Easel ATC

On DCI I am participating in a swap where we are making an ATC with an easel.

I started by printing of some Bingo ATC backgrounds by Lisa Vollrath. I then stamped and embossed a Tim Holtz flourish in Gold on the right-hand side. I coloured the edges of the ATC with Vivid and Adirondack inks to add some depth.

I cut some light blue/gray cardstock to fit the top of the ATC and coloured the edges with the same inks. I then stamped and embossed the word stamp Postcard (Lost and Found Stamps) in gold. I attached this to the top with double-sided tape.

I printed off an image from Moonlight Journey's Autumn sheet and cut out the girl after adhering it to some cardstock and attached it with double-side foam tape.

I took some printer paper and coloured it with the same inks as the ATC and stamped a word stamp (Lost and Found) then ripped it in half and adhered it to the bottom of the card. To finish it off I coloured some paper flowers with Smooch Ink, added a little heart shaped gem to the centre and attached it to the top of the scroll.

I then made the easel and attached the ATC to the top portion. I added some decorative paper to the inside of the easel. I cut another piece of the blue/gray cardstock coloured the edges with the blue inks, punched a circle from different decorative paper and placed a little embellishment in the centre. I attached this at the bottom to make a stop-guard for the ATC.

One of a Kind Dimensional Door Swap

Carol S is  hosting a swap on Art-Venturers for a One of a Kind Dimensional Door Swap. The rules are:

1.  it must have a door/gate/arch that can open,
2.  reveal something behind the door,
3. and be so thick that it can not fit in a regular envelope with normal postage

As usual, I jumped in with both feet an joined the swap!! For my first attempt at getting the depth on the ATC I did the base with my picture, then I added the top using a piece of foamcore. Now this might have worked for the thickness, but I had trouble trying to figure out how to attach a door or window and also how to conceal the ragged edges of the the foamcore.

Back to the drawing board; I retained the base picture that I was originally going to use, which is from Ceremony-Share, but instead of leaving it "as-is", I added some colour to it with Stabilo Chalk pencils. Printed and cut out an image from ArtbyJean, and mounted it with double-sided foam tape. I added a wee circle "thingy" and a part from old jewellery at the top.

 I started thinking about what to do to make this thick, so I took some popsicle sticks and cut them to size to fit on the edge of the base ATC and attached them with some Sookwang tape.

For the top of the ATC I took a piece that I had coloured with some Perfect Pearls and some other mediums, and measured out the door and cut it on the top and middle. I embossed some columns on the sides and some small stamped images at the top and bottom.

I added tiny screw brads along with some faux metal pieces for the edges on the door. To hide the back of the brads I added an embossed piece of cardstock to the back of the door. For the door closure I chose to use string clasps, but instead of string I used some stretchy metallic thread and adhered a couple of flat beads.

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.

Witches Hour Torso Tags

I just joined a new group Art for the Creative Mind and have already signed up for a couple of swaps. One of the swaps is where we make two torso shaped tags with the theme Witches Hour i.e. Halloween.

The first one I coloured with Clearsnap fluid chalk inks but it was not intense enough, so I spritzed the top and bottom with Glimmer Mists and went over the centre with some Mica Magic Burnt Orange ink. I stamped the Stampscapes Crooked Limb stamp with the Smokey Gray Versafine ink pad, then I added the images and saying from Vintage Paint Works which were one of the free downloads on their site.

To complete the tag, I added some little confetti stars at the top and some maple leaf punchies at the centre and bottom.

For the second tag, I started by punching out a circle and placing the negative part on the tag, and colored it with some yellow pigment ink then some silver over a portion of it, then added some iridescent violet mica watercolour paint over the same area.

I masked the circle with the punched out piece and using the tonal applicator stamp (Stampscapes), I added colour, starting with Clearsnap's Vivid yellow along the centre up to the top, then Marvy Matchables inks in Salvia Blue, Blue, Pale Violet and Green.

I stamped a Stampscapes fir tree, crooked limb stamp and a cloud stamp with Clearsnap's Coal Black Ancient Page. The Owl image is from Vintage Paint Works. The remaining images are from Dover Publications; (You can sign up and receive free samples each week from them by following the link).

Although I don't normally make any Halloween art, I did enjoy making these two tags.

E is for...

On Art-Ventures we are continuing on with the Alphabet swap that we started on CCSwaps. This month is E for....

I have several blank notebooks so thought I would use one of them for this swap. My E is for embossing ( both dry and heat), Electric Blue Smooch Spritz and embellishments.

I started by taking a cardboard insert that I saved from something I bought, cut it to size and on the white front I used Clearsnap fluid chalk inks (Yellow Cadmium, Lavender and Deep Lagoon) and the "stamp smooch" technique that I learned from Cathie Allan.

I heat set it and then stamped the flourish stamp by Magenta using Clearsnap Platinum MetaleXtra Pigment Inkpad and Platinum Embossing Powder, at the top and bottom of the page. I outlined the page with Krylon silver ink and attached it to the front of the notebook.

I had some pieces of cardstock that I had previously embossed with my Cuttlebug and I chose a navy blue piece that had words embossed on it. I took a Versamagic inkpad and rubbed it across the piece. Was not entirely happy with it so then I sprayed it with Clearsnap's Electric Blue Smooch Spritz; attached this to the centre of the cover.

I took a piece of an old book page and smooshed Milled Lavendar distress ink over it and edged it with Black Soot distress ink, then took some water and rubbed it over the edge to blend the colour in to the paper. When dry I added this to the front of the embossed piece.

I cut out an image from Moonlight Journey and attached it to the middle of the embossed piece. I had some tiny die-cut swirls in my stash, so I embossed them with the platinum ink and embossing powder and glued them to the edges of the image. I had some chrome buttons that I cut the backs off and attached them to the right hand corner and the bottom of the notebook.

I hope my partner will be pleased with this.

Mini Memory for Chris

The final recipient for the Mini Memory swap on DCI is Chris. Her theme was Wings, and colours were shades of purple & silver/gold.

I had bought some items at the art supply store, one being a box type item that I thought would work perfectly.

I started by creating a background paper piece with Brilliance inks in shades of purple, gold and silver with a swirly stamp, cut it to size and glued it inside the box. I painted the box edge with gold acrylic paint and added some corner pieces which have butterflies on them that I coloured with Alcohol ink.

I printed off an image of a little baby girl with some books, and made it 3-d to stand out, and added some glossy accents to the book pieces. On the first attempt I had coloured a peice of a clear ruler, a domino and a little flower piece and attached them to the bottom. Added the word Wings at the top and then placed a butterfly behind the little girl. This was what it originally looked like.

Well, I was not completely happy with it so added some golden acrylic gold mica flakes around the edges and being impatient used my heat gun to dry it. Bad mistake!! I melted the ruler in the process, and as a result had to come up with something else.

I removed all the embellishments at the bottom. I stamped some flowers in Pearlescent Lavendar Brilliance several times and made some small roses, touched them up with some silver and some glitter and placed them on the bottom underneath the little girl. I also added more glitter to the butterfly wings. The mistake turned out to be a good thing as I am much happier with the final outcome.

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.