Did you know?-Tissue Tape tutorial and happy mail

I know I started a "Did you know" idea back in the fall then I sort of dropped it while I was scrambling to do my craft shows but I got thinking the other day, I am going to try to do a tutorial or lead you to info that you may not already have or to refresh your creative mind, we can always use a little help now and again.

Today I want to say....Did you know?... you can make your own tissue tape??? well you may have  or maybe just never bothered, but, once I show you how easy it is and how little materials you need you will be happy I showed you this.

Here in Canada Tim Holt's tissue tape is very pricey and I do like Ranger products, don't get me wrong, but, I find sometimes you are limited when you buy some of these things and can only use things on grunge projects or not so feminine looking things. Well, I have some great news, you can make your own tissue tape, just enough for a special project, or, you can make some to have on stash or just make some blank ahead of time when you need to  make that card in a hurry and you need a little pizazz.

OK enough gab about it...here we go....

All you need is double sided tape, I buy mine at the dollar store and you can get different widths, this size is about half inch and I got 3 rolls for under 2.00, tissue, you can use dressmakers tissue, gift tissue or even a nice napkin with a pattern on it, tissue comes in a variety of colours or just use white and you can see how quickly you can transform it. You may need ink, stamps, scissors and that is it.

Not sure why but my picture loaded sideways, but you get the idea, the green card stock is just for a contrast in colour so you can see the tissue.

 Roll your tape onto the tissue, try to keep it straight and the paper smooth, if you do get a few wrinkles, it just adds a bit of texture to the final result. Make as many strips as you like so you have some on hand in a hurry. If you look a the bottom of this picture you will see I left a little tissue overhanging, that is so it makes it easy to peel back the backing of the tissue tape, you can trim that bit off after you adhere to your card or project and tidy it up.

 Now trim the sides of the excess tissue.

Next I had made my own shamrock stamp for another project and I am in another swap for March so I made my partner some tissue tape for our Shamrock theme. Before I stamped the tissue, I just lightly inked the tape, don't worry if you don't get the inking perfect, it adds interest. Next stamp your stamp. I have made some tissue tape in a collage style using numbers, small clocks etc. Try anything, it really is fun and quick.

 And below is the tissue tape that I stamped on the left and the middle and right side are napkins. Remove both layers of that white fine paper from you napkin and you may want to press the napkin with an iron or just lay it out and place your tape on the opposite side of the design. Trim and you are good to go. Remove the backing and place carefully onto a card or altered project.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial....Did you know?.....you can make your own tissue tape for a fraction of the store cost and you can make it more suitable to your theme.

After I made the Shamrock tape, I took a gel pen and just outlined the shamrocks, made them pop a bit.

  And below I want to share a beautiful Spring theme ATC I received from a long time follower of my blog,   Amy Jo from Art from the Heart. Around Christmas time we decided we wanted to swap art and well the holidays are always a busy time of year and lately we have both been saying how we are anxiously waiting for spring. So we decided to do an ATC in the theme of spring. I received this lovely ATC and below the pic is the backside just as beautiful as the front. I wonder how she knew I love sunflowers, they are my favourite. I also had a pic of the goodies Amy sent along but the pic was sideways and I wasn't going to leave posting.

Thank you Amy and I hope you get my little package soon. I hope you like it.

Til next time friends. I am working on a little whimsy faces booklet for my dear Aunt in England. I just need to work on the pages and it will be done soon.

If anyone has any great quote sites that makes one smile or makes one feel good on a not so good day, could you please let me know. I would like to add some sayings or quotes to my little book.

Thanks all for dropping by.

♥

A couple ATC's

Hello friends,

No I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth, just been doing a bit of catch up and sort of laxing on the creativity. You know when you sit down and you do something and later it doesn't seem like you accomplished much??? I have been kind of like that, although I did get all my ATC backgrounds done and sent off to Jenxo in Australia for the background technique swap. I can't wait to see what comes out of that trade. I did 4 backgrounds to add to our books. Wooohooo

And I had to redo my February matchbox for Jan in the UK. Apparently when I went to the PO last week the girl filling in put the code UK in the computer and said oh this is going to the Ukraine? I said no, it is going to United Kingdom, England. Apparently our great Postal system says the UK is Ukraine and GB is Great Britain but all this time when I have sent things out it went to England, but, Jan did not receive my first matchbox and it has been long overdue, usually things get to the Great Britain (UK) in about a week or just under, faster than our friends below us in the US (United States). LOL

I seem to have to clarify where things are going in case someone from our Postal system reads this, and of course I did not save my receipt after one week because I have never had a problem before til now. So Lesley is out postage.

Oh well, on to other things.

And, I have been sketching, no I don't have any more to show you today but yesterday I took a book from the library that I have here at home and saw these sneakers so I had to tackle it. It was very detailed and I think, if you know me, that is what attracted me to it was all the detail. I am a detail person and well I was quite pleased with the end result, another day for sketches, I didn't want to bore you all with them.

And...I am doing an ATC swap with another blogger who has been following me for quite some time, and I am not sure if she will be looking so I won't mention any names yet. I am doing a matchbox swap as well for March and so who knows where these or which one is going where.

I love the fairy ATC, I added some wired music wings to her and crackle painted the gate behind her. Added some flowers with Stickles,I really like how this turned out. The fairy is raised up off the card with some foam tape. She turned out better than I expected....I wonder where she is flying off to next???

This one is titled " In my Garden"

 And this card is called Migration. I used K and Company scrap paper, the background is a faded map of North America, the bird is from the Graphics Fairy, thanks Karen, the word "migrate" is from a dictionary I use when I want definitions in my art, some burlap and I had a shrink plastic wing charm that I wired through the burlap. Birdie is migrating to somewhere, I wonder where.

I haven't made too many ATC's of late and I really enjoyed it. I really think mine out, they don't just happen over night...it is a rather long process with me, sometimes too long.

Well I have several projects in the works, one is going to take quite a while as I am designing it for the Gecko Galz Guest Artist spot in August.

Another project I am working on is an altered tin with an accordion book inside, I  get a newsletter from Paper Whimsy and Nancy Maxwell James has done it again. My book is going to be a bit different but that is what I like about art, you make it how you like with the help of inspiration by others willing to share their ideas.

Well that is it of now my dearies.

TTFN

♥

Another Gingersnap Art Exchange

Over at the Yahoo Group, Gingersnap Creations, we are having a bookmark art exchange, titled, Travel the World. Bookmarks are rather easy to do but unfortunately you can't really add too many embellies because of their sole purpose. So for every bookmark I looked up some info about each of the countries or city and put a little blurp about the landmark or the area. A piece of trivia you may call it. This was actually fun finding out things you didn't know.

I have posted my bookmarks but there is a possible Canada Post strike looming and we won't know til tonight if an agreement has been made, if not they go on strike. Delay and delays and more delays.

So I have opted not to sign up for any swaps from here on til I know for sure and time to take a bit of a break from things. I am still waiting for results on my car. The garage was very busy the day we dropped it off but tomorrow is Friday and I would really like to have my wheels back. Driving the big truck isn't really my thing but at least we have another vehicle to drive. I don't seem to be in much of a creating mood of late so just sitting back and maybe once I sit again it will all come back to me.

Thanks for dropping by and I always love to read your comments.