The Lace Journey Ends......And Some Art With Friends

Just before the start of the Memorial Day Weekend, I received Marita's luscious lace journal from Elena, and spent a good part of those days working on it.  Marita's is the last one I had to create for, and soon I'll be getting my own back.  I've loved being a part of this group, and fully intend to continue to incorporate fabric and lace into my projects.

Marita's theme included vintage faces, hankies, and the colors ivory, ecru, and black.  In anticipation, I set aside all the elements I thought might work, and selected a focal image.  So when I actually had the book in my hands, putting together my spread came very easily.  Don't you love when that happens?

You can see I had plenty of lace in the right colors; the pocket for the "hankies" is just an oval doily cut in half.  Since I didn't have a hanky that went well with the colors Marita requested, I made a faux one with black and white netting.



 

 

There is a bit of batting under the image to make it puff up.  I went over her headband and earrings with flat backed pearls and crystals; the gold "chains" on the earrings are lines of Ranger's Liquid Pearls.

 

 

 

The back is simply decorated with lace and some beaded trim.

 

 

 

As for the "art with friends" portion of the title.....I recently got together for a play date with Pat and Teri.  After a wonderful Greek dinner we headed for Teri's place where we each brought a project.  Pat was up first, and we received these:

 

 

 

What to do with a wine glass, a paper template, and an electric votive candle?

 

 

 

Pop in the candle, then using the template, cut out a skirt.  I used a gelli plate page that my pal Lillian gave me when we were at Keys4Art in March.  A dab of glue holds it together.  I used decorative scissors when I cut the top and bottom, and a tiny flower punch to make some holes so the light would shine through.  I also added the beaded trim because.....well, because Pat thought it was a great idea, and it was!

 

 

 

Pardon the pun, but Chinese take out food takes on a whole new light when consumed with this little beauty on the table.

 

Teri's project was altering old photos.  She picked up a huge supply at a second hand store.

 



 

 

They do have to be traditionally developed photos, not computer printed ones.  It's all about the coating.  First we submerged them in water for a few minutes, then dried them off, and proceded to scratch and sand them.  On some I altered only sections, on some the whole photo.  It's a very cool way to isolate one area and then create an entirely new picture surrounding it.  After scratching and sanding, we added paint, and then some stamping.  Here are three I've completed.  I like this!

 

 

You can't see the original photo at all on this one:

I left the stones untouched; I think it looks like seagrass

and weeds are growing out of water:

On this one the wall was unaltered, and the cityscape

stamped over it.

 

 

 

My project was a birthday card using the wrapped package from Tim Holtz's Birthday Blueprint set.  I've seen a few very similar cards in the blogosphere, so I'm not taking any credit for the design.  I have no idea who originally came up with the idea of paper piecing, but it sure wasn't me.  Coupled with pop dots, it does make for a wonderfully dimensional card.

 

 

 



 











Keys4Art 2013 Part II

PROJECTS, Continued

 

 

Last year Pat and I attended a class with the very talented Dina Wakley, where we learned to paint birds.  Actually, the technique can be used to paint anything, but we all love birds.  If you can take a class with Dina, I encourage you to do so.  If not, she has a wonderful new book out called Art Journal Freedom, which has, in addition to lots of tips and techniques, 10 complete and detailed lessons, including the one on bird painting.  I got my copy at Amazon.  My artsy friends did some fabulous paintings:

 

 

 

Pat did a class in stamp carving and that was such great fun.  These are the three simple stamps I carved.

 

 

 

 

I love the way the two small designs look when stamped repeatedly.  In the following, I used black ink to stamp them over two of my gelli plate prints.

 

 

 

Teri taught us how to make a little origami book, which involved some nice paper and a few clever folds.  First, how it looks closed, and then the magic.....how it looks when fully opened.  (That's my NYC stamp on the cover, stamped over a bit of a gelli plate print.  I love how we were able to use things we made in one class in another project).

 

 

 

Pat is a master card maker (that's not all she is, of course, but she really is so skilled at turning out great cards), and she shared a few techniques with us.  These are not fully realized cards, mind you, just practice pieces I did after her demo.  First, faux layering.  This looks like torn paper was used to embellish the card, but it was all done with ink.,

 







 

 

Next up, a seasonal easel card.  Clever use of the grass to hold the card open.

 

 

 

And lastly, my favorite, the fluttering butterfly.  If I had a clue how to make a video I would, because you need to see this guy's wings move to fully appreciate it.

 

 

 

I thought I could do the whole retreat in two posts, but there's still more, and I'm tired!  To be continued.....













Butterflies A Poppin'

The most recent challenge at the Wendy Vecchi yahoo group was to make something that included some sort of pop up (could be done with the Sizzix Pop N Cut die), hearts, glitter, and at least one of Wendy's stamps.  This coincided with my needing a birthday card for a friend, and I had immediate inspiration.

After completing the card (which was more involved and took longer than I normally take in my card making), photographing it, putting it in an envelope for mailing, and posting it on the group site, I realized one tiny little problem.  Oh dopey me....instead of using hearts, I used butterflies.  LOL!  Well, I appealed to a higher authority (that would be list mom Lori), who assured me in her unique style that there would be no challenge po po coming after me, and my entry could remain.  Phew!

Although I do have the Sizzix die, I was intrigued by an accordian fold pop up card by Sandi Genovese (remember her?).  You can find the video here. (Thanks Vic for sending us the link!)      So that is what I used as my inspiration.

Here is the front of the card.  Deliberately plain, because all the action is on the inside.

 

 

The background is Graphic 45 paper, over which I stamped four of my many butterfly stamps (the two on the right are Wendy's).  The very top one was cut from another Graphic 45 paper, and attached only in the center, so the wings could flutter a bit.  The stamped butterflies were colored with distress markers.

 

The inside.....which, you'll have to trust me, is more impressive in person.  A little difficult for me to photograph well.

 

 

The largest butterflies are stamped images which were colored and cut out.  The four in the front row and the one in the middle of the second row are from that same Graphic 45 paper from which I cut the one on the card front.

 

The birthday greeting is a Wendy stamp.

 

 

The bottom of the inside is a strip of Tim's tissue tape.  The two stamped butterflies are Wendy's again, and those were covered with Glue N Seal and then sprinkled with distress dry glitter in clear rock candy.

 

 

 

Oh, and all of the paper on the inside is Graphic 45 as well.  I'm not sure of the collections they came from as I was just grabbing papers from my stash.....my not terribly well organized stash.







A Compendium of Curiosities 2 -- The Final Challenge

First of all, I want to thank Linda Ledbetter for being the creative force behind both the first and second Compendium of Curiosities challenges.  A weekly challenge often gave me just the boost I needed to get the juices flowing.  I participated in all of the first set, but this past year life often got in the way, and I didn't get as many challenge pieces done as I'd have liked.  But, as in all aspects of living, it's best if you just deal with what you've been given, make the best of it, and carry on with as little guilt and fewest "what ifs" as possible.

For the final CCC2, Linda challenged us to use any of Tim's techniques from either Volume 1 or 2, and make a birthday card for Tim.  Great timing, as his birthday is next week.  And I have been itching to use my new Sizzix Pop N Cut die to create something.  Because the focus of this card is the inside, I kept the front fairly simple. 

I used paper from Tim's Vintage Shabby stack and embossed it with his Damask folder, and highlighted the embossing with various distress ink browns and blues.  The banners and leaves are both from his Regal Crest die.  The greeting is an old Stampin' Up stamp which I love and use all the time on birthday cards. It was stamped on some scrap from Vintage Shabby and cut with a scallop oval punch, and layered on a larger plain oval.  That, and the Regal Crest die cuts were done on kraft cardstock, which is what I also used as the card base.

And now for the inside.  I have not done many pop up cards and I think I'm in love!  I need to get more inserts for the base die, but there are plenty of things that can be done with the one that comes with it.







The skyline is a stamp from Tim's Rock Star set.  The balloons, floating above the city are from one of the very first Sizzix dies I ever bought, about a hundred years ago (or so it feels), back when I had that heavy, unwieldly red machine that you had to crank.  That made way for my Big Kick, which, after many years of service, retired (to the back of a closet) to make room for my Vagabond.  I can't imagine having to crank out a die cut anymore!  Spoiled?  You bet I am.  But back to the card.
Except for the skyline, which was stamped on Ranger's Specialty Paper, everything else was cut from various papers from the Vintage Shabby stack, and inked with different distress inks in blues and browns.

Here is a sideways view so you can see the "pop."

 

 

The balloons and the skyline were attached with pop dots, so there was popping on top of popping.

 

The card is in the mail (in one of my handmade envelopes, by the way), and I hope Tim enjoys receiving it even half as much as I enjoyed making it.