Sunday, October 31, 2010

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 19 -- Extreme Masking

This week the Compendium of Curiosities challenge is Extreme Masking from p. 81 of Tim's book. I'm amazed that I was able to finish my card. I just moved my entire studio from the 2nd floor to the basement room. I'm lucky I was able to find what I needed to complete this challenge. All of the stamps, inks, masks and background papers are from my Tim Holtz stash. Can't wait to see what next week's challenge is.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Halloween Bonanza

I guess this is the finale card of the Halloween season. I have had so much fun playing with all the Halloween images. This week several of my regular challenges have headed along the Halloween route so I had a blast creating this card. The theme at Bloggers Challenge this week is Halloween. Simon Says Stamp and Show something Spookay. At Created Byhand we are to create art using the theme ,  “Spooky Spiders/monochromatic with a touch of black”.
My card is a zig-zag accordian fold card from the Aug-Sep 2010 Technique Junkies on-line bonus. Although you cannot see the base card in this scan, underneath all that black is an orange base. The black is core'dinations black with orange back. The two shorter folds have words embossed from the Halloween words texture fade folder (Tim Holtz). The taller panel is embossed with the Halloween minis texture fade. These panels were sanded so the orange back would show through. All of the stamps are Halloween stamps from Tim Holtz. The spider is a plastic one to which I applied red dots with a Viva Pearl Pen. Definitely spookay, spidery, and totally Halloween.
Have a fun and safe weekend!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Oz Collage -- New Artistic Outpost Release

Artistic Outpost is releasing a new collection of stamps inspired by Dorothy and Toto in that wonderful land of Oz. Oz Collage features everything that we love about that whimsical tale: the Tin Man, the ruby slippers, the Scarecrow, and of course Dorothy and Toto. Available in both unmounted sheets and pre-trimmed and mounted on EZMount cling foam, we know this one will soon be one of your favorities. All images are sized to work well together, and the Tin Man and Scarecrow collages are perfect 2.5" x 3.5" inches for all your ATCs and die cutting pleasures!

In celebration of Artistic Outposts Third Anniversary, all rubber stamps are 20% from now until November 5th. That includes all unmounteds and mounteds. Simply use the code: Anniversary at check out to receive your discount.

Can I say I'm in love with these images? Dorothy is adorable. The scarecrow looks so wise. The sentiments are great. I can see using them over and over.

I had a lot of fun making my card. I knew I wanted to use this cuddly cowardly lion sailing over Emerald City. I found this yellow brick road background paper in my stash which was perfect. I decided to keep the card very simple to focus on the lion and scarecrow, with Emerald City glowing in the background.

Each of the other design team members will be featuring their artwork using these new sets of stamps. Why don't you visit each of their blogs and see the wonderful things they have created.


-Lisa,  -Gerrie,  -Stephanie,  -Connie,  -Suzanne

Monday, October 25, 2010

Play Date Cafe Challenge 52


This week Play Date Cafe is celebrating its one year anniversary. Congratulations for a year of fun challenges! The challenge this week is to use colors influenced by the image on the left...orange? yellow? pink? our choice. I had a few thoughts which influenced my card. First, it's near the end of October and I wanted to do at least one card for "Breast Cancer Awareness Month", and I had the ribbon stamp from Kitchen Sink Stamps, as well as the sentment stamps. I wanted to use my rosette die from the Tim Holtz collection. I had crepe paper ribbon which I thought would look good with the rosette. I sprayed it pink using glimmer mist and then I died the other ribber with distress ink. When I saw the image and the color choices, I immediately thought of the antique wallpaper technique from  the June/July Technique Junkies newsletter. Putting all those thoughts together, I came up with this card. To finish it off I used Rock Candy stickles to sparkle up the rosette.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Color Throwdown Challenge 115

It's Halloween time in the city.  The challenge from Color Throwdown are the colors dusty durango, perfect plum, and so saffron. Laura is still in the Halloween spirit and I seem to be to. I thought it would fun to do Halloween from a city perspective. I did my background with a Michele Zindorf influence--brayering. The moon and witch are done with Kitchen Sink Stamps from the Owl and Moon and Friends of the Moon sets. The cityscape is from Stamp Camp.
Color recipe: (all Adirondack ink)
Moon -- 1 lemonade, 2 sunshine yellow, 3 butterscotch
Witch -- jet black

Skeleton/Treat Box

 
 This week the Challenge at Stampotique and the Sunday Challenge at Ink on my Fingers work so well together. At Stampotique we are challenged to make a treat box to hold all those Halloween goodies. And at Ink on my Fingers, Hels has challenged us to create something using a skeleton. So here is my treat box being guarded by a very nimble skeleton. The goodie box was made using a box template from Basic Grey papers. All of the stamps on the box are from Tim Holtz's Halloween collection. The skeleton is from MadRat Rubber. He starts out truly as "dem bones" but with a few well placed brads he becomes the skeleton he is today. Now all I need is some candy to put in the box.

Created By Hand Challenge 10-18-10

It's probably not too hare to figure out what the Created Byhand challenge is this week. Give up...It's "Music". Actually music is one of my favorite themes. I started my card with some music sheet design paper. I then used the burnt edges technique from Technique Junkies. The large notes are chipboard tags that I have had in my stash forever. Hurray, I finally got to use them. The stamp and sentiment are both from Club Scrap.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Simon Says Stamp and Show Anything but a Card

What better project for a card maker is there to create but a holder for those cards? The challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show is to make something other than a card. This is a project from Club Stamp. It has three separate compartments which are stamped, constructed, attached to each other and then mounted  on a base which has been covered in paper. Wooden feet are attached to the base. Metal labels are attached to the front panels which have also been stamped and layered. I had a lot of fun making and stamping this card holder. Now I have a place for my finished cards. 

Oh Alice Challenge Chapter 35


This week's challenge at Oh Alice is to create a card or project using a Door, Gate or Keyhole. Above, the larger image is my card closed. Below, the smaller version, is the card open. The card is a Z-fold card (Technique Junkies).  The front  image of Alice is from Oxford Impressions. The door is from Club Scrap. All of the shadow stamps and the sentiment are from TJ Designs.
If you are a fan of Alice in Wonderland, I'd like to encourage you to also check out Lynne Phelps new website, The Altered Alice. The Altered Alice was created as a virtual art exhibit to 1.) centralize links to and 2.) showcase Alice in Wonderland artwork from all over the blogosphere. It's a fun and fantastic place to visit. Right now she has a wonderful blog candy opportunity. She is giving away a Printer's Tray created by Donna (Meme). It's fabulous! You have until October 30 to enter. 

Recycle Squared














This week Bloggers Challenge is recycle, reuse. I used the sketch from Critter Sketch Blog to create the card. the challenge at Critter Sketch is "It's hip to be square." When I explain the history of the recycle part of my card, my sisters are going to laugh and everyone else who follows Bloggers Challenge will think that all I do is go out and eat since all my recycling has to do with food. First, the little squares behind Frida are cut from a paper napkin and plasticware holder that was used in a Mexican restaurant that I went to with my sisters. My reputation for saving cute things from restaurants resulted in my getting the cute paper rings from everyone. The picture above right shows the paper ring open before I cut out my squares. Now you have to admit that they are eye-catching. Well, the Mexican motif then led me to the stamp sheet from Oxford Impressions, El Corazon, with Frida Kahlo. It may be hard to see on the scan, but Frida is wearing a cream colored pearl necklace with the dimensional pearl made from Viva Pearl Pen in cream. My background panel was made by spraying a red Radiant Rain spray over the plastic mesh recycled from a box of oranges. See, more food. This actually is a technique from the April 2008 Technique Junkies newsletter call Mesh Direct. I really like the bright cheeriness of this card.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 18

The Compendium of Curiosities challenge was to create something using the Dabber Resist technique from p.37 of Tim's book. I really love this technique. I also really love the image stamp and the sentiment stamp I used for the technique both of which are from Tim's collection. For the background I used all new distress inks--chipped sapphire, bundled sage, and Victorian Velvet. The flower in the corner is made from the Idea-ology Foliage collection and painted with Creative Inspirations paints. Normally I might have grunged it up somewhat, but that pretty and graceful stamp just wouldn't let me, so I left it simple. Although you can't see it very well on the scan, the heart sparkles from rock candy stickles.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Halloween ATC --- KSS 28

This is an atc I completed for a swap. It is a perfect match for this month's Crew Challenge at Kitchen Sink Stamps. The theme is "Trick or Treat" -- make something Halloween related using Kitchen Sink Stamps. I used stamps from several of the KSS stamp sets. The bushel basket and pumpkins are from Harvest. The moon and bats are from Owl & Autumn Moon. The witch is from Friends of the Moon.
Color Recipes: (All inks are Adirondack)
Moon -- 1 lemonade, 2 sunshine yellow, 3 butterscotch
Bushel basket -- 1 sandal, 2 pebble, 3 ginger, 4 espresso
Pumpkins -- 1 sandal, 2 sunshine yellow, 3 sunset orange, 4 rust
Bats and Witch -- jet black archival

Play Date Cafe Challenge 51 using Pearly Stained Glass Technique

This week the challenge at Play Date Cafe and the Try That Technique challenge at Technique Junkies went hand-in-hand. Play Dates challenge colors are beige, pale blue, and pale mint green. The TJ technique is Pearly Stained Glass. The flowers are stamped and colored using the Pearly Stained Glass technique. Because of the acetate, the blue color show darker than it actually is. The beige background looks grayer on the scan. The background is from the Tim Holtz Shabby Chic paper stack. The flowers are stamped using Heartfelt Creations stamps and the sentiment is from Club Scrap.


Sunday, October 17, 2010

Color Throwdown Challenge 114


This week the challenge at Color Throwdown was to use the colors poppy parade, chocolate chip, pear pizzazz and so saffron, or colors close to those. To go along with the challenge I decided on a cute Halloween type image from Paper Jewels. I used my Creative Inspirations paints to color the image. I've had an autumn paper pad since last year and we're back to fall again. These two designs papers fit the challenge so well. I added the skeleton leaves which I also painted with the Creative Inspirations. My card has quite a shimmer to it.

Simon Says Stamp and Show Some Metal

This week Simon Says Stamp and Show Your Metal. The challenge at Created by Hand is to create art using the theme ,  “My Tribe/Indigenous People’s Day”. To meet these challenges, I created this 4x4. The children stamp is from Auntie Amy and the background world is from Beeswax. I highlighted the four corners of the piece with the metal corners from Tim Holtz. I love these corners because they give such a fantastic finish to an art project. For this project I painted the flourishes on the corners with Smooch. Smooched metal is a technique in the current Technique Junkies newsletter. 

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 17

This week in the Compendium of Curiosities challenge we went to p. 64 of Tim's book to make Fragment Charms. As you can see I had a ball creating charms in different sizes for my Diva tree. The images in my charms are from Suze Weinberg and from Artchix. Of course there is the usual scan story. The charms hang loose so laying them on the scanner bed caused them to move a little. And of course the dimensional aspect of the charms causes the images to be slightly less clear. I had fun with this card and love how it actually looks.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Sunday Stamper Week 124

This week the Sunday challenge theme at Ink on my Fingers is "Imagine" in honor of John Lennon's 70th birthday. We had to use the word imagine in our artwork and then stamp something. Well I stamped a trio of Imagines three times and then added a stamped image of the man himself. I love this Stampsmith stamp and thought it would be appropriate to use it here. Some music background and a few stars complete the story.
Last week the challenge was "String". I sort of forgot that the time in England (Home of Hels of Ink on my Fingers) was ahead of Chicago and I totally missed the deadline. I had been playing around with these mini tags which are joined together with...what else?...string. It fit the challenge, just too late for the deadline. So here it is, only a week behind schedule.

Bloggers Challenge 173

This week's Bloggers Challenge is Black and White with a dash of orange. I decided to use the sketch challenge from Critters Sketch Challenge for the design. The color them and sketch was perfect to create this Halloween card. The background was embossed using one of Tim Holtz's Halloween folders and the ribbons across are actually pieces of ribbon tape from the TH line. All of the stamps are from the Artistic Outpost sheet Haunted Halloween. The haunted house was stamped using the Copic Expressions technique from Technique Junkies (Jun/Jul 2010). I think the water color look to the image gives it that eerie look.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Tea Time at Oh Alice (Chapter 34)

A Mad Tea Party was the theme at Oh Alice this week. The challenge was to create something using tea bag folding.  It's hard to believe, but I had never actually tried the tea bag folding technique before. I had seen many cards using the technique and always said I would try it. Well, this was my opportunity and I can't believe how easy it was. I went to my favorite technique source, Technique Junkies, and found the instructions in the on-line bonus for Feb/Mar 2004 TJ newsletter. The only problem I had was that the cardstock I used (Graphics45 Halloween Alice) was more difficult to fold because of its thickness than a thinner piece of paper would have been. However a little patience and a smooth bone folder was all I needed. The stamp images are all from Oxford Impressions except the sentiment which is from TJ designs.

Try That Technique -- Paper Tole

This week's Try That Technique challenge was Paper Tole from the June 2003 Technique Junkies newsletter. What a blast from the past. It had been ages since I did this technique, and I had to dust off my hot glue gun (after I found it.). It's a shame that flatbed scanners can't show the dimension, but the lanterns really pop. For more texture I used flower soft on the apple blossoms.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Play Date Cafe Challenge 50



This week the challenge in the Play Date Cafe is a color pallette with a bit of a twist on holiday time. The colors are melon, green, and white. We actually could choose any image, but I decided to stay closely with the holiday theme. Besides, I just received these new stamps and dies from Heartfelt Creations. The sentiment is from the Artistic Outpost sheet Snowy Woods. I tried to stick very closely to the challenge colors. My melon is really more of a melon color on the actual card, but it scanned more red.
I did a lot of heat embossing on my card. The ornament is popped in two layers. To trim the card and the ornament I used a silver glitter liner from Viva.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Happy Boo Day

Color Throwdown Colors
Critter Sketch Challenge Sketch
This is a card I created for several challenges. I have been out of town; my daughter has been ill; and I've been keeping an eye on my two grandchildren. I had to combine the challenges in order to meet the deadlines. I did try to follow each of the challenges as closely as possible. I hope I did justice to the different challenges.
Critter Challenge had a sketch for its challenge. Color Throwdown challenged us to use perfect plum, early expresso, and vanilla in our work. The challenge theme for Created Byhand was "Long Night Moon...Silver". The monthly Crew Challenge for Kitchen Sink Stamps is "Trick or Treat", a Halloween theme.
This card was fun to create. The sketch was challenging, but fun. I made a few slight variations, but these were for artistic effect. For example, instead of flowers I used ghosts. I don't have a scallops die, but I think the label die I used works well. I followed the Color Throwdown colors very closely (although I don't have Stampin' Up colors)  The only variation was the silver moon for the Created Byhand challenge and the black ink stamping. The brown background is Core'dination paper which I embossed with the spider web folder and then sanded. The base card and stamped panels are on ivory cardstock.
The ribbon is Halloween tissue tape from Tim Holtz. The panels were stamped with Kitchen Sink Stamps. Most of the images were from Owl and Autumn Moon. The sentiment is a combination of words from Ready 4 any Holiday. Color recipes: (All inks used are Adirondack unless noted.)
Moon -- 1 summer sky-Memento, 2 London Fog-Memento, 3 starlight silver-Brilliance
Branch -- 1 sandal, 2 pebble, 3 expresso
Own -- 2 pebble, 1 sandal, 3 caramel, 4 expresso
Witch and Bats -- jet black archival

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 16 and Simon says Stamp and Show

 The latest Compendium of Curiosities challenge is to create a piece of art using the Wrinkle Free Distress technique from page 33 of Tim's book. I have to admit that this was not a new technique for me to do. I love it because it's such an easy technique and very effective for making distressed backgrounds. In the spirit of Halloween I chose spiced marmalade and dusty concord for this card. I embossed the background with the numbers cuttlebug folder and highlighted the 31 (for Halloween). On the torn panel I used the script, raven, and skull/crossbones stamps from Tim's collection and the bats from the Artistic Outpost Haunted Halloween sheet. Around the edge of the base card I used the Halloween tissue tape from Tim Holtz. (Love that tissue tape!)
The challenge theme at Simon Says Stamp and Show was numbers. Actually this card is the direct result of that challenge. When I saw the 3 and 1 in such a perfect place on the background, I knew that I was going with the Halloween motif.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Bloggers Challenge 172 with Oh Alice

It's Friday and time for Blogger's Challenge. This week we had a sketch to use. Again a sketch works well with a theme and OhAlice had the theme of nonsense--use Text in a nonsense way, not to read, but a pattern on our card (such as using a newspaper or dictionary page panel). As you can see from the image on the right, I did a quarter flip with the sketch. The background is a piece of cardstock from the Halloween Alice Graphics45 pad. I embossed the paper with an embossing folder and lightly sanded the embossing. The focal image is from the Artistic Outpost Wonderland Collage sheet and was colored with Copics. Behind the image is a panel from a dictionary page which was colored with Pan Pastels. The sentiment was stamped on ribbon. Of course, I had to add a clockface from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology line.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Play Date Cafe Challenge 49

The Play Date Cafe Colour Challenge this week was to use the colors hot pink, turquoise, rusty orange, and chocolate brown in a piece of art. At first I was a bit stumped. Then I saw Southwest in the colors and realized that the last Club Scrap/Stamp kits were in the adobe theme. And a card was born. The mosaic frame worked perfectly with the turquoise and hot pink and the pots called for the rusty orange color. I thought the saying was great. The background was embossed using a cuttlebug folder and layered on a chocolate brown card base. I think it works.

Triple Play

Let me begin by saying that I created this card with three challenges in mind. I am visiting my sister in Wisconsin for a week and I don't have access to all of my supplies. Don't get me wrong, she is well stocked with great supplies, but I am not as familiar with what she has and also I have to take over her computer to post. This card followed the challenges of three of the challenges I regularly participate in. (I created it with the challenges before me, so it is not just by chance). The challenges consist of a sketch - Critter Sketch Challenge,a color challenge - Color Throwdown, and a technique challenge - Simon Says Stamp and Show where the challenge was to show a distressed/sanded project. I've posted the sketch design and the color palette that my card was based on. The background was done using the Sanded Core'dinations technique from Technique Junkies. The image was colored using Creative Inspirations paints.
It's a chilly fall day in Wisconsin. I think I can honestly say that the frost in on the pumpkins. I know the fall feel is in the air.


Created By Hand 9-27-10

This week the challenge at Created Byhand was to create something using the theme "Plant a Seed/friendship". I had the perfect stamp sheet for the challenge -- Bloom and Grow from Artistic Outpost. This set is so cool because it has the seed packet and you can stamp any image on it. I'm out of town at my sister's house, so I am using some of her supplies. She had the perfect design paper for my background. Happy Johnny Appleseed Day to all.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Bloggers Challenge 171

I was so happy that our challenge mom, Lisa, chose Anniversary as this week's Bloggers Challenge theme. I fell in love with this Stampland stamp and this was the perfect opportunity to use it. Picasso from Stampland told me that they had used this image on his and Darlene's wedding invitations. He made it into a stamp for their anniversary. I used my Creative Inspirations paints to color the image. I thought that the pearl embellishments were the perfect touch.