heart the art: week 26 (summer)

can you BELIEVE that 2010 is half over already? nope, nor can i, but if the date wasn't a bit of a giveaway, then surely the fact that we're on week 26 of our heart the art journal prompts proves it! this week's topic is SUMMER, to which i say a hearty, "hooray!" ...because i am definitely a fan!

(patterned paper: sei & a bit of japanese workbook; spray inks: glimmer mist, radiant rain & some distress re-inker mixed with perfect pearls; stickers: making memories shoebox letters & vinyl thickers by american crafts; adhesives: uhu gluestick, sewing machine)

i'm proud to say that this is one of the first times i have actually managed to make spray inks do what i intended them to do...though i have to confess that it took me TWO tries to get there. (for the record, lemme just say that if you want separate and distinct shades, it's crucial to let the different colored inks dry in between sprayings--a heat gun is nice if you're as impatient as i am; also a paper-towel shield over the bits that are already done is not a bad idea!)

the brightly saturated summery colors of the background "landscape" are exactly what i was going for, and thus i didn't need to add much more than a nice big title and a bit of stream-of-consciousness dymo label journaling around the edge before calling it a happy summer's art day!

i do hope you've had a rather lovely year so far, darlings! but if not, don't despair: i'm pretty sure the second half is where it really ♥GETS GOOD♥!!! :)

etsy (& dollie!) inspired

i've been wanting to take part in an etsy inspired challenge for a while now, and since this week it's sponsored by gina's shop, tyggereye art, this seemed like *exactly* the right time to dip my toe in the EIC water! this week's featured shop is sand box studio, and i chose one of her adorable totebags as my inspiration piece:

i was intending to do this challenge all on its own, but then i saw this week's amazing color palette at design dollies, and i just could not resist combining the two.

so i took the sweet stitched bird, flowery branch and tan background from the inspiration piece...added in lots of lovely pink and green a la dollies...et voila:

(patterned paper: scenic route, basic grey; kraft cardstock: bazzill; cream cardstock: core'dinations; rub-ons: american crafts, basic grey, fancy pants; diecuts: k&co; bird traced from a frances meyer chipboard; flower: prima; brads: making memories, studio g, queen&co; inks: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

the etsy challenge is open until noon on friday, and the dollies' color challenge ends sunday night, so you have time to make a card for each...or be a bit multi-tasky like i have, and see what happens when you blend them together! ♥

flora & fauna... & a fawn!

from the title, you may already have guessed that this week's theme at something completely different was "flora and fauna" and, as was the case for the rest of the month's challenges, we're still making 3x5" skinnis. me being me, the word "fauna" sounded enough like "fawn" that i immediately thought of the paper-pieced deer i was so in love with last fall, so this seemed like a really good time to bring that little guy back for an encore!

(patterned paper: my mind's eye, pink paislee, anna griffin, karen foster, scenic route, prima; butterfly punch: martha stewart; paper-piecing pattern: scrapbooks, etc; rub-ons: all my memories; ink colorbox; pen: copic; label: dymo; adhesives: uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

the deer and tree trunk piecings came from an old copy of "scrapbooks etc" magazine, who, by the way, have an entire archive of free patterns online, if you like that sort of thing! (the deer is HERE) i used a martha stewart punch for the butterflies and the rest of the nature scene is cut from various patterned papers.

since this coming friday is the first in july, SCD will be starting a new format in addition to revealing this week's theme--can't wait to see what it will be! :)

pocketty* goodness!

sometimes i really need to think hard about what i'm going to do for a particular sketch, but not this week: the minute i saw kazan's rather lovely sketch #55 at 2sketches4you...

...with its cool, curvy, scooped-out center bit, i immediately thought, "POCKET CARD!"


and as soon as i'd got that far it wasn't all that much of a stretch to decide that the pocket ought to be made from a transparency, so that the inner bit would be visible. then it was just a matter of choosing papers and embellishments (aka "the FUN part!") and before i knew it i had this:

(transparency & rub-on words: creative imaginations; patterned papers: prima; flowers & ribbon: michaels; bling word: mambi; vellum birthday words and poem: dcwv birthday stack; eyelets: making memories; glitter glue: ranger; ink: color box; adhesives: 3m foam tape, sewing machine; other: tupperware lid used as template to create semi-circular pocket top)

you kind of HAVE TO love a card that practically makes itself, now dontcha??!

♥♥♥

*yes, it is too a word! :)
(all right, maybe not exactly; but titles are the hardest part of blogging (imo!) and it was the best i could do right now; i owe you a snappy--& grammatically correct--blog post title, to be collected next week, ok? thanks!)

best swap theme ever??!?!

when gina found this awesome ART♥o♥MAT site, the first thing she said was, "we have to do a swap based on this!" so we decided to make little packets of art that could (theoretically) be dispensed from converted cigarette machines. of course gina is MUCH faster off the mark with these sort of things than i am, so you've already seen her half of the swap, which was AMAZING! we didn't really have a theme, as such, but gina mentioned that she had used more birds than anything else, and as you know i LOVE birds anyway, so i took that and ran with it.

when i first heard the name ART♥o♥MAT--before i read about them-- i was intrigued, and wondered if such a machine would sell little packages of *ART*...or little packages of art supplies? it turns out the real ones all dispense ART, but the idea of both sort of stuck in my mind, so i decided that my package would consist of something i made AND ALSO ingredients for gina to use, all more or less on a bird theme.

here's the container:


ok, yes, i cheated, i wound up having too much to fit inside, so there are some little envelopes, as well. my "ingredients" are mostly vintage bits cut from books and magazines, stickers, feathers, little game pieces and charms...basically if it was tiny and fun and in some way avian, i put it in the tin!


for my "piece of art" i wanted to make a very inky stampy accordian book type thingie like i made for leah in the spring. partly because i love the idea of working big, but having it fit in a small package... (& in the ART♥o♥MAT swap, the packaging seemed crucial to me!) ...and partly because my favorite art quote of all time just happens to involve birds, and i knew it'd work really well in this context...but mostly, i confess, i just love making little books. :)

the first time i made one of these, i used ranger glossy cardstock, so that the glossy "plasticky" side would reinforce my booklet. this time i went a bit bigger (the unfolded size is 3.5 x 18") and had to use uncoated cardstock. this turned out not realllllllllly to be strong enough, and even while working on it, i could see the folds were not going to last forever. see those swirly green packing tape "leaves"??! those are NOT decoration!!! those are strategically placed, on the outside only, to reinforce the hinges! i *THINK* it works, both mechanically and visually, but next time i will go back to glossy, even if i have to join two pieces to make it big enough.

design-wise, i started with my favorite barnett newman quote:

"aesthetics are, to the artist,

what ornithology must be to birds!"

(i *THINK* the photos can be clicked on to make them bigger

...it is hard to get something wide to fit in blogger's format!)

then i used masks, spray-on and stamping inks, stamps and markers to illustrate and enhance the theme. (this involoved sooooo much more time and activity than that one simple sentence implies, as i'm sure all you stampy types realize!!!) at the end i added a little painted & stamped chipboard bird to the cover, and a ribbon to hold the whole thing closed.



and thus i declare the first annual ART♥o♥MAT swap to be officially concluded! :)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

(~materials~ stamps: purple onion designs, tim holtz, autumn leaves, hero arts, cherry arte, heidi swapp, studio g; spray inks: glimmer mist, radiant rain, ranger distress + perfect pearls made into custom colors; stamping inks: superior india ink, ranger distress, colorbox fluid chalk; masks: heidi swapp; glitter letters: making memories; chipboard bird: maya road; ribbon & decorative packing tape: michaels; labels: dymo; other: vintage images from various books, mint tin, sewing machine, corner rounder)

i took liberties with diana's sketch

from sketch thursdays this week:

or rather, i took liberties with the proportions; because really all the *elements* are there:

(patterned paper & chipboard scallop: my mind's eye; cardstock tags: jenni bowlin; cardstock: core'dinations; flowers: making memories; glass pebble: prima; leaf ribbon: may arts; chipboard word: ek success; other: vintage sheet music, vintage eyelet, silk ribbon, sewing machine; adhesives: uhu gluestick, tombow monorunner, gluedots, 3m foam tape)

i am also not entirely sure i love the over-hanging scallops...which at 10pm last night looked cool and fresh and daring...but those things are ON THERE now, so i'm hoping they'll grow on me! :)

is this service available for online bill payment?

i hope there's something nice in your mail...or your email...today!

(but if not, you can always check out good mail day for some vicarious postal fun!)

♥♥♥

why do the really inky artsy ones...

...never look like i've done very much to them?? case in point, this week's 3x5" "skinni" for something completely different, for which the theme was "blue and white":

(patterned paper (as a verrrrrrry thin frame around the edge): bo bunny; spray inks: glimmer mist + ranger distress re-ink & perfect pearls; stamping & distressing inks: ranger distress, colorbox chalk, tombow markers; stamps: tim holtz, stampin' up, purple onion design, tattered angels; masks: tim holtz; florals: prima; brad: k&co; embroidery floss: dmc; inkjet transparency: 3m; font: carbon type; adhesives: uhu gluestick, tombow monorunner)

i started with white paper (!!!) on which i used masks and spray inks; then i used several different stamps with distress ink, chalk ink and markers; THEN i added my text* on a transparency; finally i stitched a few swirls with embroidery floss. at least you can really SEE those! :)

*this was the quote of the week on stef's blog recently, and i ♥LOVE♥ it! i was thrilled that we were sort of "themeless" this time so i could build my card around it.

heart the art week 25: beauty

for this week's HEART the ART prompt, gina asked us to consider beauty. I had actually embarked in a completely different direction for this one, and only sat down at my computer to format & print some text for a regular (paper) page. the next thing i knew, it was an hour later, and i was still digi-ing away, basically re-creating this layout of gina's (which itself was inspired by this page of amanda's from the digi-dares' dt) just to see if i could pull off the white-space + layered text look. turns out, i could! :) i didn't have a photo that worked really well for this, so i used one of anna aspnes' landscape art papers instead (...with a bit of re-coloring and a few layered brushes on top...) and here's what i came up with:

(software: broderbund printshop 20; digital elements: landscape art paperie #6...and...art play palette #4...both by anna aspnes, designer digitals; cloud brushes: mermaid treasure box kit by mystique designs, o'scraps; fonts: erika ormig & BOBmono downloaded free at dafont.com)

it is quite a distance from what i thought i was making, but i *REALLY* like it! ♥

2birds4...2sketches4you

eta sunday morning: WOW! i am in the ♥FAB FIVE♥ and i could not be more proud!!! thank you 2S4Y, and congrats to COTW and my fellow fab fivians! (all of which are well worth the trip to go see, i promise you!!!)


i confess i was just the teeniest bit stumped for an idea when i first saw laura's sketch #54:

which is why it's such a great thing that 2S4Y shows us some brilliant design team cards as well as their lovely sketches each week; as soon as i saw laura's adorable "pear" card i realized i also needed to make an anniversary card, and this was the perfect sketch to use!

i went with some marah johnson rockstar rub-ons... (yeah, they're fairly ancient by now, but i still~♥~ those things!) ...my last scrap of prima "flirty" paper... (sob!) some american crafts' clouds... and yes, as a matter of fact, the scallops and lines of tiny circles *were* cut from the packaging of some very old "love elsie" product. (yet another sadly discontinued line that i really miss!) isn't it amazing how you can make a full-sized card--this one's 5x7"-- from just a whole bunch of little bits and bobs?!

have i mentioned lately that i ♥LOVE♥ paper??!?! :)

an impressive *12 HOURS* before the deadline! :)

i have managed to complete and post a card made from diana's rather lovely scheme this week at sketchy thursdays:


if you are less enthusiastic about my timeliness, consider that the last couple of weeks i haven't had a chance to play at ST at all...and the sketch from last week was KILLER...and i MISSED IT!!! (not to worry, i have that baby printed & saved & you WILL see it at some point!) :) in the meantime here is my card:

(patterned paper: my mind's eye, basic grey, crafty secrets + vintage sheet music; bird fabric panel: crafty secrets cotton scraps; flowers: michaels; leaves & glass pebble: prima; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, gluedots, sewing machine)

i bought these crafty secrets' cotton scraps (like journaling cards, only made of fabric) at least two years ago. i have pulled them out and admired them probably 77 times... and then put them back and made a card out of something else. i have no idea *WHY* i found them hard to use, they're adorable (mine are bird-themed), a perfect size for cards, and the texture of having real fabric on there is awesome. go figure. of course, me being me: it's taken two years to make the first card... but the packet will be *FINISHED* in a week! :)

♥ happy wednesday, darlings! ♥

heart the art: week 24 (doubt) & a SWAP!

this week's heart the art prompt is DOUBT, a subject very close to my heart...but not in a good way!

yeah, i'm definitely a worrier, from a family of worriers. i try to compensate for this by being as positive a person as a natural worrier from a family of worriers can be. so sometimes i am *VERY* strong and impervious to doubt. and sometimes i am a push-over. and i never know which it's going to be until i am in the midst of whatever worrying situation occurs. i was wondering how i'd sum all of this up in one 4x6" art journal page, when i found this illustration in my "cool things ripped outta magazines" file, and then the rest of the page just sort of fell together.

text reads, "Me & Doubt"

(Who is whom depends on the day.)

(materials: crafty secrets woodgrain patterned paper; magazine illustration glued to staples' photo paper to create a faux polaroid; copic pen; manual typewriter; colorbox ink; masking tape)

and now the swap, or rather *HALF* a swap...and sadly, it's not MY half...but i have to show you now 'cause i can't wait! recently, gina saw this cool story about art-o-mat machines (they're actually old cigarette machines converted to sell small pieces of affordable art; they are in galleries and museums around the country; the closest one to new jersey is at the whitney in nyc, just in case you were wondering!) and suggested we create a swap around the idea. since she is MUCH FASTER than me, she finished first...and the results are completely AWESOME!!!

ok, so obviously this is the card and the "art-o-mat" package gina created. the box is ATC-sized and handmade and completely gorgeous! but wait'll you see the contents...i swear it is like the TARDIS in there, otherwise she could never have fit so much in:


seriously, is that a "WOW" or what??! there are a couple of ATC's (including a fabulous PIRATE one!!!) ...some fabulous inchies...a hand-carved stamp that is probably going to be ALL OVER the next 47 things i make (just warnin' ya now!) ...an embossed clay button...some cool beaded pins...and le piece de resistance: a teeeeeeeeny (1.5 x 3") hand-made art journal!!!!!!!

thank you thank you thank you, miss gina!

you have really reallllllly outdone yourself this time, i am blown away! (& i am very nearly almost halfway done yours!) (no, seriously) (ok, maybe more like 30% done...but i'm workin' on it!) ♥♥♥♥♥

ummmm......"MEOW?"

you may remember that last week's theme on the something completely different challenge blog was "home", for which i made my very first 3x5" "skinni" (similar to an ATC, only taller); this week the theme is "cats". i was a little stumped at first. i mean, i like cats, and i love the lolcats, but i wasn't sure how to make them visually interesting as a collage. then i remembered that in chinese astrology, 2010 is the year of the tiger...and tigers are, afterall, cats...so i was all set!

i think i may have set a record for sheer amount of images incorporated into a 3x5" format: i've got a chinese newspaper background, a pagoda drawing from a "learn chinese" textbook, cliffs and forest from a travel book, and a beautiful tiger illustration from a children's dictionary. you know how much i like things to have depth, so each layer is mounted on foam tape on top of the others; in the end, the space between the tiger's head and the background is about half a centimeter! a chinese coin attached with jewelry wire and a dymo labelled title complete my collage...except for this:


i don't generally decorate the backs of things, but in this case i had quite a bit of leftover tiger, and it seemed a pity to waste him! :)

and now i am looking forward to friday for the next theme!

♥ big apple photo book! ♥

you'll have sussed already that i ♥LOVE♥ this project, and i'm afraid i will not be evincing any additional modesty as the post goes on; so if you're not in the mood for shameless bragging, best to move along now. no hard feelings. i totally understand! :)

ok, so right after stef and i came home from our awesome new york city trip, that lovely lady sent me a 6x6" blank chipboard book shaped like an apple. she thought i might like to fill it with pictures from our trip, and she was right about that. what she didn't know was that i decided immediately to fill it with pictures from our trip...and send it back to *HER*!!! (what can i say...i ♥LOVE♥ surprises...i think i almost like giving them even more than getting them; there is something about benevolent plotting that i really enjoy!) :)

i decided to keep it really simple and minimalist... (ok, ok, simple & minimalist for *ME*!) ...and because i liked the way the shaped pages lined up together, i wanted to try to work FLAT so they would continue to lay nicely when the book was closed. this was a BIG challenge for me--more so even minimalism, actually, 'cause you KNOW how much i love my embellies!--but i did it. want to see? (say yes, say YES!!!)

i used photos taken by stef and i on the trip. i amped up the contrast and saturation a bit in photoshop, just to make them pop a little more.

the biggest decision was what to do about journaling. i'd already made a travel book, for one thing, and i wanted stef to be able to make her own book...with her own words...if she wanted to; so i really pondered for a bit.

finally i decided to go with quotes about new york. a simple google search found me PLENTY of sources and i copied my favorites into a text document.

then it was just a question of matching the best quotes with appropriate photos, and fitting the text on in broderbund's printshop*.

i added a rhonna farrer swirl brushes to each page as decoration--and ok yeah--sometimes to cover up a bit of distracting background or blank space!

i used a bit of vintage new york map for the inside front and outside back covers. the edges of the chipboard pages got colored black with a sharpie marker & i inked the edges of the photos and map papers before gluing them on. (i almost always cover chipboard in this way: i am *FAR* too lazy to trim 10 times around an apple shape with an exacto knife; i just use my regular scissors to cut slightly smaller than the page & gluestick those babies on there!)

et voila! a one-of-a-kind souvenir for a one-of-a-kind travel companion! ♥♥♥

**********
*i made a sort of mock-up of the page shape but it still took quite a few test printings to get the size right. in future, i would just SCAN the shape and use it as a digital template! (i know, i know, this seems OBVIOUS in retrospect. most simple engineering solutions do seem obvious to me in--and ONLY IN--retrospect. sad but true!) :)

(~materials~ apple book: studio 18; software: pse5 for photo enhancement & broderbund printshop for layout and text; digital brushes: flourish clusters by rhonna farrer, house of 3; font: mom's typewriter downloaded from dafont.com; photo paper: kodak premium; chipboard letters: heidi swapp; puffy heart sticker: sticko; various bits of ribbon, book ring & blue rhinestone flourishes: michaels; adhesives: uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

i think i've reached the "hybrid" tipping point

the distinction between digital supplies and "real" ones is becoming a lot less important and less noticeable to me. a few years ago i felt much the same way about using vintage ephemera: it was quite a novelty to begin with, and then it just became my common way of operating. nowadays i find that many of my cards have a bit of old paper or ribbon, some specially purchased papercrafting products, and one or two digital files or images. i think it's a really nice balance!

last night i rotated kazan's sketch #54:



but otherwise stuck almost 100% literally to the sketch. (i know, i know--how often does THAT happen, lol??!?!) here's what i came up with:

(digi supplies: papers: cherry sugar sunshine kit by girl friday, digichick; frame: french oohlala tag brushes by rhonna farrer, house of 3; vintage supplies: sheet music; crafty supplies: papers & butterfly: k&co madeline collection; bling flourish: recollections (re-cut to fit); rub-on: basic grey; inks: colorbox; embroidery floss: dmc; adhesives: tombow monorunner, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

ok, so what's "real" on here and what's "hybrid"? the frame with the flowers is digi, as is the (subtly re-colored to fit my scheme) pale pink smudgy background paper behind it...but... the flowers are hand-colored with copics..."celebrate" is a rub-on
...and the very very thin border of dark magenta around the frame was added manually after i cut out the panel. the dark pink distressed damask print that makes up most of the background is digi again, but the pale green card panel and butterfly are k&co right off the rack at michaels. two of the three layers that make up the horizontal strip are also scrapbooking papers, whereas the sheet music is vintage. the very thin line of dark pink stitching is hand sewn with embroidery floss.

so there you go: a little bit of everything, really, and now all i need is an envelope!

making a scene...

...for the current challenge at something completely different! this month the format is going to be "skinnis". (ok, no, i hadn't heard of them either; but they're 3x5" and kind of fun!) every friday SCD will give us a new theme--this week's is HOME and here is my skinni:

(patterned paper: prima, doodlebug, basic grey + vintage book paper & a bit of marbly red from an advertisement; cardstock: core'dinations whitewash collection (embossed with paisley cuttlebug folder); label die: nestibilities; bird rubber stamp: hero arts; flowers: prima; decorative woodgrain packing tape: tapeswell; spray inks (used to make background): glimmer mist, radiant rain & a couple of (HEY MARI!!!) distress ink + perfect pearls custom combos! :) adhesives: uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

my drawing skills are seriously limited and date from in nursery school, but one thing i can draw, or even freehand-cut confidently, is clouds! (also trees and big funky flowers...actually i draw the same thing for all three and just change to an appropriate color in between!!!) :) when i saw heidi's herringbone-embossed clouds the other day i knew i wanted to try a similar look...how cool to have the chance this soon! (mine are paisley, but i still love 'em.) meanwhile, the second card in this post of leslie's reminded me how much i love nestie labels...and makes me want to try layering several shapes together! (i kind of ran out of room on this thing, so it's just got one, but NEXT TIME, i tell ya!!!)

the entire time i was working i had the traditional sentiment "home is where the HEART is" in mind; only at the very verrrrrrry end (when i was actually TYPING the words, in fact) did it occur to me to substitute ART, but i think that might be my favorite thing on here! ♥

heart the art week 23: hidden thoughts

this week, for HEART the ART it was like gina read my mind: i totally needed to get a few things off my chest and her "hidden thoughts" prompt was just the push i needed to write it all down... (mostly on the back of the bird card, but a little bit on the front as well) ...and then cover it up and make it beautiful!

(digital bird & branch images (printed on vintage sheet music adhered to index stock): feathered friends kit, gina cunningham, tyggereye art; vintage ledger paper; rub-ons: autumn leaves & making memories; inks: ranger, colorbox, stewart superior & tombow markers; stamps: tim holtz, sassafras, stampin' up, autumn leaves; adhesive: uhu gluestick; other: gesso, sewing machine)

ok, whether or not we agree this is beautiful to look at...i had a blast adding layer after layer of gesso, ink, markers, and a million rubber stamps before sewing on top and finally adding a little advice to myself via rub-on alphabets. so to me, this page is definitely beautiful AND i feel a lot better now. thanks, g! ♥♥♥

that high pitched noise you hear...

...is me squeeeeeeeeeeaking in under the 2sketches4you deadline on laura's rather awesome sketch 53:


my card is a VERY loosey-goosey version of the sketch...even for me! what can i tell you? inside my head, the "DAD" letters looked a lot more centered. and there wasn't a bird until quite late in the game. but you know these things take on a life of their own and sometimes you just have to go with it, right?!

(patterned paper: stemma, we r memory keepers; bird digi element (printed on vintage sheet music): gina cunningham, tyggereye art; plastic letters: heidi swapp; woodgrain tape: tapeswell; leafy ribbon: may arts; rub-on notes: maya road; label: dymo; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monor runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i must say i really like how this came out: i covered some very old ghost letters with my new favorite supply--decorative packing tape; the bird is a silhouette i cut using gina's "feathered friends" kit; and the black leaves on the background paper are spot laminated so that they have quite a bit of shine, irl.

more importantly, lovely husband jeff really likes how this came out...which is nice since it is his dad's father's day card! and now i think my work here is through! ♥

*********************

eta sunday morning: many thanks to leslie for the head's up that i made FAB FIVE and many thanks to 2S4Y!!! how especially cool to get in there with a "guy card"--by far the most challenging category for me! ♥♥♥

twinchies: betcha can't make just one!

this was going to be *tomorrow's* post...until i re-read the particulars at something completely different and realized they post a NEW theme every friday morning, so i have to get these in tonight to make the deadline!

anyway, their challenge for all four fridays of may was to make twinchies... (like inchies...but 2x2" instead of 1x1") ...and this week's theme was "crowns". for some reason, the lovely miss stephanie thought i'd be interested in making crown-themed items (go figure!!!) so she sent me a link! (thanks, stef!) :)

i had a LOT of ideas, but probably the strongest involved...for some reason...butterflies, so i went with a "monarch" theme, and tried it three different ways.

a diecut & some german scrap on a fancy digi-background:

a vintage lady with punched butterflies & a patterned paper crown:

and an inky machine-stitched silhouette with a 3d sticker:

those are my takes on twinchies with crowns. i wonder what this month's format will be? can't wait to find out! ♥

(materials: digi papers: landscape art #6 by anna aspnes & fancy garden edgers by katie pertiet, both designer digitals; vintage & misc items: german scrap crown, hindi newspaper, vintage lady illustration & text from a book, sheet music, dymo labels; patterned paper: k&co, teresa collins, basic grey; gems: recollections; crown sticker: jolees; butterfly punch: martha stewart; adhesives: uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

it's a...LOL castle??!

well, whatever you call it, it totally cracks me up!

happy thursday, darlings!

birds of a feather (blogged together!)

i was on a roll last night and made *THREE* more cards using gina's new feathered friends digi-kit! one of them was even inspired by two different challenges...but both are sort of loosey-goosey so i will not mind if the challenge-setters do not quite agree with me there! :) i combined this week's 365 cards sketch:

with the design dollies' color palette:

and came up with THIS:

(digital elements: feathered friends digikit, gina cunningham, tyggereye art; software: broderbund printshop; font: mom's typewriter; white cardstock: staples; kraft cardstock: bazzill; inkjet transparency: 3m; photo paper: kodak; inks: colorbox; pearls (re-colored w/copics): kaiser; ribbon: may arts; epoxy heart: sticko; rhinestone heart: recollections; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

for my next card, i combined the tree, branch and cherry blossom elements digitally in my favorite graphics & layout program, broderbund printshop...and then cut the overhanging bits out by hand to layer them over some leafy 7 gypies patterned paper. instead of using one of the cute birds from the kit, i stamped my favorite hand-carved robin on some vintage text paper, to show how well gina's real life supplies mix with her virtual ones!

(digital elements: feathered friends digikit gina cunningham, tyggereye art; software: broderbund printshop; cardstock: core'dinations; photo paper: kodak; inks: colorbox, ranger & stewart superior; ribbon: may arts; very VERY old twill letters (that i still totally ♥!) by making memories; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, uhu gluestick, sewing machine)

the last card is the smallest (not quite 4x4") ...and maybe my favorite, since it sort of accidentally MADE ITSELF! i layered the goldfinch transparency onto some text paper for yesterday's card, and then decided he wasn't quite right. so he was just sort of sitting around while i made the other cards last night and as i was sorting through a pile of stuff, he flew off the table and landed on this scrap of basic grey patterned paper...where he looked rather fabulous as you can see:

(digital elements: feathered friends digikit & dino love kit-- gina cunningham, tyggereye art; software: broderbund printshop; cardstock: core'dinations; photo paper: kodak; inks: colorbox, ranger & stewart superior; ribbon: may arts; very VERY old twill letters (that i still totally ♥!) by making memories; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, uhu gluestick, sewing machine)

never one to look a gift horse--or even a gift BIRD--in the mouth, i grabbed a leftover bit of leafy ribbon and a couple of rub-ons and called it a night! (dontcha just ♥LOVE IT♥ when that happens??!?!?) :)