Are you feeling Christmasy yet?

I wasn't until today when I went to our local Canadian Tire (home/auto/tool etc store) and all the Christmas stuff was out. And OMG....there it was, a 4 foot tall Santa with a little Westie poo baby girl doggie jumping up on his leg! I'm thinking....I NEED IT! But with a $200 price tag I don't know that I REALLY need it. But I am definitely going to watch for that thing to go on sale.

This past weekend I was a busy bee making Christmas cards. 25 for my mom all done except for the little sprigs of embelishments that need to get added. I also made 8 very Tim Holtz like cards and CASE'd one of Nichole's from her Papertrey Blog. Gotta love simple cards sometimes. I also took a class last week over at Pickle with Nathalie from Magenta. If you don't know, Magenta is a Canadian stamp company and their beautiful samples caught my eye many years ago and I fell in love.

Speaking of Pickle, Kim is getting used to her new digs and just announced she will be open two extra days through the week! SO happy about that! Check out her blog for store hours and some pics she took at the Magenta classes.

Now how 'bout a little Christmas inspiration! This was a card I made for last years stash but somehow never got posted. It is one of those cards that just makes me happy and I think I may make a few more for this year.

 

Trees are Tim Holtz

Peace die and sentiment are Papertrey

 

That's it for today, more Christmas cards coming soon!

Peace out, Linda.

Birds on a Wire

A little something different today...very Tim-like, very masculine, very artsy. I started with Stamping Bella's Journal your ART out THINKING BIRDS as my inspiration and stamped them with VersaMark ink onto some heavy weight smooth surface paper

Then using the tip of a small straw that I cut on an angle I picked up some Indian Corn embossing powder and carefully sprinkled just the heads of the birds, then I added detail black to the remainder of the bodies and tapped the paper from underneath to spread out the powder and cover all areas. The remaining powder was discarded onto a scrap piece of paper for later use.

Then I used a VersaMark pen/marker and inked over the birds again and repeated the process, except this time for the heads I used the discarded embossing powder from the first step, then added black detail again. I repeated this process one more time, and where I thought it needed it, I did it again. This is a closeup look. It almost looks enameled with the three layers of embossing powder. You can click on the image for a larger view....but trust me, it is A VERY COOL blend of black, bronze, with specs of white.

Once the embossed images were totally cooled and set, I sponged on distress inks....antique linen, rusty hinge, vintage photo and walnut stain. Using vintage photo I stamped the 'weeds' (a Tim Holtz stamp) in the background because I thought it looked too plain otherwise.

For the background piece I started with a piece of smooth ivory cardstock and again sponged on some antique linen, rusty hinge and vintage photo. Then I ran the piece thru my Vagabond with, yes, a Tim Holtz embossing folder and sponged on some walnut stain onto the raised portions of the result.

Because the embossed background was too wide for my focal image, I cut it and removed about a 1/4" then repieced it. The ribbon hides the seam...pretty brilliant eh! I do have good ideas sometimes!

Well, that is it about it....I mounted it up with a few layers and I think this is a PERFECT masculine card! If you are interested in more of my masculine cards, click on the 'masculine' label below, or the masculine label in my sidebar. I really do try to label my cards into categories, especially when I post Christmas or Masculine cards.

That's it! Pretty simple actually and it almost took me as long to write this post as it did to make the card! But don't tell the 'man' who eventally gets this card, let him think it took you/me HOURS to complete! We girls have to keep our secrets!

Linda.

Tim inspired

Me, along with about 5 billion other people probably have just finished taking Tim Holtz's first ever online class. Many of the techniques I have seen and even done before, but a refresher never hurts. And I have a whole new appreciation for my 'large' supply of glossy paper.

Do you know how smooth and silky distress inks apply to that paper? well just look below.

In his technique he used archival inks with distress, but I only have black so attempted to use Versafine, then regular dye inks and neither gave the results he achieved. Note to self: get some archival inks in various bright colours!

I used a variety of Stamping bella stamps here for my background, as well as my focal image:

eclectic mini bubble wrap

eclectic mini checker

eclectic #8 ticket background

curly silhouette

solid funky bamboo

I must say of all the stamps I own, these are among my most FAV because of their versatility. Did I say LOVE...I don't think I did...I LOVE these stamps.

The background paper was also 'hand made' by me...well, not the actual paper...it is kind of a tissue like paper that was dyed with various concentrations of andirondak sprays, stencils, stamps and H2o paints. I made it in a class that I took with Fred B Mullett several years ago. If you ever get a chance to take one of his classes...JUST DO IT...he is genious!

That's it for today, be back later this week with something more conventional....but in the meantime, embrase the technique and as Tim says, enjoy the journey!

Linda

 

Small Valise Gift card holder

In other non card related works of art I came across a blog called The Gentleman Crafter via Tim Holtz. He makes some pretty amazing projects out of paper and had a tutorial for this small Valise gift card holder. Unfortunately he took down the post with the tutorial so I'm wondering if he is tweeking it up. No matter, I got lucky enough to view it while it was still there and created these little pieces of 'luggage' for the hubs young nephews. They got gift cards for Chapters and EB games which is fun, but not as much fun as finding them in here burried under chocolates.

The outside was adorned with a chain that had a little snowflake and their initial

the inside has a holder on the right for the gift card and on the left a spot where I
slipped in a tag.

Pretty darn cute aren't they!!!! I will say, they were very time consuming but in such a good way I made one for Kim at Pickle too! OooooH....I'm seeing emails pop up from Paula and Pauline...better go check out what was going on....I saw the word shopping in there which has really perked my interest!

No time to colour? No problem!

I've got ya covered! This week I am going to show you THREE NO COLOURING REQUIRED holiday cards that hopefully will get your wheels going.

What do you get when you put two brilliant minds together! Pure GENIOUS! And that is what happened when I paired up Tim Holtz dies with Isabelle's Eclectic Stamps from Stamping Bella.

Not only was NO colouring involved, NO PATTERNED PAPER was used either! NOPE! NO WAY! I started with some inexpensive smooth white coated cardstock. I don't think an uncoated paper, like Papertrey white would work as well here. I pressed two Distress ink pads onto my teflon sheet, a piece of acetate would also work, I think I used Tumbled Glass and Broken China. Making sure I had  enough to account for the size of my paper I spritzed the ink with water, then layed down my paper pressing it into the wet inky watery mix. I did this for both the main background piece, and focal background piece. You CAN do two sheets one after the other, but keep in mind, your second layering of paper will be lighter than the first.

Once dry (hint: use a heatgun!) I stamped Eclectic #8 ticket with Pumice Stone on the larger background piece and Mini Checker with one of the blues (can't remember but I think it was the lighter one!) on the smaller background. Then I sponged with the same blue inks to give more depth of colour and finally sponged some Distress Pumice Stone around the edges.

The snowman is a pure rip off (or should I say CASE) from one of Tim Holtz's 2010 12 Tags of Christmas. Okay, not a total ripoff,  I did cut out WISH in snowman's belly and added an eye and some buttons which Tim didn't do. So I guess it is a legitimate case. The snowman was cut out of grungeboard, painted with white Claudine Helmuth Blank Canvas and when dry I sanded it and sponged on some Pumice Stone. Ya, Tim did that. The hat, arms and nose were also cut out of grunge board scraps and rubbed with some distress ink for colour. They were also sanded and glued on to the main snowman with glossy accents....again, that is what Tim used for glue! So in the end, I took some of his ideas, blended them with mine and came up with something that I really love in the end! That is what inspiration is all about and I hope I have inspired you!

Now for my little give away! OMG...you ladies have come up with some FANTASTIC challenge ideas! Sketches seem to be a common theme so I promise we will have more of those next year but we will also include some new ideas based on what you have said! This is so exciting and I'm looking forward to a new, challenging and inspirational year of challenges in the year 2012! Keep those comments coming, because it ain't over yet! You have until Friday!