September UPA

September brings us the Gotta Dash issue of Unruly PaperArts. Articles will be posted all month about clean and simple, quick and easy, or staying organized to make it easy.  Our guest artist this month is Dawn Barrett.

I'm very pleased to inform you that this term we've increased our family of columnists to bring you even more great art and ideas.  To meet these wonderful new additions to the Unruly team, please go HERE.

This month I opted to make a sample for our Reader Art Quest rather than write a column.  The Dark of Night prompt has put me in the mood for all things eerie.  I just love spooky, Halloween art projects.  How some of the Unrulies interpreted this theme, the challenge details, and where to link up your entry can all be found HERE.  This month's RAQ is sponsored by Eyelet Outlet and Brads.  I was given the owl brads to play with and thought they'd look great perched on a tree in the dark of night.

Here is the September prompt:

Here is my design team sample for inspiration:

Process and Materials:

5 x 7 canvas
covered with ProArt Gesso canvas primer
scene painted with Yasutomo Niji Pearlescent Watercolors

tree made with
Dreamweavers Matte Black Embossing Paste scraped through
The Crafters Workshop 251 Branches Reversed stencil

owls
Red Lead Paperworks rubber stamp
VersaMark watermark stamp pad
Tsukineko #07 black embossing powder
Inkssentials Cut-n-Dry paint nibs
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink-mowed lawn
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink-weathered wood
Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star pen
Eyelet Outlet and Brads--owl brads

I'd like to submit this canvas creation to the following challenges:

Artistc Inspiration: Anything Goes or Memories I have lots of memories of sitting around a campfire late at night at the lake and hearing the owls hooting in the trees.

Crafty Bloggers Network Challenge:  Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp MONDAY challenge:  Go Bold


BLOG CANDY ALERT
My friend Lynne is having a great giveaway at her blog.
Get the details HERE.  You have until Sept 12 to comment for a chance to win.  You know I love everything Alice!

September Start Up

I can't believe it's already September!  The year is flying by!  Up today is a back-to-school blog background which will be changed to a Halloween one tomorrow.  When I was little, I always enjoyed going to the store to buy school supplies.  The smell of Crayola crayons when opening a new box still makes me swoon.  

I'm making some changes to my blog.  It will be expanded to include some of my other artistic interests. I also will be cleaning up the sidebar and only posting the badges of challenge sites where I've won.  The sidebar is so overloaded that it no longer serves a useful purpose.  This may sound self-serving, but the sidebar is long right now and I doubt anyone scrolls through it.  So the badges don't really serve as a marketing tool for the challenge sites.  I will post the challenge badge and what I made and will update it so that it only covers the past few months.

THIS MONTH'S HOLIDAY

Happy Labor Day!  Here's one of my previous makes that celebrates the working woman and her important role during World War II.

MEDIA MONDAY

I've been dabbling in digital art so I found this book totally fascinating.  The dh found it at the local thrift store.    Bright and Early Thursday Evening: a tangled tale dreamed by Audrey Wood, imagined by Don Wood.  I found the story delightful in the Alice In Wonderland absurd kind of way.  But I was mesmerized by the beautiful digital paintings.

The local movie theater finally had something playing that I wanted to see.  The Giver with Jeff Bridges was excellent.  It conjoured up all sorts of ideas for journaling art work.

CYBER CHALLENGE

Here is a new art project that is starting today.  I've made ATCs using playing cards but never really altered an entire set of playing cards.  It sounds like an interesting project.  You can find all the details at Claudine Criner's blog HERE.  She says the project will last 26 weeks.

DESIGN TEAM WORK

GECKO GALZ

Please visit the Gecko Galz blog to participate in our September Customer Challenge which is School Days. The prize for one lucky winner is a $25 shopping spree at Gecko Galz and a prize pack from Rhonda's Originals (this month's cross promotion sponsor).  You will find all the challenge details, as well as more design team makes,  HERE.

Here is my design team make for inspiration.  My digital collage was printed and colored, then placed on an old-timey mini composition book.

The Gecko Galz September 2014 digital image releases used in this make are:
School Days digital stamps (school banner, girl holding blackboard)
Chalkboard Sentiments collage sheet
Other Gecko Galz digital products:
School Days collage sheet:  postmark
AlterMe collage sheet: Word Search digital paper

I cropped and made png files with the images.  I erased the skin on the girl so that when placed on the paper the pattern would show through.
Starting with the word search paper, I layered the banner, girl and postmark.  I placed on top of her chalk board the chalkboard sentiment.
After printing out the collage, I used watercolor pencils to add some color accents.  I then glued it onto the composition book cover, leaving the black binding exposed.
I printed a second word search paper to cover the back of the book.

I would like to enter this notebook altered cover in the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion Challenge #229 Back to School

Creative Moments:  Challenge #50Anything Goes with Back to School twist (new challenge for me which I found at Paper Playful--list of challenges)

Just Us Girls: Challenge #256 Wild Card:   (new challenge for me which I found at Paper Playful--list of challenges)


Sentimental Sundays: Challenge #222  Back to School  The sentiment on the chalkboard says "whatever you are be, be a good one"

Shopping Our Stash SOS# ABC's  I used the mini composition book that has been in my stash for a couple of years and the Stampin' Up watercolor pencils that I've had forever and just starting using again this past week.  A=alphabet background paper, B= banner, C= chalkboard and composition book

The Cheerful Stamp Pad Challenge #94  Anything Goes

Please come back tomorrow for more design team news!

Party Girl

A smaller Prima doll stamp.  Playing with color and melted wax.   

Challenges as we head into the Labor Day weekend which really is the last weekend of summer fun:
Artistic Inspirations: Challenge Anything Goes:  and/or Labor Day/Career
Craft Your Passion:  Summer Fun
Crafting At the Weekend:  Anything Goes
Mema's Crafts August Challenge Entry #2
Sister Act Card Challenge #71
Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #210 Anything Goes

Sunshine Tag

This week's theme at Tag Tuesday is Song Titles.  There's a wonderful collection for your viewing at Tag Tuesday HERE.

Right now my toddler granddaughter's favorite song is Raining Sunshine.  I combined this song tile withe a couple of challenge themes.  My sisters-in-law and I like to get together at the lake during the summer when it's raining sunshine!  Of course, if it's raining sunshine,umbrellas have to be included!

Materials:  
Gecko Galz Sunny August collage sheet and Splish Splash collage sheet
I used the things my dd2 gave me when she gave up scrapbooking for cooking as a hobby.
DCWV Summer Dream paper packs and embellishment stack
JoAnn Craft Essentials Fancy Flops
Recollections Adhesive Glitter Shapes (sunglasses)
umbrella from party store
ribbon and blue wave trim from stash


Entering these challenges:

Crafty Bloggers Network:  August Challenge: Summer
Gecko Galz Face Book Paper Crafting Group: August: Sisters Day

It's a Man Thing Part 2

It's a Man Thing is winding up as the week's theme at Tag Tuesday.

I decided to use this clever digital image that I received in the Gone Fishing digital set from Stitchy Bear Stamps as part of my prize when I won the random draw at Mema's Crafts Challenge.  I kept my tag CLEAN AND SIMPLE.

You can see all the tags from the players at Tag Tuesday HERE.

I started with the Stitchy Bear image and printed it on white card stock, positioning it lower on the page so that I could cut it into a tag shape.  I colored the image with Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Markers: crushed olive, broken china, tumbled glass, and antique linen as well as Prismacolor 197 Green Tea.

Then I ran some Fancy Pants 1/2" chalk tape through a Darice embossing folder for my measuring tape across the bottom of the tag.  I used a Sizzex embossing folder to add some circle "fish bubbles" to the top of the tag which I decorated with some half pearls (you always find pearls in the ocean, right?) If you have this embossing folder, then you know the circles are different sizes so I randomly placed 3 different sized half pearls in their matching circles.

The trim is from a black vegetable bag, and the green is some trim I often use in beach projects because I think it looks like a fish net. Really putting that fish necklace to work that I was given at the Neptune Wine Festival. It's been cut up for embellies and placed on several of my projects. I finished with a bit of baker's twine to resemble fishing line.

Entering these challenges:

Tag You're It:  Challenge # 3 sketch challenge  combined with CASe this Sketch Challenge #87
As you can see, I flipped the sketch so the white space is on the left as part of the image; and the stripes are horizontal rather than diagonal, again, part of the image.



Mema's Crafts:  August Anything Goes

Country View Challenges:  Word Play  This is not a sentiment.  I thought this cheeky digital image was perfect for this challenge!

Artistic Inspiration Challenge 104:  Anything Goes pocket or tag

It's a Man Thing Part 1

Working on a man theme this week, here are a couple of cards I made at my hubby's request, one birthday card and one get well card to get in the mail to two men in our community.

Materials:
Kraft cards
Ink Sprays:  Ranger Dylusions Squeezed Orange, Maya Road Maya Mist Hydrangea, and Tsukineko Walnut Antiquing Solution
digital map images from Gecko Galz Old World Maps collage sheet
DCWV card stock
Stampin' Up circle sentiment from Riveting rubber stamp set
Ranger Wendy Vecchi Forget Me Not Archival Ink
Ranger Tim Holtz Broken China Distress Marker
Computer generated sentiment
twine
pop dots

Entering these challenges:
Alphabet Challenge:  M is for Men Only until Aug 13, winner announced Aug 15
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Cards:  August

Time to Vote for your Favorite Gecko Galz Design from the Team

Now we want you to choose the best design and win a great prize pack from Gecko Galz.....what you might ask? We are going to place everyone who cast their vote into a drawing and one lucky winner will get a design team prize pack which is all the September products plus a Itkupilli prize pack. 

Just email your vote togeckogalz2014@gmail.com before August 30th and the winner will be announced here on the 31st. 

BUT WAIT! Just for entering you get a FREE mini stamp set from Gecko Galz! So vote now....get your free stamp set and maybe even win a prize pack! Good Luck!

Here is my design team project totally digital):

And here's where you'll find the rest of the design team entries: 
Gecko Galz Blog.

Be sure to vote so you can get your free digital stamp set.  Here's hoping you win the grand prize too!

Read in the Garden Tag

I didn't have time to play last week at Tag Tuesday where  Statues was the theme.
I had a delayed start trying to figure out which statue to use when it occurred to me that my husband gave me a lovely garden statue for Mother's Day two years ago.  It sits on a bench where a reader is invited to sit.  I decided to incorporate a photo of the statue in my tag.

We're a family of readers and I have a minor in Library Science so this sounded like a good fit not only for Tag Tuesday but for a few challenges I found over at Paper Playful.

Although it kills me to tear up a book, this particular page came as backing on a pack of flowers.  A good base for my tag, with a pic of the statue on top.

Among my favorite things are my home and garden.  So the statue and trims represent love of reading and the garden. The brick (from the embossing folder) represents our home.

Entering these challenges:
All Sorts Challenge Blog: Favorite Things
The Order of the Opus Gluei:  A Good Read
Mema's Crafts:  Anything Goes
Craft Room Challenge  A Summer Garden

UPA August Issue

Our Unruly Paper Arts blogozine issue for August is up and running, with the Schedule of Contents for the month and the Reader Art Quest.  

This month's theme is STEAMPUNK.  Articles will be posted throughout the month from our talented UPA columnists. Our featured guest artist is Leslie Rahye.  

A bit of news for all our readers is that we now have a facebook page and newsletter subscription giving you more ways to keep up to date and follow what is happening both here on the blog and within our Unruly Community as well as sharing some of the news from our sponsors.

Our sponsor this month is Wild Orchid Crafts.  Their site can be found HERE


They have generously donated a gift voucher to the lucky winner of this month's RAQ.

And here it is, The UPA August Reader Art Quest mood board:

I don't have any columnist contribtions for this month, so I thought I'd leave you with a bit of whimsy steampunk I made in August of 2011.  He's not flying anywhere, but.......

the tin man later ended up here on this layout which was published in the September 2011 issue of Enchanting Creations on-line publication:

And here's a little steampunk time travel piece for you which I also made in 2011.  I'm sure the Wizard up above is carrying this in his pocket.

What will YOU make for the FLY AWAY Readers Art Quest?  Be sure to link it up HERE

What's New for August at Gecko Galz

CROSS PROMOTION

This month Gecko Galz has teamed with itKuPiLLi to show how the two products work together.  I change my blog background ever once in awhile and this is the perfect time to use an itKuPiLLi blog background!

For my design team cross promotion sample, I made a Ballerina Shadowbox.  This is a totally digital composition using images from both companies.

Going totally digital meant I had to remove the backgrounds from the ballerinas.  This was labor intensive. However, these are my most favorite ballerinas from Gecko Galz and I use them often in my work.   I converted all the images to ping files which allows me to layer them and resize them as needed.  If you do not wish to work digitally, you can print out the images in the sizes you want,  fussy cut them and glue them in place.

Materials:
itKuPiLLi digital paper set called Primavera.
Gecko Galz collage sheets:  Tiny Dancer, Dancing Queen, Vintage Labels

Process:
Start with itKuPiLLi digital paper "shadowbox"--a most amazing beautifully designed paper.

Crop, resize and remove backgrounds from 3 ballerinas in Tiny Dancer collage sheet, the pink ballet shoes in Dancing Queen collage sheet, and the Vintage Label.  At this point, I altered the colors on the dresses to match the green Vintage Label and to bring out the pink.

Place all items in shadowbox as shown, adjusting sizes.

Add to the placement from itKuPiLLi the plant, parrot, and heart shaped roses, arranging layers forward and back.  Place itKuPiLLi flower in hand of ballerina.

I added shadowing with my software to bring dimension to the images.

I'm entering this piece in the following challenge:
It's All About the Vintage: Photo Inspiration Challenge

AUGUST CUSTOMER CHALLENGE

You have a chance to win $25 in Gecko Galz images AND an itKuPPiLi gift pack.  For details and to link up or email your very vintage creation using a Gecko Galz image, head to our Gecko Galz blog HERE.  You have until the end of the month!!!!

I made top folding Victorian bookmark cards for my very vintage design team sample.

Materials:
Gecko Galz Victorian Bookmarks collage sheet
Beige quality card stock--I used Stampin' Up Very Vanilla
Wink of Stella in pink

Directions:On computer, crop together the top 3 bookmarks.
Print on lower left side of card stock
Score card stock above bookmarks.  You will have a top folding bookmark card. 
Fold card stock in half..  Cut off excess on bottom
Cut in-between bookmarks so that you have 3 cards.
Embellish.  Since I want these to be used as bookmarks, I didn't add any dimensional embellishments.  I just used Wink of Stella which is a glitter brush.  It adds that Victorian flair of some glitter.

I'm entering these in this challenge:
4 Crafty Chicks:  Anything Goes


AUGUST RELEASES CONTINUE

This is my design team sample using the August Japanese images.

Digital hybrid card

Materials:  

Gecko Galz fly high paper from Mori digital paper pack

Gecko Galz Japanese Traditions collage sheet

cardstock for card base and contrasting color for mat

flower

Directions:

crop image and apply layers on computer or hand cut mats

place on background patterned paper

apply to mat and then onto card

add flower

Entering this card in the following challenge:
Artistic Inspiration: Challenge 102 Color Theme/Anything Goes

Be sure to check out all the new products, design team inspiration, winners of the July promotions, etc. at our main Gecko Galz website HERE.


UPCOMING BLOG HOP

There will be 21 blogs to visit with a free collage sheet at each stop.  Lots of tricks and treats!  Be sure to mark your calendar for our huge annual event!