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

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

Craft Day!

Yesterday was craft day at Karla's with Shawn, Bethany, Beth and Mary...a wonderful way to forget about a cold, dreary day! At craft day, it's our own little world!


We eat lunch at Karla's perpetually beautiful table...


...and the food is always delicious at craft day; we each bring something to share and it turns into an instant feast!

We talk and giggle while we work on whatever projects we brought with us. Yesterday I decided it would be my gluebook...I don't have to think too hard on it or bring a lot of supplies.



(Although.....Shawn, Bethany and I usually ride together and we can pretty quickly load up with lots of crafting supplies...plus our food and other things.)

Sometimes, at craft day, I work on pages for our very casual round robin books, but yesterday I only delivered a page for Mary's that I had done at home...

(front)

(back)

We also talked a lot about Karla's Alice Tag Book Swap...


...and Karla and Beth even started working on their tags (here and here). I think it's going to be a great swap and I'm feeling inspired too--thanks, craft day! (and thanks, Karla!)

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