a crappy day....

hi all

yesterday was a craptastical day.  today is shaping up to be the same :P  i am really struggling with some things right now and being sick AND on my own for the week with hubby out of town is definitely not helping!  and if i have to hear hollyn tell me one more time that she hates me and wishes i was not her mom i just might run away from home. so needless to say i was not in the mood for making happy fun sunshiney art.  i thought about heading to the studio but i thought the only thing i would make is a black piece of paper with black glitter, black ink and black paint - which i suppose could become interesting but not really.....then i remembered an art journal page i had come across.  the title was "a crappy day" - i don't remember anything else about the page and i tried to re-find it to post a link but i am not having any luck (if someone knows the one i am talking about please post the link for us!!!) Oh wait finally found it on pinterest of course!  but cannot seem to get back to the origination or who it is actually done by.....  anyway i decided i would do a crappy day page too.  because life is not always happy sunshiney days.  and for someone who has done the battles i have to make it this far and with some of the issues i have to deal with health-wise on a daily basis this can be a real struggle at times.  so here is my page - my no happiness and sunshine page...

it was quite an easy page to do and i do like how it turned out.  the background was one i had made with pezza a few weeks ago and had not used yet.  i swiped some plain white glue across the white paper in vertical and horizontal streaks and let it dry.  then i rubbed on some stormy blue and peeled paint distress inks.

i picked it up to use and then i had some gear shapes  laying on my desk that i had cut with a tim holtz die and had not used.  they were cut from the back of a paper pad so they were nice and sturdy and i thought they would make great masks.  i laid them on the paper and sprayed them with a shimmer mist made with concord distress ink, perfect pearls and water.  then before they dried i picked them up, turned them over and also used them as stamps.  once dry they were so pretty i added them to the page too along with another die cut from my perfect pearl/UTEE video for favecrafts.

i mixed up some more of the brown perfect pearls with a tiny bit of water on my craft mat to make a thick paint a painted on my title.  then i grabbed a brown colored pencil laying there and used that to do my journaling.

here's hoping for a easier day - we may even get some snow which i would really love!

heritage album

i have been wanting to share a christmas gift i made for my brother - i think i may have posted some pages but not all of them - so i set up a slide show. the album is done with an SEI kit - the best kits EVAH!! lots of tim holtz distress and perfect pearls stuff here too!! i hope you like it!!!

HOLY COW a tutorial!!!! PURE halloween distress!

That's right! i am finally back to doing some tutorials for y'all! today's is actually the October technique challenge issued by T!m Holtz over on his blog - that man is just inCREDible!! he did a tag as usual so i expanded on it and came up with these little goodies:

these are jars i am going to fill with hallowen nonsense and send to my brother and his friend. i think they will get a kick out of them. we will be using crackle paint - an amazing product that i just adore!!

Let's gather supplies: Crackle paint (only one color is necessary but i did several projects at once), cardstock, stamps, black soot distress ink, coordinating colors of distress ink (two is nice to use as opposed to one), foam ink blending tool, black paint dabber, fragments charm (brand spankin' new!), patterned paper, glossy accents, brad or eyelet, ribbon or fiber, stickles, grungeboard - all of these items can be found on my website except for paper and ribbon.

Start by painting on the crackle paint - it will take awhile to dry. Shake the paint well and then paint it on with the brush cap - just cover SOME of your cardstock - not all of it. Put it on a little thick so the cracks are nice and noticeable - i don't find it curls my paper too badly once it is glued down. i did gift bags too which will be a project posted later this week....

i did two pieces of cardstock and two bags. The top one uses shabby shutters and dusty concord. this one uses antique linen and black soot.

next let's do our fragment so it can dry. these come in a package with a wide variety of shapes and sizes. choose one that fits nicely over a portion of your patterned paper you want to highlight. squirt some glossy accents on the back of your fragment.

Place the piece over the patterned paper and press down from the center out gently - wiggle it a bit if necessary - so there are no air bubbles. Let it dry and then trim it out.

Also - optional - choose some grungeboard (i used "boo" letters but the seasonal set has some great halloween ones too. color your grungeboard - you can ink it directly with an ink pad, cover it in stickles, paint it, use perfect pearls shimmer mist and let dry if necessary.

Once the crackle paint is completley dry choose a couple ink colors and blend them over the unpainted portions of your cardstock. it doesn't matter if you get it on the paint too. the best way to use this tool is to dab it on the ink pad, then start off the edge of your piece on the craft sheet and begin rubbing in a circular motion with light pressure. gradually move onto your cardstock.

Next stamp you background stamps with black soot distress ink. using a slightly damp paper towel GENTLY rub the stamped image off of the painted areas:



Ink your main image(s) with the black paint dabber - rub across to knock the peaks of paint down. stamp it.

Last step - using the foam ink blending tool again - rub vintage photo distress ink or similar dark brownish color along all the edges. use a distressing tool along the edges for added distress look if you want.

Here is a close up of one of the jars.

Attach your fragment charm with ribbon or fiber using a brad or an eyelet. glue grungeboard pieces on.

To make the jar i attached my paper pieces with mod podge and used alcohol ink on the plastic lids.

crackle paint is GREAT stuff but especially for halloween!! i am hoping to get a wooden halloween plaque done using it too.........

i hope you enjoy this project -if you choose to do it i hope you come back and share a link with me so i can see it!! remember all of these great products can be found at http://www.pezadoodle.com/ !!

SFYTT and Pink Cat time!!

time for Jen's Sketch For You To Try - if i don't get time to play any others i always try to make this one! this week's sketch gives LOTS of options - i can see using this quite a bit. i used it to make a card for this week's pink cat challenge - use one of the stamps you have not used yet - well that was EASY since i just ordered a bunch and they arrived yesterday!!


and so here's the card:

the patterned paper is SU Le Jardin - i just love the colors! these are also the colors for the pink cat challenge over on lauren's blog. background bamboo is pink cat and stamped in scattered straw distress ink. cat stamp is also pink cat and stamped in ranger adirondack espresso ink then colored with prismas and gamsol. i am lovin my new adirondack inks!! i added some sparkle to her collar and the circles on her pillow with my sakura stardust pens but i could not get it to show up in the pics. of course i used some more of my oscar gold swirlypops from sugar & scraps!

i have been SUPER BUSY with some new things coming VERY soon. be sure to tune in tomorrow for the first of several announcements and a chance to win some blog candy!!!

Like chipboard? Ya gotta see this!

so I made a cool "discovery" - i use quotes because i sincerely doubt i am the first to do this. i LOVE anything that shimmers and glitters. so i thought - how could i make an embossing pearl color with what i have right now. well i pulled out some chipboard, some grungeboard, some UTEE and of course my perfect pearls pigment powder. And here is what i came up with:



i used the pieces in a LO for Got Sketch #54:





the pics look funny cuz photoshop tried to "fix" red eye = oops. anyway....i am so excited about this cuz it just looks SO COOL!! so i took the pieces and smooshed them into versamark real well and covered with UTEE then melted. i did this a couple times to get a good thick layer of UTEE. then when it was mostly cooled i brushed on the perfect pearls powder. i did one last quick warm up with the heat tool but not enough to re-melt it - just to get it sticky to hold the perfect pearls on. i tried several other ways like mixing the pearl powder with the UTEE and with other embossing powders. but this is the best i think - i got the best results and there is less waste since you don't really know how much to mix. and an added plus - this fulfills the requirements for a challenge on one of my yahoo groups - YAY!! we were given a list of Ranger products and had to use at least one of them in a LO - from the list i have used sunflower sparkle perfect pearls, milled lavendar distress ink and lavendar stickles. The flower stamp is from a CTMH Easter set that i ADORE!!

i swear i have crafting ADD - i have not posted anything for ya'll all week but i have been scrappin and creatin like crazy! i have no less than 8 different projects on my table in some state of progress but nothing completed - :P well off to post my entry!! stay tuned for news of studio g series 11 tomorrow!!