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.

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.

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!!!!

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!

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!

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)

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 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.

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.

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.