Cut It Out!

I took a stab at GPP Street Team's Crusade No. 18, entitled, "Cut It Out" (create your own stamp or stencil). I wanted to get started on my stamps without having to stop at the store. One thing that I have a lot of is fun foam sheets, so I used some to cut my own original foam stamps. Here are a few of the foam stamps I made, a flower and two leaves. They are on another layer of foam, for backing. I made some other stamps,but I can't show them off, since I haven't had a chance to play with them yet! ;)

Although I mainly made the foam stamps to use with acrylic paints, I wondered how they would work with dye ink stamp on gesso. Here I have a gessoed page in my journal, with little bits of text added to it. Because of the smooth gesso, it was like doing potato prints! Also, the foam soaked up a lot of ink, so I could stamp forever without reinking!

If you are reading this you're probably interested in arts/crafts. If so, I'd like you to consider participating in a craft poll here. You don't need to register, the poll is free, and added your opinions/comments is optional. Your participation may help to revitalize the craft industry! Thanks for listening! :)

RAK for a Friend

I don't know if I should post this, because it's a surprise ATC for a friend - oh, well, even if she sees it, she won't know that she's "the one" until she receives it! Anyway, she's so busy, she probably can't find the time to read my blog! ;)

The card stock base is scraped with acrylics, the second layer is wrinkled, walnut inked and punched. The third layer (colored circle) was created using a technique similar to Bernie Berlin's "Inky Layers" technique in her book, Artist Trading Card Workshop. (Of course, I can't do anything exactly like the instructions say, I've always got to put my own spin on it!) I hope my friend likes it! :)

Inchies Again!

I'm still in love with inchies! Maybe that's because there are so many techniques that can be used on them. Here's an example, these paint technique inchies that were recently swapped. In the top row, I've used paint like a fabric to cover 1" chipboard squares. The second row has metallic-painted backgrounds. In the third row, the two on the left have torn masking tape under the paint, and the right two have hearts made of texture medium. These all use various metallic paints, and they shine much better in real life! :)

Watercolor Inchies

Another inchies post today! These intuitive watercolor inchies were made for a swap which is now completed. We were supposed to see images in the random watercolor blotches, and draw them. My blotches just looked like bits and pieces, so I turned them into crazy quilt pieces!

Valentine Inchies

These inchies are perfect to post on Valentine's Day because of their theme. They were created for swap and were distributed to the participants, so now I can show them here.

Most of them have some punched areas made with corner punches, or punch-out hearts. The two red ones in the lower right corner were my favorites, so I kept them for myself! ;)

Valentine ATC

Wednesday Stamper Challenge: OK, I like pink, but this time I wanted to do something different, not your typical old-fashioned Valentine. This ATC is stamped with flowers, then brushed with magenta, orange and yellow inks. The vellum is stamped with a heart, torn edges are rubbed with magenta ink, then everything is attached with hot pink mini paper clips and a hot pink flower brad. My funky Valentine! :)

Bird and Boy ATC

It's fun to take time out of my day to do the TMTA challenge, but it seems like I'm always trying to do to many things at once - many of you probably know what I mean!

Anyway, for the "child/children and bird" challenge, blue papers and torn music sheet is layered on card stock, with boy image and cut-out paper bird; everything is tinted with sand dye ink. It sayys, "Please, litle birdie, sing a sweet song to me"! :)

Asian ATC

Wednesday Stampers' theme this week is Asian. A difficult one for me, because I only have one Asian rubber stamp. But it's good to make art with a no-so-favorite theme, because it builds skill and character, right? Well, I don't know about that, but here it is: On black card stock, large small Asian characters from printed papers, stamped and colored bamboo postage, two black mini brads. The large Asian characters mean "Harmony". I need to get offline, so I'll check out everyone's Asian art tomorrow! Thanks for looking! :)

New Collage Book

I've heard about a new collage book called "Art from the Heart", by Catherine Matthews Scanlon. I haven't seen this book "in person" yet, I can't wait to get my hands on it! The link for the author's blog is here.

Cats ATC

I don't have any cats, but I like animals, so here is my answer to this week's TMTA challenge. The green paper was randomly stamped with assorted rubber stamps. I chose a portion of the paper that had a mouse stamped on it, very fitting for a cat ATC!

The large image is cut from wallpaper, the one to its right is a postage stamp. The top two images are cut from bottle cap stickers. (Design Originals has lots of different bottle cap stickers here.) Thanks for looking at my kitty card! :)