Just Under the Wire

I almost dropped the ball this month.  The end of April just seemed to get here so fast.  I swear that yesterday was April 1st.  Crazy...that May is only one day away.  But happily, I did manage to get this month's Tim Holtz tag finished.

I need to thank Tim and Mario once again as well as Simon Says Stamps.  The gift certificate that I won on Tim's blog last year was the one I used to buy the stamp set used on this month's card.  I love this butterfly.

The marbling background is an interesting technique.  I think next time I will dilute the paints a bit more to give a more translucent look.

Even though May is going to be a busier month than April was, I am hoping to be able to keep up with the Tags.  At least I am keeping my finger's crossed.

Happy Tuesday.

A Star Wars Ballad

In a totally non-craft oriented post, I wanted to share my son's ballad that he wrote with his best friend.  They presented it in the Poetry Cafe at the school a while back.  These kiddos have talent:

Star Wars Ballad by R. and N.

In a galaxy far, far away
a cruiser went astray
Flew into Imperial space
Left, without a trace.

Two droids were on that ship
as it fell in a dip.
And the crucial plans
were put in their hands.

They got into a pod
Launched with a nod
Some troops saw them flee
To a planet with no sea.

They were put into captivity
As they past city to city
Finally sold to Owen Lars
They'd been freed from iron bars.

Met Luke Skywalker
Who was really a talker.
They found an old jedi
So they wouldn't have to die.

Followed a guide to Alderaan
But the planet got blown to sand
To rescue Leia was their mission
They returned to their position.

They blew up the station
To save their nation
But this wasn't the end of the empire
For they do not tire.

In a galaxy far, far away
A cruiser went astray
Flew into Rebel space
Left without a trace.

This boy just makes my geek heart so proud. :-)

March Tag & End of March Break

I can't believe that March break is already over.  It went by so fast.  It was nice to have a slower pace and not have to worry about so many details.  But alas, all good things must come to an end at some point.  The kiddos head back to school tomorrow and the mad rush with activities, homework, projects, and lunches descends upon us once again -- only 3.5 month until the summer break.  Not that I am counting.

I managed to get Tim Holtz's March Tag finished this weekend.  I was debating this one for a few weeks.  I like the techniques but I wasn't sure how I literal I wanted to be in my version.  I ended up keeping most of the same elements but tweaking it a bit.  I even dug out my Silhouette.  I thought I would use it to cut out a bunny on ornate label shape; but as I was going through my cutting files, another idea came to mind.

Materials used:  Bazzill Cardstock, Core-dinations Cardstock, Tim Holtz tinsel, ribbon, stamps, and dies, misc. metal embellishments, Distress ink, Alcohol ink and Archival ink.

I really like this damask shape and thought that it would be great with the "antique" tinsel technique.  Once I picked the damask shape, the grass didn't fit so I changed it to a more ornate edge which I double cut but in slightly different sizes.  I offset and used pop dots to give the edge a bit of dimension.

I still wanted to use metal elements and a couple of old jewelry bits worked well.  I ended up tucking a little metal bunny which I painted in the same manner as Tim painted his flowers.  It was my nod towards Easter.

Now that the tag is done, I think I am going to tackle another art journal page.  I have a few ideas swirling around with gesso stamping and modeling paste textures.

Have a good Sunday...or should I know say Monday.

Tattered Floral Challenge

Okay, I will admit that this one had me stumped for a while.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do for the Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral challenge.  I love this die and I have used it many, many times.  Usually, I cut out paper and then dry emboss the petals to make a dimensional flower; but for this challenge, I wanted to do something out of my comfort zone.  The thing about doing something outside your comfort zone is that you can't really decided if you can pull it off or not.

Finally,  I settled on this idea.  I wanted to make a floral crown.  Something that could be used as a ballet or Halloween costume accessory.  I wanted to use cheap items from the dollar store or the craft store $1.50 bins so that if I crashed and burned, I would not have wasted too much money.  Plus, when you are putting together costumes, you want to do it as cheaply as possible.

I started out with a 0.49 cent metal ring, some sparkly pipe cleaners which were less than a dollar, a roll of dollar store ribbon and sequins, and some gold Christmas ribbon mesh which was about $1.50.  So all in all, I spent less than $5.00 on supplies for this crown.

I cut out the floral shapes from both of the ribbons and coloured the white ribbon with alcohol inks.  I wasn't too precise since they were going to be layered and smushed.

I constructed the crown by wrapping the sparkly pipe cleaners around the metal ring and by making a number of loops to form the foundation for attaching the flowers.

The flower centers were made with the sparkly pipe cleaners and the sequins.  I used a hot glue gun to put a dollop of glue on my craft mat.  I, then, squished and formed the flowers to give them dimension and then glue gunned the centers to the flowers.  The flowers were then glued to a gold ribbon mesh flower to give them a bit more interest.

A few glittery leaves, some dangling bling and a heart shaped rhinestone finish off the crown.  It is surprisingly stable considering it is just made out of pipe cleaners, a metal ring and glue from a glue gun.

I even had my lovely model try it on this morning.  It would certainly work for a fairy princess crown.

Now we just need to have an occasion to wear it.

First Art Journal Page

Well, I did manage to finish my first art journal page.  I think I might have belaboured this more than I do my layouts but I finally said enough is enough and here it is:

I used lots of bits and pieces that I had lying around from my last layout session.  I had cut out lots of flowers from a sheet of Crate Paper Random so those got thrown in.  I had also a bunch of Pink Paislee die cuts sitting on my table ready to be put away so they got added as well.  Their colour was off so I ran a tea bag over them to give them a more aged look.

Here are a few close ups:

The modeling paste butterflies were rubbed in Inka Gold and I used a soft pencil to outline them.  I then proceed to smug the pencil with my finger.

My original plan was to forgo the journalling but I ended up finding this quote from St. Augustine that was appropriate.

 

If you are wondering, those tea stained circles are actually tea stain circles from my cup of tea I was enjoying that evening.

I think that I am going to continue art journalling.  It was a fun process and incorporates all the aspects of scrapbooking that I enjoy.

This week has been a busy one....I spent most of it shovelling snow.  We had a nice snow storm that dumped about 25 to 30 cms on the city.  That is a decent amount of snow but certainly not a crazy amount.  It shouldn't have caused the havoc that it did.  Getting around the city was difficult to say the least.  More than 200 city buses were either stuck or involved in accidents which helped create traffic havoc.  The commute home was long and arduous.

It was a heavy, wet snow that stuck to everything -- street lights, signs, trees, -- everything.  The kiddos absolutely loved it.  It is the perfect snow fort and snowman building snow.  Just a few pics from the day:

 

Most of these were taken about the half way point in the storm. Only about half of the snow had fallen by this point.

Thursday, our son's class had its "Poetry Cafe" and he really wanted us to be there.  Rascal absolutely loved this section and has been writing poetry for weeks.  It surprised us that he took such enjoyment out of writing poetry and he is actually very good.

The kids went all out and set up a cafe with checkered table cloths and electric candles in the library.  Each of the kids read their poems or recited one of their favourites from another poet.  Rascal did two originals.  One was a ballad that his composed with his best friend.  The poem was about Star Wars.  I will have to post it when it comes home.  It was hilarious.

Tim Holtz has posted his March tag and has also added a Tattered Flowers challenge as well.  I am going to try to tackle at least one of these this weekend but now I am off to take Pumpkin to her ballet class.  T'is Latte and a good book time.

Happy Saturday.