Tweet Spring!

Welcome to May everyone!! 

Our theme this month at Gecko Galz is Tweet Spring!

I had such fun with this challenge...

I started off by upcycling a $ 0.25 plate into this lovely piece of wall art!

I was so thrilled to finally be able to use this vintage bird food tin (i've had it a couple years). I knew it would make a fun piece of art at some point.  I added scraps of thread that I cut off a tangled mess of bobbins in my stash. Makes for a fun "nest". 

I used one of the digital stamps from the Spring Blush set to make this watercolored book mark.

A fun Memory Dex card... with lots of glitter :)

Another image from the Spring Blush digital stamp set...this time turned into a card.

And finally a few Tweet Spring ATC cards which have been framed with some rust paper that I made myself.

Hope you are inspired to play along!

Be sure to check out all of the amazing designs this month on the

Gecko Galz Blog

for our Tweet Spring celebration!

Nutcracker Dreamland with Gecko Galz

 Hello Friends

The theme this month at Gecko Galz is Nutcracker Dreamland but I went a step further and included woodland Santas, winter fairies, and even a few ladies on Santa's Naughty List...

If you've visited the blog in past years you will know how much I enjoy making ornaments - well this year is no different.  I created several different tree ornaments and several other home decor pieces out of some rather unusual pieces...check it out...

Woodland Christmas Fairy Ornaments

These ornaments were created by using a sisal christmas tree. I removed the "stand", rolled the tree in glitter and added a bit of fur with these lovely woodland fairy from the Holiday Spirits collage sheet.

Vintage Spatula Santa 

Yes, you read that correctly - there is a vintage spatula under there! I love to repurpose vintage pieces into my creations and for this one it's an old spatula that wasn't being used for it's original purpose anymore but too cool to throw away. I added moss, greenery, a resin pinecone and this beautiful Santa image from the Holiday Spirits collage sheet.

Deer Snowflake Ornaments

For this set of ornaments I added loads of glitter to both the snowflake and deer images to spice up the holiday fun. I used pipe cleaners and red wood beads to create the hangers and added a little shiny poinsettia to each deer. These images were from the Reindeer Christmas Tin Topper set.

Vintage Santa Spoon

I have an upcycled vintage stirring spoon/ladle that was decorated again with moss, greenery and this lovely vintage Santa.

The Naughty List ATC's.

I love the new collage sheet Christmas Beauties which is full of these lovely vintage ladies with a bit of attitude to match. I paired them with the Sugar Plum Fairies ATC sheet and some fun "Naughty List" themed sentiments. 

Finally my creation is this fun bit of home decor to set on a shelf, mantel piece or even as a fun table centerpiece...

N O E L....

I used images from the Nutcracker Dreams collage sheet to create this project.  The images were printed on cardstock then mounted onto cardboard. Each image was trimmed, mounted on a wooden pick which fit into a hole drilled into each block. I added a pretty little hand made crochet doily and added a few silk roses to each. 

I hope you've enjoyed my holiday creations I have for this month.

Be sure to check out the Gecko Galz blog for lots more inspiration and a lovely free image on each post!

Halloween Haunts - Conjurer of Dreams!!

 Hello Friends 

It's my day to share my Halloween Haunt projects using Conjurer of Dreams images.

I have so many fun projects to share with you and the first is my Halloween Coffin Garland for my Halloween tree!

There are several sets of "coffin" shaped images on the Etsy site and I used all of them in this garland.

To make it fun from every side - one side is the COD image and the other is a bit of Halloween paper from my stash. On the reverse is another image or paper.  It's all strung on a specialty fiber in Halloween colors.

My next set of projects is this fun bracelet/necklace set using those same coffin images just shrunk down to size. I interspersed a few charms and beads keeping with the Halloween theme.

Next I have a few Halloween themed ATC's...each one uniquely different set off by a variety of COD sets.

A few cards for my next offerings...the scary doll and skull cards are digital while the little cute little witch doll is paper/glue.  I made some fringe from crepe paper to set her off.

Finally I have a Halloween wreath made using a set of bespoke Halloween Icon images Kim made for me as a challenge winner.  I just love the images and they really set the fun spooky mood of Halloween!

I hope you have enjoyed these fun Halloween offerings I have made for you.

Be sure to check out the Conjurer of Dreams blog for more spooky fun!

Happy Haunting my Friends!!

Gecko Galz - Halloween Haunts!!!

 Oh my goodness...

October Gecko Galz - Halloween Haunts!!!

My favorite time of the year!!

I have some fun stuff to share with you but first...
mark your calendars - later this month we are hosting a fun Tricks and Treats blog hop - 

on to my creations....

I started off with a set of ATC's featuring the King of Halloween - Edgar A Poe and a couple ravens.

Poe - Nevermore JJ kit, Ravens - Gothic Nature

ATC Frames - Alpha Stamps

 

My next creation is a fun bit of Halloween decor. 

Witches Way, Spooky Sentiments

Now for my next piece - I upcycled this old paint scraper!

I have always wanted to do this - I just had to find the right scrapper for the job.
I just love the rust and leftover bits of paint here and there...

Witches Way

My next offering is this fun little shadowbox filled with dancing witches and all sorts of fun Halloween ephemera!

Witches - Witches Way, Ephemera - Altered Halloween, Halloween Scraps
Retro Cafe Art - Small Hutch Shrine Kit

Next I altered a HUGE puzzle piece! This is approx. 9" square. I had so much fun making it. 

Natures Way Image Kit, Rustic Fall Paper , Words in the Dark

My next creation is a set of wall plaques each featuring a unique witch...

Witches Way, Spooky Sentiments

Oh this is another project that has been on my "to do" list for a while...

A spooky altered Halloween purse!
I was able to use not only the purse hardware but lots of fun Halloween charms and several pieces of beaded embellishments and fringe.

Witches Way, Words in the Dark

Finally I have a fun "crystal ball".

This is a wooden layered snow globe that I turned into my witches ball.

AND IT'S LIGHTED!!!!

I wish you could see it in person - it just just so much fun.

Witches Way, Spooky Sentiments
Studio Light Snowglobe 

So there you go....a bit of Halloween fun from me to you!

Hope you have a spooktacular month!!

Be sure to check back later for the blog hop...I have some really special makes in store!

Gecko Galz - Sheherazade

Welcome friends!

This month's theme at Gecko Galz is Sheherazade...

What is Sheherazade...better yet, who is she - Sheherazade is a legendary Persian queen and the central storyteller in "One Thousand and One Nights" (also known as "Arabian Nights"). The story revolves around the Sultan Shahryar, who, after discovering his first wife's infidelity, decides to marry a new woman each night and have her executed the following morning. To break this cycle and save herself, Sheherazade volunteers to marry the Sultan. She then begins telling him captivating stories each night, leaving each one on a cliffhanger, so the Sultan delays her execution to hear the end of the story. This continues for 1,001 nights, and by the end, the Sultan has fallen in love with Sheherazade and spares her life. 

Well, now that you know a little bit about her let's take a look at what I have created...

I started off with a couple regal looking ATC's that have a middle eastern flair to them. The ATC's were both embossed with gold embossing power (one with fine and the other regular ep) and then decorated with lovely gemstones. Each of the ladies was added to the ATC with foam tape to pop her off and give the ATC a bit of added depth.

Gecko Galz Collage Sheets - One Thousand and One Nights ATC, Sheherazade 

My next creation is this lovely three panel screen. 

Gecko Galz Collage Sheets - Sheherazade, Taj Mahal Paper Pack (retired)

For my next project I made this triptych - I went with a pretty purple tapestry and added gemstones and pearl dots to add a touch of elegance. She is pop-dotted to give a bit more dimension to the scene.

Gecko Galz Collage Sheets - Sheherazade, Namaste Paper Pack

I had an idea to make a magic lantern and this is how it came out! It started life as a white metal glass paneled lantern. I knew I wanted a right gold, bejeweled lantern so I painted it with metallic paint and applied the lovely blue gems.  I printed my images on plain copy paper and turned the images into "vellum" with a bit of baby oil. Next each image was fitted to the inside of the glass panels. A strand of fairy lights and you have a magic lantern!!

Gecko Galz - Collage Sheets - Sheherazade

Finally I have come to my favorite project for this months theme....This canvas plaque is 8x8 black with gold painted trim. I was lucky enough to find these two bits of vintage trim that were leftover bits from ??? They both ended up being exactly the right size like it was meant to be. (It pays to be a crafty pack rat!!!) I finished it off with a bit of gold cord for the hanger and a few black and gold tassels for a bit of extra movement and shine. I absolutely love how this plaque turned out and I hope you do too!

Gecko Galz Collage Sheets - Sheherazade, One Thousand and One Nights ATC

Mermaid Christmas & Pool Party ATC's

 Hello Friends...

Final projects from the  July challenges at Gecko Galz..

First up is my pool party ATC's...

I used some fun acetate with blue glittery waves as the foundation! I wish you could see the beautiful sparkle they have.

AND...

you all know how much I love mermaids well this month's Christmas challenge image is a mermaid decorating her christmas tree!!  This is what I did with it....

I took it and made a 3D canvas hanging from it.  I printed it out 3x - one for the background, the 2nd for the tree and the third layer is the mermaid.  I added loads of real shells to the tree and beach and she is hanging a real star fish on the top.

I also used a bit of glitter glue to add sparkle to the tree, Dresden trim around the edges and a bit of pretty fancy to the bottom. You can see how I hung it in the photo below.

June Challenge Gecko Galz

 Hello friends...I hope you have had a lovely week so far.

Today I wanted to share what I have created for this month's image challenges over at Gecko Galz blog. As I have mentioned in the past each month Gecko Galz hosts several challenges on their blog where they give you a collage image and you create something with it.

Yesterday I shared my Fantasy creation and here are the remainder...

Card Challenge - Isn't she lovely...

Christmas Challenge - this is such a jolly Santa - I wanted to do something special for him. The card background die was in the sticker deal I got a few weeks ago. It was time consuming to color it but oh so worth it.

ATC Challenge - Oh My...you know how I love cows - and highlanders no less!! I had such fun making these. Lots of layers - papers, inks, embossing, metallic flakes, so much fun!!

Steampunk Challenge - OMG I loved this image. A Steampunk Owl plaque...  He didn't have a tail in the original image BUT I had printed off 2 - one for the body and a second so I could give him dimension by cutting and adding his face over the first image with foam tape. I had the rest of the body left over from the second print so I die-cut feathers to create a tail!!  I used the cool looking stick to cover the seam.

Gothic Challenge....ALWAYS a favorite of mine!! I trimmed away the background for this image and used tons of fun stickers to create an entire story around him.  This is a journal page in my Goth/Halloween junk journal.

Finally Gecko Galz also hosts a tag challenge on their business page on Facebook. This is June's image.... He's amazing looking don't you think?  Found the perfect quote for him.

Hope you all have an amazing weekend...

take care and stay inky :)

Challenge Time at Gecko Galz

 Each month the Gecko Galz blog hosts several challenges - they give a specific image for each challenge and you are asked to create something using this image. I LOVE these challenges and have been playing for years. It is always so much fun to see what the new images are each month and try to figure out something new and different to do with them.  These are my creations for this month's images...

First up is this darling little girl & her pet dragon. This is for the Steampunk Challenge. I liked the image so much I decided to turn it into some ornaments. I have a fun metal Christmas tree that I'm going to decorate with a steampunk theme this year so I am going to be making my ornaments through the year. I think these are a pretty good start!

Next up is the ATC challenge. The collage sheet is called Steampunk Couture - LOVE this!! In addition to the background and ladies I added a few "digi stamps" from the Curiosity Shop and Industrial stamp sets plus a fwe gears and stickers from my stash. 

This image was so cool...an underwater nymph for the Gecko Galz business page Tag Challenge. I thought it would be fun to turn her into a tag shaker. 

Oh my, another image to love. This is for the Gothic challenge - isn't she cool looking...I haven't added a sentiment yet because she would be great for so many things. Anyway, I added her to one of the background papers from the Life's a Circus Craft Kit. I also added some sparklie garland and gemstone brads.

Next up is the Christmas challenge and this sweet pair of children. I had this fun kraft christmas print paper in my stash that has a great vintage vibe. Added some ribbon and gemstones to finish it off.

I am so excited about these next 2 cards. I LOVED the images and really wanted to do them justice. I hope you like what you see...

First up is this lovely lady in purple. I normally don't use purple but I wanted to go all out so I used foiled paper from Rinea (sorry they are no longer in business). I used Anna Griffin dies to make the amazing layers of frames. I finished it off with a bit of lace and paper flowers.

My final blog challenge card is made using the castle for the Fantasy Challenge. I again used Rinea foiled papers, Anna Griffin dies and an assortment of leaves and gemstones.  I also added the Queen down in the corner - she is from the Autumn Queens collage sheet and she matches perfectly don't you think? I gave her a little medallion die-cut tucked in behind her for an extra bit of pop.

Well there you go...

Hope you are inspired to give some of these images a go!

Gecko Galz Blog Challenges