A Merry Halloween

At the Collage Stuff Yahoo Group, we're doing a Halloween themed little fat book (LFB) swap. It's titled "A Merry Halloween." I'm always behind on my art projects, but I have the design done for the front cover. Woo hoo! The front of the page uses two different Little Yellow Bicycle "Booville" scrapbook papers. I may size the two pieces a little differently for the rest of the pages. I applied the Collage Stuff "Wide Black Vintage Lace" next. The witch is the Tim Holtz "Retro Witch" rubber stamp. I stamped her on white cardstock with black ink. In person, it's more colorful. I colored this image with my Copic markers. The face is actually a light green. The tongue and part of the eyes are purple. The tooth is a bright yellow. The outer rim of the eye is colored with a yellow neon highlighter. I used Ranger "orange peel" Stickles glitter glue on the witch hat. After I put down the witch with Glue Dots Pop-up Dots, I realized it needed something else, so I pulled the witch back up and applied a Gold Spider Web German scrap piece. I printed the words off on my coputer and colored them with a Copic marker. I used a black Copic marker on the edges.

Here's the back. The background paper is black and white, but I used an orange Copic marker to color the white parts. The "treat" bingo card and "costume party" images are from the new Crafty Secrets "Halloween Greetings" Creative Scraps. The kids in costumes are from the new Collage Stuff "Trick or Treat" collage sheet. The little flower is from the Prima Craftable Flowers Minis. These flowers are tiny and white. I colored it with my Copic marker and applied some the orange peel Stickles glitter glue. I may move the text part around on subsequent pages.

Both of these designs are simple really. I have to make 16 of them, so I need something simple that's still fun.

New Halloween Collage Sheet

A brand new collage sheet for Halloween - "Trick or Treat"! Five different photos in various sizes of kids in Halloween costumes. Some of the photos have frames or borders that give the appearance of a snapshot.

Skinny Book Page

Here's the August skinny book page. I had to get it done because I won't have time this week and this weekend, we're going to attend some Tim Holtz classes. The young man image is Elliot, from the "Elliot" collage sheet minus the fairy wings. I used some postcard scrapbook paper for the background, and added some Seven Gypsies tissue paper from the stash. I applied some tan acrylic paint to blend everything. I added the black/patterned scrapbook paper at two corners and tan painted them to blend them in. I found the rub-ons, calendar, watch and clock hand in the stash. Amazing what I can find in my art stashes. I like the way this page turned out. It flowed and was effortless. I wish I could say the same for the page with the girl. ACK! Three tries and this is what resulted. The background is two different blue/brown scrapbook papers and vintage text. I applied the symphony tissue tape and various paints - white, tan, gold, and yellow. I overstamped part of this with a scrolly stamp. I can nearly always come up with a background that I like, but then it's "what will go on this background?" or it's what I want to put on the background doesn't work. The girl is from the "Fairy Song" collage sheet. I added some gold french German scrap border and three German scrap butterflies. The little button thing under the flowers is a rub-on, but it was so old (found it in the stash) that it wouldn't even rub-on. I had to glue this on. I applied the white and yellow flowers plus button for the center with pop-up glue dots. Yippee! August is done!

New Halloween Collage Sheets!

I love Halloween! Teri at Catnip Designs graciously created these two new collage sheets. They are in transit and will be available at Collage Stuff this weekend. Catnip Designs collage sheets are exclusive to Collage Stuff.

New postcard

The stash of postcards that I send out with Collage Stuff orders is getting small, so I designed a new one! This one is supposed to have a school theme. See what you think! The school is from the Collage Stuff "Institutions of Learning" collage sheet. The text is from a vintage school text book. It's kind of fun. The story was about an "ugly" Princess and the Prince who came to take her away. The photo of the school children is from the "Class Photos" collage sheet from Collage Stuff. Now, the "teacher", Miss Miller! I just got my hands on this image and I love it. It's not on a collage sheet yet. I added the bird and the corner vines with my digital imaging software. This postcard will be in two versions - an oversize version that I don't like that much and the standard size shown above.

Collage Stuff July ATC swap

I'm always behind on the Collage Stuff ATC swaps. The July theme was "Cemetery Imagery." I just took this photo and the colors are not right and I couldn't get colors right in my graphics eding software program. The angel is much more green and the sheet music is not white. The sheet music is old so it's more of a beige. I have green gems on this piece, because in real life, it's a lot more green. Oh well! The little angel is from the Collage Stuff "She's a Rainbow" collage sheet. I colored the bars on sheet music and the text halo with a Copic marker. I outlined everything with the same Copic marker. I sealed the ATC with some Golden Soft Gel Medium Glossy. The black outline was done with a black Copic marker. I need to make 12 of these!

Back of Skinny Book Page

This is the back of the "Love" skinny book page. I started looking for love and nature quotes on the web this morning and found "Love is a canvas furnished by nature," by Voltaire. The background paper is shades of purples and pink. It's overstamped with a text stamp and a greem distress ink. I painted the yellow crackle paint all around the edges in a haphazard fashion. I glued down two purple UK bus tickets, followed by the floral and child Victorian scraps. I highlighted several small portions of the scrap with purple glitter glue. The person with the "love" theme also likes leaves, so I added three pieces of May Arts green leaf trim at the top left. I printed the words out on my computer and colored them with a yellow Copic marker.