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.

Collage #2

Here's my second collage for the Collage Coterie. The lesson here was to use chalk on vintage images and charcoal pencil. I don't have a charcoal pencil, so I left the image whole, mounted on brown cardstock (Early Espresso, SU). I made this into a card, since I am trying to build a stash for our church bazaar. Since I was trying to make a usable piece, I chose clipped words that were nice instead of some of the more ....unsuitable.... options that occurred to me as I browsed my old book to clip words. I had felt a bit bad about cutting up a book, but as I browsed, I realized it is a terribly dreary novel and about time someone put it to good use. So I felt a lot better about clipping it up.

The background of the collage is strips of various pieces of designer paper from an old SU pack, I forget the name, but it's really pretty Baja Breeze and textured, with kraft. I inked it with Antique Linen to change the white tones to vanilla, and also used a page from the novel for the "words" element. There's some gesso on there, to unify and subdue (now if only that worked in real life!) as well as some circles sponged in with sequin waste. (I have advised my family not to be still for too long or they will find themselves sponged with sequin waste. They have been warned!) I had some lace in my stash, so on that went, and a die cut flourish, and button/flower embellie. I enhanced the flourish with some rock candy stickles so it has some shimmer in real life.

I might get hooked on collage! I have to confess that it's nice to get into collage and finally use some of the things I've been saving in case I ever do a collage.

Thanks for stopping by!

NSR: We watched Gunless last night, a great Western/comedy starring Paul Gross. I recommend it. Some good laughs and a reasonable plot. Hubby gave it 3.5 out of 5, I gave it a solid 4. However, if your tastes run to CGI, this movie isn't for you and the only explosion occurs off screen. Some great scenery, galloping horses (always a hit with me), and Paul Gross. What more could you ask for? I do have to say, though, that his teeth are implausibly white for the old west. But it could just be some sort of ironic joke that escaped me. Though it would have been more fitting to have the Mountie have the dazzling white teeth than the outlaw. Just saying. We also watched Mist with the youngsters. It's a sheepdog movie, with real life sheepdogs on a real life farm. Sort of documentary but with a story voiced over. And praise be, they didn't CGI the animals mouths to move. I'd recommend that one too, if your tastes run to sheepdog movies.

First ATC and Scrap Stash Sunday

Hello! I recently signed up for an on-line collage class. I've been drawn to collage art lately and thought I would take a class for some tips and tricks etc. If you're interested, here is the link to Collage Coterie. There are downloadable instructions and lessons, as well as great digital art. I have saved a bunch of files but haven't actually used any yet. Here is my project for the first class, to make an ATC (artist trading card). ATCs are 2.5 x 3.5" and this is the first one I made! I could get addicted to this size of project. It's a really fun size - big enough to fit things on, yet small enough not to be inimidating.

For this lesson I was supposed to be thinking about size, so I'm not sure enormous butterfly and teensy child demonstrate my grasp of reality. (Or perhaps they actually do!) I think I do like the proportions on this ATC. I liked it well enough for it to be here anyway, and I'm learning so we all have to start somewhere, right? Right.

A few details: I started with an ATC-sized base and glued down some French poetry (tore up my first book!) and decided to incoroporate some scraps so this could be my Scrap Stash Sunday project too. I had some more "fake washi/yuzen" paper from my failed attempt to stamp my way to Japanese paper heaven. This was a scrap that was well suited to tearing into tiny pieces (in fact it narrowly escaped this fate early on in its creation), being covered in ink and gesso and stamps. This paper is on the far left, and there is also a scrap of paper that I tried spritzing glimmer mist through lace (second from left) and a scrap of Stampin' Up paper from a winter kit to make ornaments (third from left). I put some gesso over to unify and mute the colours, then sponged over some distress ink and what appears to be particles of black paint from my craft sheet. Must be time to clean craft sheet. (Once again, this is why I prefer vintage/grunge stamping!) I stamped a flourish (josephinekimberling for Impress) in Olympia green Versafine over top, as well as a little border (Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous) on the left side and bottom. The child is clipped from a paperwhimsy.com sheet of vintage photos. The butterfly is another scrap on my desk from yesterday, so I sponged it with Distress inks in yellows and pounced Vintage Photo ink through sequin waste. I am addicted to sequin waste now. After an extensive search through a local store, I finally got my hands on some. They even sent me up to rootle through the Christmas decoration warehouse in a fruitless search for sequin waste. My kids loooooved that. (not.) It was funny to see my little 4-year old scanning the aisles muttering "sequin waste, where is sequin waste". Anyway, I have 2 yards now, which should set me up for a long time of happy sponging and dabbing. I fiddled for quite a while with wire clippers, needle nose pliers, tiny beads and copic markers to achieve the end result of butterfly antennae that look extremely vintage (translation: somewhat mangled). I felt the whole thing needed a sentiment, so I added a Dymo label word. I am quite pleased with my first attempt at an ATC. Onwards and upwards!

Ecoline Collage or Trowellling Makeup on a Warthog

Well, I hemmed and hawed and debated about whether to post this. I haven't decided if I love it or hate it. I have been browsing around looking at collage-type cards lately and thought I would try it out. I started with one of my ecoline sheets that I made using red and blue and pickling salt crystals. On its own it looked fairly revolting. I stamped on some collage-y type stamps (Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous) in black and lagoon versafine ink, and the scroll is in distress (tumbled glass and worn lipstick). The sentiment is embossed in black, and the corner stamp is stamped in India ink and pink grapefruit chalk. It needed some more something, so I flung on some twinkling H20s (rubilite, wild blueberry and pewter) using a big paintbrush. (The wall behind the freezer is getting quite colourful!) I felt the sentiment needed to stand out a bit more, so I dabbed it with Snow Cap white paint and rubbed it off the letters with a rag. I scuffed on some more paint here and there too. Collage-y cards seem to have some metal on them somewhere, so I added some brads. I fiddled with some ribbon, but took it off - wasn't working. So there you have it - an early effort at collage. I am sure that I will look back on this in horror at some point, either having gotten good at collage or having abandoned it in failure. I am trying to tell myself this would be a good masculine card, but maybe only for someone with very poor vision or deeply kind heart. DH wasn't at all fond of it and made no bones about saying so, but he's washing up, so I will forgive him. Possibly the moral of this whole card is that adding numerous blotchy layers to an ugly background will not make it beautiful. But I guess I wasn't really going for beautiful, I was going for grunge, which was certainly achieved. I'm still not decided whether this is hip-grunge, or swamp-grunge. I'll keep at the collage efforts if for no other reason than they are a lot of fun to do.

Bon voyage

First of all, please accept my apologies for the terrible scan! (Do I say that every time or what!) I will have to break down and get a photo tent, or a photographer. I had a hard time scanning the colours and still picking up the letters on the brads (which spell "dream"). In real life it's quite rich. In fact, DH first saw it and said with some feeling that it was really nice. His usual observations are not normally so positive, tending to focus more on crooked pieces and cards that don't open (which by the way was the intended design feature, as anyone who has made a pocket card knows...). If this gets a gush (relatively speaking of course) from DH, it must be a good one (despite the total lack of stamping!).

Here I am attempting the "detail inset", used to great effect by more accomplished photographers and bloggers than I. So this is what it feels like to ape one's betters....

This card is the living proof that I have almost enough stuff in my stash to make any possible card (lacking only aeronautical flight charts). The two hours I spent last night looking for this collage sheet is proof that I need a better organizing system (maybe I will add this to the photographer's job description!). I usually go by the system "I know where I put it", which failed me in this case. I only have a few collage sheets, so they don't get their own "spot". I hunted high and low (literally) and finally gave up, hoping that sleeping on it would trigger a memory. No luck. I decided tonight (card needed tomorrow) that I would have to look in every single spot (again) and it worked. I found them (mysteriously) in a stamp drawer. Hmmm. I blame this on fairies who come in and mess up my house at night. Apparently they also rearrange my stamping stuff (give me back my clear ruler please!). I am waiting for them to make dinner while I'm at work.

Back to my card. One of the people on my team is leaving on Friday for a big trip he's been planning for a few years. It's very ambitious. He's a pilot and they are flying a small aircraft over 3000 km. He's very excited about this, needless to say. When I saw the aircraft image on this collage sheet (Crafty Secrets), I realized it would be perfect. I also used the tag and post card elements, and the words "trip of a lifetime", "far off places", and "enjoy the journey" are on the inside. The brads are letters that spell out dream. The background is an aeronautical flight chart. (Sidenote here with kudos to DH who was dispatched at last minute for printer ink and it took him 3 stores, and then he even printed it for me. When I called him a Prince Among Men, he said, "Well I prints, anyway." Not just princely, but funny too!) Thanks to DH, I was able to print the flight chart (which I found free! Yay NavCan sample page!!! Usually they are at least $16.50 to buy - yikes! - and didn't I swear off atrocious punctuation and run-on sentences???) and use it for the background. I'm assuming the recipient will recognize it for what it is. He must have a zillion of these things for his trip.

He'll be flying over some wilderness areas and so I will also make him a kit: bear repellent (bottle of barbecue sauce with new label), a mosquito swatter (piece of 2x4), and face cream (Watkins bug bite ointment). I'll do a bit of a presentation tomorrow at lunch. We're sending him off in style, going out for lunch at the chip wagon across the road. Yummy poutine, here we come! (For those non-Canucks, and possibly Canucks outside central Canada, poutine is a tasty concoction of french fries, gravy and cheese curds. If you can stand the guilt, it's delicious!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Adventures & Travel collage sheet (Crafty Secrets), fibres (Making Memories), Concho letter brads (Colorbok); Ink - Memories Artprint Brown (edging); Paper: Really Rust, Basic Black, Bordering Blue.