Morton Blaze....

Going to the championship game. WTG LADIES!!!!!
Well they won 2 games yesterday and one this morning....they've really, really gotten it together and play so well.

Really proud of all of them. They've worked very hard to achieve this.

Win or lose in the championship game...you're all winners to us!

UPDATE.....they tied, went thru 2 overtimes, then to a shoot out! Lost by one, but they were amazing!!!!! Great soccer, ladies. Erin with her really cool trophy.

Love ya Erin,

Nana

Back to Illinois and reality tomorrow

I've not yet figured out how to add words under the pictures....so bear with me and my smart phone!

So here's a few parting shots of a happy camper looking out from the porch...a view of the lake....a fun shot of my bobber with the reflection of the trees....and a boatdock using instagram's cool filter.

Leaving for home in the morning....a perfect week!

L.

Hello from Minnesota

Here's just a few of the gorgeous views we've had.

Hope you're having a great week.

Linda

A Forgotten Post

We were challenged to make projects with Shrink Plastic for the Inspiration Emporium.

I hurried and did mine, but forgot to post it after the IE blog did the roll out....so here from Minnesota comes the Shrink Plastic Card....Girls Rule!

This was really a collaboration of several products, but it turned out very different than what I'd been doing.

The card itself is sprayed with Turquoise Spray Ink.

It's stamped with a Dylusions stamp, a dotted background stamp, and Archival Ink...white dots are added with a Posca pen.

The black tag is embossed, sprayed with Perfect Pearls, and trimmed. Then more white penwork is added.

The white doily is painted with acrylic paint then Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder is added. Lastly I spritzed with more Spray Ink.

Then the black pen adds some markings for contrast.

The Shrink Plastic pieces are lightly coated with Gesso, dried overnight, and then stamped, cut out, and shrunk with a heat tool.

You can punch a hole before shrinking or use Drill Punch after to add the jumpring for the butterfly.

Add markers or inks with a brush for a hint of color.

They're all layered onto the card and a pink Crinkle Ribbon bow is added to the top of the tag.

Vintage card....done!

Linda

Products Used:

• Tim Holtz - Stamper's Anonymous - The Girls,  and Papillon
• Tim Holtz -  Alterations Texture Fades Embossing Folders - Burlap and Swirls
• Tim Holtz - Distress Embossing Powder - Vintage Photo, Crinkle Ribbon, Drill Punch
• Dylusions Spray Inks - Black Marble, Vibrant Turquoise
• Dylusions Stamps - Bordering on the Edge
• Ranger - Jet Black Archival Ink, Clear Shrink Plastic, Black #8 tag, Perfect Pearls Mist- Heirloom Gold
• POCSA - pens/white and black

Graphic 45 Featured Artist!

 

I am so honored and thrilled to be the Featured Artist today on the Graphic 45 blog.

 

They have always, always been so good to me, but today they really made my heart sing.

 

Thank you to Charee for setting this up and Kelly for all her patience.

 

Check it out here.

 

And take a peek at the new collection - Place in Time!

 

Ya gotta LOVE it!

 

 

Linda

 



Trying to Keep it Simple - A Simple Tag

I like to make what I call a "simple tag"....layers of colors, stamps, pen ink...and a couple of 3D pieces.

 

So I started with a new #12 manila tag. Sprayed with Dylusions Inks.

 

The cool thing was, I sprayed these colors over a piece of paper I'd previously sprayed with Copper Perfect Pearls....hence...when I flipped it over to blot it....a bit of copper adhered itself to the tag. LOVED it!

 

 

 

 These are some of my FAVORITE stamps of all time that are again available from Stamper's Anonymous.

 

Priceless TREASURES!!!

 

 

 

I used Black Soot Distress ink and embossing powder on all these images.

 

 

Different parts of the tag before I added the white pen marks.

 

I loved it without anything else....but I had to add a bit of white.

 

I glued it to a piece of black chipboard for stability.

 

The 3 pieces of laser-cut gears are from Paper Whimsy. The top one is Distress Stained, the other 2 are painted with Liquid Pearls. Then stamped with Archival Ink.

 

The colors are bright...and perfect when they run together.

 

White pen marks are so much fun to add here and there to break up the color.

 

 

 

 

The green gear is a bright eye catcher in the corner breaking up the white pen marks.

 

I have always loved this stamp...I'm so glad I finally got to use it. Classic!

 

Be Well and Be Good to each other!

 

Linda

 

Products Used:

• Ranger - #12 Manila Tag, Jet Black Archival Ink, Liquid Pearls Hydrangea & Key Lime
• Dylusions Spray Inks - Fresh Lime, Crushed Grape, Vibrant Turquoise, and Squeezed Orange
• Tim Holtz - Distress Ink - Black Soot, Distress Stain - Broken China
• Tim Holtz Stamps - Classic Favorites SCF 01
• Paper Whimsy - Fancy Cogs 01
• Uni-Posca - white pen
• Fine Black Embossing Powder - Unknown
   

Watercolor Technique with Stamps and Inks

 When I saw these great stamps drawn and designed by Mario Rossi III. at CHA, I KNEW I loved his style.

 

Drawing your own stamps makes you truly an Artist  ..IMHO.

 

So, to do my part to help a thriving Artist....I bought a set that is all about my favorite time of year...

 

FALL!

 

 

 What could be more about fall than the Fall colors in Dylusions Spray Inks...and mixing and playing around with them on watercolor paper was just WAY too much fun for me!

 

 

 

 

They are bright, they are concentrated, and they are gorgeous.

 

Spray your paper with water, here a Pentalic Watercolor Journal, and then load up the sprays. I did NOT blot them, I just dried them with the Heat It Tool. I wanted the intensity.

 

 

Then I stamped with Archival Jet Black ink using Dyan's Word Love and Mario Jr.'s Autumn Blueprint.

I'm not good at taking pics as I go, so this is a bad light shot, but I wanted you to see how the brown and green run together and make a very dark color.

 

This is the BEFORE.....

 

These inks have the great quality of a watercolor paint that can be lifted with water and a brush.

 

Here I'm adding puddles of water with a brush and lifting the color wherever I want to lighten.

 

 

 

 

 Using a paper towel, I lift the layers of color to lighten within the stamped image.

 

 

Just continue to take the color off in sections wherever you like.

 

I completely covered the area with the words to take lots of color out around them.

 

 

 

 

This is the AFTER.....you can see the backruns of the water created that I really like.

 

 

This detail shows the white and black penwork. And lots more stamping using the rolling technique from Dyan.

 

I used white paint on Basic Background dot stamp and colored over with the Broken China Distress Marker. Where I added some random circles with it over the Lemon Zest spray...it turned green.

 

Pretty cool...but on the white paint it remained blue.

 

I went back and took the tops off the sprays and just painted intense color back into the leaves where I wanted more color.

 

 And here you can see the drops of water that I flicked here and there...and blotted off to reveal the lighter underside of the paper.

 

These Inks are so great for this technique....

 

So if it looks way too dark, just wait, lift the color with water, high-light, and stamp some more.

 

Layers, and Layers, and Layers create depth into which you look at your painting.

  

 The Broken China over some of the white dots was the last thing I did. It just needed a bit of different color here and there to break up all the warm colors.

  

 

 And this is the last shot to bore you with of the book completely open.

 

I have to try some more of this ..... not enough hours in the day!

 

Linda

 

Products Used: 

• Dylusions Ink Sprays - Lemon Zest, Squeezed Orange, Black Marble, Postbox Red, Melted Chocolate and Fresh Lime.
• Dylusions Stamps - Word Love, Background Love, Bordering on the Edge, and Basic Background.
• Tim Holtz Distress Markers - Broken China
• Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous- Autumn Blueprint
• Ranger - Snow Cap Paint Dabber and Jet Black Archival Ink
• uni-POSCA - White and Black pens

 

 

Designs by Ryn and 2 Classes!

 I was again given some gorgeous stamps from Ryn, owner of Designs by Ryn.

 

This time I got 2 Faerie Stamps..... a Christmas one and one with gorgeous butterfly-like wings.

 

It's hard to understand this one from the picture. Ever try to take a picture of a MIRROR???

 

I remember the shot on FB long ago of a guy trying to sell his dining room table on Ebay, I think. Anyway, he mistakenly took the picture of the table with a large mirror behind it....in the NUDE.

 

Well, long story short....no pun intended....it wasn't his best idea. A reflection in a picture is sometimes not a great asset to the picture!

 

 

The Faerie is stamped on gessoed Shrink Plastic. I lightly set the Jet Black Archival Ink with the heat tool and then cut it out. I wanted to leave a border in this case.

 

Then I used various Distress Markers and Tombow Markers to color her in.

 

Shrink the piece and edge with Copper Stickles.

  

 

 

This shows the mirrored paper better.

 

If you haven't seen the new Mirrored sheets from Idea-ology....OH MY! They are amazing!!!

 

I got a couple of sheets and hadn't yet figured out what to do with them, but I thought a Christmas ornament here would be kind of cool.

 

So, using the green ornament from Graphic 45  Nutcracker Suite Stickers, I cut a piece of the Mirrored Paper and added it to the back.

 

The SP piece is glued onto the mirror and layered up with pop dots. I added the Jewels and Silver Nailheads for more bling.

 

The  Gingerbread Delights paper is hit with some Tea Dye Distress Ink and added to a chipboard ATC for the background.

 

Last add some gold lame trim to the top and bottom.

 

 

 

 

This Faerie was stamped on Specialty Stamping Paper with Black Soot Distress Ink and embossed with clear Super-Fine Detail Embossing Powder.

 

 

Both the background and stamped paper are sprayed with Perfect Copper and Turquoise Perfect Pearl Mists.I wanted the Faerie to be "slightly blue and sparkly." I also used markers for coloring in spots.

 

Then I used Perfect Medium Pen and colored inside different sections and pounced various colors of dry Perfect Pearls into the spaces.

 

 

 This is taken with very different light to show the copper and turquoise mists on the paper. They don't show up well in a regular photo.

 

I cut out and punched the background paper and layered it all onto a gorgeous yellow-orange piece of paper.

 

 

The flowers are cut from Crinoline and painted with Dylusions Inks and highlighted with Ice Stickles. The center flower is also painted and diluted with water to spread the color.

 

The leaves are hand-cut from Sticky Back Canvas and decorated with Dark Chocolate Liquid Pearls and Silver and Gold Stickles.

 

The Enchanted Wordstrip phrase from The Darkroom Door collection Art de Fleur is layered onto black chipboard.

 

Penmarks add a border to the edges.

Now, the info on the classes are as follows.....the Standing Curio and Embossed Metal Canvas classes are on for October 20th at the Scrapbooking Studio in Bloomington, IL.


And they're scheduled for Nov. 3rd in Moline, IL.

These are both great projects for Christmas gifts. So Save the Dates!

 

 

So my Friends in ART, check out the various links here, and look at Ryn's wonderful stamps.

 

Linda

Collage on Wood

So, I had the great pleasure of meeting and talking with Ania Dąbrowska aka Finnabair. She is as brilliant and kind as she is beautiful.

 

My friend Lin Brown from the UK was lucky enough to take one of her classes and told me I had to try her wonderful techniques....long story short....this is my attempt at a Finnabair Collage.

 

(You MUST visit Lin's blog and see what fabulous pieces she made in Ania's class)

 

It was a real treat to dig out old hoarded treasures from the past to randomly cut and glue to this hanging plaque I got for a song at HL a long time ago.

 

I used the new Tissue Wrap Melange Tim sent me as the base...how could you go wrong starting with such a gorgeous base???

 

 

 

I loved how the Crinkle Ribbon took the Distress Inks and Stains. That stuff is just so amazing.

 

 

The little girls are on a clay button I made years ago. The image is from JVO's Collections.

 

There's a real snap, the innards of a watch, a Vintaj piece and a button with a crown all sprayed and layered with Multi-Medium.

 

This gold frame was perfect to go around a piece of paper with at 7 on it, and a metal embellishment.

 

The little bits of computer pieces are here and there.

7Gypsies gaffer tape and a Vintaj butterfly.

 

 

 

This is a Jenny Bowlin button, I think....not positive...and some metal piece from long ago on top.

 

I love the Mini Lightbulb I just got from Time Pieces.

 

The computer glass fit perfectly into the Spocket Gear.

 

Sadly the mica sparkle doesn't show up well in the pictures...but you get the idea.

 

 

 

The nylon netting created a cool affect under the butterfly.

 

 

 

I added a few stamps here and there to fill up space under the trims that were glued on and sprayed.

 

I used Perfect Pearls Turquoise and Perfect Copper on the KaiserCraft flowers and all over.

 

The flower has a Grungepaper and Metal Foil base that was embossed. It gathered some of the spray as well.

 

This is by no means anything near what Lin or Ania created, but it was a fun project, and that's all that matters!

 

 

 

Tonight we had a great Birthday Dinner with my son Jeff and his family. This is his oldest Erin.(she's 11!)

 

The food color dye is slowly coming out...I think we're doing Blueberry next time!

 

Have a great week.

 

Linda