quick and fun little purse calendar

Seriously, I needed one of these, one with room to write
stuff. Last Friday, we stopped in at an estate sale, and
I got one of those treasure boxes. You know, one of those
"Everything For $2.00" deals.

Anyway, there were two unused, government issued, no less,
little notebooks with yellowed pages, perfect purse size,
lots of room to write. Now I don't know about you, but if
something is going to be bumping around inside my cavern of
a black hole bag, it sure shouldn't be anything I spent a great
deal of money on or time making, otherwise I'm just going to
be peeved when it gets banged up.

This quick make was just the right answer, the only mildly time
consuming thing being marking the pages with dates, but even
that speeds along nicely. Plus, I'm doing it with a purple pen,
so of course that makes it easier, too!

Happy Friday, everyone--have a lovely weekend!

Challenges:
Gingersnap Creation--use some of your stash of favorite papers
Basic Grey Challenges--Favourite things--estate sale/flea
market finds, those cute new stamps(but all my new stamps
are my favorites, so . . .), and pretty much any Basic Grey
paper, right? BG papers and sticker embellishments.
Stampotique Designers Challenge--(memo book)
using the Starbirds stamps
Simon Says Stamp--Anything Goes!

Love is the crocodile

on the river of desire.

Look at the croc puzzling over this, even he isn't
sure what exactly that means, poor confused fellow!

Croc and hardware images from Lost Coast Designs at Blockheads;
please see linky at right!

Oh, yes, it's challenge time! Dreaming of spring rather
than crocodiles? Consider the Glorious Green challenge
at Gingersnap Creations . . .

How 'bout some more fun?
SweetStamps--Love
Creative Stamp Friends--Antique or old-fashioned
Cupcake Craft Challenges--All you need is love
Crafting When We Can--use something not intended for crafing
(hymnal page, notebook paper, book page)

who is this woman??

Does anyone recognize this woman? She's one of
my favorite stamped images--surely one of you
stampers out there will know her origins?

ANYWAY, both the image and the text are on vellum,
over a piece of serendipity background paper that
has an ivory wash, some distress inks, lots of crayon,
a little German Scrap, and some tulle. The woman's
thoughtful, resolute expression pairs well with this
week's verse at Word Art Wednesday, and she'd like to
join in these challenges, as well:

Rogue Redhead Designs--use vellum
Catered Crop--use printed material (background)
Craft Your Days Away--Distressing
Card Makin' Mamas--something old (papers, tulle, etc.)
Frosted Designs--use vellum, acrylic, or transparency

Love at first sight.

Okay, yes, it's another Miscellaneous Anthromorphs
card--there is something about these images that I
find strangely compelling. Maybe it's the animals,
maybe it's their Victorian garb . . . whatever it
is, they've been getting a lot of attention lately!

Base is textured black cardstock, mixed media collage
background with plenty of crayon, images stamped in
Jet Black StazOn, stamps are Lost Coast Designs from
Blockheads Paper Arts.

Oh, yes, please, a challenge:
The Artistic Stamper--vintage
Aud Sentiments-use the word love
Craft Us Crazy--Valentine/Love/and-or animal (how perfect??!!)
Crafty Creations--Valentine
Crafter's Companion--Love is in the air
The Squirrel and The Fox--Critters

the old were young once

Do you recognize these images? They're based on actual
Fayum mummy portraits from Egypt, from the period beginning
around the 3rd century BC. The originals were done in an
early type of encaustic, on wood panels, for sarcophagi.

So, it was really surprising to see these Mini Ancients
offered by Lost Coast Designs--I'm used to seeing vintage
images, but this is about as vintage as you can get! Had
to have these--my children even recognized them, from when
we studied Egypt a while back.

The images are stamped on yellowed notebook paper,
cut out, and adhered to some hand-pieced background
paper I've been hoarding for awhile, but the Use Your Favorite
Paper challenge at Gingersnap Creations coaxed the last
bit of it out of me . . .

More Challenges?
Tuesday Throwdown--neutral colors
Crafty Bloggers--monochrome
Ink It Up--anything goes
Truly Scrumptious--something forgotten. I played it in my mind
as the people in these stamps are forgotten, but it is, in reality,
use something you haven't for a long time or forgot about. I didn't
forget about the pieced paper, but I did hoard it for a long time!
Sir Stampalot--monochromatic

serendipity style mixed media background for collage, atcs, twinchies, etc

When asked to write up a tutorial for the current
theme (Use What You Have) at Gingersnap Creations,
I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

This is, undoubtedly, one of my all-time favorite,
tried-and-true techniques. It's easy, it's fun,
the results are great, and guess what?? It uses
your stash, your scraps, whatever you have on hand--
perfect for this round of challenges at Gingersnap.
But I'm always up for something new, so please leave
me a comment with YOUR favorite background technique!


First, you need something for the base--I usually
choose an old piece of 12x12 scrap paper--plus
your favorite adhesive, and, of course, your scraps.
I keep mine in a (okay, yes, SEVERAL) collage boxes.
AKA as old shoe boxes, but that's beside the point . . .


Ready to dig in?



Start gluing scraps all over the base. Don't worry
about lining things up just right, and don't fret
about color combinations--don't think, just glue!
Sometimes it's helpful to continually turn the base
as you glue, to prevent a discernible "top" or "bottom"
to the background.

If you have some pet piece you want to remain in the
picture, be sure to save it until last, because you
really should . . .


COVER the base. At this point, you could stop
and use your background piece as it is, but I
generally try and unify the colors somewhat.


Here, I'm using a light acrylic wash, first in
a blue, and now with a pink.

Once again, you may want to stop here, but
why stop when you can STAMP???

Randomly stamp images all over the background--
again, don't think too much, just stamp!

Finished? Whatchya gonna make? Time to CUT:

Here are some twinchie (oh, did anyone mention
the Gingersnap Twinchie art exchange??) and atc
backgrounds, all ready for some main images and
embellishments!

If that's too pastel for you, go bright like
I did in this background:

Squirt paint over the top of your background,
and then smear it around, making sure the paint
is thin enough that the images show through.

And there is always the option of more paint!

Here, I printed with found objects.

Some other serendipity backgrounds:


Some finished pieces using this type of background:
One Last Autumn in Paris
Autumn in Paris skinny
Cats in Costumes ATCs
moo cards and holder (whoa, these are from 2008!)

What's YOUR favorite background technique??
If you have a link, that's even better!

:)

a Tiny Tale of Alice

I have a collection of Alice In Wonderland books;
it started in childhood . . . so why not add one
of my own making??










Here it is opened . . .

All the stamped images are from Lost Coast Designs at
Blockheads Paper Arts--there are some fabulous fairy tale
and Alice stamps, very detailed and inspiring. The base
book is textured black cardstock, along with some Basic
Grey Fusion paper, StazOn in Jet Black, and crayon.

You didn't really expect me to make something without
crayons, did you???

;)

Challenge, anyone?
The Cheerful Stamp Pad--ready for this? Birds of a Feather!
Altered Alice--stripes
Penny's Paper-Crafty--birds
Basic Grey Challenges--something new (one of the stamps, the book form)
Moving Along With the Times--spots and/or stripes
Simon Says Stamp--spots or stripes

Have a great weekend, everyone--stay warm!