Thursday, March 29, 2012

Three Ways to Get Unruly

Unruly Paper Arts --- the much anticipated blogozine will premiere its first issue on April 1. 


Here's the link for the Unruly Paper Arts blog which will house the blogozine:   http://unrulypaperarts.blogspot.com/  

If you'd like to display this badge, the code is in the sidebar on the Unruly blog.


If you like the social aspects of Facebook, then the Unruly Facebook page is the place for you!


If you enjoy swaps and challenges, or would just like to have your own file folder where you can share and store your projects based on what you saw in the Unruly blogozine, then joining the Unruly Yahoo Group is just what you're looking for.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unruly/


Follow, friend, and join ---it's time to get unruly!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Color Paper Instead of Eggs!

Monday evening at Prairie Stampers Club, we colored paper instead of Easter eggs.


We used glossy card stock, stamped with a waterproof ink (I used Archival black) and then heat set the ink. Oops!  I didn't get the name of the bird stamp that I used!  Next step was to create a resist against the egg dye by coloring areas with a wax crayon.  I chose to wax up (color) the background so that the bird would be the part colored by the dye. 


Then we dipped our little glossy card stock squares in egg dye.  About 8 tablets were used for each color, mixed with water but no vinegar (the vinegar creates a resist preventing the paper from absorbing the color).  This was a technique brought to the meeting by one of the members. 


I brought my little square home and created this card with it Tuesday.  I used Hedi Grace Taking Flight products (card stock, foil sticker, rub-on alphas) given to me by dd1 who decided she didn't really want to make cards.  I've actually inherited from both dds a bunch of scrapbooking stuff.  I told dd1 I'd make her some cards with the product she gave me.  So here's card #1. 



I'm entering this card in these challenges:


Cheerful Stamp Pad Challenge #39 Anything Goes

Crafty Bloggers Network Challenge #18 Happy Bird Day

The Craft Room: Bling, Glitter and Sparkle (please note the shiny silver trim on the word tag as well as the shiny silver dots on the curtains!)


Cute Card Thursday challenge # 209 Anything Goes (this is a new challenge site for me this week!)


I also want to share this incredibly artistic dessert brought by another member to club Monday night.  She poked a hole in the egg shell, blew out the raw egg, washed the inside of the shell with salt water, filled it to just the right level with cake dough, baked it, then colored the egg shell with food coloring. (I'm sure there's a recipe out there in cyberspace on how to do this correctly--this is just my interpretation of what I heard at the dessert table.) And let's not overlook the fancy presentation.


Saturday, March 24, 2012

Pinkish Purple Saturday

Here is a photo I took this morning of a red bud tree (with the 8MP camera on landscape setting on my Droid phone) .  I was going for an artsy effect.  It looks more purple than pink but this is what I have for today's Pink Saturday--so let's call it pinkish purple. I think I may use this photo as a background for an ATC or tag. I thought that branch at the top would make a good frame for the shot, but now it looks a bit heavy to me.  Hence the idea to use this for some mixed media art.  

Thanks to Beverly for her Pink Saturday idea.  Her blog badge is on my sidebar. My tree is a good celebration of our first Pink Saturday of spring!


Last week on Pink Saturday, I visited Diane's link to discover her blog, Confessions of the Obsessed where she had set a delightful table for the Cherry Festival.   Since it was St. Patrick's Day and we were posting green as well as pink, I also clicked on Pat's link and found her blog post on St. Patrick to be wonderfully informative.  I can't wait to see what new adventures are in store for me this weekend!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

A Doll From the Last Century

Continuing our heritage theme for the month of March, today's Gingersnap Creations Random Redhead Challenge is GC143: Last Century. 

I fussy cut this adorable doll from the Hello Dollie Green image sheet found at www.RetroCafeArt.com, this month's sponsor.

It's the little details in art that make me happy.  My favorite color combo--turquoise  and black.  Finding the perfectly matching patterned paper in my stash.  The left wing fits perfectly in the crook of the design while the right wing overlaps perfectly into the turquoise for a pop of dimension.  The patterned paper required no additional work.  The white doll really stands out against the black paper.  Simple is good. 
   
Be sure to visit Gingersnap Creations for inspiration from more of the design team, the challenge rules, and info on the fabulous RetroCafeArt prize. 


You have until April 15 to link up your creation.  As Gingersnap Creations comes to a close, don't forget that YOU are the one voting for the Ginger Gems. 

Materials:
fussy cut image: RetroCafeArt Hello Dollie Green
patterned paper: Kaisercraft Chapter One Collection: Belief
DCWV cardstock from Summer Dream pack
blank black card

Friday, March 16, 2012

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Linking this up to Pink Saturday which actually is also Green Saturday in honor of St. Patrick's Day! Have a great weekend everyone!
Gotta have a little Irish jig and some gold for St. Patrick's Day!  This tag is for the Gecko Galz  Paper Crafting Yahoo Group's Luck O The Irish challenge which ends today.


Gecko Galz products:
We were to use the image of the dancers which was provided for the challenge.  This image came from the LuckotheIrish 1 and 2 ephemera sheets which I had.  So I also printed and fussy cut the images of the banner and shamrock.  I used pop dots on these two images for some added dimension. 

JOIN THE FUN AT OUR PAPER CRAFTING GROUP!
If you love digital images that you can get on-line, then Gecko Galz is the place for you!  Gecko Galz recently started a Yahoo Group called Gecko Galz Paper Crafting.  There are several challenges going on right now.  You will find all of them in the "database" section.  Some challenges come with its own Gecko Galz image, free for you to download and use in your entry.  When you complete your project, you post it in the appropriate challenge folder in the "photos" section.  The winner of each challenge receives Gecko Galz product.  

There also is a section to sign up for swaps by contacting the owner, Leanne.  Right now I see sign-ups for these swaps: ATCs, a domino pendant, a mini book, and tags.

I hope you'll join me in the Gecko Galz Paper Crafting Group
Here is the badge for your sidebar:
Or perhaps you'd like this lovely group badge created by my fellow design teammate, Heather Hudson:
and then add to your picture gadget this yahoo addy:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/geckogalzpapercrafting/

Other materials found on my tag:
Coredinations green cardstock cut into tag shape; Cuttlebug embossing folders--music; back side of herringbone for a little pattern; sanded to reveal core of lighter green cardstock
Amercian Crafts gold metallic marker to outline the banner
Ranger Distress Ink in Shabby Shutters for outline distressing tag
Prima Say It in Pearls Go Green Concepts
Starform stickers-gold
Gold Dressen foil trim
misc. ribbon

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Vintage Rabbit Card

We have some beautiful Gecko Galz digital images and papers from Leanne to use in our March design team work.  I made a card for the challenges using the following Gecko Galz items:
Paddington from the Victorian Blues 8"x10" paper pack
and
these wonderful vintage looking rabbits from the Bunny Trail digital stamp set

Papers and ribbon are a rich chocolate brown.  I altered the digital rabbit image from black to brown.  I also resized the Paddington paper to layer on the 6-1/2" x 5" brown card and resized the rabbit image so that I could emboss it with the Cuttlebug Tiffany embossing folder. The rabbits are printed on textured cardstock for a linen look.


Here are the challenges I'm entering with this shabby vintage card. 

due March 18

3 sites I just discovered (all badges and links are on my sidebar 2/3 way down under "Challenges That Call My Name").   This is my first entry for these three "new to me" sites:
due March 16



I've used Prima and Flying Unicorn flowers for these two flower challenges


 spring abounds with bunnies and flowers

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Finally --- A New Post!

Look!  I finally made something!

I've been MIA.  First I was on a road trip for 5 days.  Then, I was busy at work and home and even went to a wedding.  So now it's time to get back to crafting.  I've selected a few of my favorite internet sites whose challenges seem to work together and plan to make something to enter in the next couple of days so I'll have another post soon.

And this is what happens when there's a lot going on in my life-- I forgot to go to Stampin' Up club this afternoon!  That was a major disappointment.  But then I got a call that  I could make it up this evening.  So here are the 3 cards I made in lickety split time.  It was great to get inky after being out of the loop for so many days.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Happy Third Birthday, Gingersnappers!



Happy third birthday this month to Gingersnap Creations!   I've been on the design team since October 2010, and have enjoyed being part of this crafting community and the Gingersnapper family.  Now, as we come to the end of it, we are looking back and celebrating our fabulous community by making Family our theme in March.

We have Retro Cafe Art Gallery as our March sponsor:  www.RetroCafeArt.com.


For this week's Chestnut theme challenge: GC141 Granny's Photo Album, I wanted to replicate the feel of the old family photo albums with black pages and found this black album cover in my stash.  Rather than go with a heritage beige/black theme, I played off of this colored vintage image on the Applegate Family collage sheet from Retro Cafe Art and used some colorful embellishments with an old-timey feel.  I like to think these children just returned from Sunday school followed by a church picnic.  


You have until April 1, 2012 to link up your creation to the Gingersnap site where you'll find the challenge details, the fabulous prize from Retro Cafe Art, and inspiring samples from the other Gingers.  And there's a new twist--you are voting for the Ginger Gems!  See all the details here:  GC141 
 


Some of the materials:
Crafty Secrets Classic paper
Basic Grey Kissing Booth paper
K&Company Studio 112 sticker


This month's muse at Gingersnap Creations is Laura Carson.  She also just happens to be one of my muses so this bit of news made me very happy.  If you are not familiar with her work, I encourage you to visit her blog, Artfully Musing to see why her work is so inspiring. 

Blog Archive

Family Heritage Album