Simon Says Stamp and Show... A Handmade Background

Hi everyone,

This week's theme on the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is to do a project with a handmade background, which is awesome since I *love* making backgrounds! 

I made a trio of tags, and used three of the tags from THIS blog post I did a few weeks ago, which will show you all the details of how to make a background master board using Dylusions sprays and stencils and then cut it down to lots of tags.

Then I started layering stamps over the background.  I used the leafy vine stamp from THIS
Dylusions set and painted in the leaves with perfect pearls and highlighted them with a white pen.

Next I stamped the bunting stamp (pennants / banners for US folks) several times onto Ranger's new specialty stamping paper, and colored them in with several colors of the new distress markers, which are awesome!  I cut out each pennant and adhered them across all three tags and added the string in with a black pitt pen.

Then I stamped the mini tags onto specialty paper and colored around the borders with distress markers, and added several sentiments, also colored with distress markers.  I accented each tag with some colored hemp twine. 

Creating a handmade background is a lot of fun, and can be a project all to itself.  Sometimes I just sit and make backgrounds!  Then when I'm ready to make a tag, I'm already started!  Join in with this week's challenge and have fun playing with backgrounds. As always you'll have a chance at winning a $50 shopping spree with Simon Says Stamp. 

Have a great week!

~ ellen.

Simon Says Stamp and Show... Anything!

Hello!

How time flies... this past week just whizzed by, and here we are so soon with another Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge!  This week is open for anything you care to create as the theme says... Anything Goes!  So, no excuses this week - get your art on and create something... anything!

I started with a 10" x 10" wood framed mirror from IKEA.  I stained the wood with bright turquoise Dylusions ink spray, applied with a baby wipe.  I love the shabby, beachy look!  (Sorry for the reflection of me in the picture above - photographing mirrors is a tricky business!)

I used  Dylusions ink sprays and stencils and 12 x 12 sticky back canvas to create a large background, and added some texture with gesso, circle stencils and the edge of a craft scraper. 

Once the background was finished I cut it down and covered 8 chipboard squares.  The beauty of sticky back canvas is that no adhesive is needed!  Simply peel the backing and stick it down! Easy!    Then I used black paint dabber rather than ink with Dylusions stamps to stamp the flying birds and the leafy border all the way around the edges.  I painted the leaves in with perfect pearls mixed with water and adhered to the frame with multi medium.

Then I stamped 3 different sentiments onto plain sticky back canvas with jet black archival ink, cut each sentiment up, and arranged them in various areas on the mirror.

I hope you've enjoyed this week's project.  As always, if you join in the challenge and post your creation on the challenge blog, you'll have a chance at winning a $50 shopping spree from Simon Says Stamp!

Have a great week!

~ ellen.

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Bottle It!

Hi everyone,

There are many things in life we'd like to "bottle"... so this week's theme on Simon Says Stamp and Show gives us an opportunity.  I took a trip to Studio 490, using Wendy Vecchi's Art Parts to create a piece of wall art.

I started with the Art Parts flourish frame, covering it with Basic Grey paper, painting the flourishes with a black paint dabber and stamped the frame with the script stamp.

I added the Art Parts jar, which I painted with picket fence crackle paint and then, when dry, accented with tumbled glass distress stain, and over stamped with the matching jar stamp.  Then I added the art parts flower, colored with distress inks and the art parts scissors, painted with silver paint dabber and stamped with the matching scissors stamp.

I tucked the art parts queens and crowns behind the frame, like she's peeking over the top.  I finished the piece off with some idea-ology pen nibs, a game spinner, wooden stars, and vintage buttons.

Hope you've enjoyed this week's piece and have a chance to join in the fun.  As always, if you are able to join in the "bottle it" theme and link your piece up on the challenge website, you'll have a chance at winning a $50 shopping spree to Simon Says Stamp!

Have a great week - hope to see you soon.

~ ellen.

Mixed Ranger Media Background Tutorial

Hello!

I hope you all had a great week - I'm so glad the weekend is here!  I was playing around in my studio this week and wanted to do some cool backgrounds.  I love the color palette of the Ranger Color Wash sprays, but I wanted lighter tones, and an idea was born.  I've always been a fan of combining different colors of the same product, but started wondering how I could combine different products as well.  All products are available (or will be very soon!) at Simon Says Stamp.  Here's what I came up with...

I started with the darkest of the color wash sprays, espresso, and combined it with the picket fence distress stain.

I started by applying a generous amount of the picket fence stain to my craft sheet.

Then sprayed the espresso color wash over top of the stain.

Pressed a manila tag into the mixture and "scooched" it around a little bit.

Here's the result after one pressing.  Cool, right?

Then I lightly pressed random areas of the tag into the leftover inks/sprays to get some random spotting.

Did the same thing using cranberry color wash spray and picket fence distress stain.

 I got two tags out of the pressings of inks.

Then I thought... color wash sprays are reactive with water, just like distress inks, so I spritzed some water over the whole tag hoping to get some watermarks.

It worked!

Here's another combination - sailboat blue color wash and picket fence distress stain.  This is just from ONE pressing.

Then I combined dusty concord distress stain with bubblegum pink dylusions ink spray.

Here's the result after one pressing.  Nice, but a little boring, right?  Keep dipping and dripping...

And you get this...

Then, instead of adding random splatters of water, I added splatters of perfect pearl mists.  I misted several squirts of perfect pearls (one color at a time) into the palm of my hand and then splattered it onto the tag, heat drying in between colors) so I got nice big splotches.  I used pink gumball and forever violet.

And, finally, I combined mustard seed distress stain with postbox red dylusions spray inks.

I think this is my *favorite* !!! I used the back of a previous experiment tag that had lots of blue, and the edges still show, and I *love* that!  Did some water splatters on this as well. 

So... if you're stuck for a new color combo, don't limit yourself to one product line - mix it up!  These tag backgrounds are now ready for stenciling, stamping, doodling, etc.  Hope you have a chance to play this weekend!  Let me know what you think!

~ ellen.

Tim's 12 Tags 2012 - March

Hello!

Hope you're having a good week - we've almost made it to Friday - yippee!

Unless you live under a rock, you've probably heard the big news that Tim Holtz has officially retired his 12 Tags of Christmas tradition which we all loved... HOWEVER... the 12 Tags tradition is continuing, just in a different format which allows us to enjoy it all year long!  He'll post one tag per month instead of 12 tags in 12 days - makes such perfect sense!  Click HERE to see the tag for March.

I was completely *buried* in work during February, but the cloud is lifting (YAY!) and I wanted to jump right in and do the tag for March.  Here's my version, with some substitutions and additions as usual...

What an awesome idea to do paper mosaics? Love it! But I'm getting ahead of myself... first step was to use Tim's wood grain stamp (which I haven't gotten my hands on yet) so I used my Hero Arts wood grain background stamp.  It's not quite as bold a pattern as Tim's but still gives a wood grain result.   Since the pattern isn't as bold, I wanted to add a little more interest to the background so I used one of Tim's flourish stamps with coffee archival ink.

I wanted to try out some of Tim's new sentiments, so I used one of the new stamps from THIS set.

Now for the mosaic butterflies... love them... I didn't have the "cement" embossing powder - truth be told I didn't even know this existed! (add it to the wish list!) So I used silver embossing powder instead - it doesn't give quite as realistic a "grout" result, but I like it all the same...

Added the perfect pearl mist, and metal foliage/flowers, same as Tim, but added some metal corners by 7 gypsies, and a trinket pin and brass key (eBay find) to the top of the tag.

Love that we will get to enjoy Tim's tags all year long, now.  If I get some extra time I may go back and do the February tag, but if not.... I'll just be happy to keep up with the new ones as they arrive.  Hope you have a chance to join in the fun - there are prizes involved!  And prize packages from Tim, packed lovingly (and usually *very* quickly) by Mario - come on.... what could be better???

Have a great day! 

~ ellen.

I Challenge Thee...

Hello!

Hope you're all having a good week so far... the good news is we're half way to the weekend!  Last weekend, Hels and I had a nice long Skype session and came up with a new "I Challenge Thee" project.

Sometimes when the old mojo disappears this is a great way to get it moving again.  We'll come up with a combination of "ingredients" that we each have to use on our project, and then set the laptops aside and just talk and craft together - what an *awesome* way to spend a Sunday afternoon - what did we ever do before Skype?

Here's our recipe of ingredients:

Jumbo size tag
Multi Medium Resist technique
Paper Artsy Hot Picks stamps
Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paints
Paper Artsy Metal on Card
Color Wash spray
Industrial Chic (Susan Lenart Kazmer) embellishments
Tim Holtz Rosette trim
Brads

I started by painting random thin lines of multi medium (matte) vertically on the jumbo manila tag.  Then I used sunset orange and wild plum color wash spray to create the background, using water to help blend the colors together.  The areas where I painted the multi medium resists the color wash sprays, leaving a streaked effect.

I used the grassy stamp from HP1005 at the bottom of the tag, and then used the spiky flower stamp from HP1004 over top of that, filling in the stems with a pitt pen if the stem didn't go all the way to the bottom of the tag.  I used jet black archival ink because a water based ink wouldn't have stamped nicely over the resist areas.  Then I used the script image from HP1006 to randomly stamp over the whole background.  I didn't mount the stamp on an acrylic block, but held it in a curved shape to get just patches of the script for a worn look.

Now for the flower... LOVE this flower! I used Paper Artsy dies (Grunge Flower #1, and Grunge Flower #2 and #3) to cut out three sizes of flower from Paper Artsy "Metal on Card" - which is sheet metal pre-mounted onto black card stock.   Then I used three of Tim's texture fades to create different embossed patterns on each flower, and the leaves (which is part of the Grunge Flower #1 die set).
I used Fresco Finish paints (butternet and orchid for the flowers, and guacamole/toad hall for the leaves) and then sanded over the raised texture of each element to reveal the metal.

The rosette trim is also painted lightly with butternut and orchid fresco finish paints.  The sentiment was stamped on the back of a journaling ticket. I used the same technique on this background so it would coordinate with the rest of the tag.

The final touch was adding the embellishments from Industrial Chic.  I used the metal spikes and mini gears on several of the spiky flowers, a washer with the same mini gear on the large metal flower, and the "67" (a significant year for me) plaque at the top.

I hope our "I Challenge Thee" project inspires you to get out your craft stash and play!  Feel free to substitute products where necessary.  I know that Paper Artsy stamps, paints and dies aren't readily available in the US (although that's starting to change - thank you Simon Says Stamp! YAY!), and Industrial Chic embellishments aren't available in the UK, so just use what you have.

Hope the rest of your week goes quickly - come on Friday!

~ ellen.

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Ideaology!

Hi everyone!

This week's theme on Simon Says Stamp and Show is to show off your idea-ology!  I've never needed much of an arm-twist to use idea-ology, and this was no exception.  

I started with a 6x6 canvas this week, creating a background with distress stains (aged mahogany, crushed olive and picket fence).

I've been lucky to get some of Tim's new stamps, and the mixed media set is to DIE for - such awesome possibilities for random texture.

I've always had a fondness for old things, whether it's an old sewing cabinet drawer or antique skeleton key, so the sentiment from Tim's Words for Thought set was perfect.  I stamped different words in different colors to match the background and give emphasis to the key words. 

Now comes the idea-ology!  I added pen nibs, link chain, the bird adornment, the birdcage, and metal corners.

Hope you enjoyed this week's project.  As always - I hope you have a chance to play with some idea-ology this week and join in our challenge.  You'll have a chance to win a $50 shopping spree from Simon Says Stamp!

Have a great week!

~ ellen.

Dylusions Tag Master Board Tutorial

Hello!

I've been wanting to do a tutorial for a while, so this is my first effort.  If you follow along on my blog, you'll remember the Dylusions Valentines tags I made for Dyan Reaveley's visit to The Queens Ink.  To create the tags, I did a "Master Board" so they would all have a similar feel to them, yet still be unique individually.  This is the technique I used... hope you enjoy it. 

For this Master Board, I started with a large (10" x 20") piece of water color paper (Fabriano Artistico - available HERE), several colors of Dylusions spray inks, and a water mister.

I started by spraying a very generous amount of water over half of the paper.  I like to work in sections on large pieces so the inks don't soak in too much, allowing for blending and bleeding.

Then I used the Dylusions spray inks, which blend immediately with the water.  Here's a shot showing the blending.

Then I repeated the process on the second half of the sheet, continuing the colors on the first half so they would blend nicely across the whole sheet.

At this point, you can blot the excess ink with a roll of paper towels, and then add more spray inks if desired to intensify the colors.  Here's the finished result after drying with a heat tool...

Now that we have a base of color, it's time to start adding layers of pattern and texture.  So of course I had to reach for the new Dylusions stencils and inks.  I stated with the alpha jumble stencil and postbox red spray ink.

Sprayed randomly across the page.

I repeated with the graduated circles stencil and crushed grape spray ink. 

Now it's time to add some texture, so I used the harlequin stencil and some white gesso.

I scraped the gesso through the stencil with a Ranger craft scraper.  This is NOT an exact process - be messy and random.  If you look closely, you'll notice that I used the stencil horizontally across the top of the page.  The only reason is that I know three #8 manila tags will fit, running across the top of the page.  So, the end result will be a tag where the harlequin pattern will run vertically.  You'll see later when we cut the Master Board down to tag size.

I felt like this Master Board still needed more pattern, so I went for the number jumble stencil and bright turquoise spray ink.

Here's the end result.

The Master Board is now complete, so it's time to decide how you want to cut it up.  I wanted to make tags, so I laid out the #8 tags across the whole sheet so I'd know where to cut.

I drew a line across the top of the sheet, measuring with the tag itself.

Then cut all the way across, separating the top and bottom sections.

I repeated the same process for the bottom section, using the tag to measure and draw lines to cut on.

Here are all the tags, nine in all, plus the one actual manila tag I used as a template.

Once again, I used the tag as a template and cut the two diagonal notches on each side and punched a hole in the center, using a standard hole punch from Office Depot / Staples, etc.

Et Voila!  A collection of tags with patterned / textured backgrounds, all ready for stamping, collage, doodling, painting - anything your heart desires!  You could even thread a ribbon through all nine and make a mini book, or sew them together with a sewing machine.  Let your imagine run free and have fun playing!

This is my first step-by-step tutorial, so I hope you enjoyed it.  Please let me know what you think - not enough detail? Too much detail?  I really do want them to be helpful and easy to follow, so give it to me straight!  Thanks for hanging in through a long post.  See you soon!

~ ellen.