Little Books

After spending the weekend at the hockey tournament in Richmond I came home and decided to start some little books. The first one I made is a small purse book made from a hotel brochure and holds ATC "hockey cards" of photos of my niece playing her hockey games. Her team had a good tournament and won or tied all their games and made it to the finales and won silver. It sure was great to see the games as this is the last year she plays in minor hockey. The pages are double-sided scrapbook cardstock and is pamphlet stitched with a beaded purse handle.
The next book is covers made of coasters that are covered with paper from a gift bag. I took the bag apart, misted it and crumpled the paper. I rubbed white pigment ink on the high points and edge. The inside of the covers is black cardstock rubber stamped with white pigment ink. The pages are brown and black cardstock rubber stamped with bleach and coloured with stamp pad inks. I added card sleeves with double-sided tape. This is bound with the Zutter Bind-it-all.

Sat. Project and ATC Swap

Well I am late posting these items, but I will share them now. On Sat. March 20 I had my ATCs ready for the Grind Swap so I went to Cherish The Thought for the weekly project. That week we made a gift card holder with embossing and tried out the Sizzex die cut to make a 3-D flower. This is quite pretty, the die cuts a scalloped spiral which is wound into the flower glued together and onto the front of the card holder. I added a little bead in the centre of the flower.
Then on the 21 I went to the swap which was moved to Heaven Tree Studio for the wrap-up of the ATC Exhibit and our usual monthly swap. It was a lively swap with some new people wanting to know about our regular swap and information about joining us. After the swap we had goodies and coffee and then a draw for door prizes. The shops involved in the exhibit donated prizes and Penelope made several wonderful gifts. I was the lucky winner of one of her hand made map gift bags containing a button Penelope made with a new button maker she just acquired and a lovely little handmade book. Very cute and a real treasure package.

More March ATCs

Well I continued to finish up some more apple theme ATCs for this month's swap. This first group "Fractured Apple" I printed a black and white and a colour photo of my apples then cut them out with the Funky Squares Cuttlebug die. I mixed the 2 images together and mounted them on metallic cardstock embossed with Cuttlebug embossing folders.
This set uses apple stickers from Ruby Dog's Art House, some have an embossed felt background and some are on green cardstock. All the stickers are stitched on watercolour paper and layered with red and silver floral mesh with bits of lace, ribbon and buttons.

March ATCs For ATC Vancouver Swap

Sunday Mar. 21 is the regular swap, so I've been creating as fast as I can to get enough ready. One of the themes this month is apples and I've used a couple of my apple photos, a Crafts Too Leafy Tree Embossing Folder. Some are coloured on the debossed side with Pitt artists pens. Some of the others are coloured with pigment inks on the embossed side. I used various Spellbinders dies to cut the apple image and a piece to layer under some of them. Three of the apple images are mounted with pop dots.

Some ATCs

I've been working on some ATCs today. The first one has some of the torn phonebook paper from the magnet phonebooks and rubber stamps from Crafty Secrets Altered Arts small set and from Quietfire Design. I added some beads a button and a piece of lace edging

One of the themes for the Vancouver ATC group this month is Apples, so I started this one with an embossed felt, placed some floral mesh torn watercolour paper and the apple sticker over this and hand stitched it all down.

Yellow Rolodex Swap

The Byhand Artists Group is having another of our Rolodex swaps and again Beth is our wonderful hostess. The theme this time is yellow and quotes. Well I came across these lovely lemon paper napkins right around the same time the swap was announced, so I just had to use them.



But wait, there's more. The forsythia was most co-operative and came into beautiful bloom, so I am sending these as well. The photo is cropped to fit and printed on watercolour paper. The quote on the front is printed on clear ink jet label and layered over torn vellum. The tag is torn watercolour paper, hand dyed mesh fabric and torn ink jet vellum stitched together. The ribbon on most is torn cotton fabric hand dyed in Making Memories craft acrylic Fresh Anthology Daffodil paint diluted in water. A few have lace edging for the ribbon. I hope all the swappers enjoy adding these to their Rolodex collection.

Embossing Folder Samples

While I was doing the card project at Cherish The Thought on Sat I also perused all the Cuttlebug Folders Jessie had on the wall. I was so impressed with the sample cards that help to really get a look and feel of the texture and if the folder was sold out I could still see what it looked like, and order if I wanted it. I found 2 new ones I wanted in stock, so I came home happy for now. The idea is so great that I made my version with chipboard covers and embossed cardstock with all of the folders I have right now and can easily add more samples as I acquire more folders.

Butterfly Greeting Card

This is the card project I did on Sat. March 6 at Cherish The Thought. The card blank is white, the next layer is black cardstock. The next layer of Coredinations Whitewash Collection in blue, is embossed with Flourished Frame Cuttlebug folder then sanded, I could have sanded a little more and revealed more of a darker blue colour. The top focal piece is white cardstock stamped with butterfly wings from Crafty Secrets Altered Art small set in black ink. The butterfly body is 3 sizes of blue rhinestones. This piece is added with pop dots for some dimension.

Spellbinders Open House

On Feb 20th Jessie had a Spellbinders open house at Cherish The Thought and we made 4 cards using different Nestabilities and techniques. These are the cards I made.

Now this was a busy weekend because on Friday the 19th I went to Vancouver to check out the Olympic activities and on Sunday the 21st I went to the monthly ATC swap which is usually held at the Grind. Because of parking restrictions we met at Collage Collage and Sat night after being at the open house I got a message that Penellope had made an ATC book with pockets as a gift for the store owner, and could we contribute an ATC. So Sunday morning I made the geranium ATCs using my photo and the seed packet card technique, I really liked how the cards turned out and the ATCs turned out pretty good too.

My Entries For TheVancouver ATC Exhibition

On Fri, Feb 26 I took my 9 ATCs for the Vancouver 2010 Exhibit in to Ruby Dog's Art House. There is a list of participants here. If you are in the lower mainland between now and Mar 21 please check out all the cards. The cards will be swapped at the regular Vancouver ATC Group swap on Mar 21.
The top left 2 cards have alcohol ink backgrounds on shiny cardstock and a photo of the cauldron taken from the viewing area. The third ATC is my photo of the torch when it came through my area. The photo is printed on vellum and stitched onto coffee stained watercolour paper with a piece of mesh fabric layered over. The words are computer generated torn cardstock edged with distress ink and fibres are added. The next 2 are playing cards with computer generated text and rubber stamped with "10". The next card in this row is the cauldron layered with pop dots over cardstock coloured with Fired Brick Distress Ink and both are cut with a Nestabilities die cut. The next 2 ATCs are alcohol ink on shiny cardstock rubber stamped with various stamps including a Quietfire Design flourish stamp. The last card is the cauldrom stiched onto mesh fabric on coffee stained watercolour paper.

Scrap ATCs

Back when I made the Dreams ATCs from the magnetic phone books, I cut the label frames, and the pieces left over from doing this were just lying on my desk. These just looked too good to waste so here are some ATCs I made and called "From Scraps To Hearts". I used silver metallic cardstock embossed with a Cuttlebug folder for 3 of the backgrounds and a patterned scrapbook paper for the fourth card. The word stamps are from Quietfire Design. The embellishments include Fun Foam hearts, charms, ribbon and rhinestones.

Late For A Birthday Card

I have been so busy over the last couple of weeks that I didn't get a birthday card in the mail at the appropriate time so I made this "Just Because" card. This is a tri-fold Climb The Hill card made from a two-sided scrapbook cardstock. After scoring the folds I rubber stamped various stamps and the Quietfire sentiment stamp and the Michalels Just Because stamp with Memories Cocoa ink and printed computer genterated words for the other phrases on vellum. The flower is cut with a Sizzixx Flower layers #3 die.

ATC Dream Accordion Fold Book

This started as a magnetic telephone book purchased from Ruby Dog's Art House.


For the cover I used precious metals cardstock embossed with Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug embossing folder. Title is computer text on white cardstock and the frame is QuickKutz Squeeze die cut. This is mounted on the magnet cover and the back cover is mounted on a burgundy ATC.

I removed the accordion fold address pages and added my own accordion fold pages printed on a long piece of paper. The background is a scan of one of my painted backgrounds and my quote is computer generated text. The butterflies are stamped with Inkadinkado Patterned Bugs clear stamps set. Some of the butterflies are embossed with amethyst embossing powder.

ATC-Queen Of Heart

ATC-Queen Of Heart
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

One of the themes for the Feb Byhandartists monthly ATC swaps is "Queen of Hearts" in keeping with the blog challenge. Various backgrounds and 2 different digital images of Queen of Hearts, rubber stamps from Quietfire Design and sheer ribbon with heart rhinestones. This can be considered part ot the Queen of Hearts Challenge as well

Edit: I forgot to mention that the top 2 have sugar beads on the Queen card.

Paper Art Doll 1

Paper Art Doll 1
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I used a template from TheEnchantedGallery and printed it on Wausau natural Astroparche cardstock. The doll was cut out and the face from Crafty Secrets "Altered Art" set was rubber stamped with Memento rich cocoa ink. The quote and flourish stamps from Quietfire Design were stamped with Ancient Page Cardinal or Memento rich cocoa inks. I then used a sponge to randomly colour in with Distress inks fired brick and weathered wood.

2010 Feb ATC The Coffee Ring

2010 Feb ATC The Coffee Ring
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The themes for the Feb ATC Vancouver swap at The Grind are raspberry, rings and rust. I decided to do ring. The little coffee pot stamp is from Crafty Secrets and the other stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms "Journal Me" set.

Greeting Card-Baby

Greeting Card-Baby
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Here is the Saturday card project from Cherish The Thought. I started with a Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss the background layer then rubber stamped the edging, little bird and "Special Delivery" postal cancellation. The vintage carriage is stamped on cream cardstock cut with a scalloped circle Nestabilities Die. The background layer is edged with Memento Rich Cocoa ink. The lace and a ribbon is added with double sided tape and the cream piece is glued on with foam dots. Now came the frame for the carriage, this was done with 2 Nestabillities dies, the scalloped circle and the inverted scallop circle. We first placed the inverted scallop circle on a magnetic sheet, then lined up the points of the scallop circle with the points of the inverted scallop die. This was cut with the Big Shot and I got this cute little bubble frame which was edged with the Memento ink then glued to the cream circle.

Queen of Heart Journal Page

Queen of Heart Journal Page
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Judy, one of the byhandartists members proposed a challenge to do a project on the theme of Queen of Hearts so I did a page in my journal. I used fired brick Distress Ink to colour the page, found a vintage Queen of Hearts playing card image on-line, and inked the edges with Memento rich cocoa ink. I ran the image through the Xyron and added Sugar Beads. The frame is the piece left from the Watercolour Card I did a couple of weeks ago. The words "Queen of" and "heart" are Quietfire Design stamps rubber stamped with Blazing Red StazOn ink on thick cardstock, cut and attached with double sided tape. The lace along the bottom of the page is a piece of edging I knit from red no. 10 cotton and 2.25mm needles.

Life Stores Mini Album

Here are all the pages in a slide show for the Life Stories Mini Album I posted a few days ago.
Enjoy

Valentine Greeting Card

Valentine Greeting Card
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This card made on Jan 23 at Cherish The Thought, used a new Cuttlebug "Bloom Dots" embossing folder, torn scrapbook paper, 2 sizes of chipboard flowers and ribbon as well as a French sentiment rubber stamped.