Easter Egg ATC

Last week I received the Alpha Stamp Easter Egg shaped ATC swap pieces…sorry it took me so long to get them posted.

Top Left is by Teri Calia at Catnip Designs. The yellow egg on the ATC opens up and it is also covered with clear glass glitter…Something that I am going to have to look into.

Top Right is by Sarah Whitmire, our hostess and design team member at Alpha Stamps. The entire image is covered with a thin layer of crackle paint, and I believe that the flower may be real…I’ll have to ask her.

Bottom is by Cat Riley and she titled it Blue and Mauve Egg. The flower and egg appear to be covered with a thin layer of clear embossing powder so I am not sure if it is a sticker or stamp or how it was colored…

If you don’t remember Here is my ATC contribution.

Our hostess also send a fabulous Post card that she enhanced with glitter…I love glitter!

Twilight Bookmark

I told the Columbus Book Markers that I would make us all bookmarks for Twilight since everyone loved loved loved the book…I’ve been procrastinating, or should I say I’ve been busy with other challenges? Luckily TGIF came to my rescue with their theme for today…the perfect excuse to get my behind in gear…

They challenged us to…So, this weeks challenge is all about Ribbons ! Please create a card (or whatever you would like to prepare with ribbons) by using minimum one stamp and Ribbons - just how much, how colorful, how long or short you want. We appreciate your creations as always…!!!
This week Elena has been our guest-designer - she crafted such a beautiful card - thanks so much for that, dear Elena. You can see more of her gorgeous art work on her blog, so don´t hesitate to visit her… !

I started by copying the cover of Twilight and printing it out on my computer. I then cut away everything but the hands holding the apple. The book print, not from the Book we read…I would never rip anything out of Twilight LOL, is died red using Tim Holtz distressing inks. Everything is mounted on a double sided tape the areas not covered with the paper and covered in black glitter. As a finishing touch I added the satin black ribbon.

I hope the members of CBM like the bookmark.
Thanks for looking…you should read the book!
Caro

Lily

This piece took me longer than expected. It is for yesterday’s Created ByHand challenge. I just couldn’t stop adding to it…

We were challenged to…

Create art using chip board or Grunge board! Use chip board or Grunge Board to create your art. Use inks, paints, papers, collage images, eyelets, ribbons, etc… along with chip board or Grunge Board in your creation! Create a card, ATC, tag, altered art, 4 x 4, inchie, skinny (3 x 5 inches)… whatever you fancy. Post your art to your blog, picture trail or photo sharing site, then post a direct link to your challenge art under the comments section to share with others! Have fun and make art!!

The background in a piece of Grunge Board (stripes) that I painted with two greens and a yellow acrylic and then dusted with a silvery grey pearl ex powder which alas does not show in the photo. The Lily image is from a pack of Tarot Cards from Alpha Stamps. Above the image I used two chipboard swirls painted with the yellow acrylic and dusted with the silvery grey pearl ex.

The two bottles on either side of the image are covered with green ribbon and then wrapped with wire that I strung beads on. The little jars will hold water so you could put real flowers in them but I didn’t have any. So I stamped a lily and colored it with coordinating colored pencils, cut it out and added it to the jars. As a final touch I made some sprigs of wire with coordinating seed beads, twirled them around a pencil to get the nice shape and stuck them in the mini jars with the flowers.

I am going to use this piece for the Alpha Stamps monthly contest…hope I win I really want the prize this month!

Hope you enjoy!
Caro

Cleo’s Ode to St. Patrick’s Day

Today at Think Monday think ATC we were challenged to…

This week I chose “Transparent Art” as our new theme.
Show us your ideas centred around transparency. Stamped on foil, or images printed on foil, thin plastic or mica tiles. Anything transparent is well suited to add even more depth to a card or an ATC. We’re already looking forward to see your great ideas!!!!!!!

Perfect! I have a bunch of Alpha Stamps Transparency’s that I have wanted to play with so out they came. I chose The Cleo de Merode image because she was the perfect ATC size. But where to go from there?

I didn’t want the background behind her to be to busy so I selected a green textured cardstock and embossed swirls using a greenish embossing powder. I then attached the image by sewing what seams like billions of mini green beads on. I followed the swirl pattern behind her.

As a finishing touch I added some jewels that mirrored the shape on Cleo’s headpiece, dangling from the bottom with more of the green seed beads.

Unfortunately due to the 3D effect of all the bead work it was difficult to get a good scan. The overall piece is not nearly this dark. if you click on the image it will become much larger and give you more detail.

I’m going to use this ATC in the monthly Lot o Rama at Alpha Stamps.
Hope you enjoyCaro

Springtime in Paris

Wow time sure does fly…I finished this piece this morning and thought I would have plenty of time to get it uploaded…well, it is almost Kudzu’s bath time and I am just now getting it loaded.

Skinny Saturday’s challenge today is fabulous…

This weeks theme is be Inspired…..I have taken the Inspiration from my online friend Kathy Wasilewski. In 1996 Kathy created a Fat book (4″ x 4″) with a twist to incorporate an ATC into the page. So this weeks theme is to create a Skinny and incorporate an ATC into it……..any theme goes so be inspired this week at Skinny Saturday!!!

I had a lot of fun with this one. The base or the skinny of my card is actually a greeting card that I cut down. I stamped script all over it and then aged the edges. To make a pocket for my ATC to fit in I stamped a cherry blossom branch from Stamp Camp on cream cardstock and painted it with sparkling H2Os. I then cut it as shown.

The ATC has a collage image from Altered Pages and the banner is from Alpha Stamps. I stamped the banner on velum and cut the collage image to fit. Before attaching the banner I stamped the script and aged the edges. I stamped an Eifel tower, from Stampland Chicago, to match up with the Eifel tower on the card. As a finishing touch I cut out another set of the cherry blossoms I painted and attached them to the ATC.

I hope you enjoy
Caro

Faerie among the Flowers

Once again I have combined two challenges

4 x 4 Friday tasked us to …. This week’s challenge is Faeries! Make a 4×4 with a Faerie and comment to this with a link to your creation!

And

TGIF challenged us to… Today we want you to create something around Flowers

I made one and threw it away because I disliked the colors so much. This one turned our really nice I think...not my usual but still. I stared witht eh 4 x 4 size and covered the c ardstock with two sided tape. Next I cut out the tag from an Altered Pages Collage sheet and attached cordinating ribbons. I placed the tag on the prepared cardstock and tucked gold wings just under the edges. Then I proceded to cover the cardstock with flowers, leaving a little space here and there. To fill in the gaps i sprinkled gold glitter. Next I stamped some swirls using brown ink and went over them with Diamond Glaze. The final touch is the golden rhinstones in some of the flowers centers.

I hope you enjoy!
Caro

A Royal Form and A Stitch in Time

Today at Theme Thursday the theme is…

This week’s theme is “torso - mannequin”! Use collage images, rubber stamps, paints, fancy paper , embellishments or any other art supply to make your creation in a torso - mannequin theme. Make an ATC, 4 x 4, card, inchie, altered tag, inchie, skinny or whatever you fancy! There are tons of cool torso stamps, torso collage images and a wonderful torso template can be found here (although you do not need to use it for the challenge): ttp://www.ruthannzaroff.com/mirkwooddesigns/mannequin.htm Add your art to your blog, then post a direct link under the comments! Please include a link to Theme Thursday on your blog! Have fun and make art!

I have submitted to this Stampers Sampler Challenge. Since I have not heard from them I am assuming that my pieces did not make it. So, they are perfect for this.

The first one is called “A Royal Form” I made these last year and looking at it now I can see how much I have grown. I absolutely can not stand the hard edge of the collage sheet on the right hand side. I still like the overall concept though.

I aged book pages using Tim Holtz distressing ink and covered the form randomly. Then I attached the Collage sheet image from Alpha Stamps. Masking the collage images I stamped the swirls with versa mark and covered it with powdered glue, that heats up like embossing powder, then sprinkled it with gold glitter. To finish it off I added a gold crown.

Sorry this one is blurry…the crown is very 3D making the scan not clean in some places.

The Second piece is called “A Stitch in Time” I used a decorative background paper and stamped the clock randomly. I then hand stitched around the edge with a mixture of bronze and a deep/brick red DMC floss. The belt is made from a dressmakers ruler and the clock parts are sticking through it. To finish it off I added a mini pair of scissors.

I hope you enjoy
Caro

Sew It's Easter

I dropped the weekly challenges yesterday, one of my favorite challenge days, to work on a quick turn around ATC swap done through Alpha Stamps. A 3 for 3 swap. The card shape is an ATC with the edges cut to make the card egg shaped.

I received some fantastic images (more like German scrap) Easter themed in my latest Paula’s Kit club so I decided to use those along with the Doodled Bird and an Ornamental Corner from Alpha Stamps.

To make the background for the egg ATC I used 4 different colors of Sparkeling H2O’s (so yes, it shimmers). I then glued down the egg images and stamped using Brown ink, so some of the stamp overlaps the images. With that done I then hand stitched around the egg using pink shimmery DMC floss. In between the stitching I placed miniature pearls. To finish it off I cut out an image of a spool, wrapped some of the floss around it and 3D’ed it.

I hope you enjoy them and I can’t wait to see what I get in return. I really like my eggs, kinda hard for me to see them go.

Enjoy
Caro


Here is a close up of one of the three, click on either image to enlarge.

The Shape of Things to Come

Today at Think Monday Think ATC the challenge is…

This week, I’d like to take you to the colourful world of fashion. I’m far from being a fashion victim, but this is not only about the most recent trends, but possibly about the gorgeous robes of the renaissance and other eras, or the look of the 20s, dresses from Bollywood films and carnival costumes, or maybe still the crazy creations of the Paris Fashion Shows. This is a very diversified theme and we can’t wait to see your ATCs

This is a pretty common theme that I work into my pieces regardless of the challenge so I decided to focus on stamps that I normally do not use and combine them with ephemeral that does not typically go with the theme.

I stamped the woman from Oxford Impressions on transparency. Behind her I used a bright yellow paper and covered it with a collage image from Paula’s Kit club and some white fabric type paper. I then layered a cut out from an actually dress pattern and some bright shell German scrap. I attached the transparency with green shell buttons that I sewed on and then used a stitching pattern rub on to finish the piece off.

The entire time I was working on this ATC I kept saying…”Oh I don’t like it, I don’t like it how to fix it…what to do???” I stuck to my original plan and once it was all done I do like it. Very different for me but I guess that is what I challenged myself to do.

The scan is a bit fuzzy in places due to the 3D sea shells…sorry.

Hope you enjoy
Caro

Open Your Eye's

TGIF…challenged us to…

Swirls.
Annchen has been our guest-designer and has sent us such a gordeous card using swirls, thank you so much for this, dear Annchen… ;o)


Unfortunately I am out of play time today, my DH wants me to come to a potluck dinner at his work tonight so he can show DD and I off…uggg…well, I have to cook for it…

So, I remembered this piece that I made for a Stampers Sampler Tempting Template. I really really liked it and almost didn’t send it in. It is perfect for today’s challenge.

The background is a harlequin design stamped in white. The eye’s are from Paper Artsy, one of them is positioned on the Tempting Template which is a pocket. And finally the swirls at the bottom are highlighted with glitter.

Hope you enjoy!