altered card deck week 9 (+alphastamps again!)

here are my week 9 altered cards for the card deck challenge at claudine's art corner -- if i get another pair finished this weekend i think i'll only be 5 weeks behind (lol!).

for the flowers and owl card i started with a background of spray inks.  i then used flower stamps from a "gela-tins" set and enhanced them with promarkers and molotow pens.  the stems are washi tape.  the owl stamp is by rubber soul, i stamped it on primavera paper by itKuPiLLi and fussy cut it to add to the card.  i hand wrote the sentiment on the same primavera paper and finished this one with some matching ric rac.

i did a light coat of watercolor paint on the background for the second card and then used a stencil and ink applied with a sponge.  i added torn tissue tape, a rose die cut which i'd outlined with white pen.  the vintage image is from one of the goddess collage sheets by lunagirl. the lace border is from alphastamps.  the "memories" sticker is from a tim holtz set.

speaking of alphastamps, this is day three of:

please visit the alphastamps blog and comment on today's post for a chance to win a glorious giveaway of alphastamps goodies!

i've decided to link this to the doodle artifacts blog recycle/re-purpose challenge as well.

love to all.

altered card deck week 7; alphastamps giveaway

i hope everyone's hanukkah and christmas was blessed and joyous.  now happy kwanzaa and happy new year! and happy "while the cats' away the mice will play"  (more about that below).  i only have a couple extra days off this holiday season but with my five day weekend (24th-28th) one of my goals is to get back on track with the altered card deck challenge at claudine's art corner,

claudine has been taking us through a journey altering a 52 card deck.  i participated the first few weeks and then life intervened!  so i am several weeks behind but hopefully i'll get 4-5 pairs done during my break,  as you can see week 7 was a nautical theme.  i used distress inks (sponged) for the background on the first and spray inks on the second.  stamp credits on card 1 -- mermaid is by 100 proof press, seastar is by PSX, bubbles by G-rated stamps.  the mermaid was stamped on primavera paper by itKuPiLLi and the torn paper is by lunagirl.  the ship on the second card is a vintage image from the graphics fairy.  i used promarkers liberally on both.  i typed the words.

today is also a special day because of the post-christmas daily giveaways at the alphastamps blog.
please visit the blog daily starting today and comment for a chance to win amazing collage sheets and other goodies from the alphastamps company -- one of my favorites!

love to all.

altered cards, set 6, hallowe'en!

the 6th tutorial in our march through altering 52 playing cards at claudine's art corner has a hallowe'en theme.  here are my 2 cards:

the first card has moon and lady images from the graphics fairy.  the background on this card has a short story.  i started by using spray paints and then stamping over with a crackle background stamp but the red effect i was shooting for turned out too pink.  so i painted over it with an acrylic paint and got a color i liked and yet the crackle still showed through so i was happy about that.  i did some black pen doodling on this card, and added a spooky die cut fence and a die cut bat.  the 31 is handwritten on some designer paper which i cut out into a circle.  the "hist and hark" sentiment is from cs designs and is actually the first line of a short poem, the remaining 3 lines of which are on the second card!

for the second card i painted over the geessoed background with acrylic paint and added several strips of washi and tissue tapes.  i stamped my inkadinkado dancing skeleton onto some designer paper and cut him out to add along with an owl from graphics fairy.  as mentioned the sentiment is from cs designs although this time i distressed over it with a couple different distress inks.  there is a fleur de lis brad in the corner.  both cards are further distressed around the edges in black.

i had fun with these.  i'm linking up to the doodle artifacts recycle re-purpose and reinvent challenge blog's october/fall/harvest/hallowe'en challenge and the hallowe'en/creepy/spooky challenge at oddball stamps blog  as well.

love to all.

altered cards, set 5

i'm continuing with the altered card deck challenge, slowly but surely.  this is a challenge to alter an entire deck of cards with weekly tutorials over at claudine's art corner.  here is my 5th set:

as always both cards started with a gessoed background.  on the "create" card i painted the background with acrylic paints.  claudine used a circles stencil.  i didn't ave one so i made my own stencil with cardboard and scissors.  i didn't have the wonderful little winged boy stamp that claudine had but i had this little star guy from "stamp in the hand" and i gave him wings from a lunagirl collage sheet.  i did the doodling with a black ink pen and some with a white poster paint pen.  the "create" was from a word stamp set i have and the little dragonfly bard came from eyelet outlet.

the second card is covered with a variety of designer paper scraps and then i distressed it with a couple different distress inks. the lovely photo portrait is from the lunagirl african american vintage images CD.  claudine stamped her numbers but i used stickers and then finished with a butterfly brad and my dream stamp.

the rest of the group is a coupled weeks ahead but i am making my way forward with this.  i'd always wanted to altered card deck and it is wonderful to get inspiration and new ideas and techniques each week from claudine.

have a wonderful weekend!  love to all.

altered card deck, set 4

slowly i am making my way through the altered deck tutorials at claudine's art corner.  i'm a few weeks behind but no matter, i'm having fun with it.  here's what i made for the week 4 set:

the bases on these are gessoed and then painted with acrylics.  on the first i hand drew the houses on a variety of designer papers and typed the sentiments and also used stickers.  on the second i also hand drew the shop but the vintage image is from the lunagirl steampunk girls collage sheet.  i think this woman is solving a crime that took place in the shop!

and here is claudine's inspiration:

enjoy!  love to all.

more birds and more altered card deck fun!

at lunagirl moonbeams we are challenging you to "put a bird on it," that is, to use birds in your art and for the week 3 prompt at claudine's art corner altered card deck challenge the week 3 sample for "fall" also featured a bird. which means a chance for me to combine challenges!  here are my 2 altered cards for week 3, the first of which features a lovely owl from lunagirl's "owls" collage sheet.

in addition to the lunagirl owl on the first card, that same card also features leaves from the linagirl "autumn leaves" collage sheet.  i also have washi tape, a bit of a sun stamp from uptown rubber and stick on letters. (if you saw my monday post you can tell i was using some of the same supplies lol!).  the background of the card itself was done with distress inks (over a gessoed card base).

the second card also features an image from lunagirl -- the woman at top left, from the "steampunk girls" collage sheet.  the other steampunk images  were 3 images from dezinaworld that i combined to make one digital collage piece, then printed and cut out.  the stamped image (stamped on another sheet of designer paper) is from a tim holtz stamp set.  the background on this altered card was done with alcohol inks (over a gessoed card base).  also a fleur de lis brad!

here are claudine's pieces which we used for inspiration:

now back to that birds challenge -- you still have a week and a half to link up a creation featuring birds for a chance to win a shopping spree at lunagirl..  if you do not have any bird images to work with Karen has provided a freebie here.  and of course the altered card deck challenge is ongoing for a total of 26 weeks, give or take.

i'm linking my fall owl to the brand new and exciting october/fall harvest/hallowe'en challenge at the recycle, re-purpose and re-invent challenge blog at doodle pieces as i "recycled and re-purposed" a playing card for this piece.

love to all.

altered card deck week 2

well, just to be clear, most everyone else playing along at the altered card deck challenge at claudine's art corner are on week 4 but i'm on week 2 and i'm not ashamed -- at least i'm playing!

here is what i made:

the vintage images on the dream card are from lunagirl and the dream stamp is inkadinkado.
now just for context, here are the samples claudine created as inspiration for week 2:

i'm excited to get back to work on this.  week 1 was gesso-ing the whole deck which i did awhile back.  i already did the backgrounds for the 2 cards for week 3 but need to finish them and i also need to make the backgrounds for week 4.  hopefully this weekend i'll make some headway.

enjoy, love to all.

you are now entering fairyland; and altered deck fun

our new challenge at lunagirl moonbeams for the next two weeks is all about fairyland, a place many crafters visit with or without a challenge as far as i can tell.

in my ATC one beloved fairy keeps watch over other sweet fairy friends as they primp and play and relax among the flowers.  all vintage images (fairies and fan) are from lunagirl. background papers and butterfly are from my stash.

please join us in fairyland.
now i also want to share something else i am quite excited about

claudine at claudine's art corner is hosting an altered playing card challenge at her blog which just started in september so there is time to join the fun if you like.  i have always wanted to alter a deck of cards and this challenge is a great way to get started.  on day one we had the option to gesso (or sand) the entire deck so that each card will be prepped for the free tutorials to follow.  here's my evidence laying out to dry:

i'll be posting more photos as i continue along with this process!  i believe we will get a new instruction each week.
hope your week is moving along just right.
love to all.