Planner madness

Recently I've noticed a lot of activity and popularity around Planners/Filofax. After seeing many photos of these wonderful little organizational tools I had the planner bug bite me as well. I purchased my first planner from aliexpress.com. To say I was happy with what I received is an understatement. This lovely A6 arrived at my door in no time at all and it's the perfect color. Having seen Heidi Swapp's fabulous planner collection I couldn't help but get some in anticipation of my planner arrival. Kind of sounds like I'm expecting the arrival of a baby ;-) haha. So this is my collection on arrival day. I also purchased some journal cards at my local Memories and More scrapbook store.

 

I've seen some pretty amazing dashboards in my web travels so I thought I would attempt some of my own. Here is what I came up with. I do love those little paper doilies. 

I have found that those great 12x12 sheets of paper have some amazing quote journal cards on them so I incorporated them into my designs. I bought laminate sheets from the dollar store and self laminated these for durability. After having struggled with those sheets I've decided a laminating machine is in my near future!! Lastly I added eyelets to the last two. It just makes them a bit sturdier and adds a little shiny bling to them. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

 

Journaling

While some people use journals as a way to record their thoughts or a way to put down their feelings on paper I use it as a means to experiment with my mediums. There might be a spectacular color combination or a really funky paper I come across and I like to play before I "commit", so to speak.  So this is mainly what my journal has become. My non-committal, goof around journal. Haha. 

Here is the result of my latest journaling antics. While the sentiments or quotes are meant to be reminders to myself, the media behind the message is light-hearted and inspiring to me. 

Hope this inspires you to take some time to "good around" a bit. 

Tim's Tags January 2015

New year, new challenges. I love it! Previously I haven't taken part in Tims monthly tag challenge but this year I'm challenging myself to do something different. While I am one of the biggest admirers of Tims work I found that I struggled with how to incorporate the products I had into a fabulous tag that was somewhat like his finished product. While that is not the purpose behind the 12 tags, to make it look like Tims, I felt that in order for me to succeed I needed all those products. Not the case. Talk about putting pressure on myself .. ha ha.

Enter 2015. After reading his tutorial I quickly realized that while I don't have the majority of the products, the things I do have are perfect so off I went. 

Here is my tutorial (condensed)

1. I started off with a large pre-printed tag and some tissue paper I had in my Christmas stash. I laid down a layer of ModPodge first and then laid the tissue paper over top, crinkling it as I pressed it down.

Once dry I ripped some of the edges off and distress the edge of the tag.

3. Next I took acrylic paints and applied the colors in various areas over the tag. 

I used Distress paint (Tarnished brass) and Lumiere paints (Pearlescent white and Halo violet gold)

Before it dried I spritzed it with water so I could blend the colors together using my finger.  As you can see it looks a bit more finished by blending the colors.

4. Once dry I took my Dylusions black spray bottle and very lightly spritzed some black on top. I actually took the nozzle part off of the bottle and tapped the ink off the nozzle and onto the tag. As you can see the black is very light. 

5. As I didn't have the letters and numbers that Tim used I realized I did have his Kraft resist chipboard - Letters and digits. Perfect!! 

I added a layer of Distress stain ( Brushed pewter) and let that dry. Then I lightly added some of the Lumiere (Halo gold) around the edges of the letters just using my fingers. Once dry I covered the letters O, N and E with glossy accents, added a layer of Distress Glitter (Black soot) and let that dry.

You will notice below that I left the 2 and 5 without glitter. 

6. As Tim suggested in his tutorial its a great idea to lay your large numbers/letters out on the tag while you sort out the placement of your words.

7. I didn't have the word stickers from the tutorial but I did have the next best thing. Tims Remnant Rubs (Life quotes). I took a plain white piece of paper and rubbed the quotes onto the blank sheet. Once I had done enough I just rough cut them by hand. 

While my large numbers/letters were still laying on the page I glued on my quotes around them.

8. Next I glued down the 2, ONE, 5. 

9. I took my Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen (Tim's distress pens would work excellent as well) and outlined the edges of the word strips.  Quickly, before the ink dried I rubbed my lines so that they had more of a smudged appearance.  If I got a little too much of the pen on top of the word strip I just wet a piece of paper towel and rubbed off some of the ink.

10. My next step was to splatter a little bit of my Distress Paint (Tarnished brass) over the tag.  I just dipped my paintbrush in the paint bottle and tapped the handle part of my brush on my other hand (with the brush end over top of the tag). I moved it around to disperse the paint around the tag as I tapped.






















11. For the ribbon embellishments at the top I used Tims crinkle ribbon and Distress Stain (Brushed pewter and Dusty concord).

Take the stains and dab both colors onto your craft mat (randomly).  I dabbed a sufficient amount, enough to cover the entire ribbon.
Take your ribbon and dab it into the Distress stain until your ribbon is fairly wet and covered in color.  Next I crinkled up the ribbon really good.  I basically smushed it into a really small ball and then just let it release naturally.  I took my heat gun and dried the ribbon.  Careful you don't overheat it and that you use tweezers to hold the ribbon down on the mat while you are drying it.  I held my heat gun quite a ways away from the ribbon as I was drying it.

Once dried tie it to the top of your tag.  I created a bow which you can't really see in the pictures but that is how I wanted it to look.

12.  I didn't take a picture of this next step but at the last minute I decided to add two metal embellishments.  I added a little plane at the top and a little crown/key in the bottom spot.  You can see them in the final picture below.  These I purchased from Dime Store emporium .. LOVE this little shop.

Here is my completed tag.  Thanks for "tagging" along :)

It's a "Tarty" Christmas

My full on obsession for everything plaid and tartan spilled over into my crafty fun last night. I had purchased this plaid material from my local Fabricland about a month ago when they had their grand opening. Brett Wilson was there as he is an owner/part owner? Of the new revamped mall. I went there mostly to meet him and chickened out. That's a whole nother story!!! Anyhoo ... I had other plans for this material but had this brilliant idea to make a ornament with it. All I did was cut a 10 x 10 inch piece of it, wrapped it around a foam ball (Dollarama arts and crafts section) and gathered it around the ball tightly. Tied some various ribbons, a bow and a jingle bell around the middle area and voila! A tarty Christmas ornament. My one boo boo is I should have inserted a piece of twine into the ball for hanging, PRIOR, to wrapping the fabric around it. 

I'm going to do a small tutorial on this tomorrow so stay tuned but for now here she is! Next year full on plaid decorated tree!! 

Happy holidays from me to you.

I dream of crafting

First of all I want to thank all the soldiers who fought for us so we could have our freedom. The events that recently occurred in Canada shook us up. While some may look at Canada as a weak country we are far from that. Our response to those events made me feel even more proud to be Canadian. We are strong, resilient, and when tragedy hits us at home it makes us even stronger.  I am thankful. 

I literally dreamt about tags last night. I think that's a sign that you're on craft overload but I'm having so much fun!!! 

Today my projects were to finish up on some tags I started yesterday. Poinsettia was the theme for these beauties. 

Next it was mini tag time. After having done most of the prep work last night all I had to do was stamp and assemble. Here is a sample. 

I made 4 more larger size tags tonight with my TH snowman die. Will post pics tomorrow. 

Thank you for stopping by!

Christmas Groove

This is my happy place. Creating from my heart, sitting at my workspace with a huge mess around me. Creative chaos!! No matter how much space I have I always end up working in about a 3 foot by 3 foot space. I seem to like it that way haha. 

So my Christmas crafty juices are in high gear right now and I'm taking full advantage of it. My first projects are tags and I sure had fun making these beauties. 

The Tim Holtz star die is one of my fav's. So versatile! These pre patterned tags are so great if you just want to focus on the embellishments. 

Next I used a Pinterest post for "Pinspiration". How fun are these cute little rustic candy canes??? Can you say shrink plastic, TH stamps, Walmart ribbon and cheap cheap plastic candy canes , jingle bells and tule? Yes that's all it took folks. Well my trusty glue gun also came in handy 😉

So easy and quick to make but be warned. With the shrink plastic they tell you to sand the back of it. Don't do it because it will create a hazy background behind your stamp (as shown). 

Hope you enjoy! Happy crafting. 

National card making crop

I was lucky enough to hang out with my friend Deb from All ways Scrapbooking in Salmon Arm along with a gang of other ladies for National card making day. It was a very productive day/evening despite all the stories and chit chat that us ladies brought to our tables. It was so much fun!!! Deb has an amazing store out of her home in Salmon Arm and also sells online at www.allwaysscrapbooking.com. Please check her out. 

Here are some of the fun cards I worked on with a little bit of inspiration from Pinterest on the hearts cards.