Happy Thanksgiving

Here in the USA it is Thanksgiving Day, a chance to gather with family and friends and give thanks. Of course there are parades and football too.

This card was made from a Sheetload template using patterened paper by Reminisce. I used my Cuttlebug on the gold paper and stamps from two different $1 Studio G stamp sets.

Until my next post,
Diane

Another Guy Birthday Card

I made a bunch of cards a while back using a template by Sheetload. The papers and dimensional stickers are by K&Co and came in a pack.

Until my next post,
Diane

Farm Animals ATC

On the Stampers Corner Yahoo group I signed up for the ATC of the month for the whole year. Some folks pick and choose which ones they want to do but with the good I got the "bad". I didn't have any stamps for this theme until I ran across the Down on the Farm stamp in the $1 bin at Michaels. I wasn't sure how I was going to use it but at least I had something to start with. This is what I came up with.

First I stamped the Down on the Farm (Studio G) group and then masked it. Next I stamped the background (Repeat Impressions) but not the trees on that stamp since they were too close to the animals. I stamped the trees next and placed them in a better location. Now I colored in the background and animals with watercolor and permanent markers. I blended the watercolor markers with a Dove Blender. The final steps were to stamp and cut out the cloud and sun (Studio G). I used Rock Candy Stickles on the cloud and glitter glue on the gun. The final touch was the butterfly embellishment.

Until my next post,
Diane

Another door panel done - more nondestructiveness

I upgraded from Adobe CS2 to CS4 a few months ago. I'm really glad I did. There was a BIG jump in functions and I've fallen in love with Photoshop all over again. What was cool before is WAY COOL now. The function I used on the photo on the left was actually available on CS3. It is called auto align layers and works great when you take photos of a group of people but someone wasn't looking at the camera and someone else had their eyes closed. I didn't think I'd really take advantage of it since it is very rare for me to take group photos like that. BUT what it did work great on for me was a photo of a bottom panel of my non-destructive doors. I had another panel ready to go a while back but couldn't seem to locate the 3M stick-ons. I knew if I bought more I'd find them. When a few weeks went by and this panel kept getting in my way I knew I had to buy more. When I took photos of the panel one had glare in some spots and the other photo had glare elsewhere. This is the beauty of this Photoshop function. Just open the images and drag one to the other so you have two layers. Then add a layer mask and paint away the bad to reveal the good. That's a real simplistic way to explain it but that's what is happening.

So if you didn't see any of your traded artwork before maybe you do now. If you still don't then we haven't traded...maybe we can fix that some day!

Until my next post,
Diane

Triangle ATCs

Sid and I decided to do a Traingle ATC swap for the months of September and October. We both had too much stuff going on so I suggested we just extend our deadline. He came up with the theme of triangle. He said to measure halfway across the top and then cut to the bottom two edges. ATC's are small enough to begin with (2 1/2 x 3 1/2") so I was feeling very constrained in what I could create in this small space. I finally decided on famous triangles so I chose the Bermuda Triangle for the top one. I used a map that just happened to come in the mail from an organization that was soliciting donations. The top stamp is from Craft Secrets and the destination stamp is from Royal Langnickel as are the two embellishments. They were stamped on shrink plastic with StazOn and then heated with a heat gun to shirk to their current size. I used Ranger Distress Inks to color over the map after stamping the top compass stamp and embossing with clear powder. 

The next one is Isosceles. I made the name of the triangle into a Greek God since the word has Greek origins. I ripped out portions of different dictionaries that had isosceles or triangle definitions. I used a stamped with brown ink on a stamp by Non Sequitur to represent Isosceles and embossed with clear powder. I colored in with Ranger Distress Inks to show the image better and then added a charm of the Parthenon.

The last one is called Love Triangle and has a base of marbled paper. I stamped a few words and hearts with Brilliance Inks first. Then I lined up the words "he", "she", "him" and her using Just Rite stamps and stamped them with VersaMark ink and stamped with detail white powder. I had recently purchased a Stamp-a-ma-Jig by EK Success and it worked great. There is no way I could line up these on the paper and have it be even. I stamped three times so that made it more difficult.

Until my next post,

Diane

Use a punch ATC

For this Altered Designs TGIF ATC we were to use a punch. I used one by McGill and then some stamps by Inque. I colored in the flowers with water based markers and elevated the design on the left by stamping it again and using pop dots. The background paper is colored using Ranger Distress Inks.

Until my next post,
Diane

Collage ATC

Here's the ATC I did for the Stamper's Corner ATC of the month with the theme of collage. Sometimes I have to resist the urge to be organized, stop thinking and just play when I collage. I used some of the marbled paper I made and stamped a hand (hard to see) by Artful Illusions and an image by Stampers Anonymous. On top of that I added a portion of a dictionary page, an old stamp, two faux coins, a chipboard die cut and a key (Artful Illusions) that I made using shrink plastic.

Until my next post,
Diane

A Tag from Ted!

There I was at the Stampers Anonymous booth at the Hampton Stamp Scrap Art Tour a few weeks ago...the crowd had thinned down and there was only two of us watching Ted doing yet another demo. The gal standing next to me asked Ted to repeat the concept he used on another tag. As he was doing this I saw an image appear in his work  where the water was blending with the inks and said "you know, from here I see an Eiffel Tower". He said "I can change the stamps from Halloween to Travel". I didn't want to be a buttinski and mess up what this gal asked for so I sort of mumbled something and he said "she got her tag this one is for you, she just wanted to see the technique". WOW! I was getting a tag from Ted.

Anyone that follows these shows, Stampers Anonymous, or Ted knows that we've been giving him a bunch of grief for the "Coming Soon" note you get when you click on their link for a blog. It's been like that for at least two years! I asked the gal I was with to take a photo so I could put this on my blog since I told Ted we'd have to wait a long time before it ever appeared on his!

I even got him to sign it. It will be displayed with my other trades in my craft room.

Until my next post,

Diane

Make and Takes at the Hampton Stamp Scrap Art Tour

Here's a make and take I did at the Stamp Show a few weeks ago. It was at the Stamp LaJolla booth. The image was already stamped and I colored it in using Twinkling H2O's. The company that made them was going to go out of business but after an overwhelming response from customers decided to stay but reduce the number of colors they make. Stamp LaJolla had them on a deep discount but I already have a bunch of watercolor type products so I saved some cash for other things. After the image was colored in I added double sided tape to match the image and then chose their sugar dust to coat the entire image. I'll add it to a card front in the near future and show you what I made out of it then.

I made this card at the Impression Obsession booth. The image was already stamped but I colored it in using colored pencils they provided. The point of this make and take was the next effect. It might be a bit difficult to see but where the flowers are I applied glue and then used flower soft a 3D product that gives the right image that "pop".

This little pin I made at the Altered Arts Magazine booth. They were highlighting this air dry clay they were selling. This little pin is only about the size of an inchie so we used small images and words from a book for decorations. The final touch is a bit of glitter on the edges.

Until my next post,
Diane

If you can't be there this is a good substitute

Some of my long time readers remember that early in my blogging I reported that I had been to Egypt the year before. It's now going on two years since my visit and I would still love to go back. There was so much to see that even though you are looking at it you get over stimulated and awed by what you are viewing. The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk has an exhibition currently with Egyptian art on loan from the Brooklyn Museum and I went there Wednesday to get a little sample of what I've been missing. Having been to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and even the smaller Imhotep Museum near the step pyramid this exhibit was VERY small. At the museum in Cairo you feel like if you aren't carful you'll knock down some ancient artifact. The Imhotep Museum is more spread out but there is still quite a bit loaded into a small area. "To Live Forever" the theme of this exhibition has more than 120 objects spread out in about 6 huge gallery rooms. But it was still worth the drive and the entrance fee of $5 for military. The Chrysler has some Egyptian items in their permanent collection so I took another look at them too.

Until my next post,
Diane