Saturday, February 28, 2015

Gecko Galz "Tag You're It" Challenge

Today I'm sharing my entry into the "Tag You're It" category at the Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group.  February wasn't a very good month for me, and I was only able to enter into one of the challenges.  On the bright side, tomorrow is the beginning of a brand new month and six new challenges!  You can enter the challenges with Gecko Galz products or similar.  Come join us for the chance to win free collage sheets!

The background of my tag is from the Gecko Galz Vintage Visions paper pack, and the image is from the Pretty Victorians collage sheet.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Altered Cigar Box for Ephemera's Vintage Garden

Hello Scrappy Friends!  Today I'm sharing another project I created with images and background papers from the Miss Lady Fay Digital Paper Pack and Printable Art Journal Elements (direct links to the products are below).  The images from Ephemera's Vintage Garden are always so crisp and vivid, and they appear so dimensional.  The corrugation and mixed media patterns on this background paper look so real, it just begs to be touched!  All of the printables lend themselves to so many other projects as well as gorgeous art journals.  I used Martha Stewart Crackle medium and Folk Art acrylic paints to decorate the box prior to using matte Mod Podge to apply my background paper.  After the crackled finish was dry, I rubbed the box with Gilder's Paste in Rich Gold to give it a really aged look.










Products Used:

Digital Printable Design papers by Ephemera's Vintage Garden



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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

A Valentine Canvas - Frilly and Funky Guest Designer

Hello Crafty Friends!  I'm thrilled to share my post today with the Frilly and Funky blog as guest designer for the current challenge.  I earned the honor for the layered shabby chic Valentine card that I entered into the 'Anything Goes' challenge last month.  You can see my winning entry HERE.

For their current challenge, 'Be My Valen-Twine, I was asked to create a card or other project with a Valentine theme and using twine somewhere on my project.


I began with a 10 x 10 canvas, which I inverted to create a shadowbox, and then I applied some mixed media techniques to the "frame" portion.

Below you can see how the canvas looked early on in the process.  I began by painting the frame with gesso, covering the canvas, the staples and the inside wood portion.  I then tore a sheet of music note paper and applied it to the frame with matte Mod Podge completely covering the canvas, the staples, and the wood.  When that was dry, I applied texture paste using a doily stencil positioned in each corner.  I added distress inks in pink and in red (spritzed with water) to my craft mat and dragged some of the texture paste through the wet ink to color it before applying it to my stencil.  I then inked the edges with red ink, and stamped over the frame in black with a script stamp.
After taking a photo, which somehow helps me to get a better perspective, I decided that the red around the edges was too harsh, and that the texture on the frame wasn't interesting enough,  so I added washi tape in music note pattern over some of the red edges and on the frame itself I added a heart patterned washi tape and also a black and white polka dot and a red chevron pattern.  I further softened it, and toned down the red outline with gesso applied by rubbing it on with my finger over the edges and over the washi tape.  It looked much better and I got down to the fun part of embellishing.  (see the product list at the bottom of the post.)

I still needed to add twine to the project to meet the requirements of the challenge, so I decided to simply roll up some twine to use as embellishments inside the shadowbox.  I shaped them by wrapping the twine around a cone shaped object.

Thanks so much to the amazingly talented team over at Frilly and Funkie for choosing me as their guest designer , and I hope you have enjoyed your visit to my blog today.

Supplies:

10 x 10 canvas
White Gesso by Artist's Loft
8 1/2 x 11 Music Note Paper by Recollections
Texture Paste by Liquitex
Doily Die by Prima Finnabair
Dye Ink by Memento in Red Magic
Script Stamp by Hero Arts
Black Archival Ink by Ranger

Steampunk Valentine images by HopePhotoArt on Etsy
Flourish by Sizzix
Paper Covering the Flourish by Gecko Galz 
Dressform Die by Tim Holtz
Word Banner on Dressform by Gecko Galz
Paper Covering Dressform by My Artistic Adventures on Etsy
Metal Arrow by Tim Holtz Idea-ology
Glass bottles by Tim Holtz Idea-ology
Glass Microbeads by Martha Stewart
Heart Bingo Card found on Pinterest
Love Digi Stamp found on Pinterest







Tuesday, February 3, 2015

February Samples for Gecko Galz


Hello friends!  I just love the first of the month when I can start sharing my creations using the newest images from Gecko Galz!   Today I am sharing  three samples that I created in January to showcase the new images, backgrounds, and digital stamps, as well as the newest kit club items, all of which are now available in our ETSY store.  All of the samples have been created using Gecko Galz images and/or backgrounds and digital stamps.  All of the products and a description are listed under each project.

First up is a vintage styled card, and is my favorite project for the month.  I first printed out one of the new background papers from the Coquette background paper pack which is a new product in February.  The background I used here has a gorgeous pink and white lace pattern and is product # COU5.  After printing out the background, I put my paper back into the printer and printed a digital stamp on top of the background from the French Connections Stamp Set, stamp  #FC19.  This digital stamp set is also a new product for February.  At the bottom of the card I used a different background, which includes the Parisian Dreams Paper Pack. I used the background # PD10.   I then printed out an image from the Pretty Victorians1 Collage Sheet, also new in February.  I sized the image appropriately to fit my card before I printed and fussy cut the image to add to my card.  The fan is one of the Coquette Icons which you can find in the February kit,  These exciting kits are new this year from Gecko Galz.  You can purchase the kits individually, or for a year at a discounted rate and with bonus images not included if the kit is purchased individually.  There are so many items included in these kits!!  To embellish my card I added a cardstock doily in black from Gina's Designs, and a chipboard dressform also from Gina's Designs which I colored with black ink.  I cut the border and the corner piece from black cardstock using a Spellbinders Shapeabilities die  called Fleur De Lis Accents.


Next up I have created a gift bag using a plain paper bag from Michael's.  First I covered the bag with a gorgeous vintage music note paper from Gecko Galz which is part of the Vintage Visions Mini Paper Pack.  Also from Gecko Galz is the main image, from the new collage sheet called February Dreams.  The tags at the top right are from the Vintage Tags Collage Sheet.  The paper behind the main image is from the collage sheet called Beautiful Borders2.  The punched papers peeking out from underneath the image are from the Coquette Paper Pack, all new in February.  I embellished the bag with lace from my stash, seam binding from my stash, some random chipboard pieces from a previous Scraps of Darkness kit club., a Petaloo flower, and a butterfly from Renea Bouquets.

Next up are these gorgeous birds from the Garden Birds collage sheet and the beautiful borders1 colage sheet.  The background paper is from the Coquettes Paper Pack.  This card was pretty simple, just printing and mounting the images.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Steampunk Projects for Gecko Galz

Last month the Design Team at Gecko Galz were offered the opportunity to participate in extra project(s) using the amazing Industrial Digital Stamp Set.  The stamp set is being featured this month in Quick Cards Magazine, and a link to our projects featured on the blog.  It was so much fun using these amazing digital stamps, and the team really went all out.  Please visit the Gecko Galz blog and see the awesome projects created by the team.

Each section of this cog shaped display tray by Gina's Designs features a different one of the digital stamps, as well as steampunk themed printable  backgrounds by Gecko Galz.  I have further embellished with some Prima Junkyard Findings and more chipboard shapes from Gina's Designs.


This card features another of the digital stamps, as well as background papers by Gecko Galz,  chipboard gears by Gina's Designs, and some punchinella from my stash.  

I have decided to turn the card into a canvas, and I am in process of transforming it so you will see the tranformation soon.  I enjoyed it too much not to have it hanging on my wall!

Products:

Chipboard Gears by Gina's Designs
Prima Junkyard Findings

Gecko Galz February Customer Challenge

Hello Crafty Friends!   It's February 1st, and that means time for a new challenge a the Gecko Galz blogspot.  This month our theme is 'Vintage Ladies'.  Today I am sharing my entry into the Gecko Galz Customer Challenge.  Come join us for fun and prizes!


Gecko Galz Products Used:

February Kit Club items used:
Pink Rose Frame COQ110 from the Coquette Icons
Cute Little Coquettes Collage Sheet
Coquette Icons 2 Pink lady COQ125 and Fan COQ116
Parisian Dreams Paper Pack PD01 and PD12

From the new February collage sheets:
Vintage Tags Collage Sheet

From the January Kit:
Love Potion #9 Icons - Love Ticket

Instructions:

Begin with a black card base.  Print out two background papers from the Parisian Dreams paper pack. Attach one of the backgrounds to the base covering the top two thirds of your card base.  Create a pocket by either cutting or tearing a different background and attaching to the bottom part of your card base attaching by the edges only using score tape or ATG tape.  Be sure to cut or tear this piece at an angle so you have a sizeable area on which to attach your main image later.

Print out the Cute Little Coquettes collage sheet and cut out the image of your choice.

Print out and fussy cut the pink rose frame from the Coquette Icons.  Fussy cut around the flowers and leaves at the top right so that you can tuck and attach your coquette image under the roses.

Using pop dots, attach this frame to the card,  making sure not to attach the upper left portion of the frame so that it doesn't interfere with your tag pocket.

Cut out the pink lady from the Coquette Icons 2 and attach her with pop dots, again making sure not to close up your pocket.

Cut out the fan and attach with pop dots at the bottom right corner.

I then added a piece of music note patterned washi tape to the bottom of the card to coordinate with the music note tag, but this is optional.

Attach the love ticket from the Gecko Galz January Kit Love Potion #9 Icons, or other sentiment of your choice.

Print out the collage sheet Vintage Tags.  I used the one with the music notes as it has a blank white area in the center on which to write a private little note before tucking it into the pocket.

Tuck the tag into the pocket.