So Much Fun!

 

As soon as I saw Tim's tag for this month, I couldn't wait to make it and knew it would be my favorite.  For those of you who live in a cave and don't know what I'm talking about, it's Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013 and you can see his April tag and get all the instructions here.

I usually make the tags with my friend, Grace, but poor Gracie has been dealing with a lot of crap and overtime at her job this month, and we could never get together.  I realized it was the end of the month, so I had to make this one without her.  :-(

 

I started by making the background for the tag using Tim's Distress Paints with the new metallics.  So awesome!  I usually just wipe up any excess ink/paint on my craft sheet, but I wanted to save this goodness, so I swiped a 2nd tag in...

And a 3rd.  I had to stop myself at this point, cause now I was adding more paint, and was having so much fun, I could've kept covering until all my blank tags were done!

Since I was adding paint to finish covering this one, some of the paint was a little thick.  Tim suggested dabbing up excess paint with a towel, but I kept it.  The thick areas bubbled up when I used my heat gun and left some really cool textured areas.

I had to make a tough decision and choose one for my tag, and I'll save the other 2 for another day.

Next, I chose some Idea-ology and a plastic number to do faux patina on.  While drying these with the heat gun, I realized the metal gets HOT!  Yikes!

Like I said, I loved Tim's tag so much, I wanted to do everything he did.  But, I decided to use a 3 instead of a 4 so I'd be a little different.  lol

Edges were distressed and inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I really love this tag, and I had the most fun creating it!  Here are some close-ups ...

I used Tim's Texture Hammer to bang up the brads in the centers of the gears.

Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art is so much fun to play with and mold.  Very easy too!  It just takes a little patience and practice.

I rubbed some Broken China paint in the crevices of all the text and wiped off with a towel before adding the other colors of paint to the top & edges.

And, those pen nibs are really sharp!  I like the little touch this added to the tag, and I'll be using more of these in my projects in the future.  And, my plastic number 3 came out better than expected.  Love it!

A Little Bit of Whimsy

Pics and details for my Happy Art Flag entries for Beautiful Impressions in CT this weekend.

I was inspired by the challenge on the EWV group (Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group) to use Wendy's Metallic Paste over some spray ink so the color is picked up by the paste.

I knew I wanted to enter this in the Happy Art Flag contest at Beautiful Impressions in CT this Friday in honor of Tim Holtz's classes this weekend, so I decided to work on a 4" x 6" (dimensions required for each flag entry) piece of chipboard.

I started with heavy applications of Ranger's Adirondack Color Washes in the colors of denim, Lettuce & Stream.  I then lightly sprayed some White Linen Dylusions Spray Ink.

Then, the fun part ... using Wendy's Polka Dotty Stencil For Art, I schmeared some of her Metallic Paste on (carefully remove stencil, and wash immediately).  When it was dry (I gave it about 2 hours to be safe), I thought it was screaming for some alien spaceships!

I hit Michaels in search of a spaceship stamp with no luck.  Then, I realized I was going to the Heirloom Rubber Stamp Festival in Allentown, PA over the weekend, so I figured I'd find one there.  No luck ... not one alien, spaceship or rocket.  None, nada, nil.

I was hosting my scrapbooking club at the local library on Tuesday, and I decided to demo how to make some fun, layered embellishments with the Cricut, and guess what I found by accident?  Yes!

I made a few ships in different sizes, and this is what I came up with ...

I typed the words on my computer and hand-drew the thought bubble; cut it out & popped it up.

Here's the background so you can see how the metallic paste picked up the color ...

I think I'm going to enter this in the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge which is "backgrounds" this week.

This is my other entry for the Happy Art Flag challenge ...

I saw on someone's blog (I can't remember who for the life of me!) about using Distress Ink as a background and covering with a layer of Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  I thought that would make for a cool underwater background.

I finally used one of the many jars of Mudd Puddles I've been hoarding for the ocean floor.  I also glued on some teeny tiny shells I got in a jar when I went on the Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise.

I cut up some pieces of Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art and colored them with Alcohol Inks; I heated each of them one section at a time and gave it a little twist.

I needed a great Tim Holtz sentiment ... after all, he'll be judging the entries.  tee hee

I wanted some fishing net, but I didn't have any small enough ... then, I remembered about this piece Tim gave us in one of the classes on the cruise.

I just realized I should have put a little rhinestone for the eye.  Oh well, it's long gone since I mailed it to the store last week.

I used more of Wendy's Clearly for Art in white to stamp this beautiful seahorse.  I was able to heat it and mold it so it could hang out in the middle of my kelp bed.

I'm soooo psyched for the classes this weekend with Tim!  I'll be on my way to CT in the morning!