Inkspirational

I'm doing a semi-annual DP organizing/purge.

The catalyst for this is either lack of motivation or stress.  Today I think it was a little of both-- just fixating on something irritating in the craft shack today and so I just got busy cleaning.  One thing lead to another,  and the next thing I know: I'm in the house at the kitchen table with 75 pounds of DP, a full sized paper cutter, and a cocktail,  watching the Olympics with my family! Ahhh, all better!

So anyway...

This is a project that was built just prior to the purge:

Now that I've spent a few hours staring at paper, I'm all motivated to use up my stash!

The current challenge at Inkspirational is...

So there you have it!

Supplies:

• DP is Echo Park (both A and B sides)
• Doily stamp is by Tim Holtz with StampAnon, inked with Tim's MM pad: Hickory Smoke
• The rest of the stamps are Hero Arts, inked with Ranger Archival in Jet Black 
• The flowers were punched from an old book using a Fiskars punch then layered with Glossy Accents 
• Stickles in Icicle were added just for fun.  Looks like snow. 

Sketch Saturday #425

Another "long time, no play"... here is a project to enter with the current Sketch Saturday:

Just playing around,  but I love the look of this... hmmm...

I'm going through a little "sketchy phase" though... I have lots of DP and I love to use it.

Here's the sketch:

Supplies:

• Marion Smith and Simple Stories DPs
• The flower on the pennet is cut from some Marion Smith DP and the larger is popped up with dimensional tape 
• The black pearls are Viva Pearl Pen in Anthracite 
• I edged everything with Old Paper DI

That's it!

Wicked Wednesday #222

Been awhile since I played with Wicked Wednesday... this week's challenge is to use Sunshiny Yellow :)

Supplies:

• Library card base cut down to ATC size
• I daubed the entire card with Mustard Seed Distress Ink then used a triangle Heidi Swapp stencil over the top and sprayed with water to get a little pattern, but the card absorbed most of the water so the effect was very subtle.
• The image was from an oversized stamp by Stampendous
• The skull was painted with whte Liquitex gesso, and I used various Stickles for the features of the lovely skeleton girl
• The card was edged with Seedless Preserves Distress Paint, then I added some of my fave trim loosely... I always need my ATCs to have a displaying mechanism because I often give them to people who are not trading back!

Colour Q

I don't think I've played with Colour Q since early July.  I like that they get their color inspirations from things like catalogs... I get inspired in that way, too.

Here's my tag:

This is the palette and image:

Supplies:

• The tag is by 7 Gypsies.  I wiped up some excess black and white Liquitex gesso from my mat... actually did two tags because I had overestimated my gesso needs whilst painting a skull!
• The feather is from The Paper Studio
• The trim is ever so fun-- I believe it is from a BasicGrey ribbon pack from years ago... like at least five.  It actually is four rows of studs but that was too much, so I snipped off the last row
• The skeleton is by Tim
• The ribbon at the top is from my stash.
• The sentiment was typed with my typewriter and edged with Black Soot and Evergreen Bough DI

Fun and edgy, huh! 

Atlantic Hearts

I also haven't played with Atlantic Hearts in a while... geez... this family thing really cuts into my craft time!  Ha!

Here's my card:

This is the sketch:

Supplies:

• The heart panel was initially a piece of letterpress paper used to mop up the ink from another project, which resulted in a super-cool wrinkle-free distress effect
• Last week I was using the Dina Wakley hearts and this panel was lying there and so I used it to get rid of some excess ink on it... what a perfect grey-tone for the panel!  
• I outlined the heart with some Elmer's Craft Bond and added some Antique Linen Distress Glitter... then the panel sat there looking pretty for a few days...
• ...until I remembered the current AH challenge!
• I added a scrap of  1893 music paper that was on my desk, and tore a few pieces of 7 Gypsies masking tape to match the DIs
• The sentiment was written using Pebeo Relief Liner in Faux Lead

Voila!  I really love so many elements of this card and hope you do, too!

Contain yo'self!

I love upcycling boxes!  Thanks for the challenge, Mr. Monday Simon!

Supplies:

• Cigarillo tin (Dad smokes 'em, Mom saves 'em)
• Coated exterior of tin with black Liquitex gesso.  Because I'm not sure what I'll do with this box yet, I'm leaving the inside unfinished.
• The flower is a Heidi Swapp stencil with Teresa Collins modeling paste on it. 
• The leaves were colored with Peeled Paint Distress Crayon
• The flower color includes: Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and Distress Paint and Vintage Photo Distress Stain. 
• The box was edged with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink, and then I added some shading with a Black Soot Distress Crayon
• Andrea Ockey-Parr's stamps were used in the background (the circles with text and the black splatters)
• I used white Liquitex gesso to spatter,  accent, and dot the edges of the tin

Maybe I'll print some photos and place them in here for my folks. My mom would like that I use the items she saves for me!

Tim's August Tag...

WOW... typing "Tim's August Tag" was like reality smacking me in the face.  Can this be?  It's for real... HERE'S the link.

This was the quickest monthly tag I've completed and it is also one of my fave remixes:

Here's Tim's remix graphic:

Dudes: this April tag is rocking my world and I love it.  Beautiful.

Supplies and notes (these Tim-tags are always technique-heavy for me... and I love it, but it gets lengthy in this segment):

• Started with a library catalog card base coated with white Liquitex gesso
• Applied the brayer technique in the following manner: used an old inkpad re-inker as my brayer and rolled it into Iced Spruce, Peeled Paint, and Antique Bronze Distress Stains on my mat, and then rolled it across the card.  When dry, water spots added by doing the half-press on the ol' mini-mister
• For the frame portion I busted out my Mixed Media Thinlits by Tim and cut a few iterations of the hexagons out of some 1893 music paper... so fragile it broke itself off
• For the negative pieces, I inked a bunch with the following DIs: Rusty Hinge, Shabby Shutters, Frayed Burlap, and Scattered Straw
• Edge of card inked with Frayed Burlap DI
• The feather is a Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stencil with Distress Crackle in Black Soot
• The sentiment is rhetorical, of course, but it is from an old book.  I outlined each word with an ultra-fine brown Prismacolor pen
• The keys and paperclip are from my stash.  I actually went against my utilitarian instinct and glued the paperclip to the card instead of affixing it "naturally" (properly would be the proper word)-- this allows the keys to swing more freely
• The ribbon is newly acquired from the quilt show in town this weekend-- some lady had a booth with baskets and baskets of remnant fibers (primarily yarns and hand-dyed ribbons), and it was a dig-fest!!! You know what I mean: you got to just rummage through cubic yards of fiber... OMG.  Fantasy land. I was like, "Take my money.  Thank you."  Anyway, just ended up using staples because I couldn't decide what size hole to punch: 1/8" or standard.  ("[Expletive].  I'll just staple it." And I'm so happy.)  So... the very last thing I did was add the button (BasicGrey) and the camera (The Paper Studio) to the ribbon.  This 100% reminded me of my beloved Disneyland and our lanyards... anybody feel me there?  I have the fever so bad... we were just there in February, but I would LOVE to go back in October.  

Have a great August... see you next month.