Life IS good!

Now that I know they both have them, I can share a tag I made for friends Jeanne and Liane. They've both had some trials and tribulations this past year, Jeanne losing her beloved husband the 9TS back in February and Liane was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in April and has just finished up her Chemo and is now headed for Radiation. In my Internet travels, I find ideas that make me smile and sometimes I think the idea will make others smile as well. This tag is where that idea comes from. Life truly IS good.

Fungi

Now that his birthday is over, here is the card I made for brother-in-law John. Using a little play on words!! Mushroom stamp is Dyan's and I used her Spray Inks and a brush to paint the mushrooms. Card base was done with t!m's Distress Inks in Broken China, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade and then I did the Spritz and Flick technique then edged the whole thing in Vintage Photo.

Enameled Birthday

It time for challenge 15 at Linda's and it's based, as always on CofCII by Mr. Grungemaster himself, Tim Holtz. This week our challenge is Enameled Metal and it's found on page 56.

Since I was such a baaaad Aunt Sue and brain farted Favorite Only Niece's birthday, I thought I'd go ahead and work a full month in advance and get Favorite Youngest Nephew's 13th birthday tag done using this challenge. I used t!m's gears texture fade for this and added a bunch of gears and screws (that John nicely cut the heads off of for me!) and I even found in my stash a piece of a ruler with "13" on it, so I added to the tag as well. I even used another technique in the book, Faux Patina, on the largest gear! Now I have a month to get a gift card and get it in the mail in a more timely fashion so it gets to him before  his birthday and not after like his sister's did! It's hell gettin' old, I tell ya!

CTMH sneak peek

It's almost time (Aug 1) for the new CTMH Idea Book to go live to customers. That means it's time for our team swap and time for sneak peeks! Letting the cat out of the bag just a bit early, but we have another FABULOUS Cricut cartridge called Artiste that has lots (over 700 as a matter of fact) images with a large portion being 3-D and home decor items. CTMH discontinued our markers earlier this year and has now come out with our own Alcohol based markers. We've also got 8 great new paper packs and over 53 new embellishments.

I'm back to my normal two spots in Susan's swap because she's gonna spread things out a bit and do a traditional card swap first, then later she will do a swap using the new markers and then later still a swap using the new Artiste cartridge.

First up is the new Dakota paper pack. A go-to for those who have boys with lots of blues and reds and a western-ish theme.

Second is La Belle Vie, a very French feeling paper pack. Two colors limited to this paper pack are La Belle Pink and Mauve. There are no inks to match these colors as they are meant to be a highlight color.

The burlap ribbon on the La Belle Vie card is one of our new embellishments. It's about 1.5" wide and I folded it in half and whip-stiched down the folded edge, then pulled the thread tight and gathered the ribbon into a "flower" shape. The "diamond" in the center of the heart is also one of the new embellishments, Boutique Assortment.

Building doors

I don't think I'd done a page in my art journal using CTMH stuff. Got an email from my wonderful CTMH upline Susan this morning with this quote and decided I really liked it and I needed to journal it. Started with a piece of CTMH Goldrush cs and applied CTMH inks in White Daisy, Goldrush, Autumn Terra Cotta and Chocolate in a swiping fashion on the cs. Then used my Distress Marker in black and applied the lines for the planks and nail holes. Did the quote on the computer and doodled around it. The doorknob is a CTMH Durables Round Stud.

Guilded Glassine Birthday

Baaaaaaad Aunt Sue here. Completely brain-farted my Favorite Only Niece's birthday which is tomorrow. But Linda rescued me!! It's time for Compendium of Curiosities II, Challenge 14. As always, based on the book by Tim Holtz, who's latest and greatest thing is his own app! Yep, Tim Holtz...there's an app for that! You can get it for your I-phone or pad and also for Android. Just click his name above and look for the app link in his sidebar. One really cool feature is you can input all of your Tim Holtz supplies based on manufacturer as an easy reference for when your shopping so you don't get duplicates. :::not that I know anyone who has done that!::: And there's also a "wish list" section so you can put all the things that you don't already own that you want. Ummm...wouldn't that be everything else he's created that I don't own?! This week, our sponsor is The Funkie Junkie and one lucky player will win a $25 shopping spree to her Zibbit store.

This week's challenge is the Guilded Kraft Glassine technique located on page 39 of the book.  I decided to do a "Dyan-esque" tag for Miss Joy since she's more of a girly-girl than gears and sprockets (not that there is anything wrong with that!) So I started with three of Dylusions Spray Inks and then used Dyan's ghosting technique with stencils and water, then splooshed a bit of Spray Inks on some stamps and rolled them here and there for some layering and texture. Used the head and legs from Pondering Petunia and painted them using Dylusions Spray inks. I did the guilded glassine technique and used my Heart Wings die to cut out the heart for her body and crown, which I applied some pink bling to since Joy is a Princess and must  have some bling on everything Aunt Sue creates for her! There's also a tiny bit of the glassine on the right leg of her pants which had a bit of a hole in them! Since she will be 10 tomorrow, I used a 10 BINGO chip and painted it white then once it dried, painted it with Dylusions Squeezed Orange Spray ink. A little Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the outside edges and a piece of grosgrain ribbon dyed using Squeezed Orange, Lemon Zest and Bubblegum Pink Spray Inks finished this tag off.

Guardian Angel

Wonder if Dyan ever saw Rainbow Ruby as a Guardian Angel when she created her?! Also used Right Up Your Street for the houses. Lots of doodling with my white Signo Uniball pen. Hard to tell from the pic, but the wings on "fly" are pop-dotted on the tips.

Strength and Courage

Playing in my art journal today after no creating for a week. Have a jumble of ideas in my head, so hopefully I can get. them. out. and onto paper!

Started with old dictionary pages. Then applied acrylic paint thru Dyan's stencils. Random stamped in a few spots. Used my Lonely Girl stamp from Dina Wakley and added a few pearls to her crown. Paper flowers, vellum quote and rub-ons from my stash. Lots of doodling with my white and black pens.

Feels so good to have inky, painty paws again!

Remember

It's a new week! Didja miss me? John was on vacay last week and we worked on honey do's all week. I did not get inky a'tall and I can tell you I was suffering withdrawls! So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Linda had one of my all time (and relatively easy!) challenges, Spritz and Flick on pg 42, for Week 13 of Compendium of Curiosities II based, as always, on the ingenious mind of t!m! This week our sponsor is Simon Says Stamp and one lucky player will receive a $25 gift certificate. And with all of the new toyz fixin' to be released at CHA, this would be a GREAT prize to win!!

So I knew I wanted to use my new Limited Edition Summer Distress inks. Have you seen them? They are lucious beyond words! It almost looks like Dyan and t!m collaborated and came up with this BRIGHT (for t!m anyway) color pallate! Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean and Picked Raspberry are the three colors. And they mix and make the best other colors that end up looking so different every time you use them. So I smushed my inks into my Kraft sheet and then sprayed my tag and the colors with water. Drug the tag thru the colors and dried it then turned and drug it thru again. Dried it and then just laid it down and picked it back up without dragging and then dried it one final time. Then did the Spritz and Flick technique over the whole tag. Distressed the outside edge of the tag using Vintage Photo. I used some Acrylic paint to do the circles and doodled and painted the insides of them. The images of the bathing beauties are some that I got from Red Lead and I used the Ripe Raspberry and my paint brush to color one of the bathing suits. The roses are colored using Dyan's Lemon Zest Spray inks and it's really more a vibrant yellow than the picture shows. I used some white acrylic paint on my BINGO chip to cover the red then once it was dry, smooshed it into the Salty Ocean ink pad. The "remember" quote is one of Dyan's that I stamped in Archival Black then went back with my white Signo Uniball pen and doodled around.

Now my fingers are inky for this Sunday and I'ma happy girl!

Dreamer

I recently joined an Art Journal group on FaceBook. There is some AMAZING talent among the group. I am finding inspiration in everything that the ladies post! These pages are a compilation of three different ladies postings and my own personal take on them. The quote is one Favorite CTMH Upline Susan shared with our team and I thought it applied well to my journal page. (and read all the way across both pages, not the first page then the second!) I used t!m and Dyan stamps and my Twinkling H2O's to color with. White Signo Uniball Pen for doodling.

Totally Rockin'

I just realized I never shared this tag I made for my friend Liane. She is currently undergoing chemo treatments for breast cancer and was in the beginnings of losing her hair when I made and sent this. She has since shaved her head and is rockin' the hats and scarves. I thought the turban lady from Dyan's Travelling Travis stamp set would be an appropriate image for this tag. I did the turban in red since it's Liane's favorite color. And she loved it!

Configurations for Compendium

How's that for a mouthful?! Linda is giving us two weeks to complete the latest Compendium of Curiosities II challenge. So this is week 11 and 12 combined. As always, the challenges are based on the works of t!m and he and the wonderful Mr. BTS, Mario are also sponsoring this fortnight challenge with an amazing t!m Holtz goodie bag full of prizes. This challenge can be found on pages 33 and 34 in CofCII.

I bought this Confugurations box over two years ago. And it's sat. I didn't really know what I was going to do with it and was waiting for inspiration to strike. And when Linda said this was the week for the box, I knew inspiration HAD to show up! I had the wooden "J" and "S" letters (for John and Sue!) so that was my starting point. I covered the J in foil tape and distressed it using my t!m Craft Scratcher and a pen. Then I painted the whole thing using Claudine Hellmuth Charcoal Black and quickly wiped it off. For the S, I covered it in a scrap of blue and white dotted cs since blue is my favorite color, then distressed the edges of it. Then I was at a loss of what else to do. So I sat the box on my side table and stared at it for a couple of days. Finally, lightning struck! I would do different places we had been on vacations through the years. We've been able to take some great trips over the last 24 years. We have many happy memories of the trips we've taken.

 Completed box

 Japanese Torri Gate. I made this out of a Kraft stick. Painted close to the same color as the one at the entrance to Miajima Island. John's letter "J" and my letter "S'. Marie Laveau's Voodoo Potient represents New Orleans.

 Wasted away again in Margaritaville can be no place else than Key West, FL! The Great Smoky Mountains, one of my favorite places on earth. Grand Tetons in Wyoming.

 Bison represents Yellowstone National Park. "Vacation" definition taken from an old dictionary. And below it is Chippewa Square in Savannah, GA and the "Forrest Gump" bench. Turtle is for Grand Cayman Island and the turtle farms where they raise Green Sea Turtles to return them to the sea.

Bridge of Lions across the intracoastal waterway in St Augustine, FL. Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC. Coke bottle for the tour we took of the Atlanta, GA bottling plant and Jack Daniel's label for the tour at Lynchburg, TN.

12 tags of 2012 July

You had to know t!m would go patriotic for the July 12 tags of 2012! Had to! And he did not disappoint! Here's his fabulous take on this month's technique.

I find it very strange that I do not have any reds in alcohol ink. Or Paint Daubbers for that matter. Something I need to remedy! So I used Stream and Denim along with Picket Fence Mixative on my tag and distressed around the edge using Fired Brick Distress Ink. The stars, postage cancellation and United States Of America stamps are all from the (discontinued) CTMH Vintage USA set. I used the 4  from t!m's mini numerals and dipped it in Blue Pearl embossing powder and heat set it. The blue shimmer is much better in person!