Gothic Arch Challenge -- Correspondence

I have the privilege this week of being Guest Hostess over at the Gothic Arch Challenge.  I chose the theme of "correspondence."  I've been wanting to ink up this angelic scribe stamp I acquired recently.  I think he's so sweet.

Hope you have time to join in this week's arch challenge!
You can find it here:  http://gothicarches.blogspot.com.

Just Playing Around

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.....with an art doll stamp from Lost Coast Designs. Thought I'd make some Valentine's Day decorations that were a little different.

Of course, they spell L-O-V-E.   And, of course, I took a picture of them together spelling out the word love.  But when I went to upload it I saw I had laid them out spelling L-0-E-V.    So you'll just have to imagine how cut they look all lined up next to each other.

Sympathy Card

I was in need of a sympathy card and an image for it.   After reading Joan's post, I removed this very same StampinUp set from my "die" pile and used it here. 

The shading around the flowered rectangle came about because it appears that silver Krylon pen (you know how I love my Krylon pens) can still smudge on certain papers even when left to dry overnight.  So a quick fix was to chalk all around it with purple pearlescent chalks.

I'm hoping this close-up gives a better look at the sparkle in the stamped image and background paper which is what really makes the card.

I guess this stamp set has a reprieve from the "die" pile!

Tag Tuesday Challenge #36 -- Time

As promised, today's tag challenge is intended to be a little easier than last week's. 
The theme is "time."   You may interpret
the theme is any way you like and use any medium you like.  In other words, it's very open.  Leave a link in my comment section so we can all come and see what you've created.


I chose to use a grandfather clock stamp Sarah sent me which I'm pretty sure is from Artful Illusions.   I created the background with text stamps from Oxford Impressions, floral border from StampinUp, and a sentiment from The Paper Company.

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Although the weekly sampler is just that -- a sample of some of the tags submitted -- for the art doll challenge it was my intent to include everyone's tag in the sampler.

I neglected to add these two to the sampler, so I will add a link here.

You can see Nancy's tag here.

And Suzanne also submitted a tag which you can see here.

Sorry for the oversight ladies.  If I left anyone else out, let me know please!

Art Doll Tag Challenge

The Art Doll Sampler is up in my sidebar.  Congrats to the ladies who gave this challenge a go.  I know for many of you it was a first attempt, which makes it very cool that you participated.  Lots of very fun and different art dolls showed up. 

One in particular was really fun -- check out the three art dolls Sarah created using our pictures from the cruise.  Isn't that a hoot?

I know these art dolls were not for everyone -- so I promise tomorrow's challenge will be a lot easier!

Gothic Arches -- Weddings

The Gothic Arch challenge this week gave me a chance to use a new arch stamp I bought at convention.  It's from Stamp Camp.   I stamped it on a background painted with gold Mica paints.   I then cut it out to use as my background for this wedding card.   I also added a vintage image I cut out from my stash of  '50s wedding cards.  Finally, I attached some gold leaf flowers from Making Memories and a rub-on sentiment.

Valentine's Day Mini Album

Thought I'd share today a little mini chipboard album I made.   It has photo spots, pull out tags.  Papers are by K&Co.

(I love making these little albums.)

Some Yummy New Paper

I have to share a couple things I found recently that I just fell in love with.   One is this paper pack from  Die Cuts with a View.    I don't know how long it's been out, but I just recently discovered it at Joann's.  It came in a 12x12 pack and the 4.5 x 6.5 which is what I got.  Perfect for cards.  It is really the most beautiful paper I have seen in a while.    All of the cards below were made with it.

All I added to this card above was the stamped butterfly with the text and the happy birthday.   Otherwise that is how the sheet of paper comes from the pack.   It's probably hard to see the glitter on this sheet and some of the cards, but that is what makes this paper really cool.  Lots of glitter and shine to it.

The butterfly stamp was another thing I wanted to share.

The two sets of clear stamps below were from the $1 stamps section at Michael's and are some of the nicest $1 stamps I've seen so far. 

On my last card I duplicated one of the sheets in the paper pack and created my own background.  So I stamped a butterfly stamp from PSX repeatedly on my background to create to own paper.

All of the images I've used here are from Digital Collage Sheets.

Tag Challenge #35 -- Tag Doll

I so enjoyed seeing all the birthday tags this week.   Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes you sent along with them.  It made my birthday extra-special.   There's a sampler on my side bar of some of the gorgeous tags that were created this past week.

I also promised a celebration RAK.   The goody bag this week goes to:

Suzanne (Stampersuzz).  

Suzanne, e-mail me your address so I can send this off to you.

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This week's challenge is a bit different.  The challenge is to make a doll from a tag.  My doll is an artsy one, but your doll can be anything you'd like it to be -- cutsie, romantic, whimsical.  You can include arms and legs or not.  Just have fun with this challenge!

For my tag I created my arms from a birthday candle stamp, using two for each arm.   They did not  make good legs so I went leg-less.  I cut my hat in a triangle shape froma piece of paper I had previously stamped and then drew hearts down the middle.   The glasses are created from Tim Holtz' film strip ribbon (a little trick we learned on the cruise.)

For the doll herself I stamped some ticket stamps from Invoke Arts, masked them and then stamped a background with some Tim Holtz stamps.

I had so much fun creating this doll.  I hope you'll give it a shot this week.   I may even make another one!

Gothic Arch Challenge

I made this skinny arch for the challenge this week at Gothic Arches.   The theme was "shabby chic," and as part of the description was "romantic," you know I'd be in!

All kinds of new stuff were used for this skinny arch:

New vintage background stamp from StampinUp.  It's a border stamp I "unrolled."

New flowered background stamp I bought from Lost Coast Designs at the convention last weekend.

New lace strip I found at the antique mall yesterday.  A nice little bag of lace borders.

New Tim Holtz snaps I grabbed at the Convention because I heard he wasn't going to be selling

these anymore.

New image from Digital Collage Sheets (a few of these sheets were a birthday present to myself:)

Art Creations Friday

A bookmark I made using the image from this week's challenge at Art Creations Friday. 

More Valentines

I loved the St. Nicholas set of stamps from Oxford Impressions that came out this year and thought maybe I'd see if I couldn't use some of them as Valentine's before I put them away with the Christmas crafting stuff.

I was "accused" (lol) of having a romantic style this weekend with the girls in Texas.   I guess  maybe I do:)

Happy Birthday Challenge #34 -- Tag Tuesday

I have lots to share about my trip to Texas, but I don't want to interrupt the Tag Tuesday challenge.  So if you want to see some of what we were up to this weekend (as well as a special stripes-and-polka-dots tag), check out Sarah's blog. 

On to the challenge for this week -- which is "Happy Birthday!"

You can always use a birthday tag, so create your celebration tags and then post a link here so others can come and see what you've created.

And don't forget to check out the sampler from last week on my sidebar.   Look for the stripes and polks dots as the samples fly by!

FYI:  The inspiration for this week's tag, in case you are wondering, comes from the fact that this blogger is celebrating her 52nd birthday today! 
There will be a little goodie bag this week, too!    Every party has goodie bags:)

Off to Texas

I'm leaving early this morning for Texas as I mentioned earlier in the week.   We had quite a bit of snow the past two days in Chicago, so I'm hoping my flight gets out.   We are used to this kind of stuff in the winter, so it should.

You can continue to post your tags for this week's Tag Tuesday Challenge and I will check them all out when I get home on Monday.

Sarah, Pam and I are going to the Heirloom Stamp Convention in Grapevine, Texas.   We'll also be doing a little bit of catching up since we hung out in October.  Should be fun.

Valentine's Day Cards

I couldn't have been happier than I was the other night when I pulled out a bunch of my Valentine's Day images and ephemera and started creating these collaged cards.  To me it's like putting a puzzle together, trying to see how it fits the best, what should go where.

And even if it was 3:00 in the morning because I could not sleep, I still enjoyed making them.

Interesting observation:  I made my son a collaged picture frame for Christmas.  He really liked it.   I overheard him showing it to one of his guy friends and got a chuckle out of the friends' assessment of collage.  "Oh, nice.  Look how they put all that stuff on top of each other." 

Which is the essence of collage I guess.

Tag Tuesday Challenge #33 -- Polka Dots & Stripes

The theme for this week's challenge is "Polka Dots and Stripes" which means to use them together on a tag, not pick one or the other.   Mine is a simple design on my Valentine's Day tag, but I know you taggers will come up with some amazing takes on this challenge.  And I'm looking forward to seeing your creations.

Note:   If you post your tag after Friday, that's fine, but I may not be able to comment as I'll be visiting with Sarah and Pam for the weekend.

Don't forget to check out the sampler from last week's New Year's challenge on my sidebar as well.

Sympathy Card

A sympathy card I made yesterday for a friend.   Since it was late I could only scan it so you can't tell that it opens at the curved edge and that the front of the card runs a little shorter than the back page.