Technique Tag Book

About a week ago I received my tag book from the Creative Swaps Technique Tags Swap...
All of the tags are beautiful and include directions for the techniques used!

From Laura Hummel in Maryland:


Yvette Snowden, also in Maryland:


Lisa Mallette, studiorose, in Florida:


Lenna Andrews, creativelenna, in Florida:


Marianne Baugher, ruffhavenpaper, Maryland:



Sue Stout, who also lives in Missouri (like me):


Kitty Mitchell in New York:


Rena Matus in Connecticut:


Joy Meadows, fifisdaughter, Ohio:


And my tag, which Lenna used for the cover of my book...


...and I imagine she did the same with the other tag books--making each person's tag the cover of their own book--what a fun idea!

Thanks, Lenna, for a wonderful swap and for your time and care to make it so!

Lenna is hosting a new swap for mail-art if you'd like to give it a try. The details are here. I'm looking forward to it. Mail Art has intrigued me for some time and this will be the perfect opportunity to jump in. There are already over 40 artists signed up and it will be great to see what others create.

Marilyn

Creative Swaps - Technique Tag Book

I met a lot of wonderful artists in the "Your Vintage Gluebook Online Class"...including the lovely Creative Lenna!


One of Lenna's blogs, Creative Swaps, is where she hosts amazing art exchanges--what a find! And lucky for me, sign-ups for the Technique Tag Books Swap had started when I got there.....decorate 10 tags using a particular technique(s)--all the same or each one different--and include directions for the technique(s) on the back of the tags. Then receive back 10 beautiful Technique Tags from other artists--I love this idea!!

I was inspired by a post on iHanna's Blog---"Paint with a Plastic Card".

Using the plastic card, I started with a layer of gesso on both sides of the tag:


Then I added Golden Fluid Acrylic (Raw Sienna) to the front, also with the plastic card. I sprayed a light mist of water onto the paint, let it stand for a moment, then scraped it again.


I added a second layer of paint, repeating the process, this time with Golden Fluid Acrylic (Green Gold).


When the tags were dry, I placed a Tim Holtz Mask (Flourish) on the tag and rubbed Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) around the edges of the mask using a blending tool.


To finish, I added a rubber stamped image with StazOn ink (Timber Brown).


The same paint technique was used on the back of the tag, but green gold for the first layer...


...and Lumiere Pearl Turquoise for the second layer. This time, after spraying the water, I blotted it with a dry terrycloth rag instead of the plastic card. All that was left to do to the backs was add the written technique instructions.


Decorating the envelopes (the actual pages of the tag book) was optional but I was on a roll and had a good mess going already so I started with a layer of gesso to both sides, gold gesso--from Mary who kindly shared some at one of our craft days.


I dry-brushed a metallic blue to the edges of the envelope...


and a metallic red in one corner.


I used white gesso to stamp a swirly design and text around the edges...


and StazOn Jet Black for two more rubber stamp images.


And ta-da, a really fun project!


My Technique Tags are on their way to Lenna and I can now look forward to seeing the completed tag books--I know they're going to be wonderful!

Marilyn

Happy Quilts...

Actually, as I think about it, I've yet to meet a quilt that isn't happy--it's kind of the nature of a quilt. That said, look at this little piece of happiness.


It's made with the 3.5" blocks I received from The Bitty Block Committee swap. The theme was "picnic/bbq". Everyone's blocks turned out so cute that I couldn't wait to get them put together. 3.5 inches...amazing, right?

And how about the fabulous quilty Cindy sent to me for the "Landscapes" swap?!


She titled it "The Hour of Bird Song", that hour right before dawn when you can still see stars in the sky but all the birds have started singing.

Hand quilted. Beads.


Beautiful batiks. Strips of chenille (that Cindy created herself).


And generosity...threads and fabric for my stash and chenille pieces for me to try out.


It was a such a good.....no, great, mail day! And this is the landscape quilt I made and sent to Cindy...


I named it "Lavender Fields", inspired by a friend's vacation photo--one of her sitting on a lovely deck with a glass of wine and mounds of lavender in the background. I would call that a fine vacation moment!

I also want to share with you the name of an incredible textile artist. Kim Eichler-Messmer spoke at the KC Modern Quilt Guild meeting last week. She is fun and innovative and her work is gorgeous! She talked about how she came to work with textiles and how she is inspired. It was fascinating. You can see her work on her website and her blog.

Marilyn

Alice in Wonderland Tags!!

My package from Karla's "Alice Tag Book Swap"
came in the mail today!

It's beautiful--Karla does such a nice job of choosing tags that look good together.


She also painted the picture of Alice for the covers of all the tag books...and added the little "Drink Me" bottle--cute!

(front)

(back)

From Jessica (Kids Napping? I'm Scrapping!).....


From Cami (Creating Myself).....


From Rochelle (Southern Girl...Northern Woman).....


From Hope (Thoughts of Whimsy).....

(front)

(back)

From Ellie (Ella's Edge).....

(front)

(back)

From Amy (Ruby Moon Designs).....

(front)

(back)

A huge THANKS to all of you for your gorgeous tags!!
*******************************************************

These are the six tags that I made for the swap.....


one for Karla for being a sweet hostess.....


and three for myself.....

because it was such a wonderful theme and I was just having so much fun making them!

Marilyn

Happy Valentine's Day!

Smitten? Yep, that's exactly how I feel about this tag book! It's the collaboration of the "Be Smitten" Sweet Tag Swap hosted by Mary Ann McKeating! Twenty-plus pages of Valentine love.....and you can see them all too in a slideshow on Mary Ann's blog.

This is a picture of the tags I made for the swap right before I packaged them up and sent them out...

It was a fun swap---thanks, Mary Ann!!

Rick and I celebrated the day of love with a movie and dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. The food is delicious and the atmosphere is delightful--all of the tables have painted tops, each of them different. This was ours...

...so cool!!

Wishing you much love in your life,

Marilyn

A Very Fine Day, Indeed!

Another fun craft day at Karla's yesterday with Beth, Shawn and Bethany and, of course, Karla.


I worked (maybe 'played' is a better description) on a page for Beth in our "casual" Book Round Robin. I added a pocket to the page for a paperdoll tag...


...and one of the dolly's outfits on the back of the page. It seems I don't put as much stuff on the backs---intentional? or too ready to be done? I'm going to call that one a rhetorical question:)


Beth was working on a pretty centerpiece project that involved a cone. Temporarily, however, the cone became a birthday hat while I was being serenaded...


...and blowing out my candle on this adorable little cupcake!

Thanks guys...it was really very sweet of you!!


I finished up the day working in my gluebook. It's been a long time and I always forget how fun it is.


That off white strip in the lower left corner--it's embossed with the letters N-O-P-Q-R-S-T. It didn't scan all that great and I wouldn't want you to think that I just stuck a random strip of blank paper there, hehee! Although, art being in the eye of the beholder--if 'blank' is more your style, alrighty then:)

Marilyn