Art Journal - Alice in Wonderland

    One of my internet groups has been involved in an Art Journal swap.  Each participant chose a theme, and the others have been creating a double sided page for her journal.  This month I created this page for the theme of "Alice in Wonderland."  I had found a 12X12 sheet of tags awhile back celebrating Alice and Halloween.  I couldn't resist even though I didn't really have a use for them -- I just thought they were clever!  But I sure was glad when I had to create this page - they were perfect!  I hope the gal who receives this page will enjoy it and want to add to her journal.

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End of the Year Swaps

     I'm coming to the end of the 2011 swaps and finally finished the last few (only one to go!)  It has been a good year with swapping, making new internet friends and learning new techniques.

Diamond Fold

  Now that I have a Scor Pal, well, both sizes and a Martha Stewart score board (!), I am able to have the tools to do precision scoring and folding.  The theme for the Cuttle Bug group for December was "Fancy Folds."  I could never have made this card without being able to make good, accurate score lines to fold this card.  The navy base is one piece of paper!  I used two Cuttlebug embossing folders and a die to create this along with Distress Inks - a great way to color coordinate different papers.  The silver snowflakes are foam stickers.  I think they were produced for kids, but I found them fun to use!

COTM - Snow

     I belong to group of Wisconsin stampers (and a few from other states, as well), and we have a themed Card of the Month swap.  Each month has a designated theme.  The theme for December is snow or holiday.  I purchased (very recently as in the last day or two as all Christmas stuff is marked WAAAY down!) a new set of embossing folders, so this is the first time I have used them.  I embossed white paper and used Distress Ink to add the blue highlights.  The snowflakes are a piece of printed card stock, and, yes, I used a sparkley snow flake sticker!!!

     The scan below is an ATC I made for the same group.  I had the blue and white CS out as well as those cute snowflakes, so I created this ATC.  I had purchased a couple of sheets of vintage images at the annual stamp/scrap show in Madison and used them to complete the ATC's

     Now all I have to do is finish up my 12 Days of Christmas tags.  I'm hoping to have them made by January 6, the original end of the 12 Days.  And, of course, a new round of 2012 swaps is set to begin.

     Thanks for checking  my blog - hope to post more and more regularly in 2012.

Art Journal Swap

     I love belonging to internet groups as I get to see lots of wonderful work created by artists from around the world.  I joined a new (to me) group about six months ago and have had fun joining in on the swaps.  By the end of the month a small group of us will be completing art journal pages.  Each person chose both a theme and an orientation (horizontal or vertical) with the goal of binding the pages into a book and adding our own journaling to the pages sent to us by our partners. 

     For the first half of December I created a 5"X7" double sided page with the theme of quotes about words.  Words!!!!!  I love words and quotes, so this was great fun.  I had trouble selecting only two quotes about words ---- there are so many really good ones.  But I settled on the two below.  Of course, one is by Emily Dickenson -- she always could say so much in so few words.  And I had never come across the other quote, but it is something I truly believe in.  

     The page is created on watercolor paper with color added using Distress Inks by Tim Holtz.  I stamped a few images, added some purchased embellishments, and computer generated the quotes.  

     I really like how the pages turned out and was so happy to receive a very nice e-mail from the recipient.

    A while back I was in a year long swap dealing with art quotes, a different quote each month.  I received some lovely pages and am planning on combining them with the six I will have from this swap.  It will be a wonderful handmade book!

Tim's Tags #4 & 5

Day 4

Day 5

     Trying to catch up so I don't fall too far behind.  Here's what I came up with for Days 4 & 5.  Day #4 - I used the Rays embossing folder and the Snow On the Edge die along with a Sizzix snowflake die and some "bling."  The label is  a Nestabilities die.  I was surprised to find that I do have some of the burlap ribbon - perfect for the "grungy" look of this tag.
     I had fun with creating the fragment embellishment using alcohol ink and Stazon according to Tim's instructions.  I let the ink dry overnight and the Stazon did remove the color.  I love the pair of deer so used the leaping dear on the tag layered over the tall pine folder.   I have an idea for Day 6 - better get going before I get even more behind!!!

Tim Tags - Days #2 & 3

I'm still trying to catch up with Tim's Tags for 2011.  I actually have the pair of deer die so I at least had the central image.  I used some printed music velum over a basic tag for the background and a purchased (!) embellishment for the the deer.  The border is a Spellbinders die.

Day #2

Day #3

I really had to "stretch" on this one as I didn't have a bold sentiment stamp.  I guess the only thing that I did was make some kind of foliage  embellishment.  Onwards and upwards to Days # 4 and 5!!!!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 1

This is my first year of participating in the Tim Holtz's 12 Days of Christmas challenge.  He encourages everyone to do what they can, to improvise if you don't have the exact materials he uses.  I don't have the pine cone die (yet!) so I die cut some green foliage and a brown poinsettia (Spellbinders) and added a purchased embellishment (K&Company.)  I'm half way finished with #2 - I'm only three days behind!!!!!

Tim Tag

I recently made a set of "Tim" sized tags using the new Winter Distress Ink set (limited edition) and two of Tim's stamps - Santa and Rays. After I colored the tag, I stamped the Santa image but was left with space on the bottom and top, so I filled it in with the rays, certainly not Christmassy but did the trick. I added glitter glue and a Poinsettia made with the new Spellbinders die set. I didn't add the fibers but included them in the envelopes - saves on postage as two were headed out of the country.