Can't figure out how to delete blog without loosing Google account.

I've come to the realization that I'm not a blogger. My life doesn't have enough going on to make a blog interesting. Plus no one stops by. So if you stumbled on this blog by accident I'm sorry there is not more to see. Hope you enjoy what you can find.

This is my last blog until I can figure out how to delete it without loosing my Google account altogether.

So long. Enjoy your life.
Carol

April Swap is for the Birds

 For the All Things Tim swap this month the theme is Birds. I was inspired by my swap partner's extra goodie that Kavi Coulson sent me. She made this card for the March swap, which is so pretty. I love the flower she made and purple(the base color) is my favorite color so the card was perfect for me. 

Here is the tag which Kavi made with the April theme and that inspired my card. This has so many techniques on it. I had to try and follow in her crafty footsteps. 

This is what I came up with for the swap. It's funny because the coordinator of the swap assigned me Kavi for the April swap. I hope she likes this card in return. I had great fun creating it. I used distressed paints for the background, then used some distress ink pads and stencils for some added texture. I stamped some catmint with white ink and pearl embossing powder. I stamped a humming bird and flower 3 times using some distressed ink. Used coffee archival ink for the flock of birds, text and little bird at the bottom of the card .Added a few embellishments and the card was done.

Hope you like the art here. Come back next month and see what I receive from Carolyn Bosley in the April swap. In the mean time, I hope your journey leads you to wonderful places, and back here again. 

Spring Break

Spring is here but it seems we are all still looking for it to arrive. I know I'd like to see it warm up a bit. The sun has been plentiful so that has been a joy to see.

This month's theme for the All Things Tim monthly card swap is "Think Spring". I've been thinking and thinking but Spring has not sprung just yet. Even in my art I had a little trouble with the Spring theme. I made this card

While I like it I felt it was too distressed for Spring. Might have been because the gray day when I made it. I just wasn't happy with it and worried Joyce Norman my swap partner might thing the same thing. So in an effort not to disappoint I made a brighter Spring card. I still used Tim Holtz' techniques and supplies I didn't distress this card as much. Just a little Worn Lipstick ink around the edges. I like this card too.

This card was done with an old technique called reverse stamping. I inked the tulip and stamped it on a flat rubber stamp, then stamped it on the card. That makes a lighter reversed image. It's fun to go back to old ideas sometimes rather than keeping up with all the new things that come along. Sometimes it's hard to remember to do that though.

Today I made this card for a friend's 60th birthday. I have trouble trying to design men's cards sometimes. Tim's distressed techniques and supplies do lend well to masculine cards so I had fun working on this card. 

I hope that Spring is not too far away from where you live. If you see it, give it a little boost my way. I'm ready for it. Spring break from school really didn't have the "Spring" in it but it has been a good break just the same. 

Hope you enjoyed this little blog entry and hope to see you next month.

Carol

Busy February

I can't believe February is almost over. This short month does fly by sometimes. This was a very special month for my husband and I. We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary on the 18th.






(Seems we were just kids then. What did we know about getting hitched?)











 We spent the weekend in Chicago at the Science and Industry Museum where we caught the last weekend of the Charles Schultz exhibit. We had lots of fun and really enjoyed reading all the old Peanuts strips as well as getting our photo taken with Charlie. I also had to have a photo op with Snoop and Woodstock.

I also started a part time job at CJ Banks at our local mall. It's fun but very tiring to stand on your feet for 4-5 straight hours.So not used to doing that. I like the job and get to see all the new merch that comes in and get a great discount. Unfortunately, a part time job really cuts into my art time. I was only able to make one card this month. (The last card I posted was made in January.) This card was made for the All Things Tim Monthly Card Swap. The theme, yes, you guessed, is Red. I hope that Cheryl liked the card.

Well, I guess that's all I have for now. I'm hoping that I get to join the March ATT swap so I can post that card too. Maybe I'll even had some fun life events to talk about. Looking forward to Spring. Hope wherever you are the weather is what you'd like it to be.
Carol

Giving it Another Go

So my attempts last year didn't work out so well about keeping the blog going.
I don't get much traffic so I'm probably not disappointing too many people. I'm going
 to try and do a post monthly since I'm in a swap every month on my
All Things Tim Yahoo Group (ATT).




















Here is the card I made for the January card swap.
When I started it I was thinking I need a tag for the swap.
Opps, it was suppose to be a card. This is based on the
2013 January Tag that Tim Holtz made. You can find the
original at http://timholtz.com/.
Tim is great about showing techniques and design
ideas on his blog.

I really had a good time making this. Hope Cheryl (the receiver)
can find a use for it.




This is the card I received from Colleen O'Lear
for this swap. I love this card for the purple
background. (my favorite color). And for the
text on the ticket.

Hope you like the art.

Hope you are staying warm and cozy wherever you are in the country.
Carol

All ThingsTim Question of the Week 4/22/2012

As you know I belong to a Yahoo Group called All Thing Tim. It's a on line list that gathers people from around the world to focus on Tim Holtz. From Tim's blog "Tim Holtz is the Creative Director for Ranger Industries, one of the leading manufacturers of innovative inks, paints, and embossing products" Because we all love Ranger products and Tim's ideas, All Things Tim is a great place to get together to share ideas and swap art using Tim's techniques. 

Recently one of the moderators, Stephen, (http://bearcrazyman.blogspot.com/) started asking weekly questions to keep the list moving. 

This weeks Question of the Week is:

What lead you to do what you do art-wise? Be it stamping, scrap booking,
painting, mix media, altering..

Lets us all know why you do what you do.

I thought my response would be a good item for my blog. So for those of you interested or who may have missed it on the ATT list -  here is my response:

I was never artsy/crafty and never really  had a passion for art other than appreciating the art of others. I can not draw a straight line with a ruler. When I do it doesn't  look straight to me. When I don't it looks straight but it's not.

I always gravitated to arty greeting cards which 20 years ago were hard to find. I walked into a local card shop that I frequented and saw a sign for a class on making your own cards. For some reason this sounded interesting so I signed up. From the moment I stamped my first image I was hooked. The class was just about stamping and embossing but it started the foundation of what I do today.

After thinking, "I'll save money making my own cards" I've spent more money making cards that I ever would have spent in the last 17 years. But I've spent more time relaxing, making other people happy with my creations and mostly making myself happier than I was when I was buying greeting cards.

I do more than make cards now. I've made wall hangings, Tim's Configurations Shadow Boxes, canvass work, clothing and more. I've learn so many techniques above and beyond embossing. I've learned how to use color in many mediums. I've gone so far away from needing a ruler to draw a straight line but I am better at using it when I need to.

I don't consider what I do crafting because it entails more than that. I consider my work art. Never in my life before 1995 would I have called myself at artist but now I can and do. Walking into that card shop all those years ago changed my life for the better. I do this because I love it. I can't imagine not being able to create because it's become an important part of my life and it has become apart of me. That's why I continue to make my art. Some days it's good art, some days it's bad art, but it's all art.

Did I mention all the great people I've met all because I put some ink to paper one day. This has been a great journey in the art world. I hope it continues the rest of m y life.

Creative Chemistry 101 continues

Today I worked on two similar graduation cards and a birthday card using techniques from Creative Chemistry Day 2. I love smooshing distress ink onto card stock from the craft mat. I'm so glad Tim Holtz and Ranger came up with distress ink. It blends so well and gives a great watercolor effect in so many different ways.

I also like the fact that sometimes what seems like a mistake turns out nice. That happened on the Take Time birthday card. I stamped the diamonds on the card and thought oh gosh. Then I added some crystal lacquer and loved the result. I'll probably be using that "mistake" again. 

The bubble made from UTEE says - Life is a journey not a destination. 

 Hope you enjoy taking a peek as the fun I had today.

Tim Time

Today I've been working on cards for the All Things Tim birthday card swap. I also am participating in the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101 Online Class, a little late but as they say...

I used the Day 2 technique on Judy Snell's card along with the carte postale embossing folder for texture. My first attempt for the Day 2 technique can be seen with the bird card I did on my Aunt Jackie's card. I also took some tips from Kate Palmer for lightening up some of the areas by removing some of the color. I thought the bird was too dark at first but am happier with the outcome.

Kate has a great video on YouTube for using Distress Ink coloring. Take a peek.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKNonLEYpPk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Looking forward to seeing the 3rd - 10th installments of the CC101 classes. Tim is so full of great information for we stamping enthusiasts. I love the distressed look and hope to improve my artful attempts from what I can learn from these videos. I'll post more of my work as I progress though the series.

Hope you enjoy what you see here.

 








One of these days I'll figure out how to line things up better. lol

T!m-ing it up for the ATT Birthday Club Swap

I've been busy with a lot of things. Painting the living room. Working on gathering obituaries for the Spangler Cemetery book I'm working on for the Decatur Genealogical Society library. And working at my job. I've also be working on cards for the  ATT Birthday Club Swap on the All Things Tim Yahoo list. I've been enjoying making the cards and hope the recipients do too.

Here are the cards I've made so far this year for Jan, Feb and all but one March birthdays.

 

Missing one February card. Hope you enjoyed the card.  See you in the future.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is doing well after the holidays.  I am doing much better after my surgery.  I wondered if I'd ever get back to blogging.  Well, here I am.  My goal is to keep up with blogging at least once a month at the very least.  Maybe I'll have more to say than that, time will tell. Whatever I end up with in this space I hope you find something of interest. 


This past week I've been working on cards to send to people who were kind enough to RAK* me after my surgery from the All Things Tim list. Thank you Stacy, Colleen and  Martha.  I was so happy to receive their RAKs.  They all made my day. 


Below are cards I made based on Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas 2011.  I loved the snowman tag.  Here is the link to view it in case you have never seen this tag.
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-4.html

(I hope the link works when I post it. It's the first time I've included a link on my blog.)


I never know what to do with tags once they are made.  The people I send my art to I think prefer receiving a card, at least in my mind.  Who knows I could be wrong.  Anyhoo, I took Tim's idea for the snowman tag and tried to use the techniques on cards.  I changed them up as you can see.  I did leave the "celebrate today" as a tag and sent it to one of my RAKers. Though, I  can't remember who's getting that one.

I like to cool blue-gray colors of the cards and the wintery feel it gives.  We are not getting our usual snow falls here in Central Illinois so making these cards made it feel a little more like winter.  And I didn't have to shovel any snow. 

This is for my in-laws anniversary.

I hope you enjoyed my recent attempts at winter art.  I am looking forward to sharing more of my art and other things as they pop into my head.  I enjoyed blog hopping while I was unable to create any art of my own.  My work does not compare to some of the gorgeous creations out there but I hope you will enjoy my work and return from time to time and see what develops. 

Love, Peace, Joy and Art be yours in 2012.

Carol aka Uncle Carol

*RAK = Random Act of Kindness

One Handed

Had surgery on my hand on August 4th so won't be posting for a couple of weeks. Just needed to get my thumb working again, had tendon release done, nothing serious.

Tim-spiratin #4

I tried another Tim-spiration technique that my All Things Tim group has this week. Vic did a great job of finding something that looked fun.

I was so excited to try this heat embossed background after seeing the video demonstrating it. The technique looks really awesome when Gina did it. My look didn't seem to come out as well. I used gold embossing powder on SU gray card stock. I heat set it and cooled it. I ran it through my Big Shot with a Tim Holtz Regal embossing folder. I used a Tim Hotlz sander to sand off the EP. It takes more sanding than Gina made it look. I didn't have gold detail EP so maybe the EP I had was thicker and caused it to be more difficult to remove.

I went ahead and used my first attempt for the background. I stamped a Victorian woman and text using Tim Holtz Distressed Ink Weathered Wood.  For the card front I used weathered wood DI and brayered it over the smooth side of the regal embossing folder, then ran it through the Big Shot to emboss the card front. After I did this technique I realized the technique is suppose to be done with pigment ink. I liked the more distressed look and I used the card front anyway. So this is my contribution to the Tim-spiration #4 challenge.

Here is the link to the technique if you want to see it for yourself. 
http://stamptv.ning.com/video/heat-embossed-background-with?xg_source=msg_mes_network

When I started this embossing technique I also used gold EP on brown card stock and embossed the Tim Hotlz jalopy but it did not sand well either. I also used an old weathered wood EP I had on gray card stock and embossed the umbrella man but again it did not sand well. I'm going to have to try this technique when I have more time. I like the possibilities of this  technique. I hope I can get it to work better for me. I guess the text on the this card is true. Mama said there'd be days like this. 

Tim-spiartion Tuesday

This past Tuesday started Tim-spiration Tuesday on the Yahoo Group - All Things Tim. An mailing list dedicated to Tim Holtz, who is a very inspiring Creative Director for Ranger Industries. Ranger provides Tim  the means to create and develop wonderful ink, paints, papers and many tools for the paper arts community. Thanks to listmom Gloria, All Things Tim gives Tim groupies a place to meet, share, and discuss/chat about Tim and the art we've created using Tim/Ranger products. Tim-spiration Tuesday is a technique driven day to try specifically chose technique then to "Tim it up".

Today I worked on a project using some of Tim's products and this weeks technique that list member Vic chose for us. Here are the links to the directions she found.

http://www.patstamps.com/waxy-cuttlebug-tutorial.pdf

http://lousloonies.forumandco.com/t1957-wax-paper-and-your-cuttlebug


For the card I made I used:
Tim Products:
Stormy Sky and Black Soot Distress Inks
Visual Artistry - Playful Journey stamps - Bike and Enjoy the Journey
Fragments for the tag


Other items used:

Cuttle Bug - Swirls embossing folder
Stazon - Black ink
Papers and ribbon I had from who knows where


This was a fun technique and will definitely be doing it again. 

Faux Tim Hotlz box is sold. Sorry

Just thought I should let everyone know the box was sold. It went fast. Hope Linda enjoys it.

Faux Tim Holtz box for sale

Sometimes I tend to jump on things without thinking them through. I saw a video somewhere of Tim Holtz, the "Distressed Art God". In the video he had this really cool looking box for all his little Idea-Ology trinkets. So I thought I had to have one. I couldn't find an exact box but found one similar in Ebay. So of course I bought it. Now, I'm just not in love with it for some reason. Could be buyer's remorse or something. Anyway, I don't want it. So I'm selling it for $20 which will include shipping. It must have belonged to a child at one time because there are some love marks on it, but nothing serious. The box is made with some kind of metal so Alcohol Inks can change if from the lovely silver color to any shade you might want change it to. If you are interested in purchasing this box contact me or leave a comment. I'll be glad to ship it to some one who'll appreciate more than I.