Flourishes, flourishes and more flourishes

I started out with the Theme Thursday challenge prompt of "Flourishes" and then saw the theme at Sunday Postcard Art of "Double Take" and with some experimenting, I found that I could use my flourish stamp in 2 different ways. Of course, there's the basic stamping of it directly, but if you look at my background, it was created by inking a shadow stamp and kissing it with the flourish stamp to remove the ink creating a mirror image of the flourish. I liked the effect, and it was fun to do! Flourish stamp and shadow stamp are both from Hero Arts, quote is from Donna Downey from Unity Stamps.

Compendium of Curiosities #33

The technique of using alcohol inks to alter metal is this week's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge. You can see all the details on page 56 of Tim's book. I realized that a book project I was working on to teach for a class at my local rubber stamp store, Your Maine Stamper in Winthrop, ME used the technique on the cover so thought I'd use it for this week's challenge entry. Since it is a book, I of course couldn't resist showing you the inside! The structure is a double accordion made from two 24" folded long paper pieces sewn together in 4 of the folds with a 3-hole pamphlet stitch. By cutting windows in one accordion, it allowed me to stamp quotes on the back accordion and give the piece very cool dimension.

If you smoosh it, you can see all the stamping better. I also played with a metallic silver StazOn pad to do all the stamping onto the black cardstock - very vibrant effect with that ink.

Stamp credits: Donna Downey for Unity Stamps

Vintage Heart Batting Hanger

This is another project from the online class I took with Nancy Maxwell James. The main image is a TAP transfer onto muslin. I love how this piece just drips with lace! It's my favorite one from the class. Image: Luna Girl

Compendium of Curiosities #32

This is my card for Linda's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge where this week's technique is inking and stamping masks. The technique is on the inner panel of my card. I also had fun learning a new background technique following the tutorial by Shelly Hickox on Gingersnap Creations this month for faux copper verdigris. Such a wonderful effect! - be sure to check out Shelly's tutorial and try it; her steps break down the process perfectly and make it really easy to do. Stamps used: flower: Rubber Stampede, tile motif: Stampendous, flourish: Crafty Individuals, script: Hero Arts

Altered Bottles

These altered bottles are another class project from Nancy Maxwell James' "Smitten" online class that I wanted to share. They really become addicting to make! Images are from Paper Whimsy.

Gingersnap Creations - Crowns

This week at Gingersnap Creations it's the Random Redhead challenge where the theme is crowns. The crown in my piece is made from parts of Prima paper flowers, german scrap and gems for more sparkle. Every crown needs to sparkle, don't you think? The background is Glimmer Mists sprayed through table lace (Yellow Daisy, Golden Terracotta and Scarlet) - such a quick and simple background technique with wonderful results. The challenge runs until March 15th - I hope you'll join in!
Stamp credits: Image: Stamp Camp, Text: Hero Arts, Build-A-Frame: Prima

DIY metal charms tutorial on GC

As I mentioned last week, I have a tutorial that posted today on the Gingersnap Creations blog (HERE) for a quick and fun way to make your own metal charms. Using basic supplies of cardstock, punches, and metal foil tape you can make a charm blank in any size or shape. You can make them truly your own by using stamps, alcohol ink and paint. Punch a hole, add a jump ring and you can use them on cards, tags, ATC's or anything you'd like. I hope you'll check out the tutorial, try it out, and let me know what you think. Have fun!!!

Gladys Fidelia Davenport

I wanted to share another project from Nancy Maxwell James' online class "Smitten". This is a hanging canvas built around a cabinet card. I found my cabinet card in a local antique shop this past summer in a basket with a whole bunch of other paper ephemera. I picked it up because I loved how the baby was smiling and on the back, written with a lovely script, were all the details about Gladys Fidelia Davenport born March 22, 1897. It listed her age, height and weight at the time the picture was taken and her parents' names. From the same basket I also purchased a handful of letters tied together with a ribbon because I liked the envelopes and postmarks and the script and thought I could use them in collages. Once I got them home, I realized that all the letters were written to the grown up version of the little Gladys of the photo! There were letters from friends and even some romantic letters from her husband-to-be. Needless to say, with that much known history I have not used the original cabinet card (or letters) - I scanned it and mounted it to bookboard after printing making a pretty reasonable facsimile of my cabinet card if I say so myself!

Tag Tuesday - a tag on a tag

This is my tag for Tag Tuesday, actually a tag on a tag. My main tag features an image that is a TAP transfer (Transfer Artist Paper by Lesley Riley) onto muslin that is then sewn onto the cardstock tag stamped with a row of a damask pattern (Memory Box). This is my first experiment with TAP and it's so easy to do! It's an inkjet printable surface that you then iron onto your receiving surface. I was working with this technique for a fabric project and had this transfer left over to be used elsewhere. I even found that I could add color to the flowers of the transferred image with colored pencils. My little tag is a stamp from Stampin' Up.

Compendium of Curiosities #31

Here's my tag for this week's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge. The technique this time is rusted enamel. I really wasn't sure how it would turn out after reading the technique description in the book, but I was pleased with the results and I've added a close-up of the tag's background so you can see the technique better.

Stamps used: Stampers Anonymous - look it's that fab flourish again :-) and Stampin' Up

Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge

This week at Gingersnap Creations another challenge is set and this time it's to add sparkle to your piece by using charms in your project. My tag has 2 charms - here's a close-up of one of them:

These are handmade charms using basic supplies of carstock, punches, and metal foil tape and then embellishing them with embossing, debossing, alcohol inks and paint. It's such a simple technique with really great results and I get to share it with you with a tutorial on the GC blog next Mon. Feb 14th! Until then, you can join in to the challenge at GC (HERE) which is open until March 6th.

More details about my tag: photostamp is from Oxford Impressions and my tag background is made from Glimmer Mist sprayed through table lace.

Compendium of Curiosities #30

This is my tag for this week's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge with the theme of altered metal with paint. While I can't tell you how to do the technique, you'll need to check page 48 for that, I can say that I made my own metal embellishments to alter by die-cutting a copper sheet into flower pieces for dimensional roses and a ribbon slide. My tag background is torn pieces of book text inked with Broken China distress ink, dry brushed with gesso, then overstamped with the Stampers Anonymous flourish that just makes everything look better :-)

Gingersnap Creations Chestnut Challenge

For this week at Gingersnap Creations it's time for the Chestnut Challenge where the theme is Kings and Queens, and I had fun combining stamps for my royal theme. I have a Renaissance queen in front of a Medieval castle with an Elizabethan script background all together in a Gothic arch! How's that for anachronistic! The background stamps were masked to combine them and the photo stamped queen was stamped on glossy cardstock and cut out. Stamp credits: Oxford Impressions and Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers. The challenge will run until Feb. 27th and I hope you'll join in!