Monday, September 29, 2008

New Postcards

I had fun with my stamp carving, but was not happy with the postcards, so I have come up with something I like better. The colours are Sepia and Ultramarine. I realized that sepia was the colour of old photos, not "brown". So I went to my Altered Pages cache and found some sepia images I really liked!





Not sure what I'm going to do with the old postcards yet. I'll save them, and someday they will be "Just the thing I needed!" for a future project!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Stamp Carving!

Decided I would try my hand at stamp carving this week, as part of my Printmaking experience. I transferred a photo I had taken in the summer to a sheet of soft carving rubber and carved away! This is what I got.

This is the photo. . .


carved into this. . .



and stamped onto my postcards for September for my Color Postcards Group.
The colors this month are Ultramarine and Sepia - or loosely translated into brown and dark blue, a rather somber color group!



after a few stampings the tail started to break off - must remember that for future carving. I wonder if it can be glued together? I will try!

I'm not sure that the rest of the postcards will use the same stamp. I need to find a way to brighten up these colors! Maybe I'll carve another one. . .

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Sundays are nice. . .

because I have arranged my life so that I do absolutely nothing (but what I want to!). So I played in my art room this afternoon, finished my (now late) Gothic Arch and my Yalpha Mingle for Byhand.







I have just joined a new Yahoo Group called HomeArtRetreat where we essentially set time for art retreats for ourselves. Interesting!

Now I'm off to make a birthday card for a favourite friend!

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Finally! A day to breathe!

Weekends are so much more appreciated when you have to work all week! I was able to scan all my new cards and Aqua postcards this morning, so now i can share them with you. My friend Therese came to visit in August and she was a great help in getting me back into card making. I used to make cards all the time, but I've been doing so many other things recently, it's like I have forgotten how! Therese brought her Cuttlebug and embossing Folders for me to play with - I've never done these before, it was fun! I had recently read online that a pasta machine, set at #2, could be used with the Embossing Folders, so of course, we had to try it. Worked like a charm! So I now have a bunch od cards using the embossed backgrounds that we made.

For this one I rubbed ink on the embossing folder



This one uses an ATC I made in July


You can't see the background in this one, but it's there!


This was my first one


This one I rubbed Distress ink on the raised portions after I ran it through


Another one using an ATC, great use for those ATCs that are hanging around!

And now for my Color Postcard group - I am very late with these, I should have done them at the beginning of August! The theme is Aqua, and I had to get them done quickly, so everyone is getting the same card this time. The seahorse stamp is the only stamp I have ever designed myself, and got made into rubber. It is sold at my local stamp store, Marchant's.



This postcard is for my DD, i used one of my blue Moo cards for this one. I like the bling, and hopefully she will too, though she isn't a real bling kind of gal! I also used the raised dots on this one, although you can't really see them, on the edges of the Indian patterns.


I have also made an Asian Love Book for Altered Pages, and it is sold as a kit. You can see it here.
That's all for now, hopefully I will get some time in my art room this weekend!

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Busy Busy!!

I have been very busy - too busy - getting my classroom ready for TODAY! So hopefully I will now have time for art! I did make a Yalpha Mingle (Byhand) 4X4 using the letter "T". not one of my best efforts as it was late. . . bad girl!! Hopefully next month's will be nice and early! I also joined the Gothic Arches group, so I'm sure there will be more postings of Gothic Arches in the future! Check out my new kit at Altered Pages, called "Asian Love". I really liked how this turned out!

Anyway, here is my Yalpha, and tomorrow I can add my Aqua Postcards for my Color Postcards Group.




TTFN!