A Penny for your Thoughts

Fun with black gesso

2012-01-30T10:55:00.000-05:00

This art journal page is one done with inspiration from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer in her online class 30 Days in Your Art Journal that you can find out about on her blog. Starting with a base of black gesso instead of white, it was fun trying out different things over top of it. The doodled flowers are Caran D'Ache Neocolor II crayons and all the writing is done with white gel pen (I found that the Uniball Signo worked better than the Sakura or Ranger's Inkssentials) or white china marker. The really bright white doodled starry things are white Souffle pen - it gets much brighter when it dries.

How do you create?

2012-01-29T18:43:00.000-05:00

I have more art journal pages to share this week and I'm starting with this one using techniques I learned from a class with Catherine Scanlon online at My Creative Classroom. She has several mixed media classes that are a lot of fun and filled with techniques. This one used stencils over your underpainting that was then painted over with black acrylic paint. I added words with white ink and a dip pen. Notice those spatters? Well, I got sloppy and dripped my ink and just went with it and spattered more! So, how do I create - MESSY!!!!

Doing a HAPPY DANCE!!!

2012-01-20T21:15:00.001-05:00

It's always an absolute thrill to have your work chosen for publication in a Stampington magazine and I have 2 in the February/March issue of the Stampers' Sampler!!!!!!!! Both are part of the special surfaces challenge and the first is an ATC concertina book. You can see the cover in the magazine - I used some of my crayon glassine paper to stamp on as my special surface.

Want to see the inside?

This is how the concertina looks opened and I used more crayon glassine on alternate panels. Here are a couple of close-ups:

My second project is a set of 3 collages built on 3in square acrylic blocks that are usually used for stamping with your unmounted stamps. I adhered paper to the back and stamped images onto the front of each block.

On the facing page they even show a photo from the side so you can see the dimension.

I've been smiling all day :-)

Random art journal page

2012-01-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

Here's a page from my art journal turned on end that started with washes of watercolor paint and then random lines of tissue tape. I then added in the words of a quote around the tape using mostly embellished handwriting, but some stamped letters as well that I highlighted with a white gel pen. Wish I knew where the quote came from, I found it in a recent online class, but it wasn't credited to anyone; really liked its meaning. I have recently been pondering about how I don't want to get to the end of my life and realize that I only lived the length of it - I heard that quote somewhere too and liked it also - maybe it needs to be another journal page!

RRD Rebel Challenge #7

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

There's a new Rebel Challenge on the Rogue Redhead Designs blog and the challenge is to use vellum. I experimented a bit and first stamped the trio from Milliner Misses onto vellum and colored it from the back side using colored pencils. I'm just not good at coloring and doing it this way hides my mistakes! Once I had my image colored, I ran my piece of vellum though my Cuttlebug using a frame embossing folder. Embossed vellum always gives a cool white effect and I added more white also on the back with a colored pencil to make it even more obvious.

So what did I do with my piece then?

I created this collage for it with French flair using 7Gypsies tissue paper with French place names and a page from an old French dictionary.

I actually made 2 backgrounds with the tissue paper when I started - I was being indecisive! On one, after adhering the tissue to white cardboard, I randomly applied paints and gesso with a palette knife and added more textures with gesso through punchinella and on a bottle cap to stamp circles. The second background started with a piece of white cardstock given a wrinkle free distress treatment with vintage photo distress stain prior to adhering the tissue and then antique linen distress stain over top. The second background I cut into pieces and arranged them in a pattern on top of the first background. I also completely avoided the difficulties of adhering vellum; by creating decorative corner punches in my image mat, I could just slip the piece of vellum under each corner punch. How do you like to use vellum? Why not join in on the challenge on the RRD blog post HERE - the challenge will be open until February 5th.

Glimmer Misted Bag

2012-01-15T14:50:00.001-05:00

I decided I needed a decorated totebag and have altered this one starting with a base of Glimmer Mists in Turquoise and Meadow Green on the bag and lace strip. I made rolled roses with muslin strips and sprayed them with GM in Rose Tea and Creme de Rouge. They are layered over white paint stamped Queen Anne's Lace (Donna Downey for Unity Stamps) and given stems of lace strips also misted with Meadow Green and Forest Green. I added some words with my dip pen and India Ink - I'm slowly getting better! Fabric can be tricky as the pen nib wants to splatter ink as it goes over the textured surface. One tip if you try your own Glimmer Misted bag - spray it with a fixative (I used Krylon workable fixative and left it outside to dry and air out) or if it gets wet you and your clothes will become a lovely shade of blue-green!

GC#134 Spicy Supply Challenge

2012-01-12T13:33:00.001-05:00

It may be snowing like crazy outside my window today - yea!!! :-) but I'm thinking about flowers this week with my project for the Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge where the chosen supply is ribbon. I made these little notecards using up some scraps of ribbon from my stash. I used a Stampotique Originals stamp called "the wave" to stamp a simple border on the card and if you look closely, you'll see the same stamp used on a ribbon scrap in each flower. I created an epoxy circle button for each flower center using a word cut out from another Stampotique stamp called "word collage". Quick and easy cards!

Enter your project using ribbon on the GC blog post HERE by February 5th and have a chance to be the one randomly drawn winner of a $30 certificate to the Stampotique Originals online store!

Now go get those ribbon scraps and have some fun creating :-)

GC133 Chestnut Theme Challenge

2012-01-05T08:01:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-01T09:00:00.002-05:00

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

2011-12-26T08:00:00.001-05:00

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....

2011-12-25T16:58:00.003-05:00

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

2011-12-14T08:06:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-12T10:08:00.003-05:00

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

2011-12-11T14:47:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-10T09:11:00.002-05:00

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

2011-12-09T18:31:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-09T18:28:00.001-05:00

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

12 Tags of Christmas Day 7

2011-12-09T18:26:00.001-05:00

Day 7 of the 12 Tags brings a great vintage look and a cool technique using kraft glassine for the die-cut leaves. I have played with regular glassine, which is translucent white, but hadn't really played much with the kraft version because I couldn't get the colors to stand out and look anything other than muddy brown. Be sure to check out the tutorial on Tim's blog for some great ideas and because my photo doesn't do the leaves justice, but they really are cool!

Stamp credits: two girls: Oxford Impressions "St. Nicholas", sentiment: Artistic Outpost "Snowy Woods", crackle: I Brake for Stamps, Music: Stamp Camp

12 Tags of Christmas Day 6

2011-12-09T18:23:00.001-05:00

I'm playing catch-up on the 12 Tags and here is my Day 6 tag. I have to admit that I didn't like the look of the sample tag, but overall, the technique can create a nice background. I used two Cuttlebug embossing folders and pieced three parts together, because I knew that my tag was larger than my folder and wanted to cover the whole background. I used more of a debossed, leafy design on the tag, then created a hanging charm with a strip from the other folder that was more of an embossed design. Did you know that you can also link your tags to the Inspiration Emporium blog for their contest where the prizes are gift certificates to their store? Check it out on their blog.

GC#129 Chestnut Theme Challenge

2011-12-09T17:41:00.001-05:00

For December at Gingersnap Creations the focus is on Holiday Lights and this week it's the Chestnut Theme Challenge with the theme of "Starry Night". I created a watercolor paper piece and mounted it on a tissue tape covered canvas. To create the main piece, I started by stamping the cityscape and then masked it - yes, I cut out all those peaks and spires! Then I inked the background with Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire DI. To create my stars I used a trick from Jennifer McGuire starting by spraying Perfect Pearls mist onto your craft sheet in a puddle and then flicking droplets with a paint brush and then air or heat drying. I used Biscotti PP Mist so my stars were warmer, but it also looks great with Pearl PP Mist. To finish it off I used a line from a Christmas carol - "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" - that I hand wrote at the bottom.
Show us your Starry Night project by linking to the GC blog post HERE. The challenge will be open until January 1st and one random winner will win a free bag of micro beads from our sponsor this month, Pennywise Arts.

Stamp Credits: Cherry Pie Art Stamps

12 Tags of Christmas Day 5

2011-12-05T07:42:00.003-05:00

Day 5 and I'm getting mine done early - I just have to say that I LOVE this background technique!!! You may remember that I did a version of this on glass charms for Halloween - you can see my tutorial on the Gingersnap Creations blog HERE - and it's just such a fun resist look. Definitely make sure to blot and blot and then blot some more before you buff with your towel or you will rub it all off and have to start again - yes, I know this from experience ;-) But, it's simple to start again because you're working with acetate - just add blending solution to wipe it all off and try again. Ahhh, the joys of being a perfectionist!!! One other tip I have: I have found that Glossy Accents and alcohol ink really do not like each other and that's why Tim tells you to just put it on the edges to adhere your acetate to the tag. The Glossy Accents tends to blend and bleed the alcohol ink kind of melting and destroying any patterns you've created. I have found that Diamond Glaze does not cause this and allows me to put a thin layer on the whole receiving surface (the paper tag) and then set the acetate on top adhering it more securely. I'll be back later in the week to play catch-up so until then, have fun making tags!

12 Tags of Christmas Day 4

2011-12-04T14:15:00.003-05:00

Day 4 of the 12 tags of Christmas at the Tim Holtz blog and yet another fun background technique - kind of a wrinkle free distress using stains - it does give a nice softness with the addition of white Picket Fence. I had to make a modification to do the die-cut snowman. Not having the die, I used instead the snowman embossing folder image for my template and cut a piece of chipboard using scissors and a knife into the snowman shape. I added chipboard numbers covered with paper and glossy accents instead of the die-cut 25 directly into the snowman - I may be good with my knife, but I'm not that good ;-) This tag really had a fun mix of textures with crackle, tulle, tinsel, ribbon and a tiny feather. Can't wait to see what's up for tomorrow!

Penny's ATC swap

2011-12-03T17:26:00.001-05:00

All the ATC swap books have found their way to their new homes and I want to share the fabulous results of my swap with my extremely talented friends.

I divided everyone into 2 groups and created a concertina book for each out of a strip of tea dyed watercolor paper. This is the cover with the dry embossing accented with metallic rub-ons.

All ten books - aren't they terrific!!

Here are pictures of all the ATCs included along with a link to everyone's blog - just click on their name:

Mine have vintage images and crayon glassine paper stamped with a Stampers Anonymous stamp and accented with a bit of machine stitching.

These came from Cheri my very talented neighbor down the road who I got to know in altered book classes at one of our local stamp stores. She added really cool dimensional details to each ATC.

These are from a fellow Ginger, Trisha - I just loved the cool feathers sticking out!

These are from my friend Janine in Germany who always inspires me with her fabulous background experiments on her blog.

These came from my friend Jennie in Shetland who I got to "meet" in an online class. Her ATCs have wonderful shimmery backgrounds along with their vintage images - and she's someone else who sews on her buttons!

Also from Scotland, my friend Lynne sent these - even though she claims I twisted her arm to join the project! - and they are a perfect representation of her vintage shabby style.

And then the contingent from England:

There's my friend Paula who used such a cool background technique combining distress inks, bleach and lemon juice.

And Sherry, a new friend I've made through this project, who wrote that she loved to be inky and messy with rubber stamping and sent these ATCs that added such a perfect pop of colour to the book.

And finally Beverly, another new friend and fellow cat person, whose ATCs were a series about a woman's life. She lived in New Zealand for many years and also sent an ATC honoring the NZ All Blacks who happened to win the world cup the day after the ATC arrived. This ATC sits proudly with my Ohio State Buckeye ATC - I love that you can honor a favorite team in a crafty way!

A HUGE thanks to each of you for making my swap a true collection of friends.....all that I had envisioned and more!

Penny's ATC swap Part II: How to make my ATC concertina book

2011-12-03T17:24:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share a tutorial showing how I made my ATC book for my swap. I started with big sheets of watercolor paper that I tea-dyed and left to dry outside on the grass giving it lovely patterns. I tore it into strips that are 4in x 21.5in and then scored every 3in except for adding an extra half inch between two panels on one end. Then I accordion folded it and you can see how the last two panels wrap around it creating a front and back cover.

Here are all 10 books together for the swap.

.....Enter Inspector #1.....

He thinks they are fine, but thought I was being a bit too neat with the whole process! Inspectors #2 an #3 also checked stuff out but stayed clear of the photo, and I think Inspector #4 was napping.

Now back to the tutorial:

I embossed just the cover with an embossing folder and have cut 3 slits with my knife. On the spine they are horizontal - you can just barely see them, and there is one other vertical slit directly across from the middle slit on the spine.

Take a ribbon of 24 - 30in and slip it through the middle horizontal slit on the spine and then out the vertical slit to the back as in the picture.

Holding the book so you can see the outside of the spine, take the ribbon from the center slit and place it through an end slit.

Flip back to the inside of the spine and place the ribbon through the other end slit.

Flip it to the back of the spine one last time and slip the ribbon under the ribbon already in place to cinch it.

And now you're left with two ends that can be tied together in a bow holding the book together.

12 Tags of Christmas Day 3

2011-12-03T16:52:00.004-05:00

Day 3 of the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas - a fun background technique with an embossing folder and companion stamp with this one. Do you wonder if he designed the stamp with the idea of stamping two tags at once (see his blog post for the pictures) or was that serendipitous? Regardless, it was fun!

12 Tags of Christmas Day 2

2011-12-02T20:36:00.001-05:00

For the Day 2 tag check out the Tim Holtz blog HERE. My Day 2 tag required a bit of improvising. Instead of a diecut, I stamped a reindeer silhouette from the Season's Silhouettes set onto the paper backing of the sticky back canvas and fussy cut it out. I also made my own star charm with 3 layers of cardstock, foil tape, and a star punch. My biggest improvisation is with the kraft resist paper. Here's my DIY version:

Stamp and clear emboss what you want to be resisted - I chose a portion of the word stamp also from the Season's Silhouettes set.

Then stamp with StazOn to create a patterned background. Yes, you do stamp over the embossing, but we'll fix that. I have tried this with Archival Ink thinking it would be easier to wipe off the embossing, but found that when the kraft paper is inked, the Archival inked stamping looked too faded.

So to clean up the clear embossed area, just take a tiny bit of solvent cleaner on a Q-tip and rub over the embossing and the StazOn comes right off! Now you've got a custom piece of kraft resist that you can ink any way you want.

Stamp credits: Stampers Anonymous, Hero Arts, Oxford Impressions

12 Tags of Christmas Day 1

2011-12-02T20:30:00.000-05:00

Are you playing along with Tim Holtz and his 12 Tags of Christmas? It's always a fun activity to get into a Christmas frame of mind and learn some new techniques. Here's my take on the tag for Day 1 and I had a fun time playing with kraft core cardstock and making the tattered pinecones although I think mine look a bit more like dimensional flowers than pinecones. Check out the video on the Day 1 post on Tim's blog for some really helpful tips.

GC Blue Moon Challenge

2011-11-30T16:49:00.001-05:00

This week at Gingersnap Creations it's the Once in a Blue Moon Challenge where the theme is thank you notes. A very appropriate topic not only with the recent Thanksgiving holiday, but also with Christmas upcoming it's always handy to have some thank you cards around. I've seen cards using text paper on a die cut shape and love the look. My little kraft paper notecard starts with a die-cut label shape that I've covered in strips of vintage paper and edged with a Krylon pen. I added a die-cut heart covered with several layers of Be Positive Glimmer Glam and Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearl Mist and finally stamped my sentiment with alphabet stamps (Studio G). So show us some cool thank you card ideas and enter the challenge on the GC blog post HERE. The challenge runs until Dec. 27th. Also be sure to check out the other cards from the DT on the blog - there are some terrific ideas!

Rogue Redhead Designs Good Friends

2011-11-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

Here's a card I made using my favorite RRD text stamp from Relish Reading both as a bold element in the background and as a subtle tone-on-tone version as the background of the circles. I stamped the trio of women from Milliner Misses and punched them out with a 1 1/2" circle punch to create the circles. The card also includes a scrap of Glimmer Misted watercolor paper sprayed over a flourish screen that has been in my box of scraps for a long time because I just couldn't throw it away - I'm sure you all understand ;-) - and it was just the pop of color I needed to finish off the card.

November's My Mojo Monthly

2011-11-23T14:34:00.002-05:00

I spent a day being inspired by Sarah's prompt for her My Mojo Monthly for November - "Changing Faces" and this is my pile of projects! I had a lot of fun with this one :-) In Sarah's samples, she used 2 stamp sets and showed all the different looks you can get by exploring different styles and playing with different color combinations.

All of my pieces have one thing in common - this text stamp from Relish Reading by Rogue Redhead Designs. I think a good text stamp is a necessary part of any stamp collection and I certainly have many, but I do find myself grabbing this one often.

First up is a fun and funky art journal page with bright, primary colors of Glimmer Mist (Burnt Red, Sunflower, Jack Frost). I first stamped my text stamp in different directions onto tissue paper using StazOn, then crinkled it and sprayed it. After it was dry, I adhered it to a piece of cardstock and stamped a flourish (Stampers Anonymous) with gesso, adhered that panel into my journal, and had fun writing and doodling.

Here's a close-up of the tissue paper background:

Next I tried my hand at a Clean and Simple one-layer card - totally not my style and I can't tell you how much I wanted to add more to it! ...but since this was about experimenting with the versatility of my text stamp, I stuck with it. I cut out a heart stencil using scrap copy paper and first stamped the text with sepia archival ink, then sprayed Glimmer Mist (Creme de Rouge and Burnt Red) and then removed my stencil. I added some sentiment stamps (Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday) with Versamark and black EP.

Here's the close-up to see the subtle text within the heart:

OK, now it was time to get grungy and distressed with a Tim Holtz style tag. I did a DIY version of kraft resist for my background by first stamping the flourish (Stampers Anonymous) onto a kraft tag with Versamark and then clear embossing it. I overstamped the text with StazOn and used a Q-tip with solvent cleaner to remove the ink from the embossed parts. Next I added distress stains in Fired Brick and Stormy Sky and distressed the edges and inked with Walnut Stain distress ink. I used the same stains on the seam binding ties, and had to add metal bits that I distressed with black paint.

Here's the close-up of this one:

Next I created a gluebook collage page using my stamped text as a substitute for a vintage paper background. (Images: Green Paper and Graphic 45)

And finally a vintage shabby chic collage using a subtle tone-on-tone version of the text stamp by stamping with Tea Dye DI onto paper rubbed with the same DI. I overstamped an image (Club Stamp), colored it with colored pencils and added found book text, vintage mother of pearl buttons and tatted lace, as well as machine stitching to layered papers torn, distressed and rolled.

Here's the close-up of this use of the text stamp and all the fun shabby details - don't you love the vintage tatted lace piece?

So much thought-provoking fun with this challenge!

Serena's Heart

2011-11-22T08:13:00.001-05:00

This month's Stampsmith Challenge is Ribbons and Lace and was set by Lynne Moncrieff. As I am always inspired by my friend, I had to do a Lynne-style piece! I used the Serena photostamp from the Stampsmith stamped onto glossy card and layered it onto a lace covered piece of canvas I cut into a heart shape. I colored bits of lace, seam binding ribbon and ribbon roses with Antique Linen distress stain and Rose Tea Glimmer Mist. I formed the ribbon into a swag on top and a frame around the picture and added pearls for accents.

Jane Austen Faux Book Collage

2011-11-21T21:21:00.001-05:00

In sorting through my piles - does anybody else "organize" this way?? - I found this faux book collage that I hadn't shown. It uses the Jane Austen set from Oxford Impressions along with some of my favorite 7Gypsies book covers. I placed a small niche near the bottom of the book and sandwiched a ribbon inside that trails to the outside like a bookmark.

Rogue Redhead Designs Rebel Challenge #5

2011-11-14T08:00:00.002-05:00

I've been having fun with the new Milliner Misses plate from Rogue Redhead Designs (which just happens to be on sale until Dec 30th!) and made this z-fold card following this month's Rebel Challenge of using only one designer paper with your stamp. My paper is from "On the Boardwalk" by Graphic 45. I cut a rectangle the size I wanted and then used a Martha Stewart border punch to create my panel. The punch actually has 3 rows of half-circles, but I cut off one to have it fit my card. The stamped girl is colored with watercolor pencils and her hat embellishment is a tiny butterfly I made dimensional by cutting it out from a second stamped hat and coloring it with Glaze pens to make it look jeweled.

Why not try your hand at this challenge and add your project to the post on the RRD blog HERE. The challenge will run until Dec.4th and a random winner will receive a $15 certificate to spend at the Rogue store.

Vintage Gluebook swap

2011-11-05T19:49:00.002-04:00

Mary Green had a terrific idea for a swap involving creating gluebook pages. I created these collages using miscellaneous scraps and vintage backgrounds and sent them off to Mary.

Here is what I received back:

She created a book out of the individual pages and used vintage book covers from her collection. Isn't that cool?

These are the individual pages that I received in the swap:

Thanks to Mary Dawson, Kim Smith, Julie Loeschke, Joy Meadows, Kat Hou, and Linda Freeman - such fantastic collages!!!

Happy Anniversary Rogue Redhead Designs!!!

2011-11-01T15:39:00.001-04:00

Rogue Redhead Designs is celebrating its 1st Anniversary!!! There's a new website: http://www.rogueredheaddesigns.com/, new stamp releases, and of course - SALES!

Here's one of the new sets called Milliner Misses -

You might notice that one of the images is the fantastic logo of RRD. This mini plate packs a lot of style into just a few images. Capture the distinctive fashion and panache of twenties with these great elegant ladies and their fabulous hats. Perfect for gal pal cards and fashionable greetings of all kinds.

My card uses the trio of women on kraft cardstock that I highlighted with a cream colored pencil and some charcoal pencil shading around them. The cardstock has textures added from 2 different embossing folders, and on the top piece I rubbed metallic rub-ons onto the embossed areas.

I'm sure you'll agree that these new stamps are the bee's knees! The set's price is $7.50 but until December 30th it's only $6.00. Be sure to check out the RRD blog for some fantastic samples using the new plates.

Falling leaves

2011-10-29T15:28:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-22T15:26:00.002-04:00

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...

2011-10-19T08:14:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-16T19:15:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-10-14T07:10:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-13T08:05:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-12T08:05:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-08T16:28:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-03T12:00:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-02T18:30:00.003-04:00

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?

My Rogue ATC Garden

2011-09-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

Over at the Rogue Redhead Designs blo g, there is a challenge this month to create ATC's, but to also "think outside the ATC". For my pair of ATC's, I used images from Relish Reading and Floriculture. I also had some fun playing with distress stains, which I haven't had a lot of time to play with yet. My colored background is a Jennifer McGuire technique she calls pearlized distress - you use distress stains on watercolor paper (in my case I clear embossed my images first so I would also get a cool resist effect), then spritz the whole thing with Perfect Pearl spray blending the colors and giving them a shimmer. I also flicked droplets of the pearl spray onto the background. On the left I used a strip of that paper over a base created with tone-on-tone distress ink stamping and rubbing with a blending tool all using the tea dye color. On the right, I reversed the paper combination. Then I added my garden of buds that were also stamped onto watercolor paper and colored with distress stains. The buds are arranged so that some go "outside" the margins of the ATC and they're also elevated using foam squares - I wonder if "above the ATC" counts in the challenge....hmmmmm.

Check out the RRD blog post HERE to join in the challenge which runs until Oct. 9th - you could be the winner of a $15 GC to the Rogue Redhead Etsy store!

Follow the path

2011-09-25T07:46:00.001-04:00

This is another canvas collage that has a background using paint stamping with leaves. My photo is a TAP transfer onto muslin of a part of one of the trails located in Acadia National Park at the coast. However, my memory when I see this photo is a little different. This trail is close to the Jordan Pond House Restaurant where after hiking, we had a lunch of lobster stew and warm popovers with jam - mmmmmmmm. Every hike should end that way :-)

I'm looking for a few good friends....

2011-09-20T08:00:00.002-04:00

....well, actually 4 friends (or multiples of 4) for an ATC swap idea of mine! You may remember this ATC concertina book I posted last fall. The picture above is how it looks unfolded,and the pictures below show it folded up on the left while the right picture shows it with just the cover open.

So my idea comes from thinking about all my creative friends throughout the world and how inspired I am by your artwork and how fun it would be to have a tangible piece of that artwork - a true celebration of the creative friendships we've formed in blogland. I thought it would be fun to collect ATC's from friends, add them to ones I've made, and assemble a set of them into concertina books similar to the pictures above and then send one book back to each of you. So are you interested? (Oh, I so hope that you are!!!!) What you would do is to make 5 ATC's (2 1/2" wide by 3 1/2" tall - portrait orientation) that represent "you" - your style, your favorite technique, your favorite image, or a word that means a lot to you right now - and to make it easy, feel free to make 5 that are the same - and then mail them to me. For instance, I'm sure mine would have some crayon glassine, maybe a vintage image, and probably some wonky sewing :-) After I've collected them all, I will mail back to you a set of the group's 5 ATC's in a concertina book! If you'd like to participate, leave a comment with a way to contact you by email (unless of course I already know it or if you have an email link on your about me area of your blog) and I'll give you my mailing address. Leave any questions as well, and I'll answer those, of course. Once we have our group of people, I'll set a date for you to send the ATC's to me. Hope you'll join me!

******Sign-ups now closed - thank you SO MUCH for joining in. Stay tuned next month for pictures of the completed books******

Curiouser and Curiouser

2011-09-17T19:47:00.002-04:00

Two current challenges had themes that I loved : "Metal" at Inspiration Emporium monthly challenge for September and "Steampunk" at Simon Says Stamp and Show, and I finally had some free time which means play time! I love the Steampunk style and have made projects from an inventor point of view, but this time I wanted to make a Steampunk creature and created my bird. She is constructed using metal foil tape on a chipboard diecut which I then embossed, alcohol inked, and sanded. I added gears, eyelets, brads and wire springs to her tail feathers. She's layered on top of stacked cabinet card diecuts - the smaller one is covered with paper that I first clear embossed with a blue print design and then inked with chipped sapphire Distress Stain. The type charms dangling from the bottom just seemed to be a good fit - and more metal!

Stamp credits: Oxford Impressions and Stampers Anonymous

GC#118 Spicy Supply Challenge - Crimpers

2011-09-14T07:00:00.001-04:00

This week it's the Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge where the tool to use is a crimper. Wow, has it been a long time since I used one! I found mine in a drawer and after dusting it off :-) I ran through watercolor paper colored with Glimmer Mists in turquoise, trunk bay, and puerto rico. I cut it into 1 1/4" squares and arranged 6 of them in alternating fashion over a text stamped piece of kraft cardstock. Going with September's friendship theme I had to use the Hero Arts friend definition text! Then I added bits of stamped text to half of the squares and added a ribbon colored with the same colors of mists. In placing the ribbon on top, I think it gives the card the look of a present - after all, friends are some of the best gifts to have!

This challenge (see the GC post HERE) will run until Oct. 9th so you have plenty of time to locate your crimper and join in!

Stamp Credits: Hero Arts and Katie Pertiet for Autumn Leaves

Crayon Glassine with Rogue Redhead Designs stamps

2011-09-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd see how the newest Rogue Redhead Design stamps, Beach Babes, looked stamped on my crayon glassine paper, and I really liked the effect! I melted crayons in the blues and greens family onto the glassine and achieved a really nice watery texture. The boat image was a perfect fit. I also found that I could color in the sail and add highlights with a white gel pen.

Here is the same idea with the heron stamp, again with the white highlights. Check out the RRD blog for many more ideas using their newest stamp set.

Gingersnap Creations Chestnut Challenge #117 - Gal Pals

2011-09-07T16:13:00.000-04:00

All through September at Gingersnap Creations we're celebrating International Women's Friendship Month and this week's challenge has a theme of gal pals. Also this month the featured technique is spotlighting which I tried in my card. It really is a simple yet effective technique. I chose to experiment with the straightforward version of stamping your image twice and coloring in one (mine is done with distress inks), then punching out a portion of the colored image and placing it in its appropriate location on the uncolored image.

Here's a close-up to show the spotlighting:

I also chose to mount my main image on a background stamp that contained many words related to friendship and even spotlighted the word "friendship".

So join us in celebrating your girlfriends by creating a piece for the challenge post at the GC blog HERE by Oct. 2nd.

Stamp Credits: Melanie Sage and Stampin' Up

Summer canvas collage

2011-09-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

Labor Day always feels like the end of summer, so I thought I'd share a collage done on a piece of canvas for an online class I took that is very summery. The background is painted by using leaves and flowers with paint on them to essentially monoprint. I used tansy and columbine leaves and to add the painted flowers, I used individual tansy flowers. They are about the size of a pencil eraser and very dense allowing me to create dots and combine them into a flower shape. I was glad to put that horrible flower/herb/weed to some good use! It's an invasive plant that grows about 4 feet tall, and the flowers start out as a bright yellow, but change to a dark brown pretty quickly. The photos are TAP transfers of the lilies that grow in our yard and I've embellished the canvas with fabric, lace, buttons, machine stitching and inked rolled muslin roses. Of course I had to keep practicing with my dip pen and india ink, too - slowly getting better ;-) Hope you're enjoying your end of summer!

Miss Pauline has bought her ticket to..........

2011-09-02T20:32:00.004-04:00

The photo of Pauline Frederick I used in creating my fabric heart for the giveaway is one from an Enchanted Mercantile connection that I enjoy using. She has such a beautiful and regal look, and even though I could imagine a life for her as I would use her image in a project, I didn't know much about her. According to Wikipedia she was an American actress, first on the stage and then in films. She "specialized in playing commanding and authoritative women" - sounds like Pauline could be a little bit fiesty - gotta love that! I found this photo of her at the Library of Congress site.

So on to the giveaway! Sorry for announcing my winner a little late today - the path of hurricane Irene made it all the way to New England and fortunately where we are in Maine, we had just rain followed by wind, but we did lose our power for a day, then got it back for a day only to lose it for another day, and then after almost two days with it, it went out again today!!! Hence my access to the internet this week has been sporadic to say the least! Now that I'm connected again I'm happy to say that there is a winner.....

......and Miss Pauline will be traveling to Florida to work on her tan! Congratulations Connie! I'll be sending you an email. Thank you to everyone who left a comment - you all are so sweet with all your encouraging words and compliments - it's great to have creative friends! - and I truly appreciate that you take the time to comment on my projects.

Crayon Glassine Cards

2011-08-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

OK, so I can't stop playing with my scraps of crayon glassine! Here are 2 cards simply put together by stamping an image on the side opposite the melted crayon with Archival ink - so simple and such a great look......well, I think so!

Stamp Credits: Crafty Individuals and I Break for Stamps

Another Fabric Heart and a GIVEAWAY!!

2011-08-26T14:05:00.001-04:00

I just had to make a 3rd fabric heart (if you're interested in seeing the others #1 is HERE and #2 is HERE) - it's so much fun to lay out lace, ribbons and trims and create a beautiful background for my TAP transferred image - I think it all goes along well with her dress. The photo is of Pauline Frederick and is captioned "The Girl in White". It's been too long since I've held a giveaway and I think Pauline would like to do some traveling and see the world. What would your area of the world have to offer Miss Pauline? Leave me a comment making sure I have a way to contact you if you win and next Friday I'll randomly draw a name and send her to you!

Jane Austen Concertina Book

2011-08-25T08:12:00.001-04:00

I have another concertina book to share! This one was so much fun to create and is basically one long piece of folded Glimmer Misted watercolor paper with the individual panels just a bit larger than ATC size. It is made using stamps from the Jane Austen set from Oxford Impressions.

This is the book untied and first opened:

And here it is all opened up:

The individual panels include a piece of textured paper created by adhering text to cardstock, a gesso wash to mute the text, Cuttlebug embossing, and then green metallic rub-ons to bring out the pattern. Then I stamped the various characters, cut them out and added color in spots with pencils. The real fun was in combining them and choosing Pride and Prejudice quotes for each.

This one had to be Jane and Mr. Bingley:

I chose a line about Kitty for this one:

And I liked this line about poor Mary:

And this just MUST be Lizzy and Darcy - I loved how he's looking down his nose at her!

I had so much fun making this book and re-reading Pride and Prejudice - do you have a favorite Jane Austen novel?

GC Color Challenge #116 - Primary Colors

2011-08-24T08:05:00.001-04:00

The color challenge at Gingersnap Creations for this month's Joys of Childhood theme just had to be primary colors. I used more of my melted crayon glassine paper background (see my post HERE for photos showing how to do it) and stamped on it with jet black Archival ink. I used a vellum adhesive spray to attach it to watercolor paper, but also did a bit of machine stitching to make sure it was securely attached. It's attached to a piece of bookboard covered with 7Gypsies tissue paper.

I really love the textural effect of the melted crayon on the glassine - and all the texture is on the underside, so you have a nice smooth surface for stamping. Here's a close-up:

Since I was revisiting my childhood and playing with crayons, I also decided to play with some clay - paper clay actually - and made it into buttons.

After rolling it out...
...I stamped into it with a stamp inked with Ranger's Adirondack pigment ink - using primary colors of course ;-)...

...cut circles using a piece of copper pipe and a bottle lid....

and pricked them with a skewer creating buttons.

After an overnight drying time, they're ready to attach.

So that's my piece made with primary colors - I hope you're inspired to create something fun and maybe bring back some childhood memories of your own. Enter the challenge at the GC blog post HERE - the challenge is open until Sep. 25th.

Stamp credits: Stampers Anonymous

Rogue Rebel Challenge

2011-08-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

Did you know that Rogue Redhead Designs has a monthly challenge? The curent one is running all through August (ends on Sep. 4th) and there will be a random drawing for a $15 GC for the RRD Etsy store. The challenge is to use both dry and wet embossing. I used that as my inspiration for this card using stamps from the new Beach Babes plate. My dry embossing is a Cuttlebug frame embossing folder with the embossing highlighted with distress ink. My wet embossing is the heron stamp that I stamped on alcohol inked glossy paper and embossed with white EP. I also used just a part of the Thoreau quote from the set.

Here's a close-up:

If you'd like to check out the Rogue Rebel Challenge and play along all the details are HERE.

Nocturne in E-flat Major

2011-08-21T15:19:00.002-04:00

I got a chance to play along with the current Stampsmith Challenge and this one is based on a sketch that you can see on the challenge blog post. I haven't worked much with sketches, and thanks to Lynne's inspiration, I flipped the sketch. I should confess that I drew out the sketch and had it on my table upside down and thought - hey, the big circle could be silvery moonlight and I went from there! I used a flapper photo stamp from the Stampsmith and added some lace to one side so it was more of a square shape like the sketch. I also wanted some Art Deco style patterns as in the vertical strip and my circle. That circle - or the moon - is actually silver paint sponged through a damask template overlayed with a big circle template. The horizontal strip from the template is the lines of music from one of Chopin's Nocturnes - a musical composition inspired by the night. Finally I stamped some subtle text in the background with the circle masked and added a bit of pumice distress ink.

Stamp Credits: the Stampsmith, Basic Grey with Hero Arts, and Paperbag Studio

Crayon Background Book Cover Collage

2011-08-20T08:00:00.002-04:00

Remember this background paper? This is what is achieved after ironing the crayon coated glassine to the mixed media paper. (The crayon melting technique can be seen on my post HERE.)

And here's what I did with it:

I really am addicted to making these book cover collages - there just are so many possibilities and it's a great sturdy surface that doesn't warp. This 7Gypsies piece of bookboard has a decorative frame and so inside of it I added 7Gypsies printed tisssue paper with gel medium. Then a strip of my background paper and a favorite French Kissed image of Madeleine picking flowers along with a piece of German scrap and my collage is complete.

Bright and Beautiful

2011-08-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

As promised, here's what you can do with the melted crayon glassine paper. (See yesterday's post HERE if you'd like to see the technique.) I've stamped on the side opposite the crayons with jet black Archival ink, attached it to white cardstock with a light spray of vellum adhesive, then machine stitched it to make sure it stayed. To complete the collage, I stamped two flourishes onto script patterned paper and cut out around them in spots with an x-acto knife creating a nice way to hold the glassine panel to the rest of the card. I'm entering this into the Crafty Individuals August Challenge where the theme is "Bright and Beautiful" - I hope US entries are OK - and honestly, it was just coincidence that the same Helen Chilton who inspired the crayon paper also set the challenge theme - but a fun coincidence indeed!

Yesterday I had a question about what exactly is glassine - it's very similar to wax paper that 's used in the kitchen, but rather than being food safe, it's archival. You can see it in old books opposite an illustration to protect it, and artists will also use it to protect paintings done with acrylics or pastels when they need to be transported or stored.

So that still leaves me with another piece of crayon paper to play with......you'll just have to visit me again tomorrow to see what I've made ;-)

Stamp credits: Crafty Individuals stamps: CI-121 and CI-182

Crayon Background Experiments

2011-08-18T08:00:00.001-04:00

Here's a fun technique to share. My inspiration comes from a Craft Stamper magazine article by Helen Chilton from this June of a wax crayon masterclass, my friend Janine's blog who tried out and shared a lot of different ways to use crayon shavings in backgrounds (see HERE and HERE and HERE) and then made beautiful cards that I thought looked like Impressionist paintings, and a silly kid's project sandwiching melted crayons between waxed paper to make window hanging ornaments. I used just primary colors from a Crayola box because they would melt and blend beautifully into their secondary colors. After creating crayon shavings, I sandwiched them between two pieces of glassine and ironed them to create what's shown in the first picture.

Allow that to cool - just takes a minute - and slowly pull the glassine apart. With all of mine, I found that one side would have more melted crayon attached. Take that piece of glassine and iron it onto a sheet of paper. Mine is from a Canson tablet sold as mixed media paper that's a thinner weight than watercolor paper.

And this is the result:

You are also left with the piece of glassine, that is a more muted version. Here I've photographed it against the tablet of paper so it shows up better:

So what do you do now? Two beautiful backgrounds, one with brilliant intense color, and another that just happens to have a smooth top surface with all the waxy crayon underneath....hmmmmm.......

I'm going to tease you a bit and make you wait to see just what I did with my backgrounds so until tomorrow..........

Regency Faux Book Collage

2011-08-17T15:07:00.000-04:00

Here's a book cover collage to share where I cut out the center to create a niche and give a shadowbox effect. The images are all from Oxford Impressions from the Regency Fashions set. I wanted a rich looking piece and liked adding the gold accents - the strip of textured gold paper, gold swirls and gold pen on Haute Nouveauté. The image reminded me of a wealthy lady posing for her portrait - she needs to have all that gold around!

Imagine Canvas

2011-08-12T17:45:00.001-04:00

I have recently been playing around with collages on canvas board and have one to share. This one is 8 1/2in x 11in. I love to start with a base layer and just keep adding on subtly changing what you've done before. I started by adhering scraps of text paper and sheet music, then used washes of gesso and acrylic paint to build color. I also added die-cut circles of sheet music, gessoed over them, and then highlighted with oil pastel - let me tell you, my fingers were quite pretty by this time! Then I stamped flourishes with black acrylic paint, added tissue tape and black cardstock strips, then chipboard letters altered with ink and UTEE, and finally the word "possibilities" with pen and india ink. So much fun! I'm also entering this in the August Challenge over at Inspiration Emporium where the theme is acrylic paint which I've used both as washes and for stamping in my canvas.

Stamp Credit: Stampers Anonymous

Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge #114

2011-08-10T08:05:00.000-04:00

The August Spicy Supply Challenge at Gingersnap Creations is to use baby wipes. I don't know about you, but I find these to be indispensable in my project room! You can clean up with them of course, your stamps as well as your surface, you can use them to apply paint or wipe off paint when creating layered backgrounds, you can dry used ones with all kinds of mixed multi color variations and use them as interesting backgrounds, and you can dry unused ones and then go crazy with your stamping supplies! Using them this way is very close to using fabric in your project. I started with a clean, dry baby wipe and sprayed it with 3 colors of Glimmer Mist: burnt red, yellow daisy, and denim and allowed those basic primary colors to blend into their secondary colors. After heat drying, I could emboss it with an embossing folder - a Technique Junkies technique known as Faux Velvet - and I could also stamp on it using archival ink. I even die-cut a scalloped edge and also die-cut flowers from the scraps to make dimensional embellishments along with book text flowers. Who knew this humble supply could be so versatile!

Keeping with the "Joys of Childhood" theme of the month, I created a bookcover collage with a Red Lead trio of children photo stamp as my main image, a vintage text page from an arithmetic book, snippets of gaffer tape and brads. What creative ways can you come up with to use baby wipes to create a project or use them in a project? I hope you'll share them with us on the GC blog post HERE - the challenge will be open until September 11th.

New Rogue Redhead Designs Release

2011-08-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

I was excited to be able to play with the new Beach Babe stamps from Rogue Redhead Designs - especially creating a card based around the sailboat stamp since sailing is such a part of our summers. It's one of my husband's favorite pastimes. My stamped circle is colored with watercolors, but my favorite and quite serendipitous part of this card is the background stamp. Shar created a cool sandy beach texture stamp, but if you color the stamp with a watercolor crayon, spray it with water and then stamp it onto watercolor paper you achieve a background that looks like splashed water - how cool is that! A perfect fit with a sailboat!

Here's the background stamp just inked and stamped:

And here's how different the look is by using the watercolor crayon technique:

Check out the RRD blog for more information and samples using the new release (and it's even available at a discounted price until September 6th!)

Happiness is Homemade

2011-08-05T21:33:00.001-04:00

Here's another stamped collage using the Sewing Notions stamp set from Oxford Impressions. My collage is partially done with masked stamping, but it's also combined with layering. I just had to add fabrics for a homespun touch - especially the ticking pattern which evokes a comfy, homey feeling for me, and I thought the corrugated cardboard base also added some fun texture. Does anybody else feel that you absolutely have to sew on your buttons? Empty button holes just look incomplete - I don't think I can add buttons to a piece without making sure to sew them!

Button Card ATC's

2011-07-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

Here is a project I created using Sewing Notions stamps from Oxford Impressions. I made a box to hold a set of ATC's all based around the button card stamp in the set.

To make each ATC I started with a base covered with vintage French book text, added my stamped collage, then added buttons for a dimensional accent. I had a lot of fun combining the individual stamps into collages using layered masking. You have to think backwards though - start with your foreground image, then mask it with a post-it note cut to size and stamp your next image making that one look to be more in the background, and finally stamp the button card with all the other stamped images masked. You really can create a variety of collages with that simple technique. Here are the individual ATC's:

Gingersnap Creations Color Challenge

2011-07-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

It's the final challenge for Steampunk month this week at Gingersnap Creations and it's a color challenge using leather, iron and brass. I decided to do a z-fold card that was a little less elaborate than my recent Steampunk experiments :-) The front panel of the card has a gold - or maybe I should say brass - embossed text stamp and layered over that is our dapper gentleman stamped in grey and cut-out along with more altered chipboard gears using the Krylon pen and Distress Stain technique. The inside grey panel of the back of the card has been embossed with a Tim Holtz folder and then the clocks are highlighted with brassy metallic rubons.

I hope you've joined in with the Steampunk fun this month, but if you haven't yet, try playing along with this challenge by posting your project on the GC blog HERE by August 21st. As an added incentive, this month's sponsor Dezinaworld has a prize you could win in a random drawing - see all the details on the GC blog.

Stamp Credits: Oxford Impressions

The Inventor's Notebook

2011-07-25T07:45:00.000-04:00

I am so excited to share this project with you! When Gingersnap Creations decided to focus on Steampunk for the month of July, this idea was what came into my head to create and I can finally share it. I really enjoy playing with altered books, but do you ever feel guilty about cutting into a book and making it a work of art? I have come up with a way to make a faux version using 7Gypsies bookboard covers. If you've been a reader of my blog, you may remember my French notebook (HERE) that is done similarly. My favorite part of this project is that the entire book is a niche and when you open the door....

...you can see the inventor! I'm also sharing with you how to make this project - check out my tutorial on today's post at Gingersnap Creations HERE. If you make a version of my niche book, let me know because I'd love to see it!

Stamp Credits: Oxford Impressions

Another set of scraplings

2011-07-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here's another set of scraplings I made recently using the Regency Fashion set from Oxford Impressions. Actually, they are a teensy bit larger than scrapling size - hope I'm not breaking too many rules :-). I used a Hero Arts text stamp for my background, again stamping with tea dye DI and rubbing more tea dye DI over it with an ink blending tool for a tone-on-tone effect of subtle text in the background. I overstamped the women and colored them with colored pencils. As you can see, these are going to get great use as bookmarks, too!

Rogue Redhead Designs scraplings

2011-07-20T10:30:00.001-04:00

Scraplings are so much fun to make - their small size allows you to use up your scraps and I love using them in books as bookmarks. These are made with stamps from Floriculture and Relish Reading from Rogue Redhead Designs. The background piece is the text stamp from Relish Reading stamped with Tea Dye DI over a piece of cardstock colored with the same DI using an ink blending tool - love the subtle tone-on-tone effect. I added the cosmos bud from Floriculture and colored it with colored pencils, and completed each with a quote from Relish Reading.

Here they are individually:

If you haven't perused the Rogue Redhead Designs blog, make sure to check it out - we've had a bit of a scrapling thing going on!

Miss Steampunk!

2011-07-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here she is...Miss Steampunk! So maybe it's not exactly like the Miss America pageant, but here's my piece for the Spicy Supply Challenge at Gingersnap Creations this week. Keeping with Steampunk month, the challenge involves using gears and cogs - such an integral part of the Steampunk style. This style is so fun and imaginative and I loved working on my dress form doll. I chose a vintage photo for her head (Enchanted Mercantile) and cut down a bird cage die cut for her skirt. Both metal and chipboard gears were added; the chipboard ones were given the Krylon pen, sandpaper, and Distress Stain treatment for an aged metal look; I thought a ticking clock would be a good fit over her heart, and tiny watch parts were added as hair accoutrements. The background is a gear stamp from Stampers Anonymous - always liked that one with its link to Cleveland - reminds me of living near there - and the Steampunk word is from Oxford Impressions.

Here's a closer look of her hair-do!

Hope you'll play around in the Steampunk style and add a project to the Gingersnap Creations blog post HERE. The challenge runs until August 7th - plenty of time for you to join in!

Sewing Notions Fabric Collage

2011-07-12T10:22:00.000-04:00

I've been enjoying working with fabric recently and here's a collage done with the recent release called Sewing Notions from Oxford Impressions. My muslin was first aged with tea dye distress ink kind of using a wrinkle-free distress technique - placing the fabric into DI sprayed with water on a craft sheet - not exactly the same effect as with paper, but still a good, worn look. I stamped a collage of multiple images onto the muslin by masking and using coffee archival ink. The muslin panel is backed with batting and sewn onto a fabric panel. I also sewed two seam binding ribbons together for the hanger with a long basting stitch so I could pull the ends and slightly gather it. To finish it off, there are 2 buttons sewn on and after stamping and cutting out the floss cards, I wrapped a bit of embroidery floss to each one before attaching to the piece. This week at the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge the theme is "stitching" - a perfect fit for my project!

A special birthday present

2011-07-10T15:55:00.001-04:00

Sometimes you want to make something really special and after combining things, and playing around with it for awhile, you finally make exactly what you wanted. Several months ago I took an online class from Nancy Maxwell James and one of my most favorite projects involved making a fabric collage with a base of cotton batting. I knew that I would make another version from this idea of Nancy's and it has turned out to be just what I had hoped. The center image is a TAP transfer of the Edwardian actress Miss Lily Elsie. I got out my scraps of lace and added rolled muslin roses and mother of pearl buttons and kept rearranging until it was right. I really like all the lacy textures to go along with her beautiful lace dress in the photo. So, my special birthday present? This should've ended up in my Mom's mailbox yesterday as today is her birthday - Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Flourish Concertina

2011-07-09T18:14:00.005-04:00

I made this concertina ATC book with three challenges in mind: Simon Says Stamp and Show...a flourish, Inspiration Emporium Challenge - embossing, and Grungy Monday with a Tim Holtz challenge technique. It's basically a long strip of watercolor paper folded to hold 4 ATC's. The cover shows embossing using an embossing folder that is also a flourish pattern and is highlighted with metallic rub-ons. Also on the cover is a chipboard flourish that I first inked with a Krylon pen, then sanded and added distress ink. I'm also still having fun with snippets from my 1927 Etude magazine and you'll notice music notes and markings throughout. The next picture is of the opened book:

Then here is a picture of all the ATC's when the entire concertina is opened. The background of each ATC follows a technique from the Tim Holtz blog from his March 2008 Technique Challenge. I used a script and flourish stamp from Red Lead to stamp with white paint, then sprayed over that with distress ink and perfect pearl sprays all using perfect gold pearls combined with a different DI (colors are Broken China, Bundled Sage, Faded Jeans, and Mustard Seed). I also overstamped a flourish (Stampendous) with archival ink on the top of each.

I used a combination of vintage images from Luna Girl, Art Creations Friday, Designer Digitals and Altered Pages to complete each ATC. Here are pictures of each of them for a closer look.

Green Paper July Challenge

2011-07-08T20:46:00.003-04:00

I've been wanting to play with the Green Paper Collage Challenge and finally got a piece completed just in time - ok, it ends tonight so it really is just in the nick of time! In the challenge, Mary provides a group of three vintage images and your project must use at least a piece of all three. My project is a book cover collage. The featured image is the lovely Miss Helen Pitkin and the other pieces of the collage sheet are the tickets and the flowers. I elaborated on the flower theme by finding a piece of music called "Thour't like unto a flower" from Etude magazine from 1927. I used the piece's title, a scrap of the music sprayed with cranberry Adirondack Colorwash through a flower and flourish Prima stencil, and I even used a few of the words from the song: "I gaze on thee, so fair, so pure". I added some ribbons and lace to the bottom corner and accented the lace flowers with victorian velvet Distress Ink. My layered flowers were created simply by printing the sheet in 2 different sizes so I could stack the flowers for added dimension.

Grungy Monday Challenge (part 2)

2011-06-30T08:10:00.000-04:00

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)

2011-06-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

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

2011-06-28T08:00:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-27T20:15:00.002-04:00

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

2011-06-19T16:38:00.003-04:00

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

2011-06-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

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

2011-06-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

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

2011-06-11T21:36:00.002-04:00

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

2011-06-08T09:30:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-07T16:00:00.000-04:00

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

2011-06-05T16:30:00.003-04:00

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.

Rogue Redhead Designs sunflowers

2011-05-30T22:17:00.003-04:00

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

2011-05-30T20:46:00.003-04:00

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

2011-05-30T20:15:00.003-04:00

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

2011-05-29T18:28:00.003-04:00

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

2011-05-29T07:50:00.002-04:00

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

2011-05-22T15:57:00.003-04:00

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

2011-05-21T21:01:00.002-04:00

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

2011-05-15T16:18:00.003-04:00

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

2011-05-11T08:10:00.001-04:00

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

2011-05-08T21:30:00.005-04:00

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.