Make your own ephemera, coloring acetate, and vintage slide

These past few days have been so busy in the studio that I almost had to leave a trail of breadcrumbs to find my way back to my desk! There were so many stamp sets, ink pads, paper scraps and tools (not to mention the boxes of things I'm purging as I work to rearrange for more worktop space) that I started to become overwhelmed. Well, we can't have that or the creativity becomes sluggish and eventually blocked. Ack!!! So I spent some time this morning putting some things away and clearing off my desk .... so that I can get back to messing it up again. Hahaha! 

Huge shout out to my newest crafting idol, Crafty by Toni, for her fabulous you tube series this month, Halloween Every Day. I have learned so much and had such a blast and we aren't even a full week in yet. Not to mention, I have yesterday's and todays' projects undone yet. Oops!! I got lost in watching her videos and now I'm tardy! 

Here are a few of the things I've created since yesterday. First this vintage slide. Oh how I love the look of vintage. I got this die through Amazon and it's pretty cool, although bigger than I anticipated. I was so sure I had a smaller on in my stash from years ago, but it seems to have alluded me, or maybe I was just dreaming. Anyway, the window in this one measures not quite 1 1/2 x 2 inches and the label area below is a little more than 1/2inch x 2. Finished overall size is about 2 3/4x2 3/4 inches. 

For the negative film portion, I colored acetate with copic marker to place over the photo. The cool photo is from Tim Holtz Ideaology Sticker Book, this year's Halloween collection. I also used a piece of washi tape, handmade label from a scrap piece with writing on it, and the super cute, tiny little circle tag is a stamp from Heidi Swapp that stamped with the number, cut with a circle punch, and added twine. 

Look how easy it is! Just color a small piece of acetate with copic marker in whatever color you like, and it's just that simple. 

As I mentioned, I created the film with a piece of transparency colored with copic marker. It was just a small piece, so coloring worked great for this. However, I wanted to make a whole sheet in order to have more of the vintage look acetate, but I don't have any of the Tim Holtz alcohol inks. Well, hello, copic ink refills. ALCOHOL INK! This is the result of just brushing on some of the refill ink with a foam brush. It dries fairly quickly and leaves these awesomely cool markings, which are perfect for making vintage slides and negatives. 

Here it is against a plain piece of white copy paper. Please ignore my ink stained nails and fingers. Haha!

But that's not all. This is a technique I have used before, but it's always fun and I never seem to remember how cool it turns out until I do it again. Distress Ink paper dye. I quickly grabbed my baby distress inks (all the full sizes and reinkers are in a box I wasn't going to dig through LOL) and made these. These are the colors Toni used in her video and I love them together so I used the same ones; shabby shutters, weathered wood, and tea dye. After I finished coloring the white cardstock the way I wanted, I blotted the leftover color with a couple of scraps of pattern paper I had handy. No sense wasting it. 

Then I cut out strips and pieces of the cardstock for the next phase of the project...ephemera! 

My goodness, this was fun. I could just sit and make these all day and be happy, if I'm honest. But now look at all the goodies I have premade for adding to journals and pages and projects. I love them!!!

And there you have it. I must now get back to class or I'll never be able to catch up. All the cool stuff I have in my room, it's no wonder I get sidetracked. At least, that's why I tell myself. Hahaha! I hope you're enjoying these projects and maybe even watching Toni's you tube channel for your own inspiration.