Christmas Tag No. 3 for 2021

I chose a simple design for this tag to emphasize all the detail in the tree. It was fussy-cut from Stamperia's Christmas Patchwork paper and then embellished with Stickles and Glossy Accents. The background paper is a faded, vintage, handwritten note and the text is a Remnant Rub.

This is my last link up to Simon's Monday challenge which is "Sparkle Mode." I could use my glitter glues every day of the week and a challenge like this one is certainly a favorite!

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

Until next time, take care.

Christmas Tag No. 2 for 2021

A background paper by Stamperia (Christmas Patchwork), a stamped then fussy-cut poinsettia (Penny Black Christmas Star), Glossy Accents to cover the tile letters and lots and lots of Stickles makes this my third entry this week for Simon's Monday challenge which is "Sparkle Mode." 

 

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

Until next time, take care.

Silent Night

Here's another try at a two stamp combo--this time it's a night-time version (see previous post for a look at my first try).

I lightened up the foreground stamping by using gray ink. I guess the next thing to try with this stamp might be a "no-line" watercolor version.

You might be curious to know that the dark sky was made by mixing ultramarine blue and orange lake and I lightened the tint at the horizon line to create the illusion of depth.

As long as you have a tiny brush handy, painting small watercolor scenes like this one are fast, easy and very satisfying!

I mounted my stamping on bronze metallic cardstock and used champagne-colored Stickles so I'm linking up to Simon's "Sparkle Mode" challenge this week since I made something glittery.

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

Until next time, take care.

Stamp sources: Pink Fresh Happy Holidays Circle Frame, Studio Light Christmas Scenery

Peace

Two stamps, one piece of watercolor paper and paint, topped off with glitter glue, glossy accents and a Remnant Rub and I've just made another card for Christmas.

I might make another one but I'd stamp the holly border much lighter or knock it back with paint because I feel it competes too much with the scenery focal point.

I'm linking up to Simon's "Sparkle Mode" challenge this week which is to make something glittery.

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

Until next time, take care.

Stamp sources: Pink Fresh Happy Holidays Circle Frame, Studio Light Christmas Scenery

Artist Trading Cards

Prompted by Simon's "Artist Trading Card" challenge, may I present this trio made with an image transfer on kraft card stock using the sample ad for the Tim Holtz "Groups" Found Relatives as the background.

The next layer is white heat-embossed stamping (Tim Holtz Mail Art stamp set) along with some Tim Holtz Photobooth pics.

My stock of colored embossing powders is limited so I used permanent inks to tint/tone-down some of the stark white and also used a few strips of Tim Holtz Design Tapes. I painted on the white border.

I don't make many trading cards but if you'd like to see a few more, here's a link. 

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

Until next time, take care.

Christmas Tag No. 1 for 2021

 

Making Christmas tags by following along with Tim Holtz blog posts way back when was such great fun and I've continued to embrace the tag format ever since.

Nowdays, I use my holiday tags to decorate gifts and today I'm sharing the first one of, hopefully, twelve for this year. (See previous seasons here).

I punched postage-stamp shapes from a heat-embossed stamped image (Penny Black Tree of Holly) and pasted rows of them to create a background.

 

The poinsettia was stamped (Penny Black Christmas Star), tinted with Distress inks, cut-out and mounted to the surface. I added some fine, black lines for detail and used gold Stickles to trim the flower edges along with my last bottle of Rock Candy Distress Stickles (an absolute favorite product, sadly discontinued).

 

I stamped then fussy-cut the text (Penny Black Festive Season) and trimmed the tag with Nuvo Glitter Drops, sketchy pen ink and a ribbon topper.

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

Until next time, take care.

Remind Me

Happy Halloween, everyone. No carved pumpkins or kids collecting candy at my house this year but my spirit remains "creepy" just the same.

Sharing a tag made of collage bits and stamping (mostly Tim Holtz) and this link to a short essay that I found particularly inspiring today.

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

Until next time, take care.

Chickadee

First time using a new stamp (Whimsy Chickadee), one I had my eye on for awhile, but was a little disappointed once received because it's not trimmed and doesn't have an image on the top side to help with alignment.

I stamped on book paper, tinted with colored pencils and Distress inks, and placed the image behind an oval cut from scrapbook paper (also distressed). I machine-stitched the borders, darkened the edges for accent, added crystal drops from Nuvo and heat-embossed the text.

I'm linking up to Simon's "thinking of you" challenge.

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

Until next time, take care.

Strange Rumors

An image transfer, book text/paper, postal scraps, along with paper and rub-ons from Tim Holtz are the ingredients used to make this piece. I've also used Simon's dot stencil with texture paste, Scribbles (3D-paint) and inks for tinting. And I've completed it just in time to link-up with Simon's Halloween challenge!

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

Until next time, take care.

Our Duty

I've used a Found Relative (Tim Holtz) to feature in this tag. Was Halloween just around the corner since this little tyke is wearing what appears to be a uniform jacket (that's a tad too big)?

The flowers were drawn by Alphonse Mucha (clipped from one of his posters) and I also used a torn bit of book paper tinted with inks and embossed with polka dots.

All the collage elements were placed on top of an oversized image of an old envelope that was found in a book on philately.

As I've mentioned before, I find the best way to tint the "relatives" is to use Pitt Artist Brush pens.

I'm linking to Simon's Monday challenge since Halloween is the theme.

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

Until next time, take care.

Mr. Blue Eyes

I made a journal page inspired by Simon's fall colors mood board challenge by stamping (Simon's Sunflower Garden) on a piece of Paper Stash (Tim Holtz) then filled-in the flowers with paint and inks. I added a kitty cut from a magazine and a few pieces of altered ephemera (Tim Holtz). The hand-drawn frame/border was made using markers and colored pencils.

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

Until next time, take care.

Discover Yourself

The pleasure I get from experimenting--deciding to color a stamp in an unconventional way, slapping a figure on top that seems to work with it, then digging-up suitable text--that's what I call a good day.

I can't imagine what my readers make of these concoctions but I will say that going a little outside the box can be quite fun.

I'm linking to Simon for this week's challenge which is to "stitch it."

Stamp credit: Simon Sunflower Garden

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

Until next time, take care.

Daughter of Atrides

A tag to share made with some Tim Holtz stuff: a Found Relative, a butterfly and a stencil called Thatched.

The Simon September card kit came with some of his Sentiment label stickers that didn't really appeal to me so I used them to cover a manila tag. Then I applied another layer over them using texture paste and the stencil.

I tinted the dress, skin tone and accents using Pitt artist brushes which are made from India ink, are waterproof, permanent and easily applied to the slick surface (highly recommend).

There are some collage bits: the text is from an old book, there's the crown and the flower-like accents (which are actually from an astronomy diagram).

I used some Liquid Pearls along the bottom.

I'm linking up to Simon's Monday challenge--this week's theme is to have "fun with stencils."

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

Until next time, take care.