Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of 2015 Week 3...

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all had a terrific weekend!  I got crazy busy in the craft room, and got a ton of things done, including this week's version of the 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style Challenge. Click the link to learn all about this challenge.  You still have plenty of time to join the fun.  If you are short on crafting time, you should at least take a few minutes each week to check out all of the entries.  There are some amazing artists taking part this year! 

The challenge is sponsored by the marvelous Funkie Junkie Boutique.  Be sure to click on over to see all the yummy supplies available!

This is Linda's week three inspiration tag.  I'm a knitter, so I of course I love anything with a knitwear theme.  My daughters both knit, too, so I knew as soon as I saw this which element I would be featuring!  I have a bit of glitter fear, but I decided to get over it, at least for this week.

I chose to work with a small space in the printer's trays again this week, so unless you are looking at this on a smart phone, it is way bigger on your screen than it is in real life!  The deer is less than an inch long!  I chose to copy Linda's glittered background for my knitwear cut out, which I cut with my Silver Bullet Cutter.  To keep the glitter in check, I ran my background cardstock through my Xyron, and then used a method I learned from Tim Holtz, placing the piece on one half of a piece of copy paper, sprinkling on the glitter, and folding the paper over and pressing the glitter into the adhesive with it.  It makes it really easy to pour the glitter back into the jar, and I didn't end up with glitter and glue all over my fingers.  Win!

To add some extra interest to the knitwear cutout, I stamped it with Wendy Vecchi Watering Can Archival and a grid like stamp from the Tim Holtz Mixed Media set.  I finished it off by sponging it with Aged Mahogany Distress. 

I used my all time favorite Christmas Stamp, the simple but beautiful "Merry Christmas" by Tim Holtz ( it's part of the Christmas Time set.)  to make a banner, which I curled before adhering to my background.  I used Wendy Vecchi Red Geranium Archival Ink, and added some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges. 

I loved the stamped and inked leaves on Linda's project, but wanted to add a deer as well.  Rather than making an impossible choice between the two, I combined them!  I cut my tiny deer, using my Silver Bullet,  stamped it in WV Tree Branch Archival with a Tim Holtz text stamp from one of the Christmas collections, inked it with soft green Distress Inks with touch of Vintage Photo Distress on the edges.   I thought it was fun to pop it onto the banner, so it looks like it is flying!

And here is how my week three project fits into the printer's tray.  My two projects are identical this week, so I didn't take photos of both. 

I'm starting to get really excited about this project!  I can't wait to give them to the girls! 

I spent a lot of time in my craft room this weekend, watching a Harry Potter marathon and making Christmas cards.  Two of my very favorite activities!  I hope to be able to share some of them with you later this week.  The cards that is, you're on your own for Harry Potter!

Thanks for stopping by!

Elizabeth

Yay! The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of 2015 Challenge has begun!

Hi Everyone,

Hope everyone had a good weekend!  It was beautiful here, and a terrific reminder of why I live in New England.  The fall color here in New Hampshire is absolutely glorious!  Equally exciting is the start of the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of 2015 Challenge.   In my craft room, it is never too early to start Christmas crafting!

This is Linda's week one inspiration tag:

 

Click here for all the details on this amazing challenge!

There is so much to be inspired by here!  I love, love, love the background with the Wendy Vecchi gold embossing paste and the beautiful green inks!  And the poinsettia is incredible! 

As I did last year, I am going to be altering a 7 Gypsies printer's tray.  Actually, I'm doing two of them, one for each of my daughters!

 

The spaces I will be filling are quite small, and I discovered last year that it is helpful, especially for the smallest spaces, to be very selective when choosing my elements.  That is very hard to do when Linda's tags offer so much beautiful inspiration! 

Here are my first two pieces:

I was inspired by Linda's soft blue-green inked background, and the red text.  Rather than make a really tiny poinsettia, I cut a multi layered holly motif.  I used my Silver Bullet cutter to make my die cuts, and inked them with Distress Inks (Iced Spruce, Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles and Vintage Photo for the background, with some water droplets; Barn Door for the text, and Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn for the holly leaves). I sprayed the background with some shimmery Maya Mist that I've had in my stash for ages.  For the text, I added a layer of Glossy Accents to add some, well, glossy accents. ; )  The holly berries are Distress Stickles. 

Have you checked out the Funkie Junkie Boutique lately?  There is a fabulous selection of crafty goodness, all at 20% below retail!

I will have to save my Wendy Vecchi gold embossing paste for another time.  It made a really beautiful background, but was too busy for my small spaces.  These pieces are just slightly less than 1.25 x 3.75 inches. 

I wanted to make these pieces level with the fronts of the trays, rather than being recessed, so I made  dimensional "beams" from a scrap piece of cardstock, and used them as fillers before adding my art pieces.

I hope you stop by often to see how my printer's trays progress.

Elizabeth 

Soar

Hello Everyone!

Happy Monday!  I had time recently to try out Tim Holtz's March 2015 tag.  I sure am loving his background techniques this year!  They are so much fun to make, and very versatile.  I'm sure to be finding uses for them all year long.  I followed the instructions as closely as I could with what I had on hand, changing up the colors and stamps to match my style and stash. 

Here is my version of the March Tag:

 

 

 

I used a combination of Idea-ology, new metal items, and vintage metal snaps and buttons from my stash.  The round blue item is a vintage thumbtack in the perfect color to match the Stormy Sky Distress paint I used to color some of my Idea-ology findings. 

 

I used bird stamps from the Nature Walk set,  and Distress Painted Alpha Parts letters.

Now that I've finished this month's project, I can't wait to see what techniques Tim will be sharing with us in April. 

With this project, I will be linking up for the first time with the Shopping Our Stash challenge. I love a challenge that encourages me to use up what I have.   The current challenge, #191, is to use our oldest metal stash.  I have used metal snaps and buttons that are far older than I am!  They have been in my stash for at least 20 years, and resided in the attic of my parents; home for many years prior to that.  I like to think that my frugal ancestors would appreciate that I have used these carefully saved and long hoarded buttons in this way. 

It's Time for Winter Blooms....

Hello Everyone!

Hope you had a fabulous. fun filled Valentine's Day!  I found some time this weekend to upcycle a vintage mantel clock. 

I purchased this small clock a while back at one of my favorite antique shops.  Since it didn't work, I dismantled it, and have been using the parts in projects here and there. 

I'm not quite ready for spring yet, so I went for a snowy white and icy blue color combo for my embellishments.  I cut the flowers from white cardstock using my Silver Bullet Professional cutter.  I gave the white peonies just a hint of color, with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink on the edges.  For the flower centers, I painted jingle bells with Picket Fence Distress paint, in keeping with my wintry theme.  The smaller flowers were inked with Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress inks, as was the seam binding bow. 

 

The leaves were inked with Vintage Paper and Bundled Sage Distress, and then over stamped them with a script stamp and Frayed Burlap Distress.  I thought a mini clock face would be a fun detail on my full sized clock.  I lightly dabbed Tumbled Glass and Frayed Burlap Distress Paint on the Idea-Ology clock face, dried it just a bit with my heat gun, and then wiped most of it off.  I finished off its center, as well as the centers of the little blue flowers with turquoise rhinestones from my stash.  

 

One of my favorite elements is the gesso 6" wide, loosely woven jute. I placed it in the clock frame from the open back.  It was a happy accident that it bows out from the inside, adding dimension that I didn't expect. 

 



 

I considered painting the clock case white, but after cleaning it, I realized that it has a terrific

authentic patina that I don't want to ruin.  I also like the contrast between my bright and icy elements and the dark finish.   



I am happy to be playing along again with the current Frilly and Funkie Challenge, Winter Blooms,

and the Lessology Challenge 44 - Tick Tock,  Along with upcycling the clock case, I also used recycled telephone wire to wire the jingle bell centers, and re-used a piece of poster tack to attach my seam binding bow to the clock case.  (I tell you this in case you didn't know it could be reused.  I almost never throw the stuff away!  I keep a wad that looks like chewing gum stuck to my work table at all times, LOL!)

12 Tags of 2015 - February

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are having a fabulous Friday!  Yesterday, I found time (because I completely ignored everything else!) to play with Tim Holtz' techniques for the February 2015 tag.  Click here to view his tutorial and amazing art. 

For my collaged background, I used a combination of papers from an 8 inch Tim Holtz stack, and vintage papers from my stash.  I had fun mixing them up.  Here is how my "tag" turned out:

 

As I described last month, I am making art to frame and display in my wall of vintage boxes.  Here is how my February piece fits in there:

I'm not sure which "box" is the best spot.  I'll keep moving it around until it finds the right place.  As you can see, this month I painted the "frame". 

I used a variety of white acrylic paints, some Wendy Vecchi crackle paste, and Distress Inks (Brushed Corduroy and Pumice Stone)to give my frame an aged appearance  It's pretty rough, and that's the way I like it. 

Here are some close ups of some of my favorite elements.

 

 Thank you, Mr. Tim, for inspiring another fun project! 

Elizabeth

What I love about Winter....

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by!

In keeping with my 2015 personal crafting challenge to use up stash and enter more challenges, I have created a multi-layered, multi-component project this week.

 

The current challenge at Frilly and Funkie is the Winter Wishes challenge.  What fun!  As a resident of New England, I find that there is plenty to love about winter.  Snow is my favorite!  I love being cozy inside, and watching it fall.  I love the challenge of driving on snow covered roads in my small town.  I love sledding down my steep driveway.  I even love cleaning the snow off my car!  I made this banner for my  large vintage window to celebrate my love of snow. 

 



I started my banner by cutting flag shapes from wintry colored papers from my stash.  The blue/green N and W backgrounds are from a Tim Holtz holiday collection, and the icy blue S and O backgrounds were cut from a DCWV paper.  I used white Recollections paper for the letter layers.  I distressed all of the layers with my Tim Holtz Tonic distress tool.  I stamped the S and O layers with a Tim Holtz text stamp and Distress Ink in Weathered Wood, and then over stamped with
"second generation stamping" of Tim Holtz snowflakes in Watering Can Archival.  I embossed the N and O flags with a floral embossing folder, and dry brushed them with Iced Spruce Distress Ink. 

I inked all of the edges with the same colors of Distress Inks, and stitched the layers together with my sewing machine. I printed vintage family photos from my collection, and layered them onto mats of Distress Inked white paper with distressed edges.  I love how wintry the Iced Spruce and Weathered Wood colors are.  I added touches of Antique Linen Distress where needed as well, to add to the vintage look. 

My next step was to cut lots of different snowflakes from white paper with my Silver Bullet Pro cutter.  I chose to leave them white and snowy, adding touches of glitter here and there, and lots of vintage buttons. 

 

I used Distress Inks and Paints in the same three colors to dye seam binding to make vintage bows.  I used gesso applied with my finger to some half round gems and pearls to simulate snowballs.  I love how tiny bits of the original shimmer peek through. 

 

 

Some of the details show nicely in this photo, including the holographic glitter on the snowflakes. 

 

And one more shot of the banner hanging in place:

 

 

 

 

 

I opted to use snowy white yarn to hang my banner and to make a bow for the center.  I attached some recent snowflake experiments to the window to add to the snowy effect.  I have never taken a successful photo in this room.  I wish I knew what to do about it. 

I am entering this project in the following challenges:

Frilly and Funkie Winter Wishes

and
 Craft Hoarders Anonymous Choose Your Challenge

I chose to use Ink and Paint, Seam Binding and Yarn, Stamping, Die Cutting and Mixed Media, Distressing Tool and Embossing, and ephemera, buttons, and (altered) bling. 


I wish you all a wonderful week!

Elizabeth



New Year, New Project....

Happy New Year to All!

I am starting off 2015 with a few crafty commitments, one of which is to complete all twelve of Tim Holtz's monthly tags.  Here is my version of his January tag.

Rather than a tag, I have decided to create pieces to fit this "frame". ( Actually it's the door of a jewelry box that I picked up at the thrift store and broke down into several alterable pieces.  At some point I'll give the frame a more neutral finish, but the orange tones work with this piece, so I can put that off for this month.) 

I was intrigued by Tim's background technique, and followed his detailed tutorial quite closely, using stamped tissue paper rather than tissue wrap.  This was important to me, as my main challenge for 2015 is to make do with supplies on hand, rather than purchasing anything new.  I have plenty of stash, so the hard part of this challenge will be breaking my shopping habit. 

I used my Silver Bullet Cutter and Sure Cuts A Lot software to cut the numbers. 

 

The 15 was cut from gray cardstock.  I embossed it with the Tim Holtz Alterations folder Cracked, then dry brushed it with the Distress Paint colors I used for my background, Evergreen Bough and Mowed Lawn. I spritzed it with water and brushed on a bit of antique silver Perfect Pearls, then lightly applied black soot Distress Ink to the edges.  I backed it with black cardstock to make the number stand out, and popped it up with foam squares.

 

 

I filled the space under the arch with a quote, stamped on a wrinkle free distress background with Archival Ink Leaf Green.  I sparkled it up with a generous layer of Rock Candy Distress Stickles, before layering it with more black cardstock.  I used Distress Paints in Frayed Burlap, Gathered Twig, and Black Soot to give an aged patina to the binder clip. 

 

 

As Tim did in his inspiration, I added  Distress Stained chit chat words, a metal embellishment, and mirrored stars to complete my January 2015 framed art piece. 

 

As always, I am happy that you spent some time with me today.  I wish you all a very happy and healthy 2015!

 

Elizabeth



 



12 Tags of Christmas - Funkie Junkie Style - Week 9

Hello All!

Have you been following along, or better yet, playing along, with the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas 2014 challenge?  I am having an amazing time making tiny little art pieces for my 7 Gypsies Printer's Tray, inspired by Linda Coughlin's inspiration tags.  She started the challenge off in September with this post, which includes the easy to follow challenge guidelines.  The The Funkie Junkie Boutique is the sponsor of the challenge, with prizes for three lucky participants, and a 10 percent store discount for everyone who completes the entire challenge.  How cool is that?!

For week nine, Linda made a beautifully glitzy black and gold tag with lots of embossing. 

You can see all the details here:

For my piece, which measures 1 3/8 by 2 1/2, I chose to use a similar color scheme, vellum, and a snowflake.  And guess what?  In my recent order from the Funkie Junkie Boutique, Linda included a similar bow to the one she used on her tag!  I am super excited to have been able to incorporate it into my work!

Because of the small scale of my piece, I chose to remove some of the fibers from the loosely woven gold and cream ribbon and use them as a tie for the gold painted seam binding.

I started with a background of black cardstock, with Wendy Vecchi gold embossing paste.   On my vellum, I stamped a Tim Holtz snowflake with Distress Embossing ink, and brushed on gold Perfect Pearls.  I applied Tarnished Brass Distress Paint to the edges of both the black background and the vellum.  I used my Silver Bullet Professional cutter to cut two small snowflakes from vellum.  It's been a while since I have cut vellum, and I had forgotten how crisply it cuts.  I painted both layers of the snowflake with Tarnished Brass Distress Paint, and let them dry naturally before gluing them over the stamped snowflake.  A golden rhinestone adds an extra touch of bling.

I finished off this piece with a Chit Chat sticker, touched up with a bit more Distress Paint.  Sure am glad I have this paint, since for some reason I don't own any gold embossing powder! 
  

 

Here is how my week 9 piece looks in my tray.  It's really starting to fill up nicely, and I found a great place to display it, which I will share with you if the sun ever comes out so that I can get a decent a photo.

 



 

Thanks for stopping by today to see what I have been up to.  I have planned lots of time for crafting this weekend, so I should be all caught up by the time Linda posts her final tag on Monday. 

 

Have a wonderful weekend. Hope you all have some merry plans for celebrating the season!

 

Elizabeth







The Twelve Tags of Christmas - Funkie Junkie style Week One

Hi Everyone!

I am excited to be joining in on the fun at the Funkie Junkie Blog's 12 Tags of Christmas 2014 challenge.  I have been oohing and aahing over Linda Coughlin's creations for some time now, and have finally decided to jump in head first and submit an entry or two (or hopefully, all 12!).

Last night I decided that this 7 Gypsies printer's tray deserved to be used for a special project. 

It's going to be the perfect showcase for my attempts at Funkie Junkie style artwork. 

Here is my week one piece, which was heavily influenced by Linda's tag:

Since the largest spaces in the tray are roughly two and a half by four inches, I had to make sure that my components were suitably tiny.  I dug through my stash for appropriate stamps, and was excited to find a couple with a postage theme.  The special delivery stamp is from the Tim Holtz Apothecary set, and the postmark is from 7 Gypsies.  The music stamp is also from one of theTim Holtz Christmas sets.

All of my project components started as plain white cardstock.  I cut my shapes using my Silver Bullet Professional  digital die cutter.  I added lots of colors of Distress Inks, by stenciling, spraying and applying with a sponge applicator. I also used Distress Paints on the Christmas music tag, and Archival inks for all of the stamping.  Although it doesn't show in the photo, I applied some Clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles to the oval Noel tag.  It gives it just the right amount of vintage sparkle in real life. 

 

Printer's tray with week one added.

This fun challenge is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  I had the pleasure of placing an order with Linda earlier this year, and was totally pleased with her personal attention to my order!  She carries a wonderful selection of products, including some absolutely adorable tiny jingle bells that she featured on her week one inspiration tag.  They are at the top of the very long wish list that is always running in my head.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my project today.  I'm looking forward to spending another cozy evening in my craft room, filling up spaces in my tray with more Funkie Junkie style pieces.  Stay tuned! 

Elizabeth

Weekly Wednesday card post

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by.  Let's get straight to the cards:

 Stamping on ribbon with Archival Ink, a black "wreath" cut with my Silver Bullet Pro , some scraps, and a cute little spider with a rhinestone body.

I really like this alphabet stamp set with mixed vintage letters. 

Stamping with Archival Ink, and some scrappy layering.  

 

More Archival stamping and layering on the inside.  



The base layer of this card is a collage of scraps.  I sanded and Distress inked them to blend them a bit, then added the Tim Holtz focal stamps in Archival.  I used a black Sharpie pen to add the sketchy border.

More Tim Holtz stamps for the inside.  

 

 I just had to use more of the pink and black paper that I shared last week. 

 

More layers for the inside.



And another of the inlaid die cut cards.  I think I have this technique down now.  The paper is from a Tim Holtz collection.  Isn't it terrific? 

 

And here is that simple Tim Holtz "Merry Christmas" again.  Even if I never used the rest of the set (which of course I have!) I would have gotten my money's worth just from this one stamp!

 

 

I will have five more cards to share later in the week, so stay tuned!

 

Hope you have a happy hump day!

 

Elizabeth