Full size Masquerade mask

I had some of these full size, ready to embellish masquerade masks for sometime just waiting for some inspiration to make them. What better time to dig them out and give it a whirl while I was making the mini masks for a swap

AAJ Valentine Card Swap

Ugh! I hate when I do that! I accidentally deleted this entry when I was posting my recent Alpha Stamp Group swap. So I apologise that I am re-posting this entry. But as you can see (if you haven't seen my previous post on this subject)
my submission to the Altered Art Junkies group Valentine Card swap. These have been mailed to each participant (19 players, excluding myself). I made these "cards" from tri-folded white Lunch sized paper bags and decorated each in a Valentine theme. Each one is different , no two alike. So Happy Valentines day !

AS Masquerade Mask Swap

In honor of "Fat Tuesday" comming up, Alpha Stamps yahoo group, is hosting a masquerade mask swap. The templates for these masks were supplied and were required to use, although you could choose which of the four templates you used. (I only used two of the templates) Each mask is small enough to fit on a ATC card, but for this swap, the masks would stand on its own. You could choose your embellishments/paper, but one item you used (beside the mask template) had to be from Alpha Stamps. In turn, I will receive three masks created by a different artist. I love these swaps as I challenge myself and get inspiration from other artist as well. It is just one way I flex my artistic side.

White Christmas 2009

What a wonderful Christmas! We don't have white Christmas's around here in Oklahoma very often. A whopping 14 inches fell in a blizzard storm yesterday, stranding many travelers and even just people coming home from work. Many didn't make it home for Christmas morning with their families. Where ever you are on this Christmas, I hope you have a blessed Christmas time with your friends and family.

Piano Hinge Winter Paper bag book

This is a little paper bag book I made for a friend for Christmas. Not your usual Christmas theme, but I am always reminded of Christmas time with snow.. I started off with 4 ordinary lunch size white paper bags and cut out 4 "V's" for the tags to slide my "chop sticks" through. Then colored the bags with Ranger's color washes, in denim blue, stream and eggplant. Of course I couldn't stop there, so I added a little of LuminArts Radiant Rain shimmer mists in sky blue and the iridescent violet, even added a little of iridescent fine glitter in the mix. Let dry. Then started to work on creating the pages. I decided to definitely to stay on this blue/white/silver theme so I chose embellishments within that color scheme. I used lots of ribbon, glitter, diecuts, rub-ons and even snip its of Christmas carols to pull together the theme and give a feel of Christmas. The pages are listed in order and I decided not to post in a collage style so each page can be seen in detail and in order. (I have this compulsion for order as if otherwise something was lost in the meaning I was trying to convey on each page, I can't explain, but if you're anything like me, you'll understand...l0l). I hope you enjoy looking and perhaps be inspired to create one of your own.*the tutorial I used can be found at:  http://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/2008/12/piano-hinge-paper-bag-book-tutorial.html

Vintage bottle snowman

While searching for some Christmas inspiration I came across last years copy of Cloth Paper Scissors, December issue, and I found it! On the cover no less, but just had to try it. I ran to some nearby antique stores in search for some vintage bottles I thought would work. Some were quite pricey, but managed to find seven for around twenty dollars. ( the artist in the magazine stated she found six for three dollars.) Guess it depends where you are and how good you are a negotiating. The most expensive bottle was marked nine dollars, but I did get it down to seven fifty. Next was a trip to a local Michaels, cupons in hand, and bought some white "Delight" air dry modeling compound for the heads, and some filler beads for the inside of the glass bottle ( I cheated and used some fluff at the bottom) I had most of the other items from my stash of goods at home. The noses are polymer clay and eyes/mouth are small brads. The "hats" are cake decorating tips, that are decorated with junk jewelry. Add some tinsel /fabric and letter charms and Ta-Da, vintage glass bottle snowman!
Oh don't forget to cover head (and wherever else you want) with glue and sprinkle with flake irridescent glitter. All in all it took me a afternoon to put them together and let dry until the next morning when I added the finishing touches and glitter. Enjoy

Alpha Stamps Haunted House Swap

One more bit of Halloween business to post. I finally received my swap pages from the Alpha Stamps Haunted House swap. I now have a complete Haunted House with pages from different artists. (you can see below my pages I submitted for this swap). I was thrilled to "death" (pardon the pun) with these pages and I think everyone did a great job. You may visit http://alphastamps.com and click on thier gallery to view more Haunted House pages or from other swaps. Perhaps you'll be inspired to join in on the fun.

Altered Art Junkies Wicked Halloween Swap

Well speak o' the devil!! I just got this delivered after posting my Halloween book. This is from the Altered Art Junkies "Wicked Halloween swap" player Kathryn of KV Designs. I love them! I got this wickedly wonderful black wooden photo album that I am "dying" to add to, a vintage style Halloween jack-o-lantern pin which I am defiantly going to wear on Halloween day at work, a "Bad Blood" jar label, three different Halloween ribbons for my art projects, a Halloween ATC, a decorative pumpkin, vintage Halloween postcard, and a wooden ?cigar? box with a cool latch I can't wait to alter. Wow, thanks Kathryn!

Art Group Halloween Book

This is my Halloween book I made when I attended a local art group meeting. We each could pick our own style of book, I chose a blank pocket/flap book as I thought this would be fun to do. We each were asked to make six identical tags so we could swap, and have a different tag from each artist to add to our book. I don't have my tag included as I posted it in a previous posting.

This particular book is from Piggy Tales, and I purchased it last year from QVC. For those who are interested, I also know Archivers carries it. There are 10 pages in all. I tried to do something different from my dark/creepy Halloween style. So I thought I'd try a little bit of  vintage/traditional layouts

I have a couple of swaps still out that are Halloween related, so when I get them, I will post those as well.

Happy Haunting!

Halloween Swap goodies

Here is some of the swap goodies I received from one of my Halloween swaps.
Rebecca out did herself!!! Love Love Love. Thanks so much Rebecca