you can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf - jon kabat-zinn

Before I get into describing my tag in this post I am happy to share with you the news that I reached 5000 views!  I am now officially one year and one day into participating and being part of the blogosphere and I am loving it.  I am so grateful for meeting new people who share my passion and so many talented folks who inspire me every day.

Thank you.

Beach is June's Inked Stamper 10-tag swap theme.  I'm not sure if my inspiration was rampant because we just (not really just but I have been mentally returning on occasion ever since) went on a trip to the Caribbean or if when we did return to Edmonton the weather resembled the innards of a refrigerator but I took to June's theme like a seagull to a crab and tackled it with gusto.

I created the background of the tag with my gelli plate, three acrylic paints (beige, grey and pearlescent teal) and die-cut my 10 tags from 3 prints.  I used the Memory Box garden bare branches stencil to get a negative impression resembling ocean coral and layered Impression Obsession's starfish and seashell background stamp on top with black archival ink.  The starfish and the clam got a layer of glossy accents for added interest and dimension.

I learned a neat trick for cleaning my gelli plate at the retreat this spring using glitter and packing tape.  By sprinkling a touch of glitter around dried paint areas on the plate and using the tape to lift up the residue you get a fantastic ribbon of paint and glitter and your plate is lickable clean (not really but it is really darn tidy).

I painted the mermaid's hair using pearlescent watercolours and added a little punch cut shark on the headband for fun.  It was cut out of a Sookwang sheet, covered in latte Glitter Ritz and burnished to get the added shine.  I recently got introduced to Glitter Ritz (where have I been?) and I am seriously hooked.  I want to ritz everything.  Never really a glitter gal (I also own Tim's Distress Glitter which I am simply mad about) in the past I am now part of the converted.  Watch out.

The seashells are from the Recollections embellishment line.  A brilliant idea donated to me by one of my favourite craft enablers.  Merci.

The mermaid tail was cut from patterned paper and dry embossed to achieve a scaly texture.

The chain and beads attached to the burlap strip reminded me of fishing nets and captured treasures. 

I am entering my beach tag into Inkido's May Challenge: the beach is my happy place.

There have been so many projects in the past few months that I find I am falling behind in my posting.  I owe you a whole bunch of posts which I cannot wait to share.  

Thank you for stopping by and, as always, I appreciate your encouragement and kind words.

never trust people who promise to make you rich in a day. they are generally crazy swindlers ― carlo collodi, pinocchio

May's Inked Stamper 10-tag swap theme was Fairy Tale.  Twinkie Stampotique makes the perfect little Pinocchio and once I decided  Pinocchio was the direction for the swap the rest of the tag design fell into place very quickly.

I die-cut tags out of pearlescent black paper and bricked-up the stage backdrop with my trusty brick stencil, gel medium and acrylic paint.  The curtains (memory box) were die-cut out of a re-purposed dollarstore copy of Pinocchio.  Twinkie was coloured in with pencil crayons and markers and his nose was trimmed from a fallen branch I picked up at the stamp retreat outside of our workroom.  I borrowed the leaf die-cut and green mirror paper to add the perfect final touch to his wooden nose and added fishing line for Pinocchio's strings.

I cut, embossed, distressed (vintage photo) and folded the bottom of the tag to resemble a stage.

I am entering Pinocchio into the following three challenges:
1. Anything But a Card Mini-Challenge this week is Hang It.  Pinocchio is hanging about and finding his way to becoming a "real boy".
2. The Aviary: paper wings productions anything goes and
3. Stampotique Designers Challenge SDC 147: Tags

always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need - julia child

One of my good friends purchased (and I borrowed during the stamp camp retreat) the most adorable apron die-cut set from which I created two similar Mother's Day cards.  The die-cut set comes with cooking utensils, sewing equipment and gardening tools giving it an amazing versatility in terms of function and design.  And the apron itself can be cut from grunge or vinyl to achieve a more masculine working man feel.

The spoon, fork and knife were embellishments I found in my stash (I cannot even tell you how old those little gems are; it would be an insult to share their age) and the rolling pin, spatula and scissors were cut from the apron set.  I cut the rolling pin from birch wood paper and white paper, coloured the ends of the white paper red, glued those ends onto the cherry wood and highlighted the entire thing with glossy accents.  The scissors were cut from silver and white papers, the white paper (the scissor handle) was coloured red, filled in with glossy accents and attached to the silver base.  The spatula was also cut from birch wood paper and white paper.  I attached the white end to the birch and filled the birch in with glossy accents.

 

Version two with different papers:

How adorable is the frying pan?  I added a spoon from my stash and the jump ring from my jewelry reserve.  Thank you ms. pb for the suggestion.  Très authentique!

And thank you for stopping in and sharing your ideas.  

Still to come: quirky tags, fairy tale tags and two cards.  Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and Pinterest for sneak peeks and progress photos.

Right now I'm working on mr. everythingshetouches' birthday card.  I think I might use some of the gelli plate sheets I created last weekend as a background.  Don't tell him that I haven't figured out exactly how the whole thing will work together.  This is one moment when the concept is stuck in concept-mode and is not becoming a finished product in my brain.  Cross your fingers folks that it all turns out great and mr. everythingshetouches is wowed by my craftiness.  No pressure.  It is only a card for one of the most important people in my life.  But I have faith that some distress crackle will free the creative spirit.

42: the answer to the universe and so much more

I am a proud member of a stamping club which means I get some pretty fantastic perks like accessing the creative minds of 42 wonderful ladies and super yummy snacks once a month.

It also means that I have 42 birthday cards to make, 42 Valentine's Day tags and 42 Christmas something-or-others. And for our 15 year anniversary, the club members have decided to create personal information cards to share with each other - which means, you guessed it, another 42. 

My real issue (as people so delicately pointed out): I do not create anything simple which makes creating in bulk more time-consuming and slightly onerous.  There is some direct correlation between the number of layers and items on a card and the time it takes that I cannot seem to absorb.  Perhaps one day I will learn better.

I created the background of my information card by dipping and running a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 section of watercolour paper through two distress inks (tea dye and weathered wood) on my mat to get the splattered texture look.

I coloured Deep Red Yolanda in with markers and coloured pencils and highlighted the cup and chair background with watercolours using my distress ink (tea dye).

My very good friend brought the geek is the new sexy stamp back from San Diego for me, along with two rolls of washi tape including the glasses that you see on the left of the information card.  I absolutely adore the glasses and coffee washi strips.  The background is clear-ish and so it seems like a floating stamp.  I punch cut the banner on the side.  Gives the card the extra va-va-voom.

This was project one at the stamp club retreat.  Follow me on instagram to get a peak at the other projects coming soon.

scottie and yolanda birthday wishes

I started working on this birthday card by splattering and dripping silks acrylic glaze (fuzzy peach) onto heavy white cardstock and then highlighting and transforming some of the splatters into little precious flowers with my gelly roll pen (black). 

I added Yolanda (dressed up Deep Red), my little Scottie, two adorable clotheslines and old bits of heart cardstock leftover from Valentine's Day to the shimmered background to create a simple and sweet card for my friend's daughter who turned eight.

I just returned from a stamping retreat.  Fifty-three hours of demos, cropping and laughter surrounded by some of the most talented women I have ever met.  I was guaranteed to walk away with a new idea and mucho money spent on all the new supplies I will need to buy to recreate what projects I saw this weekend.  I can already hear the cash registers ringing across the city.  I had a lot of commitments to complete this weekend: forty-two information postcards to share with my stamping club in honour of our fifteenth year, ten quirky tags, ten fairy tale tags, one birthday card (I have many more but I finished one up) and two Mother's Day cards so there was little time to play, however, I did manage to pull out and paint-up my new Gelli plate.  I also learned a brilliant way to clean off the paint once I was done.  Brilliant.  I will show you the outcome and technique one day soon.

I really cannot wait to share it all with all of you.  Keep an eye out for the many posts.

I am entering this card into Simon Says Anything Goes Challenge this week.