holiday warm up- tag style

here is one holiday tag i made with one of stencils from BlueTwig Studio.

i will walk you through my process for creating your own tags.

1. grab a tag....i had to make my tags, as apparently i did not actually have any premade tags. i used file folder and a template to make my tags.
2. use acrylic paint and the gelli plate to get paint down onto each tag as your background color. i did use my small 6x6 gelli plate with these tags.
3. stamp a little with an opposing color- i used a homemade stamp to make the light blue strips on the tags. i also sprayed lightly with a silver spray ink.
4. brayer some more color....i put a small amount of pistashio green onto my gelli plate and rolled the paint out with my brayer and then, rolled the brayer onto the tags in areas to add additional color. below is a sample of how the tag will look prior to the stenciling. 

    5.  use the Tim Holtz Christmas (THS030) stencil with holiday words. i used a cosmetic sponge          and white acrylic paint to pounce on the white paint.

    6.  hi-lite one word with a stabilo pencil. spritz with water to blend a bit. be careful with the   water, it is easy to use too much.

here are some other samples that i made using the stencils from BlueTwig Studio and this same process. 

the other supplies i used in the tags below are: 

• Tim Holtz Holiday Knit (THS028) stencil 
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Gumdrops that attached with Gorilla Glue

getcha in the holiday creative mood?....

"owl" always love you....

everywhere i have been looking lately, i keep seeing owls. i was feeling so inspired- i finally decided i needed to have an owl of my own and used another one of my big erasers to make a stamp.

i had drawn a sample owl in my notebook, and then, moved that image onto my eraser...

and then, started carving.....i really like the carving part. i like trying to find my image and get it carved out so i can stamp that first image. i try to get it carved down enough so that when i try that first image- i should be pretty close to my finished stamp. my owl actually didn't need any additional carving.

 "owl" love this stamp forever....happy tuesday!

carving up a stamp

i have been so inspired by others making their own stamps that i ordered a Speedball carving set for myself. my order and carving set arrived yesterday (so excited!!)

so, last night i set off to give this a whirl and see how i do. i had purchased a couple of $1 big erasers at my local dollar store to carve up. i figured i would start on the cheap erasers to start until i was able to hone my skills a bit.

i sketched around my eraser so i know what size to make my design and then, drew within my rectangle.

once i was happy with my sketch, i colored on the back of my sketch and then, drew on my sketch to transfer the graphite onto my eraser. you can see the carving set i purchased. there were two sets available- i did buy the set with all of the carving sizes because it was a minimal amount more- so why not have all the sizes?

 you can see here how the image transferred onto my eraser. it is not the best, but, looking at my sketch and seeing the image on the eraser really was not too bad. i may have to see if there is a better method- or if you have a better way...please leave me a comment! i would love to know!

when i was done with my carving, i went and found my ink pad to see how i actually did. so excited to see it actually print onto paper!! i had a couple of small edges to take down just a bit more, but, for the most part, i was done with the carving and VERY happy with my first attempt.