Birthday Club

Twenty of us signed on to the Birthday Club at the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo! Group (EWV) to make and send cards to each other on our birthdays.  I'm fairly new to the EWV group, so to make my first card I just followed Wendy's tutorial on page 12 of her book (Make Art Studio 490 Style).  That forced me to make a grungepaper flower that I've never made before.  The tutorial was for a wall hanging, but I was making a card.  And I didn't have all of the stamps she used, but I had enough to create something "close enough" yet not a clone.  Obviously, I used Wendy's Studio 490 stamps--and a lot of Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Ink.  The recipient has received her card, so now I can post it here.

American Idol goes to Hollywood tonight!  Time to get serious about who I think will be the next Idol.

As I promised yesterday, I'm reminding you to check out the Tuesday QKD Royal Court Blog hop. To start at the beginning of the QKD hop and to find the complete hop list, please click here on the words: Queen Kat Designs.

QKD Royal Monday Blog Hop and 2nd February Stamp Release

This week the Royal Court was challenged to use a QKD sketch to reveal the February stamp sets being released this month in the on-line store. BON VOYAGE is the set I'm working with for today's hop. To start at the beginning of the QKD hop and to find the complete hop list, please click here on the words: Queen Kat Designs.  If you've been hopping along, next up is Penny.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) the rest of the QKD Design Team shows us the sketch they used to reveal February's stamps.  I'll be back tomorrow to remind you about the second hop, and I'll have a direct link to it!

 

This past Saturday on the official QKD blog, the technique I wrote about was distressing paper with ink, first by crumpling the paper, then going over the creases with an inked up sponge applicator.  I promised if you'd come back today for the hop, you'd see the finished card.  Here's a photo of how I used this technique on the map of Paris I obtained from the Graphics Fairy:

And do you remember this suitcase that I used as a backdrop when I took a photo of a QKD card made this summer? I took another photo of the suitcase, printed it on matte paper and cut it out for an embellishment.  I used the suitcase instead of a piece of rectangular paper for this sketch and I turned the sketch on its side.

This is a great stamp set.  I used only one of the stamps and divided it into 3 separate images for the card.  This is a great way to make your stamps more versatile--just ink up a portion of the stamp.  I printed the luggage, hat and purse section of the stamp onto a copper rimmed luggage tag and then colored it with Copics.  I stamped the Bon Voyage sentiment section onto canvas paper and then cut it out and inked with faux stitching to make it look like one of those suitcase travel stickers.  And lastly, I stamped the Eiffel Tower portion of the stamp directly onto the map.  A few pieces of Tim Holtz hardware complete the travel theme.

If your speakers are on, I hope you enjoy the music!  Edith Piaf is one of my most fave singers of all time and posting a couple of her songs on my Playlist really brought back memories!  Mon Dieu is my favorite Edith song.

Be sure to stop at the Queen Kat Designs Store at the end of the hop.  Check out the current 35% off sale  OR  you can always use my discount code HH10 for 10% off.  

See you Saturday at the QKD blog for another technique article.  See you here next Monday for another QKD Royal Court Blog Hopl!

I'm putting the Graphics fairy Brag Monday logo on this as well.

This card wouldn't be the same without using her great image of the Paris map.  So I have to brag about it!

Altered Glass Jar

This weekend, I'm participating in an on-line Valentine Crop at Pages in Time.  I'm plugging away at the challenges, one at a time.  Here is my first one--the altered item.

I also moderate a group at Pages in Time called Hybrid and Altered Artists.  Several of us have been talking about altering our embellishment containers.  I used today's challenge to finally get mine done.

I took a very pretty image from the Graphics Fairy and Modge Podged it to the front of my glass jar.  I had distresssed it with scissors and ink so that it would look like a worn label. When I covered the image with MP so that it'd hold up longer, a little of the ink smeared, but I like the effect--it now looks old. 

Since this is a working container, holding my flowers, I decorated the lid so that it would be functional.  Ribbons, flowers and the butterfly were items I already had on hand.

I love how the little girl looks like she's holding some flowers for me to use on my projects.

GC39 Color Challenge: Metallics

Here is my entry for the metallics challenge. After using fluid chalk ink to color the tag green, I sprayed a mixture of water and gold Perfect Pearls on it to give the effect of "raindrops" since the cherub is holding an umbrella. I used Adirondak gold metallic paint dabber to edge the tag and painted a couple of spots on the tag. I also added gold scrap border. Valentine image from Red Lead Paperworks. Websters Pages background paper.

Objects of My Affection Valentine Tag Swap

This is my first sister swap at Red Lead Paperworks, a spectacular St. Louis (technically Webster Groves) store, loaded with lots of trinkets and craft goodness to inspire creativity.  It is such a treat to shop there.

***Objects of my Affection Valentine Tag Swap***
Due Date is Feb. 5, 2010
Sweet and Simple Swap- Make 4 Valentine Tags- Get 3 Back! 

Here are the four tags I made and sent in, using Red Lead images and stamps. 

Her Days Were Numbered: GC40 & EWV Swap

Three things on this post:

1) Here is the tag I created for Part Two of the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo! Group Rose Tag Swap.  Deets about the swap are below the tag.

2) One of my cyberfriends posted about a challenge on Gingersnap Creations.  What a wonderful challenge site!  I'm including this tag in their GC40 Random Redhead Challenge: Numbers. 

3) Reminder about the rest of the QKD Design Team's Tuesday blog hop.

This is from my first completed project at the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo! Group.  Part One:   I made some roses using Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 Dimensional Rose Art stamp set, Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Ink, and Grunge paper.  I swapped roses with Dawn.  Part Two:  I took the purple rose Dawn sent me and made this tag that I sent to my round two swap partner, Allie.  Image used was posted at Pages In Time. After printing it, I edged it with Adirondack gold metallic paint dabber. Colorbox fluid chalk for lavender background of tag.  I used the same Studio 490 stamp set for both the number background (stamped with Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Ink in Dusty Concord) and the leaf (finished with Perfect Pearls for shimmer). Computer generated title, cut up and distressed with ink.

And here is a photo of the tag Allie made with Sammie's rose and sent to me:

As I promised yesterday, I'm reminding you to check out the Tuesday QKD Royal Court Blog hop. To start at the beginning of the QKD hop and to find the complete hop list, please click here on the words: Queen Kat Designs.

QKD Royal Monday Blog Hop and February Stamp Release; Brag Monday Graphics Fairy and GC38

This week the Royal Court was challenged to use a QKD sketch to reveal the February stamp sets being released this Wednesday in the QKD store. ON A HIGH NOTE is the set I'm working with for today's hop. To start at the beginning of the QKD hop and to find the complete hop list, please click here on the words: Queen Kat Designs.  If you've been hopping along, next up is Penny.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) the rest of the QKD Design Team shows us the sketch they used to reveal February's stamps. And I'll be back tomorrow to remind you about the second hop, and I'll have a direct link to it!

Deets on the materials used to make this card:  the Graphics fairy website:  ballerinas image; Tim Holtz for Ranger Distress Inks:  black soot, tea dye, antique linen, and weathered wood; 3 black faceted beads for notes; Versa Mark and Tsukineko #07 Black embossing powder; Copic markers in E00, E31, E35, E37, E50, C3, W3, and Prismacolor marker 115; scallop punch; Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles Standard Large, metal crown cut to fit; Sakura black glaze pen; Graphic 45 Communique patterned paper (records).

Be sure to stop at the Queen Kat Designs Store at the end of the hop. You can always use my discount code HH10 for 10% off.  

See you Saturday at the QKD blog for another technique article.  See you here next Monday for another stamp reveal!

I'm putting the Graphics fairy Brag Monday logo on this as well.

This card wouldn't be the same without using her great image, Ballerinas2a. I took artistic liberty and reversed the image so that the ballerinas would be facing the 3 circles of On A High Note images.

GC38 Spicy Supply Challenge: Embossing
I heat embossed all three images in the circles using Versa Mark and Tsukineko #07 Black embossing powder.