12 Tags of 2013 - June

Schwoo!  Just getting this one in under the wire.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute...

Senor Holtz created a beautiful dragonfly tag this month using watercolor techniques with his Distress Markers.  Sadly, I have nary a one Distress Marker so I improvised with cheapo kiddie watercolors and Distress Inks to create my Coffee Lady tag.  She's popped up in a lot of my creations lately - love her.

I used a waterbrush to do all of the coloring on her. 

 The base image was stamped with Memento Black Tuxedo.  

I thought she needed a little something more after I added the button images.  

Lavendar DMC floss tied in nicely with her robe methinks.

Love this sentiment! I had to do this twice.  I learned that the ink smudges a bit when adding water.  Here's my before shot:

 I just flipped it over, applied the background and then stamped the sentiment.

I'm not sure why I thought a wood grain background was the way to go, but it felt right to me.  I wasn't sure if this technique would work but I'm happy with the way it turned out.  

I took Walnut Distress Stain and swiped it across a manila tag from side to side.  On some of my swipes a blotch was left on the edge - not part of the plan.  I turned them into wood knots with a Sharpie; the 'planks' and woodgrain are defined using a Sharpie as well. 

Hope June has been good to you.  Thank you for stopping by!

Google Reader Shuts Down on Monday

Just a reminder that Google Reader will be shutting down soon.  If you haven't transferred all of the blogs you follow to another subscription service hurry, hurry so you don't lose them!

Sunday Postcard Art: Summer Solstice

I know...today is Tuesday not Sunday.  Sunday found me up north cheering my daughter and her soccer team on to victory.  :)  The theme at SPA this week celebrates the official beginning of summer, Summer Solstice aka Midsummer's Eve.  Back in the old days people would light bonfires on Midsummers Eve to ward away evil spirits.  It was said that if you jumped over the flames you would have good luck.  I"m thinking scorched lower regions isn't very lucky, but what do I know??

ANYWAY, here is my weekly contribution.

The picture is a little funky as I had to use my phone since my computer is misbehaving and won't let me turn it on (I snuck onto the kids' - shhhh).  Definitely click on the picture to zoom in - it looks much better!

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy week!

Oh where, oh where has Google Reader gone?

Top o' the mornin', peeps!  You've probably heard that Google Reader will soon vamoose (if you don't use Google Reader than feel free to click onward to the next blog on your journey today).  I have no clue why Google Reader is soon to be gone, but I made the switch over to Bloglovin’, really easy to do, so I wouldn't lose track of my fave blogs. 

It was actually super simple and took all of 3 minutes.  You just create a Bloglovin’ account and in the process it asks if you want to import the blogs you read on Google Reader to your new Bloglovin’ account.  Click the button to import and, wah-la, all of your faves will be right there; the platform looks similar to Google Reader.



 Thanks for reading my ramblings.  Have a great day!

Girlfriend Humor

I just finished making a batch of cards that crack me up.  I can think of several friends of mine who would appreciate this kind of humor!

 You can find them HERE in my Etsy shop.  I hope this made you chuckle today too!

Sunday Postcard Art - All Things Masculine

Happy Fathers' Day!  The challenge this week over at SPA is to create something guy-ish.  I wanted a rough and rugged background so headed over to our recycle area and nabbed a piece of cardboard off a 12-pack of Lagunitas IPA (beer box background - doesn't get much more masculine than that, eh?).  Channeling my inner John Wayne I headed over to The Graphics Fairy where I found the great vintage western image.

Thanks for stopping by, y'all!

Sunday Postcard Art -"Journaling on a Postcard" and Pinterest to the Rescue

My interpretation of this week's theme for Sunday Postcard Art was to create an art-journal-like piece on a postcard-sized base.  Mine is an example of something I'd put in my art journal and metamorphosed into being something completely different from what I had originally intended (as usual.  Do I say this every time?  I think I might.).  This time I thought of taking a couple of pictures while I was in the process.  You'll see what I mean about metamorphosis!

I needed some inspiration so I decided I'd look on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog.  Her prompt was to look around your neighborhood.   I cut a 4" x 6" piece of cardboard from a cereal box for my base and prepared it for some bright Dylusions sprays.  Loved it.  I was thinking maybe some houses and trees maybe?  Slabbed some acrylic paint on bubble wrap and threw down a torn book page.  Then I decided that I wanted to play around with some techniques so I rummaged through my Pinterest boards and rediscovered Linda Cain's tag and thought,  "Oooohhh...pretty.  I want to do that."   Pulled out an open stencil and smooshed embossing paste through it. Nice, but how to add color?  Didn't think distress stains would work here so I dabbed some distress paint over the stencil...eewwww...that wasn't working for me.  In fact this is pretty ugly.  Ruined.

But then I remember somebody commenting about one of the cool things about art journaling is that you can just cover it up if you don't like it.   "Yes!  I can do that!"  (Bob the Builder just came to mind.  Now that's a flashback!  I digress...).  Slathered another layer of gesso over the whole thing.  It soaked up some of the Dylusions underneath - perfect.  What to do with this formerly bright, vibrant color turned to more of a pastel pallet?  I was thinking circles, looked for quotes, didn't find anything that resonated.  Pinterest!  I have a Well Said board so I looked over there and found it.  Spot on for this piece and definitely in line with my own odd sense of humor.

I love this little guy (Heart Boy) from Stampotique.  My kids gave him to me for Christmas.  :)

The bubbles are a pinker hue in real life and to make them bubblier I took some Diamond Glaze and rubbed it over them with my finger to add some shine, added a touch of turquoise Dylusions on the bottoms and a smidge of clear Stickles for sparkle (okay, you can't really see it in the pics, but take my word for it that it's there).

Tah-dah!  The finished postcard...

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you a spectacular Sunday!

Happy Birthday!

Talitha at Marinus Home asked me to make some birthday cards to sell in her shop.  I decided to go with something kind of fun and whimsical.

Happy Birthday Card

The cake and candles are colored with copics and then laboriously cut out out and attached with pop dots onto the embossed base.  I added a smidge of glitter to the flames for that little extra somethin'-somethin'. 

I decided to put some in my shop, too.  Click  HERE to be taken to the listing.  Hope she likes them, too!

Sunday Postcard Art - No Place Like Home

I ran across this postcard challenge in my blog wanderings and thought it would be fun to play along with it.  The theme is 'home' and the only other criteria is that the finished piece is 4" x 6". 

Maybe I'm missing a couple of my boys.  My hubby and oldest son are up in BC this weekend for some hockey.  :) 

This came together super quickly.  I just dug into my scrap stash (i.e. over-spray pieces and experiments) to make my little house.  The other day I was making a sample sheet with all of my embossing folders and realized there are several I haven't used in a long time (swirly background).  The washi tape at the bottom is from the first roll I ever bought.  Wah-lah...postcard!

Enjoy your Sunday!