Cabins in the forest

I had this idea for weeks before I sat down and actually tried it to see if it would work in real life the way it did in my head.  It's simple math, really, but I have been known to forget parts of the equation.  Anyway, I wanted to make a little forest of trees, and then I decided that I wanted a cabin or two in there as well.  I decided to use my ugliest green scrapbook papers for my test run.


Since the tree die is asymmetrical, you need four diecuts for each tree - two cut from the front side of the paper, and two from the back.  Stick them together on the sides, alternating the front cut trees and the back cut ones.  after you get all the sides together, I recommend a dab of glue at the top.  You can get 5 trees out of two sheets of scrapbook paper.

After doing a few trees, I felt that having just a forest was boring, and that I needed a cabin or two. However, I dreaded creating and printing a template.  Suddenly I remembered the Michael Strong mosiac frame had a strong geometry similar to what I needed to cut the bases of the houses, and I realized I could simply stamp the stamp and use that for  template.  I have created this diagram so you can see where the cuts are on the stamp:
 This makes two bases.  The next diagram shows where the folds and the glue have to go:
The roof was cut from another scrap that was 1.75 by 4.5 inches.

So you are probably thinking that I should now be ready to make this with my good paper, and it would be a lovely little scene.  I agree, however, I think it will be a fun craft project when all my kids are home from school - we can all make trees and cabins together.  I know from experience that I can't have my best work waiting as a sample - if mine looks too good, they won't bother to play with me.  Mine has to make them think that theirs will be better.  Therefore, the good trees and cabins won't be ready for a couple of weeks, but you get the general idea of how it goes.

If you would like to try this and you have any questions on how to do it, just ask.
Juliet Arrighi

Trees in the windows

This was a hard technique to photograph.  Can you see what I did in this photo?
Other than the fact that I have stuff piled up on my counters, and a cat condo, and my son's bookbag on the floor, can you see what I did to the panes in my french door?

You may think I'm crazy for stamping on my windows, but really it's is very simple to do - I used acrylic matte medium, applied to the stamp with a brayer.  I don't know if you can see it well enough, but it looks like etched glass.  It isn't hard to remove, either - it will come off easily the next time I wash my windows, as the matte medium dissolves easily in water.

The cloisonne stamp is perfect for this technique, because of the bold lines.   What a quick and easy way to add a holiday touch to my home!
Juliet Arrighi

Cookie jar sleeve

I have a blue cookie jar which looked really good in my kitchen when I had wallpaper, but now looks nearly invisible now that I have painted blue walls.  However, I have come to love it and the unique sound it makes when one of my kids is sneaking a cookie - I can pick out that sound from almost anywhere in the house.

Anyway, I was filling it with some freshly baked white chocolate chip macadamia nit cookies when I decided that the cookie jar needed be as festive as my cookies.  It took a single sheet of scrapbook paper and scraps of cardstock that I had lying about.
The christmas trees were the diecuts I had leftover from the luminary card I showed you on Monday.  building a snowman out of paper scraps is nearly as much fun as making one out of snow, and not nearly as chilly.

Just looking at my cookie jar makes me want to bake!

Juliet Arrighi

Festive earrings

I have several Christmas parties this week, and I bought a new (to me) sweater to wear to them.  The thing is, the sweater really isn't in traditional colors, so I needed so Christmas earrings to wear with the sweater that would go.

Yes, teal and purple Christmas trees will go perfectly with my sweater.

I used the faux chipboard technique to make tree beads.  They are built with six layers of cardstock, and I simply cut a channel in the center two layers for the wire to pass through.  The tinsel embossing powder doesn't scan well - it looks a bit neater in real life.



Juliet Arrighi

Luminary card

My sister gave me a lovely birthday gift this year - the Christmas tree stamp and die set from Michael Strong.  It's a little late in the year for me to be making Christmas cards, though, so I thought, for my week as card captain for the EnjoyMichaelStrongStamps yahoogroup, I would try making things that aren't cards.
This is a luminary card - there is an electric tealight inside right now, but it fits over a glass votive holder, too.  The inside panels are vellum.   This is made from a single vertical half-sheet of standard size cardstock, so when flattened, it fits into a normal card envelope.  It's a card that is also a gift, or just keep it as a decoration.
Juliet Arrighi

Red and green

I like traditional colors in my Christmas cards.
Snowflakes are the "flowers" of December; they make any Christmas card better.  Also improving this otherwise common and boxy card is the small amount of hand drawing.  This is a retired stamp from AMuse Studio, and fits their red and green challenge this week.

Challenges:


Juliet Arrighi

Thanksgivukkah crackers

With the convergence of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, I found myself in a slightly awkward situation.  I normally give gifts to to my children each night at Hanukkah, but I have company coming for Thanksgiving, and didn't want to create an awkward situation where only my children get gifts, or the equally uncomfortable one of buying a lot of extra gifts.  While I was shopping, I saw a display of Christmas crackers, and decided that would be my solution for that night - I could certainly afford a cracker for everyone, young and old! I'm thankful for all my friends; they deserve a little fun.
I found some that looked fairly neutral, kraft paper with lace trim.  After I got them home, I decided I could kick them up a notch:
It was not hard, and I got to use some punches that don't often get brought out.  I just hope that whatever is inside isn't Christmassy.  Regardless, I will have to do this every time Hanukkah and Thanksgiving happen on the same night.

Challenges:


Juliet Arrighi

Holly Dolly

The Challnge this past week was to make an art doll attached to an ATC base, with limbs that could fold up into the ATC for storage.  This was a fun idea to me - I like making paper dolls of all sizes.  However, I couldn't think if a theme until I saw a diecut Christmas tree in my pile on the desk (POTD for you Canadians) and thought it would make a fun skirt.  Thus, Holly Dolly was born.
The holly print paper happens to be the reverse of the green snowflake paper.  I think you've seen me use this doll body (I printed a sheet of them) before on other projects, but this is the first time I've used it for a jointed doll. However, the assignment wasn't just to make a doll, but attach it to an ATC base.  As I was doing that, it occurred to me that it would make even more sense to put her on a Christmas card, so she could be displayed for the holiday season before being stored an an ATC album.  I figured out that by attaching elastic cord to the card base, I could easily display an ATC without making it difficult to remove later.
 You can see the ATC, the silver elastic cord, and the card base here.  The tree die is from A Muse Studio - I use it a lot this time of year.

Challenges:



Juliet Arrighi

Santa in the city

Santa's flight is one of my favorite Christmas stamp sets, because the image is just so iconic, and it lends itself to so many techniques.  Although the image is very large, it takes very little time to color, and and works with a lot of techniques.  However, I feel like all my cards that I make with it are the same - Santa flying through the sky.  I was telling my friend and amuse studio demonstrator about this, and she handed me another stamp set, love is in the air, which has a nice cityscape.  I decided to give it a try.

The images are embossed in silver, and I colored them first with a white pen, then went over the white with glitter pens.  Although I wouldn't usually use so much black on a card, it really makes the color pop.

Challenges:


Juliet Arrighi

Center Step Card

Believe it or not, I started this project with the idea to make a Christmas card with a dancing bear on it.
The stamp is from SweetStamps, and the sentiment is pieced from an old CTMH alpha.  This is the first time I've tried to spell a word vertically with it. The outfit on the woman is paper pieced. My flower did not come out the way I originally intended, either.  I don't know what happened here, but I think it is all right.

Challenges:


Juliet Arrighi

Bargello

I have admired the look of the Bargello technique for a long time, but this is the first time I've tried it.
Finding the paper scraps was the easy part.  Stamping some texture on them was just as easy (I used seasonal branch and marvelous marigolds from A Muse Studio).  Cutting them to size and adhering them in place wasn't really hard, just time-consuming and very fussy.  If you try this technique, I will make two suggestions - first, make sure that the two pieces on which you are gluing your strips are completely coated with adhesive.  I used Aleene's Tack It Over and Over.  Second, use dark or black paper under your strips, so that if there are any gaps, they don't show badly.

The hardest part of this technique is embellishing it - you hate to cover it up!

Challenges:


Juliet Arrighi

Ho Ho Ho (not ugly)

My mother was lamenting endlessly about some ugly Christmas cards she had bought.  I asked her why she bought them if they were ugly.  She replied that it was at a tag sale at her friend's house; she felt that she needed to buy something, and the cards didn't seem too bad at the time.  I told her that I didn't think it should be too hard to fix them up, and she offered to send me a few as a challenge.

I got the envelope today - first of all, I don't think these were intended to be complete cards, just card bases that could be fixed up with stickers.  Secondly, they aren't ugly, just not the bright colors my mother likes.  It took me just a couple of minutes to dress one up.
You can see it's a muted green and red, but not terrible.  The colors with do well with a sophisticated or a playful image.  I had this little santa, and the right colors of markers, so I stamped and layered him up.  I started out stamping a sentiment right in the green area, but I messed it up, so I created a paper ribbon of ho ho ho's to cover my mistake.  I think a little extra white brightens the card a bit.  I think it is pretty good for not having any dimensional elements.

Challenges:


Juliet Arrighi

Stay Frosty

A Muse Studio has a stamp set called seasonal branch which screamed "Buy Me!" from the pages of the catalog the minute I saw it.  Why?  because it is a bare branch that can be stamped at almost any angle (or even straight up and down, to be a sapling), and it comes with various small stamps with which to complete it, like leaves, blossoms, berries, and even snowflakes.  It is the snowflake (3 snowflakes, actually) in particular that I needed for this card - most snowflake stamps are too big to scale with other images.

I first stamped it with embossing ink on watercolor paper, then used an iridescent powder to create my snowflakes.  I then used a watercolor wash on the background.  I like the irregular edge!  The sentiment was diecut from a Tim Holtz alpha, and the penguin is an old sticker that I got in a pack from Michaels last year or maybe the year before.  My 17yo liked it so much he asked to have it (and he has NEVER asked for one of my cards before!)

Challenges:



Juliet Arrighi

Woven Words Winter card

The challenge this week at Blessings Ink is to make a card using text as a background, and I will say that amuse studio sells some of the best text paper I've seen, but I did not happen to have any of the Christmas paper handy, and I wanted to stamp, so I practiced stamping small phrases in patterns.  I wasn't getting the results I wanted, so I ended up cutting the phrases into strips and weaving them.
The patterned paper is from a double-sided stack I bought at Michaels; the tree paper is actually the back of the background paper.  A bling star on top and a tiny touch of glitter pen on the holly added just enough to appease my need to make it sparkle.

Challenges:


 Juliet Arrighi

Fight like a girl

These cards were so fast, fun, and easy to make, and used up lots of pink scraps.

The top one is a straight herringbone technique, and the second one is a twist on a washi tape card I did recently.  Amuse studio has wonderful printed monochromatic papers, like the chevrons and petit polka dots, but others of the papers used here are simply stamped on white scraps.  The sentiments used are all from the FREE breast Cancer Awareness stamp set sold by amuse studio in October.  In addition to a lot of great sentiments, it has a ribbon stamp that also has a matching die available.  Check it out!

Juliet Arrighi

Poe Arch

This is not so different from the Poe Heart that I did a little while ago.  I was still interested in the  technique, but wondered how it would look with more distressing.
Everything except the picture of Poe is stamped with the nevermore stamp set from amuse studio.  I love the varieties of text in this stamp set.  I'm certain that I can use the stacked books and clock in other projects that aren't so spooky.  In fact I could probably use the printed text as well, if I don't think anyone with read it closely (all the text is from the poem).  Red and green are usually Christmas colors, but here they look like blood and mold.  The gothic arch form is not my favorite to work with, but it seems right for this particular subject.


Juliet Arrighi

Three Raven ATCs

The nevermore stamp set from amuse studio has a lot of dark victorian images plus 5 different text images (not really sentiments, unless you think a line from "The Raven" would make a good sentiment for a card), and they combine well together.  Case in point is this raven and this stack of books.
I like the way the raven looks on the books, but these are not the type of images that need coloring, so I thought I would give a shot to coloring outside the images.  The first one shown was colored with Twinkling H2Os, the second with acrylic paint, and the third one is done with copic markers. A tiny dot of red marks the raven's eye.

These are single layer ATCs, which is really hard to commit to if you know the stamping community.  I love making ATCs, because the goal with an ATC is to create art, not stationery.  I already have plans to swap them.

Challenges:


Juliet Arrighi


Stamping (and coloring) on black

I love the sharp contrast of stamping on black. A dark background really makes the colors pop.
Unfortunately, the colors popped so much, I went a little crazy with the background papers.  I don't think I did myself any favors with the dayglo color palette.  However, it was fun using some techniques that I haven't used in a  while - dry embossing, watermark stamping, punching a border all around the image (I wish I had remembered the easy way before I started, it looks a little chewed up now, I think), and I don't think I've applied a strip of ribbon without a bow in forever  (I wanted a bow, but the black bow with the black cardstock was too heavy, and other colors just didn't look right).

Are you wondering how I got those bright colors on the black?  I embossed silhouette stamps with white, then colored them in with copics.  I then added little dots of color with my souffle pens.  The stamps are all amuse studio;  The challenge there this week is, of course, stamping on black.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:


Juliet Arrighi



Paper-pieced Snowman

This is a very simple looking card, but I'm kind of proud of it because of a couple of techniques that I used that were new for me.
First off, this is a new sentiment for me.  SweetStamps has tons of vertical sentiments like this, and it is fun having your words go in a different direction for a change.  I felt very tricky getting the color to change in the middle of a word like this.  I embossed the sentiment in white on the blue, tore the white paper and embossed part of the sentiment onto it in denim blue, then lined up the words until the overlapped perfectly.  I used a much larger piece of white than I needed, and just cut off the excess.

The stamp is also new, and I tried coloring it with copics (not my favorite method, but it is okay).  As you can see, I'm not great at coloring.  However, since I was cutting out the snowman, it didn't matter too much that I couldn't stay inside the lines.  Fortunately, I am better with scissors than with markers.

I knew I needed a little something more than just the words and the snowman, so I thought holly would echo the small sprig in his hatband.  I just bought this new holly punch, and was arranging the leaves, when I noticed that the snowman's buttons were actually buttons, and also the right size for the holly!  I was even happier when I found out that the buttons fight perfectly inside a 1/4 inch punch!  So, I stamped the buttons from the snowman onto red and used those for holly berries.  Finally, I used some Diamond Glaze to give all the buttons a little dimension.

Juliet Arrighi

Changing it up - Ornament card

I went to a Christmas card workshop earlier this week, and although I liked all the cards offered, one bothered me - it had ornaments on it that were pink and brown.  I suppose I could do a pink and brown Christmas card, but not pink and brown ornaments - that is just too far out for my holiday tastes (although I am told that a lot of people love the sophistication of that card in those colors).  I stamped the images, and took it home to color myself.

I used Twinkling H2Os to paint these ornaments.  I just happen to have the same scallop die for the topper, and I have to admit, the white on white layering is very classy looking.  I can't take any credit for designing this card, but I wanted those people who were there and made cards with me to see what it looks like in a different color scheme.

Juliet Arrighi

Rose fairy ribbon doll

I have been admiring the ribbon dolls at Ten Two Studios, but never really wanted to make one just like Lisa's, and didn't have another body that I wanted to use.  However, I felt very enabled to create my own doll body after reading Collage Couture  by Julie Nutting, and I had some roses that I thought would be perfect on her outfit, so I went to work.
The Rose Surround is one of my favorite rose stamp sets, because it is designed specifically to accent other images, and it is very easy to cut out.  It was a little fidgety trying to get the pinks right - I ended up painting the roses and the dress with metallic shimmer paint.  The wings are from this butterfly, which I embossed with vintage lavender tinsel embossing powder (my friends wondered when I bought it what I was going to use it for, but this is the second time in as many months that it has been the perfect shade and texture for what I wanted to do) onto heavy vellum.  The ribbons are an assortment from my ridiculously large collection.  I did add a ribbon to the head for hanging, but because it is fairly light and flat, it hangs just as well with a glue dot:
 I will be mailing this to another lady in my altereddesigns group, as I made it for the torso mingle.  It figures that I couldn't limit myself to just a torso.

Challenges:

Juliet Arrighi

Cat with leaves three ways

The challenge at EnjoyMichaelStrongstamps this month is to make a fall-themed card with red, orange, and yellow.  I didn't really feel like making a card, but I thought it would be nice to make a cat sitting in a pile of fall leaves as an ATC.  I ended up making three of them.
For this one I stamped the cat on yellow cardstock and distressed it lightly with orange ink.  The leaves were punched out of a postcard.  The overall effect was not nearly as colorful as I would have liked.

When I stamped the second cat, I accidentally did not get the cat's back onto the paper.  A little creative cutting, and you can't even tell it was accidental.  I added a little red ink to the distressing. The leaves are a paper confetti that I had in my stash for years now - I use some every fall, but I never run out.

While I was working on the second one, I noticed that I had in my stash some rhinestone fall leaves that I must have purchased at least a year ago but never used.  I tried stamping the cat on red cardstock this time.  I do not have yellow embossing powder; I colored the white embossing with a yellow copic marker.  I then used a dark red copic marker to add contrast between the cat and the background.

So, It's the same concept and the same cat, but three very different cards.  I will be swapping these on ATC_World.

Challenges:


Juliet Arrighi