Grungy Monday Premieres!

After having so much fun experimenting with the techniques from The Compendium of Curiosities and following along with everyone at Studio L3, I was thrilled to hear that the challenges would continue! This week's challenge is to create a tag inspired by Tim's tag #10 from the 2008 12 Tags of Christmas.

I created the background of my tag by cutting out acetate gears using my Vagabond and the Gadget Gears die. I carefully laid the gears in place and spritzed over them with my homemade shimmer mist I created using Brushed Corduroy Distress reinker and gold Perfect Pearls, which I combined in a Mini Mister bottle. After removing the masks, I inked over the gears using Weathered Wood Distress ink.

For my focal point, I stamped the men from Tim's new Steampunk stamp collection on Grungeboard and embossed them using Ranger's black embossing powder. After it cooled, I trimmed around it and spritzed it with the same shimmer mist I used on the tag. Here's a tip! You know how you end up with a raw, uncolored edge when you cut something out of Grungeboard or even regular paper? I hate that! Well, the new Distress Stains work great for covering that raw edge! I used it on my stamped men and it gave the piece a nice, finished look.

Finally, I stamped the 'Admit One' - also from the Steampunk set - onto the back of an Adage Ticket. To give it a little more interest, I overstamped it with the background stamp from the same set. It's attached to the tag using Tim Holtz's Tiny Attacher.

Please be sure and head over to Linda's blog and check out the great artwork that is being posted. Thanks so much to this week's hostesses, Terry and Tracy!

Spring Tag

This tag ended up being a bit of an experiment. To begin with, I fell in love with Linda's crinoline flowers and had to try them. I didn't have crinoline, so I used an old man's hankie....wait, that sounds wrong. I did not steal a hankie from an old man. It was a brand new vintage hankie that my friend Becky gave me. I cut my flowers using the Tattered Florals die and dyed it with my new Spun Sugar Distress stain. I swear, that is the prettiest shade of pink, ever! My flowers ended up looking more like a ruffled mess, but I enjoyed playing around with it.

Next, I had watched Tim Holtz on HSN and was intrigued with how he used the Adirondack Paint Dabbers. I swiped Sunshine Yellow over a white tag that I cut using my Sizzix Tag die. When it was dry, I inked over it using Peeled Paint Distress stain. I loved the effect! After that dried, I inked the background stamp from the Papillion stamp set using Peeled Paint Distress stain, and stamped it onto the tag. Love that look, too!

For the center panel, I covered a piece of chipboard with French paper, die cut it using the Styled Labels die, and washed over it with a little white paint. Remember when Tim made the foam stamps during the 12 Tags of Christmas? I cut one using the Caged Bird die, inked it with the Sunshine Yellow dabber, and stamped it on the panel.

My last experiment was also the result of watching HSN! The segment following Tim's showcased various scrapbooking items. I'm not sure who it was, but someone demoed the tiny Xyron sticker maker by using it to apply adhesive to chipboard letters and then covered them with glitter. I'm sure the whole world knows this trick, but I thought it was brilliant and had to try it. I cut the word Spring using Tim's Chip Block alpha die and, after running the letters through my Xyron, covered them with Martha's glitter. So pretty!

The bottom of my tag is finished with a ruffle made from Tissue Tape that's been inked with Peeled Paint Distress ink. The tie at the top is a torn strip from the hankie that was dyed using the same stain - Spun Sugar - that I used on the flowers.

Whew! So much experimenting! I hope everyone has been having as much fun as I have with all of their new Tim Holtz and Ranger products. I'm submitting this to the Simon Says Stamp and Show a Word challenge, as well as The Artistic Stamper Spring challenge and the Wednesday Stamper Fabulously Colorful challenge. Thanks so much for stopping by!

My 'Timspiration' Station!

I have wanted to join the What's On Your Workdesk gang for such a long time - but honestly, I would cringe if anyone saw the state my desk is usually in. When people talk about their horrible mess, I'm usually like...pfft...if you only knew! Anyway, I finally have something to show. I call it my 'Timspiration' Station. :-)

My daughter found this in the storeroom of the Children's Museum store (where she used to work). Knowing that I am a sucker for any kind of shelf, she kindly brought it home and dumped it in my studio. Where it has sat...and sat...and sat. I finally got tired of tripping over it and decided I would paint it and use it to hold my ink pads and other supplies.

After I painted it (three coats!) I created a little cork board by gluing a sheet of cork I'd found at an estate sale to the back of the shelf. I added a length of wooden yardstick (another estate sale find) to the top. I wanted a little color, so I painted it using an Adirondack Red Pepper Dabber (I am in love with these!). Along the top, I glued little clothespins that I aged using Vintage Photo and Black Soot Distress reinkers. I think this will be great for displaying all kinds of things!

Since I didn't have any cool pushpins, I created some using upholstery tacks and various Idea-ology Sprocket Gears and Game Spinners. Fun! They are glued together using Glossy Accents.

The shelves on the left side hold most of my Distress ink pads, Glossy Accents, and my newest collection - Distress Stains. I labeled my inks using the template found on the Ranger site.

The next shelf holds my Adirondack Dabbers, Distress Crackle paints, Stickles, and Perfect Pearls, all contained in a vintage cigar box.

On the right side, my Altered Mini Mister organizer finally has a good home! I also have a spot for my jumbo Archival ink pad (the BEST for photo image rubber stamps).

The bottom shelf holds my Inkssentials Craft Spinner along with my Blending Tools. On the left I have a craft organizer that holds my Idea-ology bits and pieces. I also have one of the old tin embossing powder cases with my regular and Distress ep's.

I had a big blank space at the top, so I created a little banner using papers from Tim's Idea-ology Paper Stash - Lost and Found. I don't have the rosette die yet (sad!), so I hand-scored the papers and folded them. Antique Linen Distress Stickles adds a little vintage sparkle to the edges. The letters are Grungeboard that's been inked with Bundled Sage and Vintage Photo Distress inks.

While I was tidying, I finally got all of my scissors, tools, acrylic blocks, etc. corralled in an old tool tote (another estate sale find, what else?).

I love how this keeps all my favorite supplies at hand - I have to have my stuff out or I won't use it. This makes it so easy to grab what I need, and also makes putting it away very simple (very important for someone like me!).

Ready for action! I mostly took this picture to commemorate the event. It will never be this clean again!

Put a Bird On It!

Any Portlandia fans out there? I decided that my egg was too boring, so I put a bird on it! I was messing around with the idea of doing a Steampunk Easter egg a couple weeks ago. I made one, but then couldn't figure out what to do with it. Today, I was experimenting with the technique I used in my previous post - trying (and failing) - to create a Steampunk look, and had an aha! moment. I chucked the ugly egg, and put this together.

My bird was created by adhering a copper sheet to Grungeboard, and then cutting it using Tim Holtz's Caged Bird die. After it was cut, I ran it through the Cuttlebug gears embossing folder. To hold the bird, a length of wire was threaded through two Idea-ology Sprocket Gears and inserted into the egg. The bird is affixed to the wire with a dab of hot glue.

By the way, this is a real egg! The technique I used to create it is too long for this post, so I may just pop a tutorial on here later this week. It sits on a nest of tangled wire which rests atop an old fuse.

When in doubt - put a bird on it!

A Very Holtz-y Easter

The latest Martha Stewart Living magazine had an article on embossed eggs and I couldn't wait to try it out using some of the new Tim Holtz products from Inspiration Emporium. I started with a white egg that I'd blown. I had to actually buy eggs - our chickens lay green/blue, pinkish-brown, and dark brown eggs and those just wouldn't work!

First,  I stamped various images from TH's new Papillon stamp set, using Distress embossing ink. Next, I embossed them using Ranger clear embossing powder. Once they had cooled, I covered the egg with my new Broken China Distress Stain. How cool is that??? You can dye eggs with this stuff! After it dried I over-stamped with other images from the set using Denim Adirondack ink. Finally, I added a few flourishes (from the Reindeer Flight set) using Archival ink. I can't wait to try this using some of the other colors - these stains are fantastic!!