New Leaf Day

I did this journal page a few years back to motivate me to change some bad behaviors. It says, "New Leaf Day."

(turn over a new leaf kind of day)

And I did.


This time, to tie-in with the Wednesday blog challenge over at Simon Says Stamp, I've created a couple of tags that are "new" in many ways:

New because I just made them (duh)

This is Magellan, made with a new background stamp

(I won the $50 draw a few weeks back--thanks SSS!)

It portrays an explorer of the New World

I used new paper tape for the sails (thanks again, SSS)

It will end up on a new blog where I post only tags

and

then

there's


Mercury (image courtesy of Hendrick Goltzius)

Made with a new background stamp (thanks again, guess who?)

And also a new SSS Falling Snow stencil ($50 goes a long way)

And it symbolizes my new, stronger resolve to create simply for the joy of it.

There are no rules.

Period.

Happy New Year everyone!

Take Time

I made this to commemorate the first Tim Holtz tag of 2014, where he reminds us to take time to do something creative.

While I lack all the nifty die-cutting equipment and assorted goodies, I did receive a collection of miniature Tim Holtz stamps for Christmas that I was happy to use on this tag.

The background is from the French Industrial Paper Stash that I enhanced with Distress inks, a bit of colored pencil, and rub-on text.

Taking time to create is how I escape from daily stress and all the problems in our world that I feel powerless to fix.

I am so grateful to have this time and wish it for all those who seek it.

For Thelma at Christmas

My good friend Jan aka Thelma (I'm Louise), acquainted me with rubber-stamping a few years' ago and back then, I never would have imagined that, someday, I would have an entire drawer full of stamps myself.

We always exchange a card at holidays and this is what I'm sending her this year. The stamp is from the Tim Holtz Components Collection and the paper is from the Merriment Paper Stash by Idea-ology.

I've entered this card in both drawings over at Simon Says Stamp (Monday challenge is use a stamp, Wednesday challenge is "bling it on").

If you haven't seen a side-by-side comparison of Distress versus regular Stickles, I've used both on this card. I used colored pencils on Santa and Tea Dye Distress Stain to age the appearance.

Now I'd better get it in the mail, there's only five more days till Christmas!