/* */ Beulah Bee: September 2016

September 29, 2016

Wicked Dare.


The older I get, the less enthusiastic I am about celebrating Halloween but I've made an exception this year because of the purchase of a seasonal stamp set I just couldn't resist.

He had me at the house (used here).

I'm referring to the Tim Holtz Mini Halloween Set #5 used on this tag to create the background, skull, bottle label, and typewritten text.


I have to admit making spooky tags is pretty fun--it's a chance to use unusual color combos and the more distressed the better, right?

I like the effect I achieved on the bottles which might be due to the clean, crisp, blue-ish white colors contrasting with the muddy oranges and browns.

Click to Enlarge

If you're curious regarding technique, here's what I did:

A piece of scrapbook paper with various shades of orange, reds and yellows was cut and pasted to a manila tag then covered with stamped Plain Tissue Wrap.

An anchor for the bottles was made with a torn piece of Postale Tissue Wrap.

The bottles were stamped on old book paper, then embossed, cut-out, tinted and pasted to the tag.

There's only one way to use the skull stamp (IMHO)--black ink on white paper. It was also embossed and cut-out.

I used a Vial Label that was stamped with text from the set and cut out parts of the apothecary label stamp (also on Tissue Wrap) and pasted them to the large bottle.

The 45-cent piece Vellum Thift Shop Ephemera was distressed with some sanding and scoring and attached with tiny staples.


You may have noticed the crackle edges. This was done with Distress Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint and I rubbed in some white creamy eye shadow (yes, it's true) to bring out the crackling.

I accidentally overheated the black embossing on the smaller bottles and they turned a lighter shade of gray so I used it to my advantage and tinted them further with a bit of blue.

To create an illusion of depth, I glazed the top portion of the tag with blue, brought out warmth at the bottom with some Wild Honey Distress and brushed in some inky shadows.

I am linking to Simon's Monday Challenge Blog where this week's theme is Powder Power.

Other Stamp Credits: Big Bottle-Inkadinkado, Small Bottles-PaperArtsy

September 26, 2016

Toxique

Everything about this creation is unconventional and you may not care for it. However, my experimentation here illustrates some unusual techniques that may be of interest so I've decided to share it.


I began by using watercolor on watercolor paper. I stamped on some Plain Tissue Wrap (the hand and face with circle/lines). I cut out some gear images from some Tissue Tape. I used a home-made circle stamp and filled one of them in with some dot-stamped tissue wrap.

I wondered what it would look like to draw white lines with a Gelly Roll pen throughout the background. Then I sharpened the circle edges and added some dots with my black and white pens.

But it wasn't big enough to be a tag so I mounted it on some grey cardstock with stitching.

Now what to do with the empty space on top? I stamped and then embossed some black dots and added the white ones with a gelly roll.

I brought out the whites of the lady's eyes with a Picket Fence Distress Marker.

I think it's interesting that you can't really tell what's tissue wrap or tape when you compare the look with the stamped circles (where the watercolor paper is completely exposed).

For collage work, the tissue wrap is really useful and I have a tip: There is a subtle difference between the front and back surfaces--one side is slightly smoother and stamping on that side seems to give me the best results.

I really don't know what to make of my subject matter except to say that maybe it reminds me to wash my hands to avoid germs? I think I'll link it to Simon's Monday challenge blog (this week's theme is embossing "powder power") just to remind them too :)

September 24, 2016

Not Alcibiades


Dotty is making an appearance once again--this time, she's a bit smaller and the setting a bit more somber. The dark (perhaps dastardly) mansion is courtesy of Tim's new Mini Halloween #5 set made larger by multiple stampings on tissue paper.


The autumnal leaves were cut from a G45 paper collection called Botanicabella and the distinguished gentleman (José de San Martin) graces an Argentinian postage stamp circa 1935.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this tag is the background made with torn squares of tiny book text pasted in random fashion. It was a tad time-consuming to prepare but I love the look and plan to set some time aside to make more of it to use in the future.

September 19, 2016

Common Denominator


Images that caught my eye were printed and pasted, then Tissue Wrap, stamping, stenciling and bits of Dapper paper stash combined with Distress ink/paint and many dots from a Gelly Roll pen became this journal page assembled over the weekend.

For me, the fun of "journaling" is I don't have a plan, I just take what interests me and begin. I never know where it will lead me and along the way I always learn more about what works and what doesn't.

Here are some close-ups (click for the larger, lightbox view):



The papers designed by Tim Holtz are ideal for collages but can be a little too thick for some applications. But no worries, as I have found they are easy to modify into a thinner version perfect for pasting.


I just use my fingernail to separate the front from the back then use a tiny amount of water to soften the paper so I can gently rub more paper bits off the back. In the image above, the paper on the left is the original, thicker version, the right one is how it looks after my delamination process.

I really, really enjoy the challenge of trying to create a sense of depth in my work and with this page, using warm reds at the bottom, cool blues and blacks at the top and the lightest values in the center along with modifying the size of the people helped to accomplish my goal.

And, if anyone is curious, the guys in the white uniforms--they were Coca-Cola salesmen from the 1930's. Perhaps the common denominator here is the love of a good cola?

Stamp credits: Tim Holtz Dots & Florals, Inkadinkado Newsprint
Stencil credit: Crafters Workshop Art Is

September 14, 2016

Moonrise Kingdom


Many times as an adult, I've wished for the exuberance and abandon of a child--it was so easy to be this way when I was young! This must be why I'm drawn so much to crafting where I can let go of my inhibitions and just play.

I've made this tag to link up with Simon's Monday challenge blog where this week's theme is "At the Movies" and I chose to commemorate a recent favorite called Moonrise Kingdom which celebrates the spirit of childhood and is touching, bittersweet and very, very funny.


It was released in 2012 and Netflix has made it available for streaming.

As far as my tag goes--that's a treehouse from the movie which was built on top of a utility pole and I did my best to turn some Found Relatives into boy scouts. It was fun to remember this movie and I plan on watching it again.

September 07, 2016

Ripper Street


My husband said this Found Relative photo reminds him of the Victorian era detective drama called Ripper Street that he enjoys watching hence the name of my post/tag. One of the main characters wears a Bolo hat so I suspect that's his reason for this connection.

It's my entry for Tim's September tag challenge where he introduced an archival/alcohol ink resist on Yupo. The background text in the close-up above was made using this technique with his Ledger Script stamp.

I've always wanted an easy way to make light text on a dark background and this is a great way to do it--thanks, Tim!


I began by cropping and distressing a Sophisticate cabinet card that I delaminated and pasted to a manila tag. The Found Relative (also delaminated) was cut-out and pasted to the Yupo and then cropped into an oval for mounting on the cabinet card tag.

I used copper and black Scribbles around the oval to create a pseudo-frame along with some Idea-ology ephemera (Thrift Shop) and paper strips (cigar box labels) cut from the Dapper paper stash.


The star was made by altering an Idea-ology Fastener by picking out the original image, painting in the center, applying a Remnant Rub and tinting/distressing the metal edges.


If you're on the fence about adding Yupo to your stash let me say I highly recommend it. It's great for mixed media and I've used it extensively for creating my own stencils because it's thin, easy to cut and very, very durable (see my post here).

In my opinion, the only shortcoming is that since it's actually a plastic you have to use caution with heat guns.

September 01, 2016

Encore


You'd think that I've been blogging long enough to know this--wait awhile before you make something final, don't be in such a hurry to share, make sure it's right first.

Earlier this week, I posted Natasha Returns but she should have stayed put and so I revisited her, made some modifications and brought her back for an encore.

I've recently started using die-cuts and thought I'd try an image transfer over the top but this just didn't look right so I modified this tag by pasting the image over the original transfer and now I am satisfied. Why didn't I do this in the first place?!