Celebrating Spring!

I have been enjoying all the flowers blooming in our neighborhood and our garden. We even have our veggies sprouting up already and I'm busy protecting them from snails. I love this time of year! I'm inspired to create springy artwork as well. Like this!

My tag doesn't follow the April example of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2012 too closely but I used the same techniques he is showcasing, just different parts. I also incorporated creating a faux patina on the metal butterfly charm and metal word frame as that is the technique used in week #2 of the book Compendium of Curiosities 2 challenge over at Studio L3 blog. Go check it out! I had a lot of fun making this. Ta-ta for now!

Experimental fun

I've recently joined a yahoo group called All Things Tim (as in the designer Tim Holtz). It is a fun group of talented people and the creativity is really flying over there! One of the members recently shared a video on a different way to use the Tim Holtz ticket strip die. It has sparked a great deal of excitement in the group and people are having a grand time with the technique. It got my ideas going too so I was experimenting as well. This is what I've come up with so far:

Instead of isolating the design on just one ticket section (like the angel at the bottom) I wanted to play with the idea of having a design that was continuous across the whole strip. Postage stamp designs are often like this, where each stamp is a stand alone design but all together the block of stamps forms a larger picture. So in theory these could be torn apart to use on projects, but I think I would keep them intact to use on a card or scrapbook page. I hope you like them. I had fun and I have a lot more ideas. I just need some more free time (hahahahahaha).

Sketch Challenge!

Hello, over at Scrapping Everyday Miracles our April sketch challenge is up and running! If you enter our challenge and link up your project to the challenge post, you will be in the running for our awesome prize this month (a $30 gift credit at Scrapbook Circle). Here is my sketch:

and here is the layout I created using it:

Head on over to SEM for all the details and to see the wonderful layouts the DT did using the sketch. Have a great week!

I'm Ahead of the Game!

I have completed Mother's Day cards for this year! Woo hoo! (I hope my mom doesn't see this blog post.) These cards are also chock-full of Tim Holtz technique goodness and fulfill the requirements for two different challenges.

The first challenge is for Simon Says Stamp and Show (from SimonSaysStamp.com). You just had to create something with one Tim Holtz technique on it. Each of these cards actually has three techniques on it. The left-hand card utilizes Brushless Watercolor, Blended Spritz & Flick, and stamping with a custom foam stamp. The right-hand card uses Wrinkle-Free Distress, Blending with Markers, and stamping with a custom foam stamp.

The second challenge is for the A Compendium of Curiosities 2 Challenge. I'm really excited about this one. Each week the challenge will focus on a different technique found in Tim's new book "A Compendium of Curiosities 2". It's going to be loads of fun! This first challenge was to make a custom foam stamp which I did using the Butterflight On Edge die. The first card is stamped with a pearl paint dabber and the second with Distress ink.

See you Monday, there is more creative fun to come!

Scrapping Everyday Miracles Challenge #15!

It's time for our monthly challenge at Scrapping Everyday Miracles! This is a really fun challenge – we are going to focus on the people in our lives who brighten our day with the silly things they say. My son Greg said the funniest things when he was a preschooler (he's still a funny guy too). I wrote down some quote-worthy statements on a trip to a logging museum we took when he was almost 5. We definitely had a laugh at how he experienced the trip.

journaling:
Greg, you were such a crack up when you were a preschooler. You would say the funniest things and were (and still are) so animated. I wish I had written down even more from those times. This time we were making a stop at the Collier Logging Museum on our way to Montana. You loved all the machines and finding out about what each one did. You were so serious about it too – you thought these were the coolest working type vehicles ever! I loved your explanations and they gave us all quite a chuckle.

You can join in our challenge and be eligible for a $30 gift credit at Scrapbook Circle. Just head on over to Scrapping Everyday Miracles for the details and the linky for your project.