No Place Like Home

This month at Unruly Paper Arts, our theme is Postcard Parade, and I've written a column about my post card collection.  Please go HERE to read my column.

As part of the column, I created a postcard hanging.  Because, after all those post card adventures, there's no place like home.

Here are some details about this last piece of papercarfting from my article:
Graphic 45 Magic of Oz paper collection.
Fussy cutting and layering with pop dots.
Outlining images with black marker.  
Sparkling up those special shoes with Clear Star pen

I hope you'll  visit Unruly Paper Arts and see how my old post card hobby has crept into my my new paper crafting hobby.

While there, please take time to vote for your favorite reader submissions for post card art:
Reader Art Quest 1:  Edgy Postcards
Reader Art Quest 2: Vacation Themed Postcards
Voting closes on July 31 and winners are showcased in our August issue. 

Simple Summer with Sizzling Fish

This is my second and final July guest designer sample for The Craft Room.   Suzanne would like to see some heat embossing for Challenge #56.  Sponsor for this challenge is Stamp Addicts.

I chose fish as my theme so that my project could serve as double duty for this week's contribution to Tag Tuesday.

Let's get those fish sizzling in the heat embossing frying pan!

I used a Ranger Distress Ink pad in Salty Ocean directly on the oversize manila tag.  I spritzed with water and removed some of the ink with a baby wipe.  I used Dyan's vine stencil and her Dylusions Fresh Lime ink spray to frame the tag while everything was still wet.  This gave me the blended undefined look I was going for to create the murky river bottom background.  Lots of time now with the heat tool to get everything dry. Then I placed the stencil back on and outlined the leaves with Ranger Bundled Sage Distress Marker.

I used the heat embossing technique found HERE on the Ranger website.  I used the following products:  Ranger Emboss It Dabber (clear), followed by Stampin' Up Heat 'N Stick Powder, followed by Red Lead silver glitter.  The fish stamps used are from Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 set, Art For Men.

I moved on to my scrap of manila file folder and used my brayer to add streaks of  Ranger Distress Ink in Mowed Lawn and Picked Raspberry before stamping my Inkadinkado image with jet black archival ink. I used a black Sharpie to outline the papers.  (Ignore the details of this picturesque image--I always thought they were going fishing until I took a closer look--but they're still going fishing for today's purposes!)

Studio G self-adhesive gems on label.  Really Reasonable Ribbon silver curling ribbon, Idea-ology tissue tape and muse token; Singer metallic safety pin,;other ribbon and alphabet clip from stash.  And lastly, some dresden metallic scrap along the bottom to mimic waves.

You may have guessed by the use of Tim's summer 2012 set of Distress Inks that I was going for the hot summer look and with the use of silver glitter that I was attempting that glint of sun in your eyes in order to enter these challenges:

Frilly and Funky:  Summertime (2nd entry) 4 others besides theirs
All About Vintage and Beauty:  Feeling of Summer with Sparkle
Crafts 4 Eternity: Inky Fingers (2nd entry)
Really Reasonable Ribbon:  Sizzlin Summer Colors and Ribbon
Simon Says Stamp & Show Monday Challenge:  Celebrate (The muse token says "lifetime".  I'm celebrating a lifetime of simple pleasures--what could be finer than that?)

I  used some of the techniques Tim featured on his July tag so that I can keep up with his 12 Tags of 2013.  Here is TIM HOLTZ's July tag:    And his tutorial is HERE  where I will link up this tag.
I skipped the Rock Candy.  I thought about using it on a fence along the bottom but then decided I've done that technique before.  I didn't dye my ribbon either.

Blog Backgrounds and my Mom

Nothing new today so I thought I'd tell you why I chose my particular blog background design.

My favorite backgrounds and headers are from Vintage Made For You---and, even better, they are free.  My current one, which I can't bring myself to change, is called A Long Time Ago.  You can find it HERE.  I chose a different header from her collection.  I like the clock since I'm 2amscrapper.

I have a queen theme going here so I like that the image is wearing a crown.  However, the woman featured reminds me of my mother.

Here is a tag I previously made using my mother's photo.  Don't you see the similarity? I think it's rather uncanny.  They even have the same hair-do. 

Perhaps this explains why I like vintage so much!   Being raised with old photographs and crochet handiwork, just makes me gravitate to old images and vintage paper crafting.

This month my mother would have been 103 years old.  She always celebrated two birthdays, the real one and the one the midwife wrote on her birth certificate at the courthouse. 

If you would like details about the products used to make this tag, my original tag post is HERE.  I used Rogue Redhead Designs background stamps and a beautiful crocheted item from a blogging friend.

Maybe now that I've shared with everyone, I can bring myself to post a new blog background.

A Lazy Summer Afternoon

This is my Rogue Redhead Designs LLC (RRD) design team sample for the current RRD Get Sketchy Rebel Challenge. 

All the stamps are from the RRD Getting Grizzy stamp plate (honeycomb,.bear, bee, and "cutie").  I used an embossing folder and two sets of Nestabilities oval dies.  Ink pad is Ranger Distress in Tea Dye  I pulled out a sponge with one of the yellows on it to highlight the grass and edge the oval. (Yes the sponge got separated from the ink pad, therefore the color is unidentifiable.)  The bird and hand drawn grass are done with Ranger distress ink markers in bundled sage and tumbled glass. Cutie is stamped with Versa Magic chalk ink in Turquoise Gem.  Card stock is Stampin' Up Very Vanilla and DCWV Summer Dream.  

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafts4Eternity:  Inky Fingers.  I haven't been here for awhile and this is challenge is a perfect match for all the ink I used.

All Sorts:  Fur and Feathers

Fashionable Stamping:  Flora and Fauna

Frilly and Funky:  on the funky side of Summertime

Keep cool!  It's supposed to be 99 degrees today in central Illinois.  A good day to stay indoors with the air conditioner on and do some paper crafting! 

Silent Film Couples

Tag Tuesday this time is asking for a Roaring Twenties theme.  I dug out the Graphic 45 Curtain Call collection and did some fussy cutting and paper layering.  I added some Ideaology filmstrip ribbon.   You can see all the tag contributions at the Tag Tuesday blog HERE

Also entering this tag at The Cheerful Stamp Pad where the theme is You Make a Lovely Couple

Summer of Color 2013; Week Six

I can't believe we're in our final week at Summer of Color at Kristin's blog, Twinkle, Twinkle.  This week's artist's choice color combo is sage and sepia. Once again, I'm working on my digital layering skills.

All Gecko Galz digital images cropped from various collage sheets:
image from preRafalite Jewels, July 2013 release
tag from Tag Your It
bouquet from Wild About Flowers
butterfly from Butterfly Wings
trim along bottom from a March ephemera sheet, probably a free one though the Yahoo group

I added text and some shadowing around the image.

I'm thrilled to say I won the random draw at Lunagirl Moonbeams challenge blog for my Gatsby entry and am anxious to choose some Lunagirl images with my gift certificate.

I'm entering this tag in the current Lunagirl challenge:  Using Digital  Backgrounds.  My background is a digital tag. Well, obviously, by now you realize that the entire tag is digital.... :)

Also entering this in Simon Says Stamp and Show:  Good to Be Green  I played in Photoshop to alter the images to a sage shade of green.

Summer Sun

Double Duty this time:
Summer of Color 2013 Week 5 Artist's Choice:  candy apple red and yellow at Twinkle Twinkle blog
Gecko Galz design team project for July

 

As you know, for the Summer of Color, I'm trying my hand at digital layering.  This entire project is digital.

Gecko Galz products:
image cropped from Gecko Galz July 2013 release, Seashore Cuties collage sheet
background digital paper Strawberry Lemonade from Lemonade digital paper pack
digital image of glass and lemons from Lemonade digital paper pack

Items cropped and resized.

Photoshop Elements:
fire frame
text tool

Entering this challenge:

Our Creative Corner:  Captured Memories:  must include photo (can be digital)

Tag Tuesday Italy

I'm thrilled to announce I'm now a contributor to the Tag Tuesday blog. 

This week our theme is Italy.

Graphics Fairy digital image of Rome map
Tim Holtz Ideaology Salvage Scraps Lost and Found
Tim Holtz Ideaology filmstrip ribbon
American Crafts travel rub-ons
Ranger Antique Linen Distress Ink
twine

Best Buds

My second time around as guest designer for the Craft Room.

For the current challenge, Julia is asking you to create something vintage, but not cute, using a rubber stamp. I decided to ink up my new Art Journey stamp set, Friends 2.  These stamps remind me of the 1950's.  It doesn't seem that long ago, but it is considered mid-century and vintage--like me!!!!!  I fell in love with this stamp of the guys.  They look like they'll stick together through thick and thin. 

I swiped and spritzed Ranger Distress Inks Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Wild Honey, then dragged Stampin' Up Whisper White cardstock through the inky blend of color.  I used Mustard Seed to stamp some background.

Then I stamped the True Meridian with Wild Honey.  I thought it looked like the sun or moon and liked the fact that it was a "true meridian", something the guys would gaze at as they contemplate their futures.   

The guys, barbed wire, and Friends are stamped with Jet Black Archival ink.

I placed the card on a black card stock card base.

All the stamps are from the Art Journey set, Friends 2.

Also entering this card here:

A Card a Day challenge: July: Just for Men 
Won the July prize

All Sorts Challenge Week 214 Favourite Things:  This is my go-to inky technique--something easy and effective--therefore making it my favorite.  And this is one of my favorite stamps. 

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #183:  Anything Goes

All blog buttons for these challenges are in the sidebar.

Summer of Color 2013: Week Four

This is just a quick post under the wire as we soon will learn our new color combo for this week. 

Summer of Color Week Four:  Charcoal Gray and Pink:  more layering of digital images, using Gecko Galz and Photoshop Elements.

I created a ping file with an image from the Gecko Galz Hats collage sheet.  I then added a frame, rose and leaves from PSE.  It sounds easy and quick, but I learned a lot about layering, rotating images, and moving them to the back and front. 

My family reunion week is over and I'm back to creating and blogging. 

Gatsby Gal

Here is my final Gatsby card using Gecko Galz images from the Cats Meow collage sheet and Gatsby digital paper pack paired with Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 stamp set, Art Eccentric.  I made this card for a cousin following her knee surgery.  She has a great sense of humor, so I'm  hoping she gets a kick out of it.

I'm entering this in the challenge at  Luna Girl Moonbeams

The July challenge at the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group is Anything Goes but we must use at least one Studio 490 stamp.  This qualifies. 

The Cheerful Stamp Pad Challenge #63 From the Past