Happy Birthday Tim Holtz

Whew!! I got it done in time, not midnight yet. Over on Linda Ledbetters blog http://studiol3.blogspot.com we are celebrating Tim Holtz's Birthday by making him cards. Do you ever have one of those days where no matter what things just don't go right? Yep, had one of those days today!! Finally got his card done, a little sloppy on the happy birthday banner, my hand writing is big and I just couldn't write small enough for it to fit, do over 4 times and called it good! lol I used Wendy Vecchi http://studio490art.blogspot.com little boy stamp, I figured he wouldn't mind as they are good friends! But really wanted to get one done for him, he provides us with such inspiration just couldn't skip this one!! Check out his blog at www.timholtz.typepad.com. So Happy Birthday Tim, hope you are enjoying your happy place!!

Have a good one!
Donna

Home

I have been pretty silent about this subject as not to endanger my son who has been in Afghanistan since last spring for fear of giving out any information or anything. He has been in a real dangerous area of Afghanistan for the last 3 months, going out on a lot of missions, living out of his humvee and being fired upon every day!! I've been kinda just holding my breath!! But I found out tonight he has left the country and is en route home!! Yipppeee!!! I'm so excited right now I think I'm about to jump out of my skin!! He should be back home with his wife & little boy tomorrow!! I am so Thankful!! He has been in the service for 22 years now and he is talking about retiring next year, I will be celebrating that day for sure!!

Peace everyone!!
Donna

12 Tags of Christmas/tag 12

Hey everyone, hope you all had a nice Christmas! Happy New Year to all of you!!
I got the chance to get one more tag done thanks to Linda Ledbetter's blog http://studiol3.blogspot.com where the technique this week is Tim Holtz Tissue wrap or Tissue Tape. I just got some of the Tissue Wrap at Christmas time so decided to give it a try and followed Tim's 12 tags of Christmas and made tag #12. This is an awful picture of it but it is snowing like crazy out so no outside picks for me!! It really is a pretty tag but the indoor lighting just doesn't show it! I also got an ornament done that Tim had on his blog, Mario says he's not a crafter HA his ornament turned out much better then mine!! lol So check out Tim's blog for the 12 tags of Christmas www.timholtz.typepad.com and Linda's blog http://studiol3.blogspot.com. Everyone have a safe and Happy New Year's Eve!!

Have a good one!!

Donna

Rosette Christmas Tree

Yep, just had to do it! I had to get in one more project before Christmas. When I seen these on Tim Holtz blog www.timholtz.typepad.com I just had to make one! They are so stinkin cute! It does look better in person! So go to his blog and check it out, he never seizes to inspire me!!

Again thanks for the nice comments!
Have a good one!
Donna

12 Tags of Christmas/Tag#7

I managed to get one more tag done, I think that will have to be it for now until after Christmas. I didn't have everything needed so I did a little improvising. I really enjoyed working with the glassine paper though!! The snow on the branches have a little brown in them, no matter what I do I can't seem to get the effect of snow, the distress ink always bleed threw no matter what I do!! grrr! Maybe I'll master that technique one of these days!! lol

Thanks again for the nice comments!
Merry Christmas to all!!
Donna

12 Tags of Christmas

Hey everyone, how's everyone doing this busy holiday season? Thanks so much for the nice comments, always appreciated!!
Well I didn't do such a great job in keeping up with Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas, maybe next year!!lol I've gotten tag 1,2,3 & 4 done and I'm skipping 5,6,&7 for now and I'm working on #8, loved the glassine so have to try it!! I'm going to try do them all so I can try some of the techniques. So far I've done them pretty much like Tim's (his always looks better though) lol, so hopefully on some of them I will add my own spin to them. So glad he does this every year, it is so much fun!! Just wish I had more time, wonder if my boss would let me take those days off next year!! haha, if that is going to happen!! The BTS that Mario does was great fun!! To bad they had to have so much trouble with their internet!
So here are the tags I've gotten done, hope to post a couple more by the end of the week. I still have a project to finish that got put on hold the last couple of weeks, hopefully I can get that finished also and post soon.

Tag#2

Tag #3

Tag #4

Have a good one!!

Donna

Wendy Vecchi Pocket Watch Santa/Tag #1

Geez, been a bad blogger here!! Tis the season to be busy!!
I made this Christmas ornament using Wendy Vecchi Pocket Watch Art Part!! Love her Art Parts & Stamps!! The Santa is from Tim Holtz seasonal pad, the holly leaves is one of Tim Holtz stamps cut out and embellished with Rock Candy Distress Stickles and the berry's are Christmas red stickles. The star I covered with perfect pearls and the flourish is from Maya Road. This will be my entry for the challenge on Simon Says Stamp and Show Blog http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com.

I also have been trying to keep up with Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas & Mario on FB & Twitter. Not doing to good on the tag part, finally got tag #1 done working on tag #2. I just love when Tim does this each year, full of techniques and inspiration!! I'm going to try catch up then keep up, we'll see!! lol

Have a good one!!

Donna

Alcohol Inked Candle Wrap

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I blogged!! I've been super busy both at work & home! Thanksgiving was at our house this year so a lot of prep time with that, but we had a lovely Thanksgiving and everything turned out really good!!

Last night DH went to a hockey game and I decided I needed a little me time and played in the craft room, man it felt good!! Mostly played with distress inks on something I'm working on and I hope it turns out, if it does I'll post by the end of the week. I also remembered the challenge on Linda Ledbetter's blog http://studiol3.blogspot.com for Grungy Mon. which was to use the technique Tim Holtz used on his pumpkin he did for Ranger Ink, hope you all have seen it, it is awesome!! Check his tutorial out at www.timholtz.typepad.com. So I pulled out the alcohol inks and made a candle wrap using Tim's Joy die cut and embossing folder on foil. It was fun, quick and easy!! I'll be playing with that technique some more!! Sorry about the pic, indoor lighting!! That candle is really not that red!! lol

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
Donna

Halloween

Hey everyone, hope you are all having a good week!! When I seen the themes of Simon Says Stamp and Show http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com and Grungy Mon. on Linda Ledbetter's blog http://studiol3.blogspot.com on Mon. I got right on it and started this project and almost had it finished on Mon. Then a couple of ten hour days at work and a couple more to come I stayed up last night and got it done!! I think my witchy poo was still a little wet when I photographed this! lol

I thought it would be fun to make a Halloween decoration and put a light behind it. So I took a picture matt and adhered a piece of Tim's Kraft Resist paper on it. Then another piece under with the rickety house then decorated with other die cuts. It does look really cool in person all lite up!

Close up of the light behind it.

I've got to get a shake on and get to work!

Have a good one!

Donna

You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet

Hey there, hope everyone is having a good weekend. Thanks for all the nice comments & suggestions on my last post, much appreciated!! Just posting a little something I did for SSSS http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com where the challenge this week is Show The Wendy Vecchi Style, I love Wendy's style!! And also my entry for the Making Art Challenge on Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group where the challenge this week is a sewing theme. Wendy's stamps and art parts make it easy to make art, love them!!

My boss had made this dress form when she was at the last CHA and gave it to me when she returned. I knew right away that I would alter it differently, not that it's bad just new I wanted to alter it in a different way. So both of these challenges prompted me to get it done!

This is what it looked like before.

After I altered it.

I used Tim's Kraft Resist Paper to cover the dress form and used Wendy's Art Parts and stamps for the embellishments along with Tim's ideaology. I love those Art Parts!! Fun little project!

Have a good one!

Donna

Boo Banner

Hey everyone, hope you had a nice weekend!! I had a pretty low key weekend and I was able to get this Boo Banner done for a class I will be doing at work. Now after seeing these pics I think I need to add something else to them, not sure what but they need something, maybe some spiders? Again not the best pics, I think I need a photography class!! lol I used Tim Holtz die cuts, stickles etc. it was a lot fun putting this together!

We have another beautiful day here in ND, 81 degrees out and I'm loving it!! It won't be much longer and the snow will be flying! YUK !! Gotta take advantage of all the nice days we can get, I love fall with all the beautiful colors!!
Have a good one!!

Donna

Show Men Only

It was World Card Making Day today and I actually got a card done!! Woo Hoo unbelievable!! This will also be my entry for the challenge on Simon Says Stamp and Show blog http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com where the challenge this week is Show Men Only.

I used Tim Holtz Kraft resist paper and Wendy Vecchi-Studio 490 stamps.

I will be sending this to my son in Afghanistan so I didn't want to put to much embellishments on it. Picture didn't turn out so hot (shadows) but I tried my best at outdoor & indoor lighting and this is the best I could get. lol

I had a great week this week, grandson #5...Kolten was born on Tues. he is adorable!! Will post a pick here soon.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!
Donna

Halloween ATC

I received my seasonal distress inks today and just had to play, they are awesome!!! The twigs one is such a nice rich brown, love it!! I made this Halloween ATC for my entry on Simon Says Stamp and Show http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com.


Have a good one!!
Donna

Put Your Big Girl Panties On

Thank you for all your nice comments!! I took some time yesterday to play a little in the craft room. I made this piece for the Making Art Challenge #26 for the Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group where the theme is polka dots & a face or eyes. I have been dealing with a lot lately so thought this stamp was pretty fitting. Time to put my big girl panties on and deal with it!! Felt good to get my fingers inky!!

Have a good one!
Donna

ATB

Thank you all for the thoughts, prayers and well wishes for my sister, I really appreciated it. Sorry to say she lost her battle and passed away Aug. 31st. She was more then just a sister to me, she was a second mom, sister and a great friend! I think we are all still in shock and trying to deal with it. She was a very special lady and will be missed by all!! After two deaths in the family less then two weeks a part, I have been emotionally drained. I'm getting better and I'm sure it is just going to take time.

Before all this happened I had signed up for a ATB swap on All Things Tim yahoo group, luckily I had started it awhile ago and managed to get it put together and in the mail before everything got real bad. I was inspired by Linda Ledbetter http://studiol3.blogspot.com/ for the embossed dress form and spools, so tryed my hand at it and I really liked the results!! Thank you Linda!!
I embossed the dress form stamp on grunge board, the flower is a prima flower dipped in utee and the flourish I first inked with peeled paint and then covered it with peeled paint stickles. I used Tim Holtz paper and embellishments. The needle was a blue plastic needle and I colored it with Adirondack alcohol ink mixatives silver, it doesn't show to well in the pic but it worked great! Now seeing these pics I wish I would have also stamped on the back of the little sign!! Next time!! lol

Front

Back

Top
Side
Side

So hope to get back to some creativeness here in the near future and get back to normal a little! Thanks again everyone!
Have a good one!
Donna

Travel

MIA again here lately, we have been dealing with illness in the family. My MIL passed away and my sister has been in the hospital for about 6 weeks, crazy!! Her problem started out with a bladder infection and she is now laying in the hospital and pretty much can't move, her arms & legs are swollen like balloons!! Just a warning for everyone, if your Dr. tries to give you Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) don't take it!!!! After seeing what happened to my sister and talking with others this is a horrible drug!! Can't believe they don't take it off the market!! I'm so worried about my sister and afraid she is never going to come out of this.

I just had to take a little time this weekend and try get my mind off of it and created this piece for SSSS http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/ where the theme is Travel.
When I was a young girl we used to go over to my aunts house for the holidays and we took an old wooden bridge over the river to get there. Here I stuck to the song and put grandmother's on it. So I tried to recreate that scene for this piece, I didn't have much time so not the best but that's OK it was more about clearing my mind. Again I used the snow stuff I had laying around but really need to get some sparkly fluff, the stuff I have is to hard to work with!! I made the river using a piece of plastic and colored with stream alcohol inks then on other side I used the new snow cap alcohol ink, I likey!! The piece is held up using Tim's easel die cut, love it!!

Have a good one!!
Donna

Christmas Creative Blocks

Hey everyone, hope you're having a great week!

I had so much fun doing Tim Holtz Creative Blocks Class in Kansas that I wanted to do one with a Christmas theme. All of his classes were fabulous!! I used paper from Tim's seasonal pack on this project, love that paper!! I didn't have any Sparkly Fluff so used something else not good, so I stopped and I will have to buy some Sparkly Fluff and add to it.

So this is going to be my entry for SSSS http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com where the theme this week is show a Tim Holtz technique. This was such a fun project to do!! Thanks to Tim for the class!!

Have a good one!
Donna

Stamp & Show a Tag

I finally got a little chance to play this weekend!! I'm doing a twofer here, this will be my entry for http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com where the theme this week is Stamp and Show a Tag and for Grungy Monday on Linda's blog http://studiol3.blogspot.com using some of Tim Holtz awesome techniques www.timholtz.typepad.com so check it out on how some of the techniques were done.


Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!!
Donna

7 Gypsies Tray

MIA here or what!! Wow, where did July go? Whaaa, I want it back!! Busier then I want to be that's for sure! But I have had a chance to spend a lot of time with the grandsons so all is good!!

Over the 4th of July weekend I had 4 days off and thought it would be a good time to clean my craft room AKA spare bedroom. It was so bad, I had just a little path to get in there and everything was a disaster!! While cleaning it up I thought as long as I was at it maybe I should paint in there to. So off to the store to get some paint, I had a color in mind but before I left I needed a file folder for something and pulled out a couple, one was a dark turquoise & one was a dark lime green and I thought wow these are pretty colors together, yep ended up doing something totally opposite of what I had planned and went with those colors. I love it, it is bright & fun!! But wow what an undertaking it was, each wall took 3 coats so I was at it all 4 days!! I don't think I will ever do 2 colors in a room again, you have to be so careful where they meet up!! Thank goodness I liked it when it was finished!!

While cleaning I found way to many projects unfinished, I managed to find a little time to finish up a couple of them and I'm working on a couple more. I bought this 7 Gypsies tray last fall when I went to Scrapfest, finally got it done! The top square with no pic I left blank to add a pic of the new grandson to be born the end of Sept. Can't wait, it will be so nice to have a baby around again!! But Wow, 5 grandsons!! Never would have thought!!

I also got this little bird done to add to my other 2. I've had it for about a year too!! So now they all rest in these blocks on the wall.

Last week I won one of Wendy Vecchi/Studio 490 stamp sets on her blog http://studio490art.blogspot.com. If you have never visited her blog before go check it out, she is one of the most creative people I know and her blog is full of inspiration!! She is the best!! And after seeing the project sheet that came with the stamps, I need all of her stamp sets and Art Parts!! They are Fantastic!! Thanks again Wendy and thank you Stampers Anonymous!! I'm looking forward to a chance to play with them, shooting for this weekend, I hope, I hope, I hope!!!!

I'm also working on a cool Christmas project that I hope to get posted in a few days!Have a good one everyone!!

Donna

Tim Holtz Classes at Stampers Ink day 2

The first class on the second day of classes was Idea-ology Intrigue what a fun class!! We did all these pieces, they were so much fun to put together, the possibilities are endless!! These pictures don't do them justice (taken indoors on a rainy day).
Fun, fun, fun class!!

Bad, bad picture it's a ring...

Tim & Mario did door prizes after each class and I won a configuration box, tissue tape, feet & buttons, WOO HOO I was pretty excited!! I'm planning on doing a holiday themed one with it. Some of the gals won Tim's messenger bags, Lucky Ducks!! They are so cool, I would love to have one of those!! Wish he would make them available to buy!!

And of course I had to buy an apron and have Tim & Mario sign it!!

Second class for the day was Configuration of your Imagination. I couldn't believe they cut the paper & scored it for us, so nice!! I had planned on doing mine the opposite way but once I got all the paper & tissue tape on it I realized I couldn't get some of the taller pieces in it (grrr). Tim warned us about that but I didn't listen!! lol It ended up turning out ok. We were provided with a cloth bag full of goodies to add to our configurations, so cool!! The little hanging thing on the left says Kansas on it and I made a little banner from the new die cut I had bought. Lot's of fun putting this together!! Loved the class!!

I got to sit across from Wanda Hentges from ATT yahoo group, so nice to visit with her!! Also got to visit with Tammy a little, great gals!!

Here is a pic of a few ATT members with Tim...

Wanda, Tammy, Tim, me, Marilyn & Pam...not sure where Candy was when we took this, where were you Candy??? And Candy, yes I would love to go back and do it all over again!! Awesome Time!!

And here is a few random pics...

Tim when the scrapbook was presented to him...

Tim & Mario do an awesome job never a dull moment, couldn't believe how fast the time went!! I had a GREAT time!! Thanks Tim & Mario!! And thank you to Stampers Ink for hosting the classes!!

I'm going to try do another blog update Sun. or Mon. about what I did after Stampers Ink.

Have a good one!!

Donna