Monday, September 1, 2008

Thank you for a special year Stacy!



Serving on a creative team for a full year is a large volunteer commitment. So I wanted to say a BIG thanks to Stacy {jbgreendawn } for the tremendous effort she put forth to making the Stamp Shack creative team projects a success. Stacy and I share the joy of gardening so I made her a lunchbox and of course sent the red and yellow card I posted earlier.






Drying flowers so I can enjoy summer throughout the year is a favorite of mine. I love incorporating them into boxes. Here I use a white lunchbox (perfect for storing our A2 cards) and covered it in alcohol inks. I use coordinating Adirondack pens to complete the coverage next to the hardware. A layer of background images is stamped and heat embossed. Ferns and a net background are stamped and embossed with Ranger's seafoam white powder. Finally I add the flowers and ferns that I have dried with a microfleur in the microwave. I put down a layer of modpodge where I want to place them and place the flower on top. Then I add another layer of modpodge on top starting in the center of the flower and gently stroking it onto each petal to the tip in an effort to complete coverage without bubbles. A coat may take approx 15 minutes to dry. I used a foam bush to add an additional layers. I generally add 3-4 coats before I like full coverage.
My original photos turned out blurry so I want to say an added thanks to Stacy for taking these for me.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Artist Trading Cards

Ever sign on to a swap thinking this is a pretty easy topic but then feel like you struggle through the journey that follows? I am working on ATC's on with a flower theme and one with that requires using some acetate.

Our usual fabulous summers here have had a sad twist with rain, rain, rain since July 4th and temps hanging in the 50's. Unfortunately most of our flowers and vegetable gardens are no longer beautiful. So I think the sadness of losing a season of beautiful flowers and warmth reflected into my work.
Here I tried a new technique call black velvet. While the technique did come out like described it give interesting results. I used an image that looks hand carved.




I tried playing with using some of last year's dried flowers. :-( didn't get to dry any this year...good thing I still have a plentiful stash from last year!






Here I played with the acetate and layers of inks and papers. I think it is time to let these sit and to move along to a different project or two....happy stamping!!!

Blog Candy Winner!

Thanks to The Custom Random Number Generator we have a blog candy winner!
Happy day for Christy !
She left the comment "Very pretty cards Jan!!!!!! Don't feel bad about the word verification, I had to do it on my blog too for the same reasons!" Christy do know I will put the candy in the mail tomorrow.