TGIF - Dreams

My very late creation for the TGIF challenge this week, which is dreams. Thanks so much, ladies, for such a fun topic! In my lateness, I've had so much fun looking at the other submissions, and I'm still not done!

My main image of the lady in the shell is from Just for Fun stamps. I got it on ebay, along with the Poe quote, which unfortunately doesn't have a manufacturer's identification on it (perhaps someone's homemade creation?). The clock is from SU's Sense of Time, the scroll is from Stampington, and the birds are from Oxford Impressions and the $1 bin at Michael's. I used Anna Griffin and Fancy Pants patterned papers, along with some vintage French text. There's a Prima flower with a Flower Soft center, some Papertrey Ink leaf ribbon, and a Tim Holtz spinner. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and Distress inks. Thanks so much for looking and have a great day.

Mojo Monday

A little French flavor for the Mojo Monday Challenge this week. The Eiffel tower and flourish images are from Stampington, and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up. I used Parisian Breeze DP, along with part of a page from an old (1920s) French reader (the pale blue stamp on the text is from the $1 bin). This was a really fun sketch to work with - I tweaked it just a little bit, but hopefully kept the flavor!

Black and White

I decided to make a card for the Limited Supplies Challenge over on SCS, and this one was to use only black and white. The focal image is an Anna Griffin stamp by All Night Media. I used the little side scroll image from my $1 stamp project on my last post for the border. The only other embellishments are pearls from Hero Arts and ribbon from Jenni Bowlin. I've never used this color combo before, but I think I like it!

Easter Damask

Hello and welcome to my first-ever blog post! Today I turned to Jodi's color challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers for inspiration, which was to use Stampin' Up!'s Pretty in Pink, Kiwi Kiss, and Baja Breeze. I was in the mood for Easter, so here's what I came up with:




















I didn't actually have Pretty in Pink, so I had to use Pink Pirouette instead, but I think it keeps the spirit of the challenge! The image is an adorable label stamp from Cat's Life Press - their images just make me smile! I also used some Hero Arts bling, a felt flower that I cut using my Cuttlebug, some Martha Stewart Ribbon, Fiskar's Threading Water border punch, and some Jolee's leaves that I stamped with Kiwi Kiss.

The damask background was made using an altered $1 stamp from Michael's. Have you noticed how NICE these $1 stamps are getting? LOL! Anyway, if you'd like to try it, here' what I did.

First, I removed the rubber from the wooden mount (hubby was kind enough to be my model for the first shot). I then used sharp scissors to cut the design into three separate parts. I did this to make it easier to use two colors, opening up more pattern possibilities.

I stuck the separated rubber images onto a 50-cent acrylic block from JoAnn's; the center medallion went on one side, and the two little scrolly thingies went on the other side of the block, to make switching colors easier. Note that to start out, I aligned the scrollies on the back to be pretty close to where they were in the original design, just on the reverse side of the block. This will make the first placement of this design easier (bear with me, you'll see what I mean in a minute ;). ) There was enough stickiness left on the back of the cling mount so that I didn't have to add anything more to make them stick, and they easily come off. Eventually I may have to use some non-permanent adhesive.

Next, it was time to stamp. I started by stamping the larger center image in Baja Breeze.

I flipped the acrylic block over, and inked up the scrollies with Kiwi Kiss. You can use the position of the center medallion on the reverse side to see how to line up the Kiwi scrolls. After you stamp the first set of scrolls, remove ONE of them, since from now on, you'll only stamp it singly.

Keep on stamping the image in ROUGHLY a straight line (don't stress - imperfections give it more appeal!!) When you get to the second line of images, off-set them, so that the blue center medallion lines up directly underneath the green scrolly.

Just keep going until you fill up as large of an area as you'd like. This technique has endless possibilities. Hopefully, I'll have another example using this same stamp tomorrow!!

Thanks so much for staying with me 'til the end of this very long first post LOL!! I hope you enjoyed it.