Spooky Cats Tag

Julia here -  just in time for Halloween -  I have a tag to share that I made for the August Tim Holtz Tags of 2014.

I started with a plain manilla tag - and laid down two pieces of Tissue Tape (under my cats) - I used Commute.  Then I stamped my cool cats from Tim's new set Halftone Halloween over the tape.  When I was all done with my tag - the cats didn't show up too well being stamped over the Tissue Tape - so I stamped them again on card stock, but them out, sponged the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and layered them over the stamped cats with foam dots - slightly lower so the stamping behind looks like a shadow.  I also used some stamps from Steampunk.  The spider is die cut from Alterations Candlelight Fright - that I covered with Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint.  I tucked the spider web into the Tinsel Twine and Natural Trimmings I looped through the hole on the tag.

I used Tim's Halloween and Harlequin Stencils with Wendy Vecchi White Embossing Paste over my tag.  After the paste dried, I colored my tag with Spiced Marmelade, Wild Honey and Weathered Wood Distress Stains - rubbing the stains on my nonstick craft mat, spritzing my tag with water and dragging the tag through the stains.  I let the colors drip down and dried the tag with my heat tool.  To add the dots -  I stenciled over the tag using Tim's Dot Fade and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I added a Plaquette with the #31 for Halloween that I covered with Archival Dandelion Ink.  I put a Remnant rub/Apothacary spider on a Vial Label adding a Chit Chat Sticker over it and inking that with Dandelion Ink. To finish off my tag - I spread some Glossy Accents on the top right and bottom left corners and a little on the left edge - than poured Mustard Seed Distress Glitter over it, tapped it off and let it dry.

A fun decoration or card to send for Halloween - don't you think?!

Little Whimsical Houses

I have always enjoyed playing with wood.  Years ago, I made those wooden dolls, built my own shelves, and even painted it.  So when April's ePlay challenge was announced and Sherry chose "wood", I immediately ran out to the garage and had hubby cut some wood 1x2 scrap pieces to resemble houses.

Hi folks, Micki here to share my steps for turning plain wood into whimsical little houses.  The fun part of these houses was that I was able use some of those bits and pieces of gelli prints,  "mop up excess paint" papers, anything and everything that seems to multiply in my paper drawer.  But first, here is what the plain wood scraps looked like.

While hubby was cutting these for me, I grabbed some of my papers, book papers and tissue paper and made some quick prints, just playing around.  It's not that I needed MORE but you know, sometimes it's just so therapeutic to brayer out paint, what can I say!

Next I tore strips of random "prints" and glued these to the wood.  Basically I created a collage right onto the wood pieces.

While that was drying, I grabbed some paper scraps and cut out door and window shapes, I also punched some word window labels which I thought would make a great "tile" roof.  I decided that Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 large heart stamp from her older "Art from the Heart" set, turned upside down would make make the larger wooden house even more whimsical. The heart was stamped onto one of those college ruled 3 holed paper which was previously used to soak up excess ink and cut out.

Next I used Wendy Vecchi Studio 490's Crackled Texture Paste, applied over Studio 490's Brick Wall stencil.  LOVE how quickly the cracks show up and how defined they are, even if I only used a thin layer.

I then went with the flow, using my palette knife to randomly apply Crackled Texture Paste along the edge as well as on the roof of the house.

Wanting to use the new TCW - Mini Stripes Explosion stencil, I added it part of it to the other "upper" story of the large house.  I could have hand painted a circle in the center, but instead I opted to use one of the circles from Studio 490's Dots and Stripes Border Stencil.  You'll see that I used the stripes along the bottom of the house.

One of the sides of the one of the houses got a stain treatment with Dusty Concord Distress Stain.

After that I just added paint to every house/side and let me tell you, it did not look pretty!   The roofs of the smaller two houses were painted black, adding texture with Dina Wakley's new Plastic Canvas stencil to one and using TCW's Cubist and Halftone Borders stencils on the other.  I also used the bottom of a cut apart flip-flop to add more texture.

 Messy, isn't it?  I think I also added random stamps (detailed supply list at bottom) at this point.

And one thing I really need to remember....make sure paint is dry.  The "windows" on that side (picture above) are just stenciled with paint.  See my smudge?   I used Dina Wakley's Tracks stencil.  It's so much fun to use only parts of a stencil and make it fit for you need.  In this case, windows. 

At this point, I was just a little nervous because they really looked messy.  I pulled out matching colors of Distress Stains and added these over the papers,  and especially where wood was showing.  Next I added doodling using a Uni-Ball Vision pen and shading using Stabilo All black pencil as well as my Faber-Castell Big Brush Markers and gelatos.  And that's when it all came together!!!!  Once that was done, I added Idea-ology Remnant Rubs - Numbers as well as some other rub-ons randomly and added a word sticker from Idea-ology's Chitchat Word collection to each house.  My final step was a good coat of gloss Glue-N-Seal.

The larger house:

The smaller square house:

The medium house:

And one more of all three:

Isn't it amazing how some doodling and shading can make it all better?  I truly had fun creating these whimsical wooden houses!!!!  Hey, there is still lots of time for you to join in our ePlay challenge!  Go grab your paints, stains, and raid the garage!  I promise you will have fun!

Thanks for stopping by and as always I hope you guys were inspired to get inky!

Supplies Used

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