Miss You Inchies

I have another inchies card for you...this one a bit different.  Many times you see inchies being used as individual mini pieces of art.  I decided to make them mini pieces of a larger piece of art for this card....

Altenew Stamps – Vintage Roses

Avery Elle – Sentiment stamps

Initially I temporarily affixed the tiles down to my craft mat, I was then able to stamp and color the tiles as one!  

For a complete supply list and step by step details please see - Hello Friend Blue Rose Inchies. 

Have a wonderful weekend friends!!

Inchie & More Seashell Card

Recently I was lucky enough to be able to play with some products from Art Squares from Inchie Arts.  If you haven't tried them you're missing out.  Art Squares are a lovely surface for creating as it stands up to all sorts of media - from pencil, charcoal, watercolor, acrylics, rubber stamping and embossing and so much more.  And they aren't just about inchies either - they have a whole range of sizes from 1" squares, up to 4" squares and ATC's to boot.

Here is the card I created using both inchies and a 3" Art Square...

Isn't she just darling?  It's actually a stamp I forgot I had until I was sorting through some the other day and happened to find her.  She's from Stamps Happen, Inc.   She was stamped and embossed on the 3" Art Square then I watercolored her using a variety of Memento Inks.  The sea shell stamps are all from Just For Fun Rubber Stamps and were stamped with Memento Dye Ink then watercolored in the same fashion as the little girl.  The backgrounds (both the brown & blue) were created my monoprinting using a combination of Memento Dye Inks and Shimmer Spritz!  LOVE that shimmer.

A complete list of materials and step by step instructions can be found here - Seashells by the Seashore.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Blue Post Card/Mail Art

Recently I joined in a mail art - postcard swap over at Unruly PaperArts.  I sent it off today and thought I'd share my creation with you.  The only specification was to use your favorite color so of course I used blue :) I also added some green in there because it's my 2nd favorite color.   Beyond color there was no theme we had to use so I decided to go with what I love...Steampunk.  

I started off with a blue gelli print - one of my favorites.  I then stamped, masked and stamped some more until the entire postcard was covered.  I used a Black Sakura Glaze Pen which makes it look embossed!  I love that pen ~ you can add faux embossed highlights to just the parts of the image you want highlight...it's great (more on that another day).  I also added white highlights using a Sakura Gelly Roll pen ~ another of my favorites!   The green is Cactus Green StazOn Midi and then I added a bit more color using Spectrum Noir markers and topped it all off with Stickles Glitter Glue!

I'm tickled with how it turned out and I hope my partner will like it as well. As of about 1.5 hours ago it's winging it's way to the UK...  I've never sent a postcard internationally so I don't know how long it will take but hopefully it will arrive safe and sound!

Trending Tuesday ~ Moo Cards

This month Altered Pages has teamed up with Unruly PaperArts for a month filled with artsy fun.  Each month UPA focuses on a particular theme - this month being Mail Art & Moos.  They also offer up creative prompts in the way of images and words.  This months prompt was Teacups & Tiaras and the image below...

So I set about making my moo cards.  What are Moos?  Well they are tiny bits of art...I like to think of the as ATC's little brother.  Measuring only 28mm x 70mm (approx. 1 1/8" x 2 3/4") they are like quick little power shots of art.  They don't take long at all to create and other than the size there really are no rules.  You can create to your hearts content without anything to hold you back!

I ran with the creative prompt and created this set of Moo's I called....

It's Tea O'Clock!  

I used several collage sheets from Altered Pages to create this little tea time works: 701 Victorian Tea; 2096 Royalty in Action; 3032 Tea Party and 3033 More Moos (moo card backgrounds). 

Be sure to visit the Altered Pages Artsociates blog to check out the other fun Moo cards created by the AP DT this month.

Have you ever created a Moo card?

Maybe it's time you did.

Mail Art Challenge!

Have you ever made a postcard?  ever altered an envelope? 

If you have then it's time to do it again...if not then it's time to start!

Deep Red Stamps is hosting their very first challenge - Mail Art!!

I am so excited...mail art has been an obscure cousin in the art world but more recently is has become more and more prevalent which makes me very happy.  It is such a fun and free form of art...no rules, no restrictions, just art for the sake of creating.  I love it.

Well, Deep Red Stamps has picked up on this up and coming trend and wants to challenge you to create a piece of mail art to share with the world.  The contest starts this coming Saturday and runs through Mother's Day here in the States (May 11th).   

You need to stamp a piece of mail art using at least one Deep Red Stamp (or Stampers Best - they are the same) image, post it wherever you share your art and then go back to the DRS Mail Art Challenge blog post and share a link to your creation (note - the linky tool won't show up until this Friday).  You'll then be entered in the drawing for a $30.00 gift certificate to Deep Red Stamps and if there are 50+ entries there will be a bonus gift as well!  Be sure to check out the blog post for all the info and more details on the bonus prize.  

Now, to help inspire you Susan (the owner of DRS) has created a sweet Alice in Wonderland piece of mail art which is featured on the blog post. 

Here is my bit of mail art....  I recently rec'd an auction my son won off of Ebay  in this envelope - I saved it because I was going to harvest the stamps but then never got around to it so it's just been sitting on my desk.  I figured it was the perfect foundation for this challenge....

I had SOOOOOOOO much fun stamping this envelope... I used 16 different stamps!!!  At first I was like...oh this looks good but I have room for one more...then that turned into another and another.  You don't have to use 16 stamps - one will do but have fun with it and enjoy the process!

A couple close ups of my favorite parts....

So there you have it...are you inspired?

Pull out one of your Deep Red Stamps or StampersBest images and give it a whirl...

be sure to share it then link it on the DRS Blog for your chance to win!

Have a wonderfully Spring-y Day friends!

Retro Cafe Art!

I am so excited to be able to share an awesome web-site with you today.

If you haven't guessed already it's called ~

Retro Cafe Art Gallery

by Kristin Hubick

I found Kristin's site by chance one day while I was crusin' around the net looking for collage goodies. Boy did I ever strike gold here! Kristin specializes in collage sheets and all sorts of items for collage, altered arts and more. It's an awesome place to explore so I contacted her and low and behold she's a Hoosier too!!! Well, right then and there I knew I wanted to share her site with everyone :)

I had a lot of fun admiring Kristin's art so I asked her how long she'd been crafting. Kristen's reply was "I've been arting and crafting since I was a little girl. My first memories growing up include rummaging through my mom's craft room, creating art, and selling it on the corner of our block! Once I sold two pine cones covered with glitter to a man in a limo who said he was on his way to a wedding and was going to give them as gifts! Surely my most memorable sale and I was about 6 years old. I can also recall creating "worry doll" earring and having my mom put an ad in the back of a craft magazine. I only sold one pair, but it was thrilling. It was inevitable that I would have my own site as an adult."

I asked her how Retro Cafe Art go it's start - like so many of us she started with one medium but got sucked in to the black hole of the art world. "I began selling my art on EBay in 2004. Initially, I was selling my retro inspired paintings that often featured coffee cups and "café" style. That is how the name "Retro Café Art Gallery" came about. I soon discovered art cards and was drawn into the world of altered art. When I was younger I often created collages and decoupage items using magazine pictures. I was drawn to the variety in altered art, and the ability to use ephemera and items that some people would consider trash, to give them new life. As my business began to grow, I was determined to have my own space on the web. Retro Café Art Gallery http://www.retrocafeart.com/ went live February 2008 and I have big plans for the future!" Pretty darn cool huh?

A large part of Retro Cafe Art are the collage sheets. Images of all shapes, sizes and themes. I asked Kristin where she comes up with her ideas for her collage sheets. She replied, "Basically, I select images that I might like to use in my own art, while abiding by copyright laws. Hunting down the vintage ephemera and photos is part of the fun!" she also added, "I have a small selection of collage sheets that I sell through a license I purchased a few years ago, but most of the collage sheets I design myself."

Some of the themes offered include: Fairies & Children; Butterflies, Moths & Birds (great selection of wings here!!); Cabinet Cards and one of my favorites...HALLOWEEN!! Of course there are many more...I just wanted to give you a taste ;) You'll have to explore the rest for yourself.

These collage sheets are available on a variety of materials - Semi-Gloss Paper; Transparency Film; Fabric Sheets; Sticker Paper and Vellum.

If you like to print collage sheets yourself Kristin also offers her sheets in a digital format. You have the option of purchasing Digital 8 1/2" x 11" Sheets; a new Halloween CD including 8 collage pages or a selection of Individual Digital Images.

If you've got a need for a specific collage sheet you don't see on the site, drop Kristin an e-mail. She takes requests and mentioned that some of her favorite sheets were born from special requests!

Now, Retro Cafe Art isn't limited to collage sheets ~ they have an awesome variety of altered art and ATC goodies as well. Kristin is one of the few companies that offer Coffee Break Design Stencils; Shrines and more. R.C.A. also offers a wide variety of other collage items including Vintage Finds; Original Artworks; Antique German Doll Parts; ATC & Inchie Supplies and....well I could go on but I'll let you find out for yourself what else Retro Cafe Arts has in store for you.

Kristin wanted me to be sure and let you know that she is more than happy to ship orders internationally and always charges actual shipping costs. Not something you find everyday let me tell you!

Be sure to stop by their Design Team Gallery and check out the amazing creations from her Design Team!

So, it's time for you to go explore and see what you can see :)

Be sure to report back here because if you tell me what you love

because....

you may just be the lucky winner of one of THREE digital collage sheets

courtesy of

Kristin and Retro Cafe Art!!

You have until November 25th to let me know what you found!

Have a wonderful Day Friends!!

4 for 1 - Paperbag Studio Kids

You've already seen this stamp once this week...it's the same one I used to make the "Family" Domino ATC so this is going to be a bonus 5 for 1.

To refresh your memory here is the atc....

and here are some new examples....

The Kids

This is the total image with an extra little kick.

You & Me

Cropped to just the kids...

Little Boy Blue

This one is cropped even further to highlight the boy. If you notice the background was also stamped with the text part of the image.

And this last example was really fun to make because it doesn't even hit you when you first look at the stamp but isolated you can really see the beauty of this little fellow!

Glamour Wings

I also wanted to share a photo of the dominoes I packed up this afternoon which is the prize for the Domino Give-A-Way! The lucky winner will get an assortment of several different sizes and styles of dominoes....enough to play for quite a while :)

and

last but not least...

Next week's Ink Stained Sketch...

Pockets & Tags!

Let your imagination run wild!

The pockets can be real, stamped, die-cut, hand-cut, etc...

and don't forget the tag!

I challenge you to make and post a card, atc or other goodie using this sketch!

You can send a photo of it to me that I will post along with my examples or you can post a link to it next week with the other cards!

Hope you all have a very crafty weekend!!!

Fun New QDD Stamps!

I wanted to share a few projects I made with some fun new stamps by Queen's Dresser Drawers....Inchie Documents! These little buggers are just darling and so much fun. I of course made some inchies with them but I also created an ATC in honor of the upcoming Olympics :)

On to the inchies.....Enjoy....

Supplies:

QDD Inchie Stamps - Hannah Grey
Gold Cracker Jack Charms - Hannah Grey
Inks - Ranger
Ink Blending Tool - Ranger
Cardstock - various

Be sure to check back tomorrow as I will feature another great Rubber Stamp Retailer/Designer ~ Alluring Impressions!

They will so generously be giving away a sheet of stamps ~ with a twist....YOU will be deciding which set of stamps the prize will be!!!! The sheet of stamps with the most votes will be given as the prize to one lucky winner :)

So spread the word ~ tell your friends to come and vote for their (or your) favorite set of stamps!!

Remember, you can't win if you don't post (or e-mail)!!!!

Inky Inchies!

I wanted to share my first attempt at Inchies with you today :) I loved the idea of inchies but had been reluctant to take the first steps into the Inchie world for several reasons. I was sure they would be another additction to add to the pile I already have ;) I was also worried about the words people add to them. I know it sounds odd but they all fit so perfectly, I just didn't know if I could do it or not. And they are so freakin' small ~ what can you put in such a tiny canvas?!?!?

Well, the Design Challenge for Purple Faeiry this month was Inchies to celebrate the release of a new inchie stamp design. Perfect opportunity to take the plunge!

I started with the stamp design...Andante Inchie Stamp . A very cool design to begin with and the first thing that came to mind was classical composers and love...so I combined the two! I used black, white and red as my main color choices, a selection of classical composer images and my Pitch Black & Snow Cap Pigment Inks along with the awesome stamp.

We needed to make 2 identical Inchies - one to be displayed as a plain inchie and the other to be used in some sort of project. Here are the inchies I came up with....

and here are the projects I made using them :)

Here I used the inchie stamp for the background of the ATC as well!

I went kind of crazy when I was stamping the backgrounds so I made some extra inchies just because :)

Here is the link to the entire challenge page - June 2008 Challenge - Inchies.

I must say that once I had things shrunk down (images, stamps & embellishments) they were just like making ATC cards so of course I loved them and had loads of fun...and yes, you can add another addition to the books!

Hannah Grey Goodies....

As promised...here are some of the goodies I made for the Hannah Grey Design Team!

Her Love... ATC

Supplies: Italian Decoupage Papers; Queen's Dresser Drawers Skinny Mini's; German Scrap; some great little flowers that aren't on the site yet. I love them! They started out white but take distress inks (mixed with water) very well so I dyed a bunch of them! It's all topped off by Crackle Accents. :)

The Happy Couple ATC

Supplies - Floral Border Couple - Queen's Dresser Drawers; Archival Ink - Jet Black; Adirondack Alcohol Inks; transparency; Jenni Bowlin Journal Card (for the ATC Base); and more of those cool little flowers :)

Love is in the Air ...

HERE is my first attempt at a Moo Card! It was sort of fun to see what I could fit onto such a tiny space :) I love the QDD Skinny Mini's - they are way cool images and are perfect for small works of art like ATC's, Moo's and the like :)

Do you notice something on the Moo that is exactly the same as the ATC above?!?!? I cut the image of the Jenni Bowlin Journal Card above from the packaging and used it as a mini journal card here!! ;) **Roni-isim #137 - Don't ever throw anything away...you just never know when/where you might use it - LOL!!!**

Supplies: Jenni Bowlin Journal Card; QDD Skinny Mini; Distress Inks; German Scrap; more of those great mini flowers.

Oh shoot...dh just called, have to go help him at our building! Well, I will share more later!!

TTFN :)