Young Miss ATC

I was in the studio over the weekend and found inspiration in a favorite vintage photo. The end result was this Young Miss ATC. 

I used a Kraft paper ATC blank that I spritzed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist to age and distress it and give it that grungy look I so love. I added the vintage photo, some stickers, paper fasteners, and a flower for embellishments. Just a simple little piece of altered art really, but I love how it turned out.

Harmony Hangtag

This is my second creation as a visiting artist for the month of April at the Gingersnaps Creations Blog. The theme is the Far East and this is a technique challenge that required the use of Mists.

This began as a plain white hangtag. The first thing I did was to create a mountain-shaped stencil out of torn cardstock. I used a foam dauber and some blue ink to stencil on the mountain in the background. Then I used some Tattered Rose Glimmer Mist to create a shimmery rose-colored sky. Next I took the blue ink and distressed the tag edges a bit, and I also used a corner punch to create a decorative corner on each side of the bottom of the tag. Then I took some black ink and stamped on some Asian writing symbols over the blue mountains.

Then it was time to start creating some details. I tore some red paper and put that near the bottom of the tag, and then stamped some letters on some inked paper to create the word harmony; I cut those letters out and glued them to the red paper. Then I added some hand drawn symbols to the middle bottom of the tag. And then it was time to create my Geisha. I drew her by hand on some cardstock, colored her with some art markers, and then cut her out. I used some 3-D O's to make her appear in relief on the tag. I also drew and colored her folded up parasol.  Then I finished it off with just a a pink paper flower and a little dragonfly.

Grungy Button Bag

I created this more rustic, country primitive bag over the weekend. It was inspired by the Gingersnaps Creations Coffee & Cream Color Challenge. It's just a fun Grungy Button Bag.

I started with a plain muslin bag, which I used my Grungy Sauce Mix on to get it good and grungy. (Note: if you'd like the recipe for my Grungy Sauce Mix, you'll find it on my primitive blog in the Grungy Hang Tag Tutorial.)

Once my grungy bag was baked and dry I created the flower for it, following the Burlap Flowers Tutorial I blogged about. I changed the finishing of the flower because I wanted a flatter flower to allow for the button to go in the center. But I did create the basic flower following that tutorial. I used 3 types of material to create my three-layered flower. The bottom one is a cream-colored burlap; the middle one is a muslin-type material that I grungy'd up using Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist; and then the top one is a floral cotton. I sewed the button on through the flower to the muslin bag. Then I just added two more buttons, in coffee and cream colors, to add a bit more visual interest and to finish it off.

Really, you could use this bag to store some craft buttons in, or anything else. You could also use it as a gift bag.

Mama's Dance

I had so much fun creating in my studio today. I only managed to get one project finished, but sometimes I spend more time in creative thought than in creative action, as was the case today. Sometimes I just have to spend a lot of time making sure everything is as I really like it before I can call it complete.

This project features a vintage photo of my mother. She was not quite four at the time, and she's the picture of prettiness in her fashionable dress of the day. I do believe my great-grandmother made this dress for mom too, which makes it even more special.

I used a plain white canvas as the base for this project, since I was going for mostly a black and white color scheme. However, in looking at it (and debating it for quite some time!) I decided that the white canvas was just a bit too white. So I used some Old Lace colored Glimmer Mist to spritz the entire canvas and give it a bit of shimmer. I did the same to the black and white-patterned scrapbook paper that I tore and distressed next, and then adhered it to the canvas. Then I added the photo of Mom, and I used four black brads and some Mod Podge to glue that to the paper.

If you look closely at the photo, you'll hopefully notice the pearl beads I added to represent the necklace Mom is wearing in the photo--it looked like pearls to me, though the photo is kind of small (3x4) so it's difficult to know for sure. But I liked the idea of giving the piece a 3-D effect with the pearls, and I think it looks neat now that they're on there.

After the pearls, I added a black satin bow with a pearl accent to the top of the photo. Then I added some alphas to spell out the word, Dance, because to me, she looks like she's ready to dance. I finished off the edges of the canvas with some decorative black trim. It's difficult to see it in the photo, but it really helped to give it a finished look, and tied in all the black together.

The inspiration for this piece, aside from my cute little mama in her perfectly fashionable little black dress, was the Gingersnap Creations Haute Couture Challenge, the theme of which was fashion. I'm also using it for the Craft Your Passion Challenge for this week.

Birdsong Altered Hang Tag

I created an altered hang tag for the Tag Tuesday weekly challenge, the theme of which is  Christmas Colors in July. We had to use the traditional red and green Christmas colors, but not make a Christmas tag.  So what I came up with is called Birdsong. I also decided to use this for the Get Your Craft On Tuesday weekly challenge.

Now, I didn't go crazy with the red and green, as you can see. But that is the beauty of these challenges: lots of room for interpretation and creativity! So I started with a plain manila hangtag that I then spritzed generously with a coffee-colored Glimmer Mist. I then distressed the edges a bit too with some Distress Ink. I knew I wanted to use the bird image, because he has some lovely greens in his feathers, and I found him in an old wallpaper book I had in my studio. So then I hunted around for what I wanted to surround the bird with, and I found these beautiful white flowers, with just a hint of red at the centers. They were perfect! They even have a hint of glitter on the edges, which goes nicely with the shimmer created by the Glimmer Mist. So I adhered them all to the tag, and then just to add a little something extra, I found a 3-D bee sticker to add to one of the flowers. And I finished it off with an ivory organdy ribbon.

Life's a Beach ACEO

This week, Gingersnap Creation's has Sunshine as the theme for their Random Redhead Challenge.  So I decided to make a new ACEO for the challenge, and use an altered art touch. The result is called Life's a Beach. :)

My jumping off point was the vintage photo of the lovely beach beauty.  So I started with her and went from there. I used some illustration board for the base, which I sprayed liberally with some Glimmer Mist that I just purchased, in a coffee sort of color. Then I used a piece of wallpaper border that had a wave shape design, and cut the wave out and adhered it to the background. Next I added the beach area on the lower left, that is actually from the original image with the beach beauty. I tore it and distressed it to give it some texture and depth. Then I adhered the image of the gal to the bottom right. I added a copper-finish metal gear to act as the sunshine in the piece, along with a butterfly sticker. And I finished it off with the words Life's a Beach, which I stamped and distressed.

And you know, if I could go to a beach wearing a swimsuit like they did back in those days, I might actually go swimming! LOL