Bags & Totes

Hopefully, everyone has opened their Christmas presents and are enjoying the various totes I made them. I made bright book bags for my grandchildren out of bright fabrics.
I found this bright sea flora to line the mermaid bag. I used the small sea life panels to make large pockets inside the bag.

I lined the truck bag, with this bright emergency vehicle fabric to line the truck bag, and left over fabric from the front to make the inner pockets.

For my daughter and DILs, I made fun beach bags out of batik fabrics.

Used contrasting fabrics to line the totes and to add large pockets inside.

Two more totes for gifts:

And the contrasting insides:

I drew Chrissy's name for the 12 day swap on Art Venturers group. For the large gift, I made an art tote out of purple & blue batiks.

To liven it up, added fun fibers and beads. Added large shrink plastic beads I'd made earlier and some purple polymer clay beads I'd received from Rachel Bland in a bead swap on ccswaps. You can see them in this close up photo below.

Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas from my family to yours.

May you enjoy all the blessings of Christmas: Joy, Peace and Love.

May these blessings continue throughout the New Year where ever you may be found.

Gift Box for Christmas Swap

I signed up for a 12 days of Christmas swap on Art Venturers Group. Chrissy will be receiving 12 gifts from me. I decided to decorate the textured box I made in Sept to be the first days gift. I tied on some fiber and added metal tags that say "hope", "wish" and "dream". Also glued on the star oozed friendly plastic piece I made earlier.
I filled this box with the small gifts for days 2 - 11. The 12th day gift is in a separate package.

I glued in lots of blue & green confetti stars. Added an appropriate quote on vellum and a vintage image, used purple StazOn to add words to the image. The wings are from when I made fantasy film butterflies when Adrienne was visiting.

Hoping Chrissy has started on the 12 days and is enjoying the fun.

"Hanging" Christmas Ornament

This week's theme on Mixed Media Monday is "Just Hanging Out". I was inspired to make this Ornament:
Started with a scrolled chipboard ATC frame from Scrapware. Glued on Fantasy Film with Elmer's Glue (pva). Cut out the center and added a second layer and ironed on with parchment paper between the Fantasy Film and the iron.

I wrapped a piece of parchment paper over the edge of the frame and heated with the iron to shrink the fantasy film over the edges.

For the hanging star I inked a star stamp with red StazOn ink, placed two layers of Fusible Film over the stamp, placed down parchment paper and heated with an iron. Cut out the star and make a second one the same way.

Stamped a quote on decorative paper with red StazOn ink and glued to the back of the vintage angel image. Added ribbon, beads and star rhinestones to the piece.

Soldered Glass Charm

I listened to Adrienne's advise about the Memory Glass piece I made last week. I hadn't realized that the copper tape alone wouldn't hold the piece together. I got out the soldering kit I picked up at a sale, and soldered over the tape. I had liked the copper edges, so I used a copper leafing pen to color over the lead. Here is the piece re done.

More Plaid

I made a couple more Christmas cards out of the plaid alcohol ink backgrounds made earlier this week. The inks and acrylic paint were the same as used before. This time I used Rock Candy Distress Stickles over the angel images and the word Christmas and gold stickles to accent the halo, trumpet and some of the snowflakes as well as the word Merry. Added a worded paper strip with a decorative snowflake brad and a white rub-on snowflake.

Using Vellum to Mask

Over on Tim Holtz's blog, he showed his new masking sheets to create your own masks, wonderful idea. I couldn't find any masks at my local stores, yet. I wanted to experiment and I thought a thin vellum sheet would give me the "clear" look through the open areas. (Go look at this post on Tim's site to see his fabulous tag and how much fun the masking sheets will be, I have some on order, so I can play with it later.) I stamped an image I wanted to use on thin vellum with StazOn ink, placed removable adhesive on the back and cut out the image (I did not cut out the small flowers at the end of the image). I realized I picked an image with very little "open" space, but I did want to keep those "open" areas clear. I stamped my image on a piece of Manila folder with black Archival ink.
Placed the mask over the stamped image. Stamped a flourish with metallic pearl white acrylic paint over the paper, let it dry. Added shades of red Distress inks with a cut-n-dry foam piece and let it dry.

Stamped on music score and holy flourishes with black Distress Ink, let it dry. Used a misted paper towel to gently dab off ink off the acrylic flourishes. Not how the mask allowed the flourishes within the reindeer and some at the end remained "clear". I did 4 cards, and by the end of each of the steps the mask was in pieces. Vellum was a good stand in, but does not have the durability of the mask sheet. Used VersaMark ink to stamp on the word "Believe" and embossed with detail gold embossing powder and heat set. Covered the reindeer with Liquid Glass to help it stand out (since it was mostly black) and added red and green glitters to some of the flowers.

Used gold Encore! ink to color the edges. Added a floral accent to the upper left corner and adhered it all to a dark green card.

Rena's Mini Memory

Rena choose the colors blues & greens with gold or silver for her mini memory and left the choice of theme to each individual creating the piece. I started with a 4"x4" canvas board and painted it with a mixture of white gesso and navy blue acrylic paint. When dry, I stamped flourishes with Versamark ink and heat set, also with silver and navy blue acrylic paint and allowed to dry (remember to wash acrylic paint off rubber stamps quickly).
Made a glaze out of acrylic glazing liquid, navy blue acrylic paint and a small bit of black acrylic ink and brushed it over the canvas and allowed to dry.

Used metallic silver Embossing Paste to stamp on some flourishes along the edges and let dry. Made a spray of water, gum arabic and some blue & green Mica Powders. Sprayed this over the canvas, and let dry.

Stamped a saying on aqua tissue paper and adhered to the canvas with matte gel. Stamped more flourishes with pearlescent stencil paste and sprayed more of the mica powder mixture over the canvas and let dry. Adhered mini blue metal stars to the canvas with rock candy Distress Stickles for some extra sparkle. Found a vintage image, added the word dream, glued to a large Silver colored star and covered the image with Liquid Glass and allowed to dry.

Added some blue rhinestones to the star and adhered it to the canvas.

Hope Rena enjoys this mini memory created for her.

Faux Parchment Card

Tim Holtz showed how to make faux parchment paper (along with other things), on his 12 Tags of Christmas project. For great step-by-step directions, see this post on his blog. Since I don't have the same supplies as Tim, I've made some alterations. I stamped a music image on to vellum with black Archival ink and heat set. Then blended tea dye and vintage photo Distress ink on the vellum with a piece of cut-n-dry foam. Then with the widow open, heated the vellum with a heat took, until the vellum was stiff. Tore the edges and colored the edges with brushed corduroy Distress ink and heat set.
Cut out a piece from a Manila folder. Colored the paper with antique lined and vintage photo Distress Ink. Then dropped on water and dried with heat tool for the spotted faux bleach appearance. Used a distressing tool to rough up the edges and a thin file to scratch up the paper. Used brushed corduroy Distress ink directly to the edges and on a cut-n-dry foam pad to darken the scratches. Stamped flourishes with aged mahogany Distress ink and heat set with the heat tool.

Embossed a Christmas tree image (a cuttlebug folder) on green card stock with a white core. Used fine sand paper to expose the white core on parts of the raised areas and colored them with red metallic rub-ons.

Cut out the image, spread a thin layer of Rock Candy Distress stickles and let dry. Colored the edges with aged mahogany Distress Ink.

Layered all the pieces on to a red card. As it is Christmas time, glued on lots of rhinestones for sparkle and added a tag with another rhinestone.

Memory Glass Charm

I've signed up for a swap on ccswaps, where we are to use some type of clear item or embellishment. I choose to make a charm out of 1-1/2" memory glass pieces. I layered a vintage image on top of some music paper and added words and a small piece of iridescent wrapping paper to the flowers. Used copper metal tape to hold the two pieces of glass and the front and back papers together. Added some beads, a small moon charm and tied on a pretty ribbon.
On the back side, I stamped an image over music paper and added an appropriate quote from Shakespeare.

Plaid with Alcohol Inks

Loved this idea by Tim Holtz of making a plaid background with alcohol inks on glossy card stock. For fantastic step-by-step instructions, see this post on his blog. I was surprised that I got all these colors on one piece of felt, I guess my drops were very small.
Here are some of the plaids I made today.

I wanted to turn one set of plaids into Christmas cards. Following Tim's instructions, I dropped some Alcohol Blending Solution onto an area I planned to stamp where I wanted the background to be lighter. While heating with the heat tool, the blending solution evaporated and lightened the background. Tim said not to worry about the big mess, it would all work out.

Stamped a large greeting, a snowman and some snowflake images with black Archival ink and dried with the heat tool. The snowman was stamped over the area lightened with the Alcohol Blending Solution.

Used metallic pearl white acyclic paint on a texture stamp to create a snowy appearance on the plaid background.

Attached a metal tag with red ribbon, by running the ribbon under the snowman's head, it helped the snowman stand out. Used fired brick Distress Stickles to color the snowman's hat band and scarf, along with the eye on the black bird and accent to the holly. This was then adhered to a dark green card.

Used another plaid to make another card. Made the same way as the snowman card, using tree stamps in place of the snowman, and a different flourish stamp. And used a different texture stamp to create a snowflake look. Attached a metal star brad to the top of the center tree. The red ribbon is mostly covering a large black stripe I thought was too big. No problem now.

This plaid with alcohol inks on glossy card stock makes for a very festive grungy look for Christmas.

Angel Tag Card

I love the 12 days of Christmas Tags that Tim Holtz creates. Very inspired to try some of the techniques done in his Day 1 tag. Visit his blog to see fabulous detailed photographed step-by-step instructions. My card is different, as I don't have the same supplies. Started off like Tim, rubbed 4 colors of Distress inks on to a craft sheet, spritzed with water and pressed a tag into the inks to pick up color. Dried with heat tool, placed back into the wet inks, heat set again, and did this a third time.
Stamped a winter flourish stamp with blue Distress ink on the bottom of the tags. Stamped a snowflake flourish stamp with black Archival Ink on the top of the tag along with a larger snowflake stamp. Coated the tags with a thick layer of rock candy Distress crackle paint and set aside to dry.

Stamped angels on grunge board with watermark ink and covered with detail black embossing powder and heat set. Covered the image with sparkle white acrylic paint and used a bit of paper towel to rub of the excess.

Cut out the angel images and lightly coated them with a thin layer of rock candy Distress Stickles. Cut out some swirls, using a Sizzlet die, of some textured white card stock. Colored with light blue Distress Ink using a piece of cut-n-dry foam. Used cut-n-dry foam and darker blue Distress Ink to color the edges of the tags and over the cracked surface to help the cracks stand out.

Used baby blue Stickles to create icicle look at the top of the tags.

Stamped on ornament stamp with dark blue StazOn ink on to silver card stock. Added rock candy Stickles to the letters and some accents.

Stamped winter flourish with silver Encore! ink onto a dark blue card. Added ribbon to tag. Adhered components to the card.