For the past several months, our hostess for the September meeting asked us to save items that we would normally toss out to share and use for the September project.  You won't believe the pile of junk that we sorted through on Monday night.  There were boxes, paper rolls, fabric, beads, ribbons and all kinds of trinkets.  We were to construct an UGLY PROJECT that had some significance on a personal basis.  We could use a hot glue gun, needle and thread or a stapler.  All other craft items were not allowed.  

I was sneaky and brought a few items for my project that I saved from my last hospital visit.  Below is my UGLY DIVA.  She has a big heart and loves flowers.

I have been wanting to make some black and white cards so yesterday I pulled out some white on black papers.  Fortunately, it was timely as I read the challenge at Moo Mania this morning, thanks to Valerie.

I needed a tag for a gift so I created one using a paint strip for the background and a clock element so I'll also link to Art Journal Journey for August. The scan did not pick up the verse which reads, "adventure awaits you."

 I have been busy this past week, meeting digital challenges, card challenges and finishing a canvas.  We have oodles of birthdays to celebrate in September so a supply of finished cards will make it much easier to mail them timely.

I finished a canvas as a tribute to my mother.  When we were kids, we used these spoons, sneaked out of the house, to dig in the hurt.  One in particular had many scratches on the bowl.  My mother loved roses and also wore pearls a lot in later life.  I believe she would like this canvas.


Below are some of the cards I made. 



I also did an experiment on watercolor paper to see if you could stamp over a stencil that had been embossed.  What I did incorrectly was stamp with non-archival black ink so when I attempted to remove color from the image, the black smeared.  It was still a fun experiment and I added silver mica spray to the images for an added effect.  For the stencil, I used a Brilliance ink pad in green/blue shades and embossed with clear embossing powder then stamped the larger ginkgo leaf images. 


Off to finish some more birthday cards.

In September, we celebrate many birthdays so I have been busy making some cards both to give and for challenges and wanted to share some of them with you.

Below is a photo of my Brusho backgrounds used for a card and two ATCs.  I also used a ginkgo designed stencil from Ryn Designs.  If I could redo the whole process, I would have used glossy cardstock.  After I made my background, I decided to emboss the ginkgo design from the stencil, but with the thinner matte cardstock it didn't work as I expected.  I put the stencil back over the background and went around the design with a black pen.

For the card, the ginkgo leaves are real that were dried.  Because they are very fragile I applied Diamond Glaze to the back to give them more substance and to help avoid the leaves from splitting.

I love to experiment and this was my first completed Brusho project.  More to come!

While in my "projects to do" box I found an embossed number background that must have been an experiment with coloring on embossing folders.  It was perfect for the number challenge at Moo-Mania.  In the same box I found these clock images and combining both, I created this fun card.

There is a TV show featuring designers who show their designs on a "fashion runway" hoping for an opportunity to have it selected for a New York fashion event.   OSA selected this as their challenge for this week.  We were to select a fashion from the runway participants and design a card based on the fashion.  We could select color or any other idea interpreted from the design. 

Below are two photos, one of the fashion I selected from the Pamela Roland Black and Gold runway in 2014 along with my interpretation.

Japanese art has always been a passion of mine and black and gold selected from the fashion were perfect to create a card using images from ArtNeko along with a button from a dear friend.  Elegant was perfect for this challenge.

Craft sprays are very popular and they come in a variety of types, colors from many vendors.  The theme #8 for Paper Artsy is SPRAYS.

For my challenge, I created a project running my card through an embossing folder.  Added a variety of sprays from Shimmery Rainbow Mists and Lindy Sprays.  Once the sprays were dry, I ironed the card to make it flat.  Then I inserted it a second time into the embossing folder to highlight the embossed areas, mounted it on contrasting cards for the borders.  Below is a photo of the end result.

Barb was our hostess and presented the masks and numerous elements to use to alter them.  Below is the photo of my interpretation (steampunk).  Some were very elegant and others are still a work in progress.  Thanks, Barb, this was a fun project and the treats were delicious.

I picked up the second canvas, mentioned in a previous post, and covered it with white gesso because I wanted a more 'spring like' effect for this challenge.  I used a stamp from Stampn'Up for the stamped section and a stencil from Donna Downey at the top.  I also used heavy gesso for the cracked effect at the bottom and various sprays to add color to both the canvas and the flower.  It was fun to actually make something for a change.  I even added a few seed beads in the center of the stamped flower and the flower element at the right bottom corner.  I created this for the Anything Goes challenge at Stamps & Stencils.

Some time back I had painted two canvas frames with a bright platinum paint and I selected one of them and streaked black gesso around the edges.  I wanted a more vintage feel to the canvas for an old photo of my parents back in the 60's.  Below is my finished canvas