House shaped ATC

On DCI we are doing a swap for a House shaped ATC with or without a chimney, and the artists choice of themes.

I recently saw a video by Maria Loomis for a vintage tag technique and decided to use it for my background. I actually started by colouring my ATC with Vivid inks then embossed it in my Cuttlebug. I added both Tattered Angels sprays and Smooch Spritz to it. I added Vintage Photo and Soot Distress Inks to the edges.

I took a piece of transparency and stamped the HIT stamp with Stazon ink and adhered it to the background with Glossy Accents. I glued the image of the little girl  onto some cardstock to give it body, then attached it to the background. Printed off the clock face and added a little sticker to the centre then attached it to the top of the ATC. I found some gorgeous ribbon at my local stamp store and attached a portion to the side and then coloured part of it with Smooch green Apple Ink.

To accentuate the roses at the bottom of the little girl I added some red micro beads.

To complete the ATC I coloured some cardstock with Vivid inks spritzed it with Smooch Spritz and stamped a saying. I then cut this in to pieces and attached to the ATC.

This is the one I kept for myself and the colour palette is a wee bit lighter than the ones I mailed to all the participants.

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!!

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.