Creative Expressions

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2010 Day 3 Tag

2012-01-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses some of the techniques Tim Holtz demonstrated on his 2010 Day 3 tag (12 Tags of Christmas). I love the tissue tape collage.

Randomly apply tissue tape to grunge paper.

Cut out butterfly with die cut, then color with alcohol inks.

When ink is dry, cover with rock candy Distress stickles.

I got impatient and used the heat tool to dry the stickler, this caused the tissue tape to buckle. Color edges with walnut stain Distress Ink.

On card, stamped branch with black Archival Ink. Used blending tool to add green Distress Inks to card and walnut stain Distress Ink to edges. Then splatter water on card, waited about a minute used a heat tool to stop ink from spreading.

Roughed up edges of card with distress tool and inked edges with bundle sage Distress Ink.

Colored blossoms with pink Distress Ink. Stamped on speckles with white acrylic paint (wash acrylic paint off stamp right away).

Added tissue tape collage butterfly to ATC and a word sticker.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2010 Day 2 Tag

2012-01-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses some of the techniques demonstrated by Tim Holtz's in his 2010 Day 2 tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Tim made a custom ink pad for one of his images and then covered it with clear embossing powder (ep) and heat set. I colored by butterfly stamp with various colors of Distress ink, using the pads to color the different sections of the butterfly. Coated it with ep and heat set.

Used a blending tool to color the card with two blue Distress Inks.

Stamped music score with pumice stone Distress Ink and flourishes with vintage photo Distress Ink.

Stamped the words with seedless preserves Distress Ink, and covered the "believe" with clap ep and heat set.

Added a couple of dragonfly charms and added white dots with enamel accents to the letters in "believe".

T is for Texture Transfer

2012-01-25T20:05:00.000-08:00

Decided to try this technique in the latest Technique Junkie Newsletter.

Press three different Distress Ink colors into craft sheet in a vertical line. Spray with water.

Lightly press used dryer sheet into the inks.

Press dryer sheet onto card stock and lift off.

Repeat above steps if desired, as many times as you like. Let dry. I only colored 1/2 my card, but you could cover as much of the card as you want.

For my card, I stamped wheat image and verse with brown StazOn ink. Colored part of the wheat with gold pen.

Added gold photo corners and layered on to a brown card.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2010 Day 1 Tag

2012-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

I love the rickety house Tim Holtz demonstrated on his 2010 day 1 tag (12 Tags of Christmas). I wish there was a similar house die that was ATC sized.

I decided to make the house and cut it down to ATC size. Run grunge paper through the notebook embossing folder. Cover with white acrylic paint, make sure paint gets down into the creases.

Cut into random sized strips parallel with creases. Sand off raised areas and cover with vintage photo Distress Ink, then wipe with moist paper towel.

Place strips together and tape.

Placed over ATC and decide where to trim down.

Here's the size I decided on.

Cut picket fence out of grunge paper. Paint with white acrylic paint, when dry coat with rock candy Distress crackle paint. Placed some previously ironed fantasy film scraps behind the windows. Painted some areas with white acrylic paint and then covered with rock candy Distress crackle paint. The underlying brown Distress ink, turned to white paint brown. When the paint dried, Tim covered it with "Sparkly Stuff", which I don't have, so needed to give it a think.

For the ATC back, did the wrinkle free distress technique with these colors.

Stamped snowflakes with faded jeans Distress Ink and the edges with walnut stain Distress Ink.

Covered the snowy areas with micro beads, still looked brown, so coated it with snow cap Mixatives.

Added the picket fence and a small tag with brad and "memories" stamped on it.

Ink, Spray, Smoosh ATC

2012-01-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

Cut an ATC piece out of one of the Ink, Spray, Smoosh Technique backgrounds I made earlier.

Stamped stars with gold ColorBox ink, covered with gold embossing powder and heat set. Stamped word "intrigue" and colored edges with black Archival Ink. Added a vintage image, a small gold brad star, and a gold key charm.

I is for Ink, Spray, Smoosh

2012-01-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

The technique uses glossy card stock, re-inkers and a water spay bottle.

On one of the pieces of glossy card stock, drop on some of the lightest re-inker color, then drop on less of the medium color re-inker, and then just a few drops of the darkest re-inker color. Spray a few times with water.

Lay the other piece of glossy card stock on top of the wet ink and press together, twist a bit as desired. Then carefully lift off the top sheet.

Here's how it looks, the colors seem really intense because the ink is still wet.

I tried to speed up the drying process by using a heat tool, I like how the heat tool moved the ink around into this pattern.

Decided to try again, using less re-inker drops.

Here's how it turned out.

For fun, sprayed on a home made spray with yellow re-inker and gold Perfect Pearls.

One more try using blue and purple re-inkers. Used more water sprayed on than in the sample above.

The outcome is lighter than I wanted.

Added more blue and purple re-inkers in spray bottles and smooched and swirled. Like how this turned out:

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 12 Tag

2012-01-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

This ATC is inspired by the techniques Tim Holtz showed on his 2009 Day 12 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas). I love the grunge paper flowers he shows how to make in this tag!

Cut out leaf shapes and flowers from grunge paper. Made custom pearl sprays with re-inkers and perfect pearls. Not sure what the combo of the purple spray is, as it's left over from a previous project. Used heat tool to speed up the drying. Then colored edges with black Distress Ink.

Clip between the petals about 1/2". Cut one flower to center between two petal. On second flower, cut out one petal. On third flower, cut out a two petal section. Where the petals are cut to the center glue one petal over the other with Glossy Accents and hold together with a paper clip until they dry. On the single petal, color back with walnut stain Distress Ink, then curl the sides to the center. On the two petal piece, color back with walnut stain Distress Ink, from the back curl the left petal to the back then...

flip it over and roll the turned petal part in to the other half, glue with Glossy Accents and hold until dry. Clip the bottom points off the two petal and one petal pieces.

On the three large flower bits, curl the petals back and cut off the center points. Then glue the 5 parts together as seen in the blue flower.

For the card, glue on a piece of music sheet. Color the card with antique linen and aged mahogany Distress Inks.

Stamp script with blue Distress Ink and flourishes with brown Distress Ink.

Glued flowers to card, added little "pearls" and a word sticker.

Here's a close up of the grunge paper flowers, it's hard to see the sparkle.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 11 Tag

2012-01-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC has a canvas button floral center which was inspired by Tim Holtz's 2009 Day 11 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Tim printed vintage images on sticky back canvas for his tag. I have an ink jet printer, and haven't been happy with the printing on canvas sheets. I had a previously printed canvas sheet, that I wasn't satisfied with how it turned out. So I stamped a woman's face with StazOn ink on part it. Cut it out and clipped the edges. Then used a cover button kit I had left over from a sewing project.

Here's my printed canvas button:

Used Prima flowers and colored the raised areas with Distress Inks. Spread rock candy Distress Stickles over the surface and let dry.

I had a previously done wrinkle free distress on watercolor paper, I'm using for my background.

Stamped some flourishes with blue Distress Ink and other flourishes with silver acrylic paint and let dry, (clean acrylic paint off stamps right away).

Placed flowers on card added canvas button to large flower. Added vintage images to smaller flowers and covered with Glossy Accents and let dry. Added the word "Inspire".

Close up of large button and flower petals:

Book Study - Embossing

2012-01-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

On NGS group, we're doing a study of Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson's book "Surface Treatment workshop" This week we're looking at the section "Embossing". I've done some of these techniques before: Embossing with Objects is done with matte gel and objects, Acrylic Molding Paste with Pressed Shapes uses acrylic molding paste and objects, and Chris' Mini Memory was made with acrylic molding paste and a stamp.

So today I wanted to try a few different ways of doing this technique.

First I tried the basic technique over a previous done piece. I did a thin coat of sot gel (gloss) over an extreme masking ATC and let it dry slightly. The authors state that if the gel is too dry it won't emboss, but if it is too wet, the texture will appear as a sticky lines.

Press textured object (I used package material) into the medium and gently pull off to reveal the texture, let dry.

After lightly sanding the gel, I painted over the surface with a wash of blue acrylic paint and water.

Then I tried blotting off the wash from the raised surface. The texture is very subtle.

Next I tried another technique mentioned in the book. I painted my surface (canvas sheet) with red acrylic paint and covered with a thin layer of light molding paste over the surface.

Pressed objects into the wet light molding paste, this removes the molding paste and reveals the background. Let dry.

When dry, I colored the surface by using water thinned q. nickel azo gold acrylic paint with my finger and let dry.

You could color the molding paste before spreading it on the surface if you only want the molding paste colored and not the entire surface. Be careful to use only a little paint, so you don't alter the consistency of the molding paste.

The final technique that I tried (there are still more variations listed in the book that I didn't try), was to create an aged look by layering, painting and sanding. I had watercolor paper painted with purple acrylic paint and let dry. Made a colored gel by mixing Lumiere bronze acrylic paint with gloss gel medium and covering the surface. On this one I had a thick application of the paint/gel mixture. Let dry slightly.

Used a rubber stamp to press into the paint/gel mixture and gently removed (make sure to wash acrylic paint/gel medium off stamp right away) and let dry. (You can stop here if you want the shiny surface)

Sand surface.

I decided to use a wash of q. nickel azo gold over the exposed white surface and the edges.

I did some variations of this technique. The one on the left is the above sample. The middle on is the using the same stamp but with a lighter application of the paint/gel mixture and heavier pressure of the rubber stamp on a blue background. The one on the right is the using a bolder stamp over a blue background.

Lots of possibilities to create surface textures with gel mediums and molding pastes.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 10 Tag

2012-01-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC mimics the technique that Tim Holtz demonstrates for his 2009 Day 10 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas), but it was more work than I wanted to do. If you want to make your own word mosaic, make sure you check out his post on how to do the tag with grunge board (or chip board) letters.

I choose a piece of cardboard and covered it with foil flashing tape.

Placed this in a Tim Holtz mosaic embossing folder and ran through the Vagabond machine (I believe this sandwich is too thick for the Cuttlebug). Tim used alcohol ink pens to color his tag. I don't have alcohol ink pens, that's why I choose this embossing folder. It has sections separated by raised areas. This allowed me to pour alcohol ink directly into the different sections.

When the ink dried, use sand paper to remove ink from the raised areas, showing the foil underneath.

I like the look of this background.

Added a vintage image and the word Imagination on a clear sticker.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 9 Tag

2012-01-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses a couple of the techniques Tim Holtz shows in his 2009 Day 9 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

He uses black & white photos under the film strip ribbon and as his main image. I used a vintage photo of a fairy for the main image, added white acrylic paint to the edges and black photo corners. Used fairy images from scrapbook paper behind the film strip ribbon and adhered with Glossy Accents.

Used blending tool to cover Manila card with iced spruce and broken china Distress Inks. Colored edges with walnut stain Distress Ink.

Stamped flourishes with broken china Distress Ink and floral stamp with black Archival Ink.

Adhered film strip ribbon and main image to card. Made phrase with Dymo label maker.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 8 Tag

2012-01-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses some of the techniques Tim Holtz demonstrated on his 2009 Day 8 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas). I did play with this faux parchment paper two years ago

Stamp music score on vellum with black Archival Ink and heat set.

Use blending tool to add old paper Distress Ink to vellum. Then with good ventilation, heat with heat tool until the ink is baked into the vellum. The ink will smoke as it's heated. Let vellum cool.

Tear edges and color with walnut stain Distress Ink.

Use blending tool to add antique linen and brushed corduroy Distress ink. Splatter with water, let sit for 10 seconds then heat set.

Use distress tool to roughen edges and color with walnut stain Distress ink. Tim recommends roughening up the background with a scratcher tool (I used an exacto knife instead).

Stamp on flourish with aged mahogany Distress Ink.

Curl the edges of vellum by rolling them back. Adhere vellum with glue stick. I added an angel image and a metal moon charm with a tiny star brad.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 7 Tag

2012-01-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses some of the techniques Tim Holtz demonstrates on his 2009 Day 7 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Choose a main image and stamp it on a mask sheet with StazOn ink and cut out. Stamp same image on Manila card with black Archival Ink and let dry.

Cover stamped image with the mask, then stamp flourishes with white acrylic paint. Remove mask and wipe acrylic paint off of mask.

Use blending tool to add Distress Inks around main image.

Replace mask and use blending tool to add darker shades of the Distress Inks used above.

Use black Distress Ink to stamp images over card while the mask is still in place.

Remove mask, use damp paper towel to wipe inks off the acrylic paint. Stamp word on to background with embossing ink, cover with gold embossing powder (ep) and heat set. The gold ep didn't show up on the light ink, so I used the blending tool to apply darker shades of Distress Ink.

Used Distress Stickles to make a flower in the hair.

Colored edge of card with gold acrylic paint and added a gold crown charm.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 6 Tag

2012-01-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses the background Tim Holtz demonstrated in his 2009 Day 6 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Adhere dictionary page to card base. Lay masking tape over part of page, rub down, then slowly remove. Apply another piece of masking tape in another area and repeat above steps. Continue laying down tape until satisfied with look.

Uses blending tool to apply Distress Inks as desired over paper. Use distress tool to roughen edges and color with walnut stain Distress Ink.

For mine, I added gold acrylic paint to the edges of the ATC and stamped on the word "peace" with embossing ink, covered with gold embossing powder and heat set.

Colored edges of angel image with gold acrylic paint and added more gold acrylic paint to the angel's wings. Adhered to card.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 5 Tag

2012-01-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses some of the techniques Tim Holtz demonstrates in his 2009 Day 5 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas). I loved how Tim added Stickles to the designs under the fragments.

I cut out some fairy images and layered and colored dictionary page and some card stock colored with dye inks and gold Perfect Pearls, then stamped with floral images with black Archival Ink. Added stickler to the wings of the fairies and let dry.

Then adhere fragments to the paper with Glossy Accents and let dry. Then cut paper to shape, smooth edges with sand paper. Used foil flashing tape to create "ornament tops". Cut foil flashing tape into thin stripe and cut edge with decorative scissors. Pierced hole in tops.

Stamped flourishes on to Manila card with gold acrylic paint and let dry (wash acrylic paint off stamp before it dries).

Used blending tool to apply Distress Inks over entire card. Stamped script with black Archival Ink. Used damp paper towel to lighten inks and remove Distress Ink from acrylic paint. Inked edges with black Archival Ink.

Added wire to fragments and adhered to card. Cut out gold metallic paper with lace stripe die cut and attached to top and bottom of card.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 4 Tag

2012-01-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

For this ATC, I was inspired by the fabulous pin Tim Holtz created on his 2009 Day 4 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas). I don't have the memory capsule Tim used, but thought I could create a pin, that mimicked the shaker pin look.

Cut some glitter paper I made previously, and adhered it to a 1" square glass piece. Added a fairy image, word from a dictionary page and some cut shiny snowflake pieces. Then I layered a 1" square glass piece on top and placed into a 1"x1" memory frame.

Took a decorative metal corner, spread on silver acrylic paint with my finger over parts and then rubbed the paint of the raised area. Added Frosted Lace Stickles to the top edges. Added a trinket pin to the top of the memory framed and a metal star and ribbon to the bottom of the memory frame. Like the look of my pin.

Made a different background for my ATC. Started with a Twisted Alcohol background and stamped floral design to outside edges with pink Distress Ink.

Adhered the pin and it's done:

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 3 Tag

2012-01-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses several of the techniques demonstrated by Tim Holtz in his 2009 Day 3 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

I made several of the plaid backgrounds back when Tim showed how to do this. I took one and cut it to ATC size.

Stamped trees with black Archival Ink.

Stamped snow flurries with white acrylic paint (wash acrylic paint off stamp right away). Let paint dry.

Stamp flourishes and color edges with black Archival ink. Tie twine around ATC. Add metal word tag with jump ring.

Book Study - Rinse Aid

2012-01-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

On NGS group, we're doing a study of Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson's book "Surface Treatment workshop" This week we're looking at the section "Rinse Aid". The authors warn that this technique is a bit tricky getting the right consistency of paint and the timing. I had mixed results.

Paint surface (I used watercolor paper) with thin acrylic paint (I mixed it with water). While it is wet, pour rinse aid down the surface and let it dry.

Use damp paper towel (or baby wipe, which I didn't try) to wipe off the rinse aid. I have lighter areas of red paint, but the white underneath wasn't revealed.

Painted a layer of thinned yellow acrylic paint over the surface and then poured rinse aid down the surface and let dry.

Here's my result:

The author's also suggest applying the rinse aid with foam stamps. Painted blue acrylic paint on watercolor paper and let dry. Coated with thinned green acrylic paint and while it was wet, stamped on rinse aid with a leaf shaped foam stamp.

After the paint dried, used paper towel to remove the rinse aid. The stamp did remove some of the green paint, but the shapes are blurry.

Painted another layer of acrylic paint. Used a darker green and a larger leaf foam stamp with a thinner layer of rinse aid.

Here's my result, doesn't look like leaf shapes.

The authors also suggested combining this technique with other techniques liked pulled paper. Started with one of the pulled paper backgrounds I made earlier.

Painted over it with thinned red acrylic paint, and poured rinse aid down the front. Let it dry, and wiped off the rinse aid with wet paper towel.

Did another coat with thinned yellow acrylic paint and rinse aid. Here's the result:
I like this one!

Another way the authors suggest to use the rinse aid is to make a background with various colors and layers of paint, then do the rinse aid technique. I painted different acrylic paints on to canvas paper and let it dry.

Covered with a thin layer of black acrylic paint, while wet poured rinse aid down the surface.

Here's the result:

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 2 Tag

2012-01-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses many of the techniques in Tim Holtz demonstrates in his 2009 Day 2 tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Stamp a frame image on card with antique lined Distress embossing powder, following directions on jar.

Apply Distress Ink colors of choice with blending tool.

Use damp paper towel to wipe off ink from embossed image.

Stamp phrase in frame with black Archival Ink.

Mix mica powders with water to make a paint. Splatter over card with a paint brush.

Used distress tool to roughen up edges and color with vintage photo Distress Ink.

Use sand paper to remove color from raised areas of metal corners.

Now for the really fun part. Turning two 5 petal metal flowers into a metal rose. On one, cut into two parts: 3 petal and 2 petal. On the other, lift petals straight up and roll back with round pliers.

With the 2 and 3 petal portions, fold the petals together, then roll the petals back. Take a long brad and flatten top to create the center. Place long brad through the two petal bit, the three petal bit and then into the 5 petal part, open brad ends to hold this flower together.

Adhere metal rose with metal leaves and add smaller metal flowers.

I really like this one, the metal techniques are so much fun!!!

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2009 Day 1 Tag

2012-01-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses techniques Tim Holtz demonstrates in his 2009 Day 1 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Make background with Wrinkle Free Distress technique: press desired colors of Distress Ink into craft sheet, spray with water. Press paper into inks, lift, heat set. Repeat until satisfied with background.

My background on Manila folder.

Stamp snowflakes with black Archival ink. Stamp flourishes with blue Distress Ink (use Distress inks for flourishes as you want them to blur in the next step).

Thickly cover surface with rock candy Distress Crackle Paint and let dry.

When dry, use blending tool to color crackles with faded jeans Distress ink, colored edges with chipped sapphire Distress Ink.

Used frosted lace stickles to create icicles along top of card, let dry.

Stamp snowman with embossing ink and coat with black embossing powder, heat set. When cool, cover with white acrylic paint, before the paint dries, whip off most of the paint from the embossed surface.

Cover snowman with rock candy Distress stickler. Cut out flourish grunge paper, paint with white acrylic paint, and when dry, color edges with blue Distress ink.

Create wired ribbon, by using red line tape and wire under ribbon. Used dymo label maker to spell out SNOW.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 12 Tag

2012-01-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses some of the techniques Tim Holtz showed in his 2008 Day 12 tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Ink part of a large collage type stamp with black Archival ink and stamp onto Manila card.

Make mask with post it note of same part of stamped image to cover the image and stamp over the card with desired images (I choose a music score).

Remove post it note, use blending tool to add Distress ink colors of choice.

I cut out the left over bits from the acetate die cut used in my 2008 Day 6 ATC. Decided I didn't want to background of the ATC to show through the butterfly image, so adhered it to white paper. Ran all these through the Xyron sticker maker and added to the ATC.

Used white gel pen to color the angel's wings and strings on the lute.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 11 Tag

2012-01-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC was made using the techniques Tim Holtz showed in his 2008 Day 11 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Sand one side of three fragments to create a frosted look. Tim recommends placing the fragment on dark paper to see if the sanding as frosted all the surface.

Stamp image with embossing ink on frosted side of fragment, cover with clear embossing powder (ep) (Tim recommended using regular ep and not detailed, but I didn't have any regular ep). Use heat tool to melt ep, be careful not to melt the plastic fragment.

Press or swipe two colors of blue Distress inks on to craft sheet and mist with water.

Use brayer to pick up lightest color. Don't press brayer too firmly into ink, you want a streaky look. Roll brayer over white card stock. Heat set, then repeat with darker blue color.

Lay fragments where you'll be placing the. Note the light background makes it difficult to see embossed snowflakes.

Use blending tool to add the darker blue Distress ink to the areas where the fragments will go.

Use toothbrush or other tool to splatter on silver Metallic Mixative.

Colored edges of card with blue Distress ink. Stamped on saying and flourishes with black Archival ink.

Use white gel pen to add white dots to flourishes.

Adhere fragments with silver brads.

J technique ATC

2012-01-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

Decided to use the Joseph's Coat Inside Out technique for the main image and background of my ATC for the ArtVentures group. Colored edges with a copper metal leafing pen. Stamped portion of collage stamp on to a piece of Manila folder then over stamped the word JOURNEY. Attached with brass brad.

J is for Jenny's Coat

2012-01-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

Another variation of the Joseph's Coat technique. Instead of starting with brayering on ink for a rainbow ink pad, start with background paper.

I picked a portion of a page from an atlas. Stamp image with embossing ink, cover with clear embossing powder and heat set.

Use a brayer or direct-to-paper to cover surface with a dark dye ink. Use paper towel to wipe ink off of embossed image.

Sample with the same collage style stamp that I used with the other techniques.

Another sample of large medallion stamp over plaid background paper:

J is for Joseph's Coat Inside Out

2012-01-10T17:02:00.000-08:00

Other Joseph's Coat variation.

Stamp a background stamp on to glossy or coated card stock with dye ink.

Add dye ink colors as desired with a sponge or a brayer.

Use a large bold stamp (or several smaller bold stamps) over the surface with embossing ink, cover with clear embossing powder and heat set.

Cover entire surface with a dark dye ink, use a brayer or direct-to-paper. Use a paper towel to wipe off the ink from the embossed image.

My sample:

J is for Joseph's Coat with a Twist

2012-01-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

Start by wrinkling/crumpling up wax paper, then open it up and place it between two sheets of glossy or coated card stock. Iron on high and use pressure while ironing.

Use sponges or brayer to add dye ink over the wax paper resist.

Stamp on image with embossing ink, cover with clear embossing powder and heat set. It's hard to see the clear embossing powder here.

Use brayer or direct-to-paper to cover entire surface with a dark dye ink. Use paper towel to wipe off ink from embossed areas.

The detail stamp doesn't show up well with this technique, BUT

It looks great with a bold image stamp!

J is for Joseph's Coat

2012-01-10T16:47:00.000-08:00

For this technique, start with light,bright ink colors on glossy or coated card stock. You can use a brayer and a rainbow pad like I did, or you can sponge on a variety of colors from ink pads. Let dry.

Stamp on image with embossing ink and clear embossing powder and heat set.

Brayer or direct-to-paper a dark colored ink over the entire surface. Use paper towel to remove ink from embossed image.

Here's my sample:

J is for Jeweled Acetate

2012-01-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure what is acetate, I used an overhead transparency sheet.

First cut out shape you want, then run it through a Xyron sticker maker. Cover the sticky side with 2-3 colors of Perfect Pearls or PearlEx powders.

Use brayer to roll on dye ink color of choice over the Perfect Pearls, wipe off Perfect Pearls from brayer before running brayer in ink for a second coat.

While ink is still wet, cover with clear embossing powder. Be careful when heat setting to not warp or melt the acetate.

If desired stamp on the non embossing powder side.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 10 Tag

2012-01-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC was made using some of the techniques shown by Tim Holtz in his 2008 Day 10 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Start by placing mask on to Manila card (my mask has lost some of its stickiness, so doesn't leave a clean image). Make a spray with Distress re-inker and gold perfect pearls. Use paper towel to blot up extra spray, remove mask and heat set.

Use blending tool to add Distress ink.

Splatter with water, let sit for 10 seconds or more, then heat set.

Stamp image with embossing ink on grunge paper, cover with black embossing powder and cut out.

Make a paint out of water and perfect pearls, paint over embossed grunge paper, blot off excess perfect pearls (the embossing powder will act as a resist).

Stamped image on background with black Archival ink. Adhered measuring tape ribbon to side. Cut out letters on vellum, layered over distressed gesso background, inked edges with walnut stain Distress ink.

Added grunge paper image and a metal gear with clock bit.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 9 Tag

2012-01-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses most of the techniques Tim Holtz used in his 2008 Day 9 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas). I wasn't going to do any overt Christmas ATCs this month, but I loved the look of this tag so much, I changed my mind.

Stamp Santa image with black Archival ink.

Stroke on white acrylic paint at the top and bottom of the card, let dry.

Use blending tool to add antique linen and brushed corduroy Distress inks.

Stamp on text and branches with Distress inks.

Color bottom of card with fired brick Distress ink. Use lightly damp cloth to remove ink from surface of acrylic paint.

Use distress tool to roughen edge, color with walnut stain Distress ink. Tim used fired brick Distress embossing powders to add the words on the edge. Not having that, stamped words with fired brick Distress ink, covered with clear embossing powder and heat set.

Added a vintage sticker to upper corner after coloring edges with walnut stain Distress ink. Covered sticker with Glossy Accents and let dry.

Book Study - Petroleum Jelly

2012-01-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

On NGS group, we're doing a study of Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson's book "Surface Treatment workshop" This week we're looking at the section petroleum jelly. Paint or decorate surface as desired. The background is made with Distress Stain and re-inkers like the one this ATC. Then stamped image with black Archival ink. Covered desired areas with petroleum jelly (used my finger).

Paint surface with acrylic paint and let dry. The petroleum jelly remains damp.

Wipe off paint with baby wipe.

Repeat above steps as desired using different colors. I covered some areas with petroleum jelly and painted with Metallic Rust Lumiere paint.

Wiped off with baby wipe.

Covered some areas with petroleum jelly and painted with red acrylic paint, let dry.

Wiped off with baby wipe.

Another way to use petroleum jelly as a resist, is with acrylic paints and stamps or stencils.

Used same background as above, stamping on a different image with black Archival ink. Covered angel image with petroleum jelly.

Used gold acrylic paint on a flourish stamp and stamped over the surface. Let dry. (Wash acrylic paint off stamps right away).

Wipe off paint with baby wipe.

The authors also suggest combining the petroleum jelly technique with the pulled paper technique. Used one of the pulled paper backgrounds made earlier, covered parts of it with petroleum jelly.

Painted over surface with Metallic Bronze Lumiere paint and let dry.

Wipe off with a baby wipe.

Fun technique to experiment with.http://carol-creative-expressions.blogspot.com/2011/12/day-4-tim-inspired-christmas-atc.html

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 8 Tag

2012-01-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC is inspired by the 2008 Day 8 Tag Tim Holtz created (12 Tags of Christmas).

Stamp image with black Archival ink and let dry.

Stamp on word at bottom of card with embossing ink, cover with gold embossing powder and heat set.

Use blending tool to cover cards with Distress Ink colors of choice.

Color edges of card with gold acrylic paint, goes on easily with the paint Dabber.

Cut out butterflies with die cut out of grunge paper. Cover with a thick coat of brushed pewter Distress Crackle Paint and let dry.

Color Crackle Paint with alcohol inks of choice.

Add some gold rub on flourishes.

Adhere butterflies.

Sewn ATC

2012-01-07T16:00:00.001-08:00

This month's theme is "Sewn", we were told we weren't required to actually sew. I thought it was easier to sew than not.
Started with die cutting out heart shapes from a sheet of Double Saran & Watercolor Sprays technique. Embossed it in a Cuttlebug embossing folder and colored the surface with gold metallic rub-ons.

I tore the heart in half then sewed them back together using a decorative stitch on my sewing machine to resemble suture stitching in black thread. Did a straight stitch in black near the outside edge.
The background of the atc was done by laying manila folder down into gold Lumiere paint and twisting a bit before lifting off the paint. the paper strip is decorative paper that was embossed in the same embossing folder as the heart and inking the raised surfaces with black archival ink.

Thank You Tim Holtz

2012-01-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

Wow! Received my prize from Tim today!!! Wow, so many great products, way more that I thought would be coming. I have lots of Tim's products (love them) and almost all of these are things I didn't have. Lots of wonderful products to inspire me....
Thank You Tim!!!! and Happy Birthday!

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 7 Tag

2012-01-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

This ATC is based on some of the techniques Tim Holtz used in his 2008 Day 7 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Cut out snowman shape from grunge paper. Painted main body with white acrylic paint, let dry. Covered with rock candy Distress crackle paint and let dry. Once the crackle paint had dried, colored the edges and surface with weathered wood Distress ink, working the ink into the cracks, then wiping the ink off the surface of the crackle paint. Colored the other snowman parts with Distress inks.

Use blue and purple Distress inks (direct to paper) on Manila card, then splatter with water. Let set for about 10 seconds.

Blot off water with paper towel, then heat set to stop the ink running.

Stamped snow flake design with black Distress ink. Adhered grunge paper snowman with ribbon to card. Used Frosted Lace Stickles to add sparkle to snow flurry and upper edges of the snowman and scarf. Also used the stickler along the side and bottom edges. Added a snowflake embellishment to snowman's hat.

Added white snowflake cut outs. Colored with the Frosted Lace Distress Stickles and added black edged rhinestones to the snowflakes.

ATC Inspired by 2008 Day 6 Tag

2012-01-06T08:30:00.000-08:00

This ATC is inspired by some of the techniques Tim Holtz used in his 2008 Day 6 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas).

Tim used a Clear Paintables sheet. I didn't have one of those, but found a Acetate Die Cut in my stash that could use some more color. I think this technique could also be done with images printed on transparency sheet. Here I choose a section of the sheet that would fit on my ATC.

You can color the transparency(front or back) with alcohol markers if you have them. If not, in Tim's post, he shows how you can paint with alcohol inks using a designated water brush pen filled with Blending Solution to pick up alcohol ink colors of your choice and color the sheet as desired (most of the ink in this palette has been here for 3 years). Once the alcohol ink drinks, it's easily re activated with the blending solution.

To color the Manila card background, press a variety of Distress inks on a craft sheet and spritz with water. Dip the card into the inks, lift off dry. Repeat placing into the inks and drying until satisfied with colors. (Wrinkle Free Distress Technique)

Stamped music score on card with black Distress ink. Also stamped on bird image and colored with purple ink. Let dry.

For parts of the colored acetate that you don't want to have the stamped background showing through, paint the back with white acrylic paint and let dry.

Used Glossy Accents around the edges of the acetate to adhere to the card background.

Used a texture stamp with white acrylic paint to add texture around the outside edges.

Added a butterfly embellishment, the word joy and an orange rhinestone.

Fun technique!

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 5 Tag

2012-01-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

This ATC is based on some of the techniques used in Tim Holtz's 2008 Day 5 Tag.

Paint background with black acrylic paint, use a piece of cut n dry foam to spread paint. Let dry.

Stamp images with embossing ink and cover with clear embossing powder and heat set.

Paint over all with a light color of acrylic paint. Do not let paint completely dry, when it is tacky use a cloth lightly misted with water to remove the paint from the embossed images.

I must be heavy handed as I removed most of the background paint, but it is a great grungy look!

The other technique is to die cut a shape out of grunge paper and run it through an embossing folder. Paint die cut (I used turquoise Lumiere paint). When paint dries sand paint off raised embossed areas.

Color surface with walnut stain Distress ink. Use a lightly misted cloth to remove Distress Ink from the painted areas.

Adhere die cut to background. Pour some gold Metallic Mixative on craft sheet. Use tooth brush to splatter gold Metal Mixative over die cut and background.

Used light pink Distress ink to stamp same script over white flowers. Dipped edge of petals in the gold Metallic Mixative. Painted 3 brads, photo corners and chin board flourish with gold Lumiere paint.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 4 Tag

2012-01-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC is inspired by Tim Holtz's 2008 Day 4 Tag. This technique reminds me of the Spotlight technique.

Stamp the same image on 2 pieces of Manila card stock with black Archival ink and let dry.

Choose the area that will be under a fragment and color with Distress inks.

Glue colored stamped area under a fragment with Glossy Accents, when dry, trim off excess card. Colored edge of ATC with brown and black Distress inks. Stamped some flourishes with Distress inks on parts of the edges of the ATC.
Glue fragment over the same stamped area on the background.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 3 Tag

2012-01-03T18:46:00.000-08:00

This is inspired by Tim Holtz's 2008 Day 3 Tag. The main thing he did was print a photo on sticky back canvas for the background.

I had some canvas sheets that can go through the printer, and I printed out this door image on the canvas. Then inked the edges with black Distress ink.

The other technique that caught my fancy was covering metal objects with paper, coloring it and distressing it. I choose a key hole charm and covered it with matte gel, then dictionary paper.

When the gel dried, sanded the edges.

Colored it with Distress inks.

Decided to sand some more, and sprayed with a mister of blue re-inker and perfect pearls.

Adhered the printed canvas to black card stock. Attached key hole with silver brads, and made a fancy door knob with small charm and silver brad. Adhered key to top and phrase from dictionary page to edge of canvas.

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 2 Tag

2012-01-02T13:40:00.001-08:00

This ATC is inspired by Tim Holtz's 2008 Day 2 tag (12 Tags of Christmas). For the background he uses the Twisted Alcohol technique, which I did back in Dec 2008 and several other times.

Spread a generous amount of Metal Mixative on craft sheet and added drops of several colors.

Squirt blending solution over this mixture, the more blending solution, the lighter the inks will paper.

Place glossy card stock down into the inks and twist. You can add more depth and color by placing the same card stock back into the inks and twist again and again until you like how it looks.

Here's my first one, there is still lots of ink on the craft sheet, so I'll grab more glossy card stock.

Here's the second piece.

Added more blending solution to the inks on the craft street and got these two sheets of glossy card stock done as well.

For this ATC, choose the second background. Stamped trees in watermark ink, covered with black embossing powder and heat set (make sure the alcohol inks are dry before proceeding to this step). Stamped snowflakes with black Archival ink.

Placed more Metal Mixative on craft sheet, used an old toothbrush to splatter this over the card.

Colored edges of card with iced spruce Distress ink. Added white swirl rub-ons. Colored recessed areas of dragonfly and word metal piece with slate alcohol ink. Adhered with Glossy Accents. Added metal snowflake with white brad.

So fun to be reminded of this great background technique!

ATC Inspired by Tim's 2008 Day 1 Tag

2012-01-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

This ATC is inspired by some of the techniques Tim Holtz used in his 2008 Day 1 Tag (12 Tags of Christmas). I want to continue to be inspired by these tags, since Christmas is past, I decided to go for a "time" theme for the New Year.

Placed a large clock mask over an ATC sized piece of a Manila folder. Added Distress inks being careful not to move the mask.

While mask was still in place, stamped on a smaller clock image and the backward numbers with black Archival Ink. Then carefully wiped the ink off the mask. Let the black ink dry.

Remove the mask and spray the ink with a mister, let the Distress Ink bleed into the previously masked area. When you're happy with the amount of bleeding, use a heat tool to stop further bleeding of the ink.

Stamp image on grunge paper with black Archival ink and cut out with scissors. Colored sides and edges with blue Distress ink

Filled letters in word piece with black Enamel accents. Cut a game piece arrow to look like clock hands.

Used distress tool to distress edges of ATC and colored edges with grey Distress ink.

Added pieces with Glossy Accents. Added black brad to clock hand and word piece. Added metal clock bits to man image with metal rim blue rhinestone brad.

So Happy!

2012-01-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

Very Excited that I won one of the 12 Tags of Christmas prize packages for posting my creations each of the 12 days! Big thanks to Tim for the prize and most of all the inspiration!!!!

Frosty De-boss (not quite)

2011-12-31T17:39:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen Tammy Tutterow's post on Frosty De-boss, it's worth checking out!!!
I was going for a different look (not winter), but had trouble with keeping most of the crackle paint in the de-bossed areas. Oh well, I like the background I made and want to give this another go another day.
I colored a piece of Manila folder with Distress inks and some gold acrylic paint and let it dry.

Placed in an embossing folder so the image is de-bossed.

Generously spread rock candy Distress crackle paint over the surface working it into the de-bossed areas. Used piece of cardboard to wipe off most of the crackle paste from the surface of the card (leaving crackle paste in the de-bossed areas). Tammy recommends using a piece of chipboard to scrape off the crackle paint, that might be the reason I didn't get enough of the crackle paint scraped off.

Here's a close up after the crackle paint dried.

Sprayed with a home made mister with brown ink and perfect pearls.

Stamped text over the surface with dark brown StazOn ink. Then coated the surface with a thin layer of q. azo nickel gold acrylic paint.

Book Study - Shaving Foam

2011-12-31T15:47:00.001-08:00

On NGS group, we're doing a study of Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson's book "Surface Treatment workshop" This week we're looking at the section using shaving cream. Spray shaving cream onto a plate. (The authors use the back of a plastic plate). Use palette knife to spread the foam evenly. Place drops of dyes, inks or paints onto the foam.

Swirl the inks into the foam. Place paper into the foam (the authors place the foam side of the plate down on to the paper) and lift off.

Use the palette knife to gently scrape the foam off the paper. Continue to use the colored foam until the colors become muddy.

Another thing to do with the colored shaving foam is to use with stencils. First I painted card stock with black acrylic paint and let dry. Tape stencil onto the card and dip into the colored foam and lift off.

After lifting off the stencil don't wipe off the colored shaving foam, but lay it down onto another piece of card stock and press down.

Here are my results.

Another thing to do with the shaving foam is to use interference colors. I added some iridescent inks that went with my already blended colors.

Instead of swirling these, used a notched tool to mix the colors.

Wish the photo showed the shimmery colors.

With the next batch, dropped on gold and copper iridescent inks.

The authors give more suggestions in using shaving foam.

Growth Chart

2011-12-27T07:50:00.000-08:00

I had fun making this quilted growth chart for my grandson Nicolas.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 12 Tag

2011-12-24T03:25:00.000-08:00

Tim Holtz's 2007 Day 12 Tag uses a variety of images with square and rectangular fragments and look like mosaic tiles. I don't have those fragments, but thought I'd try to make something similar.
Colored card with old paper Distress ink and let dry.

Cut out a variety of vintage Christmas images from a scrapbook page, colored the edges with vintage photo Distress Ink and adhered to card. I was going to coat each piece with Liquid Glass, but decided I like how this look and didn't want to alter it anymore.

Colored the edges of the atc with the vintage photo Distress ink and added a brass colored tree brad.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 11 Tag

2011-12-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

I used one of the techniques Tim Holtz showed with his 2007 Day 11 Tag.
Colored a card with shabby shutters Distress Ink then coated with rock candy Distress Crackle Paint and let dry.

When the crackle paint dries, ink surface with vintage photo Distress Ink making sure to push the ink into the cracks, use damp paper towel to wipe Distress Ink off the surface of the crackle paint.

Made a wreath by stamping greenery images with a variety of green Distress Inks, and berries with festive berries Distress Ink, then covered with rock candy Stickles. Also stamped some holly leaves with peeled paint Distress Ink, then covered with clear embossing powder and heat set. Cut out and colored the edges with vintage photo Distress Ink.

Attached wreath with foam mounting tape added ribbon and star charm to the wreath. Added key hole charm with brads to atc and cut letters out of black card stock and covered with frosted lace Stickles.

Christmas ATC Inspried by Tim's 2007 Day 10 Tag

2011-12-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

I used several techniques that Tim Holtz showed with his 2007 Day 10 Tag.
Stamp images on black card stock (or black acrylic painted card stock) with embossing ink, coat with clear embossing powder and heat set.

When embossing powder as cooled, paint over entire surface with white and blue acrylic paints, while still wet, use a piece of cut n dry foam to pounce over the paint and blend the colors.

Use damp paper towel to white acrylic paint off the embossed areas, if desire very distressed look, wipe off more of the acrylic paints.

Cover entire surface with rock candy Stickles.

Colored edges with pumice stone Distress Ink. Added sticker letters and snowflake buttons.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 9 Tag

2011-12-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

I used some of the techniques Tim Holtz showed on his 2007 Day 9 Tag.
Stamped a music score, then an angel image with black Archival Ink.

Stamped "rejoice" with purple StazOn ink. Then colored background with blue Distress Inks. Roughed up the edges with a distress tool and inked the edges with vintage photo Distress Ink.

Cut out a flourish out of grunge paper, ran through a swirl embossing folder and distressed with distress hammer.

Added flourish to card with bronze brads and distressed them with distress hammer. Used gold metal pen to add highlights to the angel image. Added brass flourish to bottom of atc.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 8 Tag

2011-12-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

Tim Holtz uses an acrylic paint resist for the background of his 2007 Day 8 Tag. He used a very pale green acrylic paint. Not having any thing close to that shade in acrylic paints, I substituted with picket fence Distress Stain . Randomly striped over the card and let dry.

Then used a blending tool to color over the card with weathered wood Distress Ink. Used slightly damp paper towel to remove ink from the Distress Stain surface. Colored edges with walnut stain Distress Ink.

Tim recommended stamping on leaves/branch with lettuce paint dabber. I thought the color was too light.

So off set stamped same image with bottle paint dabber, more to my liking.

Tim colored brads with red acrylic paint and highlighted with star dust Stickles. I used red rhinestones instead. Added a gold bow, and a piece of calendar tissue tape over dark brown card stock.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 7 Tag

2011-12-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

I'm using the distressed enamel technique Tim Holtz demonstrates in his 2007 Day 7 tag.
Apply shabby shutters Distress Ink directly on to card (I know my card is already wrinkled, but no worries, more distressed appearance). Coat entire surface with clear embossing powder (ep). Tim says to use regular ep, but I don't have any, so I'm using detail ep. Tim flicks the back of his tag to remove some of the ep, since I have the detail ep and it gives a better coating, I tapped my fingers over the surface to remove some of the ep.Then heat with heat tool.

Use blending tool to cover entire surface with vintage photo Distress Ink, press hard to get this ink between the ep.

The other technique Tim showed on his tag, was coloring an image with using the corner of various colors of Distress Inks directly on the stamp.

Stamped ink image on to card stock, covered with clear ep and heat set. Then colored over the card with vintage photo Distress ink.

Colored edges of smaller card with walnut stain Distress ink and glued to card. Added small strip of music and key to the top. Added a decorative metal corner piece to on of the bottom corners.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 6 Tag

2011-12-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: I tried to do the same technique with different designs from Tim Holtz's 2007 Day 6 Tag, but my efforts look very different. Make cure you check out his tag, as I love the look of it!
I have problems with the masks. They work great the first time, and then, I don't know, either I don't know how to clean or my work space is to dusty or something. I can not get the masks to stick as well after that first use. Anyway, following directions, placed a mask on my card and sprayed over it with a home made mist (I used one I'd already done up with light brown re-inker and gold Perfect Pearls. Let air dry, then remove mask.

Colored card with aged mahogany and fired brick Distress Inks using a blending tool.

Flicked on water drops with my fingers (again, I'm a bit heavy handed). Leave water on for about 10 seconds, blot off with paper towel, then heat with heat tool.

The heat causes the bleached look. Distress the edges with a distress tool and colored with black soot Distress Ink.

Stamped an angel image with black soot Distress Ink.

Sprayed home made mist over grunge paper flourishes and adhered to card. Stamped the word "joy" with black soot Distress Ink.

It's much different than Tim's, but I still like it.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 5 Tag

2011-12-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

Love this technique with alcohol inks from Tim Holtz's 2007 Day 5 Tag.
Use a mixture of blue alcohol inks with one drop of Pearl Metallic Mixative on felt or cotton and dab over glossy card stock.

Add small amount of blending solution to same pad and dab over alcohol inks to blend the colors.

Had a little trouble with the next step. Tim says, "GENTLY shake the blending solution over the background - just a little at a time". I'm known to be a little heavy handed.

Immediately heat with heat tool, this will bleach out the color and make it appear as snow flurries.

Tim says to continue the above steps until you achieve the look you want. To make smaller drops of the blending solution, decided to splatter on small drops with an old toothbrush (then heat set).

Stamp desired images with black Archival Ink, heat set.

Trimmed the card and mounted on black card stock. Added snowflake stickers with mini "pearls" in the centers. Used Frosted Lace Stickles to color in the glass of the lamp.

love the look of this technique!

Christmas ATC inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 4 Tag

2011-12-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

Tim used his "Christmas Memories" stamp and a hand made multicolor ink pad for his 2007 Day 4 Tag. I decided to go for the look of the dimensional collage, rather than the techniques today.
I had a sheet of thick scrapbook paper that had repeated Christmas images, I cut out a piece that was ATC size,and inked the edges with vintage photo Distress Ink.

Cut out some of the same sections, colored the edges with vintage photo Distress Ink, attached with foam mounting tape.

Cut out the main Santa image and the square with 25, colored the edges with vintage photo Distress Ink and adhered with foam mounting tape. Covered with 25 with Diamond Glaze and added some Frosted Lace Stickles to part of the Santa image. Cut out HO HO HO and adhered to the top of the card.

Hard to capture the dimensional aspect of this ATC with a photo.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 3 Tag

2011-12-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

So far Tim's 2007 Day 3 Tag has been the most challenging for me to try to capture the look I like while lacking some of the supplies. Tim used a great Santa collage stamp with a mixture of different colored (including red & green) Distress embossing powders. Tim recommends shaking the jars of distress embossing powder really well and open the colors you're going to use. I made masks of the Santa image and the holly I plan to use and placed on the card. Then stamped the music score with tea stain Distress ink, coated with walnut stain Distress Powder and heat set and allowed to cool.

Stamped holly with green Distress ink, coated with clear embossing powder and heat set. Then stamped the Santa image with red Distress ink, coated the hat area with clear embossing powder and the rest of the stamped area with black Distress Powder, heat set and let cool. After the powder had cooled, rubbed my hand over the powders to remove the release crystals. Not quite what Tim achieved, but I like it and it appears distressed.

Used blending tool to color over tag with green and red Distress Inks and colored the edges with walnut stain Distress Ink.

Cut an oval shape out of grunge paper, painted with gold acrylic paint, let dry. Embossed in embossing folder, painted thin layer of dark brown acrylic paint and brushed some off.

Cut numbers out of black card stock, adhered to tag and coated with diamond glaze. Attached tag with black brads.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 2 Tag

2011-12-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

This ATC uses some of the techniques Tim Holz used in his 2007 Day 2 Tag.
Stamped snowflakes onto card with white acrylic paint, immediately coat with clear embossing powder and heat set.

Press assorted blue colored Distress Inks onto a craft sheet and mist with water, lay card down into ink press but don't swirl. Heat set.

Repeat pressing the card back into the above inks, heat setting after each time. Drying after each time creates depth.

Tim used a snowman stamp with lots of dark background. I choose this winter village scene. Stamped with black Distress ink and heat set.

Doesn't show well in the photo, colored over the black night sky with rock candy Stickles and over the snowy roofs of the buildings with frosted lace Stickles and let dry.

Tim used snowflake "ghost shapes" (I'm not sure what those are) so I cut snowflakes with the snowflake on the edge die out of packaging plastic and colored it with white acrylic paint. Adhered to the card and added rhinestones and stamped the words with midnight blue StazOn ink.

Christmas ATC inspired by Tim's 2007 Day 1 Tag

2011-12-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

I had so much fun following along with Tim Holtz's 12 Days of Christmas this year, I'm going back to try the techniques and products from the other years. I'm starting at the beginning 2007 Tag 1. I won't get them all done this season, but will do what I can get to.
Tim used old paper and fired brick Distress Crackle Paints. I don't have those colors, so I improvised and it seem to work. Painted a grunge board "S" with red pepper acrylic paint and when it dried coated it with fired brick Distress ink, let dry, the painted on a thick layer of rock candy Distress Crackle paint and let it dry. Colored part of a card with old paper Distress Ink, heat set, then painted on a thick layer of rock candy Distress Crackle paint and let it dry.

Once the crackle paint dried, colored rest of card with assorted Distress Inks with a blending tool and let dry.

Used distress tool to rough up the edges and colored the edges with walnut stain Distress Ink. Stamped a Santa image with black Distress Ink. As in Tim's tag, where the image is stamped over the crackle paint, it appears more faded.

Used the walnut stain Distress Ink over the crackle paint on the "S". Added paper with music score (colored with vintage photo Distress Ink) and piece of paper with the number 25 and some red ribbon with a small buckle.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's Day 12 Tag

2011-12-12T14:03:00.001-08:00

I used a couple of the techniques on this ATC that Tim Holtz showed on his Day 12 Tag.
Stamped some script on card with black Archival Ink and let dry. The cover with picket fence Distress Stain, allow to soak in, then heat set with a heat tool.

Covered card with matte gel, then lay down a piece of tissue wrap slightly larger than the card. While laying it down wrinkle it up to create folds and interesting texture.

Use craft iron to flatten down the tissue wrap. Roughen the edges with a distress tool. Coat entire surface with a thin layer of rock candy Stickles and allow to dry.

Cut piece of grunge paper into house shape, paint with light blue acrylic paint (I used Lumiere), allow to dry. Sand edges and color with walnut stain Distress ink. Coat entire surface with rock candy Stickles and allow to dry.

Color edges of house with white acrylic paint and rub finger over to give distress look.

Had a bit of copper colored German scrap, so colored parts of a snowflake metal brad with a copper pen, along with parts of angel image and along the edges of the ATC.

Adhered house to ATC, added angel image along with some words from a dictionary. Also added some music text to the ATC.

I've had fun, listening to Christmas music, following Tim's blog and being inspired to create these Christmas ATCs. They will go into a book for reference through out the year, so many techniques!

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's Day 11 Tag

2011-12-11T17:03:00.001-08:00

Wow, the shrink mosaic technique Tim Holtz showed on his blog today for his Day 11 Tag is so stunning I love it!!! Make sure you watch the video.
I couldn't find my shrink plastic, I'm out of UTEE, and don't own a melting pot. What is a crafter to do?!? Get creative!!! Disclaimer: what I did isn't close to how terrific the shrink mosaics are, but an adequate substitute in a pinch.
I remember hearing that some plastic packaging will shrink with heat, but not what I had. So I cut out so plastic packaging to size. A tree branch by hand and the small bird with a die. I coated them with embossing ink, covered with Detail clear embossing powder (ep) and heat set. I did the back side with one coat, and the front side with three coats. The back coat melted off when I heated the top coats. If I do this again, I'll sanding the plastic first and see if that works. Be aware that the plastic gives off fumes when heated, open windows or do in good ventilated area.

When the plastic pieces cooled, colored the backs with alcohol inks (I'm also out of felt pieces to put on an applicator so I poured the alcohol ink directly on the backs and let sit to dry. Some of the ink pooled around to the front side as well.

Looks pretty good.

Followed Tim's suggestion and for this card, painted the back sides with white acrylic paint and let dry.

Colored glossy card stock with variety of blue Distress Inks and a little brown.
Flicked on water with my fingers over the card.

Heat with heat tool, this gives a great bleach effect.

Stamped snow flurries with tumbled glass Distress Ink and heat set.

Painted top edges of branches with white acrylic paint, let dry. Then glued on plastic bits with Glossy Accents. Colored edges of card with walnut stain Distress Ink. Stamped Merry Christmas and snowflake with black Archival Ink. Highlighted areas with Frosted Lace Stickles. Added small yellow rhinestone for bird's eye and white rhinestone to snowflake.

OK, I've ordered a melting pot. I'm finally convinced I want one.

Christmas ATC Inspired by Tim's Day 10 Tag

2011-12-10T19:53:00.001-08:00

I'm having fun being inspired by Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. More great techniques in his Day 10 Tag. Tim used a kraft tag for his base, I wanted a more distressed look. I pressed the old paper Distress Ink onto a craft sheet, spritzed with water and place my card into the ink, then heat set. Repeated those steps with antique linen Distress Ink. Stamped a music score image with black Archival Ink and colored the edges with forest moss Distress ink.

Stamped on holly images with forest moss Distress Ink, covered with clear embossing powder and heat set. I later added a third set of holly to my card.

Tim sprayed his tag with perfect pearls mist. I used a home made mist with gold Perfect Pearls and yellow re-inker. Decided I wanted more gold on my card, so dropped some gold Perfect Pearls directly on the card and lightly misted with water, then heat set. Deliberately dropped some of the Perfect Pearls over the holly images.

Tim made "vintage mercury glass" ornaments out of his facets and packing tape transfers (lots of detailed instructions and photos on his blog). I don't have the facets, so decided to give it a go using his fragments. Choose two vintage Santa images out of scrapbook paper and covered with clear packing tape. I burnished the back side with a bone folder.

Then dip in warm water and gently remove the paper layers from the back, careful to leave on the last thin layer. Attached flashing tape to the back. Note the difference from the start above, to the finish below, cool.

Adhered fragments over the Santa images with Diamond Glaze, attached to card with gold thread and mini black brads. Added red "pearls" to bottom ivy. Wrote BELIEVE with black permanent marker on paper, cut out and colored edges with forest moss Distress ink. Covered letters with Diamond Glaze.

Like the distress look of this ATC.

Book Study - Crackle Paste

2011-12-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

On NGS group, we're doing a study of Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson's book "Surface Treatment workshop" This week we're looking at the section using crackle paste. The authors state the the surface needs to be rigid or the paste will flake off.
Used a palette knife and apply the crackle paste to the surface varying the thickness of the paste. The authors say to let the paste to dry overnight, however my jar of crackle paste said to let dry for three days and that is what I did.

Next step is to mist the crackle surface with water.

Dilute acrylic paint with water and apply it over the crackle paste, allowing the paint to seep into the cracks.

Then use a paper towel to blot the paint from the surface. This looks pretty good.

The authors state you can enhance the design y adding diluted paint. I added a layer of q. azo nickle gold.

On the next one, I started with diluted black acrylic paint.

Then did a layer of Lumiere bronze paint.

Decided to spray Bronzite Brass Color Mist over it all.

Another suggestion in the book is to add crackle paste over a stencil. I used a home made flourish stencil over a painted dictionary page.

I painted the dried crackle paste with watered black acrylic paint. Then decided to try another suggestion in the book, which is to apply metal leafing over the crackle paste. I started by apply leafing adhesive to the crackle paste and let it turn tacky.

Applied metal leafing with a dry paint brush and rubbed off the excess.

The book suggests using masking tape to rub off the excess masking tape so the cracks appear. I did that, and not only was some of the metal leafing removed but chunks of the paste as well. A very distressed look.

I painted over the exposed surface with some of the Bronzite Brass Color Mist.

Day 9 Tim Inspired Christmas ATC

2011-12-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

I used the background technique Tim Holtz showed in his Day 9 Tag, the double-distress rusted enameling technique. Stamped a flourish with tumble glass Distress ink, coated with clear embossing powder (ep). Tim said to use regular clear ep, but all I had was detail clear ep. Heat set. Then used blending tool to ink entire card with stormy sky and deep concord Distress Inks. Covered all with clear ep, flicked the back to remove some of the powder and also rubbed my finger over the surface to remove some more of the ep and heat set. When cool, used blending tool to cover entire card with walnut stain Distress ink.

Here's a close up, love the look of this technique.

Then I made a tree branch similar to what Tim did for his Day 7 Tag. I don't have the tree die, but I do have the tree embossing folder. Painted grunge paper with gold acrylic paint. When dry, embossed in the tree folder, then used the lines to cut out the branch.

Used sand paper to rough up the edges, colored the exposed edges with walnut stain Distress ink, misted with water and blotted off the excess dye.

Used a paint brush to paint thick layer of white acrylic paint on the top edges of the branches. When the paint dried, added Frosted Lace Stickles over the branches.

Used a mini die to cut a bird shape out of some Radiant Batik background on grunge paper and colored it with fired brick and honey Distress Inks, added a mini "pearl". Colored the edges with walnut stain Distress Ink.

Added branch and bird to the card. Added a rub-on snowflake with rhinestones.
Attached ornament stickers to the tree branch. Decided to coat bird with Diamond Glaze.

Add caption

Small Christmas Ornament

2011-12-08T17:14:00.001-08:00

Today, along with his Christmas tag, Tim Holtz made awesome Christmas ornaments out of his pocket watch ideology product. I don't have any of those, but loved the collage look and so I got out my Memory Glass pits and began to play.
Made these mini collages out of decorative paper. Added "peace" from a dictionary page, and "JOY" from stickers. Added some gold highlights with a gold leafing pen, and some glitter.

Glued these collages back to back, placed between two pieces of glass and placed in this copper frame. Added some white beads with copper wire and tied on a green ribbon. On this side add a small green rhinestone.

On this side added three small rhinestones.

This ornament doesn't have the cool dimension inside that can be achieved with the pocket watch, but I had fun today.

Day 8 Tim Inspired Christmas ATC

2011-12-08T16:51:00.001-08:00

These ATCs were inspired by Tim Holtz's day 8 tag. Today, Tim did a steampunk Christmas tag. I'm not into steampunk, but this inspired my to go vintage with metal.

First cut Manila folder into atc sized cards. Stamp image with white acrylic paint, heat set. Then use blending tool to add color over the card. The one on the left looks great, the one on the right I didn't use enough paint so it looks very faded. If you want a strong acrylic paint resist, use enough paint, if you want a more faded out look, use minimal amount of paint.

Used black Archival ink to ghost stamp on more images, I used the backwards numbers (love them). Used walnut stain Distress Ink to color the edges of the cards.

Took metal word charms, cover with black acrylic paint, wipe off paint from surface, leaving paint in the recessed areas.

For this one stamped vintage man on grunge paper with black Archival ink, cut out and mount with foam tape. Colored more grunge paper with black ink and cut out a hat shape. Added red ribbon band, cut out two leaves from the left over colored glassine paper from yesterdays atcs, and added a small white "pearl". Stamped a Christmas ticket on Manila folder and stamped over with a crackle stamp with tea stain Distress Ink. Added more glassine leaves and a black brad tot he copper word charm. Added the small clock hands with a mini black brad. Finished the atc with a metal snowflake charm with a copper brad.

For this atc: stamped a vintage Santa on grunge paper, used red & green pens to color hat & leaves. Colored white areas with a liquid corrector pen, added mini white "pearl" to tip of Santa's hat. Added small watch hands with mini gold brad, calendar tissue tape, the metal tag with a red brad. Stamped 25 in red and highlighted with Diamond Glaze.

Day 7 Tim Inspired Christmas ATCs

2011-12-07T17:43:00.001-08:00

These ATCs use some of the techniques Tim Holtz uses in his Day 7 Tags.

For the background, cut Manila folder to size. Tim placed two different Distress Stains on a craft sheet and sprayed water on the card then dropped the card into the stains to pick up the colors, I only have picket fence Distress Stain, so I decided to try mixing some re-inkers with this Distress Stain.

The re-inker colors were very intense, even with the little bit of Distress Stain. So I placed more Distress Stain on the craft sheet...

and placed the card back down. Then splattered with some drops of water and heat set. I like how this turned out.

Also dried placing re-inkers on craft sheet and spritzing them with water to dilute, place the water misted card down in the ink then again down into the picket fence Distress Ink. I also splattered it with drops of water and heat set. This also turned out well:

Roughed up the edges with a distress tool and colored the edges with tea dye Distress Ink. Then did what Tim calls ghost stamping, "stamp crackle and music backgrounds on tag by holding the stamp in both hands, bend the stamp and just roll on part of the stamp to the tag. this will give the image and random faded-out effect. Love the look!

Then I stamped an angel image with black Archival Ink on the cards.

Next technique of Tim's I tried was alcohol inks on glassine paper (he has a great video showing several different technique with glassine paper, including running through an ink jet paper). Cut some glassine paper and dabbed on a mixture of alcohol inks, gold metallic mixative and blending solution, then heat set.

Crumble the glassine paper a lot. Cut into shapes. Run Distress Ink over the surface and heat set.

Used the glassine paper on this one to make a mini poinsettia. Wrote words and colored in the wings and words on the banner with a white gel pen. Used gold leafing pen to highlight the halo.

Colored these atc the same as the one above. Added the yellow/gold glassine paper to make a star burst, added a metal star center. Wrote the word SING and used gold embossing paper over the letters and heat set.

Day 6 Tim Inspired Christmas ATC

2011-12-06T15:29:00.001-08:00

The ATC on the left was made with the enameled metal embossing technique Tim Holtz used in his Day 6 Tag. Wanted to compare the look of metal enameling (on the left) with alcohol inks on metal (on the right).

I was given some strips of flashing tape that is a little wider than 2-1/2", I adhered this tape to glossy card stock and embossed it with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. Painted the embossed flashing tape with acrylic paints. I liked Tim's suggestion of heat setting after each color, this prevents blending of colors.

Sand the raised areas.

Dabbed walnut stain Distress ink over the entire surface, coated with clear embossing powder and heat set.

These metal embellishments were done as followed. The one on the left was done the same as the technique above over a burnished gold appearing charm. The one on the right was done with alcohol inks over a burnished silver appearing charm.

Painted edges of ATC with black acrylic paint. Before attaching the charm to the atc, colored the edges with black acrylic paint. Added red ribbon and 3 red "pearls". Has the look of an old vintage enamel metal piece.

I used the same colors of alcohol ink as the acrylic paints above. A couple of years ago Tim Holtz mentioned a great technique for painting on alcohol inks. Place colors of choice into a plastic palette. Fill a water brush with blending solution (this water brush is now only for blending solution). Dip the brush into a color of alcohol ink and paint where desired. Brush water brush on scrap paper to clean color and dip into next color and continue painting. Tim said the alcohol can be revitalized whenever you want to used it again. I hadn't used some of these colors in well over a year, and it worked like a charm!

Sanded off raised area.

Added alcohol ink painted charm. This technique is great if you want a bright shiny card!

Day 5 Tim Inspired Christmas ATCs

2011-12-05T17:00:00.001-08:00

There were so many great techniques in Tim Holtz's two Day 5 tags and video, I made two ATCs.

Tim was focusing on his reflection stamps (where the text, numbers or images are printed backwards). In the video he demonstrated stamping a reflection stamp on to the side of an embossing folder where the image is recessed with Archival ink. Then place card stock in the folder and run through and embossing machine.

I used light blue with white core card stock. Colored the raised areas with evergreen bough Distress ink, then sanded the edges of the trees. The text only prints on the background of the card.

To finish, colored the edges of the atc with black Archival ink and added a rhinestone star.

I don't have any Christmas themed reflection stamps. So made some adjustments. Colored glossy card stock with wild honey Distress ink where I'll stamp a tree image with clear words.

Stamped the tree in green Distress ink, colored the background with blue Distress inks, then stamped a flourish with the tumbled glass Distress Ink and heat set.

Tried to follow Tim's instructions with these fragments. Colored the backs with alcohol ink, let dry. Stamped images onto the alcohol ink with Archival Ink and immediately blotted the ink with a towel. The ink did not come off revealing a clear image where the stamping was done (sigh, I tried several times and could not get this technique to work. Decided to settle with the black ink). Covered the back with foil flashing tape. Cut some foil flashing tape with decorative scissors to make the "tops" of the ornaments.

Covered the yellow words on the tree with Diamond Glaze. Stamped snow flurries with black Archival ink, added some rock candy Distress Stickles to the snowflakes. Attached ornament fragments to the card and added thin gold wire to the tops. Added an ornament sticker. Layered on to black card stock.

Day 4 Tim Inspired Christmas ATC

2011-12-04T13:24:00.001-08:00

This atc uses some of the techniques Tim Holtz uses in his Day 4 tag.
I don't have the snowman die, but even if I did it would overwhelm the atc. So I used the mini snowman stamp and stamped it with light blue StazOn ink onto grunge paper then cut it out (using the stamp as a template). Then painted a thick layer of white acrylic paint over the snowman, let dry. Then a thick coat of rock candy crackle paint and let it dry.

I only have one color of Distress Stain: picket fence. So I used a drop of two colors of Distress re-inkers on my fingers to color over the dried crackle paint, then a paper towel to remove the ink from the surface. I think this turned out pretty well.

For the tag, ran some picket fence Distress Stain and two drops of blue Distress re-inkers onto a craft sheet, then smooshed down a piece of Manila folder.

The color was a lot darker than what I wanted so.....

I placed more of the picket fence Distress Stain on the craft sheet and smooshed the card back into the stain, now I'm happy with it.

Then stamped flourish in the Distress Stain and the snowflakes in Distress ink (also used to color the edges of the card), then flicked some water over the surface with my fingers and heat set.

Instead of die cutting numbers out of the grunge paper snowman, I die cut numbers out of paper with mini musical scale on them. Colored the edges with the iced spruce Distress ink, glued them to the snowman and covered them with a layer of diamond glaze. Now the paper numbers are the only things brown, so I inked the snowman's arms and hat with vintage photo Distress ink along with the outer edges of the card. Cut out plastic packaging with snowflake edge die (see Tim's post for details of this) colored with white acrylic paint and some rock candy distress stickles (along with the hat). Added white ribbon around the snowman's neck. And to the ATC added two snowflake buttons and a snowflake sticker with a blue rhinestone in the center.

Day 3 Tim Inspired Christmas ATC

2011-12-03T12:50:00.001-08:00

This atc uses one of the techniques Tim Holtz uses in his Day 3 tag. And that is making a custom multi colored ink pad out of cut n dry felt (this can also be used to make your blending pads). I found a Christmas saying stamp that I used frequently, so it was worth making a custom ink pad for it. Stamped the image with black Archival Ink,on to white card stock and let dry. Then used Distress Ink re-inkers to color the pad. For this ATC, I only stamped the bottom half. The custom ink pad is now in a ziplock plastic bag for a later use.

I don't have an appropriate sized multi Christmas saying stamp for an ATC, so I dug out lots of word stamps in various fonts and sizes I thought were appropriate for Christmas and had fun stamping them over the card stock in various Distress ink colors. Then I colored the edge of the card with festive berries Distress Ink.

Tim's tag is so cool in how he stamps two tags at once, and then has a matching embossing folder to raise up some of the words on his tag. Not having a matching embossing folder for my custom designed atc, I re stamped the words WISH, celebration, DREAM with embossing ink and covered them with clear embossing powder and heat set. Doesn't show well in the photo, but it has more of a shine then the other words.
I didn't want to cover up any of the words , so I added a little bling where I could with these red and green rhinestones.

Day 2 Tim Inspired Christmas ATC

2011-12-02T22:51:00.001-08:00

This atc uses some of the techniques Tim Holtz uses in his Day 2 Tag.
Cut out a piece of Kraft Resist paper and glue to thin cardboard. Coat with picket fence Distress Stain and blot off the excess, let dry so the stain soaks into the paper.

Tim used a Christmas themed Kraft Resist paper, which I don't have. To simulate that look, I stamped a seasonal saying along the right side and a small holly image in the upper left corner with vintage photo Distress Ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

Colored the holy with peeled paint, evergreen bough and festive berries Distress Inks. Colored the edges with iced spruce Distress Ink.

Tim splattered Perfect Pearls Mist over the background. I made up a mist with Perfect Pearls and water in a mini mister. So this would be splattered instead of misted I used the end of the spray tube to pick up the liquid and flicked it on to the background. Tim says to heat set this right away and not let the liquid soak into the paper.

Made the bottom border out of grunge paper, painted it with gold acrylic paint, once the paint dried, sanded the edges and inked it with vintage photo Distress Ink and added mini copper brads. Colored the edges of the atc with vintage photo Distress Ink. Stamped an ornament image with dark cherry StazOn ink onto canvas paper, cut it out and frayed the edges. Added a gold ribbon to the top of the ornament with a copper brad.

Day 1 Tim Inspired Christmas ATC

2011-12-02T22:17:00.001-08:00

I want to try some of the techniques Tim gives in his 12 Tags of Christmas posts. This one is based on Tim's Tag 1.
Tim has a great die to make pine cones. I improvised using a 3D floral die and brown card stock with white core. Tim had a great hint about sanding the paper while it's still one piece.

I think these look like decent pine cones:

Another technique from Day 1 Tag is to ink one side of a snow flake embossing folder with embossing ink, place a blue white core card stock in the folder, emboss, then sprinkle white embossing powder (ep) over the surface. Brush the ep off the raised areas and heat set.

I ran sandpaper over the raised areas to reveal some of the core. Used a die to cut out dark brown card stock for the flourish, wrinkled up the edges and adhered to the atc background. Stamped pine bough on green paper, cut out and adhered to the flourish. Glued down the pine cones. Folded up a yellow/orange paper flower, colored the tips with gold Lumiere paint and glued down beneath the pine cones.

To finish the atc, colored a music tissue tape strip with wild honey Distress Ink. Cut out letters from silver paper, used white acrylic paint on the top of the letters and added rock candy Distress Stickles over the white paint and glued to the tissue tape. Added a silver bead to the yellow gold flower on the bottom and a holographic snowflake to the top right corner. Colored the edges of the atc with iced spruce Distress Ink.

Book Study - Pulled Paper

2011-12-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

On NGS group, we're doing a study of Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson's book "Surface Treatment workshop" This week we're looking at the section "Pulled Paper".
Start with painting your surface as desired. Using a paint brush or palette knife apply a thin layer of soft gel medium to the surface.

Lay down newsprint or an ink-jet image down and burnish with a bone folder. Let set for 30 seconds. A shorter time, the ink might not transfer, a much longer time and the paper will adhere and not lift off.

Lift the paper off, now that the image will appear in the reverse of what's printed. This looks nice and grungy.

Here's a background I left the paper down too long and could not lift off the paper.

Painted over the paper with gold Lumiere paint and heat set to get the bubbly texture and speed the drying process.

Applied a thin layer of soft gel medium, burnished down a sheet of music. Happy to see the ink transferred.

Here's another one I did with a music sheet over paper painted with pearl white Lumiere paint.

The authors state than this technique can be done with many layers and a variety of images. Lots of fun experimenting can be done.

Christmas ATCs V

2011-12-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

The first one uses a Foxy Oxi background.

This one has a glimmering rainbows background.

This background is enameled foil.

These last two use the ink spots alcohol ink backgrounds.

Christmas ATCs IV

2011-11-30T06:50:00.000-08:00

The first two atcs use the heated oil pastels backgrounds.

This one has a plaster gauze shape added.

This one uses a luminous paste background.

This one uses the Garden Walk technique. At the time, I was frustrated that my backgrounds didn't resemble the ones in the book at all. But I think this background is perfect for this atc.

This one uses a flashing or ventilation tape background.

Christmas ATCs III

2011-11-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

This first ATC was made with black & white gessos.The golden triangle was made with plaster gauze.

This background used a gesso resist technique.

The next two were done with stencil techniques. This one is acylic paint and a stencil over an old worksheet.

This one uses foil and a stencil over same old worksheet (different part). The wing was made with plaster gauze.

This one uses aluminum foil over a texture plate.

Christmas ATC II

2011-11-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

The first three ATCs were made with the plastic wrap backgrounds.

This one also has the plaster gauze as faux encaustic.

These last three have techniques from the metal leaf techniques.

Trees ATC

2011-11-27T19:00:00.000-08:00

The theme this month is "Trees". Started with some paste paper I made several years ago. Cut into 2-1/2" x 3-1/" bases.

Embossed tree image with white embossing powder. Colored the edges with a copper metal leafing pen. Added a white ribbon with copper brads and wrote in the letters L I F E in the circles of the ribbon.

Christmas ATC I

2011-11-27T17:40:00.001-08:00

Using up some of the backgrounds I made this past year. The first four are from the Sponge Rollers and Art Foam techniques.

This one was made with the torn masking tape technique.

Tis the Season

2011-11-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

Today is the first Sunday in Advent. Thought I'd share the cards I made for my DH to send out to his clients. It is almost like an example they had at Achievers (which I visited when I was in Minneapolis), they were very generous to share the how to's with me.
For the main image, stamp with chipped sapphire Distress ink, swipe with corner of ink pad to get some ink off the night sky, let dry. Ink same stamp with Versamark,use clear embossing powder over image and heat set. Next ink only edges of stamp with VersaMark and emboss with holographic embossing powder.
Then I attached the main image to white card stock, stamped saying with the chipped sapphire Distress ink. Wrap ribbon around white card stock, added a white ribbon poinsettia and attached all to a dark blue card.

"I" Technique ATC

2011-11-26T18:40:00.001-08:00

For December, the letter of the month is "I" on ArtVentures group. For my ATC background I used the ink wash faux bleach backgrounds made earlier. The embellishment uses the intaglio technique. Colored the ribbon with tumbled glass Distress Ink. Stamped the word with black Archival ink on the ribbon and attached with purple brads

Intaglio Embellishment

2011-11-26T17:57:00.001-08:00

I'm playing with "I" techniques, I wanted to give the Intaglio technique another try and use it as an embellishment.
Used a die cut to cut out butterfly shapes from thin cardboard packaging. Colored the white side with light blue Distress ink, covered with clear embossing powder (ep) and heat set. When ep cooled, covered surface with VersaMark ink, then clear ep and heat set again. Did a total of 4 layers of ep.

Before the 4th layer of ep, inked a flourish stamp with VersaMark ink, then pressed the stamp into the hot ep of the 4th layer. Left the stamp into the ep until the ep cooled.
Used light purple metallic rub-ons to color the surface and dark purple StazOn ink to color the edges.
Here's the finished embellishment:

Book Study - Plaster Gauze

2011-11-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

On NGS group, we're doing a study of Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson's book "Surface Treatment workshop" . This weeks' section is using plaster gauze. I had lots of fun playing with this.
In the book the authors used plaster gauze over a mask. I mainly work with ATCs and wanted to try the gauze with smaller objects, I started with two butterfly charms. Cut the plaster gauze into strips long enough to cover the surface.

One strip at a time, dip them into warm water and place them over the surface, overlapping the edges. Use your fingers to press the plaster gauze down , smoothing them and blending them together. Allow it to dry completely.

The outside doesn't look like much,

But the inside image picked up more detail than I thought it would, cool!!!!

The authors mentioned that you can create "sculptures" using plaster gauze and molds. Do the same method as with the charms above. Remove when the plaster as dried.

I love how the plaster gauze picks up all the detail and it's light weight.

I had some wing charms that I also had made molds out of . The top two sets are the plaster gauze over the charms and the bottom two are the plaster gauze in the molds.

Another technique mentioned in the book, is to cut the plaster gauze into shapes and adhere them together (by getting them wet). Let dry.

You can see the dried shape on the left, on the right, I painted gold Lumiere paint over the surface.

On the other, I painted with blue acrylic paint, and when it dried, painted the raised areas with gold Lumiere paint.

Another technique in the book is to use gel mediums over the plastic gauze to create a waxy faux encaustic look. Took one of the plastic wrap backgrounds made earlier and placed a wet strip of wet plaster gauze over the surface. I pulled the plaster gauze apart a bit and used a paper towel to soak off some of the plaster.

Once the plaster gauze dried, painted with q. nickel azo gold.

When the paint dried, coated the surface with soft gel medium.

I enjoyed all these techniques and there are more ways to use the plaster gauze in the book.

2011-11-24T13:00:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,

but the parent of all the other virtues." - Cicero

May everyday be filled thanksgiving!