Last tag!! and a little surprise

Now this one was fun! It is covered in rock candy stickles. That accounts for the shine (that is shine)! Since I am so limited with stain, I used my distress inks (of which I have too many too count) for the background. I also used the distress for the stamping. I am surely going to have to be using my distress inks for a lot more stamping after this class. It makes a wonderful background (I use them more than the copics for that). I stamped with 4 colors of ink and then when you cover it with the stickles it wicks out a little. What's nice about the distress stickles is that you can use a heat tool and you spread then thin. What's nice about the regular stickles is that you have dimension but you cannot heat set them. So I have 23 tags instead of 25. If I ever buy a few markers, I will make the other two tags.
Next you will see the cute tag I made for the baby blanket for out upcoming addition! I thought it came out just too cute! I did use distress ink watercolor painting too!!

I just love this stamp set and I for the life of me don't know whose it is! The little owl baby is colored and then cut out and glued to the card. I made two blankets - each different. When I washed them, I wrapped them in the same kind of paper. Of course I don't know which is which so hopefully each family likes theirs best! Will be giving the other one out in May, I think. We know this one is a boy, but the other one will be unknown until the birth. By the way, this was Christmas paper, but since it had both pink and blue, I figured it would be ok!! I wish I had bought rolls of this one - it could do for anything!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 9 - today!!

YAYYYYY!!!! I am caught up! These three are done with perfect pearls! I went off the deep end when I first discovered them. Have probably most of the colors. I even made a bunch of sprays. Do you know they were still good after not touching them for a couple of years?!!!! The left one is perfect splatter. Wish you could see the shine! It looks ok but in real its stunning. The middle one is stamped and then perfect pearls sticks to the stamping. Its called perfect distress. I probably should have let it run a little more before I dried it, but it is just so pretty! You can see the shine (well, kind of). The last one is perfect distress mist. I used up the remaining sprays I had previously made! The whole tag shimmers! So pretty! Hope you have enjoyed the tags even a little. One day more. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 8 - Whew!!

This first tag is dabber resist. Stamped with paint over sticky backed canvas. Remember I do not have but a few stains. It was fun to do and now I know how to use the sticky backed canvas! I bought the atg size to try it out and boy did I not use it correctly! Sure made it hard on myself! Anyhow the next one is actually the 3rd tag I made for that technique! Its crackle paint resist. I really didn't like the other two, but I kept them and put them on my ring. A reminder what not to do! I like the way this one came out but it took awhile to get there! Light color for the crackle and the right kind of stamp made the difference for me. The next one is dabber resist. It is actually grungeboard and rock candy crackle paint. I glued it onto the tag for life!! Hope you like these. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 7 - my fav day I think!

These three were so much fun to make! The umbrella guy is embossed with distress embossing powder.  That is not a shine - that is how the tags actually looks! The middle one feels like some kind of animal skin! It is called rusted enamel. The entire tag is embossed! Who would have thought? The one with the bird is nostalgic batik. The bird is embossed. There was a technique you could do but I didn't as it involved ironing! I just didn't want to look for an old iron I could use. Love these probably the most so far. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 6 tag

There are supposed to be 3 tags here but I only made one of them. All three are made with the new markers and I only have the white one. It is the coolest thing though! This is a colored on with marker and stamped tag. (stamping with markers). It goes on colorless and as it dries, it majically appears white!! You should see it on really dark cardstock!! So the other two tags just can't be made with any of the other type of markers that I already own.  Wish I had that specialty stamping paper already!! Ordered it, just haven't gotten it yet. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Here come the tags!

The left tag is called stamping with stains. The white is the stain I stamped with. I only have a couple of stains - a brown, red, blue and white. Not much of a pallet, but you would never know it! You need to look at that one sideways since the other image is like a cityscape. The middle one is stamped kraft resist. Well, I didn't have that paper (its a whole huge pack), so I made my own Kraft resist paper. You just emboss the kraft with clear embossing powder. That would be the swirls you see. I love how this came out! Actually I love most all of them! The next one (with the bird) is marbled stains. That one really utilizes the white stain (picket fence). Remember I only have 4 including white!

So to be on the safe side to allow me to post my stuff to the class, I am going to make separate posts here for each day. I am all caught up and tomorrow is the last day of class except for the wrapup which I am not sure is either Sat. or Mon. I have a new grandson due on Tues. and after that will be working on the birthday card for a 4 yr old great grandson! Hope you are enjoying the tags. If not, I apologize but I am loving this class. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Good Thing!

This is the last card for March birthdays so now I can start on April - there aren't many so I might just get a head start on May which is loaded! I went on a kind of retreat last weekend and took the stuff to make this card. I just forgot to write down the copic colors I used. Sorry. Also sorry I chopped a bit off the top of the card.  This is the very first time that I planned out a card completely before I did anything! I think I like the impromptu working better, although I like the result, it wasn't as much fun to do. I only took the copics I would need (matched up the papers with the copics before which is something I usually do anyhow). Then found something to take only those. So if you do it this way, you have to pick out ALL the papers you could possibly use and make them max size for your card. I also had to cut and fold the base because I didn't want to take a score board. Then I tried to figure out what I would need to cut on the cuttlebug and made several things I didn't use. I also did all my stamping in advance. All of the ladies were working on either needlework or quilting. Sure did't want to have ink around that! In my organizing, I found all of my eyelets! Huge find! So I made my tag for the inside. However, I ended up not liking the color eyelet I chose. Guess why it's stickled!!! And I also learned something pretty important. I only took one stickle bottle with me and it was colorless. I used it on a few things and then when I got home, I redid some of the stickles with the colored ones. OK - here is what I learned and why -
As you know I am taking the Tim Holtz class and fell back in love with archival ink (now that I am not using stamp cleaner anymore!!). So I did the stamping for the entire card with archival. I put stickles on the balloon. If you have been with me very long, you know I use enough stickles to own the company! Well, the color started to lift off! I was horrified! You can still use stickles,but you need to stay away from your edges. It also changed the color a little bit (I used red ink). So that was one I restickled (is that a word?) with colored stickles. I recolored my eyelet also. There must be something I never noticed before in the stickles ( usually I use the color of stickles to match what I am using it on).
I am also going to apologize for these photos - I accidentally deleted them from my phone before I transferred them to my computer so I only had these two left. Of course I already sent the card. It is for my sister whose birthday is today. Hopefully she will like it and it will be there today!  I am super behind on my tags  - like Fri, Mon, Tues and Wed.  So I imagine I will be posting a lot of them all at once - I do have to make them yet! I only have the white marker, so we'll see what happens when I do that tag! I already own a big set of waterbased markers so I doubt I will be enticed to buy more. I have almost all the distress pads, the crackle paints and the perfect pearls (we haven't done those yet), also most of the distress embossing powders, some stain, some paint, just ordered the paper (I saw a revue by Amy R on youtube and am so glad I watched it. I probably would have tried the paper with my copics and now won't waste it. It is for stamping and using distress products. I am for that!! Enough gab - need to go make some tags!!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Today's Tags

These tags were all techniques that at least I knew about beforehand. But, as you know, I still managed to learn something new about each one of them! The first one (left) is watercoloring with distress reinkers. I didn't know those things (reinkers) don't ever dry out. Just didn't think about it, but I am learning lots about ink. The stamping is done with archival ink on watercolor paper. I love how it came out. When I opened my palette of ink, I wasn't very surprised to find all the ink was still liquid - I previously thought they probably all dried up! But Tim said------ and he was right!! And he said a tiny bit went a long way and he sure was right!  now I know why I had so much trouble when I tried to color Tilda with the distress. I used about 100 times too much ink! The middle tag is to show a custom cut and dry felt stamp pad. This is a hero arts stamp that I adore when its stamped with a lot of colors - just didn't want to take that much time very often. So I now have a stamp pad to reink the stamp and it will come out like what you are seeing. The stamp is a bit larger than the tag. I have lots of reinkers, just not all of them! yet!! The last tag (right) is colored with distress sprays. I still had several made (some even with perfect pearls), so you spray, dry the tag and then put a mask over it and spray again. Having gone mask crazy when I first discovered them (reinkers),  I had several to choose from! Are you getting the idea that I am a Tim Holtz junkie? Well, I am!!! Am hoping to get that next birthday card made this weekend. I am going to a stitching retreat this weekend, so I won't be posting until I get back. DH is probably thrilled to have some time to himself!! I can guarantee it will be very quiet without my constant chatter!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Tags for Day 3

Wow! These were so much fun to make! And I didn't have to buy a thing, I already have most of the Tim Holtz ink lines!! Wish you could really see these. The outside ones are done on glossy cardstock. I had it but I didn't know what to do with it before! You can bet I will be using it lots more. Also all the stamping (image part) was done with Archival ink. I used it for everything when I first started stamping and got away from it because the clean up was so hard. Well, Tim says he doesn't use anything but a cloth and sometimes water. I can do that! Sure makes me want to stamp with archival all the time. It gives such a wonderful image. The tag in the middle is embossed with an embossing folder. I didn't have one that had a lot of blank space so I used what I had. Didn't like what happened to it so I started stamping after the fact and I just love it! If you can zoom up on the cards, you will see lots of details. The two outside ones are done mostly with alcohol inks - not copics but the Tim Holtz line. I am sure copics would work if you wanted to use the various (refillers) and the blender. Since they aren't really made with that kind of use in mind, I wouldn't expect too much if you try it. I have lots of Tim's inks - lots!!! So lets see what tomorrow brings. The next birthday card won't be posted until next week since I don't have it made. Hugs to you all! Hope you enjoy the tags. I won't post them to my groups since I don't think that is right. Barb F

Pretty birthday?

My goal here was to make a pretty birthday card for my dear friend. Hope I achieved it. Picking out this image was a for sure, as she had commented when I first got her that this Tilda was indeed her favorite of the ones I have. Next I knew that she loves blue. So here is the perfect paper (I think) and my copics just about jumped out of the case and into my hand! I recently got the cute banner from spellbinders and just had to use it. It was just a little too sedate, hence the stickles! I found awhile back that I just love white embossing on dark blue cardstock. See that cute lime flower? I cut a stem from another coordinating paper. Liked how that one came out. Just a little touch. I also used a gem for the center. Here are the copics I used: C1, C3, C5, C7, E00, E11, E57, YG03, YG23, R20, R35, R46, Y21, Y28, YR23, B0000, B12, B14. I used stickles to add some glitz to the cutout behind Tilda.

So using the same paper as on the front, I used a Martha Stewart punch (pansies) and added red and lime flowers to the ends of it. And the white embossing again. It is just so pretty. The red in the paper isn't photographing as bright as it really is. I hope she likes this card as much as I do!!! Guess I will be posting a lot in the next couple of weeks as that class is on for two weeks. Next birthday is also female. Here's a huge hug to all of you!! Barb F

Tim Holtz Class Chemistry 101

As you know, I am crazy about Tim Holtz' ink!! This class was made for me as well as the fact that I never got to take a class directly from him! How cool  is this? So I needed to find a place to share what I am making in the class. We are doing tag samples of the techniques (class just started on Monday, so you can still join us). I am going way out with the colors I have chosen, and found that they are just as cool as using only a couple. I am sure learning a lot I didn't know already. So here are the tags.

 This first tag has water spots on it. Fun! The second one is done by stamping and spraying with water. The third one is done by wiping the tag into color on your work surface and drying. These are small tags that I bought like 500 of them and real shipping tags! Great to use for this as they are super cheap  - not enough area to have a real blast with if you want to use them for anything. Hugs to you all - Keep watching - lots more tags to come as well as my cards - We have a baby coming (grandson) due in less than 2 weeks! Barb F

First 2 of 4

We have 4 birthdays in March. I like to wait until I actually get them in the mail before I post them. I have got to tell you, I am getting much better at making custom envelopes! At least the people at the post office think so! This card is for my older son. It is a milestone birthday for him, but I kind of liked this image for him - actually, I think it is my favorite Edwin. I am super afraid of chickens, but I fell in love with these three (2 on the front and 1 on the inside). They are Bildmalarna, I think. Of course Edwin is Magnolia. I kind of sketched in the hay bales and then colored them.

I went easy on the stickles - only the "golden" egg and the chickens combs are glittery! Aren't they just the cutest? I have recently purchased a lattice die for my cuttlebug - it didn't cut well, but I love the idea so you get to see the part that it did cut! Guy card = button instead of flower. Liked that little rubbery button that says you're the best. I used a dashed line punch and threaded the twine through. I like the different look. This card is on red cardstock. Amy R of Prairie Paper and Ink does a lot of videos and she has shown me over and over to cut some extra pieces of dp when I am making the card front. These will be used to decorate the inside of the card. Life has become a lot easier since I do that! Not only, but the inside of the card isn't hard to make anymore and it actually makes sense!   What do you think?

The copics I used on this card are: E00, E11, E51, E53, E57, E59, E18, R20, R22, R27, R29, BG000, BG01, BG05, Y21, Y26, YR23.

This next card is for one of the younger grandsons. Actually this one is nine.

I couldn't believe my luck when I found that ribbon in my stash! And that paper, too! How perfect that was for this image! I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to lay out the scene and paper pieced the clouds. If you go ahead and stamp them first you will have that nice black edge even if you accidentally cut some of it off when cutting out the pieces! (Thank you Kristina Werner!) I used a few Tim Holtz distress inks on the inside. They really do match the dp! I recently bought a Tim Holtz die that cuts a bunch of different tags all at the same time. Just had to give it a shot, and found a stamp with a cute sentiment that fit on one of the tags. See what I mean about the inside? It looked ok just plain, but I love to ink anything I can! So here are the copics I used on this card: E51, E57, E18, E53, E00, E11, E59, C2, C3, C5, C7, R20, R27, R29, R14, YR23, Y21, Y26, BG09, BG05, BG01, YG23, YG13, YG09, YG17.

I don't usually post two cards at the same time, but it has been quite awhile and since they are both done ---. Sure hope you all enjoy them. Please leave me a comment! I just love hearing from you! The next two cards are for women, so they will be (hopefully) more frilly. I love frilly, I just don't make mine real fussy. I just might though this time! Stay tuned! Hugs to you all, Barb F