VLVS December Challenge: A Little Mail Art Fun

I'm sneaking in at the last minute of the VLVS December monthly challenge.  I was just addressing an envie for a Christmas thank you card and it occurred to me that a plain white envelope is WAY too boring (thank you VLVS for the Mail Art Monday posts).  :)

Isn't this more fun??

Love this quirky little dude!  My sister, who is the recipient, will get a chuckle out of it, too, I think.

Here is the inspiration pic from VLVS:

Happy Trails...

WordUp Weekend: Christmas Tag

The creative muse is a strange and wonderful thing.  The tag I made today for Stampotique's WordUp Weekend (where we ask people to share their makes using text stamps from Stampotique) totally and completely morphed from one idea to another.

The sentiment is 3 Greetings.  I also used several other Stampotique stamps in the background: Mash-Up, Kate's Doodles Cube, Texture Cube #1, Stringed Lights and finally, 3 In a Round.  Holy smokes, I was on a roll digging through my stamp stash.  :)

Here's the funny thing.  This is not what I envisioned AT ALL.  I was thinking of using Fleas Navidog (because I love it and it cracks me up) with sweet, little Phoebe Doo.  I was going to add a hat to Phoebe Doo so I guess that stayed the same at least.  I even completely switched gears at one point and thought of using Eric with the tag on an art journal page.  Look!  He's even colored and cut out - all ready to go.

Hmmm...strange thing, my muse.  Anyway, come join us and stamp your heart away using some of the fab Stampotique text stamps.  Share your creations on our FB page!

Ho ho ho and Merry Christmas!

Word Up Weekend: Keep Your Holidays Happy!

Today my share is a friendly reminder to stay happy this holiday season.  :)  I used 3 Greetings, my go-to Bla Bla Bla, and Noelle.

I don't know what it is lately, but I just can't help but add blingy bits to my cards.  Here's a different view where you can see the pretty star sequins scattered about the background.  Hard to see, but also in attendance are bits of green stickles on her skirt. 

Happy Holidays!

Half an Hour of Art

Marjie Kemper, an incredible mixed media artist, started a Facebook group recently that's dedicated to artists, crafters and anyone else who's interested, to try to carve out a half an hour of time each month to create.  The criteria is that whatever you delve into, it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes.  The idea is not necessarily to have a completed project but instead to get those creative juices flowing.

I saw a blog post on Marjie's blog where she whipped up an ATC.  Now, y'all know I love me some ATCs and I had a hankering this morning to do something creative.  Here it is:

I have a stash of ATC backgrounds all ready to go.  I don't know where this one came from but it looks like a shaving cream background.  It was easy to slap on a little stamping and watercolor to have a finished product in 30 minutes or less.

If you're interested in learning more about #halfanhourofart check it out on Facebook.

Cheers!

12 Tags of 2016 - Last one! Day 11

Woo hoo!  I did it!  Completed all 12 tags.

This last one is for Day 11 where the theme is 'Country Christmas'.  I was inspired by both designers' tags today.

I tried to keep my tag on the simpler side and liked Anna's tree shape for her tag.  My die cut doesn't have a solid base though so I backed it with a woodgrain-embossed tag.  I also borrowed Anna's star but made mine look rusty.

Similar to Kittie's gingham, I think of swiss dot patterns as kind of country-ish so used that pattern on the snow on my trees.

Finito!  All 12 tags done and here they are:

(Ugh...I know better than to take pics at night!)  One of the tags is missing as I already used it on a gift.  :)

That's a wrap! 

SDC 263: Christmas

Ho! Ho! Ho!  'Tis the season for Christmas-y delights and that's exactly what we're celebrating over at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog.  For this challenge, I brought out Kate's beautiful angel and put her on a card.

Squeeze some time for a little stamping out of your busy schedule and join the challenge.  We love to see your work!

Merry Christmas!

12 Tags of 2016: Day 12

Helloooo again!  It's the last day of the 12 Tags challenge over at The CLASSroom.  Today's challenge is a color challenge and the colors are beautiful!  Here's my tag which is pretty much completely borrowed from guest designer, Angie Backman.

Here is Angie's tag:

I still have Day 11 to do and then I'll have a complete set - woo hoo!

Stampotique's WordUp Weekend

Since I've been on a tag-making roll I made a gift tag for Word Up Weekend using my new (woot! woot!) Fleas Navidog stamp.

Ever since I added the Dog Cube to my collection I knew Fleas Navidog would have to follow.  :)  I also used Spiral on the background.

Stampotique has SO many great sentiment stamps. Check them out HERE!  While you're at it, take a peek at their alphabet sets too.  

Fleas Navidog!

12 Tags of 2016 - Day 10

Woo hoo!  I'm caught up (for now...)!  Today over the 12 Tags of Christmas With a Feminine Twist it's another color challenge.  This time it's woodsy, nature colors.  I pulled out my Lawn Fawn stamps again to make this tag which is most definitely inspired by Heather Meeson.

I love having a stash of gift tags ready to go!

12 Tags of 2016 - Day 5 (Frozen)

Being a preschool teacher, you can only imagine what comes immediately to my mind when I see "Frozen" as the theme for Day 5 of the 12 Tags of Christmas With a Feminine Twist. Somehow, I managed to resist all references to Olaf, Elsa and Anna for my tag though.  :)  Instead I took my lead from Brandi's tag.

You may be scratching your head.  Let me explain...I wanted to make my tag on vellum as she did, but as I was rummaging around in my blue scrap drawer (looking for the piece of blue vellum that I was sure was in there) I discovered a pretty, sparkly blue paper that already had adhesive on it.  Score!

I also made my tag in a circle shape and used foliage and a gem.  The hardest part for me, also inspired by Brandi, was to keep my tag sentiment-less.  I always feel like I need to add sentiments to projects.

Working outside the comfort zone today...good stuff.

Can you just imagine this little garland hanging in a frosty window?  Ho ho ho!

12 Tags of 2016 - Day 7 (Sketch)

The 12 Tags With a Feminine Twist challenge for Day 7 is to base our tags on the provided sketch.  I went literal and followed  guest designer Melania Deasy's lead to make my tag.

Here is the sketch we used:

I wonder if my tag has a little too much going on.  I was hoping I had plain silver washi tape in my stash but I only had patterned so that's what I went with.   C'est la vie...

I didn't have the right color of blue pearl for the center of the snowflake but here's a little trick that I picked up somewhere a bazillion years ago...Copics.  I just colored it with one of my Copic markers and wa-la!  The perfect blue.

Ho ho ho!

12 Tags of 2016 - Day 3: Foil

Oh my!  I've had this DecoArt foil for well over a year - maybe 2? - and I love the idea of it, but haven't used it yet.  Enter the 12 Tags of 2016 With a Feminine Twist: Day 3 challenge.

The general foiling rule is that you need to use a laminator.  I don't officially have a laminator and that's my excuse for not doing it.  Carissa showed a technique using glue though so I gave it whirl here.

Can you see it?  It's hard to see, but I added foil on the bottom of the skirt, little spots on the skirt and her hat.  I wish I had some little bells to add to the bow, but not a one is in my stash.  But the glue trick worked - woot woot!

Carissa also showed how to stretch a die by cutting it twice.  Sweet technique!

After the fact:  So after I linked up my tag I decided she need a little more oomph.  I added some sequins to finish her off.

Jingle, jingle, jingle...

12 Tags of 2016 - Glitter

Day 2 of Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas With a Feminine Twist is all about glitter.  Let's bling it up, shall we?

Designer Julie Stainton used a reindeer die cut with gold glitter and I instantly flashed back to this die that I haven't used in forever.  I blinged up my reindeer with some glitter too and kind of went vintage-y with distressed edges and an old book page.

Merry Christmas!

12 Tags of 2016 - Day 1

This is so wonky doing the tags in a random order.  :)  I'm just getting around to the Day 1 tag.  Ellen Hutson's team teamed up with Art Impressions in this combo challenge (Mix It Up Challenge and Teal, Green, Red & Pink color challenge for the first day of the 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist).

I love Art Impressions images - fun and funny.  I've had this lady for a long time and she never fails to make me grin.

The colors on my tag are similar to those on guest designer, Sandy Allnock's:

Happy Holidays!

12 Tags of 2016 - Watercolor

Day 8 of Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas With a Feminine Twist has us using watercolor techniques on our tags.  Well, as luck would have it, I just picked up the new Color Bursts assortment from my LSS the other day.  What a great excuse to whip them out!

I used Cerulean Blue on the background of a tag I cut from watercolor paper (similar to GD, Marie).  I also added a smidge of shading on the mountains (the diecut I *accidentally* picked up at the same time I got my color bursts...) using watercolor crayons.

Let it snow!

12 Tags of 2016 - White & Gold

Day 9 of Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas With a Feminine Twist is all about gold and white.  The inspiration tags were fab and it was easy for me to hop to it with their inspiration.  My tag is very similar to designer, Sharon Harnist's.

I think it helped that outside my window it's beautiful and snowy white - not a regular occurence for us in Seattle!  

Ho ho ho and Merry Christmas!

12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist 2016

Ellen Hutson does the 12 tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist every year and I love participating.  It's a great way to get my hands dirty and bits of paper strewn around my creative space at this time of year when I would likely ignore the Muse's need to express herself due to the business of the season.  Oh yeah...great way to get some spiffy looking gift tags made too to personalize those pretty packages.

Like I said, and no doubt everyone is experiencing as well, there aren't enough hours in the day in December.  I will be creating my tags out of order but as long as they GET created I'm good with it.

Day 4 the challenge/inspiration was to use felt.  Jennifer McGuire shared some great tips for working with felt in her video.  I see people using felt and think it looks fab but I always forget about dipping into that particular stash of mine (it's in a drawer I don't access often).  I took the opportunity to pull it out though and created this little tag.

When I grabbed the felt stash a black felt tag fell out.  It was meant to be, I decided.  No idea why I cut a black tag way back when but I think it really makes the rest of the elements pop.  The bow is made using a Memory Box die and red felt and I added some felt snow on the bottom as well.  The bow was a little tricky to attach - liquid glues weren't cutting the mustard - so I ended up using a hot glue gun.

Stampotique Word Up Weekend Inspiration

Hello, friends!

My Stampotique Facebook share for Word Up Weekend this week is a very clean and simple (gotta love CAS!) card.

I started with a kraft cardstock base and stamped Mash Up using Versamark ink.  Using Memento Black Tuxedo ink I stamped the Wildflower Verse along the bottom, masked that off and stamped Spidergrass.  A quick bit of dry embossing on both sides of the sentiment and I called it done.

Feel free to share your Stampotique creations on the Stampotique Facebook page.

Have a great weekend.  :) 

Sunday Drive

I stumbled across the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge blog post this morning and loved the color inspiration they posted for this month.  Right away I knew which stamp I wanted to use to make this ATC.

I received this VLVS stamp in a random grab bag and it's not one I would typically add to my collection.  I'm so glad I kept it though.

To make my ATC I used Distress inks, stains and markers.  I also used a Pitt pen, gel pen, dye ink, watercolor pencils, and an old book page.

Here is the inspiration picture that got The Muse going this morning:

Thanks for stopping by today.  Enjoy your Sunday!

'Tis the Season...

I'll admit it.  I've got some Christmas songs running through my head.  I think what prompted it is that for the Stampotique Facebook page it's Word-Up Weekend and I just *had* to pull out this gorgeous Christmas tree stamp designed by Kassa Hayselden.  Bonus: I have one more card to add to my collection for holiday mailing.  :)

JoAnns had a sale a couple of weeks ago on Copic markers and I took advantage and added some to my stash.  They had their maiden voyage in the making of this card.  :) 

Check out the Stampotique Facebook page for more wordy delights from the design team.  

Happy Weekend!

Stampotique ATC Trade: Circles

I thought I was going to be too busy this month to play along with the Stampotique FB group trade, but alas, I needed some art therapy so sat down to get busy last night.

I appreciate when The Muse just takes over and gets busy.  I was rummaging through my stamp stash and came across Kate's Angel.  This isn't at all what I initially envisioned when I sat down to make some ATCs.  Funny how that works.

I decided her wings needed to have a little shimmer and shine so added some Perfect Pearls on top of them.  I also fancied up her heart with some Glossy Accents to just give it a little something extra.   :)

Hope you like them.  Check out more of the great makes on the Stampotique facebook page.

The Big Switcheroo...SDC $261

Just for fun we're switching it up at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog this round.  This is our second week of mixing our animal and human stamps together.  Here is an ATC I made for our challenge.

I mixed Agatha's Parrot and Agatha Pirate (Sailboat is in the background too to make my new pirate legit).  ;)

Come join us and try your hand at mixing up some stamps.  Link your project up  HERE and you'll have a chance to win a $30 gift certificate to the Stampotique store!

The Earth Laughs ATC

With us being deep in the midst of autumn many of the colors I've reached for lately fall into the earthy browns, oranges, yellows, etc.  It was refreshing to see the color palette for the Rubber Dance Art Stamps challenge on their blog this month.

I used the Textured Flowers stamp set to make this ATC (love this set!!).

This is a nice little flashback (flashforward??) to spring for me.  :)  Have a great day!

Stampotique's Word Up Weekend: Bla Bla Bla

My share(s) for Word Up Weekend this week feature one of my very favorite, and often reached-for, Stampotique stamps: Bla Bla Bla.  I love using it for backgrounds especially in combination with the fun and quirky Daniel Torrente/Jill Penney images.

Here is a card I made using it with Marsha.  The blueish hair was inspired by my daughter who recently dyed her hair a gorgeous blue-purple color (thank you, Kiana!).

My next one is an ATC using Bla Bla Bla with Supergirl.  (I had wanted her for so long and love having her in my collection.)

That's is for today.  Check out all of the great Stampotique words and phrases HERE on the website.  

Come on over to the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog to play along with our bi-weekly challenges, too!!

Happy trails...

Art Journal Share

We designers over at Stampotique are now sharing projects every week featuring some of Stampotique's great word/phrase/quote stamps.  Back in the beginning of summer I created a mini art journal using a bunch of gelli prints I made on heavy mixed media paper.  It hasn't been touched since (though I had several great ideas at the time - haha!).  My new job is 40+ hours a week and my creating has really taken a back seat of late.  Today I pulled out my mini art journal to stretch those creative muscles.

The sentiment struck a chord with me as I really haven't done much art journaling at all.  I also tried to use different colors than I normally reach for.  I'm working on getting outside the ol' comfort zone...

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a splendid day!

Perhaps They are Not Stars...SDC 260

Hello, Friends!  Are you all ready for Halloween?  Mwah-ha-ha...such a fun time of year.  I hope you enjoyed all of the fantastic projects that everyone shared for the Halloween challenge.  It certainly got me in the mood!

This week over at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog the designers are sharing projects that are out of this world.  Yes, indeed...the current challenge theme is 'Outer Space'.  Here's what I shared to get your mojo going.  I made this card using some of my fave Stampotique goodies, Jasmin and Perhaps they are not Stars.

Please link up your outer space-y project for a chance to enter $30 worth of product from stampotique.com.  We'd love to see what you create!

Birthdays!

We celebrated a couple of birthdays in my little household this week.  Woo hoo - party!  I cheated a bit and made two very similar cards using Tim Holtz's Crazy Birds stamps and dies.  They're just fun, you know?

I have been such a slacker about making cards for a while now.  Christmas is coming though and I think there's an expectation that I'll be sending out a plethora of handmade delights so I'd better get back into the mode!

Have a fantastic week.  Cheers!

Sometimes I Pretend to Be Normal

Over at Stampotique we've decided to focus on some of the great words and sentiments that we have to offer.  Each Saturday the design team is going to post projects featuring some of our favorite sentiments or quotes for "Word-up Weekend".  This week I made a card featuring 'Buru' and one of my very fave Stampotique quotes, 'Sometimes I Pretend'.

I have a nice collection of gelli prints and pulled one out to use here.  I stamped 'Heads' on the background first and then stamped 'Buru' next.  (I like to do that to catch all of the little details that I don't want to bother fussy-cutting out.)  Next I added some inked up book page and washi tape.  'Buru' was stamped again on light green paper, cut out and then glued onto the card.  Lastly, in order to make the quote stand out, I tore off the corner and stamped directly onto the kraft cardstock base.  Ta-da!  Done.

Feel free to join us and post your projects featuring Stampotique words and quotes on the Stampotique Facebook page.  We'd love to see them!

Click HERE to see all of the fab quotes and sentiments that Stampotique offers.

Halloween...Stampotique Style

Mwah-ha-ha!  Earlier this month I shared a Halloween mini book I made using Stampotique.  Many of their stamps have that edgy, quirky vibe that works perfectly with Halloween.  Today I made an ATC using '3 in a Round' to hopefully inspire my fellow Stampotique afficionados to join in the new challenge which is ...(drum roll)...Halloween!

Love these little dudes - they just look a smidge mischievous to me.  :)  Check out the blog and link up your Stampotique-y Halloween delights for a chance to win $30 worth of goodies from the Stampotique online store.

I hope you're all enjoying the changing of the seasons and wish you a very happy Halloween month!

Starry-Eyed Kitty

One of the things I love about the monthly Viva Las Vegastamps challenge is that there is so much leeway for interpretation based on their inspiration piece.  I was sorely tempted to use the same focal image they did (LOVE it!), but, in the spirit of creativity, I decided to opt for a different one.

My ATC used a similar color scheme (some black, grey, white and orange), numbers and stars.  The smaller stars are tiny little hologram-esque sequins that you can't really see when looking at the ATC straight on.  Love this quirky kitty that Tera designed!

And magically the stars appear...

Here is the inspiration from the VLVS blog:

Happy October!  :)

H*A*L*L*O*W*E*E*N ATC Series

For us ATC types it's very convenient that Halloween has 9 letters.  The pocket pages that many of us store our collections in have 9 pockets per page.  Over at the SwapBot site there is a Halloween swap series where we're creating cards featuring a single letter.  They're being sent out in batches to a variety of traders throughout October and by the end I'll have a complete page of Halloweeny delights.

Here are the ones I made:

Mwah-ha-ha...can't wait to see what goodies arrive in my mailbox!  I'm thinking they'll make a nice bit of holiday decor to hang on my wall.  :D

SDC 258: Favorite Quote

Hello, friends!

I decided to step outside of my ATC box (that does seem to be my go-to for projects, doesn't it?) and make an art journal page for the current challenge over at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog.  I really enjoyed working on a larger canvas so to speak.

I used all kinds of goodies to create my page:
acrylic inks
Copics
Distress markers
dye inks
fabric tape
gelli prints

...and, of course, stamps.  The stamps I used are Rayne, Spiral, and Rain Text.

Add your favorite quote project to the challenge for a chance to win a $30 gift certificate to the Stampotique online store!

Halloween Mini Book - Guest Designer Spot for Mixed Media Monthly Challenge

Oh, I love October!  It was a wonderful surprise to be asked to be a guest designer over at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge blog and when I realized it was for the month of October (my favorite month!) I was extra pleased.  When I ran across a Halloween poem by Jack Prelutsky I jumped at the chance to turn it into a mini Halloween book.

I started with 8 playing cards which I covered with torn paper scraps.  (Apparently I got very into the project because I only remembered to take two pics!)

I gesso'd both sides of the cards and on some of them I applied modeling paste through a stencil.  Once those were dry, I painted all the cards.

I used stamps and die cuts to decorate each page to go with the lines of the poem.

 I like the way the paint moved around the stencilled parts.  I used crackle glaze over the moon and when it was dry I rubbed some Distress ink into the cracks and Inka Gold around the edges.

I turned my buddy, Cecil, into a ghost by stamping him on vellum and then heat embossing so the ink wouldn't smudge.

Spooks made spookier with tissue paper ...

...and watercolor crayons.

 Jillian is all fancy with her glitter eyeshadow and rhinestone spider.

There is something about this Sizzix die that I just love.  Probably because Halloween is my hands-down-favorite holiday and I secretly want to dress up and go trick-or-treating.  :)

Oliver and Pigtales make a delightful, if grim, Halloween couple...

The tricky part was trying to determine what type of binding I wanted to use.   I really thought I was going to go with the Bind-it-All but decided to simplify and go with the chain instead.

This was a lot of fun to make and I loved digging into my stash to use things that had been collecting dust.

Many thanks to the Mixed Media Challenge Blog for letting me play along with them this month.  How abour you playing along, too?  Simply create a project based on their October mood board.

Happy Halloween!


Products Used:
Playing cards
Gesso (Art Alternatives)
Archival ink (Ranger)
Dye ink (Memento)
Crackle glaze (DecoArt)
Inka-Gold (Viva Decor)
Stampotique stamps (Cecil, Spiral, 3 in a Round, Heads, Oliver, Pigtales, Web, Jillian)
Acrylic paint (Americana)
Cardstock
Vellum
Stickers (Karen Foster)
Gel pen, white (Signo Uniball)
Alcohol markers (Copic)
Watercolor crayons (Caran d'Ache)
Light modeling paste (Liquitex)
Distress inks, paints, sprays (Ranger)
Grungeboard (Ranger)
Glossy Accents (Ranger)
Texture paste (Art Extravaganza)
Stickles (Ranger)
Tissue paper
Sequins (Recollections)
Stencils (Ranger, TCW)
Dies (Sizzix, Cricut)
Rub-ons (unknown)
Book pages
Cheesecloth
Chain