Laura Evylin Cinefro!

I have a new grand-niece!

Introducing Laura Evlyin Cinefro!
Born June 26, 2012

She's named after my sister, Laura Ann. And her great-great grandmother, Ruth Evylin and mother, Jessica Evylin. I love that Jess and Nate followed OLD Norwegian tradition naming children after their grandparents. (Ever wonder why there were so many Ole Olson's in the world?? grin)

I wanted to make a WELCOME BABY card that was an expression of me. I think the paper is a My Mind's Eye Valentine paper. But who said Valentine paper was just for Valentine's Day? The Red Lead faerie was stamped over the word LOVE. "WELCOME BABY" is from a PaperTrey Ink set.  I did a quick watercolor for her dress and used a glitter pen over her wings.

Of course big brother, Julian, who isn't quite 2yrs old yet also needed a card.  This little turtle from Inky Antics caught my eye.

Because he has a fun pop-up shell in the middle.

The Copics I used to color the turtle.

Sing Your Song

Unruly PaperArts has a Yahoo Group that has monthly swaps. I decided to join the "nature" swap. In this swap you create your art piece and post a picture to the group page. The hostess then assigns swap partners and you send your ATC directly to the new owner.  (BRILLIANT!)  So much faster than sending it to hostess, who sorts it out, and then returns it to you.

My little ATC here was the lone entry in NATURE. So I swapped with the lone entry in another category.  And got two back!

Thanks Shar!!

Dean's 80th Birthday

First let me wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my cousin, Dean, who celebrates his 80th birthday this week!!! Dean is so full of life that it's hard to believe he's 80 now. So I wanted to do a FUN birthday card for him.

Like many of you, I've beecome addicted to Pinterest. I find it a great source of inspiration. I pinned this card recently and decided that Dean needed a candle for each decade. And that beautiful CAS card needed a little grunging up!
The finished card has a Red Lead background stamp. To lighten it up a bit I added some gesso on bubble wrap, and some texture with a small piece of cardboard.

To create the candles, I cut 8 strips (2.5 x 4) from a Bo Bunny pad of paper (so all the candles coordianted). To break down the stiff paper (and get it to roll tightly), I pulled it over a sharp corner several times.

A little quick drying glue along the edge. I cut small bits of Scrapper's Floss and stuck it in one end as a wick. And 8 paper candles were born.

Happy Birthday Dean!!

Tim Tag 2011 - Day 10

Today Tim was all about faux mercury glass. Which I love! This is a fun technique. Packing tape transfers work best with vivid colors, so these are a bit washed out. But it goes with the mercury glass feel.

The background stamp is from Red Lead. Distress Inks are Brushed Corduroy, Pine Needles, Red Barn, and Scattered Straw. I added a little vintage tinsel (also by Red Lead) and some red wire hangers.

Only two days left!

TIm Tag 2011 - Day 5

I love Tim's technique today...but it doesn't love me! I've have tried the alcohol ink/Archival ink removal technique 3-4 times now. And I ****FAIL**** miserably every time! And today was more of the same.

In the end I created an AI background. Then I stamped silver snowflakes but didn't try to remove the ink. In the end I covered that with silver glitter too. A quick layer of spray fixative and it was ready to layer on paper (you can't really see it in the background) and decorate.

The decorations are a wreath made of holly tinsel; a Red Lead sled; and a grungeboard snowflake covered with glass glitter. I added silver balls around the wreath. The sentiment "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas" was a last minute add because the tag needed one more thing. (wink)

On to Day 6....

TIm Tag 2011 - Day 3

Every year Tim does a tag I'm not so crazy about. I'm not afraid to say I don't like Tim's Day 3 tag much. I think it's just too simple for my tastes. So I set out to do mine a bit differently!

It started with the technique. Tim created his own stamp pad. And while I did that last year (and really liked how it turned out), it's not my favorite technique. So I took the same stamp and spot colored it with Distress Stains! Before I embossed it I sponged Wild Honey and Vintage Photo around the entire tag (that Wild Honey makes it GLOW). THEN I embossed it. The trees and deer where stamped on other tags using Vintage Photo and my new Holiday color - Evergreen Bough. The deer was also roughly heat embossed with "Antiqued Silver". All the other supplies I got at Red Lead Paperworks. If you don't know Red Lead check them out!! BECAUSE THEY HAVE FABULOUS VINTAGE FINDS!

See ya tomorrow!

TIm Tag 2011 - Day 2

So this was a pretty quick tag. Tim's Day 2 tag was pretty simple and retro today.

I didn't have Tim's kraft paper but I did have the holiday collection. I love the vintage Santas. I had the deer die Tim used today, but I decided to use the lamp post.

I decided to use the felt snowflake and a calling card "SNOW" from Red Lead. Similar to yesterdays but I really like this. The holly leaves were covered in Rock Candy Stickles. And I sprayed the tag with Glimmer Mist Marshmallow.

See ya tomorrow!

GC121: Horror Stories

You're gonna love this month at GINGERSNAP CREATIONS! We're doing HALLOWEEN up right by paying homage to the original Dark Lord - EDGAR ALLEN POE!!

This week's challenge is Horror Stories.

I created a chunky ATC with the man himself...and his favorite muse, the Raven!

What's a chunky ATC...well....it's a wood block that's cut ATC sized. I only decorated the front but the back also calls out for some love.

My little raven was decorated with a party hat. I punched a 2-inch circle out. Cut it in half and then cut off about 1/3 of the half circle. It makes the perfect cone hat. The pom-pom was originally white and then rubbed on my Rusty Hinge pad.

I hope you'll join in the holiday merry making at Gingersnap Creations...why don't you start with you're own Horror Story!

(Almost all the supplies are from Red Lead PaperWorks.)

It's Always a Good Day When....

...you come home to this in the mailbox:

It's always exciting! Then I wonder which of the cards, tags, etc I sent in made the cut! And I can't wait to get in the house and start flipping thru the pages.

This time my little Queen Bee (by Red Lead Paperworks) all dressed up in yellow! This was scrap of mulberry paper batik I had laying on my desk. And some wire screening attached with Tim's tiny Attacher.

Hope you have a great weekend...it's snowing here. (wink)

Tag Tuesday - POSTCARD

I have the sniffles (and a bad sinus headache) but I got some new clip art from RED LEAD. So I spent some "bed time" cutting paper.

Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas - tag #2

This is my take on Tim's Day #2 tag. You'll note that my tag looks NOTHING like Tim's. LOL...but that's ok. It was the technique of creating your ink pad that was at the heart of Tim's tag.

I used my FAVORITE Stamper's Anonymous Santa image for this. There's just something about that classic face with the "giggle mitten".

Since this is a large image I stamped it out on white first (upper left) and then used sponges to color in the areas. That gave me a feel for how to color the ink pad (center bottom). The test image from the ink was very bright but I needed more ink (center top). Finally the "final" image was stamped on the tag.

The tag was finished in a similar manner to Tim's (inked, covered with clear embossing powder, sponged color, etc). I finished with a small strip of musical paper at the bottom (also sponged with Fired Brick & Vintage Photo). Accented with a RED LEAD holly spring, red silk ribbon, and at the top - red net ribbon and silver mini tinsel.

And yes...there are multiple tags here. Since this was an ink pad - I decided to do some tags for future use (MORE ON THAT NEXT WEEK).

Eggstravaganza! Finale and Blog Candy

A few more egg cards. At least the backgrounds I wanted to finish.

I'm offering these two backgrounds as blog candy. Leave a comment if you're interested. I'll randomly pick a name on Friday, the 18th.

This is a bit plain but I like the CAS feel of it.

Stamps: none
Paper: Paper Studio
Ink: none
Accessories: Scrapper's Floss, button, Tim Holtz bird die

I stamped and distressed the tag. The three central eggs were colored with Copics (BG10, BG45) and then glittered.

Stamps: Red Lead
Paper: 7 Gypsies, mini tag
Ink: Archival Brown
Accessories: Martha Stewart bird punch, Copic, glitter

Another nest tag.

Stamps: Inkadinkado, Amuse sentiment
Paper: Paper Studio, mini tag
Ink: Distress Ink
Accessories: Scrappers Floss, Copics, glitter

Thanks for sharing in my Eggstravaganza!!