Falling leaves

Just thought I'd share a page from my art journal. The background is strips of tissue paper that I painted over with blues and softened with gesso. I really wanted to play with leaves - well, not so much that I would go outside and rake them.....you know what I mean ;-). I stamped my leaves using distress inks on the stamp and spritzing with water just prior to stamping to get a watercolor-like effect. These are much prettier than what we have lingering on our trees. Fall has not been as colorful as usual this year - our night temperatures have not been as cold as they should be and so we get dull leaves I recently learned. Any that are left will soon be snow covered because we've got a rare October snowstorm headed our way tonight - so exciting!! And yes....I love winter weather, even in October!

Grungy Monday Challenge: Tim in Ten

I'm not known for doing my projects fast - I debate too much - maybe this would look better here, maybe this image is better than that one, and on and on. I thought Linda's Grungy Monday challenge this week would be fun and a true challenge for me - create a card in 10 min. Well I made two, cheated just a bit ;-), and finished in 11 min. First my confession - the images were already cut out and left as scraps on my table and the note cards were also already done, and I pulled together and set up all my needed supplies, but everything else fit into the challenge parameters. I wanted to play with my Texture Trades (ATC sized embossing folders) so I quickly created a wrinkle free distress background on 2 ATC's using Victorian Velvet and Dried Marigold, then stamped directly onto the embossing folder with Coffee Archival using reflections stamps and embossed the ATC's. I highlighted the embossed areas with Vintage Photo DI, and then simply added my image, a scrap of gaffer tape, edged the top and bottom with a krylon pen and added the ATC to my card base on top of a scrap of dictionary text.

Quoth the raven...

This month at Gingersnap Creations the focus is on gluebooks - collaged books using just paper, scissors and glue. With this week's Random Redhead Challenge theme of ravens, I added a couple of pages to my gluebook which is a 3 1/2in. x 5 1/2in. Moleskine Cahier with a bit of a stamping twist - all my backgrounds and images were first created by inking and stamping and then collaging onto the pages. The Gothic German text is a Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 stamp, the subtle patterned paper is a Hero Arts stamp, and the orange background is my old fall back wrinkle-free distress technique - I LOVE that technique and find it so useful. The Poe image is a photo stamp from Oxford Impressions and the ravens are from LaBlanche. The only un-stamped pieces are the strips of German scrap.

Join in with the GC challenge on the blog post HERE with your raven project and take time to check out the other projects by the GC design team - they are fantastic this week! The challenge will run until Nov. 13th and one randomly drawn entry will win a fun prize package of Halloween goodies from Alpha Stamps.

In the company of friends

When I posted my butterfly book cover collage last week I started thinking about how often I choose to make them. Why? I think that if I'm feeling a little stuck or uninspired or otherwise finding that my mojo has run off, it's a reliable starting point for me. Books have always been a part of my life providing knowledge, comfort, and even an escape. Just re-reading a favorite book is like spending time with an old friend so I guess in working with book covers in my artwork I'm among friends! Sarah Engels-Greer has a terrific feature on her blog called My Mojo Monthly where she interviews an artist and gives a topic for inspiration and invites you to share your take on her theme - this month it just happens to be book covers - what a coincidence! Allow me to give you a tour of a variety of my book cover collages. In the first photo I have a collection of collages made with 7Gypsies book covers. I like distressing them with sandpaper and making them appear more vintage and worn and well-loved.

These two collages are made a little more dimensional by cutting out the centers essentially using the book covers as frames.

And then there are some of my favorites made with these book covers - faux altered books that have doors cut out that open to reveal a niche with another collage.

Lest you think that I only stick with the faux version of book covers, here's an honest to goodness actual vintage book cover collage with a wonderful purple embossed book cover as the base, and another repurposed book in which the spine was worn out. I punched holes in both the front and back book covers and inserted binder rings.


The inside of this book also puts to use old book pages that are folded into pockets and became a great place to hold favorite tags.

Thanks for reading along through my ramblings ;-)

Alcohol Ink Resist Tutorial is up!

Want the details about creating this alcohol ink resist Halloween decoration? Check out my tutorial on the Gingersnap Creations blog post HERE for all the details that Metzger and I will share with you.....

....actually, Metzger just takes up empty space on my table, and I share details about how to make the project. I hope you'll check it out!

Butterflies Flutter By

Winged Things, Things with Wings, Butterflies flutter by..... two current challenges have wings as their themes: Crafty Individuals October Challenge and Simon Says Stamp and Show. My piece started with the wonderful butterfly collage stamp from Crafty Individuals CI-135. I stamped them on kraft cardstock and cut them out with postage stamp decorative scissors...I did duplicate one to have a fifth for my collage - it just seemed to fit better. I also stamped them onto Clearly for Art film, cut out the butterflies and heated them to bend the wings. Then I colored them with alcohol inks and backed them with tissue paper to make the colors more vibrant before attaching them to the faux postage stamps. Finally I collaged them onto a 7Gypsies book cover along with strips of music and bits of text from a vintage French book.

Alcohol Ink Resist for Halloween

This week at Gingersnap Creations it's the Spicy Supply Challenge and the chosen supply is - alcohol ink - one of my FAVORITES! I've made these Halloween decorations using Ranger's memory glass and frames and a Tim Holtz technique of alcohol ink resist on glass.

Here are close-ups: This first one uses a background stamp by Alpha Stamps and the cat is by Cherry Pie Art Stamps.


The next one uses a background stamp from A Stamp in the Hand and the raven stamp from LaBlanche.

And the third uses a Tim Holtz reflections stamp as the background and the spiders are from a Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 set.

Check out the wonderful inky samples from the rest of the GC design team and add your own project to the GC blog post HERE and have a chance to win a random drawing for a prize package from Alpha Stamps. The challenge will run until Nov. 6th.

Also I was excited to see the return of Linda's Grungy Monday Challenge and am submitting this as my challenge entry as her theme this week is a Tim Holtz-ian Halloween - I think these definitely fit for that between using Tim's technique as well as multiple products of his - quite Holtz-ian indeed!

As a final note, check back on Friday for a link to my tutorial about making this project!!

RRD Rebel Challenge #4

I wanted to play along with the new challenge at Rogue Redhead Designs where the theme is a tag with a quote. I chose to use the Thoreau quote from Beach Babes and stamped it with white pigment ink directly onto this photo of my Dad walking along the beach at Pemaquid Point. Now I know many of you would say that the beaches where you live are beautiful and sandy, but I LOVE our rocky Maine coast beaches and Pemaquid is one of my favorites. Actually where my Dad is walking is right along the cliff edge - there's a sheer drop-off right down to the Atlantic. Needless to say, Pemaquid is not a swimming kind of beach; more a hang out on the rocks and listen to the crashing waves kind of beach - so wonderful! To complete my tag, I added strips of paper using the script stamp from Relish Reading and the sand pattern stamp from Beach Babes stamped using watercolor crayons and water spritzes to give a water-like look.

Here's a close-up of the stamped quote:

Why not join in with the challenge which runs until Nov. 6th - you might even win a $15 GC to the Rogue store! All the details are HERE.

...and they danced

Another little shadowbox to share - just slightly larger than ATC size. This one is made using a box lid! The dancing couple is from the Regency Fashion set by Oxford Impressions and the alphabet stamps are by Studio G.

Regency England Shadowbox

Here's a simple small shadowbox that I created using stamps from the Jane Austen set from Oxford Impressions. The dancing people fit perfectly in the opening with just a tiny bit of overlap to be able to strategically place adhesive! The frame with attached wooden ornament was whitewashed with gesso and stamped using black archival ink along the bottom.

Playing on the weekend

This has been a VERY rainy weekend, so what that means, is that I can spend more time playing :-) I am still experimenting with art journaling and had a lot of fun constructing a new journal based on a class I'm taking taught by my friend and fellow Mainer Catherine Scanlon at My Creative Classroom. The first page of my journal is a quote that I thought was great for my art journaling journey. As always, I especially liked making another book to play in - always very enjoyable for me. Here's a picture of the outside of my journal and I planned ahead and attached a wrap around ribbon to hold it closed, as I think it may become bulgy.....it will be so much fun to fill! Do you get excited having a new blank book and envisioning all those possibilities?