Come Home Soon

This is a story....it started like this...I was making tissue printed pictures for my daughter to give as gifts to her friends...then it got me thinking.   How could I use this tissue paper as a background for a new project...hmmm...
Bam!  I applied Modgepodge to a 9 x 12 inch canvas and glued white tissue paper on to it.

I love the wrinkled texture....
Then I folded it neatly on the backside and modgepodged it down.

I dried it....

Then I applied glue stick for resist over top a tree template and the brick wall template.  I picked a wrong template for this procedure with the trees.   But I was happy with the brick...but my stencil was dirty so a bit of color went on the the resist and it was no problem.

So now I needed color...what to use...what to use....Dylusion sprays was my choice!  Turquoise, Black, Grass Green and Red!

 Next I dried it with my ranger drier.....look at how the colors ran into the tissue wrinkles and shaded the texture!  Love! I wiped the resist brick with a damp paper towel but I had to be really careful as tissue paper will rip very easily.  The trees barely showed up so I needed to do something else!

Spray the tree stencil with Dylusions White spray!  yes!

Next....make a door leading to the brick....using grunge I die cut all 3 Pediments because I couldn't decide which I wanted to use.  I am sure I will use the other 2 on another project sometime.
I picked this one...I used walnut stain distress ink on it as well as black soot,  Then I outlined the grooves with the black soot distress marker.

Oops. I guess I forgot to take a picture of the distress marker lines but it will show up in the final pictures below.  Now, this building needs someone to live in it, right?  Who else but Umbrella Man!!!  I cut him out of grunge as well and black soot distress ink always suits him well.

I hand cut a rectangle out of grunge and stamped it with one of Stamper's Anonymous classics #7 stamps to give it a stone look. I bent the door so that it opened.  I glued black cardstock to the back of it to give it a dark room entrance appearance.  (Nobody's home)  I added a lock and a hitchfastner as a door knob.  Long fasteners worked as door hinges and I tattered them with Tim's hammer. I used pop dots to raise the door and the Umbrella Man off the canvas a bit.  He needed a lamp post to be underneath so I stamped with archival black in my lamp post stamp.  I colored the light with a mustard seed distress marker to illuminate it.

Then I added a grassy stamp that I had (and I cannot remember the name of it).  I added some to the left and right of Umbrella Man.  Of course we needed a sentiment.  I used Pink Stamper's "Come Home Soon" stamp because it looks as if Umbrella man is looking for someone to come home soon.  I also hung a little key off of his umbrella hook. 

 
I love the texture of this artwork!  Love love love the texture! (Did I say that I loved it?)  Okay, ha ha....now I found these wonderful open frames at JoAnns and I popped it into it.  Voila!  Framed artwork!  It looks great on my BlueRoomInk wall which is of course turquoise Blue!!!!! 

Coffee Canvas

I got this idea from the June 2012 Cricut Magazine.  I love this technique and hope to make some more!  This is a 10 x 10 wrapped canvas. You simply paint a wrapped canvas.  I used Antique Linen Distress Paint and let it dry completely.  I then cut my design out of vinyl.  I applied the vinyl and re-painted over the canvas and vinyl using Walnut Stain Distress Paint.  While the paint is still wet I removed the vinyl.  I then dried it completely then distressed the edges.  Voila! A very cool canvas that I would love to hang in my kitchen!

Artwork for my daughter

My one daughter recently moved and requested an art piece for her bathroom.  She sent me a picture of her shower curtain and that is where I drew my inspiration from.  It is a 9 x 12 canvas and I was able to find a frame at JoAnns that it fit right into! Yay!  I used Dylusion sprays for the background and Tim Hotlz's gear blueprint stamp as well as a background stamp that I had that mimicked the background of the shower curtain.  I spread gesso through a stencil to make the white dots.  I then used Tim's mover and shapers circles die to cut out the "gears" from grunge.  I hand cut the grooves in the circles because I didn't want them to be perfect.  I liked the imperfections by hand cutting them.  I used distress inks over the dylusion sprays and on the grunge gears.  I covered the entire canvas with microglaze to seal it as it will be in a bathroom where water could easily be splashed on it.  She loves it!

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.

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!  :)