My Painted Past

I belong to a variety of Yahoo Groups, mostly art related. It's a great way to see what others are creating, you get great tips and meet some nice folks. On one, rangerinklink, someone suggested we introduce ourselves. Most people talked about their lives and interests in art. After I posted mine, I thought, why not share that here? I'll throw in some pictures of art from my other decades. A nice trip down memory lane, right?

My journey started at a young age. My mother taught me how to draw when I was 6 and I enjoyed art through my public education days, finally studying art and design at Western Michigan University.
After graduating, I freelanced for many years, doing graphic design, pen and ink architectural drawings and watercolor paintings. This was "back in the day" of the Mall Art shows, where art groups would set up for a week and sell. As you can see from the not-so-great photos, I loved realism, detail, busyness.

Eventually I brought my work into local galleries. I began designing jewelry and painting clothes. I developed a watercolor technique on fabric which at the time was quite unique. I discovered that even though people enjoyed my realism, sales took off like crazy when I went more abstract, and free.

I sold at Art Fairs across the State of Michigan, in boutiques and eventually opened my own shop.

Remember the Bat Wing tops with matching pants?

The Art Fair Set Up

After two years, the sweet deal I had worked out with the landlord had disappeared and I decided to break away from art. Fairs and shows are like moving every weekend. It gets old eventually. Add in a divorce, and I decided it was time to get a real job. :-) what is that?

Watercolor cat on T-Shirt

After 7 years of avoiding Art, I got engaged and decided to make my own wedding invites. After many trips to rubber stamp stores and hours of work I found myself getting sucked back into the art world….now in a completely different Medium.

 I still work full time for an insurance company, but many hours are spent in my home studio creating altered books, collage, assemblage and on occasion do swaps like ATC's and Fat Books. I participate in 3 Art clubs and often teach.

Let's Talk Tape

Tissue Tape, Washi Masking Tape, Gaffer Tape...even colorful Duct Tape! Let's not forget the metal tape that is used in the heating and cooling industry. All of these tapes have a place in my artwork. Let's talk tape!

Tissue Tape

The idea for this discussion came about when I facilitated the Tattered Journey project last Saturday. It was recommended to cover the sides of the box or canvas with Tissue Tape, which gave the project a lovely finished look. The great thing about Tissue Tape is that you can use it to hide a variety of mistakes. I've always said, nothing in altered art isn't fixable. Use a cool vintage patterned tape to cover your oops's and it will look like you did it on purpose!

There is a challenge with Tissue Tape, stemming from the same thing that makes it wonderful. The tapes are repositionable. This is great because you can take the tape off and replace it until it's perfectly placed. This also presents a challenge because it makes your piece more fragile while you are still working on it. I discovered while wrapping the sides of my project that the tape would catch on my hands and fold over.
I decided to burnish the tape to the piece, which makes it stick better. For those of you who don't know what burnish means, it means to to make shiny or lustrous by rubbing. Now, we are not trying to make our tape shiny, but if you rub over the tape with a smooth object, like the back of a spoon or other smooth tool, and use gentle pressure (not tearing the tape) the tape edges will stay down better.

Another cool thing about the tape is you can apply ink to it, to change the look. I suggest Ranger's Distress Ink, which can be applied with your finger, direct from the ink pad, or even better by using a blending foam tool.

Gaffer Tape

Gaffer Tape, is tape that is used in the theatre, television and movie industry to hold down cables, wires, anything that needs to be secured but will later need to be removed. It's made of fabric, usually cotton and is very strong. I don't use "real" gaffer tape, but tapes that are made by Seven Gypsies for us altered artists that are called gaffer tape. They have cool vintage patterns on them and work great for covering objects that have a dimensional surface.

I used Gaffer tape to cover a small wooden frame that I put on my Tattered Journey project. These tapes also have edges that can curl up, so gentle burnishing will help keep everything down. (very gentle or you'll wear the color off) They are repositionable, but you can't move them over and over because the adhesive begins to wear thin.

Foil Tape

Also known as Mastic Tape, it's used in the building industry to seal gaps in heating ducts. The brand I have is made by Nashua and was purchased at my local home improvement store for under $10. The roll is huge and should last quite a while. It's very fun to use in your art, so give it a try.

What to do with it, you ask?
You can color it with Alcohol Inks or Staz-on ink pads. You can emboss it in your Cuttlebug, Big Shot, Vagabond or other embossing machines. I suggest adhering it to cardstock or paper first, but it's not absolutely necessary. I used some in an altered book, and embossed it with a pencil and some other metal tools. I also placed some dimensional foam stickers underneath and got some raised designs that were cool.

Duct Tape

Everyone knows how creative you can be with Duct Tape. There are even contests for best prom attire made from Duct Tape.

I took a class from Shauna Swantek and we made a purse from Duct Tape and Cards. I actually used ATC's instead of playing cards. Here I used brown Duct Tape to create the rim of the bag. Loved the results!

Washi Masking Tape

Alas, I do not own any of this, but have heard from crafters who reside in the Orient how fun it is. Wide variety of colors and patterns. I imagine it's similar to Tissue Tape, but don't know for sure. I'm planning on ordering some from the internet soon so I'll report back when I know more.
That's all for this post, hope it wasn't to sticky for you to wade through it all! Blessings!

Reflecting on Tim Holtz

Yes, ladies and Gents, it’s that  time of year again, Winter CHA is upon us. What that means for the average stamp-a-holic, is that all things new are being released to our Local Stamp Shops, who in turn will order great gobs of goodies for you and I to own! I love how Tim Holtz previews all of his new products on his Blog,  here we can see, hear and ALMOST TOUCH the new treasures that will soon await us. Now is the time to advise your stamp shop proprietor of what you can’t live without.

I’m jonesing for the Core’dinations  card stock which match the Distress Ink Colors! Conveniently packaged with one each per set of Tim’s 36 colors of Distress Ink. Secondly, Tim has a new Adirondack Cardstock made for specifically for Alcohol Inks, gotta get that too.  And Santa, I also put the Mini Rosette die and new tissue tape on my wish list too.

Tim is our artsy hero. He thinks of everything we wished we had thought of and creates it for us. He never ceases to take things just one more step beyond cool, which makes it fun for his many aficionado’s. On Saturday,  I’m facilitating a monthly project at Stamp Therapy for our Altered Art Group which is inspired by Tim’s Creative Blocks.  Having not taken his class, I came up with my own version of the project,  using of all things; a shoe box lid and foam core board. I later learned that he actually used canvases for his Creative Blocks, but ours is inspired by his and will of course be different. I’ve decided to share the process with you in case you’re interested. I'm calling my version:

A Tattered Journey

What I did:

I located a shoe box with a narrow depth lid. I chose one from a pair of ladies shoes, pretty average sized shoe box. No rules, use the size you like.

Using a screw-type hole punch, I punched two holes in the back of the lid about 1 ½” from the top and spaced about an 1 ½” from each side. I inserted a sturdy wire, which I then looped and twisted on the inside so the wire stayed in place. I then taped the loop down.  This creates a hanger.

I used a stapler to reinforce the box lid sides.

I cut two sheets of ¼” thick foam core board the same size as the inside of the box lid. I secured the first one with red tape to make sure it stuck to the wire firmly. The second layer I glued in with Tacky glue.

I created a template with a sheet of card stock to help me decide what size to cut the blocks. 

I then scored the template using my score pal and cut out the different sized block templates. 

Cut approx 1/16” off of each top and bottom of your templates in order to save room for the thickness of  the papers you will use to wrap your blocks. You can arrange your blocks in whatever way seems visually pleasing to you. I labeled each template with a letter so when cutting the foam core board to match I knew where each was to go. 

Then, using each template, I cut foam core board with an Exacto Knife and a steel ruler on a self-healing mat to match each template. I cut two for every size, and three for a couple  that I wanted to stand out. 

Each set of matching Foam core blocks were wrapped with tape to hold the bundle together. 

I laid out the blocks to make sure they would fit inside the shoe box lid.

I then began covering the bundles with papers, similar to wrapping a gift and securing ends with sturdy tape. 

Once all the bundles were covered with papers, I used Tissue Tape to cover the outer edge of the box lid, making sure to overlap the tape and cover the first 1/4" of the inside rim. It took two widths of tape to cover the edges that would be seen.

I then used red tape around the inner perimeter of the lid, and glued each bundle in with Tacky Glue, making sure that the lid was tight and firm to the bundle edge.

Now it's time to embellish.

I used a couple of rubber stamps; purchased ephemera including a clock face, medallion, Tattered Angels Glimmer Chips and Key; Tim Holtz Ideology gears, stickers, memo pins, keyholes, German Scrap, mini canvas altered with 7 Gypsies Gaffer Tape, Jenni Bowlin Butterfly and some old costume jewelry. Whenever possible, I distressed with Tim Holtz Distress ink. Let me know what you think!

Cricut Expression

I’m a day behind in my goal to post weekly, but we had family in this weekend and I didn’t get the time. My Sister-In-law Amy and niece Madeline came in for a “Girls Only” weekend. We scrapbooked and made Valentines for Madeline to give her class. Amy also brought me my newest toy, a Cricut Expression. Her husband Chris (who is so like me, in sniffing out great deals) found one on Black Friday for $148.00. They regularly sell for $299 and I have seen them as low as $189 but never under $150. When they asked if I would like one, I was not sure if I would use it. Matt (hubster) said “go for it!” So I now have the Cricut to play with.


The first thing I observed is how much space this system needs. It’s pretty large and the instructions stated you must have at least a foot behind and in front of free space for the machine to run safely. This is something I should have known before making my decision. My art room has space at a premium, so this proved a bit of a stressor for me at first.

Matt urged me to go ahead and use it, make sure it works. It did, and worked quite well I might add. It’s really fun and with the right cartridges, you can cut out multiples of just about anything, in whatever size you’d like. I’m going to try to keep my cartridge purchases at a minimum, since I have a Cuttlebug and loads of Nestabilities Spellbinder dies, as well as Tim Holtz dies, I have to be careful not to overdo. Let’s see how that one goes….Happy crafting!

January - A Time to Organize

Each year, January rolls around and I get the urge to purge. Also to sort, reorganize and rethink how I can make my studio space more efficient for me. This year, I couldn't even wait til January. I started this two weeks before Christmas! This should tell you that it was really bad!
On Black Friday, I bought two organizing pieces, which motivated the early start for me.
I got a rolling storage cart from Joann's, which has been designated for my wood mounted rubber stamps.

Oh, if only they all would have fit! I sorted through them and have two boxes of stamps which I will be selling.  I was left with enough to fill one three drawer Iris box. Not too bad. Why can't I let go?
 The second item I bought was a Ribbon storage rack. Again, from Joann's. Love it! It's full! My sign that I can't buy anymore. Hmmmm.. will I obey my inner limiter?

My husband thinks that this room should be for whatever we need to hide for a while, so I had to start hauling things out. You know cleaning one room always forces all the others to be cleaned. Otherwise clutter just moves from room to room!
I have some things to use for my used craft sale piling up, but will need to go through more before I hold it. As soon as this is done, you will get to see the after pictures. Happy organizing, fellow pack-rats!