Grungy Monday Challenge (part 2)

Here's part 2 of my projects for Grungy Monday Challenge #13. If you watch Tim's video on the Ranger site HERE, you'll see that he demos using alcohol inks on glass. I remembered a technique of his that is done to alcohol inked glass where you stamp an image with archival ink and then wipe away the ink which also takes away the alcohol ink leaving a clear image of your stamp. That's exactly what I've done here on 2x2 glass pieces and then sandwiched a white piece of cardstock between the inked glass and another plain piece of glass and then soldered the edges to make it into a charm. Don't look too closely - you'll see that my soldering skills need some more practice, but it was really fun to do! My stamped image is the bud from Rogue Redhead Design's Floriculture set.

Here's a close-up of one done using Stream, Denim and Meadow alcohol inks:

This one has Red Pepper and Raisin inks:

And the third one has Eggplant and Denim inks:

Grungy Monday Challenge (part 1)

For Grungy Monday Challenge #13 the challenge involves alcohol inks - FAVORITES of mine! Be sure to check out the video on the Ranger site HERE where Tim Holtz demos alcohol inks. You'll notice that this post is listed as part 1 - that's because I had so much fun playing with my alcohol inks that I made 2 completely different projects - I find playing with alcohol inks to be all consuming and it's hard to stop :-). For project 1, this collage is done on stampbord, so not only do you get a non-porous surface for brilliant color of the inks, but you can scratch away parts revealing the white clay as I've done after stamping a swirl stamp. It gives such a great background for the collage of a vintage image (Enchanted Mercantile) with rolled paper flowers, book text leaves and text strips. Adirondack Alcohol ink colors used - Juniper, Cloudy Blue and Aqua. Stamps: Autumn Leaves and Stampers Anonymous

Painting with Glimmer Glam and Glaze

I really love my Glimmer Mists - as some of you know ;-), but I'm really not too sure what I think of Glimmer Glaze and Glam. I have used them as topcoats, essentially painting over something giving it a nice glossy finish, but there had to be more you could do with it. Inspired by a recent Craft Stamper article that used Twinkling H2O's mixed with Crystal Lacquer to paint onto acetate, I played around with the technique of stamping onto acetate with StazOn then instead painting with the Glaze or Glam on the opposite side. Once dry, I attached it to a script card base with brads, then added an image on top of the acetate as well. Not a bad effect - what do you think?

This close-up shows the painted flowers really well. One cool thing about painting on the reverse is that you can be a little sloppy and it still looks good thanks to the stamping! I love this stamp from La Blanche - their stamps have great detail and I've purchased some to play with from my local RSS.

Here are the individual cards:

The first uses a script background from Paper Whimsy and an image from a cabinet card in my own collection.

The second uses French Kissed images.

Wedding card

Thought I'd share a card I made to send for a relative's wedding - I did some really simple things to make this card look elegant. First, I stamped and gold embossed a flourish onto a patterned background paper, then I also stamped and gold embossed my sentiment onto the vintage couple image. Finally, I diecut a couple flowers from the same ribbon adhered on the middle of the card and added a paper flower and stickles to the centers. After gold edging the background panel with a leafing pen, I adhered it to a card stamped with a Prima frame stamp. I was pleased with how it turned out - and it's even flat for mailing!
Image: Luna Girl, Stamps: Green Pepper Press, Technique Tuesday, and Prima

Father's Day card

Happy Father's Day!! I've always had such a hard time making masculine cards, until I found steampunk! This is my Dad's Father's Day card and I thought I'd share it. It's a Z-fold design and I attached 2 square panels, 1 on the Z-fold, and the other on the back. Both panels start with a cool text background I'm finding so very useful from Rogue Redhead Designs - it's from Relish Reading and I've been using it to create a tone on tone piece - ink the paper first with Tea Dye DI and a blending tool, then stamp the text stamp over that also using Tea Dye DI. Love the subtle text background that creates. The other part that was fun was to alter my chipboard diecut gears to make them look like metal, but still keep them light and mailable. I finally found the video link to the process I ran across awhile ago from the Red Lead Paperworks blog using Krylon pens, sandpaper and distress stains. Here's the link to their youtube video.

On the inside square panel, I used the same background technique, then added a diecut stamped with my sentiment from Bits and Pieces also from RRD - such a versatile sentiment set! For the back of the card (or I suppose, the inside depending on how you look at it) I ran just that part through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder and then highlighted the raised areas with metallic rub ons. Image: Collage Visions

GC Random Redhead Challenge - bags and tags

This week at Gingersnap Creations it's the Random Redhead Challenge sponsored by Altered Pages where the theme is bags and tags, and this is the paperbag book I made using images from an Altered Pages collage sheet. I also played with a sheet of Kraft Resist paper and Adirondack Colorwash in lettuce and stream - really fun paper! I added some highlights with a white colored pencil to give it even more definition. The book is simply 2 paper bags folded in half and bound with a Bind-It-All. So simple to make and adaptable to any size you need by just adding more bags. Here's the book's cover:

On the inside, I adhered the bottom of the bag on the sides to create a pocket where I could tuck collage sheet images and then on the other side, which is the open end, I cut a window through the top layer allowing me to have a pocket for a tag.



Here are both tags pulled out of their pockets for a better view.

And to go along with the money theme of my book, I used ribbon yarn on my tag ties and book spine that has the color name of "Copper Penny" - one of my favorites :-)

Join us by making a bag and/or tag project and add your link to the post HERE. You'll even have a chance to win a cool kit from Altered Pages in a random drawing of all the entries. The challenge runs until July 19th and for more inspiring pieces be sure to check out what the other gingers have made!

Stamp credits: Prima, 7Gypsies, Crafty Individuals

Inspiration Board

Have you ever made an inspiration board? I hadn't until I took an online class with Jenni Bowlin and I had a lot of fun putting together 10 things that inspired me. The board is corkboard covered with fabric and placed into an old frame.

Here are my 10 things in random order:

1. A romantic card I've had for more than 25 years of a couple walking by Jessie Wilcox Smith that used to hang on a bulletin board in my college dorm room
2. A vintage envelope from 1922 sent to me after purchasing it on Etsy - how cool that she chose to send me a letter sent to someone in Litchfield because that's the town where I live in Maine
3. Also on the letter is the postmark which is from Ohio - where I grew up and cool 1 penny stamps - I've always loved finding vintage ones of those
4. A scrap of fabric on the right which is a soft, shabby-chic looking floral - wonderful colors
5. A vintage bookplate from my stash of ephemera - it brings back memories of antiquing with my parents when as a kid I could only afford to buy fun bits like that as well as my love of reading
6. A vintage calling card - a reminder of the etiquette of the turn of the century - I guess that's now the turn of the LAST century
7. Vintage lace scraps - I love that tatted piece - such beautiful work on such a tiny scale
8. Vintage mother of pearl buttons - don't you find that buttons are often the perfect thing to add?
9. Rolled paper flowers - actually not vintage, but rather handmade by me - I thought they were the perfect color to add and they complement the flowers in the card
10. The decorated paperclip - ok, not at all vintage, but it had just the right green to go along with my other pieces!

Grungy Monday Challenge

Distress Inks.......some of my absolute favorites and they just happen to be the theme of this week's Grungy Monday Challenge inspired by all things Tim Holtz. I tried a new to me technique of Tim's of first stamping on my embossing folder with pumice DI and a Reflections text stamp and then Cuttlebug embossed the paper. I rubbed the embossed areas with more DI in tumbled glass and bundled sage. The embossed panel is layered onto a background panel of my old reliable go-to technique of wrinkle-free distress using the same 2 colors. Finally, I inked my edges with more pumice stone. These inks are so versatile!! Image and text bits: Paper Whimsy, stamp: Stampers Anonymous

Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge

This week at Gingersnap Creations it's the spicy supply challenge sponsored by Altered Pages and the theme is to use packaging. I don't know about you, but I receive a lot of things in the mail, so this is a great challenge that can make you feel good because you're also recycling! My project is a set of ATC's with bases of corrugated cardboard from a shipping box, and I made background paper by stamping with paint using bubble wrap and corrugated cardboard to create fun graphic patterns. I simply added bits of my background paper to each ATC and then used an alphabet tags collage sheet from Altered Pages to give each a letter and then a stamped word (Close to my Heart) completed the embellishments.


Here are my packaging supplies I used to create my background paper:


And here's how my background paper looked once stamped:

Show us how you can use packaging in your projects and add a link to the blog post HERE - the challenge will run until July 10th - hope you'll play along!

Take time to smell the roses

Here is another 7 Gypsies book board collage that I posted this week on the Rogue Redhead Designs Blog using the rose stamp from Floriculture and the text background and flourish from Relish Reading. I loved creating the mass of roses with simple stamping and masking and nestling my image (Enchanted Mercantile) behind them. You can check out the stamp sets at their Etsy store HERE.

Grungy Monday Challenge

Nothing like last minute inspiration!?! It's late Sunday afternoon and I've finished my Grungy Monday Challenge piece based on the 2007 day 10 12 Tags of Christmas post from Tim Holtz's blog. I created a dimensional collage on a 7 Gypsies book cover. The technique is on the cabinet card shaped die-cut - a beautiful shabby chic look with this technique. I layered a dress form die cut with a stamped canvas "dress" embellished with glimmer misted flowers and lace. All stamps are from Papillon from Stampers Anonymous.