Happy June!

Hello bloggers!  I know that my posts are few and far between lately.  To say that my life has been a little bit of a whirlwind is an understatement.  I've been jet setting and just trying to keep a handle on everything that life throws my way.  Nothing too overwhelming, just crazy busy.  But honestly, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if my life didn't require a safety belt even when not driving.  

Although I have been doing a significant amount of shooting (for someone who doesn't advertise), I decided that it's time to refocus my time on my art.  At least for the summer.  I miss it.  It's just that simple.  It's tough when you have two things that you are very passionate about --for me it's my art and my photography.  I haven't mastered juggling both successfully.  One of them always ends up overwhelming me and not in a good way.  Do you juggle too?  How do you do it?

Anyway, in an effort to kick start my creativity in mixed media I decided to host a tag swap for the month of June at Artsy Fartsy.  Yeah, I said June.  I can't believe we're almost half way through the year of 2013.  But anyway --back to me kick starting my creativity.  Uhhhhhhh...::crickets::  So it didn't jump start quite as quickly as I thought it would but nevertheless I got some tags done.  Woot, woot!  And that's a lot to be happy about.  So let me show you what I made this morning...

Remember you can click on the images to view them larger.

I just love this little guy --he is so cryptic and mystical and well, there's just a whole lot going on with this little fella.  But I can't help but feel sadness when I see him.  The technical stuff:  Mustard Seed Distress Ink all over tag then I cut out a mask of the little guy and positioned it where I was going to stamp him.  Then I covered the entire tag with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  I stamped the vines from the Dylusions line and then I removed the mask and stamped my little Creep.  Yep, this one inspired by Radiohead's "Creep".  I also shaded the edge of the tag using Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I made three pretty identical tags for my swap --they all basically look like this one.  I first covered the entire tag with Peacock Feather Distress Ink and then shaded the edges of the tag with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I wish I could remember who makes the stamp I used for this tag but I don't have that in front of me so I will update it when I have an opportunity.  The hardware is from the Ideaology line and the "journey in time" stamps are from Maya Road's art journaling stamp set.

I love, love, love, love, LOVE the gold stars!  The stars are courtesy of a new stencil by Heidi Swapp.  I positioned the stencil on the tag and then covered the stencil with gold embossing paste by the fabulous Wendy Vecchi.  I actually took one of Wendy's classes last weekend!  But more about that later.  Anyway, I think these stars are the bees knees.  ::big smile::  The final step in these tags was misting perfect pearls innnnnnnn...oh crap, I don't remember the color.  I want to say Sunflower Sparkle but I think that may be incorrect.  Again, will get back to everyone on this.  But I do want to say that the mist and stars added a whole lot of magic to these tags!

This one is oh so pretty --I used my favorite distress ink color, Mustard Seed.  I shaded the edges using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and all other steps mimic the ones already mentioned above.  Pretty neat, eh?

As I mentioned a second ago, I had an opportunity to take a class with the fabulous Wendy Vecchi.  It was a technique class and I'll admit that I knew 75% of what she taught that day but the class was still interesting and I walked away with a bunch of tips and some new techniques.

Alright, I will do my best to not be a stranger.  I will post photos soon from some of my recent shoots and adventures.  Until then...peace, love, and never truly losing your creative spirit.  :)