Exciting news to share!

I had to keep it a secret, but now I can finally reveal....................

I 'm a part of the Gingersnap Creations Design Team!!!! I was the July Muse and had such a fun time and am absolutely thrilled to become a part of their team. I have grown to love this blog and have met so many wonderful people through it - they attract an incredibly talented group of people, not just in their design team, but in the people that play along with their challenges. But they are so much more than a challenge blog - you can find tutorials for projects and techniques, reviews, interviews and so many ideas to inspire your creativity to grow. If you're not familiar with them check out the Gingersnap Creations blog - you're gonna love it just like I do!

Sunday Postcard Art

"Autumn Glory" is the theme today at Sunday Postcard Art. I wanted to play with this stamping technique which works beautifully for fall leaves. Where I live in central Maine, this is how our leaves are starting to look - slight changes around the tips. I used watercolor paper as the base for my postcard and applied a succession of Distress Inks to my stamp starting with Mustard Seed, then Peeled Paint in places, and Aged Mahogany on the tips. After spritzing the stamp with 3-4 sprays of water then you stamp the image. You can re-spritz again and achieve a lighter version, but I chose to do first generation stamps for each of the leaves. You can get some really fun variations to your leaves with this watercolor-like effect. Stamp: Inkadinkado

Compendium of Curiosities #15

Here's my colorful piece for this week's Compendium of Curiosities challenge. Alcohol ink agate on grunge is the technique, and I was so surprised how bright and brilliant this technique was when done on grungeboard. I think I expected a more toned-down and subdued feel based on the book pictures. All my pieces (except the metal button) are grungeboard scraps cut into various shapes. My magenta flower piece is alcohol inked tissue tape inspired by a post on Wendi Vecchi's blog Studio 490

Gothic Arches - Matchbox

The challenge at Gothic Arches was to use a matchbox with your arch. Mine is shown with the matchbox drawer pulled out showing the Paper Whimsy girl. I've used Glimmer Mists through lace and on lace in creating the arch and added Graphic 45 paper butterflies. I liked the contrast with the blue French stamp. The matchbox is wrapped with French text paper and stamped with an ornate frame stamp from Melissa Frances.

Book Cover Collage

This is a hanging collage with an old book cover as the base. It had this great inky purple color and was wonderfully embossed. The colors in this image from Stampington also blended well with it.

Packing Tape Transfers

These are 2 gluebook pages using packing tape transfers. On the left, the transfers are the lines of sheet music in the background, and on the right the transfer is the picture. I had to make sure to make the text paper really indistinct where I wanted his face to be or else you couldn't see it clearly. Masking tape works beautifully for that purpose. Images: Lady Churchill from Green Paper and Flo Ziegfeld from a catalog received in the mail.

Tag Tuesday - school days

It's back to school time and Louise chose this theme for her Tag Tuesday challenge. I collaged bits of paper from a vintage reader, spelling book, and arithmetic book and used paint glazes to add color. You have to have gold stars, right? I'm sure these three would've earned many - they look quite studious to me. Image: Lisa's Altered Art.

Compendium of Curiosities #14

Masks are the Compendium of Curiosities challenge technique this week and I'm getting my piece in just before the deadline :-). I love combining multiple Distress Ink colors - you can get such depth to your color. I used 1 green and 4 different blues in this piece.

Lots to Do Challenge

Distressed tags are the theme for this week's challenge at Lots To Do. My tag background began as a crumpled tag with the wrinkles inked with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. After a water spritz and ironing flat, I added paper scraps of German text and music, distressed those with applying masking tape and pulling it off to make the text more indistinct, then finally added dry brushed ivory paint. Oh, and the tag edges were distressed with a paper distresser. How's that for distressing! My image is from Paper Whimsy.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #13

Here's my tag for the Compendium of Curiosities challenge where this week it's grungepaper flowers. I used text paper on some flowers, and Cuttlebug embossing and Distress Ink on others. Stamps used on my tag are from Stampers Anonymous and Paperbag Studios.

Art Creations Friday Challenge

This beautiful photo from Art Creations Friday deserved a soft, feminine setting, so here is my fabric collage. I started with a gel medium transfer of the photo onto muslin and added snippets of fabrics, lace, buttons and silk flowers. I had both the sewing machine and a needle and thread out for this one!

Gingersnap Creations - 3-D Challenge

This is a shadowbox I created for the Random Redhead Challenge at Gingersnap Creations where the theme is 3-D. There are actually 3 layers in my crackle-painted shadowbox, the back is an embossing powder resist piece of watercolor paper using clear EP and Glimmer Mists in Creme de Rouge, Pashmina (such a yummy, purple color!!) and Moonlight, then there's text stamped onto an acetate piece which also holds the photostamp image, and finally a strip of acetate stamped with "Dream" that is backed with more of the background paper and holding my silk flowers in the corner. You always lose something in photographing the acetate, but I like how you can create a layered piece with it. Stamps: background swirl - Hero Arts, text on large acetate piece - Oxford Impressions, photostamp - Art Declassified, word on acetate strip - One Stamp Dreamer.

It's football season!!!

I made this ATC while watching the Ohio State game last night. At my house we eagerly await the start of football season, and it's finally here and they won! GO BUCKS!! You probably never thought I could combine my vintage style with a theme like this - what do you think? Is anyone else a football fan? I may live in Maine, but am a midwesterner and proud grad of The Ohio State University. And did I mention.....GO BUCKS!!

Gingersnap Creations Scrapling Swap

These are scraplings made for a swap at Gingersnap Creations using paint chips. A small size to work with! - my paint chip piece is about the size of a microscope slide. I actually used 4 different stamps to create a tiny stamped collage. Frame - Smartworks, Scroll - Inkadinkado, Flower - Crafty Individuals, Text - 7 Gypsies. I think these could be fun bookmarks.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #12

A quick tag for Compendium of Curiosities Challenge week 12. The technique is chipped enamel and I used it on the big metal letters and the small metal flowers in the layered flowers. I found I needed to be careful with my pieces or else I would chip it all off! My tag background is Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Victorian Velvet and there is a faint flourish stamp (Stampers Anonymous) using Tea Dye Distress Ink also.