Lens

12 Tags of 2012: May

This is my "take" on Tim Holtz's May tag, which you can see here. I had to do a lot of improvising and substituting -- I think that's always going to be part of the process!

Thanks for visiting.

~ Laura

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 154 (WOYWW)

Good morning, everyone! If you'd like to play along with show-your-crafty-space-to-other-crafty-folk, be sure to visit Stamping Ground (once you've sufficiently perused this post of course -- ha,ha.) 

Here is the state of entropy I left my desk in last evening before going to sleep. Here's what's "new" -- sharp eyes will see a new chart on the wall to the left for keeping track of which distress markers have come to live with me so far and will also see the markers themselves in the green metal holder in the upper right corner of the table. I've got a few teeny tiny wood embellishments on the table that I've misted and/or stamped on and a couple of canvas ATC blanks that I'm going to use on layouts or to die cut embellishments from. I picked up a couple of new rolls of washi tape (trying not to go too crazy, but these are so pretty!) (All photos can be seen larger if clicked upon.)

I couldn't get myself motivated to start a layout, so decided I'd give Tim Holtz's May tag a go. I had to do a lot of substituting (which I'd feel more guilty about except that Ranger and TH get a steady amount of my crafting $ over the year.) I think I still want to do some inking over the top and find something for the ribbon trim, but I'm basically done. 

Since I don't have the melting pot or UTEE, I tried two different methods of emulating the faux porcelain flowers. The flower that appears slightly darker here I smushed into my Versamark ink pad and used regular embossing powder and a heat gun on. The other two that appear lighter, I coated liberally with Glossy Accents. (What did I ever do before I had GA? Too scary to contemplate.) I think I prefer the latter, but having the two shades is a nice little bit of contrast.

I've probably babbled a bit too much here this morning! I need to get ready for work and get this posted! Thanks for visiting and I wish you a very happy and creative Wednesday.

~ Laura

P.S. Administrative note: I've turned off the feature that requires the funky words to be typed in (after a WOYWWer said she had to try three times to comment) and instead have opted for moderating the comments. I hate to have to do that, but I was having a problem with rude spam comments on my posts.

WOYWW #147 | What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

I think this will be my first time participating in the weekly round-up of creative spaces this month. Visit Julia's blog to see what's on her desk and to find the link list of all the other folks as well. 

My usual table -- and I swear I didn't lay everything out so precisely for the picture -- I just like to see what's next at a glance as a motivator. One change is that the long wooden bowl just to the right of the teal stamp tin now holds things like die cuts and chipboard decorations. I decided I wasn't using the stuff up and needed it in front of me (instead of in a drawer.) 

Two cards in progress -- am sending them to family as Easter cards. Love the look of the Martha Stewart pearl paint used with the white embossed flowers. I'll definitely do that again. :)

This is a page from my version of Project Life. I wanted to do a 52 week project with absolutely no stress and this is it. Some weeks it looks a bit more pulled together than others. 

This pile includes a tag and card to be mailed to a friend, some butterflies stamped on patterned paper to be cut out, and a few things I'm just playing around with. 

Hope your Wednesday is happy. Thanks so much for visiting, especially as I'm sure I'll be near the end of a very long list by the time I get this posted!

~ Laura 

A Tag with Textures

This is a tag I made inspired by a project from May Flaum's Field Guide class, which is still going on. I've definitely tried things I've never tried before in this class and as always, being in a class keeps creativity at the forefront of my mind and helps me make more stuff. :) 

For this tag, I used clear embossing powder to make the quote die cut shiny (doesn't really show in the picture) and inked over the texture from an embossing folder for the background. I also "painted" on some Perfect Pearls mist, which I mostly like. I might've preferred the smoother, sheer look of misting it . . . 

12 Tags of 2012: February

 

 

Inspired by Tim Holtz's tag on his blog; used what I had (as always!)

Birthday Tag & 2 Valentines

I signed up for the (free) Creative Jump Start Summit 2012 and Dina Wakely's video was what gave me the impetus to make this tag.  I pulled a bunch of scraps from my scrap bowl and adhered them to a discarded tag and now I have a gift tag for my husband's birthday. :)  [From the top down, the papers are: Tim Holtz, Basic Grey (Kioshi), Studio Calico, American Crafts cardstock, Studio Calico, American Crafts (Merrymint), and Imaginisce (Scooter's Vacation).  The brads and button are American Crafts and the sentiments are from Hero Arts (Birthday Messages; CL139)]

Next up are some Valentines!  What can I say -- Hero Arts' challenges for the month revolve around a particular color scheme and lovey-dovey cards. There are two pictures for each card, since the grey cardstock behind the scalloped edge didn't show when the card was standing up.   

The birds on both cards and the sentiment from the second are from "Hugs and Kisses Birds"(Hero Arts CG155).  The background pattern was stamped with the Flower Dot Pattern stamp (Hero Arts CG330.) The inks used were my trusty Jet Black Archival Ink (Ranger) and chalk ink (Tsukineko.) The edge punch is Apron Lace (Fiskars.) I die cut the bracket shapes with my (new -- woo hoo!) Nestabilities dies.  

12 Tags of Christmas 2011: Day Twelve

This is my tag #12 -- here is Tim's.  I substituted tissue tape for the tissue paper and used diluted acrylic paint in place of the picket fence distress stain.  I used Frosted Lace Stickles in place of Rock Candy Stickles.  Then I hit a creative wall.  I decided to wait to finish the tag until today, as I really didn't know where to go next, given my lack of anything else to decorate the tag.  I decided to emboss the tag with the snowflake texture fade, and ink the raised snowflakes to make them stand out.  Then I added silver Stickles to their centers and added the snowflake ornament to the top.  I really like how it turned out.  

12 Tags of Christmas 2011: Day Eleven

Tim's tag #11 featured shrink plastic and UTEE in a melting pot, none of which I had, so I substituted this reindeer ornament in place of the holly leaves.  I colored it with red and green alcohol inks mixed together, so it's a bit of an odd brown, but I think it's sufficient.  :)  The stamping and the background inking was done on glossy cardstock, which gives it a nice clean look.  

12 Tags of Christmas 2011: Day Ten

This was a time-consuming tag to make, but I really like the results.  Check out Tim Holtz's version (and the inspiration for mine, obviously), here.  I had the patterned paper for the Santa images, some fragments left from last year (not the faceted ones, but these are fine) and picked up some of the foil tape at Michael's. It's a little pricey, but I had a coupon. :)  I substituted music patterned paper for the stamped image Tim used (but I definitely want to get that stamp sometime.)

12 Tags of Christmas 2011: Day Nine

It's day nine and apparently I've gone off the rails.  hahahahahahahaha  There is a logic to this tag, which I'll explain in a moment.  First, go here to check out Tim's tag.  He used a Hero Arts background stamp (as did I).  He used two of the limited edition distress inks, which I substituted for with Pine Needles and Barn Door.  Then he added the word Peace with die cut letters (I substituted the word cut from one of his papers), and then added a die cut candle adorned with greenery.  Here's where I went renegade.  I added a clock face cut from one of Tim's papers and added Glossy Accents, mainly because it matched the clocks on the background.  Then I was at a loss. . . but then my theme became analog technology!  I added the phone and the cassette tape (Cosmo Cricket chipboard) and distressed them with Walnut Stain ink.