Tick Tock

Some vintage photos ask to be understood more than others, it's a quality that draws me in and was especially true with this one--the couples' expressions and clothing tell a story I long to know.

I was inspired to use it because of the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp which is Tick Tock. The tag was an exercise in image transfers and this is what I learned:

A page of clocks from the Lost and Found paper stash was used for the background. Since transferred images can become transparent, I thought the background might be too dark so I put a thin coat of gesso over the clocks. But since the photo had a lot of solid dark areas, I really didn't need to lighten the background and if I hadn't, the clock images would have been more pronounced.

If you're wondering how I tinted the photo, it was "glazed" with acrylic paint. Glazing is just adding a clear medium to paint to give it a transparent quality. Best results are achieved with pigments that are naturally transparent and I avoid using chalky craft paints for this technique.

Royals

Is it just me or, are some of what seems like the easiest of Tim's monthly tags deceptively difficult? It took four tries to get a similar effect but it was great practice just the same. I'd either get a stamped impression that was too dark or too light or when I rubbed, it would smear too much.

I followed each and every one of his steps except I pounced ink through the stencil instead of using a spritzer, I didn't use a metal word band and my twine is a gold ribbon cut in strips and pasted on. I used stamps (PaperArtsy and Prima) with a similar format as the feather and the nest, my stencil was hand-made.

The text came from lyrics in a song called Royals by Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor aka Lorde who's from New Zealand. This song has received a lot of play time here so that's why I thought of it.

As always, I'm really looking forward to this month's link-ups and aren't we lucky that Tim provides such great tutorials (and products) and a forum for sharing our work! If you've never participated, I encourage you to try--it's really great fun.

let it go

e.e. cummings is the poet who inspired the text on this tag

(you can read the poem here)

I'm new to using paste medium and since I need the practice , I've made another tag for link-up to the Simon Says Stamp Monday blog challenge (a second-chance to win the prize drawing can't hurt either).

I just jumped in this time, spread medium all over the tag and pressed in a bird cage stencil. After it dried, the uneven texture made me think of hills and valleys so I used some acrylic paint and a landscape was born.

Since the impression on the side of the cage was messed up, the idea of birds escaping came to mind (déjà vu) and I found a Tim Holtz stamp that worked. Due to the surface's uneven texture there's no way I'd get a perfect impression so a few areas were filled in with a marker.

All in all, it was a good lesson. To be an artist means letting go, right? By treading new territory I've learned how this stuff works and see its possibilities.

Now I just need to figure out how to photograph it!

My cat will help.