Wednesday Stamper (5 Days Until Vegas!)

Here is my creation for this weeks Wednesday Stamper the subject of which is "winged things." I made a page in a little altered book I'm working on to take on vacation with me, to record my travels in. The title of this piece is "numbers game" which is a play on meanings because gambling is a numbers game--and so are birthdays. The stamp I used here is by Lost Coast Designs it's actually part of a bigger stamp, but I cut it out, tinted it, and put it behind a transparency (5 for my birthday!!!) The background is layered acrylic with a stamped diamond pattern.

Dizzy Day (6 Days until Vegas!)

So today I have something weird going on in my inner-ear. Actually, it's been going on for a few days but today it was particularly bad. Every time I move everything gets all fuzzy. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow because I think maybe I have an inner ear infection. So I spent most of today trying not to move too much... but I did manage to get 2 of my atcs done for a "Wisecracking Women" swap I'm participating in. In reality, I got four of them done, because I made duplicates of these two. The last swap I did, I was sad to see my cards go, and thought this time I'd make two of each so I'd have some extra for personal swaps! The one on the right is a bit of a personal joke since my DH's name is Ed...what hunk my hubby is :)

Tiny Tuesdays (7 days till Vegas!)

So I am up really late (or really early depending on your perspective) because I've got a bit of insomnia--so I figured I'd go ahead and post for Tiny Tuesdays. This atc is titled "blue." I think I was feeling a bit blue when I came up with this--I have a big birthday coming up and am feeling my age a bit. The little girl stamp is by Lost Coast Designs and the background is a text stamp that I embossed. Hopefully, I will be uber productive today and have lots more to post!

Manic Monday (8 Days till Vegas!)

So I finally downloaded a bunch of pictures off of my camera and I had these pictures from the trip I took to Michigan with my DH. We went to St. Joseph--they have decorated polar bears all over the town and they were too cute to resist.
In other news, I'm going on vacation to Las Vegas in almost a week and I have so much stuff to do to prepare! I have a couple of swaps to get out and a bunch of stuff to get done for my altered books group. So if my posts this week are sporadic, I'm sorry!

Fun Friday

So this creation is actually a cover of a three-ring binder that I made this evening. I started an altered books group here in Indianapolis--it's one of those things I that I find myself wondering "what was I thinking??!!" periodically--even though it's going to be a ton of fun. Anyway, I needed something to put all the info into so I came up with this creation. The blue and green argyle background is the actual background of the binder. I bought it at Target--when I saw the pattern I just had to have it. I've always found argyle to be slightly sassy. Don't ask me why! Unfortunately, my scanner isn't big enough to get a picture of the whole thing so you can't really see all the embossed dragonflies I put on it...

Wednesday Stamper

Here is my creation for this weeks Wednesday Stamper the theme this week is the Goddess Flora. The stamp is from Lost Coast Designs I stamped it with clear ink and embossed it with clear powder to allow the color of the paper to show through. Then, using a bleach pen, I bleached the image to lighten it everywhere it wasn't embossed. I colored it with pencils, and assembled the card. The text is a rub on by doodlebug, and the flowers are rub-ons by Basic Gray.

Tiny Tuesdays

Here is my creation for tiny Tuesdays. The background is a piece of scrapbook paper stamped with silver ink. The cog wheel in the background is a rub-on by 7gypsies. I love this darling little girl--she's just so sweet and dour!

Manic Monday

So yesterday my DH was home from work sick so I didn't get too much done. Plus, I'm switching from my summer to fall teaching schedule which makes everything kind of crazy. But I did manage to finish this spread I've been working on for a week or so. Just in time for the Indiana Altered Books Group this weekend.
This particular spread deals with the theme of chess and the text is told from the queen's perspective. I've always been fascinated with the fact that the queen was the most powerful piece on the board--free to move in any direction she pleased. But her freedom is only as good as she is able to protect the king. So, I thought, what if this queen was a real woman? How would she feel about her role? This was my inspiration. The stamped text on "I know I am like the rain" is from the Simon and Garfunkle song entitled "Kathy's song." The images were created using an acrylic transfer, and the printed text is from a booklet on playing chess published in the 1950's.

A few new ATCs

Here are a couple of ATCs I made this weekend. I have some down time between swaps--and I felt like I needed replenish my "stash." The little girl with wings is a stamp by Lost Coast Designs and the diamond background is by stampendous. I distressed it with some of the Tim Holtz distress embossing powder. The text in both the ATCs are rub-ons by making memories.

Fun Friday and a little Wednesday Stamper

Here are my completed beeswax atcs. I created the background and then layered beeswax wind up to give them a hazey look. I tried to keep my designs simple because they are going through the mail in August and I was worried that the beeswax would melt causing heavy embellishments to come un-glued.
It wasn't until I was finishing them up that I realized that all three of them were green. Something must be going on in my subconscious. The one on the left I'm entering in as my Wednesday Stamper try for this week. The topic is swirls and it just so happened that I used swirls as my background for this atc.

Inspire me Thursday

So this is my creation for Inspire Me Thursdays it was an open challenge--you were supposed to pick something yourself, so I picked beeswax and canvas. The beeswax was because it's a new medium for me and I have an ATC swap coming up that uses beeswax. And the Canvas because I shy away from creating on canvas. Some sort of childhood hang-up I think. Growing up in a family of artists, and being the odd woman out as a musician, I grew up believing that I wasn't a real "artist." That my creations were just doodles for fun, and not to be taken seriously. Hence, no canvas. I'm trying to work through that nonsense. Who says you can't be a concert pianist and artist both?

Nothing Doing

Hi all:
I'm working on a bunch of projects but I've got nothing for today. Plus, I really need to clean my studio. It's like a tornado in there and I can't see the floor anymore. Ugh. Maybe if I didn't feel the need to spread out so much when I worked. Oh well. Hopefully, I'll be back with more stuff tomorrow!

Tiny Tuesdays

So my creation for Tiny Tuesdays is this little atc titled" Rendez-Vous." I used some distressing inks and embossing powders on the background to get the textured weathered look. In the meantime I've been playing a bit with beeswax--I signed up for a beeswax atc swap even thought I've never used it before...it's bit of trial-by-fire but I'm enjoying the process!

Manic Monday (or how many transfers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?)

So I have been trying (and trying and trying) to get this transfer technique down because I wanted to make an altered postcard to send to my dear friend Kasia who is currently sitting for her PhD exams (which is about as pleasant surgery without anesthetic) but every time I tried it, it didn't turn out. But today--finally!--the transfer Gods smiled and I have a card to send to her! I've titled it "Ask For Gallant Knight."
I even got an ATC out of it--since I kept doing the process over and over trying to get something to work...take a look at this little clever flirt.

Wednesday Stamper challenge

This ATC was created for the Wednesday Stamper Challenge titled "face." I wasn't going to enter because (for shame!) I only own one face-focused stamp. But then, I was looking at the one I owned and I wound up playing and the next thing I knew I had a new ATC. The stamp used here is titled "woman in repose" and is made by rubber stampede.

Fun Friday

So here is the ruined piece from yesterday. I went into my work space this morning and looked at it and realized that although the techniques had failed (I was trying to do a transfer with a transparency and when I pulled it off of the gesso it ripped my work to bejesus) that it was salvageable. So, I glued everything back together and left the transparency on. It has a different look than I was aiming for but I kind of like it: hence the title "whimsical mistake.
And check out the awesome Latin text stamp that I used above--it came from Ma Vinci's amazing stamp site. I have to confess that letters and numbers are an obsession of mine, but I hardly ever buy new stamps because they are so expensive. But Ma Vinci's stamps are so cheap! And, yes they are unmounted--a fact which used to fill my heart with terror--but since I've discovered how easy it is to mount using acrylic blocks (not to mention all the space I save) it's all I want to use now. If you love stamps you have to check out her site!

Terrible Thursday

So today was completely unproductive *sigh* I spent an hour working on a project that simply did not turn out. So at the end of all of it, I spent 20 minutes and made up this little ATC which went out as an RAK, mostly because I felt so grouchy I thought I should do something nice for someone else. I blame the rain. All it did was pour down all day (and normally I like the rain, when I can stay home and work in my pajamas...) but it was grocery day and I had to go to the post-office, and then I had to teach and it seemed like as a trudged through the rain that everyone was in as foul a mood as I was...
But tomorrow is a new day.

More ATCS

So I didn't have a whole lot of time for stuff today--I took a road trip with my mom to Nashville, IN. We went to two really great shops, Wishful Thinking and papertrix. I bought some new stamps and some new inks. I came home this evening and played a little bit...but it's nothing that's ready. You know how it is with new supplies--it takes a while to settle in.
So in the meantime, I'm making more of my black and white with a bit of color ATC's...

Tiny Tuesdays

BELIEVE
Originally uploaded by bmandity05.

I made this ATC as a RAK (random act of kindness)--that's going out to Lori, who kindly sent me one. I came home from vacation and it was waiting for me in the mailbox all smiles and happiness. After doing the black and white challenge, for Inspire Me Thursdays I find I'm a little enamored of the black and white theme and am thinking maybe I'll create a whole line of ATCs with this theme in mind.

Manic Monday

Here is my creation for the Inspire Me Thursday's weekly challenge. The text reads "In her dreams she was something altogether different. In her dreams she was a woman of mystery." What started out as a simple idea that I thought would take me an hour at most mushroomed into what you see before you. But then, that tends to be my way, I think," well this will be easy" and then three hours go by and I'm yelling at myself wondering what I was thinking. I'm pretty happy with the end product, though so I guess I shouldn't complain. I used Dimensions Clear Stamps for this project.

Fantastic Friday

Hey Diddle Diddle
Originally uploaded by bmandity05.

So this ATC titled "Hey Diddle Diddle" is my creation for today and I have to say, I'm completely in love with this dog. I think I could probably stick him on a hideous piece of French pastoral wall paper and he'd still look adorable! So I can't take any credit for this piece. It's really all fido.

Wednesday Stamper challenge

Here is my creation for the Wednesday Stamper Challenge. I used some of my foam stamps to create the sea-horses and sea-shells. After stamping with white ink, I rubbed them with chalk, and then used an art marker blender with a fine point to color in the details and then rubbed over it with the chalks. (the blender tool causes the chalk to adhere.) I cut out my stamps, created the back ground and then attached the tulle (which didn't scan in very well unfortunately. If you have any questions about my process please feel free to email me.

Ghost Stamping

So today I worked on an Altered book page using a technique I think of as "ghost stamping." I take a large foam stamp and stamp into thickly painted wet gesso. When it dries it looks something like this.
Then I go over it using a glazing medium mixed in with paint. When the first layer is dry, I go over the stamps in a contrasting color and viola: a beautiful finished product! It's almost too pretty to write on.

Tiny Tuesdays

This ATC is part of an on going set I've been working on that's based on nursery rhymes. I used an art marker to make a transfer of the background and sticky tape for the bridge transfer. To view the complete set of nursery rhyme cards check out my ATC photos on flickr.
Did you know that most nursery rhymes were based on some sort of historical occurrence? Like Little Jack Horner was a real guy who really did stick his finger in a pie. (But he didn't pull out a plum, he pulled out several land deeds. In those days items of value were hidden inside of pies to protect them from thieves.) Or that Pat-a-Cake got it's start because of the great fire of London? Until I started doing this set of cards I had no idea that there was so much history connected to children's rhymes. If you're interested in this sort of thing check out Rhymes.org a great reference for all things nursery rhymes!