A One Of A Kind Tag for A One Of A Kind Winter...

Happy, Happy Day Everyone!  Today I am sharing an oversized mixed media tag created for my second Susan Weckesser design team project for November.  Tag making is something I have not done a lot of in the past, but I am loving it because this year I realized that: a) you have a tag which can be used instead of a card; b) that a blingy tag is such a beautiful decoration, you can wrap your gift in brown paper and it still looks good and c) you can hang it on the Christmas tree as an ornament and a memory.  Seriously Christmas tags may be replacing my Christmas cards next year!

I created this tag for a special, extra Large Gift for someone wonderful, featuring my very favorite "One Of A Kind Winter" snowman stamp  from Susan Weckesser/Unity Stamps.  I Stamped the snowman onto a piece of cardboard that came with a stamp set I bought, because I loved the subtle embossed dots on it, and I colored the hat and scarf using my Zig clean color brush tip markers.

For the background I applied a thin layer of white gesso and I stamped the small house from Susan's Create Your Day Unity Stamp set onto a page of thin white paper from a second-hand medical book I bought for $2.  The paper in medical books or Bibles is wonderful for this technique, tissue paper thin and brilliantly white, it is strong enough to hold up to getting wet with Mod Podge and sprays and mediums. 

Some seed pearls for door knobs, a foam pop dot for the sun and of course the final step with everything I do, a layer of Rangers Stickles and Close To My Heart Liquid Glass finishes everything off.

So that's my tag for today.... I hope it inspires you to go off and create something that will "Warm 3 Winter Months" for someone!

Lynne Mizera, Mixed Media Artist
for the Susan K. Weckesser Design Team
 

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Create Your Day

"One Of A Kind Winter"

Art Journal Play with Lynne Mizera

Hello Everyone - Lynne here today to share another of my art journal pages with you.  This month Susan Weckesser encouraged us to see our world with new eyes with a focus on our own backyards and our gardens... which resonated with me on such a deep level as I am spending the first year in our new home, one that we hope to be in until we are ready to move into assisted living (in about 30 years - we Hope!).  So here is the two-page spread I created:

The inspiration for this came from the quote I used which really did say it perfectly for me... 

I have been fortunate to have been able to travel to many wonderful places in our beautiful world, making Art and friends along the way, but at the end of each "journey nto the World" I Always Come Home.

And to me My Home is still the place I love the most in this World!  

Our Front Yard with Cherry Tree in Full Bloom

And the back of the house (I am standing in our vegetable garden)

So Why don't you go out into your own backyard and see what you can see With New Eyes and then come back inside and make Your Personal Art Journal Page!

Scrapbook Lynne Mizera

For the Susan Weckesser Creative Team

 

Susan K. Weckesser Products Used On This Project

 

 

Create Your Day

Grandma's NeedlePoint

Home is Where You Plant Your Flower Seeds...

Hello Everyone!  Lynne here today with my second project for the month of July where our theme for the month is Home Sweet Home, and homes and where we live have been in my mind a lot lately as my hubby and I moved across provinces earlier this year into what we are calling our "Forever Home" as we prepare for retirement.  And this week my daughter and her family have finally been able to return to their home in Fort McMurray, Alberta, 86 days after the mandatory evacuation of their city due to an out-of-control wild fire.  So like I said, "What Does Home Mean to Me?" has been a question in my mind a LOT lately.  But it was reading this quote from the Susan Weckesser's What's UP Gnomey stamp set that finally put it all in perspective for me:

"A Home Is Where You Plant Your Flower Seeds"

And with those words echoing in my head as I sat at my work desk looking out at my beautiful new garden, I created this wee diorama that for me says it better than words ever could.

I used the Susan K. Weckesser Live in Color Paper Collection and my new Tim  Holtz Sizzix House Dies #660992 and #661196 to create the house,

and then I stamped and colored and fussy cut the Susan Weckesser/Unity stamp sets Create Your Day and Grandma's Needlepoint and used these to embellish and decorate my wee home.

Then I went a bit crazy adding anything and everything to my Garden... Who KNEW you could have this much fun with a glue gun? (smile).

Here is a photo of my garden which inspired me and a few more close ups of my project.  Now, if you would like to know more about my creative process you can find all that information over on My Blog.

Thank you for taking the time to visit us today at the My Sweet Earth blog and I hope my wee project has inspired you to create something that expresses what "Home Sweet Home" means for you.  Happy  Happy 

Scrapbooking Artist, Lynne Mizera

for the Susan Weckesser Creative Team

Susan K. Weckesser products I used in this project:

Create Your Day

Grandma's Needlepoint

Live In Color Card Stock

Color Burst Card Stock

Home

Hello friends. Larissa here today and I have to say I am so happy to be back for another term with my friend. Susan is one of the sweetest people I know.

Today I created a card for you and used a few different stamp sets.

First off I took a piece of white cardstock I had cut to 5 1/4 x 5 1/4. I laid it in my MISIT and placed the stamps where I wanted them. I used Simon Says Stamp Black Intense ink to stamp them on the cardstock.

After stamping them on the cardstock I used a couple different mediums to color the images. 

First off I used Colorbox® Color Pop Premium Dye Ink By Susan K. Weckesser in Fresh and Ice I stamped the banner and then used them for watercoloring.

I then colored the images with Copic markers. Except for the Gnomes outfit I paper pieced with a piece of yellow polka dot pattern paper from Lawn Fawn. 

 And here is the final card.

Products used for this card: 

What's up Gnomey?

Create a Day

In My Garden 

Tumbleweed HousesColorbox® Color Pop Premium Dye Ink By Susan K. Weckesser in Fresh and Ice
MISTI
Simon Says Stamp Black Intense Ink
Copic Markers
ATG
Tombow Mono Multi
Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Paper Pad

I hope you enjoyed my post today. Have a lovely week friends.

Larissa Pittman 

It's An INKY Feast For the Senses!

It was  my pleasure to be one of the first people to use and review the new Susan K. Weckesser inks by Clearsnap: ColorBox Color Pop Minis 

Here are the two cards I created using these inks...

And here is my review

I LOVE them!  Grin 

These are all the things I love about these inks:

The 1"x2" size is perfect, small enough to easily have within reach but large enough to handle most stamping jobs.  The Lid fits snugly so the ink won't dry out and it does not come off when I throw them in a basket (which is my usual modus operandi).

The dye ink colors are vibrant, both when they go on and when they have dried (not always the case with some inks) and they blend beautifully with water - again without fading!

The pigment ink is thick and opaque, just the way I like it, and takes a while to dry unless you use your heat gun - all Good qualities in a pigment ink.  But the Metallic ink... Swoon!  Seriously, the best metallic, pigment ink I have come across to date and I have used a LOT of them!  This ink dries metallic and looks like I used metallic paint - which is what I have resorted to since I have been unable to find a metallic ink that still looks like metal after it has dried - that is until NOW!

And now for the fun stuff.  Because I was trying out a new product I wanted to use these inks in a few different ways and I took photos along the way so you could join in... I hope you enjoy this mini card class and a peek into my creative process.

 

I decided to ink the background of my cards and then use the white pigment ink to stamp right onto the dark background.  For me THIS is the true test of a both a dark dye ink and a white pigment ink.  will the dark ink stay dark?  And will the white ink be opaque enough to show up and not fade away?

Not only did both inks pass, but I needed very little of the dark blue ink to create a wash on my background... I used way too much! Grin

Then I stamped right onto my background (after the ink had dried of course) with white and gold pigment ink.  I used a masking technique to make the sun appear as if it was coming out from behind the clouds.

You can see how the pigment inks stay crisp and bright and how the background ink is still dark even after drying.  Then I did something CRAZY!  I used water with my white pigment ink and added a light wash to the clouds... This NEVER works for me with pigment inks and yet here it is!!

Then I stamped a whole bunch of tiny house images onto white 100lbs card stock, grabbed my water brush and started painting in the houses. I used Archival waterproof ink for this part since I knew I wanted to get my images wet.  These dye inks acted like a watercolor paint and blended beautifully.  They worked so well I went and grabbed another of my ColorBox dye inks in yellow, (Not the mini pops 'cuz NO yellow) and it did not work at all!  So this confirms for me that all inks are NOT created equally!

And then I did the same sort of things for the second card in Red...

 

The rest of the photos are all about design and embellishing... using my very favorite techniques of fussy cutting and popping the images, and then using gel pens and Stickles & Liquid Pearls to enhance the card.

Then of course you have to mount the card image onto a card base...

What I love the most about these two cards is how the ink stayed dark and vibrant so the white, un-coloured houses I stamped just jump right off the page... but then that one coloured house becomes the focal point... 

Yup... Great product and wonderful inks. My one suggestion, MORE Metallic Colors and I NEED a yellow dye ink! Grin

Scrapbook Lynne Mizera

for the Susan K. Weckesser

 

The following are a list of stamp sets and products I used for these two "simple" cards... (She says Grinning Madly!)

Susan K. Weckesser/Unity Stamp Sets Used on this Project:

Create Your Day

Celebration of Simple

Tumbleweed Houses

Fly Away

SKW Cardstock - Beautiful Day Dreams

 

ColorBox Color Pop Mini inks

Ranger Stickles and Liquid Pearls

Sakura Gelly Roll Pens

Tsukineko Clear Embossing Powder