Kraftman

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 12

2011-12-24T09:13:00.001-05:00

So it's Christmas Eve and I stayed up late last night to complete my 12th and final tag. Tim did a fab creation that I astounded me. Check it out So what to do? I started with a tag and stamped my favorite background in black archival in. I used plain white tissue paper stamped with snowflakes and dusted with perfect pearls, which I scaplifted from the ever brilliant Shelly Hickox. The rest I just followed my heart, kept everything gold and green. I love how the tissue paper worked, and will have to use this again. Well I must be off to get ready for the Big Event Tonight. Lots to do.

I will be entering this at Simon Says Stamp and Show as well as Inspiration Emporium Tim Holtz 12 Tags.

here is a picture of me last night, drafted as the Big Man for my daughter's chinese school.

Merry Christmas To All!

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 11

2011-12-24T08:59:00.001-05:00

So on to Day 11. Tim did a very bright and bold tag for Day 11 using glossy stock paper. I kept mine muted using manila. For the sentiment I stamped on glossy white card stock in Black Soot DI and embossed with clear sparkle and covered the whole thing in Barn Door, for the tag I used the same glossy white card stock and used Archival Ink for the stamp and Peeled Paint with Rusty Hinge to color. The pine branch is metal foil tape with AI in bottle and ginger and coated in UTEE.

Simple and done.

I will be entering this at Simon Says Stamp and Show as well as Inspiration Emporium Tim Holtz 12 Tags.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 10

2011-12-24T08:48:00.001-05:00

Well I'm down to the wire, but "Better late than never" as they say. Here is my Day 10 tag. I tried to follow Tim's inspiration as best I could, you can see his work here.

So the tag begins with lifting images from paper on to clear packing tape. My daughter calls this technique "Tape Memories" and keeps them in a journal. I really liked how this worked out, but I am always apprehensive about using Glossy Accents and Facets or Fragments. I have a tendency to bugger this up, I may have opposable thumbs, but they are short and fat and normally make a mess when using Glossy Accents as glue. Somehow through a Christmas miracle things went according to plan. For the background I used a piece of sheet music glued to a tag stamped and clear embossed the pine branches, and glimmer misted the whole thing with heirloom gold perfect pearls mixed with tea dye in a mini mister. The branch was cut from grunge board, painted with Espresso Dabber and coated with UTEE and I add some white sparkly stuff. I made my own banner and made the letter using metal tape on card stock, run it the die cutter. Next drop Alcohol Ink directly on the metal tape side, let it dry and apply 2 coats of UTEE. The first coat of UTEE will pick up the AI and move it around abit, the second coat give depth to the object and the whole thing looks like it's made of glass.

So that was Day 10 and I will be entering this at Simon Says Stamp and Show as well as Inspiration Emporium Tim Holtz 12 Tags.

12 Tags of Christmas, Day 7, 8 & 9

2011-12-16T06:21:00.002-05:00

So Tim has finished all 12 of his tags, and I am still trying to catch up. Bound and determined here are my 3 offerings for days 7, 8 and 9.

Here is my offering for Day 7. On this day Tim shows us how to ghost stamp and do so creative crafting with kraft glassine. Here I used the kraft glassine in 2 colors for the flower and the holly leaves. Here I inked the leave with bottle, lettuce and gold mixative AI and for the flower I use cranberry, watermelon and silver.

My ghost stamping doesn't show up so well but it's there. I also used 2 stamped and embossed images because I didn't have a large enough season greeting to fill the space.

So another day completed

For day 8, Tim wanted to do a steampunk Christmas tag, and why not?

Having used the gadget gears on Day 4's tag I decided to use the Spellbinders Sprightly Sprockets for this tag. This is always the great debate, which to use. It's like choosing between Coswell Cogs or Spacely Sprockets. But I blather, The sprockets were embossed with various metal colors and grunged up with black distress emboss and then coated with utee and then assembled. The numbers are from Tim's idea-ology numerals, painted with snow cap dabber, embossed with clear sparkle and utee. The coupon is from the stamp from odds and ends on some Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium Collection. I also used various stamps from Tim's mini classics cms 062 in the background following the technique for the star of the tag.

For me Steampunk usually implies interactive and so my sprocket wreath opens up to reveal a special Christmas surprise, inspired by many Advent Calendars.

On day 9 Tim used a stamping and embossing techniques that I have never used before. That's one of the coolest things about Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas, I always learn a new technique or an innovative use of some product. And not only from Tim, but from many of the people the play along. For this tag I wanted to keep the image soft and simple. The picture does show the colors well, but the tag is chipped sapphire for the stamp and then inked over with antique linen and old paper. the reindeer is snow cap dabber on black card stock with some clear sparkle and utee.

Three more tags to go!

Thanks for stopping by.

I will be entering these at Simon Says Stamp and Show as well as Inspiration Emporium Tim Holtz 12 Tags.

12 Tags of Christmas, Day 6

2011-12-08T21:47:00.001-05:00

For the 6th tag of Christmas, Tim gave to us a faux metal enamelled technique to try. Check out Tim's fab tag ---> here

I used my same metal tape that I buy at the hardware store. btw I got this tip from Jack & Cat Curio from one of their videos.
I embossed the tag with the snow flakes. I did not cut the metal and glue it on the top as Tim did, I simply turned the tag around and placed it carefully in the embossing folder and it worked out fine.
We are not well stocked in the acrylic paints, so I took the pearl dabber on my craft sheet and tinted the paint with broken china and chipped sapphire re-inkers. Painted the whole thing, sanded lightly. I used broken china distress ink and a clear sparkle embossing powder, let it cool and coated the whole thing with UTEE. The tree is painted with juniper dabber and brushed with pine needle and peeled paint DI, UTEE and swiped with picket fence stickles. The star is similar treatment as the tag but darker blues. Now I must get some sleep in order to craft some more. (5 hours was ok when I was a wee lad, but dads need more)

Also I am entering this tag in Gingersnap Creations GC129 - Starry Night Challenge check out all the cool artwork there.

I will be entering this at Simon Says Stamp and Show as well as Inspiration Emporium Tim Holtz 12 Tags.
Thanks.

12 Tags of Christmas, Day 5

2011-12-08T21:21:00.000-05:00

Hi, Tim's 5th tag of Christmas looks really cool, almost easy. But as I read through the instructions I caught that one little line, practice makes perfect for this technique and I knew I'd be all cackhanded on this one.

For this tag I cut an ornament shape out of a piece of plastic and a piece of Tim's seasonal stack at the same time. I then inked the red section with cranberry alcohol ink, let it dry, and stamped the design with archival ink and dab just like Tim. And what to my wondering eyes did appear? The technique worked just like Tim himself came in did it. So I go about doing the green section next, AI it bottle, let it dry, stamp it, dab it and it was all smeared and stuff. So I carefully cleaned it with the alcohol blending solution, which cleaned off the archival ink as well, and tried again and everything worked out fine. I fixed the ornament in place with metal tape (buy it at the hardware store in heating and cooling section) so that the background is silver. Dressed op the tag a little with trim and some glittery stars and call it a night.

I really liked the technique Tim taught us with this tag, hope to use it again real soon.

I will be entering this at Simon Says Stamp and Show as well as Inspiration Emporium Tim Holtz 12 Tags.

12 Tags of Christmas, Day 4

2011-12-08T20:57:00.001-05:00

Alrighty, it's day 8 for the 12 Tags of Christmas, Tim is chugging along, and I am trying like mad to keep up. Actually I'm working at my normal slow, methodical pace. I'm just glad that I have the time to craft again.

So for Day 4 Tim did a really cool, snow inspired tag using crackle paint, check it out. Pretty impressive.

We haven't had any snow since that freaky bit just before Halloween, so I found inspiration in the green, brown and yellows from our great outdoors. My snowman is painted with silver and gold, and yes I hear Burl Ives as the snowman singing. Since me is metallic I thought I would steam punk things a bit and used the on the edge gears instead of snowflakes. For the background I used peel paint, wild honey and picket fence stains. I added gears, where Tim used buttons. The ribbon was a magical offering from the craft table, as it appeared just as I needed it. Thanks for looking.

I will be entering this at Simon Says Stamp and Show as well as Inspiration Emporium Tim Holtz 12 Tags.

12 Tags of Christmas, Day 3

2011-12-05T22:28:00.000-05:00

You've got to check out the Day 3 Tag from Tim, if not for the tag at least for the video. It's a classic.

This tag drove me nuts, but I pushed on. I don't have the large stamp that Tim uses in his creation, and I did really have a stamp that leads itself to this technique. So what to do. I gathered up as many Seasonal Greeting Stamps that I have and laid them out in to a pattern that I liked. I did this on a pices of cardboard and traced around each stamp. Then I cut out the area where the stamp goes, thus creating a template, so that I can use the stamps again with the ink pad that I created for this tag. I thought, man this is a lot of work! I used some Graphic 45 paper for the rosette, and some more embossed holly leaves. I used some MS glitter on a green piece of ribbon and added some littel bells.

So I'm 3 days behind and will craft some more tommorow. Will post again soon. Please leave a comment so I know you where here and I will start making the rounds to see what you've been upto.
Stay safe

I will be entering this at Simon Says Stamp and Show as well as Inspiration Emporium Tim Holtz 12 Tags.

12 tags of Christmas, Day 2

2011-12-05T22:08:00.000-05:00

Tim's 2nd Day tag is here. He's done another great tag, the man is truly brilliant. So here is used a pieces of sheet music from an old German Song Book (Ave Maria) and glued it to a manila tag. I used the Christmas Post card Stamp a clear embossed it, to make my own resist and followed Tim's instructions for up to the perfect pearls misting. Departing from the path I stamped the snowman with white dabber on black card stock, cut him loose and embossed him a clear glitter powder and 2 coats of UTEE. It's hard to tell, but he glitters like crazy. Finished off with some paper lace trim, a flower and some red & silver pipe cleaner for a scarf. Does he look like he's hurrying to get somewhere?

I will be entering this at Simon Says Stamp and Show as well as Inspiration Emporium Tim Holtz 12 Tags.

12 Tags of Christmas, Day 1

2011-12-05T21:52:00.000-05:00

OK, So I've been away, (not really gone, lurking here and there), but haven't posted in awhile. Had to get my head around a few things. And as a wiser person than me said, "If you aren't going to medicate it, get over it". So it's craftherapy and I'm right as rain.

So If you haven't noticed, Tim H has started his 12 Tags of Christmas, and I am playing along just like everyone else. Click here to see Tim's First Tag of Christmas

Tim did a super fab job on his tag. I did my best. I tried the embossed coredinations paper and really didn't like the results I got. It looked ok but not where I wanted to go , so I embossed the snowflakes and hit them with a little tea dye, but I think the blending tool had gathered twigs on it and it came out darker than I anticipated. Then I spritzed the whole thing with home made glimmer mist of antique paper and heirloom gold perfect pearls. I use MS antique gold glitter for the "25" and made the wreath from most of the parts from the Festive Greenery (x4). Holly leaves were embossed with green tinsel and pearl luster jade powders. I don't have the tattered banners so I made my own banner, stamped it and highlighted with picket fences stickles. I used red stickels for the holly berries.

I will be entering this at Simon Says Stamp and Show as well as Inspiration Emporium Tim Holtz 12 Tags.

Honey, Can you make me one of those?

2011-08-21T22:00:00.000-04:00

We first saw grungeboard cuffs made by Kaz at The Shabby Little Shed, they were so very cool. Braclets made from grungeboard, done up in a grungy style. I wondered if I should try to make one. We saw Sarah's at La-De-Dah and she called them grunge cuffs for Big Girls. It was then when I heard the call. Honey, Can you make me one of those? So the weather this weekend cooperated (rained alot so kept us inside) and I took the time to give it a go. So using the inspiration from these 2 very talented artist I dug around in the stash box got to work.

The flower is made from Graphic 45 Metal Flowers, twisted and shaped with roundnose pliers, inked with AI in bottle, butterscotch, and rust. The cuff is embossed grungeboard and inked with vintage photo and wild honey. The center strip is gringe paper, embossed and inked with shabby shutters, forest moss and wild honey. I applied 2 lengths of chain down the center of the grungepaper with some thin wire, just some simple stitching. I had punched a hole in the center of the strip to allow for the brad to hold the flower in place and then I stitched the grungepaper to the grungeboard. I used my paper piercer and the TH ruler, it make some nicely spaced holes and use some heavy black thread to bring the 2 pieces together. A couple of hitch fasteners to hold it closed and a few well placed eyelets and my cuff was complete.

So I guess, Yes is the answer, I can make one of those ....or maybe 2.

Wintry Mix

2011-08-18T07:23:00.000-04:00

Summer is fast coming to a close; it’s hard to believe that it’s been near 5 month with Grungy Monday. In this week’s episode the effervescent Linda from Studio L3 has challenged us to use Tim Holtz Distress Stickles and provided the inspiration. Over at Simon Says Stamp and Show Some Bling, and the Design Team (blinged (blung?) …did a real nice job with the sparkly stuff. (who can’t resist combining these two challenges?) And Inspiration Emporium asks Got Paint?, so I’ll take all three.

So again out comes the Distress Stickle Picket Fence and Rock Candy, and my head goes to Christmas. What can I say, it is my favorite time of year. And this time I did not lose focus.

For this tag I started with some new stash, Foil Tape Sheets and adhered some to a piece of white card stock (any color would work I just had some lying around). Note: this stuff sticks really well, like contact cement and isn’t very forgiving. So after I got it repositioned and burnished out the air bubbles, I sand the surface lightly to make a more muted stainless steel effect, (which sounds better than to hide the scratches I caused). Cut a tag and embossed with the TH Snow Flurries embossing folder. I think I had this upside down as the snowflakes go into the metal instead of raised. I lightly inked the whole thing with AI Stream and Stonewashed and filled some of the snowflakes with distress stickles – picket fence. Others received just the plain old stickles for added sparkle. The snowman was stamped with Snowcap dauber on black card stock, sniped free and given 2 coats of UTEE. I used a black Sharpie Paint marker over the utee to color the hat. More picket fence, some bling for an eye and with some help (thanks honey) reworked wired yarn for the scarf and his ensemble was complete. The elegant flourish was cut from black card stock and heat embossed with stardust embossing powder. An elegant greeting and a string of bling and my snowman is forever frozen on a blustery day.

Thanks for stopping and don’t forget to drop me a line.

Take care

Steampunk Mini Album

2011-08-11T23:26:00.000-04:00

Greetings and Welcome,

I am so happy to be posting mid-week rather than late Sunday. Which means possible more crafting. Or maybe 8 straight hours of sleep. Anyway I done and that’s what counts.

This week I took up the challenge at Studio L3 and Linda’s Grungy Monday Challenge # 19. The challenge was once again the use, as inspiration, one of 12 Tags of Christmas from the Guru of Grunge, Tim Holtz. In his tag, Tim has encased a snowman between an embossed piece of plastic packaging material and a #8 tag. Sounds gruesome but looks really cool. It also fits into Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge – Tim Holtz Technique so it’ll go up there as well.

I have been itching to make the cool thing Shelly made a few months back and this is my twist. If you’re thinking it looks unfinished or needs something it’s because I intend to use it as an interactive mini album insert type thingy and photos need to be selected.

Everything is pretty straight forward die cutting and faux enamel embossing. The really cool thing that I was pleased with was the embossed plastic. I cut a circle to use behind one of white cogs. I used the TH embossing folder that embosses on the corners (can’t remember what it’s called) and use only a small bit the larger corner embossing on the edge of the circle, ¼ turn – emboss and repeat. After 4 times through the vagabond, and the edge of the circle was embossed making a frame within the cog. So I easily amused, but that’s me.

Ok so enough blather, tomorrow is a work day and I can’t be sleeping at my desk.

Ciao for now.

Deconstruction of Time

2011-08-07T18:47:00.000-04:00

Welcome back, here it is August and time is no longer just flying, I mean where did July go? This week I am sitting out of the Grungy Monday Challenge. I was concerned that if I did not enter, my world would come crashing down around my head, but I discovered that it was not the case. But please be sure o stop by Studio L3 and see Linda and all the great artist and their projects.

I am entering a tag into Simon Says Stamp and Show. This week they said show a tag and I made a little Christmas tag to make up for not making one last week. This tag started, courtesy of Gloria from ATT, with a gift of grunge board I received. (I don’t know what I did, but thank you Gloria). I embossed a piece of the grunge board with the Tim’s Snow Flurries embossing folder. (new purchase). I cut out some of the snow flake, inked them with silver and coated with stickles. I stamped the trees with Archival Sepia and hit it with some copper ink and some gold stickles. The back ground is DI, Barn Door, Shabby Shutters and Mustard Seed. Not your typical Christmas colors. When the back ground was good and dry I stamped the snowflakes with antique linen and then brushed the flakes with antique gold and silver. I added a few flourishes and stickled the edges.

The second challenge came about by pure accident. I was playing with Spellbinders, Sprightly Sprockets. I had a bunch cut out and the Weathered Clock. I was mucking about with different embossing powders and had a nice looking finish using Liquid Platinum, Black Distressed and UTEE. When cleaning up for the night I piled all the gears, cogs and clock piled up on a piece decorative paper. In the morning, while sipping my coffee, I was looking at it and the phrase “The Deconstruction of Time” came in and stuck there. So I am entering this piece into the Ginger Snaps Challenge.

So, 2 challenges done and another week finished. Maybe next week time will resume it’s normal pace and allow for some fun family time.

Take care.

Mamma always says “Bloom where you grow”

2011-07-27T23:33:00.001-04:00

Did you ever have one of those days when you sit down at your work station and the craft that comes out is completely opposite of what you intended? Maybe it was the margaritas or maybe the wine, (or the combination) or maybe that I was not going to let work get in the way of getting inky for a third week in a row, but whatever the reason, I love this tag.

So the challenges this week are Anything Goes at Simon Says Stamp and Tim Holtz’s Rock Candy at Studio L3. So I’m all like this is a no brainer, Christmas in July, Big Rock Candy Mountain and Dolly Parton’s Hard Candy Christmas all started to whirl around in my head. I love Christmas and was just digging the thought of making a Christmas tag.

So, as near as I can figure it, I must have entered the mirror universe, where the evil Kraftman, with his little goatee, came out and crafted in my chair.

I will say thanks to Hels Sheridan and Gerri Herbst and the inspiration they provide each and every week. Hels had the brilliant idea to use a stencil for the rock candy crackle paint, and it turned out fabulous. And Gerri does some of the most incredible art.

So with their inspiration and the evil Kraftman at the helm, it was ahead warp factor 9, and would please hand me the pink ribbon and that sparkly stuff.

The pink flourish was made with the negative part of the TH mask first inked with Spun Sugar and coated with pink perfect pearls, than a nice coat of Rock Candy Crackle, Rock Candy Stickles are used on the flowers, which were inked with pen nubs and DIs. Other glittery bits, like the wings and hat, are normal stickles.

So how does this tie into Christmas, it’s a stretch but if you use your imagination and remember the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”. At the end of the movie Zuzu is being held and a bell on the tree rings. She says “Teacher say a when bell rings an angle get’s her wings” Keep that voice in your head and hear her say “Mamma always says, Bloom where you grow”

Keep in touch, yall!

Wallet Mini Album - GM 16

2011-07-24T15:05:00.006-04:00

Another week has flown by and I ‘m just getting around to entering my project for the Grungy Monday Challenge. The week Linda asked for something made with grunge board or grunge paper.

Grunge board is one of the coolest products introduced to us by Tim Holtz. So cool that I don’t hardly use it for fear of wasting it. So I pushed back my fear and started to plan and play. I decided to make a wallet styled mini album to hold a bunch of 4^th of July inspired tags my wife had put together. I dry embossed the grunge board using the technique of inking one side of the embossing folder. Here I used spiced marmalade on the folder that used tea dye, vintage photo and forest moss to cover the rest of the board.

I used tyvek to join the grunge board, a tip I picked up from Kathy Orta, of Paper Phenomenon, who folds paper like nobody’s business. I think she’s brilliant. Anyway I added 2 flaps of card stock and covered everything with the appropriate pages from Tim H’s Seasonal Stack in various ways to make an interactive mini album. The tricky thing is to remember to leave enough space between the flaps to allow for the paper, tags, photos and whatever gets shoved in between.

The gold medallion started with a piece of chipboard, dabber with gold, inked with tea dye and dusted with perfect pearls. Then I heat embossed with gold powder, smeared with stickles and inked with vintage photo. And just for fun I coated in UTEE, twice. I was hoping for a more distressed look, but I like how it turned out. I curled the Graphic 45 Metal Flowers and AI’ed a floral bard, with butterscotch, for the center. Used grunge paper to make the belt, twice with the sizzlets die and joined with eyelets. Inked up with same inks as the cover and dressed with a little charm.

I think this little book turned out quite alright and I think I will enter it into the Simon Say Stamp and Show Challenge for embossing as well. And who knows maybe I throw my name into the hat for the open call for a new design team member.

Thanks for stopping by.

Grungy Christmas in July

2011-07-17T10:44:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post this week, too many things going on this week to allow for much crafting. (Harry Potter week for us, from start to finish with a trip to the theater)

Linda at Studio L3 has provided the challenge and inspiration for the 15^th Grungy Monday Challenge. Her inspiration was truly magnificent. Her valise looks absolutely fabulous. The challenge this week is to use a 2007 Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Technique, using clear embossing powder.

While the great artists and crafters participating in the GM Challenge are doing some pretty cool things, I was feeling a bit all thumbs with this one. I started with a decorative paper, used old paper DI for the base color and rusty hinge for the contrast. Maybe it’s the powder or maybe it’s my eye, but I did not get the orange peel effect with the embossing but the colors took hold of my hand and bells rang in my head, Christmas Bells that is. So while it’s nearing 90 degrees outside, it’s snowing on my work station.

Snowflakes were cut with MS punches and made into shiny glittery bits. Stamped some more snowflakes and flourishes with TH stamps. Added some clear glitter embossing on the some of the flourishes, stamped the 2 tone colors for the Season’s Greetings and I have my first Christmas tag for the year completed.

I Robot or Robots are our Friends

2011-07-05T21:17:00.003-04:00

Well I think I should thank Uncle Sam for lotsa extra time for crafting this weekend. Unlike most families ‘round here go to the beach or BBQ. Not that we didn’t enjoy the nice weather, and the fireworks, but here in our little neck of the woods we keep things simple.

So on with the challenges, Linda want us to make something sparkly, Simon say’s “Show a Flourish”, The Artistic Stampers are Hot, Hot, Hot and the Inspiration Emporium want us to emboss something. Man ‘o man that’s 4 of my favorite things. Julie Andrews has hers and I got mine.

This tag started with The Grungy Monday challenge at Studio L3 where Linda is one of the few time travelers that’s able to negotiate the vast continuum that is the web, find techniques from Tim Holtz, brings them out and challenges us to make something shiny and new. She also brings in some guest to provide inspiration. Check out the cool stuff the guest artist made this week. And while you’re out and about check out Tim’s tutorial for 2008.

We picked up a quirky little stamp set from Technique Tuesday Rocket Man at the closest paper boutique to us, called Creative Inkling in Lahaska, PA. We also had some other robot stamps from Oriental Trading Company. One of the great things about having kids, is that you get use them as an excuse to be a kid yourself. So armed with the stamps and faced with the challenges I set out to make a retro-future Buck Rodgers sorta themed tag for my daughter.

Using the technique for GM 14 combined with Simon Says and Artistic Stampers. I mixed up some hot colors with Perfect Pearls. Stamped some flourishes from TM stamp sets in silver dauber and spritzed the background. I think I strayed from the technique a little by using a piece of scrap paper to mask the straight edge on the Fired Brick bit, but blended the Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed. After that it was easy peasy with stamping and embossing, got to play with the embossing pen on the rocket ship with our blue tinsel powder from Stampendous.

Oh yeah, the robot was stamped and colored with several DIs using the pen nibs and then embossed with UTEE, 2 layers to give the enameled look.

Anyway, I rambled on long enough. This is the Kraftman signing off, saying go make something and share it.

GC108 I need it.

2011-07-03T14:14:00.000-04:00

I wanted to join in another challenge at Gingersnap Creations and when I saw the GC108 Color of Money Challenge I heard that Beetles cover of that classic song "Money" in my head and thought I could make a sister tag to my other GC entry. In this tag I used greens and copper for the colors. I think we have some of the ugliest looking money. But I love the color combination.

For this tag I used left over scarps from past projects. Not really sure where the paper came from. The lace bit was from a paper doily we picked up on clearence. I used 3 ink only for this tag. Tim Holtz DI Shabby Shutters and Rusty Hinge , and Archival Cosmic Copper.

Enjoying some extra time crafting this holiday weekend.

Take Care

She said “What?”

2011-06-30T07:37:00.000-04:00

Ok, it’s Wednesday night and I’ve completed a crazy twofer. Two tags in one, both sides are finished and match.

My project is for the Grungy Monday Challenge and Simon Says Stamp and Show. This week Simon wants a word and Linda invited us to break out our alcohol inks and play along using the products as demonstrated by Tim Holtz. So play is what I did.

I knew that I wanted use metal. So staring with a soda can I cut it open and fixed it to a piece of grunge paper. I had the idea to cut out a gear shape from the tag and re-insert a gear of different material and then to somehow make a stain glass look through the gear. So after a bit of trial and error, I wound up with a nice sandwich of clear plastic, grunge paper and aluminum can. I a tag with the mini gear cut-outs. You wouldn’t believe how cool the tag feels. I would say it’s like thick pleather, it’s smooth and pliable. But be careful! If you do this at home, the edges are sharp and will bite you. I used memory foil to cover the edges to seal the tag and protect my fingers. Both sides were pounced with a liberal amount of ink in butterscotch, rust, gold, cranberry and stream.

Anyway after I had my tag cut the rest was fairly simple using grunge paper, metal foil, decorative paper and more packaging plastic, I layered and cut a bunch of gears. The larger of the 2 mini gears has a layer of clear plastic in center. This allowed me to ink up the knock outs from a plastic gear and fix them in place between the spokes for a stained glass effect. Other gears were hammered or embossed with the circle texture fade. All got some sort of extra attention with some AI.

I then used Stazon to stamp the vixen’s head on plastic which was layered on metal foil and again on grunge paper. One of the stamped images was flipped over so that is was reversed.

Sounds simple right? Actually it was easier than it sounds, but I have to say thank goodness for the Xyron Machine and the adhesive backing paper. It made laminating a breeze. Lastly I cut some letters from more grunge paper and inked them with Silver Alcohol Ink and then put the whole thing together.

I think I was grinning like kid in a candy shop the entire time I was making this tag, lots of fun and an inky good time.

Thanks for sticking around.

Dream of Metal GM 12

2011-06-26T14:11:00.002-04:00

Sunday Moring – Hot coffee, Breakfast with the Beatles and I’m finishing up with my Grungy Monday Challenge entry. Not a bad way to end the week.

So this week Linda @ Studio L3 retrieved another Tim Holtz resist technique using clear embossing and decorative paper. The technique is from 2008 and you can find it here. One cool thing about the internet is we all can find out what Tim was doing in 2008, while I barely remember what I did last week.

So, what did I do…? I cut a tag from a piece of black paper from DCWV Le Crème stack and used a polka dot background stamp for the embossing. Using my gold dauber is followed the instructions and painted the tag. Waited, wiped and repeated with silver dauber. The small tag is cut from the same stack; the flowers on the paper are flocked. The paper for the pocket comes from DCWV Black Currant and I ran it through the vagabond with an on the edge die. All the gears came out of the same machine using the mini gear set. I had some thin copper and made it sticky backed with the Xyron machine. Hammered one and inked it with alcohol ink and used it on the small tag. The grey gear is chipboard, silver daubered and UTEED. The flourish is chipboard with gold utee. The chain was in the stash and received a liberal dose of alcohol inks. I don’t have the label maker so I improvised and used inked ribbon (seam binding) in rusty hinge and stamped the word “Dream”. Distressed all edges with rusty hinge and was done.

Hey I was just informed that metal is the challenge theme at Simon Say Stamp & Show, so I'll enter there as well.

Box of Goodness – The start of something …

2011-06-16T23:15:00.000-04:00

Hey, hey, hey. Summer is here and in full swing. I found this ugly little box full of really useless junk in the family wood shop where I worked while growing up. (long time closed) It was calling out to me, asking for a new chance at being something beautiful, something useful… something.

Anyway I took it home, I have a soft spot for old, worn and disregarded pieces. So I removed all the hardware, cleaned out the inside, and sanded the finishes off. GOOD DUSTY FUN! Quite relaxing.

Meanwhile at Studio L3 Linda did a quick two step down memory lane and found a technique from 2008 for this week’s Grungy Monday Challenge. It’s tutorial from Tim Holtz, where he uses light color ink and clear embossing powder to make what we’ll call faux batik. (Do you know him? Click here if you need more info). I thought I would use this challenge as a jumping off point for converting the ugly into the super all ‘round goodness.

Ding, ding, ding! Father’s day came early and I got a whole mess of inks (enough to complete the DI set) and re-inkers as well as some new embossing folders. Nothing like new stuff to kick the mojo into gogo.

I used white cardstock with spun sugar (new fav) for the embossing and inked with shabby shutters, dried marigold and faded jeans. I tried to get away from this color pallet,my first attempt used spun sugar, fade jeans and dusty concord. But the box got nervous.

Points of interest, the inside liner is embossed chipboard with wild honey and pealed paint and then touched with silver embossing. The flower turned out better than expected. I had some black embossed paper. On 1 piece I swiped the paper with silver ink and the other I smooshed it with Versamark Dazzle. Both looked fabulous to me. I wove the ribbon through slits in the card and found a pencil that fit. A good start to something… More to come (hopefully without so much verbiage)

GM 10 – Psychedelic Grunge

2011-06-12T10:51:00.000-04:00

I can’t believe Grungy Monday has hit double digits. This week the challenge was to use distress inks. (I like to think of them as de-stress inks). So when I saw the post I thought this will be fun and quick, almost everything I do uses DI in some way. In order to prepare for this challenge, I did visit Tim’s website to review his demo video on distress inks. It’s kind of a refresher course on the versatility of these wonderful inks.

So what I did was cut a tag out of our manila tag stock, clear embossed some images using stamps from the Visual Artistry Collections. Then I used the wrinkle free technique with rusty hinge and peeled paint. Once the inks were dry I removed some of the clear embossing by heating them up and going at them with a paper towel. And then using the blending tool added broken china. Next I added some fired brick using a splatterish technique I picked up from my daughter. And although it doesn’t show in the photo, I mixed some perfect pearls with some DI and water spritzed on my craft sheet, to paint the rays, compass and the stars. The overall effect of the tag was trippy and made me think of things like posters and album covers from my youth. So I made the flower and the little bird, stamped some flourishes the word is various colors and used some inked up kitchen twine to finish the whole thing off.

So I get the twofer, coming in under the wire, and will drop this tag into the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge where all they ask for is a tag this week.

Good Sunday everyone!

Cookies - Bake Sale

2011-06-10T06:41:00.001-04:00

Good Morning, once again here I am again back in the kitchen for some late night kitchen krafting. Instead of paper, ink and stamps, I was playing with cookie dough, powdered sugar and food coloring. My daughters elementry school is having a bake sale to raise money and she asked if I could make some cookies. Alot of her classmates enjoy the cookies, so hopefully these will be a big seller, anyway it's for a good cause and I'm glad to do this for her. Now to quickly get the lot of them (6 dozen) wraped and over to the school , and then off to work. And that's just life, I suppose, Happy Friday everyone!

GC105 Chestnut Theme Challenge – At the Mall

2011-06-08T22:52:00.000-04:00

Welcome back.

It’s mid-week and I just finished my first ever entry into a Gingersnaps Creation Challenge. GC105 Chestnut Theme Challenge – At the Mall. I was reading Miss Linda’s blog last Wednesday and about wet my pants. She had posted her design piece for the challenge. Her blog and her card were a hoot. So I thought I would spread my wings and get in on the fun. So here is my spin on the theme. I used DCWV paper for the tag, Luxury Stack and some from Black Currant, kraftglassine paper with a floral embellishment from reflections, the lace was on a spool from a clearance section, but not sure which store. Sentiment is a Wendy Vecchi stamp. The girl is from our ephemera stash, scanned, printed and snipped. I hope it measures up. So check out the challenge and join the fun. But remember - Shopping is a sport and we train for the marathon!

Shabby but Chic

2011-06-01T22:39:00.000-04:00

So today is Wednesday (almost Thursday) and I have completed my project for Grungy Monday. This is good, so I can devote some time to an ongoing project. Otherwise when my home improvement project for the summer begins (bathroom remodel) I will not have as much play time as I must finish this project on schedule. (something else to blog about, maybe)

Anyway, this week the super cool Linda at Studio L3 has presented another Tim Holtz Technique Challenge. Where we get our shabby chic on and play along. CLICK HERE to see the challenge! CLICK HERE for Tim’s step by step instructions.

This week I wanted to try to make something bright and bold, and I need to practice this technique before making my final piece. What I got was the image below, which I like but, it said “Finish me later”.

So, started again, liked the flourishes, used gesso with black dabber, some lime green acrylic paint for the resist technique and then smudged the whole thing with turquoise acrylic. Oh, I used a makeup sponge (my new fav tool) to apply the paints. Lots of good messy fun. Made the rosettes and the airplane. Stamped and Prefect Pearled the words. Am I done, yes , and now it time to go to bed.

Thanks for stopping by.

Grungy Monday 08 Water Color

2011-05-27T23:27:00.003-04:00

Well, it’s late Friday night and I have completed my project for the Grungy Monday Challenge, once again Ms. Ledbetter at L3 has dug deep into the bag of tricks and pulled out a challenge that was originally posted in September of 2008 by Tim Holtz. The tutorial for this week’s challenge can be seen by clicking this link. Click here

I have to say, I was not feeling this challenge at all. I don’t have Adirondack Inks, I don’t have sentiment stamps and the last time I dabbled in watercolors was back in ’81 in the required college art class with the Dean of the department, who did not mark lower than 3.0 as long you tried.

So this challenge really stumped me. I had nothing. I messed around with some stamps. Tried different inks and paper combinations and finally achieved an image that started to talk to me. (more like a whisper and pictured below)

Anyway once things got rolling I inked the background and repeated the imaged on a ATC. Sewed the ATC to the card (a first) and found the love quote online by none other than Edgar Allen Poe.

All in all, I am very happy with the way this tag turned out and glad that I did not take a pass on this week’s challenge.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon.

back of tag

Grungy Monday 07 Color Blocking

2011-05-18T23:12:00.000-04:00

Greetings and welcome back to the here and now! This week Linda has again provided us with 2 special guest star designers to inspire us for 7^th challenge, in the Grungy Monday Challenge. This go ‘round we are to use Tim Holtz Distress Ink Color Blocking in our project. When I saw the tutorial video, my mind went to Mondrian and Frank Lloyd Wright. I could not shake the imagery, so I held on tight and went with the flow.

In this piece I used Fire Brick, Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint and Mustard Seed DI. The lines are drawn with an embossing pen and black powder. I was glad to be using my steel straight edge. The 2 of the gears under the clock are craft glassine and the small one is wax paper. All inked with cranberry alcohol ink. The gears on the edge are craft glassine, crumpled and dabbered with silver, gold and black paint and smudged with rust and black alcohol inks.

GM 07 Bonus

2011-05-18T23:09:00.000-04:00

As an added bonus, My daughter got into the swing of things and wanted to present her GM 07 Project

Here she used many DI colors and some chalk inks. She stamped some gears and embossed the robot image.

Grungy Monday 6 Weathered Wood

2011-05-13T21:59:00.000-04:00

Hello Krafters, I am so glad to be posting my submission for the Grungy Monday 6 Challenge, which you can find details on Linda’s blog at Studio L3. (Blogger was down for maintenance on Wednesday for a ½ hr and finally is back up). This week’s challenge was to set your way back machine to the year 2007 and see Tim Holtz create a wood grain effect using paint dabber resist technique. Check out the step by step tutorial here!

Since I had the time machine all fired up and ready to go I ventured further into my own past to find the inspiration for my piece. I have decided to try to incorporate the GM challenges into the project that has been on my work bench for some time now.

For this tag I used my silver dabber with tumbled glass and rusty hinge DI. The corners are stamped with weather wood and silver perfect pearls. Stamped some flourishes and added some bling and a flower. The photo corners were made with a MS punch and dabbered with silver and gold. Thanks for visiting, until next time, Mr. Peabody take me home!

GM 05 Embeded Object

2011-05-06T23:19:00.000-04:00

Well Easter is over and it’s back to crafting. Thank goodness Linda at Studio L3 was busy with Ranger U and gave us an extra week for submitting an entry in the Grungy Monday Challenge. This go round was a TH technique to embed a found object. Check out this really fun technique here!

I’ll have to admit I wasn’t feeling up to the challenge and was thinking I would take a pass, but the Easter Bunny brought some new toys and I was itching to play.

I used my new LaBlanche Apple Blossom stamp with sepia archival ink, used DI to colorize the image with Peeled Paint, Worn Lipstick and Mustard Seed. I even got to use my favorite tool for inking: the good ol’ Q-tip. I cut the image out, found the crazy little bird brooch in our thrift store treasure stash, and things started taking shape. A little DI ink on the edges, a subtle flourish in the corners, some metal bits and voila! Doesn’t he look dashing sitting in the apple tree?

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Easter. Here comes the Easter Bunny with your Brand New Vagabond!

2011-04-22T22:29:00.000-04:00

I had lots of fun time with the Grungy Monday 4 challenge. Check out the video here. I broke out my 2 texture fades and I tried out a lot of different color combination. I picked my favorite as background (DI with antique linen, tea dye and vintage photo then embossed with sepia archival ink). Some of the remaining trials become the flower. I used some of your usual Tim adornments and matted with an inked and stamped bit of card stock. Plus there are a few extra bits from my stash.

And since I did not use any power tools I think I will get a twofer with this tag and enter in the Drunken Stamper's Challenge. And as an extra bonus I get the trifecta with Simon Says Stamps, Tim Holtz Challenge. WOOHOO!

Update: And now, thanks to my new friend Terry, I am also entered here!

Grungy Monday 3 HOLY COW I WON!!!

2011-04-20T20:33:00.000-04:00

Check it out on StudioL3

Thanks for all the great and encouraging comments. Being new to crafting and blogging, I must say you guys are the bomb! I was astounded to find I was chosen as the lucky winner. There were so many fabulous creations. Many thanks to Robyn and the Outlaw Women for their generous gift and Linda for hosting the Great Grungy Monday Challenge. I can’t wait to go shopping! I am kinda supply challenged and very grateful for this gift. I welcome all your suggestions on a must own essential to invest my prize in!

Thanks again!

Grungy Monday 3

2011-04-16T23:00:00.000-04:00

Well it’s Saturday night and I’ve completed my 3rd installment for the Grungy Monday Challenge. And boy was this a challenge for The Kraftman. As I mentioned in my last post, I had to go to the store and buy the supplies. And while there I made several other purchases of kraft glassine, some TH cordinations , 12 x 12 grunge paper and the new ATC die. Not sure what will become of these things, but I am revved up and ready to go.

So for this challenge I used Tim Holtz Adirondack Color Wash in Sailboat and Sunset . After a bit of trial and error I ended up spraying Sailboat on the shoe, rinsed with water and splotched on some Sunset. Rinsed and pat dry with paper towels. When the shoe was dry enough I stamped with silver and gold daubers and embossed with black powder. Finished off the project with some gears and cooper wire for the lace.

Thanks Linda for the great challenge, can’t wait to see what next week will bring. Thanks to Outlaw Women for sponsoring the challenge!

Until next time.

Birthday Cookies

2011-04-15T13:09:00.000-04:00

Man it’s been one crazy busy week. I haven’t had a chance to start on my project for this week’s GM 03 Challenge and being supply challenged I have to go to my favorite store and get the stuff I need.

So while there was some free time I cleared off the work bench and got crafty in the kitchen. Here are some of the 5 dozen+ cookies I made for one of the sweetest 12 year old’s birthday today, so let’s all wish Happy Birthday to Monkey!!! Silver and gold dragées, along with blue, green and orange non parelles adorn these iced sugar cookies. I used neon blue, neon green, red and yellow food color in my royal icing. Flooded the cookies and piped the polka-dot designs. Enjoy

BlueMoon Scrapbooking: Tim Holtz Ideaology Giveaway

2011-04-14T21:27:00.000-04:00

The new stains are really great. I wasn't sure if I needed them in addition to the reinkers but they really do add something.

GM.02

2011-04-06T19:42:00.000-04:00

It seems like Spring is my muse. This week’s Grungy Monday Challenge uses a Tim demonstrated resist technique using Multi-medium and stamps cut from dies. My favorite part: The letters. Here’s the recipe – The bottom layer is silver dauber. Next distress stain, each a different color, also daubered on. Last layer was Stickles.

If you haven’t tried the GM challenge, you should.

MK's Confirmation

2011-04-03T22:02:00.000-04:00

MK's confirmation is this Saturday. She picked St. Cecilia as her Patroness. I made these rosaries for her, her sponsor (my mom) and her mom. The crosses and the centers came from

Catholic Rosary Parts. They make great stuff. Most of the beads came from the Intergalactic Bead Show. I mean, how can you miss finding something when its intergalactic? Just another side of Kraftman. Comments appreciated.

Looking forward to seeing what Linda has for us on Monday.

Grungy Monday on Wednesday

2011-03-30T22:33:00.001-04:00

Well, I guess this is it. First Challenge, first blog, first time posting. The challenge is here: Grungy Monday 1 based on Tim Holtz technique here: 12 tags of Christmas - day 10. For me, this was the best part: I didn’t have a suitable mask, so I made my own. I stuck painters tape (the blue masking tape) on the elegant flourishes die and ran it through the sizzix. I peeled it off, attached it to my tag, and followed the rest of Tim’s technique. The tape came off with no problem.

Thanks Linda!