Hello

OK, this is the last post today. This is a three challenge card. This week the Try That Technique challenge is the Glimmer Masked Background from the TJ Stampbooking CD. The challenge at Kraft Journal is "Something old, something new". And Simon Says Stamp and Show a word. Now a little about my card... The background is made with glimmer mist sprayed over a doily-type template. The telephone is a stencil from Club Scrap. I used Pan Pastels to stencil the phone. The word "Hello" is also a stencil. I used gold glitter gel medium as a stencil paste over the letters. The word is actually very textured and stands out much better on the actual card.
My sonethings old are the telephone stencil, the glimmer mist, and the pan pastels. The somethings new are the doily templact and the jewels in the corners.
Because of the size of the template and the phone stencil, this card is larger than my normal. It's a 6 inch square card.

From the Heart

This card gave me a lot of pleasure to make. I love the technique which is faux tiles from the current Technique Junkies newsletter. I love the stamp which is Tea Leaves from Scroll Works stamps. (Unfortunately I found them late...they are in the process of going out of business.) And I love the orange color. Two challenges called for buttons, so this combines these challenges.The challenge at Created by Hand is orange/buttons. The Gingersnap Creations blue moon challenge is a recipe challenge -- 3 words, 3 papers, 3 buttons. I think that this card meets both challenges pretty clearly. Just for the record, the three papers are the ivory base, the brown panel, and the kraft image panel.

Circle Card

I had a marathon day working on challenges. It was great fun! My first card is a combination of three challenges. Mojo Monday's challenge is a sketch (see left). We had a choice of making a circle card or a square card. I Brake for Challenges is challenging us to make a birthday card. The Critter Sketch Challenge is a recipe challenge -- 2 colors of cardstock, 1 flower, 1 image, and 1 sentiment.
I hope I did justice to all of the challenges. As you can see, I chose the circle card. In order to scan it I put a yellow paper behind the card because the card was white, but the card is actually circular. I adhered the Italian flourish doily die cut (Cherry Lynn die) in gold metallic to the card which I had run through the Xyron.  Then I added white sparkly glitter to the rest of the card front. The center square is stamped with a square Happy Birthday stamp from Stampin' Up and the focal image, the Fennel Silhouette, from I Brake for Stamps. I added the silk flower and the butterfly (a Cherry Lynn die).
As for the Critter Sketch recipe --there are 2 colors of cardstock-white and turquoise, 1 flower, the IBFS Fennel Silhouette image, and the Happy Birthday sentiment.

Feminine Spirit

June has run its course. Here we are on the last day. I thought I would share one of my Chapel Road Artstamps in a different way. I've stamped one of the faces from Les Femmes, adhered it to a background cut from glimmer paper, and framed it in a memory glass frame. Here I used a Chotsky pin and attached the framed image and various charms to make a lovely and very feminine pin.

I am entering this art piece into the Creative Belli Blog Challenge which is the letter "G". My G embellishments are Glitter paper, and memory Glass.

Scrap Time

The current Stampotique Designers challenge is "Use Your Scraps".  At first my scraps usage may not be obvious. However, if you remember my post from Tuesday, my background may be a little familiar. It is what remains from the die cuts I used on that card. In addition, I used the strips on the window which were laying by my cutter. The sentiment and image (I Can See Clearly) were stamped on scraps I had laying on my table. All of the stamped images are from Stampotique. It's funny, but at first when I was buying Stampotique stamps, I had by-passed the shrooms. However, I now think that they are fabulous for the little vignettes I like to stamp.

Breathe

The challenge at Grungy Monday this week is Tim Holtz Demonstrates Adirondack Alcohol Inks! The challenge is based on Tim's video which can be found HERE. I used the polished stone technique for the background of my image. Once I found this stamp, everything else fell into place.
I haven't used this stamp in quite a while. It's one of Tim's older stamps. It brought back pleasant memories of Tim. You see, this stamp dates back to the weekend I had classes with Tim at More Than Memories in Schaumburg.  That's when it was purchased.
I've had this stamp a long time.

Forever Young

I found a new challenge site for me, so I thought I'd try some new techniques to me also. The challenge is from I Brake for Challenges (IBFS blog) and the challenge was polka dots.  Both of the girls (IBFS) are wearing polkadot dresses. They were paper pieced (Technique Junkies Aug 2006) from design paper. The background technique is called Copic Sections and is from the current TJ newsletter.The background stamps are from Chapel Road Artstamps--Butterfly Square and Angle Butterfly and from See-D Stamps--Baby Animals and A Word or Two.

Sitting in the Sunshine

This week the Created by Hand challenge is Sun and Moons/Yellow. This card also goes with the Make It Monday with Kraft Outlet: Welcome Summer challenge.. My sun comes from Innovative Stamp Creations. The chair is from Paper Bag Studios. I love it when different stamp companies work together. My background panel is dry embossed using a Tim Holtz texture fade. Love the look of the sun's rays on this folder. To add a little spice I added gold Stickles to the sun image's rays and rock candy Stickles to the rays on the background panel. Inspiration Emporium challenged us to us sparkly fluff or Stickles on our creation.

Totally Texture

This week the Try That Technique challenge is Totally Texture from the Feb/Mar 2011 TJ newsletter. Yes, the name is perfect. If you love texture on your art, this is the perfect technique. There are three layers of embossed cardstock here. You can't see the card base texture since it's white, but trust me it's there. I just got this Sizzix die yesterday and this was a perfect opportunity to try it out. I thought it would be fun to add the gold heat embossed rose to the center oval. The pearl flourishes add a little bling to the card.

Wings

This week our Bloggers Challenge is Things With Wings. I immediately thought of this little owl from Stampotique. I used the sketch from Mojo Monday for the layout of my card. The background is double embossed metal from the TJ CD Emboss or Die (or the Feb/Mar 2010 TJ newsletter). This week Simon Says Stamp and Show some metal. I cut a piece of green metal to card panel size.  I started with the tree trunk folder. Yes, I know that tree trunks aren't green; consider it creative license. I over embossed with the cattails folder. The owl is holding his banner, "I believe I can fly". He's probably been around a number of graduations this year and has the song stuck in his head.

I've got a second card to share. I did it for a DT inspiration card. The images are all digitals from Moonlight Journey. It makes me laugh. I hope it brings a smile to your face.

Hats, Always in Fashion

This week Hels Sunday Challenge at Ink on My Fingers is to use Hat(s) in our creation.  Just by coincidence I had just run across my outline stickers of these hats right before the challenge came out. With the challenge I knew exactly what technique I would use with the hat -- Splash and Stick from the Aug/Sep 2010 TJ newsletter. A little alcohol ink, some glossy paper, and an outline sticker and a lovely, colorful hat was created. The background is a lace stamp from Heartfelt Creations. It's a little hard to see on the scan because I used antique linen on the ivory paper, but it does look like lace. The sentiment is from Club Scrap.

Beautiful women

As I started my card today, I knew I wanted to use one of the images from the Chapel Road Artstamps Four Faces. I couldn't decide which one I wanted to use, so I decided to use all four. Each face has its own beauty. I stamped each face in sepia and framed it with a dark brown frame. The framed pictures deserved to be hung on a wall, so I adhered them to a wood paper panel. To finish the card I die cut a dark brown scalloped oval and cut a wood paper oval to fit inside the little frame. The sentiment is a gold Outline sticker. I adhered everything to a beige card base.

Tag Technique

The Grungy Monday 12 challenge is to try the Tim Holtz Blog Technique Challenge from April 2008. This is a variation of "shabby chic" using Design Paper. For my paper I used some Kodomo Washi paper. The print paper really looks stunning when the paint is washed away from the embossed harlequin stamp. I used Thickers for my chipboard pieces. The use of the brighter design paper on the tag gives a  cheery look to the distressed tag. This project took a little more time because of all the steps and because of the drying time needed, but it was fun.

Bags and Tags

The Random Redhead Challenge at Gingersnap Creations is bags and tags. We are to use bags and/or tags in our creation. I made a card depicting a bag of goodies for a special picnic. The bag is a stamp which I stamped on a brown paper bag and cut out. I popped the bag on a red checkered tablecloth background. Inside the bag I added a loaf of bread and some wine and cheese. All that's missing is thou. My tag has the quote from The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

Friends

This card is being entered into two challenges which work quite well together. The Stampsmith challenge is friends/friendship. My main image is from the Stamp sheet Darling Boys. I think the image is so adorable. It is colored using markers. The background technique is the Try That Technique challenge from Technique Junkies. It's called Sanded Whitewash and is from the Aug/Sep 2009 TJ newsletter. The embossing folder is one of Cuttlebugs larger folders. I used  light teal cardstock under the gesso. The image fit so perfectly into the open space of the embossing.

Chocolate sketch

This card was created for this week's Critter Challenge which was I love chocolate. I decided to use the sketch from Mojo Monday shown at the left. My image and sentiment are from an old Club Scrap kit. The background paper is from a Tim Holtz paper stack. I didn't have any copper brads, so I used my copper alcohol ink to color them. The flower centers were colored using vintage photo distress stain.

Packaging Materials

The Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply challenge is packaging materials. This was a fun challenge. For my packaging supplies I went with a piece of a corrugated cardboard box. From this piece two butterflies emerged using Tim Holtz's movers and shakers butterflies. These were painted with liquid pearls. I also used a piece of bubblewrap and die cut the flower. I used Stazon ink to color the bubbles and layered the bubblewrap flower over a piece of similarly colored cardstock with a fancy brad as a center. The background is a piece of printed vellum from Webster's Pages which was overlaid on a dry embossed piece of white cardstock. All of the elements were adhered to a purple card base.

At the Mall

The Chestnut Theme Challenge at Gingersnap Creations is at the Mall. When I think of going shopping, there is only one place for me--someplace that I can buy stamping supplies. This stamp shopping stamp from Club Scrap is the perfect shopping stamp for me. And the sentiment just makes me smile.

Journey

This week the Grungy Monday challenge is to do the Tim Holtz Blog, January 2008 Technique Challenge. All of my stamps come from the Tim Holtz collection. I used the gyroscope (at least that's what I think it is) as my technique stamp. I love the look and shape. The airplane and Journey sentiment work so well with the image. I also used some of the distressing stamps on the background. I used my paper distresser to distress the edges of the image panel and the side of the card. This edge distressing works into the Simon Says Stamp and Show your Distressed/Torn edges. I love the look of distressed edges.

Sew Much to Do

My card uses stamps from a second new June release from Chapel Road Artstamps. The new stamps are from the stamp sheet Sew Much To Do. The stamps are very vintage looking and feature our Victorian lady at her sewing machine, as well as the ad, some spools of thread, and some scissors. This month's Chapel Road Artstamps theme is feminine and the challenge is vintage. Of course, the stamps by themselves meet the challenge, but I decided to use the antique wallpaper technique from the June 2010 issue of Technique Junkies which uses an embossing folder and distress inks. The image was stamped in black ink and colored with colored pencil. Then I cut out the whole image and layered it on the antique wallpaper panel. I also stamped the ad, layered it on a brown panel and adhered to the wallpaper. For embellishment, I added the pearl and rhinestone adornment. Ah, those were the days!

Steampunk Masculine

This card is a combination of the Bloggers Challenge masculine theme, the Ink on my Fingers Sunday challenge Steampunk, the Kraft Journal  Father's Day challenge, and a Father's Day card for my Dad.
This steampunk style card is perfect for my Dad. He used to test electrical equipment for a company that made parts for trains and buses. So gears, tubes and other mechanical/electrical gadgets are perfect. All of the Steampunk stamps are from Oxford Impressions. The sentiment is a Club Scrap stamp.

Artistic Outpost is celebrating a British Invasion.

Our two newest stamp collections, available in both unmounted rubber sheets or pre-trimmed and mounted on foam, include both a classic vintage set and a fun and funky homage to all things London.

Loverly London is a collection of vintage inspired imagery of our idealized London. This collection takes some liberties with "My Fair Lady", because we can't help but picture the gentleman in his "dinner jacket" and hat as Professor Higgins and the lovely lady as Eliza Doolittle. This collection is perfect for incorporating your steampunk elements and other collaged themes

Now for a horse of a funkier color, London Underground, what we think are some of the coolest stamps featuring stylized collage elements. Have fun creating mixed media collages with all these elements. We can't wait to see what you create with the vintage underground sign and the Union Jack.

Both collections are right on trend with things happening in the media and home decor. So get on the "tube" with us, and let's all go U.K.!!!


Enjoy some savings too. Spend $42 on rubber stamps, and you can save 20%. Simply use the code London at check out!

Here is a card I created using the stamps from the two new London sets. This is my London Underground Collage card. I love how all of the Artistic Outpost stamps work together. The background panel of this card is stamped with a stamp from another collection, Ephemeral Backgrounds.

Wouldn't this image make a great Father's Day card? He is so very British. I just added some masculine background paper, a splash of color complete with a few embossed diamonds and a few buttons, and the perfect quote for him. Aren't these London stamps fun!

Do check out the other DT members blogs for more great London works of art.

* Gerrie * Judy * Lisa * Lynn * Stephanie * Suzanne * Louise *

Monochromatic Plus Red

This card works for three challenges this week and I got to use a stamp I've been wanting to use for a long time. Tuesday Throwdown is having a blog hop and the challenge for today is to use three past challenges for incentive. Here I used black and white with a splash of color, brads, polka dots, and dry embossing. Oops, is that four...well, I've always been a bit of an overachiever.
The challenge at Created by Hand is circles and dots. There is a circular moon and I have used dots on my background.
The monthly challenge at Artistic Stamper is monochromatic plus one color.
To make my card, I used a stamp from Stamp Camp as my focal image and stamped it in black on white. The background is Core'dinations paper which was dry embossed with a dot embossing folder and then sanded. (Sanded core'dinations technique if you follow the Technique Junkies newsletter) These panels were connected with four black brads and then mounted to a white card base.
Hmmmm...I think I like this stamp.

Forever Young

This week the Stampotique Designers challenge is to make a CAS card. I always thought that a clean and simple card was an easy card to make...WRONG. I struggled with how to make this card for quite a while. I decided to use the child image. I'm just not used to a lot of white space on my card. However, it was Technique Junkies that saved the day. The distressed colorblocking technique was just what I needed for the background. I used my tape writer to make the sentiment. I think this works as a CAS card.

Giraffe

Several challenges worked together  this week as I worked on this tag. Simon Says Stamp and Show a tag. The Try That Technique challenge is the giraffe technique from the Apr/May 2010 TJ newsletter. Here I need to give a little explanation. Normally it would not be in my nature to follow the technique so literally. I would usually use the technique as a base and change it to be different. However, I had this giraffe stamp from Club Scrap that I really wanted to use. Hence, the giraffe technique card features a giraffe. And giraffes are tall, so a tag is the perfect shape to show off a giraffe. Now a giraffe is an animal and this week Tuesday Throwdown is challenging us to use an animal. No explanation needed here. Finally, this particular giraffe looks like he has his head in the trees, so I had to provide a tree branch for him with flower soft leaves to munch on. Did I mention that the challenge at Creative Belli Blog is branches? Creative Belli Blog also encourages us to use embellishments that we haven't use for a long time. Hopefully my stamp qualifies since it's never been used; the raffia and flower soft are also very neglected embellishments. I almost forgot to mention that I used the wrinkle free distress technique for the background color, one of Tim Holtz's techniques.

Color it Green with Trees

Grungy Monday's challenge this week is Distress Ink.  This is a very easy challenge for me since I use distress ink on almost everything I do. I decided to use the TJ technique Ghost-in-Distress for my card. The embossed stamp is from Impression Obsession. All of the leaves are from Tim Holtz's line. For my base color I used scattered straw. The leaves are a combination of forest green, shabby shutter, crushed olive, and pine needles. The sentiment is from Stampscapes. To finish my card, I adhered the focal panel to a green panel. For my base cardstock I used Kraft. By the way this weeks challenge at Critter Sketch is to use kraft on our card.

Celebrate Mad Hatter Day with a MAD TEA PARTY, Altered Alice Style! Week 2

Join Us for a MAD TEA PARTY!

There are two Mad Hatter Days every year, and one of them is this month! In the United States, October 6th is Mad Hatter Day as we abbreviate our dates as month/day. In the United Kingdom, Mad Hatter Day is June 10th as they abbreviate their dates as day/month. So what do these dates have to do with the Mad Hatter? In the original Tenniel illustrations, the Mad Hatter has a price tag tucked into his hat band. It says "In this Style 10/6" which, for us ignorant Yankees means ten schillings and sixpence, or half a guineau back in Alice's day! So Mad Hatter Day falls on 10/6, and here at The Altered Alice, instead of choosing between date systems, we just celebrate twice a year!!!

Our generous sponsor this month is The Artistic Stamper, and they are offering a £15 pound voucher for The Artistic Stamper stamps! They have a WONDERFUL online store that offers free worldwide shipping on orders over £35 and they carry loads of my favorite brands. The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog offers amazing inspiration and interesting challenges, so be sure to visit! Jennie has kindly provided our design team with the Mabel Lucie Attwell Mad Hatter Stamp for our projects this month. It will be interesting to see how everyone applies their own style and vision to the same image!

The challenge this month is to create a project to celebrate the Mad Hatter, AND to bring something to our Mad Tea Party! Here are the design team's party contributions:

So find something fun to bring to our Mad Tea Party, and show and tell when you link your project that celebrates the Mad Hatter! You have until Friday, June 24 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4:00) and we'll announce the winner of the £15 voucher for The Artistic Stamper stamps on Sunday, June 26! And Happy Mad Hatter Day from The Altered Alice!

 As you saw above, my contribution to the party is the pocket watch. But why wasn't it with the other gifts...well, this watch is exactly two days slow. To make the watch, I used the pocket watch case from Tim Holtz. I inserted the image of the Mad Hatter at the back. I added various watch gears, some hands and two red roses inside. On the chain I added several charms including a watch face, a tea pot, a word stick with the word "TIME", and a gear. HmmmI wonder if it's time for tea.

My project is a plaque which features the great stamp provided to the DT by our fantastic sponsor, the Artistic Stamper. The whole image was so wonderful that I decided to use a technique which would allow the image to show in its entirety. I used the pyramid technique from Technique Junkies for the focal image. In this technique there are several stampings and each stamping is cut down and layered on top like a pyramid so that the image below shows and lines up with the layer above.  The first picture above shows how the image looks. The second shows the pyramid effect from the side.
I hope you check out the other project of the Design Team on the Altered Alice site, and come join us as we celebrate Mad Hatter's Day.

Vase of Roses

Oh-Oh-Oh, I just realized that this is my 500th posting. I can't believe that I made it to 500. Seems like only yesterday that I was feeling my way around blogspot for the first time.                                              And now on to this weeks BC. This week's Bloggers Challenge is a sketch challenge. The sketch that Lisa provided is at the left. I did take a couple of artistic liberties with the sketch. The main change is that I used an oval instead of the circle and the oval is somewhat larger than the sketch. I wanted to use the vase of roses on my card and it just fit better in the oval.  The image is from Heartfelt Creations and is colored using Creative Inspirations paints. The background was done by masking off sections. The solid sections are made using broken china distress stains. The other sections are made using the glimmer lace technique from the Aug/Sep 2010 Technique Junkies newsletter. For my ribbon across the bottom I used the ribbon roses from Tim Holtz. I love these because they are white and can be dyed with inks or paints. I used spun sugar distress stain to dye them and then edged them with CI paint. This card has a lot of shimmer.

I can't wait to see what everyone else creates this week.

Dream

Today I am sharing a card which is a little unusual for me. It basically falls into the the CAS (clean and simple) category. I started with the beautiful image from Chapel Road Artstamps from the Les Femmes stamp sheet. I stamped her in black on white and die cut her in a circle. I cut the reverse scallop circle to frame her. The background is a piece of Club Scrap paper which I embossed using a cuttlebug folder. I cut the center panel, stamped the word "Dream" and adhered the focal image. As I said, it is a CAS card, but I love how it turned out.

Celebrating a Lovely Day

My card today feature an image and sentiment from the Artistic Outpost stamp set A Lovely Day. I just love the stamp of the girl. Today I used a version of the technique Out of the Box (actually Out of the Die) for the focal image. I colored the image using Copics.
For several other parts of the card I must thank some enablers. The frame is an intricate doily die cut from Cheery Lynn. My sister introduced my to Cheery Lynn. The frame was cut from blue metallic origami paper. The background paper is from Websters Pages. My friend Lisa and a co-DT member, Suzz,  introduced me to Websters Pages paper. It is definitely gorgeous paper. The pink flowers are flower soft.
This card is also being entered into two other challenges. Hels at Ink on my Fingers Sunday Challenge challenged us to use stash that makes us happy. Everything I used on this card comes from my favorite stash--paper, die, stamps, flower soft. I love it all. At Created by Hand the challenge is Flock/Flowers. There are definitely flowers. I cheated a little by using flower soft instead of flock. It uses the same technique and has a similar effect.
It was a lovely day today to make a Lovely Day card.

Belated Birthday

This card is the result of three challenges. Technique Junkies Try That Technique challenged us to use the Acrylic Emboss technique from the Aug-Sep/2010 newsletter. Tuesday Throwdown's challenge is DIY embellishments and Stampsmith's challenge is birthday.
The background is done using the acrylic emboss technique. The embossing folder is the Regal Flourishes texture trade from Tim Holtz. The stamp is from Stampsmith. Isn't she cool! The sentiment is computer typed. I went "belated" -- my usual style.  The roses are my DIY embellishments. I cut the spiral flower using a Sizzix die and formed them using my quilling tool and tweezers. I added a small pearl for the centers.

Breathings of Your Heart

This week the challenge at Created By Hand is Breathe/White. There is something about a white embossing on white that I just love. My quote (Club Scrap) fit perfectly in the Fancy Frame texture fade by Tim Holtz. I decided to let the embossing, sentiment, and white say it all, so I kept the card very simple. I used a soft pink card base for a soft contrast.

Celebrate Mad Hatter Day with a MAD TEA PARTY, Altered Alice Style!

Join Us for a MAD TEA PARTY!

Click on the link above to check out the June challenge at the Altered Alice. I'll be posting my challenge inspiration next Sunday, June 12th.

Pet Stamp

Pets is the challenge for Bloggers Challenge this week and Simon Says Stamp and Show your favorite stamp. As an owner of four cats and someone adopted by two outside kittens, what other pet could I stamp but a cat. And although my favorite stamp is the one I'm using at the moment, this stamp does hold a special place in my heart. The stamp is a Paula Best stamp. I love it because this cat has so much personality. (I could have said "purrrr-sonality") I used Creative Inspiration Paints to color the image. That gives the image a lot of shimmer. Both the frame and the background design paper are also quite sparkly. I especially love the sentiment going around the image..."Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this... anonymous."

We've Come a Long Way Baby

This month we're focusing on feminine stamps at Class Act Inc./Chapel Road Artstamps.  Today I'm using stamps from a new release entitled Typing Time. I stamped the image and cut it out using a Spellbinders die. She is colored using my markers. The background panel is design paper from My Mind's Eye.  I just bought the punch to make the loopy ribbon. Isn't it fun! After reading the sentiment, you'll know that we've come a long way, baby.

David in Shabby Chic

This week the Grungy Monday challenge has us go back to 2007.  The challenge is Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas, 2007, Day 10, shabby chic. As soon as I saw this challenge, I knew that I wanted to use David (TH stamp). Although I have plenty of black cardstock, I decided to use Tim's method of painting the background black. I used the sail boat blue, cloudy blue, and willow paint dabbers for my colors. The sentiment and the tag are also from Tim's stamps. I think David looks impressive coming out of the color.