Paper Whimsy ATC

I thought I'd share an ATC I made for the November ATC swap at Paper Whimsy. I had the honor of picking this month's theme! I chose "doors" and had an idea I wanted to try..........

Do you ever have ideas in your head and you're not sure how they'll translate into paper, but you start to play around........
and voilà it worked!

Now I found it was a simple thing to cut the doors and open them, but what I fought with, was how to keep the doors somewhat closed with the photo turn once you opened it up to see who was behind the door. Who would've thought that would be difficult?!? By adding a little more adhesive to the left side door I found that it wouldn't open as much and that gave the photo turn a little more weight to do its job when the doors were closed.

Compendium of Curiosities #23

It's challenge #23 from Linda's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge where the technique is "double distress". I had so much fun playing with this technique that I decided to make a quirky wreath out of all my little tags. And because I'm so horrible when it comes to bow tying, I threaded bells onto my ribbons - it actually sounds quite musical when it moves!

Love Letters to Lily - Gingersnap Creations Color Challenge

This is my piece for the Gingersnap Creations Color Challenge along with supplies I used in creating it. "Vintage Hues" is the theme, and I created a Glimmer Mist background on watercolour paper by spraying through table lace with Vintage Pink, Rose Tea, and Sand. I also sprayed the lace with Glimmer Mist - a foolproof way to have coordinating embellishments! I completed my piece with a collage of stamped images: a picture of the English Edwardian actress and singer Lily Elsie from Stampfrancisco, and stamps of letters from Paperbag Studios and Oxford Impressions. The challenge runs until Dec. 19th so you have plenty of time to create a piece and enter!

Sunday Postcard Art

Sunday Postcard Art's theme this week is Thanksgiving. I used my postcard as another chance to play with mixed media techniques I've learned from Roben-Marie Smith's online class Mixed Media Mayhem (you can find out more about it from her blog HERE). The layers are so much fun to create! I used vintage text paper, acrylic paint, gesso and Adirondack colorwash sprays. I added some stamping with inks and with gesso and a typed scrap of paper that reads "with a grateful heart".

Tag Tuesday - Backgrounds

This week's Tag Tuesday challenge is to feature a background and use minimal embellishments on your tag. It just so happened that last Saturday I taught a class using Distress Ink techniques for Christmas cards and had 2 backgrounds I created as additional demonstrations. How perfect! The first tag is a double distress background using glossy paper. First, stamp the music background with Versamark and heat dry. Rub and buff tumbled glass DI onto the glossy cardstock. Heat dry, then stamp the snowflake stamp also with Versamark and heat dry once more. Finally rub and buff chipped sapphire DI onto the glossy cardstock. The more layers you add of the darker second color, the more the image pops. Stamp credits: Hero Arts, Stampers Anonymous, Penny Black, and All Night Media.

My second tag is a background done with watercolor stamping. I used 4 distress inks all tapped onto the stamp in spots (shabby shutters, peeled paint, barn door, and aged mahogany) then spritzed with a mini mister before stamping onto watercolor paper. I love how this technique causes all the inks to blend together and mottle. Stamp credits: Hero Arts and Memory Box.

Compendium of Curiosities #22

Here's my 4x4 for this week's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge where the technique is Alcohol Ink Splatter. I know that we're not supposed to say how the technique is done, but I just have to ask if anyone who tried this got frostbitten fingers? Maybe it was just me and my desire to perfect a technique, but I just have to say....OUCH! So if I've got you curious about this technique, check page 52 of Tim's book ;-) Quote stamp: Donna Downey for Unity Stamps.

Turn to page 75.......

In my mail I received my Dec/Jan issue of The Stampers' Sampler and excitedly opened it to the heartfelt fabrics pages and found that all 4 of my submitted cards were chosen for publication!!!!! It's always exciting to see something you did in print; I just had to do the happy dance in my kitchen :-)! I always feel so honored to be chosen and to have my work along side of my blog friends - you'll also see cards in this issue from Lynn Stevens (Way to go Lynn!), Louise Granlund of Tag Tuesday fame who I worked with on the Oxford Impressions DT, Audrey Hernandez also on the Oxford Impressions DT, and Joy Northrup who won one of my piano hinge books from a giveaway.

Gingersnap Creations Random Redhead Challenge - Stitching

"Stitching" is the theme for this month's Random Redhead Challenge at Gingersnap Creations. On my card I used hand stitching with 2-3 strands of embroidery thread (3 on the french knots to make them fuller). I used a Bazzill stitching template for the flourish and pre-pierced holes for stitching using the stamped words as a guide on the quote. I did machine sew around the card also to frame the center image. Try your hand at stitching on a project and enter it into the challenge - it's open until Dec.12.

Stamp credits: Paperbag Studios and Donna Downey for Unity Stamps

Tag Tuesday - Bingo

Bingo is Louise's challenge at Tag Tuesday this week and I used a Bingo card I've had for awhile from Ten Two Studios. I like using them in collages because the different words that substitute for Bingo give you a direction to take your collage. Image: Designer Digitals, Stamp: Hero Arts

Compendium of Curiosities #21

Another week of Compendium of Curiosities Challenges - this week it's "perfect distress". I enjoy this technique, but you lose so much in photographing it, so I've added a close-up of the shimmery effect - notice the lovely blue fingers holding the tag! Have you really, truly done a Tim Holtz inspired technique if you don't end up with inky fingers?

Image of the two girls bundled up for a snowy day is from Paper Whimsy.

Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge

This is my piece for the Spicy Supply Challenge at Gingersnap Creations that is ongoing until Dec.5th where the theme is "notions" I stamped onto muslin using black paint and 8 different stamps of notions combined into a collage. I also stamped onto buttons with StazOn and added an Oxford Impressions photostamp on glossy paper from the Dressmaker plate. Why is it when you think of sewing, grandmother images come to mind? I suppose that's why I chose this vintage image to add to my fabric collage and maybe because my grandmother is a fantastic quilter my piece has a quilt-like appearance. After backing the muslin with thin batting, I machine-sewed it to the blue ticking fabric - yes my stitching is quite wonky - good thing this is a stamping piece and not a sewing piece lol! I wanted to pass along a tip I learned from an online class with Claudine Hellmuth for stamping with paint. A product that she has called Extra Time makes all the difference in the world when stamping with paint. For this entire piece I used a dime-sized bit of black paint with three times the amount of Extra Time mixed together then brayered out very thin onto a piece of waxed paper. Tap your stamp into the brayered paint just like you would tap it onto an ink pad and stamp. It's just that simple. The great thing about it is that the paint will dry slowly giving you plenty of time to stamp. In my piece I used 8 different stamps, even heat dried and masked one section, and didn't have to add any additional paint. If you've ever tried paint stamping before, you'll remember how fast it dries, how quickly you have to stamp, and how quickly you have to clean your stamp to be sure to get all the paint off. Adding in a little bit of Extra Time changes all of that.

Stamp credits: Oxford Impressions, Hero Arts, Prima, Paperbag Studios, Hot Off the Press, Stampendous, Studio G

Gingersnap Creations swap

Just thought I'd share my 4x4's for the recent Winter themed swap held by Gingersnap Creations. I used watercolour paper as my base, masked off a square in the center, and sprayed Glimmer Mists in twilight and moonlight over a snowflake glimmer screen. I added a photostamped image from Oxford Impressions cut from glossy paper, and a silver embossed strip using a stamp by Inkadinkado. Can't wait to see what shows up in my mailbox later this month from other gingersnappers!

Lots To Do and Sunday Postcard Art

This is my postcard for 2 challenges - Lots To Do, where the theme is autumnal colors, and Sunday Postcard Art, with a theme of hats and crowns. I used this beautiful girl from a french postcard from Trishia at French Kissed and gave her a crown of flowers, leaves, and jewels fit for a woodland princess. My background is a piece of colored metal embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, sanded, then flattened by running it through the Cuttlebug again on top of the embossing folder. I wrapped the edges with some vintage German book text - I love how the paper frayed and split when wrapped - gave it a nice, worn look.

Tag Tuesday - front and back

For this week's challenge at Tag Tuesday, something from the front of your tag needs to run over onto the back. I used a tree stamp from Paperbag Studios. In my first attempt, when I stamped half of the tree, you really couldn't tell it was a tree - kind of looked like some weird scraggly, messy blob - really, it did! So for my second try on the front, I stamped more of the left side of the stamp, and on the back, I tried to do more of the right side of the stamp. I added some punched leaves - a few tenaciously clinging to their branches, but others falling through the air and laying on the ground - kind of how things look now in my yard. I used an embossing folder on the top and bottom and inked it with forest moss Distress Ink.

Matchbox swap

This is a vintage calling card I've had in my collection. It's funny in a world of emails, texts, and tweets to think that people would have these cards and drive around in their carriages leaving them at people's homes. I remember touring a house that had become a museum that had a small silver tray placed by the entrance door just to collect calling cards. My friend Penny in the UK invited me to join her matchbox swap with a theme of the 12 Days of Christmas. My contribution to the swap was 4 calling birds and I used Miss Edith Catlin's calling card to create my matchboxes. Inside the "drawer" I placed a guinea hen feather and 4 little buttons.

Since I know that they've now made their way across the pond, I thought I'd share them. Can't wait to see what comes back through the post for the other 11 days - such a fun idea for a swap!

Compendium of Curiosities #20

"Industrial Grunge" is the technique for the 20th Compendium of Curiosities Challenge. I thought I'd do a steampunk piece - it seemed like a good fit for the pieces created by this technique - so good and grungy! Image: Collage Visions, Stamps: Oxford Impressions