FLIPPIN' OVER CHRISTMAS

Hi and welcome. You could take this title in a number of ways (depending on mood). However, I have made a tag, with a Christmas theme.
First, I used a Petaloo magnetic tag for the base. This is a deep chocolate brown which is great as a base colour to give additional depth. I'll apologise here for the quality of the photos.. really should have done them in natural light so that the true colours were more obvious (NOT !! at 1.00am!!)

 

This was painted liberally with Collage Pauge, and TH tissue paper was adhered to it.

 

 

After this I used a chevron stencil and white gesso to create a background. With the stencil in place I spritzed with glimmer mists  and then removed the stencil and left everything to dry.

 

 

 

 

 

When dry, Inca Gold (soft gold and apricot) were rubbed in.This gave the tag a beautiful pearly finish, while still allowing the chevron pattern and sprayed colours to still be seen.
Inside the tag I glued on paper strips,and fabric pieces, again with the Collage Pauge.These were tidied up before the edges were covered with paper tape, again smooched with Inca Gold.

 

 

A paper doily, smooched with a chocolate coloured Inca gold and a die-cut strip of paper was used to frame a vintage image. A Christmas poem torn from an old poetry book completed this section, together with a die-cut and embossed bauble (foil paper).

 

 

 

                                      

 

 

A dove was die cut and embossed from pearlised cardstock. Pan Pastels were applied to sections and the whole piece lightly spritzed with biscotti Perfect Pearls.When dry, some sections were highlighted further with Inca Gold. A piece of ribbon was threaded through the cardstock to form the basis of a very retro choker. Miss Bird was certainly getting into the Christmas spirit with her choice of jewels to adorn herself. A Christmas tag, again a deep chocolate brown,  salvaged from an old 
Kaiser craft range and some lace completed the front. Rayon ribbon was coloured using distress inks, and used to complete the tag.

Thank you for looking. I'm entering this piece into:
http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/  where the team members were getting into the holiday spirit.

and  http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com.au/ where the team was looking for a vintage Christmas, with no red  or green.This is a first visit to this blog challenge.

Have a happy and safe Christmas. Cheers, Di

Tag It For Christmas

Hi! I'd like to share my entry into http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.com.au/ Challenge: Celebrating the light, or seasonal holiday.
This tag has used the same style of magnetic folder as the one used for My Little Book of Doodles. These are by Petaloo and are very versatile, coming in a couple of different sizes and assorted colours.
Strips of background paper for the cover and inserts were stamped and smooshed with Distress Inks. These were also used for the embellishments throughout.

Outside cover of tag showing embossed embellishments, washi tape and tags made from Darkroom Door stamps.

Washi tapes were used and to make them adhere more permanently were placed on top of double-sided tape.
'Wellington' Bear stamps by Docraft and Darkroom Door Christmas stamps were used for the tag.

Inside cover showing Wellington bear and darkroom Door stamps.

These tags can be changed easily for recipients and if needed, additional pages or photos can be added.

 

Insert with back page and front page.

Inside page (centre)

The whole piece was secured with glittery wool. Some touches of Kindy Glitz completed the tag (just to give it some Christmassy sparkle).                                                                          

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by my blog and left comments. These are always greatly appreciated and I also love visiting your blogs which are very inspirational. I'll take this opportunity to wish all of my readers a fantastic Christmas filled with peace, happiness and love. Thanks again for stopping by.                                                                                                                                   

 Cheers, Di.



 

My Little Book of Doodles

Hi! Today's post is all about my entry for Anything But a Card Challenge, using black. I don't usually have a problem with this, but wanted to try something other than a layout. I've been working on some special Christmas projects with a special "Girls Rock" group at the school where I had taught for 34 years, before retiring, using Petaloo Magnetic tags. These are brilliant as they can be used to create many projects, including mini-booklets for a special memory folder, which the girls did for Christmas. While these were being designed I started thinking about the challenge and came up with the idea of making a doodle booklet. Again, this Incorporated art techniques I had done with my classes over the years, where the students had to "Take a line for a walk" and then fill in the shapes made with interesting designs.This not only taught them about patterns, but also about the concepts of space, balance and contrast. Their artworks also became functional, in that they were often used as centrepieces for book covers.



Front cover

The front cover was decorated with grey and black patterned Washi Tape, patterned vellum, which I hand embossed, embossed acetate from my stash and chipboard flourishes heat embossed with Opals Embossing Enamels in Currawong (black) and Zeehan (silver). I also added a doodle drawn with Ranger Embossing pen and dusted with Perfect Pearls and finished with strips of bling and metallic braid.


Inside pages showing inchie sized doodles

My little booklet can be added to as I find or develop interesting patterns. Some have already been used as a background for a layout I'm working on.
I have used the idea of 'inchies' in which to draw the patterns; a small surface area, and a way to have heaps of different designs. As I don't have an inchies frame stamp, the squares were hand drawn (after searching for a ruler in inches, not as easy as you think, because of our metric system). This framework has been scanned to the computer for future designs. All patterns were drawn with a superfine Sharpie.

The inside front cover feature 2 ATC's using doodling done in white gel pen and finished with Washi tape.

The inside back cover has a doodle centred around a stamped image (inspired by craft Stamper magazine, Nov. 2012 issue. Thank you, Lisa). A swirl of bling, black beading and Washi tape completed this.
The insides are held in place by zig-zag binding, allowing for additional pages to be easily slipped in.
This was fun to do and I now have something that I will use. As my folder is already fatter inside then intended, I've added a binder ring and some pretty metallic fibre wools to help hold it together, and also gives me a way to hang it.
Thank you for visiting. Cheers, Di