12 TAGS OF 2016: March Edition

I was fortunate enough to be able to take a few classes taught by Tim Holtz recently, and it reminded me that as much as I love building 3D paper projects, I love playing around with paper in other ways too. I'm late in getting started on the 12 Tags of 2016, but I figure it's better late than never!

Tim's original tag can be found here, and this is my take on his technique remix. I enjoyed playing with the new Distress crayons and seeing what they can do. They're very fun to work with.  Their texture is not like an actual crayon, but more of a lipstick consistency which you can smudge, smear and reacts with water - so cool!

In this second picture, you might be able to see the little bits of foil here and there on the tag. I used a piece of Tim's Eclectic Elements bouquet fabric in place of a ribbon - the colors seemed to match my crayon work pretty well!

Now that I'm inspired to jump on the tag bandwagon and have my first one done, I can't wait to see what he's got in store for us in April!

Thanks for stopping by!

Distressed Bunny Marquee

**UPDATED AT BOTTOM**

I've had so much fun combining two of my favorite things to create this distressed bunny marquee. Those two things are a wonderful design from SVGCuts and digging into my stash of Tim Holtz supplies!

The Bunny Marquee Sign is from SVGCuts Happy Easter kit and I was eager to make it as I love having seasonal marquee signs around the house.   I actually already have a very Spring-ish Heidi Swapp butterfly marquee done in pastel colors, so I wanted to go another way with this project.

I've had this sheet of wonderful Tim Holtz Easter paper in my supply for years! It was time to do something fun with it.  I build the base of the bunny with a dark chocolate brown cardstock and actually then hand cut the bunny paper panel because if I cut it at the angle that my Cricut would allow, the bunny art would have been on a diagonal. I could have used my 24" Cricut mat and adjusted it for that, but it was such an easy manual cut, I just traced the cutout of the back panel and used my scissors.

 

I had a piece of some really cool ruler paper from another Tim Holtz paper pack and decided to use that as the outside band. I think it really gives this such a fun and vintage, distressed look.  I distressed around the edges of all the papers with some Ranger Distress ink in walnut stain.

You might wonder why I went multicolored with the bulb caps.  I have a few reasons and actually, this is still kind of a work in progress.  I alternated the pink and mint bulb caps on my butterfly marquee, and really loved the effect. However, this left me with 12 of each color for this project. It actually works pretty well with the bunny paper I used and I think it looks nice when lit.

BUT...I have a vision to make this even better and I just need to get to the craft store and buy some clear faceted bulb caps to finish this off.  As I mentioned, I love using Tim Holtz distress products and I really think this project would look so cool with some vintage looking mercury glass bulbs.  I experimented with some alcohol ink and clear bulb caps and came up with this altered bulb:

I LOVE how it came out!  I think I will love it even more if I can do this to a faceted bulb where the alcohol ink will get into all the nooks and crannies!  Here was my experiment with the distressed bulb on the lit bunny. 

 This is just what I envisioned! It also knocks down some of the brightness which I like too. So hopefully I'll get my hands on some clear faceted bulb caps this weekend, distress the heck out of them and give my bunny a quick and grungy makeover!

Thanks for stopping by and as always, I'd love to hear what you think!

**3/30/16 Update**

I forgot to update with the final version. Here's my bunny with the distressed bulbs - I think I love it!

Carrot Shadowbox

I thought glitter card stock was hard to photograph until I tried taking pictures of this shadowbox I just finished - very difficult with glare everywhere!  I think you get the idea though.

This shadowbox is a modified version of the one in the newly released Happy Easter kit from SVGCuts.  Last week I picked up a few shadowbox frames at Michaels when they were 65% off, but I only bought 9x9" square ones.  I certainly wasn't going to be able to fit six carrots in one of those, so I adapted by slightly enlarging the carrots and planning for two instead.

I just happened to have all the supplies on hand and was excited to get to work on this after the workday was done. What's better than a newly released svg kit on a Friday afternoon with a whole weekend of crafting possibilities ahead of you?  Not much!

Here's a picture I took at a bit of an angle - it seems to have helped with the glare for the most part.

I'd love to hear what you think - feel free to leave a comment below. Hope your weekend is great and thanks for stopping by!

Easter Egg Box Card

When I first saw the sneak peak of the SVGCuts new Springtime Box Cards, I fell in love with this Easter egg card. It brought back some Easter memories from childhood.

We always found a diorama sugar egg in our Easter baskets each year and this card reminds me so much of them. That's why I used glittered cardstock to make this - it looks so very sugary and sweet!

The other thing I remember is my grandmother's Easter egg tree.  She used to make these beautiful diorama ornaments from real blown-out egg shells. They were covered in velvet, fabric and beautiful trims. The insides were often coated in glitter and had little figurines inside.  The tree was made of branches from the yard, painted white and anchored in a pretty crystal jar.  I remember sitting at the table studying all of the eggs and trying to decide which was my favorite.  What great memories this card kit brought to mind!

This picture isn't the greatest with it's dark background, but it shows off the glittery paper a little bit better. Glitter is so difficult to photograph sometimes!  I did a watercolor paint job on the flower petals using some Tim Holtz distress stains (weathered wood, broken china & mustard seed for the center) and once dry, tried to do a little shaping to give them a more dimensional look.  

The pearls are another thing I remember about those egg ornaments.  Some of them had pearls all around the opening of the 'window' on the front of the egg.  So of course I had to add some pearls to my card as a nod to nostalgia.

Thanks for stopping by!

1970's 3D paper project!

I just stumbled across this picture the other day and thought I'd share,  

It was the late 1970's and this barn was built with construction paper and paste. I was pretty proud of it at the time!  I've been playing with paper every since.  

See, I told you I have a thing for paper!!

Going Green

My house is going green for the upcoming St. Paddy's Day holiday!  Here are a few projects I've put together so far:

Lucky the leprechaun is from the SVGCuts Lucky Day Bags and Boxes kit. I eliminated the bag and enlarged this to fit on an 8"x 10" burlap panel. Leprechauns are so protective of their gold, I gave this guy a gold glittered tooth so he doesn't have to worry about anybody stealing it when he's not looking.  No wonder he's so happy!

To go along with my laughing leprechaun, I also made the Beer Mug and Pot O'Gold favor from the SVGCuts  Feeling Lucky kit. From the smile on his face, I think Lucky has indulged in more than a few mugs of green beer!

  

Another hobby of mine is genealogy, and I've been working on researching the Irish roots of my husband's family. I think it would be cute to roll up a copy of the Irish side of the family tree like a scroll and send it to everybody tucked into one of these mugs. Now all I need is a few more hours in the day and I'll be all set!

Last but not least, here's a hat I made last year, but never got around to posting.  This is actually the top hat from the SVGCuts New Year's Eve kit, but I curled the heck out of the brim to make it look more like a silly leprechaun hat! The shape kind of reminds me of the Jiminy Cricket's top hat. 

I added a bunch of blingie things and flair to the front and a glittery clover on top from the Celtic Knots and Clover collection, also from SVGCuts.

     

These all look so cute on my bookshelves and really help liven things up for Spring!  I built the Gold Coin Inn last year, but am adding some embellishments to it this year, and it's not ready to be posted yet.  Hopefully I'll get to that in the next few days.  

And since St. Pat's and Easter are so close this year, I'll be putting out my Easter decorations too. More posts to come soon.

Thanks for stopping by!