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.

A Swap and a Journal

Thought I would take a moment and post the items that I dropped in the mailbox today.

So, first the Holiday Pendant is for a Swap. The guidelines were that we would make anything but an ATC and we had to use the Alcohol on acetate technique.

I knew I wanted to do something holiday themed so when I got some extra Pendant shapes in the mail (another swap that I am working on) I decided to use one of the extra and try out various techniques that I plan on using later. I was already familiar with the Alcohol technique.

Most of this is hard to see, I just could not get a good photo. Under the acetate (the part of the image that looks like red and gold rivers of ink) I affixed an image of Santa Clause smoking a pipe. I used two different shade of Tim Holtz's crackle paint. I have never used this product before and i like it, the colors don't blend well though. On top of the acetate I affixed some Dresden/German Scrap and a present charm. The ribbon is threaded through the provided openings in the pendant.

To finish it off I decided to attach the word "Joy" at the bottom, I glittered some letters and ran a shimmery red DMC floss through them. I hope whoever get's this enjoys it, I thought it would make a nice door hanging.



The Circle of Friends do a round Robbin journal and this one is Andrea's. She wanted us to make anywhere between one and three inchies.

I think how she put the journal together is just darling!

We could use any theme we wanted.

I am not particularly fond of inchies...I find that my style does not translate well. I hate not being able to actually stamp on something and I in most cases my stamps are too large for this supper small art form.

However I overcame that fault quite nicely I think. I ended up making three inchies out of faux postage images.

They were not the right size, one side was too long and the other too short so they are mounted on a pink shade of cardstock. I glued them on and sealed the images using a clear sealant mixed with a purpleish shade of pearl ex powder...in other words, they are shimmery.

I have a book that I cut words out of all the time and one on page I found these perfect words that to me make the images more of a set

I added feathers, different ones, to each image on the side where they were a little to short, placed the lovely gold numbers and glued down the words. As a finishing touch I outlined the images and the words in sharpie.

I hope Andrea likes my contribution.

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.

What makes a Gentleman

For those of you that do not know, The Challenge Site Gothic Arches has moved. Please click the link in my side bar to go to the new location and to sign up. It now requires membership. I am so glad that the site did not close entirely I love the shape of the Arches and the caliber work uploaded every week is just amazing.

So, this week:

Our hostess this week is Dawn Bryson who created this beautiful arch selecting the theme "Time" for this weeks challenge. You may see more of Dawn's beautiful art on her blog thechattystamper.blogspot.com

I had been working on an altered playing card for this past weeks Theme Thursday. I did not like what I had come up with so I set it aside. The card had the clocks already stamped on. When I saw the theme at Gothic Arches I cut the card to the right side and my problems seemed solved. I think the overly large size of the playing card is what was throwing me off.

So I glued my men on and computer generated the phrase. As A final touch I added some Dresden on the sides and some clock hand stickers.

Sometimes you just need to set something aside before turning it into what it was meant to be.
Hope you enjoy!

The Princess and the Pea

I thought a dainty little tag would do this dainty Fairy Tale justice. One Powerful Hour challenged us this week to:

focus on something that all of us grew up loving, Fairy Tales.Create a piece that represents your favorite fairy tale, pick a character and pay homage to him or her, put together a collage of your favorite tales, the possibilities are endless. But as always, have fun!

And then Thank God It's Friday decided to go with an Open theme this week so I am submitting this piece to them as well.

I started by distressing an old book page with Tattered Rose ink. Next I stippled on the green dots using a stencil. They are suppose to resemble peas. On top of all that I gold embossed the crowns. The Princess Image is from Alphas stamps (she is actually a sleeping beauty image but I thought she worked well because of her coloring). The peas are from a Paula's Kit Club collage sheet. To finish it off I added various fibers and a pea charm.

Hope you enjoy I had fun creating it. And it took no time at all so my studio is almost spotless...

Adore all things Gold

At One Powerful Hour:

This week lets pay homage to something we all love...GOLD...use the color in your creation as the feature or as an accent. As always the theme is open to your interpretation. So if the color Gold is not the first thing you think of when you see the word Gold...then show us what you do think of As Always Have fun!

I have these wonderful cards that are all paintings of women from the 20's. I mixed some gold pearl ex powder in with gesso and lightly covered everything on the car but the woman. When you really look at the card you can still see some of the details under the Gesso...I wish I had watered it down a bit more.

Then I stamped the flowers at the base of the card. On top of all of that (masked the woman) I gold embossed swirls. To finish it off I attached a golden hued lace ribbon and rubbed on some fun phrases.

Hope you enjoy!

Thanks for looking

Itty Bitty collage Swap

I have finally had a moment to take some pictures and upload them from this summers Itty Bitty Collage Swap hosted by Lenna Andrews through her swap blog Creative Swaps

If you go HERE you can see all of the participants pieces...and there are some incredible collages!

The first piece was made by Val Duncan from Australia...I believe the entire collage is built on fabric with bits of paper and tissue glued on highlighted with gold paint. The edges have been aged with a copper paint of some sort. The photo does not do the rich warm colors of her piece justice.











This 3 x 3 is by Louise Lucero and I think she used a paper towel that had been stained with paints as her background it has a honeycomb type texture to it. On top of that she attached stickers of various summer reminders and on the right hand side she attached a fun flirty dotted ribbon that compliments the colors of her collage.












This 3 x 3 entitles "Summer" is by Beverly Teichrob from Canada...what i find most amazing about Lenna's swaps is all the international participation. it is so much fun to see what comes from all the different countries.

Okay back to the collage...Beverly included instructions.

the background is a map, the car is cut from scrapbook paper and glued onto the map. She Drew the road with a black sharpie and stitched the yellow centre line with DMC floss, she then stitched buttons on for the tires. She accented the piece with a postage stamp and computer generated the words road trip.

Sorry my photo is so blurry...I must have taken about a dozen pictures and non of them turned out.








The Lazy Day's of Summer 3 x 3 collage is by Darline K. I believe everything was attached to fabric. The beach items are stickers with yellow died cheesecloth behind them. The sky is some kind of interesting shimmery fiber and the words are all glued on top. She trimmed the collage with a shimmery multiple colored fibber that she sewed all around and then made into a bow at the upper left.






I should have taken two photo's of this collage by Dottie Mucha. the butterfly flips open to say Summer Beauty...A fabulous addition to the collage. The sea shell in the lower left is real and she accented it with a small pearl. I believe the flower is stamped on velum colored and then cut out and attached...She added some shimmery effect that did not show up to well here...












And last but certainly not least is "seashells and Sunshine" by Linda Skeen. She either drew or stamped the images and then water colored the entire collage. Adding the words at the end. there is a fabulous 3D sea shell in the lower right that has, I believe been brushed with various green and gold paints.

It is so much fun to make and then receive such different pieces! HERE are the ones that I sent out.

Thanks for looking

3D Ornament Swap

I always have a terrible time with the layout of these longer posts with lots of pictures...if anyone can tell me what i am doing wrong that would be fantastic...I hate that the pictures will not all stay on one side.

Okay onto the fun part.

This past month, August, I hosted the Circle of Friends monthly swap. My theme was 3D ornaments, they did not have to be holiday themed but they did have to be able to hang. Well, as always the ladies really did a fantastic and super creative job.

The first piece, the green heart shaped envelope is from our newest member S.P. The top of the heart is hand sewn with a gold DMC floss and at the end of each of the black swirls on the envelope she had a dollop of greenish gold glitter. The String to hang her lovely piece from is entirely beaded! The leaf in the center is cut from a lovely paper, I am fortunate to be the recipient of some, and it is a shimmery gold. Both sides of her envelope are decorated the same. i absolutely love this ornament, I don't want it to get lost on my tree so I am going to have to find a perfect place to hang it during the season...

This wall hanging is made by E.O. and I just can't get over it. I already have it hanging on my refrigerator but instead of the count down numbers i have a list of gifts that I need to purchase or make before Christmas.

The background paper that she used has some built in glitter on some of the snowflakes. The Santa I believe is a die cut, but I don't do die cuts so I am not even 100% sure what one is...grinning sheepishly. I love the way she colored Santa's beard...it looks to me like he has already taken some trips down a chimney or two and the white ball on the end of his hat is perfect...I always use those things for bunny tales around Easter but now I have a new use!

She hand wrote the words and Santa is 3D'ed off of the background paper.

E.O. was disappointed with her clothes pin but to me it is the perfect size! It does not take away from the rest of her fabulous Countdown piece.

You can see more of E.O.'s work HERE









This plushy 3D ornament is by A.L. much of what I type is going to be speculation but here goes.

The fabric I believe is the robin's egg blue and it has black dots all over it. I believe that A.L. stamped various swirls, words and wings randomly all over the fabric with brown and grey inks. The back of my ornament says "Hope"

She then stamped the angels face onto off white muslin and cut it out and attached it to the background fabric. She also sewed on the silver wing, snowflakes, lace, and other ribbons. She then added some silver dots randomly all over before stuffing her ornament and sewing it shut.

Every time I look at this piece I find something new...I think I need to try and make a plushy 3D ornament now.
This fabulous 6 pointed piece is by A.P.

Poor A.P. she is just not having much luck with this swap. Here is her story, be sure to go to her website there are much better photo's of her ornament on her blog...

I am not having very much luck with this swap I guess. Elisabeth's didn't come out of the envelope and when I pulled it out hard, I broke the clip.I was still in the process of taking out my packing peanuts, to get the rest of them out and my son comes and picks it up and drops the one and only glass ornament there is.

The little one was standing right there, but luckily no one got hurt.There should have been warning labels outside :-)

Here are your warnings:
1. No kids around when opening packages
2. If something doesn't come out, cut the envelope carefully
Hope this helps the rest of you. *Smiles*

If you are interested in seeing how I made the ornament and a video click here.


This one is mine...I have had the clear glass balls since last Christmas along with the idea of stuffing them with something...actually I got the idea out of a magazine, Transparent Art by Somerset Studio.

I stamped the dragon on a hand died green muslin then I sewed it onto a flannel pink fabric that I cut slightly larger, the back has some cherry blossom looking fabric on it. I attached the white rose by sewing and sewed the entire fabric bit onto transparency film that I had cut to fit inside the ball.

It was really quite simple, the hardest part was getting the transparency film cut to the correct size.






J.R.'s miniature snowflake is absolutely beyond my comprehension. I don't even know what to say about how she put it together, what the folding techniques were or how many sheets of paper she used. All I know is that it is lovely and it to will not be getting lost in my Christmas tree...It will need a very special place somewhere near S.P's

J.R. recently started a blog... HERE
check out the super cute new addition to her family...he has stolen my heart!









And last but certainly not least is M.D's I am afraid I am not doing her piece justice when I describe it as a Chinese lantern. She stamped the lovely lined flower randomly on the yellowish greenish paper that she then curled into the lantern shape. I believe that she hand drew some of the center flower details. There is also a glittery element to the center of the flowers.

Handing from the inside is the center of the flower stamped all around the lantern with a fabulous bobble attached.

M.D.'s piece is fabulously done and very very neat...I have it hanging from a sconce right now...I just love how ever time when I walk by the bobble moves with the breeze!

Fabulous job ladies...I love them all and they have put me in a holiday mood! I can't wait to put up all my holiday goodies and get to show off your fabulous work to everyone!

Join my Seance

This week at Theme Thursday the theme is: Halloween

Use this theme in your creation this week! Use collage images, photos, rubber stamps, fancy paper , embellishments or any other art supply to give your creation a “Halloween” look.

I have had this fabulous ghost ribbon for almost a year and just had to use it.

I headed over to This Thursday, it's all about...and they had Black as the challenge.

Mixing the two challenges together I came up with this, what I consider, fabulous card. My only issue with it is I am not pleased with the silver rays around her head. I was trying to obtain a ghostly halo...didn't quite work.

Never the less I think the overall impression is very nice and hopefully it gives a new feel to the theme of Halloween...

Thanks for looking and please check out One Powerful Hour...this week the theme is Gold