Wednesday Stamper - Alice in Wonderland

This is a stamped banner that I created using the Alice in Wonderland stamps from Oxford Impressions that is a perfect project for the Wednesday Stamper challenge. If you like Alice in Wonderland stamps, be sure to check out the Oxford Impressions website for their 3 collections - Wonderland, Classic Alice and Illustrated Alice.

7 Gypsies Venice Stamp collages

On the 7 Gypsies blog there is a product challenge for February using their Venice stamp set. (All the details are HERE on their blog with a deadline on Feb. 26.) I had a lot of fun creating these little collages using the backs of tiny canvases that are about 2 1/2" square. I used stamps from the set, Venice gaffer tape, and snippets of Victoria paper for these. The woman is Lina Cavalieri, an Italian opera singer. Images are from Digital Collage Sheets.

Paperbag Studios February Stamp Challenge

For the February Stamp Challenge at Paperbag Studios the theme is wire. I was playing around with wire wrapping and thought how much my tiny coiled piece looked like curly hair, so I found this stamp with 2 little girls and embellished them with curls! The whole thing just screamed out for the title "silly" so that is added with wire on the bottom and a larger "curl" of wire is at the top to allow the piece to hang. Even though this is a stamp challenge, I also incorporated one of my favorite Paperbag Studios digital papers by printing it and transferring it with multi medium onto canvas and used that as the background for the stamped image. The canvas is sewn onto Glimmer Misted watercolor paper. If you'd like to participate in this challenge, you have until Feb. 28 - see the details on the Paperbag Studios blog HERE.

Gothic Arches - Steampunk

Steampunk is a style I've never tried before, but have always been intrigued by it. Martina picked a great theme this week for the Gothic Arches Challenge blog, and here is my project. My idea was to have the key look like it's turning the gears that will fly the balloon. It was fun figuring out how to line up the various metal pieces to make them look like they would engage each other. Stamp credits: Artistic Outpost, Stampers Anonymous and Inkadinkado.

A published piece!!

I walked to my mailbox today and found my issue of Somerset Studio. When the Alice in Wonderland stamps from Oxford Impressions were released, I had submitted projects and so I flipped through the pages and found this one with my canvas shadowbox at the top! It's always so thrilling to see your work published, and really cool to be on a page with Debbie Kaste and Rosemary Reid who submitted pieces also using Suzanne's wonderful stamps. I think they all look great together. Even more special for me was getting this in the mail on my birthday!! - such perfect timing and a pretty good present I think ;-)

Here's a close-up view of the project.

One World One Heart giveaway winners!

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have 201 comments posted! I had so much fun visiting other sites and being inspired - such a fun event to have participated in. I added a second book to giveaway when 100 comments were reached, and I have a THIRD to add because 200 was reached. I used random.org to generate my three winners:

92
26
67

So congratulations to:
Joy of Joy to the Blog
Danit of dishvish
and Lynn Stevens of Trash to Treasure Art.

I'll be contacting you so that I can send out my books to you!

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to comment on my blog -- you all made me smile :-)

Theme Thursday - Flowers

Here is a 4x4 for the challenge at Theme Thursday this week. How do you create a flower on Valentine's Day? With hearts, of course! I combined a bunch of them in layers - what do you think of my flower? Stamps: Inkadinkado, Hero Arts, Technique Tuesday, Purple Onion Design.

Art Creations Friday

This is my card for the challenge at Art Creations Friday. I took the little angel image and created something for Valentine's Day using a Glimmer Mist and Screen background - just love making backgrounds this way! Stamps used by Technique Tuesday.

Tag Tuesday - Monogram

For Tag Tuesday the challenge was to use a monogram on a tag. Here's my F for friends tag. I wanted to use this stamp of 2 girls from Artistic Outpost - I think it's very representative of friendship. I also used a friend definition text stamp from Hero Arts for the background. Alphabet stamps - Purple Onion Designs.

Gingersnap Creations - Color Challenge - Metallics

This is my card for the Color Challenge at Gingersnap Creations. With the theme of metallics, I tried to incorporate that in different ways. I stamped and heat embossed my main image of the woman onto metallic paper, I cuttlebug embossed the heart onto a piece of copper flashing, alcohol inked it, then sanded off the raised areas, I made a paint from perfect pearls and water and stamped with that onto the black card base, and added some gold Dresden foil. And I almost forgot, gold paint dabber edging on the outer card and inner window. Another fun feature of the card which you can't see, is that it stays closed by having a thin magnet on the back which works because of the metal heart on the front. Stamp credits: Lost Coast Designs and Stampers Anonymous.

Sunday Postcard Art

So I'm a little late with this entry for Sunday Postcard Art, but wanted to still post it and show off my cute "furry kids" - Metzger, Milo, Matilda and Two. These guys at various times will hang out in my project room and "help" - OK they actually steal paper scraps and leave bits of hair sticking to my ATG adhesive gun, but I love them. I'm sure any of you with cats have similar stories to share - really, would you have it any other way? Stamp credits: Cherry Pie Art Stamps, All Night Media, Autumn Leaves.

Tag Tuesday - A Touch of Red

The challenge this week at Tag Tuesday is to use just a touch of red on your tag. I added a silver button and painted the center heart with a red Sharpie, and used embroidery floss to stitch a row on the top and bottom and add french knots to the leafy 7 Gypsies stamp. The focal stamp is one of my favorites by Paperbag Studios.

Gothic Arches - Correspondence

This is my arch for this week's Gothic Arches challenge where this week the challenge is by Louise Granlund with a theme of "correspondence". Of course I first wanted to try adding a tag in there somewhere in honor of Louise's Tag Tuesday challenge ;-), but I had another idea instead and made vintage looking envelopes using blank old book pages. They look so wonderfully worn because the paper kind of cracked with folding into an envelope shape and made a believable vintage look. Do you know the feeling you get if you find a stack of old letters wrapped in ribbon at a flea market or antique store? You can imagine how they were lovingly saved in a box or drawer and read over and over again - I love the glimpse you get into someone's life that way - such a difference from the emails that are sent now. Stamp credits: Stampers Anonymous and Technique Tuesday.

Dans ma maison il y a ...une clé

This project for the Dans ma maison il y a challenge kind of evolved from playing with a lot of different things that I wanted to try. Its base is a strip of canvas with a patterned paper transfer using Claudine Hellmuth's multi medium, the key is a chipboard shape I've had for a long time that I covered with different colors of Perfect Pearls to give it a cool patina-like look, and the roof is stamped with a Stampers Anonymous stamp using Perfect Pearls with water to create a paint. I had a lot of fun with all my experiments!

Art Creations Friday Challenge

This is my collage for Art Creations Friday. I saw this lovely woman with her parasol all ready for a walk so I created a fun Spring-like, flowery background for her - it still seems like we have such a long time before Spring arrives here in Maine so I'll just have to create Spring with my artwork! Stamp used is from Tin Can Mail and colored with twinkling H2O's.