Love Gone Wild Swap

Lenna has finally gotten all settled into her new home...kinda...and started up her swaps again. If you have never taken part in a Creative Swap then you are missing out.

This swap is called "Love Gone Wild" it is a 4 for 4 ATC swap. There are still a few spots left and it's not due to Lenna until the 15th of February so you have time! You can see some of the other entries on her blog.

When I think "Love Gone Wild" I think of the Silver Screen...actors and actresses totally out of control on the screen and off, the games they play and the skimpy lingerie they sometimes wear. So I combined all that on these ATC's using a mini Bingo card as my base, some lovey dovy couples. I stamped an animal print using brown ink and ripped bits of it to attach to the ATC. There is a stamp of birds and hearts over the women's heads and a heart that I embossed over the couples. To finish it off I added diamond glaze to the words and affixed some film strip.

I can't wait to see what I get in return.

Metalic Bird

A few weeks ago on One Powerful Hour I set the theme of Metallic and made this bird. Well, time got away from me and I wasn't able to personally post about it until now.

The bird is a single chipboard page from a book so you could make a bunch of them, that I got from Alpha Stamps.

To start I painted the entire bird using Tim Holtz silver distressing paint. I then stamped the swirl (one of my favorite stamps, Hero Arts) and covered the image with glitter.

The Poinsettia stamp is from Repeat Impressions. I stamped it three times onto grey paper. Added some twinkling H2O's in a slightly darker grey then went over the entire flower with some silver pearl ex powder. I cut out the pointsettia's and affixed them together with a shimmery silver brad. I positioned the pointsettia over where the feathers came together.

Orange, Orange and more Orange

When a girls favorite color is orange well then you should give them Orange! At least that is what my friend who asked me to make this pillow said and I must admit I agree completely with the sentiment. It is very hard to find completely orange objects and the recipient does not like pink and orange mixed which is very in right now.

Picking out the fabrics was not easy, as I previously stated orange seems to come mixed with pink now. We started with two different sized poka dots but I was worried that it would be to much so we settled for the stripe and the smaller dots. The smaller dot fabric also has some stripes in it.

The next hard part was deciding how to do the Monogram. I couldn't find a good orange ink so I decided to go with an applique which also proved tricky because I needed to make it stand out on the fabric. Ultimately I went with more orange which actually is a perfect match for the darker stripe in the striped fabric. I wish the close up of the applique had turned out better...guess it's time to pull out my camera's instruction manual again.

The next hard part was deciding how I wanted the stripes to go. I started with them looping around like a continuous line but the stripes didn't match up everywhere and that annoyed me so I ended up turning them all the same way.

As with all the pillows I make the backs Velcro shut (making it easy to remove the internal pillow form for washing) with a ribbon to hide the seem. I also always flip the "major" fabric so it becomes the minor fabric on the back. I think the back of this pillow is almost as stunning as the front.

All in all I am pleased with the outcome. Orange is not my favorite color so I had a bit of a hard time making decisions I just hope that the little girl receiving this loves it.

And I had to include a close up of the bow because I think it may be the best one I ever tied.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

This week over at One Powerful Hour I set the challenge of...
Holiday Music

Originally I wanted the challenge to be an interpretation of the Twelve Day's of Christmas song but I couldn't come up with a nice piece so I switched the challenge to any and all Holiday Music.

I selected the song Winter Wonderland and I love the version by Bing Crosby (I'm pretty sure it is the original) which can be listened to HERE. The specific line out of the song that I chose to represent is "walking in a winter wonderland" but instead of people I have what I like to think of as Reindeer.

The Reindeer, which I stamped on transparency film using brown Staz On ink, wrap all the way around the cube which is made from a cube template. The cube has some snowflakes embossed on it (not the white ones you can see but they are subtle glittery ones). Next I cut out some pine branches that I embossed using Tim Holtz distress embossing powder which gave them a fabulous texture.

To finish the cube off I added some red rhinestones, some white snowflake stickers the fibers coming out of the bottom and a cardinal covered in snow.



My camera was a bit cantankerous so I don't have very good pictures and I used the cube in an ornament exchange so I no longer have it to try to correct the photo's but you can get the general impression of the overall piece and the cardinal from this photo.

Stop by and join us at One Powerful Hour...we would love to see your creations.

Dragonfly Pillow

Here is yet another pillow but look closely and you will see that I am getting a bit more creative and courageous.

The customer told me that her daughter's favorite colors are pink and purple and that she loves butterflies and dragonflies...

I did not care for any of the butterfly themed fabrics so I decided to make a few appliques to go on the pillow. After spending quite some time in the fabric store I settled on these two pink fabrics, I really like a purple paisley but couldn't find anything to go with it.

It took me forever to get this pillow put together...mainly because other projects kept creeping up on me. And I feel horrible about it...but it is finally done.

The applique that I made is a dragonfly stamp that I love. I stamped it onto the same pink fabric that is in the center of the pillow. The stamped image was not as dark as I wanted it so I outlined it with a dark brown fabric pen and then I colored her in. This was a difficult task for me since the colors did not blend the way I am use to my colored pencils and water colors doing so. But all in all I think the image turned out nicely.

I have not stamped the initial yet because I want to make sure the customer likes what I have created for her. But when I do it will be in a dark brown which is what the dark color on the fabric is.

I learned a lot about making appliques on this project and I plan on making many more.

Leaves

Over at One Powerful Hour the challenge this week is...

Leaves...

The October Paula's Kit Club was leaf themed and in it came the lovely stamp that I used on the front of this slide mailer. I just thought it was the perfect autumn/leaf stamp that I have seen in a long time.

To prep the slide mailer I painted it all with Vintage crackle paint from the Tim Holtz collection. On the front I added a glittery swirl in autumn splendor glitter from Sparkle N Sprinkle. Then I affixed the stamped image that I had stamped in brown and painted/highlighted with Twinkling H2O's on gold paper.

The inside if the slide mailer is not as glamorous. I have been in love with the image of the woman and just had to use her...it wasn't until after I had her glued in place that I realized she would be really cold in that outfit in the fall LOL...to enhance and hide the fact that she is not large enough for the opening I added various feathers.

The leaves on the left hand side are stamped on the same gold paper as the front image and highlighted with Twinkling H2O's also. To finish this piece off I added the "Fall" sticker and the small rhinestones in the corner.

I think this took me a little over an hour but I'm not sure. I kept messing with it after I had things all planned out and forgot to watch the clock because I was having so much fun.

Thanks for looking.

Hocus Pocus

Over at Zuzu's Petal and Buds Forum it's time to exchange a Halloween themed piece and here is what I have made.

This did not turn out the way I wanted it to at all. I wanted it to be orange in majority but not the orange I ended up getting. Everything went south when I went with a 2 step crackling technique that has never failed me before but either my paint was old or my crackle medium because it did not crackle at all...in fact it was down right ugly what happened. So I tried to save it by wiping the orange paint off but I wasn't pleased with that look either. So after getting all the elements together I decided to try and hide the ugly paint with glitter...I thought I would never say this but I think this piece has too much glitter on it.

The image is from Alpha Stamps and so is the fabulous chip board cut out of the spider web. You can't tell but I wrapped it in an off white fuzzy fabric...it really is a cool effect.

I'm hoping that the person that receives this likes it and that maybe I don't like it because it wasn't what I envisioned and I can't get over that. All in all I am really disappointed in this piece.

Advent Callender ATC's

This has to be the biggest and most complicated project I have ever worked on but I am so glad that I participated in this swap.

The swap is an Advent Calender made out of ATC's. To have a bit of continuity to the look we decided to use a certain set of Basic Black Papers. Alas I am the only one so far to use the more retro side of the two sided papers...it never even occurred to me to use the solid sides LOL.

The idea for my design came about after a search for cookie recipes. I ran across the 25 Days of Christmas Cookies web site and said to myself...well I can't put rejuvenating candy in each ATC but I could put a recipe.








I went back and forth on how to incorporate the recipe...do I shape the ATC's more like cookies? Do I search for cookie stamps do I print out the pictures of the cookies and attach them...well non of those things ended up happening obviously.

In 2007 Paula's Kit Club for her Christmas kit did a Merry Kitschmas Kit which had all sorts of food themed items in it, she followed that kit up with the In the Kitschen Kit which included the woman stamp that I used. So slowly very slowly everything started to come together.






I decided to print out the recipes and put them inside the ATC but then I didn't have enough to fill the front of the ATC. A few months ago I participated in a charm swap that a friend of mine told me the charms I made would make fabulous magnets so that is what I decided to do. Make magnets that attached to the front filling up the space that can be moved to hold open the recipe on your fridge while you make it.

The magnets took me a lot longer to make than I imagined. First I had to paint them all gold with a Krylon Gold ink pen. Next I punched out collage images from Alpha Stamps glued them down and then added Diamond Glaze to make them shinny and very very permanent. Alpha Stamps also carries this fabulous mini tensile, in red and gold, that I fell in love with and glued to each bottle cap. To finish the magnets off I added the red or green dangling bead. They look fabulous on their own but I think they really add to the overall ATC's.

Inside instead of just printing out the cookie recipes I had to go and print them on transparency so I could add some color to the inside. I used another stamp that I received in a Paula's Kit Club stamping it in either red and green and brushing the edges with gold.

I was originally going to affix the transparency with gold brads but then the ATC's would not close flush and since the magnet sticks out a lot I didn't want any more depth.

Well, that's that...the project that took me forever but I am very glad I finished it. As a bit of torture to those taking part here is the list of recipes that you may get depending on which ATC's you get.

Day 1 Chocolate Roll Out Cookies
Day 2 Meringue Stars
Day 3 Trios
Day 4 Pistachio & Cherry Mexican Wedding Cookies
Day 5 Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies
Day 6 Five-Spice Gingersnaps
Day 7 Italian Almond Cookies
Day 8 Mini Black-and-White Cookies
Day 9 Raspberry Chocolate French Macaroons
Day 10 Hazelnut Shortbread Sticks
Day 11 Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
Day 12 Chock-Full Blondie Squares
Day 13 Fig Swirls
Day 14 Grasshopper Squares
Day 15 Chocolate Peanut Toffee
Day 16 Knot Cookies
Day 17 Chocolate chip and Peppermint Crunch Cookies
Day 18 Seven Layer cookies
Day 19 Triple-Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Day 20 Rugalach
Day 21 Coconut-Orange Snowballs
Day 22 Holiday Sugar Cookies
Day 23 Apricot-Orange Shortbread Bars
Day 24 Molasses Crinkles
Day 25 Pecan Sables

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation Bookmark

So tomorrow night I am hosting Book Club for the new book club I am in. I selected one of my all time favorite books, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig. A fun light historical fiction mystery romance that is sort of a continuation of The Scarlett Pimpernel (another of my favorites).

Because I can't just have people over, after all what fun would that be LOL. I decided to make everyone bookmarks. It is not my best work but I had a number of things working against me...the biggest one being time. I just finished the bookmarks and tomorrow is the meeting.

To start I cute the base cardstock a light pink. Then I cut/tore strips of white paper, the edge that I tore I dusted with gold ink. Onto the white cardstock I stamped a French Script (the book partially takes place in France). Stacked the pink and white cardstocks and then stamped the pen nibs from Alpha Stamps along the left hand edge. The flower is from a new company I've discovered Art Neko Rubber Stamps. I used Marvy markers in various shades of pink, purple and green and stamped the carnation directly onto the bookmark. Next I printed out the title of the book onto the same color paper as the base cut the words out glued them down and finally highlighted them with a bit of gold. As a finishing touch I edged the bookmark with gold and attached green, gold and pink fibers.

I hope the women who are coming to the meeting have a great time and enjoy the bookmarks. And I hope I get to keep one...more and more people keep telling me they are coming I'm starting to wonder if I have enough food!

Haunted House Swap

Here is my latest contribution to the fabulous Alpha Stamps Swaps. The swap this time was to create 7 "Halloween themed houses" we had to use the house shapes and various images/stamps from Alpha Stamps.

I really took some time to come up with a plan for this swap. After perusing all the sale items (for yahoo group members only so you should join!) I decided I wanted to take a slightly different approach.

I had fallen in love with the tombstone and tree chip board cut outs and wanted something to "hide" behind them. Heading over to the fabulous array of collage images I found these great Paris Show girls...and well what else would make a perfect witch than a show girl (LOL).

Found a few accent stamps and voila I was off.

To start with I wanted to use a velvet fabric that I would iron on a slight swirl image but I had never done that before and had heard that the fumes were bad, plus I was worried about melting my stamp. I was also under a bit of a time crunch so I checked out what fabrics I had and low and behold I had a perfect black cotton with a dark dark grey intricate swirl pattern (that alas did not show up well in the photo's).

Next I stamped the witch on a broomstick on to yellow fabric that I highlighted with an iridescent red paint (to tone down the yellow) and I sewed that onto the black fabric before covering the house.

On a few of the houses I painted in a bit of the swirl pattern using a pewter shimmery paint. I couldn't decide if I liked it or not do I only did half that way.

Next I hand painted the chip board parts using various shades of either grey (for the tombstones) or brown (for the tree). To get an aged look on the tombstones I stamped them with a cracked background stamp. I wanted the tree's to have a bit more personality so I added some "knots" that I hope look like a scary face but I think just look cheesy...oh well, after all I'm not a painter.

The Crow on the branch is stamped/embossed onto chip board. I just bairly tacked it down so that it sticks out over the moon which I gave a raised effect to by placing batting behind the center of the moon.

Finally everything was ready to go on and it was just a matter of placement. When I got everything on I realized I wanted some more color so I added the pumpkins that I originally got in last months Paula's Kit Club but was ecstatic when I found that Alpha Stamps was carrying them also.

Long story short...these were quite a bit of work but I think it was well worth it. I hope the swappers that receive them like them. I had a great time making them and learned quite a bit.