Condo

I've had trouble creating lately. I've shown up for the work but the results just weren't satisfactory. Hopefully, I've learned from my mistakes and the worst is over. It really has thrown me for a loop and even the purchase of a few new supplies didn't help!

So a thank-you is due to Maura Hibbits, who developed a tic-tac-toe board for this week's Monday challenge blog at Simon Says Stamp. Her clever idea allowed me to finally complete something and I opted to go all-in, using every element.

My tag is a layer of washi tape, corrugated cardboard stenciled with paste, birds stamped on fabric, sprayed and stained with blue and green distress inks and a light wash of gesso, some sequins, gold threaded ribbon and gel pen doodled dots.

I imagine it looks like an abstract bird condominium, hence the title of my blog post.

No Trouble

I'm a Guest Designer for April at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and if this is your first visit here--hello and welcome!

This week's challenge is Rain and/or Flowers and I'm super excited to feature one of the new Tim Holtz stamps for 2016 called Sideshow. 

According to Tim's blog (CHA 2016 Stampers Anonymous Sneak Peak), he discovered some mixed-media art, fell in love with the designs and purchased them to turn into stamps.

I too, fell in love and knew this set was a "must-have." This is my first time using them and since the man with umbrella/raindrops is perfect for this challenge, I had no trouble completing it!

I stamped the image on a dark blue page from Tim's new paper stash called Dapper using ColorBox Frost White pigment ink and Ranger's super-fine white embossing powder.

I used Ranger's Red Geranium archival ink to stamp text in different directions along the left hand side to fill-in the background.

I pasted on vintage postage stamps using Perfect Paper Adhesive (great product), stamped some numbers (which also came with the set) using Ranger's Cobalt archival ink and used Gelly Roll Souffle pens to emphasize and add color to the lines and text on the paper.

The pens work well for adding accents because they write on most surfaces (even acrylic paint/mediums) and provide a nice, dimensional quality.

I felt the man was a little too bright so I dimmed down the white embossing by applying a transparent layer of color using Old Paper ink from a Distress marker mixed with PPA which can also be used as a medium.

The ink helped with my values and also brought out an interesting texture in the embossing that was a side-benefit I hadn't planned on.

I look forward to using this stamp set for other projects--the design and style just invite creativity and I think they will prove to be very versatile. And I'm happy to have a stamp that's a little different from the standard fare!

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I really hope you'll join us for this week's challenge.

I want to see what inspires you!

And when you upload your creation to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog you'll have a chance to win a $50 voucher at the Simon Says Stamp store!

Here is a list of the products I used this week which can be purchased at Simon Says Stamp:

Tim Holtz Idea-ology 12 x 12 Paper Stash DAPPER	Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps 2016 SIDESHOW	Sakura GELLY ROLL SOUFFLE 10 Pen Set	US Artquest MATTE Perfect Paper Adhesive	Tim Holtz Distress Markers OLD PAPER
Ranger Archival Red Geranium Ink Pad	Clearsnap ColorBox Frost White Ink pad	Ranger embossing powder White	Archival Ink - Cobalt

La Cucina

(Per Schiassi e Scarpelli)

My cooking skills have improved with practice over the years but in the early days of my marriage I felt like a child in the kitchen. My husband is Italian and no one cooks like his Mama!

The stamp used for this tag was found at a garage sale and seems very old (I think it may date back to the 1970's) and while I wasn't sure I'd ever use it, I was drawn to the image (perhaps because of my history?) and the price was right so I bought it.

With this week's theme of Food and/or Drink at Simon's Monday blog challenge I thought now would be a great time to use it.

I began with a page from an old cookbook which is now hard to see due to the many layers of distressing I used to make the walls look like old plaster. The floor, window and sign were hand-drawn, the bird was stamped and I placed a bit of washi along the sides of the window for trim.

Buon appetito!

Hold On

At the bottom center of this photo are the words "Bird's Nest" (click to enlarge) and it was pure coincidence. The star, cut from the index pages of a very, very old cookbook was made before I even thought of using a bird (Thrift-shop Ephemera) to carry it and even then, I didn't make the connection until it was pasted down.

The stamped background was made using Tim's Dots & Floral stamp set with red and grey archival ink then tinted with colored pencils after applying a light white wash. A bit of machine stitching, gelly roll dots, Chit-Chat stickers and washi were used to complete it.

I'm linking to this week's Monday blog challenge at Simon where, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, the prompt is Use Some Lucky Stars.

12 Tags for Christmas - March

This is my holiday version of the March tag from the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015 series where he demonstrated an excellent technique for using gold embossing powder over wet texture paste (and is the only common element here).

Limited in my Christmas stamp choices (remember process versus product), I tried to mask this Tim Holtz collage stamp on a scrapbook paper background which was tinted with Worn Lipstick Distress ink and an aqua Gelly Roll pen.

Can you tell I missed? The outline on the top and left edges of the stamp were filled in with black lines to remedy my poor masking skills.

If you wonder about my color choices I wanted to try using less traditional holiday colors. In hindsight, silver versus gold embossing might have looked better with this scheme.

Just a reminder, you can preview all my 12 Tags for Christmas by using the link on the sidebar.

Snow Birds

Many birds migrate to the Arizona desert during the winter months and we call the humans that come here "Snow Birds."

Their presence is keenly felt right now--it's a big change from the slow quiet pace of summer and is my inspiration for making this tag.

I used a stencil (Stampendous) to create the trees which were covered with Crackle Accents (Ranger Ink) to give the illusion of bark.

It's been my experience that when you use this product on paper it's best not to use a liquid over the cracks for emphasis because the product may peel-off. So I used oil pastels instead.

The birds are from a stamp called Birds on a Wire by Tim Holtz and I used a gel pen to ink them individually before placement.

A bit of white from a Souffle Gelly Roll pen was used to accent the branches with snow.

I'm linking my tag to Simon's Monday blog challenge--

this week's theme is So Glossy.

Life Mind

This month I worked through a blog challenge presented by A Vintage Journey where participants were asked to incorporate Tim Holtz techniques, style and/or products into their art journals.

Using the large format Dylusions journal, my first page was completed a few weeks ago and features a stamp from Tim's Flower Garden stamp set. It coincides with an online course I just completed on the subject of Mindfulness.

For the second page, I used only Tim Holtz stamps and if you don't count the Remnant Rubs text and some paint, I stayed true to my goal. I'll admit that the subject matter might have been a bit more interesting if my stash were larger but it was great fun just working with what I had.

And so, I'm also linking this post to Simon's Monday blog challenge--this week's theme is Throwback where you make something from a previous challenge. I picked the first challenge from July, 2013 called A Little Stamping which is what gave me the idea to use only stamping on my journal page.

To see more detail as you browse my images you can click on them to open the larger, lightbox view.

Journal Page No. 1

Journal Page No. 2

Mariposa

Mexico Moods is the summer challenge at Our Creative Corner and their prompt inspired me to create this tag.

Like my last several blog posts, this one features Souffle Gelly Roll pens. It seems I can't get enough of them and really went overboard this time! They are a bit like paint pens with a fine point and they're very opaque and waterproof.

I began with a black gesso background and stamped/embossed the butterflies and the lettering onto the tag. Next, I traced on a few designs with a pencil and some hand-made stencils.

Then the gelly rolls came out and were used to cover the entire surface with colorful mark making. To modify the values, I did use a glaze of thalo-blue in a few areas (particularly behind the butterflies).

The tag almost has an enameled appearance and makes me think I'd like to try this technique on a copper or gold background to see the result. Since they can be applied on any surface the sky's the limit!

Ikat

i·kat  ˈēkät  /  noun

fabric made using an Indonesian decorative technique in which warp or weft threads, or both, are tie-dyed before weaving.


Beginning with a Distress-stained background (Tumbled Glass), I stamped damask-like patterns in Iced Spruce then drew many fine lines using gelly roll pens to imitate ikat fabric.

The girls were added via an image transfer but their faces got lost so I cut-out new ones and pasted them over the transfer.

I distressed the tag edges with a black Fude Ball pen along with some tiny stamped text and added a shadow beneath the girls with a colored pencil.

Credit for my inspiration comes from Simon's Monday blog challenge where this week's theme is the letter i.

Pronouns

My take on Simon's Monday blog challenge?

First-person singular pronouns, of course!

The letter i is this week's theme and yes, it made me think of them.

I altered a favorite image (previously used here) which I think may be of triplet sisters.

Their expressions are so serious, their outfits so plain and my, such severe hair-do's!

It was time to lighten the mood.

Myself went crazy with new Souffle Gelly Roll pens and there's a scrap from the Wallflower paper stash along the bottom.

Me thought the word amusement was a good fit.

The bird cage is a stamp from Tim's Tiny Things set.

I also used a strip of Industrious Stickers but they are hard to recognize since me covered them with Gelly inks.

(Scroll down to see the tag in full view.)

Renegades

The joy of play and uninhibited creative expression is the reward for keeping an art journal. The pages are not meant to be "works of art." Instead, the freedom to explore (and learn) elevates it to a much higher plane and the confidence gained may carry-over to more serious pieces. So I say, get busy and be a renegade!

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A new set of Gelly Roll pens, exposure to a couple of technique videos and a cool new song by X Ambassadors called Renegades fed my inspiration for this journal page spread.

First, the technique videos merit reference in case you want to watch. One is by Piarom (blog link, video link) and the other is by Jeanne Oliver (video link, requires creating a login to view).

Both artists use figures cut from magazine pages which they transform in different ways. Mine didn't go in quite the same direction but their videos did inspire me to try.

I also used some other magazine scraps along with paint pens, colored pencils, stencils, a Tim Holtz scroll stamp and some of his tissue paper.

I'll close by saying that I love, love, love my new Gelly Rolls (called Souffle). They write over anything including fluid mediums and waxy colored pencils and are waterproof. So useful!

I think I'll link this to Simon's Monday blog challenge - this week's theme is anything goes (mine will be entry #521 - whew!).

Papillon

I splurged this week and bought a set of Gelly Roll pens and experimented with them on this tag.  They are called "Souffle" because they're pastel-colored and can be applied thickly for a 3D effect. They write on anything, including acrylic mediums, which is a big deal for me.

I began by distressing my tag with inks and paints then applied an image transfer to create the background and also added some stamping of grass near the bottom. I fussy-cut the girls (inking the edges with a Pitt pen) and pasted them on top.

I played around with the gellies to add color directly to the surface and also by diluting with a water brush. They are very opaque and also waterproof when dry. So, where I felt there was too much color, I used an Exacto knife to scrap bits of it away. In some areas, subtle color changes were made with colored pencils.

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This isn't the best example for illustrating how the new pens can be used but I'm very happy to have them in my arsenal of supplies and know you'll see lots more of them in future work. Stayed tuned ;)

I'm linking to Simon where this week's theme is anything goes.

Here is Now

An image transfer on an old postcard is the main feature of this collage tag which I embellished with a tiny figure, some Remnant Rubs and stenciled dots.

The bottom border was cut from the back of a Found Relative photo. The tag was tinted with colored pencils and the edges were distressed and dotted with a Gelly Roll pen.

I made it for linking to Simon where this week's theme is coffee or tea.

Swimming

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The daytime temps here in the desert have been hovering between 105 and 110 degrees for the last three weeks.

So, the only way to get outside and stave-off cabin fever is to find a swimming pool!

You have to park your flip-flops right at the pool edge because the ground gets so hot you can't walk barefoot.

I'm posting this journal page to celebrate a favorite summer pastime which was prompted by this week's theme at Simon Says Stamp.

The ladies are an image transfer and I used a variety of stamps, stencils, acrylic paint, colored pencils and ink pens to make it. My hubby calls my hobby "coloring" and the term really applies here because I did feel the joy of creating like a kid with this one.

I inscribed the words from a song by Loudon Wainwright III called "The Swimming Song" to decorate my pages and thought I'd post the lyrics below since you can't read them too well in the photos.

This summer I went swimming, 
This summer I might have drowned 
But I held my breath and I kicked my feet and I moved my arms around, I moved my arms around. 

This summer I swam in the ocean, 
And I swam in a swimming pool, 
Salt my wounds, chlorine my eyes, 
I'm a self-destructive fool.

This summer I swam in a public place and a reservoir, to boot, at the latter I was informal, at the former I wore my suit, I wore my swimming suit. 

This summer I did the backstroke 

And you know that's not all 

I did the breast stroke and the butterfly 

And the old Australian crawl, the old Australian crawl. 

This summer I did swan dives 

And jackknifes for you all 

And once when you weren't looking 

I did a cannonball, I did a cannonball.

Happy Day

I never realized how much I love
(and miss) plants until I moved
to the desert.

I know I've said it before
but I'll say it again.

I miss green.
I miss my garden, I miss grass.
I miss Spring and Fall.

Living where it never gets cold
was not a good trade and,
if I could, I would move
in a heartbeat.


But for now, I will embrace my cactus (avoiding the thorns) and make art to channel my passion for all things green. Since Simon's Monday blog challenge this week is for the love of plants, I've created this tag to celebrate.

It was an opportunity to use a stamp set I just found at a local rummage sale (without its packaging so I can't credit the maker) and an unusual technique which you may want to try.

I began by stamping and clear embossing the images on a plain manila tag then staining it (liberally) with Distress.

After removing the embossing with an iron and some newsprint (see resist technique step-out and links to tutorials here), I colored the designs with gel pens and a water brush.

I've posted about this painterly process before, here's the link.

I think the stamp design worked well with this technique and it has a kind of batik-like appearance. It was fun to try and I did end up having a happy day making it. My inner-crank about all things desert has disappeared (for now). Thanks Simon!