Nesting!

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting to receive my Flower Folds Big Shot die so I could cut some nested foldy flowers and make 3D stuff!

When I saw these little birdies, I squealed because I knew I could punch them out and fit them down inside the flowers.

For the inside flower I thought it would be fun to use print - my original idea was newsprint, but I don't subscribe to any newspapers so I turned to my old friends, the print design magazines I have scads of. I found a cool one with a black background and white text! So I used it for the background and the inside flower. Hard to see the glittery nest in the photo, but it's sparkly and fun.

Stamps: Into the Woods Ink: India, Crushed Curry Accessories: Stickles, Blender Pen, Dimensionals,
Flower Folds Die, Big Shot Cardstock: Crushed Curry, DSP, Magazines

I really love these little guys. This would make a fun and different "we've moved" card.

Have a great evening!

Three Candles

Someone on Twitter suggested three candles to me for my birthday dessert - Past, Present and Future. Besides cutting down on the fire hazard we all present as we get older, I thought it was really sweet.

For my guests at a little gathering last night, I decided to use the Past, Present and Future idea a little differently.

I thought your birthdays are a nice time to look at the map. See where you've been, find where you are, and plan where you're going.So, for favors - the maps signifying all those things.
I took an atlas I bought used for 50 cents and used my Sizzix Big Shot Fancy Favor die to cut bags. This is very quick - you can do two sheets at a time. Then just fold them up.

The tags are made from the latitude and longitude tables in the back of the atlas, which I could use for all sorts of things. I love them with their small, precise print. I hand cut the tags.

Enjoy the route :)

I Once Was..

I once was an article someone read. In Food and Wine. I was about a summer place in Kennebunkport. I just wasn't destined for the trash.

I was destined to go into a Sizzix clear circle die, then to be clear embossed with a tiny bird, then brayered , because my special, matte Food and Wine pages absorb ink so nicely.

I'm better than I was.
Cardstock: Dusty Durango, Sahara Sand, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP, Magazine Page| Stamps: Autumn Days, Berry Christmas|Accessories: Autumn Harvest Rub-on, Soft Suede Ribbon| Ink: Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Soft Suede, Basic Black |
All supplies Stampin' Up!

I am reanimated :)

Grim(m) is Right!

I'm terrified of fairy tales.

The Brothers Grimm and other assorted HORROR writers (that's what most childrens' stories are, at least the fairy tale variety) pursued me through many a nightmare as a child.

I never understood why it was appropriate to read a child a story about a witch baking a brother and a sister in an oven, or a wolf eating a little girl in the woods, or assorted other hideous fates that awaited the mostly parentless tinies in the pages of these awful books.

I've heard the pointless rationalizations about how they were designed to keep children safe, but can we all agree that that is complete balderdash, and that the quite successful aim was, in fact, to give us all phobias?

Well bravo, Grimms. I'm still afraid.

I thought I would put together a few little creepy fairy tale ditties after discussing with a coworker how dark and dismal the subject matter most modern graphic designers choose is. Communication Arts magazine, which is really one of my favorite designer magazines, features some horridly dark illustrations.

I believe these designers were terrorized by fairy tales as children, and hence deserve our pity. ;).

To twist that all together, I took the pages of that magazine and an old used book to create three little scenes for you.

Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel and Alice in Wonderland.I cut the pieces freehand, and collaged them with the book pages to 4X4 canvases with matte Gel Medium, thanks to some instruction, found here, by Claudine Hellmuth.

After cutting, I just laid them out on the canvas one by one to help me cut the next piece and make it fit in the scene.Something about collage takes me back to my childhood, so this project was the perfect mix of memories for a Sunday...

Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to look behind you.

My Heart For my Country

For this card, I reanimated some old snare drum lessons in a book of sheet music I bought from Half Price books. I used my Stampin' Up! punch with two of the three hearts it makes. Very quick and easy card, using only scraps!

Happy Independence Day!

Petersburg, 2011

Wouldn't that be cool?

I may get to do just that. We will see. St. Petersburg is a place of my dreams that is for sure.

So today I reanimated one of my old Russian dictionaries. I probably have 20 of them. It was okay to dedicate one to the fires of art, yes?

I started by making some "water" out of a reanimated security envelope. The insides of these are crazy cool.

If you want to use a lot of the real estate of these, use a heat gun to neatly undo the seals where it is stuck together. Just heat them up and the glue will let go. Then cut it up as needed. I just needed a little stripe.

I punched squares from my Russian dictionary and rounded their corners. I sponged them with brown ink to age them.

Then I stamped little fishies from the Stampin' Up! Just Beachy set and colored them with gel pens.

I outlined them in white to pop them off the page a bit.

I added some of the new dotty Stampin' Up! ribbon and voila - quick and easy double Reanimation.

Lots of paper in the world. Use it, don't buy it! :)

Memorial Day

I prepared this card for today's 2Sketches4You Challenge!It's a hero for all our fallen heroes today. Handsome and brave. Loved and missed.

The stamp set is the Super Parents Doodle Factory set, and I loved the sketch, because it once again gave me an opportunity to do thought bubbles.

Just a girl, dreaming of her boy. As they do :)

I used as a background a page from a Fantastic Four compilation comic book that I got at Half Price Books. I cut extra talk bubbles out to add along the edge of the main circle.

I colored both characters with Copics and then added the rub-on dots for a Lichtenstein effect.

Comics are one of my favorite places to find beautiful use of red, white and blue together.

To see the rest of the Starving Artistamps' team's submissions for the challenge, click here. To see the 2Sketches blog entries in the challenge, click here.

Take time today to remember America's fallen heroes as you enjoy your freedoms. They gave so much.

God Bless America.