"Art is my vehicle through life; may we share the ride together." Ron Wickersham

Saturday, January 15, 2011

LBH Art Group

Yesterday was the first monthly meeting of our new Art Group at The Little Blue House.  We had a three-hour daytime session and repeated it again in the evening.  We had almost a full house and lots of fun! The art group is going to be a technique-based series, learning about and creating many altered projects and including swaps, challenges, round-robin projects and more.  I am really excited about this and hope that this will provide an avenue to get many of us out of our comfort zones, trying new and different art forms.  If you want to learn more, check out the link to The Little Blue House above and make plans to join us if you live nearby!

For the January meeting I altered tags using the 2010 Christmas Tags of Tim Holtz as my inspiration.  I adapted his #6, 11 and 12 tags for Valentines and used a lighter, more feminine palette.

"Key to My Heart" uses an embossed resist technique with a handmade stamp made with an Alterations Edge Die and fun foam.  What fun you can have with this technique - any of your dies could be made into stamps!   I used black Ten Seconds Studio art metal and an Alterations key die as a substitute for an antique skeleton key and sewed lace on the bottom of the tag.



 The background of this tag is covered with a beautiful Valentine paper from Echo Park which is sanded lightly around the edges of the tag and some in the middle to achieve a shabby chic look.  Instead of using Tim's metal corners, I gold-embossed the bottom corners.  The heart was die cut from chipboard with the Winged Heart Alterations Die. Wings were painted white and then overstamped with a script stamp; the solid back heart was covered with white glitter paper and the top filigree heart was painted red and then crackled with Crackle Accents.

This tag uses one of the new Sizzix Valentine embossing folders - a beautiful and intricate chandelier.  I used another of Tim's techniques stamping the embossing folder before embossing (the scrolls).  Once the tag is embossed, the stamped images appear behind the embossed design.  The chandelier was colored with a Cut-n-Dry pen nib (from Ranger) and Black Soot Distress Ink then topped with clear Stickles for sparkle.  TH music tissue tape was pleated and added to the top of the tag and a little hanging jewel attached to the bottom with a jump ring.


Next month we will be making altered hearts!

12 comments:

Joanne Huffman said...

lovely tags.

Diann said...

How I love your tags...just wonderful, Susan! Diann

BR said...

Great tags Susan - I love em...especially the "Love" tag - and I will be back to read more about the ribbon organization...

Robin said...

Very cool tags Susan! Love how you have incorporated so many different techniques into them.

Hugs,
Robin

Unknown said...

I love my tags Susan. thanks for the awesome teachings. I can't wait for next month.

Altered Route said...

Nice tags...I think I am going to haveto get some of that tissue tape!

Barbara Hagerty said...

Gorgeous tags, Susan! I especially love the heart with wings!

Sarah said...

What a nice selection of tags, Susan! I love that touch of vintage you included in each design.

Nancy B said...

Beautiful! Wish I could be there in Texas to play and make these tags too.

Betty said...

Yes, I join up for next month..
Can't wait. Can you do this class again...PLEASE
Betty in Texas

Linda M. Cain said...

Fantastic job. Love the tags!

Linda

Vicki Chrisman said...

Beautiful tags Susan!