Grundy Monday 25

Roy and Betty Albea

Linda's Grungy Monday 25 Challenge last week made me think. The challenge:  "Use your favorite Tim Holtz products to create a loving tribute to a friend, relative or inspiring person who's passed away." I thought all week long about my parents. I miss them so much because I love them so much. I thought about their life, how much they loved each other and how much they loved their children, grandchildren and yes even great-grandchildren.

detail of film strip ribbon

I also thought a lot about the page I wanted to make for them. I thought about the photos I would use and while I worked on other things I thought about what products I would use. I thought about it so much I didn't finish in time. I finally finished it up this morning. It was a joy to work on this challenge. I find that working on a memorial page to someone that has been taken away brings them closer to me and instead of dwelling on my loss, I can remember the wonderful times I had with them.

Once the crackle dries use distress inks

Here is a list of Tim's products I used: Grungepaper and Grungeboard. Picket Fence, Fired Brick and Worn Lipstick Crackle Paint. Idea-ology Filmstrip Ribbon. Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Die Heart Wings. Distress Inks Iced Spruce (from the winter seasonal distress ink set) on the wings. Also used Worn Lipstick, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Antique Linen Distress Inks and the Flourish mask on the background. Rock Candy Distress Stickles. Glossy Accents.All paper except the velum is the Valentine theme paper from Tim's Seasonal Paper pack.The little bits of pink ribbon is from my stash.

I love Tim Holtz's products. I also love to watch him demo them. To see Tim's Videos on Crackle Paint, Distress Inks and more click here. To visit his blog click here.

I hope you visit Linda's Grungy Monday 25 Challenge and see some of the wonderful tributes the other ladies did. They are beautiful. While you're there, check out her current challenge. This week, Grungy Monday 26, the challenge is to used techniques from a tag Linda selected from one of Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas. I love Tim's 12 Tags and would love to tell you all about it but I'm saving that for another post. I've got to get busy. I'm not going to miss this week's challenge. It is going to be too much fun!

Color Change

This is a twist on another card I posted earlier for the Hero Arts Bling-It challenge. If you want to see the first card it is here. I originally designed this card with silver and gold embossing powder on silver and gold paper. I loved the way it turned out but wondered what it would look like in Red and Green. I did end up making a few changes. I didn't use the holly and berry stamp for the side borders. Instead I used some pattern paper. I did use the same Christmas tree. This time I stamped it with shabby shutters distress ink and colored over it with Berol Prisma color pencils. I like the way I can blend the colors easily. I  used Red Green and White gem stones in various sizes.I used the same Fiskars punches for the edge of the card front. I love these punches.. This card will go in with the ones I send for the Cards that Care drive. All cards need to be sent by November 31st.

Just a few minutes before the day is over. I have been playing with my new seasonal distress inks! I love these colors. Festive Berries, Evergreen Bough and Iced Spruce. I've just finished my first card with these yummy colors. The snowman is from the Seasonal Grungeboard set and painted with Picket Fence crackle paint and then distressed with the Iced Spruce Distress Ink. Then I used a little Black Soot, Brushed Corduroy Stains and Spiced Marmalade distress ink. I think Mr. Snowman may need a little red scarf? Maybe a little holly on his hat? What do you think?

Cards that Care

There is a blog hop starting today to help promote a card drive to make Christmas cards for elderly that live in nursing homes. Vera Yates and Jennifer McGuire are sponsoring the drive. If you love to make Christmas cards this is a wonderful way to make cards that will be sent to people in nursing homes and add a little holiday cheer to their Christmas season. Vera explains it all so well, so if you want all the details for the card drive go here
If you've never been on a blog hop before, it starts with a post that tells you about the hop and gives you a link to the next stop. Sometimes you are visiting someone's blog and find out the are  a participant in a blog hop. You become intrigued and want to follow the hop from the start, so they also have a link to where you can start from the beginning. Be sure to leave a comment to let them know you stopped by. Sometimes they have a drawing from all the comments for a prize. One way to explain a blog hop is that it's like a blog tour. Sort of like a tour of homes that is so popular during the Holidays. Usually you're seeing blogs you have never seen before (at least one or two) and many times they are supporting a good cause.
The Cards that Care hop has many blog stops and each will be posting a handmade Christmas card. It's a good way to see a wide variety of cards and techniques. I am looking forward to spending my spare time this weekend visiting the many sites, working on Christmas Cards for the drive and working. Yes, I am working every day this weekend, but I don't want to miss this.  If you want to go on the blog hop start here.

Hero Arts

Silver and Gold

 The Hero Arts Blog  has daily posts of beautiful cards along with instructions. They have a great team of artist who take turns hosting the blog each week. Every day is different but my favorite day to check out their blog is Wednesday. Titled "Watch it Wednesday"  you can watch a video showing how they make the card they are featuring that day. These videos load fast and they are loaded with great techniques.

They also have bi-monthly contests. There are 3 categories you can enter each month. Just create a card using at least one Hero Arts stamp and upload it to Flicker. Add it to the Hero Arts  group with the designated tag for that contest. It's that simple.

The categories for  November are: (1) Holiday Tags and Gift Wrap, (2) Bling It Up! and (3) Color Challenge - Pink, Pool, Green, Neutral and White. Entries are due November 10th for the first round and November 27 for the second round.

When I saw the Bling It Up! category I started thinking about my favorite Christmas show when I was growing up. "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".  The forest animals decorate the trees with silver and gold and those decorations "bling" as the snowman sings "Silver and Gold". I still love listening to Burl Ives sing "Silver and Gold".

It sounds like a fun category and I'm sure there will be plenty of entries. I tried my hand at it and this is what I came up with. Silver and Gold with lots of bling. I've used silver and gold embossing powder on silver and gold shimmer paper and of course added 2 different size gem stones for the holly berries and Christmas decorations on the tree, with a larger gemstone for the star on top. I also used a gold leaf pen to fill in the open leaves on the tree. All the stamps are Hero Arts cling stamps from seasons past . Very Blingy!

GUESS WHAT?!

Yes! Have you checked out Tim Holtz's blog today? Great announcement and video and of course a chance to win the newest seasonal color set. Seasonal Distress Ink Winter 2011. I don't want to give away all the details so click here, watch and learn and then leave a comment on Tim's Blog for a chance to win! But don't wait too long. Winners will be announced Friday 11/4.

Blogging Writes

Lots of things going on this month. On the art side  Linda has a new challenge and Tim's got new colors. On the blogging side my daughter shared with me that this is NaBloPoMo at BlogHer. And of course Of course this is the month for Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

 I enjoyed the technique from Linda's Grungy Monday 24 Challenge last week but was a little impatient allowing enough time to make sure every thing was completely dry before stamping and adding the Perfect Pearls. If the background is not completely dry the Perfect Pearls will stick to the background too. See Tim's video here. Another problem I ran into was exactly how much to mist with water to get the ink under the pearls to wick but not misting so much that the pearls started to float on the water loosing the definition of the stamped image. So my picture today is of some additional backgrounds I inked for making additional tags. These backgrounds are a little darker so I may add a Snowman instead of a Reindeer.

Linda's Grungy Monday 25 is challenge this week is "Use your favorite Tim Holtz products to create a loving tribute to a friend, relative or inspiring person who's passed away."  That would be my Mom and Dad. Linda's challenges are all based on the  Tim Holtz techniques. I love checking out what everyone does. It's sorta like an unofficial blog hop. Only 2 post so far.

 I also wanted to share that Tim Holtz is releasing the new Distress Inks Seasonal Series Winter 2011. These colors are so wintery it makes me start looking for snow.

I've added a new blinkie to my side bar for NaBloPoMo. BlogHer is a new blog I've found. Yes, It is about blogging. They are have designated November as National Blog Post Month .The idea is to blog every day this month. They will also have a new suggestion each day if you need ideas on what to blog about. Since I have decided to try to post more often, I thought this would be a good challenge for me so this is day one and I am posting.  The thing is I usually blog about my art projects. I'm not saying I will create something new every day but I do think I will be spending more time creating in my studio which I wanted to do anyway. of course Jennifer Mcguire is having the Cards that Care card drive. So.... a new blog post every day. Quite a challenge. So good luck to me.