Tim tag for May

Here is my submission for the Tim tag for May.

 I still love the tiny tattered floral die.  It might be my favorite.  

Jess

Distress Crayon Collage Tutorial

I've been having a lot of fun using paper napkins.  I have never used them for crafting, but a group I trade with opened my eyes to this awesome medium.  I have been asked to put together a tutorial, so here it goes. I am making bookmarks here, so they will look smaller than the image above, but I did everything exactly the same.

For the first layer you will need your Distress Collage Medium, one of the underlayers of the printed napkins, and cardstock(I am just using the cheap stuff from the craft store).  Spread a thin layer of the Collage Medium all over your paper and cover it with the napkin.  I squish it on there so I get wrinkles and bumps.  Add a second layer of Collage Medium on top of the napkin.  You can let it air dry or use your heat tool to dry it.  

Scribble on several colors of Distress Crayon and blend with your fingers.  The crayon moves so smoothly over the collage medium. 

You can see I didn't worry about getting it all the way to the edges.  I am going to keep layering, so I am not worried about patches of blank space. 

Use a stencil to add on texture paste.  You can let it air dry or dry it with your heat tool.  Don't forget to clean your stencil right away.  

The texture paste on the left has been scribble on with Distress Crayons.  The image on the right has a paper napkin burnished onto the texture paste using my finger ans a bit of collage medium.  So there are two ways you can do this step.

I added my image and then stamped around it using Jet Black Archival and Hydrangea.  

I added a Small Talk sentiment and used the Black Soot Crayon around the edges. 

To complete the bookmark I used a black and white pen in a random fashion all over the piece.

Here's the one with the napkin.  Same techniques, but it has a totally different esthetic.

Here are some of the others pieces I have made using this technique.

I am entering these into a few challenges:

Try it On Tuesdays- Vintage Photo

Frilly and Funkie- It isn't Easy Being Green(paper napkin layers)

A Vintage Journey- Spring is in the Air

Anything But Cute-Earth Day(recycled napkins and used earthy tones)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and try it for yourself!

Jess

February Tim Tag

I feel like I have been missing from here for a while now.  I changed jobs back in September.  I had been with my last company for 15 years and while leaving was a good choice, I still felt like a was in mourning.  I wasn't happy for a long time and needed to change.  I stepped into a new job and had to learn it very quickly since the holidays were fast approaching. During this time I was also juggling three different design teams.  It was all too much.  While I did enjoy a more relaxed holiday season and more importantly more time with my family, I have also decided in addition to changing jobs that I wanted to take a break from the design teams I was on.  I love working with the teams, but I wanted to just create for a bit with no pressure and no deadlines.  
So, I hope to get back to posting on a more regular basis and entering challenges too.  After all of that babbling here is my Tim tag for the month!

Thanks for letting me babble and I hope you enjoy my take on the tag.  

Jess

Adventurous Bird Wallhanging

Hi everyone,

I made an altered canvas panel for you today.  

This is the first time I have used my Tattered Pine cone die.  Holy moly! These roses were so easy to make.  I used several shades of The Robin's Nest glitter card stock to make these.  

Once I made my roses I cut some greenery and just put everything on my canvas to see how I wanted to arrange it.  I used some of Gina's Designs laser cut birds on here too.  

I added color to the canvas using Heidi Swapp Sprays, Distress Spray Stains, and Distress Inks.  I also used Tim Holtz's Rays Stencil and a random chicken wire stencil for added layers.  

I dyed my seam binding ribbon using the above Distress Stains.  I wet the seam binding and then run it through the color I have smudged on my craft mat. 

To add my saying I used my clear alphabet clings and Archival ink in Potting Soil.  

Stamping this out took a long time, but I think it was worth it! You can see the birds got a little stamping on them too.  

Here's a close up of the flowers.  The edges are inked with Pumice Stone distress ink.  In addition to the roses I made some random curly flowers using my Tapered Fringe die.  The back of these were sprayed with Tattered Angels.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing my canvas today!

Stop by the Robin's Nest to check out their great product and sometimes I am featured on the blog too.

Try it on Tuesdays New Beginnings

Our Creative Corner- Color your World

Frilly and Funkie Spring time Die Cuts

Simon Says Stamp In the Middle

Simon Says Stamp Make Your Own Background

Rhedd's Creative Spirit April Challenge

What have you been crafting?

Jess

Recipes for Art: Robin's Nest Blog Hop

I was challenged by the Robins' Nest to come up with a recipe project.  I love to cook and bake.  The kitchen is covered with cookbooks.  I have at least two cookbook holders.  I pretty much have the food recipe thing covered.

So I made art recipes!  I took some quotes that inspire me and went to town.

I had this awesome, crusty, cracked spindle that I knew would work as a base.  I used a Tim Holtz memo pin and glued it into the top of the spindle.
To make my recipe cards I used an index card for my base and covered them with various papers.

I pretty much threw everything I could at this card.  The base is Saffron Honey Cardstock.  The edges are distressed and inked.  The right side has a smudge of embossing powder.  It's a mixture of black and brown distress powders.  The pen nib has alcohol ink on it to look like it's been used.  A small portion of a card catalog card is on the very bottom.  The tag was stamped with black Archival ink and then sprayed, inked, crumpled, and finally glued to the base.  

This is the back of the first card.  A completely different color scheme.  I used reverse side of the Wedding Cutout cardstock as the base.  I used my Tim Holtz stencil and modeling paste for the bubbles.  Once the paste was dry I smudge on distress paints in many colors.  I took the lid off and made some circles right on the paper.  

I took the paintbrush out of my brush bucket.  I terrible about cleaning my brushes.  Terrible.  I have learned my lesson and just buy cheap ones! I did smudge some extra paint on it to match the card.  

The quote is a sticker that I put an industrious sticker and some straw behind it.  

I stamped this image on watercolor paper and colored it using my kiddie set of watercolors.  The edges are inked with Broken China distress ink.  The background here is Tulip Wheels.  I painted a light layer of gesso on top to mute the color and spritzed it with Black Dylusions.  

This is the Wedding Swirl Glitter cardstock that has been sprayed with Dyslusions.  The glitter resists the spray.  I love how you can take a very dainty cardstock and completely change it with sprays.  This Wendy Vecchi stamp is so pretty.  I love the little fourish on the bottom.  The pattern mimics the pattern on the paper.  

My final card has a piece of dictionary paper as the base.  I used a stencil and distress stains to create the pattern on top.  The wings are a stamp from Finnabair.  I painted them with my distress stains.  I can't resist tiny fairies with giant pointy hats! He is mounted on a journaling ticket that has distressed edges.  The bow is made out of seam binding.  A tiny bit of washi tape finishes this one up.  

Don't forget to stop at the Robin's Nest blog to see the other hop projects.  Leave a comment and I get to pick someone to get a prize too!

Jess

Tim tag for March

I adore this Dina Wakley stamp.  She looks so strong.  

I followed Tim's recipe pretty closely.  I didn't have regular Ranger texture paste so I used the Wendy Vecchi crackle texture paste and then heat embossed.  It made the tag look extra grungy.  

I hope you enjoy my take on Tim's tag!

I am also entering this into Craft Stamper Magazine's March Stamp challenge and A Vintage Journey's Anything Tim Challenge.

What have you been crafting?

Jess

Shades of White

A simple card I made using Tim Holtz's Lattice Stencil and monoprint technique for the background. The flower is the Tattered Florals die in various shades of white.  The ribbon was dyed using Distress stains in Vintage Photo and Tea Dye( I used the same colors for the monoprint).   The stamp is from Wendy Vecchi and is stamped in her Archival Ink in Potting Soil.  

What have you been crafting?

Jess

Simon Says Stamp Monday White Challenge
Our Creative Corner Flowers and Hand Dyed Ribbon Challenge

Wendy Vecchi remnant rub challenge

Wendy Vecchi was prepping for a class and had 300 backers from Tim Holtz's remnant rubs.  The backing is a good light weight card stock and has a great design on it.  You can read about how Wendy repurposed her backing here.
If you've been reading my bog I have been using Wendy's crackle paste a bit and used some of these backers to emboss(folder, not heat) and then crackle.  It comes out great.  The finish is really grungy and old.
I decided to try using the backers a different way.  I stamped and embossed(heat) my image on the backer.  Once the image was cool I used alcohol ink to color the dress.  I just used a bit so the background would still show through a bit.  Sorry about the glare here.

I colored a flower and some twine to match the dress.
The tag was done using various stenciling techniques with paint and distress inks.  A bit of tissue wrap added another layer of interest.

I stamped my sentiment using black archival ink.
I used some seam binding my sweet friend Jamie from Beantown Baby Crafts sent me.  Check out her stuff on Etsy and Facebook.  I used some Gathered Twigs distress stain to dirty it up a bit.

So much better with natural lighting.  Isn't it gorgeous?!

I'm off to make some more.  What have you done with these backers?

Jess

Wendy Vecchi's Crackle Texture Paste

Ready for another crackle paste project?  This card has a billion different techniques on it.

  I used the crackle paste on the bottom of the card and let it dry.  Once it was dry I popped it in an embossing folder and ran it through my Sizzix.  I used Gathered Twigs Distress Stain all over the paste.  Once the stain sank into all the cracks I used my Vintage Photo Distress Ink to highlight the raised areas.  

The medallion is colored with Alcohol Inks in Meadow, Caramel, Ginger, and Stream.  The industrious frame got a touch of ink too.  Vintage black lace and washi tape line the top of the card pocket.

The card is a tag shape.  I started by using Antique Linen Distress Ink and the Latticework Stencil on the background.  I then used a large script stamp to cover the background in Vintage Photo.  A few spritz of Black Soot Distress Marker using the new Spritzer finished the background.  

The image was stamped on watercolor paper and colored using my Distress Markers and water brush.  I am not a painter, but the distress markers make anyone look like a pro.   The edges were roughed up using the Tonic paper distresser.  

The Tim Holtz saying was stamped in Archival Ink.  The flowers are from Prima.  I cut them up and glued them to make a dimensional flower.  

I love how this turned out.  Grungy, but beautiful.

Entering this into Craft Hoarders Anonymous Metal or Glass Challenge

Eclectic Paperie Get Stenciled Challenge

What have you been crafting?

Jess

  

Playing with Wendy Vecchi's crackle paste

I discovered we have a teeny tiny stamp store very close to my house.  They carry some stuff I can't find at the typical big box craft store.  One of the best things I have found there is Wendy Vecchi's crackled texture paste.
I have used Tim Holtz's crackle paint, but Wendy's paste is, well paste.  It's thick and awesome for using with stencils.
My first project was actually just a mop up tag from other projects.  Since I hadn't used the paste I thought it would be good to try it on here.

I started by just smearing a thin layer of the paste all over the card and then drying it with my heat gun once I saw cracks start to form when air drying.  Once the paste was dry I used Evergreen Bough and Gathered Twigs Distress stain to color the paste.  

I randomly added tissue wrap with gel medium.  

The saying is Cosmo Cricket tiny type.  The frame is Tim Holtz's Industrious line.  

Look how tiny that waist is.   The girl needs a cookie.  This image is from Lisa's Altered Art.  I put a book page behind it to add some demension.  The tag is finished off with some crinkle ribbon colored with Evergreen Bough, Gathered Twigs, and Spun Sugar.  

I have another project to share using Wendy's paste.  Be sure to stop back.

Frilly and Funky is having a words challenge this beauty will be in the running.

What have you been crafting?

Jess