Tag Swap!

Good Wednesday all my crafty friends! As I noted yesterday, I am playing catch up with things on my craft table! Before I left on holiday, I meant to post my tag swap for March and completely forgot! Yikes! I was so excited about getting away that everything else took a back seat! LOL

As a part of the tag swap on Google+ art community Creating and Sharing Mixed Media, March's theme was based on International Women's Day. My partner was Clemencia. I shared the tag that Clemencia sent me before I left on holiday here. As it was quite a few weeks ago now when I did these tags, I will try to remember the creating process of both as best as I can! LOL

The first tag I did for Clemencia I knew I wanted to keep it light and focus on a piece of emphemera that I had gotten online of a girl that looked like she was celebrating being who she is! I loved it! So I started by applying gesso to my tag and then took out my fave Silks acrylic glaze in Pink Azalea and Sky Blue. I placed them on my craft sheet and watered them down and just began to drip them from the sides until I got the look I was going for. I then distressed the edges with Distress Ink in Dusty Concord.

I found some need sentiment "stick-ons" in a bargain bin one time that had the sentiment "Go Your Own Way," which I thought was fitting for the month's theme. I then simply adhered it with mod podge and added a little doodling. I splattered some watered down Liquitex Black Ink here and there.

I adhered the girl and I die cut some starts and a cute butterfly and then added a Prima flower and butterfly that I had painted and splattered with the Pink Azalea Silks. To finish it off, I sprinkled some of Finnabair's awesome glitter for some glitz!! :)

The second tag I did for Clemencia, I also knew that I wanted to do something using my "she..." from Unity Stamps that I love! I applied gesso randomly with an old credit card on the tag then did the same thing with some Calypso Sky acrylic paint from Folk art and Pretty Peridot Silks Acrylic Glaze. I really like how it came out. I then randomly stamped using a cute, cute music score stamp I have from my February 2015 Layers of Life Kit with black Archival Ink.

I had die cut some rounds out with book page and applied color with Cotton Candy and Blueberry Gelatos using my finger and then highlighted with gesso and then adhered to the tag. I then took that lovely flower stamp from the same LOL Kit from Unity and stamped using black Archival Ink. I also applied color to the flower with Gelatos in Red Cherry and Gold Champagne. I then simply stamp embossed my sentiment using ColorBox Ink and Clear Embossing Powder. :)

I like doing ATC's as well, so sometimes I will add in a little ATC just as something extra. It was quick and simple and I don't even remember exactly the colors I used, but they were both from Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (an Olive and Lavender I think) and them stamped using that same music score stamp and a great little "swirly" stamp from my Unity January 2015 Layers of Life collection. I added a cute little "you" stamp and embellished with little jewels and a cute butterfly that I colored with Gelatos. Just a little something!

I hope you liked my tags today and Clemencia I hope you enjoyed celebrating YOU in the month of March and celebrate being YOU every day! :))))

Blessings

Be Brave, Be Happy!

Another post today crafty friends! I have a lot of catching up to do!! LOL I was able to play a little bit on my craft table before I left on holiday, so I wanted to share one of my projects. You will recall at the end of March I shared some happy mail I had received from the Kraaft Shaak and from Sheri Whitfield at her Etsy Shop. You know how that goes, you just can't wait to get to your table and start using all that crafty goodness! So it went with me!!

In my Mixed Media Kit from the Kraaft Shaak, I opted to receive the 5x7 canvas. I knew that I wanted to try some steampunk style on canvas but wanted to start on a small scale. With that in mind, I also ordered some extra embellishments from Sheri at her Etsy Store to enhance my project.

I had an idea of where I wanted to end up with the project, but sometimes you aren't sure about the beginning!! LOL So I started by laying down pieces of Tim Holtz's tissue tape here and there. I then put a think layer of gesso over top. Then I just started spraying with Lindy's Stamp Gang in Red Hot Poker Orange and Cattail Copper Brown, some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Candy Apple Red and Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Gold until I got the look I was going for, which was a "rustic look."


The main thing I wanted to get to was the Gold Crackle Paste from Finnabair. I had used it on a project a couple of weeks ago, but wanted a thicker look. So I took a Tattered Angels gear stencil/mask and put a thick layer over top. I had to let this dry over night because I wanted to get the "full" effect of the crackle. I was so delighted by the outcome! That product is soooooo yummy and you just have to try it!!

I then just began to lay down all of my elements. All of the elements were gesso'd and then distressed with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and then sprayed with the same combination as the canvas. I do hot glue my elements down as I am too impatient to wait for anything else to dry. I did add my homemade flowers that I did out of bookpage, some Maya Road embellishments and other, what I call "lost things" (can you tell I am a Tinker Bell fan...hee hee), besides the goodies from Heather and Sheri. I finished the project by using Finnabair's awesome Art Ingredients Glass Glitter in copper and one of my favorite products Inka Gold Metallic Rub in Gold.

I had so much fun doing this canvas and I will be exploring more of this kind of creativity. I don't want to get into a same old, same old style, so I will have to be doing my homework. I would love to take one of Fin's classes and noted that to her by asking her to come to the states!! LOL I think that's in her plan at some point and time this year, so we shall see if somehow I can make that plan happen!!! You never know, sometimes wishes do come true! LOL

So what are you guys working on? Hope you are having as much fun as I am!! :))))

Be blessed!

Coming Home to Happy Mail!

Good Tuesday all my crafty friends!!! It has been over a week since my last post!!!! EEEK! LOL! I am happy to say it was for good cause....we have been on holiday!!!! Yay to my family! We had a FABULOUS time of much needed family "togetherness" and camping time!! My girls were on spring break, so we took the opportunity to break out the camper for the first trip of the year and go traveling! We went to FDR State Park and had a ball. While we were there we also went to Callaway Gardens, which was just lovely. We were, in fact, a week or two early and all the flowers had not yet budded out, but we still saw some beautiful early blooms and scenery! I continue to be amazed at ALL of God's creation and how blessed I am to be able to go and see His craftsmanship!

Here are a few photos to share:

Some of the pictures are from Callaway, a couple while hiking and a couple of me with my "bestie" sister-in-law and one of my hubby and our camping partners, my sister and brother-in-law! We usually go together because MORE is better! LOL My girlies always take girlfriends and together we have great family/friend fun!!

When I got back from my glorious week I had....YIPEEE....Happy Mail from Sherie Eddy over on my Google+ art community!! Sherie and I were swap buddies for the month of April in the Creating and Sharing Mixed Media art group. We have great fun swapping tags and I have enjoyed all the creativity! I have to get cracking and get yours in the mail Sherie!!! LOL

Sherie, I was stinking THRILLED at the treasures inside!! Sherie made a tag/journal page that I can't wait to put in my journal!! It was FULL of what I call "Sherie Style!" Inundated with amazing colors and doodles and then she made this crafty flip card/tag with just AWESOME art, colors and doodling! Of COURSE I loved those Stampotique stamps Sherie!! One day, I am going to get me a few of them, they just rock in my book! LOL And she just brought the creativity right around to the back side with "Color your world....and your art and the person you are will continue to "shine" and brighten everyone's life!" That just made my heart "goosh!" How special and precious!

If that wasn't all enough, Sherie put some amazing goodies inside!!! She made some AWESOME masks or stencils, if you will, out of glue that I can't wait to use and then included some deli sheets with awesome color on them and this soooooo yummy knapkin with great birds on it that I also can't wait to use! Sherie......you just WENT OVERBOARD!! I feel so blessed! Thank you, thank you!!

I can't say enough how much I have enjoyed doing the tag swap with everyone. I know sometimes it's all you can do to get a tag done and out the door, but when you are done, it feels so good to know you are blessing another and then when you receive all that creativity and love back in the mail from so many other talented artists, it makes it ALL WORTHWHILE!! It's a joy to create with all you artists!

Thanks again Sherie, your tag should be coming later in the week or the first of next week! I hope you all are enjoying spring where you are and have had time to get out in it all and enjoy God's creation!

Blessings

Life's Blessings!

Good Wednesday all my crafty friends!!! It's really Thursday for me because tomorrow is going to be Friday, since we actually have Friday off at work! Yay!! One for the team!! LOL I'm sooooo excited because I will have Friday through next Sunday off! Can I hear another round of applause! LOL My kids are on Spring Break next week and I decided to take advantage of that and take off with them! I've been mentioning that we are going on vacay and it's well overdue! I love spending time with my family, it's such an amazing blessing!!

Speaking of blessings, they come in all forms! I like to believe that God fashions it that way so that we grasp the understanding of what a blessing really is and never take those blessings for granted! So today I will share a quick project with you that I dedicated to YOU!!! Yep, that's right, I dedicated it to ALLLLLLL my crafty friends and you wonderful people who visit my blog and leave just the loveliest of comments!! I dedicate it to you because you are a blessing to me!!

I was at Tuesday Morning (one of my favorite places to go) not too long ago and came across some Sizzix Dies that I thought were just the cutest and.......I got for like $4!! What? Got to love Tuesday Morning! The die set has these cute birds, a lamp post and banner goodies. I don't have the name of the die, but I had to have it, soooo...LOL! I knew when I saw those little birds that I wanted to make a cute tag with them, so here you go!

I was playing around on my awesome Gelli plate with just some cheap acrylic paints in a great turquoise color, a lime green and cute "pinky" color and and a couple of Tim Holtz stencils. I didn't fuss around with it too much, just enough to get a little background. I then distressed and edged the tag with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. Then I simply die cut the lamp, banner and birds using book page and scrapbook papers, distressed them all with Vintage Photo and then applied them with Mod Podge. The lamp post has a second piece that you could make it look like it was lit up, so I took that piece and applied Finnabair's awesome glitter in a gorgeous yellow color to it to give it that "lit" look.

I have some "old" Prima word stamps that I got at a flea market one time and I simply stamped in Distress Ink Mowed Lawn onto the banners "you are kind." I then had another stamp that said "thankful" on it and I tried to do the same thing under the banners, but boy what a blunder that was! It happens, as you know! So I just tried to make the best of it and took my Sharpie and wrote over it and added the "so and for you!" Blunder fixed! LOL Mother always used to say, "where there is a will, there is a way!" LOL Voila!

A quick tag, but I simply wanted you guys to know that you ALL are a blessing to me!! I am a member of a couple of "Art Communities" and since I joined I have had NOTHING but encouraging, kind and uplifting comments on those communities and then also here on my blog! I am so blessed and thankful for those who actually come to my blog and take the time to read it and comment as well! It's a joy to me and my heart!

Blessings do come in all different ways. However small this may be to some, it is truly a blessing to me to have gotten to know so many wonderfully talented artists and a complete joy to share each others ideas and creativity with one another and support one another in a very positive way! You guys are JUST THE BEST!! :))

So today, I am blessed and "Thankful for YOU!" Share and spread the love! Take the time to encourage, support and lift another up today! You never know what a blessing you are being to them!! :)

Bless you!