice base for pretty packaging I think.  Tonight I went to a white elephant gift exchange for work.  I wanted to do more than tape up some Christmas wrapping paper so I whipped out the good ol' kraft roll and my Tim Holtz Festive Greenery die.  A few minutes (and a little ink and stickles) later I had a festive-looking package all ready to go. 

 

I followed TH's advice and inked up theneedles before removing them from the sheet - worked great.  This was the first time I used my extended platform (for the border dies).  OMG...I thought I didn't really 'need' one and was making do without but I am SO GLAD I caved and bought one.  It's so much easier to cut things using the decorative strip dies now.  Buy one.  Well worth the $10 investment.

 

A smattering of coloring with copics, distress inks and a smudge of stickles on plain kraft paper really make the needles stand out.  I cut slits in the pine cone to make it 3D-able and I really like the way it turned out.

 

 

In case you were wondering, I came home with a set of coffee mugs.  :)

Rip up your phone book!

Tonight I'm going to a meet-up with a bunch of artsy types whom I've never met.  The theme of the meet-up is art journals.  I have no idea what to expect or what to bring but I decided that I'd better get some action started in mine so if I'm put on the spot I have something to show.  Yikes, that's a scary thought to show people in person. 

Dylusions inks, oh, how I love thee. First I gessoed (can 'gesso' turn into a verb? Let's say yes) my pages.  To keep it off the other pages I've been using an old phone book.  I started to reach for some book pages but changed my mind and tore some strips out of the phone book and glued those bad boys on there.  Next I squirted on a little Bubblegum and Sunshine inks.  Check out how the phone book strips gobbled up the ink - love it.

Wendy Vecchi has come up with some embossing pastes (would love to get my hands on the black!) and that reminded me that I've had some stashed away for years.  I spritzed a little Sunshine ink into the paste and swiped over a brass template in a few spots. 

Not sure what I'm going to do next - probaby some stamping and flicking of paint.  What would YOU do next?

December Daily: Dec 1 & 2

Every couple of years I decide to create a December Daily mini album/journal to document our December adventures.  It's always amazing to me how much I forget until I look back at these little shapshots of time. Each day I try to take at least one photo of something.  Then I write a little something about it.  It might be a snapshot of cookies, one of my kiddos, a favorite decoration - could really be anything.  I meant to get it all set up and ready to go this year, but being the procrastinator extraordinaire that I am, yesterday found me in the studio cutting, inking, etc.   (As luck would have it, I reached into my Christmas stash and pulled out the one I started last year but never finished.  Still have the pictures though so we're all good....)   Here's this year's cover:

To make the mini I took 8 sheets of solid 12"x12" cardstock and scored them down the middle.  Next I cut them in half.  After folding this gave me 32 6"x6" sides to work with.  I like doing it this way in case I want to staple, sew or use brads; that way it won't show on the other side.  When I've got the pages all filled in I'll bind them with a wire binding and add it to the December Daily collection.

In hopes that I'll stay on top of it this year I collected all of my Christmas-y stuff in a a couple of boxes - stamps in one and other embellishments in another.  Since the pages are all cut out and ready to go it should be pretty simple to whip something up.  I'm using the calendar in the background to jot notes about each day so that when I get the photos printed (once a week) I can refer back to it to know why I took that photo.  If I don't get a photo that's okay too.  I can just write about something (or have a family member add their 2 pennies!) - a favorite memory, something one of us said or did, plans we have, whatever strikes my fancy.

Dec 1st and 2nd are ready to go...

 

Better get off the computer so I can get Dec 3rd done.  Ciao!

Cards for Grandma

One of my EtsyGreetings Team members shared this post about a family who will likely be celebrating their Grandma's last Christmas this year.  They are hoping to make their grandparent's Christmas a little brighter this year and are asking people to send Christmas cards to them.  Handmade, store-bought, kids' art - it's all welcome.

Read all about it and get the mailing details here.

Share the love this Christmas!