Where have I been?

Busy, but not doing much art this week. This has been doctor appointment week - all those routine annual checkups that take a chunk out of each day. So now at least I have a clean bill of health, new contacts ordered and future dental work to be done.



I did teach my postcard class on Thursday night to a very enthusiastic class. Most students are primarily scrappers so sewing on fabric and paper, stamping and doing techniques like transfers are out-of-the-box for them, but they loved it.



Tuesday night was my local stamp club's monthly meeting. This month we had an altered gift card swap. Everyone took a gift card - like those given out at just about every store now - one without any $ on it of course! The altered results were imaginative, unique and awesome. Six of us participated and each was very different.

This is the front of mine. It started as a Target wedding gift card - the white pierced scallop edge was already on it and there was a wedding cake in the center. I gessoed over the front since it was slick and ink would not stick. Then I masked off the edges, stippled a robin's egg blue ink in the center and stamped with a script/bird stamp (from A Time to Stamp unmounted sheet - note: this company no longer in business). Then I stamped the bird's nest (Invoke Arts) twice, colored with watercolor pencils and layered them at the bottom of the card for dimension. I didn't scan the back but I used a "grungy" blue paper on the back, glued on a large blue egg image and overstamped with "Love warms every nest" (from a Crafty Secrets stamp set). Blue sheer ribbon was added for hanging.

The cards were all so unique! Julie used two oriental cards from World Market and make a little red booklet out of the paper card carrier. She cut up the images on the two cards, added some Jolee stickers and made a neat Asian collage. Debbie used some girlfriend images from Crafty Secrets on both sides of her card and clear embossed both sides. She added letter bubble stickers, flowers, fancy brads, a frame - darling. Mette covered her card with textured stencil paste and Pearl Ex for a beautiful shimmery background in which she embedded lots of beads, a large key and a circular image with Diamond Glaze over it for dimension. Laura used black paper to cover her card, cutting a rectangle out of the center to make a frame for a black and white photo of our group. She added black and white ribbons for a very cute presentation. And Cathy covered her card with an old photo of her mother and herself as a baby at the beach. She then covered this with vellum and some beach stickers, hanging it from a small vintage-looking little hanger. She also hung a tiny chipboard word cutout from the bottom with a little sunglasses charm - precious.

I did not have my camera with me but some of the other gals took a group photo of all the cards together, so I will post that when they share. So now, when you look at all those gift cards at the checkout line, think of all the possibilities for altering them into great little art works!