Thanksgiving 2012

Just want to say how thankful I am for my family - fabulous husband, Drew, my awesome children - Jeremy, Raquelle and Andrea...all grown up now and making their own families....they all live out of town - So. California, Brazil and Florida but they are always close to my heart...I love them and miss them all....always thankful when I do get to spend time with them...in person, on the phone or just in my heart....

I also have to mention my friends...don't know what I would do without them...they bring additional joy and happiness in my life...and make my life complete....

Happy Thanksgiving to All!!!....you are loved!

Altered Design Christmas 4x6 Recipe Card Swap

Doing a recipe card swap with Altered Design...we had to make 5 recipes to swap with 5 other people...up to use to bind when we receive them all..

Scrapbooks Plus Chantilly VA Workshop

Just finished my first workshop teaching at Scrapbooks Plus and it was awesome....a wonderful group of ladies created the Graphic 45 Nutcracker Sweets Star Pop Up book (view in previous post)....can't wait to do my next workshop - Perpetual Calendar on Friday, Dec. 7th...here is a preview for you...

T!m Holtz Christmas Tag w Birds

Cleaning the studio and had to take a break so I decided to make another Christmas tag using some of my new die cuts...the holly is tim's and the bird is ??...ribbon is tim's as is the little metal bird...everything was either colored with Distress Stains or Distress Ink pads....there is a lot of dimension in this but you can't capture it with the camera...not sure what to do with all  these tags I am making....any ideas?...my only thought was to put them on a Christmas tree...T

Tim Holtz Christmas Tag

Decided to play around with some of my tim Holtz dies....the background of this tag is embossed with a cream shimmer embossing powder...the star is rusty metal and the ribbons are Tim's that were colored with Distress Stains...

Nutcracker Sweet Star Pop Up Book

It's official...I will be teaching the Graphic 45 Nutcracker Sweet Star Pop Up Book at Scrapbooks Plus in Chantilly, VA - http://scrapbooks-plus.com/ - on Thursday Nov. 8th 10:30 am to 3:30 pm...just give them a call or drop by to sign up...the workshop is limited to 8 students....Debbie just received the information today (Thurs) and she will have it posted tomorrow Oct. 19th....come join the fun!

Add'l photos below....

Graphic 45 Canvas

I'm working on some future workshops and came up with two ideas...one is a 8 x 10 stretched canvas using Graphic 45 A Ladies Diary and the other is a Pop Up Star Book using Graphic 45 Nutcracker Sweet....

Fancy Pants Christmas Tag Tim and G45

Used lots of Distress Stain on this project....the tag, the ribbons, the flowers, and the background stamp (hard to see with so much covering it)...

Altered Design Halloween Invitation Ticket

All Things Tim Words and Phrases Chaos Swap

This is a swap that will be attached to a 12 x 12 canvas with other artist....this is my contribution....I have to say that these are my favorite swaps to do....

Adirondack Alcohol Inks on Canvas

These are my result of play time while visiting friends, Lisa and Gary in Savannah this past weekend....the  4 combo photo are mine....the canvases are 4" x 4" and 4" x 2"....

 below are Lisa's...the flower was her first attempt....fabulous....but the 3 pears is my favorite...she has a good eye for color and all of these turned out awesome....we used several techniques creating these...most were done just using a paint brush to apply the AAI....however on my 2 x 4 green blue canvas I did the background, stamped an image then removed pigment using the Blender solution....on Lisa's chairs, she did the background, stamped the chairs in black and filled any blank areas with a sharpie...because of the canvas texture it is hard to get a totally clean print...we had a ball....always fun visiting with the Hom's...

Graphic 45 tag

The large tag is 4" x 8" with a #8 tag for the pocket...these are the new images from Graphic 45...I've been admiring this style on Pinterest and decided I should try to stretch myself and do something pretty and not grungy...the tags were colored with Distress Stains...after taking my Tim Holtz class at Queen's Ink last month I have become addicted to using the stains for coloring large areas...

All Things Tim Christmas Patchwork Art

This is metallic tape on grungepaper that has been embossed, die cut, alcohol inked, tooled, stamped and embellished 0f bells, ribbon, hanger, confetti, tree and all.....

All 27 4" x 3" Grungepaper cards for the All Things Time Christmas Patchwork Swap...these will be added to others and put together as a 12 x 12 piece of art...great project...

Tim Holtz Elongated Tag

This is the result of liking a part of a tag but not the other parts so I tore the part off that I didn't like and attached it to another tag but decided to elongated the tag so here is the result...I added a die cut sheet metal car and arrow, inked with Archival Ink and stamped into it when wet...it removed the ink and left the images/words...stamped all over the place with verses in various inks and PearlEx, added the string and gears, the embellishment including Tim's ribbon dyed with Distress Stains then fringed, and whatever...

tim Holtz - Hero Art Bird Tag

Playing around with my new Hero Arts Bird stamp...he is the cream colored bird...I painted my stamp with a liquid frisket and stamped on my tag then using Tim's Distressed Stains, one of his embossing folders and a spritz here and a sand there, add a stained ribbon and voila - a decorated tag...

Adirondack Alcohol Ink Bird Painting

This is a 2" x 4" canvas painted with Adirondack Alcohol Inks...the bird is a rubber stamp from Hero Arts I just bought and love...my friend, Lynn wanted a lesson in painting with AAI on canvas yesterday...this is what I did while she was painting a flower on a 4" x 4" canvas...fun day!

AnotherTim Holtz Sept Tag

Tim Holtz Sept Tag 2012

The airplane is Tim's airplane stamped on shrink plastic and shrunk then overlaid with the metal tape...the "t-i-m" are the plastic sticker letters from tim's stash..also overlaid with the tape...this was a fun technique...I learned the safety pin - brad technique when I attended my Tim Holtz class at Queen's Ink...totally cool...

Tim Holtz Configurations Box Book

Another possible submission...I used the Tim Holtz configuration boxes to make this one and a heavy book board for the cover...this is a project dedicated to using masking tape and alcohol inks...along with a whole bunch of other stuff including shrinky dink plastic...

Queens Ink - Tim Holtz workshop Aug 23 2012

Had a ball....this is the not quite finished Journeys of the Past project I did at Queens Ink in Savage, MD on Aug 23, 2012...Patti at Queen's Ink out did herself...hugh class room, lots of treats to eat...a canvas bag for every one that says "I Had A Royal Time with Tim Holtz...The Queen's Ink"...so cute...a goodie bag in our bag with discount coupons for the various stores in the center...even 10% off our purchases...whoo-hoo....lots of Tim stuff for sale....door prizes...even a paddle with Tim and Mario's pictures on them to hold up during class if you want to buy the products that we used...the helpers took your number and pulled the product you want, put it in a basket with your number and it was ready for checkout once class was over....very cool idea...and of course Mario and Tim were as awesome as always...

Friend Card

Decided it was time to send some cards to my friends...must support the friends and the post office...so I made 4 of these and they are going out in the mail tomorrow...I'm practicing simplicity in my cards because in the future I would like to do a once a month card making class...you know the type...3 or 4 cards for a flat fee...I first saw this branch die at Lisa Hom's house and just had to have it...I see great things in its future...enjoy!

All Things Tim Halloween Chaos Swap 2012

I'm participating in a Halloween Chaos Swap with the All Things Tim Yahoo group...my 3 1/4 x 1 5/8 tag will be grouped on a 12 x 12 canvases with other wonderful tags of various sizes from other wonderful, creative artists...it will look awesome with my other 12 x 12 Chaos canvas hanging on my studio wall...

Another maybe submission

So glad to get this one out of my head...just in time for the next one to pop out...Diane thinks I should submit to Cloth, Paper, Scissors...we'll see...it's always such a crap shoot when you submit to publications...enjoy!

Jacket Cover for Tag Brad Book

Decided to make a cover for my Tag Brad Book....

it is made out of two sizes of tags...

Sample Tag Brad Book

I'm designing some items for submission to some magazines....here is the first project...an extending manila tag book attached with brads...tags 1, 3 and 5 are pockets that hold a mini book...one is even a pop up...

Queen's Ink G45 Suitcase Workshop

What an awesome group of talented ladies that I had in my Graphic 45 Olde Curiousity Shoppe Suitcase Album on Saturday at Queen's Ink....now that my workshop for this album are over I can post the completed project...enjoy....

Queens Ink G45 Suitcase Workshop