Witches List

This week I set the theme at One Powerful Hour...it's basically a Halloween theme so anything goes.

A few years back my sister gave me this fabulous stamp and I've never really used her. But given only an hour to create a piece I decided she would be a great subject.

I stamped her on white paper and colored her using colored pencils then cut her out, emitting the original scroll that she held.

I keep all my scrap papers from previous projects so I dug out a book print that I had previously aged using Tim Hotlz inks added a bit more ageing along the edges.

The hard part was putting it all together. She was now in three pieces. So I found a background paper I liked and stamped her on it then glued the one I had colored on top of that. Fitting the scroll into place.

I really liked the way she turned out and by stamping the image onto the background paper I got to keep things that I previously cut out. To finish it off I added diamond glaze to the various spiders, bats and toads.

Red Velvet Art...

This is one of those bitter sweet (and not because the recipe calls for bitter sweet chocolate) posts. The Circle of Friends have completed another wonderful round of journals. This is the last entry I will do for this year...but I already have plans for next years journal ;)

Elisabeth wanted some yummy recipes to fill her journal. After all what goes better with art than food (and wine). So I pulled out my favorite cupcake recipe. Red Velvet Cupcakes. My recipe is very different than most and oh so yummy!

For the background I used two shades of acrylic paint. When they dried I stamped Patisserie, a Paula's Kit club stamp, in white all over. Next I stamped the mini cupcakes added glitter and painted the bottom portion with a Twinkling H2O.




The lovely retro lady and the cherries are also stamps I have received from Paula's Kit Club. I colored them with colored pencils, cut them out and attached them as shown. The recipe is printed on transparency film and affixed with a clear glue.

To finish it off I cut out a few mini cupcakes (painted and glittered like the others) and filled up the woman's tray.

I had a fun time making this piece and really like how it turned out. I could have kept adding and adding but I was already behind on mailing out this journal. I hope Elisabeth thinks it was worth the wait.

Autumn Pumpkin Matchbox

This week over at One Powerful Hour Amy has set the theme....

Pumpkins

Last year I purchased a set of Inkadinkado stamps because I loved the pumpkin. So of course I had to use it. I wanted to make it the main feature so an ATC would have been too large, but a matchbox was just right.

I painted the matchbox a dark brown and sprayed it with some Tim Hotlz distress ink refill concoctions. I embossed the pumpkins right onto the box and filled them in with glitter. Then stamped them onto a scrap of transparency film and glued it on top to make sure that the detail showed.

Inside the box, I placed a leaf and a small fabric flower. Both of which I sprayed with the same Tim Holtz concoction. To finish it all off I affixed a large leaf to the back of the box.

Hope you like my autumn pumpkin!

A Apple Pie

I have been sitting on when to post my A Apple Pie Accordion Book and Sarah at One Powerful Hour has given me the perfect opportunity. She has selected the theme Apples for this week. While I did not make the entire book in an hour I know that I spent less than an hour on each of the pages/ATC's. I made this book for the Alpha Stamps Autumn Apple Pie ATC swap that I am hosting, I got a bit carried away and made a lot of samples ;) I couldn't help myself Leslie made some really lovely Collage Sheets and I just had to use them.

The cover of the A Apple Pie Book is really simple. I cut the frame from the collage image and added red glitter to it. Then 3D mounted it adding some diamond glaze to the words, some apple slices I got from an Etsy seller and placed the words along the side.

The next image on this collage sheet featured the letters A, B and C. A is for Apple Pie, B is for Bit it and C is for cut it.

The knife along the right hand side is a chipboard knife from Alpha Stamps that comes in a set, you get a fork and spoon also. I painted it with Tim Holtz crackle paint, added some glass glitter to the top of the pie and black embossed the corner bits (an alpha stamps stamp).

The Collage Sheet then moves onto letters D, E, and F. D is for dealt it, E is for eat it and F is for fought for it.

I cut this image up just keeping what the clear acrylic tags covered. The background paper is from an Alpha Stamps paper stack and I stamped an image of the alphabet in brown ink, also an Alpha Stamps stamp.

The finishing touches are some autumn hued yarn and a red apple charm that I attached to the upper most tag.

Then the collage sheet jumps a couple of letters to J. When I saw this image I immediately thought of a Joker or a Jack in a pack of cards. I decided to go with Jack because I thought the little boy looked like a Jack ;)

Using an actual playing card as a template I cut out a piece of off white paper and attached the collage image. Adding diamond glaze to the letter J and some glass glitter to the pie.

The additional letter J I used is German scrap that I got in a Paula's Kit. Then I stamped in red a diamond (the stamp set is from Alpha Stamps and it comes with one of each suite). To finish this ATC off I added some sticker letters that I edged with red and stippled red over the words before affixing them. The entire card is on top of red background stamped with one of Alpha Stamps corner stamps.

K is for Kept it...which is what I always want to do with my collage sheets.

I used the same corner stamp on the background on this ATC as I did with the letter J. Stamping it repeatedly with black ink. Then I stamped the mini stage with white ink on black cardstock and cut it out placing the image behind it. the letter K is covered with Diamond glaze and placed at the top with half of a large black German scrap medallion that I affixed a rhinestone to.

I think L is the ATC that I am most disappointed with. In one of my Paula's Kit Club boxes I got this wonderful apple paper. so of course I wanted to find a way to use it. But I think that this one just didn't come together well because I was forcing the paper. The checkered paper in the lower right is from the same paper pack as the one mentioned above and from Alpha Stamp. I aged it with some Tim Hotlz distressing ink.

On the apple paper I used some Twinkling H2O so it didn't look so flat affixing it over the checkered paper. I cut out the main portion of the collage image and put some glass glitter on the pie. Stippling green onto the words.

M is for Mourned for it. The background paper on this one is also from Alpha Stamps. I used some Tim Holtz distressing embossing powder around the edge of the image and affixed it with some green brads.

I cut out the word "Apple" and the Green and red apple at the bottom which I added the glass glitter to (I really like that stuff can you tell LOL).

I aged the words Mourned and for it and then added the word pie (using sticker letters purchased from Alpha Stamps)

Last but certainly not least the collage images jump to letter T, V and W. T is for took it, V is for viewed it and W is for wanted it. I liked this image so much that I hardly did anything to it. Of course I added the glitter glass to the pie but other than that all I did was put the ribbon along the bottom and added the sticker letters.

Right now I have this book sitting on my tool chest and have no idea what I am going to do with it. I really liked making it and I am pleased with the way it turned out and I hope you have enjoyed looking at it.

Once again if you haven't joined the Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group then you are missing out on all these wonderful swaps. The Christmas swaps are about to be announced so come join us!

Poe Skelleton Book

Yet another fabulous Alpha Stamps Swap. This is the second Halloween themed swap that is being hosted this year.

For this swap participants purchased the mini book and were to decorate it using a Halloween theme. The swap is called the Skeleton Book Swap.

As always I didn't want to do something expected. This time I decided to go with non traditional Halloween colors. Yes, green is used for witches but when you think about Halloween it is not one of the colors that comes to mind, at least not to mine.

I started by layering torn book pieces all over the pages. Then I dry brushed them with a green tinged gesso mixture. When that was dry I aged the pages by applying three different shades of brown distressing inks and stippling black along the edges. As a finishing touch I over stamped all that with a cracked background stamp. When I finished the backgrounds I just kind of set them out and admired them for a bit...I really like the way the background came out.

The main image portion are wine labels purchased from Alpha Stamps that I aged using the same distressing inks. The wine labels had a red boarder on them so I decided to cover it up with a dark green glitter to keep with my color scheme. I really like the way that turned out on the Arsenic labels...

I didn't want to hide the labels so I used transparent Poe images. One of the downsides of transparencies is that you almost always can tell how they were attached. To hide where I placed the glue I used some fabulous black and green metal flowers. I wish I had purchased more.

One of my favorite stamps from Alpha Stamps is this crow on a branch. I stamped him onto some grunge board, cut it out and painted it with a high gloss black acrylic paint. As a finishing touch I attached a black rhinestone for the eye. I almost always have to paint anything that I stamp on grunge paper b/c the image doesn't take well...anyone know some tricks?

The little glass viles I just couldn't resist. I stamped the skull and cross bones onto tissue paper then stippled some green onto them. Cut it out and attached it to the glass using modge podge. Once it was dry I painted the cork with a sharpie and filled it with black glitter. Punched a hole in the outer most corner of the pages (they are all slightly skinnier so the vile shouldn't get in the way of the page in front of it) and attached it with the ribbon.

There was some left over space on the right hand side of the page so using my new Alpha Stamp Halloween stamps I filled that space with various sized skull and crossbones stamps. Finishing the front off with the black fringe.

On the backs I didn't get as elaborate. I painted them with the same color paint I used on the front and stamped them with the cracked background stamp. Then I typed up The Raven poem putting three stanza's on each page. If you flip through the entire book the entire poem is there but since they will be swapped out no one will get the entire poem. After it printed out I burned the edges...FYI velum burns a lot faster than regular paper. To finish it off I stamped the crow stamp again and signed each page.

These are already on there way to be swapped out...I can't wait to see what I get in return.

Precious Pearls

This Week over at One Powerful Hour the theme is Precious Like Jewels

Somewhere, Sometime, Someone told me never to leave home without my pearls...so that is my precious Jewel and since they are hardly ever considered a jewel I really though it worked for this theme.

The background in acrylic paint sponged with Twinkling H2O's. I then stamped the image, covering her cameo with pearls and finished it off with some rub on's and a black border. i knocked down the whiteness of the rub ons by stippling some off white onto them...

Really simple and really fast and in my opinion pretty.

Hope you enjoy!