School Days

This month's challenge on the Ranger group was 'Acadamia'. I have been a member of that group for quite awhile and have never gotten it together enough to take part before the deadline. Well, this time I knew I had the perfect piece to build my project around!

My friends all know that I am an estate sale junkie. Mostly what I look for is what no one else wants - the old bits of paper, sheet music, fragments of lace, rusty stuff, etc. Pretty much I just like junk! My husband and I went to an estate sale a couple weeks ago that a friend of mine just happened to be at. It was so much fun! My husband humors me, but Becky is a wild woman - just as bad as me! It's always fun to poke around sales, but even better when you have someone egging you on to buy anything your heart desires. I bought stuff, my husband hauled it to the truck. I bought more stuff. Back again. This happens several times. Too many times to count, in fact. By the time we leave, I am in a paper haze. Immediately I have to start going thru it all, oohing and aahing and all the bits and pieces. I come to something - a vintage spelling tablet - I wonder out loud, 'When did I get this, it's amazing?!' My husband proudly announces, 'I found that, thought you'd like it.' I flipped out! Such a cool thing! It has writing on the inside, like someone kept a journal. It dates to 1902. Some women want diamonds. For me, old paper wins hands down. How perfect that it says, 'Sweetheart'.

For this piece I scanned the spelling tablet and mounted it to a wood plaque. I used stamps from Oxford Impressions - how perfect are these? I embellished it with Grungeboard sponged with Red Brick Distress ink. And that's the story of the spelling tablet. :-)

More Artistic Outpost Halloween Fun!

I don't know if it's the cooler weather we've been having here in Mississippi or what, but I am so ready for Fall! I have never been a fan of southern summers - girls from Oregon just aren't made for 100 degree temps and humidity. I usually hibernate and come out when we get down into the 80s at least. For the past few weeks that's where we've been and it's glorious! I have decided that Fall is here and I am buzzing with Halloween ideas.

A couple years ago I bought a whole slew of these houses at the Dollar Tree - they were horribly decorated with Christmas scenes. Scary Santas, etc. They were all marked down to a quarter and I figured they would come in handy someday so I bought a bagful! Artistic Outpost's new Halloween stamps are just adorable and I knew they'd be a perfect match with my little house. To create it, I painted the edges with Black Soot Distress Crackle paint and covered the main part with a page from a vintage German book. The girl was stamped and then cut out and attached with foam dots. The spider web is a die cut from RockCandy Studios. The background is Basic Grey paper stamped with various images.

Halloween Bandanna

This stamp from Artistic Outpost it just perfect for the bandanna technique! The background is purple and crimson Memories dye ink, sponged on white cardstock. I almost threw it away...I didn't really like the way the colors came out at first. I decided to use it for practice and ended up loving the color. To make the swirls go all the way around the card, I inked that portion of the stamp and kept stamping and rotating, until it was covered. I hated covering it up - it was so pretty! I have a friend that says you're not supposed to fall in love with your backgrounds. If you do, you're supposed to paint over it and start again....or something like that. Ack! If I did that, I would never get anything done. Am I the only one who hates covering up?

Huge Sale!

Lasting Impressions With Panache is having a HUGE grab bag sale! Click here for the details. They have a great variety of stamps - there is something for everyone! This is one of my cards that appears in the latest Take Ten. It was stamped with their Eiffel Tower and Paris postmark stamps. 'Bonjour' is stamped with their Bold Alphabet stamp set. This is a great size set, perfect for cards. Head over there before they run out!

Published!

I just got my comp issue of the Autumn Take Ten and there is a fabulous article about Suzanne at Oxford Impressions. She asked the DT to create artwork using the Country Girl plate (one of my all-time faves!) to go with the article. I was worried since it had been such a long time since I'd submitted anything - I was sure my poor cards would be left out! Well, they ended up using everything I sent! I am so excited. OI stamps were some of the first I'd ever used and they will always hold a special place in my heart, as well as my studio. Congratulations Suzanne!

Since I had to send the cards for the article, I included anything I'd recently done (or in some cases, cards I'd done ages ago but was too lazy to send!). They ended up using nearly everything I sent! I have two cards from Lasting Impressions With Panche, two cards from Innovative Stamp Creations, and two cards from Time to Stamp/I Brake For Stamps. All totaled I have 11 pieces - I think that's a record for me! It was fun to do and I think it's inspired me to get back into submitting. In addition, they've made a lot of changes to the magazine that I think have really improved it. In the past I'd usually just flip through it, this one I actually sat down and pored over.

I Love Aluminum Tape!

This is something else I made for Betsy @ Innovative Stamp Creations awhile back. I covered a matchbox with aluminum tape from RockCandy Studios and then aged it with black acrylic paint and India ink. The Mona Lisa is stamped on a Tim Holtz Fragment and then attached to a scrap of Basic Grey paper and edged with more aluminum tape. For the inside, I inked the box edges w/black ink and then covered the bottom w/more BG paper. I stamped the sentiment and cut it out and adhered it to the bottom. I covered the bottom w/a bit of Diamond Glaze (kind of got bubbly, my first time using it). Finally, I inked a washer a bit and attached it to the 'drawer' with wire.

Bandanna Tag

I've loved this technique from the first time I saw it on Robin Beam's blog. I kept meaning to try it, but never got around to it. It's featured in the latest issue of Technique Junkies and I finally sat down today and made something. I have a feeling it's going to be one of those techniques I can't stop playing with!
Stamps are all from Innovative Stamp Creations.

More Exciting News!

Most of you probably get the Stampington newsletter, Creative Impulse. If so, you may have noticed one of their inspiration projects used some gorgeous Paris-themed stamps. Well, those stamps are by my friend Suzanne @ Oxford Impressions! I think being included in Stampington's product line is a huge testament to the quality and artistry of her designs. I first found Suzanne's stamps by a fluke and she ended up becoming one of my best friends as well as an artistic 'soul sister'. I am so proud of her accomplishment - way to go Suzanne!

Here is something I recently made using this sheet. It's the online bonus technique - Kaleidoscope Card - from the June/July Technique Junkies Newsletter. It's really hard to see in the pic, but it's got three layers/frames on the inside. I think I've also seen it called a Tunnel card. Very fun to make!

Open For Business!

My friends Roxi and Candice have just opened an awesome store filled to the brim with loads of artistic bits and pieces. They were kind enough to invite me to be on their design team - check out this assemblage I made for them using a plain white shadowbox, one of their hand-dyed tags, and stamps from my buddy Robyn at Artistic Outpost.

Click on the RockCandy banner above to go directly to their store.