My Other Creations: Paris Dress

With this week's theme of "Anything Goes" for the Simon Says Monday Challenge, I thought why not go to Paris?  Mentally, that is.  So I made this piece with a Paris-bound dress:

I started with the dress, which I made by laying out a bunch of fabric scraps.  I even stamped some words on the fabric, such as "change."  I sewed the strips together then stamped the "fabric collage" with a Prima doll stamp.  The stamp was of a girl, but I cut off her head and arms (don't think I didn't feel barbaric and mean doing that, but this project was just about the dress)!

I attached the dress to a hanger and went to work on the background.  I found this divine 12 X 12 background page in Tim Holtz's French Industrial paper pack.  It has a lot of vintage images and I thought it was the perfect contrast to the dress.

Since it seemed like the guys would be staring in awe at this dress (either because they were scared of it or impressed), I made up a little sentiment/story about the dress and the girl who might own it and stamped it onto the paper.

All in all, I liked how the piece turned out and it just goes to show what you can do if the hard work (like finding great vintage paper) is already done for you!

Here are the supplies I used for this project from Simon Says Stamp:

Prima Doll Stamp - Lorrena	Stampendous Large Clear Block	Ranger Archival Ink Black	Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements Fabric - Documents	Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements Fabiric - Labels	Tim Holtz Pattern Pieces Stamp Set	Tim Holtz 12x12 French Industrial Paper Pack
Hanger Clips - Idea-ology	Hero Arts Basic Alphabet Stamps	Tim Holtz Peacock Feathers Distress Ink	Black soot - Distress ink	Colorbox Rain Forest Ink

With a theme as broad as "Anything Goes," I can't wait to see what you come up with!  Be sure to submit your fantastic creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog for your chance to win $50 to the Simon Says Stamp store!  Yay!

My Other Creations: January Blues Collage

Welcome back to our active challenges for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog!  And what better theme to start off with than "January Blues"?  LOVE the color blue in all of its variations, but the post-holiday sense of blah-ness that sometimes comes can be quite a downer.  So I thought, why not explore a true "blue" feeling with this week's piece?  So here it is, expressing a sentiment that is true of me all too often:

I started this piece with an 8x8 white canvas which I painted with black gesso.  This was my first time using black gesso and I found it perfect for this project!  After I'd gessoed it, I covered it with horizontal swipes of blue acrylic paint.  Then I went to those fantastic go-to inks from Dylusions: Black Marble, London Blue and Calypso Teal.  I sprayed them across the top of the canvas and let them drip and get messy.  Note!  Be sure to put your canvas on top of something that will absorb the dripping ink.  I used an old rag that I put on top of aluminum foil.  While the canvas was still a bit wet, I wiped some of the acrylic paint away to reveal black gesso smudges underneath.  Here's a close-up of some of those delicious drips:

When everything was dry, I added some black raindrops with black ink and a stencil.  I stuck on some white alphabet stickers to spell out my sentiment, but they looked a bit stark against the dark background.  I rubbed over the edges of the letters with a little Black Soot distress ink that I applied with a sponge so they'd blend a bit better.  To finish it off, I added a scraggly piece of black yarn to the left side that hung down to resemble more rain.

For me, it's easy to memorialize light and whimsical things to keep me edified.  And that is good!  But it's also nice to just put the truth out there sometimes, too.  And this is one truth that I will look at often to try to help me improve on it.

I made this piece with these dandy supplies from Simon Says Stamp:

Studio Gesso Black	Classic Teal - Studio Paint Mini	Dylusions Ink Sprays - Black Marble	Dylusions Ink Spray In London Blue	Dylusions Ink Spray In Calypso Teal	Kelly Purkey - Alphabet Stickers White	Crafter′s Workshop Mini Rain Stencil
Black soot - Distress ink

So what will you come up with for this week's theme?  I can't wait to see your geniusness in action, so be sure to enter the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for your chance to win fifty big bucks to spend any way you want at Simon Says Stamp!

My Other Creations: Encouraging Bird Collage

Though we're still enjoying a holiday break from "official challenges" here at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog, we were asked to share some of our "old favorites"-- you know those go-to products we love?  Of course I went straight for this Tim Holtz quote stamp: "It's not who you are that holds you back; it's who you think you are not."  You've seen me use this stamp a thousand million times yet I never get tired of it.  Another favorite is the bird stamp set from Dylusions.  So I combined them both to make this little fabric collage:

 

You may notice that my sentiment stamp doesn't look like the one in the set.  One thing I tend to do with sentiment stamps is to cut them up so that I can rearrange the spacing of the words to fit any project.  That's what I did with this one.  It can be scary to take scissors to your stamps, but it does offer more possibilities!

 

Here are some of the products from Simon Says Stamp that I used for this project:

 

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Purely Random Stamp Set	Dylusions Birds on a Wire Stamp Set	Archival Ink - Jet Black	Fiskars Acrylic Blocks	Tim Holtz Peacock Feathers Distress Ink	Walnut Stain - Distress Ink	Black soot - Distress ink
Multi Medium- Matte

 

 Keep posted because our regular Simon Says Stamp challenges are about to resume and I can't wait to see what masterpieces you've created!





My Cards and Tags: Envelopes Using the Envelope Punch Board

I thought I'd ring in the new year with a fun envelope using the fabulous Envelope Punch Board from We R Memory Keepers/Lifestyle Crafts.  I've posted about this gem of a tool before, but I'm posting about it again because it truly is a fantastic way to make customized envelopes such as this one:

The thing I like about this punch board is that the instructions are written on the board!  That's a nice feature for people like me who tend to misplace instructions!  This tool also has a spiffy dual-punch that punches out indentations and also punches rounded corners.  It's got everything you need to make envelopes of all sizes.

Once my paper was punched, scored and folded, all that was left was to decorate it.  This man stamp is from Paper Artsy.

I also added on these great sticker stamps from K & Company and stamped some postmarks on top of them.  I made a subtle polka dot background and added some cursive text then marked out an address with alphabet stamps.

This envelope was highly entertaining to make and bonus points go to you if you know where the name and address on the letter are from (best movie EVER)!  And hey- if you haven't checked out the envelope punch board yet, I do highly recommend it!

My Cards and Tags: Tim Holtz Caroler Holiday Tag

Ah, Tim Holtz!  He's done it again with tons of new yummy holiday stamps and dies.  His products are always so easy to incorporate!  I know that the Tim Holtz creations my fellow Design Team members made at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog have been fantastic!  Here is the gift tag I came up with using one of Tim's new dies and stamp sets:

This tag could be called a "scrap tag," which is where you try and use up those eighty-billion holiday paper scraps that are left over from bigger projects.  Here are the scraps I had, some of which I cut into tag-shapes:

I experimented by layering the different components on top of each other until I got a look that I liked:

Once my base was made, I glued the layers together and added some embellishments.  To attach the tag to my gift, I wrapped the gift box (covered in brown paper) with bakers twine, then clipped the tag to the twine like so:

The last step was to stamp "Christmas" onto the happy caroler!

Scrap tags are a great way to reduce that leftover holiday paper stash and really liven up ordinary wrapping. 

Here are the products I made this tag with, available from Simon Says Stamp:

Tim Holtz Victorian Carolers Die	Tim Holtz Tag and Tie Die	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Powder Blue & Teal	Fancy Pants Merry Little Christmas 12x12 Paper	My Minds Eye Mistletoe Magic Paper	Kelly Purkey Washi Tape TEAL POLKA DOTS KPWS8	My Minds Eye Vintage Christmas Buttons
*We R Memory Keepers CROP-A-DILE Eyelet and Snap Punch Pink	Hinge Clips - Idea-ology	Tim Holtz Deco Christmas Stamps	Fiskars Acrylic Blocks	Black soot - Distress ink	Ranger Archival Ink Black

Happy holidays to you and yours and I can't wait to see what amazing creations we all come up with in 2014!