MM49: On the Map

It's a Marvelously Mappy Mandala Monday on which I wish safe and stress-free travel to all who are flying, driving, riding or sailing home after the Thanksgiving holiday! ♥

Letter It Fineliners and Posca Paint Pens on a vintage atlas page

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.

A Very Vintage Xmas

We're still celebrating a vintage/retro vibe at Jingle Belles and since there's a nice little prize of holiday vintage goodies from my Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, you might like to join the fun.

This week my card is composed of nearly all genuine vintage and found papers, similar to those that are in the Deluxe Christmas Assortments in my Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff; in fact, the reason I started my shop was because I had collected such an extensive stash of goodies, it seemed like I should probably try to share a few of those, lol. For my card, I made a largely random collage of vintage text paper and sheet music, though I confess that I did take care to let the title of "The Holly and the Ivy" have a prominent position. A bit of foliage cut from a vintage illustration and some lovely torn Christmas seals from 1957 complete the background, which I lightly edged with Antique Linen Distress Ink and matted on both red and white cardstock before machine stitching around the perimeter. The handsome cardinal is from a piece of giftwrap I saved last December; I backed it with plain white cardstock before fussy-cutting, then popped it up on a bit of foam tape for extra dimension.

Pop over to Jingle Belles to see the gorgeous card Stephanie made, check out the Readers' Gallery and take a look at our fun prize, which will be awarded randomly. This challenge runs till next Wednesday evening, August 28th.

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! ♥

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!

Flower Collage Cards

Would this be a good time for a couple of random flower collage cards? That's a rhetorical question because, imo, there's really no bad time for those... which is probably why I make so many, lol. These amazing roses are cut from gorgeous paper I got a while ago at Pearl River Mart  (a must-see if you’re visiting NYC’s Chinatown; or the smaller store in Chelsea Market, under the High Line) I had a nice big sheet of it (maybe 18x24"?) and I'm pretty sure I've ONLY used it for cutting out the flowers for collages made with torn and layered vintage paper! Non, je ne regrette rien... 

MM16: 101 Polkas

For today's Mandala Monday, I set out to make a mandala with a bit of collage; but wound up with a collage that's reminiscent of a mandala. Having said that, I really love the finished product; both for itself and also because it's another page in the tiny library catalog-card journal that my friend Mary @millwoodstudioart made for me. I wish you a week that's full of creativity, successful acquisition of cabbage (real or metaphorical) and... if you like that sorta thing... 101 polkas!

Tufted Titmouse Collage

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Mary (who posts as @millwoodstudioart on Instagram) sent me the most amazing happy mail (see second photo): notecards featuring all 29 hand-carved bird stamps she created for #feathruary as well as two stamps featuring a couple of my favorite birds (a tufted titmouse and a sandpiper) and a tiny hand-bound book made from library catalog cards, which I couldn't wait to collage in... preferably with hand-carved bird stamps! And now, finally, I have! (YAY!)

I'd write more, but it'd cut into additional bird collage time, so I'll just say THANK YOU, MARY!!!! ♥

New Art Journal

I will take any excuse to sit and make a random collage, and the christening of my brand new Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger is definitely the perfect time to combine some of my favorite vintage goodies (sheet music, nature illustrations) and some of my favorite Dina elements (Collage Paper, Typed Ledgers) and even a brand new Simon Hurley create. stamp set (Watercolor Flowers).

I made a background of torn, strongly patina-ed, sheet music layered over a few different ledgers, then added bits of collaged script on top. I inked up some of the larger Watercolor Flowers with a combination of Oxide Inks (Prize Ribbon, Wilted Violet and Chipped Sapphire) then misted the stamps lightly with water to get sort of a blurry, faded look... like vintage fabric. 

I put the tissue paper lady on top, having selectively inked and shadowed her face; then added a cluster of white flowers from a gardening book and a hummingbird from one of those free giveaway calendars that my mom always saves for me. 

I could easily write more about this spread, but the fact is, my lovely little journal has 63 more blank pages and I could be adorning them, so I'll sign off for now!

Collactober Continues

I'm still having a ball participating in #collactober2023 on Instagram, a month-long collage challenge hosted by @lofficinedenative and @_agazart_ two very talented and inspiring collage artists. This group of 4.25" vintage paper mini collages covers the following prompts: Celestial, Fern, Self Portrait, The Serpent, Typography, Inner Child, Call, Spellbound and Abstract. To see each individual collage, visit my Instagram account @llaurenb for all the details.

Collactober!

I'm participating in Collactober on Instagram, it's a 31-day celebration of collage, with a prompt for every single day of the month! I'm working on 4.25" squares, with the intention of making my collages into cards at the end of the event. Here are my first nine:

Starting at the top and working left to right, the prompts were: Portal, Reading, Ancestry Tree, Body Parts, Origami, Magical, Metamorphosis, Botanical and (on Mandala Monday) Root Chakra. As you can see, many of my interpretations are pretty loose, but I like the finished pieces. To see the collages day by day, check out my Instagram account, @llaurenb as well as @lofficinedenative and @_agazart_ who are hosting and the hashtags #collactober and #collactober2023 where you can see many awesome interpretations of each theme!

The Spirit of Christmas Past

Our newest challenge at Jingle Belles is all about ringing in the OLD... which is to say, we're creating cards with a vintage or retro vibe. That could mean incorporating actual vintage elements, using new products that have a vintage style, or using stamps or images that convey a retro vibe; whatever says vintage to you.

I recently found a little stash of well-hoarded German Scrap that I had put aside, including these gorgeous Father Christmas images. I've made a distressed background from vintage sheet music, accented with red and green patterned papers, set off by a strip of Eyelet Outlet Washi Tape that features images of vintage postcards.

As an extra incentive to play along, one randomly selected cardmaker who links up with us this time will receive: A Deluxe Christmas Assortment of holiday-themed vintage and found papers from my Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, plus a set of Christmas Word Art clear stamps, some very fun holiday Stickpins, and a collection of doilies in various shapes, sizes and colors. 

This challenge runs through 6pm on Wednesday, September 6th at Jingle Belles. 

SOS502: Vacation Destination

If you've already guessed that the new challenge at Shopping Our Stash involves making a card that evokes a place you'd like to visit, well done! You can go with a geographical location (Honolulu, London) OR a type of place (beach, campground) OR even a fictional place (Narnia, Emerald City) but if your destination isn't fairly obvious, please mention it in your post. I split the difference between actual and imaginary, so my card is set in Paris... circa 1935!

This card has A LOT of layers, even for me; it also has oodles of super-stashy items, certainly there's anything on it less than four or five years old and some of the rub-ons and stickers are considerably older. Roughly, from the top down we've got: K & Co camera (Life's Journey... going back a bit lol) and postcard stickers; We R Memory Keepers embossed rose stickers; Oriental Trading pocket watch and receipt stickers; ancient Paris-themed rub-ons (that amazingly still worked perfectly); some very cool 3x3" sheer, washi-like stickers whose origin is completely unknown to me; a bit of vintage sheet music and text paper (that you can't see at all but it adds to the collage irl); and some absolutely beautiful Eyelet Outlet Eiffel Tower washi tape that has (alas) gone out of print.

I'm also linking up with The Daring Cardmakers' latest challenge: Bon Voyage! 

What is your favorite Vacation Destination? Why not make a card which features it and link up with us at SOS this fortnight!

Week 8: ICAD Round-Up

We're getting to the end of the Index Card a Day challenge soooooo much quicker than I could have imagined, but here are my cards from this week:

Day 47: Mandala Monday

Today's mandala was 100% inspired by this beautiful bloom, which I cut out of an older piece of Vicki Boutin patterned paper.* Then I drew the outer layers of the mandala in a similar style, on a vintage library catalog card for a book about Gaugin. The flower is probably just a teeny bit too orange to strictly qualify for ICAD2023's Day 47 prompt of Vermillion, but let's just roll with it, k? 

(*The paper is called "Picked for You" and is from American Crafts' "All the Good Things" line.)

Day 48: Raindrops

An absolutely literal interpretation of today’s prompt!

Day 49: Focus

I actually had an index card nearly finished that was just concentric circles of patterned paper; and then I saw the off-cuts... circle slivers of various size, looking like funky broken piecharts and I immediately peeled everything off and changed direction!!! 

(& that is what ICAD is all about, imo!)

Day 50: Off-Prompt

Today's prompt was "Note to Self" and since mine was to clear my worktable off enough that the precarious piles were not threatened every time I got up to get something, I made a Clean-Up Collage from some of the many and various discarded bits thereon.

Day 51: Off-Prompt

Commemorating, in ICAD form, the amazing layered rainbow fruit salad we had last night. I did not include the yummy vanilla yogurt sauce, but feel free to imagine it!

Day 52: Weathervane

This eclectic collage has stickers, ancient rub-ons (that surprisingly still worked perfectly?!) part of a sewing pattern, wide washi tape and an American Eagle handsome enough to be (one suspects) a bit of a Weather VAIN...

Day 53: Museum

I *LOVE* museums! Big or small ones; wide-ranging or super-specific; traditional or modern; art museums, historical societies, botanic gardens... I'm there. My friend Barbara and I have built entire vacations around attending a specific exhibition in a far-flung city; @smilynstef and I devote a significant portion of every NYC trip to seeing what's on in our favorite museums. None of this has ANYTHING to do with my card, which features flower stickers on vintage paper, set off with washi tape frames; though the super-dense arrangement does bring to mind the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia.

♥♥♥