Holidays Blog Hop with AO!

It is time for the Holidays at AO and we have a festive Blog Hop in store for you! Visit all the DT for more Holiday Inspiration! Tracy, Shari, Kate, Gerrie, Lisa.

I so love that gorgeous Cardinal from the MidWinter collection and he looks even better on the Christmas Paper 2013 from Our Daily Bread Designs die cut using Tim's Carved Ornament. Stampin Up markers in Pretty in Pink, Going Gray, Crushed Curry (beak,feet) and Certainly celery were used to color in various areas. I stamped the image a second time and fussy cut the pine cones.

The Sentiments were stamped in Black Archival on the same Christmas Paper collection, torn and also layered on more torn CP.

The background was done first with a coat of tan paint and while still wet, I sprinkled on Color Burst (LOVE) in Pthalo Green and Alizarin Red and then I spritzed on water and allowed some to drip. Once this was completely dry, I applied a two step crackle and did allow the 2nd step to dry for 8 hours. Next I sprayed on Chalkboard Hot Chocolate Glimmer Mist and wiped off the excess. Stamped on the Pine Branches in Black Archival.

Thank you for your visit today and I hope you are having a great day! There are only a few days remaining to join in the "Show Us Your AO Art," so come on and play!

Spring's Greatest Joy!

Today the Springtime kids are coming out to play in the Artistic Outpost sunshine and I hope you will visit my DT blog post for all the details and to say, "Hi."

Thank you and I hope you have a lovely weekend!

In Springtime Play!

Hope all of you are doing well and enjoying the Summer! When I worked on this tag, all I could think is how we surely could use some rain in California!! Maybe these lovely Springtime children from Artistic Outpost will do the rain dance for us!! If you have AO stamps, please join in the monthly challenge "Show Us Your AO Art" and you could will a store gift certificate!

The images and sentiment (masked the lines) were stamped in Black Archival, fussy cut and shaded in Black Soot. I also outlined the the separated lines to the sentiment.

Color Burst (thanks Gerrie) which I ordered from the Funky Junkie Boutique and just love the magic, was used to color the tag. This was my first experiment with the product and what I did was to sprinkle a little on my craft mat and you don't need much! Then I misted my tag with water and placed the tag on top of the CB and patted it down into the product. I also gave it another direct mist and when dried did a little more flicking of water drops! Using a brick stencil from TCW, I layered some bricks with modeling paste and a washing of white acrylic paint and a wash of Weathered Wood in the grout lines. Added a few stars and a tie and off we go to play!

Have a wonderful weekend and thank you for taking the time to visit and comment!

Celebrate 60!

Hello to all of you and hope you are in the mood to Celebrate, because that is what we are doing at A Vintage Journey with "Celebrations" chosen by the fabulous Sandy! Be sure to visit the entire DT as they are fabulous! As some of you may know, I have had very limited Internet which eventually became non-existent and hopefully has now been repaired and I will be catching up on all your lovely blogs, which I have so missed!

My wonderful and amazing husband is/has turned 60 by the time this goes live and so I made this card using Tim's Pocket Watch die, which was painted and crackled. I decided to go with red colors! The tag background was embossed with a Cuttlebug large Domino folder and then highlighted in Black Archival. The card background was stamped using a few of Tim's stamps and then metal bits added along the way! A couple of Tim's Elementary Flash Cards, flicked and edged with the Paints mentioned below.

My Celebration will also be linked up to Linda's Compendium of Curiosities III challenge, which is Tim's Eroded Metallic technique, which I cannot share and hopefully you have your own book to open to page 44. I can tell you the colors I chose were Fired Brick, Black Soot and Antiqued Bronze. The lovely people from Inspiration Emporium are the sponsors this time around and there is always a second chance to win a package from Tim and Mario.

Thank you for visiting today and being patient with me while my Internet was acting so badly! Have a wonderful weekend!

Color Burst Fun!

Hello! Recently while I had little Internet and then none, my order of Color Burst from Linda came in and I had some extra playtime! I will be sharing a few projects soon. I got very interested in this when Gerrie had posted a pretty fabulous card using the Color Bursts. Now I am not usually one for the more vibrant colors on my projects, but we need to get out of our comfort zones and here is mine!

For this one, I did spritzed the tag first with water and then applied the color and misted a little more. Next I used a stencil to add a little texture with modeling past. The butterflies were cut using Tim's Movers and Shapers and then stamped in Sky Blue Archival using Stampin Ups French Script background.

I remember those tiny clothespins and thought those would be great for my butterflies in flight!

Had great fun with this stuff and hope you enjoyed my PRETTY post today! Thank you for visiting and now that I am caught up on all my DT posting and projects, off to visit and hopefully the Internet repairs stays!

Road Trip AO Style!

It is time for a Road Trip and another Product Focus at Artistic Outpost from the Masculine collection of stamps and 20% off through Saturday, June 6th. Be sure to visit the rest of the team! Tracy, Gerrie, Kate, Shari, Lisa.

I decided to ink up Route 66 and started with the background, which was inked over with Vintage Photo, Pumice Stone, Vintage Photo and shaded with Walnut Stain and a little Black Soot. Next I masked off the Road Trip to spread over the tag in Black Archival and then clear embossed. The MOTEL was also stamped in Black Archival and colored with Squeezed Lemonade and Mowed Lawn and again clear embossed. The map was stamped randomly in sections with Watering Can Archival. Well I was really liking my background and did not want to cover it all up, so the Shrink Plastic was brought out. I do not stamp shrink plastic with Archival as it does not dry and even with spraying it with sealer, you can have issues. I used Stazon inks in Black and red and colored on the reverse side with markers. I will also use a little foam applicator and Blending Solution to soften colors, even after the baking process.

The little "EAT" scene was backed in glossy card stock and the Route 66 and Gas Pump were painted on the backside to avoid them just getting lost on the background. Had not played with Shrink Plastic in awhile and it was quite fun.

Thank you for joining us for this month's Product Focus and being the start of June the "Show Us Your AO Art" has also begun, so come on and ink up your AO stamps and join in!