Golden Sepia

Hi, all!  I hope all of you in the U.S. had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  We did, sharing it with family and friends, enjoying good food and companionship for which we are ever grateful!  It's on to Christmas and all the hustle and bustle that comes along  with it.  But, I love the holidays, all of them, and so I embrace the season with joy. 

I want to share the latest entry of mine into The Twelve Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style, hosted by Linda  Coughlin at The Funkie Junkie Boutique, her wonderful shop!  As you all know by now, I'm creating pages for a future book I'll put together after the holidays.  My page for this week was inspired by the golden sepia tones Linda used for her Tag #6.  You can see the rules for the challenge here and the tag that I was inspired by here.

I love sepia tones and I think they are especially elegant for Christmas design.  The sepia Linda used was very golden in tone and I loved it.  So, using that as a jumping off point here is what my page looks like, and I apologize in advance for the photos.  I used my phone in a not very good light but I was short on time!



I have been starting with a 5x7" piece of watercolor paper.  Here I sprayed the paper with Tarnished Brass Distress Spray.  When that dried I used Glimmer Mist in Copper for another layer of color.  When the paper was completely dry I edged it with Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals in Golden Sleigh Bells. Magicals are actually dry paint that I use with a water pen.  They are beautiful and fun to use. I stamped the background with a script stamp from one of TH Christmas sets in Sepia Archival ink. 
I then used the Pine Tree stamp from another of TH Christmas sets to stamp a "forest" of trees along the bottom. I used different ink colors and embossed some of them with Ranger Ancient Gold/ Enchanted Gold embossing powder.  I had a chip board tree in my stash that was sepia colored and I rubbed some Guilders' Paste in Inca Gold on it.  The reindeer was a chip board piece that Linda kindly sent in an order I had placed with her.  I painted it with gold paint and when that dried I brushed some Deco Art Interference Gold paint on it.  Then I rubbed some Guilders' Paste on top.  Using a Spellbinders die I cut a label from gold paper and embossed the edge with a Stampendous embossing powder that is a vintage ivory color with flecks of old gold in it.  It's one of my favorite embossing powders!  I attached a sticker to the label and sprayed the whole thing with Tarnished Brass DS.  I attached it with foam tape placing more chip board under it.  Here are some details.

The shadow isn't really there.  That was compliments of the light! 

 

 

 

 

 

So, there is my Page 6.  I'm caught up with the pages but I haven't had time to post them.  So, you'll be seeing more very soon!  I'm just thrilled that I was finally able to catch up with Linda (she's up to 9)!

 

 

I hope you have a wonderful day and thank you so much for visiting!

 



An Art Deco Christmas

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to my next installment in Linda Coughlin's The Twelve Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style.  If you click on the link it will take you to the explanation of this great challenge and all the rules.  It's sponsored by Linda's wonderful boutique, The Funkie Junkie, which you should really check out if you haven't already! 

Okay, so on to my project for this go round.  I'm up to week 5 and I was thrilled when I saw Linda's tag for this week.  (She's up to week 8, by the way)!  It was very Art Deco. Anyone who knows me or has followed the blog knows that I LOVE anything Art Deco.  When Tim Holtz came out with his Deco Christmas stamp set last year I was thrilled!!  I've used those stamps so many times in creating Christmas tags and paper art.  Well, once again, I put them to good use.  Here is what I came up with.

 

 

I used Linda's design liberally in this page.  I loved the star border with the sun rays stencil.  It really looks very Deco.  So, I cut the stars with a silver glitter card stock and glued it on top of the sun rays which I had stenciled with Wendy Vecchi's silver embossing paste.  The background was done with Distress Stain and some Perfect Pearls spray.  I stamped the Merry Christmas with a stamp from the Deco Christmas stamp set with black archival ink and ran the silver DS around the edge of the page. 

 

I don't have the deco gentleman die that Linda used.  So, I found a lovely flapper dressed in red and ready to go to a holiday party in the Graphic 45 Couture collection of papers.  I fussy cut her and applied her to the page with foam tape.  Here are some details.

 

 

 



 

Isn't she lovely?!

 

 

 

 

I love my Art Deco page!  It was so much fun to plan and when I found the flapper in her red costume I was  thrilled! 

 

 

I hope everyone in the U. S. is staying warm.  I think things are going to warm up a little by the beginning of Thanksgiving week!  And, I wish all my U. S. readers a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving!  I'm thankful for you and all the lovely comments you leave here.  Have a wonderful day!

 

And, finally some beadwork!

Hi, everyone!  It's been a while and even longer since I posted any beadwork.  As I keep saying, the time goes so quickly and this year is quicker than most for some reason.  I haven't been in the studio much and beading has been very slow.  But, I finally finished a project I started at the beginning of September.  It's another geometric beadwork bracelet.  I can't seem to get enough of working from Kate McKinnon's and Jean Power's books.  Both artists came out with second volumes of geometric beadwork recently and I'm just captivated by what they and other artists are coming up with.

Here is what has taken me so long to finish.

The components are called Warped Squares in Kate's books, but the bracelet design comes from Jean Power.  And, while I keep saying it took a long time to complete because I haven't been beading much, it's not a quick project!!  All those beaded squares are connected by 6 rows of circular peyote, and there are a lot of squares even for my small wrist!  But, I love it and I loved working on it!  From the colors you can see why I wanted to finish it before Fall was over.   I used my favorite bronze Delicas for a repeating color and then was inspired by the changing leaves for the other Delica colors. 

As I said, each square is connected to the previous one by circular peyote worked at the center of the square that you just finished.  You work your way back to the center and peyote a short connector and then start the next square. It's finished with a magnetic closure.   Not quick beadwork, but I think it's worth it!  I've worn it already and I love it! 

Here are some close ups! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was so happy that my friend Kathy had some antique copper magnetic clasps in the store.  It really becomes invisible when I'm wearing the bracelet.  Since I have so much trouble sizing bangles that fit me well I'm always delighted when I can make a bracelet look like a bangle!  I adore bangle bracelets but can rarely find one or make one that fits!

 

 

Well, now I can start on a beaded Christmas gift for the librarian I work with.  And, then start on my next geometric project!! I'm addicted!

 

Now it's on to Thanksgiving (already?!) and then the hustle of the Christmas season!  I hope you are enjoying this beautiful season and getting  a lot inspiration from it.  Have a wonderful day and if you live in most of the U. S., stay warm!  Thank you so much for visiting with me.    I'll be back soon with my next entry into The Twelve Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style! 





My Favorite So Far!

Hello to everyone!  Thank you for joining me today.  I have another entry into the Twelve Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style to share with you today.  And, as the title of this post says, it's my favorite so far. 

If you're not familiar with this challenge you can find out all about it here.  Linda really inspires everyone with her tags every year and it's so much fun to play along.  Once you've checked out the challenge rules hop over to The Funkie Junkie Boutique, Linda's wonderful shop.  She has great products and fantastic service and prices.

Now on to this week's project.  You can check out Linda's tag for the fourth week here.  If you've read the challenge rules you know that you have to be inspired by something from Linda's tag.  What immediately inspired me was the homespun, vintage charm of this tag.  I also loved the colors she used.  So, I used both of those things in making my page.  By the way, for those of you who haven't been following along with my projects, I'm using 5"x7" pieces of watercolor paper in place of tags.  I'll eventually gather them into a book.  Anyway,  on to the project.  This is what the finished page looks like.

 

 

 

 

I started by using a Wendy Vecchi stencil and Evergreen Bough DI to create the striped border top and bottom.  Then I used Festive Berries for the polka dot background.  I then stamped the vintage catalog page from Tim Holtz on a piece of white card stock and inked it with Vintage Photo DI.  I distressed the edges and used more Vintage Photo to darken them.  After going though my stash of Christmas things I found several of the items that are featured in the catalog page!  Tinsel, a star, ribbons and little Christmas lights are among the things that I had and so I decided to glue them down along the side.  A little sticker that says "celebrate" seemed appropriate and the color was perfect so I attached that to the top of the page.  Here are some details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really love this page.  I love that catalog stamp and I was thrilled to be able to feature it.  And, I was really excited to find the star and the little lights among my stash.  I thought the end result was simple and homespun, just like Christmas should be!

 

 

 

I want to thank you for visiting me today.  I've been so busy with all the Fall activities that I haven't done much in the studio.  But, I enjoy making these projects every week and sharing them with you .  Have a wonderful day and I hope you get to find some time to create!

 





Looking for Frosty!

Hello!  I'm so happy you stopped by today.  It will be a short post but I wanted to share my third entry into The Twelve Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style.  If you don't know about this challenge hop over here to find out all the details.  And, then hop on over to Linda's wonderful shop, The Funkie Junkie Boutique and have fun shopping.  The boutique sponsors the challenge.

One of the requirements is that you are inspired by something Linda has done. You don't need to copy it,  just be inspired by it.  You can see Linda's third tag here and then I'll share what I did with my project.

Well, the first thing I saw when I looked at the tag was that fantastic snowflake.  I loved it but I didn't have the die and I immediately thought of a snowman to replace it.  Here is what my project looks like.

 

 

I'm using 5"x7" watercolor paper for all the projects and they will eventually be bound into a book of some sort.  I'm not there yet!  I sprayed the paper with Perfect Pearls Pearl and then with Smoke Blue in some areas.  I then used a Spellbinders embossing folder of wind blown snowflakes and ran it through the machine.  Using my finger I applied Maya Gold in Silver over some of the raised areas.  I die cut the Tim Holtz snowman out of white paper and used Stampendous Spoonful of Snow Embossing Powder and Elements to emboss him.  The "elements" in the chunky embossing powder are flakes of iridescent mylar which melt with the heat.  You need to hold the heat gun under the piece you're embossing.  I put him on foam tape and used pan pastels to create a shadow around him.  The shadow on the right side is not as defined as it looks in the photo but the light created that shadow and I didn't realize it until after I saw the picture on the computer.  But, there is a shadow and it makes a difference on the finished piece.  The banner is from an Authentique cut apart paper that I had and I thought it was fun.  The snowman looks like he's wondering why they can't find him!  I added two little snowflake rhinestones that have an AB finish which looks great with the mylar on the snowman.   The larger snowflake one is one of Tim's and I daubed it with Distress Paint and sprinkled it with clear Rock Candy glitter. 

 

 

Here are two close ups.  

 

 

 

 

 

So, there you have it.  Week number 3.  It's a rather simple project but sometimes simple is nice! 

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting with me.  I so enjoy having you stop by.  Have a wonderful day and do something fun!





Playing Catch Up

Hi, everyone!  So happy that you could visit with me.  I've titled this post Playing Catch Up because I'm trying to juggle my time between Fall gardening and getting the inside of the house ready for Fall.  I love decorating for the seasons and I always put out pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns and all sorts of Halloween things, along with leaves and berries for Fall.  I love doing it.  I got a late start this year because we were away for a week the beginning of the month.  That also put me behind with the 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style challenge that Linda Coughlin has going every year.  You can find all the details here.  But I'm on my way and today I'm going to share my second tag.

 

 

As I mentioned last time, I'm doing 5x7 inch pieces that I will eventually put into a book.  When I saw Linda's second tag my eye immediately went to the poinsettia and the checkerboard border.  I knew that would be my inspiration for this second page.  I've been playing with new (to me) products from Lindy's Stamp Gang.  There are sprays, powdered mica paints and embossing powders.  Many of the products are actually two colors combined, a flat and a shimmer.  The embossing powders are basic embossing powder with some iridescence added.   And, the powdered paints have mica in them for shimmer.  I just love all of them.  I don't have many of the colors but I wanted to use them for this piece.  So, I started with one of the powdered paints, called Magicals,  and used a water pen to apply it to the background.  As you can see the color that I used, Ponderosa Pines Olive,  is a yellow green moving into a pine green all with a very light shimmer.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get the shimmer to show in the pictures.  Once that was dry I used a poinsettia background stamp to emboss over the background.  I used Deset Moon Copper Pine embossing powder to emboss it.  I know, the color names are swoon-worthy too! The color is a golden copper with a pine green iridescence.  I then stamped a large poinsettia stamp (can you tell I love poinsettias?)  on watercolor paper with Watering Can Archival Ink and used more of the Magicals to color it.  I didn't have a true red so I used Autumn Maple Crimson and a touch of Red Hot Poker Orange with a water pen.  For the leaves I used the same green as the background with a touch of Tibetan Poppy Teal.  I fussy cut it and sponged some Watering Can Archival on the edges and put a Kaiser Craft Sparkle in the center. 

 

 

Here is a close up. 

 

 

 

 

I mentioned that I also loved the checkerboard border that Linda used.  I had just gotten a new die that I thought would work for this design and allow me to have the checkerboard effect.  I cut it out of gold card stock and applied it to the sides instead of the bottom.  I added the Christmas Carol stamped and embossed on the same gold CS to the bottom and a flourish cut from the gold paper behind the poinsettia. 

 

 

Here are some details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see some of the iridescence of the embossing powder in the detail photos. 

 

 

So, now I'm feeling better about getting caught up with my chores and with my challenge projects.  The challenge is sponsored by Linda's wonderful boutique, The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  Check it out, there are great products at great prices!

 

 

Thank you for visiting with me today.  I really appreciate having you stop by to see what I'm up to.  I hope you have a wonderful day.

 





It's That Time Again!

Hi all, welcome!  It's a beautiful Fall Sunday morning here and I'm happy to be sharing it with all of you.  We are well and truly into Fall now and if the turning leaves and cooler weather isn't a reminder of that, the fact that over at the wonderful blog The Funkie Junkie,  Linda has started this year's 12 Tags of Christmas challenge!  I love this challenge!  Linda creates a tag each week for the 12 weeks before Christmas and to participate you have to find something in the tag design that inspires you.  You can find all the details here.  By creating all of the 12 tags, or whatever you decide to make, you are entered into a drawing for a gift certificate to Linda's wonderful boutique, The Funkie Junkie.  Whether you participate in the challenge or not, you should visit Linda's shop to see all the wonderful products she carries.  Now on to my first entry.



I decided to cut watercolor paper into 5"x7" pieces and use those in place of tags this year.  I'm going to put them all together in a book after the holidays.  So, that is my starting point for this first project.  My inspiration from Linda's tag was the stenciling and using the stencil to monoprint the background.  I started by applying Old Paper, Iced Spruce, and Bundled Sage Distress Stain to my craft sheet and running the paper through it to create a subtle mottled background to knock down the whiteness of the paper.  It's very faint and you can't see it well in the picture but it does provide a nice background color for the stenciling.  I then stenciled along one side of the card with Gathered Twigs, Bundled Sage and Festive Berries DI.  I applied the inks to the stencil again and spritzed it with water, turned the stencil over and monoprinted on the paper.  I love the watercolored effect that happens with this technique.  I edged the entire card with Gathered Twigs DI and stamped the "Handle with Care" stamp with Festive Berries.  I added the die cut banner that was in my stash to the top and used Stickles glitter on the berries.  The "post card" stamp is part of Graphic45's Christmas sets from a few years ago and I used Gathered Twigs for that.  The Holly Boy card is from Kaiser Craft.  I loved his costume and his face and I thought it was perfect with the holly theme. 


Here are some details.



Love that watercolor effect.  And you can see some of the background color here.

 

 

Here is the Holly Boy!

 

 

Well, there is my first entry for this year!  The year is going so quickly, I can't believe Halloween is 3 weeks away and we'll be in the midst of the Christmas season so soon! 

 

Thank you for visiting with me.  I really appreciate that you take time to visit my blog.  Have a wonderful day.