It's been eons since I've participated in any challenges, so was grateful when a friend suggested that a card I'd posted to Instagram would meet the criteria for this one: Winter Blues over at the Simon Says Stamp blog.
The paper is Crate Paper, from the 6 x 6 pad, Paper Heart collection. I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder, die cuts from Crate Paper (probably one of the Maggie Holmes lines), and a Papertrey Ink sentiment stamp.
I never got around to May's tag, so wanted to jump back in for June. Check out Tim's dapper tag here. I like how the material he used, the colors, the background stamping, the die, all tied together for one cohesive design.
Mine isn't really that way, but I like it fine. I already had some images stamped onto tissue paper from months ago and had never done anything with them. Today was the day. I not only made this tag, but adhered tissue paper to a couple of others to use another time, as well as using some to make a card. I usually end up making more than just the tag each month because I get playing. It's one of the reasons I find the challenge rewarding.
I'll update this post as I make things this weekend. It is also the weekend we celebrate my daughter's birthday, plus Mother's Day, of course, so I'll be fitting in playtime wherever I am able to do so. Hope everyone is having fun!
The first thing I made, in response to a challenge over on the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog, is a card:
Next, I made a hybrid layout, using a template from Cathy Zielske also on the SCT blog:
This one was in response to the 10:00 AM Scrapbook & Cards Today challenge:
Here is my final layout of the day, inspired by Marie-Pierre Capistran's beautiful minibook project:
Today (now Sunday), I managed to make two more layouts -- yay! This one was in response to a challenge about using up chipboard frames -- had fun with this one.
This one was challenging: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 challenge from Jen Schow -- 5 pictures, 4 types of embellishments, 3 paper scraps, two different fonts of letter sticker, and 1 mixed media item used.
But after I photographed it, I didn't like how the journalling looked and I wasn't wild about the sequins or the glitter tape, either. I was working fast in response to the challenge, but I think that circumvented my usual process where I ponder for longer -- ha, ha. So, today, I did a little revamping. Take two:
Here is my April tag, inspired by Tim's (see it here.) I used a woodgrain embossing folder with Hickory Smoke distress paint and distress ink of the same color. To mimic the idea of the paper mosaic, I covered a cardboard flower with embossing paste and pressed the pieces of cut up paper onto the paste to stick them down. Once the paste dried, I added Glossy Accents over the pieces of paper to make them shiny. I painted the flower with pale pink matte craft paint. I wanted to go with a bright color palette, as it will be used for a birthday tag; I chose colors that would complement the ones in the tiny pieces of paper.
I also wanted to say a giant thank you to Tim & Mario, and Simon Says Stamp for the generous gift certificate -- I was lucky enough to be one of the winners from March on Tim's blog. I, of course, immediately "invested" in more Ranger goodies -- a bottle of distress paint, a four pack of mini distress inks, an embossing folder, and a package of the round distress foam sponges.
I decided to make a another run at Tim Holtz's March tag and here is the result:
I had made some additional top layers when I made the first tag. This one, with the butterfly motif, is closer to Tim's tag. My top layer is again Core'dinations cardstock instead of corrugated cardboard (since I was using punches instead of dies) and this time I sanded the embossed design and then inked over it. The bottom layer is texture paste heat embossed with pink embossing powder and I added Distress paint. The metal flowers were painted with Distress paint and topped with Distress Stickles.
Happy WOYWW to all who are visiting virtually today! Visit Julia's blog for more on this lovely Wednesday party.
Here is my table as it stands at bedtime Tuesday night. I took a wide shot and you can see all my mess. Could you avert your eyes from the messiest bits and look just at the nicer parts? Thanks! :-)
I bought one of the Tim Holtz mixed media die sets and am playing around with them. I plan to use these pieces on a layout soon.
Here's a bird's eye view of the table:
My previous blog post shows my first March tag based on TH's inspiration, following his example more closely. But I made some extra tag toppers in the process, including the butterfly version (the closest I could match with punches instead of the Bigz die) and figured I'd go ahead and make another tag.
Tim Holtz is continuing the "remix" theme by combining techniques from two prior tags to inspire a new one. While I never have all of the products used in any given month, this time around I treated myself to the mixed media dies and Distress crayons used on the March tag.
I don't have the butterfly die, so used floral dies in its stead to make the cutouts. Thinlet dies don't cut through thick material like corrugated cardboard, so I used woodgrain embossed Core'dinations cardstock instead. I used the back side of the cardstock so I'd have a solid color. I used a TH stencil to make the speckles with distress ink and added some Tarnished Brass distress spray stain.
I'm pleased with how it came out. :)
My second, and final, layout for Shimelle's weekend of challenges (at least for now) is this layout below. Shimelle suggested choosing one or more elements from the comments to her final challenge post. Someone mentioned chevrons, and my layout has chevron paper, so I say it counts! In full disclosure, this was just the next thing I wanted to scrapbook and was hoping something I'd chosen would fit -- ha, ha. Yes, this does probably make me a giant cheater-pants. So be it. :)
I had a lot of photos I wanted to use, so the design of this two page spread really began with that choice. Then I had the ever-popular two vertical, one horizontal photo situation and some ephemera I wanted to use. I'm most pleased with my final decision, which was to add multi-colored jewels as embellishments. They look the most like glass of anything I have and really add a lot of visual interest, but not, I feel, in an overwhelming fashion.
[Editor's note: After taking the picture, I noticed an extra word in the journaling and printed the whole thing out again and readhered everything. I tried repairing it first, but knew it would bug the heck out of me if I left it.]
Shimelle is sponsoring a weekend of scrapbooking challenges over at her blog and the first one, as a warm-up, was to choose one of the following: selfies, hearts, mixing old with new, monochromatic, or maps and globes. This layout is monochromatic, uses a selfie, and even has a map-themed brad, so it definitely hits the mark, I think.
This layout may not be fancy, but I'm pleased with it and glad to have made it. :)
This is what I was inspired to make, based on Tim Holtz's inspiration. This year he is revisiting techniques from prior years and combining them. One technique was inking up a stencil with distress ink, misting with water, and then using the stencil to create a "print" on a tag. I used a stencil with squares and lines, which shows up best on the middle of the tag. The other technique was using molding paste (a/k/a texture paste) through a stencil, adding embossing powder atop the paste, and using the heat tool to melt the embossing powder once the paste is dry. Tim mentioned that if you heat it too soon, the paste will bubble. You can tell that I was too impatient -- my paste did, indeed, bubble. I added my tag to the front of a card and will use it as a birthday card for a friend.
Please excuse the all-green-all-the-time theme of my blog. This is the default free theme; I stopped paying for Typepad after 14 years because I wasn't using it enough. I post more often over on Instagram -- my account name is BookwormLD.
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