I've rediscovered Swaps

Hello, friends.  Long time, no see.  Sorry about that.

Years ago I used to be a regular partipant in scrapbooking swaps.  It was a great way to try out some new techniques and products and I met some very creative souls in the process.  They started taking up too much time since I had little ones to attend to so I gave them up.  I've heard lots of murmerings about ATC swaps and a friend suggested I check out some of the swaps on Splitcoast Stampers.  Sucker!  The other day I signed up for four of them.  A couple of them are tag swaps (if you follow me here you've seen that I like to whip up a tag now and then) and the others are "inchies".  Google 'inchies'.  It's amazing what people do with itty bitty one-inch squares.  Truly.

Not quite ready to jump right into the ultra-tiny bits, today I made my first 'twinchie' - you guessed it - two-inch square.  The theme is "Movie"; any ol' movie I want.  I hope the group I'm in isn't a bunch of sweet, little old ladies.  They may be slightly aghast at my dark, little bunny.  I'm thinking it would make a great fridge magnet for a Monty Python fan...

Cheers!

Cardboard Buttons

Oh my.  It's been a while since I blogged.  I'm still here.  Things have been busy in the shop - that's a good thing - but haven't left me much time for playing around.  Today I saw a post over at the Pretty Little Things blog showing buttons made from egg cartons.  They were so cute and colorful I wanted to pin them so I'd remember to make them.  Alas, a no-pin website so I immediately set about making my own.

I made mine from an empty cereal box.  The base coat is Distress Paints and then I used paint pens to add dots and stripes.  Not sure what I'll use them for - tags, cards, canvases...  Who knows?!

Untitled

Busily working away in the studio today and I was wrapping up an order to send out and thought I'd add a little Thank You tag to it.  Started playing around and in just a few minutes came up with this one. 

 

The cool thing is that I just grabbed what was close at hand.  The butterfly's background came from a swatch where I was playing around with mixing Distress Paints.  Isn't she pretty?   

Off to enjoy a sunny (for now!) Sunday here in Seattle.  Have a great day!

12 Tags of 2013 - April

Good morning!

Today's little project was my April tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013 challenge.  On his blog, Tim showed a really cool technique for getting a faux patina.  (Follow the link to see his amazing tag.)  He used his new Distress Paints to get an aged patina look but sadly, (and it feels like I say this every month) I didn't have the paints he used so I improvised. 

I attempted a rusted iron look.  To do this I spread some Wild Honey and Tarnished Brass Distress Stains on my craft sheet, sprayed with a little water and ran a piece of white cardstock through it a few times.  After it dried I rubbed on some Wild Honey and Walnut Stain DI.  After roughing up the edges I dabbed on some Walnut Stain and Tarnished Brass Distress Stains on the exposed edges then dipped them in water to make them run into the tag.

The leaves were hand-drawn on the tag and painted with a water brush using Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint DI.  More were drawn onto a book page that had been swabbed with some Mowed Lawn Distress Paint and a quick spray of Dylusions Cut Grass.  A little Walnut Stain and Peeled Paint DI darkened them up a bit.

Love this water drips stamp in the background.  After I stamped it with Versafine Black Onyx I used my water brush to lighten up the insides of the drops, then I covered them with Diamond Glaze. 

The ribbon was colored with a mix of Wild Honey, Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn Distress Stains.

The size of the tag is 6' x 3"; I think I'll use it for a bookmark.

Thanks for stopping by and getting to the end of this long-winded description!  ;)

Splash!

Spring is turning my fancy to bright, happy colors.  My latest addition to the shop is some tile coasters adorned with bright splashes of color.  (They are HERE in the shop.)  They make me want to go out and dig in my garden or stroll through some tidepools and peek under rocks to find brilliantly-hued anemones and seaweed.

What do you think of when you see these? 

Card Challenges

There are a couple of card challenges out there that I decided to play along with today.  CASual Fridays is sponsoring a Chevrons and Flowers Challenge (CFC97) this week and Less Is More is hosting a Lime and Black Challenge (Week 114 Colour Challenge). 

Here is my super CAS card.  I used a photo corner die from Sizzix to make the chevrons, tissue tape from Tim Holtz and stamps from Stampin Up (flower) and Blockhead Stamps (sentiment).

I stamped the flower on vellum and then colored the middle with copic YG06.  Love it when it only takes me few minutes to whip up a card.  This will be perfect for my mom who loves to work in her garden.  :)

Thanks for taking a peek!

Heart Canvas

Hello! 

I've had this quote scribbled on my desktop calendar for months.  I'm pretty sure I saw it on Pinterest and I've been meaning to slap it on a canvas.  I finally got around to it.

I gesso'd the background and then brushed on some absorbent ground followed by Dylusions sprays in turquoise, blue and purple.  A good spray of water got the colors to blend nicely.  After that I randomly dabbed on a script quote using violet ink as well as a background stamp in royal blue.  I took an old book page and sprayed that with the turquoise and blue Dylusions sprays, then tore a few strips to slap on the canvas as well.  Bubble wrap dipped in white acrylic paint followed that to complete the background.

The hearts are bits of overspray scraps I had laying (lying?  I never remember which one to use!) around.  I tore them into heart shapes and stamped with text stamps in coordinating colors of ink (orange or pink).  I wanted the text to be visible but not 'in your face' visible.  The green heart is a little different as I stamped with a pencil image in green down one side of that one.  Still subtle but if you look closely you'll see it.  ;)  See how I've got the whole "writing" and "take notes" thing going on?  I finished this heart off with a little blingage just for fun.

I wrote out the quote on scraps of white cardstock outlined with smidges of greens using Copic markers.

Never one to finsh a project in a hurry (pro-cras-ti-na-tor, or as my dear husband would say, 'closure issues') I haven't decided yet how to finish off the sides.  I'm thinking I might rip more book pages and leave those plain (i.e. no color added).  What do you think?

Cheers!

Spring is Springing

This is Spring Break for my kiddos.  Today my youngest took me over to the park for a few games of tennis.  It is great tennis weather - not too cold, not too hot, cloudy (so the sun's not in anyone's eyes).  We had the courts all to ourselves and had a lot of fun.  At one point we stopped and both noticed how LOUD all the birds were.  It is definitely spring and everyone wants their little voices heard.

Earlier today I had been playing around with Distresss Paints  - just smooshing it around on cardstock to see what happened.  When I got home I noticed a cool tag on the Paper Artsy blog that reminded me of my painty swatches.  The combination of lovely swirls of color and singing birds in the park resulted in this little...something.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.  Maybe I'll slap it on an art journal page or use it on a canvas.  In the meantime, sing on little birds!