Canvas Swap

I belong to a very small (six) group of gals who are also members of OSA (Oriental Stamp Art), a Yahoo group dedicated to Oriental art. A few years ago I was asked to join and since then, we have had some wonderful swaps which have challenged each of us every time. Earlier this year we made charms, a first for most of us. This time we decided that we needed to work on collage, so that became the challenge. I have done lots of collage work, but never on a canvas with paint, mediums, etc. I had a few mistakes like using some walnut ink which, after I had sealed a layer, turned huge portions of the canvases very dark. I was able to use three but had to redo portions of the other three. I made six, one for each of us including me, something I don't always think to do. Now I have to decide which one to keep and mail the others to their new homes. Take a peek and let me know what you think.

Tags

This is the time of year I always start thinking of making calendars for swaps and/or Christmas gifts. When a tag swap appeared on the swap board of CCSwaps, I decided to make the first of many. I purchased the calendars from skybluepink.com. The queen carries a number of sizes at a reasonable price, and it sure beats downloading, printing, then cutting apart! Seems hard to believe that Christmas is only five months away, and 2009 comes a week later!

A Small Village of Row Houses!

Here are the row houses I made for a large swap. I will be receiving 25 from various artists. Every one sent to our hostess Trish Bayley and she will be swapping all of these out. I wonder if she realized when she posted this swap how many houses would need to be sorted and swapped!!!!!

And Even More Decos!

The two deco swaps I am participating in have been a lot of fun. For Art-Venture, the theme for each book is "Art." Not much of a surprise since our small group has fun trying new techniques, products, etc. The following page I created for my friend Carol who lives in the upper Northwest. Her work has been an inspiration for me. She loves color and texture, and is always willing to try something new. Below is a scan of both the front and back of the colorful page I created. The image of Frida was purchased in Ohio at Artiscape. And I think the quote is a perfect theme for this group. I'll get to meet Carol in October when she comes to SE Wisconsin to attend the Raeven's Nest retreat in Cedarburg.







This page, front and back, was created for Adrienne who lives in Wales and came to the US last fall, visiting some of us in Wisconsin for two weeks. What fun! She is another very creative artist, always trying something new, and challenging us to do the same. Hope you like the page, Adrienne, that I created for you.

More Swaps

I enjoy the challenges of swaps - the hostess chooses a theme and the participants create something for that theme. The first challenge was to use both purple and teal for a greeting card. I took my cue from the preprinted paper I used as background.




This challenge was to use red, black, and gray. I made a bookmark/tag which will be sent out once the Send-to list is posted. The panda is one of my favorite stamps.



Ironically another group had a red, black, and white ONLY swap posted. As you can tell, I worked on both the tag and the card at the same time. The Oriental lady is one of my first Oriental stamps, purchased many years ago.

Swap Cards

I belong to a small group of (mostly) Wisconsin stampers from the immediate area. I don't always participate in swaps but decided to jump back in as this such a nice group of gals. I finished cards for two swaps, making one for the swap and another for future use. I have the stamps, ink, paper, etc., out, so making two of something is a big time saver. The theme of the first set is "Collage Stamps." I used a couple of my favorites, some Basic Gray cardstock, and my new toy, Cuttle Bug. I stamped the images twice and cut elements out to layer. The flower is made from scraps using a CB set of flower dies. The card fronts and layers were also embossed with the CB.


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I also joined the Birthday Card swap - you can never have too many extra BD cards around. Since I had the CB out, I embossed the Happy Birthday background and colored it with Brilliance Galaxy Gold. I layered silk flowers, attaching with brads, and added soft gold CS for a background. And, since I had Oriental stamps and paper out, I created the cat card using printed CS, a bamboo stamp on the green card itself, and a stamped cat image. Another silk flower and a piece of gold peel-off/sticker finished the look. One will go in the mail on Monday and the other saved to use later.

More Decos

Just finished up anothe deco page - this book will return home to Alaska in a few days as it is almost finished. The theme is Oriental - Shelley covered all the pages so it was choosing images/stamps and creating away! Hope she likes this one. The rest of her book is lovely. Enjoy!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Izabel!

My younger granddaughter, Izabel, turned THREE on June 28th! Her grandparents from Birmingham were able to visit for a long weekend, and we all got together for birthday cake and lots of fun.