CR84FN20 Color Challenge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!