Distressing-ly Wrinkle-Free!

Welcome to Week #16 on the Compendium Challenge at Studio L3. This week: page 33, Wrinkle-free Distress. And, OK, I have a confession: I have, er sorta done this one already...I just couldn't help it!! It looked so inviting, easy, promising...

So, yes, you have seen this as a background on a few of my past entries. However, in the spirit of discovery, and the challenge, I have taken one of my first tags that I tried this with, and used it as my entry. (because, yes, practice really does make this better, smoother, more controlled)

My colors were Peeled Paint,Barn Door, Wild Honey, and Mustard. All the stamps came from Rubbernecker Stamps: I just love the poem by Robert Frost! And even though it is like-high 70's and humid as hell today (yeah, upstate NY...What the..?) this tag is almost like looking at all the leaves that have fallen in the driveway. I really do love fall! And the iced pumpkin latte from Dunkin' Donuts! Which is almost empty, and I just started work...might need another Dunkin' run...

Alcohol Ink on Grunge-- CCC#15

Welcome to week #15 of Lovely Linda's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge! This week, page #53 is our tutorial. Now, I am prefacing this week by admitting I have loved alcohol (oh, err..) ink since my very first bottle of Pinata inks. And this particular technique on glossy has been a fave of mine since, well, that first bottle of Pinata ink! And after our Monoprint challenge a few weeks back..now those inks are never far from my hand! So, to do this on grunge...well, I was quite excited (and very glad my order for the paint dabber came in time!)

So, with best intentions, I stole into my craft loft for a few sacred minutes of playing...unfortunately puppy had to come (or cats would have been eaten..it was one of those nights!) And you guessed it..I was yelling at puppy so much, my mojo ran away...I came up with nothing! So, just to see how it worked, I worked on some flower punches I had (heavens forbid I screw up a nice piece of grunge!) Very cool, but bumpy..having issues with the paint lay-down...tried another...pretty cool..time running out...still no ideas..just small pieces-parts...Dakota has a yarn ball...oye! So...when all else fails...ATC Time! I did get to play with the new Enamel Accents. which I really liked, despite my terrible free-hand stuff. So..here it is...my stamping challenge entry...with absolutely no stamps! But the cats survived, Dakota didn't knock down my grid storage cubes..my yarn wasn't all slobbery..and the photo kinda shows the agate effect. If it wasn't so late, I'd be hitting my other favorite alcohol product!

Showing the Grunge!

This weeks challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show is showing your interpretation of "Grunge". I had done this card for a friend, and since it had to be mailed, I couldn't add too much "Stuff" on the outside...I love my postman (I should, he's my hubby!) but I don't trust them to get stuff with bumpy envelopes where they belong! But I did use a few techniques from the Compendium of Curiosities! Three to be exact! See if you can tell which ones they are! And all the stamps are from Tim. And Happy Crafting everyone!

CCC #14; Masking

Hi all~

Well, here we are at week #14 at Studio L3's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge...and I still haven't missed a week...yay!

Now, I have cut my own masks before, and with this being such a stressed week, wasn't sure what I was going to be up to--or how much time I'd have, so was a bit worried on what would appear on a finished project. So, with about an hour of free time, up to the craft room I go, and pulled out some of the pre-cut masks from Tim...and Wow; how much easier are they to use??!! So starting with the big clock mask, things just sorta flew from there (plus I'm sure the time limit was in the back of my mind) The "Time is Eternity" stamp is from Non Sequitur stamps (hmm, spelling?) and the Ben Franklin quote is from A Stamp in the Hand. All the rest are from Tim's line. Oh, and I had time left to play with the tinted fragment technique over one of Tim's salvage sticker clock faces...It got a bit "copper-ey" as I, uhm, apparently didn't tighten the top well the last time and started shaking, and, got copper..well, pretty much everywhere..so in person, when looking "across" the fragment, it is pratically opaque.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm gonna start looking at what everyone else has made.

The Stamp-tember Hop!

Wow! What a crazy week in Blog-dom! I don't know about you; but I really am pressed to keep up with it all; and still try to create and clean a house!! LOL! So, in addition to the Starving Artistamps Blog Candy Give-away and the creation of Eclectic Paperies E-Team, there is Simon Says Stamp "Stamp-tember Hop"! This one is really cool, with great prizes available. So go check them out!

The Theme is holiday fun, and I need to start my Christmas cards, so here is something I've been mulling over ever since we did the Alcohol Ink Monoprints over as the Compendium Challenge at Studio L3. Now, I'm hoping its my new monitor at work, but the photo is looking really dark here; I hope it's not so bad. I kinda like it; but it did seem a bit labor intensive for doing 15-20 cards. ( I generally do 4-5 designs of 15-20 cards each--I just can't do all one design!LOL!) Maybe it was just the stupid bow...I really hate tying little bows (or big bows..any bows really!) So, please, let me know what you think...and as I develop more of my designs, I'll share them with you.

Meanwhile, go get into the holiday spirit as well, and start Hopping!!

Blog Candy giveaway

Oh my, this is just one crazy bloggy week!! There is the new Eclectic Paperies E-Team tutorials, the Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop, and Starving Artistamps Blog Candy Giveaway! And this is to help them spread the word on their four new stamp collections. So hop on over and check them out. Then spread the word and you too might get some free blog candy!

Oh, this has nothing to do with Halloween, but I have just seen "The Soloist", and this is my tribute to Beethoven. Wow, looks really dark; I hope it's my new monitor at work...I'll try to load another image tomorrow...

Oh..Those Tattered Flowers!

Welcome to Week #13! This week's assignment: Page 65, Grungepaper Flowers. For anyone not already involved in the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge, you will need to hop on over to Studio L3 to get the details.

Now, I had just bought the sizzix big shot and Tattered Florals die waiting for this challenge so I was very excited! Of course, without giving anything away, I am sharing the Big Shot with my friend Julie, and pre-punched a bunch of stuff in advance, which sort of screwed up step #1 by assembling after cutting; making things, lets say, interesting; and I'm not sure if the xyron machine is the way to go for pasting onto grungepaper. That aside, I think they turned out splendidly! And once again, I fell to my new color theme: Ancient Linen, Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet. It does turn out so much cooler on a tag than on a white ATC...more likely the type of paper, but you know what I mean! (And Linda...can we please do the first tutorial soon?? I feel like I'm cheating, I'm using it so much! LOL!)

So I'm going to hop over now to see what everyone else has done (I try not to peek too much until after I'm done!). Have a great crafting week everyone! And wow, do I use a lot of exclaimation points..ah well, I probably talk that way too when discussing crafting...

Working the Layers!

True to my word, I did make a separate ATC for the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge. And while it doesn't have half the layers that everyone else has, for me, it was quite an exercise! I realized I don't do many layers...some colorful matting, maybe...but usually I add one charm or trinket, and thats it.

So this was an ATC, with an ATC Chipboard Frame that I covered in music paper. Don't even ask where I got the frames...they came square and oval...for the life of me I can't remember...but it was from a new site I found, I believe, on the Studio L3 blog. Then because the ATC was a linen texture, I stamped the saying, and glued that in the center, with a small heart I had left over from the Crackle Technique a few weeks ago.not that you can see the rock candy distress crackle paint; but it is there! The bird and flourish were my final embellishments...the flourish is a Jolee package..pretty cool; I'll need to find more of those! I hope everyone else had fun with this challenge! And remember, Less is not always More!!

Week #12-Chipped Enamel

Wow! I've made it through week #12! I don't think I've been 100% on anything this long! Well, ok, I don't think I've ever missed a concert in 15 years in the Lower Cape Concert Band; but I did miss more than a few rehersals! But, I digress;

So, this week we're delving into Chipped Enamels over at Studio L3. Now, while I found this technique extremely easy, and very cool (well, we won't talk about the 3 attempts to do the brad...2nd degree burns at the least! LOL!)...I just couldn't experiment with my limited stash of metal items...so I kept it pretty minimalist..to say the least! But now I know what to expect and will go boldly forth on projects that scream for this texture! And, I'm also going to look for all those cool numbers everyone else is using! Oh, and I did find a new fav color combination: Ancient Linen, Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet! It looked really cool on a tag I started, then totally botched with the black embossing, it came out close here...

So hop on over to see Linda, and delve into the Compendium of Curiousities, Page 44. Have a great rest of the week everyone!