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 :)

London 1900

It's another fabulous Circles of Friends swap. This time we tackled Steampunk, not so sure it's our thing but we are all glad we took a stab at it.

My last attempt at Steampunk I went with a city scape and tons of metal, sprockets and wire this time I wanted to go a bit more feminine.

The background is one of my acrylic washes, this one in blue then accented with gold twinkling H2O's (my photo sucks which upsets me b/c I already packed up the pieces so I can't take another one). Next I stamped the image and then went about embellishing her.

The words and sprockets are from Oxford Impressions. I gold embossed the sprockets and then added the rhinestones for her necklace. Originally i was going to add a miniature watch part on top of the gems but in the end I liked the piece better without it.

I made her goggles from some findings in the jewelry making section of Michael's that I painted gold with acrylic paint. Once they were dry I glued them on and added diamond glaze inside so it looks like real glass.

Her hairpiece is a gold wing for jewelry making that I added a paper flower to. I enhanced the flower with a bit of gold ink.

The finishing touches include aging the edges of the ATC and affixing the words with 3D tape.

COF Journal Returns

Last week I got my 2010 Circle of Friends Journal returned and oh my are the contributions spectacular. This year I provided collage images with the theme of Cinderella and/or Sleeping Beauty. Participants were to create a piece using these collage images and one of two castle templates. HERE is the link to my book before I mailed it off this year. Elisabeth is the only COF member to use one of the fabulous Sleeping Beauty images.

Andrea altered the shape of the template when she added a sky which I think it totally awesome and I'm considering doing something like the for the front and back cover of the book (still to come).

The texture on this caste is really incredible, I'm note quite sure what she used but I plan on finding out.

Nancy used one of my favorite images. When I did this as an Alpha Stamp swap HERE is the piece I came up with using this image.

This piece also has some great texture, there is clear embossing, glitter, sand and a very fine clear crackle coat over the image. All the different textures really add some great detail and interest.

Janice portrayed the ugly stepsisters instead of Cinderella and I just love what she has done. I think she printed out the story onto the card stock (if not she has fabulous handwriting and can keep a straight line perfectly).

The sisters and the topiary are 3Ded and all the cutting is perfect. The overall neatness of the piece is one of the draws...that and its just plain perfect!

Sandi, our fearless leader decorated both the front and the back (I posted them out of order).

The front (below) is of Cinderella cleaning and to me dreaming of the ball while the back is her fleeing from the ball. It like she told the entire story in only two piece which is great.

the backgrounds are wonderful the front page is paint splattered and has texture and the back is a gorgeous garden.

Sandy really went all out! Glitter thread sewn all the way around the castle and more glitter highlighting some of the background paper features.

The image she used is one of my all time favorites.

Last but certainly not least Cheryl's contribution. I just love the black and white image and paper she selected and then offset with the most gorgeous fabric applique...It adds so much!

Well, that's my journal pages...now I need to get cranking on making some of my own and making the front and back cover. So this project is far from done.

Thanks for looking!