Create To Live March Challenge

Happy Spring Everybody! Spring is one of my favorite times of the year!
I love the chilly windy days, I love all the pretty flowers that are blooming, the trees with their fresh new leaves. The weather and the flowers make me giddy. I love to fly kites, too !
I was visiting some of my favorite sites and I came across Susan Weckesser's site http://mysweetearth.blogspot.com/2013/03/create-to-live-march-challenge.html; I loved the colors of a layout and saw the invitation for a challenge... yes, I know another challenge. You gotta check it out; how could I possibly resist those colors. Confession time, yes right up front, I confused the colors from Susan's Challenge and the colors from Ranger's Challenge ( I think I've got all colors from both... leave it to me.).
One of my favorite flowers in the whole world is  Ranunculus. I look forward to Spring every year because I love seeing them in people's gardens. They are so bright and so cheerful. So I chose Ranunculus for my tag. The theme for this challenge is Celebrate. Each Spring I reflect on  the "newness " of life , new beginnings, spring cleaning and my life!
I always associate  new life ( growth), flowers, butterflies and joy with Spring! So my tag reflects  all of these.
Using my distressing inks,  (mowed lawn, peacock feathers, squeezed lemonade, shaded lilac, concord grape, mustard seed, wild honey, and spiced marmalade) and dylusions cut grass ink I created the background for my tag using the blending tool for some areas, other areas I blotted the colors on my craft sheet, spritzed it with water and then blotted the tag drying in between layers. When I got the blend of colors I wanted I dried the tag and then misted it with heirloom gold perfect pearls mist. When the tag was dry I stamped it with my Stampendous Flower Field Stamp using black archival ink. I dried it with the heat tool and then colored my flowers using my distress markers (spun sugar, barn door, worn lipstick, spiced marmalade, and peeled paint)... I'm having a great time watching this unfold before my eyes. Something interesting happened while I was doing this; my thoughts went to a picture of these flowers; as if I had seen them before; and I really can't recall having seen this picture, but I felt like a real artist ! ANYWAY , when the flowers dried I added lime green  stickles to the leaves, squeezing a small dab and smoothing it with my fingers ( I'm really wearing this artist hat  about now... I like that thought ... LOL).  Okay, so what am I celebrating... umm ...spring and life ... so I decided to use my life definition stamp at the top and randomly at the bottom ( I was a little heavy handed at the top, so it didn't quite have the effect I wanted) nevertheless the life stamp was added and I decided to use my butterfly punch to make butterflies, scoring them to giving wings some dimension. I had a left over banner so I stamped it with word "just celebrate". I found a butterfly, and life word stick in my stash and I colorized the ribbon ( and the butterflies) using a combination of wild honey, mustard seed and spiced marmalade distress stain... love the color it created !!! To finish off my tag I distressed the edges with vintage photo distressing ink and added bling to the butterflies. This Spring I'm Celebrating Life... my life as a Minister and the lives of all of those whose lives have touched  mine in such amazing ways these past months.  In the past six month ,
God has given me a "special" assignment as a prayer partner for children and babies who are fighting everyday for their lives; most of them were born prematurely with many birth defects/illnesses; others are cancer patients. As I read their stories about their fights and pray for them and their families, I have an even greater appreciation for life and what it means to LIVE ! I'm GRATEFUL for my life and my experiences and for the privilege of being able to offer support to these babies/children and their families ... I CELEBRATE who I am and who God has called me to be !

HAPPY SPRING !

12 Tags of 2013 March Tag

March Tag !
It's almost SPRING... I think I've got Spring Fever already!
Bunnies, flowers, green grass and bows , it must be spring! Tim's got us excited!!
Oh my this was fun ... yes I know I say that all the time...BUT it's true!
I don't know which was more fun the flowers or the bunny. Love those new Distress Paints, I've got Six already may have MORE before the end of the week :) ! If you haven't joined Tim yet for these tag adventures come join us... go check out his instructions and see the creative work of the "Tim Tag Community" http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2013-march/. You really will enjoy it !
I pretty much stuck to the "original" for this tag. It's amazing how a little alcohol ink; aqua and mushroom gave such cool affect on the tinsel and then to watch it take form as I used the heat tool... felt like magic! I will give a tip... don't get distracted and heat the tinsel too long ( I ALMOST did) .
The vintage look on the flowers is also amazing ; and that die for the grass; omg so easy! If you don't have it, you'll want it!! Well that's all for now... go make yours!

Happy Birthday Uncle Bobby

In Loving Memory of the "Other Man" in my life , Happy 83rd Birthday Uncle Bob... Miss you so much, Love you forever + 3 days !!
I thank God everyday for the privilege of having grown up with a loving family. I have fond memories of my dad and my uncle. My dad was killed in an auto accident in 1980; although I missed my dad very much ( and he couldn't be replaced); God Blessed me with a "stand-in" dad, in the person Robert E. Joe, affectionately known as the "Other Man in My Life ". For many years  up until a few  weeks before his passing, he drove across the freeway to come visit me whether at home or on my job to bring chocolate, strawberries and "lunch money"! I always felt so very special. He rarely missed any milestones in my life (even those that were only important to me)! I'm grateful for those special moments. I miss the weekly  phone calls, we had our own special "banter"; the trading of the soups and soup recipes, the lunches, brunches, the pop in visits, the cute notes left for missed visits, the flowers, the candy,  and the hugs and of course those "just because gifts! Even though I miss ALL of these things, I take great Joy in the memories of such a Special Love !  I'm Proud to be a " Joe" and to have been raised and loved by Joe men;  Ross L. Joe, Jr. and Robert E. Joe. Happy Birthday Uncle Bobby ( he liked to be called Uncle Bob... but he'll always be Uncle Bobby to me; and he knew that )!

Tattered Floral Challenge

Tattered Floral Challenge

The flower challenge was to create flowers using Tim's Tattered Florals  Die. We could use any medium we wanted to create our flowers, and could use the flowers wherever we desired. On Tim's site
http://timholtz.com/tattered-floral-challenge/ you can see details of the challenge and check out the flowers he made, as well as the projects from other Tim fans. Stop over and check it out!

Did someone say flowers?   Okay, I stopped laughing long enough to get to work on my flowers ( if you missed it you must read Saturday's post ). My little experiment turned out  to be interesting . If you look at # 1, 2 , 5 and 6 ( counting from left to right) you will recognize my "famous" pieces!
I made my flowers using some recycled elements; napkins, dictionary pages, Styrofoam, dryer sheets, turkey carrier, plastic packaging, Starbucks coffee cup sleeves and misc. scraps of canvas and burlap. I had so much fun experimenting; I accidentally melted the Styrofoam but it made a unique design (#1). I also over heated the plastic, but I love how it curved the edges of the flowers ( # 2.3, and 6).
I used my dylusions inks on the Styrofoam and cardboard flower parts ( 1,5 and 6); distressing inks on the plastic, and floral parts(2 and 3). On the napkins and on some of the plastic floral parts of (4-6)  I used perfect pearls mist , on the canvas I used distress markers ( I actually outlined the edges and spritzed the edges with water, drying it immediately... so cool to watch the ink react with the water), and distressing ink on the cardstock and dictionary paper. The centers of my flowers were the Idea-ology Custom Fasteners. I plan to use my flowers as pins ... I did not have the tie tacs on hand but I'll pick some up on payday! ( I may also try the pin bars). Hope you enjoyed my flowers... now you go make some :) !  Oh and I plan to add Tattered leaves to them also... I couldn't wait to show them off. Oh my goodness it's 1:00 A.M., I was going to bed early tonight... LOL !!

What Is This You Say ?

 

What is this you say?

Happy Saturday morning everybody! Are you ready for your weekend laugh?
This is the reason that you should never get up before 11:00 A.M. if you went to bed at 3:00 A.M. !
Okay ... so Tim Holt'z is hosting a Tattered Floral Challenge http://timholtz.com/tattered-floral-challenge/; you know how I LOVE Tim Holtz , so I'm thinking oh yeah that would be fun I have that die; what could I do that would be creative/ experimental... hum ? I got the BRIGHT idea  to use house hold items... dryer sheet, coffee sleeve, cardboard, styrofoam  and turkey carrier ( it's okay to laugh now) I'm still laughing as I'm doing this post). Okay so the first one was messy, it looked like this, I'm thinking ( or at least I thought I was "thinking"); there must be a better way to do it so the pieces don't go all over and cut up in these silly pieces (dah... I'm still not getting a clue! )... so I did it AGAIN  this time putting paper between the die and the turkey carrier ( I'm wiping tears now from laughing so hard), it did make a mess... BUT this time not directly on the die !!! OMG ... I CANNOT BELIEVE IT TOOK ME THAT LONG... to realize that's a BAD idea... or is it ???
You'll have to come back tomorrow or next week to see (after you stop laughing). Okay, I'm going to go eat brunch and get ready for a wedding ... that's what I should have been doing... darn that Tim... I get so excited what can I say, I wanted to get started... See you soon... it's okay I'm STILL LAUGHING !!!

February Tag 12 Tags of 2013

February Tag 12 Tags of 2013

Hi everybody! Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!
I can't believe I almost forgot to post my February tag, especially since I was so excited about it. I tell you I have totally fallen in love with the blueprint stamps. It's so cool that Tim used the Queen of Hearts for the tag ( I'm the Queen you know ). I'm gettin' the hang of the distress markers, Tim's gonna make an artist out of me yet! Working with the Core'dinations Seasonal Impressions was so easy and so fun, in that black it just made the tag pop. I liked so much about this tag ( it's a Tim tag what can I say ), the paper ribbon made from the tissue tape was awesome. Another tag fun tag completed.. don't you just love the colors ... the combination of festive berries and fired brick distress stain background is so rich... fit for a Queen ! Well, that's all for now , do go check out the tags of the rest of the Tim Community they are amazing as usual http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2013-february/. You should consider joining us it's so much fun and you learn so much!