Oriental Calendars

This year I made a number of calendars for friends. These were made for the gals in my Initial Round Robin group, a small group of friends who all belong to Oriental Stamp Art.

Album for my brother's family

This is an accordian album I made for my youngest brother and his family for Christmas this year. I made the structure in a class, then added photos. You can see their three sons and daughter Lydia who was adopted just a year ago from Ethiopia. She experienced her first Christmas and first snow!

Make Merry!

It's been a long time since I posted projects to my blog. I've been working on many things, getting ready for the holidays. Above is the Christmas card (one version) that I made for this year. I used double sided printed paper and coordinated the solid color CS and ink. I love the antique Santa!

Holiday Charm Swap

Yes, it has been a long time since I posted to my blog - what a busy time of the year. The most exciting thing was a two week visit from our friend Adrienne Goodenough from Wales. She flew to Portland for Art and Soul, then to Wisconsin for two weeks. We had a great time with Chrissy Bornfleth, Deborah Cochran, and Kathy Berringer. Although I did lots of "art," I am just now finally getting back to my blog.

HOLIDAY CHARMS:
Below are five one-inch charms I made for five friends in a small round robin group that I belong to. We know each other from Oriental Stamp Art and decided a few years ago to do round robins. Each RR has been very special, and we have gotten to know each other. I certainly hope that I can meet the other four (Sonia Evans lives here in Waukesha and we do "damage" together!) Two of the gals live in Hawaii - what fun it would be to meet them some January while everyone in Wisconsin is up to their necks in snow! Enough chatter.
The challenge was to select a holiday and make two charms for each of the other members in our little group. I selected Valentine's day and finally got them made! Below are the five individual charms, each made from a 1" square of stampboard. I punched some Art Chix faux postage for the image and added a heart charm and a lobster claw clasp. I do not do well with "jewelry making," so adding the charms, etc., was really challenging! Thank goodness for the Cropadile for punching holes.



Below is what the back of the charms look like. I used alcohol ink for the color, stamped with India Ink, and colored the image with Twinkling H2O's. I also made a bead charm with Oriental beads, coins, and a heart charm. These need to be sent out before Thanksgiving - I am almost two weeks ahead of schedule - gotta be a record!


I'll be working on other posts during the weekend. Watch for the collaborative tag calendar I made with four other gals and used my new favorite toy, Bind-It-All!

Altered Book Challenge #2 - Dictionary Page

This challenge was to rip a page out of a paperback dictionary at random, them select one word to use as the basis of a two page AB spread. I chose the word "amorous." I used lots of distress inks, some copies of old movie pics, and foam stamps. It is quite simple, but there are many layers of color.

Altered Book Challenge

An internet group that I belong to is working on two challenges - a visual journal/sketch book, and an altered book of techniques. Here is the first technique - using texture and one kind of coloring medium. I used paintable wall paper and acrylic paints, Stewart Gill and Lumiere. Here are some scans of what I did.












I used matte medium to adhere the wall paper to the book.














Then I applied Stewart Gill acrylics in two different colors.













Finally I used Lumiere to define the texture of the wall paper.














Here is my finished two page spread.

ATC Swap

Made this ATC for a current swap with some friends. The theme was ABR (anything but rubber), in otherwords, there could be no stamping! The background was created using a napkin and I wrote "Beauty" - no stamps used. The next ATC for the group must be created using no paper!