my little hoo's birthday

It's my little monkey's birthday and I thought Stampotique captured my sentiment best with their monster and little hoo-hoo stamp.  With a stamp this fantastic you don't need much else going on and so I kept it simple (I apologize to my friends for the lack of advance warning; I promise the next project will be messier).

I'm entering this perfect pair into Stampotique Designers Challenge: SDC #134 Perfect Pairs.

I covered the Impression Obsession cover-a-card distressed brick stamp with antique linen distress ink and clear embossed it to create the card background.  Have I told you how much I love Tim Holtz's distress inks?  I might have once or twice.  They are my go-to product for colour and the card below is a somewhat good example and I'll elaborate:   

1. The brick was created by directly applying distress ink colour to the stamp
2. The lettering was individually hand stamped with archival black onto watercolour paper which was initially run through watered down weathered wood, peeled paint and vintage photo (the definition and texture is astounding) but that's not all; you can:
3. Use the distress inks as watercolours
4. Remove colour 
5. Emboss it and, but not limited to,
6. Use distress inks with as many tools as you have in your repertoire including stencils, embossing folders and stamps to get a whole variety of outcomes especially when you play with different types of papers like watercolour, grunge and glossy

No shares bought, just an honest enthusiasm for an amazing and diverse product.

Monster was coloured in with coloured pencils and markers.  Little hoo-hoo was coloured in with markers.  And both were highlighted with Viva Pearl Pen (ice white) and black Sakura Gelly Roll.

The hearts were punch cut and the entire thing was mounted on green cardstock which is Alex's favourite colour.

I have a special evening planned for my amazing little man with all of his favourite things (secretly determined in advance; aren't moms great that way?) and dinner out at the restaurant of his choice (secretly wishing it is not one of the more popular children's restaurant/playpark in the area which I will not name).

Still reeling from a great long weekend and cutting out ten bazillion creature power activators (handmade) for Alex's Wild Kratt birthday party scheduled later on in the month.  How did you spend your weekend?  Was it crafty?

valentine's day tags 42 over 2 posts part 2

Part two of the 42 tag valentine day adventure begins with cupid (you can see part one here).  The tag background was prepared with peeled paint and worn lipstick distress inks, covered and heat set with Viva Croco crackling color (silver).  The Croco crackling effect was new to me and decidedly delightful.  Crackling color gave the crackle a less invasive finish than the homemade version which has an entirely different texture.  I adore both and I love having them both in my technique bag of goodies.  

Behind Cupid I added Stampotique hanging hearts and set her above a Octopode Factory cupcake wrapped in love.

The heart on her crown was embellished with Viva Pearl Pen (red).  I cannot say it enough: I love the Pearl Pens.  So much greatness in one container.

It appears that cupid was successful.  The raining hearts were punch cut from glitter cardstock.

 

And my final tag was a cityscape (Memory Box die cut) filled with love.

Peeled paint, tea dye and worn lipstick distress inks make up the background.  I misted it with water before heat setting to add texture.

The ribbon, which I found at Michaels craft store, was a bit of unexpected fun.  The hearts have a bit of a dimension and rubbery feel to them.  A wonderful little treat.

mr. everythingshetouches isn't a fan of the commercial exploits of the holiday, however, I still got a dozen roses (I have a whole other post about the roses situation in our household almost ready for posting) and a very adorably funny note.  Breakfast with the man, dinner with both my guys and wonderful friends and an evening of stamping madness made for an incredible valentines day.  

And the love continued into yesterday: dinner with two incredible friends (super yum) and a big thank you to mr. click! print! scrapbook! for the mini seashells.  I have the perfect idea for its use in mind.

I hope that you all had as much love and fun on your valentine's day and for all of my Canadian friends celebrating a statutory holiday this weekend: enjoy!  I would love to hear how you "observed" the holiday either in the comment section below or by email.

valentine's day tags 42 over 2 posts

Forty-two tags, five designs over two posts.  All of the stamped images over the two posts are digital stamps bought from the very talented Lily Chilvers' Octopode Factory and I absolutely adore each and every one of her designs.  I decided to colour sad bear in (and the others) with pencil crayons.  The tag background was layered with peeled paint, tea dye and worn lipstick distress inks.  Misted with water and heat set.  The technique gave the tag an extra sad tear-stained look.

Although sad bear captures the negative essence of valentine's day, he has a sweetness that I couldn't resist.  I love his stick legs and heart palms.

The jar of hearts is a memory box die-cut; the bottom layer was cut out of pink cardstock, the top layer out of pink vellum.  The hearts were punch cut out red glitter paper.

Freda is simply fantastic and I see great diverse potential for her.  I layered scottie masking tape, found at Michaels, as Freda's backdrop.

The heart glasses are stellar.

I lined the tag with some homemade washi tape.  To see how to make your own washi tape take a peek at this post.

The mad hatter makes up the last tag of this post.  The tag background was painted with white acrylic and erratically modge podged with torn pieces of vintage valentine paper.  Once dried, I highlighted the hearts and added decorative dots with silks acrylic paint (carmen and fuzzy peach) and then added Stampotique hanging hearts.

Mad Hatter's hat patch and bow tie were highlighted with viva pearl pen (red).  Love the pearl pens.  I'm slowing building a collection of every colour.

I'm entering the trio of tags in Anything But a Card's Challenge #32 TIC .. TAC .. LOVE! two ways:  3 (glitter), 5 (heart) and 7 ribbons and twine and 4 (bling it on!), 5 (heart) and 6 (sprays and mists).

Stay tuned for the second valentine's day post of tags four and five coming later in the week. 

goggles and tophats: a steampunk january

Dawn, mistress of The Inked Stamper, organized a January 10-tag swap.  Theme: steampunk.  The talent that makes up our tag swap team is astounding and, in some ways, frightening.  We have our new tag assignment for February: shabby chic and I will admit, the level of creative aptitude in the group has given me a good swift kick in the pants to step up my tag-designing game. 

I built my January tags around a steampunk owl die-cut (a cherished Christmas gift) and a steampunk blueprint image.  The embossed gears sizzix texture trades embossing folder) were lightly painted  with taupe, green and metallic copper to give the tag a worn oxidized metal composition.  I highlighted some of the gears in silver metallic markers to add some contrast. The owl was embossed with black embossing powder and I added graphic 45 cling stamp wings to give him a bit of flight.

Owl is perched on a memory box tree die cut which I also embossed using the sizzix texture trades embossing folder.  The two utility lights (craftsman #2 cling stamp) in the corner were stamped onto white tissue paper (bottom layer) and vintage white cardstock and highlighted with copper and gold metallic markers.

Mr. everythingshetouches was adamant that every good steampunk character needs a tophat and goggles.  I hand-cut the tophat(dylusions couture clear stamps) out of grey cardstock and highlighted it with silver metallic marker.  The goggles were punch-cut circles on green cardstock and I dipped the top of a screw into black and silver ink and paint and pressed it onto the circles.  Owl's eye was embellished with a bolt from a stash of IKEA findings.  I desperately hope that the findings are extras included in the packaging in the event of loss and not bits missed in the instructions and required to hold our IKEA furniture together.

Coming soon:  5 templates for 42 Valentine's Day tags.  I'm finishing up the last of the fifth template and cannot wait to share them with you.  I truly enjoyed the process for both the steampunk and Valentine's Day swap.  I have grown accustomed to designing very little and reproducing mass quantities of each component.  It feels strange and exhilarating to have to go back to the table with a fresh slate and design new templates.

Remember you can follow along on my journey by adding everythingshetouchespamk to your favourite blog feeder.  If you would like for me to follow you, in return, let me know in the comments below.  Your talent inspires me.