peace, part two

we're still celebrating all things peaceful at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ so you have plenty of time to make a holiday card with a peace sign, the word peace, or just a particularly calm and pleasant aspect! here's what i made this week:

(patterned paper: prima; holographic earth image cut from an old greeting card; vintage seam binding from my stash; foreign text chipboard alphas from my etsy shop; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine) 

i semi-CASED myself this time, or at least, i re-used the same idea as on this card i made in 2012: specifically placing the sentiment, "peace" on top of an image of the earth; and also using the foreign text chipboard alphas from my etsy shop to spell out the sentiment, which i think adds a nice little extra touch. i have the feeling i'll be re-visiting this idea every year, just to see how many different ways i can make it work.

miss stephanie has made a particularly lovely card this week, and there are already quite a few lovely examples in the readers' gallery, so i do hope you'll hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and check them out!

zine winner and ICAD preparedness training :)

many thanks to everyone who entered the drawing for the very awesome daisy yellow zine, issue #11, it was great to see some old friends there and meet new ones, as well! i've consulted the fine folks at random.org and the two numbers chosen are #12 and #15, which means the lucky winners are:

♥diana♥

and

♥phrogmom♥

congratulations to you both, please email me at llaurenb @ hotmail [dot] org and i'll get your names to tammy so she can send your pdf copies! (please note if you already purchased this issue, tammy will be sending you a refund, in lieu!) if you don't happen to be one of the lucky winners, you can still grab a copy at the daisy yellow etsy shop, and it's well worth the trip!!! 

♥♥♥

and now, onto ICAD 2014:

(vintage gardening notebook divider painted with white acrylic craft paint; machine stitched grid with various illustrations glued on; rub-ons by basic grey (mostly cut apart and re-arranged to fit grid); leather flower sticker by k and co; sparkly nature stickers by hallmark)

if you've followed daisy yellow or my blog over the last couple of years, then you'll probably realize it's almost time for the annual index card a day project (aka ICAD) a super-fun exercise which takes place in june and july, and is designed to help us establish (or re-establish, or just amp up) a daily art practice. i have absolutely LOVED participating the last two summers, so of course i'm pretty psyched! tammy's been posting some warm-up exercises to get us all in the mood, plus there's a great FAQ here, and of course there's a totally drool-worthy flickr group! there's even a choice of super-cool, totally colorful graphics by miss tammy that you can post on your blog if you're participating. this one's my fave:

i've been playing around with some of the warm ups, which, unlike ICAD proper, don't have to be done on an actual index card. the photo at the top of this post shows my "grid" from creative warm up #5. strangely enough, quite by accident, i did wind up working in a space that's pretty close to 3x5! i decided to use this divider from a cool vintage gardening book as my base, so i painted out the text at the bottom of the page, which just happened to be around that size! how cool is that?! something that's been taking up quite a lot of my daydreaming time lately are the improvements we're hoping to to make in our yard and garden this summer: we want to replace the old fence on one side of the property; we need to re-grade around our basement windows; we're planning to plant a few more trees out front, etc etc; so i suppose that is how this evolved into sort of a visual wishlist! here's a photo where you can see the whole page better:

i've also made a portable ICAD creation station, as described in warm-up exercise #4. it's actually my collage "treasures" box* full of lovely small-scale vintage and found items, PLUS my portable travel-journal tool kit, with some additional drawing and coloring instruments. i've added a nice supply of index cards: plain, ruled, and a few to which i've randomly pre-glued interesting backgrounds. somewhere i think i still have some uber-bright neon green ones... i have to find those before sunday, for sure! :)

as far as how i'm going to keep and store the finished cards, i'm 99% sure i'm going to punch the cards and add them to a (big honkin') book ring as i go along. that's what i did in 2012 and it worked well. last year i started out with a small plastic index card holder box, but outgrew it within a month and ended up punching them later. but i'm still deciding about 2014.

are ♥YOU♥ going to ICAD this summer? i know, i know, we all have too many commitments already, and if you have kids, the summer means they'll be home all day long. but it's only one card a day, and it's soooooooooooo much fun! plus, this is such a great way to try new techniques, explore different media, play around and just generally step outside your creative comfort zone in a really really GOOD way; there's NO pressure to end up with a beautiful finished product... this is just for ♥YOU♥!!! plus, did i mention there's a kid version this year??! c'monnnnnnnnnnnnnn... give it a try!!!

*ok, technically it's an empty fabriano box in which the awesome miss amy mailed me a little present last year; because she totally knows i'm the kind of gal who swoons over a beautiful box, and saves it to store treasures!!! thanks, amy! ♥♥♥

stapled AND sewn?!

question: when is it acceptable to "break the rules" in collage?

answer: sorry, that was a trick question; there really aren't any rules in collage!

ok, yes, there are rules of composition, color-combining changes everying, balance is important, etc, etc; but to me the bottom line is: if *YOU* like what you've made, then don't worry about anything else!

case in point, i set out to make a stapled collage, specifically as a reminder that the giveaway of the awesome daisy yellow zine (issue #11, in which my "stapled collage" article appears) ends tonight, and you should comment on the original post right here to be included.

i saw that this week's prompt was "books" at the take a word challenge, and got right to work finding first the utterly swoon-worthy harlequin romance book cover (!) and then quite a few other book pages and book-related items to go with it. and i set everything up in layers that could be stapled together at just a few points, because i was making a stapled collage.

but then, at the end, i decided it really really needed some sewing, too. so i sewed, too! because who's to say that a stapled collage can't also have sewing, eh? certainly not our heroine, miss destiny, who remained silent-but-beautiful throughout the entire process. which pretty much proves my point, i think, don't you?! :)

and now i hope you'll scroll down and enter the daisy yellow zine giveaway, because i know you will LOVE that thing as much as i do... soooooo many cool ideas from miss tammy within! then head on over to take a word and check out all the cool artwork made for the "books" prompt! ♥

SOS 153: background check

this week at shopping our stash we've got what might be my all-time favorite challenge title, "background check" and we'd like to see projects for which you've created your own background paper using stamps; whether it's one big background stamp, or a few smaller stamps to make a pattern. i'm still apparently stuck in the "glamour and grunge" mood, so i wound up with a card which reflects that. and yes, for the record, i started with a piece of plain white glossy cardstock! :)

(stamps: rhonna farrer/autum leaves, tim holtz/stampers anonymous, purple onion design, stampin' up; mists: studio calico and tattered angels; inks: distress and archival by ranger, pigment and chalk by colorbox, permanent india ink by stewart superior, opaque white by staz-on; clear embossing ink and powders: psx; clear pink acrylic letters: heidi swapp; heart dies and die-cutting machine: cuttlebug by provocraft; scraps of patterned paper for hearts: recollections, melissa frances, glitz design, creative imaginations, basic grey, sei, best creations, anna griffin, echo park; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, sewing machine)

i should probably also mention that this is a big honkin' card, in fact the finished dimensions are 6x12"! because once i started stamping, i just couldn't stop, lol! i did emboss resist in two colors (white and pink) i sprayed a couple of mists, i did ink blending, i overstamped in black and soft pink and grey... yeah... it took most of the day on sunday, but then admittedly, i got "stuck" a few times and had to wander off until i came up with a new idea to try.  it probably would've been cool to take photos while i was working on it, but i didn't think of that. alas, i never think of that until after i'm done. but here are my supplies. and no, i'm not kidding:

almost everyone at SOS is a much more accomplished (and sensible!) stamper than i am, so this week even more that usually, you really REALLY need to check out the awesome DT cards! off you go, darlings! ♥

glamour and grunge

this week* at sunday postcard art the theme-- set by one of my all-time favorite collage artists, miss electra-- is GLAMOUR, so of course the challenge was calling my name! nothing says, "glamour" to me more than bollywood cinema: the costumes, the scenery, the dance numbers... hard to beat, right? there are, franky, very few NON-glamorous bollywood actresses, but aishwarya rai is arguably the most lovely of them all:

(aishwarya rai photo from an old bollywood magazine; brick digi paper from the "boys urban world" kit by 4 shades of blue; butterfly punches in various sizes: martha stewart; gems: recollections; stick-on bindi gem from butala emporium, jackson heights, ny; stamps: purple onion design, rhonna farrer for autum leaves, stampin' up; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, scotch gluestick, sewing machine)

for some reason, as soon as i started thinking about this theme i immediately hit on the idea of glamour and grunge, so i knew i wanted to add lots of industrial elements (i thought this was going to be a stapled collage!) plus tons of distressing. my magazine photo of aishwarya was a little too big for SPA's 4x6" format, so i made a slightly smaller copy onto photo paper. turns out my scanner is powerful enough that it picked up a little bit of the text that was on the reverse side of the page! i kind of liked how it looked, so i added to the effect with text stamps, and then flourish stamps, and... well... i might've got a tiny bit carried away, but it sure was fun!

i've been wanting to make something with a torn window ever since i ran across this gorgeous collage by erwan soyer and this seemed like the perfect time. i had to fiddle with the size of my digital brick wall paper a bit, but once i had the scale right, i loved how it looked. i always intended to have butterflies emerging from the edges, but i tried using some i punched from an old hindi newspaper, then patterned paper ones, then glossy text paper... and nothing worked. luckily, i had had to fiddle with the digital brick paper earlier on, so there were extra scraps laying around; pretty sure the brick butterflies are my favorite part!

if you love collage and inspiration, i hope you'll check out all the fabulous links in the comments of this post at sunday postcard art! meanwhile, my zine giveaway is open through next wednesday night, so i hope you'll check out this post to read all about it! meanwhile, happy memorial day weekend to all my american darlings, have fun and be safe!!!

♥♥♥ 

*ok, so, i only realized when i was adding the links... I MISSED THE DEADLINE for this challenge!  ack!  oh well, my card is made, the post is written and i had a blast doing this, so no big deal! still, many thanks to electra and sunday postcard art for the inspiration! ♥

peace on earth

it's the friday before memorial day weekend, so of course i've got a lovely new christmas card to show you! yes, i know, it sounds insane; but by making just one christmas card per week over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ i'm insuring that my december will consist of doing other things besides mass-producing a gazzillion stressful cards, which... trust me... been there, done that; i'll stick with THIS brand of crazy, ta v. much! :)

this fortnight our prompt is "peace on earth" and what we're looking for are holiday cards that feature a peace sign OR the word peace OR just evoke an especially peaceful feeling. (if you choose the last option, throw in a little line explaining how it's peaceful to you!) i did quite a bit of experimenting this time, and i've been going back and forth all week debating whether it works or not. i think it kinda does. (maybe?) but you tell me:

(recycled dove and snowflake xmas cards; best creation sparkly silver glitter paper; k and co sparkly white chipboard snowflakes; oriental trading co silver brads; a bit of vintage lace; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i printed a clipart peace sign and used it as a template on my glamorous glitter paper, which i used as a frame for the pretty dove from a very sparkly silver christmas card i saved last year. then i grabbed another "rescued" card with  shimmery snowflakes... (this one was saved by my friend cheryl; because once people know you "upcycle" beautiful old paper, you get given quite a bit of it, which is AWESOME!!!) ...and i added some dimensional chipboard snowflakes using star brads. then i mounted the whole thing to a freshly made 5x7" card blank to which i affixed a bit of lace that kind of dangles off the edge, and in the right light... or possibly the right mood... kind of looks like snowflakes. at least that was the idea. does it all come together??  i *think* so. was it fun to make?? heck, YES! so i'm callin' this a win! :) :) :)

over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ miss stephanie has a lovely card to show you that does not need ANY question marks or complicated explanation whatsoever! c'mon over and check it out, darlings!

a is for "ATC" and "ARTICLE" and A giveAwAy, also! :)

ETA friday morning: sorry to re-post but i was soooooo excited that i accidentally published this without waiting for the gorgeous zine pics from tammy! duh, lauren! :) 

i'm happy to be playing along with collage obsession again, after a couple of weeks away.  this time the prompt is, "a is for..." and we get to complete the phrase. meanwhile, the other super-cool thing that happened this week is the new daisy yellow zine (issue #11)* was published, inside of which is an article miss tammy commissioned me to write about my favorite technique, stapled collage! could i BE more excited?! (ummm... NO!!!) :) :) :)

ok, first here's my entry for collage obsession. i decided to see how many A's i could fit into a 2.5 x 3.5" space. so we've got ATC, alphabets (english and chinese!), acrylic, alligator-in-an-airplane (obviously!), agapanthus (the purple flower which kinda looks like fireworks) and in the very back, a bit of aqua atlas. i'm pretty sure you'd have to attend an art show on sesame street** to see more A's in one place, and except for the background, it's all held together with one staple. gosh, i looooove doin' that!

now let's talk ♥GIVEAWAY♥! the lovely tammy has generously given me two copies of the brand-spankin'-new daisy yellow zine to give away!

the gorgeous table of contents for issue #11 of the daisy yellow zine, courtesy of miss tammy

what's inside? well, in addition to the stapled collage article*** by yours truly, there are eighteen incredibly beautiful, color-saturated pages of inspiring content to fuel your art-making imagination, including art journal prompts, brilliant ideas for unfinished journals (b/c we ALL have those, am i right?) thoughts on flash fiction (which i totally want to try now!) index card love, good creative habits, tips, techniques, and of course it's all illustrated in tammy's lusciously beautiful, colorful style. truly a feast for the eyes and a jump-start for the mind! i'll choose two winners randomly from the comments on this post at midnight, wednesday, may 28th, and post the names next thursday! sound good?

excerpt of one of the articles from daisy yellow zine, issue #11, courtesy of missy tammy and also the guest contributor... hey wait!  that's ME!!! :) :) :)

now i just need to remind you to check out collage obsession AND the daisy yellow art blog. good thing we've got a long weekend coming up, because you're definitely going to need some extra creative time to use all the fab ideas you'll acquire there! ciao, darlings! ♥

*issue#11 of the daisy yellow zine is available in .pdf format in the daisy yellow etsy shop for $8.00; there's more information on this post at the daisy yellow art blog!

**or this week's gallery at collage obsession, for that matter! 

***for which i made two brand new stapled collages i'm pretty danged proud of. just sayin'... :)