Letter writing 4x4

This is a 4x4 that I made for my altereddesigns yahoogroup.  the theme is letter writing as a background, and it should be no surprise to you that the vast majority of the ladies playing are using fancy script with images of Victorian ladies or the Tim Holtz pen nibs.  I hate making what everyone else is making, so I went a completely different direction:

 The school photos and the math worksheet are printed off the internet.  The notebook paper is actually a cardsock pattern from AMuse Studio.  You may wonder why I would buy cardstock that looks like notebook paper when I have tons of the real thing, but now that I've used some of it, I have to say, it is much easier to work with (real notebook paper is translucent and fragile), it isn't white but a cream color, perfect for a vintage look like this, and it takes media much better than real notebook paper, which was only designed for pen and pencil.the stark white of the math worksheet was too extreme for the rest of the piece, so I used some milled lavender distress ink to tone it down, and I threw in a few hearts (from AMuse Studio all for love stamp set) because, well, it is a love story.

Challenges:

• Crafty Calendar  - Love is all around
• Speedy Fox and Friends - anything but a card
• Alphabet Challenge - always and forever
• The House that Stamps built - Heart
• Little Red Wagon - paper project, not a card

Stitched snowflake ATC

The altereddesigns group challenge this week was to make an ATC with sewing on it. I have a punch that punches holes so that you can easily embroider flowers onto paper.  It occurred to me that it could be used to stitch snowflakes just as easily.

I used the punch for the big ones, and did the smaller ones freehand.  I had a hard time figuring out what I could do to make the the snowflake panel into a complete ATC other than framing it with layers, but then I looked out the window, and saw the trees with their bare branches.  I used the seasonal branch stamp set from AMuse Studio and the depth of field technique to stamp the branches, and then I used the faux embossed metal technique to create a tiny embellishment to tie the two parts together.

Challenges:

• Sweetstamps - winter blues
• Cuttin and Stampin - winter
• Simon Says Stamp - embossing
• The Paper Shelter - winter blues
• Mod Squad - snow

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.

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:

• Sweetstamps - roses
• A&T Emerald Fairies - magical creatures
• Really Reasonable Ribbon - shabby chic and ribbon
• Southern Girls - monochrome
• Creative Craft - ribbon

Poe heart

My altereddesigns yahoogroup is going all spooky for Halloween.  The first challenge in October is to make a dark heart, and by dark I believe they mean the mood, not the shading.  Who has a darker mood than Edgar Alan Poe? (okay, H.P. Lovecraft,  but I wasn't interested in going there)

I was pleased at how easily this came together once I had the idea in my head.  I printed Poe with my computer, and all the other images came from the nevermore stamp set by amuse studio.  I distressed the edges a little with Bundled Sage distress ink - I felt it would give a more chill and putrid feeling than the usual antique linen distressing.

The second October challenge at altereddesigns is to do a Poe-themed gothic arch - I wonder if anyone would mind if I did the same general thing in a different shape?

Challenges:

• Delicious Doodles - unlucky Friday 13 
• Left of Center - dark theme/no DP
• PunkyouGirl - red and black
• Haunted Design House - Halloween

Warhol Cupcakes

I needed to make a 4x4 with a cupcake theme for the altereddesigns group.  I have a  tiny cupcake punch, so I thought about what I could do with that, and ultimately came up with this:

This was so much harder than I thought it would be.  Trying to glue down 36 tiny bits of paper in some sort of organized fashion is no officially beyond my skill level.

Challenges:

• 4 Crafty Chicks - squares
• Ruby's Rainbow - food

Art Sugar Gift Tags

If you are familiar to swapping, you may notice that often, in addition to the expected swap item, your swap partner will toss a little extra something into the envelope.  Papers, fibers, all kinds of ephemera - my name for this stuff is art sugar.  I have accumulated quite a collection of art sugar - it's usually stuff that I would never think to acquire for myself.  The lottery theme this month on the altereddesigns group is to make gift tags using art sugar.  Gift tags are different from regular tags in that the expectation is that you will actually use them on a gift, rather than hoard them.  They also need a space to put a name or message.

The base of the tags is some gelli printed paper I made a couple of weeks ago, but nearly everything else is from my art sugar stash.  Even the fancy punched hole at the top is from a  punch that a friend I made through online swapping sent to me.  You can add a name in the oval, and the backs are white, for more words, if you want.

Some of this art sugar is years old - it is good to see it get used!

Challenges:

• Crafty Ribbons - anything with ribbon  
• Sarah Hurley - texture and dimension
• Shelly's Images - scraps
• Crafting by Designs - mixed media
• Crafting for all Seasons - tag

Mermaid ATC

The Friday challenge this week at the altereddesigns yahoogroup is for a mermaid ATC.  This is a very technique-heavy card for having such a clean look.

The mermaid image is a packing tape transfer.  The waves started as a scrap of gelli printed paper, which I then diecut into strips with a scallop edge die (from amuse studio), and glued back together in a different order.

Challenges:

• Creative Moments - the sea
• The House that Stamps Built - water element
• The Paper Shelter - dies
• ABC challenges - monochromatic
• Kaboodle Doodles - scallops

Lady Catsby

I love this cat from My Paper Moon:

There is just something about the expression on her face that just cracks me up.  That store has some of the cutest cat stamps I've seen anywhere.  I used Marker Watercoloring and the Out of the Box techniques on the focal image, then tried to decide what to use for a background.  I ended up gluing whatever scraps I could reach onto a 3x5 card, then trimming it to size.  A few strips of tissue tape  covers the spots where the papers don't quite mesh.  There wasn't a lot of room for a sentiment on this card, but then, what would you expect Lady Catsby to say?

Challenges:

• Clear It Out - 2 or more patterned papers
• Shopping Our Stash - use only scraps
• Try It On Tuesday - feminine and fancy
• Fashionista - vintage
• Incy Wincy - animal antics

Silly Bird

the altereddesigns yahoogroup has a monthly lottery, theme selected by the previous winner.  For April, we were to make a work featuring a silly bird, whatever that is.  I originally planned to go zetti, but I couldn't find my black or my white pens.

Except for the background, which is a scrap of Watered Crayon technique paper, everything else was cut from two pages of the JCrew catalog.  I then doodled away with my glitter gel pens.  Is it art?  I don't know, but it is a silly ATC.

Challenges:

• Crazy Amigo - crown
• Make My Monday - anything but a card
• Anything but a card - ATC
• Dream Valley - things with wings
• Pink Gem - going "green" (catalog pages)

Rabbit with umbrella

When I bought the umbrella stamp set (all for love from a•muse studio), I knew I wanted to combine it with the the rabbit from a springtime day.  There is something about the rabbit's paws that makes me want to have him hold stuff.

I started with a bit of painted paper - I thought the brush strokes looked like rain.  The size is 3x5, which apparently is a normal swapping size.  It was a little large for my rabbit and umbrella, so I used so slivers of white to frame it in a bit.  Finally, my rabbit looked like he was floating in space, so I used  my copics to color a background and shadow for him.  Normal markers won't work on an acrylic painted surface, but alcohol markers will.

Challenges:

• Crafty Calendar - sunshine/showers
• My Creative Moments - weather 
• Brown Sugar - bunnies
• Just Add Ink - fun background
• Cute Card Thursday - rain

Bees Twinchie

This is my first twinchie.  I haven't made them before because I really don't know what to do with them, but at this point, I'm feeling that way about everything I make.  the theme for this mingle is bees.

It probably is bigger here than in real life, but basically, I stamped the image on a piece of patterned paper that has an embossed glitter trim on it.  I colored the image using the blended glitter technique in some places and markers in others.  It looks quite sparkly in real life.

Challenges:

• Happy Campers - flower power
• Shopping our Stash - not normal paper
• Opus Gluei - pastels

not Renoir

At the altereddesigns yahoogroup, there is a challenge to make an arch with "Flowers Galore"  the first thing that came to my mind (and probably everyone else's) was to make paper flowers and but them all around a focal point (probably a woman).  I started experimenting with this idea, and everything I came up with just seemed uninspired.  I looked at the few cards that had already been posted, and yes, they were exactly as I supposed they would be.  I felt even less inspired, feeling like I was just making what everyone else was making.

I was looking through my Dover samples hoping for a different direction for this challenge, when I came across a coloring page based on a painting by Renoir (Dover has a lot of coloring books for grownups).  I digitally altered them to fit the project parameters, then printed out several copies with the thought of doing some kind of decoupage, but after I looked at the prints, I realized it would be too fidgety for me to cut out.  I ended up coloring it with the Penciled Twinks technique. The shimmer doesn't show in the scan.

 So, basically, it is just a colored image, which is not what people in the altereddesigns group do.  I suppose I could embellish it, but I'm not convinced it would make it better, just busier. it's a fairly complicated design to color, and my gut is telling me that it looks fine just the way it is.  I just don't know if other people will like it as much as I do.

Cracked Glass collage

I love techniques!  This project has a few.  I started off with coffee paper, one of my favorite things to do when I forget to turn off the coffee pot in the morning.  I then stamped this vintage image from SweetStamps and colored it with the Penciled Marker technique.  I Then applied a ton of clear embossing powder for the Cracked Glass technique.

Tissue tape, a french book page, old tickets and diecut flowers, a doily, a charm, all kinds of stuff made it onto this 4 by 4 collage that I made for my altered designs yahoogroup.  

Challenges:

SweetStamps - cracked glass technique

Delightful Challenges - add hearts

Frilly and Funkie - follow your muse

Craft your passion - vintage

Quirky Crafts - something new (the stamp is new) + pink