NJP Originals Designs

SteamPunk Tag

2010-12-04T09:32:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone and Happy Holidays!!
I have been absent for a while now and I now want to try and get back into the swing of things again. The "mojo" is starting to come back and I have the wanting to create again. I welcome each and everyone of you to stop by often as I'm going to try and do some more postings this month.

Today I have for your enjoyment (I hope) I tag I made for a dear friend. I was going to do this for a monthly swap with Circle of Friends, but due to circumstances I wasn't able to join the fun. I had this idea swimming in my head and one morning I woke up and just know how I wanted it to look and this is what I ended up with.

SteamPunk to means industrial, metal and funky, I sure hope I got some of that with this tag.
I started with my favorite tag and using the Timeworks masks from Tim Holtz and Tea Dyed Distressed ink I made my background using a couple of the masks. I then, very lightly used Tea Dyed and Antique Linen Distressed inks and went over the whole tag. Then using the building stamp from Tim Holtz set "RockStar" I stamped in a couple of building using a black ink. Using a flourish stamp I have and some Aged Mahogany Distressed ink I stamped around the edges. I added a few gears,a spinner and the metal tag, all from Tim's idea-ology line of products. The nut that I added in the lower right corner came from Home Depot and I colored it using a few different colors of Alcohol inks to make it look aged and a bit rusty.

Hope you have enjoyed todays tag. Please stop by and leave a message anytime.

Hugs to all - Nancy

One Powerful Hour Challenge - Nursery Rhymes

2010-09-30T00:01:00.009-04:00

This week at One Powerful Hour I have chosen the theme of Nursery Rhymes and I have chosen
Puss N' Boots and I have made my project on a 5" x 5" flat canvas.

For the background I painted the whole piece in a Navy Blue, but I really did it hap hazard so that the whole thing isn't really covered. I then added some Gold paint and rubbed some of that off to give it more of a worn look. The Puss N' Boots and Castle images are from a Collage sheets by Altered Pages. I generated the Peacock, fish and words from my computer. I applied everything to the canvas with Mog Pog and once that was dry I added glitter and buttons for extra shine and texture. I hope you enjoyed my piece and that it inspired you to come up with your favorite Nursery Rhyme.

On another note this will be my last posting with One Powerful Hour for a while, it's time to move on to some other projects I would like to work on. I would like to thank you all for joining with us on my challenges I have really enjoyed the experience and I hope you have also. I want to thank Caroline for giving me the chance to work with her - Caroline your work is really wonderful, you are a very talented artist and I wish you all the best in your future. I know we will keep in touch!! Continue to always be creative.

Birthday Card

2010-08-07T09:41:00.000-04:00

I have made another Birthday card for one of my friends at work, July and August are busy months for birthdays in our department. This one was for Debbie and she is a really fun and bubbly lady so I though of "Party Girl" and went from there.

I went looking through my many many scraps, you know you can't throw those big pieces of paper away, and finally came up with the light lavender background and then I saw the beautiful Japanese print and just knew they would work together. The images - the cut out girl, the birthday hat and the Happy Birthday - are all from Altered Pages, my favorite collage sheet web site. Once I attached the background to the card I used Distressed Ink in Victorian Violet (it's really lite, but worked well here, I also used a bit of Concord for a bit more color. I added two torn pieces for the printed paper at put them to opposite corners, I then attached the girl with pop dots to add a little dimension to the card. The fabric flowers are from DaisyD, yep I have had those around for a while - and I put a little Diamond Glaze on the to look like dew drops. Finished off with the Tiny Letters from Cosmo Cricket, a bit of Stickles on the hat and a glitter flourish.

By the way - Debbie just loved the card!!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope I have been able to inspire you to be a little creative.

OPH Favorite Flower Challenge

2010-07-29T00:01:00.003-04:00

This week at One Powerful Hour I have chosen the theme of "My Favorite Flower". I seem to almost always have a flower somewhere in all of my designs since I can't have them in the house. I have allergies to flowers and grass so I like to create pretty flowers that I can have around the house all the time. For this challenge I have chosen my favorite flower - the Tulip. I hope you will come and join us at OPH for this fun project and I can't wait to see your favorite flowers!!

For this project I have selected a tag and embossed it with my Cuttlebug using a leaf embossing folder. Using a decorative scissors I cut the bottom of the tag for a bit of a lacy look. I then used Distress inks in Bundled Sage, Rusty Hinge and Barn Door and applied these all over the background of the tag, using the green to bring out the leaves.

I cut out Tulips for some paper I had from K & Company and added Stickles in Fruit Punch to all the edges of the flowers. I attached them to the tag with pop dots to give a bit of dimension to the project. Using my trusty Dymo Label maker I created the Tulip sticker. I then added a few words on my feelings for the flowers and a couple of buttons. To finish off I added the blue and red ribbons.

Circle Of Friends 2010 Journal Rotation

2010-07-25T14:22:00.000-04:00

I have another journal to share with everyone - I did this one in June and I ended up really liking the way it turned out. This one was for Cheryl's Journal and there wasn't really a theme. There were a number of sayings in a little envelope and you had to pick one of them, or use one of your own, and create a page from that. The saying I picked was "The sound of her wings".

Front

I knew I had a die to cut out the wings, so I cut them from embossed Grungeboard and painted them gold. I stamped the image on velum as I wanted some transparency in the piece. The background paper is an artist paper from Summerset Studio - I love that there is a picture of a girl in the background and lines of poetry. I added some vintage sheet music and stamped a few notes. I also added "Can you hear the music?" I added amber beads at the top for added texture

Back

On the back of the page I chose to add pictures of angels with wings and the caption of "Listen to the music." With different sized circle stamps I made some interesting patterns in two of the corners and added some swirls of crystals that were an amber color.

Birthday Card

2010-07-16T18:42:00.000-04:00

Monday afternoon I found out that I needed a birthday card for a friend at work on Wed. Well I came home with no idea of what I was going to do so I started looking through some of my papers to see if something would spike my interest. I found this pretty bright stripe that reminded me of summer.

I cut the paper on the diagonal for a bit more interest in the background and then I wondered what I could put on the front. I know that Tammy likes flowers so I started out with the largest flower, lite orange and pink (that's how I came up with the pink center) both from Heidi Swapp. When I saw that one lonely flower on the paper I knew I had to find something else to go with it, so I started going through this little basket of flower pieces that I have. I found the orange flower which was a little smaller and then the cream one that I thought would work well for the center. I added the pink stripe enter - it's a padded center from Heidi Swap that I have had for a very long time. I added the bright jewels to the center for more dimension and color.
Using a Terra Cotta ink I stamped the Happy Birthday and the flourishes around the card. All and all I'm pretty happy with the final results and Tammy and the other ladies at work really liked it a lot.

Circle Of Friends 2010 Journal Rotation

2010-07-14T05:47:00.000-04:00

Last month I had Caroline's Journal and completed this piece for her. For this Journal you had your choice of two templates for making a castle and two subjects to use - Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. She had included many collage images for you to choose from and this is what I came up with.

I chose this castle, it just seemed to speak to me, and I used the Cinderlla theme. I cut my castle from Grunge Paper and I had this glitter embossed paper that seemd to work perfectly for this project. I used Distressed Inks on all of the edges in Rusty Hindge and Wild Honey to give a little extra depth to the paper. After I attached the image I coated it with Rock Candy Distress Paint to give it that old crackle look. I have also used Distressed Stickles on parts of the castle. You have to have a bit of sparkle in your work!! I then added ribbon, beads and flowers to the project.

I really enjoyed creating this piece for Caroline and I believe it has finally started me back on the creative road. I will thank Caroline for that and I really hope you like your page.

Circle Of Friends April ATC Swap

2010-04-29T18:12:00.001-04:00

For the month of April at The Circle of Friends we were give the theme of "Dance" I found this great image on one of my Altered Pages collage sheets and thought it fit the bill perfectly. It reminded me of a beautiful flowing waltz.

For the background I once again went to my trusty Alcohol inks - this time using Latte, Shell Pink and Raspberry. I used this on Glossy Photo paper and I made this by placing a dot of each color on my applicator and doing a crisscross pattern on a larger piece of the paper. I then cut it down into the ATC's. Each one is a bit different, but all have the same colors. for the image I cut it out and then coated it with Crackle Paint in Rock Candy. It comes out clear, but with really nice crackles on it. Once this was dry I attached it to the card and place a couple of crystals on the image. I added a ribbon flower, a colored bead and the work Waltz on the side.

One Powerful Hour Challenge - Military Women

2010-04-22T00:01:00.004-04:00

This week at One Powerful Hour I have chosen the theme of "Military Women". I found this wonderful image from Altered Pages and I just had to find a way to display it and honor all our Military Women that help to protect our country. The image came from a sheet called American Beauties #500 and my image was printed on a transpariency.

For this project I have used a 5 x 7 canvas and come to find out this ended up being a very challenging surface for me to work with. I had a lot of problems with some of the inks drying. I started by using H2O's in blues and painting the whole surface, I let that dry and then painted some white to just add the look of clouds - I don't think that worked very well. I used some Modeling paste to create the stars and I had also used it to do some designs on the lower edge of the canvas, but ended up not liking that so I scraped it off which left some interesting white spaces on the canvas. I then used Adirondack ink in Bottle and stamped flourishes all over the edges. Now this looks good, but this is what I have has so much trouble with drying. I've heated it, blotted with paper towels and it's still not as dry as it could be. I finally just went ahead and added everything to create my finished piece. To the stars at the top I have added Stickles glitter in red, blue and gold. The hat, medal and insigna are from K & Company. I have added shading to them by using Distressed Ink in Wild Honey.

COF 2010 Round Robin Journal

2010-04-18T14:06:00.000-04:00

The Circle of Friends is once again doing a Journal Round Robin with I think nine of the ladies. This year I have chosen the Theme of "Circus/Clown". Because I was running late to get my journal on it's way I wasn't able to get a page done on the inside, but I did get the cover done. I have used a Grungeboard book page for the cover and I covered it with an orangish paper. To that I added some Circus stamps from Tim Holtz. The letters for the title are from Cosmo Cricket. I can't wait to see all the wonderful pages that everyone will add to my book.

One Powerful Hour Challenge - Patchwork

2010-04-15T11:32:00.001-04:00

This week at OPH the challenge is "Patchwork" and Peggy has done a beautiful piece to give us all inspiration. My piece is one that I did to support Breast Cancer.

This is a piece I did for a friend, it is made from all different sized pieces of GrungeBoard. Some I stamped on and some I just embossed and then added either ink or paint. I even did a bit of stitching on some of the squares. I added the pink ribbon using a heart shaped brad. Once I had all the pieces decorated I glued them to a heavy card stock. The size of this is about 4" x 4".

Thanks for stopping by for a look
Hugs,
Nancy

Birthday Card for Kevin

2010-04-04T11:18:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't spent much time here adding some of my projects so I am going to do a little catch up this week. This is the card that I made for Kevin's birthday earlier this month.

To make the background I used pieces of old dictionary pages and glued them to my cardstock. I then used Distressed Inks in Tea Dyed and Antique Linen and applied them all over the page. Once that was dried I used Distressed Crackle Paint in Rock Candy painted over the whole card - I wanted a vintage cracked look and that's pretty much what I ended up with. The image came from Altered Pages and I paired that with a gold digital frame - I set that all on the red cardstock as I thought that would really pop against all the browns. I also added a bit of red at the top and bottom of the card. The letters are chipboard from Cosmo Cricket.

I have to say I like the way this came out, and Kevin was very happy with it!!

One Powerful Hour Challenge - Easter Tag

2010-03-25T00:01:00.001-04:00

This week I am the designer for the Challenge at One Powerful Hour and I have Chosen Vintage Easter. There are so many wonderful vintages out there for Easter I just had to use at least one of them. I have used an image from Altered Pages from a sheet called Easter Greeting #711.

For the base tag I used some of the new Distressed Ink colors - Wild Honey, Tumbled Glass and Victorian Velvet. I applied the Wild Honey all over leaving a few bare sections and filled them in with the other two colors. I then used Walnut Stain and stamped my Dragon Flies randomly over the tag. Once that was dry I applied Distressed Crackle paint in Rock Candy - you can't tell from the picture the the background is shinny and has lite crackling throughout. I let that dry overnight. For the metal flower I used Alcohol Ink in Raspberry and Bottle to color the flower and the leaves, I then attached them to the top of the tag. I cut out my image and used Stickles in Picket Fence for the Bunny, Yellow for the flowers and Gold for the designs in the egg. In person the tag is very sparkly and that's just what I wanted.

February 2010 COF Swap

2010-03-08T11:09:00.000-05:00

For February we were to make an ATC using the theme "Childhood Memories". As a little girl I was always out riding my bike so when I saw this vintage image of bike riding I just had to use it.

For the background I used my Cuttlebug and the Steel Plate embossing folder. Once it was embossed I rubbed several colors of Distressed in over the pattern to bring it out, The Image is from Altered Pages and I attached it to the background, then I created the bottle cap image. To make the bottle cap purple I used Alcohol ink in Raspberry. I added the picture and then filled the cap with Diamond Glaze. I know it's hard to see it here, but it does look much better in person. To balance out the little picture I added beads to the top corner and the opposite lower corner. I hope everyone likes their card.

Thanks for stopping by for a quick like at my latest work. I now off to get a birthday card done for my hubby - his birthday is Wed - yes I know I'm cutting this really close. LOL!!! Have a great day all.

Valentine Card For A Friend

2010-02-16T10:45:00.003-05:00

A friend asked me to make a Valentine for her Mom and this is the card that I came up with.

I used two different pink patterned papers and for the center background I used Alcohol Inks in Raspberry, Shell Pink and Pink Sherbet. I placed a drop of each color on my felt applicator and on Photo paper I kind of

swirled it down the paper. I came out with this great curvy background and I thought it worked well with the whole nature of the card.

The image is from Altered Pages, I cut it out and placed it on the background paper using foam dots to give a bit of a raised look. I added the pearls and small hearts to finish the Valentine theme. There is also Distressed Stickles on the little hearts for that touch of sparkle!!

OWOH - And We Have A Winner

2010-02-16T10:31:00.003-05:00

I randomly picked number 67 and my congratulations go to Melissa Speegle as she was number 67 on my blog giveaway.

I want to thank everyone that visited my blog during this wonderful Magic Carpet Ride and I really hope you will be journeying back now and then to see what I am up to.

Again Congratulations to Melissa and please feel free to stop by her blog at:

http://korbengrey.blogspot.com/

Have a wonderful day everyone and thanks for stopping by.

Hugs
Nancy

One Powerful Hour Challenge - Pink & Brown

2010-01-28T00:01:00.000-05:00

This week for One Powerful Hour I have chosen the theme of Pink & Brown. Not long ago a friend of mine sat down with me and we had a really good talk about a lot of different things, but things that were really important to both of us. For her kindness I created this card just to let her know how much it really meant to me. Thanks "T"

I love pink and brown together so that's were I started with this card. The base of the card is a brown cardstock and then I added the pink and brown background. On a cream paper I stamped the Thank You in a Chocolate ink. The glitzy accents started out as silver and I added Alcohol Ink in Shell Pink until I got a nice pink color to them. I know it's hard to see it here, but in person you can really tell they are pink. I added the frosted flower to complete the look.

Thanks for stopping by this week and I hope you'll join us at One Powerful Hour and show us your best Pink and Brown creation.

One World One Heart

2010-01-25T00:01:00.004-05:00

I want to welcome you to my blog and to the One World One Heart Blog Event. Please pick up your coffee or tea, have a seat on the magic carpet and enjoy your journey. I know your going to see lots of wonderful art work along the way. Please feel free to have a look around my blog to see some of the art projects I have been working on.

Last year I stumbled onto the One World One Heart site while blog surfing and was startled by all the blog sites that you could visit. I started my way down the list and was amazed at all the wonderful artists out there that wanted to share in this event. This year I wanted to share too, so I have created this little plaque as a token of my friendship to one lucky person.

This plaque is made from a base of a 6 x 6 Grungebook from Tim Holtz. I have covered it with a pastel stripe paper from Basic Grey and added many of my favorite things - the phrase is done with my Dymo "Friendships bring the world closer together". I thought that said a lot and gives meaning to what we are doing with this event. My bird is painted with Crackle paint and then covered with Distressed Stickles - he's really pretty in person. This images are from Altered Pages and I have added swirls of bling for my accents. Again thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my give-a-way.

If you would like to be part of my give-a-way you need to leave a comment and it needs to include your e-mail address so that if you should be the winner I can contact you to get your mailing address. This give-a-way will be open to all bloggers from today, January 25th, until noon (12:00 PM) on February 15th. I will then draw a winner and post it to my blog later that afternoon. As soon and the winner responds I will get your package out to you ASAP!!

I hope you have enjoyed your stay here and that you'll return often to see what I may be up to with my art. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day filled with art.

One Power Hour Challenge

2010-01-21T00:01:00.001-05:00

This week at OPH I have selected the theme of "Congratulations" My husbands niece graduated and received her MBA in November and this is a plaque I made for her. Please join us in this weeks journey and congratulate someone special in your life.

My plaque starts with a base of Grungeboard taken from a Grungeboard book, I love the shape of the pages in this book. I glued background paper to the Grungeboard and then added Distressed Inks in Tea Dyed and Vintage Photo for a more aged look. The stamp and the image are both from Tim Holtz and they fit perfectly for the person this was going to. The Congratulations is done with my Dymo Labeler. I added the flowers, leaves, ticket message and bling to finish everything off.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll join us in the fun this week.

One Powerful Hour Challenge Friendship

2010-01-18T08:57:00.007-05:00

This week at One Powerful Hour the challenge is "Friendship". This is the tag that I have made for the theme.

The image I used is from Altered Pages "Bits and Pieces III", I sized it to fit my tag and then covered it with Rock Candy Crackle Paint from TimHoltz - it gives it a really nice vintage look. For the base of the tag I used Distressed Ink in Faded Jeans and Shabby Shutters. I took the two ink pads and pressed them on my craft sheet a couple of time and then sprayed them with water. I then placed the tag on top of that and then carefully removed stamp around the edges in Faded Jeans. I attached the image and applied a bit of ribbon on the top and bottom edges of the image. I added a little bling using Dew Drops, printed out Best Friends using my Dymo Labeler and finished off with the ribbons.

GrundgeBoard Plaque

2010-01-17T11:39:00.004-05:00

This is a plaque I created for a friend to let her now just how important our friendship really is.

The base of the projects is a page from a GrundBoard book from Tim Holtz - I love the shape of this book and I will be using it for many different projects. For the background I glued on sheet music paper and then added Distressed inks in Antique Linen and Tea Dyed for a more aged look. I sanded all the edges and applied Stained Walnut for a bit more color. Using a flourish stamp and Distressed Embossing powder, both from Tim, I embossed two of the corners. I added the word tickets to which I added a bit of Distressed Tea Dyed ink. I found this picture on line so I don't know it's origin, but I printed it on Sticky Canvas from and added a bit of blue around the edges. I added the flowers and bling to finish off the project.

Thanks for stopping by to have a look and don't forget to come back January 25 for the One Heart One World Give-A-Way. I'm working on my give a way as we speak!! LOL

For more info see my sidebar.

Advent ATC's Day Five

2009-12-05T00:01:00.001-05:00

This is the ATC that I did for Day 5

and this is the one I got from Dawn.

Christmas Card 2009

2009-12-04T05:17:00.004-05:00

Well, I have started doing a few cards for the holiday season and I thought I would put one up this morning before I left for work. Working ten hour days just leaves me drained at the end of the day and since I have a few minutes now before I leave for work I thought I would share one of the cards I did using paper from Graphic 45.

This picture came from one of the Frames on the Christmas Past Frame sheet. I know it's hard to tell, but I used Rock Candy Crackle Paint over the whole picture - it gives it a kind of shinny and crackle vintage look that I really like. I placed that on a green cardstock that has a bit of a stripe in it. I added the lace and then on top of that I used Glitz Stickles in Champagne. I

added the red and gold ribbon to the top and bottom and to finish off I put on the greeting. I am really happy with the way this card turned out.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I have passed on a bit of inspiration to you this morning. Have a great day!!

Advent ATC's Day Four

2009-12-04T00:01:00.001-05:00

Here is the Advent ATC I made for Day Four

This is the card that I got from Cheryl

Advent ATC's Day Three

2009-12-03T00:01:00.001-05:00

This is the Day Three ATC that I made and

here is the Day Three that I received from Andrea

One Hour Of Power Challenge - Wishes

2009-12-03T00:00:00.000-05:00

This week at OPH I have set the theme as "Wishes" and I have made an ATC called "Wish". To me the image looks like she is wishing for something as she overlooks the sea. The W is made from GrungeBoard painted with a Paint Dabber in Pink Sherbet and sprinkled with glitter. The image is from Altered Pages and I matted it with a green cardstock, my base is navy cardstock. I added the buttons to accent the colors I used and the word is done with my Dymo labeler.

Advent ATC's Day Two

2009-12-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

This was the Day Two ATC that I made.

Here is Day Two that I received from Michelle.

Advent ATC's Day One

2009-12-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

I have done a swap on Circle of Friends and we did an Advent Calender using ATC Cards. I am going to try and post each days cards that I made and the ones that I received back in the trade. So here we will start with December 1st - Day One

This was my Day One

This is Day one that I received from Janice.

One Powerful Hour Challenge Dancing/Dance

2009-11-28T11:44:00.005-05:00

This week at OPH the theme in Dancing/Dance and I have this tag that I had made some time ago so I thought I would share it with everyone. The funny thing is my image ended up being the same one that Caroline used - hope you don't mind Caroline. LOL!!

I really like making tags and when I found this image on a collage sheet from Alt ered Pages and I thought of dancing the night away that it would be perfect for a tag.

The background is done using a border mask from Tim Holtz and distressed inks in Broken China and Faded Jeans, once I removed the the mask I used Tea Dyed all over and Walnut Stain on the edges. I added Stickles glitter glue to the dress and the crystals are colored with Wild Plum Alcohol ink. The buttons have a bit of Alcohol ink in Cranberry, Stream and Gold.

November Swap COF

2009-11-26T08:05:00.010-05:00

For the November Swap at the Circle of Friends the hostess sent us some stamps and we were to use them to create anything that inspired us. We received two sets of clear stamps - one with two flowers and one with butterflies and a bird, some of my favorite images. But I must say I was really challenged with this project and it took me almost three weeks of looking at the stamps and looking at the paper I wanted to use to get inspired. It finally all came together and here is the final result - a small hanging inspirational card.

For the base card I used this great paper I found at Reddi Arts, a shop

here in Jacksonville, FL, it is a recycled brown Rough Sketch paper, but I wanted to find a way to use it in this project. I used Distressed Ink in Spiced Marmalade all around the edges of each card and a bit over the whole piece. Using a watermark ink I stamped the flourish in the background and then added the saying and bird, both from Tim Holtz clear stamp collection Artful Flight using Pearlescent Chocolate Brilliance by Tsukineko. I glued the art piece to an really pretty orange cardstock to make it a little more sturdy and then added the little corner pearls from Basic Grey.

For the flower I stamped it on Grungepaper and cut them all out, added Distressed inks in a variety of different colors - for this one I used Faded Denim and Mustard Seed in the center. Because the Grungepaper is soflexible I used a toothpick and wrapped each petal to give it a bit of curled dimension. I added Distressed Stickles in the same colors on the flower and at the edges of the petals I used Picket Fence Stickles. To glue the flower I only used glue dots in the center so that the petals are free and can be "fluffed" to add even more dimension to the piece. Here's a close up of the flower.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I have inspired you to create,

OPH Challenge

2009-11-19T00:00:00.001-05:00

This week is my debut as a team member of the One Powerful Hour Challenge site. Thank you Caroline for bringing me on to your team, I think this will be lots of fun and a great experience. Hope you all will enjoy my Themes and I can't wait to see what creative art you make.

This week I have chosen Telephone as my theme. I got the inspiration for the Telephone theme from a sheet of Graphic 45 paper called Classy Correspondence. I love the old telephones and this one just seemed to speak to me. For the background I scanned the original sheet of paper and then faded it out and changed the coloring to be a little more vintage. I added some Distressed Ink in Antique Linen and put Black Soot on all the edges. I enlarged the phone, cut it out and applied Distressed Stickles in Tarnished Brass. For the phone cord I used wire and wrapped it around a toothpick and then attached it to the phone. The word Phone is spelled out using Stencil Type from Tim Holtz, yep I had to get him in there one way or another since I am such a huge fan. I stamped on the swirls in a chocolate ink and added dots of Distressed Stickles in Antique Bronze.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I have inspired you to be creative.

Baby Shower Tag

2009-11-05T18:30:00.006-05:00

There was a Baby Shower at work today and since I Jessica and I often talk with each other I got her a little something and I made this little tag for the gift bag. I turned out just as I envisioned and everyone liked it.

I used Tea Dyed Distressed ink over the whole tag and then added Worn Lipstick and Shabby Shutters in some areas, I used the Flourish Mask from Tim Holtz and more Worn Lipstick, Dusty Concord and Tea Dyed around the mask. The Grungeboard letters I used are covered in Pink Stickles and a little Worn Lipstick Distressed Stickles. I added a little pink bling and a

baby footprint. Topped it all off with pink and brown ribbons.

Oct. Monthly Mailer and One Powerful Hour

2009-10-25T18:37:00.005-04:00

I mailed out my Monthly Mailer on Thursday and I wanted to add it to my blog so here I go. This months theme was Halloween and I did this tag. One Powerful Hour is also doing a Halloween theme and I thought this would be perfect. For the background of the tag I used Distressed Inks in Tea Dyed and Spiced Marmalade and then once I scruffed up the edges I used Walnut Stain on all the edges. On top of that I used Crackle Paint in Old Paper. The pumpkin is from Grungeboard and I used Distressed Stickles in Spiced Marmalade to lots of sparkle to the project. I stamped Happy Haunting the the Bats with black Archival ink. I took a few of the jump rings and linked them together to form a small chain and I attached that with a Trinket Pin. I had a couple of sparkling bats and a moon brad and I attached them to the top of the tag. I finished off with a cute Halloween ribbon. "BOO" and I hope you all have a fun Halloween!!

Breast Cancer Mini Quilt

2009-10-21T10:11:00.007-04:00

Last week I made this Breast Cancer Awareness mini quilt and gave it to a friend. This is only my second time to create something like this and it was so much fun to work on. It is made from squares and rectangles of Grungepaper - a Tim Holtz product, of course.

I have used many different techniques on this from stamping, embossing with heat and with my Cuttlebug, sewing and painting to name a few. Once I finished all the tiles I glued them to a heavy watercolor paper and attached magnets. You could also add a ribbon at the top to hang the little quilt.

Thanks for taking a look.

New Tattoo

2009-10-21T09:46:00.007-04:00

A few weeks ago I finally got my 5th tattoo and I wanted to share it now that it's all healed and looking good. This is Mr. Boo, he is one of my two year old kitties and I had him put on my right calf. I went to a Tattoo Convention here in town and found a great artist from TN by the name of Eric. Just talking to him he was very excited about doing the kitty and I knew he would go a fabulous job, and he did!!!

Mr. Boo

Mr. Boos is a very shy boy so hence the name. When we got him we named him Baxter, but Boo is much more suited to him.

Thanks for stopping by to have a look around - have a great day!!

A Friends Birthday Card

2009-10-04T08:21:00.005-04:00

This week Ricky at work had a birthday and I wanted to post and let you what I came up with for this one. Ricky loves planes and history and as I was looking through some Graphic 45 papers that I have I found this tag of a blueprint of The Spirit of St. Louis and thought - perfect. So I scanned it, enhanced it and made it a good size for a card and then went looking for an original picture of the plane. There's the card I finally got put together on Thursday night, his birthday was on Friday.

I found this great picture of the plane with the pilot and I printed it on a piece of Sticky Back Canvas and then I added a little Distressed Ink in Antique Linen. I know It's hard to see the the background

paper I used is sky and clouds, it really did look good together. I used the Antique Linen around the edges of the card also. Then I added the name and a few stars with Distressed Stickles on them and this is how it all came together. Oh by the way he really liked the card - YEAH!!

Circle Of Friends Sept ATC Swap

2009-09-26T09:52:00.008-04:00

Sorry I haven't updated in so long - between being sick for a week and loads of work at the office I haven't been in the craft room much over the last few weeks. I'm hoping to get a few things worked on over the week end and getting a few more things posted for you to see.

For September and and October at COF we are doing an Advent ATC Swap. Numbers 1 - 12 are due by the end of Sept and numbers 13 - 25 are due at the end of October. We are all using the same set of papers from Basic Gray - Wassail, but from there you can make them completely your own. I sent off my Sept set last week and I have been working on the second set for Oct in

between working on a few other projects - I'll get to those in another post. I thought I would post a few of them over the next couple of posts.

For number 1 I used a Mask from Tim Holtz and Distressed Ink in Tea Dyed for the background. The Santa is an image from Altered Pages from a collage sheet called Glass Slides Christmas. I added Distressed Stickles in Fire Brick to the background for a little added sparkle. I stamped the number One and added a button to finish the piece.

For number 2 I used a printed background, a couple of fabric stars, a one inch Fragment, again from Tim's collection and a really pretty green jewel brad. I found the number 2 tag and paired it with the brad. Under the Fragment I used a Christmas Greetings image from Altered Pages from a collage sheet called Inches Christmas

For my third ATC I used a Grungboard number 3, three Christmas Trees and a cute red and green ribbon and bow. I used Distressed Ink in Old Paper around the edges of the card and just a bit on the card to give a more of an aged look. The 3 is painted with a shinny paint and I added three green jewels for that added sparkle. I also added a little green Stickles in green to the trees.

Well, there you have my first three cards - I will add more in the next post and I promise it won't be such a long wait for that one. Thanks for stopping by - I love sharing my Art projects with you all and I hope I can inspire you to go make some Art!!

ATT Monthly Mailer

2009-08-23T10:20:00.007-04:00

Over at All things Tim we are doing a monthly mailing to a new friend and to share our artwork. This month I am sending to Lori and I have made a tag, which is usually what I do as I so love to make them.

For this tag I used a mask and Tea Dyed Distress Ink for the background. I added a butterfly stamp in the middle and then masking that I stamped a Script stamp in Olive Green. I painted the butterflies using Alcohol inks and then used three square Fragments. The large pink butterfly is made of Grungepaper and was painted with Worn Lipstick Crackle Paint. I added a bit of Fired Brick Distressed Ink to the edges and pearls & crystals to the body of the butterfly. The word Dreams was embossed on a black sandable paper and I added Glossy Accents to make them look more like letter bubbles. I added a bit of vintage paper and a little green ribbon at the bottom of the tag.

I was looking at my blog and realized that I forgot to add the Monthly Mailer for July so I'm going to add that here also. This tag was done for Liz.

For this tag I did the background using Tea Dyed and Worn Lipstick for the background, then I stamped one side using a Dictionary stamp and black ink. For the lower right corner I embossed script with my Cuttlebug. the wings are embossed using Weathered Wood embossing powder. I added the saying, which is embossed in red and a Philosophy tag for interest. The edges of the age are done with Walnut Distressed Ink.

Page Swap with All Things Tim

2009-08-18T09:20:00.007-04:00

I have joined a Page Swap with my online group All Things Tim. Instead of passing around books which can take over a year to get back, 20 of us are creating pages involving lots of "Tim Stuff" and then sending them to the host. She, in turn, will then send each of us 20 different pages and we can put them together as a book in any way that pleases each of us. I thought this was a great idea - we will all get lots of wonderful pages in lots of different styles. The theme for the pages was Vintage, but you could do any kind of page you wanted. I have a couple of Tim's new stamp sets and one of them is The Big Top so I used the Circus as the main part of my project. I have also used the set called Fabulous Flourishes in the background.

The pages are 6 x 6 and I started with a heavy watercolor paper that I sprayed with a lite

green Glimmer Mist. Once that is dry I added Distressed Ink in Tea Dyed to get rid of the bright white, then I added bits of color using Distressed Inks in Mustard Seed, Marmalade and Faded Jeans. On top of that I added some Alcohol Inks in Lemonade, Pink Sherbet and Pool using Blending Solution to blend them together. Once everything is dry I put on a very thin coat of Brushed Bronze Crackle Paint, as soon as I get that on I used a Flourish stamp on the wet paint which gives you a reversed stamped look as it takes the paint away. When that is dry I stamped the clowns, and the word Cirque which is stamped in red and black. Using Watermark ink I stamped the number board and embossed it with Fired Brick embossing powder. I added a rub on clock and gears and spinners. The circus poster is printed on a sticky back canvas and I added Distressed Ink in Tea Dyed to add age.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look and I would love to see your comments.

Birthday Card

2009-08-08T08:27:00.005-04:00

We celebrate birthdays in my little accounting world at work in a big way. There's only 7 of us let now, over the last few years the number has been going down. When I started there were 12 in the department and over time we have been slimmed down to the great group that we now have. Anyway, for every one's birthday we decorate their cubical in a big way, balloons and lots of party stuff - want to make sure everyone knows it's their birthday. LOL!! Then we all go out for lunch, at the birthday person's choice and at 3PM we always have some kind of birthday desert. Makes for a fun day. Here is the card I did for Debbie this week:

The background is really more of a green, don't know why it scanned in this color, but anyway I used my wonderful Cuttlebug I embossed some sandable paper with the Birthday Embossing Folder. After sanding to bring out the embossed words, I then also added a bit of Twinkling H2O paint to a few of the debossed words for added color. I like the way that worked! I added some Distressed Ink in Tea Dyed around the edges and then attached to the background with pop dots. I just wanted it to pop out a bit. I added the silk flowers with jewels for the centers for a finishing touch.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to have a look at some of my other projects. I hope they give you some inspiration for your next project.

Please feel free to jot down a comment, I'd love to hear your feed back.

August COF Swap

2009-08-01T09:04:00.004-04:00

Well, for once I am way ahead of myself for the Monthly Swap we do at Circle of Friends. This month the challenge was to make an arch using a theme of Medieval. I have to say this is one of my favorite projects and I had so much fun putting it all together.

For the arch it's self I used Grungepaper and embossed it with an embossing folder that looks like Steel Plate, I thought that would give the look of a shield. I painted the arch with a metallic silver and used a bit of gold and Black Soot over that just to give a more aged look. The knight is printed on paper and painted with H2O's, for the horse I used a brown Distressed Ink. I added some torn papers and then did all the bead work along the side.

Christmas in July ATT

2009-07-22T21:17:00.004-04:00

UPDATE - Yesterday was the end of this contest - the tag with the most votes would be declared the winner. Drum Roll please ----- Yes I WON!!!! I am so excited to have won my first contest with ATT. The winner receives an autographed tote bag from Tim Holtz, Yeah!! and a bunch of "Tim Stuff". Oh, I can't wait!!!

For the Yahoo Group "All Things Tim" I made this tag for a contest they are having this month. You had to find one of the Christmas Tags that Tim demoed in 2007 and 2008 and create an "everyday" version of that tag using the techniques that Tim did, but with your own theme. My choice was Day 1, 2008. I love working with the masks and the Distressed Inks.

For my tag I used the Timeworks mask and Distressed Inks in Worn Lipstick and Broken China in the background. I distressed the edges of the tag and applied Walnut Distressed Ink. The butterfly and word "time" are Grungeboard, for the word I applied Worn Lipstick ink and Distressed Stickles. For the butterfly I embossed it with a paisley design with my Cuttlebug and then applied Straw ink all over and Walnut around the edges. On the wings I added Distressed Stickles in Worn Lipstick and Broken China. I added a gear and a spinner to the masked area to represent "Time".

Birthday Cards

2009-07-21T18:58:00.003-04:00

Last week I made some Birthday cards for my Sister-In-Law and Niece. It was a major mile marker in my Sister-in-Laws life and my husband put out and idea for the card (she turned 60, but don't tell anyone) and said make something - here's my translation of his idea of a wheel with different times in our lives. I printed all the times of our lives on the card and then added Distressed Inks, I created the wheel using a gear and spinner from Tim Holtz and the words are spelled out in Grungeboard covered with Distressed Stickles in Straw. By the way - Kathy really loved the card and everyone got a big laugh!!

This card was also for Kathy from her Mother-In-Law. The center piece was embossed with my Cuttlebug and sanded to bring out the pink that went with the background paper. I embossed the

greeting with pink embossing powder and added pink and brown pearls around the background.

This Birthday card was for my husbands niece, Heather. The background was embossed with the Cuttlebug as was the the Happy Birthday and the presents. They were also sanded to make them stand out. I added a pink ribbon along the side of the background. I also added a bit of glitter to the presents.

One Powerful Hour Challenge Summer

2009-07-15T18:19:00.005-04:00

This week the challenge a One Powerful Hour is "Summer". What comes to mind when you think of summer?? When I was a kid we always took a weeks vacation at my Grandpa's in this tiny little town in Wisconsin - Adams/Friendship and they had this great beach that I got to go to almost every day. Here's my 4x4 of a Summer Swim.

The background paper is a blue/green and to the edges I added Distressed Ink in Faded Jeans and Vintage Photo. The swimming image is from Altered Pages. I added the sparkly sun, some shells and Faded Jeans Distressed Stickles around the image. The words were made with my Dymo Labeler.

Thanks for the fun challenge this week Caroline.

RAK For a Friend

2009-07-08T09:16:00.004-04:00

I just finished this really cute ATC so I thought I would let everyone have a look. I have been wanting to use one of these Beach Collage images from Altered Pages and I finally found the perfect combination, I think.

The ATC base was stamped with a Background Text stamp and then I added some Distressed inks in Shabby Shutters and Worn Lipstick. I placed the image on a green patterned paper and use Eucalyptus Glitter Glue around the edge of the image. I added the words and a few blue half pearls.

COF July Swap

2009-07-06T10:39:00.004-04:00

For the month of July Andrea is hosting a swap where she sent each of us different products and we were to make ATC's for the group. I finished mine on Friday and wanted to share them. I received Blue cardstock, a blue/green pattern paper, some square buttons and a roll of colored tape for my Dymo Labeler. Here is what I came up with.

I added beads, Grungepaper, a stripe of paper that I embossed and sanded, and Twinkling H2O paint.

First I used H2O's in Iridescent Green on the blue cardstock, then I cut a stripe of the pattern paper with a zig zag edge. For the flower I used a flower die from Quickuts and cut them out of the Grungepaper. I painted them with Mountain Rose Paint Dabbers and a pink H2O to add the needed sparkle and shine. For the embossed edge I worked with Sandable cardstock from Core'dinations with a whitewash finish and a pink underneath. Once embossed I sanded it to bring out the color from under the white. I added the Friends title and there you have it.

Thanks for stopping by for a look at my latest work.

One Powerful Hour Challenge - Spain

2009-06-14T11:53:00.006-04:00

This week the challenge at One Powerful Hour is "Spain". For my entry I have created an ATC called DANCE. I have chosen an image from Altered Pages, that to me looks like a Flamingo Dancer. I matted the image on black cardstock, and placed that on a patterned paper. I added a gold and red braid to the top and a gold fan at the bottom. I used a few red crystals for that little added bling.

Caroline - I even got this one done in less than an hour - thanks for the challenge.

Thanks for taking a look.

Thank you Cards

2009-06-14T08:53:00.005-04:00

My Sister-In-Law asked me to do some Thank You cards for her and here is what I came up with. These were a lot of fun and I got to use my new Cuttlebug and my Sandable paper on one of them.

This first card was the fanciest of the bunch. The paper had the design on the left side so I added the saying and stamped and embossed it with bronze embossing powder. Then I added the butterflies, a bronze flower, a few crystals and a brown organza ribbon with white poke a dots to finish it off.

For this second card I got to use the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder that was filled with all different Thank Yous. I used a sandable paper that was brown with a background color of of a peachy rose. Once embossed the paper I sanded all the embossing to bring out the background color. I added a tiny rose ribbon at the top and bottom of the thank you panel.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look.

Birthday Cards

2009-06-07T08:11:00.007-04:00

A friend asked me to create a couple of Birthday cards for her sister and I thought I would share them with you.

This first one is from my friend to her sister. I used a brown cardstock for the base of the card. The image is from Altered Pages and I have matted that with a piece of orange cardstock to which I added a bit of Distressed Ink and I distressed the edges just for some added dimension to the card. The Happy Birthday ribbon came from Really Reasonable Ribbon and then I added a sheer brown with white dots ribbon to the left side. The crystals were clear and I added some Alcohol Inks to them to create a multi colored design.

The second card is for my friends Mom to give to her daughter. This was a fun card as I got to use my new Cuttlebug, oh I really do like this little machine!! The background is a light teal and to that I have added a rose color ribbon and on top of that I added a tiny brown with blue stitching to create a new layered ribbon. The stamp I used is by Tim Holtz and can be seen here, just scroll down the page a bit. I stamped it with Black Staz-On ink on to Watercolor paper then I added a bit of color using Twinkling H2O's. I matted this on a piece of brown Sandable paper that has a peachy rosey color on the reverse side and it can be seen on QVC. I ran this through the Cuttlebug and then sanded the raised images so the color would show through. I have to say this paper is such fun to work with. To this I added a few buttons and a silver butterfly, I added some Alcohol Ink to this for just a little touch of color.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your inspired to go create something wonderful!!

Lovely Lady Note Card Kit

2009-05-23T12:19:00.005-04:00

This is the third card in a set and they will be put together by Altered Pages and sold as a kit. I believe it will be available later next week. Please feel free to check it out.

For this card I chose a green and blue stripe and matching buttons. The image is from Altered Pages ( Brown Collage #1714) and I have matted it on a brown piece of cardstock which I

embossed and then sanded to bring out the green back color. This is a new sandable paper that I found at QVC and I just love it. I just placed my second order so that I don't run out - LOL!!!

I added a ivory lace to the top and bottom of the card and the buttons along the left side.

Thanks for stopping by for a look.

May COF Swap

2009-05-22T14:41:00.003-04:00

This month the challenge was to use newspaper in your project. You could make anything you wanted as long as there is newspaper somewhere in it. I chose to make another tag - right now they just seem to be what I enjoy making. Here is my tag with a newspaper flower. For the flower itself I painted a strip of newspaper that was cut about 1 1/2 inches wide and I cut it with a pinking blade for added texture, with Twinkling H2O's in a purple (I also did some in yellow and pink), I then pleated the paper into a circle and taped the back to hold it together. Then I took a large pop-up dot and covered it with colorful thread for the center. The stem and leaves are cut out of Grungeboard and painted with Twinkling H2O paint. For the background of the tag I first sprayed it with Glimmer Mist in Sea Glass, then I used a mask from Tim Holtz and Distressed Ink in Worn Lipstick. I also used a bit of China Blue over the whole tag. I then added a little ribbon and a pink pearl.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. Please feel free to comment.

COF Journal

2009-05-19T05:36:00.004-04:00

I just sent off my latest journal - the theme on this one was to make a tag using "Momisims". All those wonderful bits of knowledge Mom knows and tries to give us, and when we're young we think it's all a bunch of mumble jumble. We later learn that Mom was pretty smart after all!!

For my tag I used "When one door closes, another door opens". Life is so full of going out one door and going into another. Our lives are always changing and we shouldn't be afraid of that change.

For the background of my tag I used a color wash of Twinkling H2O's in Mandarin Blush then I used a Mask from Tim Holtz in the shape of a crown and I used Distressed Ink in Shabby Shutters. I found the pictures of doors on line and I attached them only on one side so they can be opened - there's a surprise under each one. I used little beads for the door knobs. For all my words I used this new paper I have that is brown with colors underneath and it's made for sanding. Once you emboss it you can sand it and the other colors comes through. I used one strip that was brown and orange and another that was brown and green and I ran them through my trusty Dymo labeler. I then added a couple of word bubbles.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

Another Mother's Day Card

2009-05-10T09:14:00.007-04:00

I am dear friends with my Sister-In-Laws mother-in-law and I put together yesterday this card for her. We all got together last night for a lovely family gathering. Jewell is always so grateful for the cards I make her and I love doing them for her.

The image is from Altered Pages and I matted it on a piece of handmade paper that I tore on all sides. On the edges of the image I used Dusty Concord Distressed Ink and I use some Twinkling H2O's for just a touch of color on the image. The base of the card is a purple paper to which I added a poke a dot ribbon and a few buttons. To the center of the buttons I used Distressed Stickles in Peeled Paint, Antique Linen and Faded Jeans.

Mother's Day Card

2009-05-08T05:53:00.005-04:00

I just finished this card for my Mother-In-Law so I wanted to get it posted for all to enjoy. The image is from Altered Pages collage sheet Edwardian # 838. I used a bit of Twinkling H2O's in yellow, green and pink to give just a hint of color and sparkle. I used a cream and pink background paper to which I added Distressed Ink in Tea Dye for a more vintage look. I matted the image on a green cardstock and added beads to the corners. A little white and silver ribbon is on the top and bottom. I added a bit of the Tea Dyed ink to the ribbon also.

Thanks and have a wonderful Mother's Day

Guest Designer for "One Powerful Hour"

2009-05-07T05:14:00.007-04:00

This week I have the privilege of guesting on a great friends challenge site "One Powerful Hour". Caroline is in the mist of a huge move across country so I thought this would be fun to do and a way I could be a little help to her.

I have chosen the theme of "In Flight" and I have created this tag. All the stamps are from Tim Holtz as is the Distressed Inks and the mask I used in the background. I used some of my new Twinkling H2O's so the background is very sparkly - you can never have to much sparkle!!

To start the tag I made two color washes using Twinkling H2O's, in Dutch Iris and Heavenly Bamboo - I painted the top half of the tag with the blue and the bottom with the Bamboo. When I applied it I used a very light tough and made it kind of streaky. Once that was dry I used Distressed Ink in Weathered Wood lightly over

the blue and Tea Dyed over the Bamboo. I ruffed up the edges and used Vintage Photo all the way around. When all this was really dry, I used a flourish mask and Worn Lipstick all over so there is a light pink touch to the whole tag. I stamped the bird twice - once with embossing ink and using black embossing powder on the tag, and then on a second tag, or heavy paper using Staz-On in Olive. I added a bit of H2O's in Mango Mamba to this stamping and then cut it out, used foam tape and placed it over the embossed bird, I also curled the wings a bit to give a look of flight. I stamped the saying with the olive ink and I used Timber for the branches. I added a few buttons and I embossed "In Flight" in the upper left corner in Egyptian gold so that's real sparkly also. I know it's really hard to see in the picture. I added a few ribbons and there you have it.

Thanks for stopping by for a look.

Altered Pages Kitty Kit

2009-04-29T05:42:00.005-04:00

I have been working on a cute little kit for Altered Pages doing Skinnys with Kitties on them. Here are a couple examples:

The first one is called School Dazes - I used a brown paper that had the ribbon printed right on it and jazzed it up with some gold and blue beads and Distressed Stickles in Antique Lines. I also used the glitter glue in the center of the button. Then I added the words made with my trusty Dymo Labeler.

For the second Skinny, which I named Gone Fishing, I used a green and purple background paper, buttons in matching colors and around the border of the image I used a light green glitter glue.

All images used are from Altered Pages.

Elvis ATC's

2009-04-19T09:07:00.009-04:00

I recently received a collage sheet full of wonderful pictures of Elvis and I took two of the images and made these ATC's.

For the first one I have these tiny deck of cards so I took out a King because we all know Elvis is the King of Rock and Roll!! On the green background I used Distressed Ink in Pine Needle and I added a bit of ribbon that's stapled with green staples.

On the second card I used GrundgePaper and cut out the letters and then painted t

hem with Twinkling H2O's, I know it's hard to see in the picture,

but the letters do have a sparkle to them. I added a bit of ribbon and used Distressed Ink in Tea Dyed around the edges of the card.

COF Journal

2009-04-02T18:33:00.008-04:00

I got my Journal to work on for April and can you believe it - I'm already done with it so I thought I would post it for those that want to see. For this Journal you had to pick three words from a list and use them in an ATC, but you could not use any words - just pictures to represent the words. The words I used were: flower, girl and undergarment. They just popped right out at me and I know right away what I wanted to do. I know I had an image of a lady in a corset from Altered Pages, and it worked perfectly.

I took a piece of green paper from Basic Grey, stamped a few flourishes on it using Distressed Ink in Pine Needle, I also used this around the edges for added color. I added tiny flowers from Prima and used Distressed Stickles Glitter Glue for the centers. I also added Diamond glitter glue around the edges for the corset for added sparkle. A girl can never have to much sparkle!! I added a few crystals that I dyed green using Alcohol Ink in Bottle, on the card and a crystal flower at the top.

Thanks for taking a look.

Wish

2009-03-28T10:14:00.004-04:00

This is an ATC that I did for Altered Pages Alpha Challenge. I chose "W for Wish" The W is GrungeBoard painted with a Paint Dabber in Pink Sherbet and sprinkled with glitter. The image is from Altered Pages and I matted with a green cardstock, my base is a navy cardstock. I added the button to accent the colors I used and the word is done with my Dymo labeler.

COF March Journal

2009-03-28T09:07:00.008-04:00

This month I had a journal from Cheryl that was an Altered Book and the theme was "Mystery". I had a really hard time trying to come up with a good subject so one day I went on line and just Googled mystery and the first thing to come up was Alfred Hitchcock - now growing up I watched this weekly program all the time and I think I have see most of his movies. So that's where I got the inspiration for this page.

The first thing I did was cover a page with Distressed Ink in Soot - I wanted this to be a dark layout. I used a black and white paper and some black and white ribbon for the center of the page.

I cut out this picture of Mr. Hitchcock took a GrungeBoard crown and painted it with Crackle Paint in Pewter and added some green jewels. Well, you have to have some bling you know!! Alfred was Knighted in 1980 by the Queen of England.

I stamped his name on some paper with a bit of color to it and then added Distressed Ink in Tea Dyed for the more vintage look. The saying was made using my trusty Dymo Labeler. I use heavier paper with a white core so that when I sand them the letters stand out white.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look at my work.

March Tag Book Swap COF

2009-03-14T14:27:00.005-04:00

The swap for COF for March is to make a tag from the template given to us and using the theme of Spring. This one really was fun to make and I'm so excited to be done so early!! Now I can move on to something else that I didn't think I would be able to do.

For these tags I used some Distressed Ink in Worn Lipstick and Shabby Shutters around the edges of each tag. Using circles from GrungeBoard Shapes in small and medium I painted them with H2O's and punched a hole in the center of each and then wound ribbon around them to make flowers. I stamped the vines, Hero Arts, and painted the leaves and flowers with H2O's. I added crystals in matching colors to each tag. The crystals were clear and I colored them using Alcohol Inks in Wild Plum and Bottle. Spring is created with my trusty Dymo Labeler.

Husbands Birthday Card

2009-03-10T17:34:00.008-04:00

I completed Kevin's Birthday card last night - his birthday is today. I know - I always seem to come in at the last minute. But he really liked it so that's what counts.

The background was made by using the Timeworks mask from Tim Holtz and Distressed Ink in Tea Dyed. I also added Distressed Glitter in Shabby Shutters. The bicycle image is from Altered Pages and I matted that on a brown and then green cardstock. The two sprockets are held together with a heart brad and I added a multi green ribbon at the top and bottom for added color to the card. The ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. The Happy Birthday was created with my Dymo using another green cardstock.

Thanks for stopping to take a look and have a wonderful day!!

Birthday Card

2009-03-01T11:19:00.007-05:00

I had to make a birthday card for the head of the Accounting Department last week and here is what I came up with.

I had these great black and white paper that I wanted to use and I thought this would be the prefect chance. I have trouble making cards for guys, but I thought this one worked out well. And I have to say - He loved it!! The image is from Altered Pages, I cut it out and put it with red to make it pop!!

February COF Swap

2009-02-24T18:55:00.009-05:00

The theme for the February COF Swap was "Secret of the Heart" and here is the project I came up with. I made an ATC using a pink patterened paper and used a pink wash over that to add texture. I stamped the picture with black and embossed it using clear embossing powder. The butterfly is from Jolee's Jewels and I colored the pearls with Wild Plum Alcohol ink. I added a purple ribbon and the works were made on my Dymo and then sanded a a bit of pink paint added to them.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look.

February COF Journal

2009-02-14T10:00:00.005-05:00

This month I have a journal from SandyP and she was asking for you to use any theme, just use one or more techniques. Here is the page I came up with.

Using watercolor paper I stamped the clouds, mountains and water, all stamps from StampScapes. I then painted everything with my H2O's, I like the soft colors and they leave just a hint of shine to them. The lighthouse is stamped on StampBoard, it has like a clay base finish to them, with Staz-On ink in black and then using a blotting technique and water based markers I layered many colors. I then scratched over the lighthouse to bring out highlights.

Valentine Card

2009-02-14T09:21:00.004-05:00

This is the Valentine's Day card that I gave to my dear hubby. I was working on it every morning before I left for work and I put the final touches to it last night. It's really hard to see here, but on the red card I used the Flourish Mask from Tim Holtz and FireBrick Red to leave a really pretty pattern on the card. Cupid is from the Seasonal package of GrungBoard and I painted it with Pewter Crackle paint, the tiny heart is from there also and I painted it with FireBrick Red Crackle paint. The ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. All the little hearts and cupids I found in a package when I was looking for something else - LOL!!!

Oh - and he loved his card!!

Valentines Cards

2009-02-07T10:50:00.006-05:00

I have been working on a couple of Valentine's Day cards so I thought I would share them with you all.

Both cards use images from Altered Pages. The background paper is from 7 Gypsies, and I used Distressed Inks in Tea Dyed, Worn Lipstick (for the red heart) and Weathered Wood (for the blue heart). I attached lace to each heart and used ribbons from Really Reasonable Ribbon on each card. Around each of the hearts I have added Distressed Glitter Glue, for the red card I used Champagne and

on for the blue card I used Faded Denim.

Thanks for stopping by for a look.

COF Domino Swap

2009-01-29T19:02:00.006-05:00

Our monthly exchange at Circle of Friends for January is Altered Dominos. For mine I drilled a small hole in each one and then painted them with Pewter Crackle Paint, it didn't crackle, but I really like the surface it left when it dried. The collage image is from Altered Pages and the hearts were punched from red cardstock. I added glitter glue around the hearts and glued ribbon all around the edges of the domino. I added a small chain to each finished domino.

One Powerful Hour Challenge - Birthdays

2009-01-11T08:05:00.004-05:00

This week at One Powerful Hour my friend Caroline is having a birthday so for this weeks challenge she has chosen "Birthdays". Here is my Vintage Birthday Card. Using brown cardstock and a pink printed paper I created the base for the card and I added a pretty pink ribbon over the seam. I used Distressed Inks in Tea Dye and Worn Lipstick on the tag and the images are from Altered Pages. I added buttons and a bit of glittery stars and flowers.

Thanks for taking a look and another Happy Birthday to Caroline!!

Caardvark Challenge, SLT

2009-01-04T15:08:00.003-05:00

Using a new card sketch from Caardvarks I created this card for their challenge and I am sending to a friend with Send Love Today. I used the ribbon to divide up the card a bit and then added my four sections. The image is from European Papers, I added pink glitter glue and a blue button to the pink and brown section. My flower is a transparent material so you can see the background paper and then using my Dymo I added "Dreams" and a couple of stars from Really Reasonable Ribbons. The stars are a ribbon, I just cut them apart.

Give this four part sketch a try, it was really fun to put together.

Jointed Doll Swap

2009-01-04T10:24:00.005-05:00

I am doing a swap with a friend and this one was to make a Jointed Doll and this is my version. My stamp is from Paula Best - I stamped it with Green Staz-On ink onto GrungeBoard. I then used H2O's and painted all the designs and added glitter glue in different places. The crown is also GrungeBoard and I painted that with Bronze Crackle Paint from Tim Holtz. I found tiny button brads to put it all together with.

Thanks for taking a look and hope you enjoy my site.

Hugs

Nancy

Theme Thursday - Tags

2008-12-30T20:08:00.003-05:00

This week the theme at Theme Thursday is Tags - I love to make tags so here is my entry for the week: Dance - I was thinking of New Years and I found this great image on a collage sheet from Altered Pages and I thought of dancing the night away. The background is done using a border mask from Tim Holtz and distressed inks in Broken China and Faded Jeans, once I removed the the mask I used Tea Dyed all over and Walnut Stain on the edges. I added Stickles glitter glue to the dress and the crystals are colored with Wild Plum Alcohol ink. The buttons have a bit of Alcohol ink in Cranberry, Stream and Gold.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look.

Challenge - One Powerful Hour

2008-12-27T08:57:00.004-05:00

I am once again going to start doing some weekly Challenges. My first one this week is for a friend at One Powerful Hour. This weeks challenge is "Revisit 2008 One Powerful Hour projects" - I have chosen "Altered Domino's". This is something I have wanted to try and here is my perfect opportunity.

I have used mini domino's for this project, as it's what I had in the house yesterday. For the first one I used Alcohol inks in Stream, Red Pepper and Yellow, for the second one I painted the domino with Brushed Pewter Distressed Crackle paint, on this surface it did not crackle so I went over it with Alcohol ink in stream. I stamped the Crane and Egret with black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. The stamps are from StampScapes. I added ribbon and a bead to each domino.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and take a look. Please come back soon to see what I'm up to next.

Friendship Tags

2008-12-26T11:22:00.008-05:00

I created a couple of holiday tags for friends this year and I thought I would share them. They are both done using techniques from the 12 Day's of Christmas from Tim Holtz.

This first tag was done using techniques from day two, using Alcohol inks, the angel is stamped and embossed with black. I added the cloth stars and a couple of beads. The work on the chain says "believe".

This second tag was using techniques from Day 11. The colors here didn't copy as nicely as I had wanted them to - it is really more blue. The Fragments have snowflakes embossed in clear on the back and with them being on the blue they really show up nicely. I added some stamped flourishes with white dots to accent them.

Thanks for taking a look and feel free to leave a message.

Christmas Tag

2008-12-06T12:08:00.005-05:00

As many of you know I am the biggest fan of Tim Holtz and again this year he is doing the 12 Days of Christmas in tags. Each day he creates a new tag with new techniques and then gives you step by step instructions on how he put it all together.

Here is my version of the tag from Day 2, if you go to Tim's Blog you will have to scroll down through the tags until you get to day 2. For my tag I used Gold Mixative with reds and yellow Alcohol inks. I thought a Santa was fitting for the colors, he is stamped with embossing ink and embossed with Black embossing powder. The stamp I used is from Inkadinkado. The 25 is Grundgeboard painted a light green and then I added Distressed Stickles in Peeled Paint. On the Believe piece I added white to bring out the words, another Tim trick.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my version, and thanks for stopping by.

Christmas

2008-12-06T11:57:00.005-05:00

Well, it's high time I get a few Christmas things up here. With working such long hours and trying to get my walking in every night, I just seem to have very little time for working on the crafts that I love so much.

Any way, here are two ATC sized cards that I did for a swap at DoodleHaven. For each of these I stamped the designs with embossing ink and then sprinkled Distressed Embossing Powders in all different colors to suit the design. I then heated with my heat gun. The stamps are from Tim Holtz. I mounted the designs on holiday green paper which is folded to create the cards.

Christmas Cards

2008-11-29T08:07:00.006-05:00

I made these cards a while ago using images from Altered Pages and I wanted to share them with you. I have added ribbons, glitter glue and buttons to make each card unique.

Send Love Today

2008-11-29T08:01:00.004-05:00

Here is another card I did for another little boy that is four years old. I know that he really likes Disney so I thought this was a perfect one for him. The background was a bluish paper that I added a bit of Distressed Ink in Antique Linen and Faded Denim and for the stripes I used a blue and brown ribbon. I attached the chipboard figures and added bright shinny stars.

Tag done in the Tim Holtz fashion

2008-11-29T07:22:00.006-05:00

Yes, you all know I love Tim Holtz and all his products. Here is a tag I did for a friend using some of his products and techniques. The background is colored using Distressed Inks in Tea Dyed and Antique Linen, I the stamped the words on the right side and the background stamp over that using Coffee Bean. The hummingbird, flower and "f" are all Grungeboard. For the "f" I painted it with Crackle paint in Pine Needle and Soot, the flower is painted with paint dabbers in a green and pink and then I added Distressed Stickles glitter glue in Worn Lipstick. I stamped the hummingbird on the grundgeboard, cut it out and sprinkled various colors of Distressed Embossing power. The oval Fragment is colored using Alcohol inks in blues, greens and yellows and then I stamped the hummingbird over that with black Archival Ink and then using a soft cloth wipe the ink off - this leaves your image on the fragment, this is a technique I saw at Tim's Blog

Scroll down to the August Tag and there you will see full instructions from Tim. The little letters were made with Dymo and sanded to bring out the colors.

Thanks for taking a look.

New Cards

2008-11-02T09:38:00.006-05:00

I know I have been very slack in getting some of my work here so today I am adding a couple of cards I have recently done. The first one is a birthday card for a friends little boy that was turning 4. His favorite cartoon is Diego and I found these really cool stickers to use. The leaf ribbon was given to me by a friend, the Happy Birthday ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon and I put a little Distressed Ink on it in Faded Denim, the 4 is GrungeBoard from Tim Holtz and I painted it with a green Paint Dabber and covered that with Crackle Paint in Aged Mahogany to give it kind of a jungle look.

The second card is for a little 3 year old boy with Send Love Today. He really likes Disney so I thought Micky was the perfect chose for him. I stamped some flourishes and added glitter glue in GunMetal with a few dots of Liquid Pearls in Gold for added color.

Thanks for taking a look and I hope to keep updating often so please come back to visit.

Altered Pages Swap

2008-09-18T18:54:00.004-04:00

I joined a 4/4 swap for Altered Pages and here are the four cards I ended up makeing:
I thought since I needed four cards that doing the four seasons made perefect sense. All the images are from Altered Pages and I added ribbon, glitter and embellishments to fit each season. All the words wer created using my trusty Dymo Labeler. Can't wait to see what wonderful little pieces of art I will be getting back.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Bridal Shower

2008-09-07T16:26:00.004-04:00

I know I have been a bit slack in updating my blog so over the next few days I'm hoping to add a few things that I have been working on. This one is a Bridal Shower card that all the girls in the Accounting Department signed.

For the center flowers I used a Watercolor stamping technique I learned from Tim Holtz Blog. The stamping will be done on watercolor paper - to prepare the stamp using dye ink place your color on the stamp, here I used a blue, Stream and Distressed Ink in Worn Lipstick, both by Ranger. Once you have the stamped inked they mist it with water, I used a mini mister and sprayed like twice on the stamp. Then stamp on your watercolor paper. You can also spray again to get a second generation image. Everyone really liked the card - including the bride and groom. The stripe background paper is from BasicGrey and the bottom pink is from Fancy Pants. Brown ribbon with pink stitching is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. The wording is computer generated and I used pink crystals from Heidi Swapp for accent. The butterfly is from Altered Pages.

Altered Pages ATC

2008-08-25T21:39:00.004-04:00

One of the ladies at Altered Pages put out a Quick Challenge - make an ATC using a quote from your favorite movie.

My favorite all time favorite movie is Gone With The Wind and of course Rhett captured my heart many years ago when I first saw the movie with my best friend. I used a hand made paper for the background and I added Distressed Ink in Vintage Photo and Worn Lipstick to add just a bit to the background. The image is from Altered Pages, I composed the saying on the computer and then added Distressed Ink in Tea Dyed to give it an aged look. I used the green ribbon just as a little extra accent.

Button Fairies for a Friend

2008-08-23T18:24:00.007-04:00

A friend and I go a swap every month and her suggestion for August was a Button Fairy. I had no idea what that was so I looked it up and printed a couple of pictures and here is what I sent her.

All my images are from Atlered Pages and my buttons are from Foof-A-La. I have used crystals from Heidi Swapp for a little bling around the neck and Glitter Glue on the wing. You just can't have too much sparkle!! Thank you Sandy for such a great idea, these are just way too much fun to make and I haven't been able to stop. I have four more sitting on my table right now to work on.

Thanks for stopping by an taking a look.

Send Love Today

2008-08-12T21:00:00.005-04:00

Here is my card for this week for a friend with SLT.

I used a Navy cardstock for the side and to matt my image. The stripe paper is from Scenic Route -Rockland collection. I used three different alphabets and the image is from European Papers from a sheet called Natural Magick. I love Giraffes and when I saw this I knew I had to use it in one of my cards. I used a blue and green ribbon to tie in the two sides.

Thanks for taking a look.

Birthday Card and Button Fairy

2008-08-10T09:24:00.011-04:00

A friend asked me to make her a birthday card using Tinker Bell and when she saw my first Button Fairy she asked if I could make one also using Tinker Bell. So here is what I put together .

For the card I used a metallic green cardstock and applied Alcohol Inks in Wild Plum and Yellow. The stars are GrungeBoard and I used Gold Glitter Glue on them, I also used glitter glue around the saying. The Button Fairy uses buttons from Foof-A La and the flower is a silk flower I cut up. I added Crystal Lacquer to the flower, and the butterfly wings came from a clip art book . Thanks for watching my art.

Button Fairy

2008-08-09T09:33:00.004-04:00

A friend and I are doing a Button Fairy swap this month and so I wanted to first find out what it is and how to make one. I did a little research and found a couple of pictures online. Here is the first one I made. This one is a RAK for a dear friend.

This is my first Button Fairy - the images are from Altered Pages, the silk flower is just one that I took apart and cut to size. The buttons come from Foof-A-La, a couple of them weren't the colors I wanted so I added Alcohol ink to them. The necklace is crystals from Heidi Swapp in blue.

Thanks for looking

Altered Pages DT

2008-08-06T18:23:00.004-04:00

Hi All
I got the best surprise this morning at 5:30 when I turned on my computer and found an e-mail from Altered Pages - saying the winners are. . . . well to my wonderful surprise one of them was me!!! I was so excited to see my name there in the e-mail. I have been telling everyone that know I have been working towards this. The four weeks of challenges were really a challenge for me, but I was really proud of myself that I completed each task and I really liked all the projects that I did. If you look further down the page you will see each of my projects.

Thank all!!
Nancy

Altered Pages Week 4 Challenge

2008-08-05T20:37:00.008-04:00

The fourth and final challenge was to make a Kit of the Month that could be sold on the Altered Pages web site. I chose to make a Card Kit of the Month and it's called "Let there be Clowns". Here are the four cards I made from my kit.
The papers are all from BasicGrey and the images are all Pierrot Clowns from Altered Pages. Ribbons are all from Offray.

Vintage Zentangles

2008-08-02T09:23:00.003-04:00

This is a set of Zen's I did for a swap at DoodleHaven. All of the images are from Altered Pages. On the bride card I created the background using Distressed Inks in Antique Linen and Tea Dyed. I added a background paper to the Pierrot Clown. To the swimmers I added added Antique Linen to the image to make it look aged.

Thanks for taking a look at my work.

Altered Pages Week 3 Challenge

2008-07-28T18:16:00.006-04:00

This week we had to create three different projects using paper, ink and stamps. We had to make a card, a tag and a page layout. Here are my entries:

The base of my card was made with a green metallic cardstock and then I used Alcohol inks and blending solution to create the marbled background. The flowers are cut from a paper by Paper Adventures called Pardon my Posies. I added Glitter Glue to the flowers to bring out that sparkle that I love so much. The image is from Altered Pages and is mounted on a deep purple cardstock. I added a purple and gold ribbon to two sides for added interest.

For my tag I used a standard shipping tag and applied Distressed Inks in Tea Dyed, Worn Lipstick and Pine Needle and let that dry. I then stamped my butterfly using VersaMark watermark ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then took Brushed Corduroy and ran it over the whole tag, and then wiped off the area of the embossed butterfly, leaving some of the background colors visible and some of the brown. The paper butterflies are cut from a Altered Pages collage sheet and I added glitter glue for my sparkle. I attached them only at the body so the wings are free and have a 3-D look. The scrap of paper is from K & Co. and the buttons are from Foof-Fa-La. I made the words with my Dymo Labler and I added lace and ribbon for more interest.

I did a 9x9" layout using a base of Rust cardstock. Using a Corner stamp from Fancy Pants and Metallic Silver Paint Dabber, I stamped in each corner. All images are cut from collage sheets by Altered Pages. Background papers are from K & Co and I have used Distressed Ink in Tea Dyed to add aging to the papers. "Remember the Past" is written using a Red Metallic pen by Fiskars. Buttons from Foof-Fa-La.

Week 2 Challenge for Altered Pages

2008-07-20T14:59:00.003-04:00

I have just entered my second weeks challenge for the Design Team at Altered Pages: This week we had to make inches using each letter in our name and them create something altered using them. Here are my Letter Tags" I used Shipping tags and aged them using Distressed Inks in Tea Dyed and Vintage Photo and then adding light touches of color with Pine Needle, Denim Jeans, Worn Lipstick, Fired Brick, Black Soot and Spiced Marmalade. I used a variety of ribbons, beads, letters, GrungBoard, Glitter Glue and charms.

Green With Envy Zen's

2008-07-13T08:50:00.004-04:00

I did this set of Zentangles for a Swap at DoodlersHaven. Everything had to be done in Green, but I did waver a bit and added some yellow. Do you like to doodle?? Come join us at DoodlersHaven for lots of wonderful art and great swaps to participate in.

Send Love Today

2008-07-13T08:37:00.005-04:00

I have my card done early this week - Yeah. I saw this great card shape in a magazine and wanted to try it. It came out so good I have already used it to make a few cards I needed to get done.

I created the card my cutting a piece of cardstock 5 x 12, at the center, 6" I cut out a half circle and then folded the card in half. For this card I embossed a paisley design and added a small felt flower with a pearl center. The paper is from K & Company and I added glitter to all the flowers. I stamped the Hello and heart with Coffee Bean and Rocket Red inks. The stamps are from Hero Arts. I also added a little pink glitter on the kitty's ears and nose.

Thanks for looking at my work and I hope it gives you ideas for something special that you want to make.

Altered Pages DT Contest

2008-07-10T19:38:00.005-04:00

This week Altered Pages started a 4 week contest to win one of two slots on their Design Team. I'm going to give it a try. Here is my first weeks entry.

The Challenge this week was "To alter anything other than a book, puzzle or cigar box." I was having a hard time trying to think of what I could do and then I was sitting at the dinning room table as saw this Kitty that I have had for years and never got around to painting it. So I Gesso all over it to give a good working surface and then started adding things. I started with the Pink Hat, it says "Drama Queen" and from there I just went with a pink theme all the way. At least I have given it a good try.

Thanks for looking.

Send Love Today

2008-07-09T18:38:00.005-04:00

I am finally getting back to sending my very dear friend cards again from SLT.

This looks a lot better in person and the pink flower laser cut overlay is all covered with glitter and is very sparkly just like I like them. The background paper is a blue from Basic Grey and the butterflies are from Altered Pages.

Thanks for looking.

Zentangels Mandala Swap

2008-07-04T18:44:00.005-04:00

These are some Mandala's that I just finished for a swap at Doodler's. They are 3" circles all drawn in black and colored with either colored pencils or crayons.

Thanks for looking.

ATC For A Friend

2008-07-04T09:15:00.003-04:00

I made this last week for a friend just as a RAK for her.

The center is done using Tea Bag Folding - I used little 1" squares and mounted the whole thing on a piece of black cardstock. I also added a bit of pink glitter glue to the center of the flower. For the ATC card I used Distressed Ink in Antique Linen, Tea Dyed and Worn Lipstick. I added a bronze ribbon and a few crystals that I dyed pink with Alcohol Inks. The word was punched with my trusty Dymo labler.

Thanks for looking!!

Circle of Frients June Project

2008-06-29T08:44:00.004-04:00

The project for this month was to make something using a Shape, and you had to be able to tell what that shape was when you're finished.

I hope you can tell that my Shape was . . . Oval. I cut all the pieces using my Cricut Machine first I cut all the solid pieces and then using the Silhouette feature I cut out a coordinating color and this gave me the smaller pieces and the outline piece which I attached to the solid pieces. I stamped my little birdie on each of the small pieces, added glitter glue to the each of the petals, a flower in the middle and a fancy bead on top of that. I made these in several different colors.
Thanks for taking a look.

New Zentangles

2008-06-28T11:54:00.003-04:00

I am finally starting to work on projects again and this is the first one I have finished in quite some time:

These are a pair of Round Ornaments for a swap I am doing at Doodlers Haven. Each month for 6 months we will do a different shaped ornament. I used colored pencils, glitter pens and glitter glue to finish these off.

Thanks for taking a look and please do leave a comment.