Bad to the Bone.

I love to do artwork with skulls and skeletons. I can't help it. I came up with this project inspired by a friend's tattoo. So I decided to create a dimensional skeleton tattoo tag.

This little skeleton is made out of paper clay. Once air dried, I paint it with Lindystampgang red starburst sprays and doused the skull with red sparkly glitter.

I used my tiny punches to make the leaves and used some red flowers to complete the look.

The manila tag in itself is inked with Tim Hotz distress inks and a mixture of Lindystampgang sprays and Lumiere acrylic paint.

Cut out my own banner and edge distress with black soot distress ink and hand wrote the title. Love this tag, it is one of my favorites.

Open My Heart

I decided this Valentine's Day to make something different. I did an acrylic painting on a wooden heart. I painted the first layer with black gesso. Then I did my acrylic painting of one my girls.
Afterwards, I cut in half a paper mache' heart I purchased at Michaels.

Covered the heart with aluminum tape. Followed with embossing and cover that with black acrylic paint. I rubbed off the excess, then rub some copper rub n buff.

Attached the "metal heart" to the wooden base with a pair of small hinges. Made my black feather wings and adorned the heart with shiny silver trim.

You can open or close the heart with the latch I made out of chipboard.

My interpretation of a Heart of Steel but tender inside.

Balsa Wood Boxes!!!

I know many of us out there ,has one time or another encounter that great find!!
Those Balsa wood boxes at Michaels.
I can't help but purchase as much of what is left over in those bins and hoard them. But finally I started to make several of them as "quick" gifts for family or friends.

A gift always appreciated, because of the work and detail I put into these little treasure boxes. Here are a few of my little inspirations.

This year I will try to post more on here. To start with, I will show the work I have been doing since October 2011. Above photo is my Romantic Skull tag. The skeleton is a rubber stamp from Lost Coast Design. This is by far my favorite stamp image, and you will see a lot in my work,

This is a small shadow box Catrina Skull. She is wearing a straw hat filled with paper flowers I made with my miniature flower punches and I used some I am Roses mini roses.
Loved how this one came out, vintage feel and romantic at the same time.








This miniature wood canvas shows a skull with a headband filled with I am roses and Wild Orchid flowers. I wanted to do a 1920's skull and gave it a twist using my paper clay hand holding a flower in honor of the diseased.

The hand has a ring and button that is a rhinestone from a Karlas001 bling trim. I love her products because there are so versatile.

Vinatge Tags

About a week ago, I went to purchase the non stick mat from Ranger.
Awesome product , opened a door to new opportunities in developing new ideas and creations for my work.
So I started to play with my Distress Inks and went to work.
I made a vintage tag called " Sisters".

I used a stamp I purchased at the Carson Stamp Convention from Lost Coast Design. I love this company. Their unmounted rubber stamps are quite unique and by far beautiful.

In this tag, I used the stamp of the two little girls sitting on a wicker chair. Love how this tag came out. I also bought a border stamp called "Dolls", and made little charms out of the images using shrink plastic.

The overall look, came to a success.

The other tag illustrates a suited alligator. This is also a stamp from Lost Coast Design.
Had fun doing the background color. Used a tiny bottle cap for an embellishment. Another cute tag, if I say so myself.

Going Gaga for Lady GaGa.

I decided to go another route and do something out of the ordinary. SO I came up with Lady Gaga Tags. I am a fan, not a huge fan. I just think she is such a colorful person and extremely unique. So I did the first look that everybody started to acknowledge her for, is the triangle dress.
That silver pointy dress and the lightening bolt on her face. The second one is from her music video " Telephone".






I used KARLAS001 rhinestone trim, to surround the tag. I make her leather jacket, I had to use a dark brown textured paper that look like crocodile skin. I added nail art rhinestones and stickles for the glam look. I made the cans in her hair out of paper clay.
I also used the dress form from the Tim Holtz die. I had a ton of fun doing this one. NO flowers was the challenge, so I had to figure out how to embellish it using other items.

As for the Queen of Eveything, wow she came out so cool.
Faces are done in paper clay. I use paper clay on almost every project I do. I love to make my own embellishments. I used small circle mirrors to tie in the silver theme on this tag. Her dress is just cardstock covered in aluminum foil tape. Then I embossed one part of the dress with my cuttlebug.

I will continue making more tags for this collection. I will upload the continuation of the Lady Gaga Tag Extreme on You Tube.

Well, I started to upload my first video about 4 weeks ago. I won the 1,000 subscriber give away that Tim Coffey did. I was so excited because I truly love his artwork. I have both collection of the Cottage garden now. The cool and the warm tones.
I emailed Mr. Coffey and told him that my first You Tube video will be on his honor using the winnings of the give away.
I pondered a lot about how I can have the viewer focus on the beauty of his flowers. So the mini face flowers were born!
I used a mold from AMACO called the Victorian mold. I only used one face, but I would tweak the face. Enhanced the smile, eyebrows and noses. Gave them personality and charisma.
I used a lot of the Lindy Stamp Gang starburst sprays. I also love to include pop up embellishments. I like to have the art stand out and have dimension. Can't help it and I seem to do this through out my projects.