Dream Destination - Africa

For this month on CCSwaps the dream destination is Africa.

I used some leaf stamps for my background as they were the only thing I had to simulate the type of background I had in mind. I used Clearsnap fluid chalks in bisque, tangerine and Burnt Seinna on two pages and on the others I added dark moss.

I stamped the image from Coronado Island on a kraft coloured piece of card stock and cut it out. I added the frame then attached the image in the centre. The words are from a large Sandi Miller Art stamp that I cut out after I stamped them. I took some chip board letters from the dollar store and coloured them and stamped over them and attached them with Sookwang tape.

The inside images are from a UK site and the words are from the same Sandi Miller background stamp.

To attach the two pages together I cut two pieces of cardstock that I had coloured and stamped, scored them and attached them with double-sided foam tapes. It then added a couple of little faux rivets that I made from clay and coloured with Mica Magic ink.

The back piece is a picture framed with a slide mount which I covered with some scapbook paper, then stamped a PSX Pixie Expressions stamp around it.

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.

A special Dare

On CC Swaps, Sweetpea had a challenge-Double Deuce Dare where she sent a number of items for us to alter and send to a partner. Part of the challenge was that we had to use 75% of the items. Unfortunately due to an illness in my family, I forgot to scan all the pieces prior to creating my art piece.

Pea sent a frame, scrabble pieces, a plexi-glass piece, slide mounts, pictures, twill fabric, some bellies, an AOL disc tin and a bottle cap. I managed to use most of the pieces along with some other items of my own.

I made a little book for the inside, leaving the inside of the tin plain.

I have sent my finished piece off to my partner Denise and sure hope she likes it as much as I enjoyed working with all the fun pieces.

Instant Art

I am participating in a swap hosted by Adrienne on CC Swaps, where we create several pieces of art for embellishments. They consist of decorated tags, altered slide mounts, ATC ( artist trading card) backgrounds, little beauties (embellished backgounds measuring 1.5" x 2") and a printed copyright free images. I have not included the images, as I am still deciding on which one to share.

I really enjoyed making these so I signed up twice for the swap, and this gave me an opportunity to use some items from my "stash".

These are my tags.

I used various techniques and inks, Brilliance, Fluid chalks, Opalites, and dye inks. The one with the woman's image was stamped, then covered with a paper towel coloured with watercolours; the shiny one is covered with candy wrappers. The odd shaped tags in the top row are actually thread holders, and have little cut out peices for the thread, so a person could attach another bellie to them.

Here are my slide mounts:

The first 2 on top are covered with craft paper, the 3rd with a dictionary page painted with Lumiere paints.

The 2nd row : Peeled Paint technique, Opalite inks and Mica Magic stamping, the last is covered with cancelled postage stamps.

The 3rd row: DTP (Direct-to-Paper) with pigment inks, Fluid chalks, and the 3rd one is dtp with distress ink. The final one is coloured with Pearl Ex-press watecolours.

My ATC Backgrounds:

I had several sheets of backgrounds that I had made and so just used some of them for this swap. Again, they are various techniques, wax paper resist, acrylics, Pinata` inks with gold leafing pen, brayered dye inks with H2o's, brayered inks, lumieres, crackled paint, shaving cream technique, Mica Magic resist with Fluid Chalks, and "stamp smooshie-smooshie" with a crackle stamp over it.

Little Beauties

1st row: Webbing spray with a button bellie, Kailedcolor ink covered with black dye ink then stamped with bleach, Dye ink pads directly on glossy cardstock with bellies colored with Pinata`inks, H2o's with a shrink plastic bellie.

2nd row: Brass stencil sprayed with Memory sprays then stencil paste over it coloured with Mica Magic inks, Fluid Chalks applied with Masking tape stamped UTEE bellie, Dye inks and sprayed with bleach and Monoprinting with dye inks.

Last row: Marvy Metallics technique on black glossy, Opalite inks dtp on matte black cardstock overstamped with Mica Magic and Versafine. The bellie is a jewellery finding with a picture inserted.

Playing with Slide Mounts

CC Swaps is running a swap for items made with slide mounts; no cards or ATC's allowed but something different. I have not joined yet, but thought I would play around with the slide mounts to see what I could create.

The first thing I did was a little booklet. I stamped images acetate then coloured the white plastic slide mounts with alcohol inks. I added some embellishments and then glued them to large cardstock slide mounts, then added some fibres to bind the pages together.

All the images are from http://www.heartsintouch.com/ with the exception of the one on the first page which is from http://www.folderoldesign.com/

Front and back covers

The second item I made was a slide mount pin using a stamped image under a slide mount glass and added some old jewellery pieces, a charm and a bail.