Hats Off To Grungy Monday

After three very long days spent in overheated rooms, I have been officially released from jury duty.  I'm all for doing my civic duty, but do they really need to have the courtroom thermostats set to 90?

But, more to the point, I once again have the time to indulge in my favorite passtime....getting my hands good and inky.  Like many of you, I participated in all 35 weeks of Linda's Compendium of Curiosities challenge, and was saddened by it's end.  Fortunately, Linda anticipated that and has begun another set of challenges, called Grungy Monday.  Each week Linda will give us a link to one of Tim's videos or blog tutorials, and challenge us to use his techniques to make a piece that is uniquely our own.  Can you see me smiling?  And there even will be guest designers!

For our first project, we're going back to one of Tim's 2008 12 Tags of Christmas.  A great one (weren't they all?) with very doable techniques.  Click on the link to get all the details.  Of course, given the title, Tim's tag is all red and green and features a lovely reindeer.....not what I have in mind as March comes to an end.  This is what I came up with......and coincidentally enough, as it prominently features a hat, I'm also submitting it to Simon Says Stamp and Show.......a hat!

I had GREAT FUN doing this one......I love steampunk and I got to use products from many of my favorites.  The background technique, straight from Tim's tutorial used both his own gears masks plus some I made myself from his Gadget Gears die.  I made the spray with vintage photo reinker and green patina perfect pearls.  I added quite a bit of stamping over that, all from Oxford Impressions.  The torn paper down the middle is from Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante line.  The bird's body is also an Oxford Impressions stamp, and for the technique I covered the black embossing with a mixture of both blue and green patina perfect pearls and water.  I replaced the bird head with the steampunk man from Wendy Vecchi's Seriously Art set, and he got the same treatment as the bird.

The hat was cut so that a bunch of watch parts (real ones, from my stash) could come pouring out.  I added a bowtie with a little watch part embellishment.   There are some additional touches (the pointing hand, the arrow and the two parentheses) that are actually stickers from Heartwarming Vintage.

I'm sure looking forward to the next set of challenges, and still have one to do for Everything Wendy Vecchi.  I've said it before, but......so many stamps, so little time.....

A Wendy Vecchi Inspired Challenge

A new challenge was posted today on the EVW (Everything Wendy Vecchi for anyone who doesn't know) yahoo group:  make something inspired by anything in Wendy's new book.
Easy.....there is one project that I keep going back to look at.  In case you have the book, it is the one on page 39, called it's all about style, and it features some stamps from my favorite new set.  Love the little skirt and blouse!
This is what I did:

I had a lot of fun with the details here.  I put the skirt and blouse together and "hung" them on a mini wire hanger.  Some grosgrain ribbon and one of Tim's snaps belts the outfit.

Those little scissors started off very differently.  They were bright orange plastic.  Call the Good Taste Police!  I fixed them up with some black and silver alcohol inks.  The thimble is a genuine one, but since I don't sew, it was easy to sacrifice it for the sake of art.

The buttons are also all from my stash.

Don't know where the little spools I put on the hanger came from.  I know someone sent them to me, probably along with a swap, but I can't remember who.  I thought they were perfect for this piece.

I put the words  celebrate with style  on my hanging, thinking I could use it as a birthday card, or really any sort of occasion where celebrating is OK.

You're A Doll

I'm sure you are, but that's also the theme of this week's challenge at PID.  Since I'm just beginning a Marie Antoinette collaborative art journal, the late queen has been on my mind, so I used a PID Marie image as the base of my doll.

 

The head and upper torso are from the image, but everything else was cut from various scraps, mostly past techniques.  The sleeves and lower torso came from the floor wax technique.  The poofy bottom skirt was a scrap left over from the stamping on tissue paper technique, the pink apron is the wax paper resist technique, and right below that is just a scrap of sheet music I distressed with some ink.

I had fun with the shoes....used a few "jewels" on them.  

Marie is holding a bouquet of Prima mini flowers, which cleverly hide my inability to free cut the human hand.

The gold grid over the pink apron is some German scrap that I found under a pile of crap important papers on my work table.

The Circus is Coming.....and a Lovely Giveaway

 

What is this blurry strange thing?  Well, it's a sneak peek of my circus page for a collaborative book some of us are doing at ATT.  There's always a lively discussion about Tim Holtz's Cirque stamp set.  Much as we love All Things Tim, many find his clowns to be, well, creepy.

I'm one of them, though creepy can also be interesting.  At any rate, I jumped at the challenge and have been busy creating 17 pages for this book.  It hasn't been easy, but I'm getting there. I'll post full pictures once our pages have been swapped out.

Here are a few more blurry teases:

 

  

Yes, that is some of Tim's film strip ribbon on the side.  And you do see a clown shoe.  That's all I'm sayin' for now.

Onto the giveaway.  Do you enjoy vintage?  Ephemera? Using the above in your art?  Then check this out:

 

This is only a small part of the giveaway being offered by Robin's Egg Blue, to celebrate this lovely blog's 300+ followers.  Hop on over there to find out how you can win.

Some New Art and A Palm Tree or Two.....

I'm still getting used to being back in the northeast, and all that implies, weather-wise.  I actually love being home, but can't say I don't miss those swaying palms and days spent by the pool.  Anyway....a few projects, and a few shots of Paradise.

 

While I was gone, PID had a "doodle me" challenge, which I completed last night.  We were to alter, with doodling one of their images, and I went to town with my gel pens!

 

Not sure what I was thinking, but it was very therapeutic.  Now, back to Paradise.

This is what the entrance to the dining room looked like:

 

This nice man cut open a coconut for me:

 

And I enjoyed it!

 

Ahhhh, well, back to art.  At ArtHaven, we have a monthly lottery.  This month's theme is "happiness," and we were to enter anything that made us happy.  I've been enjoying altering mini notebooks with both real and faux metal, so this is what I did:

 

As you can see, we had  a very relaxing vacation:

 

We enjoyed Hokkaido, the Japanese restaurant at the resort:

 

  

When I returned home there was a package waiting for me.  It contained a very timely gift from my secret sister (something my SU! team does each quarter).....a picture frame already decorated to hold a vacation photo.  So, I did a little photo collage and popped it in the frame:

 

The new challenge theme at PID is "green or clover."  Yes, it really is almost March, though someone needs to inform the weather people of that fact.  They seem to think we're still solidly in winter.  But, I digress..... I found this cute little guy in my PID stash, and did a St. Patrick's Day card:

 

And I'll end this with a few more random shots from the gorgeous Melia Caribe Tropical Resort in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic:

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenge

Week 11 of the sketch challenge was a joy to do because it has the clean graphic lines I like for a card.  Here is Marty's sketch:

And here is my interpretation (pretty straightforward):

The paper, punch, ribbon, and white pearls are all Stampin' Up.  The metal flowers are Making Memories, and the one blue pearl is just something from my stash...origin, unknown.  I love black, white and gray, but think adding one little pop of an unexpected color makes it more interesting.

The rest of the Gotham City Stampers design team made great cards.  Hop on over to Heidi's blog to see what they did.

Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenge

Yes, I do realize that it is way past Sunday.  Sorry 'bout that.  Heidi has been renovating her blog, switching over to wordpress, working with a blog designer, and the new blog wasn't quite ready on Sunday.  Hope you'll agree that this week's sketch was worth the wait.
Here is Marty's adorable ringing in the new year sketch:

I do have champagne glass stamps.  I was tempted to be literal.  But....as often happens when I look at a sketch, something crazy creeps into my head and I have to go there.  Instead of  seeing glasses touching, I kept envisioning paint brushes crossing.  And an artistic wish for 2010.

So....here is my offering:

Don't forget you can click on it to see detail.  I covered the tips of the brushes with crystal effects to make them look wet, and used some flourishes to represent paint swirls.

The words inside my clock say what I wish for all of you in 2010....an artful year!

Cheers!

(Don't forget to visit Heidi's new blog to see what the rest of the Gotham City Stampers did with this theme).

Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenge

For this week's challenge, Marty did this cityscape sketch:

Don't ask me why, but as I looked at it, all I could see were trees and birds, not skyscrapers and stars.

Maybe I just needed one more excuse to use my all time favorite SU set, "Lovely As A Tree."  And threw in the great tree from "Pendant Park" as well.  I added the sentiment because I plan on sending this card to a friend who is going through a rough patch.

Now, head on over to Heidi's blog to see how the rest of the Gotham City Stampers design team interpreted Marty's sketch.  I think you'll be surprised at the variety.

Angelic ATC and a link to a cool technique

Every week I participate in a challenge at the Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group.  And every week I post the technique I used on the PID blog.
This week's theme is "angels," and here is the ATC I did:

The background was done with mesh drywall tape.  Check out the tutorial on the PID blog for complete details and several variations.

Now, go raid the hardware store and make art!

Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenge

Is this week 7 already?  Marty had a nice simple graphic sketch for us to work on this week.  And as soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what my card would look like.  Now that doesn't happen often!
Here is the sketch:

Marty may have drawn flowers, but considering the season, I saw snowflakes.

Everything was stamped in white and embossed.  They don't really show up in the photo, but there is a little sparkly sticker in the center of each flake.

To see what the rest of the Gotham City Stampers DT did with the sketch, click here to visit Heidi's blog.  Everyone interpreted Marty's sketch so differently, and I think you'll enjoy them all.

Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenge

Wow, week 6 already!  This is the sketch the Gotham City Stampers Design Team had to work with:

Where does Marty get these ideas?

This is my take (I was suffering from Christmas/Chanukah overload and wanted totally different colors):

Now if you head over to Heidi's blog, you'll see what the rest of the DT did.

Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenge

Time for another of Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenges.  Here is the drawing we were given:

And this is my card:

                                     

All paper, stamps, ink and brads, Stampin' Up.  I used some of the same patterned paper I used on the card to make the flowers, and added some dots with gel pens. 

Now head on over to Heidi's blog to see how the rest of the Gotham City Stampers Design Team interpreted the sketch.

Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenge

Another Sunday, another great sketch from Marty:

This is what I did with the sketch:

Now go to Heidi's blog to see what the rest of the Gotham City Stampers design team created.

Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenge

Marty's sketch this week is this sweet little drawing:

I had fun with it, and used one of my new Outlines stamps:

Go to Heidi's blog to see the incredible job the other design team members did with this challenge. And come back next week to see our latest creations.

Marty's Sunday Sketch Challenge

This is the sketch that the Gotham City Stampers design team had to work with this week:

And this is my interpretation:

Check out Heidi's blog to see what my teammates did with the sketch, and come back next Sunday for the next sketch challenge.

A New Weekly Sketch Challenge

You may have noticed a new logo on my sidebar:

The Gotham City Stampers is my Stampin' Up team, and my upline Heidi recently created a design team within our team.  I am a proud member!

Every week we receive a sketch (done by Heidi's fiance Marty) and from that inspiration create a card.  Heidi posts our projects each Sunday and invites everyone to take the challenge and use the sketch.

Here is the card I did this week:

                                     

To see the sketch I used, all the other cards created, and to find out more about my amazing team, visit Heidi's blog.  And come back every Sunday to see what we've created that week.