Artistic Souls - Circle of Friends

We have started a new round selecting a stamp, making a card for each member, and then swapping the stamp to the next member in line to make cards for all using the same image.  The stamp I selected for this round is "Imagination is the highest kite one can fly."  It will be interesting to see what the gals do with this verse.

The kite images were from Stampscapes and the verse was from About Art Accents.  On the back I  used a variety of background images.

FAN Swap Card for OSA

For this card, I stamped the image in white on black cardstock and colored the design with water color pencils; however, because the main design was so intricate, the results were not to my liking so I overstamped the image a second time in gold and added a few white gel pen highlights.  The verse on the left is a New Years greeting.  I edged the card in German foil scrap and added a gold butterfly.

CCC #30 Altered Metal with Paint

I'm stuck on keys for another challenge for Compendium of Curiosities over at Studio L3.  This was also a fun technique.  Interesting how you don't notice something until it is scanned.  A door picture would have worked better.

CCC #29 Weathered Grunge

The challenge was weathered wood; however, I had this terrific grunge key that would be perfect for this technique so....did you find THE RIGHT KEY?
The challenge has been ongoing for several months and Linda at Studio L3 has all of the details.  Jump over to her blog and click on the links to view the other challenge pieces.  They are always a treat.

Swap Contents from Mexico

I don't post RAKS or other items received on this blog because I'm always afraid I will leave one off; however, this is a huge exception because I wanted to share the contents of a recent swap with a dear friend, Donna, who moved to San Miguel Aleande, Mexico.  Just look at the wonderful items she included and also note the envelope near the bottom right that she decorated so beautifully.  My mind is filled with gratitude and also numerous ideas to make something special from the contents.  Can't you just envision a pendant from the tiny nichos?  The only item that I asked if she would tuck in the packet was some Day of the Dead paper because it is very difficult to find in Idaho.  She included numerous cards and a mounted card on fabric just for me.  The ribbons and lace are exquisite and each item was wrapped  in green tissue; it was like opening gifts at holiday time.  I feel like a queen today.    Thank you, my dear friend. 

Wedding Card

I rarely make a wedding card and I struggled to find just the right messages (inside and out).  Roses are my favorite flower so of course they had to be included.  I used a Spellbinder die for the main element and colored it with chalk.

CCC#28 Another week another challenge

Linda, at Studio L3, challenged us to another technique from The Compendium of Curiosities book by Tim Holz.

I liked this technique and hope you'll check out  others posted to StudioL3, link above.

Card for a Friend

CCC#27 - Distress Misting Masks

One of my favorite things to do is add color over a mask.  The weekly challenge over at Studio L3 for the ongoing techniques in Tim's book, A Compendium of Curiosities, is just that.  I couldn't stop at just one tag so I made two using different colors for each one.  I am fortunate to have almost all of the colors of Perfect Pearls that work so well with Tim's distressed products. 

Better photo - Nicho

Donna took a photo when she received the nicho which turned out better than mine even though we both had a problem with the glare on the left-hand side.  Here is Donna's photo.  (thank you)

Nicho

For a long time I have wanted to make a nicho that are so prevalent in Mexico.   My dear friend who moved to Mexico last year sent me some to experiment with.  I wanted to finish one up to return to her for Christmas; however, I didn't get it finished until the day after Christmas so it turned out as a Happy New Year package.

I added foil to the metal nicho and lined the niche with the same foil.  Then I added alcohol inks in colors that I thought would go well in her studio, using blue for the birds.  I merely sponged on some inks and played around until I liked the results.  When Donna sent me the nichos she included a match box with the picture of the Virgin Guadalupe so I cut the box apart and used this photo for the inside of the niche.  I poored one layer of Ice Resin, set in the photo and when dry poored in a second layer and set in the tiny beads to cover the edges.  

To finish off the outside panels and to hide some of the seams of the foil tape, I applied some German scrap.  The top triangle piece was red which wouldn't match the other colors so I took some alcohol cotton balls swiped the piece changing it from red to silver.  For the filagree pieces on the side that were gold, I did the same thing making them appear more silver.  To pull all of the colors together, I used my Krylon gold leafing pen and colored the metal around the niche box, added a few rhinestones and I considered it finished. 

CCC#26 - Rusted Grunge ATC

This week's CCC Challenge at Studio L3, is Rusted Grunge.  I elected to create an ATC using one of Tim's distressed papers as the background for the slide mount.

RAKS

I mailed off a couple more this afternoon -- two ATCs and one card all to members of OSA.

RAKS and SWAPS

I added a new item to my resolution list this year -- participate more in the on-line groups where I have so many friends and feel a need to stay in touch.  I joined an ATC swap for Mixed Media Trends and a FAN card swap for OSA.  Here are my results:

The requirements for the ATC swap were dry embossing and ribbon.

The above appears lopsided because the charm prevented the card from lying flat.  The image is from Scrolls Work which I stamped in white pigment ink and  used watercolor pencils to color, white gel pen to highlight areas and then overstamped in gold pigment ink.