Lens

October Tag, plus another made just from random stuff on my table

I'm playing along with Tim Holtz's monthly tag challenge and above is a glimpse of his tag. 

I don't have any of the new dimensional Halloween dies . . . indeed, I don't really have any dies that are large enough to be the focal point of a tag (must remedy this), so I improvised. I did have a TH holiday paper stack, one of his splatter stencils (similar to the one he used, but not the same one), and used one of his clear Halloween stamps for my jaunty skeleton. I heat embossed with white, added blue gems for eyes, and stamped & cut out a top hat from another TH stamp to dress him up a bit. The ribbon is Target Dollar spot (I think), the bats are Crate Paper After Dark confetti, and the Wicked sticker is from My Mind's Eye. 

I was in a decluttering mood and while I was sorting through a bunch of random stuff in my die cut bowl, I decided to make a tag. The background is from some Maggie Holmes packaging; I covered it with clear gesso so I could add mist to it . . . not completely in love with the result, but it's ok. 

 

A Halloween card & a challenge

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge this month is to make a project based upon words found in this word search. Fun! My card below has: a bat, a moon, a pumpkin, a witch, the color black, and the color purple. 

WOYWW 282: A layout in progress & a home decor item

Happy WOYWW, everyone! To find out more about this international party, visit Julia at her blog.

I've got a layout in progress in the middle of the table (seen below in closer detail). Around the left side of the table are the omnipresent paper trimmer and a new package of blank 4 x 6 Project Life cards (which I plan to use both in PL and in my December Daily album.) The rest of the loose items are for my Project Life album -- cards, stickers, etc. Next year I think I'm going to break down and buy an actual core kit, rather than trim down pieces of patterned paper to make my own. It's probably more economical, but it's time consuming.

The purple bit in the middle of the page is the side of the bag from the jewelry store, and I thought it would serve well as the title of the page. It's large, so the page design is a bit over-crowded, but I like it well enough.

I bought the paper mache witch's hat at Michael's and decorated it. It was time-consuming, but easy and I'm really pleased with it. I misted some random flowers with black Dylusions mist and others with the last drops of my orange Glimmer Mist. The leaves were die cut from glitter paper and book paper; the latter were inked with distress inks.

Sorry I'm long-winded! Happy Wednesday and happy Halloween to those who celebrate. We're hoping for no rain and absolutely no snow Friday evening. Eek!

~ Laura

Happy Halloween and Happy WOYWW #178

It's Halloween today in the U.S. My husband and I weren't really Halloween people before we had our daughter, but it's fun now. We live in a small town, so the people whose houses we visit are our friends, family, and neighbors. Other than being chilly and drizzly, it was a lovely evening. We walked around town with kidlet's classmate, who was dressed as Hedwig the owl. Here's my sweet girl in her Hermione costume:


Not much new on the desk this week. Between a busy weekend and the anxiety of not knowing what Hurricane Sandy would bring (thankfully, just high winds here), I haven't been up to much.
 
I still have bits and pieces of that October Afternoon collection on the table -- made another card and am making a few journaling cards. 

And, finally, some new washi tape for my December album! :)


 
For any visitors who aren't WOYWWers, I invite you to check out Stamping Ground, the hosting blog, to find out more!

Take care and have a good week!

~ Laura

WOYWW #177 | What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! Won't you join the WOYWW party by linking up at party headquarters, Stamping Ground, and then being sociable by visiting others' workspaces virtually?

A view of the desk, taken Tuesday night. Made a simple card with scraps left over from recent scrapbook pages. 

A Halloween card:


And another:

The birthday card I just finished -- doesn't get much easier than this! :)

And a layout with things I'd written down in a notebook . . . not really profound, just little snippets of things: 

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura

TH 12 Tags of 2012: October

Tim Holtz's inspiration tag for October features tissue paper, paint, inking, die-cutting, and custom-made glitter. As always, I interpret the project using what I have on hand! 

I made two tags. The one on the right more closely resembles the inspiration tag and the one on the left went in a slightly different direction. 

I didn't have the TH tissue paper, so I stamped the background with a text stamp and used white tissue paper. I didn't have the purple and orange paint dabbers, so used mists instead and then distress inked over it a bit. The "boo" letters are Thickers. The spiderweb stamp is TH, as is the black cat. I stamped the cat with archival ink -- I had to stamp it quite a few times to get it to show up on top of all the misting. I outlined it and filled it in with Black Diamond Stickles, added rhinestone eyes to the cat and finished up the tag with some Bazzill ribbon on the top. 

On this tag I used alternating trips of TH tissue tape and inked over it with distress inks. The color is very subtle. I used Thickers for the "31," added a focal point piece cut from TH seasonal paper mounted on dimensional adhesive, then topped the tag once again with Bazzill ribbon. 

Thanks for visiting! 

~ Laura

Halloween bookmarks

I had one more burst of enthusiasm for Halloween crafting and decided to make Halloween bookmarks to go in little sandwich bags with the candy.  Gabi helped me make the black ones -- it was hard to get a two person rhythm going where the Versamark didn't dry before I could emboss it -- but it was fun anyway. Then she went outside to play and I made the ones stamped on white.  The stamps are Tim Holtz and the inks are Distress inks: Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint, and Dusty Concord.

Happy Halloween frame

I painted an inexpensive frame from Michael's with Martha Stewart High Gloss Beetle Black acrylic paint.  I stamped and white-embossed Tim Holtz stamps on black cardstock.  Then I added the ribbon and Recollections stickers, both of which I've had kicking around for two years or so.  I like it and it's nice to use up things, too. ;-)

~ Laura

One of my favorite Halloween pictures

 

Halloween Cards

Some folks might say that taking three days to finish five relatively simple Halloween cards is poky.  I say I'm deliberate.  *grin*  Actually, it only took three days because I wanted to make sure the ink was dry and the Stickles glitter glue was dry.

I made five essentially identical cards.  The only variation is in the square of patterned paper that shows in the square on the front -- I cut squares from one sheet of paper, so different elements show on each.

The front:

 

The inside:

 

Supplies: Diecuts with a View A2 photo cards; K & Company Halloween Whimsy paper; Martha Stewart jack-o-lantern double craft punch; Inkadinkado All Hallow's Eve/Halloween stamps; Tsukineko Brilliance Archival Pigment Ink Pad in Moonlight White; Stickles (Ranger) in Black Diamond and Orange Peel