Retirement gift

I bought a mystery box from Hollar in October and received a plastic 'photo collage' frame:

 See it, in the upper right hand corner.
I didn't know what I was going to do with it. I originally was going to take it to work and leave it on our 'free' table.
One of my supervisors is retiring at the end of December, so I took that photo frame and created something for her:

 I covered the frame with some washi that looks like dictionary pages. I covered the background with some polka dot paper. I started with the horizontal frame in the lower left corner. The teacup paper is actually from my day by day calendar. I put the glass back in and attached the Mary Engelbreit stickers to the outside of the frame.
The next frame I did was the other horizontal one. I got this journaling card in a swap, it originally said 'rad', but every time I saw it, I thought it said Read for some reason, so I fixed it with an 'e' sticker. I wanted to add a miniature book to the outside of the glass, but the ones I have were too big for the space. I finally found the lady reading to the kid on the paper in the lower right corner frame.
I bought this paper of pictures of book spines at a garage sale. I bought two sheets, I had used part of one for my director's birthday card, and picked another part for this frame. I layered the 'library' definition from an actual dictionary on some yellow paper and then affixed it to the outside of the frame.
The last vertical frame was the hardest. I wanted to customize it more to her liking, but I admit, outside of the library, I really don't know much about her. I also wanted to do something with 'retirement' in mind. I found this journaling card in my stash, I love the sentiment on it. I added the ticket to the outside of the frame as well.
Here's a close-up of the sides of the frame:

I got this book washi in a swap, the frames in some spots were thicker than the height of the washi, so I added some rose gold washi. There's this tiny square cut-out in the middle of the frame that I also added the book washi too with a tweezers. I knew I didn't have to do it, but I thought it would be a nice touch.

Chunky House Swap

In one of my Yahoo! Groups, I signed up to do a Chunky House and Charm Swap. It entails decorating a chipboard house and creating 5 charms to go with it. Here is my (almost) finished house:
I chose an underwater theme. The background is covered with pieces of ripped book pages and then painted with a mixture of Pearl Emerald Green and Pearl Blue Lumiere paints. After painting it, it took me so long to actually do the rest of the house. I finally sat down on Sunday and started on it. The bottom is covered with small spiral shells someone sent me. I painted seaweed in (I'm guessing, as I don't have the paint here in front of me) Pearl Purple Lumiere paint. The shell and starfish sticker in the corner came from a sticker sheet I bought at Hobby Lobby. The mermaid is a stamped image that someone from my CollageATCs group sent me for our Mythological Creatures swap, I colored it with chalks and added some "shells" to cover her up. The gold fish is actually a clear plastic fish that I painted the back with gold pain. I then added "under the sea" with green and blue glitter glue.

Since deciding on this theme, I envisioned adding a shell on the back that opened up with the information from the swap printed inside. I first painted the back with white craft pain and then added a thinned out mix of the same blue and green paints as the front. In real life it looks a lot more green than blue. I added some sand (from the pail on the back porch for winter sidewalks) to the bottom. I searched Microsoft Word clip art for shells and found the one I used, all I did was print it out, glue it on some blue cardstock that I folded in half. When it's opened I have the name of the swap, the hostess' name, the name of the piece, the date and my name printed in it. I also added the purple startfish button to the corner and a sparkly dolphin sticker on the top.

To me, the back is way too flat, but I'm not sure what else to add to it.

Other than the flatness of the back (which I'm planning on changing), I love this project. I still have to figure out what to do for my five charms, but I'm sure they'll come out just as cute.

Queen of Hearts follow-up

This is what I finally ended up submitting for my Queen of Hearts swap. I figured out my other cards just didn't quite have enough embellishment, and now that I go back and look at them, they sort of do look like a beginner made them. I think if I put a little more into them, they can look better.
For this card, I already had the background, a texured gold piece of paper, I rubbed my mellow moss and Green Galore Stampin Up classic ink pads over it. I have quite a few old books, so I took pages of one, ripped them and then rubbed the edges with really rust su pad. I stamped the face on a piece of fabric and colored it with chalk. The crown is a foam stamp, that I used in a almost dried up Colorboxpetal point pigment option pad called Alchemy, the color I used is Goldrush. I'm really disappointed this stamp pad dried up, I think the top got loosened sometime, but it's a gorgeous ink pad, I plan to buy another one some day. I added the pink heart and clear circle gems as a little embellishment to the crown. When I laid the head and crown on the book page, they seemed to be hanging in air, so I cut a little piece of red doily heart, flipped it over to the back where it looked pinkish and glued everything down. For the Q, I used a sticker, only I didn't have enough "Q"'s for 6 cards, so I had to change some "O"'s as well with black permanent marker. The heart is a shell charm from Hobby Lobby.
I think these cards came out much nicer, though I still really like the others. I've noticed with some of my artwork, I seem to fall into a rut and don't put near as much into them as I should. People in the new group I joined won't be taking that, so it's a good push to keep going in my art.
I already signed up for more swaps in this group, and have a couple ideas for them.
1. A Christmas Chipboard book with 5 pages. Each person has a different shape (I got a Santa Hat). Once we get them all decorated and back to the hostess, she will string them all together to form a garland that we can hang up.
All I could think about at first when I saw the hat was to decorate it like a normal hat, but now I'm thinking of adding some red foil to the bigger part and adding some kind of vintage Santa photo, then adding some white fur stuff to the top of the hat (I bought some neat stuff at a sale this weekend), embellishing the Santa photo and then covering the whole thing with some gold webbing I bought.
2. A House Chipboard piece and 6 charms to go with it. We will get the charms back on the bottom of the house from 6 different artists, plus a different artist for the house.
I have no idea what I'm doing for this one. I'm hoping people will post pictures and I can get some inspiration from those. The only thought I have is to cover it with book pages.
3. Christmas Charm Swap. Each person will make at least one set of 6 charms that are Christmas themed (but not religious). The hostess will swap out the charms and put them on a charm bracelet.
I have already made some polymer clay snowman charms and they are cute. Only problem is they darkened a bit in the baking, so I need to buy some white paint to paint over them. I think it'd be cool if it were iridescent or pearly. I signed up for 2 sets of 6 charms, but I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with the second set.
I love these charm bracelet swaps. It's so much fun to make the charms and see what everyone else makes. I rarely wear charm bracelets because I get caught on stuff, but I sure am displaying them.
4. Glittered Mucha Swap. We make 4 ATC's with Mucha girls (an artist) and decorate them, making sure there is some glitter on all of them.
I haven't started these either. I haven't even thought of what I'm going to do. But, they sound like fun.
5. Fabric Book. This isn't a swap, every week we get a set of instructions to do a page for the book. This lasts six weeks and in the end we have a little fabric book.
I bought the fabric, but am thinking of waiting for all the instructions to come out, and adding some quilt batting in between the pages so they're a little bulkier and sturdier.
6. Altered Filled Matchbox. You decorate a slide out matchbox and include some 3D items in it.
I haven't officially signed up for this one yet, I want to make sure I can do it first. But I think it would be really fun. I also have to find a matchbox. I don't use matches for anything, my stove is electric, and if I light candles I have one of those flame things where you just push a button.

I am looking forward to do all of these. Unfortunately I never get started on them. I started a new job at the library, so I get up early to go to that, but I have about 4.5 hours between jobs that I certainly could be working on them.

That hurts

For some reason Blogger won't load the insert picture thing, so, remember this post about my Queen of Hearts cards? You have to scroll down to the bottom. I received an email today from the hostess of the swap saying she didn't think my cards were good enough. As much time and effort and thought that I put into those cards, you'd think they'd be good enough.
It never feels good when someone tells you your work isn't good enough. I did this to someone in my group awhile back and now I guess it's karma coming back at me. I still judge people's art, but I generally do it in my own head now. I know most people put lots of time and effort into things they make and I think it's rude when someone says they don't like someone else's work. There are certain people's work I don't think are up to par with mine, but I still want to trade with them and encourage them to do art.

The hostess of this swap said she could send my cards back to me and have me add more to them, fix them herself, or send them back unswapped after the swap was done. I'd like to know what other people in the swap think. She said they seemed like "beginner's" cards, and that my cards showed very little effort in construction. Personally, I think she should swap them out anyway, but I'm bias. I told her she could go ahead and send them back to me and I'd make up another set. But, that leads me doubt myself, what if this other set she doesn't like either. It sounds more like she doesn't like my style. I am mostly a collage artist, meaning I find objects and put them together until they look finished.

Weathering some cards

I'm behind again, I know it. Here are my September ATC's for my CollageATCs Yahoo! group:

In the left one I used the moon and the "fog". It's actually cotton batting. The moon, bat (which you can't really see), ghost, tree and pumpkin are all buttons from a button mix bag I picked up at Hobby Lobby (I love buttons). The other pumpkin is a sequin I had lying around. The grass is from sushi, a friend of mine had some sushi one time, and the green paper wrapped around it was so cool, I asked if I could have it.
In the right one I used the cloud and the start of the rainbow. It's supposed to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and if I could have cut the button in half right, it would have looked like a pot of gold. The rainbow is colored with markers, the "gold" above the button is a sequin, the pot is just paper, and the flowers are al stickers, I had a hard time getting those little flowers to stick, they kept coming off.

The card on the left I used the small white snowflake, the iridescent snowflake and the face. The face was a plaster face one of my group members made and sent to me. The other white snowflake and the rest of the snowman as well as the hat are all buttons from a button bag.
The card on the right I used the sun at the top colored with markers, and the sun punch that is pretty much covered by the yellow gem. The yellow strip is a background I made with reinkers, and the bottom strip is from a magazine.

The card on the left I used the white flower background, which was a punch sent along by one of my members; the green sun, that's a stamp of mine and is affixed on a chipboard tag; and the foam lightening bolt that's being used for a stem. The leaf is a sequin and the grass is more from the sushi.
The card on the right I used the 2 tornado pictures, the one on the left was the ISU gymnastics teams keychain schedule. I saw them and knew they wanted to used in art. The other one is some clip art sent in by one of my group members. The green circle on the top is a sticker that came with the energize word, they are on a piece of black paper.

The card on the left I used the two cloud pictures, one is a stamp and one is a sticker; and the umbrella punch the ladybug is using. The bottom piece is from a magazine and I just layered some leaf stickers and the lady bug sticker on top. The rain is colored with markers.
The card on the right, I used the lightening, which is clip art sent in by a member; and the cloud, which is part of the stamped image the cloud in the previous card came from. The tree is a sticker and the grass is some more from that sushi.

The card on the left I used the star which is a button and the snow which is some kind of clear crystals a member sent me. The tree is a tiny plastic "stained glass" ornament, and the other snow is just paper.
The card on the right I used the yellow stars, the yellow sun and the snowflake. The sky paper was something I did awhile ago, it's sorta marbled using ink. The mermaid is a poufy sticker, the snowflake in her hand is a brad. The sun is glued onto two buttons.

I decided to make some Holiday cards and try to sell them on Etsy. They came out really well. I plan to scan them tomorrow and then add them here for people to see. But I will be adding one a day on Etsy until I have them all listed. I'm thinking about $7.00 per card. They're regular sized cards with layered paper and some embellishments. I'd love feedback on price. I'll get them posted tomorrow, so you guys can use your expertise in what you think I should price them as.

I also made some birthday cards for my cousin and grandma. I'm trying to make more cards to get in the mood of making more stuff for etsy as well as use up some of my supplies. I wanna do more embellishment on boxes too. I already got some stuff for a Christmas present for my friend Loretta where I'm going to be embellishing something with orange/copper colors. I think it will come out nice. I want more useful things as well. I know cards are nice, but once you get them most people just throw them away. People need more useful things. Any ideas on what I can do for useful things?

New Art Group

I joined a new art group on Yahoo. I felt I needed an outlet to making more art than just the one time per month for my CollageATCs group. I already joined 5 swaps, the earliest due on 9/20 and the latest due on 10/15. My plan was to join swaps that weren't due anytime soon as next week I will be starting work UBS for 3 weeks and working about 8 hours there everyday and the 3 hours at my other job every day, so I wouldn't be very energized to do anything in the evenings.
The other day I was in my art closet and decided to start on some anyway. OK, it really started at the event I was working at Hilton on Thursday when I was a little bored and started sketching out ideas for the upcoming swaps on my information sheet. One of the swaps I'm in is called a Ladies Vintage Wallet swap. Basically, we're creating a simple 'wallet' out of paper, decorating it and filling it with a few things that will be swapped out. We have to create, in addition to the wallet, 2 vintage decorated ATC's, 2 vintage decorated luggage tags, 1 vintage decorated calling card and 1 vintage decorated/written letter to ourselves, as if we were living in that time period. I had to scan an ATC I did for a sale on etsy, so thought I'd scan the finished (or so I thought) pieces I had for the swap.
These are the lugguge tags. I took the dimensions given (2" x 3"), cut the tags out, rubbed a Really Rust Stampin' Up ink pad on them, and then added images I thought made them look vintage. Clock: I found the clock image on a collage sheet, cut it out and wrinkled it up, I did the same with the two kids bicycling in the corner. The bead is a paper bead I did when I was younger. Leaves: The top leaf is a ginkgo leaf that was sprayed with ink and then pressed onto a piece of paper, the other is from a piece of patterned scrapbook paper, I then layered the button and brown flower embellishment in the corner. After scanning these, I added a green tinged image of a boy on top of the leaves and added a twine to the clock tag and a green yarn to the leaves tag.

These are the Vintage ATCs for the swap. The one on the left has an image I took out of a dictionary of the occult that I bought at a bookstore in New Orleans when I went there in 2003, I distressed it with the same rust ink pad as I did the background and the two luggage tags. I also wrinkled it up to make it appear older, it is mounted on a green paper and then onto the ATC. There is a piece of gold mesh across the corner with a tannish button and a green button on top. I decorated the wallet with the mesh and green so I was trying to tie those colors in. The card on the left has a napkin for a background. The lady image was stamped with bleach into some green paper, the "INSPIRE" was also stamped this way.

I'm still in the process of finishing the wallet and the calling card. I'm having a hard time figuring out what a letter to myself in the Victorian age would be.

The other swaps I joined are: a charm swap, I've never done charms but it sounded so neat, plus I'm psyched to see what other people did. For this swap, I wrapped some puzzle pieces in tissue paper and covered them with tacky glue, kinda decoupaging them and then stamped an interesting texture stamp into them. I need to paint/color them in something bright as they're stamped with black onto a darker teal and blue tissue papers. I had also planned on doing the Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel on some matboard, but I don't have the supplies, and I'm not sure how to keep the holes in the pieces as I'm making them. I might borrow the supplies from my mom, not like she's using them now anyway. This one's due on 9/20, I will receive as many charms back as I send (8 or 16) on a charm bracelet.

Tag swap: I'm supposed to make 5 tags ATC sized or ATCs with tags on them. I've already finished these, they're distressed with the same ink pad to paper technique as the above cards/tags.

Chain Swap: I have to make a paper chain of 3 people/animals/whatever and decorate as I wish. I found a really cute alien chain pattern online and did that decorating the head and legs. I then made a single one for me decorated the same way.

Queen of Hearts Swap: Basically I take 6 Queen of Hearts cards and alter them to whatever I want. I can also make my own cards. I'm having the hardest time on this one, but it's not due until 10/15, so I have some time.

I'll scan and post lengthier descriptions on the other projects soon.

I joined a new art group on Yahoo! called TheSumOfAllAtcs. I felt I needed an outlet to making more art than just the one time per month for my CollageATCs group. I've already joined 5 swaps.

It was like lightening

The June swap for my CollageATCs Yahoo! Group was Body Parts. I sent out a packet of stamped faces, bone buttons, googly eyes, stamped lips, magazine cutouts, diecut people, stamped dress forms, diecut hands and lips, a plaster face, a vellum dress form clip art, a heart, stamped footprints, and yarn.
On this first photo, starting in the bottom left hand corner, going clockwise, I used: a stamped face, that I cut out to fit the flower. The googly eyes, and the lips. The stamped face in the flower and the bone button. The die cut person.

On this photo, starting in the bottom left hand corner, I used: the stamped face and the handprint sticker. The stamped doll parts and the die cut lips. The plaster face in the flower and the footprints stamp. The man's face in the flower and the die cut hands.

On this photo, left to right, I used: the face on the flower, the face on the flower.

A few ladies in my group make multiple versions of about the same card. Since I don't send out 20 of the same item, they can't make the exact same card, but they are all very similar, I like that approach and tried to do that with the June cards, as you can see they all have the flower head, but that's about as far as I got.

I'm thinking about doing fabric cards sometime in the future. I know they will require a little more thought and planning, but I think people would be very intrigued in them.

July's swap is Glitter/Sparkly/Gemstones. I sent out an ATC sized piece of wallpaper with glittery crowns on it, a piece of silvery glittery flower paper, two sequin trims in silver and pink, six different ribbons: red metallic, blue metallic, pink sparkly, silver tinsel, purple and gold ribbon, and a piece of gold ribbon; gold beads, clear and black metallic beads, safety pins, yellow, light green, dark green, pink, purple, red, blue and clear gemstones, purple stones, mirrors, purple and pink metallic butterflies, red, white and blue sparkly stars in two sizes, brown, orange and green glitter glue painted on paper, a piece of blue sparkly paper, and two pieces of metallicy raffia in blue and orange that I got from my friend Loretta. I can't wait to see what people produce with those items.

Come back in about a month, and I will have my July's cards posted.

More past pieces

Art Heart

This an altered tin, I received the tin filled with chocolates for Valentine's Day one year. The paint has been burned off by holding the tin over a gas stove, until it started peeling off and then wiping it down with a towel*

After removing the paint, I layered Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel on to it, heating and adding more embossing enamel until I achieved an even layer. I allowed it to dry, heated it up again and started adding colored embossing enamel (silver, purple, green glitter, and blue) until I achieved the color combination I wanted. After letting it dry again, I heated it up and stamped the word "Art" in black ink, a pine bough and a heart button into the warm enamel. I colored the imprint of the heart button with a turquoise paint pen. To tie in the turquoise color, I added some turquoise faux jewels around the arches of the heart.

This is one of my favorite altered tins. I don't have a gas stove anymore so I have to find other ways to alter tins by adding paper/fabric/paint to them like the butterfly tin below.

Blue Butterfly Tin

This is an altered tin, I received the tin in the mail with junk mail in it. It measures 5 3/4" wide by 5" tall by 1/2" thick. I painted it with a blue Lumiere Jacquared paint. On the front I attached some blue suede printed with a texture stamp. In the corners I have a round bead on top of a gold jewelry finding on top of some glitter. In the lower left and upper right corners, the bead is clear. In the lower right and upper left, it's blue. In the center is a piece of blue suede with butterfly stamped in gold ink framed with a gold paint pen, layered on a piece of glossy gold paper, layered on another piece of the blue suede. I have also used the gold paint pen to frame the blue suede. The lid has some beige fiber around the lip. On the bottom, it is painted with the blue paint with a piece of blue lace on top of it. Inside the tin, I have a 5" long by 4.5" tall journal. The cover is blue paper stamped with a butterfly stamp, covered with a piece of blue vellum, then laced togeter with a piece of navy blue ribbon. The six pages inside are parchment paper measuring 4 1/2" long by 4" tall. I have also included a tiny metallic blue gel pen.

Blue Lady

This piece I did on a stamping trip, my mother and I took through Stamp Lovers, a store that used to be in Ankeny, IA. We got to travel around to various stamp stores in Iowa and make crafts at them. This piece is a matboard silhouette and a matboard hat. This piece was pressed into a stamp pad and then covered in embossing powder and heated up. The silhouette is covered in clear embossing powder with a blue metallic glitter, the hat is covered with a light metallic blue highlighted with the same blue metallic glitter. The embellishment on the hat is a piece of semi melted ribbon and a blue gemstone.

At the store where I did this, I bought the matboard set that had the silhouettes and hats and created another piece, which I will feature in another post.

Blue Stars
This is an altered CD. I scraped the covering off of it and then paintedit with black Neo Opaque paint. After that dried I stamped some stars in a metallic blue ink and embossed them with a clear embossing powder. I added some black and gold micro beads for texture. On the bottom of the piece is some eyelash fiber dangling down. It has a pin back on it.

Create

I have no idea when I did this piece, but I love it so much. It started out as a 4 2/8" by 4 2/8" matte glazed square tile. I painted it with copper and light gold Lumiere paint and black Neo Opaque paint both by Jacquard. I then stamped the dragonfly image in copper ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I glued the fabric Asian dragon image on the lower right corner, balancing the opposite corner with some fiber tied into a tassel and glued a Singapore coin on top of it. Above the dragon is the word create painted with the same copper Lumiere paint and bordered with the black Neo Opaque paint. In the middle of the tile, on the copper painted piece, I glued four teal green square glass beads. Also, below the dragon in the corner is a silver colored "faith" charm. It doesn't go with the rest of the piece at all, but I used some good glue on it, and it's not coming off.

*If you choose to do this, please use metal tongs with some kind of plastic or insulated handles. When wiping off the paint, you have to be careful as the tin will be very hot. DO NOT do this around young children. DO NOT let young children do this technique.

Some of my art history.

I am participating in a local event here in Ames called Art Walk on Friday from 5 to 8 pm. I was looking around for pieces other than my numerous ATC's, to give people a look at what else I do. By looking into that I found a few pieces from further back in my life, a few pieces from before high school even. I thought people might be interested in seeing them, so I'm posting a few photos today, and will continue to post a couple more.
As usual the pictures are backwards. This first one is a close up of part of the 2nd one. This is a piece of matboard covered with ultra thick embossing enamel until it became even thickness throughout, then colored with a blue sparkly embossing powder, and stamped into with a woman's face stamp with black ink.

When I was a senior in high school I took a class called British Literature. After reading something by William Wordsworth, we had to do a project about him (I'm sure there were more requirements, but hell if I know what they were). Anyway, I chose to illustrate the poem The Reverie of Poor Susan.

The Reverie of Poor Susan by William Wordsworth

At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears,
Hangs a Thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years:
Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard
In the silence of morning the song of the Bird.

Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? She sees
A mountain ascending, a vision of trees;
Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,
And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapsie.

Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale,
Down which she so often has tripped with her pail;
And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's,
The one only dwelling on earth that she loves.

She looks, and her heart is in heaven: but they fade,
The mist and the river, the hill and the shade:
The stream will not flow, the hill will not rise,
And the colours have all passed away from her eyes!

If you click on the picture, it should enlarge for you. I cut a picture frame out of matboard, placed a typed version of the poem inside and decorated the frame. In the left hand corner is a stamped image in some ultra thick embossing enamel, she's looking up a sign post that says Wood St with a bird sitting on top. There are white circles going from Susan's head up to some stamped mountains, like a thought in her head. On the right side of the frame is a stamped cottage with a "river" traveling up to it. The river is made out of paper. I honestly have no idea what I received on the project, but I want to say it was a B or above. That could be wishful thinking, but I remember my teacher loving my art work.

This next one is also from my senior year of high school when I took a 2D art class and we made paper.

Originally I had this piece as a card with a couple windows cut out of it. But, if you look at it closely, you can see how thin the sides are. My teacher suggested I leave it folded up and mount it so it wouldn't come apart. This first picture is a close up.

I have layered the back page with mulberry paper and an Asian character stamped image mounted on it. The window in the second layer of the piece has mulberry paper around the cutout and covered with a piece of acetate, so it looks like a window. On the front of that piece I have mounted a face stamped in brown glued onto a piece of white mulberry paper. You can't see it very well, but there is a ticket on the corner of this piece with a stamped image on it, I don't remember what it was and I can't tell without taking apart the frame and I'm not doing that. On the front piece, there's a flower punched image on the top and on the bottom there is a bow tied in a reddish yarn.I entered this piece in my senior art show and won first place for best in show in mixed media I believe.

I also entered it into art at my county fair and it won a purple rosette to go to state fair where it won a blue ribbon.
Somewhere in there, most likely before I entered it in my county fair, and after my high school art show, I had it framed in a really nice green frame that really brings out the green mulberry paper in the back of the card.

The last one is just a random piece of artwork.

I also used the matboard/Ultra thick embossing enamel process on this one. The top layer is colored with a lavender embossing powder with silver and peach mixed in. The image is of a line drawing of a leaf stamped in silver. It is layered on brown and white mulberry paper on top of black paper. It's nicely matted in a mat that's had silver ink sponged on top of white matboard and then framed.