Completed Puzzle

My last piece from the puzzle swap I mentioned in a previous post finally arrived - it only took 13 days from Tucson to Ft. Worth (?). I am delighted with the final result. My theme was "faces" and everyone in the swap interpreted it so differently. Every piece is unique. I love it! The frame was a challenge as everything seemed to compete with all the details of the pieces. I finally settled on a light brown stain overstamped with a slightly darker brown. The back is just covered with a patterned paper that I thought went well with both the theme and the color scheme. I am now proudly displaying this on an easel!

Cuttlebug Cards

I finally made some cards from the cardstock that I had "cuttlebugged" several days ago. The red heart card is actually white cardstock that I swiped with red chalk ink. The coppery Happy Birthday card is a piece of copper paper. I "painted" the black happy with a black Sharpie.

5 x 5 Collage

I finished this collage today. It's 5" x 5" on masonite board. It's a birthday gift for a very dear friend. I'm also entering it in a collage challenge contest on another blog.

I first gessoed the board and then attached a piece of Tyvek paper I had stamped beforehand. I had a scrap left which I've also scanned. (This is a technique on Mary Jo McGraw's DVD where you ink Tyvek with several colors of dye ink and then overstamp with black permanent. Tyvek is the material that priority envelopes are made of - I recycle envies we receive, but you can also purchase this.)

I scraped on pink and blue acrylic paints with the edge of a credit card, then stamped different designs in Memories black permanent ink. I adhered a butterfly sticker, the image of two girls from the Internet, a crown cut from a page of an old book and two real postage stamps with gel medium. I added three turquoise Stickles dots on the points of the crown.

Finally - my inchies!

After trying for several days, I was finally able to post the picture of my own 25 inchies I made for the swap I previously mentioned (see March 21). These are all 1.5 inches square and include stamping, images and words. See how I displayed those inchies I received in the other blog post.

Challenges

I love challenges. They pose certain limitations within which you must create and force you to focus on specific items. Here are a few cards I've made for a "stamping only" challenge . I used the grid technique for these where you mask off different sections, stamp and stipple, then move to another section and do the same. This is a simple way of achieving an intricate-looking collage. This is one I made for a "no adhesive" challenge. You can see I used many different attachment methods: paper clips, staples, office file paper fastener, brads and string.

For this, I adhered a paper napkin on the right side of the center-opening card and then stamped the floral image over it.

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My latest stamping tool

It's my scanner! I've discovered that when you scan a project, for some reason the details show up much better than when you look at it IRL. If something isn't quite right, it pops right off the screen! I noticed this when I was scanning a book page for a swap. When I scanned it, one of the elements I'd adhered was way too dark for the rest of the page. I went back and lightened it with a bit of gesso and it looked much better. So, from now on, whenever I'm stuck or wondering if something looks right, I'm going to scan it to decide!

Photo Stamps

I made this card for a challenge. We were to use a stamp we'd had for awhile but not used before. I love photo stamps and have quite a few. This one came from Stampsmith. Because I stamped it on glossy, I was not able to get a good scan of it. This is a photo that came out better but is not great.

Hints for stamping photo stamps:

Clean a new stamp three or four times with stamp cleaner and a soft brush to remove any film left on it in the manufacturing process. Be sure the stamp is lint free before stamping. I like to turn the stamp over and ink with a brayer for best results. Dye inks that are "medium wet" are best. You will not get good impressions with a pad that is wet or very dry. I like Versafine Sepia, Memories Art Print Brown, or Archival Sepia best for an old photo look. Smooth paper and especially glossy paper give the best impressions. If the stamp is not cushioned, stamp with either a thick mousepad or a stack of papers or magazine under the paper to be stamped. The more you use the stamp, the better the impressions will get!