/* */ Beulah Bee: Idea-ology
Showing posts with label Idea-ology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Idea-ology. Show all posts

February 10, 2023

Valentine Love

My card-making friend, Thelma, always mails a large batch of her handmade Valentine's Day cards to Loveland, Colorado, each year, where they receive a special postmark before forwarding to the recipients.

A special poem is also stamped on the envelope--here is what was on mine this year:

Travel by train, by letter or card,

My love note will find you, wherever you are.

Via Sweetheart City my message departs

And speeds on its journey straight to your heart.

 

The card above is what I'll be sending to her. It's made with Idea-ology lace, Botanical collage paper, paper stash, a scrap of fabric and lots of Stickles and Nuvo Crystal Drops.

I'm linking up to Simon's Monday challenge, "Love is in the Air."

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

 

October 13, 2021

Mr. Blue Eyes

I made a journal page inspired by Simon's fall colors mood board challenge by stamping (Simon's Sunflower Garden) on a piece of Paper Stash (Tim Holtz) then filled-in the flowers with paint and inks. I added a kitty cut from a magazine and a few pieces of altered ephemera (Tim Holtz). The hand-drawn frame/border was made using markers and colored pencils.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

August 16, 2019

Summer


I'm celebrating summer with this project, prompted by two blog challenges: Simon's Midsummer Blues and Frilly Funkie Junkie's Let's Do It Again. The blue part is self-explanatory and doing it again meant revisiting an old project and creating a remake.

You may know that I do love fussy-cutting and especially the flowers from the Tim Holtz Wallflower paper stash. So that, along with a Baseboard Doll and Lace Baseboard Frame, was what I used to assemble this project.

It was mounted inside the back of a wooden panel that I covered with paper. The doll's left arm was originally bent up high and was altered by slicing and dicing and piecing together some baseboard from another doll.




Here's the original project that inspired the "do-over." It is a Configurations Box I made for CHA 2015. Paper dolls hadn't been invented yet so I cut the girls from a Found Relative photo. It was the year the Wallflower paper stash came out and I assembled a garden for them to sit in.



So, it is still mid-summer here in the desert and we'll have at least two and a half more months of high temps. There hasn't been any monsoons that bring rain so the dry spell weather-wise coincides with my own personal artistic dry spell and lack of posts. I'm thankful for the prompts this week and it feels so good to be working again!

Update: So proud this post became a Top Pick on the TFJB blog--thank you!

May 12, 2019

The Way


During an evening walk a few weeks back, I found a rusty, gold painted piece of metal (shaped like a wing?) which someone had tucked into a street sign in my neighborhood.

It was happenstance that I glanced-up at just the right time with just the right light to see it's shiny reflection and to know it was there.


And so I used it for a small plaque made with various papers (vintage book, Tim Holtz collage and butterflies cut from Prima scrapbook paper). The flowers are from the new Idea-ology Botanical Layers and the girl is a Baseboard Doll.

I used a bit of crackle medium around the edges, drew some lines and added shading to create a faux border, and trimmed the plaque edges with gold paint. The text was an image transfer.

I began work on this Monday when I discovered the Simon Monday challenge was "Add Something Metallic." Since this metal piece had been laying around my studio for awhile (with no idea of how or what to use it for), this challenge was just the push I needed.

I didn't think I'd get it done in time to enter but sure enough, I did!

March 03, 2019

Absolutely Unique


A collection of Photobooth pics (Tim Holtz) pasted on hardboard, embellished with colored and printed/stamped tissue paper and typewriter text becomes an homage for a quirky quote.

There is confusion over the attribution but some would say Margaret Mead.

It's my entry for this week's Monday challenge at Simon--the theme is vintage/past times.

February 05, 2019

Wildflowers of America


I'm happy to be part of Richele Christensen's blog hop of artists who made show samples for the Tim Holtz booths at Creativation 2019.

This piece features Idea-ology and I used a Vignette Tray (large), new Vignette Divided Drawer, Worn Wallpaper, Butterfly Adornments, new Ephemera (Keepsakes), new/revised Layers (Botanicals), Bouquet, Mini Hardware, Corners, and Ball Chain.


I took the dividers out of the drawer, lined it with paper, anchored it inside a large tray, and placed 1/2" thick foam core around the circumference to make it less deep (underneath the Worn Wallpaper).

My technique for painting the butterflies is simple and all you need is a steady hand. I used thin acrylic paint and a tiny paint brush to apply multiple coats layering one transparent color over another.

The new/revised assortment of Botanicals (Layers) is really beautiful and was my inspiration for this piece. The mix of flowers is very different from the last release and much improved with lots of roses and lovely banner pieces all in multiple sizes of left and right versions.

Botanicals Layers - New Version
Botanicals Layers - Old Version

I also mixed in a few of the fabric-like flowers called Bouquet after lightly tinting the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink.


The wire mesh in the background is made out of something called "hardware cloth." In my neighborhood, it's used as a fence around plants to keep the rabbits from chewing them.

I sponged on off-white paint and built a ledge for it to rest on from thin wooden strips painted to match the box's paper lining.

The Worn Wallpaper was distressed by placing torn strips over the top of one another and inking the edges to make them stand out. And yes, that's Ball Chain (it comes in three different metal finishes) which was used to embellish the border.


Good luck with the giveaway (comment by midnight PST February 9). The contest has ended, see winners announcement here.

I hope we've inspired you! If you are hopping in order, Cheiron Brandon is up next.

CREATIVATIONS 2019 BLOG HOP

Beulah Bee  YOU ARE HERE...

February 01, 2019

Love Always


Tim Holtz (Idea-ology) came out with a new product this year called Baseboard Dolls and I received some of them to use on projects for the Creativation booth. The little girl on this tag was a Baseboard Doll that I converted to a regular one by peeling her off the substrate.

She sports one of Tim's new Transparent Wings and I used a flower from the previous version of Botanical Layers that also comes on sturdy paper which I peeled off to make more suitable for collage.

The background was part of the instructions from a needlework pattern that I tinted with Distress Ink.


I dabbed on a very small amount of alcohol ink to tint the wings (originally clear) with a combo of Butterscotch and Watermelon and some hand-sanitizer to help dilute it and spread it around.

They were attached with a drop of epoxy in the center of the girl's back and the remainder of the wing surface moves freely.

Click to Enlarge

For the first time, I also used a product call Nuvo Crystal Drops (Olive Branch) to make dots along the tag border.  Some of you probably know how much I like to use Scribbles (a 3D fabric paint) or Liquid Pearls to create a similar effect but that paint is opaque and this product is transparent, behaves like a tinted version of Glossy Accents, and I like it a lot!

I'm linking up to Simon's Monday Challenge Blog--this week's theme is Love is in the Air.

January 27, 2019

She's Changed


My projects from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Creativation 2019 booth were returned to me yesterday and I made two changes to one of them.

Formerly called Vintage Clip Book #15, she's #13 now (the original Number Token fell off during the take down) and I decided to get rid of the dot border because it just didn't work and wasn't necessary.


The Vintage Clip used for this example is 2-1/2" wide and, as you can see, the book is not much bigger than the clip. I pasted a piece of red paper behind the Number Token to make it stand-out more, added one of the new Hardware Heads and used Gorilla Glue to re-attach it to the clip.

I think the girl with dog is a new Paper Doll image (I haven't seen her before) and she was the perfect size to use with my fussy-cut and Ephemera pieces.

The rest of my projects are in the previous post.

January 24, 2019

Creativation Idea-ology 2019


For details on this project (Wildflowers)--here's the link.



For more details on Vintage Clip Book #15 (now #13) see this post.




These are my contributions to the Tim Holtz Idea-ology booth at Creativation 2019.*

There are some terrific new products this year and some of my favorites include the new Ephemera Pack (Keepsakes), the new Layers (Remnants) and of course the Vintage Clips (which I used on small antique books).

There's not much to say that isn't already obvious technique-wise--it's just some fussy-cutting, painting, and pasting. To see the details, click on the photo for a larger view. Be sure to contact me if you have any questions, there's a link to my email address in the sidebar or you can leave me a comment.

Perhaps there will be a blog hop like last year. If that's the case, I'll pick a project and include all the specifics. Do you have a favorite you'd like to know more about? Update 1/29/2019 - There will be a blog hop (with giveaways) scheduled for February 5 hosted again this year by Richele Christensen (californiaARTgirl.blogspot.com) and will include the designers for all of Tim's new products (Idea-ology, Stampers Anonymous, Sizzix, etc.).

Thanks for stopping by and a big thank-you to Paula and Tim for asking me to contribute again this year. If you are interested in seeing my work for the Idea-ology booths from 2015-2018, here's the link.

*The last two pieces did not appear in Tim's video.

November 28, 2018

12 Tags for Christmas 2018 - No. 4 & 5

I started making tags when I discovered Tim Holtz and his blog at the beginning of December 2009 and got caught up in his daily posts for the 12 Tags of Christmas.

I had little experience stamping, didn't know about Distress inks, and his tutorials were very detailed and very helpful. I was mesmerized and I was hooked.

Tim has kept links to these posts on the sidebar of his blog and I recommend them to paper crafting beginners as a learning tool--they are so much fun!

I've decided to share a few of the tags I made during this period (before Beulah Bee) because I'm a little short on time this year and won't be able to complete all 12 new ones.


This one shows my penchant for paper-cutting even back then but before I learned to tint the cut paper edges with a darker shade of ink (so they would blend in better). Scraps of pages from an old German bible were pasted on the background.


I used the same image on this tag (photocopied from a vintage greeting card that belonged to my Great Aunt Esther) and embellished it with a stamp embossed frame using antique gold powder.

The background is Tim Holtz kraft card stock and the tiny stars were recycled from a store-bought card and tinted with alcohol ink.

I could never have imagined back in 2009 that this year I'd be short on time making tags because of working on projects for Tim's Idea-ology booth at the January 2019 Creativation trade show!

What a journey (thanks, Tim)!

There are links in the sidebar to my Creativation/CHA projects or Christmas tags from past years.

September 04, 2018

The Beekeeper's Daughter


I've made a Vignette Tray assemblage/collage to share with you today. I chose the smaller tray size and used whiting (a wood stain) and some light sanding to alter the surface. This technique is known as "pickling."

I used this finish on a CHA 2017 project and here's the link if you'd like to see another example.


A Found Relative was cut-out and placed between a sandwich of two Baseboard Frames and vintage book paper of a blue sky was attached to the back.

The background consists of the stained wood of the tray along with vintage book paper text.

The large white script was made using a home-made stencil and white paint on Plain Collage Paper.

By using the collage paper, I have lots more control over where it's placed and after pasting down it becomes almost invisible.


The tiny bee on top is an image transfer on the backside of a vintage button (I filled in the holes with paste medium).

The sunburst is also a transfer and the image came from a Trader Joe's flyer.

The gentlemen were cut from French Industrial paper stash and there's also a vintage postage stamp.


The flowers were cut from the Wallflower paper stash and that's an Idea-ology key dabbed with white paint and dark ink to distress it.

The honeycomb was made with a Tim Holtz Mixed Media thinlet.

This piece was a long-time in the making and there were several versions before I finalized it.

Funny thing, though--I ended up returning to my original idea. I guess I needed to try out all the possibilities before I could fully embrace the design.

May 24, 2018

My Sweetheart


Inspired by a song (this week's Monday challenge at SSS), here's a tag that celebrates the turn of the last century when everyone was waltzing to a popular tune called "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."

The background reminds me of a vintage tin ceiling tile. It was made using bronze metallic cardstock and the new Sizzix 3D texture fade (Tim Holtz) called Botanical.

The portrait is an image transfer using this photo. Because the original background was dark, I used the tip of an Exacto knife to scratch in lines to lighten it and create better definition.

The frame border was made with dots of 3D fabric paint called Scribbles.


The flowers and perfume label (Tim Holtz) were thinned-out and then fussy-cut to create a more delicate appearance.


I pasted a ribbon along the right hand side using fabric glue (works great and doesn't soak through) and my strip of text is from the Idea-ology Clippings Stickers collection.


And for anyone out there who's not familiar with the song that inspired me here's a link--take a listen!

May 05, 2018

Moments in Time


Time. Oh what a topic and such a precious commodity! It's the theme at Simon this week and here's what I made.

Crafted from some Idea-ology bits (pocket watch, flowers) and the new Worn Wallpaper, it was assembled with a homemade box and basswood strips. The support for the pocket watch is a small wooden tag turned upside down.





A vintage image was placed under the dome of the watch and I embellished it with a ball chain. The quote is an image transfer.

March 31, 2018

Erasable Memoranda

 

The paper used for this tag was cut from a vintage (1916) portrait cover (a graduation photo of my great aunt Ada). It's a light mustard color with an embossed stripe texture and because of its age, it's a bit friable and easy to distress.

I built a collection of boxes filled with various bits and mounted it on top of ephemera from the Tim Holtz Collector Layers. The ruler came from the Dapper paper stash and I embossed the end with metallic powders.


I tinted the metal star and index clip (Tim Holtz) with metallic white and butterscotch alcohol inks and that's a distressed Remnant Rub on top of the clip. 


I made it for this week's Monday Challenge Blog at Simon Says Stamp which prompted crafters to do something "Inside the Box." I enjoy working with the prompts because it gets me creating things I've always wanted to try but might not have otherwise.

My little boxes are not an original idea and I must give credit where credit is do. Rebecca Sower is an artist I've been following since I discovered this magazine article (Somerset Studio) in December, 2009. I didn't realize until just this moment that an altered book I made recently may have been inspired by her too!

March 11, 2018

Cool in the Shade

My favorite teachers? The passing of time, experience, practice, experimentation, mistakes. Case in point this tag (made for Simon's Monday theme "Whatever the Weather"):


  1. Learning how to use Photoshop's recompose tool to crop this photo without losing the photograph's border frame.
  2. Experimenting with Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink technique on glossy paper with mixed results (too much water, not enough ink?).
  3. Applying crackle medium to paper, the product I use has to be applied really thick--it was too thin this time to show up.
  4. The benefit of delaminating some Idea-ology paper stash to reduce bulk when collaging (text piece is full thickness, report card area was made thinner). Each time I try this, I get better at it. The trick is to gently rub off the back with a little water after peeling away as much as you can.
  5. The flowers (Idea-ology ephemera) were also delaminated because they are easier to refine with cutting when the paper's not so thick.
  6. Proved again that for me, the best way to tint a photo is still using a dab of ink from a gel pen with a little water (the turquoise in the wallpaper behind the teacher, for example).
  7. Appreciating that without adding a little whimsy to the piece an observer might think it too serious and wonder about my mental state. (Perhaps you should anyway.)
The weather connection is in the Idea-ology text from the Memorandum paper stash. I do believe this teacher is cool in her shades. Also note the Red Precipitate Ointment which is a nice touch--don't you think?


By the way, my favorite human teacher was Mrs. Jennings who had the patience to work with me in the 5th grade when I refused to learn multiplication tables and provided comfort from bullies.

February 02, 2018

Triumvirate

Hello and welcome to this stop in the
Creativation 2018 Tim Holtz Blog Hop and Give Away!

Here are three mini-framed panel collages made for the masculine side of the Idea-ology booth. They feature the new collage paper (Botanical), paper dolls, clippings stickers, design tape, paper stash, hinge clips, star adornments and ephemera.

The backgrounds are vintage postcards.

CHA 2018
CHA 2018

If you are interested in the construction details or want to see the other pieces I made for the show, I've posted about them here.

How grateful I am to be included in an event with so many talented and creative artists--all thanks to the wonderful world of Tim Holtz!


Blog Hop Road Map:

IDEA-OLOGY

SIZZIX

STAMPERS ANONYMOUS

*Give Away Details
There will be PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES to give away! Just leave a comment on the blog hop posts for a chance to win (the more blogs you comment on the better your chances). Comments must be posted by midnight PST on Tuesday, February 6. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, February 7 on Richele's blog.(californiaARTgirl.blogspot.com)

January 24, 2018

Creativation 2018 - Idea-ology Show Samples

CHA 2018
Photo by Paula Cheney

The best Christmas present I got this year? An invitation to make samples for the masculine side of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology booth at this year's CHA convention. Thank you, Tim and Paula!

Now called "Creativation," this annual gathering is sponsored by the Association for Creative Industries and gives designers like Tim an opportunity to introduce and demonstrate new products.

Photo by Paula Cheney

I expect Tim's booths are the highlight for many that attend and this year's fare is every bit as exciting as in years past. I'm sharing the pieces I made for this event so you can learn more about his products and how they can be used.

Click on the photos below for a link to the

construction details and additional views.

CHA 2018
Trilogy featuring Collage Paper

CHA 2018
Ordinary Story