Layering Sunflowers

Hi all, welcome to the blog today.  It's been a long time but I think that will be the way it is for the time being.  Inspiration isn't coming consistently these days!   I've had some sunflower things sitting on my work table for  several months and I really wanted to do something with them.  Linda, from The Funkie Junkie Boutique, always places wonderful little gifts in orders (thanks, Linda).  In one order back in late August or early September she gifted me with sunflowers!  I love sunflowers and always have them in the house late in the summer.  They are so cheerful and bright and make me smile when I see them.  So, I knew right away that I wanted to use some of the things in the package for a sunflower tag.  But, everything sat on my table and life and the holidays intervened and no tag materialized!  Now it's almost spring here and I'm thinking about our garden and the different flowers and vegetables we're going to plant this year.  I've seen a few new sunflower varieties that I want to try and that sent me to my table to make my tag!  Over at the Frilly and Funkie Challenge blog the theme this time is Layer It Up so I thought I would do just that with my tag and all the sunflower things I had sitting there.

Here is what I came up with.



 

 

 

 

I used a size 8 tag and I sprayed it with Fossilized Amber Distress Spray.  I used a flower stencil and sprayed again with Pirates' Plunder Gold Moon Shadow Mist from Lindy's Stamp Gang.  When all that was dry I sprayed Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls Spray lightly over the entire tag.  Using Fossilized Amber Distress Ink I stamped a sunflower stamp randomly over the background.  It's very subtle and doesn't show in the photos but it adds some dimension to the background.   From my stash I took a sunflower cocktail napkin and used gel medium to adhere that to the bottom left of the tag.  Tim Holtz Thinlets dies are fun to use and I decided to use the diamonds to cut out part of the tag.  For a backing I used one of the papers from my favorite Graphic45 designs, French Country.  I attached the tag to the piece of paper and then cut it to size.  As part of Linda's gift was the botanical print of the sunflower.  I glued it to a piece of chip board and edged it with Vintage Photo Distress Glitter.  I attached it, and a definition of "sunflower" that I tore out of an old dictionary, to the tag along with a banner sticker and the Le Jardin sticker from the Graphic45 paper set.   The brown dot stickers filled in the space above the botanical print.   The button and sunflower charm were part of the gift.  I decided to add some definition to the diamond cut outs by outlining the inside of each one with a Pitt Pen in Sepia.  I also outlined the strip of dictionary paper and the Le Jardin sticker with the pen. 

 

 

Here are some details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm going to enter this in the Frilly and Funkie challenge since I really "layered up" the background, the embellishments and the back of the die cut area!  

 

 

I want to thank everyone for stopping by today.  I appreciate it especially since I haven't been around very much at all lately.  I hope you have a wonderful day and that Spring isn't too long in coming for all of you!





Summer of Color4: Dreams

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to you! I hope all my US readers had a wonderful 4th of July.  I'm here to show you my latest entry in the Summer of Color4 challenge.  The colors this week were pink, apple green and a splash of dark green.   They aren't colors that I usually work with and the tag is very feminine but I think the message is a good one.   Here is what it looks like.

 

 

 

I started with a size 10 tag and embossed it with a Spellbinders embossing folder.  I then used Mowed Lawn Distress stain over the entire tag.  Once that was dry I swiped it with Library Green Archival ink.  I had some pink paper flowers which I spritzed  with Glimmer Mist in Bubblegum Pink.  While they were wet I crumpled some of them and dried them.  One I attached to a piece of floral wire "stem" so that it looked like a bud just opening.  I glued all the flowers to the top of the tag and then added the bud so that it hung down from the others.  I used Sparkles and some Glossy Accents   sprinkled with Rock Candy glitter for the centers. 

 

 

I cut a piece of white cardstock with a Spellbinders Nestibilties die and stamped the sentiment with Library Green Archival.  I then used Faded Lipstick DI to color the edges lightly.  I applied it with foam tape so it would be raised from the surface of the tag.  Here are some details.

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

It's hard to believe that the summer is going so quickly and that this challenge is at it's 4th week!  It's great fun and it does challenge me to use combinations of colors that I would never think of using.  I love having that nudge!

 

 

I hope you all have a great weekend.  Thank you for being here.  I really appreciate all your visits and comments.  

 

Summer of Color4: Summer Garden

Hello, everyone!  It's so great to have you join me today!  I hope your summer is going well!  My summer is going too fast for me, but I do love summer and I try to grasp every bit of it! 

It's been a busy week here.  We've had family visiting and it's been a great time.  But, that explains my lateness in posting my tag for this week's Summer of Color challenge.  So, this post will be brief.

The colors for this week were gray and lavender with a pop of plum.  The gray and lavender were not easy colors for me to work with.  Honestly, they always make me think of Victorian ladies coming out of mourning.  But, I decided that was a downer so I was going to go with my favorite subject, Gardens!  Victorian gardens to be precise because I couldn't get away from the Victorian vibe! 

Here is what I made.

 

 

 

I started with a number 10 tag and covered the whole thing with Weathered Wood Distress Stain.  I then ran a line of Brushed Pewter DS along the edge.  I daubed some embossing ink on a piece of bubble wrap that was sitting on my table and randomly pressed it onto the tag.  I used Ranger's Antiquities embossing powder in Cement and heated it.  I then pressed the bubble wrap over parts of the embossed areas and embossed again with silver embossing powder. 

 

 

The image of the lovely Victorian lady was from my stash and is a fabric piece that I glued in place.  I used part of a Memory Box die cut in a lavender paper to frame her and give the illusion of her looking through a garden gate.  One of my favorite dies are the new Tim Holtz trellis dies.  I used a different lavender paper to cut them.  I then used a plum paper to cut another trellis and used the inner pieces for my "pop" of plum color.  I used Glossy Accents to fill in some of the openings and the plum pieces to fill in others.  One of the things I love about these dies is that the inner pieces can be used alone and I love using two colors together as a shadow.  You can see I scattered those around the tag.  I glued a spray of lavender and plum "berries" below the focal and added some Kaiser Craft Sparkles to the background.  I finished it off with a piece of sequined lace trim from the stash.

 

 

Here are some details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, there is this week's tag!  In the end I had a great time using these colors which is why I love this challenge.  Thanks once again to Kristin for hosting and for coming up with such fantastic color combinations every week! 

 

Thank you all for visiting me.  I so appreciate your visits.  I hope you have a fabulous weekend and I'll be back soon. 

 





Summer of Color 4: Exotica

Hi, everyone!  Welcome, I'm so happy to have you visit.  It's an exciting day for me because it's the first post of this year's Summer of Color4.  Hosted every year by Kristin, it's a challenge that I had a great time with last year.  Every week for six weeks there is a new color prompt.  You can make any thing you want using those colors.  This year the prompt will be two colors with a splash, splat, or pop of another color.  This first week the colors were aqua and yellow with a bit of fuchsia.  Be still my beating heart!!!  I love aqua and yellow for the summer.  Sun and sea...what more can you ask for!  Last year I did a variety of projects, from tags to mixed media to jewelry.  This year I'm going to try to stick to tags.  I'd like to have 6 tags that I can then make into a book or wall hanging.  We'll see how it goes and where the muse takes me.  This week it took me in a different direction than I expected.  Here's what I started with.

 





 

I started with a large tag from The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  I covered it with a piece of yellow dotted paper and then dry brushed Sunflower and aqua Silks over the middle of it.  I then used the top from the jars of Silks and printed circles and took my brush and splattered some of the Silks over the background.  I sprayed some Dylusions through a piece of mesh to add some more texture.   I collaged some yellow and aqua papers over the background and thought I would be going towards a summer afternoon theme!  Wrong!  Because this is where I ended up.

 

 

 

 

 

Exotica!!!  At least that's what I think of when I look at what happened to my rather sedate background!  I colored cheesecloth with some yellow Dylusions spray and some yellow Perfect Pearls.   Once it was dry I arranged it on the tag.  Using one of my favorite punches I cut yellow and fuchsia papers.    And some how or other one piece of the leftovers found it's way to hang off the side of the tag!  That set the tone for the rest of it.  I did some stamping with one of Wendy Vecchi's background stamps and added another piece of the leftovers to tack down the cheesecloth on the bottom.  I used some paper and fabric flowers in my stash for the focal and added a Spellbinders mask die cut to the side with a part of one of the flowers under it. Since I had already decided to name this Exotica I let it peek out of the flowers and cheesecloth to add some mystery to the theme.  This tag was definitely going in its own direction.  To finish it off I used the little centers from the punch to scatter around the background and made a label from a Spellbinders die.  I covered it with the punched motif and printed the Exotica label on the computer.  I inked it with Squeezed Lemonade DI and put the whole thing together.  To balance out the upper edge I placed the label off the opposite bottom edge. 

 

Here are some details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, there it is.  My first SOC4 project.  Even though I didn't end up in the direction I thought I was going to go, I love where it took itself!! 

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting today.  I'll be back next week for week 2!

 

 

 



 

The 12 Tags of Christmas, Funkie Junkie Style: Tag 1

I'm very late in getting started on this challenge but I really wanted to join in this year.  I first got to know Linda of the Funkie Junkie blog last year after a friend told me about the Twelve Tags of Christmas, Funkie Junkie Style.   I loved Linda's style and decided then that I was going to participate this year!  I also love Linda's boutique, The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  You should check it out.

Well, here I am, late, but here!  The rules are pretty simple.  Here they are in Linda's words.

This is an inspiration challenge. Each week, I will post my tag and you will use it to be inspired to make something. You can enter any sort of craft.  It can be a tag, a card, a home decor project, a scrapbook layout - your choice but please make it winter/holiday related. 

You must take inspiration from something on my tag and tell us in your post what inspired you. You don't have to use my style, my layout, my colors, my theme or anything except be inspired by something on my sample. Your make can be shabby, it can be grungy or it can be clean and simple. I don't mind if you CASE my work, but if you do, please give me credit. 

We will have 12 weekly challenges beginning today, Monday, September 23rd.  You can link your project using the linky provided. If you don't have a blog, you can use another hosting site such as SplitCoast Stampers, but you must provide all required links and information in your posting.

To be eligible for the drawing at the end of the 12 weeks, you must: 1) enter all 12 challenges, 2) provide a link back to this challenge and mention that it is sponsored by my store The Funkie Junkie Boutique, with a link to the boutique. 

You do have to have a blog (or some other way to provide the required links and inspiration information).

All 12 challenges will remain open until December 22nd.  You can play any of the 12 challenges up through that date. To be eligible to win, you must have submitted an entry into all 12 of these challenges by midnight Eastern Time December 22nd.

On December 23rd, from the pool of players who participated in every single challenge and provided a link to the challenge and a link to my store on their post, I will draw three winners. There will be one $50 grand prize gift certificate to The Funkie Junkie Boutique given out plus two runner up prizes of $25 gift certificates. 

Additionally, everyone who participated in all the challenges and met the requirements will receive a 10% off coupon good for their entire order at The Funkie Junkie Boutique during the month of January 2014.

So, that's all there is to it.  Seeing Linda's tags every week makes being inspired by them easy.  You can go to her blog and check out every one of them from the links on the side bar.  She's already up to week 5!!  I've got to get moving.  I do have the first two finished.  So, I've made a start.

Here is the first tag.

 

 

I used a regular size 8 tag and Festive Berries Distress Stain to color the background.  Festive Berries is my all time favorite red.  I decided to use the Tim Holtz stamp set, Deco Christmas, because I love anything Art Deco.  I was so excited about this stamp set!  Anyway, I used the poinsettia stamp from the set and white ink to stamp them.  The greeting is also from the set.  I just love that particular stamp.  I then cut a piece of card stock and embossed it with the all over poinsettia embossing folder and then spread some rock candy crackle paint over it.  While the paint was wet I sprinkled some rock candy dry glitter on it.  While that was drying I cut the flourish out of white card stock and covered it with Glossy Accents and rock candy glitter.  When everything was dry I glued the embossed card down and outlined it with a white gel pen.  I wanted to emphasize the Art Deco feel of the tag.  I had the white poinsettias in my stash and I glued them down with the flourish underneath.  Here are some close-ups.

 

 

 

 

 

What inspired me from Linda's tag was her color scheme.  She used a chalk board color scheme of black and white.  As I said before, I love the Festive Berries ink and stain so I decided to use the red and white instead. 

 

 

Thank you so much for joining me today.  I really appreciate your visits and I'm grateful to all my old and new visitors.  

 





Summer of tags

Well, it's been a while!  I was on a roll all summer and in the last few weeks I hit a lull!  Not that I haven't been on the same crazy schedule as always, especially now that I'm back to my two mornings at the library, but I just haven't finished anything!  So, there should be lots of posts to come, right?  We'll see since I never know what's going to happen! 

But, over the summer I made several tags, which you know are my favorite things to make.  This post is going to be short on words and long on pictures.  Here goes!

 

My Gatsby tag.  I love the story and the Art Deco and was inspired by the new movie.

 

French Country experiment with a folding tag

The inside

 

 

The beach folded tag

The inside

 

Carnival mask

 

The Vintner tag with a cork die cut edge.

 

The lime green tag.

 

 

Well, there you have it.  Along with other projects this summer I always went back to tags.  I hope you have a great day.  Thank you all for visiting today.  Hopefully, I'll be back to share some finished works in progress soon!

 



 

 



The Summer of Color3: Week 3

It's hard to believe that we're at week 3 of the Summer of Color 3 challenge.  It's been so much fun to use the colors.  This week is no different since the combination is purple and lime green!!  How fun, summery and exciting is that?!   This combination just says summer and gardens and all things bright and happy to me. 

The first project I have to show you is a scarf I made a couple of years ago.  I was knitting quite a lot back then and I was designing some freeform scarves that I called my Bohemian scarves.  I chose yarns that looked good together and started to knit.  Along the way I would change stitches and widths, think about how I would embellish the scarf when it was finished and just had a great time knitting away.  Well, here is the result of one of those freeform sessions.

 

 

I never got bored knitting these scarves and since I haven't done one in a while I'm itching to pull some yarns and get started again.  As you can see, beads always made it into the embellishing and the knitting!

 

My second project this week came about because of a new stamp I just got.  I loved the vineyard theme of this one and wanted to use it on a tag.  Here's what I came up with. 

 



 

I water colored the image and embossed the edges.  I debossed the tag after using Dylusion sprays on it.  The embossing folder had been inked with Distress ink before being put through the machine.  I thought it needed something along the edge so I die cut some cork (I couldn't resist the vineyard vibe!) and glued it to the edge of the tag. 

 

So there you have my projects for this week.  Thank you so much for visiting.  To my new visitors, welcome, I'm so pleased you stopped by!  See you all next week for week 4!

 



 



Summer of Color 3: Week 2

Well, it's already Week 2 of the Summer of Color 3 challenge.  Once again the choice for this week, Hot Pink and Orange, is a favorite of mine.  It's such a bright, summery combination, which makes me smile!!!  I often use it in my garden containers.  I love to garden and I take a lot of care in deciding what colors go in my different pots which are scattered around the garden.  It's sort of an obsession really.  But, when they're all planted I love looking at them and enjoying the combinations!  I'm a color addict, remember!!

Well, this week I have three different projects to share.  Since I mentioned using the combination in my garden, I'll start with that.

 

This is a pot of Million Bells, little workhorses of the garden.  This is actually our umbrella pot!  Years ago I saw a drawing of a pot full of flowers with a market umbrella in the middle.  I fell in love with it and my absolutely wonderful husband put it together for me!  We've  had it for at least 20 years and it looks very vintage, which I love!  I have a different combination of colors and flowers in it every year. 

 

Next is a bracelet I made to wear to a wedding.  It was a fun beaded bracelet using triangles shapes which are some of my favorite shapes to create to create in beads. 

 

 

I used a mix of colors but all in the pink/hot pink, orange and copper color range.  It's a fun bracelet to wear because it's so cheerful.  Like a party on my wrist!

 

Next is a tag I just finished.  I love masks and I've had a mask stamp for several years and haven't done much with it.  Just looked at and kept it where I could see it, so I could admire it!  That's the kind of thing I do when I love something!!!  Anyway, this week's colors gave me an idea to use it.  I'm really happy with the finished project and I have to thank my very talented daughter, Carrie, and her friend, Maria, for giving me ideas on how to finish the tag. 

 

 

I'm really pleased with the way this turned out. 

 

So, these are my entries for this week.  Thanks again to Kristin for hosting this challenge.  It is such great fun! 

 

 

Thank you for stopping by the blog to visit.  I hope you have a very wonderful day!







A belated Merry Christmas

It's been a busy two weeks since the ornament swap reveal!  I was not as organized this year as I like to be and I really paid for it!  But, we had a wonderful Christmas and I hope all of you did too.  We had a wonderful time with family and good friends. Some of our gatherings have become cherished traditions.  For me bringing family and friends together is a big part of what the season is all about.  It gives us a feeling of love and kinship that is so important to our family.

The downside to my lack of organization was that after the beginning of December I didn't have time to make several of the projects I wanted to do before Christmas.  I had done some paper and beaded projects earlier in the month but computer problems and then lack of internet for the last couple of days kept me from posting them.  I think I'm back up and running in the technology department so I'll be able to share some of the things I did manage to finish.

The first thing I finished, mostly because I started it last month, was a Santa banner.  It's a tag banner along the lines of my Halloween banner.  Here are some pictures.

 

 

It doesn't hang on the fireplace, but in front of windows in our family room.  I couldn't get a good picture there.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In between the Santa images, which used a lot of different techniques, I spelled out Santa in red shiny, corrugated letters.  I attached all the tags to a red ribbon with glittery red mini clothes pins.  It looks great hanging in the family room and it's a fun decoration, especially since I love the retro Santas. 

 

Two other tags I made are entirely different in subject matter!  They have a more Victorian Christmas feel to them.

 

 



 

I had gotten the new Tim Holtz poinsettia die and embossing folder and wanted to try it out!

 

 

I love that lovely lady!

 

 

 

 

There is a box that I made for a dear friend and beautiful beaded icicle ornaments which I will share in a few days.  For now I want to wish you a very Happy New Year.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 







The Last Fall Post

We're into December and I'm busy working on Christmas projects, beading and paper.  I love making decorations, especially ornaments, for my family and for the house.  I try to start early in the year, but I don't get very far. I need the immediacy of the the holiday season to spark ideas.  But, before I put Fall behind me this year I wanted to share some of the tags I've made for the Fall/Thanksgiving season since it's one of my favorite times of the year.   There will be several pictures but not much commentary.  I'm just sharing!







Two Thanksgiving Tags, one from last year and one from this year.

The metal leaves on this one have been enameled with embossing powder.  A cool technique!



Well, that's it!  All the Fall things have been put away until next year. I'm on to Christmas and I'll be sharing some of the ornaments and other things I've made and am still planning to work on. 

Have a great Sunday and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Halloween with a Theme

I love Halloween and I hope everyone has a safe and fun day!  I mentioned a theme.  My lovely daughter, Carrie, has started a feature on her blog that she calls "Thursday Themes".  She hopes to showcase some of her paper arts by grouping them into themes.  I thought I would occasionally join in the fun!  I don't always work in themes or related ideas.  I realize that it's important to work in series sometimes.  It improves technique and it creates a body of work that has some cohesion. But, I've also realized that I'm beginning to work certain techniques repeatedly into my wire and metal work. Perhaps I'll be able to participate in Thursday Themes more often than I originally thought!
One art form I've been working with for a few years now is tags.  I love tags and I love making them for the different seasons and holidays.  I had a great time this year making new Halloween tags, and so that's my theme for today, even though today is Wednesday!

Here are  this year's Halloween tags. 

I had the background for the "Boo" tag in my stash. 

I love the vintage Halloween images, especially the Ladies!

These I call my "dark" tags!  The "Poison" one is about as "dark" as I get!

That's the collection for this year.  I had so much fun making the tags.  They don't take long, you can try techniques and products on a small scale and you have a small piece of paper art to display or give away. If you have a chance go on over to Carrie's blog and see what she's been up to for Fall and Halloween!

So, I hope you have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by.  

Almost Halloween!

I had so much fun creating this tag banner for Halloween.  I collect a lot of Halloween "stuff"!  I don't like gory or zombie, or horror.  But, the vintage and cute images I love.  I used a lot of what I had been collecting for a Halloween fabric book, which didn't get made, and some of Tim Holtz' products.  Next year the fabric book!

Some close ups:





Have a great day!