Complimentary Colours Blue and Orange

I have finally completed 2 ATCs for the June ATC swap and the first one is also my first completed bead knitting project since I broke my wrist is Feb. Blue and Orange Bead Fantasy 1 is orange corrugated with blue handmade tissue and an orange bead knit tag. Blue and Orange Delicate Butterfly is a collage of a recycled butterfly image, pieces from joss paper and ogange beads with the word delicate stamped in blue ink.

Milestone Draw

Well all the names went into my trusty ice bucket and 3 were draw by a totally impartial party, aka my son Jason. The first drawn was Judy, you will receive the copper embossed ATC and the bonus house pin pictured in this post. The second drawn and the recipient of the purple embossed ATC is Angelartistok Ruth C. The third name is ArtCricket Beth and you will receive the silver embossed ATC. If each of you would email me at: okanagan_spirit@yahoo.ca with your snail mail address, I will get these in the mail right away. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who celebrated with me.

Plastic Laminate Pendant

I've just gotten the time to post my latest art piece which I made a couple of days ago. I used a plastic laminate sample and lightly sanded both sides, then painted with a light coat of gesso, rubbing a little off in some areas. Next I stamped white pigment ink with a Stampendous Crackle cube and embossed with Pirate's Gold EP. The front image is a portion of Tree Fairy from Mary-Beth's tree photo mounted on black cardstock and applied with gel medium and a silver dragonfly charm. The back has a metal tag curled over cord and glued on with E6000 and a puzzle collage image from Artella. The ends of the cord have silver beads glued on and fibres are looped through the hole on the bottom of the laminate sample.

Milestone Reminder

Don't forget to check out my Milestone Post and add your name to the draw by posting a comment. I was going to do the draw on June 11 but you will have one more day to get your name in as I will draw late on the June 12. Check back on the 13th to see who the winners are. Good Luck to all and thanks for helping me celebrate.

Journal Page With Tags

This weeks Created Byhand Challenge is to use tags in a project so I finished off a journal page I originally created for the spritzes, sprays and splashes challenge. I printed some notes on the back of the page, because this was also my entry in the Artella Paradise challenge and added the tags with photos of my shawl and a bowl of yarn. The tags were aged with Distress Ink Walnut stain. I then tipped the page into my Zutter bound journal

ATC Mini Shrine "Freedom to Change"

Well I finally made my first shrine last night. This idea has been cooking in my brain since I bought these little black boxes from Ruby Dog's Art House and discovered they are the perfect size for an ATC. For the front I started with a piece of black cardstock cut smaller than an ATC and glued green, purple, blue and white handmade tissue paper on. I then added my house pin from the Byhand Artists Challenge minus the pin back. This whole piece was glued on with PVA. The final step was to glue the metal photo corners on with E6000 glue. Now for the inside left I used a previously made ATC with a Quietfire rubber stamp, beads on wire and a butterfly charm all on painted watercolour paper. Because I wanted this image to stand out more, I glued it over a piece of foam core. The image on the right is another previously made ATC (one of my favourites) with another piece of hand painted watercolour paper for the background a digital image from the internet, faux mica transparency, digital text, wire and beads. This image was glued right to the back of the plastic box. The back was made new for this project and is another painted watercolour paper background and another Quietfire Design quote stamp, stamped with scarlet pigment ink and embossed with amethyst embossing powder. The beads are part of a necklace I recycled. There are some flat clear beads and after stringing the beads together I glued one of these flat beads to the side of the box with E6000 glue.

Celebrating a Milestone

Today I am celebrating a milestone. Now it could be for posting 50 blog entries, I never knew I had that much to say or that I could post somewhat regularly. But no, I think I would need more than 50 posts to rate as a milestone worthy of celebrating. This is for a Flickr milestone. I have an ATC made for the black background Created Byhand Tuesday Challenge which I posted in my Flickr Photos on Nov. 6, 2007. I have been watching for the views to reach a certain number and then I would post my blog goodies. While I was creating a new series of similar ATCs for giveaways, more people kept looking and now this photo has been viewed a phenomenal 2,131 time to date. So now I have a new series of 3 ATCs that are similar to the original one that has so many views. The first is my "Love where you're at" quote stamp created by Suzanne of Quietfire Design stamped on black cardstock with scarlet pigment ink and embossed with copper detail embossing powder. I used a border punch on 1 edge and mounted it on to purple cardstock. This is trimmed with 2 paper flowers layered together with a brad. The second ATC is stamped with scarlet pigmant ink and embossed with amethyst embossing powder on a slightly curved edge black cardstock and again mounted on purple cardstock. The 2 paper flowers are attached with a silver brad. This is the least visible on the scan and is very subtle in real as well, but is my favourite. The third ATC is stamped with white pigment ink and embossed with silver embossing powder on border punched black cardstock and again mounted on purple cardstock. This one has 2 little purple heart stickers added. So now for the giveaway, leave a comment on this post and check back on June 11, 2008 to see if you are one of the 3 names drawn at that time. No need to sign-in but please use a name or nickname so I can identify the winners. Once I have announced the winners I will ask them to email me privately with the address for mailing the ATCs. Winner number one will also receive a mystery bonus to be announced later.

Created Byhand Challenge May 20,08

Created Byhand Challenge May 20,08
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This weeks Created Byhand Challenge is to create pins.My house pin is a digital drawing with a Quietfire Design rubber stamp, some other stamps, collage image, key charm and a piece of microfische for the window. The second pin is a Quietfire collage image and stamp. The rest of the entries in the challenge can be seen at Created Byhand

ATC Swap May 08 At The Grind

The single ATC is a digital image found on the internet, stamped over with a Paperbag Studios rubber stamp in black dye based ink. The 4 blue buttons are glued in the corners. I really like this one so it may not make it into my swap binder. If I get a second one done before tomorrow that might be put in for swapping.
The same digital image used with a piece of film negative, slide mounts stamped with Stazon ink and stamped with background stamps. These photos can also be seen on my Flickr Photos.

Little Tree Fairy ATC

Another Byhand Artists friend, Mary-Beth posted some photos of flowering trees on her blog and invited us to download them for use in our own projects. I did some digital editing with one tree photo and inserted an image of a little girl which was a freebie from another site. The first has a faded edge, the second a soft edge and the last is left straight. I added on some little glitter stickers, these look purple in the scan, but they are pink.

More ATC Play Time

These are the rest of the ATCs I made last night. The first used a piece I made a few days ago playing with a dollar store paint spinner. I glued the piece onto black cardstock, stamped and embossed the word Play with an alphabet stamp set. I embellished with a puzzle piece, dice beads and a mini domino. This one is the most fun and playful. The next 2 use wallpaper samples for the background. The second one has a Quietfire Design collage image, the word cherish from the Quietfire Design mini compilation and a slide mount rubber stamped with Stazon ink. The last is another sticker from the dollar store sheet and a fish charm.

ATC Play For May

I took time to play with some different stuff last night and made 6 ATCs. These are the first 3, all done on cream cardstock. The backgrounds are rubber stamped with flourish stamps and a background stamp. The first one has a sticker from a dollar store find and the other 2 have my faux postage stamps.

More May ATCs

I worked on these ATCs back on about May 6 so now I'm just getting them posted. I started with unused flower gift cards and re-purposed them for the background. The "Boy" one has a collage image from Quientfire Design and the lettering is purple cardstock run through a Dymo labler and highlighted with white stamp pad ink. The red button was glued on. The "Girl" uses another Quietfire Design collage image and the word sweet stamped with an alphabet set in metallic pink ink then a pink button was glued on.

May Fat Book Page

This is the Fat Book Page I made for the Byhand Artists Yalpha Mingle. I started the same as the journal page in this previous post. I assembled the front and back leaving the edge open to form a pocket for the tag. The tag is a digital scrapbook paper resized to fit the tag dimensions and my "L" quote and info on the back. The front of the tag is a Quietfire Design stamp with pigment ink and embossed with Peidot embossing powder. I punched holes along the edge and added tons of fibres.

Take Time For May ATCs

I have been doing more work on the danglies for The Byhand Artists Danglie Swap, but on Saturday I took play time for some ATCs. The first "Take Time 1" is a quote stamp on parchment cardstock. The whole stamp was too long for an ATC so I just used the quote part and did a torn edge at the bottom, rubbed with Antique Linen Distress Ink. This was layered on light purple cardstock cut with decorative scissors and then layered on dark purple cardstock. I added a small paper flower with a silver brad. The second one "Take Time 2" was done the same way but with a green flower snap added to the bottom corner.
The third and fourth ATC are done on natural coloured chipboard. The third has a quote stamp " Precious Friend" from Kolette Hall, heart and cherish stamps from Quietfire Design in brown Stazon ink, drain plugs used to stamp circles in forest pigment ink and flourishes in cocoa pigment ink. And the last "Altered Art Journey 1" is all done with stamps from Quietfire Design in brown Stazon ink. Now I'm going to do a little work in the yard and then go string beads on more danglies.

Background Swap Bound

Well it took me all day, but I got the Byhand Artists Background Swap pages bound yesterday, and I did it all myself. I was going to ask for help, but I slowly cut my way through the chipboard covers. I had an extra piece of my background technique set aside with the metal letters just waiting for the rest to arrive. I chose the cover paper from a Glorious Glitter package of handmade scrapbook paper and covered the front and back covers with the same paper. I glued the letters on my swap sample with No More Nails glue. This was then glued to the cover. For a design detail, the small piece of black and silver paper from the Dark Shadows handmade paper pack was added to create a little glamour. I fastened all the instructions to their respective pages and created a title page, dedication and table of contents.Another design detail of a torn paper on the inside back cover was added for a bit of a rustic touch. I like glamour and rustic together. Now came the big challenge, could I use my wonderful Zutter Bind-It-All, available from Quietfire Design, with my left hand? I love the Zutter, it was a breeze to use even left handed. That is except for one little glitch, all the layers of decorative paper and the corrugated made the covers too thick to go into the Bind-It-All. I couldn't waste all that effort and materials, so I cut a small piece of the corrugated and pealed a layer of paper off the two cover pieces. Success, it went in and the holes were punched like going through butter. So here come the design details, otherwise known as cover up your big mistakes and end up with a finished book that is, in my opinion, even better than planned. For binding I used 1 inch silver wires. I am very pleased with my book and thanks to all the artists who contributed it will be a valuable resource and inspiration. I think it will live near my creative space in the attic.

Byhand Artists Newsletter Anniversary

Now that I am sure that Suzanne of Quietfire Design has received my entry for the Byhand Artists Newsletter anniversary contest I can show you what I sent to her. I reworked a previous piece I made about knitting on the porch next to the lilacs. I tried to word this piece to more closely reflect Suzanne's interest and I sure hope I succeeded. The words are: "The gentle curve of a wrist. The flash of a pen. The letters flowing from the nib to the paper. The words building on the page. The shade of the front porch. The scent of lilacs on the gentle breeze in June. This is paradise. This is were I am at." I started with coffee stained watercolour paper and printed the lilacs and words on. I then stamped the flourishes with cocoa pigment ink and the Quietfire Design rubber stamp quote with green ink. This was backed with purple cardstock and clipped to the altered clipboard which is in an earlier post.

ATC Behind The Pink Curtain

ATC Behind The Pink Curtain
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I haven't posted for a few days, but I got 1 more danglie made on Sunday. I won't show you that, it's pretty much like the others but has a different photo. I also got 3 ATCs done. This is for the April 2008 swap and the themes are pink and time. The girl is a digital image found on the internet and I printed on a shaded pink to lilac background. I added the pink cheesecloth with matt medium then glued the pink seed beads on.

Three More Danglies

I am quite pleased with my progress on the danglies today. I have completed these 3 and have 2 more ready just waiting for the beads. These are done the same way as the first one, just the image and selection of beads have changed. I really like the pansy one on the left in the photo. These are so much fun despite the challenge of picking up the beading needle with fingers that are reluctant to bend.

Danglie

Our Byhand Artists Yahoo group is having a danglie swap so here is my first ever danglie which I decided to try out before I sign up to the swap. Since my right hand still has limited use I wanted to be sure I could complete the swap and now I am sure I can. I used a wooden piece which measues .75 in. X 1.5 in. and has 2 holes drilled from top to bottom. I have about 8 to 10 different photos sized to fit and for the first one I used the single red pear image, some assorted biege and redish beads on heavy cotton thread in coffee colour. The image is applied with matt medium and is finished with a coat of craft varnish in gloss.