Rain, Rain Go Away

The current challenge at Stampotique Designs is Acetate. Here you see Bob (in time out) and Head trying to keep out of the rain under the Shrooms. The images were stamped, masked and colored with Copics. The background was sponged with distress inks. The sentiment was printed on my label maker and adhered to the panel. Then I took a piece of acetate (recycled packing) and embossed it in a Cuttlebug folder to represent the rain. I sprayed the back side of the acetate with Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Mist to give the drippy look. Hopefully the boys will be able to get out and play again soon.

Cuttlequilt

This week's Try That Technique challenge is the Cuttlequilt Technique from the new Emboss or Die CD. As you can see, the background looks somewhat like a quilt and the sections have either been embossed or stamped. All of the embossing folders and stamps are from the Tim Holtz collection. 
This card is also part of the Creative Belli Blog challenge. Notice the brad that is attached near the sentiment. Well that brad was made using my I-Top brad maker. The challenge was to use a tool that we hadn't used for a long time. Well, I can't remember the last time I used the I-Top.

Queen Bee

The challenge at Created by Hand  this week is Queens/Purple. Since the theme didn't specify Human queens, I went with the Queen Bee. She is in her honey comb and is surrounded by royal purple. See, she even has a crown.  I had a little fun with the sentiment. It's a trinket from Club Scrap with a little help from me. It says "Wherever You Are  Bee"

Shall We Dance

Bloggers Challenge this week is Make It Shimmer, and make it shimmer I did (at least in real life). I started by stamping this Stampsmith image of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers on glossy paper. Then I painted the image with Creative Inspirations Paints for more shimmer. The frame is cut using a Heartfelt Creations/Spellbinders die and covered with Rock Candy Stickles for even more shimmer. The background is a piece of DCWV glittery paper. I added a little bling to the frame, a center pearl surrounded by two rhinestones.
This card also meets the challenges at the Stampsmith Challenge which is The Starring Role and at Ink on my Fingers Sunday Challenge which is pearls and diamonds.

Wishful Thinking

It's 46 degrees right now in Chicago. What's with this crazy weather. I thought that this tropical scene might help warm the chill in the air. The Random Redhead Challenge (GC103) at Gingersnap Creations is scene stamping. I'll bet it's 80 degrees with a cool sea breeze in this village.

Grungy Monday 8

This week the Grungy Monday challenge is to try The September 2008 Technique Challenge from Tim Holtz. Basically it is watercolor stamping with ink. The images I used are from Fred Mullet. One thing Tim said is to just touch the stamp to the paper after it is inked and misted. I think I may have pressed the sea ferns too hard especially at the top of the long nose butterfly fish. The one by the parrot fish is a little better. Tim said this technique would take practice. The sentiment is from the Stampscapes collection.

Lest We Lose Them...

This month the Chapel Road Artstamps Design Team have been focusing on masculine cards . For my last presentation this month I decided to use a stamp from the Lest We Lose Them stamp set.  I started by stamping the large stamp on a piece of white cardstock. Then I used Broken China and Antique Linen Distress Stains (Tim Holtz) to do a general coloring. I stamped the stamp a second time on white cardstock and this is where I went nuts. Each of the animals was cut out and colored using either flock (deer, polar bears, toucan, swallow, fox, and seal) or Viva Decor Paint Pens (penguins, turtle, heron) I wish you could touch the card. There is so much texture. Keeping with the masculine theme, I used twine for ribbon along the bottom. This also meets  challenge 102 for Gingersnap Creations.

WendyVecchi Style

I love Wendy Vecchi's art. I love the texture, the dimension, and her creative ideas. I only have her third book (it's autographed), but I plan to get the rest of them when I can. So if you have Wendy's third book, you'll recognize several elements in my creation. I used a frame and wrapped it with Tim Holtz's tissue tape. The center is a rectangular coaster which I colored with weathered wood distress stain and stamped using some of my TH stamps, including the sentiment. The bird and cage are part of the TH movers and shakers die line, as is the butterfly. The roses in the corner were cut from paper from one of the paper stacks using a Sizzix die. The chain and clips used to hang the piece are also from the TH line. Thank you Wendy for the creative ideas and thanks Tim for the items used to put the creative ideas to work. Oh, by the way, the whole inspiration to create this wall hanging is because Simon Says Stamp and Show some Wendy Vecchi Style.

Stars and Stripes

 Tuesday Throwdown is challenging us to use stripes in our work. I chose to go with stars and stripes since Memorial Day is coming up this weekend. I had some clear plastic bookmark holders in my stash, so I decided to make a bookmark. Here you see the front and the back. I used stamps from the Artistic Outpost stamp sets Hero and She-roes. To make the background I dry embossed blue cardstock with stars and red cardstock with stripes. I used white titanium pan pastels to highlight the stars and stripes. To top it off I added a Muse Token (Tim Holtz) with a C for Courageous.

Antique Wallpaper

This week the Try That Technique challenge went back to June 2010 in the form of the antique wallpaper technique. I love this technique. It's one I've used several times. I think it's easy and effective. It gives a great vintage look to your artwork. For my card I chose to use this great image from the Artistic Outpost Gatsby collection. I thought that the image and the vintage look went well together. For the background I used faded denim and weathered wood distress inks.

Recycle SDC30

The current challenge at Stampotique Designs is Recycle or Repurpose. Let me start my story by saying that for Mother's Day my daughters gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers. Since Mother's Day is several weeks past, some of the flowers were starting to droop. As I was getting ready to toss them out, the lightbulb flashed. Try recycling the flowers by smashing them on paper. I had never been successful with this technique in the past, but now I have a Vagabond, so I decided to try again. The background of my card is made by smooshing rose petals on white cardstock. I stamped Grow Girl on a separate piece of paper and cut her out. She is colored with Copics. The ribbon was colored with spun sugar distress stain and then I stamped the sentiment part of the stamp on the ribbon. The leaves are a die cut from Sizzix. Now I have a card to remind me of my Mother's Day flowers.

Bundle of Joy

This week the challenge at Critter Sketch is "It's Hip to be Square" and the challenge at Tuesday Throwdown is  baby/child. One of the reasons I participate in so many swaps is that I discover stamps that I forgot I had. For this swap I was looking for a baby or child image that grabbed me. Now don't get me wrong, I have lots of baby or child stamps that I love, but when I found this stamp from I Brake for Stamps, I knew it was the one for me today. And it happened to be square, so it worked for a second challenge. I started by stamping the image. I used the Pulled Glimmers technique (Technique Junkies) for the background. I restamped the baby part of the stamp, colored it with markers, cut it out and adhered it over the first stamping.  Then the next amazing thing happened. The image fit perfectly over the new Spellbinders die I just bought. I adhered image and frame to a white square card base. I could have used a rectangular card base and worked the sentiment below the image, but I decided to stick with the square theme. The letters were made using my Quikkutz alphabet. (Hmmm, it's been awhile). Todays' work was a kind of blast from the past combined with a brand new die. Fun!

Color Blocked Steampunk GM7

This week the Grungy Monday challenge is Tim Holtz Distress Ink Color Blocking. I really like this technique and I feel you may see it again from me soon. I created the background using the technique. All of the stamps except the sentiment (Artistic Outpost) are from the Tim Holtz collection, Steampunk. I stamped the gentlemen and then masked them. I then used the catalog and the diagram stamps. The two gear are from the Idea-ology movers and shakers line. They were painted with silver antique Creative Inspirations paint. The pointing hand is also from the set of Steampunk stamps. What is it about the Steampunk look that makes it so much fun to use.

It's an Old Wives' Tale

"If the first butterfly you see in the year is white, you will have good luck all year." Simon Says Stamp and Show an old wives' tale. So many of the old wives' tales I came across had bad endings, so I really liked this one. It also worked well with the challenge at Created by Hand which is Emerald/Glitter.
To create my card I took a piece of emerald cardstock and die cut the two Tim Holtz butterflies from it. Then I dry embossed the panel with the dots. I layered the emerald panel over a white panel which I had run through the Xyron.  Since the adhesive was on the cardstock under the butterfly openings, I was able to add white glitter. I added the sentiment and a few pieces of bling and then layered the finished emerald panel over a white card base. Hopefully these white butterflies will give everyone good luck.

Writing Journal

This month's Chapel Road Artstamps challenge on the Class Act Insider blog  is Anything Goes and we are creating projects fit for a man. I used a blank book to create a writing journal. All of the stamps I used are from the Chapel Road Artstamps sheet Scribe. For the cover I stamped the focal image and framed it in a Spellbinders label. The sentiment was stamped and adhered to a gold panel. I then adhered a pen nib to the sentiment label. On the corners I attached metal corners from the Tim Holtz collection. On the inside cover I stamped the writing hand in three colors randomly over the page. The first page was stamped with the pen and ink bottle and the quote "The pen is mightier than the sword." I have just the person to give this journal to as a birthday gift .

Inspired

This week Blogger's Challenge is an inspiration challenge. On the left is the photo to use for the inspiration. I chose to follow the nautical theme. My boat uses sails instead of oars, but it's definitely a sailing vessel. Note the sea shells as centers of the flowers. The image is a McMahon Vintage Digital. I loved the movement of the image and the flowers which go around the image. I colored the image with my Pan Pastels. I thought I'd try something different. The dimensional flowers are painted with Creative Inspirations Paints to give that added shimmer. The centers of the bigger flowers are little seashells. The centers of the tiny flowers are pearls (actually Viva Decor pearl pen). The background paper and sentiment are from Club Scrap. The sentiment is actually very clear on the care. The little blur here is due to the bulk of the sea shells against a flat scanner.

This has been another fun challenge in the Bloggers corner.

Chotski Pin

Very popular on the All Things Tim Group currently are Chotski pins. I was fascinated by the idea and had to try and make one. The pins are available through Red Lead Paperworks. They also have a lot of the charms. My friend is celebrating her birthday, so I thought that one of the pins would make a good gift. The pin has five loops on which to hand the charms. I went through my stash and my Tim Holtz  findings for my charms. I hope she'll like the pin.

S is for Scarecrow

This fun card fulfills two great challenges this week.  The Try That Technique at Technique Junkies is Cute Cuts from the 10-10 issue of the TJ Newsletter. The Creative Belli Blog challenge # 117 is the letter "s". The wonderful scarecrow image from the Artistic Outpost Oz Collage sheet makes up the focal image. Yes, Scarecrow starts with S and does the Straw embellishment behind him. The background is an example of the Cute Cuts technique. I used the Patchwork embossing folder from the Tim Holtz line for my cuts. The scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite characters.

Anything Goes

This week Simon Says Stamp and Show Anything Goes. My card uses an image from EarthArt International whose animals represent the spirit of nature. I used my copics to color the moose. This was fun because as I colored the image I kept discovering more nature images. If one looks closely one might find a frog, a snale, an owl, a butterfly, lots of leaves, clouds and raindrops, a racoon, lots of flowers, a salamander, the sun and moon, a lady bug, a leapard, feathers, and various animal patterns. There is so much nature to discover. The sentiment is from Stampscapes.

Magical Creature

This weeks Bloggers Challenge has been somewhat delayed due to Blogspot problems, but everything seems to be up and running now. The challenge this week is to use the sketch at the left to create our card. I was going through some of my older stamps and came across my Pegasus zebra. I really like this stamp from Third Coast, so I decided to make him my focal image. Since he is a mythical, magical creature I went with fantasy colors to back him up. All of the papers are from Club Scrap. I think the copper metallic die cut behind the zebra adds to the whole fantasy feeling. I can't wait to see how everyone else interpreted this sketch.

Another Masculine Card

Doesn't this fish make a great masculine card. I used the individual fish and the rectangular image from the Chapel Road Artstamps Large Rock Artishapes sheet to make this masculine card. I used the polished stone technique to color the background and then stamped the fish all over the panel. I framed the rectangular fish image using the torn frame technique from Technique Junkies. The sentiment is from the Birthday Abermarle stamp sheet.
I know I can use this card for Father's Day, a birthday, or any other special day. How versatile is that!

Grungy Monday 06

This week the Grungy Monday challenge was to revisit the technique from 12 Tags of Christmas, 2007, Day 8. Of course I made a few adjustments to create my version of the tag springtime style. Tim used the paint dabber going top to bottom to create the look of distressed wood. I went side to side to create the look of clouds and sky. Tim stampsed a tree; I stamped flowers. Time used the painted brads for ornaments; I used my painted brads for flowers. Tim added a calendar and a pair of ice skate charms. I added the fence and the flying bird charm. One oops on my tag--Tim said to be sure and rub the paint on the stamp with the dabber to avoid bumps in the paint. My dabber had become dry and I had to use my fingers to add the paint to the stamp. Guess what, I got a few bumps in the paint. Oh well, nature isn't perfect.

Queen Mother

Royalty is the current challenge at the Creative Belli Blog.  Since The spirit of the Belli challenges is to encourage us to use our OLD and FORGOTTEN embellishments, I spent some time going through my embellishment drawer. Hmmm, there are lots of things in there I forgot I had. The letter/ribbon charms were still in an unopened package from times way past and would you believe, there were enough letters to create the sentiment.
I thought that this image from Stampotique was the perfect focal image to post the day after Mother's Day. There she is with her two darling children. Her day as queen is coming to an end. Reality will soon set in.

Mothers, Lovely Ladies

The current challenge at Stampsmith is Celebrating Mothers. Closely related is May's challenge at the Artistic Stamper  which is Lovely Ladies, Gorgeous Girls. I created a card using a Stampsmith stamp from the Baron's Daughter stamp set. I stamped the stamp on glossy paper (may cause the image to look checkered on the computer--it's not irl.) The image was colored using Tombow Markers. I framed the image using the Heartfelt Creations/Spellbinders window die. Using a white on white technique, I placed the framed image on a white panel which was dry embossed using a Texture Fade. the sentiment is from Club Scrap.
Hope everyone has a Happy Mother's Day.

Singing Bird

This week Simon Says Stamp and Show hands. In my creation I used a hand stamp from Stamp Zia. The bird on the finger is also from Stamp Zia. For both the hand and bird, I stamped on a piece of designer paper and cut them out.  OK, for a little humor I used the perfect coloring medium for the nails -- Smooch. I couldn't resist since the bottles look and work so much like nail polish. The sentiment (from Oxford Impressions) was stamped and mounted on a die cut label which was cut from wood paper and colored with walnut stain distress stain. The flower is made from TH tissue tape with a button as the center. The background is corrugated cardboard with the outside layer pulled off. I used terra cotta color wash spray for the color and then added gesso. The background was adhered to a piece of chipboard with tissue tape around the edges. I put a piece of design paper on the reverse as a finishing backing. I seem to be on a wall hanging kick lately.

CHAPTER 4 Challenge - Week2: Time

Alice sighed wearily. `I think you might do something better with the time,' she said, `

than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.'

`If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, `you wouldn't talk about wasting IT. It's HIM.'

`I don't know what you mean,' said Alice.

`Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. `I dare say you never even spoke to Time!'

`Perhaps not,' Alice cautiously replied: `but I know I have to beat time when I learn music.'

`Ah! that accounts for it,' said the Hatter. `He won't stand beating.'

-- Chapter 7, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Time marches on and it's time for a new challege, and the challenge is to make something that represents TIME! Take your time, you have until May 27 at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4:00) to show us YOUR timely creation!  There are so many ways to represent time - you could use a clock or a watch, hourglass, calendar. . .  take some TIME to think about it and then be sure you submit on TIME because TIME flies!  Ok, I think I have it out of my system. . . or is that my clockworks?

Our sponsor this month is Fresh Brewed Designs, and they have some fabulous Alice in Wonderland digi images that some of the design team will be using. The randomly chosen winner of this month's challenge will receive five digi stamps of their choice from the Fresh Brewed Designs store!

While it is not required that you use Alice in Wonderland images, we do encourage it. Entries that feature some aspect of Wonderland will be entered twice for the prize drawing! Be sure to add your art to the linky on the Altered Alice site. And check out what the other designers have created.

Three guest designers will be joining us for May: Jess Marin of My Scrap Diary will be sharing her project in our Week 3 post, and Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog and Tracy (CuddlyBunny) of Not a Moment to Spare will be sharing their creations during our Week 4 inspiration post. I know you will enjoy seeing the work of these talented designers, some of whom you will recognize as past entrants to our challenges!
 
This is the project I created for the challenge.

 I enjoyed making this project. I thought that a framed wall hanging would be fun to create. I started with the background. I used glossy cardstock and used the canned air/alcohol inks technique for the color. I then printed the tick tock clock background on the sheet. I actually was able to heat emboss the image since the printer ink stayed wet long enough to emboss.

Next I printed Hatter Madness, colored him using the watercolor marker technique and framed him using the weathered clock die cut from the Tim Holtz line cut from grungeboard and painted with the black paint dabber. The tea bag is made from folded vellum which has the Drink Me image printed on it.  (Unfortunately the image didn't photograph clearly because of the vellum.) The sentiment label on the corner is a stamp from Tweety Jill Designs. It also is colored using the Watercolor Marker technique. It was adhered to a label made from a Spellbinder's die.

The frame was an old one I had in my stash. I covered it with gesso, and then sprayed it with espresso and denim color wash. I love how it turned out.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you create.

Ride 'Em, Cowboy

My art piece today is the result of the technique challenge at Grungy Monday and the theme challenge 101 at Gingersnap Creations. The two challenges worked so well together. Grungy Monday's challenge was called A New Dimension where we were to use Tim Holtz's May, 2008 Technique Challenge.  The Gingersnap Chestnut theme challenge is Cowboys and Cowgirls.
My piece started when I found these wooden wagon wheels. I thought they would be fun to use in a project. When Linda challenged us with Tim's May 2008 challenge, I knew just what I wanted to do. I did do a little oops on the project. I should have made the hole for the wheel a bit bigger, but this works well enough. My project is a wall hanging made from foam board. I covered the foamboard with paper from the Kraft Resist Card Stack. I colored over the paper using wild honey distress stains. (Oooo I love those stains.) The wheel is imbedded in the foam board with a piece of paper from another TH paper stack as a backing. The saloon is stamped on wood paper and torn. The cowboy is stamped on the board and then again on white paper. I cut out the horse and rider (colored with markers) and adhered it over the stamped image. The words Wild West were stamped on the board and painted with Creative Inspirations paints to add a little shimmer to the words. As a final touch, I added a rope embellishment to the piece.

Postcard

Back

Front

Can you guess what this week's Bloggers Challenge theme is? Yes, it's Nature. I was happy about the theme since it gave me an opportunity to do some scene stamping. Yes, I'm one of those folks who has lots and lots of Stampscapes stamps. I love the look of scene stamping and I love to do scenes, but I haven't created a full scene in many, many moons. I decided that instead of a regular greeting card, I would make a postcard.  Somehow, I think that nature scenes and postcards go together.

All of the stamps and sentiments (except Tim Holtz's Postcard stamp) are from Stampscapes. The card was colored using Adirondack inks.

I can't wait to see what everyone else had created.

Man time

Masculine cards always seem more difficult to create. This month the Design Team for Chapel Road Artstamps are  focusing on cards for men.  For my card I used images from Two by daVinci. The image and sentiment were matted on black cardstock and then layered on Graphics 45 paper from A Proper Gentleman stack. Three grommets are the only embellishment bling. In my mind, the image plus the color, plus simplicity make for a great masculine card. That's why I am entering this card in the Ink on my Fingers Sunday challenge.

Stampotique Challenge--Past and Present

The latest challenge at Stampotique Designs is a sketch challenge using Stampotique stamps only. I have a confession to make. I never had a chance to do the last challenge which was Newspapers. I had really wanted to do that challenge, but everyday life got in the way. Since there was no theme to the current challenge, I decided to use newspapers as my theme as I did the sketch. This is what I came up with. Gibi is carrying her New York Times. She is backed by a panel cut from the newspaper. I couldn't resist using the heads on the center panel and using the caption "Headline News". Bad pun, but fun don't you think.

Mother's Day Challenges

My Mother's Day card was created using the challenge sketch from Critter Sketch. I really like this layout. The challenge at Tuesday Throwdown was Mother's Day. The challenge at Created by Hand was to create art using the theme , “Mothers/Pearls” ,  in some way, shape, or fashion.

All of the stamps used are from Artistic Outpost. The focal image is from the Generation Redux stamp sheet and the stamped sentiment is from the Songbirds stampsheet. The rest of the sentiment is from Outline stickers alphabets. The background paper is cut from a sheet of Club Scrap paper. The image is layered on purple cardstock and is surrounded by little pearls.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day.

White on White Challenge

The Try That Technique Challenge at Technique Junkies is the White on White technique from the Emboss or Die CD. The hardest thing about this technique is scanning the finished image. I put an envelope behind the card to scan it clearer. My corners have a leaf branch cut with a Sizzix die. Running across the card is a piece of lacy ribbon. The two butterflies were cut using one of Tim Holtz's dies. The butterfly paper is very glittery. This is a great technique.

Flowers for You

They say that April showers bring May flowers. Here is a bouquet of flowers surrounded by sunshine. This pretty stamp is from  Heartfelt Creations. I used the level up technique (Technique Junkies 8-9/2010) to give dimension to the flowers. The challenge at Tuesday Throwdown is to use brads or eyelets on our work. These sun eyelets have been in my possession for years. This seemed the perfect place to bring them out and use them. All coloring was done with Creative Inspiration Paints. The eyelet circle and the scalloped square were both cut using Spellbinders dies.

Don't Forget--It's That TIME Again!

Don't forget that there's a new Altered Alice challenge starting today.

Alice sighed wearily. `I think you might do something better with the time,' she said,

`than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.'

`If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, `you wouldn't talk about wasting IT. It's HIM.'

`I don't know what you mean,' said Alice.

`Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. `I dare say you never even spoke to Time!'

`Perhaps not,' Alice cautiously replied: `but I know I have to beat time when I learn music.'

`Ah! that accounts for it,' said the Hatter. `He won't stand beating.'

-- Chapter 7, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Time marches on and it's time for a new challege, and the challenge is to make something that represents TIME! Take your time, you have until May 27 at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4:00) to show us YOUR timely creation! 

I'll be posting my creation next Sunday. Meanwhile, check out the Altered Alice blog for all the details!

Love Those Flowers

Today I used a Technique Junkie technique called Taffeta Flowers. The Created By Hand challenge is to use ribbon on our artwork and this week Simon Says Stamp and Show some buttons.  I used white taffeta ribbon which I colored with spun sugar distress stain. I'll never buy colored flowers or colored ribbon again. The flower centers are buttons from my button stash. The leaves were die cut using the Tim Holtz Movers and Shakers Leaf and Twig set. The sentiment is from Quietfire.