Mini domino books and 1x3 trade cards

Hi all, well I have done a little tidying up from things piling up on my table. I was involved in a private trade and finally got everything done and sent off today. I joined a new swap blog and I will give you links to all the blogs involved in my post as I go along.

This is a little long winded so be warned.

♥

First up I wanted to share this darn cute birdie mini domino book I made. My friend Becky had sent me some mini dominoes late last year and I made some necklaces with them but after doing a few large domino books and I really enjoyed them, I thought, why not do a few minis and then I can send them to swap partners now and again with my trades.

Since signs of spring have been on and off the last week or so with some warmer temps, birds starting to return and the days are lasting a little longer I was inspired to make this mini bird book.

So here is what it looks like, click on the pics for a larger view if you have trouble seeing some of my details. These were fun and so very addicting.

 Below is a regular size domino and the little one is the size I just finished making, cute huh? I alcohol inked them in my fav colour and it reminds me of spring and all it's new growth.

I used scraps of paper, I found a bird charm, how lucky was I, thanks to a past swap partner I think was Smifferoo aka Jan.

I punched out some black paper for the holes and then put a white gel pen to make it a shadow and then used pencil crayon on the outside around the one side to make them pop so the birdies can see their way in.

 A bird eco shape and egg print from Artchix Studio with some burlap

 A sticker word, music paper from a hymnal, a tissue paper bird fussy cut and a chickadee stamp

 Rub ons, Artchix German scrap, love that stuff

 another rub on, an inchie bird stamp cut out and a definition of bird from a dictionary used just for art.

And tied together with some nice gold cord

Next up is another domino book that I made for St. Patrick's day using some free images from Leanne Seeds blog, Fripperies and Butterflies, and as I told you in a previous post, I will be a guest artist come this August for her Gecko Galz digital scrapbooking store.

If you go to the Fripperies and Butterflies blog you can snag up Leanne's free images.

When I saw these I knew immediately I wanted to make a cute mini domino book.

I didn't have any shamrock paper so I made myself a shamrock stamp out of fun foam and stamped my scrap paper with Peeled paint and stamped shamrocks on it. I made shamrock shrinky dinks. I messed them up a bit with my gold paint pen but hey, being that small it's hard to get precise.

I used some known sayings for St. Patrick's day, nothing to long so they would fit on the tiny pages.

This is the front. I had to crop and fussy cut the images so they may look a little different than Leanne's original images on Fripperies and Butterflies.

 And this is the accordion fold out. I even put a little Stickles on the brim of the hats, you can't see it but I just had to make it sparkle. I also added a nice gold sticker border around the outside, it almost looks like it was soldered. I think green and gold just naturally go together. 

Thanks Leanne for making this such a fun project for me. Can't wait to do more.

And last but not least, I found a new swap blog called Tabby"sSwaps, hosted by lovely Kim.

This month they are doing 1x3 cards in the theme of Vintage Children.

These were fun, and quite quick. There isn't a lot of room to play with.

I did do one digital image with Gimp brushes and a cute girl from FlickR.

I added a neat puzzle sticker over one of my cards, you may have to click to see it up close but it is very interesting. Might have to use them a bit more often.

Well thanks for sticking it out and I hope you have a lovely weekend. It snowed today but it won't last long now. We can only hope for warmer days ahead.

TTFN ♥

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.

~♥~