Thursday, December 24, 2009

Tag Tuesday - Shaped Tag

Here is a snowflake tag for this week's challenge at Tag Tuesday. The base is a Maya Road sheer snowflake. One side is alcohol inked and the other side is stamped with one of my new favorite flourish stamps (how can I ever pick just ONE favorite flourish stamp?) by Stampers Anonymous, and I've found that you can heat emboss the sheer base if you're very careful. The other stamped images are from Oxford Impressions. I don't think I've ever been able to post an entry to this challenge so early - it's so good to take a day off!! Merry Christmas to all!!!!!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Projects using the St. Nicholas stamps

In between all my other getting ready for Christmas activities I took some time to play with the new Christmas stamps from Oxford Impressions called "St. Nicholas". The first picture is of 3 gift tags using a distress inked background flicked with water droplets then overstamped with images from the sheet. Very quick and simple to do. I added some star garland bits to the top.

The other piece is a canvas that I've layered with various things. The background started with weathered wood crackle paint rubbed with faded jeans distress ink then toned down with some sponged on white paint. It looks really wintery. The next part is the St. Nicholas stamp embossed onto stampbord then colored with watercolors - most were Twinkling H2O's - wonderfully shimmery in real life. I used black dresden scrap, but covered it with a silver paint dabber creating more of a pewter look. I really liked this method better than coloring it with a Krylon pen. The final element is the acetate snowflakes that have picket fence Stickles on them - another part of this piece that is really shimmery in real life.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and I hope you're doing better than I am at getting things done for Christmas - I still have a tree to decorate.....I've still got 5 days left, right?

Ready-Steady-STAMP! Christmas banner

Here is the 4th and final banner for the RSS Christmas banner challenge. The ingredients are: 1: Santa, 2:your colours, 3: self-adhesive pearls, 4:torn paper, and 5: music score. My stamped images are from Oxford Impressions and Stampers Anonymous. While working on this entire project, I was worried that the four wouldn't all fit together, and even though there are parts I would've done differently had I done them all at once and tried for a unified look, I think their eclectic kind of vintage-y look is ok. What do you think of the entire group?

Sunday Postcard Art - Christmas

Here is my postcard for the Christmas theme at Sunday Postcard Art. My stamps used are all from Oxford Impressions - the main images stamped and cut out on grungeboard are from the newest set "St. Nicholas".

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The Artistic Stamper Tagtastic Blog Candy



I've been having so much fun visiting sites where people have posted their versions of the Tim Holtz 12 Tags and I kept seeing this picture for 12 giveaways of cool Ranger products from Jennie of the Artistic Stamper. You can enter her contest by emailing a picture of your tags or posting a comment with a link to your blog where you've posted your pictures. All the details are HERE.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The 12 Tags of Christmas (part 4)

I got all 12 tags finished and just wanted to share the results- what fun to play with all those different techniques!

Day 10: Love using metal foil tape over cardstock and adding alcohol ink. I've done it with cardstock and chipboard shapes and letters, but with the thickness of grungeboard you really get a nice, deep embossed look.

Day 11: I don't have an i-top, but I achieved the same effect by cutting out the sticky back canvas into the same flower-like shape achieved by their punches and templates and using it to cover buttons. I remember using that to make coordinating fabric buttons for a dress a long time ago. I have not liked the look of paper folded over a button or brad - even with the i-top, because the edges don't look smooth, but with the sticky back canvas you can really mold it into your circle shape. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous and Oxford Impressions.

Day 12: I really like making the grungepaper roses. I didn't vary too much from Tim's tag - those flowers are just so impressive - and kind of addicting to make!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The 12 Tags of Christmas (part 3)

Here are days 7, 8 and 9 of the 12 Tags of Christmas and I think these are some of my favorites.

Day 7: This tag had a cool stamped grungeboard truck and christmas tree on the example, but I didn't have the right stamps. My version uses more stamps from the St. Nicholas set from Oxford Impressions, and I stamped the girls and sleigh on grungeboard. Halfway through cutting out all the open space between the runners with an x-acto knife I thought I could've left it uncut, but I couldn't stop halfway. I think cutting out 3 square windows on the truck in the example would've been MUCH easier! This background was also a favorite: dictionary paper adhered with multi-medium, masking tape adhered then slowly pulled off making the words less prominent, then distress inking the whole thing. Stamps: Oxford Impressions, Stampers Anonymous, and Inkadinkado.

Day 8: This is another where I didn't have a lightpost stamp so I chose to go with a collage using my husband's photo of a lightpost outside of one of the mansions in Newport, RI. I also used a piece of a vintage french postcard from French Kissed for the building/house - seemed ornate enough to go with that gorgeous lightpost. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous and Stampabilities.

Day 9: Because you could download the photos used in this tag from Tim's blog, mine looks very similar to his this time. I had not had a chance to use the filmstrip ribbon, so this was a fun trial with it. The photos made me think of the movie "A Christmas Story" and all the kids standing in line at the department store to sit on Santa's lap (quite a few of them crying when they did) and the kid behind Ralphie says "I like Santa". I'm sure the kid on Santa's lap actually thought that BEFORE he sat down. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous.

Hope all of your Christmas projects are going well - and stay tuned for the final 3 tags!

The 12 Tags of Christmas (part 2)

More of my tags from the 12 Tags of Christmas - these are days 4,5 and 6.

Day 4: This was a fun one to make! I loved the little house charm made with memory glass and a memory frame. I used the 1x3 size in order to fit the metal corner used as a roof. I didn't have any of the memory capsules so I used a piece of plastic packaging - one side was slightly open so I just had to be careful while the glossy accents dried that I didn't pour out the glitter, but once in the frame, the frame edge covered the gap. I also really liked creating the collage-look background with various stamps - great vintage look. Stamps: Oxford Impressions, Tin Can Mail, and Sugar Lump Studios.

Day 5: I just loved his idea to use fragment charms for Christmas balls! That little bit of foil tape for the top just makes it perfect. I loved this idea so much I used it in the RSS Christmas banner a couple posts back. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous, Penny Black, Inkadinkado.

Day 6: This tag allowed me to try out the new St. Nicholas stamps from Oxford Impressions. Such a great Santa stamp in that set! I also really liked the paint resist with the flourish - have used that technique many times. I did find that when you overstamp the snowflakes in distress ink it's really important to just blot the ink from the paint rather than lightly rub - it will smear with rubbing. Stamps: Oxford Impressions and Stampers Anonymous.

The 12 Tags of Christmas (part 1)

How many of you are playing along with Tim Holtz and his 12 Tags of Christmas? I've wanted to with the previous two years but didn't, so I thought I'd try this time. Making a tag following his examples has been fun stress relief after work...although I'm not really getting any of my Christmas CARDS that I need to send out done........maybe I should sent out Christmas TAGS? Hmmmm........ Anyways, I think the great thing about his tutorials on his blog are the techniques he shows - it's always fun to learn something that you can use in other projects, and it can also be fun to come up with a suitable substitute when you don't have what he's using. These are the tags I made for days 1,2 and 3.

Day 1: Stamps are from Stampers Anonymous. This was my first time using Rock Candy Distress Crackle - I seemed to get a fine crackle that's not real obvious even with inking. Has anyone tried a really thick application? Did it give a better crackle?

Day 2: I loved the flecks from the gold Perfect Pearls and water mix, and his idea with the dimensional metal rose was so cool. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous and Inkadinkado.

Day 3: I ended up with this subtle plaid background using alcohol inks on glossy cardstock. Some of the colors I tried were way to vibrant for my tastes. I thought the overall look with the with paint stamped splatters was like a snowy woods scene. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous and Stampin' Up.

I hope if you're playing along that you'll leave comments about how the various techniques are working out for you. Have fun with your Christmas creating!

Ready-Steady-STAMP christmas banner #3

Here is part 3 of 4 for the RSS Christmas banner challenge. Ingredients are 1:Christmas baubles, 2: your colours, 3:organza, 4:dry embossing, and 5:cord. My favorite part of this one is a Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Cristmas technique for my Christmas baubles using fragment charms with another line of Joy To The World music attached to the back, rub-ons spelling NOEL on the top, and then the silver foil tape to create the tops. I think it's a cool look for the fragments. I stamped a Stampers Anonymous scroll onto the organza/sheer ribbon at the top, and I think you can see the texture on the dark red middle piece from a cuttlebug embossing folder. I can't wait to know what the ingredients will be for the final banner - each one has made me worry a bit that I won't have pieces that go well together at the end, so we'll just have to see........

Sunday Postcard Art

It's been a little more challenging recently to participate with blog challenges - all my stuff to get ready for Christmas keeps piling up as I'm sure it is at your house too this time of year - but St. Nicholas is the challenge at Sunday Postcard Art and it gave me a perfect opportunity to start to play with the newest stamps from Oxford Impressions titled "St. Nicholas". My background is a technique demonstrated in the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas this year using multi-medium to attach a dictionary page, masking tape to subtly remove some of it, and then distress inking the whole background. I added a Stampers Anonymous swirl and white gel pen accents.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Dans ma maison il y a...du métal

Here is my metal house for Dans ma maison il y a... My base is cuttlebug embossed metal with alcohol ink for color. I also added metal bottlecaps, and a metal Tim Holtz tag. I had these cute little girls from Lisa's Altered Art still laying around on my desk from last week and thought they looked fun perched on the bottlecaps.

Sunday Postcard Art


Here's my "Let It Snow" postcard for Sunday Postcard Art. My background is an embossing powder resist using a "let it snow" stamp from Inkadinkado and glimmer mists. The main image, from Enchanted Mercantile, looked to me like 2 girls truly ready for some snow!

Ready-Steady-STAMP christmas banner #2

Here is banner #2 for RSS. My overall plan is to spell NOEL with the four banners (yes, Angelnorth you were right!) The ingredients are 1:Christmas Tree, 2: your colours, 3:eyelets, 4:cut-n-dry stamping, 5: kraft paper. This time for variation with my colours I used more of the black and the dark red is more of the accent colour. The cut-n-dry stamping is done on kraft paper and makes up the background. I used a Ten Seconds Studio kabuka mold to press the foam into and create my stamp. Fun technique to try! My stamp (Tin Can Mail) is the tag "Oh Christmas Tree" - how appropriate is that for my O!!

Gothic Arches Challenge

Here is my gothic arch shrine for the challenge at Gothic Arches. I still feel new at projects with this shape and I'm not sure if my project is truly a shrine - I folded a dimensional box and used an arch shape on top - kind of a shadowbox effect. I've been wanting also to experiment with Dresden foil around the opening - I've always liked how ornate gothic architecture can be, so I pieced together pieces of foil in the shape of the arch. The beautiful image of the woman is from a digitally scanned postcard from French Kissed.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Dans ma maison il y a... une petite fille

Here is my project for Dans ma maison il y a... where this week the challenge involves une petite fille (ou trois petite filles!). This weekend I took a class with Catherine Matthews- Scanlon (you can see her blog HERE) and she taught us the technique to make these pieces using polymer clay for the base and then gel medium transfers using Claudine Hellmuth's matte multi medium (this stuff works better than any other for transfers!!!). In class, we used the traditional toner based copies for the transfers, but here I tried my version using my Epson ink jet printer which has pigment ink instead of dye ink - use the best photo setting for the most ink and the cheapest copy paper you can find to print on. (Catherine, it worked!!) I used images from Lisa's Altered Art and and left them adhered for a couple of hours before wetting and rubbing off the paper pulp. I bet the transfers would be even crisper if you waited overnight, but I was too impatient to wait that long this weekend! I added a stamped scroll (Stampabilities) to one side of the polymer clay piece prior to baking, and added the twigs and wires and charms afterwords - still working on my wire wrapping and twisting skills!

Sunday Postcard Art - Flourishes

Never one to pass up a good flourish theme, here is my extra-flourishy postcard for Sunday Postcard Art! I used a flourish alphabet, stamped and gold embossed paper and then punched leaves, and also included a strip of foil tape on cardstock embossed with Cuttlebug. When I used alcohol ink on it and sanded away the embossed flourish, of course it was silver and just wasn't right. I used a versamark pen and then the same gold embossing powder on the raised areas - I think it's a much better fit. Stamps: Stampers Anonymous, Stampin' Up, Inkadinkado.

Saturday's Workout - corrugated cardboard

I love working with corrugated cardboard for its texture. I made this card for Saturday's Workout and wanted to use not only the corrugated texture, but the other layers you create while separating the cardboard. So the back piece of cardboard is the inside of the outer layer of the cardboard that had lines kind of scored into it, the Stampers Anonymous stamped image is stamped on the flip side of the same piece (no lines because it was the outer layer), and the blue watercolored pieces are mounted to squares of corrugated cardboard to add depth and set them apart from the rest of the image. Not really sure what I think of the overall look and feel of the piece, but there sure weren't many scraps left over.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Art Creations Friday Challenge

This beautiful image is from Art Creations Friday - it's their 1st birthday, and this image was used in their 1st challenge. This challenge was what intrigued me to start blogging and posting pictures from challenges starting last Dec. What could be better than to be given a vintage image as your starting point for a challenge? And they choose such wonderful ones! Because this has been a favorite challenge, I used favorite things in my collage - handwriting stamp from Paperbag Studios, a flower, feather and ribbon hat, a cool piece of 7 Gypsies bookboard, and a penny post stamp! Happy Birthday Art Creations Friday - and I hope you have many more!!!!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

This must be my lucky week!!

I came home from work tonight and found the mail on the kitchen table and saw a copy of Somerset Studio Gallery. I can usually find it at my local Barnes and Noble, so I hadn't pre-ordered it...then I looked at the label and realized it was a complimentary copy. I was so excited to see my embossed metal pieces in a spotlight article!!! These are the very first pieces I was brave enough to submit in March of this year. I thought I'd share my pictures of them here on my blog. The main images are some of the fabulous photo stamps (my favorites!) from Oxford Impressions. I love how they look stamped on metal - kind of a daguerreotype-look.



To all my creative friends, thanks for letting me share my excitement, and for all the wonderful comments that have been left on my blog - I'm sure you know and can appreciate how encouraging they can be!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Dans ma maison il y a ...une lettre

I had such fun making this house for the challenge at Dans ma maison il y a ... I wish I could photograph it in a way so you could see that its base is an acrylic block that you use for stamping with unmounted stamps. On the top surface I used a transparency from Prima Hybrid - I chose the letter "H" for home - kind of obvious, I know! Then to the back I adhered a piece of a letter, a scrap of paper, and HOME in a typewriter key alphabet. The roof is gold metal, embossed in a cuttlebug folder, alcohol inked, and sanded - I'm having so much fun with that technique currently!

Ready-Steady-STAMP! Challenge 9

This is my banners for the 1st of the next 4 challenges at RSS. Ingredients list: 1:Stars, 2; Your colours, 3:Glitter or gems, 4:Heat embossing, and 5: A stamped and cut out Image. I'm excited to see how this all turns out after all 4 banners are made and connected. I chose a traditional colour scheme of red and green with a tan thrown in for vintage appeal, and black and silver. My stars are covered in glitter glass, the heat embossing is a scroll from Stampers Anonymous, and my cut out stamped piece is one of my favorite little girls from Oxford Impressions. Even though she's from the April in Paris sheet, I think in her coat she works perfectly for winter.

Sunday Postcard Art

A musical theme this week for Sunday Postcard Art. Mine is a stamped collage. Stamp credits: Club Scrap (violin), Hero Arts (background), Stampendous (musical text), and Purple Onion Designs and Technique Tuesday (alphabets).

Gothic Arches Challenge - stars

I wanted to play along with the Gothic Arches challenge again this week and the theme this time is stars. I played with a narrow style arch and sprayed a stencil with glimmer mist to create my woods background and added acetate punched stars adhered with tiara stickles (I haven't found any other type of stickles to be so twinkly and sparkly!!). My columns are pieces of foil tape on cardstock embossed with a cuttlebug folder, then alcohol inked and sanded. Hope it's ok to add columns to an arch.... I found this technique to be a fun way to add some metal to a project and a side benefit is that there are no sharp edges to cause any injuries!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Paper Whimsy challenge


Here is my collage made with the challenge image from Paper Whimsy. I just love the scrollwork and the fabulous patina of it! My husband and I recently visited Newport,RI and toured several of the beautiful Gilded Age mansions on Belleview Ave. that had ornate ironwork on their gates and fences. It really does make a beautiful element to add to a collage. The deadline for this challenge is Nov.15th so there's still time to submit your project! (details on the Paper Whimsy blog post HERE)

Friday, November 13, 2009

I've been PUBLISHED!!!!

Last night I arrived home from work, flipped through the mail, and found the new issue of Stampers' Sampler and excitedly opened it. You see, I saw in the "On the Horizons" section of the last issue a card that I submitted, so I figured it was fairly certain that it would be published - a first for me! So very cool to see it in the pages of the magazine. But what I never expected was that a piano hinge book I submitted was also featured!! WOW!!! It has a whole 2 pages!! WOW again!!!!

I thought I would add my photo here of what the outside of the book looks like - these piano hinge books are one of my favorites to make, and for this one I used ceramic tiles covered with alcohol ink for the covers.

Tag Tuesday - using a photo

I couldn't decide on a photo to use for the Tag Tuesday challenge...so many options and directions to go with this challenge...I finally settled on this picture of me when I was 3 or 4. I started thinking about all that life has to offer you as a child and wondered if you could look back at your face and see evidence of what you will become. I still don't know the answer to that one, but it's fun to think about all your hopes, dreams, and aspirations growing up...and how far you've come.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Sunday Postcard Art

This week at Sunday Postcard Art the challenge is "crackle". I stamped my background with a crackle stamp and also used a stamp kissing technique on the Stampers Anonymous flourishes using the same stamp to remove ink in a crackle pattern before stamping the flourishes. (You can click on the image for a better look.) A crackle pattern always makes me think vintage, so I completed the collage with that theme. Image: Paper Whimsy, other stamps: Hampton Art Stamps and Stampington.

Gothic Arches Challenge - tickets

I have not worked with this shape before and since my altered book group is preparing to do a collaborative alphabet book using gothic arches for the pages, I thought I'd look into the challenge at Gothic Arches to get more familiar with the shape. There are so many styles of arches to choose from - I picked a basic shape to start. The theme is "tickets" and I sorted through my stash and found a Tim Holtz adage ticket to use and developed an idea about a fairy giving out tickets to fly. Just had to use a Paper Whimsy fairy for this!

Art Creations Friday Challenge

The image of the little sailor is the challenge this week at Art Creations Friday. Seeing this image made me want to place him in a scene from the early 20th century, so I created this tag using stamped images of the Titanic from Oxford Impressions.

TGIF Challenge - Alice in Wonderland ATC

This is an ATC for the Alice in Wonderland challenge at TGIF this week. My image is a stamp from Oxford Impressions.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Tag Tuesday - Paperless tag

The challenge at Tag Tuesday is to create a tag without using any paper. Mine is made of fabric - 2 pieces of muslin sewn together into a kind of freehand tag shape. I used glimmer mist and a flourish screen and stamped images directly onto the fabric. The lace sewed onto the bottom is also sprayed with the same glimmer mist. There's a shell button attached to the top, and it's hard to tell, but there are also some gem stars in the sky. Stamp credits: Cherry Pie Art Stamps and Paperbag Studio.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Saturday's Workout

The Saturday's Workout challenge is to alter a cabinet card. This one is a download from Jamie at arteology. I had fun creating her hat with a feather and pieces of Prima flowers.

Art Creations Friday Challenge

I've been wanting to use my black cat stamp and thought this would be a fun use combining it with this week's Art Creations Friday image. This stamp reminds me of my skinny, little black cat who helped with my project today - actually I think he was trying to catch the ladybug flying around the room, but nevertheless he was hanging out on my table. Stamp credits: Cherry Pie Art Stamps, Inka Stamps, Oxford Impressions.

Ready-Steady STAMP challenge 8

Here's my gate fold card for RSS challenge #8. The ingredient list: 1:C for Christmas, 2:lilac, black, and silver, 3:snowflakes, 4: 2x4 skinny, 5:crackle. My background is watercolor paper stamped with snowflakes that were clear embossed, then sprayed with lilac colored glimmer mists. I originally had a Maya Road sheer snowflake shape that I tried using distress crackle paint on and it finally dried, but didn't crackle at all! So I used the shape and cut out a piece of chipboard and that gave me the right surface for the crackle paint. My little girl in her winter outfit is a photo stamp from Oxford Impressions and the Christmas stamp is from Inkadainkado.

Tag Tuesday - pieced paper

This is my tag for Tag Tuesday's pieced paper challenge. I wanted to do something with Fall colors - green, red, orange and gold - and created this tag using a stamped image from Oxford Impressions. What do you think of her crown of leaves and stars? Background scroll stamp: Stampabilities.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Dans ma maison il y a...un objet altéré


This is my piece for Dans ma maison il y a... My altered object is an altoid tin that I covered with alcohol inked and sanded pieces of embossed metal. I had to figure out a way to add a roof so that it would be house shaped - what I used was a piece of foam core board covered with aluminum foil - the foam core was easy to cut so it worked well to cut out the curve of the tin so it could be attached to the top. Inside image: Paper Whimsy.

Art Creations Friday Challenge

This is my project for Art Creations Friday. As I layered this collage, I ended up covering a lot of the challenge background, but it served as inspiration for this project's story. I loved all the nature elements in the background with the leaves and flowers, so I thought this girl from Paper Whimsy could be a budding naturalist, just give her a butterfly net and she'll be off collecting! Stamp credits: Purple Onion Designs and B Line Designs.

Theme Thursday - Faces

This is my piece for Theme Thursday. My faces are images of my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Alphabet stamps: Purple Onion Designs.

By the way, if you're a fan of Kelly Burton and not just her challenge, but her Collage Visions image sheets, you might be interested in her blog candy (click HERE). Just leave her a comment about your favorite collage sheet - don't know about you, but it's hard to pick just one! See her collage sheets HERE.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Saturday's Workout

"Recycle-it" is the theme this week at Saturday's Workout. I have used the packaging from an A2 embossing folder to create a dimensional collage. I essentially had 4 surfaces with the package open and applied a transparency frame and rub-ons to the front, a Paper Whimsy image to the inside of the front, another transparency to the inside of the back, and finally paper to the outside of the back. Once it's all closed up it actually has some depth even though it's hard to show it in the photo - and there's the usual difficulties in photographing acetate!

Art Creations Friday Challenge

This is my project for Art Creations Friday. My base is a paper-covered CD, and I added multiple other circle elements. Stamped circle frame: Melissa Frances

Dans ma maison il y a...un papillon

Pour Dans ma maison il y a... un papillon ou trois! Ici est ma maison pour cette semaine. OK, so I don't know enough French to complete my post - I'll have to keep practicing........
I was playing with acetate, which is fun, but difficult to photograph. I also wanted to experiment and see if it was possible to stamp using Distress crackle paint. Very cool effect I think as you can see in the close-up below, but also very fragile - it keeps chipping off with handling - I guess it just adds to the overall distressed look.

The butterflies are stamped on acetate and colored from behind with perfect pearls mixed with PVA glue then backed with vellum to stand out more, and the stamped flowers are colored with soufflé pens. Stamp credits: Elusive Images, Stampers Anonymous, abd Lazar StudioWERX.