E-Team Special Mission: Adirondack Alcohol Ink!

The eclectic Paperie E-Team is back with another installment of our "It's Better with Color!" series, and this time around, we're playing with one of the most AWESOME products in this quadrant of the galaxy: Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks!!!

Alcohol Ink is one of those products every paper and multimedia crafter needs to have on hand. It's so versatile, reliable and easy to work with, and there are countless ways to utilize it in your art. Heck, you can even use it on glass, like I did here:

This little sun catcher was made using Ranger's Adirondack Fillable Pens, filled with Alcohol Inks in Raspberry, Meadow, Lemonade and Butterscotch.

I stamped the butterfly on a 2 x 2" piece of Ranger Inkssentials Clear Memory Glass using Adirondack Pitch Black Pigment Ink, and set the ink with my heat tool. Then I flipped the Memory Glass over so the stamped side was down, and colored the image using the Alcohol Ink filled-pens. Coloring on the back of the stamped glass means you never need to worry about smearing your outline, and if you change you mind about colors you can simply wipe the glass clean with a little Alcohol Ink Blending Solution and start all over.

After coloring, I just slipped the glass into a Memory Frame, added some Idea-ology Baubles and Link Chain, and voila! A little swinging color for my kitchen window.

This is a great way to make jewelry, too. The stained glass effect is beautiful as a pendant.

As with all our E-Team blog hops, my co-designers have created some gorgeous art to inspire you. Oh... there are prizes to be won, too!

The eclectic Paperie E-Team is:

Daisy Sparks, our Fearless Leader

Linda Ledbetter (That's me!)

Micki Harper

Sherry Cheever

Starla Nelson

Be sure to visit each designer's blog and leave a comment, because Daisy will be choosing FOUR winners randomly from among the comments, and those people will each receive at $20 eclectic Paperie gift voucher. But wait... there's more! One winner who comments at the eclectic Paperie blog will win a gift pack including assorted colors of Alcohol Inks, a bottle of Blending Solution, an Ink Blending Tool... and some extra surprises! You have from now through July 4 to leave your comments, and the winner will be announced on the eclectic Paperie blog on Tuesday, July 5.

(Broni Holcombe,  Linda Duke and new mom Latrice Murphy weren't able to participate this time, but please drop by their blogs and see the wonderful things they've been creating!)

Even MORE good news: All Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks are 20% off at eP right now, so it's a great time to stock up (which you'll want to do once you get all inspired by the cool creations of my teammates!).

Thanks for stopping by!

Grungy Monday 13!

With Special Guest Star Designers:

Celina Matthews

Suzanne Bouchard

Welcome to the Lucky 13 Edition of Grungy Monday! This week, we're heading over to one of my favorite places in the real world and online: Ranger Ink! I bet you enjoy Tim's instructional videos as much as I do, so I'll stop yammering so you can check out this week's challenge, as presented by Mr. Holtz himself:

Tim Holtz Demonstrates

Adirondack Alcohol Inks!

I've been looking forward to this challenge for weeks. I absolutely LOVE Adirondack Alcohol Ink. It's so much fun to work with and has that wonderful and rare quality of being perfect on non-porous materials like glass, metal and plastic. And, those colors! Vibrant, clear... gorgeous! 

How 'bout we check out our Guest Star Designers' spectacular art? Huge accolades to: 

Celina Matthews

of Scrap Vamp

Suzanne Bouchard 

of La Maison de Plume

Are those gorgeous, or what? Please be sure to follow the links to our Guest Artists' blog and leave them some comment love. Suzanne and Celina, you are rock stars!

Here's mine:

Ready to get all alcohol inky? I love this stuff! Follow the link above to bask in Tim's video inspiration, then create your own awesome version and link it up here using the InLinks button at the end of this post. You'll need to have a blog or an online, public photo album to link from. Don't forget to include the link to Tim's video in your post or photo description!

Remember to add your masterpiece to the Grungy Monday photo album at All Things Tim, a Yahoo Group especially for Tim Holtz fans! Lovely List Mom Gloria and the gang there are wonderfully supportive and incredibly creative. If you haven't joined yet, hop on over and do it!!!

Have a spectacular week, everyone!
---------------------

Drunken Stampers Raise a Glass to YOU!

Well, even the best parties have to end, at least long enough for the attendees to get the lampshades off their heads and find their way home, and in that spirit, the Drunken Stampers have decided to close up the lounge for the summer. We're taking July and August off to recharge our batteries, and to celebrate a lazy (-ish) summer, we're keeping Challenge #73 open until we reconvene in September. Oh, the theme of that challege? Why, it's Fruity Cocktails!

Okay, yes, I cheated a little, in that a Frambozen Raspberry Brown Ale isn't technically a cocktail, but it's a lot easier to etch a big, straight-sided beer mug than a curvy margarita glass. I made this mug for Scott, one of the world's most accomplished appreciators of beer (although he'd never touch anything as girly as Frambozen). I cut the kitty shapes out of vinyl with my Silhouette SD, and used the negative as a stencil. Etching glass is SO easy-- you just apply the stencil, glob on the etching compound and let it do its job. Then lather, rinse, but don't repeat.

In fact, the only thing hard about this project was getting a photo. As you can tell, it took so long the Frambozen went flat. Sigh.

Thanks so everyone who's played along with our challenges for the past year and a half, and don't forget to submit your own Fruity Cocktail art at Drunken Stampers before the end of August. We'll look forward to seeing you in September, and hope you all have a spectacular couple of months!

Cheers to you!

Gingersnap Creations: The Color of Money!

Over at the Gingersnap Creations blog, we host a monthly Color Challenge, and to wrap up our June theme of "Shopping," it's natural that we'd go for the greenbacks! In the interest of authenticity, I used actual money (and look-- now I have a savings account!). ;-)

I went through an origami phase a few years ago and learned to fold a few simple designs. I have no idea who originally came up with this little dress, but it's a two-piece outfit with one dollar folded into the blouse, and another into the skirt. It's mounted onto two coasters streaked with Adirondack Dye Ink, the foreground piece in Clover and the background piece in Bottle. I used green Twinery string for the lace.

I hope you'll pop over to Gingersnap Creations if you haven't already, and check out the wonderful art my co-designers came up with for our "Color of Money" challenge. And, I hope you'll join in! You can submit your art anytime before July 24, and we can't wait to see what you create!

Grungy Monday 12!

With Special Guest Star Designers

Alison Hall

Linda Hoffman

Is it just me, or does it seem like time itself has had too much caffeine lately? Wasn't it just, I dunno, Valentine's Day? And here we are, on the cusp of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. Whatever this Midsummer's Eve brings you, I hope it's filled with joy and heralds in an entire season of blossoming creativity!

I've been having a blast reading older posts from Tim Holtz's blog and finding all kinds of fabulous techniques from years past. This week's challenge is another from 2008 (a very prolific year for our favorite crafting guy!), and while it has quite a few steps, it's really quite easy and a lot of fun! Remember, it's not necessary to copy the project step by step. Instead, let the technique inspire you, then put your own wonderful and unique spin on it!

Tim Holtz Blog Technique Challenge, April 2008

If you can't access the technique by clicking the link above, paste this URL into your browser's address bar:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/04/april-technique.html

I'm so excited to share the work of this week's brilliant Guest Star Designers, both of whom did an absolutely amazing job with this challenge! A standing ovation to:

Alison Hall

Craftytrog's Inky Adventures

Linda Hoffman

Scrappin' Bears' Studio

Gorgeous projects, ladies! Everyone, please be sure to follow the links to Alison and Linda's blogs and give them some comment love!

Here's my own piece: 

Click here for my product list.

Ready to try this fun technique? I know you'll rock it! Follow that link above to get the instructions from Tim himself, and link your masterpiece here using the InLinkz button at the end of this post. You'll need to have a blog or an online, public photo album in order to participate. This challenge is open until 8pm MDT next Sunday, June 26. You must include the link to this technique on Tim's website in your blog post or photo album!

Don't forget to add your image to the Grungy Monday album at All Things Tim, where lovely List Mom, Gloria, has created a space especially for these challenges! It's a great way to share your enthusiasm for Tim's art, and make some awesome new friends, too!

And, with that, I'll wish you all a wonderfully creative and happy week, and look forward to seeing your beautiful creations! Happy summer, everyone!

---------------------

Happy Fathers Day, Dad!

My dad is cool. For one thing, he's a stand-up kind of guy. Honest, hard working... you know, all those qualities you expect from a man you'd call "Dad." He's a pretty darn good friend, too.

The third of six kids born to Clarence and Elma in the Ozarks of Arkansas, John Baty Ledbetter grew up tinkering with machinery, playing in his family's gospel group, and (I'm only guessing at this) dreaming of a strapping son to take hunting and play basketball with. The fact that his only child ended up being a non-athletic, vegetarian daughter is, no doubt, one of life's little ironies, but one that he's embraced with good-humored resignation.

Dad was a handsome kid with green eyes and a wicked sense of humor, and I don't doubt that he caught the eye of many a southern belle during his high school years. He played basketball and apparently wore dapper bow ties off the court, and I don't think there was ever a time in his life when he wasn't working, whether on the family's farm or in the workshop. 

When Dad was ready to venture out on his own, he moved to Little Rock and put all that tinkering experience to good use in his job as an office equipment sales and service man. It was there that he was introduced to Miss Patricia Couch, the beauty who would become his wife.

Dad served his country in the National Guard, and worked hard to prepare for the adventure to come (fatherhood, I mean), until that fateful December morning when his life was forever changed by a six-pound, three-ounce bundle of opinionated unpredictability (yeah, that would be me). The poor man. I mean, I seemed so small and harmless at that time...

Perhaps feeling the need for more personal space, Dad moved his little family to the open rangeland of southern Idaho when I was two, and that's where I grew up. Without question, his little girl pushed every button, tested the very limits of human patience... and just plain wore him out. But, he persevered, providing a safe and happy home, Barbie dolls in the early years and Bee Gees albums later on, and never failing to love me, no matter how opinionated and unpredictable I might be acting.


I remember my dad watching Monday Night Football and trying to explain what a "first down" is. I never quite got it. I remember him picking up a guitar that I'd bought with money I earned selling Christmas cards, and, to my amazement, playing it perfectly. I remember him taking in a baby squirrel that had fallen from its nest, and I remember him incredulously questioning my choice in boyfriends. And, I remember him teaching me to drive in an AMC Pacer on the icy winter roads south of our little town. It's a wonder he didn't have a heart attack. In the end, he survived, but I don't think the clutch did.

He even made it through my high school years, although he does appear to be sneaking a quick nap in my graduation photo...

It wasn't until he was in his late 50s that Dad discovered what was to become his life's passion: Restoring small antique gasoline engines. I'm not sure quite how it began, but I remember visiting one weekend and seeing that he'd somehow acquired a garage full of rusty, decrepit little engines, many of which were already undergoing the process of being transformed into a driveway full of beautifully renovated, fully functional little treasures. As the years have passed, his part-time hobby has blossomed into a full-time vocation, one that brings him a great deal of joy, a community of like-minded friends, and considerable notoriety in the Antique Gasoline Engine world, where he's known as "Two Engine John." He helps new enthusiasts learn the ropes and displays his latest renovations at the County Fair every year. He even has his own blog where he shows his "before and after" photos. He's an amazing craftsman, and I'm very proud of him.

Dad, thanks for keeping me safe and teaching me to look out for myself. Thanks for loving me no matter how maddening I was. Thanks for giving me everything I needed and a lot of stuff I didn't need but wanted, anyway. Thanks for letting me make my own choices and taking care of me when those choices turned to be all wrong. Thanks for a million little things, and most of all, for always being there for me. I love you very much.

Happy Father's Day! You are the best.

Click the image to read the article!

Drunken Stampers Get a Photo Opportunity!

Ahhh... Saturday. And, it's hours from summer, according to the calendar hanging on the wall at the Drunken Stampers Crafting Lounge, but the weather here in Idaho apparently didn't get the memo. As I sit here at my neighborhood Starbucks with a very hot drink, watching through the window as the perma-gray sky empties its watery contents onto the pavement, I dream of a shady oasis on a sweltering afternoon, a scene of genteel elegance and luxury so high-falutin' in its presentation it could only come from one place: the Pottery Barn catalog.

As you've no doubt surmised, we're hosting a photo-inspiration challenge this week, based on that pretty picture above, and we'd love to see what you make of it! Go with color, go with geometry, go with something totally abstract-- it's all good.

This photo-opportunity challenge is open through next Friday, June 24, and we're looking forward to your inspired creation! Check out the fab art of my Drunken Stamper teammates, then come join the party (rain or shine)!


All inks are Ranger Archival (the new colors are AMAZING!). Stamps are by Tim Holtz and Hero Arts. 

Grungy Monday 11!

Featuring Special Guest Star Designers

Dan99

Deborah Mahnken

Welcome to a new week and new Grungy Monday challenge, everyone!

I try to leave my personal life out of these challenge posts, but I just have to share this with you guys, since you feel like old friends. For the past couple of months, I've been putting a lot of time into a huge project at my "day job" as Member Services Coordinator at the Boise Co-op (a big gourmet and natural foods store). We've been through some serious managerial upheaval this year, and as a way of marking a new era, we decided to host a free dinner for our members. Well over 2,100 people RSVP'd! YIKES!

Once we finished hyperventilating, my co-organizers (including the crew from an awesome local nonprofit called Life's Kitchen) and I put our heads together and came up with a plan that, I'm delighted to say, worked better than we could ever have hoped. The dinner finally happened this past Wednesday, and it was a success! It really was! Here's a link to the photos if you'd like to see the end result: Boise Co-op Member Appreciation Dinner 2011. 

The extra-good news is, I'll have a lot more time now for my crafting and blog friends. I so appreciate your patience with my blog visit delays and slow response time for emails.

Okay, enough of that. Let's get rolling with Grungy Monday 11, and take another hop back in time to Tim's blog for this beautiful bit of inspiration:

Tim Holtz Blog, January 2008

Technique Challenge

I'm delighted to introduce you to this week's Special Guest Star Designers, both of whom created something magnificent for Grungy Monday 11. A round of applause for:

Dan99

of My Crafty Life

Deborah Mahnken

of Method Playground

Beautiful work, Dan and Deborah!

Here's mine...

Please click here for a list of the products I used. 

Follow that link above to learn how to make your own richly-colored, faux batik piece, then add it to the collection here using the InLinkz button at the end of this post. You'll need to have a blog or an online, public photo album in order to participate. This challenge closes at 8pm MDT on Sunday, June 19. 

Please remember, you really MUST mention that this is a Tim Holtz technique in your blog post or photo comments, and include the link to the technique from his blog. Submissions that don't meet this requirement will be removed. It breaks my heart to have to unlink anyone's art, so please follow this one little rule and all will be well.

Remember, too, to add your photo to the Grungy Monday album at All Things Tim, where fabulous List Mom, Gloria, has created an easy way for you to share your work and make some wonderful new friends!

Have an absolutely wonderful week, everyone! I can't wait to see what you create for Grungy Monday 11!

Thanks to Deborah and Dan for their gorgeous Design Team samples!

-----------------

Drunken Stampers See Orange!

Over at the Drunken Stampers Challenge Blog, we're painting the lounge walls orange in celebration of this week's challenge! Seriously, who doesn't love this happy, uplifting, half-red/half-yellow cog on the ol' color wheel?

You might notice that I kind of plagiarized myself on this piece, in that it's remarkably similar to a cooler-toned card I posted earlier this week. I'm really enjoying making little Grungepaper envelopes right now and riveting them onto cardstock, and I just wasn't ready to give up on this particular design. So, yeah, I re-did it in orange tones. I even played with a wood burning tool and didn't set the studio on fire. Cheers to that!

My Drunken Stamper teammates have created some fabulous art for this challenge, and I hope you'll check it out and then create your own orange-y masterpiece to share. This challenge is open through next Friday, June 17!

Have a fabulous, sunshine-laden week!


The Deets:
I used Tim Holtz's Retro Circles embossing folder on the Grungepaper and the Ranger Inkssentials Metal Foil Tape, and carried the pattern onto the background with a stamp from Tim's Bitty Grunge set. The "Thank You" was wood-burned into the little tag. I used Adirondack Dye inks in Terra Cotta, Rust, Sunset Orange, Espresso and Pesto on the papers, and Pitch Black Paint Dabber on the embossed metal.

Grungy Monday 10: Distress Ink-o-Rama!

Featuring Special Guest Star Designers

Karen Matthews

Marjie Kemper

Good Monday, Tim fans, and welcome to Grungy Monday 10! I hope you all had a fabulous week, and are enjoying this new month (whatever kind of weird things your weather might be doing!). Your work for Grungy Monday 09 was just spectacular, and I'm still making the rounds of your blogs and having my socks knocked off by the wonderful things I'm seeing. Well done, you guys-- truly, you're awesome!

This week, let's get loose and have fun with a product challenge everyone can enjoy, a celebration of what may well be the crown jewel of Tim Holtz's many incredible creations:

DISTRESS INK!

That's right. Make whatever you wish, go nuts and have a blast using any combination of Distress Inks you like! Our Special Guest Star Designers certainly did, and they created two absolutely amazing works of art for GM10. Give it up for:

Karen Matthews 

of the Paperfanatic blog!

Marjie Kemper

of the She Who Stamps and Scraps blog!

Here's my own Distress Inked-up piece:

Once you've created your own spectacular homage to Distress Ink, use the InLinkz button at the end of this post to add your image to the collection. You'll need to have a blog or an online, public photo album in order to participate. This challenge closes at 8pm MDT on Sunday, June 12.

Please remember: You MUST mention Tim Holtz, the creator of Distress Ink, in your post or photo comments, and include a link to his website (www.timholtz.com). Submissions that don't meet this requirement will be removed. 

What's the best discussion group on the entire Yahoo Groups roster? Why, it's All Things Tim, moderated by the fabulous Miss Gloria, and populated by the coolest group of Tim fans on the planet. If you're not a member there, you're missing out on some awesome friendships, not to mention all kinds of insider tips and great ideas for making your Tim-themed art even better! Gloria has created a photo album especially for Grungy Monday, and you're welcome to upload your art there and learn from the work of other members. It's free, it's fun... get on over there! 

Okay, guys, let's hit it! I know you'll make some amazing Distress Ink magic! Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you on the internet.

Huge thanks to Karen and Marjie for their sensational art!
------------------

Getting Mall-ed with the Gingersnaps and Altered Pages!

It's a new month, and that means a new theme at the Gingersnap Creations blog! For June, we're teaming up with the fabulous folks at Altered Pages to explore the womanly art of buying stuff. It seems as though a lot of men just don't get shopping as a recreational activity, but most women, I suspect, will concur when I say that it's therapeutic. As Carrie Bradshaw famously said, "Shopping is my cardio."

I used the Altered Pages "Fashion Ladies" collage sheet for this simple and snarky digital greeting card, dropping in some text and a few Photoshop-created buttons. I upped the contrast a little to really bring out those vintage-y discolorations in the background, and used a burlap texture filter on the background.

For the record, I do not own a German Beer Frau costume.

We'd love for you to join this challenge, and if you do, you just might win a cool gift package from Altered Pages! To be in the running, simply create your own "At the Mall"-themed piece and link it at Gingersnap Creations by July 3 (that's right-- July. Can you believe that's only a month away?!).

Have an awesome rest of the week, everyone!