Christmas Past, Christmas Present

This week over at One Powerful Hour the theme is...

Christmas Past, Christmas Present

The hostess Pauline instructed participants to take the title anyway they saw fit.

So, last year at around this time (Christmas time) I decorated a chipboard bird and have had it up in my studio all year (See Image below). So I decided to decorate the other side.

To start I used a paper that I received last year from Wendy at Repeat Impressions. I love this paper so much but didn't know what to do with it, I really just wanted to frame it and look at it but I thought this would be just as good. Next I Green Tinsel embossed a fir tree branch all over (also from Repeat Impressions). This year (to represent Christmas Present) I used the Cat German Scrap that I received from Paula's Kit club. My finishing touched include changing the cat bows to red and adding red rhinestones all around the bird.

I think I represented things received in my Christmas past and my Christmas Present fairly well. I hope you enjoy.

Marie's Christmas Poinsettia

A few weeks ago I was invited to join a fabulous group of artist known as the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group. Of course I jumped at the opportunity and this is my first project for them, Christmas themed ATC's featuring Marie of course.

I did not own a single Marie stamp when I joined the group. It took me about five minutes to locate this one from Cherry Pie and fall in love with it.

Originally I was going to go with mostly white but DH said I should do more traditional colors since I was not using a true image of Marie. The background paper is cream and gold stripes with gold flourishes. I green tinsel embossed the image of Marie directly onto the paper and stamped her onto a separate heavy weight cardstock. I colored the image with colored pencils and cut out the face portion. Painting the flowers with twinkling H2O and adding gold glitter to the flower centers.

The poinsettia is from Repeat Impressions, I stamped it three times on heavy cardstock and painted it with the same red twinkling H2O, trimmed them closely (one of them I cut off the larger petals) layered them and curled the petals.

The finishing touches include 1/4" strips of red crepe paper crinkled and taped down, leaves spritzed with shimmer and a rhinestone holding the poinsettia layers together.

Overall I am pleased with this ATC and I hope the recipients are also. I've never been so nervous in my life...well maybe the first swap with COF :)

Keepin it Simple

Here is the latest instalments of cards for Repeat Impressions. I received the assignment right after moving so I was a bit concerned with having enough time to make the pieces so I decided to keep them very simple. Something that is hard for me but I always love the results.

This top card I think is my favorite. The peace emblems are painted using Twinkling H2O's so they shimmer, of course. Around the edge I used a Red and Yellow DMC floss.

Both of the stamps I used on this card are from Wendy's newest collection Hip Chick

This card was not one that I originally planned but after working with the Peace, Love stamp on the above card I just had to make this card.

I wanted a 60's feel about the card so I used three different ink and blended them together in what I am calling a modern tie die.

As a finishing touch I added glitter to one heart, one swirl and one piece sign.

I made a matching/coordinating envelope to go with this card that I am not going to show here so make sure to check out Repeat Impressions to see it.

This card the idea was the easiest for me to come up with especially since I was moving and needed to come up with a design to send out to family and friends.

For this card we had to use one of the Flip Set stamps. Lucky for me, and for my idea we did not have to use all the images that the Flip set comes with. I ended up only using one of the images and cutting it apart. I love how many uses these stamps have when you take a minute to think outside of the box.

Wendy wanted us to make a card featuring her favorite color which is green. Yahoo Yahoo I love working with Green.

This card is a play off of one that a member of the Circle of Friends made for a challenge All things _______ shaped.

I am really disappointed with the quality of photo/scan no matter what I did I couldn't get it not fuzzy. I think it has to do with the fact that it is very layered.

The original plan had an additional affixing to the lower right saying "Just a little note" but when I put it on I thought it looked a little to planned and took away from the eye scrumptiousness.

This card also uses one of Wendy's newest line of stamps. Quartet Series Stamps

I stamped one of the squares all over the back and then on a separate sheet of paper that I had sponged with Twinkling H2Os I stamped the coffee cup covered it with Diamond Glaze and cut it out.

The ribbon is from my cousins wedding and I thought it was a perfect addition to this card with the lovely blue rhinestones.

And of course I had to use Etta :)

I hope you enjoy these pieces, I had fun making them and look forward to the next assignment. I realized when I sent off the photo's to Wendy that I have now been making samples out of her lovely stamps for a year now! Boy how fast time flies!

Repeat Impressions

Here are my latest pieces for Repeat Impression which I had an absolute blast making. I think this was the funnest (yes, i know that is not a word) assignment so far.

Wendy asked up to make 2 pieces using various sea life images. I selected the tropical fish and seahorse images to use for the Yellow Submarine I created.

I found the template for the yellow sub online, it was a free coloring image for children that I printed off and then enlarged slightly using photoshop. All the black lines were part of the coloring image. I did however remove the small portal windows on the image and replace it with the large portal I made.

To make the portal I cut out a circle using my coluzzle system and then silver embossed the entire circle. Next I added some very watered down black acrylic paint that I let dry slightly before wiping off. To finish I attached brads all around to look like the screws that hold the portal in place.

The Fish images are colored with color pencil and the one fish in the smaller window I reverse stamped. To finish off the sub I added the image of Etta.



Last week for a One Powerful Hour challenge of circles I submitted an entry of some circular stickers with frogs on them. Well, here is the reward chart that I am using those stickers on.

As stated in the previous post my daughter is potty training right now so what could be better than stickers with frogs in underpants?

The way we are using the chart is every time she successfully uses the potty she gets to put a sticker on that day. We are not worried about her pulling her pants down yet or flushing (which she loves to do anyway) just focusing on the actual use. Once she gets it down we will add on more tasks required for her to earn a sticker.

All the stamps using on this and all other projects in this post are by Repeat Impressions.


With this assignment Wendy sent out a collection of lovely papers...I mean absolutely stunning, I didn't want to cut into them. She asked that we use at least one of the papers on a project.

I had a billion ideas but went with the fastest since life is hectic right now. The paper I used is the pink swirl overlay.

I cut it into little squares and placed it alternately over the queens. The three queens you can see I colored with colored pencils and then glued onto the solid black background. The queens under the velum are white embossed.

To finish it off I attached the overlay with silver brads and silver embossed the saying "Now Accepting Compliments" I am really upset that even with my stamp positioner I did not get the phrase on straight.


This is the second of the two ocean themed items Wendy asked us to create. I painted a 5x7 art board using shimmery paints one blue and one a greenish gold, really pretty. Once that was dry I affixed the brightly colored fish. They are painted with sparkling H2O's and black embossed. Each fish has some blue glitter coming up from them to form bubbled.

The bottom of the canvas I glued some actual sand on and then stamped the starfish and sea shell boarder on a sand colored paper and clear embossed. Cut it out and affixed it. To finish this piece off I added some blue bead work ribbon to dangle from the bottom.


This is the last piece that was required for us to make. Wendy wanted us to do something with the Fairy stamp. We could select which one we wanted to work with.

One of the first stamps she ever sent me was the cancellation stamp for postage. And I had not used it yet so I decided that something "Fairy Postage" like would be fun.

Using a green background paper I embossed an hexagon shaped postage stamp using a greenish powder, trying to keep them nice and lined up. I stamped the flower boarder direct to paper and painted it with Sparkling H2O's. The fairy image and the dragonfly in the postage stamp I colored and cut out of white cardstock and affixed them to the ATC after randomly stamping the cancellation stamp in blue.

I am still playing with a few other pieces for this assignment. One of them is a clock using a different fairy image and then I also have a makeshift organizer for a grocery list that is proving a bit more complicated than I thought. And of course I want to play with more of the lovely papers. I hope I have time before I move.

Circles

This week over at One Powerful Hour the theme is Circles.

I made these stickers for my daughter who is Potty Training. The stamp is one that Wendy from Repeat Impressions asked her Design Team to use. When I saw it I just knew it was perfect for Kudzoo's reward.

The paper is a full sheet mailing label that I washed with the Sparkeling H2o's then cut the circles and stamped the image on. To make them sturdier I covered them with clear embossing powder ( I wanted to use page pebbles but could not find any the right size) as a finishing touch I added some glitter.

I have also turned some of these into magnets so they can be reused!

This was a very fun art item to make and DD really loves them and that above everything else makes it worth while!

Repeat Impressions Cards

It's that time again...time to share my latest creations for Repeat Impressions.

Wendy asked us to make at least one Valentine item using the Hugs and Kisses stamp that I have in the background of the Puffin Up card.

Puffin Up is suppose to be a play on the phrase Pucker Up but so far no one has gotten it without an explanation. I wish I had ordered a kiss stamp now but it is too late.

Other stamps used on this card are Puffins, Random Hearts and Legacy Alphabet.

I was trying to do some faster backgrounds this time. Mainly because I was a moron and missed a very important e-mail. Leaving me with a little over a week to get my creations together...i am still kicking myself. Anyway, I used a Tim Holtz technique. I stamped the Hugs and Kisses stamp and clear embossed it onto decorative paper. I then sprayed the paper with some Adirondack Ink and ironed the paper. The Embossing areas lifted off leaving those spots clear of the dark purple ink...pretty cool huh!

It is very hard to see in this sample but i have used the Hugs and Kisses stamp on the background as well as the glittered portions that I cut out. I water marked the paper with the Hugs and Kisses stamp.

Other stamps used on this piece are Fairy Kiss, To My Love..., Random Hearts and Random Swirls.

I used the Random Hearts and Random Swirls to "dress' the two fairy's along with some coordinating rhinestones.

If you visit my blog regularly you have already seen this card. If not take a look at the post below...this one has a story ;)

Wendy asked us to use the Just hatched stamps (little duck/chicken/bird coming out of the egg). Other stamps used include Candy cane (Used the ribbon off of the Candy Cane), Random dots, Wild Daisies, and Squares 3, 13 and 14.

I think this is the card that I am most proud of this time around. When I came up with the idea it was one of those, boy I hope I can pull this off, things.

These flowers are made out of the Quilt or Stained glass window Squares. I black embossed Squares 6, 10, 13 and 14 a number of times and colored them with Twinkling H2O's...it's a good thing I like to color b/c that took a while...very therapeutic :)

Once they were dry I cut them out based on what I thought would make the best shaped flower. I stacked the squares on top of one another and attached them so that you can see both the cut squares. And I curled the edges up to make them more 3D.

To finish it off I cut various shapes out of the remaining parts of the squares and scattered them all along the lower half of the card...it is suppose to resemble petals that have fallen.

I call this card my Frank Loyd Wright card. I once stayed in a hotel that he had designed and I remember lots of Tiffany lamps made with triangles and squares.

The stem is from the Easter lily stamp.

And my last card is a Stained Glass window made from the Quilt/Stained Glass window Squares. I really ended up loving the quilt/stained glass window stamps, when Wendy asked us to use them i was very apprehensive but once I had them in hand I used them and used them...they are wonderful once you let your imagination flow.

To make this window I turned to my trusted drafting and geometry skills. The heavy black lines are black embossed and suppose to resemble leading lines. I wish that I had embossed all the squares also but getting them perfectly lined up was very difficult and it was easier to hide mistakes this way.

Inside my window I used the Bird and Blossoms stamp. I also ordered a Butterfly stamp that I was going to have perched on the window sill but she got a little lost so I left her off.

I hope you enjoy my pieces and are inspired to create your own Repeat Impressions pieces. If you do I would love to see them...just leave a comment.

On my side bar there is a Repeat Impressions icon, just click that and it will take you to Wendy's wonderful site.

In my World...LOL

Because sometimes you just have to wonder about yourself...

Anyone see something wrong with this card? Well, if you don't right off the bat...that makes me feel better. Because not only did I make the mistake when ordering the stamps but I made it when putting the card together...

Need a hint? Probably not...

The last time I checked, in the world that I have to live in everyday, Peter Cottontail is NOT a chick...

I ordered the stamp with full intention of using it just like I did on the card above. I put it together and then, 2 hours later, I realized my mistake...This card took me forever to put together, lots of cutting, and I actually had to draw parts of it, on top of that getting the eggs decorated was not easy either. So realizing my mistake really upset me. But I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea on how to save what I had.


Here is the fixed card, I don't like the shape as much and i couldn't figure out how to put the ribbon on but all in all I think it is a good save without having to re-do the entire card.

All stamps are from Repeat Impressions...

I hope you get a good laugh out of this one...I have been walking around the past few days telling everyone (that knows about the mistake) that they are having a "Peter Cottontail" when they make a silly laughable mistake...It very well could become one of our new household phrases.

A Strange Combination

Last weekend DH went to Idaho to check on our land and our trees...since they are in a government program so many of them must live each year and that takes constant care...plus we got a really nasty letter this year about maintaining 80% in each row. I could go on but why...

So here is Kudzo out with Daddy in Idaho, she needs a hair cut like there is no tomorrow but we are getting ready to go home for a quick vacation and I am hoping my father will take care of it...so dad, please get out those scissors...

It was such a clear day that you could see for miles and miles and miles so I took advantage of that when taking pictures...kinda wish i had taken this one more close up...pretty sure they are both squinting but hey they so rarely take a photo together it is a shame to waist it. The Mountains in the background are the Grand Tetons...Our land has a fabulous view...can't wait to actually get out there and take advantage of it.

Who would have guessed that DH had such an eye. He took this incredible picture of our Choke Cherry row...the trees had just started to fruit and turn when we got there. I just love the fence in the background, one day we will actually finish fencing in the land...one day, those fences are gawd awful expensive!

Okay this one is just for fun...way down there in that horrible Desert Flight suit is a friend of ours. He is about my height so this is suppose to give you an idea of how big the trees have gotten over the past six years. I know to some of you they look itty bitty but trust me they are huge in comparison to when we planted them. Some of the Blue Spruce were no bigger than my pinkie...it is amazing they lived at all in my opinion especially since we are not out there to get rid of the deer and vols...

All in all the trip was a success...the water has been turned off for the winter and the lines flushed...We have our ski trip all planned out for February so the next photos will be a vast spans of white...that is until around July when we go back out to turn the water back on and see what made it through the winter. Keep your fingers crossed that we maintain the required 80% to stay in the program...

Okay now onto a totally different type of pretty picture...like the title of this post says, a strange combination.

So I have been spending most of my time working on some custom orders that I can not post due to the fact that they are Christmas presents and birthday presents and just because presents. But have no fear I have taken pictures and even have a post or two scheduled...








So here is what I have done that I can post. I finally finished up the second Design Team Assignment from Repeat Impressions. The Christmas portion. I of course have a billion more ideas floating around in my head for the stamps I have received but I have to finish up more of these custom orders before I start playing with fun stuff.

The stamped words are the lyrics to O Christmas tree...all the lyrics...LOL I only knew the O Christmas Tree part...I know the image is hard to see...it is a little better in the photo below...

the background paper is one of my Twinkling H2O creations made with green, gold, and red paints. The brighter green is a stamped image of a balsam fir twig that I embossed randomly all over the card.

The pocket the tag/wall hanging slides into is done in the same fashion. I used the same Twinkling background paper and Balsam Fur stamp. I deconstructed the song after stamping it onto coordinating green card stock and attached it by sewing it on with red DMC floss highlighting each stitch with a red seed bead. I really like the way this turned out. When I originally wrote the plan down I was concerned that it would be boring...

Once I finished the pocket I went back to the tag/wall hanging and decided to add the gold seed bead strung hanging device. On top of that I highlighted the small star at the top of the O Christmas Tree stamped image with gold Glitter.

This project was a lot of fun and very simple even if it was a bit time consuming with the bead stringing and the making of the background paper.

















My second Christmas Card for Repeat Impressions is totally different. I went with the silver and blue combination that has become so popular.

I stamped the stars randomly all over a dark blue heavy weight card stock and silver embossed them. On a separate sheet of paper I stamped the Angel and the Joy images. I painted the angel with the Twinkeling H2O's of course, highlighting her wings with Grey Flocking...The Earth in Joy is painted with Sparkeling H2O's.

I cut Joy out in an oval and dusted the remainder of the image with blue and silver inks. Before attaching them to the card I wrapped Joy in silver DMC floss that I ran through the angels hands and tied into a bow. To finish of the card I wrapped it all with the Silver DMC floss...

And to finish it all off...I must now venture into the realm of the "It was eventually bound to happen"

Last night DH came home with his #19 Tweet Retirement Limited Edition Print that he has been talking about for months. He even had me go and check my framing materials to see what I would need to get it behind glass and up in the office right away.

Well, this one will never grace our walls, DH put it on the kitchen table last night so that I could take it to the frame shop tomorrow...a whopping 24 hours, that is all...it didn't make it. I was working and who knows where DH was, I think he was washing my car (yippie!) Well, Kudzo located a working pen and decided that it was time to color...where did she color??? You guessed it, all over Kevin's prised Print.

I have never seen DH look so upset as when he brought the destroyed print to show me our child's perfect rendering. I told him to see if he could order another one, that I would even buy it for him this time...so far we have not heard back if we will be able to get another one. He has all the planes he has ever flown in model and print form...it will be such a shame if we can't get one...

Well, that is all for now...I know it is a lot...

September Catch up

I have been so busy working on holiday gifts...things that I can't post, it would give away the surprise that I forgot to post some of the fun swaps and Repeat Impressions pieces that I finished in September. So here is a quick recap.

For starters this Gothic Arch covers a slew of challenges from this past week starting with the open Theme Gothic Arches let us play with.

Theme Thursday challenged us with: This week’s theme is “road trip”! Use images that make you think of a “road trip” in your creation this week!

One Powerful Hour wanted us to focus on: This weeks theme is fun and flirty, or down and dirty, it's shoes!
I love a pretty pair of dainty high heals, and I love the comfort of an old ratty tennis shoe. Create a piece of art using any style shoe. They can be the focal point or in the background, maybe the shape of your card, the possibilities are endless.

I think this arch does an okay job with all those things. Not so sure that Theme Thursday will consider a walk around Paris as a road trip...but it would be a big one for me...considering I live an ocean away!

The background paper is an old map of Paris. I then poked random holes at some fun looking locations and strung shimmery DMC Floss from one hole to the next. I stamped a high heal shoe using Versa Mark ink and covered that with Pearl Ex Powder, after sealing that I attached the sight seeing woman and then all around the edge I added sequins filling the center with pink seed beads.


These Fabulous Pennants are for a swap with Alpha Stamps. The requirements were that we must use the Pennant shape and holiday themed collage sheets and or rubber stamps by Alpha Stamps.

I Selected New collage sheet called Old Fashioned Christmas. I attached it to the Pennant and then used Tim Holtz Crackle paints in weathered wood and old paper to cover the rest of the pennant. When that had dried I added the snowflakes which are stamped and glittered.



My finishing touches are the Dresden around the edges and a fabulous silver snowflake that I attached at the bottom.

You can see a lot of the crackle detail and the shimmery effect of the glittered snow flake in the close up picture.









































Last but certainly not least is this piece that I did for Repeat Impressions. A Haunted Mansion belonging to who else by Count Dracula himself.

The background is made using orange acrylic paint. I let it dry and then smeared on in lines petroleum jelly, over that I painted very carefully, a cream acrylic. When the cream paint was dry enough not to smear I wiped the paint off, it removed the clear over the petroleum jelly leaving the fabulous random streaked effect. I thought it was a little to bright and happy so I stippled black and grey ink over the entire house.

All Stamps are from Repeat Impressions, I used the Bats, Haunted Tree, Dracula, Spiders Web, swirls, and Legacy Alphabet.

The swirls are purple pearl ex powder, when I took the photo they showed up blue. Dracula is painted with Twinkeling H2O's and so is the Haunted Tree. The Spiders web and the words are covered in glitter.

As a finishing touch I added the cat and pumpkin trim boarder...

Hope you enjoy!

Fall Fellows

This week, This Thursday, it's all about, gave us a Round Tuit.

I had no idea what this was/is, not a phrase I am familiar with but boy do I love the concept...

we thought that this weeks challenge should be Get a round tuit.
So we want you to think about all those craft projects that you have been meaning to get a round to, choose one and do it. if you are the very odd person who always does everything as soon as they think of it, you can use a round tuit (small round pin dish) either make one, decorate or alter one. Or create a peice reflecting the reasons why you don’t get a round to it. LOL Or as per usual you can use the title in anyway it inspires you.

One Powerful Hour challenged it's participants to depict Fall.

With these challenges combined there was no way that I could put off re working my "Fall Fellows" any longer.

A few weeks ago I made the top card for Repeat Impressions and did not like how it turned out. I was worried I would not have time to re-do it so I turned it in, Thankfully Wendy did not publish it. Giving me time to come up with a new layout and much warmer, richer colors. I really like my new interpretation.

I used Pearl Ex powders on the little leaves in the background. The leaves around the men are all embossed using various shades of embossing powder and the crowning touch is my Dr. Pepper tab that I used like a belt buckle, painted it Gold with a Krylon pen.

Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking.

Autmn/Halloween

Well, I have been diligently working, let me re-phrase, diligently playing, to get some Autumn and Halloween themed pieces ready for Repeat Impressions.

Here is what I have come up with...and I still have a few idea's up my sleeve.

Best Witches took no time to make at all and it was fun. I love the Etta image that I received last month and just had to use her again. The Witches face I stamped twice, once so I could cut out a hat for Etta and the second time so that I could make her Halloween mask. I painted the Witches face with Sparkeling H2O's so of course she is shimmery and I used a toothpick I painted black as the handle. The orange and purple threads are DMC floss.
Other stamps I used are the haunted Tree, Bats, and the Best Witches phrase. And can all be found HERE


This one I call, All Dressed Up

What do the ghouls of Halloween do when it is time for them to dress up? Well, the mix and match. I stamps the Witch, Dracula and Frankenstein faces a number of times and painted them all with Sparkeling h2O's. I cut various bits and pieces out of each of them and combined them to make the costumes.

The background paper is various shades of sparkeling H2O sponged on heavy weight cardstock. It has a ghoulishly shimmery effect that is lost when scanned...

The spider Webs have been stamped with an orange glitter powder and I finished it off with the jack-O-Lanterns phrase.

I wanted to make something fast and simple and I love tags. these would be perfect on a cellophane bag stuffed with candy corns or your favorite Halloween treat.

From Left to right
Dracula Tag: I used a decorative paper and cut the tag out. Dracula I stamped on white paper and colored with Sparkeling H2O's. I mounted Dracula and then surrounded him with bats that are done with black glitter. To finish off the tag I added some black Dresden along the bottom and the fibers.

Frankenstein Tag: I stamped Frankenstein on white paper and colored him with Sparkeling H2O's. While he was drying I cut the tag out of decorative paper and then threaded it with a random chriss cross pattern using green DMC floos. To hide the holes I put black brads through them. I then mounted the cut out Frankenstein and added various Halloween stickers along the bottom. i finished it off with a fabulous Halloween colored ribbon.

Witch Tag: Following the same stamp and color process as the other two tags. I cut out the tag from a decorative paper and stamped the spider webs and covered them with purple glitter. Then I mounted the witch, adding a black rhinestone here her wart is and purple rhinestones up the sides. I finished her off withe a piece of black lace and orange ribbon.

All stamps to make these pieces can be found HERE


This one I call Fall Fellows and I am disappointed in it. I love the image of the men in the woods and I was trying to emphasize the image by placing the leaves all around it. However I think I got my leaf colors a bit wrong.

I used marvey Brush markers direct to stamp to get the two toned effect. When the colors blended some of them came out wrong. The bright tealy looking blue is actually a dark green marker but mixed with the ochre you get, well, teal.

I also glittered some of the leaves...I do like those, they are fun.
As a backdrop to all of this I used a stamp called Random leaves. To finish the card off I embossed the edges with gold and I covered the Friendly Gents with diamond Glaze.

if I have time I am going to rework this card I think it will be fabulous If I can get my colors right.


Last but certainly not least is the Harvest Goddess

She is ATC sized and I think that I got the colors just right. the background paper is a Sparkeling h2o mixture using golds and browns and oranges...it is all shimmery.

Onto of that I stamped the Foliage Positive in dark brown ink. The Goddess and the Wheat sheaf were stamped on white paper with brown ink, colored with colored pencils and cut out.

I mounted them all as shown and then lined the edges of the ATC with a green mixed with gold embossing powder.

I hope you enjoy my pieces.

Design Team Pieces

Well, I finally finished two more pieces for Repeat Impressions. I had another one up my sleeve but no matter what I did I could not get it to work out...sometimes art just does not cooperate :)

The "I Must Be Queen" piece is a square card, I have a set of 6 on sale in my etsy shop. I started by stamping Etta with dark brown ink on a tan sheet of cardstock. Then in a lighter shade I stamped the crown and added some more depth by stippling gold using a circular (beehive) stencil.

This is mounted an a green sheet of cardstock that I stamped random splotches all over in the dark brown ink.

I mounted both layers onto a pink cardstock sheet. I also used this pink to stamp the phrase "I must be queen..." on and cut out to mount on the first panel.







For this piece I used one of the Gothic Arch templates provided on the Gothic Arch challenge page. Please see my sidebar for the address.

I stamped the goddess on a separate sheet of cardstock and colored her with colored pencils. I then cut her out and attached a set of wings from a collage sheet.

To make the trellis I cut another Gothic arch and stamped the flowering vine all along the edge. I then went in and cut out the center trimming closely to the flowers. I colored them with colored pencils.

All of this is mounted onto a background sheet that has similar shades of flowers all over it.

Hope you enjoy my pieces, I had a great time making them.

All I Ask Wall hanging

I love to read and every now and then I get so wrapped up in a book that I can't put it down to eat, drink or sleep. sometimes, to the books detriment, that means that i spill stuff all over the pages. But to me this does not render the book tossable, it turns it into the perfect art project. Here I have used 3 pages out of one of the many books that has fallen victim to my unsteady hands...

I died three pages various shades, one blue, one green and one pink using Tim Holtz distressing inks. While these were drying I worked on the center tag.

I cut the tag shape using a Colluzle (sp?) and then stamped it with 3404-C, Random Dots using the pink ink I dyed the paper with. I also brushed this ink along the edges of the tag. I did the same to the portion of paper hanging from the tag. Next I gold embossed 7118-I, Queen and colored her with marker. Finally I punched three openings in the tag, one at the top to loop the ribbon through and two at the bottom that I put blue eyelets in so i could hang the saying 7015-G, All I Ask using blue DMC shimmery thread.

Now I layer everything. I placed the tag on the green died book page. Then I cut a strip of toile and sandwiched it between the green and pink book pages. I mounted all this on the blue book page. To finish it all off I added various colored rhinestones.

I hope you enjoy!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...

Here is another piece for Repeat Impressions.

The castle shape that I have been working with for a few months was created by Sarah W. for an Alpha Stamps Castle Swap. You can see other pieces that I created and received

HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

For this castle I started by cutting out the castle shape and coloring various shades for pinks and purples using water color pencils. I then painted over the color with a very thin layer of Gesso, this mixed the water color pencils together nicely giving the background a very soft smooth look. Next I stamped 7116-E, Crown using royal purple and black inks.

The 7118-I, Queen is stamped on transparency film with a permanent ink and then painted with alcohol inks. I did not cut the transparency film closely since you can not see the film and the added left overs gave the images more stability. I used a very small amount of double sided tape to attach them to the castle.

For the Mirror I used 6804-L, Hand Mirror and cut off the handle. I stamped the phrase 7020-E, Compliments on a separate piece of cardstock and trimmed closely, so that it would fit inside the makeshift mirror.

Lastly I stamped 4314-K, Flowering Vine on a separate sheet of cardstock, colored it with the same colors I used for the background on the castle, cut them out and mounted them on the castle as shown. And edged the castle with black ink.

Hope you enjoy!

Goddess in Training Slide Mailer

For those of you who have not heard the news, I am a member of Repeat Impressions Design Team. I am so honored to be able to design for this company. I met the owners a number of years ago at a Convention in Georgia. And they are a delightful couple. The company is small and based in Maine but you would never know it from the fabulous quality of their items. Please take a moment to check them out.

Okay onto what I have created. The first piece that I have made is a slide mailer. I started by coating the mailer with a thin layer of gesso. Next I sprayed it with a green Glimmer mist and Walnut ink. Let that dry (but not all the way) and then sponged off the excess with a paper towel.

On the front I stamped 4314-K, Flowering Vine colored it with markers and then added diamond glaze. Lastly I gold embossed around the edges.

On the inside Left side I started by stamping 3417-C, Random Stars with Jungle green ink and then stamped the phrase 7032-D, Goddess in dark brown ink. To finish it off I cut out a few of the flowers from the flowering vine and added them.

To create the insert for the right hand inside panel I first traced the shape on a cardboard colored cardstock and then stamped 7107-G, Goddess Post two times, one right side up and the other upside down, masking as needed, with brown ink. I colored the image with colored pencils and mounted inside the insert.

To finish off the inside I added gold embossing powder all around the edges. And lastly I attached the beads to the back of the slide mailer.