more atcs!

Here are some more atcs to swap this month. The backgrounds are the same shimmering mists used before but on glossy cardstock. The music stamp is the one I used in the prior post. The ivy is embossed. The letters are a mix of grungeboard and metal. The grungeboard I painted with gold metallic paint and dabbed with alcohol inks, the metal just applied alcohol ink.

Christmas atcs

Here are atcs for Christmas! One is a mini version of the Christmas card posted earlier with one different stamp. The other is patterned paper edged with Silver Krylon pen, mounted on cardstock for strength. The blue cardstock was stamped with my castaway stamp pad (I hadn't played with it lately)and the music stamp from the Crows plate from Quietfire Design (can you tell it is a favorite of mine?) then heated to lighten the image. I used a heat tool instead of an iron, but it seemed to work for what I was doing. On top of that is the little Bethlehem stamp (Wordsworth), embossed with silver ep. I edged the cardstock with embossing ink and embossed with the same silver then wrote "O Holy Night" by hand with Silver Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

December Yalpha Mingle

Here is my Yalpha mingle for the byhandartists yahoogroup. We are to use a 3" or larger letter and the rest of the mingle should have something related to the letter. I did my typical right-handed open page, I realize this is getting boring, I'll get more creative next month. I've been doing backgroud paper for my Christmas cards, described in the previous post, so I used some of the strips I had trimmed off to weave my W. I loved the colors together. Weaving is tedious work(atleast for one with a poorly functioning right hand) but I think it came out okay. I added a little gold metallic rub on, too, but I like a little white showing through anyway.
I free-handed cut the W and attached it with pop dots to Bazzill bling in the pink paper. The inside is stamped with a woven background stamp (All Night Media) with ColorBox dark moss chalk ink. The quotes are stamped with Colorbox Black pigment ink. The stamp on the left is from Quietfire Design and the one on the right is Stampin'Up. The little quilled heart was in my ever growing stash and actually had been a little Christmas ornament that a friend had hung on a miniature tree she gave me a few years ago.

Christmas Card

Since I had laryngitis and couldn't work, after resting the better part of the day, I decided to work on Christmas cards. The card is Fabriano 140 pound cold pressed watercolor paper to which I applied Luminarts shimmering mist Jasper Red. Spritzed with water, too, and dabbed. The ornaments are patterned paper stamped with music score (Quietfire Design Crows plate-site listed in links) in Versacolor celedon and the crow with flourish (also from the same rubber plate), embossing ink and Ranger superfine detail silver. I edged the circles (cut with my Martha Stewart circle cutter, which I find harder to use than I expected) with embossing ink and also embossed with the detail silver. I punched the metal ornament hanger with a tulip-looking EK Success punch from metal repair tape. The silver "thread" is silver Sakura Jelly Roll pen.

29 days Giveaway

Chrysti, on Art by Chrysti, http://chrysti.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/29-days-of-giveaways-for-you/, is doing a 29 days giveaway. Head on over to get in on the fun and maybe be inspired to give something of yourself away as well! I always feel better when I do something for someone else. The link is also posted in my links list.
Enjoy!

Pink Rolodex swap

This is my contribution to the byhandartists group's pink rolodex swap. I painted watercolor paper with Lumiere's halo gold pink paint. On the front I stamped an asian background stamp with Versafine Black ink and attached a pink fiber "ribbon" pushed a bit through a Chinese coin. The larger coins are attached with mounting squares, the smaller ones on some are attached with gel medium. The back is a crow brass stencil by Dreamweaver, that I got from Quietfire Design,that I outlined with micron pen and then painted in with larger black pen. The quote is from Quietfire Design and one I go to over and over again, stamped with Black Versafine ink.

October Yalpha

Wow, it has been a busy 3 months. I can't believe I haven't posted a thing. This is the mingle I did for the byhandartists yahoogroup for October. I like this fun owl and wanted to use him for an October theme and decided a moon could be the "o".
I used patterned paper that I folded for the front and back. I cut out two circles, one from the orange and one a half inch smaller from yellow. I edged them with embossing ink and embossed with Pirate Gold. I stamped the owl with embossing ink and used Detail Black EP. The owl stamp is from Inkadinkado. I glued the larger one onto the paper and the smaller I mounted with mounting tape to pop it up a bit.
The back atc is orange paper with the same little owl and alpha letters by Martha Stewart I got on sale after halloween last year. I used gold photo corners to hold it. Simple, but I like the overall look.

Yellow Yogi Yalpha

This is my mingle page for Yogi for our July Mingle on the byhandartist group. I stuck with the monochromatic theme (hope I don't get "stuck" forever!) I had been toying around with a yellow theme for the mingle and was thrilled when Yogi was to be the recipient. The background is paste paper I made last year. I double stacked two sheets and cut the strips, then took alternate strips and pasted them to yellow-gold cardstock. Used a yellow printed napkin to cover the "Y" chipboard letter and added a little Jolee's sunflower. I mounted it with cushioned mounting tape. I wrote Yellow Yogi Yalpha alternatingly with Pentel yellow milky gel pen and a gold pen. The back has more of the napkin.

CBTC-black, gray and white

Create Byhand Tuesday Challenge

This week's challenge is to use only black, white and grey. My contribution is a vintage image (of my mother-in-law as a child) mounted on white cardstock. That is mounted on chalkboard patterned paper to which I added flourishes and some more number and word doodles. I printed the words out and added them. The photo is mounted with mounting tape.
This was a fun challenge and will also work for the monochromatic atc swap for July.

July atcs-monochromatic

Wow, long time since a post, but I have a nicely painted new space to work in! I am trying to get ahead on some art for July. The byhandartists yahoogroup has a monthly atc swap. This month's theme is monochromatic and anything goes. I like doing Asian themes and red lends itself to that in my mind so.... also the same group does a monthly mingle of a 4x4.5 page. This year is the "Yalpha Mingle" so each page has a prominent letter and pertains to that letter. I used the same idea for my green atcs. I had a scrap of the yellow patterned paper and did a fun foam atc.
I used patterned paper for all. I keep a lot of scraps and a lot are monochromatic, so I went through my stash. On the red herringbone paper, I stamped with a Chinese character background stamp. Cut and mounted with foam tape to a red cardstock background. Stamped the woman with black ink and either cut her out and mounted with foam tape, or punched her with a square punch and added the small chop.
I used harlequin letter grungeboard for the green ones. Colored the alphas with chalk ink, outlined in green pen and dotted with glitter glue. On two I added some vellum printed leaves and on the other some silk leaves I had in my "leaf" collection envie.
The yellow fun foam is stamped with Ranger Vintage Photo ink with an "art" background stamp. The foam is mounted with glue dots.

Created byhand challenge for Tuesday 4/15

Here is my created byhand challenge for this week. "Quotes" is the theme. The background paper is a piece left from last week's project along with one of Suzanne's quotes and a heart stamp- don't remember where I got that particular unmounted heart.

Tuesday byhand Challenge and Happy 7th Birthday to the byhand newletter

This week's challenge is to use watercolor paper and watercolors. I made postcards to send for Suzanne's 7th anniversary of the byhandartists newsletter. You can link to the byhandartists newletter in the links on the right. I used Portfolio water-soluble oil pastels and gesso for the background, stamped happy birthday and a number 7 with Distress Ink Broken China, and used acrylic paint and MM foam stamps to stamp "byhandartists". The other stamps and quote stamps are Suzanne's from Quietfire Design, who's link is also to the right. The quotes are stamped with embossing ink and I used detail black EP.
These will be my last artistic endeavors for a while. I had damage from a leak around the chimney in my office/art space/guest room, and will need to empty it completely which means storing all my supplies for a while for the repairs. The upside is that I will have a lovely, newly painted and refinished floor, room to reorganize afterwards. Cleaning out is a good thing. I'll keep enjoying and being inspired by others.
Also posted is my final "time" themed atc for the April swap. It is napkin art with Glossy Accents on twinkling H2O background paper, mounted to black cardstock and white watercolor paper with Portfolio water soluble oil pastels.

Time ATCs

Here are a few atcs I made today for the time-themed ATC swap for the byhandartists group for April. Time is a favorite theme of mine as there are so many ways to look at it. I took advantage of some backgrounds I already had on hand which led me in some particular direction. I keep a stack of precut, background atcs but rarely use them as I find I just prefer to start at the beginning with a project. Maybe that explains why I am so slow sometimes.

Fun with Ezra

I don't post a lot of family or personal pics, but I did have a wonderfully fun afternoon with Ezra today and here are some pics to prove it. He is a joy to be around at three years old.

Yalpha Mingle for April

I used my background that I made yesterday for my "Cosmic" mingle page. I liked the quote, too.

Cool Background technique

I love this technique posted by Suzanne at Quietfire Design and decided to do a version with products I had on hand.
I used 140# cold pressed watercolor paper, applied water with a brush, dipped another brush into my purchased diluted walnut ink and coated my paper. Then I sprinkled Stampendous Baby Blue Pastel opaque embossing powder on that and some gold mica. Spritzed with water and used my heat tool. Love the look I got- different from Suzanne's but cool just the same; color, texture and glitz! The atc has Eucalyptus walnut ink.
Now have a look at Suzanne's!
http://quietfirestyle.blogspot.com/2008/03/walnut-ink-background-variation.html

background swap

This is my background for the swap on the byhandartists yahoogroup. It is the layered acrylic technique that I used for the mingle previously. A favorite technique of mine because the results are different every time depending on lots of variables. If you like predictability, this isn't for you! These colors were a very light pastel yellow, a medium green and a midnight blue.

Yalpha Mingle

This is my first of the monthly Yalpha Mingles on the byhandartists yahoogroup. Yalpha is Y for Yogi, our hostess, and alpha for the alphabet (English, that is). The challenge is to use a letter that is a minimum of 3" on a 4x 4.5 page and then decorate the page with symbols, quotes, images representing the letter. I used one of my favorite backgrounds posted by Wanda, a group member. The details are in a previous post. Gesso with 3 layers of paint lightest to darkest,leaving a bit of the original layer visible, dried between each layer except for the last which is spritzed with water allowed to sit a minute or two and then dabbed (in this case) or wiped off.
I used a pale yellow acrylic first, followed by a purple twinkling H2O and a green twinkling H2O. The results are muted but remind me of Easter and spring. I stamped a word stamp with gesso, which is really not visible with the "b" attached.
I used another stamp in the bird series with wisteria chalk ink next.
I like my new bird stamp so I chose a bigger than the page "b" chipboard letter. Gesso, purple twinkling H2O with some intentional brush strokes, dried, stamped with a nest stamp in Archival Ink Jet Black. The bird is also stamped with the same ink on white cardstock and cut out and woven through the opening of the "b". The "believe" is a word stamp I have that is self-inking. Same little nest on the back in the same ink, eggs painted with the purple twinkling H2O.

Marg's Music Deco

I think this is my final deco to work in. They have all been such a treat to see and a joy to do art in. I'm sending Linda's home and Marg's will get to her soon after.
I do love this quote, I chose it for my own deco.
A question was asked about the background so I'll add it to this post. I used patterned paper by Daisy D, antique music, if I remember correctly. I did a semi-dry wash of gesso and smeared it with my finger over it, stamped over that with a flourish stamp with gesso and antique photo distress ink and stamped the little bird with the distress ink, also. On the left side, in addition to the above, I spritzed over an antique doily with walnut ink and went over it just a bit with a light smear of gesso. I printed the quote directly on the altered paper. Think that is about it.

A second post today!

I wanted to post pictures of our snow! It snowed for about 28 hours nearly steadily. We ended up with about 12 inches in our backyard and 17 inch drifts. It was a pretty snow. Jim and I walked to the park and watched the people sledding on "dog hill".

Music deco

This is the last page of Linda's music deco. Her theme is Rock Legends and I went with a favorite of mine, the Beatles. My first album ever was the Beatles "Rubber Soul". I about wore it out playing it over and over.
I couldn't get a good scan, the book is so thick, of the spread so here are the two pages. Ooops you can see a stray red fiber over the 2nd picture!

another Lisa Vollrath countdown

Listed in the links to the right- Lovely Links- find Lisa Vollrath's new countdown for St. Patrick's day. ( http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/ )
Enjoy- I'm catching up after vacationing in Seattle with DD, who by the way, just received word that she's accepted into her PhD program at UW!

Monthly Mingle

This is my mingle for byhandartists "A This and That" this month. Of the monthly holidays and celebrations, I chose The Year Of The Rat.
The accordion folded info fits into the little pocket.

Travel Poster ATCs

One of the themes of the byhandartists yahoogroup's monthly atc swap is travel posters. That sounded interesting to me as I had a motel stamp and a lot of travel ephemera. Here are my atcs that are headed off to the swap tomorrow. Enjoy!

Great Giveaway!

Catherine Matthews Scanlon is giving away two copies of her new book, Art From the Heart, mixed media collage! It looks wonderful. Here is a link to her site.
If it doesn't link you, go to my lovely links on the right of the blog.
http://cmscanlon.blogspot.com/2008/01/giving-away-two-copies.html

Been out of touch.

Between a flood at my house I rent and some home improvements here, I am behind on art.
But, here is a link to Lisa Vollrath's valentine countdown with free images.
http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/ and you can find it in the list of links to the right.