Inspired by {Tim Holtz's Sizzix board}

 This week we are taking a look at Tim Holtz's sizzix pinterest board seen here for the Inspiration destination. Where I happened to come across this pin of these Cathedral Window gift tags  By Paula Cheney and was just totally gobsmacked. It was very much an Ah-Ha moment as I had bought this die months ago when it came out and really had no plan for it at all.

Seeing her tags were built from some premade thick chipboard I did cut these window frames repeatedly, the one on the left painted black is 3 layers of white 120# cardstock glued together, and the one on the right is two layers of white under a layer of strathmore canvas paper that was painted with a gesso / pale green acrylic paint. The view through the window panes are some yupo paper that has alcohol ink backgrounds done on it. 

I loved the texture of Paula's window frames and I tried with the black paint and a foam brush but, it did end up flat when it was dry. I think the texture of the canvas does not come through very well on the other because, of the quietness of the color. ( the alcohol inks were more of a show stopper I guess)

Wanting to make changes, I did use the layered robin die from Memory Box and the Finches die from Penny black for the birds.

The wreath here was Strathmore watercolor that was done in some shades of Distress Oxide inks a while back when I was doing "coffee" type colors for backgrounds and set aside, so there are variations on the colors and it adds to the interest a little I guess. The fiber is from fibers by the yard, the eye on the bird was done with some black Nuvo drops. The sentiment is a reverse printed one from Simon Says Stamp. 

This one the whirl Wreath ( Penny Black) was cut from some gold shimmer paper and has some white nuvo drops on it. the birds were cut from cream and grey printed papers and ( I had thought they were supposed to be chickadees and I brushed some gold ink on the bellies because of that, the eyes were done with nuvo drops. I did tie some May Arts Iridescent cord through the top of this to be a hanging tag and the sentiment here is a sticker from the Tim Holtz Christmas Noel pad. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 606 {loot}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

So, that project I started with making tags is still underway but, I am cleaning the table off in between die sessions so, late last night I received this box from spellbinders. They had a really good sale after Christmas and the bulk of my gifts were gift cards so, I have done some shopping. This morning this was all a nice tidy pile and I spread it out so you could see it all. the ones on the far left are to run through the foil press machine and the others are all dies. One thing I would mention is in the center on the lower part of the photo ( click to enlarge) I did order some rose gold jingle bells, now assuming that these were coming from a paper crafting place that they would be sized to fit on cards or small tags... ha ha they are HUGE. I never look at sizes when I buy things on line, so I hardly ever do as far as lumpy things go and yes, I will use them but, not on cards. probably on tags. ( really big tags) :) I also picked up a roll of their black twine. ( It kinda looks like hemp string through the plastic but, I have not opened it yet.

So far we are really enjoying the fiber line and the connection, even on the wi-fi things go zipping along. and if you are curious about streaming TV instead of having cable or a dish. We ended up going with Hulu Plus ( and live tv) and Hallmark Movies now, and a couple of outdoor tv apps that play things hubs wants to watch. And so far that is really fantastic to not have to go climb a ladder in the dark while its snowing to wipe the snow off the dish to see the weather report lol. That's about it from me, I hope you are all continuing to do well. Thanks for stopping by.
 

And So it begins

 Every year it seems like I need just a few more Christmas cards than I have, or that I want to mail as from me. So, the making some for the stash and the booth has commenced already and this one below was done jump started by an Ornament (seen here) in last week's featured stampers Denise's gallery at SCS.

 

You always need at least two changes so, I switched mine to be a square card and used mostly stamps to create it instead of layers of dies. I also was able to play with some new to me toys too so, that made it a double win. The lots of square die set from Paper Rose, this is the largest die, it cuts the frame and the mat at the same one pass so, it was pretty easy to me to pop up the frame for interest. The foliage is all from the Tim Holtz forest floor set stamped with some Distress Oxide inks Pine needles, rustic wilderness & pine bough. there is some polychromos and prisma pencils on that. the one to the lower right has some gold nuvo drops on the berries part of the image. The Hero Arts antique poinsettia was stamped with some distress antique linen and also colored with pencils, there are apple green nuvo drops in the stamens and some clear wink of stella on the petals. This is also on foam pop dots at the same height as the frame. The sentiment came from The Simon says stamp inside Christmas greetings set. and this finished out at 6" square in real life. 

Now this was done because, I had been cleaning my table and found the plaid print die cut drop piece and the larger white snowflake laying together in the mess as I was putting things away and I thought, ( I know so many guys who wear those black and white buffalo plaid shirts that I thought it just may work and I knew that there was a challenge a while back to create colored snow, which I never stole time to do so, I ran this Simon Says stamp snowflake die that came in the January kit through the big shot with some burgundy card scrap and added an unknown brad for the center. that texture behind the plaid is some fancy paper from Micheal's Recollections line and this one is 5 1/2" square in real life. The sentiment was stamped a long time ago on a scrap cut with an Avery elle party tags die. (so, I don't remember which set it came from I tend to collect the type writer style font and tiny word sets) And so, two more have landed into the box for next year. I had signed up in the Christmas card challenge thread found here to do 4 a month, and I am sure that like usual I will do quite a few during the winter while its cold  and slack off during the summer. and that's OK. This months prompt is to do a Cardinal ( or a red bird card) so, that is on the mental list for soon. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Canadian Living}

 This week Kia has chosen Canadian Living as our Inspiration destination and I came across this decorated Christmas scene and loved the colors... So, keeping the trees against the blue in the back of my mind I started playing with this enchanted forest  3-d embossing folder from Crafter's Companion.

 

I was not entirely sure what I wanted to do and I first thought to do a blue night sky and you know make it an outdoors scene, maybe add some snow and critters so I grabbed a pile of size 8 shipping tags and I did center it thinking I was going to add the white and the sparkle as a sentiment in the clearing in between the trees but, then I decided it needed something more bold white and used this Simon Says Stamp Joyful die with PTI vellum cardstock and some smooth white Bazzill.

 ( the smooth bazzill letters have some clear wink of stella on it) 

The trees were inked with Distress Oxide pine needles & rustic wilderness inks and the sky colors are blueprint sketch & stormy sky, this was misted with water a bit too.

and the whole tag was sprayed with some tattered angels glimmer mist spray, on this photo you may see a hint of that. This is actually pretty sparkly in real life but, it was being camera shy. The smaller sentiment is a sticker from the Tim Holtz Christmas noel pack. I did then run a second piece of the experimental Accent Opaque 120# card stock through the folder again and using it as a mat behind the tag, I liked the subtle out of the box extension of the look. but, what I have noticed since I finished this is that it will need glue dots under the colored tag as its not you know lined up perfectly with the layer below it so there are gaps of air pockets where the layers of card stocks meet. I am pretty tickled with this and wish you could touch it in person too. ( even hubs is impressed )

This is not a standard any size card it finished out at 4" x 7" and will fit into an A7 envelope. probably a slimline #10 envelope too. This is the accent opaque #120 for the base, and it is very heavy its hard to get it to lay flat compared to a 110# cover sheet. I do like the smoothness of the paper. I have not tried to color on it, but I picked it up because, A) its fairly affordable compared to Neenah that I love.  I remember thinking if anything I could use it to die cut but, I think I will be buying a pack of the 80# for layers inside of colored card bases because, it is so much cheaper than the Neenah and it is smooth to the touch. I will try stamping and coloring on it soon. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us, Thanks for stopping by.

woyww #605 {the real internet edition}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

It finally happened the splicer came and hooked up the router and wi-fi boxes at my house yesterday afternoon. I cannot tell you how much better this is :) We are currently looking for recommendations about streaming. the one I want to find is some service that does live tv. (like local news channels) and the other thought is, if you have any advice about DVR boxes and programing it to tape say the news when you are not home that would be really helpful too. 

Oh, and back to my desk. this was staged while the splicer was working yesterday. it really did look like this but, I kinda piled up the stuff on the left as it was more closer to the pile of other things left of it. but, I had some time on Sunday evening and I ran some printed papers and plain tags through various embossing folders not with any kind of a plan and then I started inking some of them. And I set them aside and made a Clean and Simple card on monday night ( seen below) and so, I really did push all this out of the way while the card was going on. 

The challenge was to use something new, and this gal is "new" to me she arrived late last week in the mail with some other goodies from the My Favorite Things sale they had around new years? maybe Christmas. It was when I was chopping up letters so, I ordered a couple more alphabets along with her. 

The stamps and word die in the top right corner were free gifts from them. I told my self I would resist the pure innocence line, and I have for a long long time, years in fact but, something about them this last year has really appealed to me and so they have followed me home too. ;) as you can seen I would never make through those no shop all year challenges. That's about it from me, I hope you are all continuing to do well. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {fancy}

 This week Julie has pointed our attention towards the Fancy site online and their pinterest boards found here.

I 

I always find my attention wanders to exposed brick when I come across it say in a store on the wall or something. ( I have never lived in a house with bricks) and so, I just love the textures of them. and this shot with the coffee art piece on the whitewashed bricks caught my eye in the store and this is what I did from that. I started with a piece of Papertrey ink grey card stock and I smooshed some golden molding paste through a honeybee salvaged bricks stencil. I did not really do anything fancy with this although I did try to not make it so perfect on the edges so that it could look like the bricks were exposed from the wall and I really only have that in one corner here as I cut the piece down.

And then I started poking around in my new to me coffee stuffs I had not played with as of yet so, I grabbed a sheet of watercolor paper and made a brown-ish background with some distress oxide inks, Espresso, walnut stain & vintage photo. I shot this afterdark and (I think the colors are a little off in the photo, because I was trying to adjust the exposure to show the woodgrain in the white base.) I cut one of the Lawn Fawn stitched mug dies from that. ( I have both the outside in stitched mug and the stitched mug frame dies and this uses both of the sets. the frame on the top was cut from a plain brown scrap and then I rubbed on some early espresso dox, and then used my finger to add some metallic rub-ons to give it more of a older patina look. I love this sentiment, its from the Casual Fridays stay strong set & it was heat embossed with some ranger super fine black on that dox background and since it was on watercolor paper it is not so perfect. That's OK in my mind as we are all ready for the "Okayer-ness" to start ASAP right? This card was shot at an angle to show you the depth as the frame cup is up on foam pop dots but, the sentiment really is straight through the window in real life. I had originally thought to keep this as a smaller card when I cut down the brick panel and then I decided it was too dark and found a sheet of some Gmund wood grain to make an A7 sized base for this. You can find this challenge here to play along with us. That's about if from me, Happy New Year! & Thanks for stopping by.