Friends!

Hello to all my blogging friends! The truth is that I do "Get By With A Little Help From My Friends" and I think we all do! When I think about the possibility of moving, my friends come into mind and as we get older, it is not as easy to make those very close bonds. The tag I am sharing today is covered in full detail at Artistic Outpost and a few more photos, if you would like to pop on over there, which would be lovely.

Being in an area for almost 17 years, there are just so many memories. Everyone of my family members have been here and all of my pets in one form or another will remain here. We moved here to be near my aging parents and at the time, other family members also lived here and now it is just us. Friends do become family!  So I can move to an area that I am so unfamiliar with that is totally a different climate than the desert or stay here and visit family?

I think the Paperboy, along with Chalk It Up and Chalkboard Wisdom do a great job spreading the word about "Friends." Hope to see you join in the new Monthly Referral Program at Artistic Outpost for a chance of a prize and being amount the "Top 3."

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy life with Friends and Family!

Letters!

I was so thrilled to be one of Country View Challenges "Top 3" winners for September, but also honored to be asked to be a Guest Design Team member for November's challenge of "Letters."  Thank you Country View Challenges and here we go with my project and if you want, you can stop over there and give them a "Hello" and learn all the details for the current challenge.

It is so interesting how a project starts out and what you have in mind when you start! Believe it or not, this started out with a Christmas theme in mind! It was going to be "letters to Santa," but I kept drawing blanks. Well not really blanks, but how I wanted to use my new Santa Stamp was too much like something I had already seen. Not that my friend, Vada would have cared, but this needed to be very original!



Now with the embossed "letter" background, I was determined to use it Christmas or not! I used Distress inks and then spritzed some water. Next the raised areas were hit with Coffee Archival, distressed and curled up some edges.

The woman's face was stamped, watercolored and masked off for tag inking! A little white acrylic paint dot for the eye highlight, using a stylus.

Added a little "letter" stenciling, stamped some post scripts and those artsy faces to blend in the background. Keeping in the "letter" theme, I was going for a love letter type theme at this point. Hey it is my mind! I think they are both thinking of each other!

The top "letter" layer was first inked and then the actually stamp covered with Distress markers, torn around the edges and shaded. Added a little airmail stamping to this.

Did a second marker stamping for extra dimension on the "L" for "letters."

What a time I had cutting off the heavy duty pin that went with the winged heart! Actually called the man to the rescue. The heart was colored with alcohol inks and the word band and key colored to match the bronze look of the wings.

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you will join in the current "Letters" challenge at CVC, so pop on over there for more inspiration and all the details! Have a wonderful week!

Stamps: Tim Holtz, Classics 3, Classics4, Classics 5 and various older releases for postage
Inks: Archival Red Geranium Coffee (Faces, Faces, Postage, Air Mail, CB letters
Background colors: Distress Antique Linen, Old Paper, (letter panel), Vintage Photo, Black Walnut, Pine Needles, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Forrest Moss, Tattered Rose for skin color, Water colors Barn Door (lips) Peeled Paint (eyes)
Markers: Barn Door, Vintage Photo, Black Soot Peeled Paint, Pine Needles
Alcohol Inks: Pesto, Latte and Gold Fixative

Welcome Autumn!

We have finally started having some Autumn type weather here, well at least in the later evening and early morning! The days are still quite warm, but not as hot! On to my card!

I actually am working on creating more easy to mail items, so I decided black with Perfect Pearls might be nice. I used a foil (liner from a cake pan) panel, between the two black for what I was thinking to be like an old fashioned chalkboard!



After decided where I wanted my "Hayride" images from Artistic Outpost, they were stamped using clear embossing ink and then I applied the Perfect Pearls.

For the wooden sign, I stamped and cut this out and cut and trimmed another piece for the wording. Between the black and glimmer of the Perfect Pearls, I did find it a little difficult to photograph!

There is still a week left to enter in Artist Outpost's "October Referral Program" and it is Anything Goes, but just use those AO stamps! Thank you for stopping by and enjoy!

Up, Up, Up and Away!

A new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and Dot wants you to " Make a Card." As always stamping is a must and there will be a prize and Top 3 selection, so get inky  and make some cards! You will want to stop by FSC and check out the gorgeous creations of the DT!

Well I have these Pan Pastels that I have only used once and thought I would pull them out for my background! I wanted a simple sky and ocean scene, so lightly applied some blue in a circular motion for the sky, leaving some lighter areas for clouds and then swiped it across the ocean floor! Once I liked the background, I did give a quick spray of sealer.

All images are IndigoBlu, gifted to me by Brenda and were inked in Archival Black. For the gears, I applied a little Treasure Gold to tone down the silver.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend and thank you so much for visiting me today!

Designers Blog Hop with Artistic Outpost!

It is a designers choice "Blog Hop" with Artistic Outpost, so hope you will join in all the fun!

Gerrie, Lisa, Suzanne, Tracy, Linda, Alison, Terry (Me) and Kate.

The Hayride collection is so perfect for the upcoming Halloween and Thanksgiving and I just love seeing all the pumpkins showing up as decorations. The tag background was inked with Spiced Marmalade and Scattered Straw, then I stamped the vine in Olive Archival ink and the hay bale in in Sepia.

The sign was stamped in Sepia, cut out and the "Welcome Autumn" in Coffee and heat embossed. The pumpkins were colored using distress markers and stamped twice, cut and layered front on top of the back pumpkins.

 

We are midway through October, but there is still plenty of time to get inky with Artistic Outpost stamps and join in the "Monthly Referral Program." Thank you for visiting and taking the time to comment. Have a wonderful week.

CC102 Day #5!

Day #5 and class is over, but not the learning experience! Tim's Creative Chemistry 102 has not only been filled with knowledge, but figuring out ways to get around the things we don't have! Yes like many, I had to improvise, but that is just fine! Would it have been easier and quicker if I had all the products, yes indeed, but then we learn from experimenting and that it what it is all about!

For this tag, I combined the Rusting and Tarnished Silver (Gold) techniques.

Here is the Sticky Powder Glitter and Leafing Technique.

Shabby Chic Technique, which when looking at the photo noticed a spot I missed!

Chalkboard Technique.

Well it has been a blast and I do thank all of you who have been taking the time to visit me while in class. I am very behind of blog visits, but will be catching up during the week!

CC102 Day 4!

What fun it has been going to school and today, I am sharing Day #4 of Tim's Creative Chemistry 102. The lesson was all about Alcohol Inks and here we go!

Lesson #1 - Faux Patina:

Lessons #2 and #4 - Tinted Tinsel and Monoprint:

Lesson # 3 - Ombre: Wish I was not so heavy handed with stamping on a slick surface!

Lesson # 5 - Faded Layers:

One more class to go and as soon as I sign off here, I am off to class! Of course being Saturday, we run some errands and go to lunch, but I sure hope to wrap this all up by tomorrow! It has been so much fun and I thank you for joining me!

CC102 Day #3!

Day 3 of Tim's Creative Chemistry 102, was again a learning experience and also fun! It took me a little longer as I was waiting for things to dry and then it was too late to take photos. So here is class #3 and working on these techniques, I have fallen behind on my blogging visits, but I will be around!

This tag uses the "Smudge Stamping" and I had a totally different main image in mind "The Traveler" but he just did not look right and I decided a more filled in image was necessary.

Here we have "Brayered Stains" and in the above picture is my "Faux Cracked Glass."

This of course was my techy combo piece using "Photo Tinting," and "Clear Rock Candy & Distress Glittering," which I did cheat on! Sorry I am ordering some Distress Rock Candy and other glitters.

For this leaf, I colored and mixed Rock Candy Stickles with glass bead gel.

This one was done by sprinkling a little Antiquities Verdigris over my inked surface and then RC Stickles.

The photo is one of my parents when they were dating and I could not bring myself to tint them. I decided to combine the three techniques on this one and use the background panel that has been sitting around.

This will go off to my DD for Thanksgiving! I sure miss my parents! They usually came to my house for Thanksgiving as my Mom just loved not having to fuss with all that cooking! 

Well I am mostly done with the technique part of Day 4, so maybe tomorrow I will blog that. I so appreciate you stopping by to check on class projects!

CC102 Day #2!

I have not even looked at the "Day 3" lesson, as I did not do yesterday's Creative Chemistry 102, Day 2, "Layering Stencils." Why you wonder, well because I have not purchased Tim's stencils. It was one of those items I was going to, but either stores did not have them in or it would be too late. Well I decided to use what I have on hand, but do intend on getting my inky hands on Tim's "Layered Stencils."

For the eight samples, I decided to use the smaller sized tags and placed all of them on the Giant tag.

The techniques are in order as follows. The "Usual Suspects" is a stencil gifted to me by that lovely friend of mine, Brenda! I thought it worked so well to start off! Techniques 1) Mixed Media, 2) Embossing With Stencils.

3) Embossing With Stencils (part 2), 4) Embossing Through Stencils

5) Stamping, 6) Sketching

7) Ink Monoprint, 8) Paint Monoprint (Epic Fail)

Well I am off to finish our dinner and catch up on Day #3! So much fun! Thank you for taking the time to visit me!

CC102 Day #1!

Well like many of you, I signed up for Tim's "Creative Chemistry 102," and am loving it and learning as always! To me the $25 is so worth the knowledge and tips and tricks along the way and the fact that you have access FOREVER! Sounds like I am receiving a commission! OK on to Day 1!

This will be mostly a picture post as the steps are in the class format and I won't bore any of you, plus out of respect for Tim and the time to put this class together, I would suggest signing up! My camera may be on the way out, so any camera suggestions would be great! I really don't want a really expensive one, so LMK what you think!

The first class covered six techniques and on each tag, I used three. This background is "Marbling." For the little deer, I used "Colored Crackle." I had to add a little red nose and an eye using Stickles.

And the third technique on this tag is "Altered Surface," which mine was grunge board as I did not have the plastic Alpha Parts. I did like how the numbers turned out! I added a little extra white paint here and there for a little snowy feel!

Tag #2 and oh what fun it was!

This background uses a technique called "Eroded Metallic" and I can see it will be a big time favorite, once I perfect it!!!!! It reminds me of a faux paint technique I tried on a wall once, I believed called frottage? You paint you wall and add a special medium and then you applied torn pieces of newspaper and remove to leave a little of the imprint behind! Problem in the dry air of the desert, the paper sticks really well! Get the picture?

For the "Stamping Resist," I used a die cut and shaded in black and stamp a couple of butterflies.

"Industrial" worked so well on my little dress form and Tim's embossing folder!

Well I am ready to take on Day #2 and I so thank you for visiting me and I will be blog visiting shortly and I can't wait to see what those of you taking the "CLASS" are doing!