Sensibility

The typewritten text from a favorite author was the inspiration for this tag made with an image transfer of a vintage photo, a scrap of Tissue Wrap and a Tim Holtz stamp (Mail Art).

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

Until next time, take care.

 

East Palestine

So much bad news lately, but the heart-breaking environmental catastrophe in East Palestine, Ohio, is truly hard to bare. I too, live close to a rail line and realize just how easily this could be me.

I am grateful to have crafting to distract me and provide an outlet for my feelings. If you like good writers, may I suggest this brief posting which describes the feelings around this event perfectly:

Smoke on the Water by Walter Kirn

My tag was made from an old Canadian watercolor postcard and the gents were cut from a vintage image. The tinting in the sky was enhanced with colored pencils and I added some typewriter text.

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

Until next time, take care.

Perfidy & Travail

I'm sharing a tag today that's made with a Found Relative, Remnant Rubs, and scraps of Paper Stash, embellished with Liquid Pearls and typewritten text.

The girls were roughed up a bit with a damp piece of Magic Eraser (perfect to use when a "gentle touch" is best) to lighten their flat black outfits that were then tinted with Pitt Brush Pens.

I also cut out tiny bits, here and there (around their arms, faces, etc.) to improve the factory cutting and make them appear more realistic. A final important step is to paint or ink the edges (I used black) to make the white paper backing blend in with the background (best to do before pasting).

I also scraped through the Remnant Rubs with an Xacto knife to further the distressed look.

I'm linking up to the Simon Monday challenge which is a "Fall Mood Board."

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

Until next time, take care.

God Bless America

Let us begin to contemplate a change of course that

allows us to remain a civilized nation of law and liberty.

Uvalde

  (Quote: Jandy Nelson, The Sky is Everywhere)

Brainstorm

  

 

A stripped layer of cardboard, a fussy-cut page from the Ephipany paper collection (Prima 2014), a vintage portrait (also fussy-cut) and my favorite book paper all tinted with inks and colored pencils are the ingredients used for this tag.

 

 

If you're inclined to use book paper in your art, may I recommend you search for a high-quality, very old book and you'll find that the paper will be strong, thick and tough enough to handle mixed-media techniques. Mine was an investment ($10 at a book fair), it has a leather binding and the pages have mellowed to a lovely color but are not friable.

The typewriter text was inspired by Simon's Monday challenge, this week it's using weather for inspiration. I looked inside instead of out and came up with "brainstorming."

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

Until next time, take care.

Non-Zoonotic

This image of a cactus was altered after printing by outlining the stems with a black ink marker and adding hints of yellow-green before it was fussy-cut. Then it was pasted over a thinned-out page of Abandoned paper stash and mounted on one-half of a vintage portrait folder.

The edges were distressed and it includes stamped text and postmark (Correspondence), a vintage postage stamp and typewriter text.

I'm linking up with Simon's Monday challenge "Add Some Texture." Nothing has more texture than a gigantic cactus--am I right!?

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

Until next time, take care.

Uniformity

  

Inspired by a quote, this tag was made with a fussy-cut vintage image pasted on a scrap of Paper Stash tinted with inks and colored pencils; the text is from a typewriter.

The "B" on their uniforms--pure coincidence ☺.

Truth Teller

  

A book I'm reading inspired this tag collaged with a fussy-cut vintage image and scraps of Tim Holtz paper.

I'm linking to Simon's Monday challenge, this week's theme is "Let's be on Time."

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

Until next time, take care.

Nature

A journal page: Distress inks, stencil by Prima (Read My Letter), botanical print (Plant and Floral Woodcuts for Designers & Craftsmen by Theodore Menten), text quote by Karen Madwell.

I'm linking up with Simon's "Make Your Own Background" challenge.

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

Until next time, take care.

Patience

I made a background by stamping (Tim Holtz Ledger Script) on a manila tag with black Archival ink then used several blue and green Distress inks to give it some color.

I transferred this image over the colored text background using gel medium. Because of the transparent nature of image transfers, the background would have been visible underneath the white areas of the image.  To solve this problem I printed a second copy of the image, fussy-cut just the girl and pasted her over the top of the first image layer. She was tinted with more inks and a text label was made with my typewriter.

I'm linking up with Simon's Monday challenge to Make Your Own Background.

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

Until next time, take care.

TWIV

There's such a good challenge at Simon this week called "We're Going Around in Circles."

So I made a hand-carved stamp of a circular symbol known as an Ouroboros. I wish I could say the design was my own but I found it on the net. It was chosen for its simplicity to make it easier to carve.

It was stamped on a vintage book page tinted with Distress inks and the snake's texture came from embossing powders. An Idea-ology sticker was altered with sanding and a vintage sun applied using my image transfer technique.

I printed an image of coronaviruses (Micrograph from Frederick A. Murphy, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas) then cut/paste and tinted it with Distress and emphasized the edges with a black, fine-line marker.

I used my vintage typewriter to make the text quote which I heard on last Friday's This Week in Virology (TWIV) podcast. The border features dots of my new favorite crafting product, Pumice Stone Nuvo Vintage Drops (thanks Simon!) which dry to a matte finish and are so very easy to apply.

It may not be your cup of tea visually but I like it and it was very satisfying to make. My stamp turned out great and I hope to use it again soon. And above all, the symbolism in this tag makes my head spin. ☺

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

Until next time, take care.

Blue Skies

Does anyone know what day it is because I am seriously starting to lose track of time.

As one day runs into another during this sequester, I'm grateful for my hobbies which have recently grown to include playing the piano--something I haven't done for a while.

I've spoken about my two great aunts, Esther and Ada, and how I inherited many of their keepsakes. Ada was a college professor with a masters in Music and I have hundreds of pieces of her sheet music including the song "Blue Skies" by Irving Berlin.

That was my inspiration for this tag made to link up with Simon's Monday challenge this week because it is not a card.

I modified the image by replacing the wings, punching holes in them and scraping away the printing to lighten spots for tinting. I used a Gelly Roll and various ink pens to modify the umbrella.

The background is an image transfer that came from an old book page, I drew circles and made dots for the border and the text was produced on a vintage typewriter.

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

Until next time, take care.