Silhouette Series

I bought these great stamps from Starving Art Stamps at the W. Springfield convention this June. She said that was the last set available, their rights ran out on them and that was all they had left. So of course, that made them even more special. I thought they would be great background and accent stamps - subdued or bold. Anyway.....I made one card and really liked it....the rest is history.  The backgrounds are all handpainted by me and I have added vintage linens, lace, buttons, some old, snaps etc. One stamp I stamped on a piece of clothing pattern paper(#8) - that was fun.  Here they are: I would love feedback on them - let me know your favorites # 1-9.

Theme Thursday Challenge - Collage!

I have not participated in a Theme Thursday for a while. But how could I resist the theme of collage?? I just created this card a week ago and had not posted it yet. I used 4 different handmade papers - the green is a piece of bleeding tissue paper I created awhile ago - I just loved the colors! The flower is from Stampington & Company - not sure about the swirl. They are both stamped in black. The flower is colored with distress inks, using a Q-tip. I used bronze fabric paint to dab on the swirls and added buttons. I outlined the inside card with bronze leaf pen. Hope you enjoy, I plan to make more of this style card.

Tag Tuesday Challenge - Postage!

Louise's Tag Challenge for this week is to use a stamp on your tag. I have a large assortment of older cancelled stamps from my Dad's collection, when he was a kid. I decided to use this one from Italy - mainly, because I wanted to use the new stamps I got from Lost Coast Design. They are the ancient Roman women's faces - maybe from Pompeii. I used 3 different faces on this tag. I used a green paper background, stamped the burlap stamp from Oxford Impressions in brown and stamped script from Paperbag Studios in black on the lower left hand corner. I used a piece of handmade paper behind the middle stamp, and stamped the garland border in black, also from LC Designs. Stamped the main face on parchment type paper in purple and bordered with gold leaf. In the upper right hand corner, I ripped a floral piece of vellum, glued it to the corner and attached the leaves and brad.  I bordered the whole tag in gold leaf pen also. The background is greener than the scanned picture of it!

Tag Tuesday Challenge - My Signatures

This week Louise's Tag Challenge is to create a tag using some of your own signature elements. I thought that was very clever, and, very fun. It was great to have such carte blanche on my tag!  Here is my creation:

Some of my favorite things to do or use are:
1. collage
2. lace/fabric
3. buttons
4. layering
5. faces
6. birds
7. pages from books - especially old ones!
8. beads.
9. gesso
10. flowers
11. texture
12. tags

Tag Tuesday Challenge - Music!

This week at Louise's Tag Challenge is to use music in your tag. I use music scores, notes etc alot in my collaging cards, so this was fun for me.  I glued 4 different papers in each corner of the tag and then stamped the bike stamp(Inkadinkadoo) in black ink. I colored it a little, but wanted to leave it mostly black. I glued the music sheet in the upper left hand corner, glued the flower and leaf and then stapled the ribbons and added a button and a bead. Click on image to enlarge!