Arch #23 Signs of the Zodiac

This is Arch #23 for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch challenge, theme "Signs of the Zodiac". I have had this image of the woman with the bowl of stars (Ms Starry, Stampotique) for a while and have been itching to use it. I stamped her on watercolour paper and coloured her with Tombows and cut her out. I stamped the arch with the star map (Cornish Heritage Farms), which has signs of the zodiac constellations on it, also embossed in gold, and also coloured with Tombows. I added a few other stars (Papertrey Ink). The stars are stickled and some are popped up, like the lady.

I like this lady who is flinging stars into the sky, and she is a much more satisfactory theory for the origin of stars than some sort of cosmic collision of gases or whatever it is now that the physicists think stars come from.

Gothic Arch #22 Mythical Creatures

Here's Arch #22 - mythical creatures for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch challenge. The main image is clip art, and is of an aquatic fairy on a shell, with a squid. She looks a bit glum, but then again, wouldn't you? All the other clip art fairies got to be doing interesting things like flying around on butterflies and lounging on flowers. She got the squid. So it seemed only right to use her on an arch and give her more of a reason to live, not that she shows any gratitude. That's squid fairies for you.

There is some stamping on here, the words (Stampin' Up) and the shells (Stampin' Up) on the dangly bit with the beads and pearls. I stamped those on shrink plastic and coloured with alcohol ink before shrinking. The navy paper is mulberry and already had the stars on it. The medallion at the top is metallic paper that I had on my desk so I clipped it to fit. I think it was from a spellbinders die originally and I embossed it and clipped to fit, and put a pearl on it.

I'm feeling a bit squid-fairyish about this arch, but not inclined to do a do-over at this point. These arches are what they are and there is more stamping ahead to waste time on do-overs. So onwards and upwards and off to use the new stamps I got for Christmas. Yay! I hope you had a good Christmas. We are having a great time and were even out swimming today with the kids.

Arch #18 Flowers

Here's Arch #18, theme of Flowers for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge. I've been working away on these challenges and had this one done for some time, but didn't get to photographing and uploading it till today. So do you like my very artsy shadow effect? Purely accidental and I couldn't figure out how to photoshop it out. This photo was the best for showing the shiny beads and the shimmery Perfect Pearl stamping. This arch started out life as a card base, which was rejected for its original purpose. I had stamped it with this lovely agapanthus image (Stampendous) using Perfect Pearls and white/embossing. The brown strip at the bottom was also in the scrap basket (edged with a Tim Holtz border die) and I felt it worked perfectly here. The quote (Paper Inspirations) is on vellum embossed in gold. I glued on some purpley browny beads for some extra embellishment. I'm not sure that purple and brown will be my favourite colour combination, but for an arch it's ok. It makes a change from the usual distress ink backgrounds or Adirondack colour washes anyway!

Only a few more arches left! If you want to play along and are up for a marathon of arches, you still have time.

Arch 20 - Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Here's Arch #20 for the Inkurable Stampers' Gothic Arch Challenge. The theme was Planes, Trains and Automobiles. I hunted high and low for my vintage truck stamp that I won from Darkroom Door. You will see from the arch that I failed to find it that day, when I had some open time to stamp. I went with this gorgeous Hampton Art image (London Diva), stamped in India Ink on smooth cardstock and inked with Crushed Olive, Broken China, and Vintage Photo. I accented the bus with red pencil crayon, dropped on some water, and bleached the lady's face, veil, cuffs, collar and tummy-medallion. The side of the arch was unstamped, so I went over that with some text, didn't like it, stamped a flourish over top, embossed in Garnet. Still not loving it, but it was time to make supper so I was finished. I added a rhinestone brad to the top, since the point felt a bit empty. That's it, that's all! Thanks for stopping by. Only a few more arches left! The next one is Mythical Creatures. I have some goldified wings that seem like they might need using for that one :-) They have been hanging around on my desk for a while, so I'd like to try to work them in. How's that for a cliffhanger?! My blog meets True Blood/24/MI-5! ha ha.

Arch #19 All About Me

This is Arch #19 - theme "All About Me", for the Inkurable Stampers' year-long Gothic Arch challenge. This was such a tough one. I really struggled. I decided that rather than go "deep" on this one, I would just go with the flow, which I guess is really very much "me" after all. Just realizing that now! (Also very much me!) Anyway, the main image is a Stampotique one, and is me as the reluctant office worker (with bad hair and questionable sartorial instincts, if only I was that tall and thin though!). I am sleep-deprived, and in a partial zombie state most of the time (see the greenish pallor?), have to wear the 'office uniform' of blouse, etc., but usually try to have something colourful like a scarf knotted like a tie, or a shawl or something. I even have a blue blouse like this one, but no red polka dot tie, sadly. I don't wear mittens at work, but I do have some mittens that I knit for myself, and can usually only find one of any given pair, so that's about me too. I guess if I did want to go deep on this one, I would usually rather be outside admiring the sky and air than be inside at work. In fact, I would like to be a farmer (small multi-animal self-sufficient farm in remote, but idyllic location with bees and flowers and a Canadienne cow for our milk and cream), but my husband continually talks me out of it citing trivialities such as lack of money and vacation and the extreme likelihood that I would immediately lose interest in farming once I had to clean out the barn. Our plan is to take a farm vacation to 'cure' me of this dream, which could be a rather risky plan seeing as I could realize my true calling. Another thing about me - addicted to colour, colour wash, colouring, colour flinging, colour spritzing, colour sponging, colour-using of any kind. All of these are found somewhere on this arch. I also have a sense of humour and love to laugh. And I have a million stamps. Which explains the yellow joke panel (Stampin' Up stamp). Another thing about me is that I can never bear to throw away interesting scraps, so I have used some on this card to make the grass and the flowers and the yellow joke panel. Another thing about me is that I love Japanese paper, but can never bring myself to use it because it might get used up. I did get out some nice Japanese paper in shades of green to use as the grass. Do you see the watercolour paper grass that actually got used? hahaha. That is so me.

Also one last thing about me that you can't see directly on the arch - I lost her for quite some time, mid-project. I put things down on my desk and then they vanish, mid-project. I spend time hunting and cursing and vowing to improve my organizational abilities, then I find the thing and immediately abandon tedious activities such as tidying and organizing. One more last thing about this arch: the circles around my head symbolize all the balls I have in the air, but please also note all the ones that have fallen on the ground! So that's this arch. All about me.

Happy Hallowe'en

Happy Hallowe'en! We've had a great day. I was at an all-day Copic class with Krista Schneider. It was wonderful. Colouring alllll day - what could be better??? Well, going over to my brother's place for a super Hallowe'en party and then coming home to make a Gothic arch. That's a lot of goodness packed into one day. I'm so worn out from all that goodness I can hardly picture going to work tomorrow!

This arch was a fun one. I went with a pre-coloured piece of watercolour paper that I had around from a session of spray and smoosh on the freezer. I had used shades of green and blue from Adirondack colour washes and let them dry. I think Pesto, Mushroom, Stream, and Denim were implicated in this recent experiment. I stamped on the spooky branches and text (Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous) in distress ink, followed by the crow and pumpkin image (Inkadinkado) in Ranger Archival. To colour them, I painted on bleach over the moon, crow and pumpkins. Then, I added colour back in with a paintbrush and distress ink pads (mustard seed, spiced marmalade, rusty hinge, walnut stain). Then, swooped over the focal image with Rock Candy crackle paint, which did smear the moon somewhat (that would put the trick in trick-or-treat I guess). Waited impatiently for cracks to form then bam-whooshed it with the heat tool to finish it off. Then it needed something more, so more spooky branches stamped on and embossed with Bavarian Bronze to create some depth of field, or something anyway. So that's my Arch #21 - Spooky theme for Inkurable Stampers! Yay - in under the wire on Hallowe'en.

Arch #17 - Metals

Now this is metal, baby! I started with a piece of copper coloured foil (Spellbinders, I think), coloured it with alcohol inks (Terra Cotta, Denim, Espresso, Copper) and ran it through the Big Shot with a Tim Holtz folder (Retro Circles). Then I had it on my desk for two days while I fiddled and snipped and tried to find things that would look good with it. Not sure I succeeded there, but I will say that this was the best of a bad lot. This guitar dude (Stampin' Up!) seemed to trigger the music kind of metal for me (though his hair is too short and styled and pants a bit too stylish to be a real metal dude). Still, it's evokes the idea if not actually slaving to reality. I stamped him and embossed him with Lapis Lazuli on a piece of colourwashed paper I had on hand. That got scuffled on the edges, stamped with a word stamp (Tim Holtz, Stampers Anonymous) and mounted over some navy mulberry paper with stars. The "heavy metal" is from my label maker and at this point I called it quits. In real life the metal is very shiny and I spent the whole time making this freaking myself out seeing my reflection moving in all those retro circles. You know how movement can catch the corner of your eye, well this foil is extremely reflective. Add numerous ridges = more reflective surfaces, plus one over caffeinated stamper and you have one jumpy situation. And here I thought stamping was supposed to be relaxing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Arch #16 Birds

Ok, this arch (#16, Birds, for Inkurable Stampers) was a bit of a stretch for me. I wanted to do something a bit different, softer colours, more stamps, less 'stuff'. I assembled the various bird stamps from my collection of Sunshine Designs stamps (The Stamp Barn), as well as twiggy branchy bits, and some general design elements. I chose 3 colours of Distress ink, got out the sticky notes, and went to work. (Or should I say play!) The colours are Victorian Velvet, Stormy Sky and Peeled Paint. (I'm not positive on the green - I made this about a week ago.) I stamped, I sponged, I coloured (with Copic/Promarker) and highlighted with glitter pen and pearl paint. I also emphasized the borders between the areas with a black marker. In the end I decided I liked it enough to post, but I'm not in love with it. Still, it met the criterion to have fun trying something new, that was a bit of a stretch for me. (Except for the crooked "Happy" - that's my signature style!) I had the dickens of a time finding a word stamp for that panel. I guess that's where a bit of planning would have come in handy. Now that would be a real stretch for me!



Thanks for stopping by!

Arch 15 Keys or "Escutcheon Subdued"

Introducing the escutcheon formerly known as recalcitrant. This escutcheon caused me no end of grief, but I was able to subdue it in the end, only to discover that it looks like plop when I scanned it. I'll try to take a picture of it instead if it's sunny tomorrow since Arch #18 needs to be photo'd too. Anyway, this escutcheon was painted, sanded, painted another colour, distressed, embossed and painted again. Man, that grungeboard can take a lickin'. It practically had 40 lashes and it looks like the day it was born, or at least popped out of the hardware panel. I think in the end, it's mostly black, with some pearl and silver paint over top, highlighted with some blue, green and red twinklings that were out for another project. I backed the keyhole with some dark paper so it wouldn't peek through to the verdigris metallic panel, which I embossed with the Wrought Iron folder. The arch itself is a sort of greenish navy, with a delicate stripe. I stamped it with the Hero Arts weedy frame using a gold metallic, Peacock Gold, I think. I also stamped a weedy looking flower (Stampin' Up!) in brown on the side. The key is from my stash and the ribbon is BasicGrey (Periphery line I think), tied with hemp twine. All in all, this arch isn't what I had in mind, but it was good enough. I feel like it needs some words on it somewhere, but you know what, it was time to stop.

Thanks for stopping by!

PS Did you see how I pinned down that escutcheon? He's going nowhere now. I win! Also I suppose I should mention that this is for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch challenge, but this would be the 15th time mentioning and you're probably catching on....

Gothic Arch #14 Numbers

This is Arch #14 for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge. The theme is numbers. I hemmed and hawed, and then I got that lovely zing of an idea, that flash of inspiration that is so addictive, and what I really love best about all this. The tricky part is always in the execution. I'm moderately satisfied with the execution here, and like it well enough not to do over.

I started with the germ of an idea, "The four chambers of the heart", with the four members of my family in filmstrip form. I printed off the pictures (resized and b/w'd and all! Look who's driving now, Paint Shop Pro!) and tucked them under some filmstrip I had stamped another time on some acetate. I used a bit of glue pen to hold them in place before I glued the whole thing down with double sided tape. But first, I stamped the background, the harlequin and hearts (Stampin' Up) and my current favourite scroll stamp by Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous). The inks I used were Stormy Sky and Pumice Stone. The 4 and heart are grungeboard, the former was treated to distress ink, but I settled on black paint. The heart I painted pearly white, didn't like it, embossed in red tinsel, but white showed through, so re-embossed with red ink and red tinsel powder (lest you think these things come together in one seamless flow!). The words are printed off on the computer and I don't really like the paper. Note to self, don't cheap out - use Whisper White! The difference shows! I felt it needed more red accent so I blobbed on some dimensional pearls in little heart shapes and called it a day! (Well, called it a late night actually.) So there you have it. Numbers. The next arch is "keys" and I am struggling with a recalcitrant escutcheon..... It has been painted, distress embossed, painted again, glared at and sent to bed to think about what it's done. It will be allowed out when it is ready to cooperate with the other embellishments.

Gothic Arch #13 Christmas

This is my Christmas arch, another watercolour with Adirondack colour wash treatment. I didn't have the Red Pepper and found the Cranberry a bit purple, so I mixed some Ruby Red reinker with water in a mini mister and made my own red colour wash. The other colour used here is Lettuce. I also had a bottle of something (Weathered Wood reinker I believe) mixed with some Perfect Pearls, so that got sprayed on top and gives a lovely sheen.

The Santa image is a Tim Holtz stamp, and it's stamped in Versafine, as is the holly border (Heather's Stamping Haven) and the words (Stampin' Up). I bleach "painted" again to highlight the santa, snowflakes, etc. The holly is coloured with Tombows and I made the accent holly from green velvet paper scraps, dew drops, and a charm from the stash. Not my favourite arch, but I'm a woman with a mission. I am also Christmas-arched out after doing more versions than I care to count to develop a class sample.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gothic Arch #1 Butterflies

This was the first Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge theme - Butterflies. I joined the challenge several themes in, and have been working my way back. Now I'm caught up in that direction, and will resume at #13, Christmas, but that will be another post.

For this arch, I took some watercolour paper and sprayed it with Butterscotch and Lettuce Adirondack sprays, heat setting and spraying to get the intensity I wanted. (I used some water too, to move the colour around.) Then, I stamped the sprig (Stampin' Up) in India Ink and 'painted' the flowers with bleach. The word stamp Papillon (Quietfire Designs) is stamped in Wild Honey. THe other word stamp is a Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous image. The butterflies are punched out of a glossy black scrap that I had been experimenting with a Hero Arts stamp and some mica gloss. That experiment didn't work, but they look nice punched out here. Lastly, I doodled a border around the edge with a fine point pen. Quick and easy! I am really enjoying those spray colour washes. They are fun to do. I did another one, that I'll be using for one of the other arches. I'm going to binge out on arches tonight since work is about to get totally crazy. I want to stockpile some good stamping vibes before I go under. It's going to be emergency stamping rations only for the foreseeable future. It's a vicious circle though, since the crazier it gets at work, the more stamping I need as antidote, but the less time I have for stamping but the more I need it. So, raise your ink pad to toast an evening of stamping. How many arches can I get done?

Thanks for stopping by!

Gothic Arch #2 - Lace

This is Arch #2 - Lace from the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge. I wanted something soft and vintage looking to go with one of the few bits of lace I have around. I found this wonderful (repro) vintage French soap label in my stash and immediately fell in love with it. I picked up on the reds in the clover with the background arch (Cherry Cobbler) and added some clover stamps (Sunshine Designs - The Stamp Barn) embossed in Garnet. This embossing powder has reds, gold and dark purples in it - gorgeous. The dark colour is a very dark green, to pick up the leaves, and I also punched a corner scroll and trimmed it to fit the top of the arch, which needed a little something. The bee (Anna Griffith) is stamped in versafine and sponged with Antique Linen. This might be one of my favourite arches so far, with the reds and the pretty clovers. And I learned a new French word!

Thanks for stopping by.

PS. We watched the Simpsons season premiere last night. I don't know what made me tape it since we haven't watched the show in three or four years, but I did. And guess who the guest stars were - Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, of Flight of the Conchords. A little bit freaky! It was really funny - they were art camp counsellors, with lots of their trademark guitar & comedy.

Gothic Arch #3 - Crowns

This arch is for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge #3 - Crowns. This arch started the background, where I began with some watercolour paper and the crown (Stampin' Up) stamped in white paint. I sprayed on some water and colour (Eggplant, Cranberry, Butterscotch Adirondack Colour Wash) and heat set. I had to rub the colour off the crowns a bit - the paint doesn't do the same level of resist as clear embossing. Then I stamped on the flourish (Stampers Anonymous) in Dusty Concord and the crown in Encore Gold. This background was so colourful that it needed something bold to go on top, and I remembered this frog princess stamp, which seemed to suit the occasion well. She's stamped on Heather's 180 lb paper in Graphite Black Brilliance ink (heat set) and coloured with Copics. The crown is adorned with tiny crystals and she is embellished with some stickles as well (Magenta on the lips, possibly a bit tarty for a real princess, but this one's in a mood for celebrating). I also added some clear glaze to her eyes to make them nice and glassy, which I guess is the froggy equivalent to false eyelashes. She needed a "ground" and velvet seemed a regal choice, so I embossed a piece of green velvet paper for her to sit on. The words say "celebrate your inner princess" (A Muse) and they are embossed in white gold embossing powder, for a very disco glitzy effect. (Not so much for this effect exactly, but because my gold powder, located only days ago in a big tidy, is currently hiding.) The brads at the top (Stampin' Up) started out silver, but I coloured it with my gold leaf pen (Ranger) to match the gold elsewhere. [I have been less than thrilled with this pen. Has anyone else had trouble with it? The paint just blobs out the side and won't flow into the nib. Any tips/suggestions?]

Well, better go make lunch for the kidlets. They are getting grumpy and squabbling upstairs. They were really good in church this morning, so I suppose I should feed them before things escalate.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gothic Arch #4 - Hands

This arch is for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge #4 - Hands. I am on a bit of an arch binge this weekend! I am trying to get a little less behind. I don't think getting caught up is a realistic goal in one weekend, but less behind is definitely within reach.

My first hand arch was completely revolting. I don't have a lot (any?) hand stamps so I found some mitten stickers and it went downhill from there. Suffice it to say that the Apricot Appeal base did the arch no favours either. However, it will be just the perfect thing to cheer up a little girl's lunchbox though, in the fullness of time.

Anyway, on-line I went to find a nice hand image, and the Graphics Fairy didn't let me down. This image made me think of love letters, so that's the theme I went with. The arch is made of Certainly Celery cardstock, stamped with a lovely handwritten letter background stamp (Heather's Stamping Haven) in Weathered Wood, then stamped down the side with a Tim Holtz image (Stampers Anonymous) in Aged Mahogany. I fell in love with this image - it nests on itself, looks great alone, it's a little vintage, a little bit hip, a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. It's going to be on my desk all the time I think, right next to my sequin waste. I added a bit of decorative tape (there are actually more pieces underneath the panel, victims of the "planning? what planning?" approach). I trimmed out the image, and glued it to a piece of Bravo Burgundy, which I sponged with Aged Mahogany distress ink and stamped with that newly beloved image. In keeping with the love letters theme, I stamped "Amour" (Stampin' Up) in white paint, stamping several times without reloading. That got put on and I remembered I got out my nib stamp, for the letter theme, and added that stamped in Shabby Shutters. I thought about what words to add, and didn't have a "love letters" stamp, and dymo labeller didn't seem called for here. I went to my lone vintage novel, and despite its dreary content, it did have some letters in it so I clipped out the closing salutation and glued it down, feeling quite pleased with myself. Lastly, I added some pencil crayon to deepen the rose and some rock candy stickles to accent it. Then once again lastly, I added the gingham bow, Tim Holtz safety pin, and smudged the stickles (aforementioned feeling dissipated somewhat). Then finally lastly, I added the round brad at the top. I scanned it in, so it must be done!

Thanks for looking!

Gothic Arch #5 - Hats

This arch is for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge #5 - Hats. I found a great bit of vintage clip art in my stash, this one is for a record I think. I trimmed out the woman (note hat!) and the title, and credits. I love the words, so sprinkled them all over. (Nobody turn on a fan!) According to the picture, this song is a "Sentimental Waltz Ballad", and then the fine print adds, "with ukulele accompaniment". Isn't that great! I loved that. It had to stay.

I started with a grey arch, stamped in pearl paint using a Hero Arts damask stamp. I found a nice piece of turquoise tsumugi that fit perfectly. Then, I had some sheet music clip art that I tore into strips, and inked the edges (Nick Bantock, Deep Turquoise). Those got glued down and gessoed on the edges. Next on top was some more of that black linen that I sponged white paint on through sequin waste. (This scrap has been serving me well and I still have some more left!). The lady got glued on next (with a bit of colour added to her cheek with pencil crayon), then the words, ransom-note style. I felt it needed something else, so I stamped that border (Tim Holtz, Stampers Anonymous) along the bottom and embossed it with Lapis Lazuli. I like that stamp, vaguely reminiscent of German scrap (of which I have none). Last was some rock candy distress stickles on the words and hat and blue flower on her waist. It doesn't show up well in the scan, but it has a nice sheen without being overly glittery. The embossing powder and pearl paint also add a nice lustre to the arch. Last one was some turquoise sponging around the edges. And that's that! A nice sentimental arch, requiring some ukulele accompaniment. (As it was, it was accompanied by Dee Snyder's House of Hair on the radio - Not even remotely sentimental, waltzy or ballad-y! And not a hint of ukulele either.)

NSR: We went out to Carp Fair today and had a lovely time. We got to see some great horse and carriage competitions, the ponies, some riding, some 4-H cattle shows, and of course the midway and vegetable/handicraft exhibits. The exhibition hall smelled fantastic in the hay booths. I could have drunk in that perfume all day. I love the smell of hay. Carp Fair is a big one and it was their 147th, so older even than Canada! Some things like the old exhibition hall and the vintage carriages and tractors really evoked a past era. We had lunch from the kiosk belonging to the local United Church, with some wonderful, kind volunteers running the place. It made me think that probably 147 years ago, that was where you could buy lunch, also homemade by parishioners. The girls enjoyed the midway and I tried to be a brave mummy on the ferris wheel (or Ferrist (fairest?) Wheel as DD2 calls it) but I suspect relief was naked on my face when the ride was over. After the fair, we went for a scenic drive home, taking the Quyon ferry across the river and going to the foot of the Gatineau hills for a nice walk in the woods. Then more scenic drive home, back across the river, and the girls and their dad played (and raked) leaves in the yard while mummy recovered her senses in the stamp room. Much as I love the Fair and the nostalgia for the past I never knew, I am not a huge fan of crowds and noise.

It was funny - our DD2 (age 4) is really into reading road signs at the moment. We were rolling along the main road on the Quebec side, on our way home, when she piped up, "This way back to Canada." We were somewhat taken aback, not realizing she was so au fait with separatist politics. DH dutifully explained that Quebec was part of Canada and so was Ontario, and we never left Canada, and so on, when we spied the maple leaf icon on a sign. This was what she saw, as they are sprinkled here and there on main routes pointing people towards Parliament Hill. We realized that she is still beautifully innocent of politics and merely fascinated by road signs and becoming part of the group of people that can read things and know what they mean.

Gothic Arch #6 - Men

Here's my arch for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge #6 - Men. I showed this to hubby and he said, "Nice work, Mel."

Now for those of you who are Flight of the Conchords fans, you will know what I'm talking about. For those who don't, Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand folk comedy duo, who had a series on HBO a while ago. Their fan, Mel, was completely in love with them, and had made a lot of fan art for them. I'm not sure whether this is fan art or not, and it's definitely not in Mel's league.

My brother and his wife tipped us off to this show and we found it completely hilarious and we watched the episodes again this summer at the cottage. I thought it might be fun to use their picture for the "Men" theme, since my "men' stamps are pretty limited. I found this picture of them on-line and printed it off since it looked so perfect for a collage. I also printed off a map of New Zealand and kiwi bird, as well as some sheet music from a free digi download. There is some stamping on here: crowns (left - Stampin' Up, right Tim Holtz /Stampers Anonymous), print (TH/Stampers Anon) and the birds (TH/Stampers Anonymous). I look at this and think maybe I could use this for my collage class on shapes. It was completely unintentional, or maybe just gut instinct, but there are similar shapes here: the arch, the shape of the people, the crowns, even the islands. Hmm. When I tried to do this for the class, I wound up with the ugliest thing I have ever made. For a lesson on shapes, I wound up using every different shape going, with the result warned about in the lesson (ie avoid too many competing shapes yield an ugly project). Anyway, maybe this is why this collage seems to work - the shapes are somewhat harmonious. The kiwi was going to be a parrot on Bret's shoulder, since the space seemed empty, but I couldn't quickly find a free download of parrot so I thought of a kiwi bird instead. It looked better on Jemaine's crown, so there he perches, delicately pecking at the South Island. So there we have it - three icons of the Southern Hemisphere.

Lucky day and Gothic Arch #8 Children

Well, wasn't yesterday that my lucky day! I posted a comment on some wonderful card samples featuring the Old Truck stamp by Darkroom Door and my comment was picked to win the stamp! I will now stake out the mailslot to wait for a lovely little Australian envelope.... I will be sure to post some projects with it as soon as I can.

Speaking of projects, Heather has her annual fundraising/anniversary activities raising funds for Victims of Violence. I will be teaching one of the make-and-takes on Tuesday, Aug 17 in the morning. We'll be doing emboss-resist. Classic technique that's guaranteed to wow every time.

Speaking of Heather's support for the Victims of Violence "It shouldn't hurt to be a child" campaign, this Gothic Arch features her stamp, where all proceeds go towards the campaign. I love that image, so evocative of the toddler years.

I did this arch for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch challenge #8, theme "Children".

First I stamped the toddler (Heather's Stamping Haven) and masked it off. I added some sponged clouds with my homemade cloud mask, and then added the teddybear and wagon (Stampin' Up) and the tree and tire swing (SU). I coloured them with Bruynzeel pencil crayons, sponging some white chalk ink on the bear and wagon because I wanted them to look more ephemeral as if they were in the child's imagination. I wanted the whole background to be "in the child's mind", hence the frame of leaves (SU) and the cloud background. (I made the mistake of asking DH if he could detect this nuance unaided. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that he couldn't, and just be grateful that he's the type to have compasses lying around to be used for drawing arches....) I added distress stickles in Rock Candy and Peeled Paint to the background too, so there is the shimmery but not glittery effect as well. I tried to capture this effect in the close up. The word stamp is by A Muse, and it's all one stamp. I like how this came out - and it only took me three tries!

Gothic Arch #9 Asia

Here's another Gothic Arch for the Inkurable Stampers' Gothic Arch challenges. This one has an Asian theme. I love doing projects in an Asian theme, and I had this image (Stamp Barn/PEO 016 L, available from Heather's Stamping Haven) pre-stamped in my basket from another project. It was on white paper, so I distressed it a bit to make it look more parchment-y, and added the gold dots in the corners. (That's why it was rejected in the first place - it needed to be stamped on parchment paper, not white.) I also trimmed and mounted it on black. The arch itself is made from poppy cardstock, with edges sponged in Fired Brick. I stamped the Kanji symbol for tranquility (Stampin' Up) on it in gold ink, and added a panel of Yuzen Washi paper with a crane design. There wasn't a crane where I wanted it, and I had one cut out from another project, so I glued it in the corner where it will show. All the scroll-y lines on this paper are the most wonderful gold, and all the images are outlined in gold as well. It's very sumptuous looking. I thought about adding more, but decided that more was less in this case, and I should just let the tea party and the Midas-fondled backdrop carry the load.

BTW, I know that for these challenges we are not supposed to use other projects, but really the geishas were rejected for another project and just waiting for a home. So it's not really double-dipping on projects - it's giving an orphaned image a home.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gothic Arch #10 Steampunk

Edited (again) to add: A very kind blogger, Vicky, left me a comment to say that is a real building in Melbourne, and here is a link to find out more about it. She has some gorgeous Gothic arches on her blog, and lots of other lovely goodies too. One further correction (egad!): the lamppost stamp is Darkroom Door from one of the Prague sets.

Edited to add:
I did a bit of belated Googling and the World Expo of 1888 was in Melbourne Australia. This lovely building is not, as I mistakenly thought, the Crystal Palace, but possibly the Royal Exhibition Building. It might also be some artist's fancy. Still, thought I shouldn't like to appear, however, unintentionally, anti-antipodean.

The 10th Gothic Arch challenge by Inkurable Stampers is Steampunk. Steampunk is a genre of art, literature, etc. that is sort of a combination of steam power meets science fiction meets fantasy. There is a good description on the challenge page, also wikipedia, and other places. It's kind of neat. The inspiration I took was sort of brass and leather and cogged wheels and mechanical

workings.

To make this arch, I cut the shape from a piece of Buckaroo Blue cardstock and stamped the dial image (Tim Hotlz, Stampers Anonymous) in walnut stain (Distress), smudging after a bit so not so harsh. Then I rootled in my drawer of special paper and found this beautiful piece of handmade paper. I got it from Stamp and Scrap Canada and it's the Embossed Bamboo in Copper and it's gorgeous! (You can see a bit of the colour and texture on the close up.) It's sort of leathery and beautiful and I used the deckle edge, which peeks out a bit (but I know that lovely deckle edge is under there!).

I also used some collage art, also from Stamp and Scrap Canada, which shows an exhibition building and says "The World Industrial Exhibition of 1888", and I echoed the year in typewriter key stickers. I also spritzed the bamboo paper using some perfect pearl mixture and a cogged wheel stencil, but it doesn't really show, but once again, I know it's there. I stamped a Victorian lantern on the expo piece too (also Stampers Anonymous). A pocket watch sticker, vintage ferris wheel brad, and an antiqued brass library clip complete the arch. Yay Steampunk!