Legacy

Every book has a story and this one began when I pasted the pages together and cut-out its center.

Its final chapter ends with a stint in the Tim Holtz Idea-ology booth at the 2016 Craft and Hobby Association Convention in Anaheim, California (CHA).

Photo Courtesy Paula Cheney via Instagram

It features three of Tim's new Idea-ology products for this year--a Vignette Box,

some Gilded Accents Remnant Rubs and the Dapper Paper Stash (cigar box strips used along the box front edges).

I also used some old favorites like the Wallflower Paper Stash, a rather famous Found Relative, some Thrift Shop Ephemera and Letterpress.

My idea for stamping onto the letterpress faces came from some artwork by Paula Cheney that's featured on Tim's packaging for the new Framed Panel. If you haven't seen The Flamboyant Mr. Albert (and Paula's great tutorial) here's the link.

The vintage postage stamps are courtesy of my Great Aunt Esther who was a collector and left them to me. One is from Argentina and the other is Belgium.

It was a thrill to be asked to contribute artwork for Tim's booth display because (as so many of you know) working with his products just invites creativity. To see my other CHA projects, here's a link.

Photo Courtesy of Mario Rossi via Instagram

So that's the story with the following epilogue: This book will soon return to anonymity and never again be seen in such magical surroundings!

- The End -

12 Tags for Christmas - August

Tim's August tag this year featured a die-cut text background and a Found Relative collage. My Christmas version features a background that was stamped with text and I used an image from his Merriment paper stash.

I was happy to use some vintage postage, Correspondence remnant rubs and Chit-Chat stickers for embellishment. It's hard to believe that five cents was all it took to mail a Christmas card from 1963-1968.

Since the paper tones were rather muted I used a little Fired Brick Distress Ink to emphasize the costumes.

For me, this tag's best features are the soft matte paper textures and the way the photo was cropped to fit the tag.

I'm linking to Simon's Monday blog challenge where this week's theme is (no surprise) Holly Jolly Stamping.

Artvue

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I'm still rather confused as to what constitutes a piece of "mail art." According to Wiki, it's centered on sending small works through the postal service and that at it's core, it's about interpersonal communication, exchange and the creation of a virtual community of participants. Huh?

I thought it was just about using postal ephemera in collages!

So, while I work on my understanding of this art form, I'll share my latest attempt (interpersonal communication) with my blog readers (virtual community). Gee, maybe this is mail art after all?

Beginning with a virgin postcard (never been mailed), I used an image transfer technique to add the newpaper print. I used a distressed Idea-ology frame sticker and stamped a bird on tinted watercolor paper for the center.

The red and green postage stamps are real, the cat stamp is homemade. The address label is from the Tim Holtz Correspondence stamp set. I applied it to paper then used a typewriter to fill in the address before pasting it on. The postmark in the top left corner and the words Par Avion are also from this set.

With a bit more stamping, tinting, dotting and a strip of washi tape (white strip near the center), I considered it complete.

Now all I have to do is mail it!

Note to Self

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This week's theme at Simon's Monday blog challenge is to create using only three colors and, while this tag may look like I left them out, my trio is off-white, green and sepia.

According to Google, black is not a color; a black object absorbs all the colors of the visible spectrum and reflects none of them to the eyes (in case you were wondering).☺

I used a Found Relative photo which I cut-out and pasted to the edge of a postcard and then attached to a manila tag tinted to match the postage stamp.

The backside of these photos have pretty patterned paper which I peel off (to make cutting easier) and I decided to use it to make the postcard background more interesting.

I just cut away some of the pattern, flipped it over, pasted it down then peeled away parts of it (like on the lady's face).

I added some Remnant Rubs and emphasized the shadow near the lady's feet.

(Note to self--dream big AND dream in color!)

(Another note to self--the postmark on this card is 1915 which means I used a 100-year old post card to make this tag.)

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.

The Fourth

Tim's July tag celebrates Independence Day and what better way to spend the holiday than to play along? I haven't any blue print stamps but except for the postage stamp and typed text, everything else here is Idea-ology.

The boys are from the Occasions photo pack, the red papers are from the Merriment paper stash, the blue is from Correspondence and the snippet of the word "July" came from Lost and Found.

The "Credo" stamp is a US commemorative from 1960 which depicts a quote from Francis Scott Key:

And this be our Motto, in GOD is our TRUST.

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" are words from the Declaration of Independence and our reason for celebrating today. 

Happy 4th of July!

Artistamps

From Wikipedia:

The term artistamp (a portmanteau of the words "artist" and "stamp") or artist's stamp refers to a postage stamp-like art form used to depict or commemorate any subject its creator chooses. Artistamps are a form of Cinderella stamps in that they are not valid for postage, but they differ from forgeries or bogus Illegal stamps in that typically the creator has no intent to defraud postal authorities or stamp collectors.

The Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp is The Artsy Stamp and I decided to take a bit of a twist and make a collection of artistamps instead. I used tiny bird stamps, some colored pencils for tint, a black fine tip marker to mimic the perforations, and a vintage envelope for the background (which had an interesting embossed design).

The Wiki article further states:  While the method of production is entirely the choice of the artist, creators who exclusively or primarily use rubber stamps are occasionally held in contempt by members of the artistamp community, some of whom refer to such producers as "bunny-stampers."

Well, I don't care if they call me a bunny-stamper because these are actually birds (duh) and they were really great fun to make. The hard part is getting a realistic looking perforation--I opted to use a less authentic (but easy) method by making tiny black dots along the edges.

Dos Centavos

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This week, the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp is botanical so it prompted me to finally finish a collage I started a while back that includes a bird cut from an out of print Graphic 45 paper collection called Botanicabella.

It's mounted on an old book cover, the paper on the right and at the bottom are vintage, the map on the left side was printed on beige cardstock then antiqued.

A stamp from Anna Griffin was used in the lower left corner, tissue paper from an old pattern, a bit of black mulberry paper and a vintage postage stamp completed the project.