Floral Fantasy - slide mount mailer

I signed up for a 'Floral Fantasy' swap on CCSwaps. I feel good about this piece because I was able to use some items I've had in my stash for a long time. I covered a double slide mailer with some floral vellum. When I painted the inside and sides of the mailer with lumiere I also painted the edges on the outside of the mailer. I had the perfect stamp to use on the cover. Then I sprayed a couple of fabric flowers with my Aileen's spray mists and attached with a decorative brad.

This is the inside of the slide mailer. I covered the left side with the same vellum I had used on the outside. I painted the right side and the edges with gold lumiere paint. The image on the left was taken off the internet and printed onto a transparency. I used my xyron to attach the transparency to a piece of blue cardstock and then onto the left inside of the mailer.

Under the glass slides are images I stamped on alcohol ink backgrounds. After attaching the images I set the glass in using a few drops of glossy accents. I also added some small glass beads in the top of the insert.

On the back of the slide mailer I added an altered slide mount that I had received some time ago in another swap that was sponsored on CCSwaps. I wish I could remember who created it so that I could give her credit here, but I can't remember as that swap was so long ago.

This floral fantasy swap has not yet closed so I don't know who my partner will be. Whoever she is I hope she enjoys what I created.

Botanical Booklet

In our Art Ventures Group Debbie is IT for the month of April. Her request was 'botanicals'. I had an idea so off I went to create. I have some large slide mounts (3 1/2 x 3 1/2"); they'd make a great booklet. I decided to make a page (side by side) that pertained to each of the 4 seasons. One side of the page would contain a pictures and the other side of the page would have a saying or quote pertinent to the specific season.




I colored each of the slide mounts using the lights and brights ranger alcohol inks I had just purchased about 2 weeks ago. It was fun playing with the new colors. I created lots of samples using various combinations.... and when I found a combination that I liked I used it on the slide mount.


The images I used for the 4 seasons were found on allposters.com. I sized them for use in the slide mounts and then printed them on photo paper.








I searched the internet for sayings that would be appropriate for each of the 4 seasons and I had 2 stamps that worked well for the front and back covers. I printed them off on colored cardstock to coordinate with the colors of the various pages and then cut them to size.




Here's the cover for Debbie's botanical booklet. Now, I know that botanicals encompasses more than just flowers, but I focused on flowers. So this saying and the addition of the flower petals in the corner seemed the perfect idea for the cover.

Springtime means tulips and daffodils; well, at least it does in Wisconsin. I hope it is also common in California, where Debbie lives.

When I think of summer I think of colorful flowers and butterflies. I love how this picture I found blends so well with the alcohol ink colors I used for the summer pages.

What better image to use than one beautifully colored fallen leaves! And I really liked the words I found to accompany the picture. It's from a children's song in the 1880's.

Winter....

Even though Debbie lives in an area of California that doesn't see snow, I chose a picture of winter botanicals that would more likely be found in northern climates.

Since each page represented one of the four seasons I thought this quote about Nature and the seasons would be appropriate.

I hope Debbie likes the booklet!

Altered recipe box

Have you ever struggled to find the right words to use in an art project or in a card. I've seen and read many quotes and sayings that I like, but when it comes time to apply one to a project I have forgotten them. So I thought why not write them down when I see or hear them and store them somehow....
I found some recipe boxes in the $1 section of Michael's craft store, and packages of 4 x 6 recipe cards also. I'm going to use the recipe cards to write down the quotes and sayings, organize them by subject matter, and store them in a recipe box.
The first thing I did was paint the recipe box with white gesso. I bought 2 boxes; one for myself and one to give away. I thought it best to concentrate on one of them in case this is a trickier project than I had imagined.

Here is the recipe box after I finished applying the acrylic paints. I finally used my Adirondack acrylic paint dabbers!!! I had tried using them before, but could not get them to work correctly. Then, last week on one of Tim Holtz's U-Tube demo's he mentioned what to do if the dabbers won't work. I had tried everything he had suggested except for one thing.... spray a small amount of water on a paper plate and start dabbing/pumping the head of the dabber into it. That finally got them to work... not great... but at least some paint was coming out of the foam applicator top. I used 3 colors on the box and then used the darkest of them (raspberry) to outline all the edges.

This is a side view of the completed recipe box. I found some beaded trim on sale at Michael's just the other day and thought the color would go perfectly with the paints I used on the box.... And it does!!!

Here's a top view of the recipe box. I used the 'baby face' alphabet die set and my cuttlebug to cut the letters from a raspberry colored cardstock. And the xyron sticker maker works great to apply adhesive on the small pieces.

Since I purchased 2 of the recipe boxes I am going to give this one away. Inside are 2 packages of 4 x 6 recipe cards that the 'new owner' will be able to use to jot down any quotes or sayings that she wants to have on hand when looking for just the right words.

Wine Bottle Book - 50th Wedding Anniversary

Our friends celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Feb 14, 2009. If that doesn't deserve something a little special, I don't know what does!
I was looking through my stash and forgot that I had purchased a wine booklet kit. I used the covers in the kit to trace and cut several wine bottle covers from some mat board. These would make great gift booklets for other occasions as well. These are the covers before I started to work on them.


I painted the booklet covers with a mixture of burgundy and purple acrylic paints. I then painted the tops of the bottles gold. Both sides of each cover are painted the same colors.






In keeping with the wine theme, I decided to describe our friends and their wonderful marriage in terminology that might also be used to describe a fine wine. It took some time for me to come up with the words and thoughts I wanted to convey, but I finally did. Once I had all my thoughts organized, pictures and words printed, and layout determined I began work on the inside of the booklet. The inside consists of cardstock that is cut and folded in an accordian manner such that it will fit between the front and back covers of the wine booklet.

Here is the front cover of the finished booklet. I used alcohol ink on some metal numbers and attached them with brads to the neck of the bottle. I used my label maker to print Tom and Ann's name and wedding date to place above the wine bottle label. I found some wine bottle labels on line, printed one off and then sized a photo of the couple to place on the label.

This is the back cover of the booklet. In keeping with the wine theme I created a label that identifies a warning and contents. In the neck of the bottle I punched a couple of holes and slipped through a wine glass charm that I had on hand.

This is a view of the open booklet from the front side. All but one of the pictures I used of Tom and Ann were taken by friends of ours that recently were on a trip with them in Mexico. The one picture, which is on the back side of the booklet, that is not of them in Mexico, was taken by me when Tom and Ann were with us on a snowmobiling trip to northern Wisconsin. All of the pictures do a good job showing the enthusiasm and love of life that our friends are known for.

I also added a few wine-related stamp images that I have.

This is a view of the open booklet from the back side. As with the front of the accordian inside there are several photos of Tom and Ann along with decorative paper, and thoughts that I typed and printed on purple vellum describing them.

Another friend of ours is having a surprise cocktail party for them to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary and I plan to give this booklet to them at that time.

Puzzle Cube

There is a puzzle swap on CCSwaps and I have the perfect object. These are the pieces to a puzzle cube. I found it on Oriental Trading Company. The pieces are nice thick cardboard... or chipboard. One side is a little glossy and the other more of a flat white.

This is how the puzzle pieces look once the cube is assembled..... and before I alter them.

I brushed and sponged 2 colors of acrylic paint on the puzzle pieces. On this side I used 'earthy' colors. I then used the 6 Stamper's Anonymous images I have that relate to the alphabet. The puzzle cube reminds me of a child's alpha block so I thought these images would be appropriate.

Here is the other side of the puzzle pieces. On this side I used bright acrylic paints, using at least 2 colors on each piece. Then using the same images that were used on the first side I again stamped them with the black india ink. The pieces needed something else so I edged both sides of the pieces using a gold krylon pen. You can see this in the next pictures of the assembled cube.

Here is a view of the puzzle cube put together with the 'earthy' colored sides facing out.

And here is a view of the finished cube with the brighter colored side turned to the outside.

Art Doll

Another swap on CCSwaps..... Art Doll
I stamped images on memory glass for the face/head and body. Before placing the memory glass into the frames I wrapped some thin artistic wire around the body frame for the arms and legs; I also cut a fabric flowers apart to use as wings. The petals were sprayed with Aileen's color mist to match the teal stazon ink I used when stamping on the glass. I place a little Diamond Glaze onto both sides of the ends of the flower petals, and a small drop onto the corners of the memory glass, before placing another unstamped piece of memory glass on top. Once that dried I wrapped the memory frame around the pieces of glass and secured it . I only used the one stamped piece of frosted memory glass for the head.
I strung beads on the arms and legs. She needed something more so I cut off the tabs on a heart brad and attached to the glass body with a small glue dot.
I attached the 2 memory frames to each other by wrapping silver wire around the 2 ends. I didn't like the way that looked so I took some silver ribbon and tied a bow around the neck of the doll.

Altered glass bottle

This glass bottle is going to be altered for some member of CCSwaps. The swap is called "Glass". At first I was going to work with memory glass and frames, but a little voice inside my head said...'do something else'. So I found this small bottle at JoAnn's or Michael's and decided to give it a try. If it didn't work out I could always resort back to my original plan.




To decorate the sides of the bottle I stamped this yoga lady image 2 times onto acetate. I embossed one with a purple glitter embossing powder and the other with a black glitter embossing powder. I cut the images out and ran them through the xyron. I had seen this technique used to apply images to glass in an old Rubber Stamper magazine.







I created a decorative topper for the cork by stamping this image on blue cardstock and embossing with silver powder. I glued the 2 pieces on either side of a round wooden chip for stability.





The cork topper was glued into a slot that was cut into the top of the cork. The beads were strung on 3 silver threads and then tied through the eyes of 3 needles. I added a little dab of Diamond Glaze in case my knots came loose. Then I cut the needles down so they wouldn't pass through to the top of the cork when I pushed them into the bottle of the cork.



This is a picture of the bottle with the cork inserted. In this picture you can see the strands of beads....well, they are a little blurry because I didn't wait for them to stop moving when I took the picture. After taking this pic I decided to paint the cork silver so that it matched the cork topper.

This is a picture of the bottle with the yoga lady images attached. The only thing that I am afraid of with this bottle is that the embossing powder may fall off the acetate if the bottle is handled too much. I had tried to stamp directly onto the bottle with stazon ink, but since the surface of the bottle isn't flat the image was a bit blurred. Also, the stazon did not seem to dry on the bottle and even if it had dried over a longer period of time, I didn't know if it would eventually fade away or wear off from handling.

This is the other side of the bottle with the purple yoga lady image attached. This image is a little harder to see than the other.

And here is the completed project. It is difficult to see the strands of beads that are dangling inside of the bottle.

And here is the other side of the bottle. I don't know which CCSWaps member will receive this swap item yet since the swap doesn't close for another week, but I hope whoever it is that she likes it.