Fun New Challenge..

There is a fun new challenge starting tomorrow Sept. 1st - it's the Altered Playing Card Challenge. 

Claudine will be altering an entire deck of playing cards (52) spread over 26 weeks.  Since it's only 2 cards per week I think it will be very doable.   I'm going to join the challenge so from time to time I'll be posting my creations here.  Maybe you'd like to join us and play along too!

I believe most people are going to use regular playing cards but you know I can't be "normal" - LOL!!  I'm going to try to get cards from several different decks of cards for something fun and different.  I know I have some really large playing cards, a zig-zag card, I think a round one and of course regular playing cards.  

Leap of Faith

Happy Friday!!  I hope this week has been a good one.  As most of you know we've been extremely busy at our business lately - well today we all got a day off!!  Whoopie!  Dh & the boys went to a farm auction and dh didn't want me there all by myself so I stayed home today to get caught up on house stuff <ick!> and I actually got to play in my art room which turned into LOTS of fun because the Fed Ex man brought my Pan Pastels this a.m.!!!!  

I was so excited...first thing I did was arrange the colors more to my liking...I'm sure they were in some order but it didn't make any sense to me so I put it into rainbow order which is what I like and how I art it up.

So, I decided to play right away and here's what I came up with...  Unruly Arts Reader Challenge this month is Take Flight with the following photo/color prompts...

And here's what I did....  I've been in the stencil making mode lately - this one is a large honeycomb design I made using my hexagon dies.  I just cut, moved, cut, moved until the entire piece of paper had been cut into what you see.

I applied a layer of yellow Pan Pastels down to my white cardstock then positioned my stencil and added a darker yellow over top.  I then took a piece of sequins scrap and added some rust dots here and there.  

Like most pastels you will need to seal it to keep it from smearing.  I used a bit of Creative Medium that I applied with an Ink Blending Tool & Foam.  Worked like a charm!

I added some stamped images - this huge bee was colored with Pan Pastels & some of their new sparklie medium...coarse black (eyes & body) and coarse white (on the wings).  I wish you could see the sparkle it adds. 

A bit of pen work in the corners...

And here it is....

The text & circle stamps are from Just For Fun stamps, the flowers and sentiment are Club Scrap but sadly I have no idea who made the giant bee...it's been in my stash for years.

Hope you all have a simply wonderful 3-day Labor Day weekend here in the States...

and I hope everyone else has a relaxing, rejuvenating weekend as well.

Remember to take time to get inky!!

Pan Pastels

Hi All!  As some of you may have noticed the poll at the side about Pan Pastels.  I am lucky enough to have a set to try (pastels - a.k.a. Tints) but I am also lucky enough to have bought a complete set!

O.k...let me back up.  These have been on my wish list for a while now but they are expensive....and I'm cheap!  I noticed that PP donates products to design teams to promote them on their company blogs so I made the suggestion that the Altered Pages team ask to see if we could do so.  Well the generous folks at Pan Pastels said yes!  So I got a set to try in pastel - a somewhat difficult set to use because the colors are so light but they are beautiful.  It gave me a chance to try the PP out and I instantly fell in love with them and knew I had to have them.

It just so happens that I got a 20% off coupon for Dick Blick a few days after I tried the PP... AND it was our wedding anniversary (28 years) this past weekend.   Well, dh forgot!  So I decided that as a gift to myself I was going to buy the set with the coupon.  That paired with Dick Blick's already low price it was a steal.  I can't wait till they arrive!

Anyway, that's why I asked about them....  I've been playing with the pastels (they are actually called Tints set) just to see what I can do and here are few experiments....

Here is a rough free hand rose and a bloom off to the side....  (sorry for the bad lighting...I took this last night while I was playing.)

The two rows of butterflies were done by applying the pastels to the paper, stamping with Versamark  ink then adding more pastels over top.  I love the effect...really makes em pop.

A free-hand feather on white cardstock...

And another on a kraft tag....

Here I made an oak leaf and another rose with a tiny bud both on a piece of corrugated cardboard that was laying on my desk.  Just too much fun!

So, I decided that once I finish up my projects for the Altered Pages blog I would give away the pastels (Tints) set of Pan Pastels to one lucky reader :)  I'll share more about the give-a-way a little later in Sept. but I wanted to be sure you were watching for it...  It comes with a Studio Palette Tray ($10.00 value), set of 5 Tints ($29.99 value) and a few Sofft Tools ($3.50 value)!

So stay tuned for more on Pan Pastels!!

Charm & ATC Swap update

Packages are rolling in...  So far I have goodies from:

Sandie B

Loretta

Sara

Judy R.

Terry D

Robin M.

Olga B.

Shirley H.

I'll keep you updated on more arrivals :)

I can't wait to see what you've all made...I'm waiting till they are all here to open - the suspense is killing me - it's like waiting for Christmas - LOL!!

Cinema Club Scrap Blog Hop

I was so excited when I found out the theme for this months Club Scrap kit...Cinema.   I was even more excited when I read one of the stamps in the kit....  "I speak fluently in movie quotes.".  This describes our family perfectly!  We do speak fluently in movie quotes so I thought I'd make an album to document our favorite movies and movie quotes.

So, I had this fun 16mm movie canister that I spiced up with a few select rubber stamps.  It was an old movie from a library that was going to discard it... Of course I couldn't let that happen so I snagged it.  I had thought about cleaning off the old labels but I liked the "used" look where some were torn off so I went with it. 

I used the tape for the edge of the canister to cover up some of the labels with the name of the original movie on it.  Worked perfectly - it fit exactly!

Inside is there the album will be stored!

Here is the front cover.  It's a combination of the plain blue cardstock, movie reels cut from one of the prints and lots and lots of fun stamped images.  The projector is showing the current movie (which is a piece of vellum).  I edged the reels and "movie shadow" with gelatos.

A closer look of the stamping.

And the first page will tell a bit about what is "playing".  The blue movie reel pulls out and opens up for a bit of journaling which is where I'm going to explain what's inside.

This is one of the pages I've added inside.  I need to stamp a few more images and attach them to the glassine envies.  Inside is a little card which will hold list of our favorites - both movies and quotes.

Here's the last page of the album...

I can't wait to start filling it with our favorites lists!

And I couldn't forget our gnomie friend....

He's ready for his close-up!

Hope you've enjoyed my project...

For more inspiration hop on over to 

Deb's Blog

and remember if you get lost along the way you can find the complete list at

Club Scrap Creates!

Alcohol Ink Color Swatch Cards

Happy Tuesday!  I hope you've all had a wonderful start to your week!  Today I wanted to share a really fun, easy and awesome way to create a great looking card using alcohol inks.  

This is such a fun technique because all you have to do is to apply a single line of color of alcohol ink to the short side of your felt then swipe it across your card, change the felt and repeat with your next color.  I like to use 3 colors but you could use 2, 3, 4 or more.  Whatever you like.

I have used 3 colors on each of the following cards.  The first card uses Sail Boat Blue, Pool & Lettuce paired with Deep Red Stamps.

The next card is the classic combo of Shell Pink, Watermelon and Cranberry again with Deep Red Stamps.  The pearls started out life a white pearls but were also colored using the Cranberry Alcohol Ink...just a drop on each did the trick.

So now you have another fun technique to use with your alcohol inks.  This also works great with Distress Inks, watercolors, etc.  Use what you have but do give it a try.  You'll have so much fun pairing different colors together to match your needs.

Ink on my friends Ink on!!

Movie Themed Album - Club Scrap!

Hey everyone!  Can you believe that it is the end of August already?!?!  I can't - I don't know where the month has gone....well, yes I do - over at the building buried under a pile of webbing - LOL!!

Well, the end of the month means it's time for the Club Scrap Blog Hop - in two days to be exact!  But I wanted to share a bit about what I'm making early because I am so excited about it!  Now I don't know if you have seen this months kit but the theme is Cinema...wicked cool movie themed papers and stamps.  I mentioned I was excited...that is because our family loves movies - so much so we often quote our favorites to each other when appropriate.  Some people think we're nuts but hey, we have fun with it.

It just so happens that one of the stamps in the collection says, "I speak fluently in movie quotes."   OMG - it's PERFECT!!!  So I knew I wanted to make an album for our family so that we could make a list of our favorite movies and write down our favorite quotes from them.  Something quirky to hand down to our future grandkids.

I just so happened to have this cool 11" movie canister which is what I'm going to use to make a pattern for my album plus I am going to store the finished album inside....

I love the label so I think I'm going to do something with it...I know most people would cover it but it's such a great touch and I love vintage goodies.  I think it only adds to the character of the whole thing.

The kit includes this awesome tape...looks like a vintage film strip.  There was a label along the edge I couldn't completely get off so I covered the rim of the canister with it.  The tape isn't washi tape - it's got a great adhesive but it's still semi transparent like washi tape.  I don't know what type of tape it is but I love it.

I started off by making the covers for my album.  I traced the bottom of the canister on the chipboard then cut about 1/4" smaller on all sides.

I then traced the cover onto a piece of cardstock and cut it 1cm smaller - these will be the inside pages for the album.   Just a note...I am keeping this page template at the back of the album so I can add additional pages as needed in the future.  I'm hoping it'll be an on-going family project.

Here is one of the stamps in the kit... I freakin love the vintage feel of it and I decided to turn it into a pocket!  I stamped it twice, cut the top flap off the 2nd image and attached it to the first with a mini brad so it actually goes up and down.

I added double stick foam tape to the back around the edge and mounted it on my page.  Instant pocket!

Did you know you can add foam tape in the center of a stamped image to make it look 3 d?  I did this with a popcorn box - the center is raised while the outer edges are mounted directly to the page making it look like it's a dimensional popcorn box!

Here are both of the images on the page....

Now what to put in the little snapper (that is my technical term for it) - how about a film reel?  This is one of the great stamps in the kit too...

Tucks right into the pocket perfectly!!

I am going to use glassine envies to tuck in little cards with the movie info & our favorite quotes for some of the pages.

Well, that's all you get to see for now...You'll just have to come back Wednesday to see what else I've done with it!

Fairy Dreams Tag

Happy Inky Day everyone!  I hope you've all had a wonderful week...  I for one am pooped and so happy that it is Friday.  I wanted to update you a bit - as most of you know we own our own small business (dh repairs and sells industrial sewing machines) in addition to our farm.  As a side to the repair business we also have a few small sewing jobs that pair nicely which normally our son handles.  Recently we took on a new job which started out "small" but has blossomed into something MUCH larger....I almost feel like the guy from Little Shop of Horrors trying to feed Audrey II but I'm getting in deep - LOL!!  

Anyway, it's been an adjustment - the first couple weeks they sent us new/different/change orders every day....I was so behind I couldn't even move when I got home at night (bad back).  I'm still trying to get things ironed out and if they don't decide to change anything else I might just get caught up in a week or so (this has been going on for a month an a half now).  So if you visit the blog (instead of e-mail) you'll have noticed that my posts are showing up later in the evenings - a byproduct of this new job.  When I get caught up things should get better and I can post again more closely to mornings or early afternoon.  If I miss a day please know it's not by choice most likely it will be due to another change or last minute order.  Right now art is the only thing keeping me sane - and some days that's debate-able - LOL!!

Today I have a fun fairy tag to share with you....

The base is a super large tag layered with pattern paper, gesso over stencil die-cut paper, a few stamps, flowers and the lovely fairy stamp from Sin City Stamps.  She was colored with a combination of colored pencils and markers... I don't know why I chose green for her skin tone but it just felt right.  The butterfly and "dreams" stamps are from Altered Pages.

Below is a closer image of the fairy...I love how her wings turned out - a bit of blue and purple Spectrum Noir markers blended together and some Stickles Glitter Glue over top.

I hope you all have a wonderful inky filled weekend!  

Be sure to check out the poll question in the right hand column.  

ATC & Charm Swap - Coming up soon!!

Hi you creative crafty swappers out there!

Just a reminder - the ATC & Charm swap is due in a little over a weeks time if you can believe it!  I re-sent the swap details and my address tonite.  If this is a duplicate, please excuse the second e-mail but I've had several people ask for my mailing address.  I am assuming that means the mass (bcc.) e-mail I sent to everyone didn't make it or was sent to your spam folder or is still floating around in the ether.   Please let me know if you didn't get the second one and you need it again.  

I have started receiving packages already!!  Sandy from Austrailias goodies are here :)  as are Loretta's from Texas!  It's always so exciting when they start showing up.

If you have any questions or feel you can't make the deadline, plmk.  I'm always happy to help when I can!  Thanks again and if you've been thinking about joining but weren't sure - there is still time.  You have until 8-29 to get them made and sent.  It's always a good time with great art in return.

Dead men tell no tales.....

Today I have a fun Halloween piece over on Altered Pages.  It was made using a Sin City Stamps chipboard frame and stamps as well as some fun vintage Halloween images from Altered Pages.

Be sure to check it out...

Dead Men tell NO tales!

for all of the details and additional photos.

Sea Horse Love....

Today I have a fun assortment of seahorse cards to share with you...  Just For Fun recently added several sea/ocean related stamps to their StampTangle line of images and I fell in love with the seahorse.  They are such odd yet beautiful creatures - I find them so very fascinating.

So here you go....  The StampTangle Seahorse comes in 3 different sizes - Small, Medium & Large so there is a perfect fit for all your needs.  Since the male seahorses take care of the young I thought they would make a perfect pair for a Father's Day card...  The "ocean" background for this card (and the last card) was made using alcohol inks.  I love the effects you can achieve using various colors and techniques.  

Additional stamps used: StampTangle Sea Plants (lg); StampTangle Spiral Shell ; StampTangle Starfish (lg); StampTangle Starfish (sm); StampTangle Lady Slipper Shell; StampTangle Sea Kelp (lg); Happy Father's Day Sentiment

The next seahorse card is my favorite...I don't know what it is about blue, ocean & canvas but it's always a great combination.  I guess that's why I love how this card turned out.  I used Danube Blue Luxe ink from Tsukineko to stamp all of the images. (Luxe ink is a mixed media ink great for use on fabrics.) I also edged each piece of canvas with Peanut Brittle Luxe Ink for a bit of that sandy beach feel.  

Additional stamps used: StampTangle Starfish (sm); StampTangle Lady Slipper Shell; StampTangle Spiral Shell ; StampTangle Border 1

Finally I wanted to make a really bright ocean scene because from what I hear and see on television the ocean is full of beautiful colors.  Now I'm sure my ocean is a bit brighter than the real thing but I had lots of fun coloring it up!  

Additional Stamps used: StampTangle Sea Kelp (lg); StampTangle Sea Plants (lg); StampTangle Sea Coral; Let's Talk sentiment

What's your favorite sea creature?

Craft Hoarders Anonymous Blog Hop - BUTTONS!

Altered Pages Design Team 

has joined the

Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge Blog 

Design Team for Challenge #14 

Button It in a UP Blog Hop!

 

Crafters of every stripe are button hoarders! Buttons are pretty, inexpensive, and extremely versatile. If you are a card maker, quilter, layout artist, or anything in between, you probably have a button hoard! Buttons come in many sizes, styles, shapes, and colors, plus they are easy to store...usually in cute containers! Pull out those bins of buttons and use some of them for your challenge project!  You can participate in the Craft Hoarders Challenge and win a prize from this month's sponsors!

I don't know about you but you all know how much I love buttons and do I ever have a stash of buttons....  Yes, that is a breadbox FULL of buttons... and I have some overflow in a cardboard box now too!   Now I have to say I didn't buy them all.  Some are from my grandma, some from my Mom and well, yes, I did buy the rest ;)

And here is my take on the button challenge....

I thought it would be fun to switch things up a bit and incorporate the buttons as various parts of the collage - I used white buttons for the cloud and eggs in the basket and shades of brown for the tree branch that the fabric tissue paper nest is resting on!

I love the dimension that the buttons bring to the show....

Altered Pages Supplies: Burlap, Vintage Bird Cards Collage Sheet, Brown Lace, Vintage Ephemera, "F" Stencil, Cherish Bingo Card, Petaloo Flowers, Oil Pastels, Leaky Shed Chipboard Crown, Delicata Gold Ink

Now for a bit of added fun...

would you like to win this collage?  

Simply leave a comment telling us all if you're a button hoarder too!    

You have until 8-25-14 to comment.

Good Luck 

and

join in the challenge fun if you're a button hoarder too!

For more button-tastic projects
be sure to visit all of the Altered Pages Design Team Hoppers...

Robin Horasanian 

Danie  May

Roni Johnson

You are here! :)

Tonya Trantham

Trisha Too

Stephanie Siatta

Barbara Rankin

Debi Tullier

Lyneen Jesse

And to find the links to the inspiring button projects from the 

Craft Hoarders Anonymous Design Team 

please visit 

Craft Hoarders blog!

NOTE: Leaving comments during the AlteredPages and Craft Hoarders blog hop allow you to be entered into a random drawing for an AlteredPages Blog Gift - a Set of Japanese Oil Pastels and a huge Ephemera package!!!!