Thank ya, thank ya very much

This is a thank you card a created a while back. The sentiment inside is the classic Elvis phrase "thank ya, thank ya very much". The paper is from EK Success and the stamp is from Stampsmith.

I have some more of this paper and of course I have this stamp so my reminder from a few days still holds, if you get something like this someday just act surprised like you've never seen it before.

Until my next post,

Diane

Design II Plaster of Paris Sculpture

Some of you might not consider Plaster of Paris as a sculpture medium. At the community college level in a Design II class where you are trying to cram in a bunch of techniques into a 15 week semester Plaster of Paris was our sculpture medium. We used milk cartons as our mold; poured the plaster in and let it sit. It sets quick and is pretty easy to carve/cut. The theme was open and I tried a 3D version of Edvard Munch’s Scream. The original is now back in place at the museum of his name and being restored. I think when you see my piece you recognize that it is a representation of the painting which is good. As a sculpture piece it is OK. Maybe not my best work but I did keep it which says something.

Until my next post,
Diane

Design II My first book

Design II was another of the required Fine Arts courses in my computer arts program. I was excited when I reviewed the syllabus and saw we were going to make art books. We got a demo from Peter our instructor on the various zig zag or concertina style books. We were supposed to use canvas or other cloth to cover the book as opposed to paper. The book was supposed to be decorated and not left blank to use as a journal or a scrapbook. I went with an Asian theme. I used Bienfang watercolor paper and I used my spray watercolors again. After that was dry I added some stamping, stenciling and embellishments. I used embossing powder on the cover and then added some coins from SkyBluePink.

Until my next post,

Diane

Last months swap with Sid

I already showed you the King Tut/Egyptian ATC a few days ago that I sent to Sid on my monthly swap. Here are the other two ATC's from that ethnic/cultural theme. The first is Greek - the stamps are from Non Sequitur. I made the Apollo with lots of layers of silver embossing powder. The last time when you are ready to stamp just make sure your stamp has some releasing agent so it doesn't get stuck. I used VersaMark. It gives your stamping a neat faux metal look. The last ATC has an Asian theme. The stamps are from Stampsmith. I got the charms from SkyBluePink.

Until my next post,

Diane

Stampers Corner December ATC's

These two ATC's were done for my Stampers Corner Yahoo group December swap. The first one had a theme of silver and either purple, blue, green or red. I embossed with a Cuttlebug on the silver insulation tape from a home improvement store. I colored it with Ranger Stream, Denim and Stonewash alcohol inks. I added the German scrap sun in silver and a few bling rhinestones. The second one has an arctic theme. The stamps are from Delta. I made a mini shaker snowglobe but using ice/snow colored glitter after coloring the bear with Sakura glaze markers. The snow stamps are the Studio G $1 stamps. The white paper is from the Paper Cut.

Until my next post,

Diane

Stampers Corner ATC of the Month Jan 09

This is an ATC I did for the Stampers Corner Yahoo group. I recently signed up for the ATC of the month swap on a permanent basis. Along with monthly swaps where we make four ATC’s and get four different ones back this swap is make one and get one. The partner list rotates monthly so you aren’t always swapping with the same person. The theme list is posted a year ahead so if the muse visits you can get a bunch done ahead and then just wait until you find out who your partner is. For this swap the theme was time/travel. I used Inque stamps and made the one that looks like a watch face by stamping on chipboard and then coating it with glossy accents. Let that stuff dry overnight and you’ll love the results. I hope my recipient likes it.

Until my next post,
Diane

Tim Holtz stamp ATC swap

I belong to a bunch of Yahoo groups. In many of them I just lurk - not sure why. I'm pretty active in one, I do ATC swaps on a monthly basis. I've got something going on in two others and I'll show you that later. This ATC was for the Creativeblock-Stampers Anonymous group. All we had to do is make 6 ATCs using any Tim Holtz stamp. In return we get 5 back. One ATC from every participant goes to Ted one of the owners of the company. He's the guy you are likely to see at stamping shows around the country doing demos of all the great techniques you've heard about using Tim's stamps and many Ranger products. I used the Blackbird Collage stamp. I inked portions with different chalk inks. I stamped the birds again and embossed with black embossing powder and cut them out. I added some watch parts and then covered some small chipboard pieces with silver aluminum insulation tape (you can find great crafting supplies in hardware stores) and used metal embossing letters to spell out CROW.

Until my next post,

Diane

Batch cards

Some people might think this is "wrong" but I sometimes make cards in batches. I have used ideas from Sheetload a few times and I'll tell you what - you can crank out a bunch of cards (all the same and all a bit different too) in a short time. I use their design and modify it a bit to suit my paper and embellishments. The card base is simple bulk card stock (8 11/2 x 11 cut in half and scored to get two A2 size cards). Three have the plum background card stock from DCWV while the remaining papers are from American Traditional Designs. The sentiments on the front are stamped by Cloud 9 Design or Impression Obsession. I used two fun tools to make these cards. The first is my Cuttlebug with the Spellbinder scalloped square die. The second tool is the Paper Gator to round the corners of the smaller paper. It makes great cuts on multiple sheets of paper and many other things. By the way if you happen to get one of these cards act surprised like you've never seen it before!

Until my next post,
Diane

Design I Color Wheel

This was fun…mixing and learning about color. I mentioned in a previous post that we only had two yellows, two reds, one blue, one violet and one green plus black and white colors of gouache. The inner wheel the one shaped like a pie is has the colors above (minus black and white) out of the tube then mixed to make the colors in between. Next we have tints (white added), shades (black added) and tertiary colors. It was fun to mix all these and know that you can make a lot of different colors with just a few tubes of paint.

Until next time,
Diane

Design I Collage

For this project we had to incorporate these two bottles into a collage. How you displayed these bottles was your choice. We used magazines to create the collage. I decided to make a beach scene sort of a message in a bottle type thing. The only piece of paper I altered is the one I rubber stamped some scribbled writing on. You could cut or rip your paper into pieces. We had to use either complementary colors or colors that are adjacent on the color wheel. I went with the purples and yellows (complementary). Play a little “Where’s Waldo") and look for two bottle shapes and three seagulls imbedded within the collage.

Until next time,
Diane