WOYWW 294

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

It's show and tell time in the blogosphere!  Thanks again to Julia at Stamping Ground for hosting the weekly sneek and peek event!  Make sure you click over to her site and check out all the great folks who are participating.

Here's my desk this morning.  I'm getting ready to do some work in my Documented Faith journal, which is what you see open on the table.  It's just a composition notebook that I've altered and am using instead of a moleskine or art journal like many are using.  Since I've not participated before, I wasn't sure what I would need.  So I just opted to use what I had instead.

You can see the word TRUTH under the upper edge of my notebook.  That's what I was working on yesterday during our after kraafter party over at the Kraaft Shaak.  It's something we do after the Kraaft It Live show...we all hang around and work on projects together and gab and laugh.  You should join us.  It's a blast!

I'm so enamoured right now with doodle and word art.  I'm trying to learn the techniques and get comfortable with seeing my own doodling and handwriting and be "ok" with it.  It's so hard not to compare my work with that of others.  I struggle with that constantly.

The January theme for Documented Faith is truth.  I decided to try my hand at a little word art to add to my notebook.  I sketched with pencil first and then went over that with my Uniball Signo gel pens.  The coloring/shading you see on the letters is what I worked on yesterday, using my Prismacolor pencils.

I decided to add a bit of blue shading along the left side of the letters to suggest a shadow and give more of a 3D look.

All of these solid lines are done with the gel pens.  Then I added some dots and light coloring with the Prismacolor pencils.

Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!

Tag It Tuesday Link Party

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

It's finally here!!  Our first Tag It Tuesday link party!

January's theme was new year/renewal/rebirth with a splash of gold and silver.  For some, that may conjure up pictures of the New Year's Eve ball dropping in Time Square.  For others, it may be something more personal in their journey in this life.  It might have undertones of Christianity for others.  My story behind my tag developed at a pace somewhat behind the actual tag.

I knew I wanted to dip my toe in a tiny bit of mixed media.  So I grabbed my tag, a couple of torn pieces of patterned card stock, some gold chevron and gold glitter washi tape and set to work.  Oh, and I had to make it look like I knew what I was doing, so I grabbed the gesso, gel medium and distress ink and a stencil to boot!  Man, do I look professional with all this stuff out on my crafting table.

I tore stuff.  I glued stuff.  I taped stuffed.  I stenciled stuff.  I gessoed stuff.  I drew stuff with a gold sharpie.  I made white dots with a pen.  I wiped stuff off with a baby wipe...yep, another important tool.  I punched and die cut stuff.  Whew....how much more can I throw at this poor tag?  Well, of course.....I spritzed it with my home made glitter mist (which doesn't show up very well).  Then to top it off, I added some seam binding that I had colored with my gold Color Bloom spray.  I think I'm done now...maybe...well....ok, yes, I'm done.

Am I happy with my tag?  No, not at all.  Especially when I realized, while taking my photographs, that where my glitter spray had sat and dried, it had obliterated my stenciling and created a puddle outline.  You can see it to the right of the gold leaves die cut.  I'll admit it...I said choice words when I noticed it.  Grrrrr.

Now about my story behind this tag.  As I was laying in bed trying to sleep (a common occurrence), I got to thinking about the vine stencil I had used and the gold leaf die cut I was going to add to the tag. Just what did I envision with rebirth or renewal?  Did it signify a literal birth?  Or a second birth through salvation?  Yes, it means all those things.  But then I thought of Spring.  Or more specifically, Spring blooming bulbs.


Being born and raised in the middle of these great United States, each Spring season signified a time when the ground would burst forth with sweet green foliage and beautiful colored flowers of Spring blooming bulbs.  It's quite a feat to think how they die back in the Fall, reserving all of their energy throughout the cold months of Winter, just so they can push up through the soil as it warms up to bloom and bring smiles to our winter-weary souls.  Now that I live in South Texas, I don't have the joy of witnessing this each Spring.  It simply doesn't get cold enough here for bulbs to "do their thing" during the winter and be able to bloom.  The first spring I lived in my current house, I was so excited to see a little patch of daffodils burst forth and bloom.  I thought maybe all was not lost for my gardening senses.  Ginger was even excited!

Alas, my springtime joy was short lived.  Although the little patch of daffodils did come up the next year, they have never bloomed since.  But even without physically witnessing this wonderful phenomenon each Spring, it still brings a smile to my face thinking of the first crocus, tulip, daffodil, hyacinth and iris making their way toward the sun through the cold, winter soil!

Now it's your turn.  I hope you all will link up your tag for this month.  Please visit and comment on each other's blogs as well.  Let's have fun getting to know each other!

Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!

WOYWW 293 and a Flash Sale!!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

It's that time of the week when we have a blast popping around the web and have a looksee where other creative souls create their messes masterpieces!  This is all courtesy of the lovely Ms. Julia over at Stamping Ground.  Make sure you hop over there and check it out.

Here's how my table looked when I left it last night.  Check out my two new flex arm daylight lamps on either side of my table.  Man, do they give out some awesome light!  Who knew lamps could be so exciting?!?!?!

Here's a bit closer overview of the table.  I'm working on some simple single signature junk journal albums for a craft market this weekend.  These are an experiment for me.  The one in aqua is the first time I've attempted stitching in a signature.  I used a simple three hole pamphlet stitch and would have had far more success had I not used my ultra thick baker's twine!  Lesson learned.  I then started searching for something else in my stash I could use and remembered this lovely box of embroidery floss I've had for ages as I used to do a lot of cross stitch.  I asked around on the Junk Journal Junkies chat Facebook page if anyone had used it with luck, and got a surprising amount of positive responses.  The only suggestion was to run it through some candle wax first, which I did.  It worked like a charm on the yellow journal!  So now I have tons of pretty colors of floss to use, and I've pretty much conquered my fear of stitching signatures....sort of.

That flap on the left side will be glued down at the top and bottom to create a tuck spot on the inside front cover.  The other flap on the right comes over the front cover.  I'll probably attach a pretty brad with some seam binding that will wrap around the journal and tie in front for an easy closure.

If you are a jewelry maker or looking for charms and beads, I'm having a flash sale today in my Etsy store.  Beads, charms, pendants and jewelry making findings are marked down and ready for you to stock up.

Don't forget about my monthly altered tag linky party.  You can find the information about it in this post.  And stay tuned on January 20th.  That's when the actual link post will be up and active.

Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!

Announcing Tag It Tuesday

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas season and are off to a fabulous start to 2015!  I'm excited to see what this year brings for me.

I'm here today to announce and introduce you to a new feature on my blog.  I am going to be hosting a monthly linky party on the third Tuesday of each month.  I'm calling it Tag It Tuesday!  Once a month I'm inviting you to prepare an altered tag and link it up here.  It's not a contest.  It's not a challenge.  It's just an invitation to have some fun and meet new people!

I'll be providing you monthly prompts/ideas/themes to spur your creative juices.  I plan on using a package of #5 shipping tags that I picked up a few weeks ago.  You can use whatever you have to make your own, and they can be whatever size and shape you choose.  Remember -- the idea is to have FUN!

Although I am a rubber stamper/coloring kind of girl at heart, I'm going to try and branch out into some mixed media techniques, which is completely new for me.  My friends over at the Kraafters Kommunity on Google + have been a true inspiration and encouragement to me.  I wholeheartedly encourage you to come over there and join in.  You won't be sorry!

I'll bet you'd like to know what the theme for January is going to be.  Can you guess??  New Year, of course, with a splash of silver and gold!  New Year, rebirth, renewal....anything along those lines.  I have some super sparkly gold and silver washi tape I'm itching to use on my tag!!

Get your creative ideas flowing now and invite your friends!  The link up post will be published on January 20th for you to add your beautiful creation to.  I am soooo excited to see all the creative genious out there!

For some inspiration, I have created an Altered Tag Pinterest board.  As we go along each month, I'll be pinning everyone's tags there as well.

Thanks for looking at my blog. I appreciate all the wonderful comments everyone leaves. Happy Crafting!