Soda can bag

Sometimes the inspiration for the creation of a project comes from many different directions. This week Sandi over at the Fiskateers blog presentated a tutorial focusing on using the main band of alumimum from a soda can to create a little tote bag. A related theme is a recent ATC metal swap I made for the Ten Seconds Yahoo Group. I combined this inspiration with a heavy dose of Tim Holtz's alcohol inks and dies. Here is what I came up with that is also entered into the Simon Says Stamp and Show new blogsite challenges--of course this one focus on inspiration from Tim.







Enjoy your inky moments!...Jan

Tags from Retake on Thinking Inking

At 2 peas in a bucket, we are now enjoying the
final weeks of the Retake on Thinking Inking
challenges and swaps. It has been so-o much fun to learn more techniques and uses for all these fun products.




Claudine Hellmuth Studio Semi-Gloss Paints on sticky back canvas as well as gold dimensional paint.









Playing with perfect pearls-stamping, making pearlized mists and spraying over masks, as well as splattering. Love the pearlized mists!

Distress Inks

Distress inks by Ranger are my #1 ink choice. I call them my go-to inks. I favorite tools include using my blending tool with distress inks on the craft sheet. Generally most of my coloring on cards is done with small pieces of Cut 'N Dry foam sponge. But my mister is always close by too so I can add perfect pearls for a soft bling. Mostly my cards are lots of layers of ink on white cardstock...and of course stamping.

During CHA the Fiskateers website hosted a weekend challenge event for those who were still at home. I really like working with the color orange so it was fun for me to jump into their theme color contests. Here's some cards I made for that event.



Pulled blender tool down top and bottom.




















Distress ink pads direct to the paper.












I used a Tim Holtz stencil for this clock and misted with a homemade pearl mist. Most of the stamps in this card series are from Fiskar's bird and flower acrylic sets.





A final card for the button challenge.














Over at my friend Anne's website, Gaal's Creative she has been posting many of her incredibly creative tags she is making throughout the Remake on Thinking Inking Challenges. Monthly she hosts a challenge and this month's topic is distress inks so I made a distress resist card for the challenge before the August 16 deadline.

Class-A'Peel

The Stampendous Challenge this week is to use Class-A'Peel stickers. Stampendous sells a wide variety of these stickers but I only had 1 option since I live in an isolated community with only 3 stores that sell some stamping items within a 400 mile radius. So I used what was on hand-a beautiful set of butterflies in flight. I tried the sticker background technique. Adhering one side of Therm O Web Peel N' Stick to cardstock and uncover the surface sticky side to attach the butterfly and glitter. I found this thin-line sticker difficult for me to adhere to the sticky surface. As I tried to lay out the butterfly flat in another area the other side would go limp. I am sure I held my breathe for several minutes while I was biting my tongue LOL!! After the butterfly was secure I poured glitter over the entire piece and gently pressed it onto the sticky surface to make sure all areas were filled with glitter. Unfortunately the solid coverage it not create a dramatic effect I had hoped for in my minds eye. So I turned to the site's video resource and realized I should have used the jumbo stickers as Fran used in the video...what a difference!

So I moved on trying my own creativity to improve the situation by adding some color to another butterfly sticker. I like the look much better but next time I will use glue in specific areas for the glitter without the sticky background OR I will use the background technique with jumbo stickers. I am sure the sticky background technique is very fast with spectacular results. I was pleased to find the glitter sticks very well to the sticky surface...just be sure to contain the glitter when moving it to the surface of your paper and returning excess to your jar. I have already requested our 3 store owners/manager order plenty of the poinsettia stickers for use for my Christmas cards. I am really happy to learn these about these techniques and products before the holiday crunch time! Thanks Stampendous for the inspiration!

Things with Wings

Simon says stamp and show is a new blogspot which is hosting weekly vintage challenges and wonderful prizes sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. The challenge style is inspired by the likes of Tim Holtz, Wendy Vecchi, 7 Gypsies and Graphic 45 - among many other vintage enthusiasts.
This is the very first week of challenges and here is my entry:

For the stamped flower on polished stone I started with silver foil cardstock. While I like the bright effect in person...it is extremely difficult to capture on camera.
The bottom 1/3 does not show up clearly...there are lots of polished stone lines and the white embossed flower extends to the base. The spiral is a paper clip that I heat embossed.

The bird is part of the nature elements grungeboard set. I started by covering the entire piece with yellow crackle paint, stamped the wing, added an eye with pens and glossy accents (thanks Jennifer McGuire for that tip), and covered with distress stickles.

The flowers are colored with alcohol inks and distress inks. The top flower is covered with opal liquid pearls (Oh, I really like the softness this adds-a keeper idea for me). Thanks for looking!

Retake on Thinking Inking

Sorry the Google Blogger is giving me fits tonight and will not allow me to move the following items into my perferred order. In spite of that I hope you enjoy seeing the techniques I have played with over the past month.

Alcohol ink background, with dimensional pearls painted daisy and flatened pearls by stem. Bottle dimesional pearls used for green background and covered with diamond stickles.

Examples of using distress crackled paint.

Dabber Paint background with stamped marble image.

Examples of heat embossing.

Stamped image into several layers of embossing.

Examples of different backgrounds.

More heat embossing.

Distress inks and water stamping.

If you have stopped by the 2 Peas gallery in the last few weeks perhaps you have seen more tags than usual. I am hosting 9 weeks of challenges and swaps. Last summer Jennifer McGuire prepared and presented a fabulous educational program for Two Peas called Thinking Inking. Each week she presented 3 videos focusing on specific inking products from Ranger Inks and Hero Arts. Every video was chock full of wonderful techniques. The number of tips, ideas and techniques far exceeded what most us could practice and learn from each video. So this year I am coordinating a challenge to go back to glean more great information. Several stampers are having tremendous fun learning new techniques...and that is my excuse for not posting for a while-LOL!

Thanks for looking!...Jan