An Early Christmas with Tim ... Holtz August Tag for 2015

First, I would like to say thank you for all of the wonderful comments and support I received on my last post, Time Mends Broken Hearts.  Art, indeed, is therapy :) And I'm so grateful that my crafty friends are here to walk the journey with me. Now ... I hope you all have had a great weekend.  I have!!  I managed to carve a little time to create my version(s) of Tim Holtz's August Tag for 2015.  Wow!! Tim seriously outdid himself this time.  I've been checking out everyone else's take on Tim's tag and they are really spectacular.  I won't go into all the details because Tim's tutorial is so great.  I sincerely suggest that you drop by and try to follow his step by step process.  His tutorial is an awesome way to utilize a variety of tools you may already have in your stash.

Since I am so terrible at getting Christmas cards and tags made, I decided to start early and Tim's August techniques really lend themselves well to holiday wishes.  I actually ended up making two tags again this time.  I thought the first one was a little too busy, so I create a second one and I really like it.  Above you can see my second tag.  I followed Tim's steps exactly with the exception of splattering with paint at the end.  I love the holiday "found relatives" too much to splatter them :). 
 

 The background is some of Tim's Christmas Ideology paper (with Christmas carol sheet music).  I used his Block Holiday Words Thinlits.  To color the die cut layer, I used Walnut Stain, Wild Honey and Peeled Paint.  I used a heavier bristled paint brush to apply the gesso and matte multi medium.  This gave me a little more texture to work with when I "grunged up" my tag at the end.





I grabbed a small clothespin adorened with a Christmas tree that I found in the dollar bins at Michaels for my "tag tie".  I decorated it with a remnant rub and used it to attach an Ideology charm and one of Tim's Holiday Greens die cuts to the tag.

 I had to end with a close-up of this little boy with Santa.  I was always afraid of going to see Santa at Christmas.  (Hence the "brave" charm on the tag!)  However, when I saw this found relative, I got the feeling that Santa had just told him that he had better straighten up his act and be good or else he may get coal in his stocking!

Here are a couple of other details to note. I used Tim's musical score stamp from  his Joyful Song set on the left of the tag.  I also fussy cut the "holiday lights" box front from some of Tim's Ideology holiday papers.

















I decided to include the first version of this tag.   I do like it, but I found the stamping and remnant rubs on the front were just a little too busy for me.  I loved using Tim's snowflake Movers and Shapers die to add the snowflake to the die cut overlay.  Snowflake pattern paper  was used as the background layer.  I went a bit lighter with the inks and "grunging" because it is a snow-themed tag.  I did use some silver acrylic paint for the "splatters here.  I didn't add any charms because it was so busy. 

 I will end this post with a pic of both tags side by side for comparison.  As usual, it was such a blast to create these.  Thanks Tim for a wonderful August inspiration tag and the time you took to share your creativity with us!  -- Mary Elizabeth

Time Mends Broken Hearts

Some background info:

Soooooooo ... this post is  part journaling and part craft blogging.  I've been thinking about this project for quite some time now and never really found the right inspiration or the right time to do it.  Well everything all came together over the last couple of weeks.

I think most of us by now have experienced some sort of deep hurt in our lives ... the kind of hurt that you cannot just forget about next week.  I've spent some time recovering from one of those painful experiences myself.  With the added pain (literally) of my Chiari Malformation and associated illnesses, as well as healing from multiple major neurosurgeries, I've rather run away from the emotional pain instead of facing it.  I've experienced more anger than healing and that's just added to the weight of this burden.

So now that I'm healing physically, getting stronger, and feeling better than I have in years, it's really time to face the heart brokenness and nurture the healing process there.   As I was walking this journey over the last couple of weeks, I saw the unique A Stitch in Time ... with a Twist Challenge hosted by Sue over at Frilly and Funkie and everything sort of came together.  Over the last few years, I had been thinking about how some of these really industrial-sized hurts take some industrial-strengthed mending over a great deal of time.  In my mind's eye, I saw wire being used to stitch the broken heart together.  As I thought about the time it takes to heal, I began to envision the springs of a clock as the wire thread and the hands of the clock as the needles used to do the stitching.  So when Frilly and Funkie's challenge came along, I knew it was time (no pun intended) for this project.

It has been an inconvenient time to be so terribly inspired to create:)  Last week, I started teaching classes again for Fall semester at our local university.  I have been very busy.  I'm still working 3 times a week with a personal trainer to build up my strength and stamina.  In the meantime, I crammed as much creative energy into every tiny bit of free time I had over these past few days.  And it has been awesome!!!!  As I've made a beautiful mess downstairs (trying all sorts of different techniques and ideas to bring what was in my head to life in mixed media), I've also made a beautiful mess unraveling the angry tangle of my heart.  It's been such a tiring, but very good experience.

To top everything off, my daily devotions (from In Touch Ministries by Dr Charles Stanley out of 1st Baptist Church of Atlanta) over the last two days have really just confirmed that this is the right project for the right time.  Monday's devotion was entitled God's Gift of Forgiveness.  Here are some highlights: "Motivated by love, God provided a way for our sins to be forgiven. ... God’s will is that we, as forgiven people, show mercy to those who wrong us—to the same degree that He forgave us in Christ.  ... Depending on how much hurt we’ve experienced, we may require time and healing before we can truly forgive. "  Today's devotion was entitled A Lifestyle of Forgiveness.  I think you get the picture :)

Thanks for letting me share with you a little of the "behind the scenes" details for this project.  Now on with all things crafty!

The project:  (I apologize for the picture heavy post!)

I started with an old, rusted, broken, plywood-backed clipboard that my mom found buried in my dad's stuff this summer.  When she saw it, she knew I would appreciate the vintage"found treasure" underneath the cobwebs and dust.

I dusted it off and began by using some multi medium to adhere a page from one of Tim Holtz's Ideology paper stashes.  The paper has calendar pages for January thru December printed on it.  It definitely fit my "long time" theme and made a great backdrop for all my other elements.  Some tissue tape was added on all for edges of the board.  I gave the background board a good wash of water mixed with Picket Fence Distress Paint.  Next I flipped through my Tim Holtz Found Relatives and came across a boy and a girl who did not look terribly happy in their picture.  I thought that perhaps they hurt one another and were suffering broken hearts.  They became part of my collaged background.  Now the entire clipboard background was given a nice coat of matte multi medium.

When that dried, I wanted to add some crackle paint over the background to give it a more rustic feel, so I swiped on some Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint over various parts of the clipboard (even managing to smear some on the rusted clip at the top).  It gave a really nice fine crackle finish to the painted portions.  I wasn't really happy with my black and white background, so I began to add some color.  I mixed matte multi medium with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink  and Brushed Corduroy (LOVE this color combo) to create a warmer vintage feel to the background.

 

Now to add my elements.  I began with finding my clock.  Tim Holtz has an entire page of clock faces in one of Ideology Paper Stashes.  I grabbed that page and found a clock face to use.  I cut it out and then rummaged in my craft stash to find something to serve as the frame for the clock face.  Unbelievably, I found a metal ring that was the perfect size.  I used alcohol inks to grunge the gold colored ring and then adhered it to my clock face with matte multi medium.

  

 I wanted something 3-dimensional, yet cut-able, for my heart.  A cork square was perfect.  To go along with the stitching idea, I decided to cover my heart with fabric.  I remembered I had some burlap "paper" in a dark red from Christmas.  I cut out my heart shape (including the "cracks) and covered it with the burlap paper.  I didn't like the rough cork edges on the outside of the heart, so I spread on a thick layer of modeling paste around the outside edges.  (I really liked the rough cork as the texture for inside the "cracks" of the heart.  When that dried, I added some blots of Ginger alcohol ink in areas around the modeling paste edges and then used matte multi medium mixed with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink to add overall translucent color.  A black Sharpie pen was the a great way to add some bold outlining to the burlap paper surface.

 

I have a clock and a heart ... how do I use the clock hands to sew up the broken heart?  Back to my rummage in my stash.  I found a suitable-sized big and little hand for my clock and some heavy gauge black jewelry wire to serve as my clock spring/thread.  I added a few small gears to the center of my clock face and I was in business.  After wrapping the jewelry wire around a paint brush handle (to create the "springs"), I started to map out the path that each of my clock hand needles would take for their respective heart cracks that needed mending.  I used a my trusty black Sharpie to make the "holes" where the needle entered and existed as it slowly sews the heart back together.  I didn't actually "sew" with the wire :)  I cut small pieces of wire to create the stitches and lightly tapped them into pre-cut holes across the "cracks" to make my wire stitches.  Then I attached a "spring" section of wire from the clock to the heart (one for each clock hand and respective crack).  At the end of the row of stitches on  a given "crack", I created a hole for the clock-hand needle to come out for the next stitch and a new hole on opposite side of the crack where the clock-hand needle would stab into the heart to create the new stitch.  Fun!

I began the job of choosing my letters for the phrase "time mends broken hearts) and started placing them on my the clipboard background.  I realized that the corners looked a bit empty.  A ha!  I can use my new Tim Holtz Mixed Media framelits to create a sort of "caging" around the edges.  I grabbed some silver foil cardstock and cut out four of the honeycomb framelit corners.  I ran them through my Xyron Creative Station to put some adhesive on the back of these intricate diecuts.  Nice.  I added them to the four corners of my clipboard.  I used a Black Soot Distress Marker to create shadows on the clipboard within the honeycomb pattern.  Cotton swabs were used to smudge the marker and helped me wipe away any excess color.  Awesome!

Ok ... the corners don't look so bare now :)  On to the letters for my words.  I used some foil covered chipboard letters for the word TIME.  Again, I wanted a more rustic feel to them, so I covered them Ginger and Latte alcohol inks and then embossed them with Walnut Stain Distress Embossing Powder (that I applied in small sections with Ranger Ink's Perfect Pens).   They were a little dark.  So I gave them a white "shadow" with a white Sharpie Acrylic Paint Pen (great tool!).  I came back with some matte multi medium mixed with Antique Linen Distress Stain to tone down the white paint. 

I used some Tim Holtz Ideology letters for the remaining words.  For MEND, I used Tim's Label Letter stickers on some scrap paper left over from another project.  The word BROKEN was one of my favorite experiments.

I took the letters from Tim's Alphaparts and painted them with Antique Linen Distress Paint.  Once that was dry to the touch, I applied a thick coat of Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  After it dried, I grabbed some Cranberry alcohol ink and applied just a drop at the corners of the letters.   The ink spread through the cracks of the clear crackle paint.  I learned to apply small dots of alcohol ink with the tip of a toothpick (instead of applying directly from the bottle) a little too late to be more deft with the ink application :).  A Black Soot Distress Marker was used to give some shading around these letters.

Finally, I decided that I wanted my heart mending to be "motivated by love".  I took some of Tim's grungeboard letters for the word HEARTS and painted them with Antique Linen Distress Paint.  I used Coffee archival ink to stamp some of the letters with quotes involving Love from some of Tim Holtz stamp sets.  I embossed the stamped sentiments with clear embossing powder. The letter "e" was stamped with a clockface.  I used some of Tim's Remnant Rubs (again involving Love) on the remaining letters.  Distress Markers were used to give a little color to the letters and a black Sharpie was used to give most of them a quick outline.  I did a layered presentation of the letters and adhered them to the heart with multi medium.

I think that's it!  I apologize for the very long post.  Forgive the typos.  I will try to edit it tomorrow.   Since this mixed media project was such a labor of love, I'm going to enter it in a few challenges. 

Frilly and Funkie's Stitch in Time ... with a Twist Challenge

Craft Stamper Magazine's 'Take a Technique':  Pens and Pencils Challenge

We Love to Create Challenge #17 :  Anything Mixed Media/Creative/Inky Goes

Mixed Media World's: Gorgeous Textures Challenge 

 Art Journal Journey:  Time

Hopefully, you've had some time to create heart-felt art this week.  I'll try to catch up on my visits Crafty Blogland visits this weekend.  Hugs to you all -- Mary Elizabeth

12 Tags of 2015 -- July

Well, I'm here with, not just one, but two tags for my take on Tim Holtz's July 2015 tag.  Such a cool technique using Distress Micro-Glaze and water color paper.  I won't go into details here since Tim did such a fantastic tutorial on his blog; however, as I was making my first tag,  I realized how amazingly versatile this technique is.  My first tag (made when I was thinking about the summer coming to an end and going back to school) has a very vintage vibe to it.  My second tag is very vibrant with some of Tim's new Distress colors for 2015 (Abandoned Coral, Mermaid Lagoon, and Twisted Citron) for a very special person's birthday card.  Basically it's the same tag in composition, but each has a completely different feel because of the color choices.

It has been a long day and so I don't have much energy to type right now.  I'm going to leave with a couple of pics of each tag individually.  Wishing you all a great week!!  -- Mary Elizabeth

 

Adventure Awaits You in 2015 -- CC3C #33 Tag

I'm really excited to be able to participate in the second-to-last Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge #33:  Altered Surfaces (p. 45).   If you have not already checked out Tim Holtz's latest book, you can order one directly from him and he will even autograph it!  The lovely Linda Ledbetter at Studio L3 is hosting these challenges and there is plenty of inspiration from the very talented Curiosity Crew.  Seriously ... drop by and see what they've been up to.  They all are amazing crafters!! 

 

I made a tag for my entry.  This year I am doing a "scrap calendar" for my Mom.  Each month, We are choosing a favorite event that happened to her during that month and taking a photo.  I'm making a tag to accompany the photo for that month's calendar page.  We will fill the days on the calendar with special memories.  My mom turned 80 in February, so I created an 80th birthday tag for the month of February.  This tag going to decorate January 2015.  It is celebrating some new beginnings for both of us.  My mom spent the majority of 2014 taking care of me.  Starting in January 2015, my mom got to lead her own life for a change :)

I've got to confess, this tag is one of my favorites.  I love the altered surface technique and I really enjoyed making the background to show off my altered elements.  I started the background with a piece of scrapbook paper (you can see part of the 12 by 12 sheet that I used in the pic to the left) that was pre-printed with some copper metallic embossing.  I used Tim's #8 tag die and die cut the paper.  I adhered the paper to a manilla tag with Glue and Seal for stability.  Then I got to have some fun!  I stenciled some Ranger Transparent Gloss Texture Paste through Tim's Flourish Stencil and let it dry.  Then I took Broken China Distress Paint and lightly swiped the paint horizontally (left to right) directly onto the tag.  I wiped the paint off of the clear embossed flourish pattern (also wiping left to right) and I could see the pattern paper underneath!  A heat tool was applied to completely dry the paint (careful not to overheat the embossed areas and bubble it). Then I went back and inked the entire tag with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. It really made the Broken China pop because all the non-painted and non-stenciled areas were filled in with that rich, dark brown.   Finally I used a Black Soot Distress Marker to add some shadowing to the embossed flourish.  Oh my goodness!  I loved the final result.  Here is a close-up of the background:

You can see that the copper embossing on the patterned paper also acted as a partial resist.  It added to this cool background.  Here is a close up of the top of the tag with one of Tim's Custom Fasteners that I colored with alcohol ink and added to my tag's bow.  The bow was colored with Broken China and Walnut Stain Distress Stain then spritzed with some water.

Let's take a look of the stars of this project -- the altered surfaces.  I can't go into details of the technique used because it wouldn't be fair to Tim and all the hard work he did to put together Compendium of Curiosities 3.  I will tell you that I applied the technique to the hammered ring charm below that surrounds a tiny custom fastener.  I used Broken China, Walnut Stain, Picket Fence, Mustard Seed, Black Soot and Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint on the ring charm to achieve the effect. In the background you can see that I embellished the bottom of the tag with a strip of Recollections trim tape.  Another strip of this trim tape was added to the right side of the tag.  You can't see much of the vertical strip because it is mostly covered with my altered pieces.  To mark the many possibilities that 2015 holds for my Mom, I added the sentiment "adventure awaits you" from Tim's Small Talk Stickers.

Here is a close-up of some other altered surfaces.  The washers originally had a verdigris treatment on them.  I used some more Ripe Persimmon, Walnut Stain, Black Soot, and Picket Fence Distress Paint to complete the look.  The number 1 for the 15 (representing 2015) came from one of Tim's Alpha Parts sets.  It primarily was treated with Broken China Distress Paint and accented with Antique Bronze, Black Soot, Mustard Seed, and Picket Fence Distress Paints.  Underneath the "1" is a metal embellishment that I treated with alcohol inks as well as Ripe Persimmon and Walnut Stain Distress Paints.  After the number 1 was adhered to the metal disk with Glue and Seal, I added a layer of Glossy Accents to the metal disk (inside the ring surrounding the 1).

The same treatment was given to the number 5 in the pic to the right.  I love the addition of the Glossy accents to the metal disk behind the 5.

That's it for my CC3C #33 Altered Surfaces Project.  I just want to remind you all that there are some amazing Tim Holtz goodies up for grabs to the Curiosity Crew's Choice winner (from Tim and Mario!!) and a sensational $50 Shopping Spree from one of my favorite online crafting stores, Inspiration Emporium ,will go to one lucky random draw winner.   I hope you have time to play.  We are almost out of challenges (wow!).

It has been such a pleasure to get in my craft room and create this past week.  Thanks so much to Tim, Mario, Linda and each of the Curiosity Crew members for inspiring me this week.  I can't remember when I've had so much fun.  And most importantly, thanks to you for dropping by!!  -- Mary Elizabeth

Saying Happy Birthday!!

Hi everyone!!  Here's a quick post to celebrate my nephew's birthday and the fact that I actually finished this birthday card (yay me!!).   My nephew loves rodeo and cowboy boots, so I decided to go a "western" feel to his card.  The card is made out of a 12 x 12 Core'dinations card stock on which I used a wrinkled distress technique (yes ... I will actually iron a piece of cardstock and not my clothes).  Some red and white check printed paper and a piece of bandana print card stock were used to decorate both the outside and inside of the card.

 To go along with my western theme, I used Tim Holtz's stars and train track (to look like a fence on the bottom of the card) embossing folders to deboss the front of the card.  I swiped some black archival ink on the folders before I sent them through my Vagabond machine.  This gives the card the look like it has been "branded".  The debossed image didn't go all the way to the the center crease, so I used some tissue tape on the crease to cover the bare space.

I fussy cut Tim Holtz's jalopy truck (stamped in black archival ink on kraft paper) and used Crackle Accents on the windows and headlights.  A little Walnut Stain Distress Stain was used to highlight the crackles.  This was foam tape mounted to the front of the card.









I topped it off with a strip of denim material and a corrugated cardboard diecut that I treated with Antique Linen Distress Paint and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I began to wish my nephew a "happy" birthday with this  metal embellishment that I painted with Barn Door Distress Paint and some Ginger alcohol ink.  Love this grungy, cute piece on that bandana print!

As you can see in the pic below, I carried over the checked and bandana print paper to the interior of the card.

I used Tim Holtz's WISH die on the bandana print and backed it with more denim fabric.  I tied a cute cowboy ornament to the H and let him run along a strip of printed paper I added to the top and bottom of the interior of the card.  The kraft paper interior was kept to a very neutral palette with stamped sentiments in black and coffee archival ink.  I used a few TH stencils with Walnut Stain Distress Ink as well.

The star of the show is the denim pocket (real denim!!) that I found as a part of banner set at Michaels. Makes a great tag holder!!  I used Tim's stripes embossing folder on the bottom of the pocket and added a little Picket Fence Distress Stain/Paint mixture to the embossed stripes (to give them a faded look).  Some knotted rope, a TH stenciled coffee ring, and a metal "birthday" embellishment completes the look.  I hope you can see the Stampendous bandana print background stamp underneath the pocket -- such a great stamp!  You can see a little sheen on the paper here in the sun.  I used a layer of Matte Multimedium to seal the kraft paper interior.

Here are a couple of pics with the tag.  You might recognize the background from my Tim Holtz June Tag for 2015 post.  A piece of resist kraft paper (cut off of the cover of Tim's kraft resist Paperstash pad) was inked with Weathered Wood and Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and stamped with a TH sentiment (black archival ink and clear embossed).  It made the perfect holder for my nephew's gift card.  The tag is topped with a rope tag tie and a "play" ideology charm on a safety pin.

 

The back really shows off the the wrinkled distress technique.  It works so well on the Core'dinations card stock.

I'm really not very good at card making.  It has taken me a few weeks to finish this one.  I hope my nephew likes it.  Anyway, it contains a heart-full of love and best wishes.  Since it definitely says something ... I'm entering it in Frilly and Funkie's Something to Say Challenge.  And since it's Anything Goes over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, I'm going to enter it there as well.  

On a related note, I would love to give a warm hug to the DT over at Simon Says Stamp for spotlighting my Stars and Stripes burlap canvas.  I was floored!!  There were so many amazing summer projects.  I love that piece (it's hanging on my wall) but I really appreciate the fact that someone else liked it too.  Thanks again!!

Hope you all have had time to start (and finish) a project as well this week.  Looking forward to seeing and being inspired by your works of art.  -- Mary Elizabeth

Stars and Stripes

Happy 4th of July!!  We're celebrating our Independence Day here in the States and it's definitely one of my favorite holidays.   I love my country and so I created a bit of rustic patriotic decor for my house.

I started  by priming a burlap panel with a bit of gesso.  Then I used Wendy Vecchi's Crackle Texture Paste on a Heidi Swapp star stencil that I found at Michaels.  After it dried, I seriously grunged all those wonderful cracks and crevices with Walnut Stain Distress Stain and Soot Distress Marker (specifically around the star's outline).  I wiped off most of surface stain and ink with a damp cloth.

The star stencil came with its own mask, so I masked the star and used Barn Door and Chipped Sapphire Distress Paint and Tim Holtz's Stripes stencil to create some very rough stripes around the star.  I grunged around the star with Walnut Stain Distress Stain, Frayed Burlap  and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink.  

I accessorized my star and stripes with some Tim Holtz Tissue Tape and Industrious Stickers (also grunged and splattered with some watered down white acrylic paint.)  Don't you just love Tim's box corners?  I added some Ginger, Latte, and black alcohol ink to age them a bit.

The panel was topped with some jute strings that I pulled from the back of the panel, a TH muse token, and another star.

I stamped some stars on the edges of the panel and tapped in some star tacks that I had grunged with more alcohol ink.

Since this is my favorite summer holiday, I am entering this in Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Summer challenge.  I remember celebrating with my family at my grandmother's house.  We had a huge picnic and swam in her pool.  Then at night, we had a poolside view of a nearby park's 4th fireworks display.  Great food, sunburns, the smell of chlorine and bright pops of color in the night sky ... some of my favorite summer memories.

Hope you are making some favorite memories today.  Happy 4th to you all!!  Mary Elizabeth