A Loving Heart Is The Truest Wisdom.

I love how this turned out and there was a bit of a learning curve involved.  I used the Tim Holtz Hanging Sign die and The Bird and the branch die and cut them using chip board (the type that comes at the back of paper tablets).  I cut two of the hanging posts and glued them together to get a longer post to hang my sign from.  I found this idea on the following youtube video http://youtu.be/Rwh6WSxq7UA.  The learning curve came when I tried to add the eyelets.  I never used the crop-a-dile big bite for anything other than punching holes.  It required a phone call to my sister who immediately asked me if I read the directions.  Well, how could I when I threw them away.  Who needs to read directions when you have a sister that can walk you through the steps.  Anyway, I figured out how to do the eyelets after a few attempts of crushing several beyond use.

I covered the sign with Adirondack "Espresso" paint dabber.  I used "Pool" and "Gold", applied them to my craft mat and used a dry brush here and there to add an aged look.  I stamped the sign with a textured stamp and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I typed the quote and printed from my computer.  I distressed the paper by tearing it, covering it with scattered straw distress ink and then using vintage photo around the edges.  I glued it to my sign with good ole Elmer's glue.

I cut the bird and branch from chipboard that I covered with scrapbook paper.  I cut the bird from the branch with scissors and inked the edges with "Vintage Photo" distress ink.  I colored his beak with yellow copic marker (can't remember which color).  Then I added some bling for his eye.

I inked my background by covering it with scattered straw distress ink and using various stencils and sprays.  I stamped the white square pattern by rubbing Gesso on my stamp and randomly applying it to the page.  I did some stamping with black archival ink.  Then I glued down the sign and the bird.  I added a flourish stamp to show his singing.  Then I added stamping using "Sepia" archival ink.  I don't know if you can see it in the picture but I also randomly stamped a crackle background stamp using "Tumbled Glass" distress ink.  I tried to put a little blue in the background to pick up the bird.  The final step was outlining the bird with "cool gray No 3", to help define him a little.  I added the silk flowers with a glue gun and there you have it.....done.

This next photo is from some experimenting that I did tonight.  I bought a new embossing powder today (aged teal).  I was hoping that it would give an aged look to some of my die cuts.  I saw a tutorial for distressing and aging the Tim Holtz Jalopy http://layersofink.blogspot.com/2012/04/faux-rust-tutorial.html and thought that this embossing powder would be perfect.

I cut two pieces of chipboard and coated them with the Espresso ink dabber.  I stamped the whole thing with the textured stamp and clear embossing ink.  I added the embossing powder and heated it.  The first attempt came out too blue.  So I used the same method but rolled the stamp in small spots.  I liked this one better but it also came out with more blue than I expected.  The powder looks like a mixture of turquoise, gold, and brown.  I didn't think the turquoise would be so dominate.  I will probably still use this method but go very light handed with the stamping.

Learning ...

 

When I started this project early this afternoon, I thought that it was going to go quickly and that I might have time to do a couple pages in my journal.  Yeah....that didn't happen.  I thought I had my Cricut machine all figured out.  It may have taken me a while and I may have had to cut a couple times BUT, I DID IT!  The peacock is from the Art Nouveau cartridge.  It is cut in layers and it took me a couple tries to figure it out.  The flash from the camera washed out the colors.  It is a little brighter than how it appears.  The mandala in the middle is from the ornamental Iron 2 cartridge. It is Gate 3D, which is a half circle.  I cut two and glued them together to make a circle.  I inked the background with scattered straw distress ink and rubbed peeled paint distress around the edges.  I stamped the flourishes using various colors.  I printed the comment on my computer and inked it with bundled sage ink dauber.  I glued down the mandala, then the peacock and then the comment.  I traced around the peacock with a black pen and doodled around the comment to make them stand out.  I added some bling to his tail feathers and another bling for his eye.  I like how it turned out.  Now I have to clean up the mess I made while doing it!

His Eye is on the Sparrow

I saw this method for using the Tim Holtz Distress Markers on the video on youtube http://youtu.be/jmYdEsHdnjs.  I wanted to give it a try.  I started out stamping the two birds and coloring them in using the method they described.  It looked easy enough.  I think it came out pretty good for my first try.  I definitely need practice with blending.  I then did some searches for poems about birds and found this beautiful poem and knew that is what had to go on my page.  I typed it up, printed it from my computer, distressed it, glued it down  and added some doodling.  I love the message.  A simple reminder that "He" is taking care of us.  What a nice reflection to end my evening.

Spending Spree...Big Smile!

The first picture is a picture of all my loot.  The next few pictures I broke up my stash so you could get a closer look.

I took the last one so that you could see the side of the crate that I bought at Michael's for $4.00 (not on sale).  I plan to paint it the same white as the trim in my craft room.  Then I will have a nice neat place to store my embossing folders.  I love it!  Now it is time to play with some of my new toys.

Just Playin' Around

 I posted both pictures because one shows the glitter better than the other.

 While everyone that I know was watching the football game, I decided to go to Michael's Crafts and use my 20 percent off all items including sale items coupon.

I bought some new stamps and of course I always have to see what they look like when I stamp them.  I used a sheet of copy paper and stamped them.  When I saw how cool they looked it made me want to color them.  I bought some glitter paint a month ago and I thought since I was just playing around, I would use them.  I'm not that much of a glitter person but I do like how these turned out.  The paint appears to be translucent, which made it so that I could paint an entire area without worrying about going over the black outlines.  I didn't have a full selection of colors so I end up using my Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils on the bird nest and the owl. 

I LOVE these stamps.  The owl, the heart and the bird nest were from the dollar bin at Michael's.  I know...so cute.  The bugs and the butterfly's are from an Inkdo set.  It also came with a great big butterfly but I messed it up when I tried to use Stickles to make the body standout.  The flourishes are a set of clear stamps.  I only stamped one from the set.  I went over one flourish with my Micron pen (obviously the darker one on the bottom.)  I LOVE it.  Can't wait to use them in future artwork.  Notice the ladybug frame on the filmstrip stamp.  Again, I went over the image with a Micron pen and used my white Signo pen to bring out the white.  I also colored the tufts and eyes on the owl with the Signo pen

The Bad With The Good.

I am not happy with my latest journaling efforts but I wanted to post them even though I'm not pleased with them.  Not everything turns out as I expected it to.

 This page started out with the ink from another page.  I believe I used a stencil and put the negative on this paper (The yellow).  Then I put distress ink on the background with a blending tool.  I used a border stamp in a blue just slightly different. The butterfly is the negative of the butterfly stencil below.  I then added stamping from a polka dot stamp.  I cut the two black fans using a Cricut Ornamental Iron II cartridge and glued them on.

This was an attempt at a method I saw on a video today.  Mine didn't turn out anything like what I saw.  That happens when you forget the process that you saw and leave steps out.  I also tried to mask the butterfly images the way I saw on the video and Do Not Like the results.  My lines are too straight and stark.  The video made it look so simple.

This is simply the butterfly stencil/mask that I recently bought and I couldn't wait to use it.  Not sure what else I will do with this but the stencil sure is nice.

I was playing around with my inktense water color pencils and drew this.  I really, really love these pencils.  I added some doodle details with a fine tip ball point pen.  The saying in the heart was from a stamp.  I cannot write that pretty.

 I like how this one turned out.  I sprayed the background using various Dylusions sprays through various stencil.  I also used the "ghosting technique" by spraying water through the stencil, letting it sit for a few second and patting it dry with a paper towel.  I stamped randomly over the background.  I used modeling paste through a bird stencil.  When it dried, I painted it using my watercolor pencils.  I brushed the pencil tip with the water brush and applied it to the bird. I outlined the  bird with a black micron pen.  I did the lettering in pencil first (it was very hard to see on the colorful background.  Sometimes I had to hold it at an angle to the light so I could see)  Then I went over it using a black sharpie.  I finished it using my white Signo pen to highlight.

 This is a background that was crated simply because I was playing with some stencils.  Not sure what I'll do with it.

I bought some stamps on the clearance isle and played with them.  I may add more to this some other time.  One thing I learned from this was that I should probably use blue ink for the clouds and maybe yellow for the sun and the one house that is solid....maybe pick a bright ink color for it.  I colored everything with my Copic markers.

I saw some zentangle dangles and thought I would give it a try.  The ink at the bottom is over spray from another page.  Ooops.

I can hear you now, "What the ....." Well....I bought a stamp of a crown and thought that I would stamp it in black and emboss it using silver embossing powder.  I thought it would look cool.  It didn't turn out as cool as  it looked in my head.  I have some ideas to add to this page so maybe all is not lost.