Monday, December 17, 2007

Finally...


Finally, a card I actually like! I don't know what it is about Christmas Cards, but I rarely like what I do. I do like this one, however! I used a cube (Stampington I think?) and I was able to use 4 of the 6 sides on this card. Last night I had a huge urge to get rid of most of my Christmas stamps, because I keep trying to make cards with stamps I just don't like anymore. Then I could justify buying Christmas stamps I do like! I do have a problem with letting my stamps go. In all the years I've been stamping I've only sold one of my stamps.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

More Cards

Here are some more cards. I wanted to use all my "Postal Style" stamps.

Three of the stamps are pop-dotted


The inside:





The Earth and the Holiday Stamp are popped as well.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Christmas Cards

For some reason,I always leave my cards till the last minute, then I go through such angst as to whether they are any good! Luckily I have passed the stage where every card has to be different, but I'm not quite at the stage where I make ALL my cards the same! I love every handmade card I receive, so I have to assume that the same goes for whatever I make, and not sweat over it so much! Anyway, here is what I've done so far...and no I'm not done yet!



I only made one of these (above)...

I made 5 of these for a Mingle (above)...

This one was for a challenge (above)...
And another one-of-a kind (below)...

I made several of each red and green, but the gold centre is different on each one (below)...





My personal favourite so far is the snow scene, I may make a few more of these, but as you can see, I can't even make these identical! The snowflake is popped up on these cards. Also in the card above, the gold square is popped up. Which do you like best?

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Challenge #3-Tape Transfer

Challenge #3 for my Altered Books group was to try a Tape Transfer. I hadn't done one for awhile, and I had never done one with words, so I thought I would do a quote. At first I thought I had to print the quote out backwards, but after going through the process realized that no, I don't! The sticky side needs to be on the back, so I need to print out normally. Also, the transfer kept coming out very faint, so I tried printing out in bold. While I was rubbing the paper off of my 4th try, I realized that this would probably work much better with a toner print (rather than an ink-jet), and didn't I read that somewhere? I don't know. I'll try that next time. But I liked the effect (subtle) of the quote that I ended up with, and it worked perfectly on my page. So here is what I did:

I started with packing tape.



Then I covered the words I wanted with the tape, overlapping.


I cut out the words



Then I burnished the words. First I used the edge of my scissors, by the 4th try I used the back of a spoon. I don't think it made much difference.



I placed the piece into a sieve, and ran warm, almost hot, water over it, and rubbed the paper off the tape. You don't want any of the paper to go down the drain.




Than I laid the pieces on a paper towel, sticky side up.



In the meantime I painted the page in my book sky blue with cheap acrylics


And then, using Stampscapes stamps and some sponges, created the right side of my layout. I also made some clouds on both sides using a mask (before I stamped).


I added my tape transfer to the left side of the page. The stickiness from the tape sticks the words right to the page.


Then I added 3 snowflakes to the right hand corner, and some blue-white fiber. It reminded me of a cold day waiting for snow. I like the whispyness of the words. Done!
You can still see some bits of paper stuck to the tape, I could have gotten them off if I worked at it, but I like the effect.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Music Deco Page

Just finished my page in Anne's Deco. The theme going through this Deco seems to be Broadway Musicals or musicians, so I chose Cats. Though I've never seen it, I've always been intrigued by it. I would love to see it!






November Mingle

This month I chose Diwali (or Divali) for my Holiday Mingle for ByHand. I had some gorgeous napkins that remind me of India, so I used those for the background. Diwali is a Festival of Lights, so I added lots of jewels! The page on the back opens up to explain the holiday.


Sunday, November 18, 2007

ATC Food Series

Our theme this month for the ByHand monthly ATC swap was Food. I have a few food stamps I rarely get to use so this was great! I used DTP with chalk Cats Eyes, then stamped on top and wrote the quotes. I used a metallic green gel pen for the highlights on each ATC.




Twelve Days of Christmas Fat Book Page

I finished my "Eleven Pipers Piping" page for my ByHand Artists group. I made a Mandala with ten pipers, and put the 11th in the middle. The wheel turns! This was a fun one to do, and a challenge with the Mandala.


Tuesday, November 13, 2007

ATC Vintage Ornament Swap

I am in an ATC Vintage Ornament Swap with my AlteredDesigns group. We had to make 3 sets of 2 ATCs, So I will be giving one each of green and red. All the images are from Altered Pages.


Sunday, November 11, 2007

Altered Book Challenge #2

The challenge I gave in my ABCanada group was to make a layout with ripped pages. There are several ways to do this, and I have done them in other books, creating layers with tags, and making pockets with the layers.This time I did not connect the pages together, essentially creating 4 pages in one layout. The book is called "House of Blues", and here is my challenge #2 page:








Thursday, November 08, 2007

Marilyn

I managed to find some time to work on one of the Music Decos that have been coming my way. This one has 3 pages of Marilyn Monroe in it already, so I could hardly do anything else! So here is my Marilyn page in Sandy's Deco book:



and my sign in tag:


I did the B&W Marilyn face myself in photoshop from an album cover photo. You can barely see it in the photo, but there is a pink glow all around the image - a happy accident!

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Mandala

I have been home sick lately, and so took the opportunity to try something new - a digital Mandala. I was given a tutorial link here and followed the directions, and viola!



Here is the piece that I used as a base:



I also made another one for a 4X4 fat book, I'm just waiting to see if I am allowed to use it!

Still home today, maybe I'll do another one!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

October ATCs

For my Byhand group, October's theme was Egypt, Hallowe'en, or indigo. I chose Egypt. In my little group that meets at Marg's, we did some ATC backgrounds that worked well with the theme. Marg prepared the ATCs ahead of time by squirting glue in squiggles over top of magazine pages cut and glued to ATC sized card. When we got the cards the glue was dry. We scribbled oil pastels over the cards, then rubbed them with "Never-Dull" -something that apparently is used for shining up hubcaps. It was very smelly, and was kind of soaked cotton. Anyway, we rubbed the cards and the pastels smeared around and blended, and it took off the magazine picture. The end effect was rather interesting. Here they are, all images are from Altered Pages. The stamps are from Non-Sequitur (plate 41) . The Isis eye is a punch.




3 X 3 Swap

In my AlteredDesigns group I am participating in a 3" X 3" swap, we make one 3X3 for each person in the swap. Each person had a different "vintage" theme. Here are my completed 3X3s. All collage images are from Altered Pages except for the cowgirl, whom I found on the net. The blocks are from a Tim Holtz paper. The orange bird is from the Dollar Store!

Vintage Children for Fran



Vintage Cowgirls for Barb




Vintage Floral for Sandy



Vintage Kids for Karen



Vintage Ladies for Kelly

Vintage Male for Ultra Violet



Vintage Pin-Up for Jan