Life Outside the Fishbowl

Compenduim of Curiosities 2 - Week 2

Linda Ledbetter has left behind Grungy Monday and is off and running with a new challenge series based on Tim Holtz's new book, Compendium of Curiosities Volume II. I missed out on week 1 and so here I am, just squeaking in under the wire with week 2.

This technique is Faux Patina (page 58). And it's wonderful - and fast. I used it on all the metal pieces on this tag as well as the grungeboard clock piece.

The background of the tag was made by dragging a tag through a leftover pile of Dylusions spray ink on my craft mat. Gorgeous! I then added an image transfer, some of Dyan's stamps, and tried out a new set of stamps I just got from Artistic Outpost. Love the paperclip!

And, to adhere the metal and grunge I used ScraPerfect's Best Glue Ever. It's really fabulous for metal accents.

Finally, to clean up my craft mat I sprinkled some blending solution over the leftover alcohol ink and swiped a piece of glossy cardstock. Great way to start another background!

 

Art with Rachel

After many days of begging, we had "art class with Rachel" last night. I pulled out Art Lab for Kids by Susan Schwake and we started thumbing through the pages.

This book has some great ideas for kids -- and adults.  Rachel wanted to do gelli printing again combined with a few other things, but since it was getting late we settled on doing leaf printing with acrylic paint. One thing for sure, it's sure using up all the old Making Memories paint bottles I've had for years!

We also pulled out a circular plastic needlepoint thing and used it as a stencil with Dylusions spray inks. Rachel was over the moon about these inks - she loved how the colors blended and made purple from the blue & pink several times.

Work In Progress Monday

So I finally managed to get a couple of photos early today of what I've been working on and get it posted for Scrapscene's Work in Progress Monday. These are all half-finished projects at this point.

Tag backgrounds --

Using some leftover Dylusions spray to create backgrounds. I had enough for three tags. After the spray was dry I added: some Distress Ink; an image transfer from a magazine page; paint with punchinella and bubble wrap; and Dylusions stamp with archival ink.

Art Journal Page --

This page started as a way to use up extra matte medium from the canvases below. I grabbed some scraps I didn't use on the canvas, added some book pages lying around and kept going. I didn't think, I just did. And I love how it's coming along.

Canvas Backgrounds -

I had two partially finished canvases laying around. I think I last worked on them around January. I just wasn't satisfied with how they were turning out. I found a this blog and knew what I wanted to do with them. I added more collaged paper on top of what I had and transparent paint (mostly around the edges).  I think I'm going to try an image transfer on top of these and see what happens.

The top canvas started as a base of sewing pattens with a few other small pieces of neutral paper. I did a bit of stenciling on top and then lost steam. The bottom canvas wasn't change that much - only three pieces of paper were added, plus a magazine image transfer to add some type (and it seems I have a bit more paper to rub off...) but it's made a world of difference.

Monoprinting with the Gelli Plate

I spent most of the day yesterday at the Queen's Ink making tags with gel plates from Gelli Arts. And it was soooo much fun that I didn't want to stop. Seriously, it's quite addictive. If I hadn't had to pick the kids up from camp, I'd likely still be there.

We used acrylic paints, stencils and stamps to make the tags. The plates come in two sizes, 6x6  and 8x10. It's a convenient way to make monoprints, without having to make the gellatin yourself, let it set up overnight, take up half the frigde.....

All you need is a gelli plate, paper, paint, roller and your imagination.

 

 

12 Tags of Christmas

Slowly, slowly finishing these tags.....

Day 7:

Day 8:

Day 9: I did a lot of "flicking" before embossing a second time. I used Iced Spruce for the initial stamping, Crushed Olive afterward to ink the tag, with Vintage Photo after the final embossing. Instead of making a candleabra I wanted to use Tim's tree die. I covered chipboard in vintage dictionary paper before cutting, then coated the tree with rock candy crackle paint.

Day 10:

 

12 Tags of Christmas

Catching up....

I've had these done for a while but haven't had a chance to post them.

Day 4 -

I really love this background using picket fence Distress Stain.

and Day 6 -

I decided I didn't want to use the metal wreath charm. This wooden Kaisercraft embellishment was really calling to me. So I decided on a faux enameled look. Love how this turned out - but it really looks better IRL.

Now, off to upload photos from the camera with more tags. Hmm... maybe I should work on our Christmas newsletter first?

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 3 -

I still want to borrow Karen's texture fade to emboss this tag, and I took the photo then remembered I needed to spray it with Perfect Pearls mist.... but this was a fun one to make.

Meanwhile, I've got the pieces of Sunday's and Monday's tags laying around.....

12 Tags of Christmas

Well, this year's tags have started with a bang! Every year Tim gets more creative. If you want to see his posts and directions, here's the links for day 1 and day 2.

And here's my tags - I tried to keep them as true to Tim's, as they are being displayed at ScrapbooksPlus. We'll be putting together kits at the store for the tags, starting Monday. And we'll be setting up some dates this month to help people assemble their tags.

Day 1 -

This was my first time using the pinecone die. I learned to make sure your glue gun is really ready (with new batteries). And I added a thin layer of Stickles over the glitter to keep it from dusting everything.

Day 2 -

I had to do a few substitutions here. I used Tim's regular kraft resist paper pack, then stamped an image with Archival ink in the corner. However, I picked up the Christmas pack today... so another tag may be in the works....

Swaps!

Swaps can be a lot of fun and stretch your creativity. I've done three with the All Things Tim yahoo group, and just finished one for Red Lead Paperworks.

Going green tags - I posted this on the ScraPerfect blog awhile back. The challenge was to recycle as much material as possible in constructing your tags. I started with fused plastic bags, added flowers cut from packing envelopes and book pages, die cuts from cardboard packaging and more.

Twilight - with the new movie coming out, I joined a tag swap and a charm swap. I'd shown a sneak for the tag, but since they're finally being mailed I can share the entire tag. Lots of Tim Holtz - and book pages. Rosettes, fragments, metal and tissue tape.

And, one of my favorite parts of the book - that was NOT in the movie. :(

And the charms in a pile, ready to mail....

Finally, I just sent these back to Red Lead for an ornament swap -

Sneak!

So here's a sneak....

Last week I sent out my tags for the All Thing Tim tag swap - Twilight style. I decided to focus on one of favorite parts of Breaking Dawn - the humor in the book. Specifically the relationship between Jacob and Rosalie.

Metal, ink, rosette, clay..... and more.....