December It-Girl

Jessie is December's It-girl for the ArtVenture Tag-it. Her theme is Time. I started off by making and completing a canvas, but I was not happy with the end result and started browsing some sites that I have in my favourites for some inspiration. One I recently came across has some great challenges and beautiful artwork http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com/

I have some little woodblocks in my stash, so decided to try one of the wood ATC's, although mine may not be the exact dimensions, I am fairly certain that Jessie won't be measuring it.

I sanded the woodblock then applied some yellow and green acrylic paints. I added a piece from an old dictionary definition of Time and did direct-to-paper with Mustard Seed Distress ink . I then stamped a Tim Holtz stamp in black Versafine. I added butterfly wings and the wonderful little girl's image http://thriftycollageartist.blogspot.com and the ruler. I had a sticker type clock embellishment and adhered a page pebble over it and attached it to the corner.

I thought it still needed "something" so spelled out "TIME" with the metal letters.

For the back I added a quote and a piece of a calendar stamp, an old ad ephemera and a little watch charm. The quotes and the calendar were rubbed with distress ink.

Each side has a quote on it as well.

I stamped a word stamp on top and the vintage ad piece is partially covering the bottom. I hope Jessie will be as happy with this as I am because I really enjoyed creating it for her.

Beadazzled Swap

I signed up for a swap on CCSwaps using beads. Since it did not specify what kind of beads I opted for the tiny seed beads for my creation.

I used a microscope slide and the faux sea glass technique http://www.juliaandrus.com/how-to

The microscope slide was dabbed with yellow, turquoise and lavendar pigment inks, then embossed with clear UTEE. I applied Perfect Medium and yellow, gold and pearl Perfect Pearls, covered with clear UTEE and embosssed it. I did not do the last step in Julia's instructions where you spray the slide with water and dab it.

While the UTEE was still hot I sprinkled red and turquoise seed beeds over the slide and heated it. I then added some Glossy Accents and added some gold seed beads. To finish it off I added a little starfish charm, then added the keyring.

November It-Girl

Fiona is the It-Girl for November on the ArtVenture group and the theme is inspiration. I guess my inspiration would be colour at the moment.

I decided to make her a notebook. The front cover is coloured with various acrylic paints then embossed with clear embossing powder. I know she loves Paper Artsy stamps and I just bought a couple of plates, so I used one of the images on the book.

The inside front cover is a transfer on transparency, and the image is from an ephemera book that I purchased about a year ago.

The inside back cover is just painted with acrylics and then stamped with a flourish stamp from Magenta then the images added.

The words are from one stamp which I cut into pieces and used on each page.

I hope Fiona will be pleased with her little gift.