Short 'N Sweet, kinda like me...on a good day.

Hey everybody! I hope you all are having a wonderful, joyous time this holiday season! Just a quick update to let you all know that yes, I'm still alive, and no, I haven't done much art lately. I am slowly turning that around, focusing more on attempting card making, and generally contemplating which direction I want to go in my personal and professional lives. Anywho, I'll be posting random pics on what I have (and haven't) been doing in the next day or two. Blogging is almost like exercising, isn't it? If you do it everyday, it's nothing but miss a week, and I'd rather schedule back-to-back dental appointments instead! LOL

In the meantime, check out this lovely lady's artwork! Her copic skills are dy-no-mite! I swoon over her cards and want to work towards perfecting my techniques! Check out her blog at The Ink Trap and if you love her work and commentary like I do, follow her and join in her AWESOME giveaway! I did!

Until next time!

They tried to make me go to rehab and I said no, no, no! Otherwise entitled, Me and my Alcohol...Inks!

Hello again! I'm back from my little break, sick but ready to dish about my latest projects from the craft table! Saturday I was able to FINALLY get back to my LSS (local scrapbooking store) to pickup my seasonal edition of Distress Stains (though I already got a set through a fellow ATT member) and take Richele Christensen's class, Spook-ology! I love taking classes with Richele and since delving into papercrafts, she is my go-to gal for artsy inspiration! Check out her blog here and show her some love! Ok, now to the pics!

My Spook-ology Configurations Tray! Richele prepped almost EVERYTHING for this class, leaving us to Distress Stain and pop our trinkets into their spooky little homes!

Close-up of the left side of the tray-I love the distress stain on top of rock candy  and using the Snow Cap Mixative with alcohol ink to color the metal corners...make my heart sing!

Middle of Tray: love the use of Stickles to jazz up grungepaper! Richele outdid herself with the prep for this class...from the melt and pour pieces to the embossed and cut letters-she even pre-cut and scored all of the background papers we used for the compartments-AND she was on T!m's crew for the cruise. She is a wonder woman!

Far Right of Tray: The goodness on this side is full of WOWOWOWEEE! From the Honey Stain Distress ink for the Moon, to the alcohol inked Halloween tokens to the INCREDIBLE house...Richele used Brushed Pewter Distress Crackle on the grungepaper die cut-we alcohol inked the piece with Black Soot and sanded for extra distress...Did I mention I was in Halloween Heaven?!?  

After class and some rest, I got to work finishing up my charms for the ATT Charm Swap that need to go out in Monday's mail. This is the first time I make charms, and I like them but I'm not sure if I'm good at it! I used Graphic 45 paper, TH Charm Fragments and on the back I used adhesive metal that I embossed and alcohol inked. Hope my fellow swappers like them!

If you know me, you know that I'm DEATHLY afraid of cardmaking...and yes, I realize I sell Stampin' Up products to myself. My sister asked me to do up some invites for her End of the Summer BBQ. Yep, we are in October-but we live in California so until it rains, it's Summer lol! I was actually pleasantly surprised with how these came out. Paper is from Pink Paislee-I got in on their warehouse sale (yay me!) and the image is from Stampin' Up's "My Digital Studio". I love digital stamps that I can just print out and color in-these images were colored using my Prismacolor pencils and turpenoid.

Finally, a reason to use my EK punch! I love the look of pulled out rolodex cards and  paper bound by those spiral coils! Here's just a peek at the inside of the invite.

And here is how I'm going to end my weekend...practicing my Copic marker coloring! I was super excited to find out that I would be able to get into the Copic Certification class that is coming to town! Here is my unfinished image from The Greeting Farm. I love printing out a sheet of these stamps and just coloring away!

So that is how I crafted away my weekend...instead of drinking alcohol, I was tipsy over what alcohol ink can do to enhance my art! What about you guys? What did you do this weekend to spark your creativity and replenish your soul? I'd love to hear what you have to say, leave me a comment below! Until next time, stay crafty, peeps!

Button, Button, who's got the button?

Hello my fellow Crafties! So, this past weekend was a whirlwind of activity and this week has has been no different. Last weekend was the first of 2 weekends which I won't accomplish the completion of an art project. But, never fear, I still played and played and even got my sister to join in the fun! She needed help making a decorative Halloween piece for her office-so I packed up my Crop in Style XL and headed on over making a quick stop at Michael's to pick up a T!m Configuration Box. Nothing beats crafting, except crafting with loved ones! At first Sis wasn't into T!m's style, but Halloween just isn't Halloween without DISTRESSING!!!! She hasn't quite finished her project so I will post pics next weekend.

I did get started on my Steampunk tags, and I'm really having a ball. I usually make completely identical tags for my swaps, but this time, I wanted to try a bunch of different things because I was just in a playful mood. I also wanted to try out a really neat technique featured on YouTube by Dawn Olchefske. So I also made a card using the heat embossing technique and some neato-mosquito embossing powder.

Here are my backgrounds-embossed using my TH folders and various powders

Stampendous! Deco Lady Stamp called "Steampunk" to me. I used my Acrylic Paint Dabber to ink it up, stamped image onto white cardstock and used my ink blending tool to color the background. Glossy Accents adheres the gears to her hair and more gears are stamped on either side of her.

That beautiful bold orange is the Limited Edition Fall Distress Ink color, Ripe Persimmon!

Well, the tag is on it's side, but hopefully you can get the idea. I think my Steampunk  lady needs some lace so I may add that for trim to finish off my tag. 1 down, 6 more to go for my swap-and if I'm not mistaken, one is getting shipped off to T!m Holtz! No pressure!!

So right in line with my tags, here is the front of my card-pay no attention to the mess behind  it! LOL I'm down to a  10x10" workspace! I used Ranger's Holographic embossing powder and unfortunately couldn't capture the effect with my camera and lighting...but it's very pretty. I couldn't write in the card as my handwriting leaves much to be desired, so instead I just lined the inside with matching paper from Graphic45 and Glossy Accent'd some of the flowers for that WOW factor.

This coming weekend, I'm taking some much needed time off and spending it at the Happiest Place on Earth. Celebrating my cousin's birthday, trick or treating a month early and taking in the sights and sounds is just what this girl needs! I'm hoping to be back in full crafty force upon my return. Until then, be crafty!

So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.

I have been craving crafting...all...week...long.

I need to finish so many things and time's ticking! I tried to use my time wisely but I still feel like I need more, more, more! Off to what I've managed to to accomplish this weekend:

"Trunk Full of Memories" File Album. I picked up this tute from Laura Denison a while back. And while I anxiously scurried about looking for the bits and bobs I would need to complete the project, my head just couldn't decide on what I needed to make it perfect. I'm not a scrapbooker by any means. I don't even like being in pictures, and I'm usually the one who forgets to charge the battery on my digital camera. Yet I love constructing albums. WHAT A WEIRDO! Anyways, this is a surprise album for my cousin's birthday next week-Seven of us will be going to Disneyland so the kiddies can trick or treat (the one and only year my daughter did this in our neighborhood, she came home with cough drops!), and us "grown folks" can be kids again. The downside is that this year, POC and the Blue Bayou will be closed for refurbishment, but I thought I could still bring the Birthday Girl and Captain Sparrow together after I saw Laura demo her project on YouTube. It's done, but I may end up making the mini-album that goes along with the project because again, I collected too much ephemera...such a good gather I am!

"Charmed, I'm sure". I joined another swap over at the All Things Tim group on Yahoo. A charm swap is again, something I have never done, but I've always had a desire to, in the back of my head. These are just the beaded parts, I still have to bust out my Tim Holtz Fragments and see what manifests! I also joined the Steampunk tag swap so I think that's why my beads have that industrial look to them...maybe my brain thought I was going to add some to my tags. On a sugar high note, I was able to repurpose my cupcake (ok, cupcake and a scoop of ice cream) carrier from Cupcake Craving-the compartments and raised lid give me lots of room to store this project until I can finish it! I may have to come home with a six-pack carrier for my other bits to live in...I'll just have to eat the cupcakes for the sake of an organized craft area, I'm just sayin...

Which bring me to the steampunk tags...I've been experimenting with making little charmies out of shrink plastic again, and I wanted to try Tim's Rusted Grunge technique. While I like these, I still want to play some more before I decide exactly what I'm going to do this go around. I am positive that I will use a few techniques from Tim's book, A Compendium of Curiosities, and I would be lying if his dvd's weren't on repeat this weekend.

And all the while, my crafting companion did what he does best...sleeping until he hears the camera power up-what a sour puss face, guess he doesn't like being in pictures either, lol!

Oh, you can't get out backwards. You've got to go forwards to go back.

Willy Wonka always makes me so happy. Isn't it funny how crafting can really be a journey? I have been reluctant to start a blog because my schedule can get so crazy. My social life has about faded into what I can watch on UStream and what can I honestly complete in a weekend's time. I have 5 projects 50-75% completed. I've finished a few others. I have made a pact with myself to complete a project a weekend and to blog about it, so here goes!

I joined the All Things Tim group on Yahoo awhile back because honestly, I'm a groupie. Tim Holtz is my paper crafting hero, and darn it, I'm not ashamed to say it! The grungy, industrial with a touch of vintage look really sings to my soul. I decided to participate in Stephen's 13 Tags of Halloween tag swap. Now, I'm not ashamed to say that as a newbie in All Things Tim and part-time crafter, I am usually a re-creator of someone else's idea. So, I was a little bit nervous joining the swap. But, thanks to Richele Christensen and to the Staff at The Stamper's Corner, I had lots of ideas and materials to work with! Hope you all enjoy my tag and thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

First off, I made molds of Martha Stewart's Skull Candy Mold and used UTEE to make my little friend

Now's your time to shine!

Prep work...

...and more prep work!

Some Distress Rock Candy to highlight my Tag

New Halloween Die from T!m! 

Before and after...what a little bit of distress can do!

I had to do a close up of this little guy...distress stain, black soot distress ink and rock candy. I love the effect!

I used Weathered Wood Distress Stain to color my ribbon and attached both the ribbon and T!m's new die with the Tiny Attacher

He needed a little something...like a bow tie stained with Aged Mahogany to match the tag!

Almost there!

Ta-Da! Notice that I covered up most of the writing except for the Pinks...coincidence? I think NOT!