Go Crazy Creative in the Art Chick Studio
Time for another collage challenge at the Collage Obsession blog. 
The theme for this week’s challenge is Faces. So I used one of my favorite vintage photos of a sweet girl carrying roses to create my Digital Collage.
So many of those vintage photos are so dreamy looking and the faces are so beautiful. It was easy to be inspired by this one to make a digital collage.
The theme at this week’s Three Muses blog challenge is Transport, so I created this Digital Collage for that challenge.
I love using vintage photos in my digital art, and this one is the one that came immediately to mind when I saw the challenge theme for this week. I knew I wanted a caption too, but wasn’t sure what to put at first. But then I thought…Magic Mike. You know how it is. Girls will be girls.
The theme of this week’s challenge on the Three Muses blog is Whirls, Twirls, and Flourishes, which inspired me to create this Vintage Roses Girl Digital Collage.
I absolutely love to use vintage photos in my digital art, and even in my paper/canvas art. There is such beauty to be found in old photographs, I can’t help but be inspired.
Just a little something I created today that I shared on My Enchantments, but wanted to share here too. It’s a Digital Collage just inspired by my love of all things fairy.
A vintage photo fairy is my focal point, but I love the starry night sky too, topped with trees. Hope you like her too.
Today I created something new from something old…I took an Altered Art Hang Tag that I created in the past, and turned it into a new Digital Collage. I’m calling it Daydream.
Artists should be “green” too when they can, and it sure doesn’t hurt to save money on art supplies. I think that’s one of the things I love about digital art…it doesn’t have to cost you anything to create it, and it lets you give new creative life to something you created in the past. I love how this turned out. It has a very shabby chic and dreamy feel to it at the same time. And boy, if I could get paid to daydream, I think I’d be rich right now.
Time for another challenge at the Gingersnap Creations blog…this time it’s a supply challenge and we had to use RIBBON somewhere in our creations. So this Timeless Beauty ATC is my creation for that challenge.
This Altered Art style ATC is a mixed media piece, combining paper, ephemera, ribbon, a vintage photo, and digital graphic elements. It definitely has a sort of timeless feel to it, don’t you think?
This is yet another Christmas gift I made this year (OK, well it’s last year now). This is a paper collage piece that I made for my mom using a vintage photo of her and my great grandmother.
This is made mostly with scrapbook paper and stickers, but I used a clear acrylic clock stamp as well, along with a brad for the center of the clock image. And when it was finished I framed it in a black frame for Mom. Just another little special photo memory captured in time.
I was outside the other day and to my surprise and wonder and awe, I saw 3 fairies playing in the yard. So I decided to capture those three fairies and put them in some glass jars–at least for long enough to photograph each of them. I wanted to share them with all of you. So here they are.
This is Fairy Rose
This is Fairy Sunny
This is Fairy Pinky
After they kindly allowed me to take their photographs, they were starting to get a little irked in their glass environment. So it soon became time to set them free. After all, it’s never a good idea to irritate a fairy. If you do, they are sure to start stealing your socks from the dryer.
I’ve not been doing much artwork lately, nor much blogging. Trying to get back into the swing of things by joining in the Horror Stories challenge at Gingersnap Creations. We needed to create something with a Horror Stories theme…perfect for Halloween time. I’ve created this ATC that I’m calling Night Rider.
I’ve added lots of paper elements and some stenciling with paper doilies, along with some plastic gems. Then I enhanced the ATC with a bit of digital editing to help age it a bit and bring out more vibrant colors. I love the vintage witch image…she’s so fun (even if she’s not all too scary). And don’t you love the skull-headed bat? Now THAT is scary. LOL
The Hubs has had a couple of old windows saved here and there from our 1890-built home. I didn’t want him to throw them away, thinking that one day I would do something with them. After living here for 15 years, I’ve finally done something with one of them. And now I can truly say it’s a Trash to Treasure window I will keep forever.
I have filled each pane of this old shabby window with vintage photos, scrapbook paper, and assorted ephemera to make it sort of a Window to the Past. The upper left pane features of photo of my mother when she was a little girl. It’s one of my favorite photos of her; she’s wearing a dress my great grandmother made for her. The upper right pane features a photo of Nana, my grandmother when she was a young woman. I love how happy she looks in the photo . The lower left pane shows my mom when she was a very little girl, on a boat with Nana (my mom’s mother) and Nana’s mother. Mom was very close to my great grandmother, so I love photos of them together. And the bottom right pane features my mom and her grandmother. My mom is dressed up like the cutest little cowgirl, and she’s holding her grandmother’s hand. I just love that photo.
Here are some larger versions of each window pane so you can see the details a bit better.
Upper Left Pane
Upper Right Pane
Lower Left Pane
Lower Right Pane
This came out looking rather Shabby Chic, which wasn’t exactly my intention since my home decor leans toward country and primitive, but I love it either way. Nothing wrong with adding a little Shabby Chic flair, right? I love that it’s kind of crusty and old looking. And I love that it was a part of this house in the distant past. This window is going to hang above my couch so I can see it everyday. Just have to get the Hubs to help me hang it!
Since I have some other peony Flower Photos that I took the other day, I decided I’d play around and create something to add to my Digital Collages. I love flowers, and of course you know I love fairies, so I thought it would be fun to take one of my peony photos and a vintage photo and work my digital magic to create a fairy on the peony.
Click to View Full Size
I really wasn’t that thrilled with this particular peony photo all by itself. But once I added the fairy and her magic fairy dust and did a bit of editing, I fell in love with it.
This is an ATC I’ve created for the Gingersnaps Creations At the Mall Challenge.
Click to See Full Size ATC
This ATC combines my love of vintage photos, Altered Art and ATC’s, along with my new passion for digital art and digital collages. I’m going to leave it up to you to decide which parts are which.
Last week’s challenge at the Collage Obsession blog was to use some vintage photos of mermaids in a collage. I didn’t have time last week to create a collage for this challenge, but I still wanted to use those mermaids to create something to add to my Digital Collages collection. So even though I’m tardy to that party, here is what I created using the 2 mermaid images they provided.
Click to See Full Size
I started with a digital photograph of a rocky beach shore on Lake Erie that I took while on vacation a few years ago. I altered that photo quite a bit and added my usual watercolor effect, and then I added in the mermaids, along with some flowers for an extra pop of color. And that is my Sea Sisters digital collage. I really like how it turned out.
Since I was sick with a stomach bug for much of this past week, I wasn’t able to get into my art studio at all. So I unfortunately have no new projects to share for this week. I decided though that this would be a perfect time to share some vintage Christmas photos with all of you.
To snag any or all of these vintage graphic freebies, please click once on the photo to open it in a new window. Then, right-click on the image and click Save-As…and save it to your computer. Please do not hotlink to our images.
I hope you enjoy these vintage holiday photos…and I hope you can use them in your art and craft projects.
I use so many vintage photos in my altered art projects. I just love the way they look. So when my mom came for a recent visit, I asked her to bring as many old family photos as she could so that I could start using actual family photos, rather than just vintage strangers that catch my eye in photographs. Mom brought some wonderful photos, so I’m off to a good start in building a collection that will not only help me to be creative, but will be extremely meaningful for me as well.
For my very first effort, I decided to create a shadow box of sorts. I have several of these small square boxes around, made from old lath board. They measure about 6″ square on the outside, about a little over 5″ on this inside. To me, these rustic boxes were just begging to be altered and transformed into meaningful family art. And this one features my great Grandma and Grandpa Kephart. Definitely art with heart.
Click to Enlarge
I started by finding some decorative scrapbook paper that I wanted to use on the background. I found one a with rose, pink and blue-green colored pattern to it that I really love. So I cut that to size and put it in place in the box. I already knew that I’d be using the photo of my great Grandma and Grandpa, so next I went about looking for the right embellishments. I found a decorative paper element that says Family on it in a Tim Holz paper pack, so I cut that out to use. I also found a great paper rose that has a hint of glitter on, and the color matched the background paper perfectly. I found some old lace that I ran some thread through to create a fan effect under the rose, and I grabbed some old buttons as well, since the paper element has buttons on it, so I thought they would be a nice touch.
I used foam core to help me create depth with the items I placed in the shadow box. I used it behind the vintage photo and the paper element. The different depths of the items is a perfect way to create shadows in the box, and it makes it look more interesting too. I used some foam to raise up one of the buttons as well.
I love this piece, mostly because it has personal meaning for me. Now all I really need to do is find the perfect spot in my home to hang it. And I will definitely be making more of these shadow boxes too!
I’ve created some different altered hangtags recently…trying to get away from doing only individual hangtags all the time. This set is one I’ve done using some chipboard vintage photo buttons.
I started with four plain hangtags and used my usual secret grungy sauce mix to grungy them up. Then I took a rubber stamp that has a sort of textile/fabric texture to it and stamped each tag near the center using brown ink, just to contrast a bit with the grungy background. Then I took another decorative rubber stamp and used black ink to create a decorative ground for the buttons. Next I took four different chipboard buttons, all feature vintage photos of children, and added them using a black metal button fastener, for just an added pop of color. I finished each hangtag off by rubber stamping on a different word to each tag, and adding a brown satin ribbon to each as well.
Here are more results of my experimentation in creating glass tile magnets. These are three sets of magnets. [Some of these pics don't look perfectly clear, but the magnets themselves are very clear. These are just so small it was difficult to get a good, clear shot.]
These are all made with clear 1″ glass tiles, to which I’ve affixed vintage photos with some silver-toned foil tape. The photos come from the Itkupilli blog shoppe; the women in the photos look like gypsies to me, and they are surrounded by flowers, greenery, and butterflies. All the tiles have heavy duty round magnets on the back. Love them!
I’ve just begun to make some glass tile magnets and I’m really having fun with them. I’m using vintage photos and images on them and I love the look of them. Here are my first two sets.
I started with clear glass tiles that are 1″ square. The vintage photos I used are from the Itkupilli blog shoppe. I used silver-toned foil tape to affix the images to the tiles, as well as to finish off the edges of the tiles themselves. Then I added a heavy duty round magnet to the back. Voila. So easy!
I am also going to be making some soldered glass tile magnets, but I wanted to start with something a bit more simple to get my feet wet. I do love how they look, and how easy they were to create.
This is another mini altered journal I created for the store (soon to open!).
The cover of the journal has a black and creamy paisley design motif. To that I added a vintage photo of a fairy girl, who’s wearing a green hooded cape. I love the face on his girl, it’s so sweet! I added a large yellow rose sticker, along with a photo of a smaller butterfly. Underneath that I added a dimensional black sticker that reads Time Stands Still. And on either side of that sticker I added a yellow rhinestone gem, to add a little sparkle.
These journals also feature straps to keep them closed, along with file pockets inside the back cover.
I made some new mini altered art journals to add to the store. I wanted to add something in a different size with some simple but elegant designs, so here’s the first one I came up with.
The journal itself has a black and ivory colored design motif. I added a vintage photo of a cute little fairy girl, who appears to be trying to stifle a giggle. I also added some rhinestone gems to the fairy’s wings, along with a glittery crown. I finished it off with a metal bracket framing the word giggle, which is on some coordinating scrapbook paper.
These journals come with straps to hold them closed, and they also feature a file pocket inside the back cover, which I thought was a neat touch.
When I was shopping at Michael’s recently, I found some flat wooden hearts that I thought would be perfect for an altered art project. I had my husband drill a small hole on either side of the hearts so I could make them into hanging hearts. I decided that Love would be my theme for this set of 2 hearts. I’m also using these for the City Crafter Challenge Blog’s Heart Challenge.
I started by painting the back of each 3″ heart, and the front edges, black with craft acrylics. Then I picked out two different scrapbook papers with black and white colors on them; one is a toile pattern and the other is just an ornamental pattern. I Mod Podge’d those papers to the front of each heart. Then I used copper ink on a text stamp and stamped over the middle part of the paper on the hearts. (If you click on the image, you’ll get a larger view and the text will be more visible there. )
I used digital collage sheets, in inchies sizes, to find the vintage photos I wanted to use. I got these great images from Itkupilli. I backed each image with some scrap wallpaper, which I cut with paper edge shaper scissors and adhered them to the paper-covered hearts.
I stamped the words “hope” and “love” onto some grungy paper, which I also distressed a bit with some ink. I adhered those to the heart, and also added a letter “X” sticker to one heart (for kisses) and a letter “O” sticker to the other heart (for hugs). And I added a small semi-glittered butterfly sticker to each heart too. The final touch was to add some deep red ribbon to each heart for hanging.
I just love how these hearts turned out. I think I’m going to hang them in my bedroom somewhere! And I see the potential for lots of other altered hearts in the future. I’d like to find some bigger hearts too so I can do different sizes.
I spent much of last weekend and this week squeezing in studio time (around baby-sitting the grandbabies) to work on a new painting. I just finished it, but haven’t had time to get photos taken so that I can post my latest creation. So, since this weekend is the 4th of July, I thought it might be a nice time to post some vintage photos for you. I use vintage photos so much in my altered art and mixed media projects, and I’m completely addicted to them. I know some of you are too, so why not share the vintage photo love?!
Please LEFT-CLICK each photo to open it in a new window. Then RIGHT-CLICK each photo and then choose SAVE IMAGE AS. Please do not hotlink to these images. Hotlinking is bandwidth theft (many people don’t realize this!) and it is a no-no, and it will force me to delete them.
Please have a safe, happy, and creative holiday weekend.
Here is a vintage graphic freebie, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Hope you like it! Please note our Terms of Use before downloading these graphics. Do not hotlink to our graphics; right-click and save them to your computer.
