GC133 Chestnut Theme Challenge

This week at Gingersnap Creations it's the Chestnut Theme Challenge to use a set or line of stamps. January's sponsor is Stampotique Originals and I chose to use stamps all from one line by Amy Wilson Wellenstein. I love to use photo stamps so I couldn't resist building a hanging collage around this stamp called "Winter Ride". I layered that onto a background paper where I heat embossed 2 more stamped images - "The Wave" and "Joy Definition" . The swirl pattern coordinated beautifully with a swirl embossing folder that I used on white cardstock, and then I layered all of that over another scrap of embossed cardstock left over from my gift card project where I embossed snowflakes and highlighted the embossing with white pigment ink. I added punched snowflakes that I lightly swiped with Versamark to be able to add white EP to give a snowy effect and then did the same to the edges of the whole hanging. The final stamped piece is the word joy cut from the "Word Collage" stamp and added to the main photo stamp image. I think she definitely looks joyful, but I'm not so sure about her little sister on the sled! Being a big sister myself, there was always a certain amount of satisfaction in picking on your younger sibling, but of course I would have never done anything like that to my little brother ;-)

The challenge is open until January 29th and you can leave a link to your project using a set or line of stamps on the GC blog post HERE. One randomly drawn winner will win a $30 voucher to the Stampotique Originals store.

Gift Card Holder

Here's a quick and easy to make gift card holder that I used recently to hold a Christmas gift and loved the wintery look. I used a gift card holder template from the Dec 2011 Vamp Stamp News issue that had a whole bunch of different ones to try. To decorate it, I used Oxford Impressions set "Winter Snow" stamps on glossy paper. After stamping the little boy and postmark with Archival Ink, I stamped the other background stamps using Ranger Watermark Resist ink and then rubbed distress inks over all but his face to color the glossy cardstock.

This is how the opened holder looks. I used a Sizzix embossing folder to create the snowflake paper and then rubbed over the embossing with Snow Cap Pigment Ink for subtle highlights.

A Very Rogue Christmas

I don't know about you, but I'm still inspired by Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas and couldn't resist one more kind of Rogue-ified for the Rogue Redhead Designs blog. I started with a wrinkle free distress background using Antique Linen, Bundled Sage and Fired Brick distress stains and then created fragment charm Christmas ornaments by first using alcohol inks (Cranberry and Bottle) and then stamped ladies from the trio of Milliner Misses using archival ink and then blotted and buffed it off creating a resist effect. I wired them to the tag using the swirl from Relish Reading as their anchor. To finish off my tag I added a sentiment from Stampers Anonymous and die cut greenery and pearls.

Here's a close-up of the fragment charms:

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

To all of you....

This was my view today - a snowy, rocky seacoast. Maybe my husband and I were crazy as we were the only ones there walking around in the falling snow.....but it's what we do every Christmas! Hope yours was exceedingly merry!!

GC#130 Spicy Supply Challenge

This week at Gingersnap Creations it's time for the Spicy Supply Challenge with the theme of wax. I tried my hand with a beeswax collage. Starting with a canvas board base I had a lot of fun seeing how the wax interacted with the various elements. I really love what it does with vintage paper making it kind of translucent - on my music piece, you can just barely see the opposite side too. I did find that it was easier to create a collage first with your paper pieces and adhere them to the canvas board using gel medium rather than trying to use just the wax and add the pieces layer by layer. Also if you use any ink jet images as I did with my French Kissed postcard image and Green Paper calendar image, spraying the paper first with a workable fixative prevented any color bleeding when you worked with the hot wax. I did find that embedding things into the wax was very cool - I used chipboard letters and numbers and a piece of gaffer tape. Finally, I liked stamping into the hot wax with a Paperbag Studio flourish stamp and accenting the area with Perfect Pearls.

Here's a close-up to see the stamping.

Check out the GC blog HERE to see other cool projects made by the rest of the team using wax and add our own project to the challenge which runs until January 8th. Also 1 randomly chosen entry will win a digital holiday collage sheet from Pennywise arts, this month's sponsor.

12 Tags of Christmas Day 12

The final day of the 12 Tags of Christmas -I'm a little sad, but also quite glad to have completed them all. This tag was so much fun to make with a great shabby chic feel to it! A really fun background with the tissue paper and a cool flower with it, too. I have to confess that I'm in the group that finds Frozen Charlottes kind of creepy.....last year I took a couple of classes with Tim Holtz and one was to be used in one of the class projects - I gave it back to him. So, needless to say I needed a replacement and used this cute little girl from a Red Lead ancestor collage sheet and changed my phrase. This is definitely my favorite tag of this year. Now I must get back to reality and tackle all the housework I've neglected! Good thing I'm not back to work for another week :-)

12 Tags of Christmas Day 11

It's Day 11 - the next to last tag :-( and the technique today was quite fiddly!!!! I used the snowflurries on the edge die and mini snowflakes dies for my pieces. I'm not too sure that my melting pot and I are on good terms. I found it hard not to get my UTEE too globby so I tried playing with them in the shallow end of the pot to let some of it run off, and I tried reshaping them on my craft sheet with my heat gun to get them flatter to attach to the tag. It is a cool effect when completed, but not sure mine is a good representation of the Tim Holtz technique. I put pearl paint dabber on the backs of mine to help the alcohol ink to stand out a bit better. Only one more tag left - see you tomorrow!

Stamp Credits: little boy: Oxford Impressions "Winter Snow", sentiment: Artistic Outpost "Sleigh Ride"

12 Tags of Christmas Day 10

Day 10 of the 12 Tags and here's my version. I always find tape transfers fun and the addition of foil tape behind them is a fun twist. My images are from old Christmas collage sheets in my stash from Altered Pages. The cool thing about tape transfers is that you can use almost any image source - magazine image, ink jet with pigment ink, laser print, color copy, or patterned paper - and they are easy to do.

Here's a close-up of mine made with fragment charms.

Stamp credits: music: Red Lead, holly branch: Oxford Impressions "Season of Giving"

12 Tags of Christmas Day 9

Day 9 and I'm caught up again!!! Whew, I had to finish around 3:30 or I wouldn't get usable light for my photo - gotta love Maine in December! This background is really fun and easy to do. I embellished my tag with a die-cuts of a flourish, juniper, and a heart and cut my sentiment into a banner.

Stamp Credits: background: Stamp Camp, sentiment: Oxford Impressions "St. Nicholas"

12 Tags of Christmas Day 8

Day 8 of the 12 Tags and it's a cool Steampunk Christmas theme! This tag was definitely enjoyable to make and I also tried out a fun technique on my #25 tag and JOY letters by my friend Shelly Hickox she calls faux crazed porcelain. Check out her tutorial on the Splitcoaststampers blog HERE (there's even a video) and definitely check out Shelly's blog for her fun Steampunk tags for Day 5 and Day 8 - she's quite the talented Steampunk creator!

Stamp credits: Stampers Anonymous, EK Success