Felted ATCs

A couple of months ago I asked my friend who does gorgeous felting (not to mention stamping, drawing, painting, carving, and the list can go) to teach me how to felt. I chose to work on atc sized pieces and stuck with floral themes because I can't draw. I finally made those pieces into finished atcs a couple of weeks ago. I added Distress Stickles which is a perfect look for these, embellishments, and "Dream with your eyes wide open" is a stamp from Quietfire Design - I sprayed some muslin with Memory Mist sprays and stamped with Archival ink jet black. I really like how these turned out (they're even better in person) and plan to do more felted atcs.
Be sure and click on the picture for a closer look.

Vamp Stamp News - Feb. 2009

This card is published on the back cover of the February issue of Vamp Stamp News. All stamps are from gg designs.

Love Card

Quietfire Design is featuring my card for their project this week. You can get complete directions, etc. here. Along with featuring the card, all the Distress Inks and Reinkers are on sale... get more info here.

Sympathy Card

Folded card is brown. Cuttlebug embossed background. Green ribbon with gold edges. Sentiment is from Stampin' Up and cut and embossed with a Spellbinders die, layered onto brown cardstock.

Valentine Canvas Board

I almost forgot to put this canvas on my blog :-)) It uses one of the PID Valentine images. Complete directions can be found on the PID Designers Blog here.

ggDesign's Sketch Challenge

Details for the sketch challenge can be found on ggDesigns Gazette page here. Directions for the card -- The background and bird images are both from ggDesigns. For the base I stamped the background image twice with Adirondack rust onto mustard cardstock. The birds were also stamped with rust ink onto white cardstock and punched out, edges sponged with Adirondack cranberry ink. Layered birds to mustard colored cardstock, punched corners and sponged edges with cranberry ink. The red layer is the same background image. I sprayed it with Glimmer Mists candy apple red and terracotta, stamped it onto white cardstock and tore the edges. Layered bird panel to red piece and added brads to the corners. Tied ribbon around base, added bird panel, computer generated "Valentine" piece, added it and 3 red flowers with brads in the center to card.

Be Calm ATC

I did this atc for a challenge on the PID yahoo group. The challenge is Be _____ (fill in the blank) and I chose Be Calm. The background is distress inks with the background image (Tim Holtz) stamped with distress ink and then layered to a brown atc blank. The collage image (PID) is glued to the back of a Tim Holtz charm fragment with Glossy Accents and attached with a brad. The butterfly brad was very shiny and I toned it down with some Matte Accents. "Be Calm" is printed from a label machine on clear tape.

Valentine 4 x 4

Collage image - PID, Distress inks, Brilliance white ink, bird in heart stamp (Stampington), heart stamp (Stamps by Judith), Love ticket (Tim Holtz), heart brad (Making Memories), "On The Wings Of" computer generated, red German Scrap.

Created Byhand Challenge - Pattern Paper

The challenge over at Created Byhand is to used pattern paper somewhere in our creation. For this ATC I used it for the background. I lightly brushed some white gesso around the edges, stamped the bird image (Quietfire Design) with Archival ink jet black, brushed gesso a little more heavily where I wanted the snow to be, let it dry, added Golden's light molding paste for snow, sprinkled fine glitter over the molding paste, stamped "Snow!" (Quietfire Design) on vellum with Stazon stone gray, tore it out and added to atc with double stick tape, added "snow" to the letters with the Inkssential white pen and also used the pen to add an eye to the bird, wrote "Let it" with a Tombow grey marker, punched snowflake (Martha Stewart) from same printed paper as background but flipped the paper so the other side showed and added it to the atc with a silver brad, cut a hat from paper and added shadowing with a marker.

Published in Somerset Studio

This piece is published in the Jan/Feb 2009 issue for their Black and White Challenge. The girl is a collage image from PID. The floral stamp is Hero Arts. Word stamp is Paper Studios. The Harlequin image along the roof line and a different one over the chimney are both from Quietfire Design. The chipboard house and chipboard bird are both Maya Road.

Blog Candy at Altered Imagination

Melissa is having a give away to celebrate 4 years of blogging. You can win some of the wonderful new PID collage sheets that will not even be for sale until January. Cool, huh!! Head on over to her blog to check it out.

12 Days of Christmas Swap

I'm participating in a 12 Days of Christmas swap on the PID yahoo group. Today was the day the others opened my gift. I made magnets from ceramic tiles. You start by cleaning the tile... I just washed them in soap and water, rinsed them well and dried them. For the background I used alcohol inks and blending solution. The tile is edged with Krylon gold. The boy image is from PID (Paper Imagery Designs). The words are computer generated, cut out and sponged with Adirondack inks. I attached the image and words with Glossy Accents - using a paint brush I spread some Glossy Accents, layed down the image and brushed more Glossy Accents over it.. let that dry and then did the same thing for the words and let it dry (the Glossy Accents will make the Adirondack dye ink bleed a little but it wasn't noticable on this project). Then I put a thicker coat of Glossy Accents over the whole thing and let it dry. Lastly I added some Distress Stickles along the bottom.

We have seen His star ATC

The base of this atc is dark blue, run through the dot Cuttlebug folder and the dots rubbed with Brilliance white ink. The image (I Brake For Stamps) is stamped on white cardstock with Kaleidacolor Blue Breeze ink, bottom edge torn, and edges sponged with blue breeze also. I added a silver star brad over the star in the image, silver German Scrap along the bottom, and glitter glue along the torn edge.

Crafts 'n Things Magazine

I was thrilled when I got the current magazine in the mail to find this tag published on page 96!!! The collage image is from Quietfire Design. The words and heart are all a single stamp from Quietfire Design that I stamped and cut apart.

Joy Tag

This tag is made using Tim Holtz's Day 2 tag techniques (with a few tweaks). All the stamps are from Quietfire Design. I didn't use any rub-ons but instead embossed the flourish image but then decided the one in the top left corner was too bold so I rubbed chalk over the embossing and then added details with the Inkssential white pen. I didn't have any washers so I punched a 1/16" hole in silver cardstock and then punched a 1/4" hole with the 1/16" hole centered in it and used those for the washes... worked great!!!! The snowflake (also from Quietfire Design) was gold and I colored it silver with a Krylon pen.

Be sure and click on the tag to see a larger picture.

CBC - Red and Green

The challenge on the Created Byhand site is to use the colors red and green. The central image on this ATC is one of the new Christmas stamps from Quietfire Design... it's stamped on white cardstock with green ink, torn out, edges rubbed with Brilliance gold ink and a gold star brad added to the top. The base of the atc is red, next is a printed paper and the stitiching is done with the Inkssential pen, the strip across is red cardstock embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. Lastly I added the candy cane (Michael's).

Snowy Joyful ATC

This is a pretty simple atc but I do like how it came out. The base is silver cardstock embossed with the cuttlebug snowflake folder. The snowmen are ribbon. The tree (Stampington) is embossed with forest green ep, cut out, and white added with the Inkssential pen to look like snow. A piece of white cardstock torn out, glued on, tree added over it, and then glitter glue used on the "snow". Joy (Quietfire Design) is stamped in blue, cut out, edged with a lighter blue and glued on.

Hope Card

I made this card for a mingle on the SSReflections yahoo group (their Card of the Month swap) but in making it I also used a sketch challenge that Robin Willis posted on her blog. The bird and eggs are collage images from PID. The background was done with a cuttlebug folder.

Vamp Stamp News

The card above is published in the December 2008 issue of Vamp Stamp News... woohoo!!! The girl image is from PID and all the stamps are from Quietfire Design.

This card is published in the December online gallery on the VSN website. The calligraphy stamp is from Quietfire Design.

A Monthly Rubber Stamp Club

These are pictures of the Dec. project for AMRSC. I started with a wooden birdhouse chime and went from there. The birds on the front are collage images from PID and the stamped words are from Quietfire Design. As usual complete directions can be found on the AMRSC site.

Now some sad news.... A Monthly Rubber Stamp Club website will no longer exist after this month.

Altered Almond Jar

PID's design team challenge for December is Easy Mixed Media Christmas Presents and I decided to alter an almond container. My newest favorite snack is Vanilla Bean flavored almonds.. Yum!!!! The cover is hinged in the center and one side opens which made me think it would be a cool bank... another idea is to leave the cover off, put some stone or marbles in the bottom and use it as a vase - it wouldn't work for anything long stemmed but it'd be great for shorter flowers. You can see more pictures and get directions on the PID blog here. You should also check out the fabulous things the other designers made - Gabrielle's Christmas card and shadow box, Ursula's Christams card and gift in one, Angie's altered photo album, Pam's bookmarks, and Arlene's matchbox Christmas ornaments.

Optician's Lens Christmas Ornament

This ornament is so cute... I really love how it came out. All products are from Quietfire Design and you can get complete directions in the project gallery on the QF site here.

Friends ATC

This atc is for a mingle on the A.R.T. yahoo group. We were to make an atc about one thing we are thankful for and I'm very thankful for my friends. The background on this atc is sprayed with Glimmer Mists so, yep, it has shimmer you can't see in the scan and it is layered on a black atc blank. The image is from Paperbag Studios and stamped with Archival Ink jet black. Flower trim along the bottom with Distress stickles added to the centers. "Friends" done with a dymo and then cut out of the tape with deckle scissors. Punched the 2 hearts from red cardstock and added them.

CBC - Christmas Tags

This weeks challenge at Created Byhand is Christmas Tags. For this one I cut my tag from glossy white cardstock and sprayed it with Glimmer Mists lavender fields which looks blue until you tilt it in the light to see the lavender, dried it with a heat tool.... tore a piece of music paper to go along the left side... stamped the Quietfire small Merry Christmas snowflake image on the background with Distress Inks broken china and faded jeans... also stamped one on light cream cardstock with faded jeans, cut it out with points and also cut part way from the valleys toward the center... this allows every other point to lift a little. Peace and Joy were also stamped with faded jeans on light cream paper, cut out, edged with faded jeans and attached as shown.... punched 2 snowflakes, glued them on and cut away what stuck over the edge. All stamps from Quietfire Design.

Friends Tag

I really love how this tag turned out... very simple to do also. I started with a manila tag and ran it through the cuttlebug folder with the paisley design... sprayed on Glimmer Mists terracotta and sandy beach, dried it with a heat tool. Stamped the calligraphy image (Quietfire Design) on vellum, tore it out, colored the heart in with Glaze pens, attached it to the tag with double stick tape, added the flowers to the top, and finally using my finger rubbed just a bit of Distress Stickles frayed burlap around the edges.