Bluebird Paperie

Getting Artsy with New Rogue Redhead Stamps!

2012-01-25T06:00:00.002-05:00

Today marks another fabulous Rogue Redhead Designs release, and this month it's a double delight, with a new Mardi Gras-themed mini plate called Carnival Dreams, along with a full plate of fun sayings and cute images, called Just Sayin'!

I love New Orleans and have been there several times, but never during Mardi Gras.... it's one of those things on my to-do list! My card features some of the wonderful Mardi Gras images from Carnival Dreams. I decided to get all artsy and shabby with this one. First, I embossed the main image with some seriously glittery gold embossing powder from Zing! This stuff means business! Then I pulled out my tiny Cotman watercolor set and colored in the image. Here's a little close-up so you can see the sparkle:

The background panel is some of Tim's Distress Ink Core'dinations paper, run through a fleur de lis embossing folder and sanded. I added a bit of gold Stickles to the harlequins. I also diecut a green fleur de lis, and punched a little tag with the sentiment. Some funky trim finishes it off - perfect for a Fat Tuesday party invite!

Now, for a little enabling... here's the announcement direct from the Queen Rogue herself:

"Rogue Redhead Designs is pleased to announce two new releases, Just Sayin' and Carnival Dreams, to brighten up your winter! Each is whimsical in its own way and sure to be a crowd pleaser. Our Just Sayin' plate is a full-size rubber stamp plate with focal images, sentiments, decorative elements and a full-size background. Order this new full-size plate before February 25, 2012 and get it for the introductory price of $17.60, a 20% savings over its regular retail price of $22.00.

Our second new release is a fabulous new mini featuring the art of New England artist K. Dunn. This newest addition to the Beautifully Dunn range comes just in time for Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day. It features beautiful-drawn free-flowing images of love and enchantment. Romance, mystery and a joyous spirit infuse this collection. Order this new mini collection before February 25, 2012 and get it for the introductory price of $6.00, a 20% savings over its regular retail price of $7.50.

Want both our new releases? During our sale, get our January 2012 Release Bundle including both Just Sayin' and Carnival Dreams for the low price of $22.00! We are also offering our Rogue's Choice Bundle, which includes the popular Relish Reading and Milliner Misses collections, for the same low price of $22.00! For the romantics in the crowd, we have created a Beautifully Dunn True Love Bundle including Snow Hugs, Candy Kisses and Carnival Dreams for the limited-time price of $33.00. Get in on these great deals now! They only last until February 25, 2012!

With the release of these new plates and bundles, Rogue Redhead Designs has also updated our website and added mounting and storage supplies to our product line. Purchase any of our unmounted rubber stamp plates by itself, with a sheet of EZ-Mount Cling Foam or with cling foam and a stamp storage panel - all with one click. Visit the individual pages of each plate for these additional choices. Just need to order EZ-Mount or stamp storage panels? Just visit our new mounting supplies section!"

Have fun! ;)

Gingersnap Creations Challenge - Use Your Fave Paper!

2012-01-18T07:54:00.000-05:00

It's once again time for my favorite Gingersnap Creations Challenge - the Random Redhead Challenge, and this month it is GC135: Use Your Favorite Paper. We're focusing on using our scraps this month as well as getting them all organized. So for this challenge, grab some of those fabulous scraps that you just can't part with and make something fun! Or, resolve to finally cut into that gorgeous piece of patterned paper that you've been admiring for, oh, maybe.... months?! For my card, I've used an Iron Orchid Designs butterfly paper, along with my all-time favorite type of patterned paper to work with - vintage text! I've framed up the Small Butterfly and Papillon sentiment from Jo Capper-Sandon's line at Stampotique Originals, our sponsor for this challenge. Some twine and a small red bead provide a little accent.

I hope you can play along..... One randomly drawn winner from the qualifying participants for this challenge will become the new Home Page Artist for a week on Gingersnap Creations, and will win a $30 voucher to the Stampotique Originals store. How sweet is that? ;)

Rogue Redhead Victorian Valentine

2012-01-13T13:22:00.000-05:00

Hello! I'm trying desperately to get back to the land of art and papercrafting. Our family have been on the go nonstop with sports. I did, however, get a quiet moment today to create a flowery little number in the style of a Victorian scrap Valentine. All of the floral images are from Rogue Redhead Designs' Floriculture plate, and the sentiment is from the Snow Hugs plate. The floral images are stamped and colored with Copics (with the exception of the ferns, which are simply stamped in green ink). The flowers and sentiment are layered over the top of a red paper doily and some patterned paper that I ran through a Tim Holtz Postmark embossing folder. Of course, everything is shabby chic-ed up with some Distress Ink, in antique linen vintage photo, and tattered rose.

I hope everyone's staying safe and warm!

Gingersnap Creations Challenge - Use a Line of Stamps

2012-01-04T07:48:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, Everyone! It's time to kick off the new year with another new challenge at Gingersnap Creations. This one (GC 133) is easy and oh-so-fun: Get out your favorite Stamp Set or Line of Stamps and show us your creation! The sponsor this month is Stampotique Originals, and you will have a chance at a fab prize from them if you link up your project to the GC post. I decided to use the Jo Capper-Sandon line from Stampotique on my card. First, I stamped the Large Bee on both scrap cardstock and acetate - used Versamark and black embossing powder on the cardstock one, and black StazOn for the acetate. I colored the bee and cut out all but the wings. One the acetate image, I colored the reverse side of the wings with a blue Copic marker, then cut out the wings and attached them to the cardstock bee using Glossy Accents.

After that, I glopped some glossy accents into the center part of the bee that is supposed to be the fuzziest part, and generously poured on some black Fun Flock from Stampendous. Oh, I love this little bee, LOL!

The background was created with a TCW Mini Chicken Wire Template and Maya Mists in Sunflower Yellow and Fig Magenta. The Gingersnap Creations overall theme this month is Getting Organized and to use our scraps, so I used a pretty little embossed and watercolored scrap to mat my "Wish" sentiment, also from Stampotique (stamped on a leftover piece from my background). A big ol' pink flower and an adorable little bee paperclip that I've been hoarding finish it off. Can't wait to give this one to someone special. :)

I'm a Lucky Girl!

2011-12-30T12:01:00.000-05:00

Oh my gracious, how lucky I am! I was thrilled to learn that I won the beautiful blog candy offered by Connie on her blog, Wax Beach Artist. I admired the wonderful hand-made box when I saw it on her blog, but let me tell ya, in real life, it is out of this world gorgeous!

Her package arrived beautifully decorated on the outside, with stamps, vintage images, and fun tapes! I opened it up to find the gorgeous box and this wonderful vintage style tag.

Wow! Then I open the box to reveal this beautiful seaside image on the inside lid.....

What a marvelous, serene landscape. So beautiful. And the fun didn't stop there, because stuffed inside was more fun....

Seashells, glass beads, flowers, lace, and wonderful coppery trim that already has me thinking of sea coral and mermaids and wonderful summery projects! Connie, YOU ROCK!!! Thank you so very, very much! What a delight to receive your gorgeous artwork.

Happy New Year, everyone! We will be sound asleep as the new year rolls in, trying to get lots of rest for our marathon volleyball tournament weekend! Wouldn't have it any other way. ;)

Mother-Daughter Art Day

2011-12-29T13:50:00.001-05:00

Hello friends! I hope you are all enjoying your holidays. We had a wonderful, peaceful Christmas with family, and are having a fun week. Ever since I went to a weekend with Donna Downey at her studio near Charlotte, NC, I've been wanting to try my hand at a canvas, a la Donna's Inspiration Wednesday videos. My daughter really wanted to join in the fun, so we bought ourselves some blank, pre-gessoed canvases, watched some videos, and played for the entire afternoon in my craft room. I just love her style - vintage, shabby chic, but with bright colors to fit her personality and match her blue-with-big-colored-polka-dots walls in her bedroom.

Some details, Meghan's first....

As soon as Meghan spied my Golden's gold paint, she had to use it! Here, she has accented some of the images on some stamped tissue paper that she tore and gelled onto the painted canvas. She also used a splatter technique with the gold. A bit of Tim's tissue tape and some K and Co. keys keep the vintage vibe going.

Meghan is becoming a fan of anything French, so the chipboard Eiffel tower, spritzed with golden glimmer mist, was a natural choice for her. More stamped tissue in the background, and a little bit of a resist, sprayed "breathless LOVE" panel behind the star.

Aren't all tween girls dreamers? This stamp from Unity was a natural choice for her. ;)

I adored *this technique* that Donna demonstrated in her video. I tore pieces of vintage sheet music, text, and patterned papers to create my background. A bit of tinted gesso, then lots of different paints, stains, splatters, and crayons over the top.

I had found a vintage book of poetry that was written on in the margins.... in pencil. When I adhered this page to my canvas using gel medium, the pencil writing turned purple! Oh happy day - love when that kind of stuff happens! A little birdy over the top of the poem (To the Skylark), spritzed with glimmer mist and outlined in Neo Color crayon.

And speaking of Caran D'Arche NeoColor II crayons..... I. am. in. love. Oh! Yes! I had purchased a few at Donna's studio just to try them and see if they were worth the considerable expense. I fell for them - hard - and just bought a bunch more individual colors from Dick Blick (they were having a free shipping special, and they always have great prices). I decided to buy them individually, rather than in a set, because I know that I love the soft muted tones rather than the brights. Better to spend a little more and get exactly what I want. Anyway, back to the canvas..... I stamped the peony onto pale pink tissue paper and adhered it to the canvas with gel medium. I used Golden paint to paint in the stems and spritz on some brown speckles. Then I went to work with my as-of-then very limited NeoColor crayon palette (I think I had 6 at the time). A bit of brightening of the flower, some shading all around - so easy, so simple, so worth it (to me, anyway, tee hee)!

I hope you get time to play during this busy season - especially if you can play with family and friends! We are switching gears for the long holiday weekend - it's volleyball 24/7, with my daughter in her first big tournament of the season. I'm hoping to be able to get some downtime on the ol' iPad to vist all of your lovely blogs. Until then.... Happy New Year!

Quickie Christmas Cards

2011-12-19T16:19:00.001-05:00

In the craziness that leads up to the holidays, I found myself short a few Christmas cards. Since the kids' sports schedules are still going strong (meaning I spend a lot of time at courts and rinks, sitting for 2 hours, which doesn't include the time needed for commuting), I am needing to make every minute 'til Christmas count. So I decided that my little gluebook project had to make way for my Christmas card project.... the gluebook ingredients in my vintage train case were replaced with selected scraps of holiday paper, vintage sheet music, a single stamp, a pair of decorative scissors, two punches, and three inkpads (everything but the partridge in the pear tree, LOL). Oh, and card bases and a glue stick, of course. I also loaded up a little mini guillotine-style paper cutter. I was all set to mass-produce a few cards. :)

I used a stamp from Stamp Francisco, and papers from a My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Christmas 6x6 pad, along with some scraps. Once I got the general layout figured out, these were a snap to put together. When I got them home, I added a little platinum Stickles (gotta have some bling for the holidays!). Sorta kinda like gluebook pages on a 4 x 5 inch scale, LOL! Here are a few others that haven't been sent yet.... all the same, but all a little different.

Hope you are all catching up on all of those holiday errands. I'm still swamped.... looking forward to Christmas Eve, when all is quiet and we all just sit and enjoy family. Happy Monday. :)

Oxford Impressions - Christmas Wish

2011-12-15T09:23:00.000-05:00

I was so excited recently when Suzanne of Oxford Impressions asked me to design with her new plate, Christmas Wishes. This full stamp plate is filled with wintery goodness - Christmas and more! As soon as I saw the Santa, I knew, for some reason, that I wanted to do him in blue. This card uses the Santa, Post Card, December date, and snowflake stamps from the new set. I stamped the Santa and colored him with Distress Inks, then cut him out - he's popped up on pop-dots. The little postcard was simply made by stamping the sentiment, cutting out a rectangle and sanding the corners (so they wouldn't look so perfectly square and sharp), then using distress inks and some more stamps to fill in the rest. I added a line of Christmas music from a vintage songbook, some seam binding, and some seriously distressed papers (some from Glitz's vintage blue line, and some of Tim Holtz's Core'dinations cardstock - sanded with sandpaper and distressed with his edge distress tool).

Here's another card, in the traditional Green and Red....

For this one, I once again cut out the main figure - she's adhered over the sleigh image. I used a teensy holly image to stamp all around the edges, then colored in the berries where they showed. The papers are from Lost and Found - my fave of the season!

And one more....

This one glitters in silver and gold, although it's hard to see in the picture. The main image is mounted on a little tissue-paper-backed frame. I had some gold tissue paper, but found that I couldn't cut it with my decorative edge scissors (not sharp enough, I suppose). So I ran a rectangle of cardstock, about an inch bigger than I needed all around, through my Xyron sticker maker machine. Then I carefully laid the sticky side of the cardstock down on the back side of the tissue paper (make sure it's smoothed out). It was then sturdy enough to cut with my deckle edge scissors. The stars and snowflakes are stamped randomly and embossed with silver and gold. I used a little glitter-covered silver star to accent the greeting.

There's still time to get those Christmas cards done! If you need inspiration, you can check out the Gallery over at Oxford Impressions, too - with some seriously yummy vintage cards. :)

Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge - Wax

2011-12-14T00:01:00.020-05:00

The new Spicy Supply Challenge over at Gingersnap Creations is CG130: Wax. Use beeswax or wax crayons or wax paper - anything wax-related, just use your imagination. I decided to go with an oldie but goodie - the ol' tissue paper adhered with waxed paper onto a candle technique. You can find a wonderful tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers *here*. They say to use white tissue paper (which I did for the snowflakes), but you can also use colored tissue to add yet another twist. Here, I wanted it to look like old parchment or bookplates with Santas printed in sepia. So I simply stamped on a light kraft-colored tissue (sort of a shimmery champagne color that I got at Hallmark), cut out the Santas, and waxed them on first. Then I stamped the snowflakes on white, waxed them on, and added a little bling to the centers. This was very quick, very easy, and makes for a fun little hostess gift that you can do at the last minute. These Santas are from Artistic Outpost and Victorian Trading Co.

Here's the other side:

These Santas are from Stamp Francisco and Crafty Individuals.

Hope you find some time to play along!

7th Day of Whimsy

2011-12-11T21:07:00.000-05:00

Well, the paint is still drying on my tin for the 6th Day of Whimsy, so I'm charging ahead with the 7th Day of Whimsy - A Frosted Snow Angel. I didn't have any of these particular beautiful Paper Whimsy images, but I found something similar at the Graphics Fairy. I added some vintage white velvet leaves as her wings, some vintage lace, a House of Three crystal bangle, and a Stampin' Up felt snowflake as her halo. Such a fun project!

I have the whole family here at home again tomorrow, so may have to wait a bit before I disappear into my craft room again. Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!

Days of Whimsy 2 - 5

2011-12-06T10:36:00.000-05:00

I spent the entire day crafting yesterday... it was heaven! I wanted to catch up with Nancy Maxwell James' 12 Days of Whimsy, featuring the beautiful collage images of Paper Whimsy. You can get all of the instructions on Nancy's blog, Sugar Lump Studios. The banner above is the 2nd Day of Whimsy. I've used Lost and Found Christmas papers for them all, and I am totally addicted to this vintage color scheme! (Just went and bought two more 6x6 tablets of the stuff. Yes!). All of these images are from Paper Whimsy. Here they are individually:

"Merry" is cut from a vintage Little Women book, as is "Christmas" below. I cut the banners using a Papertrey Ink die.

For the "Wishes", I stamped a Christmas sentiment on a border of the text from the book, so that it would have the same patina. I finished these off with some Stickles (my favorite color - Platinum), some poinsettia flowers, bling, and vintage mother of pearl buttons.

Next up, Day 3 and an adorable natural batting mitten. I loved this project, since it gave me a very good excuse to cut into a stash of delicate vintage lace.

The image (from Godrun Loennecken) was printed on sticky-back canvas and stitched in place. I added a little plastic "thingy" LOL - the little white filigree flower is from some sort of broken necklace I found at a flea market. Very fun to be able to use that, too!

Next, Day 4 (bet you didn't see that coming, LOL!) and a snowy tag. This is once again a Paper Whimsy image, vintage lace, glittery snowflakes, mother of pearl... oh how I love these projects!

Finally, Day 5 - glittery snowflakes that I opted to create ornaments with, but you can also attach them to cards, as in the project shown on Nancy's blog.

These came together in a snap. For the snowflake, I used an image printed on canvas, and some crepe paper that I had edged in platinum Stickles and gathered. For the star, it's just an image printed on cardstock. Soooo easy, so quick, such a great way to adorn a package. (P.S. I had found these ornaments on clearance last year at Michaels - 50 cents for a pack of 6 - they might be there again this year, I haven't checked.)

That's my catch-up post! Today's project involves a decorated tin ornament.... don't know if I have a tin, so I'll have to get scrounging or get creative. Will hopefully have that tomorrow. :)

Playing Along with 12 Days of Whimsy

2011-12-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

I finally carved out some time, very late last night, to craft. I have been dying to play along with Nancy Maxwell James and the 12 Days of Whimsy. These are my projects for the First Day of Whimsy, Button Faeries - I love them! My first two ornaments feature images from Paper Whimsy (you can find them Here and Here.)

Then I thought, wouldn't it be fun to use vintage (or vintage-looking) family photos? So here are two more Button Faeries, these featuring a vintage photo of my Aunt Betty, and a not-so-vintage photo of my daughter as a baby. I took a color picture of her and played around in my photo editing software until I got her looking sufficiently vintage. She didn't even recognize that it was her at first, LOL!

Nancy has provided gorgeous photos and wonderful instructions on her blog, Sugar Lump Studios. I am off to make another project - these are right up my street, so to speak! :)

Blue Gluebook Pages

2011-12-01T16:53:00.000-05:00

I've been gluebooking in the car again, using up some scraps - hence the spring theme, so far from the holiday images I should be using, LOL! I don't yet have many Christmas scraps accumulated, so I'm still using my leftovers from the summer. The digital image of the girl on the right is from Lisa's Altered Art; the stamp on the left is from Artistic Outpost. (Sorry for the unconventional "holder" - I just couldn't get the thing to lie flat.)

I'm hoping to play along with Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas, but it won't be for a few days.... we've got band concerts and Christmas piano recitals to attend to first. Hope you're finding time for some holiday crafting. :)

Rogue Redhead + Technique Junkies Blog Hop!

2011-11-29T07:00:00.088-05:00

Welcome to Stop #5 on the joint Rogue Redhead and Technique Junkies Blog Hop! We are all having loads of fun with the new Technique Junkies' 3D and Fun Folds CD! If you have been following along already you should have come from Beverly G. If you are only starting here, please head back to the Technique Junkie Newsletter Blog and go from there.

If you have just discovered the blog hop, let me give you some background....
The Technique Junkies team has joined us to showcase the numerous great techniques on this new CD. As you may know, the Technique Junkies Newsletter has been publishing rubber stamping technique tutorials since 2002. The 3D and Fun Folds CD contains 70 step-by-step technique tutorials in PDF format – perfect dimensions, perfect directions and great pictures for every step. Visit www.techniquejunkies.com for more details about the CD and the Technique Junkie Newsletter.

A fantastic group of design team members from both Rogue Redhead Designs and the Technique Junkie Newsletter have helped put together this fabulous Blog Hop to kick off the 3D and Fun Folds CD. Not only are the talented Technique Junkies team hopping with the Rogue Crew today, they started hopping yesterday with Classy Cards N' Such and will be hopping again all the way through Friday one day each with PaperTemptress, Mark's Finest Papers, and Sweet n' Sassy Stamps. Check the The Technique Junkie Newsletter Blog for more details.

After visiting me, you can head off to see Holly Brown at Glitter, Stamps and Ink (Oh My) for your next stop.

For my first project, I couldn't resist making an adorable Technique Junkies "Goodie Purse." This is the perfect little "handbag" for a gift card! I used some double-sided Christmas papers, decorative brads, and a stylish Rogue Redhead Designs Milliner Misses gal and sentiment for the gift tag.

Here's a photo of a gift card perfectly nestled inside. I will give this little Goodie Purse to my daughter with a gift card to one of her favorite mall haunts (Delia's, perhaps!).

Next up, a pretty Scallop Flower Box, decorated with a cute snow couple from Rogue Redhead's Candy Kisses plate.

The instructions for this project include the how-to's for this fabulous little scalloped flower embellishment.

I can see making these to adorn lots of small gifts. And the box is the perfect size for stocking stuffers... perhaps filled with some Candy Kisses or other sweet treats. :)

I had tons of fun making these Technique Junkies projects, and just in time for the holidays. I hope you have fun hopping along to the rest of the design team blogs.

If you get lost along the way, here's the whole list of hop stops for your convenience.

1. The Technique Junkie Newsletter Blog

2. Rogue Redhead Designs Blog

3. Jackie Kalchert

4. Beverly G., Rogue Crew

5. Jean Franks Beck, Rogue Crew - that's me!

6. Holly Brown

7. Jane Bosi

8. Laura Liddell, Rogue Crew

9. Joanne Wardle, Rogue Crew

10. Chris Dickinson

11. Stephanie Severin, Rogue Crew

12. Sharon Briss, Chief Rogue

13. Pat Huntoon

Thanks for stopping by! And one last, very important, thing.....

On Saturday, December 3, Pat from the Technique Junkie Newsletter will announce the winners from each company. Be sure to hop along on each day! There will be FIVE WINNERS! On Monday, December 5th, Pat will announce ONE LUCKY WINNER with a GRAND PRIZE with a bundle of prizes from all of the participating businesses.

You won't want to miss any stops along the way – in order to win you will need to comment on everyone’s blog AND Pat Huntoon's blog. There will be an additional chance to win by playing along in her Blog Hop!

A Masculine Christmas Card with Rogue Redhead Designs

2011-11-25T15:10:00.000-05:00

Making some headway on my Christmas cards, this time with some Rogue Redhead Designs stamps. You can find all of the details over at the Rogue Redhead Designs blog. Plus, find out about some really great deals on all of their fabulous stamps over at the shop. (Just a little enabling for your Black Friday pleasure, LOL!) Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

CHF Grand Re-Opening Blog Hop Winner!

2011-11-21T18:44:00.000-05:00

We have a winner! I've used Random.org to choose a winner from the 92 comments received in the first 24 hours of the blog hop.....

The winner is #71, who is.....

Monika/Buzsy said...: Fabulous projects Jean. Love the digi images, especially the vintage palace! The coloring is so pretty!; November 20, 2011 10:04 AM

Congratulations, Monika! Please email me (by clicking on the little bluebird in my sidebar) with your contact information, and I will pass it on to Tanya at CHF!

I want to thank everyone for coming around for the Cornish Heritage Farms Grand Re-Opening blog hop! I appreciate all of your lovely comments. :)

Cornish Heritage Farms Grand Opening Blog Hop!

2011-11-19T22:00:00.135-05:00

Welcome! I'm so excited to be part of the Cornish Heritage Farms Grand Re-Opening! Today I'm playing with some of the fabulous new digital images available on the Cornish Heritage Farms online site. For my Thanksgiving card, I've mixed it up a bit and printed a background image (Fall Harvest) onto some patterned paper, the sentiment onto cream cardstock, and the Boy with Pumpkin onto white cardstock. I colored the boy with Copics, cut him out, and adhered him into the center of the background scene. A bit of distressing, a felt leaf, and some pleated paper strips finish it off.

Next up, I decided to play with a few of the cute Pumpkin images - I think they're just perfect for place cards for the table. I layered them with some felt leaves and a few coordinating buttons. The whole little embellishment sits atop a place card made from corrugated cardboard. Now, so that I don't have to do this all over again next year, I made sure to stick the names on with just a little temporary adhesive - that way I can change them out, depending on who's at the table next year. ;)

I love playing with this series of vintage palace images (you can see the first one - Palace #2 - in my previous blog post). As before, I printed out Palace #1 on a subtly patterned Prima script paper and colored with Prismacolor pencils. I changed up the color scheme this time, but the idea is still the same, using Graphic 45 patterned papers, a rose diecut, and a tiny crown bottlecap.

Thanks for visiting and having a peek at some of the over 500 digital images now available on the Cornish Heritage Farms website. And for those of you who love rubber (like me!), over the coming weeks there will also be a special rubber stamp section on the website, too - featuring some old favorites like The Rummage Bin, Thomas Kinkade, and the wonderful backgrounders!

So, want a chance to win a Cornish Heritage Farms gift certificate? Just visit each of our blog hop sites (see the list below). Leave a comment on each site before you hop to the next site. Each DT member will randomly draw a name from the comments left in the first 24 hours of the hop. That means you have 8 different chances of winning!

Good luck and Happy Hopping!

Cornish Heritage Farms Blog

Frances Byrne

Holly Brown

Lisa Silver

Jean Franks Beck - (that's me!)

Dawn Lusk

Laura O'Donnell
Jennifer Roach

Cornish Heritage Farms Sneak Peek

2011-11-17T13:59:00.001-05:00

So apparently there are these things called "digital stamps". No really, there are! And they are just like stamped images, only you print them on your own printer. Yes! It's true! Onto any paper you'd like. Even Patterned Paper. ROFL!!!

Okay, if you've visited here often, you know I am a dinosaur when it comes to digital. Stubbornly avoiding the bandwagon. And when I found out that Stamper's Ink was going to be offering lots and lots of Cornish Heritage Farms *digital* stamps, I was, shall we say, "tentative." :) I love me some rubber. However.... I am now hooked.

No, I'm not giving up rubber, no how, no way. But I had fun with this!!! I am definitely adding digital to my repertoire. Especially with these yummy new vintage images from Stamper's Ink, the new home of CHF. This card came together in a snap. I printed the Palace #2 image onto some Prima script patterned paper and softly colored it with Prismacolor pencils. Distressed the edges a bit (with Gathered Twig), framed it up on some cardstock, and added it to another patterned paper background, this one from Webster's Pages. All it needed was a special little embellishment - some big box petals, some vintage lace, and a vintage mother-of-pearl button. That's it! Done! Oh yeah, I'm feelin' it, LOL! I can see how this could fit in for me, tee hee.

So now that I'm at least friends with the digital bandwagon, I hope you can join me and the rest of the CHF team on Saturday, November 19th. We are going to officially launch Stamper's Ink's new Cornish Heritage Farms website, filled with lots of never-before-seen CHF images - the ones that hadn't made it to primetime yet. (Along with a few old favorites coming soon.) If you followed CHF before, there will be lots of familiar blogs on the hop, along with some new ones. And I'm told that eventually there will be rubber, too..... the best of both worlds. ;) See ya then! (If you want a bit more of a peek, there are a couple of images available now - but most won't appear until the big day.)

Visions of Sugarplums with Rogue Redhead Designs

2011-11-11T13:53:00.001-05:00

A "sweet" little card I made for the Rogue Redhead Designs blog today. You can check it out *here* and get all the deets.

Happy Veteran's Day, Remembrance Day, Armistice Day to all - thank you to the service men and women who have risked or given their lives so that we may be free. My dad was a teenager in the US Navy during WWII. Now my cousin's son serves in Afghanistan. We all know someone.... take a moment to give thanks. :)

Glue Book on the Go

2011-11-09T18:31:00.000-05:00

Well, I am not getting into my craft room nearly as much as I would like, and when I'm in there, I'm cleaning! Luckily, I still have my vintage train trunk full of scraps that I take with me in the car. I tend to work with nature themes a lot, and so the next few pages I decided to try to combine a bunch of this sort of image. For this layout, I also happened upon a few scraps that fit together beautifully - completely serendipitously. It's so fun when you find the perfect combination in your stash!

For the right-hand side of the layout, I discovered two clock images that fit together rather nicely. I used them to highlight the fairy image (a leftover if a Craft Individuals image stamped on a glimmer misted background).

On the left side, I found two butterfly images that fit together - a stamped image and an image on a scrap of patterned paper.

Another couple of nature themed pages - these with a "field notes" kind of a feel. The large bird image is from an old Christmas season bag from Pottery Barn.

Finally, one last Halloween page that I forgot to post. I love this one, because I happened to find a piece of vintage sheet music that had the lyrics "name a spell" on them.... a perfectly witchy little tune, I think. ;)

That's all for now. Got to get cleaning!

Gingersnap Creations "Farm Fresh"

2011-11-02T23:03:00.000-04:00

It's time for another "Chestnut Theme" challenge at Gingersnap Creations, and this month the theme is "Farm Fresh" to celebrate the richness of our agricultural heritage. There are tons of different ways to interpret this challenge, so I hope you'll be able to play along. There is a very special, near-and-dear-to-my-heart sponsor this month.... Rogue Redhead Designs! Yep, one randomly drawn participant in this challenge will win a gift voucher from RRD. Sweet, yes it is!

For my card, I pulled out some of my old Cornish Heritage Farms stamps. And speaking of which.... did you know that all of CHF's images were sold? And that they were bought by Tanya Kostynuk, of Stamper's Ink? And... that they are coming back, in the form of digital images and rubber? Oh yes they are! Tanya is in the process of developing a bunch of digital images right now, and is scheduled to go live with them on November 19. You can read all about it on the new CHF blog. There will be some old favorites, as well as some new, never-before-seen images that never got released before CHF closed its doors. So if you were a CHF fan.... "stay tuned" over the coming month. ;)

Rogue Redhead Designs' Anniversary and New Releases!

2011-11-01T12:39:00.001-04:00

Happy 1st Anniversary to Rogue Redhead Designs!! I'm so excited to share the new releases today. There are two - a mini set called Milliner Misses, and an adorable half plate of winter fun called Candy Kisses, a companion to the Snow Hugs plate.

The Milliner Misses mini plate has three gorgeous vintage fashion images and two sentiments. From the RRD blog:

"This mini plate packs a lot of style into just a few images. Capture the distinctive fashion and panache of the twenties with these great elegant ladies and their fabulous hats. Perfect for gal pal cards and fashionable greetings of all kinds."

The Candy Kisses plate is so versatile - you can use these images for Christmas, but also for birthdays and just for sending warm winter wishes. From the RRD blog:

"A fun companion plate to Snow Hugs, this half plate brings its own charm to the snowy season. Featuring a mini background, decorative elements, fun images and sweet sentiments, Candy Kisses is sure to become a go-to plate for warm wishes during the cold months of Winter."

And since it is Rogue Redhead Designs' 1st anniversary, they are having some wicked special offers. You can read all about it on the RRD Blog, as well as see some wonderfully inspirational designs. You can visit their new web store *HERE* for a little Christmas shopping. I'm thinking that at only $6.00 (special sale price), the Milliner Misses mini plate is the perfect stocking stuffer for crafty friends (and maybe your own little crafty self!!... Just sayin'!). There are some wonderful special prices on the gorgeous prior releases as well. I hope you'll go have a look. :) Happy November!

Happy Hallowe'en!

2011-10-31T16:41:00.000-04:00

It's here already! I can't believe how quickly October has flown by. I've made another raven, to go with my raven for the Gingersnap Creations challenge in *this* post. I actually have three of these chipboard ravens, and had really hoped to have them all done by today. Oh well. ;) I am entering this little guy into Inspiration Emporium's challenge (just under the wire) to make a creation using black, orange, and purple. The perfect color challenge for October, if you ask me, LOL! For this raven, I started with a layer of black Ranger crackle paint, then covered and dabbed Picket Fence Distress Stain over the top. Next come die cuts, borders, inked German text, and a fabulous sticker of poor Lenore....

Here she is in life....

And here she is in death....

Love these stickers, I tell ya!

The raven's ruffle is made by sewing four pieces of colored crepe paper together, then cutting them into a fringe and pinching and fluffing. The Happy Halloween ticket greeting in his beak is a Tim Holtz stamp, of course. ;)

Here are the two dark birdies together -

Have a delightfully spooky, Poe-ful Hallowe'en!!

Rogue Redhead Peek: Scrappy Christmas Tags

2011-10-24T14:10:00.008-04:00

Another peek for you today, of Rogue Redhead Designs' Candy Kisses plate, coming out November 1st. For these tags, I used some of the fun winter icons in the set, colored with Copic markers. I cut out each of the designs and glued them to some white corrugated cardboard that I had covered in clear glitter. I put that on top of a torn piece of cardstock scrap. The bases of the tags are stamped with the snowflake motif from the companion plate, Snow Hugs. I added some scraps of trim and some fuzzy sparkly ribbon. I wanted to make a set of pastel tags for the girlie girls in the family - they could just as easily be done in deep vintage colors, with a background of vintage sheet music or text. Hmmmm... maybe I'll do that next. ;)

Okay, I'm back.... Yep, I was gone for sumthin' like 14 hours so that I could do another set of tags, LOL!!! But due to the magic of blogland.... in an instant, here ya go:

My vintage heart prefers these, I think. But the young ones in the family prefer the top set. Regardless... these stamps are quite versatile, no? And I'm happy to have 8 tags done, tee hee. These are also colored with Copics, then layered on top of vintage hymnal music sheets, then on top of felt, then patterned paper. I used the same trim for all of these, since it reminded me of snowflakes. (For some reason, the red felt I used on these looks black in the picture. A photographer, I am not!) I hope you'll have a chance to check out Rogue Redhead over the coming weeks... lots of fun designs are coming your way. Happy Monday. :)

Rogue Redhead Sneak Peek

2011-10-23T12:25:00.001-04:00

A bit of a sneak peek for you today, of two new releases from Rogue Redhead Designs. If that bundled beauty looks familiar, it's because she is the signature sweetie of the Rogue Redhead Designs logo. Yep, she's a stamp now, and she has friends (hint, hint!). I've paired her with a pretty poinsettia from another new set that is just perfect for the winter holidays (including Valentine's!), happy hellos, and even birthdays. Look for more peeks on the Rogue Redhead Designs blog.... these sets will be released on November 1!

p.s. There just might be some special fun coming in honor of Rogue Redhead Designs' 1st anniversary. Just sayin'. ;)

More Halloween Banners

2011-10-21T14:56:00.000-04:00

A few more of my swaps. I used those twins again (I used an extra in my gluebook), and another spooky woman from The Sum of All Crafts (I decided she was some sort of medium with her ouija board.)

I also made a couple of less spooky ones for the less macabre-inclined (apparently there are lots of those kinda peeps, too, LOL!)

Still lovin' my Stampotique pumpkins! And finally, in an abrupt change of holidays, some quickie collaged and glued tags (since I'm such a big fan of gluesticks these days, tee hee!), using office supply tags.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! I will be crafting away in my car quite a bit... there are volleyball club tryouts this weekend for my daughter (at least 4 hours' worth!) and hockey practices for my son. I should just convert my minivan into a studio. Or maybe get a bigger van!

Spooky Gluing

2011-10-20T13:05:00.000-04:00

Wow, the word "gluing" really doesn't look like a word if you stare at it too long, LOL!! I've been making Halloween pennants for a local swap, and so I have some fun extra stuff to put in my train case and glue into my little book during my copious waiting-during-kids'-sports-practices time. Don't ya just love these little twins? They are freebies from The Sum of All Crafts - she has some marvelous Halloween images, and these gals were from a post of several spooky-looking people. I added some vintage German text that had been colored with sumthin'..... distress inks, maybe? And of course some random wordage from an old book I always have with me for just this purpose. The hats are from a Lisa's Altered Art collage sheet.

Also finally had some material to put on the page opposite my "Poe" page:

This little gal is from Paper Whimsy, and the images (stamped and scrap) are from Crafty Secrets/Heartwarming Vintage.

I'll finish up posting my pennants tomorrow, once I get them photographed. I'm off to watch my daughter's volleyball game. :)

Ravens with Gingersnap Creations

2011-10-19T07:58:00.000-04:00

If you love all things Poe, all things Halloween, all things spooky.... check out the new Random Redhead challenge over at Gingersnap Creations - Ravens! How fun is that? Well, I can tell ya, I had tons of fun with this one. I started with an extra large chipboard raven from Red Lead. I painted him black, then went a little wild collaging all sorts of scraps to make him a party bird. I had tested out my new Halloween stamps from Stampotique in the margins of some vintage sheet music. I just couldn't part with that little scrap, so it became the bird's belly (my sick sense of humor... a cat in a bird's belly... yep, I'm losing it!). There's some vintage German text, and scraps of old Halloween paper.

He's wearing a dapper hat that is actually a stamp from Red Lead (retired?), stamped in orange over patterned paper. Also stamped some bats, added a rhinestone eye, and a beak from some scrapped alcohol-inked paper. The ruffle is crepe paper edged with stickles.

Mmmmm, yummy kitty, LOL! The "Nevermore" is made from stickers from the Apothecary Emporium line.

The bit from The Raven poem is from *this* stamp, stamped on an alcohol-inked background scrap. (You can see some of my messy embossing... I just went with the grungy-ness of it all.)

And, if you need a bit more incentive to play along.. there's a wonderful Alpha Stamps giveaway to be had by one lucky participant in the Raven challenge. Fun stuff, I tell ya. I hope you'll check it out!

Vintage Gluebook Pages with Mary Green

2011-10-17T19:09:00.000-04:00

Hello crafters! Today I am taking inspiration from the Queen of Gluebooks herself, Mary Green of Green Paper, who is our Muse over at Gingersnap Creations this month. Mary has shared with us a marvelous gluebook tutorial, complete with some wonderful images to get you started. I've used the freebie images for these pages, along with some other wonderful images that Mary has graciously made available on her blog over the last several months. I hope you'll have time to check out her post (click on the link above), as well as her beautiful blog. All of the images here are courtesy of Green Paper - I just added a bit of vintage sheet music. (Just noticed I forgot to clip a corner.... I'm off to snip.... ;) Happy gluing!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2011-10-12T11:17:00.000-04:00

Where does the time go??? I'm coming along slowly with my Halloween pennants for my swap... here are two that feature a Paper Whimsy image (the girl, along with a hat from Lisa's Altered Images), and stamps from Red Lead (the small ravens with Poe quotes) Oxford Impressions (large raven and ouija board), and Tim Holtz (Halloween ticket).

Lately I've pretty much had time to scrap only on the go, and even then, I haven't done much. I mentioned in my last post that I was feeling mojo-less and wasn't even happy with my gluebook pages. So I will share... the good, the bad, and the ugly.....

First up, the good.... those little cuties are my dad and his twin brother, and the sentiment is from a piece of vellum patterned paper that I've had in my stash for centuries....

Next up.... a Poe page that I am basically happy with.... it's just that I cannot for the life of me seem to complete the page next to it. There are some scraps in the foreground that I'm trying to use... I think I just might have to actually stamp or go gather something "real" from my stash that will work.....

Okay, as promised, the ugly.... this is waaaay too busy. It seemed a good idea as I was putting it together. I closed it up, ran off to some school event or other... came back and opened it up again and really had to say "What was I thinking?!" But that's what's so great about a gluebook - you can try things, experiment, and if it doesn't work out, it's no big deal. All you've done is use up some scraps that weren't making it into anything else anyway!! Totally forgiving, and really, a learning tool.... a record of what does and does not work. (I'm trying really hard not to rip this out, LOL!!!)

Still hoping to find more time to visit all of your lovely blogs. Unfortunately, today I have to go out and spend way to much money on a dishwasher... ours totally gave up the ghost (I had been making do with certain features not working, but now it's finally dead and not worth fixing). I've been spending all of my time online trying to figure out which models are best, etc. But I'm tired of doing dishes, so I'm buying today no matter what, LOL! Have a happy Wednesday.

Halloween Pennant Swap #1

2011-10-06T00:01:00.001-04:00

My local mixed media group is swapping individual Halloween pennants this month... it's 10 for 10, so that in the end, we have a banner (bunting?) that will fit across a doorway or small mantel. I wanted to use up bits and pieces of Halloween papers, stickers, images, etc., so I'm making them all different, so of course, it's taking me forever! Normally I would probably fly right through this (I loooooove Halloween!), but I'm having a prolonged period of totally missing mojo.... I just can't seem to get out of it, everything is a huge challenge. I don't even like what I did in my gluebook today... maybe I'll share that tomorrow, the good, the bad, and the ugly.... full disclosure, LOL! Ah well, we've all been there, right? I'll stop whining now. ;)

Here is the first installment of my swaps. Collage and stamped images are from Red Lead, Crafty Secrets, Oxford Impressions, The Graphics Fairy, and Lisa's Altered Art. If you have a question about a specific image, just email me, I'll let you know what's what.

I hope your week is going well. The kids are back in school this week, trying to get back into the daily grind. It means I have extra time to craft... just wish that ol' mojo would join me. ;) 'Til next time.... have a happy.

Gingersnap Creations "Horror Stories"

2011-10-05T00:01:00.002-04:00

A new theme challenge has just begun over at Gingersnap Creations, and this month it is "Horror Stories." Our inspiration for the entire month of October is Edgar Allan Poe... how fun is that?!? I decided to use The Fall of the House of Usher as the inspiration for my piece - the poem within the story (from which the quote is taken); the narrator's vision of the fissure that extended from the top to the bottom of the house, with its "vacant eye-like windows"; the ghost of the sister, Madeline. All of the stamps used are from Oxford Impressions - "Haunted" and "Trick or Treat." All of the DT's projects are so wonderful, I hope you'll have time to go take a look. There's so much cool stuff gong on over at Gingersnap Creations this month... with AlphaStamps is our sponsor, and Mary Green (of gluebook fame!) as our muse.... you won't want to miss it. ;)

Gingersnap Creations Color Challenge

2011-09-28T00:01:00.002-04:00

I *love* the color combination for the newest color challenge over at Gingersnap Creations: Turquoise, Blue, and Purple. I chose to take the colors all soft and vintagey for my card, to go with my vintage image. I also wanted to keep with the Gal Pal theme, so I chose this lovely retro lady writing a letter to a distant friend, with a sentiment that goes along quite nicely, I think. :) The papers are ancient - from my stash - some My Mind's Eye, I believe. I added a bit of crinkled seam binding and a little pin that I crafted from a pearl bead and rhinestone rondelle. The panels are cut with Spellbinder's Nestabilities. The images are both from Viva Las VegaStamps - "Lady Writing" and "The Heart Knows No".

Be sure to check out all of the fabulous creations of the DT members over at Gingersnap Creations. I hope you'll play along... there is blog candy to be had this month! ;)

Glue Book Pages

2011-09-27T13:15:00.000-04:00

A few more glue book pages, completed while waiting for my daughter at piano lessons. I used up some added scraps from some recent projects... you may recognize that heart-shaped leaf print from a Craft Stamper article, LOL! Also a few scraps from a recent Parisian-themed batch of ATCs. I'm keeping a few extra supplies in my train case now, including some printed masking tape (the black music tape is from 7Gypsies). I need to add some autumn-themed stuff.... I am soooo "over" summer! Just a quickie today... I'll be back tomorrow with a new Gingersnap Creations Color Challenge. Thanks for stopping by! ;)

Spotlighting over at Gingersnap Creations

2011-09-24T00:05:00.001-04:00

Another quickie post today, with a look at a one-layer card I did for my Spotlight Panel tutorial over at Gingersnap Creations. We're all about spotlight techniques this month, and this one is easy-peasy with a very fun result. Hope you have time to take a look and join in one of our September challenges... there's Viva Las VegaStamps blog candy up for grabs with every challenge.

Also, don't forget to participate in the Scrap365 Blog Hop - click on the link to go to my post, and hop on over to the Scrap365 blog to see what all the buzz is about.

We have more volleyball today! Last night we got to go to the Duke Blue Devils Women's Volleyball game - WOW! It was very exciting - these ladies are wicked fabulous! My daughter was in awe. She is extra pumped to play today. Hope you all have some fun things planned..... "have a happy". :)

Is She or Isn't She?

2011-09-23T11:38:00.000-04:00

Hello! If you are looking for the Scrap365 Blog Hop, please click on the link - it will take you to the post below so you can get all the deets, leave a comment, and continue on the hop!

Just wanted to check in today with a little peek of my post for the Rogue Redhead Designs blog.... you can get all the how-to's for my spooky little gal over at the Rogue Blog.

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. We have hockey, and volleyball, and hockey again, and volleyball again.... you get the idea. It's all good! :) Thanks for visiting, my friends.

Introducing Scrap365 Magazine!

2011-09-22T13:00:00.057-04:00

Edited to add: The Winner has been announced! See THIS POST. Thanks to everyone who hopped on by! :)

Welcome to the Scrap365 magazine blog hop! My name is Jean Franks Beck, and I am soooo excited to be one of the designers in the inaugural issue of Scrap365 Magazine. If you have already heard about Scrap365, then you've probably come here from Suzy Beecher's blog. Your next step on the hop is Louise Nelson's blog. Don't forget to leave a comment on all of the DT's blogs so that you have a chance at a really awesome prize!

Now, for those peeps who haven't come here from the Scrap365 hop.... you may be wondering what on earth I'm going on about. ;) Scrap365 is a brand-new scrapbooking magazine from the same creative artists who bring you Craft Stamper Magazine. Scrap365 will debut November 18, 2011, and will be filled with awesome ideas and inspiration to keep you scrapping every day of the year. With Scrap365, you will discover a varied and eclectic approach covering all aspects of scrapbooking, including journaling, digi scrapping, photography, even storage ideas! And as you might have guessed.... yours truly has an article in the inaugural issue! I won't spill the beans completely, but my project just *might* have a bit of glue involved. ;) You can get all the details of the blog hop on the Scrap365 Blog if you'd like to see more peeks. You can also keep up on Facebook at www.facebook.com/scrap365 and visit at Twitter at @scrap365mag.com.

And how's this for an incentive to hop..... If you leave a comment on ALL of the DT's blogs AND the Scrap365 blog, you are eligible to win a prize of a year's subscription to Craft Stamper magazine PLUS stamps worth over £20! How sweet is that? I hope you can hop and play along. Good luck!

For those of you new to my website, let me tell you a little about myself. I am originally from the northeastern part of the US (eastern Pennsylvania to be specific), and am now living "down south" with my hubby, 12-year-old daughter and 10-year old son. I'm a vintage-loving gal! My scrapbooking style varies based on the subject of my scrapbooks, but for the most part, I love shabby chic, vintage, and grungy looks. One of my favorite project that I have been working on throughout the year is my gluebook pages (there's a little sneaky peek above). I work on my gluebook whenever I am waiting in line in my car.... for the kids to get out of school, finish piano lessons, finish sports practices.... you get the idea. I cart it all around in a vintage train case that is packed with scraps of patterned papers, clip art, photos, and unused stamped images. I am currently a designer for Craft Stamper Magazine, Rogue Redhead Designs rubber stamp company, and Gingersnap Creations challenge blog.

I will leave you with a few of my scrapping endeavors from previous posts, as well as this peek from the mag (which you can also see a bit of in the announcement photo above)......

Some pics of a little mini album I made out of office supplies:

And some pics from my vintage gluebook....

Thanks for stopping by!

Gingersnap Creations Shared Moments Challenge

2011-09-21T00:01:00.037-04:00

It's that time again... time for another Random Redhead Challenge over at Gingersnap Creations, and this month the theme is "Shared Moments." We are celebrating our gal pals this month, and we are sponsored by the amazing Viva Las VegaStamps. Wow, do these folks carry a lot of stamps! I'm pretty sure they come close to having a gazillion different images, in all kinds of styles. My little project for this challenge starts out with a double glass slide mailer, which I painted and distressed. Next, I stamped the Beach Bunch image twice - once in black in order to color it with Copics so that it had that "in living color" look, and once in sepia (this version was my "vintage photo" version). I cut out the colored version and adhered it over sandy colored cardstock. The sepia version I distressed a bit, cut out to fit the slide mailer, and glued in place under a glass microscope slide. I stamped the sentiment, Good Times with Good Friends, wrapped a little metallic wire around it, and adhered it above the colored image. Finally, I tore out a section of student dictionary that I thought had some perfect words on it.... "sand" and "sandal" to go with the beach theme, and "sanctuary" to go with the girls weekend away theme. I attached a tiny bottle filled with sand and wrapped with more metallic wire. I bit of doodling on the sentiment, and some metallic dresden trim finish it off. A few more pics...

I hope you'll have time to play along in this fun challenge.... when you're done, you'll have a perfect little something for that favorite gal pal.... for her birthday or maybe even Christmas (it's right around the corner, you know! eeeeekkk!) One lucky participant in this challenge will win a great prize - see the Random Redhead challenge post for the deets.

Before you go, I'd like to ask you to come back and visit me again tomorrow.... I've got a very exciting announcement! Can't wait.... something new is coming..... all of you scrapbookers and art journalers and glue bookers and heirloom album makers will be especially interested..... Okay, gotta stop right there. See ya'll tomorrow!

Rogue Redhead Rebel Challenge #3

2011-09-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

Hello lovelies, I've finally gotten some time to play! As some of you know, my kids go to a year-round school, and they have been tracked out for the last week..... you'll note, I haven't crafted in a week. Coincidence? I think not! Anyway, I decided to play along with the Rebel Challenge over at Rogue Redhead Designs. This time, the challenge is to "Think Outside the ATC." We are to let some feature of our ATC break out of the 2.5 x 3.5 inch boundary.

For my ATC, I used some Prima paper and the lovely little swinging children from the Relish Reading plate. Colored them with Copics and let them "swing" from a diecut branch. My "outside" element is the sun, which is an image from the Floriculture plate, punched out with a Martha Stewart punch that fits it perfectly.

I hope you'll have time to play along with Rebel Challenge #3. You have until October 9th to link up your creation, you can use any products you'd like (you don't have to use Rogue Redhead stamps, but we'd love it if you have some!), and.... one lucky participant will win a $15.00 US voucher at the RRD Etsy store! Oh yeah, some of this vintage goodness could be yours. Sounds fun, eh? :)

(P.S..... special thanks to Linda of My Happy Place... I borrowed the cute little easel she sent me that usually holds her beautiful mini canvas on my desk.... it's perfect for taking photos of ATCs! Thanks, Linda x!)

We Will Never Forget

2011-09-11T00:01:00.003-04:00

Glue Book in Black and White

2011-09-10T11:07:00.021-04:00

I am running out of leftover images to use in my glue book! I'm getting down to images that were simply stamped and never colored..... little extras that never made it into a project or even any further than simple ink. So I decided to see if I could come up with a layout in only black and white. The background on the right is a black and white photo of flowers that I ran through a script embossing folder (a leftover from a photo project I did for Craft Stamper..... one of the projects that I decided to leave on the crafting table, so to speak). I wish I had had some sand paper with me to bring out the embossing.... might have to add that to the train case. Actually, my crafty little case needs some replenishing. I might have to start adding things purposefully so that I have something to craft with. *Gasp!* ;)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

Macabre Glue Book Page

2011-09-09T11:07:00.000-04:00

As some of you may know, I do my gluebooking in the car, while waiting for my kids to emerge from school or from their various sporting activities... toting my supplies in my vintage train case. It's a teensy bit possible that the fumes are getting to me, ROFL! Here are some frightful little pages I put together.... getting in the mood for Hallowe'en. I only had a few pages of book text left that were actually in English... I worked with what I had ... and I suppose I have a bit of "Poe" on the brain. Serious fun. ;)

A Bit of Glue Book

2011-09-08T09:45:00.000-04:00

Life is good. Healthy, happy, busy, full. My craft room is neglected and quite messy. I've had to craft on the run, when I can, and so the only thing I've got to share today is a few little glue book pages. My thoughts have turned to fall (even if the weather hasn't), so I've used rich shades of brown, rust, and orange, still using up my scraps and discarded stamped images. The image on the right is the paper I used to do a transfer.... it's what was left on the copy paper after I'd transferred the image to watercolor paper. Just couldn't part with her. :)

Hope everyone stays safe and sound in the Northeast... they are experiencing another round of flooding. All of my best to all of you affected!

Blue Moon Challenge at Gingersnap Creations

2011-08-31T00:02:00.026-04:00

It's that rare time.... a Once in a Blue Moon Challenge for a fifth Wednesday of the month at Gingersnap Creations! This time we challenge you to create something based on a prior Gingersnap Creations Art Exchange theme. You can see all of the Gingersnap Creations Art Exchange posts by following *THIS LINK*. For my piece, I chose the Party Time Postcard exchange.... which was to make a party-themed creation using a 4 x 6 inch format. I decided to keep with this month's theme (but you don't have to!) of Babes and Tots, and created a little beach party scene using the adorable kids from Rogue Redhead Designs Beach Babes plate. I colored them with Copics and altered them a bit to fit the party theme.... the little girl in orange now carries a gift bag with tissue peeking out of the top, and the little boy now sports a patterned paper party hat (as does the cutie in pink), and the little gal in the pink dress now carries party balloons instead of a handkerchief. They are on a sandy beach (leftover background that I made with distress inks), with a patterned paper banner in the background (I believe the paper is from Glitz). I added the beach party letters along one of the banners, and also added some postcard-type stamps, too (from Stampin' Up and Artistic Outpost). Isn't it cool... the postmark says Ocean Grove, and I was sooooo close on the date, LOL!

I hope you'll have the chance to play along! And ... you've got one more day to sign up for the current Art Exchange, which is Encouraging Words magnets. Head on over to Gingersnap Creations for the details. :)

Paris ATC

2011-08-26T13:31:00.001-04:00

Where oh where has the week gone? I think maybe my cat stole it. He's been jostling open the door to my craft room and stealing my ribbon that I have rolled onto vintage clothespins. He comes downstairs and deposits them in my shoes, or next to my purse. So, I think he may be stealing my days, too.... yep, that's my story. ;)

Sharing a little ATC I made for a swap I was just in, where the theme was travel. Three of us chose Paris in some way! For my version, I started out with a photocopy of a vintage Paris map. The colors were a little bright, so I opened it in my photo editing program, reduced the vibrancy by about 60%, then tweaked the colors to be warmer than they appeared, and presto! - it had just the colors I wanted. I did a little stamping on it, too, for a more layered effect. Next up was the Eiffel Tower image, from I Brake For Stamps. I first made a background using a variety of Glimmer Mists, then stamped the image in black. I went back in and added some color with a small dose of Mustard Seed distress ink (that's one very vivid color.... a teensy itty bit goes a long way!) Then I added color to the flowers using colored pencils, and traced over the word "Paris" with a white gel pen. I added a stamped Paris cancellation mark and stamped French postage. I love making ATCs, and this was a fun little project.

I hope everyone along the East Coast of the US stays safe this weekend! I'm sure many of us will be without power as Hurricane Irene surges through. Take care and take cover! Hurricane force winds and torrential rains can affect areas farther inland than you might imagine.... Hurricane Fran was still a category 1 storm when it came through central North Carolina in 1996, and it caused severe damage and power outages that lasted several days (we had a giant oak tree on our house for weeks! and...were without power for 4 days, which was much shorter than some others in the surrounding area). Just sayin'.... don't treat this thing too lightly. Okay, end of lecture, LOL!

Have a happy weekend everyone! Hopefully I will still have power so that I can blurf and blog!

Rogue Redhead Beach Babes

2011-08-19T00:05:00.000-04:00

A quick little post today of a card I made with the new Beach Babes set from Rogue Redhead Designs - you can see the details on the Rogue Redhead blog *here*.

Did you know that Rogue Redhead Designs ships to the UK and Canada now??? (as well as in the US, of course). And there is a special discount on the Beach Babes set going on right now..... you can get the details on the blog or in the shop. Just a little enabling for a fabulous Friday. :)

Gingersnap Creations Tribute to Teens

2011-08-17T00:02:00.045-04:00

I love the Random Redhead challenges over at Gingersnap Creations - there's always something to stretch you, make you puzzle a bit, and they're just a whole lotta fun! This month is certainly no exception, because GC115 is: a Tribute to Teens! Aaaahhhh, the teen years. Actually, my kids are currently in the Tween years, so I guess this is just a warm-up. My 12-year-old daughter loves art, she loves to craft right along beside me, and she was just a teensie bit miffed when I said I was going to do my teen tribute piece for her 10-year-old brother. Truth is, I really don't have much in the way of girlie teen stuff. But I hoped I could come up with something boyishly fun. So I started by asking my son what colors he liked. "Orange. And green. And maybe blue. And black." Hmmmmm.... "How about for hockey teams, what colors then?" "Purple and silver. And green and gold," he says. Double hmmmm....... Okay, I can't use all of those, so I picked the ones I thought would be most "cool" and went with it!

My son is a goalie, and part-time defenseman. (Did you know that NONE of the equipment for these two positions overlaps???? Sorry, had a hockey mom angst moment just then.) So, a hockey canvas for him. This is a 6x6 canvas that I first covered with black gesso. Then I layered on some clippings from a USA Hockey magazine using gel medium. After that was dry, I thinned down some more black gesso and applied it all over to tone down the graphics a bit. Next, I thinned down some orange acrylic paint and squished it along the side with a wide brush, allowing it to drip down the canvas. (The lingo for ice hockey goalies is that they "melt down" the puck.... wanted to capture that melting feeling.) More drying time. I added some gaffer tape from 7 Gypsies, then used the same technique with some deep blue acrylic, this time letting it "melt" down from the top left-hand side. More drying...... Next up, I used an old plastic cap dipped in Golden Interference Gold to make some iridescent gold circles - sorta icy, sorta pucky, and it checks off another of my son's preferred colors.

For the feature goalie image, I heat-embossed the goalie silhouette onto black paper, then added orange embossing powder. (Goalie stamp is by My Heart Stamps For You.) Before I heat set it, I stamped over it with Tim Holtz's reflections numbers stamp. Yes, I know, the numbers are backwards this way. Truth is, I tried it the proper way into the embossing ink and it didn't work with the thick Zing! embossing powder I was using, so I just went for the very subtle patterned effect. It sorta looks like numbers, but not really. Then I heated the embossing powder. I like it - a goalie's life is filled with numbers - save percentage, goals against average, shoot-out percentage, etc.... I liked the subtle reference to go along with the numbers on the tape. I "melted" a tiny bit of blue paint down the goalie, and gel medium-ed it onto the canvas. As a finishing touch, I painted the word "larceny" in a graffiti font. (More background - the lingo for a really, really good save is "larceny" - as in, you have stolen the puck away from the shooter, stealing his score.)

I took the canvas downstairs to where my son was playing a video game. He looked up at me, looked at the canvas, *smiled*, and said, "Cool."

Ahhhh, success. ;)

Sail Away

2011-08-12T10:21:00.001-04:00

Edited to add: I had a question about what kind of watercolor crayons I used. Funny thing, that. I am a total newbie at this, but I'll tell you what I've experienced so far. Just a few weeks ago I purchased a small, cheap Staedtler set to see whether I liked them and if I would use them. 12 colors, mostly primary. They are fun, and I figured I could get by for the near future with that. When I went to Donna Downey's, however, she had Caran d'Ache Neocolor IIs in her shop, by the set, and *individually*! I couldn't resist buying a few luscious shades individually (rust, coral, turquoise, olive... stuff like that). So... the comparison: both have beautiful, vivid colors. Both are easy for me to work with. However.... the Neocolors are definitely creamier, and blend more readily than the Staedtlers (that is, it doesn't take much "scrubbing" to have them blend beautifully). If you have access to individual Neocolors, I'd say buy a couple. (Although this is not "cost efficient" compared to the sets, it makes sense if you are unsure about what you want or how much you'll use them. This way you've only invested a few bucks. Try getting a few colors that are not in the smaller sets, that way you won't have overlap if you decide to invest in a set.) But if you don't have Neocolors nearby and you want to try out watercolor crayons for the first time, the less expensive versions are still very nice, too. So that's the long answer, LOL! Hope that helps.

Happy Friday. :) Today I have a little clean and simple card featuring images from a brand new plate from Rogue Redhead Designs called "Beach Babes." I decided that this little boat image, border design, and sentiment would go along perfectly over at the Less Is More Challenge, which this week is to use the colors of your nation's flag. A little send-off to summer with the Red White and Blue. I wanted to play with some new watercolor crayons I purchased, so I stamped the boat a bit off-center and filled in the sea and sky with crayons. The boat is paper pieced, with a little crayon color added. I scratched out some splashing waves with an Xacto knife. The greek key border is embossed in dark blue, the sentiment stamped in a deep red. The hardest part about this card was photographing it! You can click for a larger view.... something went wonky in my photo processing efforts and I think I've ended up with a bit of a blurry image in the regular sized version. I've also been having trouble uploading images to blogger again..... anyone?

I've got a few more pics of projects from my classes with Donna Downey. Here are a few album pages from the Heart and Soul class......

Masking, glimmer misting, inking..... fun stuff. Here's to a happy weekend for all! :)

Good Times and Happy Mail!

2011-08-09T15:28:00.002-04:00

Well, it seems I've gone from having nothing to share to having so much to share that I've got to split it over a few posts! I have returned from an amazing, inspiring, fun, and fab-u-lous weekend at Donna Downey Studios. The journal above was made in her "Butterfly Moments" class, and is a canvas mini album. We did lots of fun distressing with papers, inks, and paints. The main butterfly portion is from a 12x12 canvas sheet available here. We ripped and distressed it, then painted over it with Shimmerz, which is paint infused with mica. Loooove it! Here's a close-up:

Canvas letters, Prima flowers, book text.... so many of my favorite things were included in this class! Here's a peek at an inside page, done by applying distress inks and spritzing them with water:

Okay, so enough about me...... the most fabulous surprise was waiting for me when I got home, from the lovely Linda at My Happy Place blog:

How awesomely gorgeous is this????? A beautiful layered mini canvas, a gorgeous coordinating card, an adorable little tag, and... hello!...... the envelope was even stamped and painted to coordinate! Wow! I am so, so very grateful that Linda shared this with me - Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! I love each and every piece. How wonderful are blog friends?!?! I am in awe.

Hope everyone has been having a wonderful summer. It's been busy around here, I haven't been to your beautiful blogs nearly as much as I would like. Hoping the pace will slow a little in these last, sweltering days of summer. I've still got more to post.... but it will have to wait a bit.... ;)

Classes with Donna Downey!

2011-08-05T09:28:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,
No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I've just fallen out of my craft room chair, LOL! We've been away for awhile (in the Chesapeake Bay area of Maryland, visiting family), and doing all sorts of kid things - starting school, orientations, the start of sports seasons, the ending of sports seasons......

BUT - this weekend I get to have some UBER artsy crafty time with none other than the delightful Donna Downey! I'm so excited to be going off and having some uninterrupted, serious-but-fun creative time. I'm taking three classes - Heart and Soul, Butterfly Moments, and Inspiration Journal: Creating a Visual Diary. If anyone is in the general area of Charlotte, North Carolina, it sounds like there is still some room to enroll. You can check it out at Donna Downey Studios.

When I come back I'll share some of my projects (yikes - that's a bit scary - I'm definitely out of my box here!). I'm also expecting a certain gorgeous stamp set to be in my mailbox sometime very soon.... that's all I'm sayin'! ;)

Have a fabulous weekend!

Planes and Trains with Gingersnap Creations

2011-07-20T07:50:00.000-04:00

The Random Redhead Challenge GC111 this month at Gingersnap Creations is Trains and Planes - perfect for our traditional month of travel! The DT are continuing along our lines of the Steampunk theme, but you can do anything related to planes or trains - let your imagination, ummm.... soar! For my piece, I decided to go the railway route and used some fabulous steampunk images from Dezinaworld, along with some retired B&O stamp sets from Cornish Heritage Farms. The map and ticket are colored with Distress Inks and crumpled and distressed to look old. The 'gears' are part collage images, part metal embellishment. The background is also from Dezinaworld (Sew 2 in yellow).

Want a little more incentive? One randomly drawn winner from the qualifying participants for this challenge will become GC's new Home Page Artist for a week AND will win a voucher for use in the Dezinaworld store worth $20.00 US. Want a little more inspiration? Check out the fabulous creations by the DT and our visiting artists at Gingersnap Creations.

Bluebird Blog Candy Winner!!!

2011-07-17T00:03:00.020-04:00

The day is here.... time to pick a winner! Thank you all so very much for your comments, your support, and all of the wonderful inspiration I get from your beautiful blogs. And a special thanks to all of my followers - you're the sweetest group. :) I wish I could give everyone a little something, but Random.org has picked one lucky winner.....

Number 30..... who is.... Linda R.!!! Congrats Linda! Please email me your address (there's an email link in my sidebar near the top) and I will get these goodies out to you ASAP. :-)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Christmas in July - Snow Hugs

2011-07-15T12:40:00.004-04:00

It's Christmas in July for me today, trying to think cool thoughts! I've been inspired by this week's Card Patterns Sketch 123, and the various Christmas in July postings around blogland. I'm also entering this in the Scrap Our Stash July challenge, which is Red, White, and Blue (just ignore that teensy bit of green, pretty please?).

My card uses Rogue Redhead Designs' Snow Hugs plate, along with the front cover of Basic Grey's Blitzen collection. Yep, I seriously dug into some old stash for this one! Here's a little pic of what I'm talking about:

I used the tiny product pictures for my paper piecing. For all of the details, please have a hop on over to the Rogue Redhead Designs blog. And don't forget about the very first ever Rogue Redhead Designs Rebel Challenge, too.... there's a prize to be had, my friends!!

AND.... don't forget to enter for a chance to win my Bluebird Blog Candy! Click on the picture in my sidebar to take you to the prize post. :)

A few more pics:

GC110: Gears, Cogs, and Watch Bits

2011-07-13T00:05:00.030-04:00

Time for another fun challenge from Gingersnap Creations, and this time we're going steampunk with GC110: Gears, Cogs and Watch Bits! My collage images come from our sponsor this month, Dezinaworld. I must say, these collage sheets were a joy to work with - beautiful quality, and totally fun images. I used the Steampunk 4 collage sheet for my card, and by simply resizing a few of the images, I was able to construct this lovely couple, who are literally made for each other! I added some cogs and gears (some in strategic places, LOL!!!), and some gear and pocket watch stamped images in the background. As I was looking through my pages of vintage text for some words I could use, I came across this phrase (it's from Little Women) and decided to use it "as is". Sort of made me think of two people suddenly realizing that they are perfect for each other, as this odd couple certainly is. I think this would make a fun and funky anniversary card (or even a wedding card for the truly progressive, hee hee).

If you'd like to play along, simply link up your creation over at Gingersnap Creations by August 7, 2011. One randomly selected qualifying entry will win a voucher for use in the Dezinaworld store worth $20.00 US, and as always, 10 Ginger Gems will also be named.

Tag Tuesday - Orange and Black

2011-07-12T12:26:00.000-04:00

The new Tag Tuesday Challenge over at Blog Challenge Garden is Black and Orange and Not Halloween or Autumn Related! I knew immediately what I wanted to do, thanks to tons of inspiration from Godelieve's blog, Stamping Matilda. I adore her work, and she has been doing a dictionary series that is gorgeous.. you can see the posts HERE. I thought this challenge was perfect for a little CASE of that work. The butterfly stamp is from Red Lead, colored with Prismacolor pencils. The little flower stamp is from Oxford Impressions. That's all for now... I've got a new Gingersnap Creations challenge piece coming tomorrow - hope to see ya then. :)

Rebel Challenge: Bold-Colored Vintage

2011-07-11T13:31:00.001-04:00

How about a little color for your Monday? Rogue Redhead Designs has started a new "Rebel Challenge" - and the very first challenge is Bold-Colored Vintage! From the RRD site:

Vintage images often are used with soft, sweet colors - so not Rogue! Let's use some of that summer heat and go color wild! Use 2 or more of the bold colors [above right] combined with vintage images in your submission.

You do not have to use Rogue Redhead Designs in your creation (but it would be fabulous if you did!); one lucky participant will win a $15.00 US voucher at the Rogue Redhead Designs Etsy store .

So, for my creation.....The first thing I did was print out the little color graphic of the bold colors for the challenge. Then I went through my stash of papers, laying them down next to the graphic, and decided which ones to use. I decided to keep the vivid fuchsia mainly in the image, and not the papers, coordinating it only with the little button that highlights the sentiment. Then it was just a matter of layering, distressing, and assembling. The main image is from the Relish Reading plate, available at Stamp Diva. I colored her with Copics, cut her out, and layered her on the blue panel. I punched and assembled the rest of my patterned papers around her. Because I used all four of these vivid hues, I wanted to make sure that each color occurred in more than one place on the card, to make them more cohesive and look like a part of the color story. I added a fuchsia button with blue seam binding to coordinate with the image, and a green "photo corner" that I cut from the same paper as the bottom trim. The paper along the left side actually has more than one of the challenge colors in it, to pull everything together. I stitched along the left side for a little shabby vintage flavor. The sentiment is from RRD's Bits and Pieces set.

I hope you can play along - this is a very fun challenge, and a great way to add some new sparkle to your vintage images!

Paint Chips and Fibers Swap

2011-07-08T13:05:00.000-04:00

Just a quick little share today.... my mixed media group had a swap, and the criteria were to use paint chips and fibers in some way. Bookmark tags were the first thing to pop into my mind (I'm always in the middle of a book, and so is my daughter!). Here are a few. I've used stamps from a variety of sources, including Rogue Redhead Designs, Tim Holtz, Red Lead, Oxford Impressions, Unity, Serendipity, and Darkroom Door (umm.... yes, I'm a bit addicted to stamps, LOL!). If you have a question about where to find a specific image, feel free to email me.

Hope everyone has a happy Friday and a great weekend!

Bluebird Blog Candy!

2011-07-05T10:24:00.001-04:00

It's time for a big huge THANK YOU! Thank you for visiting, thank you for commenting, thank you for following. And most of all, thank you for inspiring! I wish I had a little candy for everyone. But for one lucky someone..... there is Bluebird Blog Candy.

What's in it? Stamps and stuff.

The stamps:

- Chatterbox "Fabulous" Clear Stamps with lots of butterflies, birds, and sentiments that are great for journaling
- Crafty Individuals "Garden Fairy" wood mounted stamp
- Cornish Heritage Farms "Tree Swallows" cling mounted stamp (retired - but I got an extra 'cuz it's my fave!)
- Scrolls Work cling mounted stamp of an old man cloud, blowing the wind
- Two Studio G clear collage stamp duos, one with birds and one with butterfly/dragonfly
- A few wood-mounted bargain bin stamps - two birds, a birdcage, and two sentiment stamps

The stuff:

- A mini bird cage for altering
- Two pretty journals for altering
- Tim Holtz Idea-ology "Compass" mini mask
- A pretty bunch of seam binding in four luscious shades of blue!

For a chance to win, just leave me a comment on this post. If you want to, you can share what your favorite "blue" thing is.... bluebirds, bluebells, the ocean, anything! Please comment by 9:00 PM EST on July 16th, and I'll announce the winner on July 17th.

Less Is More Shades of Blue Challenge

2011-07-04T13:09:00.001-04:00

I'm playing along for the first time today over at Less Is More. The challenge for Week 22:

SHADES of BLUE

You can use a white card base, but they do want to see more than one color of blue, not just one!

I must admit I've been lurking over there for a while - the DT and the folks who participate are extremely talented!!! I finally just had to take the plunge with this one.

My card uses Rogue Redhead Designs stamps - the "bluebells" are from the Floriculture plate, stamped three times and masked, and colored with Copics. The background vintage Almanac image is from the Relish Reading plate (from Stamp Diva). I added some Tim Holtz tissue tape, colored with Copics, to the top and bottom of the image panel to make it look like the image was just haphazardly stuck there. The background is Glimmer Mists. Very flat, very mailable, very fun ;).

Tomorrow I will finally have my second-ever blog candy.... Bluebird Blog Candy (say that 5 times fast!)... celebrating all of you lovely artists who inspire and encourage me every single day. Hope all of my US friends have a fabulous and fun July 4th!

A Rogue Redhead at the Play Date Cafe

2011-07-01T12:09:00.000-04:00

My post title almost sounds like a summer novella, LOL! When I saw the new color palette PDCC88 at The Play Date Cafe, I immediately thought of this beautiful image of Blanket flowers from Rogue Redhead Designs' Floriculture plate. I love the bright summery feel of both the image and the color palette. The image is colored by scribbling Memento markers directly onto the stamp. I then went in and added color using both Memento and Copic markers. I found some gorgeous, bright patterned papers and diecuts in my stash from Crate Paper (Restoration - luv!) and Fancy Pants that were the perfect colors. I added a sentiment from the Bits and Pieces set, paper tape from 7Gypsies, some glittered butterflies (Martha Stewart punch), and a bit of lace trim.

I'd like to say Happy Canada Day to all our northern friends! I hope everyone has a fabulous summer weekend. I am seriously trying to get back into the swing of crafting.... sorry I've been away for so long, neglecting my little blog. Since we got back from the beach I've been doing the spring cleaning that never got done during the proper season, lol! I'll leave you with a few pictures from our trip. We were on beautiful Topsail Island of North Carolina, watching the sunrise and the full moonrise, taking long strolls along the tideline, playing with crabs, and watching the dolphins. It was a glorious time. *sigh*

Sunrise

Moonrise

Kids (with lots of sunscreen on!)

Crabs

Dolphins

The Color of Money with Gingersnap Creations

2011-06-22T00:02:00.002-04:00

Gingersnap Creations has put a little spin on the color challenge this month.... our new challenge is GC108: Color of Money. Take your inspiration from the colors of currency - from your own country or abroad! For my challenge piece, I couldn't resist dressing up this little Character Constructions gal in some fabulous blue digital currency from Altered Pages - Foreign Currency. I made her dress by cutting out several of the same Franc image and layering it like ruffles. Her bodice was also paper pieced from the bill, and I also made her a fashionable hat. Of course, she had to be wearing lots of bling as well. I found the quote online, by.... can you believe it...... Bo Derek! Remember her - the perfect "10"? For the background, I stamped lots of things to shop for (dresses, shoes, handbags, sunglasses) randomly over green paper that reminded me of our own currency here in the US. Some Copics, some distress inks, and some bling added on..... of course. :)

Hope you get a chance to play along! I'm back from the beach (Topsail Island, NC) but still finishing up that backlog of work from any vacation.... laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry, and oh... did I mention laundry??? Will be crafty soon.... and... I just might have a wee bit of candy in the near future. I think it's about time for some more, don't you? ;)

Bags and Tags with Gingersnap Creations

2011-06-15T00:34:00.001-04:00

A little bit of fun and funky today, with a new challenge from Gingersnap Creations: Bags and Tags. Our overall theme this month is "At the Mall", and we've also been doing some recycling/repurposing, so for my bag and tag I recycled from our latest mall trip. I took a small square-ish bag from American Eagle and covered it with images from Altered Pages' Fashion Ladies collage sheet. I printed out the sheet twice on regular paper, cut apart the vintage sewing pattern images, and inked them up with distress inks. Then I collaged them onto the bag, along with some of the fashion phrases from the sheet. The tag is also from an item of clothing (one of my daughter's - her clothes have the best tags!), on top of which I added a fashion lady image from The Artistic Stamper's Twenties' Ladies Plate 4. A sentiment from CHF and a little bling, and you have a gift bag for a tweenie girl!

We're at the beach this week, so this is probably it for my crafty postings for a while. I'm hoping to have lots of time to visit all of your gorgeous blogs! :) Until next time....

Bookmark Swap

2011-06-08T20:51:00.000-04:00

My second set of bookmarks for the Gingersnap Creations Art swap. Paris and Pisa. :) The one on the right has a Stampington image of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, heat embossed and colored with Distress Inks. An Italian postmark and script Italian poem round out the collage. On the bottom is a tiny map of Italy from a vintage German atlas I picked up at the flea market, bordered with some copper stickers.

The bookmark on the left is predominantly an image transfer onto canvas, with lace trim and a little French stamp tucked in. It has very little stamping on the front (just some French script at the top), so I figured I'd better put some heftier stamping on the back (since that is one of the criteria for the swap!). Here is my stamping (on the reverse side)....

Couldn't resist a little vintage French text, too. Can't wait to see the treasures I get in return. ;)

A Swap and a Share

2011-06-06T23:52:00.000-04:00

Sheesh, as if it wasn't bad enough I've been AWOL for an entire week (!), but I try to finally post and blogger won't let me upload anything. Grrrrrrr....... blogger is getting rather tiresome. Anyway, I thought I'd post two of the four bookmarks I've made for the Gingersnap Creations Art Exchange. The theme for the swap is travel, and we could make any type of bookmark we wanted. I have two totally different approaches here.... the one on the left is my very favorite vacation spot - Santorini, Greece. I stamped and heat embossed the image on Bristol paper, then watercolored it. The Greek image is from Echoes des Voyages - they have lots of great travel destination stamps that are rather uncommon (Greece, Turkey, Norway, Russia, Peru, to name a few!) - great for scrapbooking. The bottom of the bookmark is pieced from some old patterned paper that showed a map of Greece. The bookmark on the right is made on a piece of the collage I made in the Paint, Paper, Paste E-workshop I'm taking. A Tim Holtz stamp, some vintage French text and some letters finished it off.

Next I wanted to share a fabulous project that I won in a drawing from Dawn (Crafty Dawn in blogland). It's this gorgeous mini pocket book, which came in an equally beautiful decorated envelope:

A pic of the book opened up, so you can see the embellished pages and the pockets - I will have fun filling these with tags!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Dawn!!!! Gorgeous work!

We are deep into end-of-school-year and end-of sport-season activities this week, then we are taking a little vacation, so I will probably continue to be a very bad blogger. :( I am hoping to get around to visit, but I may not have the time to leave the comments I usually do..... I do apologize, and will catch up with everyone in a few weeks! Until then, Happy Crafting!

Mixed Media Collage Tags

2011-05-29T00:02:00.001-04:00

More "class work" from my Paint, Paper, Paste E-Workshop. This time we did tags - very fun, on a nice, doable small scale. Yes, you just saw this little Paper Whimsy girl.... but I printed out the entire sheet, and she was on my desk, looking at me..... :). Had fun collaging some metallic gold tissue paper that I had stamped text onto, some pretty spring-colored acrylics, a Tim swirl stamp, and some ribbon and lace. The "Day Dream" is from Rogue Redhead Designs. A little stitching on my sewing machine was thrown in for good measure.

Another tag, nature-themed this time, using a lot of the same stuff that was on my desk for the first one. Added some patterned tape from 7 Gypsies and some Copic-colored flowers. Just messin' around, havin' fun.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend! Ours started with hail and thunderstorms so strong I thought they were going to blow down the trees around us! But now it's sunny and a little too tropical. :) Keep it crafty!

Lilies on Kraft Glassine

2011-05-27T13:41:00.001-04:00

Happy, happy Friday (the double happy is for the long weekend upcoming, LOL!). I posted this card over at Rogue Redhead Designs and almost forgot to post here. I wanted to do a little experimenting with Tim's new Kraft Glassine. I must admit, I ordered it online and when I got it, I was somewhat disappointed. It isn't at all like the white glassine of "envelope fame" that we all know and love - it's thicker, and much more opaque. I put it away thinking I'd get around to figuring it out later, then sort of forgot about it. Then I saw a few posts about it by Roni over at Ink Stains, and decided to get it out.

For this card, I stamped the Lily of the Valley image from the Floriculture plate using Archival black ink, then colored it in with Prismacolor pencils. I was pleased with how well the pencil took to the paper. (BTW, I didn't try coloring on the reverse side of this one... I'm not sure if it matters or not, that is, whether one side is "waxed" and one not). I cut it out and attached it to some vintage music using 7 Gypsies patterned tape. Very simple, easy, and different. This would also make a cute series of cards, each using a different color tape and cardstock.

Blogger is still up to its tricks..... my followers have disappeared! Hopefully blogger will find you soon. ;)

More from the Paint, Paper, Paste E-Class

2011-05-26T00:33:00.001-04:00

As I wrote in a previous post, I'm taking Teresa McFayden's Paint, Paper, Paste E-Workshop, which just keeps getting better. I've combined a few lessons here on a little 5x7-inch canvas. I collaged the background as I did for the previous neutral collage, but this time I used blue tissue paper that had been stamped with Tim Holtz stamps, along with more vibrant paint colors and some oil pastels. As with last time, I used vintage text and music sheets, and some stencils. The butterflies, clock, and house were done using a fun technique that Teresa came up with using pastels and images from The Graphics Fairy. The image of the girl is from Paper Whimsy, and the little butterfly chipboard is from GCD Studios (both have some oil pastel added on). Have I mentioned, I'm having a ton of fun with this class? ;)

Happy Thursday, friends. I hope you have a wonderful weekend planned... a long one for us US folks. Let's all hope for the best, most unsettled and *safe* weather patterns for our entire country (too much devastation as of late). Talk to ya tomorrow. :)

Keepin' It Wild at Gingersnap Creations

2011-05-25T00:02:00.002-04:00

We're coming up on the end of the month, and the end of the "Wild West" theme at Gingersnap Creations. Our last challenge of the month is a color challenge: GC104: Denim, Rust, and Dust. I wanted to have a little fun with this one, and I had this awesome canvas tag from my Talbots jeans which I just had to use.... :) Lots going on here, so here are the deets....

Firstly, I tore apart and painted some corrugated cardboard in a dust-like color, and shabbied it further with some denim and rust inks. Next layer.... a piece of dust-colored cardstock on which I did a very fun and easy technique called "Dragged Madras" from the April/May 2009 edition of the Technique Junkie Newsletter (they happen to be sponsoring Gingersnap Creations this month.... check it out on the blog, you'll be glad you did!). Then.... a very cute cowgirl in need of some jeans - this clipart image is from an Etsy shop called Cloud 9 Kreations. (They have tons of cowgirl-themed and wild west collage sheets.) The canvas tag, as I said, is from Talbots (notice that I cut off the size, LOL!), spritzed with Glimmer Mist in a denim-y color (Moonlight?). I used some alpha stamps to create the two "signs", along with some woodgrain stamping and some distressing. Most everything is stapled into place (we're rustic here, peeps!). Some giant eyelets and some twine finish it off.

I hope you'll join us in this lovely color challenge... and don't worry, you don't have to stick to the wild west theme.... anything goes!

Having Tons of Fun!

2011-05-24T10:47:00.000-04:00

Firstly..... fun, fun, fun news.... I've been published in Stamper's Sampler (June/July 2011) using Rogue Redhead Designs stamps!!!! Here's the page above... the actual piece is much more vibrantly colored in real life - maybe they wanted the whole page to harmonize, so they lightened it. Hmmmm..... Ah well, I'll take it! Thanks to Shar for making such awesome stamps!

In other fun-ness.... I am taking Teresa McFayden's Paint, Paper, Paste E-Workshop. WHAT. A. BLAST! Her style is shabby chic, colorful, vintage, gorgeous - love it! I have been a bit of a scaredy-cat when it comes to really getting down and dirty with collage - afraid I'd end up with a mess and a bunch of supplies wasted. Teresa guides you through some great collage techniques with a combination of stepped out tutorials and videos. Her first video was how to layer a collage sheet with patterned tissue, papers, paints, stamps, stencils, rub-ons, etc. She did her first one with a very neutral palette - right up my street - so I did mine with ochres, pinks, grays, and creams. You can see the result below (well, about half of the result.... as much as my scanner would fit). I've cut out two journal covers (YES! I cut into it!!!! Are you proud of me, LOL????), and I have some left over for something else.....

Today she put up a little tutorial on collaged tags..... very cool. You can see a sneak peek on her blog.

I'll keep you posted on the projects I create. :)

Rosy Notes Peek

2011-05-20T00:02:00.000-04:00

A little peek at what I've posted over at the Rogue Redhead Designs blog today.... a bit of fun with some clean and simple vintage notes. Yep, CAS and vintage, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!! I'd love for you to pop on by and have a look. Hope you all have a fun Friday!

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #PDCC81

2011-05-17T17:03:00.003-04:00

So, do you ever start playing with colors and find you just can't stop? That's what happened to me with this week's The Play Date Cafe Challenge #81. Look at this gorgeous inspiration wallpaper in hues of deep purple, chartreuse, and silvery gray. I started out wanting to play with glimmer mists and masks on canvas. Then I had this wet mask on my hands, so had to stamp with it.... and on it went. I'll start with the card first (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them if you'd like).

The card started with some hand stamped and misted patterned papers. Behind the fairy is a paper that was made by stamping the wet, purple glimmer-misted Prima mask onto ivory cardstock. I added some Stampington swirls in green, and some green distress ink. I wanted the fairy to seemingly float over the patterned paper, so I stamped her in black on vellum, then turned it around and colored with Copics on the side opposite the stamping. I cut her out and adhered her to the background paper (Copic side up), along with a fun little sentiment that was stamped on scraps that had various mists on them already.

Now for the background paper that is the main panel of the card. Had fun with another item that's been sitting in my closet for a while: metallic silver tissue paper.

First, I took a panel of very old Basic Grey paper that was, um, light grey, and stamped the script randomly in purple. I ran several layers of tissue paper through Tim Holtz's flourish alterations die, and adhered them to the panel using Golden soft gel medium. After that was dry, I spritzed it with olive green glimmer mist. I love how it turned out! There's texture, shimmer, pattern.... my faves. Here's a really bad photo that at least shows the shimmer:

Next up, that pennant (or bunting, if you prefer). This was actually what I started with, stamping the violets in the center and coloring them with Copics. I went over just the image with gel medium to protect it from the mists.

After it was dry, I placed the mask over the bunting and sprayed it with purple glimmer mist, then dabbed the mist off of the image (the gel medium acted as a resist). When that was dry, I stamped a green swirl randomly, added some chartreuse trims, the silvery word "Fleur" (stamped and silver embossed), some shimmery gray seam binding, and a few pewter brads at the top with a design that reminded me of the violet motif.

I'm thinking it might be fun to do a whole series of these canvas buntings, each with a different flower. Then tie them all together - probably with that same gray seam binding. Thanks for sticking with me for this very long post!!! Oh, almost forgot... the majority of the stamps used were from Oxford Impressions' Fairy Sweets plate. The swirl is Stampington, the script is Hero Arts, and the "fleur" is Rogue Redhead Designs.

Tag Tuesday - The Deep

2011-05-14T21:40:00.000-04:00

This week's Tag Tuesday Challenge over at Blog Challenge Garden is "The Deep"... as in the deep blue sea. Not the seashore, but rather, what's under the water... very cool, especially since I just got a new stamp set from Oxford Impressions that's actually called The Deep! I had some fun with this, putting this little vintage deep sea diver in lots of peril... he's got a crab grabbing his foot, a large fish contemplating his dinner... but the biggest threat is more subtle...

....see the giant octopus lurking in the distance? Okay, maybe I'm getting just a little too morbid here for a tag, LOL!! But this stamp set is just so much fun. You can go with strictly pretty seashells, or go nautical, even steampunk, and of course, perilous! The background is an assortment of Glimmer Mists - Graphite, Moonlight, Peacock, and Olive Vine. You can see the shimmer a little bit better in this next pic:

Colored in Copics, with a little Hero Arts gem bling for bubbles.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope your weekend is fun. :)

Re-Posting a Rogue Redhead Card

2011-05-13T16:50:00.000-04:00

Hmmmm.... in the great Blogger Blackout, one of my most recent posts mysteriously disappeared! Has this happened to you? And will they ever come back..... that is the question. I must admit, it was very unsettling not to be connected with our little blogging community - everything felt so silent! I'm re-posting this card (who knows, maybe I'll end up with two eventually), using the new Rogue Redhead Designs Floriculture plate. I stamped on patterned paper and colored the lilies of the valley with colored pencils. I also stamped and colored a small 1" circle of the same image with Copics, then adhered it to one of Tim's fragments to make a little charm to tie onto my bow. The patterned papers are from Bo Bunny and Memory Box.

You can visit the Rogue Redhead Blog to see some more cards that I made... very summery and fun. Hope Blogger behaves. Happy Weekend!

Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge

2011-05-11T00:56:00.000-04:00

Continuing along with the Wild West theme this month, the Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge is Twine. I had lots of fun with this one, because I used twine on my card in the literal sense - to make the frame for my cowgirl and edge my fringe - and I also used it to create the background. The background technique is called "Stringing You Along", and it's from the February/March 2009 edition of the Technique Junkie Newsletter. I can't tell the secrets, of course, but I can tell you that I used Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany, and Vintage Photo Distress Inks for both the background and to give a little color to my image, which is from The Graphics Fairy. I couldn't resist adding the fringe to mimic her riding pants... it's simply a strip of kraft cardstock, cut freehand with regular old scissors (Martha Stewart has some fancy scissors that will do this quickly, but really, this didn't take very long). I distressed the edges of the fringe with Vintage Photo, as well.

I hope you can play along with us! You can find all the details on the Gingersnap Creations blog *here*. There's a special prize up for grabs for one randomly selected participant... very cool!

Three Big Thank Yous!

2011-05-09T09:38:00.001-04:00

Today's post is dedicated to some heartfelt "THANK YOUs" to three incredible artists who were generous enough to share their artwork with me In Real Life! Yep, these amazing goodies are in my own little hands. My picture above doesn't do them justice, so let's have a close-up little look-see, shall we?

Working chronologically ..... I received this incredible banner from Linda Albrecht. She regularly does giveaways of her wonderful creations, and I was the lucky winner of this heart and sewing pattern paper flower garland. Although she made it for Valentine's, it arrived at my door in time for Easter, and I think it looked marvelous on my mantel! The colors are just perfect with my decor, and it will become a year-round decoration at my house.

A closer look:

Okay, next up is a gorgeous pendant made by the tremendously talented Marie of Lost Bird Studio. I am in constant awe of her work. She was having an amazing giveaway a couple weeks ago, and this marvelous package arrived from Germany. I had to show you everything, because I'm just nutty like that.... I can't resist beautiful packaging! (Yes, I'm keeping the whole thing... tag, wrapping, all of it).

Here's a close-up of the beautiful pendant:

And last but certainly not least, I received these stunning tags from one of my very favorite papercrafters EVER! Jacqueline is beautiful in every way, so of course she creates beautiful artwork. You can see her work at Jacqueline's Craft Nest. I am so blessed, Jacqueline sent these to me.... "just because." Aren't they gorgeous?

Ladies, you are all amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

Floriculture from Rogue Redhead Designs

2011-05-07T11:59:00.000-04:00

Back today with another card created with the new Rogue Redhead Designs plate, Floriculture. For this one, I used the two rose images to create a soft, romantic background. The two images are actually mirror images of each other, which is perfect for ensuring just the right amount of variation in a background like this. I first inked up the cardstock with Tattered Rose, Antique Linen, and Tea Dye Distress Inks. Then I stamped the two rose images repeatedly in Victorian Velvet. The beautiful sentiment is from the Floriculture plate, as well. Of course, I had to get my favorite embellies in there, too.... crinkly ribbon, vintage text, and bling. ;) I think this would make a gorgeous wedding or anniversary card.

Happy Mother's Day tomorrow to all the US moms, grandmas, and "like-a-mother-to me's"!

Rogue Redhead Designs New Release!

2011-05-06T00:02:00.001-04:00

Well, I said I'd have something fun and new coming up, and this is it! This is a long post, but stick around to the end for a very special somethin'......

April showers may bring May flowers and this Spring brings the new Floriculture plate from Rogue Redhead Designs! This one is right up my street, for sure, with gorgeous vintage floral images. Bringing together focal images, sentiments, and decorative elements, this set lets you create a variety of nature-themed projects. Perfect for coloring or just on their own, these vintage botanical images are made with high quality, deeply etched rubber so you can make great impressions. Oh yes, this rubber is gooooood.

For the card above, I stamped and embossed the lily of the valley image onto vellum. I made sure to use a strip of vellum cut "lengthwise", so that I could wrap it around the patterned paper panel. Before I adhered it, though, I wrapped a length of silk ribbon around the panel twice, then tied it in a bow. I love how you can see the wrapped ribbon through the vellum. I added a sentiment created from a second RRD set being released today......

The brand-new Rogue Redhead Designs Bits and Pieces plate is a versatile collection of common sentiments, which you can mix and match. In addition to the easy-to-use greetings, Rogue Redhead has also included some simple shapes to create fun effects on your cards. A great set for lovers of the Clean and Simple style, this set may be used alone or in conjunction with any of the other Rogue Redhead plates. And of course, since I can't just leave CAS alone, I had to use one of the images to make a little shabby chic type of card.

For the background, I first blended Distress Inks in Victorian Velvet, Tea Dye, Antique Linen, and Tattered Rose all over the base. Then I inked up the circle stamp from Bits and Pieces in various different Distress Ink colors. Now, here's the thing.... in order to get the soft wash look, you have to "know your ink pad." Some of my pads were very juicy, and I had to stamp off once in order to get a subtle color. Others I could just ink up and stamp the first inking directly to the card. Experiment on scrap first. BUT, before stamping, I did one final step. After getting the right amount of colored ink on my stamp, I used the "rock and roll" method around the edges, taking the circle and inking just the edges of it with Tea Dye. Cool look, huh? That cute sentiment is from the Bits and Pieces set, too. The Cosmo bud is another great image from the Floriculture plate.

Okay, your reward for sticking with me..... Rogue Redhead Designs is offering these great half-size plates for the introductory price of $12.00 each, 20% off their regular retail price of $15.00 each, until June 10, 2011. Buy Floriculture and Bits and Pieces as a bundle and save even more! Get both these new releases together for the bundle price of $22.50 until June 10, 2011. That's 25% off their regular retail price!

Oh, but the best is of course saved for last...... RRD is also offering a "Spring Sale Big Vintage Bundle" - Relish Reading, Floriculture and Bits and Pieces - all for the low price of $42.00 plus shipping and handling. That's a lot of beautiful rubber (one whole plate and two half plates!). Vintage heaven, I tell ya. ;) And yep, you guessed it, this one only lasts until June 10, 2011, too.

Thanks for stopping by, and I urge you to go visit the Rogue Redhead Designs blog to get some spring stampin' fever.... I mean, more inspiration!

Scrappy Gluebook Again

2011-05-03T17:27:00.001-04:00

Once again this week, I have been sitting in my car more than I have been sitting in my craft room. Good thing I have fun stuff to bring with me! It's more scrappy stampy gluey pages. This first one has my practice attempt at inkjet image transfer onto watercolor paper. I had always read that you needed to have a laser image in order for images to transfer properly. Lo and behold, I went to Donna Downey's website, and she shows us that as long as you use Golden's Gel Medium, inkjet prints work just fine. Oh my, what fun!!! (You can see her video tutorial on the subject *here*.)

A few lovely ladies in vintage browns.

Some of the last of my purple scraps. The little girl is Paper Whimsy. The stamped lilac is Unity, and the stamped tulips are Oxford Impressions.

I have some fun stuff coming up..... something new..... can't wait to show you! :)

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday

2011-04-27T16:59:00.002-04:00

I couldn't resist taking part in a new-to-me challenge over at Papertrey Ink called "Make It Monday." This week, the Make It Monday challenge is to hand draw a line frame as a border on your card. I hope this counts, since I did in fact start out with a line frame - two, in fact, one around the entire periphery and one around the sentiment. But then, it seemed to need a bit of whimsy.... so I doodled around the line frame. And then I colored in some of the loops with Copics... and gave some others some polka dots..... Seriously fun. ;)

A little tip I discovered for doing this type of doodling... actually, a couple of tips: Doodling, by its very nature, is not perfect, so don't try to be perfect! It is much more appealing if it's got some character to it. That being said.... so that you don't end up with a ginormous loop at your corner, or two teensy loops scrunched in at the end of your line... start out by making the little doodled loops at each corner first, on all sides (also at the ends of your lines, if the lines are broken up by your images). Then start doodling loops along your line to fill in between the corners. After you get about 2/3s to 3/4 of the way through, go to the other end of your line and make loops (in the opposite direction) until you meet up with the ones you have done. Why? Because then, if you have one loop that is notably larger or smaller than the rest, it looks like you *meant* to do it, since it is in the middle. Follow? (Hmmm, I'm probably being as clear as mud..... should have taken pictures along the way... sorry!)

Anyway, the details..... the little girl image is from Paper Whimsy, cut out and distress inked. The houses and wings are cut from Papertrey Ink's Love Lives Here Collection dies (one house from corrugated paper), and the house and sentiment stamps are from the Love Lives Here stamp set. I started out by cutting out everything, stamping and distressing the diecuts, and arranging them on the card to get an idea of placement. I then laid out my frame using the technique in Nicole's video. I masked out the framed area, added Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Tattered Rose, then stamped a Text Style stamp in Tattered Rose as a background. After doodling my frame, I added the little road using Copics, then glued down my elements. A couple of little details... I added some vintage glass glitter behind the heart in the middle house, and popped up the house. I also went in and "shaded" my doodles and the sentiment frame with a warm gray Copic marker (W2, I think) to give it all a bit of dimension.

I know Papertrey is kinda known for it's clean and simple approach.... but as you can see, you can certainly take it all shabby chic and vintage. Thanks for stopping by - I hope you can give this technique a try. :)

CR84FN25 Color Challenge

2011-04-27T07:19:00.000-04:00

There's another gorgeous color challenge over at the CR84FN blog - the CR84FN25 colors are red, aqua, and white. What a fab combo to take us into spring! Here's the yummy inspiration photo:

For my little card, I started with a Unity bicycle stamped in black, then colored over the top of it with colored pencils to bring in the bold red and aqua. For the background, I stamped PTI's text background in aqua, and distressed the edges of the panel with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. The sentiment is PTI as well. I also made the background paper on the top of the card by stamping with another Unity stamp repeatedly, and blending in some more Distress Ink. The red scalloped border is Crate Paper Restoration (I swear I will use every last scrap of that line!) Finished off with a little lipstick red bling. I kept this quite flat because I'm going to be mailing it soon.

As always, there's tons of inspiration over at the CR84FN blog. (And have you noticed the great quotes that are included in every color palette photo?) Thanks, ladies!

Happy Easter! and Tag Tuesday

2011-04-23T18:46:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter! I wanted to get my little Tag Tuesday entry in for the weekend - you can check out the latest tag challenge at Blog Challenge Garden. I almost scrapped the base of this tag; the colors didn't come out at all as I expected. But after I walked away from it and hunted down the right vintage image, I made peace with it. The base is a resist chipboard (I think from Heidi Swapp) that I've been hoarding for ages. I cut out the egg shape and colored it first with mists (which was too pale), then with some distress inks. The bunny image is from Dover. The little egg is from an image transfer to muslin that didn't come out quite right, but I couldn't bear to part with the bits that were okay. ;) Stamped sentiment is Papertrey Ink. Lots of other fun goodies... crinkly ribbon from Bluebird Lane Etsy shop, glittered hydrangea petals, vintage mother of pearl baby buttons, and a little pin that I made.

I want to thank everyone who has been voting for me over at The Handmade Gift Guide!!! Voting will continue for the next few days, so if you haven't checked it out, you can follow the link. My project is in my previous post *here*. Also, a big welcome to my new followers! I've actually hit 200 sweet followers, which makes me happier than words can express. :) I hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow!

Poppy Picnic Hostess Gift - Please Vote! :)

2011-04-21T19:44:00.000-04:00

I am so excited to share this little project with you! Over at The Handmade Gift Guide, they are having a contest sponsored by 100 Proof Press. Ten of us received this gorgeous poppy stamp and were asked to come up with a handmade gift idea using the stamp. Their readers get to vote on their favorite project, and the designer with the most votes gets a gift certificate to 100 Proof Press. I loooooove their stamps, and I would greatly, hugely, enormously appreciate your vote! You can see all of the projects and vote by following *THIS LINK*. Pretty, pretty please with poppies on top???? ;)

So, what did I make, exactly? I put together a little Poppy Picnic Hostess Gift. I started out with a jar filled with organic poppy seeds (actually an old Prima flower bottle). I stamped the image on adhesive-backed paper from PTI, then colored it with Copics and adhered it to the bottle. I also bought two plain muslin flour sack dish towels, and stamped the image repeatedly in red or black inks. I tested this out a bit with another towel I designated as my "trial towel", LOL! I used waterproof dye ink, stamped the towel, and allowed it to set overnight. I then heat set the images with a hot, dry iron. Just to be absolutely certain it would set, I threw the towels into a hot dryer for about 20 minutes. They came out pretty well in the wash - just be sure not to wash red ink (*any* red ink) with anything white the first time around! To tie it all together and give it a special purpose, I included three poppy seed recipe cards, stamped with the image in red. Here's another view of the project:

You can click on the images for a larger view. In case you can't see the recipe card, below is a recipe for a really yummy salad with poppy seed dressing. It may sound like an odd combination, but trust me, it's so good, so quick, and so easy!

Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

Dressing:

Mix together:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 Tbs. raspberry vinegar

1/3 Cup sugar

1/4 Cup milk

2 Tbs. poppy seeds

Salad:

Toss together shredded crisp leafy lettuce (romaine or green leaf), sliced strawberries, and thinly sliced sweet onions. Toss with dressing immediately before serving (if you put it on ahead of time, the lettuce will wilt).

If you like what you see, would sooo appreciate your vote. :) Happy Easter weekend!

Gingersnap Creations Challenge: Fans

2011-04-20T07:38:00.000-04:00

It's time for another Random Redhead challenge over at Gingersnap Creations, and this week's challenge is to use *Fans* in your creation. You could make a fan, or make a card, canvas, hanging, or other piece that incorporates a fan. Take it wherever you'd like!

My card uses an image generously provided by Lululiz in Lalaland on *this post*. I saw it a while back and knew this challenge was coming up, so I immediately filed it away in my collage art file. You can click on the image to see the sentiment better if you'd like.... it says "The Language of Fans - The fan a language sweet imparts, 'Tis read my many loving hearts." Apparently in Victorian days the flick of a woman's fan could have special meaning? Goodness, but love is complicated, LOL! Anyway, I used some patterned papers from the Curio collection, scored and folded them accordion style, and used them as trims behind my ladies. The sweet postcard got only a few rhinestone embellies on the fan part. I also tied a little tassel behind the image to evoke the tassel on the fan image.

The design team and visiting artists have produced some stunning fan art over at the Gingersnap Creations blog - I've had such fun looking at the details on each piece. We'd love for you to have a look and play along. :)

More Scrappy Stampy Gluebook Pages

2011-04-17T13:21:00.005-04:00

Happy Palm Sunday! As some of you know, I've been a bit neglectful of my blog, and it's because I really haven't had much time to craft just for fun (although I am working on some very fun projects for Craft Stamper.... they will be coming in late summer/early autumn). Anyway, that means my only other craft time has been - in the carpool lines, of course. So I bring along my traveling art case and use up my scraps. The images above are leftovers/rejects from this ATC project. This is turning out to be a fun way to experiment - for instance, I love the look of the blue paper torn away to reveal some text on the left-hand page. I'll have to incorporate that in a card or scrapbook page (or even - gasp! - a canvas someday).

Her are a few more:

Some favorite birdies from CHF and Artistic Outpost.

Using up some of my purple scraps.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful spring weekend! I'd love to leave you with a stanza from a poem that always speaks so perfectly to this time of year. We are having a beautiful spring here in North Carolina, but we just had some powerful tornadoes go through yesterday. Thankfully our house and family are fine. You just never know with springtime weather. This is from Robert Frost's "Two Tramps in Mudtime":

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.

Tag Tuesday - The Chair

2011-04-16T13:18:00.000-04:00

Yippee, had some time to craft! I have been wanting to continue playing in the Tag Tuesday Challenge, but haven't had a chance since the big change. In case you haven't been following in recent weeks, the lovely and talented Louise over at Kard Krazy, who has brought us countless challenges and inspiration, decided that she had too much on her plate to continue the weekly Tag Tuesday play. So, she has handed over the baton to Rebecca at Blog Challenge Garden. Thanks so much to Rebecca ("BelleSouth") for taking over! This week she has set forth a rather challenging challenge.... "The Chair." The chair has to be the focus, but you can have someone or something in the chair. I hope this qualifies!!

Yes, I know that it might seem that the girl is the focus.... which is why I decided to paper piece the image and give her a rather over-the-top, girlie, flowered, chintz-covered chair. Remember when chintz was all the rage in the 80s? Oh, how I loved it then. So we have our retro girl in her retro chair, and did you notice..... she has chair wallpaper! Yes indeedily, just in case my chair tag isn't chair-y enough, I added a few more chairs, LOL! The lovely lady is from Rogue Redhead Designs' Relish Reading Plate, and the teensy chair stamp in the wallpaper is from Pink Paislee's House of Three Parisian Anthology set. The throw rug is a cardstock sticker from Crate Paper (as is the sentiment), the trim is vintage Little Women, and the brad is GCD studios. I think that's about it. Hope you can play along.;)

Dreaming of Paris, Rogue Redhead Style

2011-04-15T10:18:00.000-04:00

Hello and happy happy Friday! I decided to pop in on my poor, neglected little blog. We are having a very busy spring, to say the least!

I wanted to give you a little lookie at what I have posted over at the Rogue Redhead Designs blog today. A little lady who is dreaming of taking an exciting tour of old-time Paris. Count me in! ;)

Have a wonderful weekend.

Geishas with Gingersnap Creations

2011-04-06T00:05:00.029-04:00

It's time for another fun "theme" challenge over at Gingersnap Creations, and this month it's GC97: Geishas. I must admit, I had *no* Asian-themed stamps, so I got creative with a collage image, fun textured paper, and some doodling. The beautiful Geisha image is from art-e-zine.co.uk, layered on top of some fabulous corrugated paper from The Paper Temptress (which I thought was reminiscent of the texture of Japanese lanterns). I decided to "doodle" some tree branches and flowers with markers to give it a little more interest in the background. I also cut some black cardstock strips to mimic a Japanese screen design. The little flowers are made with a Martha Stewart punch, and again I doodled to make them look more like a type of dogwood. The centers are microbeads (also Martha Stewart). The little birdie at the top is my only stamped piece, from Artistic Outpost. Lastly, I cut (!) into some of my Kioshi paper from Basic Grey. All together it makes a rather spring-like card, I think.

And because I couldn't stop at just one.... I had also purchased a beautiful digital collage sheet from Curious By Design {Digital} on Etsy that had a lovely Geisha in blue. I had printed her out and just couldn't part with her, so into my Scrappy Gluebook she went, along with some other old scraps of paper (PSX!) and stamped dragonflies from CHF and Impression Obsession.

I hope you'll join us at Gingersnap Creations for our Geisha theme challenge!

More Scrappy Gluebook Pages

2011-04-04T12:39:00.001-04:00

Hello friendly, crafty, beautiful bloggers! I've missed you, missed having the time to marvel over your wonderful and inspiring blogs, and then craft with all of your gorgeous artwork in my head. Spring break is finally over for the kiddos (a generous 4 weeks this time), and although I love having them around, it will be rather nice to get back to a more normal rhythm. I will be visiting, I promise!

A quickie little post of one of those carpool line scrappy gluey pages I've been working on. A bunch of extras left over from *this* project, along with some that have been languishing in the scrap pile for ages. Images are predominantly from Artistic Outpost and Oxford Impressions, but as always, if you have a specific question, please feel free to email me. I've enjoyed working with purples, and I've noticed that very few (if any?) of the brand new patterned papers coming out these past few weeks have had any in them. I suppose we'll just have to make our own, won't we? And use up those scraps, of course. It's on to laundry for me... have a wonderful afternoon and evening. :)

Craft Stamper Best of 2010 E-zine - Free!

2011-04-01T16:38:00.001-04:00

Hi there! I just wanted to pop in today to let you know that Craft Stamper Magazine has launched a fabulous "e-zine," filled with readers' top 12 favorite projects for 2010, AND..... drumroll, please....... it's absolutely free! You can download your copy HERE at the Craft Stamper blog. Every project has step by step instructions. You can see a little peek above. And, you can check out the Craft Stamper Blog for information on how you can win some great blog candy, just for helping to spread the word. Happy Stamping. ;)

CR84FN20 Color Challenge

2011-03-25T17:19:00.001-04:00

Hello there friends, and Happy Friday. Just a quickie post today..... I've had no time to craft lately, because my kids are still on spring break and I've been painting walls, not canvases. I've had the ingredients for this card on my craft table for several days, so I popped in and finished it at the last minute for the beautiful color challenge on CR84FN this week. Here is the gorgeous inspiration photo:

Love it! My lilac stamp is from Unity, colored with Prismacolor pencils. I gathered some plum and lavender crepe as a trim, and finished it off with a little green moth and some green grosgrain ribbon. Thanks so much to the wonderful design team over there for the continued inspiration - I always love the color palettes and beautiful sample creations!

A Glue Book of Collaged Scraps

2011-03-22T12:32:00.003-04:00

Hi there. Can you tell by my title that I don't know what to call my little project? ;)

Warning: I am about to ramble (I believe in the UK it's "waffle.") There is more glued collage scrap art at the end. Scroll down now if you wish. Now back to the full-length program.....

Do you have one of these?

Or maybe even one of these little miniature ones?

Yep, me too. In fact, I have, ummmmm, several. So I got myself one of these on Etsy:

It's a grand little vintage train case, complete with satin pockets and straps to hold fast to your necessities. Why? Well, I was very much inspired by an article I read in Stampington's "Hand Crafted" Volume 6 magazine by Rebecca Sower called "Rebecca's Traveling Companion." She had me right in the beginning, describing the many hours she spent sitting and waiting for her kids while they attended sporting practices. Like me, she carted along journals, books, magazines, the latest iTechnology.... but kept wishing she could be more productive, more creative. So she got herself a vintage train case, and proceeded to very carefully select and package up the most gorgeous artful ingredients - images stamped on canvas, vintage ribbons, beautiful beads, rhinestones - you name it. She stressed the importance of thoughtfully considering each addition to the case. "You will be disappointed with the results if you just quickly toss materials into a case, snap the lid shut, and throw it in your car," she cautioned. She developed a traveling art studio that was a work of art in itself. And she created many things of exquisite beauty during football practice.

"Aha!" I said, "That's perfect! That's just what I'll do!"

So I purchased my beautiful vintage train case.

And...... nuthin' happened. I kept saying to myself that I would soon sit and carefully and cautiously select the most exquisite items to go into the case, and I'd be on my way. But I procrastinated. I hedged. I stalled. And all the while, my tins and bottles and boxes full of scraps, tags, images stamped but never used, backgrounds not completed or not needed... they all stared at me.

So I did this:

Yep, with 10 minutes left before we needed to depart for piano lessons, I dumped the above ingredients unceremoniously into the train case. I carefully considered only four items:

A small moleskin journal, scissors, a glue stick, and a little box for sorting things into.

And I had a ridiculous amount of fun while waiting for my daughter. In addition to the pages at the top, I did this:

And then this:

My method is far from ideal, and one day I will mindfully consider what to put in my case, and create a traveling kit of artfully organized beauty. But for now, this worked okay. On my second outing, I will take along a catalog or two from the recycling bin - I found I needed something on which to apply glue, and an old catalog is perfect, because when one page gets all sticky and gooey, you just turn the page and start gluing on a fresh surface.

I haven't put the slightest dent in my scrap pile, but I've had tons of fun!!

A Rogue at Play

2011-03-18T00:45:00.001-04:00

I had some fun playing with a backgrounder stamp from the Snow Hugs plate by Rogue Redhead Designs. You can get the deets over on the Rogue Redhead Designs blog. Happy Weekend everyone!

Typewriter Challenge at Gingersnap Creations

2011-03-16T00:05:00.002-04:00

It's time again for what is probably my favorite of all the Gingersnap Creations Challenges - the Random Redhead Challenge. This month, in keeping with our "Get to Work" theme, our Random Redhead Theme is Typewriters. You can use clip art or stamped images of typewriters, maybe a typewriter font, or how about some typewriter keys - faux or real? We'd love to see how you interpret the challenge. For my card, I used a typewriter sticker, a typewriter font background stamp (an old Scrapblock from CHF), some type font patterned paper, some vintage text, a distressed Dymo border, and a little typewriter key charm from Tim Holtz. Is that enough "type" for ya, LOL? The quote stamp is also from an old CHF set (oh, how I miss that company!). I added a few tiny attacher staples and a mini paperclip for some added office supply flavor. I hope you'll be able to join us! You can check out the rest of the DT's work over on the Gingersnap Creations blog.

Dabbling in Steampunk

2011-03-12T00:02:00.004-05:00

Hello friends, and happy weekend! I've been dabbling in steampunk, trying to think outside my little box, so to speak.

The bases for these creations are Papertrey Ink's 4x4 chipboard coasters, which I could easily become addicted to. The backgrounds for the two coasters above are free steampunk sheets from Squidoo.

Inspired by Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante collection tag. I couldn't resist altering a little birdie and her nest. Have a beautiful weekend.

P.S. A zillion different sources for things here... if you have a specific question, please do email me. :)

Tag Tuesday Surprise Me

2011-03-10T11:43:00.000-05:00

Louise has another captivating challenge for us over at Kard Krazy - this week's Tag Tuesday Challenge is "Surprise Me." So what's the surprise in my unassuming little butterfly tag? .....

A Blooming Contessa hiding amongst the blossoms! The butterfly is attached only by a brad at the tip of her wing. Ms Contessa is from Stampington, colored with Copics and Distress Inks. The flower trim at the bottom is very vintage, and started out creamy vintage white. I dabbled some coordinating Copics over the lace, and voila - custom vintage trim.

There are some amazing and beautiful tags over at Kard Krazy already (Louise's just keeps getting more surprising with every view!), so lots of inspiration to be had. Come play?

Gingersnap Creations Office Supplies Challenge GC94

2011-03-09T00:09:00.000-05:00

There's a new challenge up today over at Gingersnap Creations, and I happen to think it's a particularly fun one! Today we are challenging you to use Office Supplies in your creation. I love office supplies - just standing in the store staring at all the labels, paper clips, tacks, magnets, pens, notepads, etc. makes me happy. Okay, maybe that's a bit strange, but I knew I couldn't pass up this challenge. And when I happened upon a package of six 5"x9" document envelopes for less than $2 at Wal-mart, an idea popped into my head. I've created a little vacation mini album with them, along with a few other fun supplies that you can get for very little cash.

I started my album by scoring down the center of two 5x9 inch document envelopes. I lined them up on top of each other, clipped the edges together with a few of those "bulldog" clips, and used my sewing machine to stitch down the score lines. Don't forget to reverse the stitching for a little bit both at the beginning and at the end to get a really secure edge. This gave me four "pages."

For the cover, I tore off one end of an airmail envelope (any kind of envelope would do) and inserted a "Tim Holtz-sized" tag for journaling. A bit of stamping and distressing, and a feature picture from our trip to Niagara Falls finishes off the front cover.

One the inside, I added a bit more distressing and stamping. I added another journaling card, some photos (I cut out the clock from the Maid of the Mist ride), and a sticker. The flapped portion of the envelope (on the left) provides a great place for extra photos. I cut off the edge of the bottom portion of the envelope that creates the page on the right, so that I could put in some memorabilia (tickets, postcards, etc.). I will secure these in with a large, fun-colored paperclip. (And yes, I still have some journaling to do.)

The next set of pages includes a library pocket and card for more photos and journaling. I punched a hole in the library card and added a reinforcer (distress inked) and some red, white, and blue twine to turn it into a tag. I also slipped that ripped off portion of the airmail envelope onto the bottom of the library pocket for some more color and interest.

The last set of pages has a split photo where the envelope flaps over. I just lined up the photo and made a little mark where I wanted to cut, and where I needed to punch a hole for the metal closure. More photos will go in this second pocket. Blank address labels make great stickers for titles or for journaling, too.

That's it! This was quick (I kept stamping/embellishing to a minimum), easy, and inexpensive. I will definitely make more of these, but this time I will do it *before* I go on a trip, so that I can journal as I go, and also have a place to stash the mementos while I'm traveling (so that I don't have to dig through my purse, my luggage, my glove box, etc. searching when I get home!). I think I'll probably sew together three envelopes for the next one, too. Depends on how long the trip will be. :)

I hope you have time to play along. Use whatever you have on hand, and get those creative juices flowing (the Design Team has lots to inspire you). Happy Wednesday!

Shadow Box Swap

2011-03-06T21:22:00.000-05:00

My local art group is swapping shadow boxes this month. We could pick any size, so I chose some 3.5-inch square jewelry boxes to work with. I covered the edges with Tim Holtz tape, a la Configurations, then filled the box with images from Oxford Impressions' The Fairest Flower plate. The sweet little girl image is colored with Distress Inks. Since I wanted some 3D action, I added a posy and a little pull out accordion booklet. Here are some shots with the booklet unfolded (sorry for the pitiful photos - after a stormy, rainy day, I just gave up and took them anyway):

The accordion booklet has stamped images from Cornish Heritage Farms.....

...and a few from House of 3 and Serendipity. One down, eleven more to go.... eeeek! I've got an assembly line system going, though, so I'm in the groove.

Hope you have a great week!

Rogue Redhead Trio

2011-03-04T07:15:00.000-05:00

I've been playing with my Rogue Redhead Designs Snow Hugs plate. You can get the details over at the Rogue Redhead blog. We're sliding into the weekend... hope you have a happy one!

It's a Bling Thing

2011-02-28T00:19:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday, bloggers! I have a little tutorial over at Gingersnap Creations showing how you add a little bling to your cards inspired by the look of those expensive rhinestone and pearl flourishes, only much more inexpensively. I hope you can pop by and have a look.

Also, did you know Gingersnap Creations is having a Design Team Call? If you think you might like to be a Ginger, click HERE for all the details.