November Tag

November has always been one of my favorite months.  Even though it generally has cooler temperatures, which I am not very fond of it gives us time to reflect on what we are thankful for hopefully not just on Thanksgiving but each and every day.  I know that I have spend every day thinking about what I would do without my wonderful husband. We have been together since I was 16. Holy cow-- more than half my life.  He has been my rock and I feel like I have been his, although we have had some rocky times lately I know we have made it through the storm. 

November is the month when Tim and I both celebrate our birthdays.  This year my birthday was on Thanksgiving as it was the year I was born and Tim celebrates the big 4-0 on the 29th.  Above is a picture taken of us earlier this month in front of the Belligo in Vegas to celebrate his birthday.  Happy Birthday Baby!!!!

My November tag is another one of my favorites because it includes a lot of my favorite colors.  I have always been fond of oranges, yellow and green hues.  Add a little brown in there and I'm in heaven--although I have found some delight in the vibrance of the Dylusions lately.  This months tag was fun and pretty easy--hope you like my version.

Thanks for stopping by!!!
Tara

One Last Halloween Post

I couldn't help but work on Halloween projects up until the last minute.  I did this Halloween plague to put on the table to welcome my trick or treaters tomorrow night.  I love Wendy Vecchi's Art Parts.  I doesn't take any time to put together a great piece of work that displays beautifully.  Hope you enjoyed this fun piece I put together with Graphic 45's Happy Haunting paperline.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

 

October Tag-- New Love Dry Rock Candy Glitter

I had a great time making this months tag.  It was the first time I had a change to actually get to Tim's tag done before the end of the month.  I love the new Distress Glitter.  I used Dylusions under it on the broom and the witches face which I think made the witch a little more fun!!! I hope you like this months tag and hopeful it won't be the last one I do for the year. I'm going to try to catch up on all the other tags this week --wish me luck!!!


Thanks for stopping by!!!
Tara

One Perfect Day

A year ago this week, I spent one spectacular week on Royal Caribbeans Freedom of the Seas touring the Eastern Caribbean with two of my best friends-- my husband Tim and Angie.  This was part of Tim Holtz's last crafting cruise through Scrap Map.  I have not blogged about this experience but to say the entire experience was amazing is an understatement.  The people you meet... the sites that you see... and the memories you make.  My favorite day or memory of the entire cruise had to be one of the simplest we had.  Paul, Angie, Tim and I set off after we docked at St. Maarten and took a water taxi over to the shopping district where Angie and I both scored some fabulous Disney luggage at a great price before heading over to the most gorgeous beach I have ever seen.  We spent all day long--literally up until the very last minute we could on that beach.  Of course, my hubby had made some friends and we had them take our picture enjoying our perfect day.

For the project, I started out painting the base of the shadow box with Claudine Hellmuth Traditional Tan.  Once it was dry, I took some Vaseline and streaked it over the box in various areas that I wanted to look distressed then I covered it with Claudine Hellmuths Charcoal Black.  Once the box was dry, I sanded it down to reveal the tan where the Vaseline was.  I then used Graphic 45 Tropical Traveloge paper collection to embellish around the picture.  I fussy cut the flowers and leaves and the beach from the cover.  I found some flowers and colored them to my liking with some Dylusions and Perfect Pearl Mists.

I love the flowers in the Graphic 45 paper but the leaves remind me so much of the islands that we were on and that is the reason I am submitting this to the Simon Says Challenge this week.

Make sure you check out Simons Blog here:


                                                           Simon Says Challenge Blog

Thanks for stopping by!!!
Tara

Ranger Has Done it Again!!!

While I was in Maryland last month, taking classes with a great teacher--some of you may know him.

Yes-- I traveled all the way to Maryland to the great Queens Ink to take two of Tims classes that I have not taken--fan--yes. Inspired--yes.  I was lucky enough to get my hands of some of Rangers new metallic Distress Stains.  Ok so these stains are unlike any stain out there--as soon as I picked them up, I immediately thought picket fence.  Which made my mind race to Tim's great marble stain technique.  This is my favorite of all stain techniques.  I can go through a bottle of picket fence just to see all the different patterns I can make with this technique.  And now with these three new varieties--the possiblities are endless.  I have hardly been able to sleep.  Now that I have time to play. This is what I have come up with.  Below is a tag with just picket fence, fired brick and pine needle. You may be thinking Christmas with these colors but wait until you see what it does with the metallics.

 

 

Now with the metallics, you get that same opaque effect that picket fence provides.  Thank you Creative Chemistry 101.  Below you will see the same fired brick and pine needle (with from left to right antiqued bronze, tarnished brass, and brushed pewter.)  You can see how it provides a perfect motten and mingle effect that is perfect for the changing of leaves in a fall project that will be effortless.

 

 

Now you can see how beautiful these are-- hey will produce beautiful leaves. Thank you Ranger for hitting it out of the ball park again!!!

Fall Canvas

As I said yesterday, I am not ready for fall to be hear but I think it is on its way even if I'm not ready.  So here is another creation to gear up my house for the fall. 

I love to mix it up with a mixed media canvas to put up somewhere in the house or give to a friend to boost their spirits.  On this particular canvas, I started out with a base of Tim Holtz's Tissue Wrap which due to all the layers I used you really can not even see-- and I'm ok with that.  I next added several layers of Faber Castells gelatos  smooshing them around and then spritzing to get a little more of a blended affected.  I added some of Claudines Hellmuth Gesso with a Prima stencil to get some dimension and let it dry.  I used several stamps to give to a layered effect which are difficult to see in the photo and  then spritzed away with several different Dylusions, Perfect Pearls and Glimmer Mists. I added some leaves after altering them a little with some Distress ink.  Then comes my favorite part of the project--The Pumkin.  I found some small pumkins at the dollar store and I cut one in half and covered it with Rangers foil sheets and performed a mini version of Tim Holtz's the Great Pumpkin and adhered it to the canvas.  If you have not seen last years Great Pumpkin Challlenge, I'll add the link-- however I feel as though you may have been living under a rock because it is amazing and you are in for a real treat!!!

Tim Great Pumpkin Creation 2011

Now this weeks Simon Says Challenge is requiring that you use text and as you can see (or barely) I have used Tim Holtz's Text Tissue Wrap as a base to my canvas.  So what better thing to do than get a two-for out of this project.  A great project to decorate that house with this fall and something to enter in a great company challenge--What?? You didn't know about this challenge--well check out the deets down at the link below!!!

Simon Says Challenge

Hope you all enjoyed project number 2 this week--whoa I'm on a roll now!!! LOL

Tara

Fall Already??

With the start of school, I have finally found time to spend in my scrap room today.  This is the first time since May that I have had a free moment to myself.  I can not believe fall is upon us already.  I am not a fan of cooler temperatures, however with fall I do get some of my favorite things: football, wonderful fresh crisp apples, pumpkins and Halloween. 

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday.  I decorate my house each year with wonderful haybales all sorts of stuff for the fall.  If I could just have the fall without the cooler temperatures, I would be one happy camper. 

Today, I made a shadow box that I can sit on my table or counter with a lot of Tim Holtz Sizzix die cuts and My Minds Eye Haunted paper.  I used the blocked paper method for a background.

Hope you enjoy my first of many Halloween projects for this year!!!

Thanks,
Tara