Sakura Design Team!

I am SO excited to share this news with everyone!

I have been selected to be a part of the first Sakura Design Team!  Starting in March,

 look for some awesome and inspiring projects posted on their blog - http://www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com/ - posted by myself, Heather Morrow, Chelsea Povall (yes, both of these ladies are part of our KatScrap Studio team!), Jennifer Van Pelt, Carol Lassak, Cheryl Lindsay and our Design Team Leader, Terri Sproul 

Also, you can follow us on Facebook at Sakura Hobby Crafts - make sure to "Like" the page as well!

Karen

She Loved Life Anyway - Distressed Tag

Here's a tag I just created accented with 3D Crystal Lacquer & 3D Colored Crystal Lacquer.  I loved the way it turned out - a little vintage & blingy!  I started with a size 8 manila tag and used Distress Inks in Old Paper, Tea Dye & Barn Door to color.  I roughed up the edges to give it a worn look & used Inkssential applicators to apply the color.  I also misted it just a tad with a mini mister to add an aged look on the distress ink and let dry.

I used Stampers Anonymous stamps from the fabulous flourishes and mini ornates sets for the images on the tag using Tea Dye Distress Ink.  I cut a heart shape from a vintage music sheet from my collection and colored it with Barn Door Distress Ink and glued "She Loved Life Anyway" that had been printed on cardstock, cut apart and distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  Now on to the wings!  Cut from a flea market find book I coated with Crystal Lacquer & sprinkled with fine glitter while wet - and set to dry.  This is the most difficult part - waiting for the Crystal Lacquer to dry!!  I'm not very patient - but the outcome is amazing.  You can see the dimension & shine when it dries and the glitter give is an extra little boost of bling!  I glued the wings under the sides of the heart using Crystal Lacquer (it's a great adhesive!) and then used my Tiny Attacher and stapled in an "X" pattern overlapping the wings and heart - a little steampunk look.

You can see the shine of the Colored Crystal Lacquer here - I just went over the stamped image lines using the brown color.  I love the way it shines and adds dimension to this element on the tag.

I wanted to try Crystal Lacquer on a few different surfaces and I really liked the way it came out on the metal flower at the top of the tag.  I just put a little puddle of the red color on each petal of a metal flower and brown on a metal brad (I sprinkled the brad with glitter).  The words on the LIVE ticket were covered with the clear Crystal Lacquer.  In this photo, you can also see the sparkle of the glitter on the wings - pretty!

A Bonus!

Once I started working with the colored Crystal Lacquer - I couldn't stop!  I made this double paper flower (I used 2 scalloped circles of dictionary pages) and was going to originally use it for my tag.  I wanted to see what the crystal lacquer would look like if I covered the entire flower ( I used red) and as you can see - it turned out awesome!  It's shiny and vibrant and pretty sturdy from the coating of the lacquer.  I used a vantage pearl button for the center.  I love it!  It could be a great addition to a scrapbook page or card, or a pin back could be glued on the back to make a pin or even put on a headband!  I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet.  I do know the most important thing is to be patient and let it dry!  I had worked on my project in the evening and just let it sit overnight.  In the morning - it was ready to go and I could continue working.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my project.  I had a great time working with the Crystal Lacquer products and will continue to experiment with the.!  If you would like more info - just use these links to learn more!

http://www.sakuracraft.com/

http://www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com/

Karen

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a little pocket album that I made today.  For those of you Tim Holtz fans out there, he shared this project yesterday on his blog.  It's created with one little sheet of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, has 6 pages and 3 secret pockets - amazing!  I had never seen this book before, and was really excited to try it.  Hope my sweetie likes it :)

                                               Happy Valentine's Day!

Imaginate Life - Go Ahead....DREAM

I was wandering through the plethora of emails in my inbox this morning - and came across this great website - Imaginate Life.

I think in my haste to get "through" my emails quickly in the past, I never really paid attention to this email - and for some reason today...I took the time and read it.  How many times of you done that yourself??

I was impressed and inspired with the message and information on this website and invite each of you to take some time - quiet time - and check it out.  It's got a great message and offers some fun projects, free downloadables and links to get in touch with what we want in our lives.  You can sign up for weekly and/or daily emails if you want also. I'm creating a DreamBoard myself today and it's been really fun to stop and think about MY DREAMS!

So grab a favorite drink, get comfy, relax and enjoy some YOU time!
http://imaginatelife.com/

Karen

Days 2 & 3 - 12 Days of Christmas 2010

So here we go....I've finally got back to my studio to work on my Tim tags for this year. I wasn't feeling very creative, and was feeling pressured to get these tags done - so I set the idea aside until one evening (why do all our good ideas appear at 2 am??) it came to me what I was going to do this year with Tim's tags - I'm going to make a banner out of them when they are done, so I can display them next year as a decoration! Yeah - I have a plan....I love plans....they make me happy, knowing what direction I'm going in!

I'm improvising BIG TIME this year as I don't have all of the product that Tim used in his demos - but I'm finding it easy to fill in what I have to get the same effects. And, it's forcing me to unpack more of my scrappy stuff, to get to what I want...which is a GOOD THING!

I feel more creative with this process - I'm not just copying what Tim demo-ed - I'm having to come up with my own components and tweeking his designs to fit what I have.
I'm being INSPIRED by his techniques and his samples - and love getting lost in this process. By lost, I mean, I'm totally in the ZONE of creativity - I need to be here more often. It's where I'm most authentically ME!




So here's Day 3 - I didn't have the tissue tape, so I used old sheet music and made a 2-layered scalloped circle flower and
finished it off with an antique mini glass ornament as the center.

I used an AccuCut die for the bird using old sheet music & chipboard and
cut up a gold glittered floral pick of leaves and used it for the nest.

I love the way this one turned out - my FAV so far.

Day 2 tag - Haven't added the ribbon accent yet -
I kind of like it's simplicity and antique look.


Have any of you completed more tags? Go ahead and post them - I'd love to see what you created! I'll be posting more pictures as I get more completed...I'm sure this project will take me awhile and I'm enjoying it's creative journey!
Karen

Day 1 - 12 Tags of Christmas!

I did it! I completed Day 1 of Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas!

This one wasn't easy for me because I had to create most of the pieces myself, I didn't have the house die or the fence die....so I cut them out of grungeboard/grungepaper myself using his samples online as my guide...not to shabby if you ask me. Also, I use a crumpled up brown paper bag for the tree as I didn't have the flower branches he used. My favorite part is the wreath which I made from a piece of glittered leaves that I had in my stash andcut apart and I glued 2 teeny glass ornaments that were in my stash. I love how vintage this tag turned out and I love the little Christmas ticket which I stamped, embossed, colored using distress inks and turned up at one corner to look old. The star is a piece of german scrap that I had bought last year and was also in my Christmas stash........one little footnote here. While I was sparkly fluffing the tree, the jar slipped out of my hand, rolled along the worktable down to my lap which then bounced to the floor. I had to close my eyes and imagined vacuuming up all of it, but it landed right side up, still half full! My lap was very sparkly and fluffy, Phoebe had some on her head (she was laying at my feet while I created) so I jumped into the shower and brushed it all off - I couldn't think of how else to get it off! Next person to take a shower downstairs will have glittery feet :)

Show off your version of Tim's tags and we can have fun discussing how we improvised and what we liked best about the process~
Karen

Get Inspired!

It's Dec. 3rd - and I've been been following  Tim Holtz as he reveals his 12 Tags of Christmas 2010.  It's SO inspiring!  If you haven't heard of Tim Holtz, or his "tag-a-looza" 12 Days of Christmas I encourage you to do so - no matter what style of art you play with.  It's messy and real and his demonstrational techniques are awesome - you see HOW he achieves these cool looks in his tags! 

I've had a cold these last 2 days - so I've been a little slow with starting to actually do a tag yet (I'm still unpacking my craft supplies), but today I feel inspired to at least get my work table cleaned off and supplies ready to go!  I'll be posting my pics of my tags as I catch up and I encourage you ALL to join me!  This is a great way to find a technqiue that you could use for your cards this year, or gift tags, or even make a few gifts! 

Lets all share our art! 
Karen