New Art

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and/or Chanukkah, and that you're all ready to greet 2009 with joy and creativity. I have so many projects underway right now, and am trying to complete them all before I take off for Florida on Saturday to visit my mom. I'm working on a swap for the Gotham City Stampers, a fat book for Paper Imagery Designs, a make-n-take for an upcoming SU open house, and a Valentine's Day challenge for the PID design team. Phew! I also just completed an ATC swap for my All Things Tim yahoo group. Can't post any of that yet, but I have managed to create a little art that I can share now.

This week's challenge at PID is to use the word be in a project, as in be happy, be brave, etc. Here's my ATC, Be Unique:

And here is my tag, Be Playful:

A recent challenge was called Dynamic Duo. We were to use one color + a metalllic. I chose purple (not my usual go-to color) and silver for this 4x4:

Another recent PID challenge was to "think spring." Here's my ATC for the theme:
I just love the new vintage Valentines sheets from PID. I used one in the ATC. I also did a 4x4 for this challenge, and went all pastel for this one. The image was sepia toned, but I colored it with pencils and blended with gamsol:

Happy Happy 2009 everyone!

Happy Holidays Everyone

To all who have taken the time to stop by and visit my little blog, I say thank you, and I hope you are having the very best of holidays, and that 2009 brings you good fortune, good health, good friends, good times, and joyful creativity!

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Twelve!

This is it! My last gift to open... :( ... and what a great way to end a fabulous event. This is from Sarah, and it winged its way here from sunny (we have opposite seasons, you know!) Australia. It is a fabric piece, and has some designer napkins inside. Although I love to make things by hand (obviously), I am in awe of anything sewn. I can do many crafty things, and my mother, great aunt, and two grandparents could sew beautifully, but the sewing gene has escaped me. So for me, this is an awesome gift. Thanks, Sarah!

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Eleven

Brrrrrr....it's all of 12 degrees right now in NYC. What better way to warm my soul, if not my body, than with the opening of my 11th gift in the Paper Imagery Designs 12 Days of Christmas gift swap. Today we open Lee's gift, all the way from Australia! Another reason to love my participation in this yahoo group -- the opportunity to meet and share art with people thousands of miles from my home. Lee's two-sided treasue (ornament? book mark? both?) is now on display, making me smile, as it well should.

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Ten

Today we open Kim's gift. Kim is one of the people in the PID yahoo group that I seem to be paired up most often for swaps. I have a huge collection of her work, and that makes me very happy, because her work is awesome. For the 12 Gifts project Kim made ornaments, and the one I received is lovely, really special. It has joined the others on my display, and I adore it!

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Nine

MY Day Nine -- yesterday didn't count for me, as it was my gift that was opened by others. Today I got to open Elena's gift. It was packaged in a Christmas themed take out container - very cute! - and inside is the sweetest, most delicate ornament, with the PID image of Sarah. Just lovely! Thank you Elena. It is already on display!

The 1st Tag of Christmas

When I started following Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas, he was on Day 2, and I just got around to doing his Day 1 tag. By now I've acquired quite a few of Tim's products, so completing this tag was a bit easier. I still don't have the street light stamp he used, but I do have the seasonal grunge board, so I substituted something from that set for the stamp. Of course I tweaked the design in other ways, but it's pretty close to the original, at least in spirit. 12 Tags of Christmas: complete!

Valentine's Day Collage Sheets - sneak peek!

This is a quick and easy Valentine's ATC that I made using some wonderful PID collage sheets. They won't be available for sale until January 1, but if you visit Melissa's blog, you'll find out how you may win some! The new images I've seen so far are so lovely, the art practically creates itself.

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Nine

Today is the day that everyone gets to open my gift! I made pendants from bamboo tiles. All have the same theme, but are not quite the same. Of course, I managed to package and send them without taking any photos, but today Brenda posted a picture on her blog. So here is a sample of my bamboo tile pendant, on a ball chain. I packed them in gauze bags which I stamped with some snowflakes.

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Eight

I am loving this 12 Gifts of Christmas swap from the Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group. Today I got to open Dianna's gift. I had some trouble with the photograph. I tried taking it with the flash, without the flash, I scanned it....nothing worked very well. So, just so you know, these pix don't come close to doing justice to this gorgeous two-sided Christmas tag. My white branches are getting full, and the display is just beautiful.

My First Tutorial for Paper Imagery Designs

Earlier this month I was very excited to announce that I had been selected to join the Design Team of Paper Imagery Designs. I've been busy since then reading files and familiarizing myself with all that I can do in this position. One great "job" is to post on the PID blog. Yesterday I posted my very first tutorial. I had such a good time doing it -- planning the project, taking photographs, and getting it all down in a clear (I hope), easy to follow (I hope again) format. For my first attempt I chose one of my favorite background techniques. Click here to learn how to turn a used dryer sheet into a beautiful background.

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Seven

Time to open Chris' package!




Inside, not one, but two gifts!

The pin is made in a very clever way. The PID Santa image is inside a very nicely glittered and gilded bottlecap. That is attached to a flower, and a checkers piece is the back of the pin. Cute! The angel is crocheted and starched, and will be a great addition to my branches full of ornaments. Thanks, Chris!

Speaking of ornaments, I didn't get a package from Wanda in the 12 Gifts swap, but I've seen photos of the ornaments she made. Wow! Visit the PID blog to see all the gifts opened so far, including those I was not lucky enough to receive.

Book Give-Away

I just found out about the release of a new art book by Susan Tuttle, and if you go to Susan's blog you'll get the chance to win a copy.

Exhibition 36: Mixed-Media Demonstrations + Explorations is the name of the book, and will be given away to one eligible person -- the random drawing will be held on Tuesday, December 16th at noon. To enter follow the easy steps below:

1. Mention the book in a post on your blog and include the Amazon link to the book: http://tinyurl.com/64h9tm

2. Mention the contest and include a link to it in your post: http://ilkasattic.blogspot.com/2008/12/book-give-away-contest.html#links

3. Leave Susan a comment for this post on her blog that includes your contact info, so she knows how to find you if you win.

Thanks to Jennifer for letting me know about this book and the contest.

Melissa's Blogoversary Give-Away

My PID pal Melissa is celebrating the 4th anniversary of her wonderful blog, and she is having a great give-away in honor of this milestone. Check out the details:

"Now for the reason you are all here... my Blogoversary Giveaway! Like any Blog Anniversary there is always a Giveaway!
What I am giving away is all the sheets needed to make these Valentines ATCs!!
These collage sheets come from Paper Imagery Designs, my shop. These are not up for sale yet; they are new releases for January 1st so you will get them first before anyone else! You will get: Cupcakes, Hearts, Vignettes, ATC Backgrounds, Rosia, Roses and more.....
So how do you win?? Simple leave me a comment between now and December 20th and tell me which is your favorite ATC. You can enter up to once a day and come back tomorrow and enter again. Post on your blog with a link to mine let me know by leaving a comment and I will enter your name again!!! So you can enter daily plus one more with a blog post! Sound Good??"

Here are Melissa's sample ATCs:

Who wouldn't love to own these collage sheets, and then be able to create something as wonderful as the ATCs shown above? So remember to visit Melissa's blog and leave a comment.

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Six

It may not be light out yet, but it is after midnight, so I can open the next gift in my PID yahoo group 12 Gifts of Christmas swap! It's from Betty, and here's how the wrapped package looks:

Inside is the most amazing gift: it looks for all the world like a little altered book, but the entire piece is made of wood! Betty did an unbelievable job and this is something that I'll keep and cherish forever!

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Five

Is it true that good things come in small packages? After opening Angie's gift this morning, I'd have to say, "oh yeah!"

And inside:

A beautiful bamboo tile necklace with a Christmas theme. Can you see the candy cane the girl in the PID image is holding? Not to mention her Santa hat! The pendant is wrapped in copper foil and has a very thin line of glitter around the front edges. I love the beads and the ribbon it is strung on. Thanks Angie! This is the second bamboo tile necklace I've received in this gift swap. Can't have too many of them, I say. Hmmmm....hope everyone else feels the same (hint, hint).

A Wintery Display

I have a vase on my dining room table, which is in the entry of my apartment. In the warmer months I keep something like curly willow branches in it (yes, I do love fresh flowers, but don't like to take the time or spend the money replacing them weekly), and this time of year it's filled with branches sprayed white.

I was wondering how to show off all the tags I've done, and all the lovely ones I've received, since I do not have a tree. This morning I decided to hang everything from the branches. It makes me smile when I walk through my door.

Closer up:

The 12th Tag of Christmas

So sad....yesterday's tag was the last for '08. Actually, not true. I started doing the tags with day 2, so I still have the very first tag to work on! Forgot all about that. Well, today's tag was a challenge for me, because I own very few of the supplies Tim used on his. Truthfully, those are the ones I like the best. Make me think a little outside the box, and learn to make do with what I have. Not a bad skill to have in all areas of life. Enough philosophy, to the tag! I don't have any Santa stamps. No problem. I wanted to use a PID image anyway, and just love the collage sheet called Father Time. Used one of those Santa images. The cool thing is, Tim's tag features clock works, and the PID image has a clock face superimposed over Santa.

Also don't have the other stamps, but found some in my stash that did just fine.

Don't have Tim's sprockets and gears either. Used a Maya Road clock face rub on, a PID clock face transparency, some grunge board pointers, and a few tiny clock hands from a cheap old broken watch that I took apart for the project.

Lots of other differences, but I enjoyed the process, and like the result.

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Four

Today's gift, courtesy of the insanely talented Shelly, is a double treat because the packaging is as much a gift as the gift itself! Here's how it looks still wrapped up:

Adorable, yes...but we're not done yet! Pull up the ribbon to reveal what's inside:

It's a necklace, cleverly stored on an old playing card. See how the punched notches hold the cord in place:

And here's the gift, a bamboo tile pendant with a gel transfer, on waxed cord with beautiful beaded accents:

Pretty fabulous! The image on the tile is from PID.

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Three

Well, actually day 4 for the group, but gift 3 for me. Remember, 12 gifts received, but more than 12 people participating. Anyway, the third gift I opened was from Susie. Beautiful red paper, cute little gift tag, and the butterfly to hint at what was inside.

Beneath the wrapping, a magnet. That adorable winged child is from Paper Imagery Designs, and her name is Sophia. She is presently resting on my refrigerator door, but as I wrote to Susie, she is far too beautiful and elegant to be stuck in a kitchen. Thanks, Susie!

The 11th Tag of Christmas

After recovering from my shock and joy at winning something on Tim's blog, I was able to really appreciate today's tag. Problem....the focus of the tag are his fragments, pieces of clear plastic in the shape of ornaments, and with a pre-drilled hole on top. I don't own anything like that, but still was determined to make the tag. What's that old saying about necessity being the mother of invention? Well, I took an old CD reject, sanded off the silver, and then cut it into shapes with my Big Shot. The crop-o-dile made a hole without cracking anything, and I was left with a reasonable facsimile of Tim's fragments.

I went on with his directions, and had problem #2. My fault, entirely. I have a bad habit of either not reading instructions at all, or not reading them carefully. Tim clearly said to sand only one side of the fragments; I sanded both sides of my pieces. So I had to modify my design. On Tim's tag, the embossing on the sanded side left the embossed design looking clear next to the frosted look achieved by the sanding. With my pieces, you could feel the embossing, and see it at close quarters, but the it just didn't contrast at all with the background. So, I rubbed some Stazon over top very lightly, and now you can see the snowflake design very easily. To see how the plastic ornaments are supposed to look, check out Tim's blog. Though mine are different, I still like them, and like the entire tag too.

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Two

This is a picture of Victoria's gift, which I can open today.

And here is the lovely tag I found inside:

Why don't you consider joining the Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group so that you can be a part of all the fabulous swaps, mingles, jams, and challenges? You'll love it, I'm sure.

I Won!

I am so excited! I went to Tim's blog early this morning to check out today's tag, and what did I see, but this:

CONGRATS TO YESTERDAY'S WINNERS.(please email me your contact info)"Oh, I just had to stay awake to see this one and so glad I did! It is fabulous -- the colors are just gorgeous. Now I can sleep well and get started on this tag after breakfast! Thanks so much for sharing...and for giving me something wonderful to put in my own blog, lol." Posted by: Eileen in NYC - December 10, 2008 at 12:10 AM

Don't know yet what I won, and don't care. Just so thrilled to have won something. What a way to start the day!

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day One

Well, just got the go-ahead to post, so here is the lovely ornament done by Arlene for Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group 12 Gifts of Christmas giftacular! Isn't it sweet!

The 10th Tag of Christmas

I very much enjoyed creating this tag because I got to play with my new Tim Holtz masks -- what a great product! I followed the layout of Tim's tag and his techniques, but changed the theme. Tim used a large reindeer stamp. I don't actually have any Christmas stamps large enough for this project, so I took a grunge board heart for a LOVE theme, dry embossed it in a Cuttlebug folder for texture, and then gave it a treatment similar to Tim's. I rubbed over it with a clear ink pad, added black embossing powder and heat set it. Then I painted over it with a Perfect Pearls mixture. I used Tim's color scheme, but changed it around. His reindeer was green, the background mostly reds. My heart is reddish pink, the background mostly greens.

The crown is from a Cuttlebug die and embossing folder. I'm thinking this tag should be called "Queen of Hearts."

Looking forward to Tag 11!

Oh, BTW, can't post my first gift in the 12 gifts of Christmas because one of our group lives in Australia, and hasn't received her package yet. Want everyone to be surprised. As soon as I get the word that she has all her gifts in hand, I'll begin posting photos.

Thanks for stopping by!

12 Gifts of Christmas

I signed up for this event at the Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group. Everyone made 12 gifts, wrapped them, and sent them to Melissa, the host. She had the daunting task of organizing everything so that no one received their own gift, packaging, addressing, and mailing it all out. My box was almost the last to arrive, ironic since Mel and I live in the same state! But arrive it did, full of 12 beautifully wrapped presents. Then Mel made up a schedule for opening. Since there are more than 12 of us involved, not everyone received something from everyone participating. But we all got 12 gifts. Today anyone who received something from Arlene gets to open it. I was up early and couldn't wait to see what was inside. All I can say for now is that it is lovely. I can't post a photo until tomorrow -- have to make sure everyone has had the chance to open theirs, for the benefit of those who love being surprised. My gifts are scheduled to be opened on the 19th, and I'm very anxious to see how everyone likes them. Well, have to wait 10 days to find out.

Here's what Arlene's gift looked like wrapped:

The 9th Tag of Christmas

Tim's 9th tag was either much simpler to do, or I'm getting the hang of it! At any rate, it seemed to have fewer and less complicated steps. I was happy to find that my acrylic paint resisted the ink just like the distress paint did on Tim's tag. I didn't have a Santa stamp, large or otherwise, so used a Christmas stocking stamp instead. I used grunge board key and key hole, which I embossed with silver, then antiqued with alcohol inks. I don't have one of those texture hammers, but I do have a meat tenderizer with a bumpy side, so I used that to give the brads an aged look. Sigh....only three more tags to go.

On a happier note, one of my best buds in the Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group, Elena, was one of today's winners today on Tim's blog. Congratulations, Elena, and enjoy your bounty!

The 8th Tag of Christmas

Today's Tim Holtz Christmas tag has two techniques that I really love. The first uses grunge board ornaments covered with Tim's new crackle metallic paint. Over that goes alcohol inks, and the effect is like cracked glass and absolutely stunning. I have an order in for the paint, so will have to wait to try that, so instead I made ornaments from some lovely vintage PID images.

The second technique was covering the tag with images from a Christmas collage stamp, and then blending greens and reds distress ink over top. I don't own such a stamp, so I improvised; I pulled out all the holiday stamps I own and created my own collage. Tim finished his project off with some gold embossing and gold rub-ons. I changed that up too. I embossed with silver and not having any silver rub-ons, I used some silvery snowflake stickers instead. I liked the way it turned out, and instead of a tag, I fastened it to a card base.

Can't wait for Day 9!

The 7th Tag of Christmas

I finally finished today's Tim Holtz tag. It was a little more time consuming than the previous ones, only because there were several steps that required drying time. I love this project. It's whimsical, completely evocative of winter, and I learned how to make snow!! We had a little bit of the real thing early this morning, but the kind of snow I'm talking about involves UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel), glitter, perfect pearls and glossy accents. It makes a big mess, but I heeded Tim's advice and wore gloves and worked over a craft sheet, so no harm done. And the resulting sparkling mounds really do look like freshly fallen snow.

And now....the winner of my tag give-away is......Elena! Congratulations, and it will be winging its way to you just as soon as I decide to brave the cold and drag myself to the post office. Hope you enjoy it!

I'm A Paper Imagery Designer!!!

Paper Imagery Designs recently put out a call for some additions to their design team. Since I'm already addicted to their images, use them constantly, and am super active in their yahoo group, I decided to apply.

Yesterday when I came home after a fun morning of coffee and knitting with Cecilia and some new friends I received a message that I had been chosen!

Words cannot describe how thrilled and honored I am to be a part of this amazing and talented group. I am constantly challenged (in a very good way), and believe my work has soared just by being in this group.

I look forward to participating in any way I'm asked -- completing challenges, creating challenges, posting techniques -- anything and everything.

This, my birthday week was already amazing. What an incredible way to end it!

Part of my design team application was to send in samples. In the seven months that I've been in the yahoo group I've probably done hundreds of pieces using PID images, but for the application I created two new ones, which is what you see above and below.

BTW, I'll surely be back later with my Tim Holtz-inspired 7th Tag of Christmas!