12 Tags of 2016 - February

Something odd happened with this tag. I waited until a little later in the month because I had other things to work on (like work... life... stuff like that) and so I found myself making a Valentine themed tag well after the actual holiday. It felt weird. Like I wouldn't make a Christmas card in January either. Just strange. But it still came out great haha. Here is my tag:

Some of the highlights here are the background, which turned out really well. I also really liked the contrast of the hearts on the blue. It turned out better than I had thought it would. When I added the lace to the top I mistakenly left it a little too wet and it made the top bleed--which turned out to look really cool! Yay for happy mistakes! I also finally bought some flashcard things and added my own script to make it a little more V-Day. I discovered my alphabet chips set is very light in the "L" department but finally found one. For the button, it was already zig-zagged and I added more texture paste and red and rust colored embossing powder to make a puffy heart. All over I opted to use a red to do the edge distressing instead of my usual vintage photo, which made for a nice contrast.

Here is Tim's tag, which this is based off of (including the same photostrip pic, even though I was sure I picked a different one...grrr...):

Get excited for the March tag next week, lovers!

-Steve

I got a new calligraphy pen and now I can't stop!

Greetings friends! So I have been using a flat-edged ink pen for some of my fancier writings for a while now, but finally broke down and bought an actual pen and nib to do nice calligraphy with. And now I can't stop! But that's okay because lots of people have been getting great little gifts and letters. I think I may have mentioned recently that I try to write two letters every Wednesday for More Love Letters, and so I try to get some practice in there to send a nice note to a stranger or two.

Recently, Lindsey Bugbee over at The Postman's Knock challenged her readers to create four things using our creative juices. Some of the projects even came with some great extra stuff that I will link to as relevant.

The first task was just to illustrate something. I drew a lotus with my pen and then water colored it in with Distress pens and a water brush. Then added a small reminder to relax so that I could place this on my desk haha.

Next was to make a card for someone. I made this for my boss after a nice chat on the bus. She likes peonies and wanted to be a radio DJ when she was in college. Tried to throw that together with my usual stuff and TA DA!

Then we had to make a goal sheet that showed off what we wanted to accomplish in the new year. This beautiful work is faux calligraphy by me, but awesome template by Lindsey. You can check out her post on how to get it FREE here: Printable Goal List

Finally, I needed to make an artsy envelope. For this I used a ton of stamps, some washi tape, texture paste, and my fancy pen. This envelope didn't take my nib too well so it looks more like a love letter from a pirate than some of my nicer penmenship, but I'm sure it will be well-received all the same (it's for a card for this weekend, obviously! But I won't share the card until next week as to not spoil all of the surprise).

So that's all for now. The next post will hopefully be my tag for the month because I haven't done that yet, but it could be something else. Who knows?!

-Steve

Congrats and Good Luck Cards

Quick post of some cards I made recently. One of my colleagues got a new position and had her last day on Friday. Saturday was another co-worker's audition for a masters program in viola. So naturally I stayed up super late on Thursday to make some cards :)

The Good Luck card is on the left and features a music paper background and then watercolor paper with Distress Inks and stamp. The Good Luck card is on the right and is ink and watercolor paper as well. All of the stamps were from Tim Holtz collections.

Sam Sparro - We Won't Need Anything But Love - Lyrics

My whole life I had this feeling
What we see is not the ceiling
Must be more than what they're teaching us
Thought that all we needed was love

Nights I lie here contemplating
Why we spend our lives just waiting
For something that might be saving us
When all we really needed was love
Was love

Maybe when the world stops spinning
It will only be beginning
Galaxies are spirits living above
We won't need anything but love
No we won't need anything but love
But love

12 Tags of 2016 - January!

So this year Tim Holtz is doing a "remix" theme on his tag challenges where he takes two older techniques and remixes them together to create something a little new. I don't know if any of my readers are tag makers (or, like me, just do this challenge) but I have a ton of tags and nothing to use them for. Or so I thought...

Here is my tag:

Not only did I remix the techniques, but I took my thriftiness to a new level. Here are some fun facts on this tag:

• I didn't have any black paper, so this is a blue chalkboard. Get over it.
• People always jokingly ask if I'm going to reuse my holiday paper...I did. In fact, the person that gave me that present then received this tag made from the paper out of spite so I hope he noticed :)
• I needed a birthday card and also a way to make this wonderful tag disappear. So I turned it over, added some calligraphy paper and wrote a nice message on it. I then slipped it between the gift and some yarn. Ta Da! Birthday Card, One less tag, and no need for an envelope!

Here is the tag that inspired this:

Hope everyone had a great New Year and I'm excited to share a bunch of new things this year. I've taken up calligraphy recently so expect a ton of writing samples to randomly pop up.

-Steve