Turning Point

Today I am pleased to share some exciting news (for me, anyway) along with a journal page made from magazine scraps.

It features a photo, taken at a drinking fountain in a park in Chicago at the turn of the last century, of my two great aunts, Esther and Ada, and some girl friends (click the photos to see a larger version).

Collaging scraps from magazines really triggers my creativity--there are so many odd and interesting images to be found and I highly recommend it when you need a little "play" time. I use a glue stick as it works well to keep the thin pages from wrinkling.

I've enjoyed paper crafting for quite a while now, stamping, pasting and coloring but the world of die-cutting was never a part of it.

However, the introduction of some mixed media thinlits by a famous craft designer has finally compelled me to enter this arena and I've ordered a Big Shot machine and some dies!

Thankfully, the craft blog world is full of fabulous tutorials that I plan to review because I don't know much about die-cutting but I'm very excited just the same and hopeful that the pleasure of using them will be worth the investment. I'll keep you posted... ☺

Number Six

Six Years? Where did they go? Seems like only yesterday when I started following (and participating) in the Monday challenge blog at Simon Says Stamp.

This week is their sixth birthday and I'm linking a tag made to commemorate this very auspicious occasion. Uh Uh Uhmm...

The background is one of those vintage portrait photo covers and includes an emblem of the photography studio that's embossed on the front of it. The foliage was hand-cut from some Graphic 45 paper called Botanicabella. That number six tag is from a Tim Holtz paper stash and the bee is a Remnant Rub.

I'm always inspired by the MCB design team and appreciate how hard they must work to create such interesting projects week after week. I'm sending my very best birthday wishes and look forward to seeing what the next year will bring.

Kimono

I get attached to certain photos, especially when I use them in art. Somehow, working with them connects me to the person more intimately and maybe, after I'm through, you will feel connected to them too.

I switched out the old wall phone with an image transfer of a vintage street scene of Tokyo. The tinting comes from Souffle Gelly Roll pens and just a bit of black colored pencil.

I'm linking this to Simon's Monday challenge blog. This week's theme is texture but instead of using physical texture I've used visual texture. If you're unfamiliar with the concept you can read more about it here.

By the Sea

I enjoy painting scenes using vintage photos. But as you can see by the original (below), I didn't stray too far with this one.

After making an image transfer (using this technique), I used a Prima stencil for the stone wall and the birds are from a Tim Holtz stamp. Mostly, I used craft paint, a bit of ink and a Pitt brush pen.

I'm linking to this week's Monday challenge blog at Simon Says Stamp where the theme is Nautical/By The Sea in a mixed media style.

Snapshot

Behold my most favorite Tim Holtz stamp (Memoirs). It's a bit tricky to get a good impression but once mastered, I think the rewards are massive. I'll never tire of using it and I'm delighted to share it with you today (this image is also my favorite Found Relatives photo).

I've used it for this month's 12 Tags of 2016, though I've strayed a great deal from his watercolor resist and word layer techniques. Still, his post inspired me and this is the result.

The manila tag support and ephemera already had a vintage tint so I only used a few Distress stain colors--primarily Tea Dye and Bundled Sage with just a touch of Victorian Velvet thrown into the mix. To create more depth in the stamped image, I used an Indigo colored pencil in the background.

The ephemera frame is actually a windowed envelope that contained souvenir photos like this example.

The butterflies were stamped onto Tim's Plain Tissue Wrap then cut-out and pasted on. I also used words from a Remnant Rub and machine stitched along the tag edges.

Ten Degrees

Here's a journal page to share with you today. I've been working in a large Dylusions journal creating two-page spreads--it's almost one-third full and getting much too thick to manage.

So I removed the completed pages and made a separate binding for them. Now my journal is nice and flat again and this time, I will work on just one side of the page and see if I like it better.

Today's page was inspired by this photo from a blog I've recently started following. It began with a background made from the corners of envelopes clipped by my great Aunt for her postage stamp collection (when I removed the stamps, I kept the corners to use for collage projects).

I applied the photo via an image transfer and used Postale tissue paper (Tim Holtz) in the foreground. The top of the collage was stenciled with texture paste (Tim's Dot Fade).

To enhance the areas the girls are standing on, I added additional lines with a permanent marker and used a bit of white paint to lighten the squares.

I wanted to retain the vintage colors so very little additional tint was applied except for some minor shadows made with a black colored pencil.

I am really grateful to this unknown photographer who captured such an inspirational image (and to the website for sharing it). Working on this page was really a pleasure. I wish I knew what a fisherman's store is but think it may be a warehouse. Can anyone enlighten me? Then I wonder what in the world these girls were doing there!

No. 76

Perhaps the mood of American citizens during Mark Twain's lifetime were similar to today. Given our current events, I thought using his quote was appropriate.

This tag was made for Simon's Monday challenge blog where this week's theme is Red, White and/or Blue. I used Correspondence paper stash and stamps along with a Found Relative and Distress inks and stains.

Thank goodness for a light wash of gesso which saved the day when the tag took a direction I was not happy with. As always, you can click on the images to see more detail in a larger version.