Once Upon an Eerie Tale

Hello again,

I had a lot of fun designing this project. I love my Silhouette machine and SVGCuts.com was hosting an Autumn Challenge using all of Mary's SVG files. It worked out great because the Urban Scrapbook's October kit was "make anything you want". Here is my submission for the SVGCuts.com Autumn Challenge...

The paper used was Graphic 45's " an Eerie Tale" as well as some plain black and yellow cardstock.  The wheels have Tim Holtz' mirror paper on the main circles

SVGCuts file kits used were:

Enchanted Autumn (Pumpkin Carriage)

Gothic Flourishes (bats, hat, sign, chains, headless horseman with pumpkin, side and front embellishments on carriage)

Maple Manor (cats)

Here's a better view of the side embellishement

Thanks for taking a look. I hope you enjoyed my eerie enchanted carriage.

Steampunk Couture

Hello again,

I had mentioned in a recent post that January is a busy birthday month for me. Both of my daughters birthdays and the sweet man's birthday are within 2 weeks of each other.

This is a card for my first born, who turned 22. I called it "Steampunk Couture"

I love the "feather boa" and the liquid pearls faux necklace

Hope you enjoyed the card as much as my daughter did. Thanks for stopping by.

Halloween Configurations

Hi again

I just wanted to share some pics of the configuration shadow boxes I made last year. They stored pretty well. When I pulled them out last week, there was very little I had to repair. I did end up replacing the battery pack for the lantern because I made a bonehead move and kept the batteries in. Holy corrosion! Oops. Oh well, live and learn. Here's a peek...

It's easy being green

Green. I love green, well, next to purple that is. I was excited to see the latest Monday Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp was the  "green challenge". http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/challenge-green/

I am particularly proud of this one because I used stuff just lying around my studio and recycle bin. I would love to say that I came up with the idea of the bell jar using a plastic bottle, but the fab MJ Girling had it on her blog last year. You can check out the Link here...http://lifeartcollide.blogspot.ca/2012/10/soda-bottle-bell-jars.html

 A huge thank-you to her, cause she's awesome and very creative.

I cut the base out of scrap foam core and stained the top with Gathered Twigs distress stain.

Now to build the scene...

I didn't have any floral foam, so I cut a cardboard paper tube and covered it with rustic wood paper..

I hot glued them to the base and started attaching my vines. Recognize the material? Brown paper bag strips that have been twisted up. I added some thin gauge wire around them to make it more "bendable" then it was just a matter of hot gluing everything in place.

Hibiscus is made from the Susan Tierney Cockburn die set from Sizzix.

Tropical leaves cut from Graphic 45 paper and Memory Box die

Aarrrggg, tried to take this picture 5 times. This was the best one. Kinda crappy but you can get the idea of the finished effect.

Thanks for taking a look today, I appreciate all the kind comments I've received. Cheers!

Rogue Traveller Canvas Passport to Fun challenge

Hi again,

I'm sure it wasn't just me, this winter was the longest, most drawn out test of seasonal affective disorder EVER! When we returned from Southeast Asia, I thought it would have been spring. No such luck.
To cope, I started making paper palm trees. I designed this 11x14 canvas to put on display in my living room, using the fabulous picture of a classic VW camper van as my jumping off point.

I found the picture on Pinterest. The photo credit linked back to desert-dreamer.tumbir.com  A thousand apologies if this is not correct. It's an awesome pic and it reminds me of the jungles in Indonesia that we visited in February.

to start, I made the trunk of the palm tree with some recycled paper bag, twisted it, and sprayed it with color shine.  The fronds were die cut from BoBunny paper, and more recycled packaging for the "looking glass" compass element. I fussy cut a bunch of leaves from the Graphic 45 Tropical Travelogue collection.

 I can't remember the company which the background paper is from. I found it in the sale bin at my local scrapbook  store.  I added some lightweight modelling paste around the edges and also created a stencil from the palm frond die to add more visual interest on the edges.

 here you can see the recycled plastic packaging I used to make a cool compass.  I added some remnant rubs to the canvas as well.  Those packs are awesome. You can put them on everything (like Franks Red Hot hahaha) I glued some jute twine around the plastic to give it a more finished look.

I knew I needed some more red on the canvas to visually balance it with the picture, so I stitched some great metallic thread through the one side.

I really love how it turned out. I am going to submit this piece to Simon Says Stamp and Show for their weekly challenge:  http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.ca/2013/04/challenge-passport-to-fun.html

I Love Babies!

Hi again,
My good friend and co-worker had her first baby in April. I love my art hobby so much because it lets me make heartfelt and personalized gifts.

I made the step card while she was still pregnant and didn't know the sex of the baby. General pastel colors always work well on a card for a new mom to be. However, once I colored the teddy bears, they were way too bright for the card, ARGG! Not to worry, after consuming copious amounts of coffee, I remembered the "tone down" technique. I simply cut out the images and pounced alabaster fluid chalk ink all over the colored pieces. Voila! Instant muted color that fit with the background papers. Dollar store trinkets and a chipboard rocking horse complete the card.

Welcome to the world little one.