Jouney through the Garden State

I belong to a yahoo group, All Things Tim (that's Tim Holtz of course) and joined a 6" x 6" chunky page swap, Journey around the world. We were to illustrate on our page what is unique to our little part of the world. My page has all things New Jersey - or almost! Did you know NJ's state colors are Buff and Jersey Blue, the state bird is the Gold Finch, State Flower is the Field Violet, and the state nickname is the Garden State? New Jersey is also the home to "the Boss" Bruce Springstein who I went to High School with so I though I would use his HS picture that he signed (he said he would never forget me. HAH!!!) as the center point. The frame was cut on my Cricut (I needed 34 of them!) from cardstock that I doubled. Then I painted the frame with white glue and sprinkled Gold UTEE on it and applied heat. Love the texture. The crown is a mold from Ranger's Mold and Pour of a pin cast in clay then painted and colored with Alcholol Inks. The houses (we are the most densly populated) are Sizzix Tim Holtz on the Edge Die. The edges are covered with printer paper that I covered with facts about NJ and printed on a buff background with blue ink. The bird was also cut with the Cricuit, embossed with Ranger EP and colored with Distress Ink (as were the houses). The lace flowers were colored with Distress ink. The fabric flower was made using Sizzix dies (also Tim Holtz and others). The center metal flower is a Tim Holtz covered with Ranger Embossing Powder. The dangles are a Tim Holtz Fragment (the Garden State), the heart is from a score in the clearance aisle at AC Moore. It is rusted metal that I embossed with NJ in Distress Tea Stain EP. I did the same with the butterfly (please note: the state insect is the honey bee but I couldn't find any of them in quantity so the butterfly agreed to substitute!). The background is Cardstock that I dry embossed.

The back of the page has Pine Trees (signifing the Pine Barrens) from a Tim Holtz embossing folder that I colored with Distress ink and cut out. The base is newspapger (Asbury Park Press actually). The page background is the Real Estate Ads for NJ colored with Distress Ink. I added my business card, a printout of the state stamp that was issued in 2003(?) and a postage stamp. Hope those who receive them like them!

I also made an ATC - my first! with some stamps from Stamp Camp http://www.stampcamp.com I bought at the Stamp Show a few weeks ago. LOVE these stamps. I used the Harlequin Stamp for the background and embossed the black. I then stamped the flowers from Tim's Flights of Fancy Collection and embossed them in Gold. The Crown is a $1 stamp from Michaels, the vines a Sizzix die, the flowers are Distress Stained Vellum and cardstock cut with punches. Lot of stuff in a 2.5 x 3.5" area!