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.

Board Book Project

On NGS Trish has challenged us to do a board book project. I could not find one that was just plain with no cut outs, but Melissa very kindly sent me one all the way from Australia.
The instructions for this project can be found at

http://artbuzz.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/12-altered-board-book-project/

I have been busy with other projects and have been away a couple of times, but finally got started on this project and am thoroughly enjoying it. We are only to use items we have on hand; no buying new stuff for this project.

The first thing we had to do was sand or gesso the pages. I opted for sanding as I have only a small amount of gesso left.



Spread one, step one was to paint the page with cobalt blue paint or whatever blue we had on hand. When that dried we were to dip a credit card in black paint and make lines criss-crossing around both pages. Next we added white cloud-like pieces over the pages by dabbing gesso on with a damp sponge. We then added a white line in gesso, (anywhere we wanted) on one of the pages and then a bold magazine image was torn out, applied and gessoed over.
The next step was to stamp an image with a mettalic paint along one edge. I chose a turquoise paint and a Fleur-de-lis foam stamp. Next, we added a piece of paper torn from a cheap pocketbook on on the opposite page from the magazine portion. We then were to stencil a letter of the alphabet on the magazine side with black paint and draw around it with white ink/pen or paint.
Last and final steps.

1. We had to find a quotation that started with the letter we chose, and also an image to go along with it. I am an avid reader and found lots of quotes about reading but chose this one, because I truly believe we can travel anywhere in a book, only limited by our imagination.


2. I searched for a picture to go along with the quote and stumbled upon one which really "spoke" to me on the Morgue Files site taken by Clara Natoli of Rome. I downloaded the picture and then matted it with black cardtsock as instructed by Trish.


3. Final step was to add 3 silver embellishments wherever we chose.

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.