Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #33

This is a challenge hosted by Studio L3 and the challenge this week was to create an altered art piece using Tim Holtz alcohol inks & pens. I don't own the pens but I do own some alcohol inks so here's what I did:

1. Cut a piece of Aluminium Stucco sheet to an ATC size of 2.5" x 3.5"


2. Using various pinks, purples and brown colours in the alcohol inks, along with some blending solution, coloured the metal piece with the ink applicator


3. Coloured the butterfly charm using purple, pink, gold & black alcohol inks (using a paint brush)


4. Took a piece of thin metal cut to a circle, punched a hole and coloured it using gold mixative, silver mixative and black alcohol ink, punched the letter A into the metal, painted the black alcohol ink into the A groove


5. Took an angel silver charm and coloured it with alcohol inks in bronze & gold mixative alcohol inks, coloured the hair using a paint brush dipped in black alcohol ink, coloured the dress in Cranberry alcohol ink


6. Punched a hole in the corner of the metal ATC and attached a silver chain mixed in copper mixative, added jump rings attaching the circle and the butterfly.

Metal ATC

Technostamper Sketch Challenge #162

This is the first time I have participated in a sketch challenge. Michelle (bohemiangypsy99) gave me a few blogs to check out and so I started with Technostamper as the sketch challenge was posted already.

Here's the sketch...

Here's my version of the sketch challenge...

Materials used:

• black cardstock for card base, cream cardstock for background
• Provo Craft "Clockworks" embossing folder on the cream background
• Tim Holtz distress inks in Walnut Stain, Rusty Hinge & Black Soot on the hinge and embossed background
• Black rhinestone by Kaiser
• Inkssentials Glossy Accents to adhere the hinge & chipboard letters
• Black UTEE on the chipboard letters
• Black embossing powder on the 3x4.5" piece of acetate
• Tim Holtz mini attacher & staples to attach the acetate to background cardstock
  

I got a Cricut! I got a Cricut!!!

Hi everyone

I'm sooo excited! My hubby bought me a Cricut!!! Well, I bought it but he gave me the funds to do it LOL. I was a bit confused as to which one I should purchase but I surfed a bit to see where I should buy from and which design.

I eventually decided on the Cricket Create because it's the same size as the Cricut original (and portable) but with the functionality of the Cricut Expression. It cuts from 1/4" to 11 1/2" using a 6x12 piece of designer paper or cardstock, it has an 8 directional blade, portrait mode, fit-to-page mode, auto fill to mass produce cuts, centre point & flip funciton! All this and it's PORTABLE! Love, love, love it!

Did I mention that it's a limited edition BLACK Cricut?

It came with the Don Juan cartridge, and I also bought the Toy Story cartridge, along with the Printing Press cartridge.

The cartridges are VERY EXPENSIVE here in Australia - from $90 per cartridge. I'd just received an email from Custom Crops saying they were having a Cricut Sale so I surfed on over and saw a lot of the cartridges were priced around the $25! So, yes - I bought about ten of them LOL.

I've already used it to cut out the numbers for the advent calendar.

So here it is people!

Advent Calendar - In Progress

Hi! I've taken a break from the kathyorta paper bag mini album (waiting on the binding before I embellish the album) and so I thought I'd get a head start on Christmas 2011 LOL.
So, once again, I'm following Kathy's USTREAM video - this time on her Advent Calendar project. It's a great project to make and give to the grandkids for their Christmas countdown. I'll have to make two of them so I thought I'd start now and maybe finish both before December 2011!
I've made all the boxes, adhered all the boxes together, added the centre image, added ribbon, lace & beads on the sides & edges, and covered & attached the backboard.
All that's left to do is embellish the centrepiece and add the numbers. Then attach a hanger.

OK, I'm sooooo excited! I've just ordered a new scrapping item which will help me finish this project - I'll leave you hanging until I receive it on Saturday :)

Click here to check out the USTREAM video.

Without ribbon and bead edging

Close-up of the gold lace over green satin ribbon around edges

I used a green ribbon to cover the sides, then added a gold lacy larger

ribbon over the top of the green ribbon

This is the project as it stands (without inside embelolishments

and numbers on each of the boxes

The paper bag mini album - so far

Hi! Since I found Kathy on YouTube and USTREAM I've become addicted to her creative projects. The current project is a paper bag mini album (with a difference!). I've never seen a paper bag mini put together like this so I just had to make it! Not only does Kathy show us how to make the album, she also shows us the embellishing process too.

I really wanted to make the black paper bag mini album using the Tim Holtz Lost & Found paper collection, but I am unable to get the black paper bags anywhere here in Australia. So...I opted to go with the plain brown paper bags, using the K & Company Wild Saffron paper collection.

Well, the mini's not finished yet but I thought I'd show what I've done up to now. Let me know what you think :)

Page 1

Pages 8 & 9

Pages 2 & 3

Pages 4 & 5

Pages 6 & 7

Pages 10 & 11


Pages 10 & 11

Page 11 opened up

Page 12

Wallet-type pocket/tag holder

This is a wallet-type pocket/tag holder which Kathy (kathyorta - Paper Phenomenon) created during her paper bag mini series of videos on YouTube.

This is the completed wallet all closed up

This is one of the pockets she also created which can be used to hold tags and place photos & embellishments.

This is the holder opened up - really holds a lot of pockets.

This is the holder opened up showing all the tags & pockets inside.

Another view of the inside

Mini Pocket Page as shown by kathyorta (Paper Phenomenon)

This is a mini pocket album based on kathyorta's instructions. This will be inserted somehow into the paper bag mini album - K & Company's Wild Saffron paper was used for this.

I used some embroidery thread and a couple of buttons to make a closure.

This is the mini pocket album opened up vertically.

This is the mini pocket album opened up all the way.

Stay tuned for more!

So many creative enablers!

Hi again everyone :)

OMG! There just never seems to be enough time to craft!! With soooooo many artists out there providing us with soooooo many different ideas and projects!

I've just found Kathy from Paper Phenomenon and OMG how good is she!!! Thank you Michelle (BohemianGypsy99 on YouTube) for telling me about Kathy. I've been so busy creating that I've done nothing else lately LOL. You guys should go check her out - her YouTube name is kathyorta.

You might also know, if you subscribe (and watch) my YouTube videos, that I'm into art journalling now - yes! Although, thanks to Paper Phenomenon, Following the Paper Trail (Laura Denison), and many others, I'm still scrappin'! I saw a video by Paula Phillips (JournalArtista) with her Art from the Couch series, and I became addicted! Paula began streaming her art through USTREAM and this resulted in the start of my first art journal. So thank you, Paula :)

Paula also introduced me to a few other artists to which I subscribe on USTREAM and learn so much. These people are Dede (Inkwell), Ky (Scrapacat) and Kerri (ikerrilove). These are the ladies I get so much of my inspiration from. So a BIG THANK YOU to all you ladies for being enablers :)

So if you're looking for something other than watching hauls and watching videos of "completed projects" pleeeeeeeaaaaaase check out the ladies I mentioned here. There's nothing more disappointing than watching a video of a completed project rather than watching the process. That's why I show the videos of the process, rather than the completed project. I know there are many artists out there who don't like looking at the process videos, but there are others who appreciate the process - it's how I learned the little that I know.

Okay, it's now time to go do some crafting :)

I should utilise my blog!

Hi everyone

It's been soooooooo long since I posted anything here on my blog. When I first created my blog it was because I needed one in order to join a scrapbooking community. I didn't really know what a blog was, let alone how to use it. I've since surfed many blog sites and realised (yes, it does take me a while to get it) how and why they are used.

What I found is that they are used for many, many different reasons. Some of which are:

• let everyone know what you're doing at the moment
• show pictures and videos of your work
• let people know who you follow
• let people know about all the creative people out there by showing links
• have an area to store your template files for sharing with others
• chatting

So having said that, it's long overdue that I update my blog LOL. I'm going to attempt to update it regularly and be more interactive, adding photos of and instructions to my work which I show on YouTube. So you'll probably get an overload of info in the next couple of days.