Gecko Galz Surreal Wonderland

 Hello Friends!

This month's theme at Gecko Galz is 

Surreal Wonderland...

and here is what I came up with!

Hope you check out all of the fun creations from the team this month!

Gecko Galz

Gecko Galz - Springtime in Paris!

 I am so excited to share my creations for this month theme at Gecko Galz -

Springtime in Paris!

So as you may or may not know my paternal grandma was French so this theme is very special for me. I hope you enjoy my creations and are inspired to create as well.

Paris Skinny Card

Oh La La Tag

Paris in Springtime Canvas

Spring Beauty Composition Book

Springtime Card

And finally my favorite project...

an Altered Vintage Compact!

Be sure to check the Gecko Galz blog all month long for a lovely array of Springtime in Paris creations!

Gecko Galz - Fauna & Flora

 Hello Friends!

Today I'm sharing my creations for this month's theme at Gecko Galz - Fauna & Flora 

To start off with I made this fun flora & fauna filled dimensional tag...

Next I used Natures Notebook JJ kit to create this fun tag book....

My next creation is this vintage frame card...

And finally I made a "busted" or "exploding" canvas wall art piece...

ahhhh, don't you just love fall and it's glorious colors!!

Hope you stop by and check out all of the amazing Fauna & Flora creations from the team this month.

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.

Star Maidens & Christmas in July!

 Hello my ink stained friends! Today I am fortunate to share my makes for this month's theme at Gecko Galz.... Star Maidens!!

I had such fun with this theme - so many ideas came to mind, I had a hard time narrowing it down.

So to kick things off I created this fun round wall art piece. I painted the background using a variety of metallic paints then flicked on a bit of white paint to help create my night sky. The main image is from the Star Maiden collage sheet set which I printed and fussy cut to fit my very large 13" sky. 

My next project is this lovely Star Maiden door hanger. A bit of embossing to make her pop.

My next Star Maiden is this canvas piece. She is just so lovely I really wanted to make a colorful background to frame her. Added a few air dry clay embellishments to enforce the "star" aspect.

Up-cycled Gift Boxes...Originally these boxes were filled with sheets of washi stickers...well, you know how it goes - the boxes were just too nice to throw away so I decided to turn them into some pretty Starry Maiden gift boxes. 

Finally I have a pair of cards I made using various bits and bobs from my stash.  The top card is very me...blue, sparkles, shimmer but I was really stretching myself with the bottom card.  I very rarely work with oranges and yellows (well aside from Halloween) so this was out of my galactic comfort zone....hope you like it.

I hope you have enjoyed my projects for July but don't go yet...

This month Gecko Galz is celebrating Christmas in July!!

We are giving away an full collage sheet on every Design Team post this month instead of the usual single collage image. I am so excited for you to head over to the Gecko Galz blog and snag today's Christmas present...

The Girl Next Door!

I simply adore this collage sheet because you know how much I love retro, sassy ladies.  Here are a few projects I made with this sheet...

Be sure to pop on over to the blog to collect this and every free Christmas in July collage sheet this month!! Happy Crafting my friends...stay inky!!

Stained Glass Fantasy - Mixed Media Canvas

 Each month Gecko Galz hosts several image challenges on their blog.

Well, I've been playing with the Fantasy challenge image and oh my...have I had some fun! This is what I created....

Oh my gosh, told you I had fun... this is layers and layers of various mediums.

So to start off with she had such a lovely stained glass look to her which reminded me I had a Stained Glass 3D Liquid Lead from DecoArt. 

I went over her wings, dress and halo with the faux leading and let it dry.

I then painted inside each little cell with Twinkling H2O paints. If you've never seen them before they are a lovely mica paint cake that you just add water and paint. It's wonderful stuff. Adds such a lovely shimmer.

The next step might sound crazy but it really amplified the colors and texture. I used "Vintage" Creative Medium  - it's a lovely sepia toned medium that dries translucent yielding a lovely vintage hue. I used it on the dress by painting it on adding thicker and thinner layers to give it depth and "movement".

I used a clear glossy dimensional medium for the wings and halo to give them a glass like look. 

I wish you could see it in person as the texture created by these various mediums is amazing.

Finally I added some glitter glue to her collar, added some diamonds around her halo and I used mulberry flowers for her ruffled collar!! I folded the flowers in half and glued them on - it worked perfectly - it was exactly the look I wanted!

I added this image to a black canvas with a bit of gold leafing around the edges.

I tell you I love it when you start off just messing around and the project turns out even better than you had hoped for. It makes it that much more fun.

Have a great day friends!!

Guts Glitz and Lipstick - February Gecko Galz

 Hello Friends!

This month's theme at Gecko Galz is Guts, Glitz and Lipstick!

Yeehaw Cowgirls!!

Here are my creations to inspire...

My first creation is this fun canvas plaque - C is for Cowgirls. 

Lots of fun western themed bits and bobs on this 8x12 canvas. 

My next project is a little box I made to house....

Cowgirl Wisdom ATC Cards!!

My final project are these fun Cowgirl wall art pieces with some fun bandana skirts! Each one is a little bit sassy in a Cowgirl sort of way.

Hope you've enjoyed my projects and are inspired to play along!

If you'd like to join in on the challenge you can find it and so much more on the Gecko Galz Blog!

Guts Glitz & Lipstick - February 2025

More Gecko Galz Challenges for August

 As I mentioned in my last post I have been playing along with the challenges at Gecko Galz blog for a while now. Each month they have a theme which I shared in my previous post but they also have several other challenges where GG provides a specific image and you create a project using that image. 

Here is what I made for these challenges....

The image for the card challenge...I just LOVE the blue - she's beautiful don't you think?

A very pretty image for the Christmas challenge - I used a few bits from my stash including the lovely Dresden trim. It's been in my collection for such a long time - it's great to put it to use.

The dragon is the Fantasy challenge image. It's so funny because I had JUST seen this funny quote on FB recently and knew it would be the perfect addition. The witch is from "The Witches" collage set. 

The 3 little ghosts on a swing is the Gothic challenge image. You all know how much I LOVE Halloween. Well I couldn't pass up this chance to make a decoration for my favorite holiday. I made this altered 3D decoupage canvas - it's got 4 different layers which doesn't show up real well but.....

They do show up better in the dark when you turn on the tiny fairy lights I have hidden inside!!!

I am so excited about this piece - it is so much fun, I can't wait to display it this Halloween.

It's hard to get "dark" pics of it but I hope you can get the spooky "effect" I was going for.

Finally my take on the Steampunk challenge image. She was so very pretty and I choose to emphasize the blue in the image with the addition of blue inks and sequins to make her pop.

Hope you have enjoyed my take on these fun collage challenges.