Altered File Folder - start to finish

Yes I know I promised this a couple of months back BUT life got in the way ... so now I have deleted that post and this is one that goes from start to finish...

1. I used old manilla file folder with tabs but you can use any of them that don't have a plastic coating ... I took my spray inks and spray box out to the garage and did it up good ... I didn't like the splats it produced and didn't leave much solid coverage so I got a gauze rag I had and started kind of spreading the ink around ... I kind of splatted it also from my re-inker bottle ... I wanted an aged look, you could also do coffee spills, rings and such ... then spray for a more antique look

OH, I have used several images of folders they are NOT of the same folder going thru all the stages ... as always click on the image to enlarge

2. Then take the dry folder to the paper cutter and cut it in half ... yes only one side will have a tab unless you happened to use the folder with the middle tab

3. Now take these to your craft sewing machine and sew around the edges so you make a pocket out of the 1/2 folders ... I chose to use zig-zag and straight stitches ... because the bottom was a fold I didn't stitch around that and I left long strings on both ends for my stitches ... then I did the edges with more ink

4. I pulled out things I thought would make me happy and started arranging them to please my eye and glued them down to the front of the folder ... I ended up making 4 of them they are so much fun to make and I used up lots of my extras from other projects ... I put a long envelope that I cut the end off of and put a notch in it to have a place for other things, down first then built on that ... 

Now go make some that you can enjoy .... oh the lady that is on all of them happens to be from a deck of cards I got several years ago from ArtChix and not sure you can get them anymore ... 

Now it's time to start Christmas cards

These are a few I have done so far ... simple and fun ...

Second Book in RR

ok I have now finished book 2 of this Round Robin ... the theme was "Face Off" but not as extreme as the TV program ...

This one is Mother Nature and her Fairy helpers - my drawn faces

This one is Beauty in Simplicity - done with Tim Holtz crayons and Inks

Working on Fall ...

Making a very simple card but getting a pretty good punch out of colors of Fall ...

my interpretation of one I saw on Pinterest 

I have been playing around

Got some Tim Holtz Crayon's and I have been playing with them ... these are some samples (I stapled them to papers that have the technique on them) ... they are not card fronts but I will be doing some as card fronts .... I didn't enjoy doing all of these but there are some I am sure I will over and over again ...

this is crayon gesso fresco - the yellow, green and red one is the way Tim does it but the purple, blue and yellow is my way ... which I will do again and again

this is crayon micro glaze resist

this is ink micro glaze resist, I like this better I think

this is crayon, texture smudging 

this is crayon water coloring with ink and water splats ... I LOVE this one I can finally do water coloring ... I am so heavy handed that I have never been able to get a water color effect but this way I can ... I will be using this lots

this is crayon textured resist ... I kind of like this one also so I will probably be doing it again

this is crayon layered coloring ... not so sure I did it well or will do it again much

this is an ink over ink technique but I did crayon smudge over ink kind of looks like faux pastel ... I stamped in white ink then stamped in color ink then accented in crayon and smudged that ... I like it lots so will be doing more of that and as you can see I turned this one into a card ...

Catch up Post

Gee it's been quite a while since I posted so guess I will do several photo's of projects today ... I will start with the spoon flower with fork stamens ... using the blow torch and shaping the white spoons and fork then I used Tim Holtz Alcohol ink to color the stamens ... all glued to a canning lid ...

and some of the cards I did back before the previous posts ... 

French knot flowers

just fun colorful card

Printed on canvas then sewn on to gel mediumed and phone book pulled paper

Last of the Christmas cards

These are for our grands ...