Lost Art Creations

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Love You Mom!

All American

The next swap is a banner swap with an All American theme.  I plan on displaying my trades all summer to celebrate three American summer holidays; Memorial Day, Independence Day & Labor Day.  It's all about the red, white & blue baby!

In addition to the kit that I create for every Bi-Monthly Lost Art Creations swap I used some rhinestone stars and borders I found after I had distributed the kits, some Tim Holtz stamps, Distress & Archival Inks - oh and I used some vintage sheet music I found at a yard sale.

These were so much fun to make!  Today I have started making up the next kit for next Thursdays meet/swap.  It took me a while to figure one out so I hope everyone likes it!

A Couple Classes

I'll be teaching a monthly tag class for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoons, once a month at Beautiful Impressions .  My plan is to focus primarily on Tim Holtz and Ranger products and techniques.  You will leave class with a finished, richly layered & texture tag each month. 

Not sure what to do with your tags?  I personally display my tags as a banner  and as a tag book bound with a binder ring.

The next class is Sunday, May 19 from 1-3PM.  Sign up by calling Beautiful Impressions or through their website (see link above).  Remember to bring your class kit and a craft sheet and ink blending tool with extra foams (available for sale in the store if you don't already have them).  Now, Terri is running an awesome special for students of the May class!

MAY CLASS SPECIAL receive 30% off your choice of spinners, blending tools and replacement foams or craft mats. Wow!

These classes are limited to 6 people and signups close three day before because I have so much prep work to do for your kits.  The classes are purposely kept small so they are more intimate and each student gets more individual attention.

May Class Sample

A sneak peek at the June Class Sample!

 

Store Samples

Finished a couple more samples for Beautiful Impressions using Dyan Reaveley's new clear stamps.  I used a couple more of the new Prima papers pads for these as well.  Engraver for the Father's Day card (on June 16th this year) and Fairy Rhymes for the Mother's Day card.  Used Distress inks, markers and stains as well as the mini flourish stamp from Tim Holtz and the mother quote from Verses.  Dropping these off at the store on Sunday (tomorrow) if you'd like to see them up close & personal.

Love his 'Graphic' Tee!

A tiny flower crystal becomes a brooch

 

Lyric Dyan

Now that the Tim Holtz weekend is over it's back to business as usual.  Terri (at Beautiful Impressions) had asked me a while ago to create a sample or two using the new Dyan Reaveley stamps.  Planning and executing the weekend with Tim & Mario pretty much took up all my extra time so I didn't get around to starting them until now.  The new Prima papers also came in so I used the Lyric pad for my card. 

The stamp set I chose to use is the mini set.  The headless images were a bit disconcerting  to me so I created heads for them.  I drew them onto Eclipse Masking paper so I could reuse them as templates.  I have to admit I felt a bit like I was twelve again playing with my paper dolls - in a very good way!

For this first card I added a bit of antique lace to her hat and pink crystals to her dress for interest and texture.  Her dress is stamped then fussy cut from two different papers in the stack.  Love the vintage retro look of the pink & black.  I finished the card with Distress Inks and Washi Tape (also Prima). One down, two more to go!  I will be bringing these to the store on Sunday if you'd like to see them in person.

Have a creative day!

T

Metal Makes Me Happy!

I played a bit with metal, embossing folders, distress paints and alcohol inks recently and these are the results.  Originally I was going to do this for Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral Challenge but just never found the time to sit down and create it in time.  One is for a flag challenge for Tim Holtz's recent visit to CT.  The theme is 'Happy' and metal makes me happy, sooooo... there you go!  The second is a tag I mailed off to a generous and kind artist that I met through the All Things Tim Yahoo Group.  She should have received it by now so I can share. 

The base of the flag is created from the new Shattered Cardstock from Tim Holtz and Co-ordinations and copper tape sheet that is embossed and painted with MANY layers of distress paint.  It started out pink believe it or not and I HATED it so I just kept adding layers of paint and sanding it until I liked it.

The flowers are die cut using the Tattered Florals die.  I applied metal tape to kraft cardstock before diecutting then embossed the flower pieces with the new Gears embossing folder from Tim.  I colored the flowers with alcohol inks.  I colored white Buckram (aka Crinoline in some parts of the country) with distress stains and cut out more floral parts for added layers.  I added crystal button and jewelry bits for the centers and stitched them in place with silk ribbon.  I love the contrast of the metal, fabric, crystals and silk!

I continued the same technique for the tag.

 

The tag is prepared with the Rusted Enamel technique that Tim Holtz taught in his online class Creative Chemistry101

 

12 Tags of 2013~April

I must say that I love the new Distress Paints that Ranger Industries & Tim Holtz launched this year.  Then he has to top himself by adding metallics to the line - OMG! HEAVEN!!

When Tim first announced the release of the paints I wasn't thrilled.  Eehh, another acrylic paint - big deal.  Then I bought a couple just to try them out to see if and how they were different from anything else on the market.  Boy was I ever surprised!  They are much more fluid that Golden Fluid acrylics and the dauber top doesn't seem to clog or dry out like other paints in dauber bottles.  They are much more reactive with water and seem to marbleize all on their own.  Such beautiful effects!

So when this months tag involved the new paints I jumped at the opportunity to play with paint.  I didn't have the stamp that he used so I decided to do some old fashioned stamping and masking with 4 different stamps; the dragonfly (Renaissance Art), Ornamental and Breathe (Stampers Anonymous) and a distressed dot stamp (unknown).  I also didn't have the new Numeric Alpha Parts so I decided to give Mirrored (Ideology) a try and diecut it using the Word Play die (Sizzix).

I included a couple of personal symbols on this tag. The #8 (known as the infinite number) and the Fleur-di- lis; a nod to my French heritage

I did happen to have the plastic that Tim used for the wings.  I bought a package last year and never opened it until yesterday because, while I thought the concept was pretty cool, I wasn't quite sure how it worked.  I love how it is mold-able!

Here is a close up of my number 8 die cut from Mirrored.  I think it came out pretty cool.  Mirrored is so pristine and shiny in its original state but it distressed quite nicely, don't you think?

I used metallic distress paints to stamp the dots over the surface of the tag for an extra layer of texture.

Pattern Play Days 4 & 5

The first card was created with a Bo Bunny paper pad (sorry the name escapes me) along with Tim Holtz's Distressed Doily die and Distress Stickles Glue.  Love this glue!  When it dries the glue disappears (as it dries matte) and the glitter looks like old fashioned glass glitter.

The second card I am just tickled over but it was by far the most labor intensive card for this class.  The bicycle die is a new one from Memory Box (as is the label die).  I cut it out of a dark tone on tone pattern paper (all the papers I used are from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie paper pad.  I cut out the wheel from 4 different papers and pieced it all together.  Originally the card was bigger and I was going to use 3 bicycles but I decided in the 11th hour to emboss the card and the embossing folder was sized for a smaller card.  So just one bicycle plus one stamped label with ribbon and a couple of glittered brads and it was done!  I ended up toning down the pattern paper strip on the bottom with Picket Fence Distress Stain so it wasn't competing with the focal image.

For the last card (day 5) I cut several patterned papers into various sized strips and wove them together.  After securing the weaving to a piece of cardstock I ran it through my Vagabond machine using the Baroque die from Tim Holtz.  Then I stamped and edged the sentiment with white ink & white embossing powder.  To finish the card I created my own little corrugated strip and smeared a bit of gold ink over it for interest. I decided to round the edges of the card and add a little stamping (stamps are from Stampin Up!)

Pattern Play Days 2 & 3

I having been doing my 'homework' for my card class and finished them last night.  This class definitely took me outside my comfort zone but I did find several techniques that I really like.  Another thing I learned is that while most of the cards have a clean look, that clean look doesn't happen in 10 minutes like I thought - LOL!

On the first card I used Memory Box papers, Tim Holtz mini butterfly die and a new (to me) microfine glitter from Elizabeth Crafts, as well as Distress Inks and Clear Embossing Powder.  I really like how this one came out!

The second card was created using the Out of Print paper pad by Basic Grey, Prima paper flowers, an EK Success border punch and a Quickutz self adhesive textured cardstock.  This was probably the simpliest and fastest card I made.  This card also gave me another idea which I will try the next time I get into the studio.  If it's successful I will share it.

Pattern Play Day 1

I am taking an online class from Online Card Classes on ways to effectively combine different patterned papers.  Honestly I took the class because I was more interested in how to change/alter patterned papers to suit my projects - not just cards.  Those of you who have seen the cards that I have made in the past (and will continue to make in the future) know that most of my cards take all day to create - that's just one card, not several, just one -VBG.  I have decided to follow the basic premise of the exercises using products that I already have because most of what they use in the card exercises are on the cutesy side - and you know I don't do cute (unless I am making B-day cards for my little niece & nephew).  These cards are very different from anything I have ever done - I'm definitely outside my comfort zone!  By the end of the class I hope to be able to make some quick cards (that don't look it) and use up some of my massive paper collection.
For the Day 1 cards the first part of the exercise was to diecut 4 papers, all at once so everything matches up when layered.  So today I made 4 cards, each slightly different, but using common elements.  The papers I chose were from a K&Co mat stack and already had the scalloped edges.

Feminine Shabby Chic cards

I normally ink all the edges of all the elements I use on a card as I feel it gives a more finished look. The first card as all about inked edges.  The second was about matting each layer but I couldn't resist inking some of the edges.  The papers I chose were pretty soft and I felt it just gave more definition to each layer.  The inks of choice are my trusty Distress Inks for a soft vintage look.  Card #3 is my least favorite - no inked edges - just lots of dimension as each layer is adhered with foam dots.  Card #4 has all the elements edged with Pumice Stone Distress Marker.  Again I couldn't resist inking the scalloped edge of the background paper (Pumice Stone DI).

Cards #1 & #2 are my favorites from today

That's it for today!  Thanks for visiting!

T