/* */ Beulah Bee

June 09, 2015

Happy Day

I never realized how much I love
(and miss) plants until I moved
to the desert.

I know I've said it before
but I'll say it again.

I miss green.
I miss my garden, I miss grass.
I miss Spring and Fall.

Living where it never gets cold
was not a good trade and,
if I could, I would move
in a heartbeat.


But for now, I will embrace my cactus (avoiding the thorns) and make art to channel my passion for all things green. Since Simon's Monday blog challenge this week is for the love of plants, I've created this tag to celebrate.


It was an opportunity to use a stamp set I just found at a local rummage sale (without its packaging so I can't credit the maker) and an unusual technique which you may want to try.

I began by stamping and clear embossing the images on a plain manila tag then staining it (liberally) with Distress.

After removing the embossing with an iron and some newsprint (see resist technique step-out and links to tutorials here), I colored the designs with gel pens and a water brush.

I've posted about this painterly process before, here's the link.

I think the stamp design worked well with this technique and it has a kind of batik-like appearance. It was fun to try and I did end up having a happy day making it. My inner-crank about all things desert has disappeared (for now). Thanks Simon!

June 06, 2015

Royalty


One of my favorite pursuits in childhood was playing dress-up. Grandmother gave my three sisters and I many gowns and high-heeled shoes to play with and there was no end to the performances we would put on. The backyard picnic table was our stage.

Those are the memories inspired by the making of this tag which I'm linking to the Monday blog challenge at Simon where this week's theme is royal.

Click to Enlarge
An altered photo and a bit of stamping on a background from the Wallflower paper stash is how I put this one together.

The tint came from colored pencils but I also used a touch of white from a Gelly Roll pen and a bit of Distress ink.

The hardest part?

Making a teeny-tiny crown for the kitty cat!

Tea Zen


The day I discovered the Irish Breakfast variety and learned to add a spot of cream to it, was the day I fell in love with tea. Mind you, I still take in my two or three cups of Joe every morning but there's something about an afternoon tea break that's every bit as satisfying.

So here's my tribute to favorite beverages inspired by this month's 12 Tags of 2015 by Tim Holtz.

The stripes on the bottom-half were created with a hand-made stamp and acrylic paint.

The top half was stamped with an image from Stampers Anonymous called Math Border using Ranger's cobalt archival ink.

The paper bits were cut from Tim's new paper release called Correspondence.

The tiny teacup is another Tim Holtz stamp from a set called Tiny Things that was cut from paper along with a teapot (maker unknown) and tinted with Distress inks.

I used Picket Fence Distress stain to lighten-up several areas and created shadows with a colored pencil.

I added a bit of burlap ribbon for accent along with some Remant Rubs text and used a white Gelly Roll pen to bring out highlights on the flower in the foreground.

I tried to create a sense of depth by using larger images in the foreground along with light and dark colors (value) and diagonal stripes. This bit of "fooling the eye" is a challenge I really enjoy. Along with my favorite hot beverages, of course!