SOS: Apple for the teacher...

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is cleverly titled...

An Apple for the Teacher!

We are inviting you, dear crafters, to create either a teacher appreciation project or a project featuring fruits and/or veggies!

Here is my (hopefully) inspiring tag, meeting both of the challenge options!:

I plan to give this to my youngest daughter's teacher looped over a nice big bottle of hand sanitizer!  An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but some good hand-sanitizing may well do the same!

Supplies and notes:

• I employed Tim Holtz's Rusted Enamel Technique from Creative Chemistry 101 for the background, using Forest Moss and Frayed Burlap DIs on a 7 Gypsies tag
• The apple was made by cutting the shape from heavy-duty packing kraft and following this technique, inspired by THIS project by Jenny Marples for Frilly & Funkie.  I used Red Pepper, Currant, and Rust Adirondack alcohol inks and a Walnut Stain Distress Crayon over Ranger Crackle Accents.  The stem is a piece of penstamen stem painted with Walnut Stain Distress Paint.
• Ribbon, trim, and brad from my stash
• Image of kiddies is from Heartwarming Vintage, 2009
• I scrawled the note with Pebeo Relief Liner in Faux Lead
• Border dots by Viva

Really love to see what the people of Blogland have stashed!  See you guys over at SOS! 

Meow ATC

Couldn't resist... had to use my latest stencil purchase (from last weekend)!

Supplies:

• Library card with monoprint of Tim's StampAnon spiderweb/Halloween stencil inked with Black Soot DI 
• Trim from local quilt show this summer
• Cat from Tim's Halloween ephemera pack
• Stickles on cat's teeth
• Bat from a bonus baggie with my last purchase from Linda at The Funkie Junkie Boutique
• Card edged with Brushed Corduroy DI and topped with black Stickles 

I'll share this at Wicked Wednesday for my second entry this week.  It's too cute. 

Hola, happy birthday!

Busted these beauties out this afternoon.:

DIs: Scattered Straw, Worn Lipstick, Seedless Preserves, Spiced Marmalade 

DIs: Gathered Twigs, Weathered Wood, Brushed Corduroy, Evergreen Bough

DIs: Aged Mahogany, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Mustard Seed

Really very CAS, but I just love them, and I hope you guys do, too.

Supplies:

• Distress Inks used with Tim's Wrinkle-Free Distress technique 
• Tim's StampAnon stamps inked with Ranger Archival in Jet Black 
• Letterpress paper (very similar to watercolor paper in this case) then torn and mounted with dimensional tape 
• Sentiments written with a Faber-Castell Pitt: brush pen

I'd like to share the top card (with pink) at the current STAMPlorations CAS Challenge.

Drink up, me 'earties...

...Yo-Ho!

I have Disneyland fever so bad right now... I might have to miss work in the spring, LOL!!!

This large tag was made just for the challenge at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers:

Supplies:

• Heavy packing kraft cut into a tag and bordered with cloth tape then coated with black Liquitex gesso
• Stripes made by daubing a mixture of Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves Distress Paint through a Martha Stewart stencil
• Feather from K & Company
• Lace from the 1980s.  It was originally part of my sister's halloween costume when she was a rocker (think Madonna...), and then it ended up in the Barbie box as part of Barbie's wardrobe, and it was most recently posessed by my youngest daughter... I was cleaning out her Barbie box and lo', look what I got!  Delicious '80s trim!
• Gems from a value-box of gems my sister sent my kids last xmas.  I inked them with Slate and Purple Twilight Adirondack alcohol inks and adhered them with Glossy Accents
• The Jolly Roger was stamped by using Invoke Arts stamps with Distress embossing ink and Custer's Last Stamp EP
• "Yo-Ho" written with Thickers
• Tim's StampAnon Ledger Script stamp inked with VersaMark in Champagne ghosted over parts of the card, and a Stampendous halloween raven stamp with script inked in Ranger Archival in Jet Black added
• "...a pirate's life..." added with a mixture of black and white gessos, which I also used to accent the Thickers
• Couldn't figure out how to improve this without making it cheesy, until I had another lightbulb moment: Lindy's Stamp Gang Moonshadow Mist in Ethereal Emerald!  BOOYAH!!!  

A pirate's life for me, ladies... 

Love Cats

We slip through the streets while everyone sleeps...

Everyone remembers that song by The Cure, right???

I received these cats from Pia in Norway last week, and they instantly put this song in my head... then-- lightbulb-- I remembered the current challenge at SSS: Inspired By Music!  Sharing this there! Just in time... story of my life...

Supplies:

• 7 Gypsies tag textured using Tim's harlequin die to make a stencil, through which Teresa Collins modeling paste was applied
• Various Distress Crayons scribbled
• Brett Weldele stencil (which looks like graffiti to me, making the background look a little like an alley...) used with Chipped Sapphire DI
• Fiber from another project, dyed myself with Adirondack alcohol ink
• Cats are a diecut from Pia, painted with Black Soot Distress paint and whiskers applied with Pebeo Relief Liner in Faux Lead
• "Love cats" written using Amy Tangerine stamps inked with Ranger Archival in Jet Black
• White Liquitex gesso added at parts to brighten the piece, which started losing contrast
• Distress Glitter in Black Soot added to various parts of the tag with Glossy Accents

I could do a music challenge every week.  My memory is horrible, but even my husband is impressed with the information on music that I retain-- all of that basically useless information that takes of space of the things I actually need to remember!  LOL!

Wicked Wednesday #228

The current challenge at Wicked Wednesday is to use a diceut!

I conveniently had a craft meltdown Friday: I had plenty of time (which is rare), but I had very low inspiration, so I started cleaning and purging... I tore apart a bunch of cards I had worked on in the past and embossed the leftover panels, and I diecut tons of leaves and flowers from leftover spray sheets... it was a totally fruitful hour!  I ended up with some awesome embellishments and pieces I am excited to use.

Supplies:

• Sizzix embossing folder (from Autumn at Sew-Paper-Paint, thanks!) used on a piece of a discarded card, then sprayed with Dylusions in London Blue, Lemon Zest, and Vibrant Turquoise, then cut down to ATC size
• Frayed Burlap DI brushed lightly over the texture
• The Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves leaf was one of the dicut sheets from my spray box.  It is a white oak leaf, possibly Quercus lobata!  I "painted" the back with Mod Podge then left an acrylic stamp block over it it hold it flat while it dried.
• After that, I stamped one of Andrea's stamps (Blog and link to her store HERE) in Ranger Archival in Jet Black
• I edged the entire thing with Black Soot DI and affixed the finger-crocheted yarn with Recollections brads.  

DONE!  

Hellooo...

Well, thanks to the current challenge at Tag, You're It, I have had a fun couple of mornings practicing my true brush lettering with watercolors.  This is what I came up with... (well, one of the tags I came up with!):

I really love the simple look of Taheerah's tag:

Supplies:

• Loew Cornell watercolors and brushes used for all marked parts
• I snipped the corners of the old library catalog card, then painted them and adhered them to the opposite corners with Elmer's Craft Bond
• True Hemp metallic twine for the hanging apparatus

I'd like to share this at TYI, as well as Mod Squad, where they are celebrating inner splats-- mine happen to be purple on this tag!

And just for fun, here are my morning shots...

Queen of the household

I love this quote.  What a great reminder to those of us that run the day-to-day operations of a home that really we DO make an impact!

Supplies:

• I made a 2x2" box "canvas" out of some heavy duty packing cardboard, then coated it with matte Mod Podge and adhered an old encyclopedia page.
• Texture was added by pasting some Pebeo Medium Gel Texture: Yellow Sand through a stencil made by using a Tim Holtz harlequin die
• When dry (overnight), a heavy coating of sample house paint (Behr Flat Starless Night) was added over the textured area
• When this stage was dry (overnight), some DecoArt Metallic Lustre in Gold Rush was wiped over the textured area
• The exposed text was lightly scribbled on with Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, and Antique Linen Distress Crayons, then blended with a scant amount of water to further age the old pages
•  A Tim Holtz crown and ringed brads were inked with gold Adirondack alcohol ink mixative; the crown was adhered to the panel with E-6000 glue and the brads were attached to the sides of the box
• The fabulous trim came from the local quilt show last month
• The sentiment is a typed quote by Jill Scott.  I used the "goldest" color of DI I could find: Brushed Corduroy, to ink the edges. I added her name to the bottom of the box in order to give credit where credit is due.

I plan to share this at Try It On Tuesday, and my two colors are blue and gold.  (I'm hoping the neutrals of the page don't count!

Happy Friday!

SOS: Angels and Fairies

The current challenge at Shopping Our Stash is...

Fairies and Angels

Shop YOUR stash and use what ya been hoarding to create something fabulous (sing "FAB-u-LUSSSSS")!

This is the Library Fairy house that came together from stashed items:

Now, I am neither a "fairy person" nor an "angel person," though I know some people are very into either of these things.  After creating two projects that I wasn't personally connected to, I decided, "Okay, I'm going to build a fairy house," and I went to "the box."  We *all* have "that" box with the most random items: old postage stamps, dowels, corn husks, foam rollers... sooo miscellaneous!  I should pull everything out of it and take a picture one day!

So anyway, this Library Fairy home was built of stashed treasures and I am so pleased with it!  The kids at school will dig it!

Supplies... everything used was at least a year old, up to 30 years old!:

•  Library cards: all are Hans Christian Anderson catalogue cards!  Duh... the father of the fairy tale!
• Hot glue as sole adhesive
• Prima flowers (six years old?)
• Moss, purchased
• Alder branches from local trees (Alnus rubra, if you must know...)
• Tiny flowers from The Paper Studio
• Leaves cut from catalog cards and inked with Iced Spruce Distress Stain

So looking forward to seeing who are fairy people and who are angel people and who are tinker-fairies, like me!  LOL!  See you over at Shopping Our Stash!

Gin steam

I know... funny title.   Read the quote:

Really funny, right???

I made this for my best friend's mom's girlfriend.  We spent hours ironing table linens prior to Sarah's wedding reception, and I think we both now share a mutual loathe for the iron.  (By the way, I tried to get out of ironing-- I was so over it, but C.C. really just kept at it for the entire time... i think i went to go find some gin!)  Anyhow, this will be a cute hanging in a laundry room!

Supplies:

• Tim's kraft-core metallic paper cut with his alter frame die and punched with carrots hole punches
• The iron was backed with more of Tim's paper from a 6x6" stack
• The yarn was from the quilt show smorgasbord of fiber, adhered wth Glossy Accents 
• The girl (named Kelly Jo) is by Hero Arts, inked with Ranger Archival in Jet Black. The dress was paper-pieced with a scrap
• Fine gold stickles accented the iron and Kelly Jo
• The quote was typed on my old typewriter and edged with various DIs

I'd like to share this at the following challenges:

• Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies, September
  
• Addicted To Stamps And More: AG
  

Cheers!

Pretty colors

Hi! Happy Monday, ya'll!

Here's this... made in a few minutes while my daughter was doing her compulsary reading:

Supplies:

• Stampendous stamp (dated 2002... came into our family from a family friend three years ago).  Inked with Ranger archival in Jet Black
• DIs in the colors shown above
• Sentiment from Verve Stamps

I'll share this at the following challenges:

• Share Joy Challenge
  
• Retro Rubber Challenge: AG
  

JUGs and babies

I made this for a friend who just found out she is preggers!:

Supplies:

• Prima/Ruby Violet stamps inked with DI in Aged Mahogany and Wild Honey
• Doodling done using a fine Sharpie, probably inspired by Aaria at Surely Simple (explanation: I follow Surely Simple on Instagram [thanks to Lauren Beregold], and you can't help but doodle when you watch Aaria's quick videos...)
• The yellow tape in the background is 7 Gypsies 
• Corners snipped with a Fiskars punch 

That's all.   I used the color inspiration from JUGs this week, and will share this over there!

Pride and joy

I made this for my daughter:

...based on this sketch at Atlantic Hearts Challenge:

I just switched the corners...

Gotta run! Busy day tomorrow: oldest is going to a Rotary camp (for which she was elected) and I'm going on a hiking field trip to a lookout in Lassen National Park with the youngest. 

Also, have to say, as I was making this card, my youngest was producing her own craft video... this weekend I think I'll make a little channel for her :) 

CASEplorations in September

Here's my take...

...of this card:

Did I do it justice?  I don't know.  Everything I see by Sweet Kobylkin is pretty awesome: well balanced always, and everything is in "all the right places."  I appreciated the inspiration via STAMPlorations, though, and this is what I arrived at.

Supplies:

• Black oak leaf stap by Good Stamps
• Distress Stains in Spiced Marmalade and Aged Mahogany
• Scrap of Core-dinations black with sentiment written with a Zig Emboss Writer and embossed with Recollections EP in Snow (white)

Cheers!