Spring is in the Air

I squeezed in art time wherever I could find it this past week. I wanted to create so I made sure I found the time.

I played some more in my Dina Wakely Media journal. And I do mean play. I am having so much fun in this book! Something about all the different paper types is freeing me to just put paint to paper and I am loving every minute of it.

This is on a watercolor page. I used Dylusion Sprays to create the background. I was grabbing whatever looked blue or blue-ish from the pile so I know there are blues, purples and teals in the sky. The ground is a mix of greens and yellows and maybe orange. I was just spraying paint and water until I got a look that I liked.

After letting it dry for a day or so I added the rabbit. He was painted with acrylics, a random mix of whites, creams and browns with a touch of black to create gray and the eyes.

And again we wait lol

When I found time to return I added the tulips. These are entirely done with Scribble Sticks, magenta, white, and blackberry for the flowers. Lemon, lime and night for the leaves and stems. 

I created the pattern on the ground using a Dina Wakely stencil that looks like leaves or feathers and also a Dyan Reavely stencil that is leafy branches. I used Distress Inks in browns and greens, again randomly dabbing into whatever pad I thought might work to get the look I wanted.

My brother in laws birthday is next week.I got the card mailed out in time! I am doing really well this year!

The frame and embellishments are from the Magic Slider die set, Kit137, from LDRS creative. 
This is such a fun set to play with. My only issue is finding stamps that are small enough to fit in the frame yet large enough to color. This basic, uncolored image is stamped on a piece of acetate.

Here is the slider halfway up revealing a colored layer below.

And here it is fully open. The cards are fun to make and to receive. 
This is one of the mini Crazy Dogs from Tim Holtz. He fits perfectly in the frame along with his fancy party hat and balloons from the Mini Bird Crazy and Things set.

And my last project of the week, a giraffe tag. Yes, I am still obsessed with giraffes. I just love them!

I created the background by laying down layers of Distress Inks and Oxides in browns, reds and golds. I then used stencils to apply the squiggles, triangles and dots. I outlined the triangles with a black Sharpie pen.

The background giraffe, from Rubber Stampede, was stamped 3 times using Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. I then used a water brush to soften the image.

I stamped the giraffe head, from Impression Obsession, onto white cardstock again using my Distress Walnut Stain ink pad. I colored him in with Spectrum Noir alcohol pens. And used my black Sharpie pen to make his eyes black.

I rubbed some Distress Ink in Tea Dye and Walnut Stain to create a drop shadow behind him. The giraffe was added to the tag with double sided foam tape to lift him up off the surface. He didn't stand out as much as I wanted so I added more ink to the tag, Candied Apple to the upper right, Peeled Paint to the lower left. Both are Distress Oxides. 

I am going out of town next week for my job. Hubby is wondering what I am going to wear because so far my suitcase is packed with mostly art supplies lol  It could get very interesting when I try to explain my attire at my meetings :-)

Until next time...Happy Crafting!

Happy Fall!!!!!

Fall is my favorite time of year. The cooler temperatures, blue skies, colored leaves, apples and PUMPKINS!

Yesterday we headed out to the farm and bought our first pumpkins of the season! :-)

I'm sorry I haven't been here for a few weeks. My mom got sick. My parents live on the opposite side of the country so all I can do is worry, pray and spend a lot of time on the phone checking up on her. It puts a damper on my crafting spirit and decreases my crafting time....but that's ok. My primary goal right now it to get my mommy well.

But, I do have some things I made before she got sick AND a few things I have been working on the past few days. (the better she feels the more my creativity comes back) :-)

This first item I actually made a couple months ago. I just finally got around to downloading it off my camera lol

In July I started participating in virtual races because my sister wanted me to do the RockNRoll 5k in Las Vegas in November and I am totally out of shape. She convinced me to start doing virtual races to get into walking. Well, I am now not going to go to Las Vegas....saving up for a much bigger trip. But I am still doing the virtual races. It turns out that if you dangle pretty things in front of me I will actually get off my butt and exercise! lol

I have completed 7 races and am almost done with the 8th ranging in distances from 5k to 40 miles. And I have a collection of really cool medals to show for my efforts! (I will get some pictures of those for a later post)

Needing a place to display my hardware, I created this board. I used my Cricut Explore to cut vinyl to use as stencils. I added cup hooks across the bottom to hand my medals.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but my mom loves tote bags. I mean she really LOVES them. She has tons of them! lol  I have made or bought her several over the years.

When I got my Easy Press I knew I needed to make her another one.

The bag itself came from Walmart. It is one of their shopping bags. They are usually on a rack near the door and cost $4.00. They are fairly large, have a magnet closure at the top and are made of a medium weight canvas. I don't know that I could make it for less then $4.00.

I used both glitter and lite Cricut heat transfer vinyl.

The pelican/beach, turtle and crab are from the Life is a Beach cartridge.
The sun is from Disney Princesses - Believing in Dreams. I sliced it to get just a few sun rays.
The banner is from CTMH Artiste. I sliced the letters into it.
The text is various fonts from my computer fonts files.

I mailed it to my mom the day after she got sick. She loves it and is looking forward to taking it to the beach.

I had been working on Halloween cards. Those kind of got put on hold (because of my mom but also because new Christmas craft supplies arrived lol)  But here are a couple I have done.

I carved this skeleton stamp at least 30 years ago! I love him! lol
I think he plays well with this dog from Tim Holtz' mini Crazy Dogs. (although the dog seems to be playing a bit too rough lol)

I initially was inspired by this Ken's Kreations video which is why I was stamping on craft paper.
If you have never seen Ken's videos before you need to check them out. He has great tutorials and the banter between him and Sean always makes me smile (and sometimes double over laughing)

See, this doggy does not play well with others. Or maybe he takes 'playing with others' too seriously. lol
I cut a small slit in his mouth to insert the end of the bone. (when I carved the skeleton many years ago I also carved extra bones just in case... )

This next card was also inspired by another Ken's Kreations video.
Like I said, they have great tutorials and they cheer me up (which I have needed a lot lately).

I used Distress Inks for the background: Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw and Peacock Feathers.
And of course, one of Tim Holtz' Crazy Dogs wearing a bowler hat and sunglasses from the Crazy Things set.
The dog was colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.
The Happy Halloween was stamped and then embossed with white embossing powder. I had so many different stamps out for this text....some from CTMH, some Tim Holtz and some from Diamond Press. I honestly cannot remember which one I finally used (and not in the mood to dig them all out again lol ...sorry)

So, let me preface these next cards with....I have to always be learning something new otherwise I get bored. It can be just the smallest technique or a totally new craft.

Today it is a totally new craft lol

Parchment crafting.
I have seen it before. I think we might have sold the supplies at the craft store I worked at in the 80s. It was always called Pergamano whenever I saw it. Turns out that is just a brand name that has become synonymous with the craft. (like Jello or Kleenex lol)

Anna Griffin sells parchment craft supplies on HSN (of course she does!) And on her last appearance she introduced Christmas parchment supplies. Oh My Goodness! Talk about gorgeous!

What can I say, I purchased the every day and Christmas sets. It is something I can do while watching tv unlike most of my crafting where I have to be at my art desk.

The above is from the every day set. It looks so elegant yet it is so easy to do.

Here are the links for the every day set, the Christmas set and the tool set.

I attached my vellum to card stock using brads.

Here is one of the Christmas layers. It is vines with holly. So simple yet so pretty.
Oh and look! Anna has Christmas Go Press and Foil stamps!!!

I used the new wreath and Season's Greetings stamps to make this card.
I love the Go Press and Foil machine! It had a slight learning curve but once I got that all figured out I have had perfect results every time.

The wreath is foiled in gold on dark green card stock. I then foiled just the bow in red on white card stock and used foam tape to give it some dimension.
The Season's Greetings was foiled in gold directly onto the parchment.
The parchment layer was then glued down onto dark red card stock.

Do you have a Go Press and Foil machine? Having problems getting even coverage? Check out my post where I share my tips.

Here is another Christmas card using the Go Press and Foil machine and one of the new Christmas stamps. Isn't that tree gorgeous?!

The tree was foiled in gold on dark green card stock. I then hand cut the edges with decorative scissors.
The background is cream colored Cricut Pearl paper embossed with Anna Griffin's Sleigh Bells embossing folder.

Helpful tip: to ensure that thinner papers/card stocks like the pearl paper or vellum don't tear when embossing add a second layer of card stock to the folder. I used just plain Staples 110lb white card stock. Now I have a perfect pearl layer and a spare white layer to be used in another project.

I hand tied tiny red satin bows and glued them on the tree with Aleene's Tacky glue.

Last but not least...

My brother in law had a birthday last week. Of course I made him a card.

I was in the mood to try something new. 

Last May our town had their community yard sale. The automotive repair shop participated. They had sample books of leather and vinyl upholstery for free. I grabbed a few....no clue what I might do with them but couldn't just leave them there!

So, I finally came up with an idea. Could my Cuttlebug cut through thin leather and vinyl? 
Why Yes! It could!

I used an Anna Griffin oak leaf cutting die. I ran it through twice just to be sure it cut completely. They turned out great!
The background is craft paper. I inked up Anna's Acorn Scatter embossing folder with Tea Dye Distress Ink and ran it through the Cuttlebug so that the deboss was a darker brown.

The Happy Birthday is a Diamond Press die.

See what happens when I don't pop in on a regular basis? Tons of photos! lol

Here in the Pacific Northwest autumn has definitely arrived! I hope you all will get to enjoy the season very soon too.

Thank you for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

We are officially halfway

Can you believe it is already July? I told hubby last night that I think I need to start Christmas shopping. lol

Summer is probably my least favorite season. I am not a hot weather loving person. I prefer the spring and fall temperatures. I tend to sort of shut down as the heat rises which makes the Index Card a Day challenge an actual 'challenge'.

It was a struggle to get my cards done this week. I did get them all done but I was very uninspired on a few (which you can only view on my Pinterest board)

Day 26: Green

I think I finally got around to doing this one on about the 29th. Give me just a color as a prompt and I struggle. But here we have it. Nothing but green (and 2 little red eyes). This was done with Inktense pencils.


Day 27: Farm

My first thoughts were pretty basic...a barn, a cow, a pig, maybe a chicken all standing around. How it morphed into a barnyard selfie with photo bomb I do not know lol  But I like it!

This is done entirely with Prismacolor pencils. 


Day 29: Polka Dots

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot bikini.  In that song is the bikini yellow with polka dots or are the polka dots themselves yellow? 

This is outlined with Sharpie fine line pen and colored with alcohol markers. The sand and sky are Pan Pastels.


Day 31: Faux Wallpaper

I am not quite sure what 'faux' wallpaper is. I tried to create a vintage type wallpaper. I remember in my grandmother's houses, the wallpapers had pale colored backgrounds with something either painted or stenciled or stamped (be it flowers or geometric patterns...) and then the wallpaper had a raised, embossed texture that seemed to have nothing to do with the printed pattern. So, I used Distress Inks to create my background color. I then stenciled the swirls (this was from a Tim Holtz cutting die) and once it was dry I ran it through my Cuttlebug with Couture Creations Tied Together folder.

Have I done my card for today? Nope.  The prompt is "desert or dessert" (which I think was a prompt from last year too) Nothing has come to mind yet. Let's hope is does soon.

Until next time... I hope you all have a safe and happy Independence Day and Happy Crafting!

Go Press and Foil Machine revisited

Back in March I wrote a review for the Couture Creations Go Press and Foil Machine. If you missed it you can check it out here.

For the most part, I liked the machine but I had some issues that were bugging me.

Mostly, the inability to get full, even foiling on the large frame stamp die.

Well, I was a bit obsessed with giraffes for a couple months (so was the rest of the world so don't judge me lol) but I went back to this machine this week.

I found a video on YouTube that really opened my eyes. It is from Scrapbooking Made Simple. You should check it out. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sVWZ5BBe1i8

For me, since I already knew what this machine was 'supposed' to do, I was looking for some sort of tip on how to get even foiling. She says several times....there is hardly any pressure, you almost think there is no pressure it is so light. That was a light bulb statement for me.

I use my Cuttlebug all the time and I am sure you do too (or your Big Shot or whatever crank type embossing machines are out there) and we all know you need pressure to get a good cut or deep emboss.

We, that is one of the big secrets to this machine.....next to no pressure. You really think surely it needs more pressure. But in reality you should barely feel any resistance.

So, no pressure and longer heating time. Those are my tips for you today!

Here is my first attempt at the frame from a couple months ago.

See how the foil is sparse? That bugged me. Shouldn't a foil machine, when using their dies and their foil and their directions, give you even foiling? I thought so.

Here is my frame from yesterday.

It is Perfect!

What did I do?

I laid the stamping die on the machine, closed the lid and let it heat up for about a minute.

I then laid the foil, background card stock and a shim (a piece of 110 lb white card stock from Staples folded in half) over all of it and closed the lid.

Then I waited. Well actually, I took some pictures of other projects, went and filled my water bottle, talked to Minnie...  I waited probably 5 minutes.

Everything was evenly heated when I ran it through my Cuttlebug.

I rolled it through very, VERY slowly....3 times.

I then removed my foiled cardstock and let it cool completely before removing the foil (this only takes a few seconds)

I was so happy I ran and showed Minnie. She was not impressed....she is a cat after all! lol (Tucker was always impressed but he was much smarter...sorry Minnie lol)

I wanted to be sure this wasn't a fluke so I grabbed the rose die. It's the third stamping die that came with my kit from HSN. I hadn't tried it yet because I didn't want to be disappointed with that one too.

The photo is dark so that the foiling shows up. Look at that! Even coverage! There is a stray bit of foil near the top but that was because I didn't trim my foil small enough...easily corrected.

The pink worked beautifully too!

I used the exact same steps as the frame. I don't think you can really over heat the dies and paper. The machine shuts off after 20 minutes or so if you forget about it. My theory is that if the heat has penetrated all the layers on the machine it works better. Less heat loss moving it to your embossing machine and actually rolling it back and forth.

So I had to retry using cutting dies. Remember, before they were cutting through my card stock as well as foiling. (there is that pressure issue again)

Not any more. I used the same 'sandwich' as on the frame. The cutting dies are thinner than the stamping dies so I really thought there was not enough pressure. I couldn't feel any resistance at all!

But I got perfect foiling with just a slight indentation in the card stock. Yay!

So, what do you do with just an outline of a butterfly?

I pressed mine into some wet Distress Inks. My intention was to then cut it out and ink the edges darker but I like the swirls of ink around the edges so I am going to hold off and think about it for a while. It could make a very nice card front as is....just add a sentiment and there you go. 

And then I thought....it is supposed to foil chipboard pieces. I don't have any (well that's not entirely true....I have some I'm just not sure where lol) but what about foiling die cuts? If I increase the thickness of the shims to mimic the thickness of chipboard...

I could not get a decent picture of either of these but you can see it is blotchy on the 'Father's Day" and you can see the blue card stock showing on the Hello.

I am thinking thicker shims, just a little thicker. Maybe a piece of cereal box....I'll work on it.

But these are not a total loss.

The foil resists inks. I grabbed my Distress Black Soot and rubbed all over the Father's Day. I then rubbed it with a tissue to remove the excess ink. It now looks like distressed metal. The picture doesn't do it justice. It is pretty cool!

And I rubbed Distress Tea Dyed on the Hello. It is very close in color and that one now looks like aged metal. Again, very cool.

The potential with this machine has increased for me. (and I thought it had potential before)

I hope, if you have been struggling with your Go Press and Foil Machine, that this helps you out. 

Once I work out how to get die cuts evenly foiled I will let you know....imagine being able to foil ANY die cut shape (even Cricut shapes) without them having to be cut from toner paper and run through the Minc (which I still love and use)

Happy Crafting and Happy Mother's Day this Sunday!



Oh, and I am still obsessed with giraffes!

Don't tell anybody but this is from one of the BadBaby round robin journals. We aren't supposed to share any pictures until after the swap ends but I couldn't resist (and how can you be a BadBaby if you don't break any rules?)

It was so hard to resist tearing out the pages and keeping this. :-(

Art is what keeps me going

Today is not a great day. I am feeling very achy. Thank goodness I work from home and can stop for a few hours and go create something. It is the best medicine in the world!


Today is the last day of week 3 of the Index Card a Day challenge. I can't believe how fast it is flying by. Then again I can't believe we are half way through 2016 either!  Geez, before you know it it will be Christmas....I better get started with my shopping!!!!!  ;-)


Day 18: Orange

I stamped the pumpkins. If you have been here before then you know this is one of my all time favorite stamps. It comes from Graphic Rubber Stamp in N. Hollywood CA. The number stamped on the side of the block (yes this is so old it is mounted on a wood block) 844-1 H.  I have no idea if this company is even around any more. I have had this stamp for at least 20 years, probably more.

Anyway, I colored the pumpkins, as well as the floor, with Prismacolor pencils. I then inked up one of my embossing folders (Henna by Darice) with Stormy Sky Distress Ink and pressed it onto my card. I then chalked over it with PanPastel Ultramarine Blue Tint.

But I got done and though.....Eh.

So I made another card for the Orange prompt.

The sun was painted with white acrylic paint. Everything else is Inktense pencils.

I am still thinking ...Eh. But it's time to move on.


Day 19: Snowflake

I inked up my Swirled Snowflakes embossing folder from Darice with Distress Ink Stormy Sky and embossed my 3x5 index card.

I then drew the girl on a separate card, colored her with Inktense pencils, cut her out and glued her onto the snowstorm.

I think it turned out pretty cute.  It might even make a cute Christmas card. :-)


Day 20: The 1960s

Again, if you have been on this journey with me over the years then you know how much I love this cat stamp! He comes from Mars Tokyo.
I thought he would enjoy becoming part of my ode to Warhol.  :-)

The background was colored with Sharpie markers.
The cats were stamped with black Staz-On ink and then colored with Inktense pencils.
I then cut them out and glued them onto the background.


Day 21: Invent a Prompt

I really did not have anything in mind. I asked hubby last night for some prompt ideas....he has horrible prompt ideas lol

So, I began looking through my Pinterest boards just to see if something would jump start my muse. I found a Halloween card with a fat toad. And then I started thinking that I want to work on drawing Chibis again and that lead to this....

Crazy how the mind works isn't it? lol

Everything was drawn with a Sharpie fine line pen and then colored with Inktense pencils.

We'll just say my prompt was 'green' LOL

Have a wonderful week!

This girl just wants to have fun

It has been a really long time since I just had fun in the art room. Yes, I love creating but lately it has just been to relieve stress not just for fun.

But this week I did not have any goals or agendas. I just wanted to play. So, I challenged myself. Pick up a cartridge, find an image and create a card.

The first cartridge I grabbed was Pagoda. I love this cartridge! Such gorgeous images!!! And yet, I don't use it very often. My friends and family are not as in to Asian themes as I am lol

I chose one of the trees then added the sitting panda and rice bowl (which hubby swears is a "sumo diaper" lol)
I made this on a 4x5 card and added the rice bowl for a couple reasons. 1. who doesn't love rice? lol but 2. my Explore is due here any day and I want to compare how it cuts this bowl at this small size (just slightly over 1/2 an inch). The bowl has a detailed cutout design and my Expression, while able to cut it, did not do a perfect job and supposedly the Explore will.....so we shall see and compare. I will let you see what I see.  :-)

The next day I pulled out Mini Monsters. I had not used this cartridge yet. It seems most people use it for Halloween but that is a long way off. I found a cute little guy that screamed 'alien' to me. The rocket is from the Just Because Cards cartridge.

But I was not all about Cricut this week....yeah, I know, I have been living on that thing for several weeks now lol

I saw a great video on Pinterest this week and had to try it out. It shows how to 'bump' your stencil. Something a stenciler tries very hard NOT to do! lol
I really like the effect, sort of giving your stenciled image a shadow. However, I was not crazy about the paint I was using. I used regular acrylics (I have hundreds of them so I am not going to go out and buy a new type of paint if I don't have to) but it dried pretty quickly making it difficult to blend the background colors. I also didn't like how it bled under the edges of the stencil because I was using a foam pad like in the video.

The fish are from Fred B Mullett... Big Pompano and Silver Salmon.

I decided to give it another try after some thought on how to alter the process and supplies to meet my expectations.

I am liking this one a bit better.

I created the background using Tim Holtz distress inks and water technique (although you can't see much of it anymore since I layered and distressed over it so much lol

My base colors were Scattered Straw and Bundled Sage. I inked the shadow layer of my stencil with Color Box chalk ink Deep Green. I then, using a stencil brush, added the top layer with a blend of a light green and some pale yellow paints. Neither by itself was giving me the color I wanted so I began dabbing back and forth between them.
The man stamp is from Tim Holtz (why can I never get a clean stamp image from this one???) as well as the text (which I spritzed with water to make it blur).
And all I can figure is it must be the circles (which look like bubbles to me) which is making me pull out another Fred B Mullett fishie.....Menpachi, which I stamped using acrylic paint instead of ink.

I then used distress inks on the edges which wipes off of the acrylic paints and makes the fish stand out.

Off to plant potatoes! Yay! Spring is finally here!!! Next comes sugar snap peas (if hubby gets busy and weeds the beds for me) Yes, sometimes having back issues is a plus lol

So many projects, so little time.....to blog

Where has all the time gone? It seems like I just posted something here yesterday and yet the last time I was here was August 24.

That doesn't mean I haven't been working on anything.  As a matter of fact, this post is very picture heavy (just a warning lol)

I am still in my Fall/Halloween mood. I just love the colors!!! But I have a couple other, non-autumn related items this week too.  :-)

To say I have been working on tons of stuff is an understatement. I even have a few things still on my camera.

Let's start with fun new ideas...
I saw this on Pinterest while looking for some Cuttlebug ideas. Using aluminum tape, you can created really cool backgrounds. I found this 50 foot roll of tape in with the duct work supplies at Home Depot. It cost around $8. I already have a great idea for my Christmas cards using this for the background (hope it turns out as great as I imagine lol)

I found that if I put the tape onto cardstock first, it was much more stable and easier to work with on my cards (but you can run just the tape through the Cuttlebug and it embosses just fine). I used plain index cards for the backing....cheap and an easy size to work with.
You can see that I was also playing with alcohol inks. :-)  I found that you can apply the alcohol inks before embossing like above or apply after embossing to just highlight the raised areas (but this was much more time consuming....still looks cool though)

So, after experimenting, I was ready to use this on a card. I put 2 strips of the aluminum tape onto an index card. I covered it with alcohol inks (a blend of reds, browns and golds...which don't show up too well in a photo because it is so shiny) then ran it through the Cuttlebug using the Fall Leaf background from Darice. The stamped image is from the Stampin' Up set Halloween Smiles.

And while playing around with the Cuttlebug, I pulled out my Jack o Lantern folder (part of the Happy Hauntings set) and tried applying ink to the embossed images.

I love how it turned out. This is Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. I just rubbed the ink pad gently over the paper so the ink only hit the raised images. My only problem? I is just too bright and busy to work as a background with anything I have tried. So it is sitting in my stack of leftovers until I find a good match.
I used this folder again to make the background for a friend's birthday card (she is a Halloween baby)

I made the cupcake in fall colors and of course, chocolate icing lol The cupcake comes from Simply Charmed. I added shading with Prismacolor pencils.

And since I was still in Halloween mode, I pulled out the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge and made this little witch.

But then I couldn't decide what to do with her so she hung out on my desk until I put her on this doorknob tag. The spider web and 'Trick or Treat' are from October 31st.

But we are not done yet my friends.....I warned you that I was super busy! lol

I saw several ideas for Post-it note holders online and thought that might make a cute gift. I grabbed my Create a Critter and Teddy Bear Parade. I removed the eyes and mouth cuts from the worm using the Cricut Craft Room and resized him just a bit to fit my project better. His glasses are from Teddy Bear Parade, resized to fit his little head.

This paper was printed with the eyelet and striped edge. Since this was a practice project, I didn't want to get into layering papers and such. I just wanted to get my basic measurements down.
I used the standard 3x3 post-it. I cut the background paper at 3 1/4" x 6 3/4" so that I have about 1/8" edge around the post-it. It went together really fast. I think I might be tossing a few of these into my Christmas boxes.  :-)

I was able to leave the Cricut and Cuttlebug alone for a while this week :-)
I moved into tag mode.

This is what happens when I am bored and start watching Tim Holtz videos lol Using the technique where you rub your distress inks onto a non-stick craft sheet (or in my case a piece of foil) spritz with water and then rub your tag into the puddles....I got this.

The bumpy stuff down the right side is some sort of gel medium with glass beads in it. The stuff was so old that it had thickened to a very stiff mess but I rubbed some on...this was as smooth as I could get it....before I dipped the tag in inks. I had also added a couple lines with crayon knowing they would resist the ink.

I used some stencils and rubber stamps to add more visual texture (notice blue blotches in the upper left...giraffe spots I think. And faint trees in the center left)

This sat on my desk for a couple days until I added more images and added it to my art journal.

But this was not the only tag I inked up that day! I actually did 5 or 6.  Some have not yet been used. Others on waiting to be downloaded off the camera. :-)

I did manage to get one of them photographed AND downloaded lol

Again, using Distress Inks for the background, I added lots of stamped images. The birds and clock face are from Tim Holtz. The pumpkin is from Inkadinkado and the tree branch is actually just one branch from a very large tree stamp from Stampa Rosa.

I added eyelets and jute to the bottom left. The stars are brads. They were shiny silver and copper but I inked them with alcohol inks to make them dark.

Don't you love how it 'glows'? That is the Distress Inks and the Prismacolor pencils in his eyes. They are both products with rich, intense colors.

I guess I have bombarded you with enough this week! lol
Stay tuned for more of my Fall/Halloween goodness!  Be forewarned, I am trying to put together an Autumn Junk Journal lol

Happy Fall Y'all