OCTOBER TAG- The 12 Tags of 2015.....At the last minute again, but in time for Halloween!

            October is usually busy for me, but this year it literally got away from me. I was all geared up to turn 50 on the 18th, and I wasn't diappointed. Time has a way of fulfilling itself so you can be SURE it will pass. So the inevitable happened, but unlike my 40th birthday 10 yrs ago,

this one passed much easier by far! I had been praying that The LORD would use me as HE saw fit for my 40th yr. Since I became ill just before my 40th, endured at least 2 surgeries, numerous complications, and the onset of 2 more lovely degenerative diseases... I took on prayer with a lot more thought about what I was saying to HIM this time.  My outlook is actually more basic than it used to be, and I'm far more apt to look for the upside to life and -I think- more ready to ENJOY it, too! And the ChiefHubby pulled off a REAL surprise party for me- complete with all four of our kids and all our closest Besties who live nearer to us. More on that later, since I did a fun photo shoot at a sunflower field, and a few other fave spots. I'm working on those now.

So, we are at the end of the month and my October Tag was actually all finished, but 

needed to be put together. I was waiting on photos for 2 of the tags for Besties who shared a Pumpkin Month birthday along with me. Here's my take on Tim's October Tag...



I started out with choosing my colors, and then went to see what all I had that closely matched what I had in mind. At this point, I have two tons of Distress Paints (my fave go-to coloring) and am currently keeping an eye on all the places I frequent (Hobby Lobby & JoAnn Fabrics have the best choices in Indiana) for the newest colors of Distress Inks coming out. I recently picked up Cracked Pistachio- which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!! I'm truthfully not all that crazy about the Distress Sprays, but on the other hand, they do look convenient. I'm more partial to the Distress Ink Pads tho.

 

So here are the colors I came up with. I really wanted to get the Alterations Pumpkin die before this, but it was not to be. I did find it available through Wendi Vecchi (THANKS!), but didn't get the time to go online again shopping for it yet. 

 

I ultimately think October is all about the LEAF WAR- the Leaf Battles I fight throughout the entire month from trees that are all AROUND our property. And for some reason, they always end up at the back door & tracked inside. So, I can be found out on my John Deere sucking them up and depositing them back into the woods- much the same way the squirrels run around doing with their stash of nuts. Whatever. But the colors with water spots....really COOL look!



My fronts were all cut from the Seasonal TH stock, so I was thining on something different for the backs. I had enough of one cardstock that looked like old newspaper, but not enough for the other two. So those were cut from TH Resist which I sanded lightly and did a little wash of Distress paint over it. The resist shows up after wiping lightly.

 

Now the fun part; embellies! I played around with this once before and got great results, so I was HOPING the same results would happen with leaf cuts. It not only was super easy- it was super COOL looking! My trusty drill, using the tiniest bit in my pack, made the holes needed. 



Here's the resulting ShrinkyDink leaves. I used TH Distress Metalic Paints in Gold, Tarnished Brass, and Bronze.

 

The leaves needed a 'base' to fall from....in other words: a branch. So my thought was why not layer the branch like I was planning to layer the  leaves? This meant cutting at least 3 branches for each tag. I also embossed them with the Woodgrain folder for a little more depth.




So in all, I ended up with 8 leaves for each of three tags. But after cutting the leaves, I started thinking "Hmmm....the leaves outside are so...CRUNCHY....mashed up....TEXTURED as well as veins clearly showing up now with the stems,", so I was trying to think up how to get them to look more realistic. I came up with: using Distress Markers to make the 'veins' and then embossing them all with the "Ledger/Numbers" embossing folder from the Notebook set. You'll see the closeup down below how this folder added the texture to the leaves perfectly. 


 

Now, to just get them all put together. I wanted to add a Word Band to the pile of leaves at the bottom, so the best thing to use for so many layers was my mini flue gun. I hadn't planned on it, but it ended up working very nicely! It helped add some space in between the layers- really giving serious dimension!



Here's a closeup of the "tree branch' with three leaves on it yet to fall....



...and another closeup of the pile of leaves at the bottom of the Frontside of my October Tag.




The is the backside of the tags. Each one had our birthdate on one of the pumpkins, special photos on each tag, and a set of the ShrinkyDink leaves hanging from a Trinket Pin.



This was my own tag- celebrating my 50th with a fun photo shoot. Wait till ya see the pics....HILARIOUS!
The closeup here shows the leaf embellies and the wooden numbers I happened to find on a shopping spree with all the Besties (sans our Hubbys)! We hit the Treasure Mart and the craft stores, and generally terrorized the Hubbys' wallets. Hehe!



Frontsides...




and Backsides.



Thanks so much for checking in throughout the month! I am so sorry I am late with my tag posting and also the long-promised posts awaiting finishing of things done over the Summer I'd still like to share with you all! It's not so much about "I made this!" as much as it is to share ideas, encourage each other in talent and inspire others to keep moving, keep making, and keep sharing.

We ALL have something to share, and we ALL have special gifts and talents !!

I am very humbled to be a part of a -literally- a WORLD full of wonderfually talented folks!

Here's hoping this finds you all well and wishing you to stay so.

Till next time:

                                                                          
                                                                            AND
                                                  HAPPY BLOGGING!
                               

SEPTEMBER TAG - The 12 Tags of 2015

I was checking into my blog just to make sure I'd posted up my September Tag, and nearly had a heart attack that I'd completely forgotten to make my post even though I'd had all the photos up! Arrrrgh!! Taking off for vacation will do that to ya, I guess. *shrug* It was well worth the trip; getting time in with far-away, dear-to-our-hearts family, as well as time to rest our minds on the beaches of the Emerald Coast along the Florida Panhandle. There was one particular day that took our breath away; the ChiefHubby & I had to honestly agree that it was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY we'd seen in all our years of ANY BEACH at ANY TIME we've ever visited. It was THAT pristine with the warmth of the sun, only a whisp of clouds, a perfect breeze, THE perfectly huge but smooth waves with the water at such perfect temperature that we simply floated in it and relaxed just wanting to stay there and nap! Now, THAT right there says a LOT, because the Chief is really picky about water temp. I'll go in -with or without my board- and catch up with the surf no matter how chilly (or downright freezing) the water is. Will the REAL Ocean Lover please surf past?? *grinning widely*

     So here I was, with all the photos ready to post up on our drive down. We'd checked in at a hotel in Nashville after driving all evening from the time he'd gotten home from work. Taking off the evening before actually gives us more time away, but gives us both a chance to start winding down on the 7 hr drive down into southern Tennessee- the sunset is nothing short of AMAZING! And that right there probably made me totally forget EVERYTHING. Whoopsie!

            I'll tell you right now- Tim's September Tag is AWESOME!!!! Not just because it's another use for the Frosted Film, but also because it actually 'pops' and 'shines' so amazingly! He geniously incorporated Spring into Fall with this tag. So I decided this was my chance to try out that FFilm in a flower I'd seen someone else do in the CC3 Challenges. I got to thinking that the Fall here in Indiana is a mixture of reds, oranges, yellows, and greens, with a little purplish tossed in. The TH Alterations Tattered Flowers Die is just right for making what is the most popular fall flower here: Mums! Sunflowers are another usual scene here and I was EXTREMELY EXCITED to have been able to get a full afternoon all alone in a full field of them; twice !! (I'll be sharing all hose shots in a post for October.)

I chose to make my 'own' stamp out of the TH Tattered Florals Die - ambossing the foam also before temporarily-adhering it to my wood plate I like to use. The wood doesn't let me see through it, but it keeps my hands from slipping off since the RA in my hands often makes me lose my grip.



You can see the resulting stamp I was able to get. CUTE!




I played around with colors I had on hand. I ended up going with Distress Paints along with a bit of the Metallic Gold and Silver Mixative to achieve the color set I had in mind. A little bit of mixing the DPaint colors here- including some Antique Linen DP for a bit of brightness-  gave me just the right shades of Indiana Fall !



I went with the Wild Honey TH Distress Stain for my background tag. More of this shade shows up than any other here.

Here, you can see I took off the smaller of the 3 stamps, choosing to use the largest only, for the background. I wanted just ONE perfect, large bloom- the opposite of the hundreds of tiny blooms you will see on any one Mum plant.



Just discovered: this little drawer sits on my Studio table holding lots of odds and ends of my week.... and also my small Canon cam. It's a go-to for what I grab before heading out the door.  I used it to hold the Frosted Film blooms I'd cut so I wouldn't lose them and ended up using them to hold while heating....when I figured out how EASILY the FFilm heated MORE while inside that little 'box' ! The idea hit me why; it's holding all the heat inside and makes the FFilm heat faster than if the heat flew right past it into the air ! Plus- it didn't fly out of my tweezers! :)



    



I wanted to use these for the middle of my Mum bloom, but the hole in the middle was too tiny. I often have that same trouble with the Mini Gears, too. The solution is one I've been using ever since I got hold of my first Tonic Scissors: use the serated edge of the blade pair to stick inside and just twist back and forth all around inside the hole. You will soon have a hole large enough for your chosen metal peice (Long Fastener, Pin, or Jump Ring, etc.). The 3 on the left are now large enough for my Long Fastener, while the last one on the right is still originally too small.




Here, is shown my choice of the Bricking Stencil for my coating of texture. I just LOVE that stencil !!!  It was my intention to make it look like the flower was blooming out of the brick wall- due to school starting in the Fall here WAY TOO EARLY in August now when Indiana barely had any Summer because of the June monsoons ruining it all! Pink Floyd's "The Wall" kept running through my mind here.....



On the backs of each, I chose to add a Happy Birthday notation along with a Months Shadow Embossed "September" and a stamp of  hand pointing to the note.....for 2 of  my Besties; Wendy Cotner and Susan Phillips, and the 3rd tag for my ChiefHubby- whom all celebrated September birthdays.

 



     I made each front to match the description of my 2 Besties- how I see they are from my own eyes. And the tag I was keeping for the ChiefHubby, I chose the Word Band SALVAGED- to describe how we'd 'salvage' what was left of summer with our trip to Florida.

I was pleasantly impressed with my own Mum! :)







      Thanks SO MUCH for not only the sweet comments, but for HANGING IN THERE WITH ME & I noticed ppl still checking in TODAY !! (You are actually the ones that made me wonder "Hmmmm....? " and then get in here !!!  I am back off here to await the coming OCTOBER TAG... and get my little butt busy with the coming "Leaf War 2015" that will come with all the leaves needing to be mown up as they fall. If you check in on my "WLYLA FRIDAY HITS" on FB or Twitter, you will be treated to "LEAF BREAK" every week. These are photos of the same area out here with we live in a private lake where the leaves change the landscape into a beautiful portrait throughout the coming weeks. It is such a lift on Fridays after a long week of work- or for anyone who needs a lift to get through the weekend, too ! Our GOD is such a colorful Creator !!!

                Please Stay Safe, &- as always- Happy Blogging!

AUGUST TAG; The 12 Tags of 2015

       Tim's gone and done it again; made a fantastically COOL tag that I just LOVE! So, my first thought was "I really wanna do one like THAT!" and of course - as is my usual- I also had to go and get another idea for a different kind of tag also. Aaaaand made a copy of it for a gift. Backsides done, too. Like I had that kind of time lately with the backup of blogs I still have yet to get out. ( I know everyone is wondering at this point if it will ever happen...YES, it will. In my usual lateness.) August is almost out, and I am unwilling to let go of Summer 2015.

As I type this, we are packed and ready to head up to Minnesota for a weekend with the younger PURDUE couple kids. They just moved into a new house- getting out of the tiny apartment they were in to start with. They've only been in Red Wing since October (Holli joined  Brett at Christmas after her graduation from Purdue) and they have made themselves quite at home. Holli took a nice offer of a job in the school system, only to be offered another job as well the next day. She finally chose the second and is really excited to start her first High School English Teaching job! Brett has been working alot at the Nuke Facility, so this will keep Holli busy during his long shifts. He gets a week off every 6 weeks, so they do get time to go off to see new places. They took their first camping trip for their 2nd Anniversary and posted some AWESOME photos of Minnesota!

And I would be totally remiss if I didn't shoutout the BEST NEWS so far: back in July, the older couple kids took a trip south to the Smokey Mountains, and we kept it mum till they announced it formally the first week of August.....Brian popped the BIG Q and Ashley said "YES"!! He presented her with a beautiful diamond engagement ring, and we are a VERY HAPPY set of 4 'Rents (hers and his both)!!! Brian also began his new job on August 17th as a Permanent Associate at Subaru of Indiana Automotive (the same SIA he's been working at for a year now as a Temp). The funniest thing about it is that he will be in training for some time in this job. He's officially registered at PURDUE UNIVERSITY and we now have our 4th BOILERMAKER in the house !!!  He actually is a few classes short of a Fire Science degree from Ivy Tech. But he is switching gears now for this new job. So that will all remain as is- unless he changes his mind when it comes to another Fire Dept.

 What's so funny about this is Brian NEVER wanted to be a Boilermaker at PURDUE. And Brett never wanted to be a Firefighter. And yet- here they both are; Brian is a student at PURDUE and Brett's job description at the Prairie Island Nuclear Facility is that he maintains training on their Fire Brigade. So we still have a Firefighter in the family....and we still sing "GO PURDUE" !!!! lol

Ok, lemme get back on track now....hahahahaaa.....



Here's a closeup of the saying I chose. It reminds me that we raised our Sons to go out there and get 'em! So wherever they must go to do that, and to take care of their wives....GOD will watch over them all for me. :)




Here's the closeup of the embellies...I shrunk the stamps on the computer then printed them out. That way you can fill in the blanks if you want. I filled in others for our cruise we took last summer- and they look really COOL on the stuff I used them on. The little sailboat used to be shiney silver. A little Alcohol ink took care of that for me.




The plane (and the compass) were printed out on printable velum. Once you scan your stamps to use them on the computer, you can save them and use them over and over on different programs. Being a photographer, I know alot of tricks like this to use that come in handy when I am crafting ! 




This is the full backside of my entry tag- I used a date stamper for my choice of stamps. It looks cool to ME. This gave me a chance to cut into that new stack of TH Correspondence papers!



This is the background of the other 2 tags- I call them Summer tags. I wanted to make something different that was colorful to share with a Bestie who has been such a wonderful help to me with my kittykats ! She and her Husband said goodbye at the first of August, to their puppy, Hershey (The Great American Chocolate Dog) after he spent a very GOOD , long life with them. It came at the end of the stay of their kids and Grandkids- so they all got to say goodbye. I'm gonna miss him, too !! I used my M&S Sand & Sea Mini dies to cut some seahorses, sand dollars, and starfish out of CoOrdinations paper, lightly sanded and shaded them a bit for some depth. I kept it kind of plain for these tags- so the COLORS would pop.







These are the fronts- Mine is at the top and Susan's is on the bottom. Each shows what kept us busy this August....their entire family coming to stay.....and the ChiefHubby and I finishing up the front and back porches and the new pool and damage from the old pool break......





And the Backsides of each.....ours shows how the porches only come alive when they're filled with those we LOVE! And their backside shows a previous year of their family staying and a photo of Hershey just before he went to be an angel pup for JESUS!! (Yes; that's what I believe and I am gonna STICK with that!!)



THANK YOU, EVERYONE, for all the NICE comments for my last CC3 Challenge entry!!

The winners HAD to be HARD to choose because, in moho, they were ALL so FANTASTIC!

I hope to keep in touch with, and follow as many as I can. I have yet to keep up on here, so we'll see how it all pans out as the fall weather gets here. (Shhhhhhh!!! Let's not help it get here!)

Be Safe and Happy Blogging !

Compendium of Curiosities Vol.3 Challenge #34....And That's A Wrap, Folks!

Well, here we are; at the very last Challenge for the Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 3, and while I only began at #19, it still seems like a loooong time ago. I am really happy to have joined in on all the fun, learned a lot of new techniques, and made some new friends I hope to keep in touch with and craft with in the future! So, here I am at the last minute again, and burning the 11:00 pm oil to make the deadline once again. Forgive me the times I've nearly missed it, but life keeps me on my toes. And that, my readers, is a VERY GOOD thing! With this last Challenge, there will be prizes again... and I feel like I've come full circle with this since I am using prize $ won from my JUNE TAG from Tim and Mario, to make this last Challenge project with !!

I must add a huge THANKS to everyone who has been checking in for all my posts and esp these Challenges! I still have one I missed that will feature a Bucket List happening of mine. Plus a few more that our busy life has not allowed me time to post yet. *sigh* Then, I must thank Tim Holtz for making these awesome CoC books that have me trying out new things all the time in my studio. And to Mario Rossi- for keeping us all in the know with his BTS photos, and doing all the sending of prizes!! A HUGE THANKS to all the ppl I've gotten to know in these Challenges on Linda Ledbetter's site- truly AWESOMELY TALENTED CRAFTERS!!! And their encouraging ideas and inspiration has kept me going.

And lastly, THANKS SO MUCH for all the prizes sponsored: The Funkie Junkie Boutique ,The Inspiration Emporium , and of course- Tim and Mario !

All that said; here it goes.....



It all began with my winning JUNE TAG. Mario sent out a $25 Gift Certificate for my prize and I chose to use it for adding another rack to my Blending Tools Spinner. But, like I've complained before- each rack comes with a base. I already have a neat looking base and wanted to just add another rack for 8 more Mini Blending Tools. So the base was leftover. What to do with that?? I came up with a neat idea and dug up a paper mache star and a tough paper tube.



The first thing I did was add a little bit of texture to my star with some Guesso. I wanted to use Tim's stencils to give it a texture you could SEE as well as FEEL...



I had to think ahead because I knew the star was going to be at the top. So I cut the tube to fit the star and pinched it tight with a SPINNER to hold the star onto the top! :)




I didn't want to get any Guesso onto the base, so I taped it up nicely - it doubled as a place to put the tube for drying.




Yep- I wanted to add texture to the tube also...it wasn't easy !!




Then I used Black Soot Distress Paint to coat the tube and it actually matched the base PERFECTLY!




This is the Guesso'ed star- with stars at the top and all bricking at the bottom 3 points.



I then used Tarnished Brass on one side only.



\



For the actual Challenge- I can't show you that, but I LOVE stars and stripes and those stencils would go really WELL with this star!!! Full circle...see what I mean?? (Hint: My JUNE TAG 2015)





Here's the finished Side 2 after the technique.





Side 1 also has the technique done on it- with a white background/ I used a pattern to decide how to embellish it.




For those of you who wanted to see HOW IN THE WORLD I DRILLED THOSE MIRROR STARS:
veeeeery carefully !!




Some pearls onto red wire and a few IdeaOlogy items....



I chose to do some "rusting" of the Brass side... then some IdeaOlogy embellies...



And some ribbon in Distress Fired Brick....



I used my new TH Heart Punch (which I also got from prize $$) to add our wedding photo to the charm...



And there is Side 1 finished: it has all the colors of our wedding in 1984. Sitting up on my dresser next to all our family photos is a really COOL touch!

And in the summer, when it's Americana Flag time- I can just turn the star around for some antique look.

            Thanks for checking in this last Challenge and I sure hope to get the rest of some really COOL projects I've done in the past two months....POSTED SOON!!!
                                        Have a great weekend, and Happy Blogging!