have yourself a very vintage christmas!

this week at jingle belles not only is the prompt one of my very favorite styles, our lovely guest star is one of my very favorite bloggers! that's right, we're incorporating VINTAGE STYLE into our creations, (whether that be in the form of ACTUAL old items... OR a digital version of antique cards or tags... OR some of the many lovely new papercrafting products with "vintage style"... OR a combination of all of the above!) and we are very fortunate indeed that the lovely linda brun has come along to show us how it's done, so i hope you will check out her lovely work and of course miss stephanie's, as well!

for the centerpiece of my card, i chose a very pretty illustration from one of my treasured ideals christmas magazines, which i've embellished with some new and digital products, and i'm quite pleased with the result: 

(vintage: illustration from an ideals christmas magazine; digi: christmas greetings tag, "christmas labels" collage sheet, from the digital paper shop; patterned paper: creative imaginations, fancy pants; fabric ribbon: webster's pages; florals: we r memory keepers, prima, bazzill; vintage style snowflake ornaments: k and co; brads: my mind's eye; rhinestone flourish: recollections: adhesives: tombow monorunner, scotch gluestick, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

i used this week's mojo monday sketch (#247), opting for the square format, though i think this might've been very cool as a round card, actually: 

it just so happened that miss leslie recently shared some of her gorgeous vintage-looking (but brand new!) webster's pages fabric ribbon with me, and when i saw the wide band on the sketch i knew it was the PERFECT thing! add to that the fact that i'd just won, via city crafter, a gorgeous digital paper shop collage sheet (i chose the lovely vintage-inspired christmas labels) and i had the makings for a really fun little collage of NEW embellishments to enhance my vintage illustration!

since the subject of vintage goodies is one that's especially near and dear to my heart i thought i should celebrate by adding a few holiday ephemera packs to my etsy shop, just enough stuff, and start off by giving one of them--and a $10 g/c-- to one of the lucky cardmakers who links up with us at jingle belles this week!

i've been collecting the ingredients for these all year... not to mention raiding my own stash of fun stuff. each pack has more than twenty different sheets (plus a few extras!) and they are roughly divided into two-thirds illustrations and text: from children's books, ideals magazine, the louis allis messenger, cookbooks, crafts books, holiday "how to" books and... well, lots more! there are recipes, poems, how-to's, drawings, stories, holiday traditions; every conceivable style is represented from cute to elegant, fun to funky... and plenty of full-on kitsch; representing both the religious and secular aspects of the holiday season! here's an example taken from a random packet--remember they are all different, so there's a fun sort of "lucky dip" aspect!

the remaining third of the packet is music: sheet music (with and without lyrics) of all different sizes and shapes; some are even double-sided! there are hymns and popular songs of all ages, a few are even illustrated! again, every selection is different, but they are all rather fab (IMO!!!) and here is one random pack's worth:

to give you an idea of the range of content, here are bunch of different christmas packs that are listed in my shop:

i hope you'll stop in and look around, so that you'll know what to choose as your prize if you're our lucky JINGLE BELLES winner!!!

hooray for the red, white and blue...

... *CUPCAKE*??!?!?!

ok, it must be said that some of my ideas make more sense inside my head; but this week at shopping our stash challenge #57, we are making cards that are either red, white and blue... OR which incorporate stars or stripes... or BOTH!

(patterened paper (all scraps!!!): scrapbook wizard, sei, making memories, doodlebug, dcwv, october afternoon, reminisce, echo park; glossy white cardstock: ranger; alphas: ek success; heart gem sticker: mambi; label: dymo; ink: colorbox; adhesives: 3m foam tape, tombow monorunner, sewing machine)

and as a matter of fact, i think this is just quite a cute card, in fun bright colors; but if you'd like to be patriotic, feel free to add that aspect, as well. remember, in addition to the USA, the flags of england, australia, norway, france, luxembourg, the czech republic, iceland, the netherlands, russia, slovakia, slovenia, cambodia, laos, nepal, north korea, thailand, liberia, cuba, panama, the dominican republic, chile, new zealand, and western samoa all share the same color scheme, so there is plenty of room here to manoeuvre!

as it happens, the june color challenge on the EAD designs blog is also red, white and blue:

so if you make a card or other project for either one before june 30th, you can get a "two-fer". if you need a bit of inspiration, be sure to check out the other SOS design team cards, they are (as always!) quite awesome... not that i am biased on the subject of my dt sisters' talent and creativity in any way!!! (ok maybe just a liiiiiiiiiiiitle bit!) (for that matter, the EAD gals' work is fabulous, as well!) :) :) :)

ICAD(2): week 3

i had a great time making my week three ICAD cards last week; but somehow i just ran out of time to photo and post them. so here's a bumper crop for you, of all seven of them... together!

card#15: colored pencils on black

i randomly dropped a few blobs of black glossy craft paint on a card, smooshed it with another card and let the various circles dry completely before turning them into the centers of big weird flowers. i had planned to use prismacolor pencils on top of the black, but for some reason they didn't show up at all well, so i wound up using galaxy markers instead; but i did use the prismas for shading the petals.

 card#16: secret message

i do a lot more ART than JOURNALING on these things (and just in general) but every once in a while i will write (or rant!) a bunch of negativity and then cover it up. this is one of those. i love the innocuous combination of knitting pattern and fluffy kitten... smothered in rub-ons and little bits of misted japanese text.

 card#17: make a pocket

i had saved this bit of envelope because i liked the little travel icons, but as it turns out, it makes a nice little pocket to hold a few new york souvenirs. 

  

card#18: perfume

weirdly enough i had cut this cute little guy out of a vintage book the day before the week three prompt list was posted, and it made me wonder: *DO* skunks smell bad to other skunks? or just to us?? 

 card#19: your name

one of the best parts of this project (and art journaling, generally, for that matter) is the chance to randomly combine supplies for no reason other than i just LIKE them all, without worrying too much if they turn out well. this is kind of a mess... but in a *GOOD* pink, sparkleeeeeeee way, lol! :)

card#20: the universe

when i'm stumped on a theme i'll often go do a keyword search at think/exist and see what comes up... this quote is a new fave and didn't seem to need much gussying up!

card#21: chandelier/swirl

this is the most serendipitous of the cards, and a two-fer, to boot, so it may be my favorite at the moment: a leftover chandelier transparency, the last bit of prima's doily packaging, book paper misted with swirls, a little scrap of cool norwegian sheet music from miss linda... and possibly the FASTEST collage ever, made about 5 minutes before bedtime!

more index cards soon... and maybe some greeting cards, too! ♥

because it's SUNday...

...and because i can never resist a title which writes itself, lol! ...and because i'm so excited about this one i'm going to show you my card first thing and then explain:

(patterned paper scraps--off the top of my head: paper co, glitz, imaginisce, echo park, dcwv,  sei, k and co, 7 gypsies, current, gcd, creative imaginations + origami paper + pink paislee packaging + some glimmer mist experiments of mine... a little bit of EVERYTHING really!; decorative tapes: freckled fawn, hambly, making memories, heidi swapp, ocheck, 7 gypsies; plastic alphas: tim holtz; adhesives: scotch gluestick, tombow monorunner, sewing machine)

i'm absolutely ALWAYS inspired by laurel seabrook's "inspired by challenges", even in the weeks i don't get a chance to play. i love the variety of the images, i love the unique and amazing projects laurel creates each week, and i love how open she is to an array of entries which take ANY facet of the inspirational image and run in ANY direction with it, however tangential the finished item might turn out to be! this time, however, i've gone preeeeeeeeeetty much as literally as one possibly could without using fabric. you've seen my card, so now here's this week's "inspired by image" (#29):

told ya!!! :) but then i really do just ♥LOVE♥ making sunburst cards* and haven't made one in far too long, so i could not resist. also, i happened to see the photo, after unexpectedly coming across the yellow torn-paper-mosaic (made but abandoned some time ago) and i knew it would make an awesome sunshine; plus... i'd just seen this week's colour q palette (#142) which is BRILLIANT in every sense of the word:

of course, i realize i have A LOT more shades of yellow, and hardly any coral, so i will understand if my card is disqualified for that one!

whatever happens, i do hope this day will find ♥YOU♥ awash in sunshine... whether it be the literal weather-based type, or the figurative "pleasant weekend" type. shine on, darlings! ♥

*the lovely miss june reminded me recently that i actually wrote a little semi-tutorial a few years ago, on how to very easily make nice neat sunburst sections; however i didn't use it to make this one, i just winged it, cutting wedge shapes, letting them overlap a bit, and "adjusting" a bit using decorative tape over top. i kind of like the wonky look, actually, but it you don't, use a ruler and make your segments uniform for a more polished take!

happy ♥HULA♥ days!

if you've been suspecting that the current "MELE KALIKIMAKA" prompt at jingle belles (in which we're making holiday cards with a "tropical" or "hot" theme... in ANY way that appeals to you from a beachy theme to tropical colors or... whatever way you'd like to!) is down to me, you're quite right! jeff and i came home from hawaii last year about a month before christmas with lots of fun hawaiian themed christmas presents for our family and friends, and i had sooooooooo much fun giving "island style" to my gift-wrapping and cards, that i thought i'd share it!!!

something else we brought home from our vacation: plenty of souvenirs with an adorable island dancer on them, including coffee mugs we loved using all winter long, and a deck of playing cards i knew from the start were destined never to play a single hand of ANYTHING! this holiday greeting was built entirely around one of those, and i have so say (a bit immodestly!) that i'm pretty pleased with it: 

(hula honeys playing card from one of the verrrrrry mannnnnny ABC convenience stores in waikiki; patterned paper: creative imaginations, we-r-memory keepers, echo park, basic grey; alphabets: creative imaginations, american crafts; florals: prima, imaginisce; leaves: oriental trading; stickers: basic grey, fancy pants, sandylion, love elsie, recollections, american crafts;  stick pin: making memories; brads and twine: doodlebug; pearls: kaiser; ribbon: michaels; pen: copic outliner; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape) 

for the layout of my design, i was inspired by unscripted sketch #163...

...and for fully five minutes i truly believed my my finished card might actually reflect the clean and simple lines of the sketch, because it looked very nice with just the background paper, playing card, flowers and sentiment panel. but a leopard can't change her spots... and i can't resist an opportunity to embellish! so i added A BUNCH of tiny stickers, brads, pearls, twine, chipboard buttons, etc; both from my holiday stash AND my hawaiian goodies, until i had my customary laureny sense of "island overload", lol!

remember that ♥YOU♥ do not have to assay anything overtly hawaiian to play along with us at JINGLE BELLES this week. you can tackle our islandy theme by incorporating a few "tropical" flowers or even just by using "hot" colors in your design. take as little or as much inspiration from this prompt as you'd like... and then c'mon over and link up with us before next wednesday night! in the meantime, 

♥aloha, darlings!♥

time after time (after time...)

for this week's city crafter challenge (#114 time after time) we need to include at least one clock in our project; i've added a few extras, just to be safe!

(patterned paper: teresa collins, graphic 45, glitz, melissa frances; chipboard border sticker: crate paper; epoxies: k and co; brads: my mind's eye; gem swirls: recollections; circle punches: ek success; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, glue dots, sewing machine)

i've used mostly leftovers from various pixie dust paperie kits on this card, i love that you can mix and match elements from lots of different ones and have them look fab together! colorwise, i've used this week's palette (#56) from CR84FN:

grey is a color i confess i can sometimes forget about, but every time i use it i love it more; and i think it's particularly nice with yellow and a few neutrals. somehow butterflies and clocks seemed to go rather nicely together, i'm not sure why, but that's what i went with and i think it turned out ok. i've got a few more ICAD(2) index cards to show you, hopefully i will get them photo-ed and posted for tomorrow. 


ciao for now, darlings! ♥


ETA about 5 minutes later: i just popped over to CCCB to link up and noticed (almost accidentally, i'm afraid!) that i had the honor of winning last week's challenge with my button card; MOST exciting as the prize is to GDT at city crafter and being amongst that talented group of ladies is ALWAYS a great pleasure! also saw that it is miss cheryl's birthday, and thus i wish her a VERY happy day, and the start of her most fulfilling year yet! ♥♥♥♥♥

SOS56: stuck on stickers!

this week at shopping our stash there is absolutely NO EXCUSE for not joining in, because the brief is to use any type of stickers from your stash: alpha, trims, puffy, clear, chipboard, etc; and we all have TONS of those suckers, am i right?

my card features two different types of alphabet stickers as well as 2/3 of the packet of exotic bird stickers with which i fell in love AGES ago, but then could not quiiiiiiiiiiite figure out how to use. i'm STILL not sure i've figured it out, actually... but for better or for worse, i have USED THEM:

(patterned paper: we r memory keepers, creative imaginations; bird stickers: k and co; alphas: american crafts, heidi swapp; cardstock: core'dinations; pen: copic multiliner; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape)

so what glorious but forgotten sticker treasures are lurking in ♥YOUR♥ stash? i think it's time to go raid your supplies, make something, and link up at SOS, don't you?! (say "yes", say "YES!")

this is by far the most buttons i've ever used on one project!

but this week the ladies at city crafter challenge blog wanted to see LOTS of buttons, so by golly i've pulled out all the stops! here is my seriously button-intensive card:

 (vintage: buttons + lace; patterned paper: dcwv + a bit of tim holtz packaging and some torn cardboard from a discarded mailing box; cardstock: core'dinations; brackets: pink paislee; chipboard sticker: my mind's eye; pearls: kaiser; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, hot glue, sewing machine)

the idea of the button-encrusted heart came serendipitously from this awesome button animal tutorial that was in miss stephanie's "link love" post last thursday; the focus on textures (particularly the corrugated cardboard) and neutral colors with little pops of steely blue came from miss laurel's "rustic wreath" inspired by challenge (#28) for which this was the photo prompt, you can see i've not used it very literally, but i most definitely *WAS* inspired by it, so i hope that counts!

as it happened, that photo coincidentally chimed in rather well with this week's color throwdown palette, #196:

whenever i make a card like this people ask, "but how the heck are you going to MAIL THAT?!" well, in this case, it's most likely going to be my sister's anniversary card and thus will be delivered in person; but i do actually send things like this in the post quite frequently, in a small padded jiffy mailer. with a piece of cardboard placed over the lumpy bits for protection, and a bit of packing tape for reinforcement, it will arrive at its destination just fine!

i hope whatever ♥YOUR♥ destination is this monday morning, you arrive there happily and in good health, with plenty of energy and excitement for this brand new week! (or, alternately, with plenty of coffee to get you moving!) :) :) :)

(i)CADdyshack!

ok, yeah, clearly i have OFFICIALLY run out of blog post titles, so please bear with me until i have time to run out to the market for more! in the meantime, let's see some additional index cards based on daisy yellow art's week two prompt list. (thankfully, none of them involve chevy chase!) (sorry, chevy, no offense!) :)

card #11: stripes

i couldn't decide whether to combine strips of lots of different striped patterned papers... OR to doodle a bunch of rows... so i split the difference and "outlined" as many striped papers as i could fit on one card. (for the record, that was *9*!) 

card #12: use all of your blue art materials

ok, so, i didn't quite manage to use ALL my blue art materials, but i did use *only* blue things (except for some green distress ink to which i'd accidentally switched the lid and thus THOUGHT i'd be stamping in blue!) which include: mists, inks, gesso colored with dye (& embedded with glitter), prismacolor pencils (blended with gamsol), gems, paper flowers, pearls (colored with copics), decorative/washi tapes, a tiny fish sticker, and a big honkin' butterfly.

card #13: decorate the corners

here's a card i made right after my dental surgery, can you tell??!!! :) admittedly, it's a bit of a "doodle overload" but it distracted me for nearly an hour, which at the time was beyond awesome! the monstas are my beloved mick-n-keef, hand-carved stamps made especially for me by my girl gina, for a monsta-themed ATC swap we did a couple of years ago; i have used them towards the beginning of every new art journaling project and even on a couple of cards. (thus, you cannot actually buy THESE, but g has many other cool hand-carved stamps in her etsy shop!)

card #14: winter colors

this is lovely husband jeff's favorite so far, and a bit of almost shockingly wonderful serendipity: i just happened to stumble upon that print of one of our snowy back-yard trees photoshopped into warholian colorways whilst looking for something else, and thought, "AHA! winter COLORS!!!" :)

that's it for now. hopefully by tomorrow i'll have put the finishing touches on my card for the current CCCB challenge, which involes more buttons than i have ever used together on one project. (wahey!) so c'mon back if you've got a moment. ciao, darlings! ♥

mele kalikimaka*? in june?!

well, yes! because seeing as how some of us are keen enough (or--arguably-- mad enough!) to make our christmas cards year-round, then surely it follows (semi) logically that the best possible holiday cards to make as we officially move into summer are ♥TROPICAL♥ ones, no?! so this week at JINGLE BELLES we're asking you to make your holidays hot, hot, hot! 

you can do this by using bold, saturated colors... or by incorporating tropical flora and fauna... or by taking santa from the north pole to the beach... OR... well, however you'd like to interpret "hot" or "tropical" in a holiday context! it will probably not surprise anyone that i went ALL OUT with the hawaiian theme, lol:

(digital collage made with color splash kit by deviant art for somerset digital magazine and travel clusters #1 by katie pertiet, designer digitals; patterned paper: doodlebug; cardstock: core'dinations; alphas: american crafts, making memories; flower stickers: sadylion, sticko; adhesives: tombow monorunner, sewing machine)

if the digital collage on this card looks eerily familiar to you, there's a reason; of course it's the one i made for my hawaii travel book, and later i used it for a few gift bags and even a couple of cards with a design similar to this one. believe it or not, i actually debated for quite some time whether it was "ok" to use it yet again... at which time i realized that sometimes i get soooooooooo focused on "reinventing the wheel" with every card that i forget it's not only acceptable to do repeats, it's actually a really good way to save time and money!  this particular incarnation of said collage is currently my fave... but i would not rule out future, even more beloved, versions! so there!  :) :) :)

i hope you'll get into the tropical groove and hula your way over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to play along. not only will you have fun now... you'll be sitting pretty in december! :)

*mele kalikimaka means "merry christmas" in hawaiian and is one of my very very favorite holiday songs; i like both the 1950's version by bing crosby and also the more recent one by jimmy buffet. (the links go to youtube versions of the song; if you've never heard it i highly recommend an educational click!)

are we having fun yet??!?!

if you're talking about the index-card-a-day project at daisy yellow art, then the answer is an immediate and emphatic, "YES!!!" so much so, that i again renew my urging to anyone who's "on the fence" about participating: even if you don't think you can do it every day... even if you don't think you'd like to share your cards with the blogiverse... why not give it a little bit of a try at home, in secret, and just see if maybe it's something you might want (or need?!) to do, afterall? just a thought. end of evangelical art sermon... wanna see some more of my cards? (please be a sport and say yes, otherwise this post will fall a bit flat quite quickly!)

cool! thanks! here ya go; all the prompts come from (entirely optional, but i love using them!) week two list:

card #8: suitcase

ok, this one is a very slight cheat in that i used plain cheap staples-brand index stock instead of an index card, but it was necessary, because as soon as i read the word "suitcase" this whole entire idea (including the faux croc paper, the luggage tag and the stitching!) arrived in my head fully formed. but wait, you haven't seen the best part yet...

uh-huh!!! it OPENS!!! and there's a suitcase full of clothes--courtesy of an old magazine photo i saved for reasons i cannot possibly explain; there's even a little magnetic closure thingie at the top to hold the suitcase shut! (yes, for the record, i *AM* insane... have you really only just twigged to that NOW??!) :) :) :)

card #9: alphabet stamps

ok, this one's much more sensible and art journal-y: one of my favorite quotes stamped with tiny studio g alphas, and a piece of sticky canvas i'd stamped and painted months ago but then (mysteriously) did not use.

card #10: black and white

of course my ICAD ramblings would not be complete without at least one collage, so here it is. lots of fun to work with shape and theme, but WITHOUT color for once... i have the feeling you'll be seeing more black and white creations in future!

i know for sure you'll be seeing more index cards... and i'd love to see yours, too!!! ♥

an awesome thing happened at the periodontist!

now *THERE* is a sentence of english i suspect does not get a whole lot of use from one year to the next, and the fact that it me saying it makes it even more bizarre, right?

but last night when i went for the first of my two dental surgeries, it turned out that the dentist was able to not only do the planned extraction but he actually put in the implant as well!!! i won't go into details (because, EWWWWWWWWW!) but the main thing is that this doctor, being a very nice guy who really seems to "get" the whole phobia thing, had told me beforehand that on this particular tooth an implant almost ALWAYS needs to be a two-step process, (and that he would not take any shortcuts if that was the case) but... that he would make sure especially to have everything ready to go on the off-chance that when he got in there he felt it would be viable to do all at once; and somehow, kinda miraculously, it WAS! so instead of having the prospect of a second "big-deal" procedure hanging over my head for the next four months, i only need to heal, have the bone graft tested in october and then get the crown done!

this is HUGE for me, and the best news i could possibly have had, and i'm pretty sure it all of your thoughts, well-wishes and prayers zooming in from all over the interwebz which is responsible!

THANK YOU, darlings, so very, very much!!!

♥♥♥

and now, if you'll excuse me, i have to get going, i have a full schedule, and a number of crucial meetings with both ben AND jerry today! :) :) :) (because high-end dentistry demands high-end frozen desserts, obviously!!!)

does anyone have the phone number for the witness protection program??!

by which i mean: today's THE BIG DAY*, dentally, not that i'm freaking out or anything, why do you ask??!

luckily, every tuesday is a big day at shopping our stash, and this week is more than cool enough to take one's mind off one's mouth-- miss carla is asking us to combine at least two different ribbons or twines, or both! since both of these elements tend to be a bit neglected in my stash... (unlike, say, leslie, i'm a bit "ribbon impaired!) ...i was happy for the push to try to use them in an interesting manner, and i think i succeeded; but you tell me:

(glossy white cardstock: ranger; pink digi paper (printed on kodak premium photostock): somerset "color splash" by deviant art; ribbons: imaginisce; twine: doodlebug; pennants: pink paislee; birthday stickers: mambi; tiny gel stickers: from a dollar store in jackson heights; adhesives: tombow monorunner, scotch gluestick, sewing machine) 

i used last week's unscripted sketch (#161) admittedly in a bit of a loosey goosey way, but then that's kind of how i roll! 

and now i hope YOU will roll over to SOS and see my lovely fellow DTs' awesome examples so that you'll be inspired to "tie one (or rather TWO) on" with us this week!!!

*specifically 5pm (EST) is my appt; this is the extraction and bone graft for the implant tooth. everyone i've talked to who's done it says this is much less harrowing than, say, a root canal; but being phobic i get freaked out just getting my teeth cleaned** so i will not be ok until it's over. if you're not doing anything at quittin' time, send some vibes my way, ok? ta v much, darlings! ♥


**yes, i am serious. and no, i don't know why. as a child i was afraid of the dentist before i even knew what it was. and if you're thinking, "oh she must've learned that from a parent or someone" then how do you explain my younger brother and sister living with my terrible example and never being scared for a minute, even as tiny little kids? yeah, it's a puzzle. 5pm... please?! ♥♥♥

it's a beachy keen pixie challenge!

if, like me, you enjoy SUMMER FUN, papercrafting and prizes, then you need to walk, run, float or flutter your way over to the pixie dust paperie blog and link up a project inspired by this fabulous vintage photo:

   
don't you love it? that could be me and my brother at the jersey shore circa 1970! i can see A LOT of ways to go with this one, can't you? in fact, the thing that took me longest was deciding what to do! i went with a general "beachy" theme... and brought in a few of the colors, as well. see?

(glossy white cardstock and ink: ranger; patterned paper: basic gre, my mind's eye; "hello": EAD sentiments rub-ons; stickers: sandylion; rhinestone stick-on: prima; label: dymo; pen: copic multiliner; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape)

i rotated and used the fabulous june sketch at a new-to-me challenge blog called love my tapes:

despite an increasing washi obsession, this time i actually used paper scraps on the thin strips of the sketch, since i wanted to get the feeling of blue skies and the ocean in there. unusually for me there is a PLAIN WHITE background!!! i'm not sure why, except i knew i was adding a lot of color and pattern already with the stickers, and i couldn't come up with something i liked better. in retrospect i sort of wish i'd used one of the white-on-white papers from basic grey's basics line, but i think i kind of still like this, too.

there are many more-- and far more glorious-- projects to see from our challenge design team over at the pixie blog, so why not DIVE IN, darlings?! ♥

ballerina girl

all of the design team goodies at the city crafter challenge blog are gorgeous every single week, of course, but for this week's challenge (#112: coppelia) they are even more than usually extraordinary, and i couldn't wait to get stuck in!

(vintage: ballerina, sheet music; patterned paper: k and co, prima, transparency frame: glitz; rub-ons: glitz, basic grey, mambi; flourish and doily packaging: prima; border stickers: crate paper; butterfly wings: daisy d's; adhesives: tombow monorunner, scotch gluestick, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i found the ballerina in a vintage book about dancing, the sheet music in my etsy collection, and the rest of the (MANY) additional embellies in my stash. i found the roadmap i used at retrosketches (#14)...

...but missed the deadline. for that matter, i am not exactly in their fabulous "C&S" vein either, so it might be just as well, lol! :) still i had a GREAT time making this, and do hope you'll check out the lovely ladies at both of these inspiring websites! ♥

let's put the "MENTAL" back in "experimental"

in short, for june and july, let's go crazy with the index card a day habit from the daisy yellow art blog and try some things we're totally not good at and make really weird cards and HAVE FUN! who's with me? awesome, let's go! here are my latest cards:

 card #5: draw your camera

ok, this is the sort of prompt i ordinarily just skip over. because much to my lifelong dismay, and despite classes and books and practice, i cannot draw. at all. but this whole project is about PROCESS rather than OUTCOME, right? so i thought it should be high on my list. and i have to say, despite the fact that my drawing looks like the work of a not very promising fifth grader, it does also look like a very simplified, 2-D version, of my camera!!! and thus i am really proud of this card! :) :) :)

card#6: doodle your name

speaking of fifth grade, that was probably the last time i doodled my name, and it felt kind of weird to do so without someone droning on about algebra for 20 minutes whilst i worked. on the other hand, there were no sewing machines in mr. tregaskis' classroom, and we didn't have awesome white pigment pens back in the olden days, either.

card#7: dictionary

after my bold adventures i was kind of happy to get back to the terra firma of collage... this one's a "two-fer" (kinda) in that the background is a page from the marvellous vintage chinese dictionary my friend liz (who teaches chinese) recently gave me, and one of the other prompts for the week was "dragon-fly"! (work with me, people! work with me!)

oh yeah, i made covers* between which to keep my finished cards, too:

i used the first and last cards from the little packet of dividers i found whilst looking for my index cards, backing them with some scraps of thin chipboard to make them a bit sturdier. i'm planning to decorate the covers, o'course, but i'm not quite sure how yet... so i'm leaving them plain until an idea occurs to me.

tomorrow i have a lovely-- and very sensible-- card for this week's CCCB challenge, in the meantime i wish you a very happy saturday, darlings! ♥

*this is something i highly recommend for those of us who tend to start things and not finish them:  at the earliest opportunity, start to make your endeavor look like a "finished project"! because whereas i might be able to walk away from a little pile of random index cards, an official "ICAD MINIBOOK" is irresistible, no?! (this is the philosophy behind my vacation travel books, and it turned out to be the thing that allowed me able to come home from trips with completed journals!) ♥