Taping it up at the last second...

The Simon Says Stamp & Show blog's challenge this week is to Tape it up - using any kind of tape you desire.  I have a small assortment of tissue and washi tapes that just joined my stash and I've had a few ideas in mind all week.  I also used the tutorial to make my own tissue tape.  I'm saving that for a travel journal I'm working on for my in-laws though...

In the end I went with plain and simple, because artsy and creative just wasn't working for me this week.  I used a pretty floral Recollections Washi tape from Michael's as a border for the Hero Arts floral silhouette stamp (stamped with broken china distress ink), and combined pieces from two of Tim Holtz's tissue tapes for the butterfly sentiment.

And I'll leave you with a quick shot of the dining room table - proof that I was all over the place working on this card!

Thanks for visiting - hope you're all enjoying the autumn weather as much as I am!
~Kathy

Dance in the Rain

After watching the Tim Holtz video on the Simon Says Stamp blog for their Stamptember celebration I was motivated to fill a blank space on my living room wall...

Have you been following along with all of the guest bloggers over at Simon Says Stamp?  Fabulous tips and designs!

The past couple of weeks I've been taking full advantage of sales and coupons for the A.C. Moore to stock up on dies, stamps and papers (it's a little too convenient, since it's in the same location as my gym!).  I love that they're starting to stock Tim Holtz and MME products!

Anyway - I decided to play with paints, canvas, paper, chipboard and stamps to create a mixed media piece of art to hang on the wall in that empty space.  Here are some additional photos from the room that were used as inspiration for my artwork.

 The hardest part for me (well, aside from waiting for paint and glue to dry) was letting go of my perfectionism! 

And here it is...   My final product (note this is not in it's final location, I need to put a hook in the wall):

I love the quote, and to play in the rain - Tim Holtz seems to have the perfect products and images and it all went together pretty quickly when I had the time to work on it...

Some close-ups of different areas on the piece:

The craft resist letters are sooooo neat!  brush the paint on, and wipe off of the resist....  Love that you can make them whatever color, using whatever product you want!

I played with acrylic paints on the stamps - stamping onto scrap black paper to test the affects before applying to my canvas. The process required painting the stamp with the paint (layering the cream and red colors for the umbrella and the man with the umbrella impressions), spritzing with some water and finally stamping the image. 

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

Supplies:
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz stamps
Acrylic paints:  black, parchment and burnt sienna
BoBunny back to back 12x12 sheet Mama-Razzi Shutter design paper
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Kraft Resist Chipboard letters
The Paper Company Iridescent Silver Transparent 12x12 paper
16x20 canvas
Colorbox 12x12 brushed silver paper
Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Vintage Market Alphabet
mini mister (with water)
Mod Podge

The Power of Observation

Earlier this week I saw that the Simon Says Stamp Challenge had the option to use one of the following:
     - Hexagons
     - Neon colors
     - Chevrons

And the first thing I thought was - PERFECT!  I just bought a new set of Spellbinders dies - hexagons.

So today was the day - and when I sat down to play with them I noticed....  they're octagons.  Apparently I need to work on my power of observation!

I absolutely love the designs in this MME paper pad!  And decided to play with a variety of patterns to push my comfort zone.  I think I managed to pull together the flowers, grid, and dots pretty well.

I'm hoping that octagons are close enough to hexagons to count for the challenge.

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

Supplies:
Spellbinders Octagon Dies
EK Success Border Punch
MME Stella and Rose Mabel papers (6x6 pad)
Corner rounder
Fiscars Laugh with Me Quotes stamp
Tombow marker to add some low lights to the sentiment.

Wall Art Sneak Peek...

I've been busy working on some art for one of our walls...   And learning that I don't have much patience when waiting for paint to dry!!!  LOL

Hope to have the whole thing done by the end of the weekend...  in the mean time, I think I'll go work on some cards while the paint (and glue) dries...

Hope you're enjoying the weekend - weather is absolutely gorgeous here today so I'll be crafting on the deck (hopefully the wind doesn't blow the pieces all over!).

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

Winter's Butterfly Sketch

With the rain, I got to play a little more today with my crafting toys.  And I combined a couple of the OWH virtual cardmaking party challenges in my card:

Challenge #3 - snowflakes, but not Christmas - my DCWV design paper has snowflakes on it, as well as the sentiment being about snowflakes.

Challenge #6 - sketch with the added twist to use punches.  I used my EK Success butterfly punch and a corner punch to spice up the background paper a little bit.

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

CAS Butterfly

Here is another card that I started at least a week ago.  I wanted to try another CAS card using the clean & simple sketch #204, and OWH had a blog about pizazz (stitching, piercing, piecing, bling and the like). 

I have a rather large collection of embroidery floss from my counted cross stitch days, so I decided to try and embroider a card.  As much as I love the card, it will be a while before I make another one like this...

I stamped the variety of flowers and butterfly on a piece of scrap copy paper and used it as a guide to pierce the pattern onto the card front.  Once the embroidery was done I stamped the little hello, but I'm bummed that it's slightly tipped.  Ah well, hopefully all the stitching distracts from the crooked sentiment.

I managed to snap a picture of my supplies before I started:

One of the big lessons learned - adhering the front to a card base is tricky with all the string.  I tried running the front through my sticker maker - didn't work very well.  So I added a bunch of double sided tape to the back of the card front, and ran multiple rows of Tombow adhesive on the front of the card base.  I'm hopeful that it will all work together and hold together!

Hope there's some sunshine where you're at - it's raining here today.
Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

Inspired Special Butterfly...

A couple of weeks ago an interesting caterpillar decided to cocoon itself on one of our windows...

And I've had the pieces of a card scattered on my table since then.  The pieces finally came all together this morning.

Originally the butterfly was just yellow, but it seemed to need a little extra punch, so I used the die to cut a second butterfly out of orange dp, cut the wings off of the body and attached them behind the yellow.  I also popped them up on foam tape for some dimension.  (please excuse the shine from the glue on the antennae...)

The Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog theme is Anything Goes this week, so I've submitted my special butterfly.

I think it also fits the OWH weekend virtual cardmaking party challenge to include an uplifting sentiment... 

Thanks for Visiting!  Hope your weekend is full of sunshine and laughter!
~Kathy

Supplies:  Kraft cardstock, DCWV (the Cafe Mediterranean matstack), Sizzix (Sizzlits Butterfly #12), Spellbinders Labels Eighteen, Lili of the Valley (Vintage Sentiments - Just to Say)