Rogue Redhead Designs sunflowers

This week I posted this card on the Rogue Redhead Design blog and it uses a favorite look of mine - stamping on text paper. I stamped directly onto vintage dictionary paper and used colored pencils on the image. I also stamped the image again on plain paper, and after coloring, cut out the largest sunflower, snipped the petals and placed it over the text paper stamped flower using foam tape for dimension. Since the petals have been snipped, they can be "fluffed". Here's a close-up:
I also did the same thing on text paper dry-brushed first with a mix of gesso and Golden Titan Buff acrylic paint to make the words more muted and in the background.
Check out the RRD blog for even more inspirational ideas using the Floriculture plate - there sure are some talented Rogues out there!

The Fair Maid of Perth

This project is a faux altered book - I used several signatures from a vintage book sandwiched between two 7Gypsies book covers and cut a niche after gluing the whole thing together. I added an image from Enchanted Mercantile, snippets of vintage lace - the larger piece's flowers are accented with distress inks and the others are tatted lace bits I've been hoarding because I love its delicate look. The depth of the niche allowed me to add paper flowers to the inside and have them spill out onto the outside. If you look closely, you'll see the background text page is entitled "The Fair Maid of Perth". The serendipty of finding this page inspired the whole project which I sent off to my friend in Perth, Scotland - Happy Birthday, Lynne!

Theme Thursday

This is my entry for this week's Theme Thursday Challenge where the theme is to use texture and/or layers. Mine includes both - I have crumpled tissue paper adhered to a cardstock piece with the wrinkles highlighted with distress ink and metallic rub-ons, as well as a layered background that started as text transferred with gel medium to a piece of watercolor paper, then gessoed, and finally sprayed with Adirondack colorwash over a Prima stencil. My idea began as a journal page background, and here's a picture of it so you can see the layered background before I added the Paper Whimsy girl.

I outlined the background with a drawn rectangle and smudged it with water soluable oil pastels - I haven't yet decided what to add to this journal page because I'm really liking the background! I also played around with another layered background in my journal:

I had a bunch of circles die-cut from vintage text paper that I adhered randomly, then gessoed over. I added a layer of quinacridone gold acrylic paint, then a burnt umber layer and wiped it with a baby wipe to blend. I added the drawn rectangle and the shadowing around it and the circles with more of the water soluable oil pastels blended with my fingers.

Inspiration Emporium Challenge

I found out about the Inspiration Emporium Challenge from my friend Shelly Hickox's blog and was intrigued by this month's challenge to use packaging. The base of my piece is a clear plastic dimensional "folder" - can't remember what it was used for....something my husband recently bought that I saved before it went into the recycle bin. The fun part of a project like this is that you can work in layers. I cut an additional piece of plastic from a newly purchased embossing folder package to fit the inside and embossed it with my new folder. I added a scrap of French script text from French Kissed to the back and an image from Enchanted Mercantile to the inside along with dimensional paper flowers. To the inside of the front, I added postage stamps (Stampington) and used glossy accents to adhere it which worked really well. Finally on the outside of the front, I stamped with StazOn (both black and white) - the art nouveau corners are from Purple Onion Designs and the postmarks are from Oxford Impressions.

Grungy Monday Challenge

Since Linda began her Grungy Monday Challenge as a follow-up to the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge, I've been wanting to participate and finally just got up early to play with the technique this week (the only negative well, aside from the fact that I'll probably need an afternoon nap!, is that the light is rather flat this morning, so my picture is a little dull). The challenge involves using the brushless watercolor technique from the Tim Holtz blog post September Technique Challenge in 2008. I love the effect you get and used it to create the flowers (Stampendous) and the leaves (Rogue Redhead Designs). I added subtle overstamping with text (Stampabilities) and my quote (Donna Downey). I also played with a technique I saw somewhere on the 7 Gypsies site to give chipboard a vintage metal look by first covering the chipboard with a Krylon pen, then scuffing it with light sanding and finally adding Distress Stains to bring out the scuffs.

Here's a close-up of where I used it on both the flourishes and the backing chipboard.

Gluebook Page

A quick post today - I've been working on lots of pieces, but I can't quite share them yet, so here's a gluebook page made the same night as I made my ATC's and sticking with the same rules - flat, muted colors with one accent color, and focusing on composition - this one was too big for an ATC! I had this advertising card on a collage sheet from Mary Green and cut out the bottom creating a frame for my photo image. Since "bain" translates to "bath" I thought this picture with a fountain would fit.....ok, maybe it's a bit of a stretch because you don't actually bathe in a fountain, but you get the idea :-)

Random ATC's

I sat down to play with collage sheets, scraps of paper and a glue stick and had fun creating a bunch of ATC's and these 3 were my favorites. I had a few goals: to keep things simple and flat, to use a neutral palette with an accent color, and to think about composition.

I thought she had a dreamy look (maybe thinking of her one true love?) so I placed her on a postcard and used a stamp with a man's image behind her head as she's dreaming of him.

This was a tall woman, so she needed a vertical background, and I added strips of paper to a scrap of handwritten text.

And finally Cléo de Mérode, the turn of the century French dancer - in this picture she's facing to the left, so I added my cut out flowers and butterfly on the left - and yes, I really did cut out around those tiny flowers; I like the way they look and don't mind the time it takes. I only mind if my scissors slip and I mistakenly cut off a blossom!

Canvas Art Journal Pages

Just thought I'd share what I've been working on....this is my canvas art journal and these pages were inspired by the challenge prompt from Theme Thursday of "Garden". I started by spraying Adirondack colorwash (sail boat blue, lettuce and meadow) over a Prima mask. Then I whitewashed it a bit with watered down gesso - it kind of blended and muted the colors. I added some rolled fabric flowers I'd made, with ribbon stems and French book text leaves. My quote is written with india ink and a dip pen - my Pitt pens wouldn't write over the fabric as the ends just became coated. There are some white Signo gel pen dots to embellish the flowers and swirls of the text, but they're hard to see in the photo. Overall, I had a lot of fun experimenting with different media and liked the outcome! Hope you found some time to just play and get messy this weekend, too :-)

Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge

The item chosen for the spicy supply challenge at Gingersnap Creations is "twine". I've created a rustic looking journal cover starting with a technique called "Faux Tooled Leather" from Technique Junkies. It made a perfect frame for this stamped image from Artistic Outpost from the Serenity set that I colored with watercolor crayons. The rest of the cover is corrugated cardboard and a twine accent - I liked the look of all the textures together. Be sure to show us your project incorporating twine by adding a link to the GC blog HERE by June 5th. As an added bonus, one randomly drawn entry will receive a copy of the Emboss or Die CD of 79 techniques from Technique Junkies - the technique I used is featured on this CD.

New stamps at Rogue Redhead Designs

I have been playing with a new stamp set from Rogue Redhead Designs in my new assignment as a Rogue At Large. Sharon has released 2 sets: Floriculture - a set of vintage flower images and Bits and Pieces - a sentiment set. I had a lot of fun just playing with 1 stamp and used it in 2 different ways to make these simple notecards.

In this first card, I stamped the flower using distress inks in victorian velvet and shabby shutters. That panel is layered onto gold textured paper and a tissue taped background colored with the same victorian velvet distress ink.

For the second card, I used the same flower stamp but combined it with one of the inchie squares from the Bits and Pieces set used as a shadow stamp. I first inked the square with turquoise pigment ink and then "kissed" it with the flower stamp. After cutting out the inchies and edging them with gold Krylon pen, I added them to another tissue taped background.

You can check out the RRD Etsy shop to purchase the stamps and don't forget about the RRD blog for more inspiration using these and other stamp sets from Rogue Redhead Designs.

Gingersnap Creations Chestnut Theme Challenge

The theme for this week's chestnut challenge at Gingersnap Creations is "cowboys and cowgirls". I really like starting a project with a technique and for this tag I've used a Technique Junkies one called "faux denim". It gave me a wonderful piece that I diecut into a label shape and built a tag around. All the stamped images are from the Oxford Impressions Cowgirl Blues set. I just loved the photo stamp of the little cowgirl - she definitely looks like she has the blues! Another fun thing on this tag is my dyed ribbons - I used white seam binding, wet it, and then used distress inks - faded jeans and chipped sapphire on one, and antique linen and tea dye on another. Such an easy way to customize the colors of your ribbon. Show off your cowboys and cowgirls by adding your project to the GC blog post HERE - the challenge is open until May 29th.

Sunday Postcard Art - Weddings

"Weddings" is the Sunday Postcard Art theme this week in honour of the Royal Wedding on Friday. Did you watch? I got up around 5am to watch and was very glad I lived on the East coast and not farther west where you'd be up even earlier! I did the same thing 30 years ago as a teenager, so I just had to watch this one. Anyways, back to the postcard....I have something old - a vintage French postcard from Lunagirl with a wedding couple, something new - tissue tape that I placed in strips to create my background, something borrowed, a technique for drying flowers and using them in your artwork that I learned in an online class with Rachel Emilie Jackson- here I used wild violets currently blooming in my front yard, and of course something blue, alcohol inks in cool peri and cloudy blue applied to the tissue tape background and the seam binding -hey, those are also learned/borrowed techniques, the dyed tape from Tim Holtz and the dyed seam binding from Jean Franks Beck!