collage obsession: GLOW

still totally love doing the collage obsession challenge. it's especially exciting when i get to play during the week; which doesn't happen all that often so i savor the times like these!

this week the inspiration word is "glow". this time i really i had nooooooo idea what i was going to make when i sat down. i'm not even entirely sure *NOW* to tell the truth! i basically just combined a bunch of ingredients that were glowing... (CAT scan of a brain from nat'l geographic; funky fractal from an old calendar; diamonds; super-bright birdie* etc) ...in a way that is either admirably abstract or just totally weird, lol; i guess it depends if you like it or not. i think i do, actually. nice. :)

check out the other readers' take on "glow" at collage obsession!

*the ship? yeah, i don't know either. it was in one of the books i looked through when i was gathering images, and i liked it; plus it was mostly the same colors as the brain. also, i just finished the strangest (in a good way...mostly...) book i've ever read-- "S" by doug dorst and jj abrams--and i have the feeling it's gonna be sailing around my subconscious for a while! 

SOS147: taxman!

good morning, and happy "tax day" to you, if that is not a contradiction in terms? assuming your return is already signed, sealed and delivered to our lovely darlings at the IRS* you've got a bit of extra crafting time now, eh?** so we at shopping our stash have a timely assignment for ya: make a card with numerals on it! as it happens, my youngest niece, madeline, has a bit of a milestone birthday coming up next month; she will be ♥10♥!***

(patterned paper: pink paislee, girls paperie, my mind's eye, october afternoon, prima; diecut banner shapes: october afternoon; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; brads: making memories, america crafts, joann essentials; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i printed the outline of a BIG numeral ten using wordprocessing software (i *think* the font is embolded times new roman, but i scrolled through a few till i found one i liked!) then i stapled the print out to a piece of patterned paper, cut it out, et voila! instant custom "TEN"! my cupcake was made in a similar manner, though for that i used a little cupcake-shaped mini keychain album, scaling it down a tiny bit to fit better on my card. then i glued everything together and did LOTS of machine stitching before calling it a night.

and now may i remind you that a trip over to SOS to see what the gang has been up to is always guaranteed to delight and inspire?! so off you go, darlings! ♥

*nope, for once i'm actually not being sarcastic, i have the feeling like that'd be a pretty hard job, especially at this time of year!
**not to be a nag, but if your taxes aren't done, possibly blog-surfing is *NOT* what you should doing right now??!
***holy wow, where did THAT decade go??!?!?

collage gone wild

this week's collage obsession challenge is freestyle, which means we can make... and link up... anything we want. so i did!

i've said before that i think my collages, more than anything else i make, are the most likely to just go off on a tangent. admittedly, i have a very low-tangent threshold, generally, lol; and an increasingly willingness to just let that sort of thing happen.* it turns out, my subconscious often has ideas that are waaaaaay more interesting than the part of my brain that likes to PLAN THINGS. when it comes to collages-- especially art-journal-based ones-- i don't necessarily need to come up with an amazing finished product, i'm just having fun playing around.

in this case, i was already thinking about india, and i got out a file full of colorful, saturated graphics i thought would be perfect. the cardboard piece (which is actually part of a box from an old parcheesi set, that i think was used as a backer to a set of vintage papers i bought a while ago) seemed like the perfect backing on which to build my collage. how exactly the whole thing morphed into a pretty much monochromatic, rather geometric design, is the big mystery. but i think i kinda like it! :)

check out the comments on this post at collage obsession to see what other readers did with this fun open-ended assignment! ♥

*at the moment we're planning multiple decor projects at home, which involve finding specific (functional!) furniture pieces, light fixtures and window coverings that will all fit their assigned spots, not cost a million dollars, and MATCH EACH OTHER. i think this is a big part of why "freeform" art is especially appealing to me right now! :) :) :)

joy to the *EARTH*

each year at *JINGLE BELLES* we designate the fortnight that spans earth day to make cards that re-use, re-cycle, up-cycle or otherwise make use of scraps, packaging and even... well... trash, if possible! and every year we've been blown away by the brilliant combination of environmental consciousness and clever crafting this challenge produces in our readers, so OF COURSE we're gonna do it again this year!

i was mulling around a few different ideas, when the lovely miss amy happened to mention a series of cards i made a couple of years ago, which had as their centerpiece some lovely metal reindeer diecut from flattened soda cans*. HOW could i have forgotten something as cool as that??! yeah, i don't know either, but as soon as she reminded me, of course i knew exactly what i wanted to do this week! so i did:

(recycled metal reindeer made from a flattened out soda can adhered to scrap cardstock and die-cut in my cuttlebug using a tim holtz/sizzix die; patterned paper: hambly, sei, basic grey, october afternoon, and a bit of packaging from some pink paislee journal cards; metal snowflake of unknown origin hotglued to a brad holding together a felt snowflake, plus a couple of silk flowers, all from michaels; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine) 

having re-visited the tutorial, i realized i also quite liked the "formula" i used on those cards-- basically showcasing the deer in a fancy label shape over some pretty layered border strips-- so i somewhat CASE-d myself this time, too! i'm not sure that's ever happened before, but heck, why not? :)

be sure to check out stephanie's card at *JINGLE BELLES* then start looking through your stash... and your trash... and get crafty with us!!!

*when i first discovered this technique, i photographed all the steps for a little tutorial, which can be found right here, if you're interested. 

SOS146: pieces of april

this week at shopping our stash we are paper piecing, which i happen to love. i sort of only realized when i read the challenge that i haven't done it in a while, so it's really nice to have an excuse! i know the "normal" way is to stamp an image multiple times, but sometimes i don't have exactly the right stamp, or it's the wrong size; so i often use clip art, instead. and that's what i did this time. i printed out a few copies of this very fun camera image, divided it into layers and then cut the various bits out of coordinating paper scraps:

(line drawing of a camera clip art via google image search; patterned paper (mostly scraps): crate paper. my mind's eye, echo park, fancy pants, glitz design, melissa frances; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; foam thickers + large brad: american crafts; small metal brads: oriental trading co; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape)

i don't have very many rules in life, but one of them is: never cut out JUST ONE of ANYTHING, lol! especially when stapling a few layers together means you can get a lot more result for the same amount of work. plus it gives you a few choices as to which patterned papers you want to use where. in this case i did three layers of each "camera part" and actually wound up with three adorable cameras. want to see the "extras"?

for my finished card, i used seize the sketch #17 which is pretty fabulous, as you can see:

speaking of fabulous, be sure check out the other DT projects at SOS... they are bound to make you excited about making your own paper-pieced card with us this week! ♥

collage obsession: silhouette

is it still a collage if you've only glued two pieces of paper together? that's the kind of question this week's collage obsession challenge-- which is to use a silhouette-- is making me ask. because, for the first time ever, my collage only has two layers. on the other hand, i did spend quite a long time selecting just the right two pieces; in this case a buddha shape traced and cut onto a river-reflected sunset and a very backlit new york city skyline. so to answer my own question, i'd have to say this IS a collage. now that that's settled, want to see it? cool! here ya go:

if you want to see lots of other awesome silhouette collages, check out the gallery at collage obsession, it's definitely worth the trip.

old santa claus

we're still celebrating all things vintage-- or at least, vintage in style-- at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and of course we'd still love for you to come along and play. yeah, i know, it's the first week of april and those of us who live in snow-bedecked places are only just starting to believe that we're going to have a season besides winter! it seems crazy to be making christmas cards already, doesn't it? but with not-so-fond memories of the years in which i effectively MISSED first two weeks of december because i was eating, sleeping, and breathing the mass-production of holiday cards, i can honestly say that committing to one-card-a-week is by far the best present i have ever given myself! here's what i made this week:

(vintage: sheet music, doily; vintage-style santa: october afternoon holiday style miscellany; patterned paper: dcwv; twine: doodlebug; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, xyron, sewing machine)

one of the simplest cards i think i've ever made, because seriously, the ingredients do ALL the work. i've got a piece of vintage sheet music, half a doily, a little bit of twine, and a new-but-vintage looking santa... whom i've trimmed right to his outline in order to see more of the background. of course the crucial point is knowing how to arrange the bits, which i did, thanks to the current cardabilities sketch (#96):

and now you are cordially invited over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see miss stephanie's lovely card and check out the AMAZING vintage gallery. you can thank me later, darlings! ♥