Deep Midwinter Challenge - Purple Deer

 I my ink stained friends... I hope you're enjoying winter in your neck of the woods.  Today I wanted to step out of my comfort zone for a moment and try a color I don't use often...purple!  Yes, in my world there are purple deer.

So I stamped the Trees background stamp on white cardstock using VersaMark ink and embossed with white ep.  I then used 3 colors of purple and a bit of pink Distress Oxide ink to color the image. I trimmed and matted the image, added a bit of glitter and my purple deer family.

I hope you have a chance to join in on the fun! 

#180 - In The Deep Midwinter

Snow Much Fun....Shaker ATC Cards!

 I wanted to share my creation that I made this afternoon...ATC Shaker cards!

I created these cards using the Snowball Fun ATC collage sheet from Gecko Galz for their December ATC Card challenge.  I knew I wanted to make shaker ATC's because I have so many fun winter sequins mixes.  I just love the shimmer and sparkle not to mention movement to projects.

December ATC Challenge - Gecko Galz

Layers and Layers Ornament Card

 Hello Friends...

New month means new challenges over at Gecko Galz! I just love playing with collage images...there are just so many fun things you can do with them. Today I wanted to share one of them - you can take a flat image, add several layers and make it dimensional or over in the UK this is called 3D Decoupage or simply decoupage. I did that with the December Christmas Challenge image to create this card...

You can see from the photos that I added 3 layers to this ornament both at the top and bottom of the ornament.

I the embellished the card with foliage from Honey Bee stamps and a wired ribbon.

December Gecko Galz Christmas Challenge

Snowflake Wishes

 Hello!!

Lost Coast Designs is celebrating winter all month long...  Today I wanted to share my first creation with you and it combines a few of my favorite things...snowflakes, glitter and blue!!!

I simply love the glitter and sparkle of real snowflakes so I thought I'd use some glitter embossing powder on these ones! (Large Snowflakes, Small Snowflakes) I wish you could see the amazing sparkle of these IRL - they are just so pretty.  I used several shades of blue ink to make the background then I stamped the Long Swirl in another shade for fun.  Finally I stamped the sentiment to finish it off. (Party Words)

I hope you take a bit of time to create this month and join in on the fun!!

By The Sea Artist Trading Coins

 Hello my ink stained friends - I hope you all have had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend.  Today I wanted to share my Artist Trading Coins for the current challenge at Lost Coast Designs - Round & Round.  I just love making artist trading coins...similar to Artist Trading Cards - these small round bits of goodness are just as much fun! It's really cool when you take a stamped image and cut it (in this case) into a circle how it can take on a totally new look.  It makes you focus on a specific part of the image. I hope you give them a try...they really are lots of fun to make.

I wanted to do something a bit summery as it has been so cold here and I thought these might fit the bill.  I used Mini Fish, Mini Maritime and the Steampunk Mermaid.  All of these images were stamped on a shimmery white cardstock (which I sadly couldn't capture in the photos).  They were each colored with a variety of colored pencils and edged with VersaFine ink.

There is still time to join in on the fun...

share your creation with us and you might just be a lucky winner!

Checkin His List

 I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet but I had an idea for the Quarterly challenge over at Gecko Galz and I had to make it now. Do you ever get an idea and you can't rest until it's finished?  Well that's what this was.....

I have been sorting and rearranging my holiday "goodies" and I thought it would be fun to use some of my bottle brush trees, mica flakes and some vintage wooden spools along with some other goodies in my stash to create this little Santa Shrine.

I used collage images from the following Gecko Galz collage sheets...Christmas Scraps (background), Nature's Winter, The Frosty Garden, Natures Christmas and Santa Clause Lane 2.

Hope you enjoy!

Gecko Galz Quarterly Challenge -

 9-23 through 11-23 

Foxy Steampunk Decor

 Hello Friends...

A little bit of Steampunk fun...

The Steampunk challenge at Gecko Galz this month is this darling fox pilot. I thought it would be fun to pair him with a few bits and bobs I had in my stash. I used this (broken) colander as the backdrop. I think it turned out pretty good...it's now hanging in my craft room :)

Gecko Galz Steampunk Challenge

Sleigh Ride Card & Ornament

 Yes, a second project today...

This one was made using the image from the Monthly Card Challenge at Gecko Galz. I liked the image so much I decided that I wanted to turn it into an ornament as well!!  I recently bought 6"+ tall wood ornaments that I thought would be perfect for this image.

Mom saw this while it was "in the process" and has already claimed it - LOL!!

For the card I used some very pretty foiled paper for the background, a shimmery blue cardstock for the die cut frame and a few glitter snowflakes and gemstones to finish it off.

To create the ornament I started off with a 6"+ wood ornament. I decoupaged the image onto the base then inked and embossed the edges and hanger with silver embossing powder.  I added "Snow" with natural colored mica flakes.  I finished it off with an embossed wooden snowflake a second glitter snowflake and pretty blue ribbon.

I hope I have done the image justice.

Gecko Galz Monthly Card Challenge - November 2023

Elegant Ladies Pocket Letter

 I have a fun new project to share with you...My Elegant Ladies Pocket Letter!

I absolutely love making and sharing pocket letters but I hadn't made one in quite some time. One of the current challenges over at Gecko Galz is Victorian Fantasy...and this is my rendition...

I had such fun making this. I used images from Pretty Victorian's 1 & 2, Ladies in Cream and Ladies in Yellow. Another current GG challenge is Color/Texture - use a solid color and create a damask type texture. I used an embossing folder from Darice and my Golden Glitz Delicata ink pad for the background of each card.

I then added all sorts of goodies - flowers of various descriptions, lace, pearls, charms, ribbon and more.

I also had some pretty silver leaves that I cut down and made them fit the cards.

I even added an old key to one of the cards.

I used some lovely fibers, chain and charms to create a little dangle to attach in the top hole of the card sheet.

Hope you enjoy my Elegant Ladies Pocket Letter!

Halloween Junk Journal/Altered Book

 So I've been wanting to get back into making journals - not the date/writing/scrapbooking journal but something more along the lines of glue books, junk journals, altered books kind of journals.  My first book theme is Halloween/Gothic.  I am so excited about it...I've been gathering supplies and I've made my first lay-out. 

The main image is from the current Gecko Galz Gothic challenge.  This is exactly the type of thing I want to include in my book.

Oh...about the book... I have been debating for a long time on what to use for my base. When I journaled before it was in old books or ledgers. Well those things are packed away at the moment so I thought about buying a journal/notebook to use but then we were at an estate sale and the lady had those books where you collect the cards each month and put them into some sort of order. In this case it was plants. I bought one that was full (so I'd have lots of pages to use) and I'm gluing 2 pages together to make them extra sturdy to take whatever medium I want to use. It worked like a charm and since it's a 2 ring binder type of deal I have the option to move the pages around (when I get more made) in any order I want. I think it's going to be just what I was looking for.

Stay tuned for more Halloween junk journal pages in the future :)

Gecko Galz Gothic Challenge