Wednesday, May 28, 2008

US Memorial Day - Remember


This past Monday was Memorial Day in the US and one of the groups I belong to chose Flag as the theme for our TGIF mingle. I had nothing that really fit the theme so this is created using clip art for the flag and the image was provided courtesy of Cora at http://paperflowers1.blogspot.com/ I printed the image on velum and layered it over the flag and then stamped the word Remember but the ink didn't show up very well so I used white gel pen and then a sparkle over that.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Another Bold & Bright Floral



This card was created to finish up the single piece of Basic Grey "Sultry Uptown" scrapbook paper which you can see the full sheet here http://www.franticstamper.com/bgsultry.htm . The bold bright theme was the colour challenge on a group I belong to and I thought I would just see how many cards I could get from one sheet of the same paper. So this was the second one of this dimension (7 1/4 x 3 3/4) and I made one (5 1/2 x 4 1/4) with a horizontal design but a right side fold. The other two cards are in previous posts to this blog.

Birds of a Feather


This is a variation on the gothic arch that I've used for the creation of this ATC for the TGIF mingle on Altered Designs. Stamps used are www.Quietfiredesign.ca except for the tree foliage which is an unmounted that I can't at the moment remember which company. The birds are from www.retrocafeart.com

Sunday, May 18, 2008

For My Friend


This card was done for a sketch challenge on one of my groups. It also helped to use up some more of the 12 x 12 sheet of paper which was used for the previous card.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Birthday Wishes


On Persnickety Stampers we have a monthly colour/theme challenge and for May it was Bright, Bold & Floral. For me that is usually a big challenge but while I was at the stamp store this 12x12 pattern paper from BasicGrey caught my eye. I thought this certainly is brighter and bolder than I would normally use.

This is a different sized card than standard ( 3 3/4" x 7 1/4") but when I get freebie envelopes from the card shop, that sometimes drives what size I make. I used a section from the upper left corner of the sheet with the flowers on a subtle distressed background stripe in grey. To this I added "Birthday wishes" from the SU! set Sincere Salutations and a flourish stamp from Autumn Leaves flourishes v:1 in black Versafine from Tsukineko

The Beauty of Nature

This is what you make from mistakes. When I was trying to do the scene stamping for the previous card I did what I do when I'm tired, add just the one more thing I think it needs and then go off to bed. However on looking at it in the morning shake my head, going what were you thinking???? So I put it aside and did the other one from scratch.

I kept looking at this mistake thinking there had to be a recovery for it. In looking around my studio for something to fix it, found these card blanks with the neat window in them. So with an accenting colour cardstock, an exacto knife and my computer I set to work. I laid the window over my scenery mistake until I found a section I could live with, marked out the shape with a pencil, cut it out and glued it into the window after I put two coats of clear emboss over it. Used duplex cardstock and made another card for the inside . The green you can see and the otherside white, glued the one side of the green card to the inside front of the orange/yellow card. I did the phrase with top and bottom border in a word document printed it in black on paper changed the document to colour and lined up my cardstock on the paper, taped it down and ran it through the printer again. Trimmed it and fastened it to the card front and this is my recovery.

In Wilderness


The card Lottery theme on Persnickety Stampers group for May is scenery. So this is what I created using several different stamps from several different companies. For the main part the colour was added with a sponge before stamping and then highlights with markers after stamping. The verse and the foreground tree are stickers from PSX that have been in my drawer forever I think.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Fly Free


Thank you Mary-Beth http://myjourneyintoart.blogspot.com/2008/05/freebies.html for the lovely photos that helped to create this ATC. It started out as two photos, one a picture of a tree in lovely spring bloom but just the way it was taken it had a perfect spot for a window and the other was a picture of clouds . So I incorporated the two photos by cutting out the window in the tree. The Fly Free is done by running the flowering tree piece through my printer where I had done the words in MS Word and then I layered it to a section of the cloud picture which I had stamped the soaring birds from http://inkastamps.com/ on. The little pewter bird in the lower right corner is done by stamping onto cardstock with versamark ink and then embossing it using two coats of embossing powder cutting it out and attaching.

Paris for Altered Designs


Well it's off to Paris again this time as the theme for the Altered Designs May ATC lottery. This one is a combination of stamp images and vintage stickers on patterned paper and some distress ink along with chalk inks.

Remember - A Time Past



This is an ATC done for May's lottery on Persnickety Stampers. The theme for this one is shoes so I used an image of long ago along with the lady of the day. I'm sure glad I don't have to wear shoes like that now all the time. Just when I dress for my other hobby which is done in period costume (which I also make).



This is a picture of my husband and I dressed for dinner while attending an event for our hobby of Cowboy Action Shooting. So you can see why the shoes of the previous picture would fit in here (except the ones I'm wearing are black and you can't see them). I do shoot but not dressed like this since I would probably fall on my face going up stairs.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Fragile - Before and After


This is my take on the Monday Challenge (May 12th) image. It started out as a Sepia Image which I changed to B&W then resized and printed on glossy cardstock and cut to ATC size. I then
sprayed it with Krylon workable fixative so not to much of the ink would move around. Coloured with Staedtler Mars Graphic markers then stamped flourish from Autumn Leaves Flourishes V.1 and the word Fragile from SeeDs set "A Word or Two".

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Delight


This is the second of the ATCs for Altered Designs "For the Birds" mingle. The image of the bird is from http://www.retrocafeart.com/ and I've added a bit of glitter to his wings with a Sakura pen. The stamps come from numerous sources such as Inka Stamps, Hero Arts, All Night Media, SeeDs to name a few. The frame is from Dover Publishings Sampler of clip art printed on acetate and and placed over the house ATC and trimmed to the house shape. I thought the frame made a lovely window to look out.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Sing

I'm participating in an ATC mingle titled "For The Birds" on Altered Designs and this week on the http://createdbyhandchallenge.wordpress.com/ it is to use a charm on your creation. So I've managed to make one piece work for both today. The bird image is from http://www.lisasalteredart.com/index.htm and the stamps are from various companies. Peoney flower is actually compliments of Canada Post as it was part of the booklet of stamps that I bought and it had a nice sticky back so I figured why waste it. I'm also working on the second bird themed ATC as well but won't finish that one until tomorrow as it is getting late. Enjoy and comments welcome.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

About Freebies

While at a Gun and Antiques show with my hubby a couple weekends ago I picked up some vintage photographs so thought I would share a couple that I have cleaned up a bit. The cabinet card of a victorian lady was actually in very good shape and also the smallest I have seen so far. The entire card measures 1 5/8 inches wide by 3 1/8 inches tall. The other is a vintage picture of a small boy that looks to be from maybe the 40s or 50s ? I'm thinking. I'm just starting to collect old photographs so my collection is small but feel free to use these in your own personal art or art works for sale but please do not use them in a collection with others to make up collage sheets for sale. They are in the previous post, so enjoy and make art.

Freebies



Happy Mother's Day


I had extra time this year to make my mom's card since I don't have to mail it. She is coming to spend the weekend with her sister so I am having both of them for dinner on the Saturday.
I would love to be able to give my mom flowers but she is allergic to them. So this is my version of flowers for my mom. In this scan you can actually see the stickles on the petals and the dimensional pearls on the daisy which so many times you can't.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Just to Share

Just in case you haven't heard or aren't familiar with Lisa Vollrath and her holiday countdowns at Ten Two Studios she is posting free downloads from now until Mother's Day. Be sure and check it out here http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/. Have fun