Summer of Colour-Purple

Kristin  over at Twinkle Twinkle has chosen Purple with bling, glitz and or glitter for this weeks challenge. As you know, if you follow me, I have been making altered canvases, so this week I did one for the challenge. I was going to make greeting cards and I do have a purple card but I am not submitting it for this challenge.

The canvas was too much fun.

I enhanced an image in Gimp and made a purple background. I covered the main canvas with cheesecloth then painted it with Ice Storm Violet acrylic paint. I had a purple paper picked out as well but the flip side was green and I wanted to break up the purple a bit so I opted for that instead. Then I painted the smaller canvas piece with some cheesecloth on it with Pansy Lavender. Added some sequin waste, doily, and my bling is the Stickles I applied to my flowers in the bottom LH corner. I also have a handmade stickpin with a purple bead but you may have to click on the image to see more details.

Thanks for dropping by.

Now to catch up on every one's creations from this weeks Summer of Colour Purple creations.

~♥~

Lots of scrumptous mail

Yesterdays post I was grumbling but today I am so happy. I love getting nice mail. I love sending mail.
You know when you enter blog land and meet so many like minded peeps, when you receive something from them it is very special.
Well my birthday was back in May but I received 2 birthday pkgs in the mail. First one is from my long time painting friend Becky. She got me Monika Brint's newest paint book. I have my eye on a few projects in there already but like everything else I do, I will put my own take on it and change the colours up a bit. Not crazy on the colour selection of some of the projects. And, some scrabble tiles, a couple Asian scrabble necklaces, some mini dominoes, as you can see I already opened the package to take a peek, Becky got me 2 packages, yippee skippee, how cool are those, can't wait to try them and some brad buttons, and some crocheted scrap embellies to use. I already used  one of each on my sewing canvas I posted yesterday.
Thanks so much Becky.

Next some goodies from Jenxo in Australia. Jen sent me Asian papers, a canvas she made, a brooch some laminated bookmarks she made, and this wonderful shrine. Jenxo asked about a shrine I had posted way back in the beginning of the year so she had some time and was able to make me one. This shrine is incredible. There is a little wire birdcage with a swing inside and a door. I am not sure if Jenxo made this or purchased it but it is incredible and I love the little round flowers with beaded centers. Thanks so much Jenxo. I feel so spoiled by these girls.

And a few months ago I entered a bookmark swap over at the Yahoo group for Gingersnap Creations and the theme was travel the world. As you know we had a postal strike and now that it is over we received our bookmarks. These bookmarks were not marked in the back by the artists so I am not sure who to thank, but they are so lovely and I got an Asian one. Some peeps are really paying attention to my likes.

So I want to thank you very much Jenxo, Becky and the bookmark gals.

Today was filled with happiness and after yesterday, tomorrow truly is another day.

Next post is the Summer of Colour.

Post number 2 to follow.



Canvases and a matchbox

I have been a little pre occupied of late. Some things have been going on the my hubs new job and we weren't sure all the paper work was in order. He has been sitting waiting for the the phone to ring for him to go to work but it never rang. After waiting and waiting finally a call went through to the HR dept only to find out that he was not on the call in list. Are you kidding me? He went through a long drawn out process just to get the job and these people are not very reliable as far as their word. They say the will call but you wait a long time. Anyways after finding out he was not even on the list, the HR person said she would look after it and then call him back. Well a week and half later no call. Hubs by now is ready to blow his top and then some and he calls to find out she is on vacation for 2 weeks. Are you kidding me. When someone says they are going to call you back would you not think before you were to go on holiday you would tie up loose ends? Apparently not. Even if you are just a call in for now and need to get some hours in for future full time job prospects you would think they could at least straighten something out and let the guy be assured he is on the list. Well he finally got fed up and went to the actual office where his supervisor works which is a different location then the HR person was in and spoke to the main man. Apparently there was an email, things are straightened out and hubs is on the list. My goodness, sleepless nights, worry, anxiety, and no stop talk of this has been going on and I am trying to keep the anxiety level down and on even keel. Phew am I glad now that tempers are not flaring and the nervous system has calmed down.
Anyways a bit of how life has been on the edge for us but come September things are going to pick up.

Now onto art......

I made these 2 canvases  in the last week. They were works in progress. I found a tutorial on the web but I can't for the life of me remember what blog it was so I am sorry I cannot give credit to the person who posted this. If you are reading this please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.

I cut a canvas board in half which was originally 6x8. I didn't want too large a background for the smaller images I was using. I used an Artchix image I had in my stash of a woman sitting at her sewing machine.

I placed gauze on my canvas with gel medium. Let that dry then applied some lace all around the edges. Not so much in the middle as it was going to be covered. Let that dry and with the humidity it took longer than I had patience especially this week. After it was all dry I applied Burnt Umber, black and Copper acrylic paint to the surface making sure I got all the materials and lace covered. Again dry. Then I went to town and embellished. I took a piece of chipboard because I didn't have an old book cover and painted it a tan colour, then scribbled wax on the edges and then painted black over that then sanded the black off to reveal a scruffy cover. Works for me.  I added a bit of a piece of a sewers measuring tape (was actually a scan of my mother's, I remember when she taught me to sew I used it and I have fond memories of it) half a spool, some buttons, lace etc . This turned out better than I imagined. I think I will be giving this to a friend of mine who loves to sew.

The next one is similar but for a Bella Creations Challenge for the Oh La La group. The image was provided to us by Gecko Gals  and we were to use it to create anything we wanted. So naturally after going the first canvas I thought why not do a ballerina one. I even made the little slippers out of air dry clay and painted them a very light pink colour. I have been playing with the Gimp program so I made my own background, removed the original background for the ballerina, I used a free gimp music brush. I then inked the edges with some java ink. Assembled and this one is going to another friend who loves ballerina's and dancers.

And last but not least is a matchbox for the FlickR monthly matchbox swap and my partner is Smiff or aka Jan. The theme for this month was my favourite things, so we were to make a theme that our partners liked. So I know Jan likes vintage and sewing etc so I made this little sewing themed box just for her in mind. I even made the dress form out of air dry clay, covered with sewing tissue then glued on pink lace, ribbon and some pearly buttons. I really enjoyed making this and the drawer pull was an earring but I took it apart and attached it to the box. I also filled it and a small baggie of stuff for Smiff. I couldn't fit it all in that tiny matchbox and Jan spoils me every time we trade so time to give back some art love.

Well that is enough rambling for one post. Thanks for hearing me out.

I am just waiting for some things to dry and next post I will be posting this weeks Summer of Colour Purple challenge.

Grandma's Attic Matchbox swap

No this isn't the Summer of Colour post yet, I just wanted to show you a matchbox I did for a group I belong to on FlickR called the Vintage Dragonfly hosted by the lovely JoAnne.

The swap is called Grandma's attic and we are to alter a matchbox that holds 250 matches then fill the box with vintage items, buttons, ribbons, papers etc. Well as usual I have to really do my matchbox up. I have some beautiful vintage paper I used for the outside. I covered a chipboard frame with paper I embossed in the Cuttlebug then I took a piece of acetate and used alcohol ink on it to stain the glass to make it look old. I found this photo of Grandma who looks rather stern but as I remember from reading, people used to have to sit for long periods of time when having their photos taken, so this sort of looked like Grandma's time ended with the smiling and this is the end result. I also added some nice vintagey looking ribbon, added my homemade roses and those pears I removed from an old pair of earrings that I bought at a used goods place.

I hope my partner Gail likes it. I have filled the box full of goodies then I also added a plastic bag because it wouldn't all fit inside. I mailed it out today so I am hoping Gail will have it in no time.

Still thinking on my Summer of Colour, I have it stirring up in my head so hopefully I can start it soon. It all takes careful planning sometimes.

Thanks for dropping by.

Gingersnap creations- Gogs Gears and Watch bits

GC110_Spicy Supply Challenge

When this challenge was announced I thought to myself..I know what I can do and I will kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak. I swap dominoes monthly with an online friend and our swap for this month was time so this was meant to be.

I had some chipboard gears that I purchased from Artchix Studios and I painted them gold. I stamped my domino with Stazon  Black with an Inkadinkado watch stamp. I then used Lettuce Alcohol Ink on the background. Applied my little fairy in the corner and that was it.

Oh how time flies doesn't it?

Thanks for dropping by and til next time stay cool in this heat!!!



Corrugated Red

Odd title wouldn't you say? Well I have combined 2 challenges in 1 again and I just love how this turned out.

For Summer of Colour this week Kristin our host has chosen Red as the theme and as an added bonus " wings". If you have been following my adventure in the colour challenge you know my main focus was cardmaking but I decided to take a break and make an altered canvas. I already had a canvas covered and distressed so I used that as my base. I used corrugated cardboard which is the theme over at Just For Fun and used it as a backdrop for my Geisha who is sporting wings. I just got some new die cuts and these ones are beautiful butterflies ,I just had to use them in this piece. I distressed the corrugated cardboard first by painting with gesso, then I washed it with some Spice Brown acrylic paint, then used the credit card technique and applied the red. I added stitching and Chinese character rub ons. I added dragonflies and placed them in the area of the stitching. I made a scroll to hang along the side and added some Chinese coins. I really like how this turned out. I always have fun with my Asian themes.

Thanks for looking and remember to check out Kristin's blog and all the great participants in the Summer of Colour Challenge and take a peek at another fun blog from the UK called Just for Fun.

Thanks for dropping by.

Did You Know continues.....

A few more to add to your list of Did you Know....

Turn your paper not your scissors when cutting images for clean and intricate cuts.

Hand sanitizer works great to remove inks like Stazon if you don't have Stazon Ink Cleaner on hand. Just remember hand sanitizers have alcohol in it so wash your stamps well after removing the ink and hand sanitizer. Works great in a pinch, works on rubber and acrylic.

To mount rubber stamps that aren't mounted on wood to an acrylic block, put a bit of glue stick glue on the back of the stamp and place on your  block. Stamp stays put and after you are done just wash the block and stamps off with a bit of soapy water.

Don't have the coloured gems you need for your projects but have lots of white pearls or clear gems? Add a tiny drop of alcohol ink to the pearl  or gem to match your colour themes. I add a drop to a q-tip then rub on the gem, they still glisten and have an iridescent effect, add to the center of your flowers or an embellishment.

Stay tuned for some recent creations and tomorrow I will be showing my next Colour of Summer project featuring RED.

Have a very creative day.

Inkurable Stampers ATC swap

I got some wonderful mail yesterday, I have been patiently waiting for these due to the Canadian Postal strike was on and now these babies are in my hot little hands, all the way from Down under. Sara our gracious host set up a swap for the theme in Black, White and Orange. Were were to make 10 ATC's all the same and then send them to Sara to exchange and send them back. Well I was pleasantly surprised to see all the variations in the cards and such lovely work I must say.

I even got a few ATC's from blogger friends I have been following for a while and a couple I have swapped with in groups.

So without further adu here are the cards I received. We got one of our own cards back to mine is the slide with the butterfly scene. Thank you ladies for the lovely ATC's and a special thanks to Sarah for making this happen.

Thanks for dropping by.

I have become a Digi Monster

Ok so it took me hours and days just to crop the backgrounds and learn to make the backgrounds transparent and now I am trying layering and working with multiple images. It hasn't been easy but this afternoon while I had some time to myself uninterrupted I tried this.
The rabbit had a totally white background, I took all that away, in between each spoke of the wheels although you can't see it now but I cleaned that up. Then I placed some gears from Dezinaworld collage sheet I just purchased a few days ago and added them to the tires of the bike. I also added the time piece behind the rabbit and I found another collage sheet with a clock looking background. And this is what I came up with. Over at Gingersnap Creations they are having another challenge with gears and watch parts but I think I will do an actual hand made ATC for the challenge. The challenge just got me playing with Gimp again. I told Heather Hudson over at Bella Creations she has created a Digi Monster.
Til next time, thanks for dropping by and leaving me all your encouraging and inspiring comments. I always smile and it gives me such pleasure to know others like my blog.

~♥~

My very first Digital ATC

Over at Bella Creations there is a new group called  Début des Techniques Graphique. Our kind hostess Heather Hudson is teaching us how to use the Free Gimp program. I have been very interested in Digital Art although I love cutting paper, gluing etc I am always fascinated with the art of digital manipulation of photos. Anyways Gimp is Free and you can download it but you will have to go online to use the manual. All the information is on the Gimp site and there are many tutorials on YouTube.

Ok that being said, I struggled and struggled with just getting unwanted backgrounds to disappear but finally after messaging Heather back and forth and looking at vids and reading, and ,well just playing I finally got the layering part. I got the backgrounds to disappear, cleaned up an image, and put all my images on top of a free Paris background I had on my computer. I believe the girl is from the Graphics Fairy, the bird from a collage sheet from Lisa's Altered Art images. I added "Paris" from the Gimp program and this is how it came out. Wow was I amazed and so excited. My very first digital ATC and I am also posting this in the Group challenge. Use 3 images and try putting text on your design. I hope this passes, if not it sure was a lot of fun.

Thanks for looking. Now off to do some artsy stuff.

~♥~

I have to brag.....I am a Ginger Again....

If you recall the Spicy Supply Challenge at Gingersnaps Creation blog we had a challenge to use packaging in our artwork???? My arch made of egg carton, packing tape etc was chosen as a Ginger Gem. Woot Woot. You can see the post regarding all the wonderful creations here.

Gingersnaps always takes me to new heights in my artwork, I truly enjoy the commeraderie and the inspiration this blog has to offer.

Thanks again for chosing my artwork Gingersnap Gals and congrats to all the winners of the packaging material challenge.

Summer of Colour Week 5 and Acrylic Smash

I can't believe we are already into week 5, how did that happen? When Kristin announced the colour for this week over at Twinkle Twinkle was brown I wondered what I could do that was a bit different. When I think of brown when creating, I think of grunge, antique, earthy etc.

I was browsing the internet one night and on Splitcoast Stampers they had a tutorial on acrylic smash. When I read the title I thought, hmmm wonder what is up with that? So I investigated and found a technique I had not tried yet and I have tried a lot but this one really caught my attention, so much I have been doing a little out of the box type of things as well with this technique. Today however, I will show you my very first acrylic smash card in brown and we were challenged to use a colour that was bold to go along with the brown. Here I have chosen Indian Turquoise.

The flowers were white but I painted them turquoise and the centers were pearls I added a drop of Caramel Alcohol ink and then added some Distress Stickles to them and completely changed them. I love this technique

And this card was a premade round card but I think I should have had the fold at the top for standing it up, I did a dahhhh after the card was made. Oh well, someone will still get it. I rather like how it turned out.

I distressed a doily with Tea Dye Distress Ink then did my acrylic smash center piece. I used a drinking glass that fit the middle diameter of the doily almost perfect to cut the acrylic. I then added a few sprigs of flowers from some stickers in my stash. Wow that was easy and quick. I think I will enter this card into another challenge over at Just For Fun, you are to use acrylic in a piece of artwork. I think this should pass don't you?

Don't forget to check the link to take you to Kristin's blog and look at all the wonderful artwork that everyone is doing. What a great way to meet new bloggers and  get some new inspiration.
Have a great day.

Sunday's Did You Know's

I started a Did you Know topic the other week and I can't believe how time is slipping. I am going to try to post my Did you Know's on Sundays, that way I won't be trying to post other things and this gets lost.

I have started a list by my work station and now I am accumulating quite a few so today I will post 5 of them and then next Sunday 5 more.

So here it goes.....

Did you know?.....

1.If you don't have an Embossing Buddy, try using a dryer sheet prior to stamping and applying Embossing powders to your cards or paper arts. These are anti static sheets so they will remove static and you won't have unwanted bits of EP on your art work.

2. Wrap your wet paintbrush in plastic wrap if you get interrupted while painting, this will keep the brush moist and you won't have to throw away a good brush. Just remove the plastic wrap to continue painting or dampen in some water. Clean up is just as easy than a hardened paint brush!!!!! Works on house painting brushes too!!!!

3. Place your stamp pads face down to keep them moist and the ink to the top of the surface of the pads.

4.Stick an eye pin ( used for jewellery) in your Glossy Accents bottle to keep the nozzle free. Nothing worse than having a clogged up nozzle and mess every time you want to use it. I push the eye pin right down into the hole and the loop is great to pull up and you are ready to use every time. The lid also fits on no problem.

5. Clean those acrylic stamp blocks with the Mr.Clean Magic Eraser. Works every time.

Stay tuned for more Did you Know's????

Image is from the Graphics Fairy.

Dezinaworld Giveaway

June over at Dezinaworld is having a giveaway for reaching 500 Followers. Just take a peek over at her blog here and follow the details.

June has been very generous with her wonderful images and she has many for sale for reasonable prices.

Don't waste any time getting over there, Sign up by July 15 to win some great collage sheets.

Happy creating everyone.

Gingersnap Random Redhead Challenge and Mail

GC107-is Bags and Tags. I had a bunch of these kraft gift bags in my stash waiting for something so when this challenge came up I thought...bingo, I can use this for the challenge.
I have some beautiful K and Company paper packs and I found this vintage looking wallpaper paper to apply to the bag. I first distressed the edges with my scissors then I used Jumbo Java ink to age the paper.
I cut out both flourish die cuts from Tim's Sizzix die then painted it with copper, burnt umber and a bit of turquoise acrylic paint in a slip slap manner. After that was dry I applied Diamond Stickles to the flourishes and set them aside to dry.
I then made these white roses out of handmade paper using Tim's Tattered Florals die cut and they turned out better than I expected, wish I had more of that paper, it had flecks of little bits of lavender and leaves in it in case you are wondering what some of those things are on my roses. I then lightly tinted them with some Tea Stain DI, just to tone down the white and to age them a bit. I also found some pink roses already made in my stash and added them and I used some of that twisted paper to make leaves. I added some bling with the colours that were in the paper  and just placed them here and there. I also made a tag using the opposite side of the paper on the bag, stamped a Love Flourish stamp in Jumbo Java from Stampology. Then just placed a little white tinted rose along the bottom and attached it to the bag. Now I have a lovely bag to put a gifty in for the future. This was fun and I think I will have to make a few more.

And now that the mail strike here in Canada is over it is fun to get the mail again.

Today I received a much anticipated trade I did with 2 online friends.

Wendy over at BlissAngels asked Jeanie and I if we wanted to do a trade in the theme of teacups.

So I made 3 cards of 2 different designs for the 3 of us .Today I got Jeanie's cards and here they are, they look like china, she has applied Glossy Accents over top of the images and they just shine. I had a bit of a time separating them because of the humidity but no damage was done. Just a bit tricky and delicate surgery but all is good.

Thanks so much Jeanie and thank you all for visiting.

Sorry Jeanie and Wendy I didn't add your links but please take a look along the sidebar to visit both their blogs.

~♥~

Summer of Colour-Yellow

Another week already and the theme is yellow over at Twinkle Twinkle Like a Star. Kristin has challenged us to the theme of yellow and as a bonus to use metallic in your card. Metallic to me can mean many things, a metallic paint, metallic embellishment, metallic flowers, or......Staples.

As you can see here I took a piece of corrugated cardboard and applied gesso to it with 2 coats. While the 2nd coat was still wet I added Timberline Green  to a corner of my brush and lightly and quickly made a rugged border around the edges. Where the top paper was removed it was a bit tricky but I accomplished my task. I then stamped some sunflowers (thanks for the stamps Mum) onto white card stock coloured them with pencil crayons, then applied one right onto the cardboard and the other 2 were applied using pop dots to raise them off the page for a 3D effect. I also used this cool word flourish stamp( a package of them I recently got at Walmart for a buck) , can't refuse a bargain like that, and stamped the image in Black Soot DI. I then applied my finished top piece to a yellow card with my metallic attachments....Staples.

Thanks for looking and I can't wait for the next colour.

This is a fun and very rewarding challenge, I want to thank Kristin for taking this on and including my artwork. There are some wonderfully talented people out there, go check them out.

A cute TeePee card to share

Recently over at Bella Creations Voila Ink group, we were challenged to make a Tee Pee card with the theme of fairies. So, since at the time it was posted I still wasn't on Wireless and could not watch the posted video for the making of a tee pee card,  I had looked up an alternative blog to see how it was made and want to share that link with you here.

This is the card I made and just want to share my creation with you. It is a fun alternative to the flat version. These are fun and very easy to make. I hope you tackle one as I did below. They do fold flat and you can fit them into an envy to mail.

I think they would make a nice little center piece for a party as well or special occasion.

We had Canada on Friday and it was spent at home very quietly til evening rolled around and my dearest hunbun husband just had to scare the cat with his cherry bombs,but, after all, you can't take the kid out of him. Rosie was encourage to return from her hiding place basement and a good time was had by JB.

Saturday we went for a nice evening ride on the Harley and had coffee in a nearby town and returned home before dark. A good time was had but us.

Today was humid and we just stayed home to watch the continuation of the  trial of Casey Anthony on HLN TV.

Thanks for dropping by and hope you had a nice long weekend in Canada and I wish my American friends a great 4th of July weekend as well.