SOS540: Crafty Remnants

It's an extra-fun challenge this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, as we'd like to see you take something that is already out on your desk or workable, and use it on your card. I am nearly always spoiled for choice on these occasions, and this time was no exception. There was actually a bit of a pile on my worktable, but these are the remnants I decided to use:

There's a purple ombre Oxide Ink blended panel leftover from a kit I am working on; my last really big scrap of glossy black cardstock; a Tim Holtz floral diecut that I cut out of its background; a Simon Hurley Funky Chevron panel festuned with Perfect Pearls; plus a tag and panel featuring only partially successful versions of watercolor stenciling. NOT on the worktable, but possibly my favorite part and crucial for making everything work together: a truckload of ancient black and white rub-on transfers that I am now entirely re-obsessed with!

Visit SOS to see what the rest of the crew have made and then have a good look at your own crafty remnants so you can join the fun. This challenge runs until the evening of Monday, February 10th.

Brown Baggin' It

Papercrafting supplies... especially washi tape... are awesome for giftwrapping! Especially for fancying up and customizing plain bags from the big box store. 

For this pair of bags I incorporated a fabulous collage concept from one of my favorite designers, Katie Pertiet, who made Christmas tree cards by diecutting her trees from a collage of her beautiful 49 and Market tickets and ephemera. I loved this idea so much that I had to try it RIGHT NOW. There's a terrific video of Katie's process on her Instagram feed, so I won't go into a lot of detail. But I will mention that since I traced a couple of Dylusions Dyamond Board Small Trees instead of diecutting, I took the time to cut out one of each tree shape from a rectangle of scrap cardstock, and I used that as a frame to help me lay out my collage of vintage postage and tickets. I also used up a bunch of tiny leftover border and label stickers.

I have a lot of washi tape, so I often use it for backgrounds, as I've done here. You could use paper scraps or ribbons in the same way, though. 

I made a second, smaller collage of yellow postage and trading stamps, from which I diecut some happy little stars to surround the trees.

If you're looking for a last-minute card or giftwrap idea, this one is HIGHLY recommended! Thank you, Katie P!

Layerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs

Park your tiny car collage in the tiny car collage garage! Here's a card that has A LOT of flat layers: layers of vintage map, torn sheet music and book paper; lots of 49 and Market rub-on transfers and acetate leaves; vellum stickers, vintage trading stamps, a little bit of ink and stitching around the edges et voila!

Just a reminder that the Masculine Card Challenge at Shopping Our Stash runs until next Monday evening, December 2nd; so you still have time to join the fun!

SOS535: Masculine Cards

It is a fact, universally acknowledged, that Guy Cards are harder to make than Girl Cards. Or at least many cardmakers (including ME!) think so. So this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we're challenging you to make a masculine card for any occasion you'd like, I needed a birthday card, so that's what I made.

One of my additional goals on this outing was to combine an inky stamped/stenciled background with collage elements. Because I've noticed that I either do ALL collage or all inky goodness; and I quite like the way other people (including my current Art Crush Katie Pertiet) put them together. I've used a bunch of neglected stash items on this one including Simon Hurley's Leaf Prints stamps (about a year old) and Handwritten background (maybe two years); Letter It's Alternating Chevrons stencil (maybe three years); some 49 and Market Acetate Leaves and Vellum Leaf Stickers (two years?); lots of vintage sheet music, book paper, a chart from a map and some fab trading stamps, plus a vintage car illustration; and possibly my all-time favorite crafting supply that ISN'T technically a craft supply: Drywall Tape! The sentiment is part rub-on transfer and part wordfetti sticker... the latter is five or six years old. I'm a little bit proud that I managed to squeeze alllllllllllllllll of that onto an A6 card and I still left some white showing in the background.

SOS's Masculine Challenge runs through Monday evening, December 2nd. Check out the fab makes by our Crew at Shopping Our Stash then start planning what you'll link up with us!

Collaged ATCs

My friend Linda completed The 100 Day Project this year, and then she made her beautiful collection of Artist Trading Cards into groups of three and started a swap. Of course I was excited to participate! I made three "Flower Girl" ATCs and used Wendy Vecchi's Essential Envelope die set from Spellbinders' Not Your Ordinary Card Collection to make a pocket for them, and the Pinking Edge Birthday Add-On to create a coordinating tag.

These ATCs have LOTS of layers, including: Kanada text paper from India; a map of Manhattan; vintage flower illustrations from a children's book; tiny sewing pattern ladies and some found text from a beautifully patina-ed kiddo's chapter book.

Each ATC is backed with vintage Chinese text paper fused onto plain white cardstock (for extra strength and solidity) where I've written the name of the series as well as my signature.

I used a few older gel prints and some additional coordinated collage items to create the Essential Envelopes pocket as well as the Pinking Edge pull-out layered tag.

I love the way the coordinating pocket and tag not only keep the ATCs safe and secure, they also make them look and feel like an official SET!

These are the first ATCs I've made and traded in quite some time, but I think they've gotten me re-hooked on this fun format! ♥

Gettin' Sketchy

Stephanie and I are still making cards based on her awesome card sketch this week at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join the fun! First here's a reminder of the sketch:

And now, here's my card:

I went a bit vintagey this week; actually I went almost entirely vintagey! Only my sentiment is cut from a modern Simple Stories mini journal card... oh and there's a silver metallic cardstock layer... but otherwise the background collage is all vintage paper; the postcard is scanned and re-sized but it's from my IRL collection of vintage postcards. Maybe my favorite things are those beautiful vintage Plaid Trading Stamps that Stephanie found and gifted to me!

You've got until next Wednesday evening (10-9-24) to link your sketch-inspired cards at Jingle Belles; remember you can flip it, stretch it, rotate it, smoosh it or change shapes; just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your card!

CASE-ing Christmas, Week 2

This week at Jingle Belles, we're still asking you to CASE (Copy And Selectively Edit) any of the cards that Stephanie or I have made for any of the previous Jingle Belles prompts (yep, you've got 13 1/2 years of cards to choose from!). Be sure to link to the card that inspired you and tell us the selective edits you made to the design. Here's my inspiration... scroll down to see my version!

This week I was inspired by Stephanie's Neutral Noel collage card from June of 2021 (above) I swapped the cool "found relatives" style photo for a scanned and re-sized vintage postcard of appropriate colors that is portrait rather than landscape-shaped; and of course my collage and vintage bits are different, but I kept to the footprint of the original card and made sure to include some sheet music, some softly patterned paper, a small piece of transparency, and... my favorite... that cool wrap of twine!

Visit Jingle Belles to see ALL of the cards we've made over the last thirteen seasons, choose one you like, make your own version and link it on the original post, Love's Labor Day Lost! This prompt runs until next Wednesday evening, 9/11/24.

Collaged Bookmarks

I love collage, generally; vintage collage especially; and vintage collage bookmarks, most of all! These were made by special request, with a small wishlist of potential elements, including gnomes, fairies, toads, woodland and fairy tales. I *think* I covered all of the above.

I was excited to find a pretty forest scene illustration in a falling-apart childrens' book that was wide enough to cover the backs of both 2.5 x 7.5" bookmarks.

Luckily, I also had an extra fairy and gnome which I hadn't been able to fit on the fronts... I love the way they look like they belong in the forest!

The poppies, mushrooms and butterflies came from various well-beaten-up vintage field guides, which can often be found quite cheaply at garage sales and book sales. 

I'm linking my bookmarks up with Becca S's Heart's Quest Fantasy Challenge Blog (formerly The Fairy and the Unicorn) where fairies, gnomes, unicorns, mermaids, elves, yetis and dragons are ALWAYS welcome! ♥

Journal Cover

I've been working off and on in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger for several months, but I hadn't gotten around to decorating the cover... until NOW! 

Of course I raided all of my favorite Dina Wakley MEdia goodies: Fly High Stamps, Collage Sparks, Transparencies, Typed Ledgers and Collage Paper; not to mention a bit of Marine Gloss Spray mixed with White Gesso, which added color to the tissue and transparency pieces as well as adhering them to the journal cover.

And now it's even more inspiring to work INSIDE the journal, so I think I will!

ICAD: The Last Round-Up

How is it possible that it's ALREADY July 31st and thus the final day of ICAD2024?! I'm pretty sure that no summer has ever flown past as quickly as this one. Many thanks to everyone who has played along, followed along, left comments, etc; it's always so much more fun to share ICAD with others. Of course, as always, the biggest and heartiest THANK YOU has to go to Tammy G aka @gypsy999 for devising, hosting, inspiring and cheering us on for another 61 days of creativity and friendship; I don't have enough words to praise a most artful and heartful friend! 

ICAD24-61: Diorama

How do you make a diorama using only index cards? Ummmm... very carefully? No srsly, I wanted to make something three dimensional but using two dimensional supplies (index cards and pens) so I decided the solution was layers. In this case the layers consist of the non-lined sides of four neon index cards, each carrying one component of a jungle scene and each popped up on a layer of foam tape for more height. Starting from the very back we have... the blue sky; then pink flowers (with orange Posca detailing); then green leaves and finally smaller yellow flowers encased in a frame around the edges to literally hold it together. This took a bit of time to construct and involved using the dreaded Xacto Knife BUT... this looks exactly like the picture that was in my head, which always feels like a win, doesn't it? Especially on the 61st and FINAL day of ICAD2024!

ICAD24-60: Planetarium

One last card featuring scraps of patterned paper, handcut shapes, doodles, and machine stitching.

ICAD24-59: Circle

Super-excited that today's prompt serendipitously coincides with my Mandala Monday strand. In my (VAST!) collection of funky vintage things to use in art, I found a few of the old-school 3.5 x 5.5 black and white postcards I'm guessing are from the 1930's or 40's, which happen to be from a collection of Bucks County, Pennsylvania images, which is where I grew up. My mandala is drawn with Posca Pens atop a pc of the northern portion of the Delaware River. I've done a few previous mandalas on postcards or photographs, but usually I feel that I've either covered the original image up too much or not enough... this time I think I hit the Goldilocks Zone (aka "just right"!)

ICAD24-28: Tessellation

I had a general idea of what "tessellation" meant... basically it's a geometric or semi-geometric regular repeating pattern; I didn't realize that technically, to be specifically designated as a tessellation, the pattern needs to have NO spaces and no overlaps! This is what is great about ICAD, you learn so much! I'd love to tell you that I came up with this funky fish pattern on my own but NOOOOOOOO; I did a Google Image Search and this one was a kid's art lesson on Faber-Cassell's website. I used a graphed index card and pre-drew every single one of the fish shapes in pencil, and it still took an embarrassingly long time and a fair amount of erasing but I DID IT! If you want to see really cool, beautiful, effortless-looking  Zentangles (both tessellating and non-tessellating) you should check out my friend and fellow Jersey Girl @Lorraine303 who has MAD SKILLZ in this (and many other) areas of art!

ICAD24-57: Garden

A simple collage consisting of a garden plan illustration and some other vintage paper that is largely hidden by the giant tulip; all atop one of the many cool library checkout cards that my friend Mary aka @millwoodstudioart shared with me. She shared some awesome catalog cards too, such as the one from last week about gardening with children... Thanks, Missus!

ICAD24-56: Playing Cards

Ok go with me on this one, it's a little tangential: doodley diamonds and hearts (or spades) in a wonkily repeating pattern. 

ICAD24-55: Off-Prompt One Staple Collage

Will this be my last #OneStapleCollage of #dyicad2024? Who can say? But it's Day 55 and we're coming down to the wire, so if not the last, probably the penultimate or the antepenultimate. From the bottom working upward, this one consists of: a yellow repro library checkout card; half a Mille Bornes scoresheet; a torn section of a European map (featuring northern Spain); an exotic belly dancer; a sepia-toned cluster of flowering dogwood, and finally a phrase from a Russian-English dictionary. All held together by the eponymous single staple.

ICAD24-54: Off-Prompt

Somewhat revisiting the #RANUNCULUS prompt from weeks and weeks ago; this time as an extra-doodley version in Macro mode. Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Ranger's Letter It Fineliners on an index card divider. Not sure what the "W" stands for... Wonky? Wednesday? Without a clue? 

ICAD24-53: Off-Prompt

Handcut clouds made of layered patterned paper scraps. With lots and lots of doodles on top. 

Yet Another ICAD Round-up

Another week has passed and thus seven new index card artworks have transpired:

ICAD24-22: Mandala Monday 

I'm off-prompt in favor of Mandala Monday, for which I've drawn a bunch of nested/clustered mandalas on a neon orange index card.

ICAD24-21: Off-Prompt

Definitely not the best hibiscus I've ever drawn, but I quite like my stripey leaves and I'm awarding myself bonus points because the whole thing takes place on a library catalog card for a book called, "A Backyard Flower Garden for Kids"!

ICAD24-20: Off-Prompt

Freeform curves made out of layered neon index cards. With plenty of machine-stitching on top!

ICAD24-19: Off-Prompt

Best Fishes on Day 49 of ICAD2024; for which I've made a super-random collage from some of the bits that were sitting on my worktable.

ICAD24-18: Off-Prompt

 A random collage in (mostly) pink and white. Vintage ticket background, washi strips, rub-on transfers and fussy-cut butterfly, horoscope wheel and rose... the latter from a book about Cath Kidston fabrics.

ICAD24-17: Plum

Flashing back to a prompt from earlier this week, for which I've doodled with black Letter It Fineliners and white Posca paint pens on a glossy plum/purple color swatch.

ICAD24-16: Calm

At first glance, this might look like a seriously tangential take on the prompt, but, as any oceanographer will tell you, there's literally NOTHING calmer than a squid playing solitaire in a mushroom garden. Obviously!

Index Card a Day (Week 7)

We're rounding the corner into the second half of July (already?!) and here's my own output of Index Card Art from this past week:

ICAD24-45: Mandala Monday

Wouldja believe... It's a Marvin Mandel Mandala Monday?! In perhaps the most stunning case of vintage-paper-related serendipity EVER, I found this business card stuck into one book, and the illustration of this (completely unrelated) gentleman in another book about ten minutes later. I went looking for the name "Mandel" in an old telephone book I rescued to use in collages and did NOT find a Marvin, but there were half a dozen others which are partially obscured by the mandala petals. I used a combination of Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks, a white Posca pen and Prismacolor Pencils to add color; and Ranger's Letter It Fineliners for all the shapes. As always, my Helix Circle Maker Tool was invaluable.

ICAD24-44: Seashell

Super-literal take on the prompt: I white-embossed a set of HoneyBee Seashell stamps; blended some of my favorite Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks on top; then splattered and outlined and played with the results.

ICAD24-43: Fragile

 My collage admittedly has a #FRAGILE connection to both the prompt and to reality. But… you know… in a good way! I am especially proud of the way most of the design is built around a similar color palette; AND, especially the fact that the banana, the ballet dancer and the Chinese character for banana all have a similar shape to them. 

ICAD24-42: Off Prompt OSC

And here we have world’s most random One Staple Collage! FYI, One Staple Collage is an ICAD tradition; the brief is to create a collage which is held together with… wait for it… one staple! Slightly trickier than it sounds but a lot of fun!

ICAD24-41: Forest Green

I set out with the intention of working on today’s prompt of #FORESTGREEN and thus handcut some beautiful wonky leafy shapes from every green EXCEPT forest green… then branched off into altered/doodled patterned paper scraps in various shades of blue. But that’s why they’re called “prompts” rather than assignments… they’re meant to get you started and you can go in any direction from there! 

ICAD24-40: Off-Prompt

Today's is actually not my favorite card, although I love the funky ink-splotch colors; and stand by my decision to cut around the flower edge on the right hand side. Plus… to enjoy and learn from the process rather than focusing purely on outcome is (to me!) the true spirit of ICAD, so woohoo!

ICAD24-39: Off-Prompt

Yes, I do tend to save my scraps of patterned paper, even quite small ones that I probably shouldn't bother with, but they're excellent for stamping and paper-piecing, not to mention for those nights when I just feel like cutting out random shapes, stacking them, and arranging the result into a funky pattern. 

Week 6: ICAD Roundup

Since the Index Card a Day project runs from June 1st to July 31st, we're now more than halfway through! Here are the cards I've made in the last seven days: 

ICAD24-38: Mandala Monday

It's a Mahalo Mandala Monday, celebrating the fact that I stumbled, almost simultaneously, upon both a library catalog card for a book about Hawaii AND some pre-stamped and already-colored yellow hibiscus... the state flower of Hawaii. You just cannot argue with that kind of serendipity, am I right?!

ICAD24-37: Dashboard

A tangential collage for #DASHBOARD; an antique car on a library card with trading stamps and vintage paper and some abstract rub-on transfers that kinda/sorta look like dashboard gauges...

ICAD24-36: Splash

Flashing back to yesterday’s #SPLASH prompt with a doodled version of one of those Lazy River pools they have at resorts; in this case some of the splashes are neon index cards glued on top

ICAD24-35: Castle

It’s a One Staple Collage featuring vintage paper and illustrations; flashing back to a prompt from a few days ago. Staged on my newest (and also oldest) vintage typewriter; a 1920ish Underwood of surpassing beauty.

ICAD24-34: Panorama

According to Vague Magazine, Panoramic Argyle might be the next big fashion trend... or possibly not; it's hard to tell. Ok, so... SUPER-loose take on today's optional #dyicad2024 prompt of #PANORAMA which is also (unintentionally!) a slightly tangential picture puzzle referencing a Beatles song; whilst also indulging my obsession with argyle. 

ICAD24-33: Off-Prompt

Apparently "Stripes with Doodles" is going to be my default mode this summer when I don't have another idea. And hey... I'm cool with that...

ICAD24-32: Off-Prompt

Not just off-prompt, but without any plan at all! I started out paper piecing… added pattern-enhancing doodles to my scraps of designer paper… and finally built out a weird sort semi-mandala in the leftover space. Not the best thing I've ever made but having started late in the evening of a tiring day with literally NO IDEA what I was going to do, I feel ok with just having made SOMETHING!