Christmas Cards

I have been busy making Christmas cards the last week for family and friends. Here is a selection of some of my cards:

A special card for Jamie-Christmas 2009

Every year I make a special card for my nephew Jamie. He keeps every card I make him and displays it at Christmas time.

In 2009 I took a class with Cathie Allan at Western Education (my Idol for RS techniques!!) this one was called "soft filter" and decided to make Jamie a card using the techniques.

We used a key ring to attach the tags, ribbons and bells. I did not have a keychain so I used a bullnose clip. The slide mounts were coloured with fluid chalks and then stamped with a holly stamp and coloured with mica watercolurs. The pics were attached behind and adhered to the tags.

The pictures Left to right, my mother,(Jamie's Gran), my sister and brother-in-law (Jamie's parents) and the final one is him and his brother and sisters many years ago.

The background is stamp-smoosh with 3 different colours of fluid chalks. The images were stamped with Ancient page and coloured with mica paints. The filtered look of the image is done by applying white frost pigment (or white Brilliance) over the top with a colorbox stylus applicator. The saying is stamped with pigment ink and embossed with pearl embossing powder.

The tags are stacked together with the bullnose clip, and the bell and ribbons attached.

A mask of the tag was made and applied to the card front and the whole card was coloured with the same fluid chalk colours, using a Colorbox stylus. Stamped the holly all over with Ancient page, then stamped all over with mica paint. The tag mask was removed, and the other portion of the mask (from the tag mask) was placed over the card. The tag area was stamp-smooshie backgrounds with the same fluid chalks, stamped the holly and coloured with mica paints. Repeated the filter technique then stamped two images and colored with mica paints.

A small slit was made on either side and a ribbon inserted to tie the tags in place on the front of the card.

As you can see the tags can be removed and the card is left with the other image and the bow.

Christmas Gift

I am participating in a swap on CCSwaps were we are exchanging Christmas gifts. I made several items but was not completely happy with them. Today I received a newsletter from Stampington and Company and they featured a little bird made using a small chipboard box with a clear lid. This inspired me to try something similar.

Of course I have no little boxes like that so had to improvise as usual!!! I had a small circular tin from some hand cream so decided to use the lid as the body. I covered it with moulding paste using an old plastic doily as a stencil to give it some texture. After it dried I sprayed it with Memories and Tattered Angels spray then added some Posh Impressions metallic ink in the same color family.

I took an embellishment that I bought at the dollar store and added a pearl to the centre and some little gems around the perimeter. Glued this to the body then attached the little letters to spell out "Fly".

For the head I printed off a bird picture, adhered it to some 130LB cardstock, cut it out and then covered it with some modge podge.

The wings were cut out of some silver embossing metal. I covered them with some Pinata`inks, then stamped a Magenta stamp on them. With my metal stylus I embossed the stamped portion. I felt it was too monochromatic and removed some of the red & orange, and added some yellow alcohol ink.

The legs are some coloured wire that I twisted to make feet. I covered the back with some cardstock to hide all the bits and pieces and attached a piece of ribbon as a hanger.

I think it might be a bit quirky for some people and am hoping the Debra will like it.

Flutterbyes (AKA Butterflies)

I am participating in another swap in the DCI group where we are creating butterflies for each participant. The only one who specified a colour choice was Lynne who wanted shades of purple.

I had no idea what I was going to do for this swap, but when cleaning up my craft room I came across my Gallery window paints and decided to use them.

I started by stamping and embossing a large butterfly (by Embossing Arts) on a piece of embossable window plastic. I did not want to do all of them in the same colour so chose a few different colour combos. I found that I had to do at least 3 coats of the gallery glass to make them more intense.

On the purple one I used iridescent violet on a portion which did not show up very well, so I got out my Ranger adirondack acrylics in Wild Plum and painted it on. This did not appeal to me, so I then sprinkled some fine light lilac glitter over the top.

On the blue one I had the same problem, the light blue glass paint did not show up well, so I used dimensional paint on it and sprinkled it with blue glitter. The green one was the same, (light blue) not showing up, so on that one I painted over it with some DecoArt metal/glass paint and then added crystal lacquer over the top. The remaining ones are fine as the colours were more intense, so I will leave them as is. These look much better "in person" than on the computer as the detail does not show well in the picture.

Mini Memory for Tracey

Tracey is the recipient of the DCI mini-memory for December and her colour choice was cream, gold and brown; no larger than 5" and any shape. Like some of the previous ones it went through some transformations.


I initially started out by making a clay rose and placing it on a coaster that was painted brown, embossed and stamped into with gold pigment ink while hot. I added some hearts and the clay flower. Attached this to a piece of cream paper with stamping and the heads of push pins around it. Not entirely happy with that and was concerned about it making it's way to Australia in one piece.


So I went back to the "drawing board" and started all over again. I kept the coaster and added some gold seed beads to it for more dimension. I then stamped and embossed a butterfly on 130 LB cardstock with gold embossing powder and coloured the open areas with a brown marker; added Crystal Lacquer to the coloured parts. I have a bunch of chipboard frames in my stash, so I took one of the white ones and painted it with cream acrylic paint and stamped a script stamp over it with Memories Artprint brown ink and attached it to the CD.

I printed a freebie image of a little girl from Elizabeth's blog and attached it to some cardstock to make it sturdier, then put it inside the frame. I attached the butterfly with some double-sided thick foam tape at the bottom, then glued one of the hearts over it with a bail underneath. I cut another bail in half and attached it to either side of the picture frame.

Inchie frame completed

I received the rest of my inchies the other day via Carol, who met up with some of the gals from OZ who passed them on to her.

I was in a creative mood today so I decided to finish up a couple of ATC's and work on my frame.

The frame is painted with gesso and blue acrylic paint, then sprayed with Tattered Angels glimmer mist. Unfortunately the "glimmer" does not show in the picture. After it dried I stamped my favourite corner flourish by Inkadinkadoo with Colorbox Goldrush pigment ink and embossed with gold embossing powder.

I colored the flourish piece at the top with purple acrylic paint then painted it again with
US Artquest Mica watercolour paints. Added a sun charm and a couple of gems to finish it off.

I then completed the other two inchies and the centre panel. The centre is done with Breezy Blue embossing powder as the base then sprinkled with purple and gold E.P., heated then stamped into it with a large background stamp. I then rubbed some metallic rub-ons over the top. The embellishment is an old button that I had in my button box.
The inchies are (top left-clockwise) Trizzy, Autumn, Carol, Me, Mel, Linda B, Me, Vicki, Chris, Rhonda, Lynne and Tracy. I am so thrilled to be the owner of these beautiful miniature pieces of art and to finally have them all in the frame.

Mini Memory for Carol S

Carol S chose a floral/nature theme for her mini memory and the colour choice was left up to the artist.

Now there are two things I know for sure about Carol; she loves her Cuttlebug and butterflies as she uses them a lot in her art. So that narrowed down my choice of items to use for her mini memory.

Carol did not want anything larger than 5X5 square or rectangle. I have some Magenta chipboard frames that were the perfect size. I took some handmade background paper and ran it through the Cuttlebug, then attached it to the frame. I then touched up the raised pieces with some green rub n buff.

I took a chipboard swirl and embossed it with some purple and green embossing powders then stamped into it while it was hot, and attached it in the corner. I added some polymer leaves that I punched out of green card stock and added some veins with my stylus. On top of this I glued a flower that I had from one of nieces' wedding.

I took some chipboard letters and embossed them with purple embossing powder and glued them to the frame to spell "nature". I then stamped and embossed some butterflies on vellum, and added them to the frame in a 3-d effect to make them look like they are flying.



After making this piece I discovered that the butterflies would not stay in place, likely because it is so dry here. So I revised it. I added a shrink plastic butterfly which I had saved from a card I received a couple of years ago made by Trish L. (hope she does not mind that I recycled it). I also added a few beads at the bottom.

Inchie swap

I have signed up for a swap on the Dream, Create Inspire group where we are using a frame from Blumoth Crafts. Eleven people joined the swap, and we create the inchies using a colour scheme and and in some cases a theme chosen by each person. We have two inchies, the centre and the frame to complete our own when we receive our inchies in the swap. I have decided to wait until I receive my inchies before completing the frame.

I coated the inchies with gesso then used Acrylic paints, Metallic Paints, Lumiere paints, Perfect Pearls, Pearlex, and some of my stamps and stamping supplies such as Smooch inks, and pigment inks to do the bases. On some I used molding paste, others I used papers and even some netting type paper.

The embellishments are scrapbooking pieces, old buttons, old pieces of jewellery, brads and other "doodads".

I am really looking forward to seeing all the tiny works of art that everyone makes and the completed frames.

Artist of the Month

For September the A.O.TM. is Claudine Helmuth. I have not signed up for the swap yet, but thought I would play with the technique.

I took a sheet of watercolour paper and painted it with watercolour paints. I glued the head and shoulders on then cut a skirt out of scrapbook paper and glued it on. Painted the top of her dress and then made some shapes with a pen. Cut some balloon shapes out of other scrapbook pieces and attached them then drew the strings. Found a dog image on the net and painted the body and attached him and cut out a hat for him

Drew a fence, houses and some trees in the background along with some clouds.

I am not sure I am entirely happy with this and think it is the flowers that are not "quite right". Will leave it for now and maybe do a different one, then decide if I want to do the swap.

Mini Memory for Carol

I am on a roll with these Mini Memories and am thoroughly enjoying the creative process so much.

Carol A. chose the theme of birds/birdhouses and the colours mint green, white and pale mauve (with a condition that we could use pale pink in lieu of the mauve).

I started by painting gesso on a 3x3 chipboard square. I then added mint green pigment ink and embossed with mint pearl embossing powder. I stamped a background stamp into while hot using Old Rose pigment ink.

I recently picked up some small wooden house pieces at my little dollar store and thought they would be perfect for a bird house. My hubby drilled a hole for the entry and the perch. I painted the house with gesso, then white paint, then pink paint on the roof. I added some sequins for the tiles which Annie sent me a while back. To finish off the roof I added a piece of white german scrap paper which my friend Mel sent me.

I added a piece of the stick from a Q-tip as the perch. I took a washer and coloured it with pearlescent turquoise Lumiere` paint and put this over the entry. I stamped a leafy type Magenta stamp on the body but felt it needed more dimension so I took some Glossy Accents and added some green seed beads (which looked more mint green in the bottle). Felt it needed a bit more so when the green beads dried a bit I added some pink seed beads to give it a bit of a floral effect.

The little bird is the one that was originally on Trizzy's Mini Memory and I attached it to the roof to make it look like it was coming in to the bird house. The final touch was to add the word home with some little alphabet beads.

I hope Carol does not mind my taking artistic license with the colour combo, as I tried to stay as close as possible to her colour choice with the supplies I had on hand.

September Quote of the month

The September quote is "I saw an angel in the marble and set him free" -Michelangelo

This time I decided to do something completely different other than a canvas or a book. In my stash I have some cone shapes that I bought when I made some angels and Santa Clause pieces many years ago.

I don't have anything that looks like marble but I had some granite finish, so I painted that on the cone. I painted a round craft wooden piece in flesh tones and added a face, then some hair; glued some stars to the body and the hair.

I printed out the quote in small font and attached it to a round wooden disc, and covered it with a piece of acetate and a frame. I took a piece of heavy wire and stapled it to the back of the form, then curled it for the arms and attached the disc. I added some little heart tags as the wings.

I know this does not look like a male angel, but I did the best I could with my drawing skills and realize it is a loose interpretation of the quote.

Mini Memory for Heather`

I decided to get a start on September's Mini Memory, which is for Heather. Her theme is birds and butterflies and the colours are white and violet.

The theme was not a problem, however, the violet was as I think of blues (i.e. the flower). However, as a colour it can be a mixture of red and blues, so as usual I just did my own thing and hope that Heather will not be disappointed with the colour.

I started by painting a chipboard coaster with Gesso, then painted it with African Violet acrylic paint, toned down with some white acrylic. I then stamped the flourish stamp in frost white pigment ink and winter white embossing powder. After that I painted it with Mica watercolours in iridescent violet.

I have some Magenta chipboard pieces and I painted a bird with the two colours and crackle medium.

I also had some mini canvases so thought I would use it for the centre. Painted it with gesso, then added molding paste and smooshed it around with a rubber stamp. I added some Pearlex pearl white to it when dry, then dabbed some of the African Violet paint mixture over that with my fingers.

I attached the canvas to the coaster, then the bird. I rummaged through my stash of beads and bellies and found three feather beads and added them to the bottom of the canvas. In the picture the background flourishes look different but in "real life" they are white.

Artist of the Month

This month on CCSwaps we are having another Artist of the Month swap. This time around it is in the style of Zana Clark of Stamp Zia. As usual, I jumped in with both feet with no clue as to what I am doing.

For this swap I had to improvise as I do not own any Stamp Zia products. She uses her own line of sprays on watercolour paper and I don't have any bright ones. I did do one piece using some sprays on watercolour paper but it was a disaster.

I decided to use glossy cardstock and dye inks, which is one of the techniques she uses. My first two attempts were also disasters, but at least I can salvage some of the backgrounds for future use as ATC's.

I used Vivids (Clearsnap) and Seabrights (Rangers) for the background swirling them on with cotton buds. Then I stamped some ferns (Hero Arts) with Stazon white. I used a gingo stamp from (See-D's from Sugarloaf) with Ancient Page Coal and stamped it around the background.

On an extra piece of background paper, I stamped the dragonfly/waterlily (Pedlars Pack) in permanent ink and coloured the lilies and dragonflies with twinkling H2O's, then edged it with a black marker.

I stamped some waterlilies (Sunshine Designs) on some scrap pieces and coloured them with the H2O's. Stamped "magic"(Stamp Oasis) on another scrap and layered it on black glossy cardstock.

This one I was finally happy with, although wondering if I should have forgot about stamping the ginkgos. Unfortunately, when scanning the intensity of the colours does not show up well.

Mini Memories

I belong to a small group DCI comprised mostly of Australians, but there are few of us from North America. The current swap is to make Mini items that can all be placed into a larger frame. Each participant has chosen a theme and a colour scheme. Some have stipulated a certain size and others have just left it up to the artist.

For the month of August Trizzy is the chosen recipient to receive a creation from 10 other people. Her theme is "Wings" and the colours blue and/or green with silver, with no specific size.

I recently bought a couple of stretched canvases at the dollar store and decided to use one for this project, but using the back instead of the front.

I covered the whole piece in gesso, then painted the inside with 3 different tones of blue acrylic paint. Still thought it needed "something" so went over it with blue H2O's - still not happy. So I took some silver fabric glue paint and slapped over the top portion and ran an old comb through it and rather like the effect as it looks like rain or a waterfall.

With my Cuttlebug I embossed some plumbers tape using the bird embossing folder (keeping the wings theme) and cut it to fit around the outside of the frame. I coloured the embossed parts with Adirondack pens then sprayed it with a setting agent.

I painted the inside edge in green but it did not seem finished so I tried several different things...stamping, lace, beads and even some green cording, however, none of them appealed to me. Into my stash!! I found some sea glass but it was too bulky; then I discovered some little plastic mosaic pieces and there were enough blue and green ones to fit around the edge. I adhered these with some of the wonderful Sookwang tape (Picture and giveaway on this blog) then used silver seed beads as the grout.

I stamped and coloured a cattails stamp by Hero Arts with Prismacolor pencils and and H2O's, and cut it out. I did not like it with the brown cattail head so cut them off and attached the rest of the image to the inside background. I had some little icicle embellishments in my stash and added them as more fauna. I added a jewell to a round paper clip and attached it to simulate the sun.

I have had the dragonfly ornament thing for years and this was the perfect opportunity to use it. I added some bead chain to the body and some beads on the tail, then attached a butterfly charm. I glued this to the frame with some super glue. However it would not stick. So I revised the piece. This was the original.

I took off the bird and replaced it with the butterfly. I cut off a piece of the dragonfly's tail and screwed it to the frame, then added a green jewell to hide the screw head. Much happier with it now and will mailing to Trizzy this week!!

Tool Time

I signed up for the tool time swap on CCSwaps. We are to use one or more of our tools to create an article for our partner. The tools I used were my Cuttlebug, inkpads, rubber stamps, alcohol inks, punches, transfer foil, mica watercolour paints and my computer.

I decided to make a mini calendar for this swap. I started by colouring an acrylic tag with alcohol inks to use as the back.



I got out my stash of homemade background papers and tried to choose an appropriate colour for each month of the year and punched out small tags. I stamped images that would also go with the seasons of the month. After that, I printed off a full year calendar from Calendar Home and cut it to fit on the tags.

For the front cover, I chose a white cardstock that I embossed on the Cuttlebug. I coloured it with Marvy stampads, then adhered transfer foil to the raised embossing. Since it did not adhere to all of the embossing, I then painted over the whole piece with my Mica watercolours from Art Quest which gave it a nice vibrant look.

I added the year by stamping then punching out on some worksheet glossy photo paper, and attached a leaf to finish it.

I was going to put this together with the bind-it-all but decided that I would use a binder/looseleaf ring instead, so that the recipient can make new calendar pages the following year or recycle some of the pieces .

August Quote of the month

The August quote is: "There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart" Charles Dickens

I got a head start on this one now that I have most of my other swaps finished. While rooting around in my craft room I came across a piece that I had never finished from and online course that I took and thought I would use it for the August Q.O.T.M.


The background was done on watercolour 140LB coldpress paper and the body and head were already attached. I took some ephemera pieces and coloured them with chalk inks and attached them to the piece. Found some nice heart stickers and added them around the piece. Did the saying on my label maker machine and attached it and am quite happy with the finished item. This is a totally different colour pallette for me as I normally work with blues and greens, but I like the vibrant tones.
Now my biggest problem will be to find some cardboard and a large enough envelope to mail it once the partners list is posted.

Friendly Plastic

Over on CC Swaps one of the current swaps was to create something with friendly plastic. I have never really played with this medium so thought I would give it a try.

I started by cutting 3 different pieces of friendly plastic and placed them together on a craft sheet and heated them, then ran an old comb through them.

I took a small piece of chipboard and embossed it with pearl embossing powders and added texture with a stamp. I then glued the friendly plastic to it. I attached a piece from an old earring to the top, then added some seed beads.

I cut out a woman's face and attached it to a flattened pop bottle cap. I added a coloured page pebble, and then realized it was actually a tag shape so had to cover the hole somehow, so I put some crystal laquer on it and added more seed beads.

The final touch was to attach an old earring from which I removed the back.

This will be making it's way to Sweetpea in the next few days.

July Quote of the Month

This month's quote is : "The man who has no imagination has no wings" Mohammud Ali

I have been trying to think of something a bit different for this swap and decided to make a photo or recipe card holder.

I had a small block of wood and one of those old fashioned clothespegs so thought I would use them. My DH attached the clothespeg to the small wood block and added a base.

I painted it and added some texture and colour. Added some pictures to the sides and back. I found a picture of Muhammed Ali and framed it with a chipboard frame coloured and embossed then added the quote and embossed it in clear.

For the "wings" part of the quote I added a butterfly with a piece of wire for the feelers and beaded the ends.

This will be going to my swap partner Debbie in the next couple of days.

Artist of the Month

We have had another Artist of the Month swap in CC Swaps and this time it was Beryl Taylor style. I, as usual, jumped in with both feet since I was positive that my DH had bought me her book. Well, when I started my project I discovered that I did not own the book, so had to "wing it" when working on it.

I made the fabric paper using cheese cloth, wrapping paper and tissue papers (knew this part from a previous project). I then adhered this to a piece of felt and then to a piece of watercolour paper.

Since my sewing machine is out of commission I had to use glue and double sided tape to add all the elements.

I started by punching out circles from another piece of fabric paper and stamped them with platinum paint. I then punched a hole and added brads to the centre. I punched a second circle out of watercolour paper, sewed them together with metallic thread and added batting to puff them up.

The sides of the piece are lace, the top is a piece of metal tape which is coloured with various mediums, the bottom is a piece of eyelet fabric which I coloured with fluid chalk inks. I also coloured the lace flowers with the same ink and added some gems.

I punched out some heart shapes from a Cuttlebug embossed piece, which was coloured with the fluid chalks and highlighted with Goldfinger gold. I attached the large hearts to gold punched hearts, and the small ones I left as is.

The centre piece was another scrap of the darker fabric paper which I embossed with gold embossing powder. The heart is a doily coloured with the fluid chalks and highlighted with the Goldfinger gold. The final touch was a paper flower with a flower bead as the centre.

I drew Adrienne as a partner for this swap, and I must admit I am a wee bit nervous about it. She has done several items in the Beryl Taylor style so I hope she will not be disappointed with my effort.

Image transfer swap

I recently signed up for an image transfer swap and decided to do a canvas. Well it was one of those days when no matter what I did nothing worked!! I must have done about 5 attempts at the transfer and was really getting discouraged as none seemed quite right.

I coloured the canvas with gesso and then added layers of acrylic paint. I then used gel medium to transfer the image directly to the canvas. The final look is quite faint, but I think it just gives it an aged look.

I added some images from tissue paper, stamped and embossed swirls and then stamped a text stamp around the canvas.

I took a chipboard frame and embossed it with platinum embossing powder and UTEE, then stamped directly over it while hot to add texture. I used this to frame the picture. Fiinally, I added the little saying piece to complete it.

June Quote of the Month

The June quote was: "There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship."
Saint Thomas Aquinas.
A friend who used to teach at my local rubber stamp store invited a bunch of us over for an open house for stamping products and we did a couple of projects, one being a note card holder. I decided to use the idea for this month's Q.O.T.M.

The holder is simple and is just a single piece of cardstock creased and folded to hold the note cards. I then took another piece of 130 LB cardstock and colored it using direct-to-paper with pigment inks and overstamped it.

I stamped and colored the little girls and attached them to the front piece, then added the quote with a little frame. The holder is held together with a piece of ribbon.

Since I do not have an envelope die cut I used one of the envelopes from my sample and cut them out of fancy paper and edged them with decal scissors. I stamped little note cards to fit inside the envelopes.

May Quote of the Month

This month's quote is : "Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment" Buddha



As usual, I started off with one thing then switched after being unhappy with the original concept where I took 2 pictures, one of an old town and one of a futuristic city and transferred them to paper. Just did not come together as I thought because I could not think of an image to incorporate into the theme.

While doing the brocade booklet, I had for some reason, stamped a Buddha stamp on an extra chipboard cover, and then realized it had nothing do with what I had created. So, I decided that I would use it for the Q.O.T. M. for May.

I took an old CD and coloured it with alcohol and Pinata` inks, then stamped a cherry blossom with Pearl Mica magic and heat set it. I attached the stamped Buddha piece and added one of my homemade dragonfly embellishments to cover the hole in the chipboard.

I printed off the quote and mounted it on some black card stock. Added this to the bottom of the image using some double-sided foam tape on the bottom portion so that it was evenly set on the CD. The final touch was to add the two Chinese coins.

On the back of the CD I added a round piece of card stock from Magenta. I then added a little easel to the back using some scraps of card stock.

June It-Girl

Margaret is the It-Girl for June and here theme is Cemetery Angels. I decided to do canvas for her. I covered the canvas with Gesso then added a napkin to the middle. I colored the whole thing with blue and purple acrylic paint.

When it dried I added embossing paste and acrylic gold Mica flakes then stamped some impressions in the canvas when it was partially dry. I then went over it with USA artquest Mica watercolor paints.

The colour palette came from this gorgeous picture that I found on flickr (Onkel Wart) which I know is not an angel but it just spoke to me, so I hope Onkel will not mind that I used it for my canvas. I printed the picture off three times and then glued it to 100 lb cardstock and cut them out and used double-sided foam tape to give it dimension. Attached this to the middle of the canvas with 3-M 465 transfer tape.

Above the image I put pearl embossing powder on and embossed it then stamped "eternity" with pewter pigment ink. Below the image I stamped the saying on a piece of acetate using Stazon black and adhered it with glossy accents. Finally I rubbed some Goldfinger copper around the image and some gold on the top.

I hope Margaret will like this piece even though it is really not an angel, but it is from a cemetery.

Kreativ Blogger Award

My friend Trizzy Crouch sent this award to me and I want to thank her. Trizzy makes beautiful art and I am lucky to own some of her creations and she has been become a treasured online friend through several groups to which we both belong. I feel honoured to have her choose me for this award.

The Rules: List 7 things that you LOVE and link to the person who has tagged you. Choose 7 more bloggers to give the Kreativ Blogger Award to, then leave a comment on those 7 blogs to let the recipients know you chose them.

So here are the seven things that I love:

1. My family and extended family- what would I do without them? Always there for me and loving me with all my quirks!!
2. My husband, who at times drives me crazy, but spoils me and supports me in all my ventures. He's a Keeper!
3. My son, who has taught me to never give up and to always fight for what I believe in no matter how difficult the battle.
4. My friends whom I have so many good times with laughing, crying and sharing.
5. My art, which has helped me through so many hard times in my life and has been a blessing, and I must thank Cathie Allan of Western Education for starting me on this incredible journey many years ago. She is my hero!!
6. My reading: the books are my relaxation and pique my imagination and often take me to far away places and times unknown to me.
7. The ocean- likely my love of this is from my native country, Scotland; the mountains, where I spent part of my childhood in Alberta.

I award the following the Kreativ Blogger award:

1. Mel Goodman from Australia and a friend in a couple of my groups. Mel has become a great online friend and is so generous and giving. I have been fortunate to receive some wonderful art from her through my groups.


2. Autumn Labbe-Renault, USA who experiments with all kinds of mediums and I have swapped with on many occasions. She has added some lovely art to her blog in the last couple of weeks.


3. Fiona Davis from the UK whose blog I visit often and she is a lovely lady who creates gorgeous art and again I have swapped with her several times.


4. Chrissy Bornfleth from the USA who is a moddy on one of my groups and has always been so helpful and supportive. She also does beautiful art. I have several pieces of her art adorning my craft room.


5. Sanna Burgess from the USA, who does fantastic quirky painted images. I am the proud owner of one of her pieces of art.


6. Viola from Germany whose blog I came across while surfing the web and return to her blog over and over again to look at her breathtaking art.


7. Chris Bennett from Australia who is another online friend who has been so supportive. I so enjoy receiving art from her with all the vibrant colours and images she uses.

There are so many more blogs I could have chosen, and it was hard to choose only seven. I feel so blessed to have "met" most of these ladies and been able to share in their talent.

Brocade

Over on CC Swaps Adrienne is running a Mystery swap. She broke down and gave us the instructions early, and the Mystery is Brocade using polymer clay. You can get the directions here

As instructed I conditioned and rolled out the black clay, then added 4 coats of metallic paint to each piece. I chose to use Lumiere paints for the base coat, copper, gold and silver.

I used some embossing mats to imprint the clay after dusting them with my anti-static pad.
I added some cheap acrylics over this, and rolled it out again. I cut them into shapes and baked as directed.

For this first batch, I think I was too heavy handed with the acrylics and was not really happy with them.

The second batch, I followed the same procedure, but used large background stamps to imprint the clay. I used Winsor Newton Finity acrylics and Luna Lites after imprinting. I think the better quality paints and a lighter hand definitely made a difference in the final outcome I rolled out another piece of clay, imprinted it with a text stamp, added some Pearlex and baked it then adhered the tree piece to it. After making this I saw an idea on a blog and thought I would make a little book since I have some small chipboard book cover pieces.

I took the embossed chipboard and coloured it with yellow gold and burnt orange Mica Magic. I adhered the Brocade piece to this. I took some index cards and cut them to size and rounded them with a corner rounder punch and punched a hole in the corner. The back is also coloured with Mica magic and a saying stamped in Versafine onyx black. These are pics of the book closed and open.

Embellishment Swap

I recently joined a new group and we are having a "bellie" (embellishment) swap which is being hosted by my friend Carol We had to make 8 ATC's using our embellishment and an extra embellishments for each player.


I made some little dragonflies as my embellishment using 130 LB cardstock scraps. I started by punching out three then glued them together using Pioneer glue.

I used an embossing pen on the centre and added some glitter embossing powder and embossed it. I did the same with each side of the wings, using a different colour of embossing powder. These pictures are done with pearl embossing powder as an example.

This is the finished ATC which was done using Mica Magic and Fluid Chalk inks. The image was coloured with Tombo pens. The vellum "saying" is attached with Sookwang tape. For the dragonfly I used Judkins Forest and Fuschia Twinkle embossing powders.

May It-Girl

This month Maggi is the "It-Girl" and her theme was anything related to literature, movies and songs.


I had several ideas for this theme, but finally decided to use some of my work sheet papers from stamping/mixed media projects as it was covered with mica inks and different paints and Krylon pen marks.


I started by covering a piece of 130 Lb cardstock with the paper. I added some gold and copper embossing powder around the edges and stamped a musical note stamp into it while hot.


I placed a music sheet Cuttlebug embossed piece done on gold cardstock in the centre, and added a homemade film frame to it. The main image is an old movie poster from Dover Art. I covered this with a piece of transparency film to protect the image. I then added some confetti musical notes to the frame.



I decided to add some words to the piece and I had some ugly chipboard letters that I bought at the dollar store. Since I seem to be in a "glitter and glitz" faze, I decided to cover them with glitter. The glitter I use is Glitter Ritz, made right here in Canada, and it is fabulous stuff. When you touch it it feels like velvet!!


The picture is not the completed piece, since I later thought I would make this into a photo album. I cut up some photo protector pages (the ones with individual slots for the pictures) and added a piece of copper cardstock to the covers, and put it together with my Bind-it-all machine.

Black and White ATC

I belong an ATC group and we are doing a Black and White set. I just bought a new Magenta Stamp so I decided to use it for this swap.

My first thought was to use vellum and stamped and dry embossed it but I was not happy with the result. I decided instead to stamp a Hero Arts small background on the black cardstock in white. My first attempt was with white satin embossing powder, which looks more silver than white on the black cardstock, so that was put aside.

I then stamped and embossed the background with white opaque embossing powder, which looked much better. I stamped and embossd the Magenta image in black on white cardstock and cut it out with a small halo. I attached it to the background with double-sided foam tape.

Playing with spoons!!

Over on Linda and Rosie's Big Adventure blog they were running a challenge for altering cutlery. I decided to play with this idea as I have a bunch of spoons that I collected over the years.

On the first one I bent the handle, then added a piece of a dictionary page and coloured it. I added some coloured Crystal Lacquer then some Glossy Accents. I placed the picture of the little girl in the centre, added some more Glossy Accents. I then added some seed beads, a fancy bead and a piece of confetti. To complete it, I added a fan charm at the bottom.

Unfortunately this did not scan well and is more colourful, and looks much better "in real life".

For my second attempt, I embossed a spoon with twinkle and opal embossing powders. I took a grunge board letter and covered it with Sookwang tape and added Glitter Ritz and attached it in the bowl.

I stamped a the number one on a piece of scrap cardstock. punched it out and added a page pebble, and attached this to the top.

I then added a couple of confetti numbers and gems to finish it. I thought this one would be good for a Numbers swap currently running on CC Swaps, but since there must be some stamping I am not sure if one stamped image is sufficient. Will have to check before signing up for the swap.