Windy Snowmen

Although I am still fighting off a cold and don't sound too pretty, I have had a productive morning finishing up the set of five snowmen blowing in the wind. Hard to get into the mood when our high here is supposed to be in the low nineties today! But I have so many other things I want to do, and I can't allow myself to do them until I get the cards finished that I have started. (My problem is always finishing things--I like the fun part but then there's always the homework with the finishing touches--that's why I say this is good therapy for me.)

The tags are from projects on Tim Holtz's blog, but he leaves it up to you to decide what to do with the tag once you're finished. I finally came up with copying Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas is Coming" piano music (I play the piano so had it easily to hand) after reducing it to 80%, inking with Distress Inks, and then adhering the tag to that. The name of the music isn't on there anywhere, but I know what it is, and it makes me happy. I can even hear it playing in the background while the snowman does a happy dance!

Making backgrounds for a snowflake Xmas card

I didn't have the same cards that I did last year to produce a snowflake Christmas card this year, so I tried using the Creative Cards by Swarthmore that I'd picked up at Jerry's Artarama. I couldn't reproduce what I had done on the smoother cards, of course, and the ink didn't look the same either. So I ended up doing lots of paint with Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue Deep, and Titanium White. One I used bubble wrap on, but most of them I just painted.

When dry, they still seemed too dark, too bold, so I added yet another a layer, this one composed of 10 parts Titanium White, 3 parts Cobalt Blue, and 1 part Cerulean Blue Deep. I brushed some on with a paintbrush then quickly took a wipe (the Inkadinkado Crafters Cleanups) and smeared it all over the card, then waited a moment and wiped again to remove some of it. I think I finally ended up with some good backgrounds. Got messy though!

What do you make for someone who is grieving?

The father of a good friend recently died, on the day she was to leave and fly back home (an overseas trip). This was not unexpected, yet I had not prepared anything to give my friend that in any way acknowledged her loss. Objectively speaking, that seemed rather foolish, yet another friend reassured me that it wasn't. I guess neither of us would do well in the print media world where obituaries of famous people are on file and updated continually. Just in case.

Anyway. I bought a card at a bookstore for my friend, wondering if she would be offended or feel let down that I didn't take the time to make something personally. Two chances came and went to give her the card; I signed & addressed it before leaving to go to her house, then left it on the kitchen counter. A day or two later, I neglected to take it with me to a place where I knew I'd see her (although I did know we would not be able to speak privately). Perhaps I was purposely forgetting on some level.

So today, while walking around or driving or something, I was struck with the idea of using something I had done months ago--had stamped a sunset image on thin paper and colored it with pencils blended with mineral spirits. Didn't know what to do with it so just kept it in my box. I thought I could use that as the image on my card and combine it with something I'd read on a card in the bookstore that moved me deeply: "The world is but a resting place." (Apparently a Japanese Buddhist proverb.)

I got out my box of scrap papers and nearly immediately just went into a very focused state of being. Unusually for me, I was quite decisive, didn't need to seek anyone else's opinion or let anything sit for a few days to make sure I was happy. And I am pleased with the final result, and I hope it will contribute to some sense of peace in my friend's heart.

Details: I wrote the proverb on matte black paper with an Inkssentials opaque white pen--beautiful pen, very white. The image had been stamped with permanent ink on a thin drawing paper, colored with Derwent Inktense pencils, and blended with Gamblin mineral spirits. The image and proverb were mounted onto black sparkly paper using a Xyron. I had a piece of watercolor paper that I had sprayed with Stamp Zia spray watercolors; I cut the appropriate size and mounted it to black illustration board using 3M Super 77 multipurpose adhesive (at 5-1/2" wide, it wouldn't fit in my largest Xyron--will have to consider getting the 9" one on sale sometime). Then I ran a piece of white posterboard through the Xyron and mounted it on top of the watercolor paper, and finally I ran the black sparkle paper through the Xyron and stuck it over all. The image looked a little raw, so I used a 6B charcoal pencil and a tortillon around the edge of the paper to blend it into the black paper.

Turning out the Christmas Cards

I've been consumed the last month or so working on Xmas cards. Am trying to be healthier about it than last year, and thus am enjoying the whole process more and not driving myself nuts by taking all the fun out of it. Some card designs I've made ten of and others only one, and you know what--that's no big deal! Last year I required myself to make five to six of each design, but then I also was following directions for each different one then, and this year I'm trying to stick with what I've been doing lately and just seeing what develops. It's still hard, but I'm having fun, and what I'm producing is okay even though I didn't know how it was going to end up when I began.

Lately I've been going over the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas from both 2007 and 2008 obsessively, trying to hone in on techniques that I can and want to use. I loved his Day 8 tag from last year and made a bunch of those this year. Then I wasn't sure what to do with them so set them aside for a few days. Finally I thought of using some of the really twee paper I had from a Christmas paper collection I'd bought my first year when I didn't know any better, cutting a panel to use as background, and sanding it to get the right distressed look to tie everything together plus obscure the tweeness of the paper at the same time. Doing that turned some of the most boring paper into some of my favorite! I love love love the sanded-paper look and want to go around sanding everything now.

Also pleased with myself because I figured out how to put the tag on the card so that it could be easily removed to use as a bookmark (as per a friend's request who wanted to buy some from me). You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find directions to do such a thing! I found plenty of entries for crafters selling cards with removable bookmarks, but some were perforated and the rest didn't share how they'd accomplished such a thing. For this novice that was a little discouraging. So I'm telling what I did to create a removable tag on a card:
--decided where on the card I wanted the tag to lay
--placed a strip of double-sided tape ON THE CARD (not the tag) where the tag should go
--placed a slightly larger strip of removable tape on top of the double-sided strip, with the removable tape sticky-side UP
Then the tag can be placed on the strip of removable tape and pulled off at will. Really not so hard, but boy was I pleased with myself to come up with that! (Full confession: the first time I placed the tape strips on the back of the tag rather than on the card. Ah well.)

Flower Fairy card with new technique

For my cousin's birthday card, I used a technique I had read about in the May/June 2008 issue of Rubber Stamp Madness and hadn't gotten a chance to try out yet.

I took a Flower Fairy outline peel-off sticker that I'd gotten in England this summer and turned it so the sticky side was up. Then I used a small paintbrush to apply dry chalks where desired (I mainly used my shimmer chalk set). Once I'd applied chalk everywhere I wished, I brushed the entire surface with Perfect Pearls (Blush, then Perfect Gold). To finish, I did corners and applied to paper and card as shown.

The whole thing didn't take long, and it came out quite nice as a birthday card for a four-year-old.

8 July 2008

Oh, I am delighted! Just made Jonathan’s bday card, and with being here in England rather than at home, I was limited in my choice of materials. That can be a good thing!

I started with a pre-folded blank black card that I got yesterday in Wickford. On top I taped a piece of sequinette (sequin waste) and applied Perfect Medium through it. Then I removed the sequinette and brushed on Rust Perfect Pearls.

From a paper of Egyptian panels I cut one out, edged it with black market but decided that wasn’t enough, so edged it with gold Krylon. Mounted with foam tape in upper middle. Along bottom I put a strip of Egyptian adhesive ribbon. Looked good but too raw, so I rubbed some Distress Ink tea dye over the panel and ribbon, and that did the trick. It looks great—even Dale said so with enthusiasm in his voice.

On the inside I put a cartouche, cut out from paper and also edged with gold Krylon, in which I will write “Happy Birthday” in hieroglyphics (if I can find them on the web).


Another technique that interests me is art quilts, and, along related lines, inchies! The idea of taking tiny little perfect things and incorporating them into a larger whole is appealing. What about using inchies to do a mosaic design?