Fun and Easy Technique

Yesterday my mom came over and we did a very simple technique called Wrinkle-Free Distress that I wanted to try from Splitcoast Stampers. You can see the technique here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/wrinklefreedistress/

We did some tags and card fronts and here is a tag I made. It was easy and fun!

Chatchki!

I had a lot of fun with this project! I purchased a "chatski" pin (which I call chatchki) and collage papers from Red Lead and made some charms from Tim Holtz's fragment charms, which you can see a video of him doing on his website. I used some jewelry rings to attach the charms to the pin and added a charm or two. Then I just chose some ribbon and fibers to tie on. I like how it came out - I don't know what I'll do with it, but for now I just like looking at it!

Itty Bitty Book

This is a page I made for an Itty Bitty Book swap with the Red Lead Yahoo group. We did one for Valentine's Day and this one is for a birthday celebration of the Red Lead store and the title is Butterfly Wishes. You were required to use either a collage image or a stamp or embellishment that you purchased at Red Lead. Since that is one of my favorite online stores (their physical store is in St. Louis) that wasn't a difficult requirement! The page had to be 1/4" wider than an ATC with no embellishments on the left side so it can be bound. There are 29 of us playing and I can't wait to see the finished book!

Inchies

I love inchies! They are so fun and challenging. I've joined a swap where I need to send my partner 5 inchies. And because I'm so into birds right now - you guessed it - I used a bird theme! I punched out 3/4" pictures from a Red Lead (http://www.redleadpaperworks.com/) collage sheet, mounted them on a 1" scalloped square which I had embossed on the edges. Oh, I also stamped some script on the 1" square but it mostly got covered up with the 3/4" collage picture. Then I cut out some small tags from a Shrinky Dink sheet, stamped a swirl on the tag with Brilliance ink, stamped the words "sing" and "hatch", then shrank the tags. I used tiny safety pins to put them on the inchie. Fun!

Rolodex Cards

As if we didn't have enough going on, some of us decided we wanted to trade Rolodex cards as well as learn some new techniques. We decided to use the book "Artist Trading Card Workshop" by Bernie Berlin. This photo shows a card using one of the techniques called Embossing Scraps, which has been my favorite technique so far. Some of them have been very challenging, some simply frustrating and some I would never do again! Others have made some very interesting backgrounds. It has been fun to try them and see how the others in the group interpret them.

I'm Bird Crazy

It seems that many of my cards lately have included birds. I have lots of bird stamps and I just love them! Here's a card I made yesterday for one of my trading groups. I used a music score background, sprayed it with Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist, and stamped the birds with black ink. I adhered that to a card of SU Sage Shadow which I sprayed with Patina Glimmer Mist and edged with Brilliance Crimson Copper. I hope you can see the shimmer in the photo. I stamped the Bible verse with Stazon Timber Brown on vellum and tore it out and adhered it to the card. I thought I was done, but decided it needed something dimensional. I didn't have enough of any one charm that I liked, so I punched out these little birds (4) with my Martha Stewart bird punch and gathered them all together with a SU mini library clip. There are your "many Sparrows!"

My First

This is my first post to this blog that I set up months ago. I'm not sure who will want to see what I'm doing but I thought it might be fun to post some of the stuff I'm doing in my little craft nest!

This is an ATC I made for a group I'm in. I had fun with making the background - I just swiped Kiwi Kiss, Purely Pomengranate and So Saffron pads on watercolor paper cards and swished over it with a large, very wet paintbrush. Then I stamped the bird, covered the slide holders with paper, adhered the slide holder, and added the little flower.

I'm going to try to keep up with posting present and past work so you can see that I just don't sit around all day eating bonbons (like my husband thinks I do!)