Brads from Eyelet Outlet

I ordered these spider and bat brads for Halloween. The little birds come in a variety of colors. I also ordered some butterfly brads in pastel colors.

Seven Gypsies

This is the artist printers tray. It's sized for ATC's! Here's the first example that they showed.

This photo is sideways again.

Here is some new hardware that will hang from whatever you like!

New Victoria tags!

New Victoria 6 x 6" papers. I ordered all of this stuff, plus some other tags, a set of bird stamps, and some rub-ons at a great sale price.

Advantus

The Advantus booth was the first one I visited. This is the make-n-take. It used one of the new Tim Holtz word sticks and a Charm Fragment. We applied paint over the surface of the word stick making sure it went into the letters and then wiped the paint off the word stick. The paint stayed in the recessed letters. This charm fragment was made the same way we made the charm fragments at the Tim Holtz classes in Dallas. These are the new Type Charms. They look like you asssemble them. I think you could put other things besides letters in them.

Here's one these photos that uploaded sideways again. At the top, you can see the new Film Strips.

This is a snapshot of one of the displays. I ordered in all of the new Idea-ology stuff, plus the sanding blocks and replacement sandpapers. They had the Grungebooks on a good sale, so I ordered a few of those too!

CHA Summer Show in Orlando!

Hi everyone! I'm here in Orlando at the Summer CHA show. This is the second day of the show, but my first day here. The show isn't jammed and I like it this way. It's easier to walk around and look at stuff. I'll do several posts. I have a jeweley class tonight with Nunn Design - a steampunk bracelet!

New Cemetery Collage Sheet

Another new Cemetery Angel collage sheet - number 21! This beauty resides in a Dallas cemetery. I put my meager digital imaging skills to use for this one. Available at Collage Stuff soon!

June House ATC swap

It's July and I'm just now working on my June Collage Stuff swap ATC's. I'm always behind! I made this house template for all of the swap participants to use. Here's how I made this ATC:
1. Covered the square part of the house with scrapbook paper.
2. Covered the roof of the house with scrapbook paper with words.
3. I stamped the house part with the Rubber Stampede Acanthus Stamp using Coffee Bean Brillaince ink.
4. I painted the roof with Tahitian Blue twinkling h20's.
5. I stamped the bird image from the Collage Stuff "Our Bird Friends" rubber stamp sheet with the Coffee Bean brilliance ink.
6. I dabbed some paint from a Ranger Gold Paint Dabber on my finger and dabbed it around randomly.
7. I glued on the cemetery image from the Collage Stuff "Enduring Love" collage sheet.
8. I thinned the twinkling h2O's down a bit and painted it on a crackle stamp. I stamped this over the main image.
8. I printed the words "cherish each moment" out on my computer/printer and cut them out.
I dabbed a little gold paint on the words and edged them with a brown copic marker. After I glued the words down, I painted them with the twinkling h2O's. I edged everything with the brown copic marker.
9. I glued on a Blue Metal Rose from Collage Stuff on the chimney with Studio Matte Medium (also available at Collage Stuff).

I need to make 15 of these ATC's! ACK! I hope to swap out the ATC's this weekend and get the photos of the swap ATC's posted at the Collage Stuff swaps page.

Vintage Children LFB Front Cover

The due date for the Collage Stuff Vintage Children LFB is drawing near. I'm making the covers - 24 of them. Time for me to get busy! Here's the completed front cover design.

This is how the design started out. I tried over and over to get this to upload correctly, but it wouldn't. It's sideways. The left side should be the top.

Michaels had these 4 x 4" coasters - 8 or 10 for a dollar. Perfect for a LFB cover.

I'll list the steps that transformed the coaster into the cover.

1. I covered the whole thing with vintage sheet music.

2. I tore a part of a page from a vintage math book and covered about the top 1/3 of the cover.

3. I overstamped the whole thing with India Ink using the Acanthus Background from Rubber Stampede. It's OK that the stamped image isn't perfect as most of it will be covered up.

4. The butterfly images are from the Collage Stuff Flutter #1 collage sheet. The boys are from the Collage Stuff Angel Faces collage sheet. I sized them as needed.

5. The large butterfly was glued down first, followed by the boys.

6. I tore another piece of a page of the vintage math book - about 3/4" tall and applied it at the bottom.

7. I put a little piece of paper over the boys faces like a mask. I used my favorite text stamp, Le London Script by Stampabilities, with Brilliance Coffee Bean ink and overstamped everything. It didn't stamp perfectly and that's OK.

8. The fun messy part.... I finger painted the edges with Making Memories Manilla paint. I dabbed it on with my finger and smeared it. Then I put just a little on my fingertip and dabbed it around randomly on the cover.

9. I used the Fuzzy Numbers stamp by Postmodern Designs with India Ink at the right side and bottom, essentially framing the boys.

10. I cut a smaller butterfly in half - half on the right side and half at the bottom.

11. I smudged the cut edges of the butterfly halves with the Manilla paint.

12. I made the words "vintage children" at the Acme Labelmaker website.

13. I inked the edges with the India Ink.

14. I sealed the cover with Golden Soft Gel Medium Glossy. It was too glossy, so I toned it down with a Krylon Matte spray sealer.

15. One done! 23 more to go!

Some comments:

I find that I use my favorite rubber stamps over and over, even though I've got many stamps.

Even though you can't see much of the background in the finished design, it still adds interest and depth. Little bits peek through here and there.