Happy New year!

I have been rather tardy adding to my blog! Christmas was very busy, and I decided to completely re-vamp my stamp room, and added a new big craft table. I removed all my sewing stuff and made my DD's room into my sewing room when she's not there (which is most of the time!) This was my room when I was a teenager, so it is rather neat working back in my old room! I will post pictures shortly.

TOYS!! I got lots of new toys for Christmas:

These were in my stocking!

These were presents form DH and DD, plus the stamps below~aren't they wonderful!!

I made this Birthday Card for my step-father using my new Pirate stamps:

Inside:

Pull up on the coin...

Here are the other things I worked on this week :

December and January ByHand This and That Mingle:

January-Kahlil Gibran, I didn't know who he was (a Lebanese/American artist/poet) but now I do! I love the quote I used!

December-Beethoven's Birthday- I actually made this design a few years ago on a 4X4 canvas. I liked it so much I thought I would reproduce it for this Mingle page. I learned a lot about Beethoven, and that he used a special rod attached to the piano so that he could feel the vibrations of the notes, since he went deaf as he grew older.

A Journal Cover swap for ORSA, I took a cheap journal and re-vamped the cover. TIP: Be sure the journal is right side up when you do this!! (experience...!!) I just used scrapbooking paper, stamped the quote, layered the quote, put an eyelet in the corner with fibers and a charm and attached the quote (this is when I should have checked to see if it was right side up!)

Christmas Gift Cards:

I had 3 gift cards to give out this year, and wanted to do something special, so I made these pouches to hang on the tree, that can be re-used by the recipient:

I used a stamp of Santa for the hats, and just cut the hat off. I think they turned out well!

Finally...

Finally, a card I actually like! I don't know what it is about Christmas Cards, but I rarely like what I do. I do like this one, however! I used a cube (Stampington I think?) and I was able to use 4 of the 6 sides on this card. Last night I had a huge urge to get rid of most of my Christmas stamps, because I keep trying to make cards with stamps I just don't like anymore. Then I could justify buying Christmas stamps I do like! I do have a problem with letting my stamps go. In all the years I've been stamping I've only sold one of my stamps.

More Cards

Here are some more cards. I wanted to use all my "Postal Style" stamps.

Three of the stamps are pop-dotted

The inside:

The Earth and the Holiday Stamp are popped as well.

Christmas Cards

For some reason,I always leave my cards till the last minute, then I go through such angst as to whether they are any good! Luckily I have passed the stage where every card has to be different, but I'm not quite at the stage where I make ALL my cards the same! I love every handmade card I receive, so I have to assume that the same goes for whatever I make, and not sweat over it so much! Anyway, here is what I've done so far...and no I'm not done yet!

I only made one of these (above)...

I made 5 of these for a Mingle (above)...

This one was for a challenge (above)...
And another one-of-a kind (below)...

I made several of each red and green, but the gold centre is different on each one (below)...





My personal favourite so far is the snow scene, I may make a few more of these, but as you can see, I can't even make these identical! The snowflake is popped up on these cards. Also in the card above, the gold square is popped up. Which do you like best?

Challenge #3-Tape Transfer

Challenge #3 for my Altered Books group was to try a Tape Transfer. I hadn't done one for awhile, and I had never done one with words, so I thought I would do a quote. At first I thought I had to print the quote out backwards, but after going through the process realized that no, I don't! The sticky side needs to be on the back, so I need to print out normally. Also, the transfer kept coming out very faint, so I tried printing out in bold. While I was rubbing the paper off of my 4th try, I realized that this would probably work much better with a toner print (rather than an ink-jet), and didn't I read that somewhere? I don't know. I'll try that next time. But I liked the effect (subtle) of the quote that I ended up with, and it worked perfectly on my page. So here is what I did:

I started with packing tape.



Then I covered the words I wanted with the tape, overlapping.


I cut out the words



Then I burnished the words. First I used the edge of my scissors, by the 4th try I used the back of a spoon. I don't think it made much difference.



I placed the piece into a sieve, and ran warm, almost hot, water over it, and rubbed the paper off the tape. You don't want any of the paper to go down the drain.




Than I laid the pieces on a paper towel, sticky side up.



In the meantime I painted the page in my book sky blue with cheap acrylics


And then, using Stampscapes stamps and some sponges, created the right side of my layout. I also made some clouds on both sides using a mask (before I stamped).


I added my tape transfer to the left side of the page. The stickiness from the tape sticks the words right to the page.


Then I added 3 snowflakes to the right hand corner, and some blue-white fiber. It reminded me of a cold day waiting for snow. I like the whispyness of the words. Done!
You can still see some bits of paper stuck to the tape, I could have gotten them off if I worked at it, but I like the effect.

Music Deco Page

Just finished my page in Anne's Deco. The theme going through this Deco seems to be Broadway Musicals or musicians, so I chose Cats. Though I've never seen it, I've always been intrigued by it. I would love to see it!

November Mingle

This month I chose Diwali (or Divali) for my Holiday Mingle for ByHand. I had some gorgeous napkins that remind me of India, so I used those for the background. Diwali is a Festival of Lights, so I added lots of jewels! The page on the back opens up to explain the holiday.

ATC Food Series

Our theme this month for the ByHand monthly ATC swap was Food. I have a few food stamps I rarely get to use so this was great! I used DTP with chalk Cats Eyes, then stamped on top and wrote the quotes. I used a metallic green gel pen for the highlights on each ATC.

Twelve Days of Christmas Fat Book Page

I finished my "Eleven Pipers Piping" page for my ByHand Artists group. I made a Mandala with ten pipers, and put the 11th in the middle. The wheel turns! This was a fun one to do, and a challenge with the Mandala.

ATC Vintage Ornament Swap

I am in an ATC Vintage Ornament Swap with my AlteredDesigns group. We had to make 3 sets of 2 ATCs, So I will be giving one each of green and red. All the images are from Altered Pages.

Altered Book Challenge #2

The challenge I gave in my ABCanada group was to make a layout with ripped pages. There are several ways to do this, and I have done them in other books, creating layers with tags, and making pockets with the layers.This time I did not connect the pages together, essentially creating 4 pages in one layout. The book is called "House of Blues", and here is my challenge #2 page: