Christmas Tag

I am back with my second tag...   I am playing along with Linda's Funkie Junkie Tags and this one is inspired by week #5 sponsored by her Funkie Junkie Boutique.   

Linda's tag had a sweet Santa image framed out in the center of the tag.  I started with wooden frame which I backed with a stamped image of Father Christmas.  I stained the frame with brown distress stain and added hints of gold with gold paint and embossing paste.  The background is a mix of paints, stamping, tissue paper, and distress inks. I died ribbon and lace to coordinate.

Products:  Ranger Distress Stain - Walnut, Ranger Archival Ink - Coffee, Brown Pearls, Brown Lace, Twine, Ranger Distress Ink  - Vintage Photo, Aged Mahogany  Artistic Outpost - Snowy Woods, Ranger Distress Paint - Gold, Ranger Distress Stains - Gold

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Beauty of the Season

Happy Friday!  It took me all week to create two tags. Slow creative process. :)  I am playing along with Linda's Funkie Junkie Tags sponsored by her Funkie Junkie Boutique.  I also mixed in the colors from the Mixed Media Color Challenge #10 into one of my tags.  I am going to share that tag today and share my other tag later this week. 

I didn't have some of the elements found in Linda's  tag, so I decided to focus on the layout and the design.    The background was created using a gelli plate, sequin waste and pearlized paint.  After it had dried I smeared a dye ink over the surface to capture the pattern and the coral color found in the challenge. I added birds from Artistic Outpost and colored them with STAEDTLER Karat Aquarell pencils.  The flowers were dabbed with gold paint.  The trim is metallic and from Ranger / Tim Holtz smeared with the same gold paint.  The background is painted with Ranger Metallic Stains.

Products: Artistic Outpost - Snowy Woods, Artistic Outpost - Midwinter, Birds of a Feather, Ranger Distress Paint - Gold, Ranger Distress Stains - Gold, Brass, Pewter,  Ranger Archival Ink - Coffee, STAETDLER - Karat Aquarell Watercolor Pencils

My inspiration:

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Holiday Hop

Welcome to the Artistic Outpost Christmas in July Blog Hop. The team is sharing a variety of winter holiday inspired projects on the hop this month.

I spied this old paintbrush at the Flea Market about 2 months ago and I have been holding onto it for a special project. 

I decided my old paintbrush would be the perfect surface to create a rustic Christmas decoration to be hung on the wall during the holiday.

I painted the handle with white acrylic paint to make the images pop.  I stamped the images onto tissue paper using Ranger Archival ink. I tore out the images.  I then applied watered down glue to the back of the tissue paper. I placed it onto the painted background and brushed glue water over the surface.  I started with Father Christmas first and then added the house and trees on the right and the trees on the left.  I added the snowflakes up the brush handle.

I added a piece of lace trim across the bottom with twine and several glittery silver bells.  I then tied on a bow to the handle with a stamped Joyeux Noel using black ink on white cardstock. I cut the tag and attached with twine to the bow.

The sets used include: Midwinter, Snowy Woods, and Sleigh Ride.

Hop over to check out the rest of the cool holiday projects by the design team:

Gerrie Johnnic 

Lisa Somerville 

Suzanne Czosek (me)

Tracy Evans

Linda Coughlin 

 Alison Bomber

Terry Horrall

Kate Yetter

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Holiday Hop

Today the Artistic Outpost team is sharing Holiday creations featuring the beautiful Artistic Outpost Holiday Stamps.  There is also a 15% off sale on the Artistic Outpost Christmas stamps Wed. Nov. 21st through Monday November 26th use the code:  Christmas2012 when checking out.
 

 I like to shop after the holidays to see what is left over from  the holiday decorations.  This sled ornament was in a sale pile and I picked it up to hold onto for this year. I think it makes a wonderful base for my stamped Christmas Door.

I stamped the Christmas door from the Snowy Woods plate onto white cardstock.  I used the STAEDTLER Karat Aquarell color pencils to color my door.  I cut the door out from the door frame.  I taped the door to Kraft cardstock and added pop dots to the frame and added it to the kraft cardstock. 

After I finished my door I realized I wanted something to showcase my door and that is where the sled comes in. I dug around in my alterable shelf and realized that the door fit perfectly on the sled.  I placed the door on the sled and added my finishing touches with the glittery snowflake, ribbon and pine cones.

The sentiment is stamped from the Sleigh Ride plate onto a die cut.  I edged the die cut with the Stampendous Gold Tinsel Embossing powder.

To see the other Designers beautiful projects hop along to their blogs:

Lisa Somerville

Tracy Evans

Linda Coughlin 
Gerrie Johnnic 

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Christmas wishes!

I wanted to try coating an image using bees wax.  I had seen this done in a Stampington magazine and loved the effect.

I stamped the image using a water resistant black ink.  Then I colored it using watercolor pencils and a water brush.  I sponged the edges with distress ink. 

I heated up the beeswax in the melt pot and dipped my image in the pot.  I used my tweezers and had to rotate half way through to get wax over the entire surface.  After it was coated I laid it down to let it cool. Then I heated it up with the heat gun to move the wax and dabbed up excess wax with baby wipes.

After that it was just layering and distressing the edges.  I also highlighted the main image with glitter and white gel pen.

Images: Artistic Outpost Snowy Woods,  Frosty and Friends

Wishing you all wonderful Christmas Wishes!

Suzz

Golden Christmas

Tim's Tag #8 is a fun  steampunk tag...  I veered quite off the path this time... :)

I had previously embossed this folder and if you could see the other side you could see how many tries it takes me in the morning to get a tag done!  I flipped over the failure from earlier this week and used the manila side that had the embossing from the folder. 

Recipe:

1. Smear on with a sponge Aged Mahogeny, Evergreen Bough, and Gathered Twigs over the entire surface. 
2. Smear white acrylic paint to soften the colors.
3. Smear versamark over embossed areas and heat emboss with Queen's Gold embossing powder.
4. Distress edges with distressing tool. Smear edges with black archival ink. 
5. Ink up  Chipboard Time Piece with Versamark. Heat emboss with gold embossing powder. Distress edges with distressing tool and smear black ink over the edges. 
6. Cut holly leaves and smear Viva - Gold over leaves to add gold tinges. 
7. Stamp Artistic Outpost - Snowy Woods - Santa onto white cardstock using black ink. Color with watercolor pencils. Cut out
8. Stamp music background (Artistic Outpost - Ephemeral Backgrounds) using black ink on white cardstock and sponge over with brown dye ink. 
9. Stamp Joyuex Noel onto white cardstock using black ink. Stamp music background over with black ink. Sponge brown dye ink over surface. 
10. I smeared gold on the key and charm to blend in with my golden tag. 

Hope your week is going well!

Suzz

Tim's Tags Day Four - May Your Christmas be Merry

 Big challenge today with  Tim's Tag 4, I had to do a lot of improvisation.

The background is created by mixing the Ranger Distress Stains - Picket Fence, Faded Jeans, Broken China.  I added a dusting of brown chalkboard mist to the surface and distressed with vintage photo.  The music (Artistic Outpost - Ephemeral Backgrounds) was stamped using the weathered wood Distress Stain. The children are from Artistic Outpost - Sleigh Ride and are stamped in black ink and watercolored to coordinate. The snowflakes are die cuts from acetate and painted with the picket fence distress stain. I added a row of glitter around the edges behind the snowflakes.  The little tag contains a sentiment from Artistic Outpost - Snowy Woods and uses the same background as the main tag.  The snowflake on the tag is chipboard and crackled using the technique from Tim today.

I have a few more pieces crackled and drying so I will have to see if I can create a few more tags using the techniques from today.

Have a lovely day!

Suzz

Starry Santa

Today I am sharing a recycled star from a birthday decoration.  The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge is stars and the City Crafter Blog Challenge is Santa Claus is coming to town. The ColourQ colors worked beautifully too!  I combined the challenges to create a vintage star decoration.

The background paper is a combination of Stella and October Afternoon paper for the layers of the star. Then a rim of Melissa Frances Crushed Glitter around the edges.  The edge of the circle is made from crepe paper glimmer misted with Patina blue. 

The center of the circle is stamped using Artistic Outpost - Route 66 and Snowy Woods.  A little distressing, crushed glass and embellishments and done.

Here are the colors:

Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

Suzz

Christmas Tag - CR84FN40

This is the second week of the  CR84FN40 colors. I was happy to make two projects as I love this color combo.  

For my second project I pulled out a piece of recycled corrugated cardboard to create a tag. 

The cardboard tag was distressed with vintage photo and acrylic paint. Then a layer of pattern paper (Teresa Collins Traveler) torn and distressed was layered onto the tag. 

The Artistic Outpost Snowy Woods plate provided the sentiment and the image stamped in brown and red ink. I added a few rusty snowflakes as accents with snowflake gems to finish it off. 

The inspiration photos for CR84FN40:

For all the details on the challenge visit the  CR84FN blog. 

The fabulous CR84FN Design Team:

Deborah Frings * Sue Lelli  * Andrea Matthews *  Stephanie Kraft * Suzanne Czosek (me)  *  Heather Jensen * Mona Pendleton  * Lisa Somerville*  Cheryl Lea.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz