It's probably the hardest thing I've ever done...

Seriously.
My darling friend Lauren sent me some ultra fun papers to use for stamping stuff. Mostly old book pages, but a few other interesting things (like comics in spanish!). Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I have *never* torn book pages before. I'm a bibliophile - can't help it. Books are to be loved and respected. I thought I might have a heart attack when I heard the first quiet rrrriiiipppp! (and it doesn't help that dh was making fun of me at the time, asking if I needed help with my book burning!)
Then I got into a whole 'nother realm of difficult. After tearing, gluing and gessoing I had a piece of neat looking paper - but no idea of what to do with it! Finally I settled on this:
which is not at all like something I would usually make! It's a bit wonky (on purpose, I swear!) and kinda busy for me - but I like it.
The Hero Arts grass stamp was inked with Ranger's archival brown color and stamped on a piece of my collage paper. I used several colors of Distress Inks to add color to the piece - but then cut most of them off when I decided to cut it into a circle. More of my collage paper was covered with an orangey-brown color of mulberry paper, then glued down with mod podge and a touch of reinker. The background card was rubbed with a gold mica magic reinker, which I also used to edge the strips. Although you can't tell from the picture, there is a lot of glimmer and shine going on!
As the final touch I added one of Tim Holtz's epoxy stickers (also glued down to collage paper) as a dangling charm from the embroidery floss.
All I can say is - this *really* stretched my comfort zone! And Lauren, you better be proud of me! :D
Thanks for dropping by!

Serendipity was the name of the game!

I have something pretty for your eyes today. Something more my 'style' - heh, like I have one!? Anyway, dh has ordered new software for my laptop and I'm expecting it in the next couple of days. I don't really know how long I'll be 'down', but maybe this will be worth checking out in the meantime? :)

This was not even close to what I had in mind when I started, but I guess I could say that about most things I make. *lol* I used a bunch of Distress Inks on Claybord (just like Stampbord) but didn't like the way it looked. NOT because of the board - that stuff takes ink like a dream! I just didn't like the way the colors were coming together. Sooo, I went over almost all of it with Mica Magic inks (love those!) and a makeup sponge until I liked it. IRL the bottom looks like a crashing wave, pure seredipity. Over that I used a background stamp that says things like Diva, Independent, Strong and Woman (among other things). I wish I knew where that stamp came from... I bought it many moons ago at one of my first stamp shows. You know, before I knew how addicted I would get to UM's (that had no info on them). I stamped the woman's face last using Archival Black ink from Ranger. I just love the look of her eyes.

Here's a close up of the grungeboard in the corner. This was my first foray into grungeboard and I wasn't sure what to do with it. This corner seemed to need something flourishy, so I broke into my package and started altering! I tapped it with green ink, then poured Opals embossing powder on it. The ink soaked in so quickly that I got a spotty look to the Opals when I heated it, but it looked intentional - so I kept it!

I edged the entire piece with black velvet ribbon and added feathers from the fly fishing section of the local sporting goods store. Hah! I can find crafty stuff *anywhere*.
Thanks for dropping by!



Recipe: Claybord panel, Mica Magic reinkers, Brilliance gold ink, grungeboard flourish, Opals EP in Eucalypt, Third Coast Rubberstamp, unknown background stamp, feathers, black velvet, red liner tape, green dye ink

Woo Hoo!

I can hardly believe it! I've been featured in the Best of the Blogosphere on Card of the Week! That just stuns me! Wow, sure does make this learning curve all worth it. :D In case you haven't seen Card of the Week, it's a great resource. Susanna combs through tons of blogs each week (436 on her reader at last count, phew!) looking for the best projects to feature. Her lists are all encompassing - cards, scrapbooking, paper projects... it's just amazing all the gorgeous things she shares every week. Like I said, I'm THRILLED! :D Just a word to the wise, her BOB list is dynamic - in other words, she keeps adding to it. You can scroll for days to see ALL of the great things she's put on that list! Bring your cup of coffee! :)


Soo, I have something a little different to share... sure hope it lives up to all the hype. *lol* This is an altered puzzle piece that I made some time ago. I absolutely love how all the colors just came together, it wasn't planned - believe me! First I coated the puzzle piece with white gesso - it was a child's puzzle, lots of bright color & hard to cover. Then I went over it with lots of different colors of Mica Magic ink. No pads, everything came straight from the reinker bottle. I mushed it around with old makeup sponge (the really dense kind). I loved how the blue & green mixed together - all the colors actually blended very well. I did the same thing with the domino piece - no gesso, but still mica magic reinker with sponges. I stamped on the domino with a portion of a stamp from Rubberstamp Ave in black. Finally I edged it with a Krylon Copper pen and covered the whole thing with Glossy Accents from Ranger. After I figured out general placement of the domino I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig and a stamp from Club Stamp on the puzzle piece. I thought it needed a little more dimension so I embossed with black over that. Once I glued the domino down and edged the entire piece with more Krylon pen, I coated the whole thing with more Glossy Accents for protection.

I loved this piece so much that I gave it as a gift to my mom. I know she loves it... hope you do too!
Recipe: Green, Blue, Purple, Bronze and 2 shades of Gold Mica Magic reinkers. Puzzle piece, gesso, black ink & embossing powder, Krylon copper pen, Glossy Accents, makeup sponge.