April in Paris — Gluebook Pages

Oh my poor neglected blog!! I have been busy, but too busy, it seems, to post the projects I have been making. I was chosen to be on the Clean and Simple design team at Splitcoaststampers (SCS) for the past 3 months, so most of my paper creating was done as cards. I also made 100 inchies for a swap at SCS, but I’ll save those pictures for another day.

I am currently participating in a Gluebook swap where we make postcard-size collages with minimal embellishments (the idea being to make the cards into a book when we are finished). The on-going theme is a honeymoon trip around the world with the first stop in Paris. Perfect for spring!

This theme gave me a good excuse to go shopping at FrenchKissed for some new digital images. Both of the backgrounds (front and back) are postcards from Tricia’s shop, and the beautiful woman is a third image I purchased there. The French receipt is from Digital Collage Sheets and the flowers are some German scrap I had in the house. I also digitally added a couple images from Deviant Scrap: the flower branch to the front and back, and the grey wallpaper design to the back of the card. Next month we travel on the Orient Express….. I wonder what I will come up with for that? Thanks for looking!

Red Lead Valentine

I have made a few things since my last post, but I have not been very good about sharing them on this blog! Now that Valentine’s Day is over, I will post this ATC I made using a Red Lead valentine stamp. I inked it and stamped it twice on each ATC, then colored it in with lots of different Ranger Distress inks. The text stamp is from a retired Stampin’ Up set. And if you go to the Red Lead blog now, you can leave a comment for a chance to win a fabulous prize package full of good things from their store. Here is the link:

Red Lead Giveaway for February 23, 2013

Retro Christmas #2 and #3

Here are the other two ATC styles I made for the Kitschy Christmas swap I hosted at Vintage Photo Image ATCs. I have been wanting to make an ATC using a retro choir image for a while, and thanks to a wonderful source on Pinterest, I found the perfect image! I had so much fun making these kitschy Christmas ATCs, I hope I can host this theme again next year.

Retro Christmas No. 1

I am hosting an ATC swap with my Vintage Photo Image ATCs group with the theme “kitschy Christmas”. It’s nice to have 7 people sign up so that each person’s set of 6 ATCs is replaced with 6 different ones from other swappers. This time only 5 have signed up, which led me to make 3 different styles so I wouldn’t have to return more than one ATC to its original swapper. This is the first style I made. I remember seeing ornament boxes similar to this when I was young (and no, that’s not me in the picture). When I think of retro Christmas, I think of green bottle-brush trees so I knew I had to put one on this ATC. I cut out the opening in the frame (image from Tumblefish Studios) and popped it up on foam tape. Then I pulled the wooden base off the tree and cut off the back side of the bristles so the tree would lay flat. A touch of glitter and it’s just like when I was little!

CAS-ual Fridays — Kraft

The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays is to use kraft paper on a card or tag.

I have had this idea for a card in my head ever since I missed the first sketch challenge at CAS(e) this sketch!

I cut some white paper with the circle border die from Papertrey Ink and added a scarf, twigs, and carrot nose to create a stack of snowmen. I cut the nose with scissors, but the scarf and twigs were made with a Martha Stewart snowman punch. The snowbank is also a Papertrey Ink die that I embellished with some score tape and glitter. The Papertrey Ink sentiment is from the Think Big Favorites #21 set.

A few days later….

My card was selected as one of four VIP favorites for the week! Lucky me!

CAS(E) this Sketch! No. 3

I was on the ball this week and checked out the new sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch! on the day it was posted! Here’s the sketch for week #3:

Here is the card I made following the sketch:

This will go to my dad for his birthday, which was a couple of weeks ago. At least he will get it before his birthday month is over! The owl is by Hero Arts. I used the Woodgrain background stamp by Stampin’ Up to make the piece of kraft paper look like a tree. The leaves are from a punch that is also by Stampin’ Up. The sentiment is from a set of clear owl stamps, and I have no idea what company made them. I’m not always very particular about keeping track of that!

Stage Fright!

Here’s another ATC I made for Halloween this year for an “open” theme swap. The little witch on the pumpkin is an image from Lisa’s Altered Art that I’ve had for a few years. The other bits and pieces are from various digital kits from Deviant Scrap. The background paper is some really old stuff I found in my Halloween stash — finally found a use for it!