Theme Thursday Challenge - 4 x 4

This week's Theme Thursday challenge is to create a 4 x 4. I wanted to play with canvas and experimented with painting it, then stamping it, and finally adding polka dots. I like the texture it adds - will have to play more with it! Image is from Lisa's Altered Art and stamps used are a text stamp from Stampin Up and a quote stamp from Paperbag Studios.

Tag Tuesday - Metallic

Tag Tuesday has a metallic theme this week. I tried to use multiple metallic things for this tag. The base is a piece of silver metal embossed with my Cuttlebug. I added denim and eggplant alcohol inks (it may be hard to tell it's a bluish color from my photo - sorry!) and sanded the highpoints to reveal the silver then stamped a text stamp from Paperbag Studios. The right side attachment is a Cricut cut piece with a coat of silver leafing pen, and I also used silver brads. I had to add the flowers even though they weren't metalllic - they just looked pretty - and they are simply Prima paper flowers folded into quarters.

Saturday Workout Challenge

This was such a fun challenge! I really enjoyed working on the Saturday's Workout project this week - "Canvas Back Shrines". It all started with placing the little girl image from Lisa's Altered Art to look like she's climbing out of the picture. I imagined her escaping from the confines of her home (A piece of a terrific collage sheet from Paper Whimsy), climbing over the fence and into the big world around her. I used a mask and a combination of Glimmer Mist, distress ink, and a gold pen to create the border on the wooden part of the frame. Almost gives you a leaf-y, tree-like feel.

Paperbag Studios July Stamp Challenge

Paperbag Studios has a challenge this month with the theme of Home Sweet Home. These are my 3 projects using corrugated cardboard houses with copper flashing roofs and Paperbag Studio stamps. I wanted a comfortable, worn, broken-in kind of look for my houses and I couldn't stop with just one - they were a lot of fun to make! If you want to enter the challenge you have until July 31st. All the details are HERE.

TGIF Challenge - using words

This is my collage for TGIF. With the theme of "using words", I first wanted to create a background using snippets of vintage text from different languages. After stamping a few Prima swirls, I took a long time trying to come up with what word(s) I wanted to use over the background and I finally decided to focus on the overall theme of "using words" because words can be so powerful - they can build you up or tear you down, spark you imagination, and give you something to ponder on all day long - so I concluded that they must be chosen wisely. How's that for a long-winded project description!

Theme Thursday Challenge - ATC's

Theme Thursday's challenge this week is to make an ATC. I wanted to try out a background technique from Hermine Koster - you can see her fun and easy Get Stripey tutorial HERE. I used mulberry paper for the inky stripes and loved the overall effect. My fish are from Paper Whimsy.

Ten Two Studios 4th Anniversary

Lisa Vollrath of Ten Two Studios is celebrating her 4th Anniversary and is offering a download of a special collage sheet for $.40 which you can use to create projects and submit them to her by July 31 for entry to her giveaways. See the full details here. These projects were made using the sheets along with scraps from her Bits & Pieces sheets and some other random backgrounds from my stash.

Created Byhand Challenge

This week's Created Byhand challenge is stars and moon. My idea was to use the phrase "when you wish upon a star" and I used this wistful image from Digital Collage Sheets and combined her with silvery, sparkly things - textured silver paper for the moon, acetate stars with tiara stickles and silver leafing pen on chipboard letters. Stamp: Quietfire Designs.

Thinking Inking alcohol ink week

Jennifer McGuire has been posting technique videos for twopeasinabucket.com for her Thinking Inking class. I wanted to play along with the techniques this week involving alcohol inks. The first card uses alcohol ink on a memory glass piece, and then you"kiss" away the ink by stamping onto it with Ranger's Archival Ink and wiping it off. Cool effect! The piece is backed with a music scrap and layered over a water stamped distress ink piece using the same Hero Arts stamp for the kissing technique. The other two cards used scraps of an alcohol inked glossy cardstock piece layered with alcohol inked paper flowers - I hadn't tried this and loved the rich colors you can achieve! I also had to try her technique of folding the flowers into quarters creating buds. These are great techniques and if you haven't checked into her videos I would encourage it - you're sure to be inspired!

Sunday Postcard Art

"Vintage Children" is the theme for Sunday Postcard Art, and I so love these images that I had a hard time settling on one for this challenge! My choice ended up being this image from Lisa's Altered Art. Don't you think these schoolboys must be smart and studious? Loved how they all are wearing glasses - I know I sure look smarter when I wear mine!!

Art Creations Friday Challenge

Tennis anyone? This cute image from Art Creations Friday made me think of this little boy waiting for someone to play with him. Alphabet stamps: Technique Tuesday.

Stripes and Fairies

This collage meets themes for 2 challenges: "Fairies" at Created Byhand and "Stripes" at Theme Thursday. My fairies are from Lisa's Altered Art and my stripes are a ticking stamp from B-Line Designs. The really cool frame that just was a perfect fit for this piece came from Playing with Brushes on Flickr.

Tag Tuesday - only stamps and ink

This was a good challenge at Tag Tuesday! But... oh how I want to add a ribbon, and some metal bits and...... I suppose this is why it's a CHALLENGE, right? So for my tag I created a background with distress inks and water stamped with a Hero Arts stamp, then added flowers with distress inks and sprayed the inked stamp with water to give it a watercolor effect. To finish it off I added a text stamp from Paperbag Studios and a border stamp from Autumn Leaves.

Crazy Amigo's Bingo Challenge

I've had fun in the past using bingo cards in collages and thought I'd use this one from Ten Two Studios for the Crazy Amigo challenge. My stamped image of the little boy with his dog is from Oxford Impressions and the border stamp is from Technique Tuesday.

Sunday Postcard Art - Fabric

Fabric is the theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art and I thought I'd play with sewing fabric to text paper. My muslin scrap was sprayed with Glimmer Mist over a screen and I liked using it with the more colorful scrap of upholstery fabric. Even got out a hand sewing needle for the buttons - Mom would be so proud!! Stamped phrase is from the most recent Oxford Impressions set French Script.

TGIF Challenge

I certainly love using flowers in my collages and tend to play a lot with Prima paper flowers, but I wanted to try something different and this week's TGIF theme was a great inspiration. The theme is "red flowers" and I used a couple large flowers cut with a Slice and pieced together. I stamped the petals with text stamps from Stampin' Up and Hero Arts and used distress inks to create the red color. Also tried rolling and shaping the petals to make it more dimensional - not sure if that is evident from the photo. The word stamp is from Purple Onion Designs.

Created Byhand Challenge

It find it amazing sometimes when working on an idea how a project just grows. For instance, this is a project for the inchies challenge this week at Created Byhand. The inchies themselves are simple collages on a text scrap, then you start to play around with how to use them . . . add a frame from Alpha Stamps, then add these distress inked swirls that were laying on my desk, and after trying out a couple of backgrounds that wouldn't be overpowering I had a piece of corrugated cardboard (that always looks so fun when you rip it up a bit!) and stamped parts of it with another swirl from Crafty Individuals. Definitely a fun project to do this week!

Tag Tuesday

This week the challenge at Tag Tuesday was to make something embossed. My tag uses gold embossing powder with a brocade like stamp from Stamp Camp for the background (doesn't stand out as well in the photo) and also the swirls are embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. The image is from Paper Whimsy.

Saturday's Workout Challenge

This week for Saturday's Workout the challenge was to make a background with aluminum foil. Mine is in 2 parts - the first is foil placed over molds from Ten Seconds Studio creating a subtle texture, and that is layered over a crumpled then smoothed piece rubbed with several alcohol ink colors- it gave a really pretty pastel colored look. The image is from Lunagirl.

Dans ma maison il y a... la mer

"The sea" is this week's challenge at Dans ma maison il y a... This is what our coastline is like here in Maine - rocky, granite beaches - and that's my husband all the way out by the end of the point. This photo was taken at a place called Pemaquid Point - really beautiful place to go. I created this house imagining what it would be like to live with this view right off your front porch.

Theme Thursday Challenge and Art Creations Friday Challenge

A beautiful image from Art Creations Friday this week, and I thought she would look so lovely with a red and black background which happens to be the Theme Thursday challenge. It was fun trying to stick to just 2 colors - ok, there is a torn white edge just to set off the red from the black, but it is part of the paper! Stamp credit: Green Pepper Press.

Tag Tuesday - Windows

This is a tag for Tag Tuesday's Window theme. My idea was to have a studious looking vintage image (well, she is wearing glasses!) to be an ornithologist looking out her house window studying bird song. Almost looks more like she's IN the birdhouse! Regardless, it was fun to make. The house is elevated from the tag and there's an acetate window covering the punched circle. Stamp credits: Melissa Frances, Crafty Individuals, Stampington & Co., and Time to Stamp.

Created Byhand Challenge - summer

This week's Created Byhand challenge has a theme of "Summer". Today in my part of the world we actually had a sunny day - it's been a week of rain since we last had sun, and I was inspired to make a bright, happy and sunny collage. (Actually the sun only made an appearance for a few hrs., then more thunderstorms - ugh!) The main image is from Designer Digitals and the stamp used is from Autumn Leaves.