Sketchbook

Christmas Skinny Pages ...

I am anxiously awaiting the return of my "skinny pages" from a recent swap.   We each made skinny pages (3"x6").    They each had to have an alpha letter on it -- spelling out Christmas.  Here are the ones I sent in.  I will get 9 in return... spelling out Christmas.  I will either make them into a small book or a banner.

 
 

I love the little birds I created using a circle punch and a small "egg" shaped punch.   Super easy.  I think I am going to be putting these on my Christmas card this year.  The alphabet stamp set I used is from Purple Onion Designs.
  
 
 

25 Days of Christmas ...

I have a little catching up to do.   On December 1st, my "25 Days of Christmas" started.    In one of my art groups, 25 of us joined this gift swap.   We each made a giftie for each artist.  We each were assigned a day (mine is the 15th of December) that our gifts will be opened by everyone else.

I had planned on sharing the gifts I received on a daily basis, but am already a few days behind.  I will try to catch up here.

First, I must say what fun it was to open the mailbox over several days and find little surprise packages.  I could hear the little jingle bell inside tingling.  Such fun!   I put all of the wrapped gifts in a Christmas suitcase that I have and they are sitting on my dining room table just waiting to be opened. 

 
  

 

1st Day of Christmas  - Robin (Yooper) made these beautiful blue button fairies.   Just gorgeous.  A great addition to the Christmas tree.

 

2nd Day of Christmas - A beautiful beaded acrylic ribbon necklace.   I love the metal bead/finding that she used for the tree.  Really nice.

 

3rd Day of Christmas - Autumn made this adorable wooden heart shaped Santa ornaments.  Santa is hiding behind the bow, but he is there watching to see who is naughty and nice.

 

4th Day of Christmas - Claudia sent out these beautiful foil cards.  Inside was an embossed library pocket and lace Christmas ornaments.  I'm not sure, but the foil silver card appears to be colored with alcohol ink.   Also, clever idea with the libray pocket... embossed in the Cuttblebug.

 

5th Day of Christmas - Ellen altered these darling (and very useful) mini-composition books.  Really wel done.   Love it!

I plan to be here each day to update you with all of the little gifties I open.   Until tomorrow...

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Altered Christmas Cabinet Cards (and more) ...

I have to apologize for not posting anything new lately.   Not to worry... I have been busy working on many art projects. I just finished a 25 days of Christmas swap, and an altered cabinet card swap.  I am currently working on Christmas pages for a tall skinny book swap, a set of wooden angels for Glue, Art & Paper Studio, and trying to fit in general stamping, card making, and taking care of 3 secret sisters.   Oh yea, somewhere in there I have been designing this years Christmas cards.

For the altered cabinet card swap, I altered 14 cabinet cards in a Christmas Song theme.   Each had to represent the title of a Christmas song.   And, it had to include a santa hat on each cabinet card also.   I don't want to post all of the altered cards, but here are a few.   Does the song title fit?

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Now, the 25 Days of Christmas swap has been a fun one so far.   25 artists joined, and each of us was to make a small gift.    We mailed one of our gifts to each of the other 24 participants.   I have been having a blast getting the mail each day with piles of little gift packages arriving each day.    Each of us was assigned a day in December that our gift are to be opened on.   In the end, we each have a gift to open from a fellow artist on each and every day in December (up to the 25th).  How fun is this going to be!?!?!    I am really looking forward to December when the unwrapping can begin.

Sorry, but I can't post a picture of the gifts I made yet.   I will at a later date.   I can show you what they look like in the little gift bags I sewed.   This is what the other 24 artists received from me... mine are to be opened on the 15th of December.

Merry Christmas ladies!

I'll be back soon.  Hopefully my Christmas Angels will be done.   I am very excited about them.

 

 

Black Hat Society ...

I recently hostessed a Halloween Hanglie Danglie Mingle with the theme of the Black Hat Society.   All of the art pieces had to include an image of a person and a witches hat.  I previously posted the one I mailed out.    This is the one I received - "Little Witches Don't Stay Little".   Autumn made this for me.  She does incredible artwork.   I was thrilled to receive this, and have it proudly hanging in my kitchen.  Thank you Autumn!!!

Be Witchy ...

Well, another Halloween themed project finished!

I am the hostess of a Halloween mingle in one of my art groups.   The theme was "Black Hat Society".   We each had to make one "hanglie danglie" (that's a technical term) that had to include an image of a person and a black hat.   This is what I came up with.

 

The base of my "hanglie danglie" is a canvas covered board.  I inked it up in shades of orange and red.   After stamping the chandelier image, I used some yellow oil pastels to highlight it.   The womans image was added to a large puzzle piece and topped with a hand cut witches hat.    The potion bottles are 3D laser cut wood bottles from Etsy.   I added bling, and some chandelier drops along the bottom edge. 

Be witchy all you boys and ghouls .... 

Fish Tails ...

I just finished my "fish tails" art piece.  I was in a mingle entitled "fish tails".   We had to have a fish somewhere on the piece of hanging artwork.

This photo isn't the best, but you can see the basics of my piece.  I used a 4"x6" canvas and painted it with a glaze medium and paint.   I stenciled some random designs on the background using paint.   I gave the background some added texture by randomly applying some distress stickles with a paint brush.   I added an image of a vintage fish company label and used oil pastels around it for shading.    I glazed over the label.  It has almost a crackle finish to it.  I embellished the piece with an "F" game piece, some netting, small sea shells, and a wire/ribbon/bead hanger.

Coaster Calendar ...

 

I made this cute little calendar using two medium weight chipboard coasters.  The background coloring on the coaster is a fun technique that I recently created and will explain late in another post.   Hint... it is made using Glimmer Mists.

I cut a slit and made a fold in the back coaster to create a "stand" for the calendar.   The two coasters were glue together and left to dry flat under a heavy book.

Embellished with ribbon and a 3D butterfly from K & Company (I believe).  The butterfly was enhanced with extra bling and glitter pen.

Altered Wand ...

Okay... I'm back.   And, I have a fun project to share.

One of my online art groups recently had an "altered wand" swap.   We needed to make just one wand with a theme of our choice.   And, it had to have lots of hanging fibers and trinkets.

When I set out to design mine, I knew I wanted to make a "bird" or "nature" themed wand.   When I found the cute little wire birdcage, I knew exactly what my wand was going to be!!!     It came complete with a birdie, nest and eggs.  

Here it is....

 

                   

All of the fibers and trinkets hanging from the wand.   What fun to collect and assemble.  I wrapped the handle of the wand with a variety of wire and beads.    

                       

I even made a bird egg for the base of my wand.

Hope you enjoy...   spring is in the air.

Altered Cabinet Cards ...

I just finished up a Altered Cabinet Card swap with one of my online art groups.    We each had to alter 6 cabinet cards and include some type of container to hold them.    We'll each receive 6 random cabinet cards and a container of some sort, in return.

I have to admit that I was somewhat intimidated about altering my cabinet cards... until I started working on them.   Oh what fun these were to do!!!   I wanted to just keep going on and on.   I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do before I sat down at my work table.   After working on the first one, there was no slowing me down.

This is my "container".    It is just a metal tin (pencil box type) that I added layers of ribbon to the outside, and altered the lid as you can see.

Incident Report - This is probably my favorite card.  He was masked and the  background was stippled with chalk inks.   Colored his prison stripes with colored pencils.  Various other stamps and embellishments.

Famous Walrous Soup -  How can you not think of a "walrous".   The background was also stippled with chalk inks.

Bring in the Clown - This lady inspired me with her clown-like dress she had on.   I just drew the giant ruffles and colored with colored pencils.   She was masked and background stippled with Brilliance inks.  I colored her hair with pencils.   Lots of highlighting  with pencils also.

Monkey Business - This guy is simply goofy.   I drew his hair with a pen and colored pencils.   Added stamped images, drawn bowtie, and monkeys.   Gotta love his big red nose.

A Stitch in Time - I thought she looked like a seamstress.   Not to much else going on in her life?   She was masked and I used oil pastels for the background.   Various embellishments added.

Princess in Tennis Shoes - I masked this lady off and painted the background with acrylic paints.   Did some over stamping.    I stamped and cut out her dress and tennis shoes, and attached them to the card (Brilliance ink).   She was highlighted with a white colored pencil.     Various embellishments added.

Give these a try!   You'll have a fun time doing it.   Even if you only have copies of cabinet cards, they will work fine.  Just attach them to poster board or mat board.

Spirit of the West (#1)

As I recently posted, in late July I attended an art retreat with a group of fellow online artists.  I finally have pictures of my finished "Spirit of the West" book to share.   

To some, this may look like an odd looking hodge podge of paper and embellishments.   But... to me it is many days of creating, having fun, and making memories with good friends.

During our long weekend, we each made a spiral bound western themed book.   The pages were made from mat board and the book was to be bound with the Bind-It-All.  We had a sample to follow and/or use for inspiration. I chose to bind only 3-4  of my pages, and lace together several of my pages side by side, creating a long accordian pull out page.

This is the simple cover I ended up making.  The mat board was covered with Cosmo Cricket papers.    I added pressed tin tileaged I aged with StazOn ink.    The hand sewn, fabric transfer piece was a gift from one of our members.   She made each of us one, and I thought it was so lovely that I had to showcase it on my cover.

The first page was a page dedicated to my cowgirls Faith, Hope and Charity.

After the first page are two pocket pages.   The first having a stitched tag inside of it, a hand covered bandana button and various images.   

The second pocket page is a folded paper bag page that is all about "kid" cowboys and cowgirls.  The front has three tags tucked away.   They include stamped images and even a denim pocket with a bandana hanging out of it.

The backside of the paper bag page has the cutest image of youngsters, and a cute wanted poster.  I even include a packing tape transferred star image.

The next page is my "yellow rose of Texas" page.  The flower is dimensional.   It is several layers of cardstock with the edges rolled up, with the top layer being a photo of a yellow rose.  Some tea dyed lace is around the flower.   

-- to keep this post from getting too long, I will post the continuation of my westerm book within the next day or so.

Dog Days of Summer ...

One of my online art groups has a monthly art lottery.   This months theme is "dog days of summer".  We can make whatever we want, as long as it is in the theme.   I took this theme quite literally and came up with this foam core dog "row" house.   It is truly silly and cute. 

Summertime Bird Lady ...

I had some Paula Best stamps that I purchased at least a year ago and had not yet used.  Today, I decided I'd get the sets out and play with them.   

I made this "bird lady" using a body stamp and a floral head stamp.   The stamped images were colored using Prismacolor pencils and Sansodor (for blending).  The body is mounted on a piece of foam core.   I brought the head forward a bit more with a piece of chipboard.    The arms are a ribbon loop with a glass bead.   The legs are a scrap of beaded button trim.    I added a looped wired at the top to hang my "dangly" bird lady. 

Artful Gathering ...

I am home from my annual trip to the Artful Gathering.   This is an art retreat that is organized for one of the online art groups that I am active in.  It is four great days of primarily doing altered art (and attending a stamp convention).  We do lots of art, eat, laugh, get to know each other better ... just have a wonderful time.   I think we had 21 attendees this year.  They came from all over the country.  I am so lucky to be a part of this group and to do art with such talented women.

The theme for this years Artful Gathering was "Spirit of the West".   Our main project was a bound western/cowgirl book.   I will be posting photos of my finished book in the next couple of days, along with photos of other projects.

I also recieved my round robin altered book.  I have art by three other artists in my book.  I will be getting that photographed and posted soon also. 

I am also thrilled that I have my sister-in-law and nephew visiting us for a few weeks.  I couldn't ask for anything better!!!   What a treat for us.   My nephew is growing up so quickly, but is really a nice young man.   I'm very proud of him.  He has been having fun swimming, playing with the dog, playing Guitar Hero, and watching movies.  He's played basketball at the gym with his uncle, and also gone golfing with him.  I think he favorite part is driving the golf cart. 

I'll be back soon with photos of all that I have been working on.

Are you game? ...

I just finished up working on some altered book pages.   These are for a fellow artisans altered book entititled "Are You Game?".

My first layout is all about Child's Play.   I tried to include some of the simple games and activities we did as kids.  From tic tac toe to hangman, from puzzles to card games.   Even a chain made from paper clips.  Remember those?   If I had had gum wrappers... there would of been a chain made from those too.   

In this layout, I just wanted to show some different card and "table" games.   I cut a niche into the book on the right page, and inserted real dominoe tiles.  Below that are two niches... one for a bingo card/marker, and one for some miniature wooden dice.   The left page uses two HUGE, oversized playing cards.   

This is my Monopoly layout.   I lightly painted the pages with a silver glaze.  The pages on the right were folded to size, with every other page being inked in black.  If you hadn't figured it out, it is suppose to look like the bars of a jail cell.

I used chipboard, alpha tiles, and stamps (Purple Onion Designs) to spell out "Go To Jail".    I added copies of vintage Community Chest and Chance cards between the cell bars.   I inclued an image of the original Monopoly game diagram from 1935.

All of these pages were fun to do.  I hope you enjoy them Carole.

Birthday 4x4's

One of my online art groups recently celebrated its 6th birthday.   Members of our group sent our wonderful leader birthday 4x4's that she could make a fat book from.    Here are some of the pages I sent.     

   

Altered Pages - "Sea" Theme ...

I am currently in an altered book round robin.  I just finished working in the first book.  The theme of this book was "the sea".    The theme was wide open for interpretation.   We were suppose to do about 3 altered spreads in each book.  When I first started on this book, I was kind of stuck creatively.  But, once I got the first page done, there was no stopping me.   I ended up doing five altered spreads (and I could of done more but I ran out of time).   I hope "Pat" enjoys the finished pages I created in her altered book.

I call this first page "beach findings".   It has a vintage feel of a day at the beach.  Used everything from old sandpaper for the beach, to transparencies, mesh, dimensional shells, and old photos.

What is the sea full of???   Fish of course.   It was only appropriate to do a "fish monger" page.  I found these old fish labels, and then painted my own little fishie.

"Romance on the High Seas"... what more can you say.   Nothing much more romantic than love at sea.

Sea horses are a unique and interesting sea creature.   They shouldn't be forgotten.   I put a little humor into this page.   Our art group is about to have a "western" themed art gathering.  How appropriate to have a sea "horse" that sais "giddy up".   

A sea themed altered book wouldn't be complete without a mermaid or two.  This mermaid image is one of my favorites.   She is just the beautiful essence of a mermaid.   She is the "jewel of the sea".  The background if shimmery, stamped and glittered.

Pat, I had a great experience working in your altered book.  I hope you'll be pleased when you get to see your book in person in a few months from now.

Postage People ...

Recently, I hosted a "Postage People" mingle with one of my art groups.   It was a wonderfully successful and FUN swap!   What a creative and witty group of artists.   We all had a great time.   

All you need to make "postage people" is a postage stamp with a head on it, and your creativity.   We made our people on ATC's.   The body can be a stamped body or a photo/picture of any sort. 

Here are a couple of the ones that I made.  I wish I could share all of the ATC's the entire group made.

   

Sweet Bunny Banner ...

Recently,I was in a Easter Banner mingle.  We each had to make one triangular "banner" with an Easter theme.    This is what I made.   I don't do "cute" too often, but thought this was a perfect theme to explore my "cuteness".

I took lavendar cardstock and cut the banner out.  I used a printed paper from Memory Box for the background.    The bunny was stamped on the lavendar cardstock and cut out.  I softly colored her with PrismaColor pencils.    The "hippity hoppity" saying is from Purple Onion Designs.   Just added bling, felt flowers, paper flowers, ribbon, and a wire hanger with beads.   

Hippity Hoppity, Easter is on it's way!!!

Sunflower tag...

This was a quick tag I made for a group "lottery" for one of my online art groups.   I took a pre-printed tag from Daisy D's.   I over stamped it with the flourish/ledger image from Stampington.   Added the words "sunflower" to it.  Stamped a bird image from Oxford Impressions and some script from Hero Arts.    Added a  rust colored rub-on "s".   I stippled the edges with brown, gold and rust chalk inks.   The sunflower is on a transparency and was attached over the top using mini brads.   Added coordinating fibers.

Blossom where you chirp...

Here is a sweet ATC I made. 

I used a torn piece of Jenni Bowlin paper.  I colored in the bird and blossoms.  The "blossom" stamp is from Purple Onion Designs.   The background stamp is from Magenta.  Flower is from Prima.  Edges are stippled with chalk inks.

Blue Birds...

This is an accordian tag that I made for one of my online art groups monthly "art lottery".   Each month there is a theme....this month it is "birds".    Anyone in the group who wants to join can enter a piece of art into the lottery.   At the end of the month, a name is drawn and that person gets all of the art submitted to the lottery.  It is a fun idea.

I won last months projects.   They were Christmas themed.   I received a variety of art... ornaments, mini books, exploding boxes, etc.    Loved it all.

For this tag, I took a piece of Basic Grey printed paper and cut it to a 9" x 6" size.  Using my Scor It, I was easily able to  put in the folds of the tag (handy tool to have around).   

The paper had the two blue birds on it already, but I stamped it with words, images and background stamps.   I used Purple Onion Designs Downcome and Ancient Page alphabets for the word "blue" and "birds".    The birdcage, big letter "B", script bird, and sentiment are all from Oxford Impressions.  There are flourishes and musical notes stamped in the background.   I finished off the tag by stippling the edges.  I used  shades of olive, moss and blue chalk inks.   

Embellishments include Prima leaves, bird charm, 7gypsies tab, prima flower, MM velvet brad, chipiola clip, hand dyed twill, ribbons, and sequins for the birds eye and flower center.

The Circus is Coming to Town...

I am participating in a swap with one of my online art groups.   The finished project is going to be a Circus fatbook.    It will be a spiral bound book of 4x4 pages.    We had 34 of us join this swap.  I can't wait to get my really "fat" book back to see all of the wonderful art that everyone did.   

I made 34 of the same basic page.  There were 3 different variations of it.  Here is a sample.  (Sorry that the photos are a bit blurry).  I tried to give the page a bit of a vintage, French flair.

The ticket, Altea alphabet, and number stamps are all from Purple Onion Designs.  The "find your wonder" stamp is from Tattered Circus.