Thursday, May 30, 2013

Grandma and Grandpa

I have this old picture of me as a child with my maternal Grandparents.  I was pretty little when they passed away so I don't have a lot of memories of them.  I found the scratches on the photo added to the art work.  I did my first pocket watch too!  I love the chain stamp that I used.  I stamped it on a plain piece of brown card stock then cut it out.  I adhered it with glossy accents and then went over it with glossy accents so that it stood out and looks real like it is attached to the pocket watch.  I love how the little embellishments look inside of it.  I used dictionary paper that had the words "remember" on it and used vintage photo distress ink on it.  On the left are some of Tim Holtz's rub ons.  I really love the dimention that you get using the clip board mover and shapers die.  I cut the entire tag out of grunge paper. I then used evergreen bough distress ink on the tag and created my rusty look.  The background is stamped using Stamper's Anonymous Wallpaper stamp and mustard seed distress ink.  Rock Candy was wiped over the entire background after stamping with the flourish stamp using archival black ink.  The notebook stamp was one that I picked up in Hobby Lobby on a clearance aisle.  I added Tim's sentiment stamp to this stamp about Time.  I love the bow that was stained with mustard seed distress stain.  I love the colors and the whole feel of this are piece.  I hope you enjoy it as well.




Thursday, May 23, 2013

Scrap Room Organized!

     Well, I tackled my scrap room organization!  At least 98% if it anyway.  This has been an on going project of 3 weeks or so.  This is how things were looking!  Yikes!!!!



      I had to totally purge the closet that still had 2 of my daughters' things in it and they have been moved out for years.  I bought big plastic tubs and "tubbed" their lingering belongings!
       I then wanted to add shelving.  After a trip to Home Depot I discovered that the shelves for closets were not wide enough.  I found some bi-fold doors that were exactly the width I needed AND they were wider in depth!  I simply took off the hinges and used them as shelves!  I have built in shelves on the inside of the left side of the closet so I was able to simply lay the bi-fold door on that and mounted two brackets on the other side.  I found the bi-fold doors were lighter but sturdier than the closet shelves too.  I removed the hanging bar and stored it if needed some other time.


      I bought the large plastic drawer to put my large punches in.  I then mounted a cafe rod in the back of the closet that holds the most used punches.  I organized paper by color and size into various boxes.  I put all my Tim Holtz dies in the 123 box.  I used to have them in drawers but I find it much easier to grab them right out of this box.  Yes there is a lot of stuff in this closet but I labeled the boxes to make finding things much easier.  I hung my "jewelry" storage with the plastic pockets on the opened bi-fold doors that belong to the closet.  This way I can see the stamps inside or the other punches that did not fit in the drawer.  I still am organizing my 12 x 12 paper pads into the canvas box and the tan box on the floor.




                         I fell in love with this little polka dotted lamp that I got at Hobby Lobby 50% off!


I found this shelf unit in the closet, one of my daughters had made it in high school.  I thought it would make a great shelf for some of my Tim Holtz stamps!

I also have a wonderful hutch that needed cleaned out and this is how it turned out!  Notice on the right side the wonderful top part of the clip it up!  I happened to get it 50% off as well in Hobby Lobby!  It holds my Stampers Anonymous stamps and various cling stamps so well!  You know what they say...out of sight out of mind!  Here I can just spin it around and find what I need for the project that I am currently working on.  I love it!



  Here are some close ups of my Tim Holtz "123" box and the great paper storage boxes that are stamped with clocks!  I found these at a discount store and only paid $1.00 per box!  They are great for my 8 x 11 1/2 paper.  Check out the awesome wooden box that I found at TJMaxx that holds all my distress paints, distress stains and extra paint dabbers!  It's great because of it has handles that I can just grab it out of the closet if I need the whole box.

Here's a close up of more storage inside the closet.  Notice the box with the brown damask on it.  Funny story...as I was checking out at Walmart I noticed two empty gum boxes at the register and asked if they were just going to throw them away.  The employee said yes and I asked if I could have them and voila!  I got them for free!!!! I knew that they would hold my 4 x 6 paper pads perfectly!  I had picked up some "removable wallpaper border" (which is nothing but wider washi tape) in a clearance bin on this same trip and I already was covering the box in my mind with it.  I love how it turned out!  Up-cycling is fun!




This is a former shoe storage box that I decided to put my long border punches in as well as some miscellaneous items.  I have lots of  Tim Holtz goodies in the plastic drawers also.  To the right of this is my work table.  The hutch also has a table that slides in and out but I find that I just hide things in there that I don't want my kids to see when I am working on a gift for them.  Right now I am in wedding mode as my oldest daughter is getting married this July!  So I have some things hidden in there for now.

It has been a lot of work but so worth it now!  I have taken a panoramic view of the room starting at the hutch and ending with the dresser.  Notice my CC101 tags hanging on the dresser knob!  Also I love the tag holder on top of the dresser which is really a jewelry storage piece.  You just have to use your imagination when you see these items at the store.  Think out of the box!  I hope you enjoyed my tour!  Now I feel like I can relax and create in a semi-organized space!  :)

Altered Canvas

     I haven't gotten inky in a while because I have been gutting out my scrap room for at least 2-3 weeks now.  I am pretty much done with it other than sorting and organizing some paper packs. I will post those pictures next.
      I sat down today to make my daughter a birthday card but found this old canvas that I wanted to create over top of for some time now.  I had bought it at a dollar store and it had a cute little country scene on it but I knew I could just make it my own with my new metal distress paints.
     That is how I created the background using antiqued bronze, brushed pewter and tarnished brass.  I sprayed them with water and let it run then dried it. I first took my mover and shapers hearts and imprinted into the semi-dried background and I liked the effect.  Then I outlined them with the black distress marker and spritzed it to wick it out.  But later I found some brown paper that had love words on it so I ran those through in the heart shapes and glued them in place over the imprints with glue and seal.  I used glue and seal to adhere all of the torn and tattered paper pieces and I distressed the edges and applied walnut stain to these edges.
      I ran a piece of paper through the brick embossing folder and applied rusty hinge distress ink over the embossing.  One of the pieces I ran through the large ticket movers and shapers die and stamped Tim's Admit One stamp using black archival ink.
      I adhered a piece of film strip to a piece of dictionary tissue tape using glossy accents as the adhesive.  I rolled stamped the spots in black archival ink on different parts of the canvas edges.  I stamped with the key blue print stamp in the upper right hand corner. I stamped the art brushes on the upper edge of the canvas using black archival ink.  I had this metal number one and I applied broken china, peeled paint, vintage photo and picket fence distress paint to it.  I sprayed it with water to get it to marbleize then I dried it.  I then sanded it and used black soot distress paint to outline the edges.  I adhered it with glossy accents as well.
      I used picket fence paint dabber to the metal embellishment so that the love stands out.  I adhered it with a long fastener as well as the book plate.  I attached a fragment over the word remember using glossy accents.   I stamped over the notebook paper so that part of the sentiment was on the canvas and the majority of it was on the notebook paper.
      I applied rock candy clear crackle paint over top the entire canvas then after it crackeled I applied walnut stain and wiped it off just so the stain got into the cracks.  I then added some of Tim's rub ons onto the left side of the canvas.  It is much better in person than the camera shows. The camera just cannot pick up the crackle texture very well.   I love the texture so I hung it in my scrap room!
                                                       This is how it started out.....

This is how it ended up looking!
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