I've been prepping holiday cards for a class I'm giving this week. I've been doing lots of holiday shopping, and holiday gift making. So, here it is, still officially autumn, only days after Thanksgiving, and I find myself completely done with winter! Can't explain it any other way, because I generally like the colder months. Most of what I've created lately has been for a specific project or PID challenge, but yesterday I sat down and decided to make something just for myself. I started with a 4 x 4 piece of cardboard, which I sprayed with glimmer mist, and then let the background dictate where to go from there. I added some flowers with a watercolor technique (ink the stamp with markers, spritz with water and stamp), and decided it just had to be a spring theme. The rest just came to me. The "NO MORE SNOW" at the bottom is pretty funny, since we haven't had any real snow yet this year. And spring isn't even close to being my favorite season. Go figure.
The blue trim is German scrap, and the image is from PID.(http://www.paperimagerydesigns.com/)

More Trash to Treasure

Last Friday, at my Stampin' Up team meeting, we celebrated Heidi's (our leader) birthday. Of course, since we're a crafty bunch there were lots of hand made cards and gifts. My contribution was a necklace with two pendants. I did all the beading, and made the pendants from small game pieces. I covered them with some old sheet music, colored the paper with glimmer mist, and did a little wire wrapping. Then I tried something new to finish them off and protect them. I dipped them in Mod Podge....a little drippy and took forever to dry, but there are no brush strokes, and the finish is nice and thick and glossy.

Here is a close up of the altered game pieces:

By the way, the sheet music is from Snow White. The first piece has the word "some", the second has "will come." As in, "some day my prince will come." Makes me smile. But, lucky Heidi actually has found a prince.

PID Monday Challenge

This week's challenge is trimmings -- rick rack, German scrap, twine, fibers, lace.

I used one of my favorite PID images on a transparency and layered it over a copy of an old postcard. The trim is some bits of lacey stuff I had in my ribbon stash, and I added two flowers which I colored with Glimmer Mist. Since I used a postcard and the lady looks so desperately worried, I added text that has (I hope) just the right amount of angst, lol. Sigh....when will that letter come?

PID Monthly Theme Swap

My PID yahoo group got so busy with swaps, jams, mingles, challenges, techniques, etc. that a sub group was formed for those of us who do a lot of sharing. FYI, here are some definitions:

swap: create a given number of pieces, send them to the swap host who then distributes them
to all participants

jam: we've been playing with three people; the first person creates a background on 3 ATCs and
sends all three to the next person. Person #2 adds a focal image and sends all 3 on to the
last person, who adds embellishments and sends them back to person #1. Then person #1
adds the finishing touches and keeps one card and sends the other 2 to the jam partners.
This can take weeks to finish, but in the end you have a collaborative piece that is a real
treasure. I've participated in several jams and I just love them.


mingle: a theme is announced, you create your piece and post a picture of it in the album. If you
decide to mingle out your piece you sign up and are given the name of someone to send it
to, just as someone has been given your name. I almost always mingle out my pieces
because I love getting new art in the mail!

Back to the monthly swap.....We just completed one using the PID image of Sarah, a lovely vintage photo. It was a 5/5 swap, meaning we each created five ATCs and received 5 in return. I think I love these swaps the most because it is so interesting to see how differently we all use the same image.

Above is my Sarah swap. I used the faux tin ceiling technique, minus the scoring for the background, and put Sarah in a frame that is dotted with a little bling. I added the ribbon on top, trying to give it the look of an old portrait hanging on a wall.

This is Angie's Sarah:
The next one was done by Brenda:

Dianna's Sarah:Our wonderful swap host Elena did this one:




Kim's Sarah:
Check out the group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperimagerydesigns/) and join us!

From Trash to Treasure: Altered Game Pieces

Last week I shared teaching duties with Heidi at her Meetup. (http://rubberstamp.meetup.com/264/). She showed the group how to turn an inexpensive chain bracelet and some brads into a wonderful piece of jewelry. My contribution to the class was taking some old plastic game pieces, altering them with alcohol inks, stamps, embossing powder and clip art, and turning them into unique pendants. Here are two of the completed pieces (I think they were done by Heather -- if I got that wrong, please let me know!)

And here are some of the brad bracelets. This is Evelyn's. She decorated the brads with some stamped images and some from my favorite source, Paper Imagery Designs. (http://www.paperimagerydesigns.com/)

This one was decorated with patterned paper.

And this one I finished at home -- the class was so full that Heidi and I couldn't sit! I added some rhinestone brads between the larger ones (also decorated with patterned paper) for some extra bling.

If you'd like to see some more, check out my friend Melissa's blog, Artful Textures. (http://artfultextures.blogspot.com/)

New ATCs

Wings Challenge at PID -- the angel (with butterfly wings) is looking up at, and watching over the wee garden fairies. Whimsical and fun. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperimagerydesigns

The background was done with a cuttlebug folder on textured cardstock. All images, PID.

Winter's Beauty ATC, also from the PID yahoo group. Dye ink emboss resist, glitter, crystals, and the flourishes are on a transparency that covers it all. I call it "Going to Grandma's (with a gift). Stamps are Stampin' Up, all images, including the transparency, PID.

Every month there is an ATC jackpot at PID. We post our cards and at the end of the month one lucky member is picked to receive them all! I haven't won yet, but enter monthly because you never know..... November's theme is "thanks." I am most thankful for good friends, and I wanted my ATC to reflect the idea that sometimes friendships may seem strange, the pairings unlikely. However, anyone or even anything that you share joy with, is a friend. A book can be a friend. A person who shares none of your political beliefs can be a friend. Or in this case, a bird and a child bring one another great happiness. This one was done with a lot of watercoloring, liberal amounts of Glimmer Mist, a leaf punch, and of course, the images are from PID.

Technique Thursday

This week's technique challenge at PID is emboss resist. Click here for a wonderful tutorial (thanks, Arlene!):

http://paperimagerydesigns.blogspot.com/2008/11/technique-thursday-emboss-resist.html

I had one little "goof" -- I was supposed to use clear embossing powder, but grabbed the white instead. Don't they look exactly alike when in the jar???? Oh well, I always say that in art there are no mistakes, just opportunities to get creative. I do always say that. I'm not sure I always mean it (smiling), but I do say it all the time.

Here it is, not even Thanksgiving yet, and the temps in NYC have been in the 60's, but for some reason, I'm in a winter kind of mood.

The flourish stamps are Stampin' Up, the image, of course, PID.

Winter's Beauty

The current challenge at PID (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperimagerydesigns/) is called Winter's Beauty. I decided to work a bit larger than my usual ATCs, so did a skinny, which is 3x5. The background is the faux tin ceiling tile technique, minus the scoring, which I learned from a wonderful blog called Mel Stampz. Here is the link to that technique: http://melstampz.blogspot.com/2008/08/faux-tin-tile-with-aluminum-foil.html

I swiped the background with several shades of blue distress inks, covered it all with embossing powder and heat set it. The blue sparkles are made with good old Crayola glitter pens! The image started out sepia toned. I glittered the coat, and used white flock for the muff, collar and even the snow.

I don't think the scan does justice to just how sparkly this piece is. The light bounces off almost every part of it, and I'm happy with the way it turned out.

My Paper Crafts Group

Once a month I meet with some members (whoever is interested that month) of my friend Heidi's Meetup group (http://rubberstamp.meetup.com/264/) to share our unique interpretations of projects from the current issue of Paper Crafts magazine. (http://www.papercraftsmag.com/). We each prepare two projects and bring enough supplies for everyone in the group to make one as well. One of the projects we select ourselves, and the second is picked in advance by Marty, Heidi's fiance. I love seeing how everyone interprets the second one. We're all looking at the same item in the magazine, and each of our designs is completely different.

Today's inspiration piece, selected by Marty, was an advertisement that featured a white Christmas tree and silhouettes of people and lots of flourishes. Here is Pat's card:

This is how Heidi interpreted the ad:

And finally, here's how I saw it:

I am fascinated by the way the three of us looked at the same page and came up with three totally different cards.

Now for the cards that we did based on projects that we selected ourselves. Here is my French-themed Christmas card:

Heidi's fabulous peacock card:

And Pat's stunning card which featured a wonderful camo technique from TJN (http://patstamps.blogspot.com/), and beautiful watercoloring: