February Tim Tag

Hello everyone, hope this finds you well.  I finally finished my February tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags Of 2015 challenge (click here for a link to Tim's February tag and his full tutorial) and here is my interpretation.

I won't bore you with all the steps I took to make my tag, you will learn much more from the master himself by reading Tim's tutorial, but I did try to remain pretty true to his February tag.  Although I didn't have all of the bits and bobs he included on his, I was able to make some reasonable facsimile substitutions.  I did make sure to incorporate the two main elements of Tim's February tag, a collage background (see my background here) and sewn elements, into my tag and am very pleased with how it turned out.

I don't usually have a background story in mind when I start my creations but as I gathered my collage elements a story of two star-crossed lovers, separated by the war, started to emerge.

She was a seamstress, working in a haute couture design house in Paris when the war broke out.

He was a dashing Belgian officer, bravely defending his country.  Separated by war, they sent each other talismans of their love across the miles.  He sent her a hand from his pocket watch and attached the key to his heart to it with a small piece of rusty wire.

She embroidered a heart from snippets of wool and sent it to him with a fragment of lace from the hem of her petticoat.  I would like to think that this tag was created by one of their grandchildren, commemorating their love for each other that survived the war and flourished during the years that followed.

Thanks so much to Tim Holtz for his continuing inspiration and I can't wait to see what the March tag has in store for us all!  Thanks to you as well for stopping by and have a wonderful day.  Happy creating everyone!

Deb

Button, Button, Who's Got The Button

Hello everyone, it's hump day again already and the month of February is winding down.  How in the heck did that happen?!  As usual, time is flying by and I'm running to try and keep up with it.  I did get the button ATC's completed that I was working on for one of our Mixed Media Studio swaps and I've got the background of my February tag for Tim Holtz's 12 tags of 2015 finished so come on in and take a peek.

The theme this month at the Mixed Media Studio for our ATC swap was 'Button, Buttons, Buttons'.  At first I was going to do a couple of sewing themed ATC's but we already did a sewing ATC swap a couple of years ago, so thought better of it.  I did a little brainstorming and here is what I came up with.

For the first ATC, I found an image on Google where someone was selling vintage buttons by sewing them onto a vintage bingo card.  That twigged an idea, so here is button ATC number one.

The bingo card image was one I had in my stash from Call Me Victorian, so I resized it to fit on the ATC backing and sewed on some multi-colored buttons for Button Bingo!  Simple but fun and I hope that my swap partner will like it.

For the second ATC,  I came across this vintage button card over on Bumble Button's blog.

 Initially I was just going to sew 6 buttons on that were all the same but that seemed a bit boring, so I dug out a bright red button to add to the mix.  I added the 'be unique' sentiment with some alphabet stickers and there was ATC number two completed.

And although time is rapidly running out, I have been working on my February tag to link up with Tim Holtz's 12 tags of 2015 challenge and I'm just about done.  I'm waiting for some E6000 glue to dry before I can take final pictures so thought I'd share a picture of the tag's background with you as a teaser :O)  This month Tim showcased a collage style background for his tag and here is the collaged background that I made for mine.

I have to tell you I was hard pressed to cover it up, I LOVE how it turned out!  I'm not much of a collage artist, it quite intimidates me to be honest, so when this was my final result I was very happy.  I used images from Vectoria Designs, Big Brown Dog, Lia Griffith and The Graphics Fairy plus some scrapbook paper bits and bobs.  Can't wait to show you the finished tag, it will be ready for pictures tomorrow hopefully so I'll be back soon to show it to you.

Thanks as always for stopping by and have a lovely evening.  Happy creating,

Deb

A Spirited Post

Good Monday morning everyone (that's not an oxymoron is it?!).  Hope you had a great weekend.  I got quite a bit accomplished this weekend and have some Mixed Media Studio swaps completed and ready to mail, here's a few pics before they head on out to their receiptients.

The first swap is for a Spirit doll.  I have to admit I had no idea what a Spirit doll was when I signed up for this swap, so some snooping about the internet had to occur before I could get started on it.  I found a wonderful ebook by Joanna Powell Colbert of GaianSoul.com that helped me get started on the right path.   I have to admit I was a bit skeptical when I started this whole process but as this Spirit doll evolved, her message and purpose became clear and here is the doll I ended up making.

I have named her Sunniva, which is from the Old English for 'gift of the sun'.  She has been imbued with blessings for light and wisdom and I've enclosed well wishes and talismans within her body for the recipient.

She was created with natural elements gathered here on our property and found objects and charms from my stash.  Her face was created using a sun push mold by Maureen Carlson.

Her lace shawl is a fragment of lace that my Mom got when she was in Bruges, Belgium.   I encased a piece of lichen in a brass charm for Sunniva's brooch and she has komas and a goddess charm in her arms and a heart and crystal charm attached to her twine belt.

I attached more moss and lichen fragments to her crinoline overskirt that were also collected on my stroll through the forest.  I hope that my swap partner will like Sunniva, I have grown very fond of her as she has grown and evolved!  I can't wait to see 'who' I will get in return as I am sure all of the dolls that we create will be so unique and embody very different messages.

The second swap item I completed this weekend was for an ongoing banner swap at the Mixed Media Studio.  The banner we were to make this month was for the month of March, so I did a search for 'In like a lion, out like a lamb' images as that is what I think of when I think of March.  I came upon a vintage Good Housekeeping magazine cover from 1935 on Pinterest that was absolutely perfect and here is the banner that I ended up making.

I did an image transfer with Lesley Riley TAP onto cotton muslin then edged the banner with some white baby rick rack and added some vintage buttons from my stash to all of the corners.

I added the text (also an image transfer) and chose a more masculine font for 'In Like A Lion' (Folkard) and something feminine for 'Out Like A Lamb' (French Script).

Isn't that just adorable?!  The artist is Vernon Thomas and she did many Good Housekeeping cover illustrations in the 1930's.

I am also just about finished a couple of ATC's for this months swap (the theme is buttons) but they are not quite ready for their close up so I'll post them in a day or two.  It was a productive weekend all in all!

And just before I go, here is the link to the Old Farmhouse Gathering team's Colors Of Spring celebration on Etsy:

Click the banner above or search COSOFG on Etsy to find lots of great new handmade and vintage items from the OFG team.  Have a great week and happy shopping!

Deb

Spring Chicken!

Hello, hope you have all had a good week.  It's been busy here, making new items for my Etsy shop, working on some swaps for our Mixed Media Studio group and then also dealing with the category change fiasco over on Etsy (don't ask if you don't have an Etsy shop, suffice to say it is a mess!).

Any who, my last item for the Old Farmhouse Gathering team's 'Colors of Spring' celebration is now completed and here she is:

A little hand appliqued Spring chicken ornament, ain't she sweet?  I made her from muslin that I aged with my coffee aging mixture then hand appliqued some felt flowers and leaves to both sides using a blanket stitch.

I just used a couple of pieces of jute twine for her legs, I love them!

As you can see she is a long legged chicken, must have a little roadrunner in her somewhere ;O)

I appliqued flowers to both sides so that no matter where you hang her she'll look 'purty'.

So now onto completing my swaps for the Mixed Media Studio; I have a spirit doll just about ready to go and a couple of button ATC's and the March banner will all be in the mail by Monday.  I'll post pictures soon so you can see what I've been up to.

Have a great weekend everyone and don't forget that on Monday, February 23rd the OFG 'Colors Of Spring' celebration will kick off on Etsy.  There will be lots of wonderful new creations from the team, I'll post the link for you as soon as everyone's listings go live.  Talk again soon and happy creating!

Deb

A Little Blooming Canvas

Happy hump day!  Hope your week is going swimmingly :O)  I've finished up another item for our Old Farmhouse Gathering team's upcoming Spring celebration on Etsy and since it happens to have some posies on it, I am going to link it up with Frilly and Funkie's latest challenge, 'Winter Blooms' as well.

I started by basing a small stretched artist's canvas with distress paint, masking off the floral motifs with a Tim Holtz mini mask and then covering it all with Wendy Vecchi's crackle texture paste.

I actually made three panels (I was thinking triptych) but didn't like the way the other two came out, so I trashed them and then hemmed and hawed about what to do with this one lonely little 3" canvas.  It definitely needed more 'presence' so I decided to mount it onto a 4" flat artist's canvas and add more embellishments.

I die cut little tattered floral flowers from several different scrapbook papers, wet them down and 'scrunched' them for a little more interest and added a wee seed bead into the center of each one.  The pale pink paper flower is one I had in my stash, think I got those at Michaels.  I colored a Tim Holtz Idea-ology hinge clip with distress paint and added it to the top of the 4" panel to act as a hanger.

Crinkle ribbon colored with distress stain came next and I tied it into a bow and added a Tim Holtz Idea-ology wire pin to hold some charms.  Don't you love that little birds nest?!

The script fragment charms are ones I found in the clearance section at Michaels, love them too, and I added a few more of the scrapbook paper flowers down this side of the canvas as well underneath the charms.

Hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse of Spring and thanks to Frilly and Funkie for their prompt which inspired it.  I will be listing this mixed media canvas in my Etsy shop at the start of our OFG celebration on February 23rd and have one more item yet to make for the celebration.  I am thinking about some Spring chickens so make sure you come on back for a 'peck' :O)  Happy creating everyone,

Deb

Spring Celebration

Hello everyone!  Hope you survived Valentine's Day without adding too many inches to your waist lines :O)  My dear hubby bought me a beautiful calorie free bouquet of flowers so I made it through relatively unscathed.  I say relatively because I did buy him some V-Day chocolates and somehow a couple of them made it into (and onto!) my tummy!

I know that back East it's been looking and feeling anything but Spring-like, but in anticipation of that much anticipated time of the year our Old Farmhouse Gathering team on Etsy is planning it's next team celebration and this Spring's theme will be 'Colors Of Spring'.  I've been down in my studio working away on some new makes and so far have two completed.

The first is a hanging heart ornament for Mom, Mother's Day will be here before we know it and the images on this heart certainly bring thoughts of Spring to my mind.

The swallow images are courtesy of The Graphics Fairy:

and the forget-me-knot bouquet is from Far Far Hill:

I used Lesley Riley TAP to transfer the images and love the aged, lost and found look of the transfers due to the uneven texture of the unbleached cotton muslin.

My next new make isn't especially 'Springy' but the yellow colour feels sunshiney at least!

This little rustic oval pinkeep was made from the base of a paper mache 'pantry box' that I colored with distress stains and acrylic paint.

I cut a piece of script scrapbooking paper with decorative edged scissors and glued it onto the bottom, then overlaid that with a piece of yellow stitched grosgrain ribbon.

I made a bow from the same ribbon and topped it with a vintage button and then added some rick rack along the top edge of the box.

I stuffed the brown swirled cotton fabric with some crushed walnut shells and fiber fill to help keep your pins and needles sharp each time you put them into the pincushion.

The Colors of Spring celebration will start on February 23rd on Etsy and will run through to March 8th.  Search COSOFG on Etsy during those dates to find hundreds of items from my talented teamies!  I have two more items in the works that I'll share with you in the next few days and everything will be available in my Etsy shop as soon as the celebration gets underway on the 23rd.

Thanks so much for stopping by and remember to think Spring, it's getting closer every day, yay!  Happy creating everyone,

Deb