Some Collage Art Swaps

 

A set of four space-themed postcards the I did a while back for Collage Art Collective. I used an old German atlas that had wonderful celestial maps. Also included some space/moon/sky texts from children's books and dictionaries, a few space-themed postage stamps, and rubber stamping.

Jeanne Oliver's Creatively Made Business Giveaway

 

Well it's been a long while and I need a kick in the pants! Trying to get back into doing more collage work as well as watercolor and pastels, so I'm sharing a great opportunity with Jeanne Oliver. She's giving away 5 spots to her 10-week Creatively Made Business class, and this is the last time she'll be live in online discussions throughout the class. I've bought tons of her online art classes and they are amazing - she's got something for every medium. I've watched how she's walked out her talents through her business for many years now - from waaaay back when I bought a beautiful handmade damask camera bag, to getting one of her recent canvas print releases just a few weeks ago. 

If you are interested in taking your art hobby to the next step, I'd highly recommend checking out this giveaway!

Red Lead Paperworks 100 Day Project Swap

I haven't done any stamping in ages, but I couldn't resist when I saw that the Art Sisters (Chris and Sharon) at Red Lead Paperworks were doing an extraordinary thing - swapping mail art with everyone who sent mail art into them.... for 100 days! They're doing this as part of the 100 Day Project, where people pledge to do art every day for 100 days.  They're posting lots of their own projects on social media - check out their Instagram feed here: https://www.instagram.com/redleadpaperworks/

I think I used a dozen different stamp sets for this folding tag. I had fun doing all the pockets with lots of inserts.

Love the quote by Victor Hugo.

The little butterfly girl with the hat is retired, but I thought she was so cute doing her little "egg-laying study," patiently watching and waiting. (She's available in a slightly different form, linked below.)

Here's a list of some of the stamps I used - many that I have are retired, so in some cases I've listed similar images, in case you're interested (*not* a sponsored post - I'm just a fan and purchased them all, over the years!)

Bird Watch Bird Rubber Stamp

Paris Rubber Stamp Madame Visits the Eiffel Tower

A Bird Sweetly Singing Songbird

Bird Nest Feather Your Nest

Dear Art Girl Rubber Stamp

A Parisian Birthday Card

My daughter will be studying in France this summer, so I thought it only appropriate that her birthday card celebrate her upcoming adventure.  Since I love all things France myself, I had quite a stash of French-themed stamps and diecuts, so I decided to make her an accordion card of Paris.

I've only ever made one accordion card before, so I had to muddle (struggle) through the math of making a bottom strip of cardstock to anchor the whole thing, so that it wouldn't totally flatten out once out of the envelope. Thank goodness for my Martha Stewart scoring board!

The Sacre Coeur is from Darkroom Door, the Arc de Triomphe is an old Stampington stamp called Visit to Paris, the Eiffel Tower diecut is from La-La land Crafts, and the Joyeux Anniversaire (Happy Birthday) diecut is from Memory Box.  

I diecut the Eiffel tower out of a sheet of craft metal.

I used a ton of other French themed map, script, postmark, and other stamps on the accordion base.  And since this card is also a remembrance of our week in traveling through Paris, I'm linking it up to the Simon Says Stamp blog Road Trip challenge this week!

Can't wait to go back and visit her!

A Little Project I've Been Working On...

I've been drawn back into rubber stamping by a bit of political activism. I've been writing Postcards to Voters in an effort to get out the vote. I've been switching up the theme every so often so as not to get bored....

It's fun to get creative with some of my quirky stamps, trying to figure out how to use them to get the message out!  If you are in the US and are interested and so inclined, here are some details if you'd like to join in .... get started by going to the website PostcardsToVoters.org:

A Valentine

A little Valentine I made for my daughter, who's away at college in Boston.  Photo taken with my phone, because I was switched from a PC to a Mac when my computer died, and I still have no photo editing software. Hoping to get back to posting after more than a year away!

DEVASTATED

Darkroom Door ATC Swap - Tied Up With String

The Darkroom Door ATC swap for February was themed "Tied Up With String" and we were to use string somehow in our ATCs.  I wanted to do a Valentine theme, so a cut some hearts from very thin chipboard and colored them with Neocolors.  I stamped the sentiment on the margins of some vintage sheet music, tore it out, and attached it to my hearts.  On the background I used a stamp from Art De Fleur Vol 2 (in brown) and the Flourish texture stamp (in blue).  I punched holes in the heart and the background and threaded some twine through in cross stitches.

Here they are all packaged up and ready for their journey...

REDlead Valentine Swap

Back again with another swap - this time it's RedLead Paperworks' Valentine swap, which included two sets of a tag, an ATC, and a little folder to hold them.

My first set included a cute couple from the Ancestors Collage Sheet 100.  Lots of sprays, papers, and embellies on this one, along with some stamping using the Love is the Music... stamp.

The ATC in this set uses a ticket image from the Valentines Tickets stamp.

The wings are die cut using Tim Holtz's Layered Angel Wings die from Sizzix.

Next up is a set using a lot of the same stamps and dies...

The image on the tag is from the Ancestors 48 collage sheet.

That cute little wooden key can be found here.  And an ATC for this set -

As a last little add-on, I made a couple of embellished paper clips.

I always enjoy REDleads' swaps!

Darkroom Door ATC Swap - Summer Lovin'

A new year of ATC swaps has begun at Darkroom Door, and this month's theme is Summer Lovin'.  As an antipodal swapper, I had fun with this one, since there is a snow-and-ice-covered landscape out my own window!

I used Darkroom Door's Seaside Vol 1 stamp set.  I watercolored the lighthouse background, and used Neocolors on the starfish and sand dollar. The seashell is colored with Copics.  A bit of distress-sprayed cheesecloth and a little photo from Darkroom Door's Seaside paper collection finish it off.

All ready to go.

RedLead Christmas Ornament Swap

I love making Christmas ornaments, so of course I had to participate in RedLead's Christmas Ornament Swap.  We received two, 2-piece chipboard ornaments to alter.  For the first ornament, I used white paint, modeling paste, a star stencil and glitter to create the base.  The image is from RedLead Christmas Collage Sheet #27, with a background stamped using the O Christmas Tree stamp.  I embellished the ornament with some beads and baubles, a brass snowflake, a rustic snowflake that I painted and glittered, and some vintage trim. (Please excuse these horrible pictures - I had to take them with my phone because my camera was temporarily out of commission.)

For my second ornament I wanted to create a mercury-glass type of effect.  Don't know if I really succeeded but it does sparkle (more than my phone photo can show!).

The images (both in the center and the snowman charm) are from the same collage sheet (#27).  For the mercury glass effect I first used white crackle paint, then a layer of pewter rub-on paint, then clear gloss, into which I sprinkled silver glass glitter while it was still wet.  Here's the back:

Still not a good picture but maybe you can get the idea.  I added some more baubles to the bottom of this one too.  Here's the pair:

Can't wait to receive happy mail in return!

Motif Building with Papertrey Ink

I had a fun time participating in Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday #231: Motif Building.  There's a great tutorial on the PTI blog - basically you first choose a centerpiece image, then use a bunch of tiny images repetitively to create one larger image.  It's a great way to give some love to all of those teensy images that are included in your larger stamp sets.  It creates a folk art type of style, which I particularly love for Christmas.

Here are some more pics - I have the details about which sets I used at the bottom of the post.

Stamps used (all Papertrey Ink):

Both wreaths: Wreath for All Seasons

Birds, dotted heart: Feather Finery

Solid hearts, sentiment, circle heart in center of wreath: Love Lives Here

Greenery with bow: Two Feet Deep

Swirly embellishments: Calendar Basics

REDlead Halloween Pocket Tag Art Swap

I'm participating in the RedLead Paperworks Halloween Pocket Tag Art Swap over at REDlead.  Chris and Sharon gave us a pocket tag filled with five tags of various sizes and colors.  I had lots of Raven-themed stamps and such from RedLead, so my theme was a natural..... The tags.....

This one uses this Poe stamp and this skeleton stamp, along with some vintage German text sprayed with Glimmer mists, some messy painting and glitter, and some stenciling with modeling paste.  A black chipboard raven haunts Poes mind.

The object of Poe's grief - Lenore - comes from this collage sheet.  In the background is a Poe Hollowed Hymns stamp and a wooden charm, along with an acetate clock.

The witch who sent the Raven?  Is she a spurned lover?  Or just a master of the otherworld.....  She comes from the same collage sheet as Lenore.  Her hat is from a retired RedLead stamp.  The raven is stenciled, the stars are from UmWow Studio.  In the background are stenciled words and a few hand written stanzas from The Raven.

Oh that pesky Raven!  This is one of my favorite RedLead stamps.... stamped in Archival Black ink on a glimmer-misted background, it needed little else to make it stand out... just a wooden charm... tapping....

One last tiny tag.... using a skull from the same collage sheet, a little sentiment from the Hallowed Hymns stamp, and a spooky owl background from a retired RedLead stamp.  (Spooky how the background of my photo of this tag disappeared.... ????)

Here's the lot...

This was such a fun swap!  Thanks REDlead!