/* */ Beulah Bee

January 10, 2015

Together


"Make New Friends and Keep the Old" is the Monday blog challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp. It's also the name of a song I learned in Girl Scouts which was sung "in-the-round" (like Row Row Row Your Boat). I hadn't given it a thought since I was a Brownie xxx years ago ☺ and now I'm having major flashbacks. For you youngsters out there, here's what our uniforms looked like back in the day:


Imagine girls (of any age) wearing gloves today and why did the Brownies wear a manly bright orange neck tie? Strange, yes, but I liked them. Mom, not so much as they were a pain to iron.

The challenge prompted using something old or new so I grabbed the very first stamp I ever purchased, a vintage sunflower from Inkadinkado. It is based on this original engraving:

Click to Enlarge

I applied an image transfer of the girls to a blank tag and before rubbing off the paper, I stamped the background. This way the transfer acts like a mask and saves a step or two. I used distress inks and colored pencils to tint and washi tape for embellishment.

The "new" feature on this tag is the Tim Holtz Remnant Rubs text which I recently acquired and used for the very first time.

If you'd like to know more about the image transfer technique, you can find my tutorial here.

January 04, 2015

Take Aim


Here is my January tag inspired by Tim's 12 Tags of 2015. This month, it's a play on words and I chose mine from the pages of a book. The background is his new tissue paper and I modified one of his index labels to make a bull's eye.

I really like using Tim's tissue paper: It's tough but thin so it's great for pasting, it stands up to abuse and I like that it's barely transparent. But initially, I found it a bit challenging to tint (especially with dye inks) under certain circumstances.

Click to Enlarge
So I'd like to share a new technique I worked out which you may also wish to try. The tissue colors on this tag are distress stains applied to the back of the paper. Since the paper is transparent, they show through and won't be disturbed when you paste or paint on the top side.
I'm so happy the tag tutorials will continue again this year, it's great to see everyone's creations and it makes me feel part of something really special. And, of course, I love making tags! 

January 01, 2015

Giselle in Print


Giselle was the name my French teacher gave me in the 8th Grade. All my classmates received a French name and it was the only one we were allowed to use (no English of any kind spoken ever, please). This is why, when it came time to name this piece, Giselle came to mind.

I'm proud to say she's on Page 121 of the January/February, 2015, issue of Somerset Studio magazine, a publication that features mixed media artwork. The call I responded to was the color lilac which may help to explain why there's so much of it!

I've blogged about this work previously (here) where you can read about the techniques I used. I almost hate to mention it because you'll see the drastic difference in the quality of the photos. Granted, Somerset has professional photographers but I REALLY must improve my skills. No more excuses!