November Swap COF

For the November Swap at the Circle of Friends the hostess sent us some stamps and we were to use them to create anything that inspired us. We received two sets of clear stamps - one with two flowers and one with butterflies and a bird, some of my favorite images. But I must say I was really challenged with this project and it took me almost three weeks of looking at the stamps and looking at the paper I wanted to use to get inspired. It finally all came together and here is the final result - a small hanging inspirational card.

For the base card I used this great paper I found at Reddi Arts, a shop

here in Jacksonville, FL, it is a recycled brown Rough Sketch paper, but I wanted to find a way to use it in this project. I used Distressed Ink in Spiced Marmalade all around the edges of each card and a bit over the whole piece. Using a watermark ink I stamped the flourish in the background and then added the saying and bird, both from Tim Holtz clear stamp collection Artful Flight using Pearlescent Chocolate Brilliance by Tsukineko. I glued the art piece to an really pretty orange cardstock to make it a little more sturdy and then added the little corner pearls from Basic Grey.

For the flower I stamped it on Grungepaper and cut them all out, added Distressed inks in a variety of different colors - for this one I used Faded Denim and Mustard Seed in the center. Because the Grungepaper is soflexible I used a toothpick and wrapped each petal to give it a bit of curled dimension. I added Distressed Stickles in the same colors on the flower and at the edges of the petals I used Picket Fence Stickles. To glue the flower I only used glue dots in the center so that the petals are free and can be "fluffed" to add even more dimension to the piece. Here's a close up of the flower.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I have inspired you to create,

Breast Cancer Mini Quilt

Last week I made this Breast Cancer Awareness mini quilt and gave it to a friend. This is only my second time to create something like this and it was so much fun to work on. It is made from squares and rectangles of Grungepaper - a Tim Holtz product, of course.

I have used many different techniques on this from stamping, embossing with heat and with my Cuttlebug, sewing and painting to name a few. Once I finished all the tiles I glued them to a heavy watercolor paper and attached magnets. You could also add a ribbon at the top to hang the little quilt.

Thanks for taking a look.

August COF Swap

Well, for once I am way ahead of myself for the Monthly Swap we do at Circle of Friends. This month the challenge was to make an arch using a theme of Medieval. I have to say this is one of my favorite projects and I had so much fun putting it all together.

For the arch it's self I used Grungepaper and embossed it with an embossing folder that looks like Steel Plate, I thought that would give the look of a shield. I painted the arch with a metallic silver and used a bit of gold and Black Soot over that just to give a more aged look. The knight is printed on paper and painted with H2O's, for the horse I used a brown Distressed Ink. I added some torn papers and then did all the bead work along the side.

COF July Swap

For the month of July Andrea is hosting a swap where she sent each of us different products and we were to make ATC's for the group. I finished mine on Friday and wanted to share them. I received Blue cardstock, a blue/green pattern paper, some square buttons and a roll of colored tape for my Dymo Labeler. Here is what I came up with.

I added beads, Grungepaper, a stripe of paper that I embossed and sanded, and Twinkling H2O paint.

First I used H2O's in Iridescent Green on the blue cardstock, then I cut a stripe of the pattern paper with a zig zag edge. For the flower I used a flower die from Quickuts and cut them out of the Grungepaper. I painted them with Mountain Rose Paint Dabbers and a pink H2O to add the needed sparkle and shine. For the embossed edge I worked with Sandable cardstock from Core'dinations with a whitewash finish and a pink underneath. Once embossed I sanded it to bring out the color from under the white. I added the Friends title and there you have it.

Thanks for stopping by for a look at my latest work.