Paper rears it's head

I didn't say ugly either. I have really missed playing with paper and this time of year I especially love creating cards and tags to top presents and to add to little things I send out.

Today after helping at the retirement home luncheon, I thought it would be nice to start a few things. I am sending out painted ornaments to the girls on our Friendly Palette group. We exchange ornaments yearly and we are building up quite a collection of each others little works of art. It's fun seeing what we come up with each year.

I decided on making some tags to go along with mine and I still need to add a bit of ribbon but these I thought were really cute. I got some stickers from the dollar store that were kind of Primitive and rustic looking. I did the spray ink on my work mat and smooshed around the ink on the tags, added a circle of paint here and there and inked the edges of the tags and they were done. Cute and quick. I hope the girls like them. 

  And I made a couple of cards for some recipients, these are 3D cards,  you add  dimensional tape to raise parts of the image. I used gold glitter and some gold corners. I got the blank tag cards from Michael's, I really like the look of these. Good thing I bought 2 packages. These Santa's were purchased locally from Ecstasy Crafts which is just down the road, a much too convenient store but it has quality and European designs which you can't find just anywhere.

Well it has been a full day.

I must start my shopping this week and get that last order done before my customer calls in a panic. I need someone to cut the wood length for me and if I can nab him before he goes to work tomorrow afternoon we are good to go. 

Take care and just wanted to let you know I have made a Facebook page for Harmony Road Studio so you can follow my arty doins  there as well.

TTFN ♥♥♥

A Couple Altered Tags

Hi everyone,

on the weekend I was playing with some shipping tags and thought I would share with you what I made.

I used Distress inks for the background, white acrylic paint, Stickles, dripped and dabbled Ditto Shimmer sprays (they have a nice shimmer to them), added some glossy accents, dyed some seam binding and gathered it on the mermaid tag.Sea shells, and micro beads were also added.

I miss doing tags and ATC's so when I do them, I really go for it and enjoy it quite a bit. I think because they are smaller canvases and they don't take days to do, although some ATC's I really think about them for a while to conjure up an idea.

This tag is for the Yahoo group Gecko Gals Paper crafting Group, Bathing beauty challenge. I just snuck her in on the deadline.

I used a bit of sandpaper at the base to give some texture and interest. And a real mini sea shell on her head. I also coloured her bathing suit with pencil crayons and gave her some rosie cheekers.

 I still need to think of something witty for this one. I am thinking something about turning into a prince if you kiss me.....I know weird sense of humor. I am in a tag swap over at Tee's The Altered Paper later in the month which prompted both these tags so this one is probably going to my swap partner, not sure who that is yet but it will be fun to send. 

I am also working on a mini hutch my hubs was able to bring home free from work. It is old and has been around the block but he salvaged it for me and thought I could put my piles of craft supplies in it. I think he was hinting to put it away. Being in a small house, space can be limited but I need to keep it all together and more organized, so, I am all finished base coating it so just thinking what to put on it for design. I need to finish it up soon. I have to start painting for my shows and need to start a little earlier this year.

Thank you for stopping by.

♥

Christmas tags and tea bag luminaries

Well with no car, baking pretty much done, even wrapping, and a bit of time on my hands while hubs worked the last 2 days, I tried to clean up my work table so we may eat on it during the holidays...yeah right.
I was doing some blog hopping the other night and I was on Karen's site, The Graphics Fairy and found some wonderful vintage Santa's. I knew immediately what I wanted to make.
I got out some shipping tags and distressed them in Vintage Photo, Frayed Burlap and Tea Dye. I really wanted a vintage feel to them so I darkened them up pretty good. I even wet some of the tags first, crumpled them then distressed. Dried all in the oven, ironed the crinkled ones smooth and then went about decorating them. I have seen those beautiful accordian rosettes out on the web and thought I would finally get around to making some, I don't have the fancy Tim Holtz die but hey you do with what you have, a little more work but I managed quite well without it besides you can at least say they were made with a little more hands on.
I also managed to make some more of my tissue tape and I was gaffawed at the results. I don't know if gaffaw is actually a word but just the same it sounds good and the results I thought were just what I had imagined even better. I added some extra colour to the tissue tape by just using a blending tool and lightly coloring the already brownish tissue sent to me by my friend Jenxo. I then used various stamps and colours depending on the Santa in the image. I used papers from my holiday stash, My Mind's Eye, Basic Grey and whatever was hanging about. I even added some sparkly snowflake stickers courtesy of the dollar store. A few I added some clear sticker words, or typed some on the puter for the little banners. Just love  those banners too, seeing a lot of those around.
These will be attached to some gift bags or gifts and can be used to hang on a tree later or maybe on a door knob etc. At any rate, I love them. Might have to make a few for myself if time permits.

Next up are luminaries made of tea bags. Jenxo posted last week that she knew another blogger, Kim, who made these so I jumped over to take a peek. I am always intrigued with new ideas.

Having a cat makes one take another think about lighting candles and setting them on tables the Princess might jump up on. We surely don't need the princess running madly with a tail lit on fire. Who needs that, so avoid it before it even happens.

I had some rather older teas in the cupboard that I didn't fancy too much, they are the type of tea bag that are folded in half and then stapled. I removed the staples and then emptied the tea out.

I carefully slit the one side where the seam was ,then opened them up. As you can see here they are quite large. You need 2 tea bags per side a total of 4 tea bags, sew up each short side to make this complete. But, before you do all that, I took a napkin that had these beautiful roses and a rose bug and took away all that white tissue that is attached to the napkin leaving the printed part. I carefully cut away the images, sandwhiched it between the 2 tea bags. For more interest I stamped the top tea bag only with a french script. When the battery operated light flickers, you can see the rose through the script and the soft glow of the light. It doesn't show very well here but in the dimmer light, they are quite attractive. I did some sewing around the top and bottom like a border before sewing the sides together but I actually prefer no sewing of the border. I think it looks better without but that is my preference.

I then used Modge Podge to seal the bags together, I put some wax paper underneath so I could peel the tea bags away when dry.

Kim wrote an article for a magazine but I wasn't able to find it this time of year. I had to sort of figure it out.

Jenxo made some illuminaries just using napkins for her Market show.

I think they are just lovely.

What a great simple gift to make and very kitty friendly.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you are getting ready for Christmas.

We have no snow, just rain and very mild temperatures.

Sure doesn't feel like Christmas is only a little over a week away.

Til next time friends

♥