July tag of 2013 and some good news

I found out at the beginning of the month I'm the winner and runner up of Visible Images June Challenge: Character. Hence the new blinkie badge my prize was the choose of any clear stamps for £10 which is basically 2 stamps. Due to the random selection of winner and runner up anyone can win except for Craftstamper magazine the standards are so high. In all it is important to do your best in everything you do. Tim Holtz is launching a new load if idea-ology plus stencils I'm having trouble trying to keep up. Only joking I only choose the stuff I actually want so for July's Tag of 2003 this is my creation:

The technique was using a brayer and distress ink I barely glanced at the post so the result was make it up as I go along. Grunge board with Rock Candy crackle paint, I was little impatient with drying and rushed the process with the heat gun. Ideally it should be left for day or more but I don't get free 'quiet' slot at the kitchen table till 7pm sometimes later. A half a day is wasted through waiting and with this heatwave, crafting is difficult. My intention was make something which celebrated Handover day in Hong Kong but ended up different and random. Mistakes can be turned into something wonderful. Distress Stains were dabbed in the cracks, I made my own tissue tape as ideo-ology range is so expensive, you can use washi tape instead.
Didn't have simple saying in my collection a stamped text on vial labels works as fine, most of stamps are PaperArtsy except for the Aztec Sun which is GCS(Great Canadian Stamp). For embellishments I used Muse token attached to crinkle ribbon with mini safety pin and metal charm (not idea-ology). Grunge board is strange as it smells like new shoes, very rubber and meant to be  altered as it doesn't lie flat. Element range is hard to find I end up buying and Mini safety pin might be discontinued. Some places still sell them if you know where to look.

These are the stamps I've chosen and don't know if I have time to make something for Visible Image's July challenge.

I've discovered something new this month it's called Smash book, all it's really is sticking stuff on pages. K & Company sell these Smash book which is spiral bound and has lots of coloured pages plus there are numerous accessories. It's like what I have to spend money on a new idea when I have been doing this kind thing for years since about 2000 when I was studying Foundation Art and Design it was called Visual Diary and brought on by Dan Eldon. I did buy a doodles smash book and few stuff from Amazon, at the moment I'm using Walls Journal Notebook due the fact it becoming annoying trying to align the writing. More details on 'smashing' will later I have stuff to right now.

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My take on Tim Holtz's June Tag of 2013

Watercolours are not my kind of thing because I find them hard to manipulate the colours and prefer to use acrylics. This month's tag is quite a challenge for me the end result is not that bad and I figured out how to get even coverage of colours in the non wrinkle technique.

June's tag involves the use of Distress Markers and the use of an auto wet brush basically to blend and mix colours. This is my second attempt I was worried because the layers of colours wasn't blending immediately only realising later it's one those time delay effects. Hard to see what the actual colours he was using I used Rusty Hinge, Fired Brick, Faded Jeans, Broken China and Pumice Stone.
Distress Inks- Walnut Stain was used to darken the edges.
For the non wrinkle blend involved the use of 3 different Distress range mediums Paint- Broken China, Ink-Dusty Concord and Stains-Wild Honey. The key is not to mix the colours too much but can be layered. Tim left out details on what to add to crinkle ribbon to finish off the tag I used a mixture of Distress Paint- Broken China and Stains- Wild Honey and Scatter straw.
The Background rubber stamped I used PSX, Paperartsy and Stampers' Anonymous 6 to show that June is the 6th month in the year.

What I do with the monthly challenges projects I displayed them in my unfinished Artist's Shrine. More of building site really and the penguin needs to completed. Tim's tag was completed very quickly and spend the rest of evening playing with Oscar the hamster. He was on the gnawing mission last night and made arched doorway on the loo roll. Maybe I'll include more of his creations.

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May tag of 2013

I haven't had much energy last week and even this week is a struggle. I'm forced to wake up early before 8am and endure hours of noise as work is done on the bathroom. I find my falling asleep in front of tv and there is no where quiet for me to go. Some how found some energy to make this month's Tim Holtz's tag of 2013 challenge. I know he would use remnant rubs in one of the monthly tags so I already brought 2 already Numbers and Element but wasn't able to get Words. Don't really need it. As I used Stampers' anonymous CMS110 Stuff to say and mix and matched a few items I have in stash. Other stamps I used are Paperartsy and Lost Coast Designs.

The tricky part is trying to get all part of 4 Distress stains colours on one tag as on my trial I couldn't get all the colours to balance on one sheet. You can dab a little and spritz to blend. The texture hammer is difficult to buy and maybe discontinued luckily there is a site which still sells the tool. Country View Crafts and they sell other Tim Holtz's products much cheaper.
There's still February tag yet to complete and would like to give their monthly challenge a try. The title is called 'How does your Garden grow' and any style and medium. There's a set of Paperartsy stamps I would like to try out maybe make another card again. We'll see I have lots of mailart to sort out and trying to survive this week. I just hope work on bathroom will be completed soon.

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