Affirmation Tags!

I have seen a lot of personal affirmations posted on Facebook and Pinterest.  That gave me an idea of how to use some of the tags that I have made while trying new inking techniques.  Below are my first three tags.  This is fantastic because now I have a place to practice techniques, lettering, Zentangling, doodling and collaging on a smaller scale.  I had a lot of fun and can't wait to make more of these.  You could even make a small journal with pockets and add these.

Anyway, for now I am off to babysit my grand kids while another one comes into this world!  So much excitement!

St. Patrick's Day

 

I worked on this little tag today by inking the background with  distress ink "mowed lawn"  I put the ink on my craft mat and sprayed it with water and ran the tag through it.  I dried it and did it a couple more times to build up layers and give it some texture.  Then I put the ink on the mat but did not spray it with water and randomly dabbed the tag into it.  I printed the poem  and distressed it with "scattered straw".  I stamped a flourish design by inking the stamp and pressing it on scrap paper first and stamping a second time on the tag.  This made it so that the stamp didn't overpower the writing and appear as the background.  Then I added the lace, which was white, but I colored it with my distress marker "scattered straw".  I glued two buttons on either side and added a punched butterfly from the Martha Stewart collection.

Several Things I Have Been Playing With...

I have worked on a few things over the last couple of weeks and decided to post them all at once.

 First are the magnets that I made for my Dry Erase Board. You can find all kinds of tutorials for these on the Web.  They are the half marbles that you buy in the flower section of Michel's.  You use a 1/2 inch circle punch to cut out any picture or design paper that you like, glue it to the back of the marble with Glossy Accents, wait for it to dry and glue a magnet on the back.  You can use a glue gun for this.  I used the Glossy Accents since I had it out.  The marbles magnify the picture and give them a real cute look.  For these, I used the 1/2 inch punch as a template and drew circles, then drew a simple picture and colored them in with Sharpie markers. After they were colored in, I punched them, glued them and there you have it. It was very hard to get a good picture due to the reflection from the glass.

 Next a couple Photo Art Projects:

This probably looks familiar because I used this same lady and bird to do an ATC.  Here she is glued to chipboard and is a stand up decoration.

This just tickled my fancy.  I thought the little girl was adorable and I thought it was funny to have her holding fish.  I don't know about anyone else but it makes ME laugh every time I look at it.

Onto Some ATC'S:

I did the background on this with the Dylusion inks (Love them).  Then I stamped the image of the house and colored it in using sharpie markers.

 These are to finish out my ATC shelf from 7 Gypsies that I posted a couple posts back. In the one above, I was playing with embossing resist and layering.   I think it's cute but wish I had gone with a different background color.

 You can't see it but this is the word "Dream" from an old Dictionary page.  I did some doodling and used some old lace that I distressed with Tim Holtz "Vintage Photo" distress ink. I glued some black lace and some punched flowers and stuck a bow made of baker's twine.

This was inspired because my sister likes owls. So what better than a whole collage of owls?  Then I used Washi Tape to finish off the sides and give it a border.

While I was doing Google searches for owls, I came across this guy and he just looked like he had bed head and wasn't happy about it.
 

 I love the vintage feel of this one.  I cut out an image that I had of some violets and glued it to a background of some old newsprint scrapbook paper.  I used "Vintage Photo" distress ink around the edges and glued some blue lace down.  The flowers were from some white trim that I had.  I used Tim Holtz distress ink daubers and colored them "Victorian Velvet".

Next Are A Hodge Podge Of Items:

I was simply playing with some new stencils that I had just bought and thought that this came out beautiful.  Unfortunately the photograph doesn't show the gorgeous richness of the colors.

I made this because I watched the following YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP2kGHQGTjU.  It is amazing.  I didn't use the Tim Holtz "Artful Dwellings" die cut, but I did use the brick embossing folder and the Martha Stewart lace border punch for the roof. I cut my own house and roof by hand.  Then embossed it with the brick embossing folder and inked it using the Tim Holtz blending tool and vintage photo distress ink.  I cut the windows and door from some tags that I had inked previously.  I used a black marker to go around the edges and frame in the windows and then a white paint pen to go around the outside of each.  I had a spider web stamp that I used in the bottom two windows.  I love how it turned out.  Now I just have to figure out what project to use it in.

 This is an ATC where I folded aluminum foil around the card and then embossed it in my Cuttle Bug.  I then painted it with black acrylic paint and wiped it off with a paper towel before it dried. This is actually the wrong side of the card.  If you look real close you can see the folds of the aluminum foil.  BUT, the numbers in the upper right corner are embossed correctly.  Below shows my mistake.....

This is the front of the card. Notice the numbers at the top left.  They are the mirror image because I didn't pay attention to which side was going to receive the embossing when I put it in the folder.  Oh well, I still love the metal look to it.

Playing in my journal:

I was practicing drawing eyes and this is what the page turned into.  The eyes are colored with Distress markers and sharpies (the sharpies bled through the back of the paper).  I colored the background in with water color pencils and then used my water brush.

 

 This journal page was inspired by a picture I saw from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/repacheco/5508119472/in/set-72157614255985873/ and thought that I would try to draw the flowers.  Although it doesn't look much like the original, I do like how it turned out.

 This is a new Tim Holtz Alterations die cut that I bought.  I just can't seem to put the bird in the cage.  He NEEDS to fly free.  Anyway ,I embossed his wing with a Cuttlebug folder. and then distressed it with distress inks and a blending tool.

Making Flowers:

These are two flowers that I made after watching this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51xEsr5HtEg  My flowers didn't come out anything like hers but I am still happy with them.  I obviously did not have the same flower punch that she used.  I tried her method with two different punches that I did have and put a button in the center of the bigger one and a brad in the center of the smaller one.  I am sure that I can find a fun project to use these in.

ATC's For My New 7 Gypsies Artist Printers Tray

I saw this tray in the background when I watched a "How To" Video from Michael's Craft store.  The video was explaining a masking technique with rubber stamps. After the video was over it displayed other videos to watch and they had one showing this tray.  I watched it and the video explained that the tray was from 7 Gypsies.  Of course I had to have one because I thought it was a great way to display ATC's.  This also inspired me to make some new ATC's and try some new techniques with inking, layering, and collaging.  I managed to create eight ATC's and I have four more to do.

Even though the tray isn't complete, I am loving it.  I had so much fun and can't wait to finish it.

I collaged the background using various scrapbook papers.  The Marble Yard advertisement came from a bag that I had from an antique store.  I cut the  little girl from a vintage photo I found on Google.  I printed the saying from my computer and colored it with Butterscotch alcohol ink.  I used the Tim Holtz Distress tool to grunge up the edges of the card.  I then used distress inks over the edges of the card.  I added the ribbon, which was originally cream color and sprayed it with some walnut ink. I added the lace at the bottom to finish it off.

I used scrapbook paper and covered the whole card.  I stamped the background with a tea cup stamp using the masking technique that was in the Michael's video.  The stamp had three tea cups and it was too big to fit on the 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 card.  I inked one cup and covered two of the cups with scotch tape, then stamped it on the card.  I added Washi tape with music notes. Then I wrote the word "Tea" and filled it in with stripes using a fine point pen and colored it in with a Copic marker.  I found the Tea pot and the Tea cup through Google.  Again, I distressed the edges with "Tea Dye" Distress ink.

The idea for this came simply because I wanted to use one of the vintage keys in my stash.  I did a search on Google looking for antique doors and found this wonderful vintage lock.  I collaged the door lock and some scrapbook paper of old newspaper.  I stamped the top with a number stamp, distressed the edges with distress inks, added the key and the saying was printed from my computer that was inked with Alcohol ink.

This card just evolved.  I didn't have any idea what I wanted to make.  I started by using the resist technique with embossing.  First, I used a the flourish stamp with embossing ink. Then covered it with green embossing powder and heated it with my heat tool.  Then I repeated the process using blue embossing powder and heated it.  I added pictures of a bird nest, a bird and a butterfly from my stash and covered the card with walnut distress ink.  I added a the flower and leaf that was distressed  with Vintage Photo distress ink.

This card is very simple. I distressed the card with "Tea Dye" distress ink. I used a pumpkin stamp and a crow stamp.  The harvest moon is alcohol ink and outlined with a black marker.  I added the words from my computer and covered it with "Faded Blue Jean" ink.

I wanted to use one of my Marie Antoinette pictures and again kept it simple.  I added Washi Tape at the bottom, added some feathers and used a button after I cut the shank off.

The inspiration for this one came from a freebie sheet of dresses that was posted from Pinterest.  I searched Google images for a torquoise shoe.  I sprayed the card with dylusion ink sprays and added a strip of scrapbook paper of old newsprint and distressed the edges of the card.  I feel like this card needs more but I have no idea what.  Any ideas?

I love this one.  I collaged a paper background and was very messy with the glue (completely unintentional).  Then I distressed the card using "Tea Dye" distress ink.  The glue worked as a resist and added to the distressed look of the card.  It was a happy surprise.  You can really see it in the upper left corner.  The pictures were from my stash.  I added the quote and the bronze flower that was a necklace.

I can't wait to make more.  I wish I had more free time  to play.