Ghost Crab

Remember me? I've never gone this long before without posting to my blog. I created multiple journal pages and tags during this absence but couldn't pull anything together that seemed "blog-worthy." I guess my heart just wasn't in it.

But now I have a journal page to share, inspired by:

• a lifelong desire to live by the sea in spite of my land-locked status
• a birthday month, my astrological sign is Cancer the Crab
• a prompt from Simon's Monday challenge called "Life on the Ocean Waves"
• a beautiful photo by Sican123 of a crab with a name that describes my absence
• and, last but not least, Sara and Patti Dee who recently reminded me of why I blog in the first place. Thank you, ladies ♥.

I worked on one side of a page in a large Ranger Dylusions journal with a plan to experiment with stamped tissue paper.

I rubbed graphite on the back of my printed photo to trace an outline, used acrylic paint to lay down some color and establish values, stamped on tissue paper (packing material from a shoe box) then pasted it over the painting.

The title was made with text stickers (they appear curved because my page wasn't flat when photographed) and some stamp embossed letters on more tissue paper.

So here's what I know now:

• The tissue paper that new shoes come wrapped in works just fine for stamping and pasting. But even with plenty of glue it will be somewhat opaque and doesn't disappear completely though not as bad on a lighter background. This is true of every tissue paper I've ever used so I'm not surprised or disappointed.

• Painting tumbling waves is seriously scary and a realistic portrayal would require a ton of patience!! I have new respect for this skill and the artists who can do this.

It's good to be back--I do hope my next post will come more quickly than the last and, as always, I thank you very much for stopping by!

Perfectly Happy

I was inspired by a post at Vintage Everyday that featured wedding photos during WWII and I used one of them for this tag.

It was framed for Simon's Monday challenge this week and also features a Hero Arts stamp from 2007 called Lace Flower Cluster which I used especially for their 45th anniversary Show & Tell Celebration.

After stamping, the lace flower was cut out and embellished with lines from a white Gelly Roll pen. I altered a Tim Holtz lace frame by peeling it from its baseboard backing, trimmed its shape a little and applied dots of Liquid Pearls to the edges. The background was made with Collage Paper.

Miss Trudy

I'd sure like to know the story behind this lovely little girl but for now, I'm calling her Miss Trudy. She's a Tim Holtz Paper Doll and I stained her clothing with the ink from gel pens (scratching the darker areas a bit to lighten and texturize).

The background was stenciled (Tim Holtz Dot Fade) and I stamp embossed the border using a vintage rubber stamp (1996) by Hero Arts called Violet Border. I am featuring this stamp as part of the company's 45th anniversary Show & Tell celebration for a chance to win their monthly kits.

I am so glad I dusted it off and set about putting it to work as I'd forgotten just how useful this stamp can be!

My tag was colored with Distress Oxides, some gel pen ink and a bit of colored pencil. The bench was made out of washi tape.

I had a lot of fun with it so it's no coincidence that I chose this particular Remnant Rub for the text!

I'm linking up to the Hero Arts Show & Tell Celebration and also to Simon's Monday challenge because this week's theme is Use Stencils.