12 Tags of 2013-June

I have been trying to post this for over and hour and blogger will not cooperate with me, so fingers crossed, here goes... As it is, I waited all month to make this tag after I decided it was going to be and easy and quick one to make; but didn't meant to let the entire month slip past me. Nothing like the last minute. I wanted to go with a patriotic theme with reds, blues, and white so didn't have a lot of blending choices but used two different tones of both of them. I really liked blending the markers on the watercolor paper. Great technique Tim. Thanks!!! My background stamp is the Papillon one and is very subtle but it doesn't show up in the picture at all. I used old paper for that and then stamped the USA and Dare to Dream with aged Mahogony. Fun, quick, and easy! My kind of tag this month.

Views of my flower bed

Fighting with blogger right now and just testing to see if pics will be the right size and location. Here's a couple pics I snapped from my deck across the yard onto the fron center area of my flower bed as it is just starting to bloom this year other than the spring stuff.

June Gathering tonight for CTMH

Tonight's gathering is just a couple of hours away and I am just getting this ready to post. I sure hope they like the cards this month. I have been sick since Saturday and haven't had the strength or energy to get down to my studio to play. Good thing I had a good jump on them already. Have everything packed up and ready to load in the car now as everyone from here is car-pooling with me again instead of driving separately as it's 30 miles to the hostess's home again this month.Worked out great last time. The first one is very clean and simple and will be done in a jiffy. The second one has lots of fun folds and details and holds a gift card so will take some time to demo this. I made them each a handout to use with the measurements and another I scanned of my finished card. The make and take tonight is also a lengthy one on the glossy cardstock with heat embossing and resist. Most of these gals are brand new to stamping so they will be excited to see the heat embossing in action! That's what got me hooked right from the beginning and then seeing Tim demoing in MN. at scrapfest before he was well-known. I was just mesmorized watching him. LOL Totally smitten with his work and him! To save time, I have all the pieces cut and ready other than a few of the flowers that I cut on my Cricut using the exclusive CTMH cartridge, Artiste. I love that cartidge!!! I saved a few of the blossoms to stamp and emboss for the demo so they see how it works and can witness the magic of it all.

Canvas art

My grandkids spent the night a couple week-ends ago and wanted to work on some more canvases again. Here is the one I made with them. They took theirs home before I got any pictures if them. AJ's is very similiar to mine except his coloring was richer and deeper and Victoria's used a lot of Dyan Reevely stamps and was very quirky and fun. We started out with Distress stains and then held up the canvases and misted with water to make them run. After dry, we added some distress ink here and there. Stamped out images with black archival on white tissue paper. Many background stamps and colors of Archival inks and then adhered the stamped images down. Added some washi tape here and there, some buttons, coins, and a compass. They just love making these and they each have another background done and waiting for the next play-date with Grandma Kathy.

June birthday cards/ ATT Birthday Club

i belong to the birthday club over at the All thnigsTim yahoo group for 2013. There are 42 of us signed up and we just have to make a card and send to everyone involved during the month of their birthdays. Quite simple and it keeps me creating as I never seem to have time but have to get some made for this. June was a heavy hitter month so I made them all the same and mailed them off yesterday with the last two of the month going out tomorrow. I enjoyed making these. I started out with white cardstock and clear embossed a background stamp from hero arts on it. Die cut them with one of Tim's dies. use a blending tool with my Gathered twigs inkpad and wiped off the excess with a baby wipe over the embossed area. Used pitch black distress on a blending tool around the edges. stamped the frame from the Silouhettes set onto cream and fussy cut around them . Die cut the movers and shapers silhouette on black cardstock. Ran my cards through the vagabond in the fleur-de-lis embossing folder with just the card fronts insde it. Direct to paper with Gathered twigs over the raised parts and the edges. Tied some twine onto them and just glued all the layers together. Reminded me of old wall-paper and a picture hanging on it. Hope the y all like them.

May CTMH gathering

Judy was the hostess this month for our stamp club so we all piled into my car and drove down together. It was a terrible stormy drive with tons of rain. Three inches in my gauge in the morning! But we made the most of it and had a great time stamping. Here are the three cards I demonstrated for them and the pinwheel one was our make and take. We used the fabulous Dream-Pop parer collection for it. I picked up some straws at Dunkin' Donuts to use on it as well. When I saw the bright orange straws with pink stripes, I thought of this paper pack and had to have them.Turned out so cute. I also changed the sentiment on the honeycomb one to the one from the set that says You're So Sweet at the party. I got this idea on another CTMH consultant's blog and really liked the shaped card so I imitated it here. On the Father's Day card, I added some brads to the reddish brown panel to bling it up.