Paris in the Springtime Tag Postcard

At the Collage Stuff Yahoo Group, we're doing a "Paris in the Springtime" tag postcard swap. I haven't decided if I'll make mine all like this or not. I have a couple of other ideas spinning around in my head. Collage Stuff products used in this design include the tag postcard, floral German scrap and the photo of the Eiffel Tower. This is pretty much a cut and paste design. I colored the tag using my own homemade sparkle spray using distress inks and Perfect Pearls. I like being able to customize the colors of the sparkle spray. I love the black and white checks in my art. I make this checked paper in Excel. I can make the checks just about any color I want using Excel like this. I did tone down the white in the checks by spraying some sparkly spray I made with Victorian Velvet re-inker. Thanks for stopping by!

February 4 x 4"

I finished this February 4 x 4" page before the last day of February! Yay! This page was supposed to have a quote. I ran out of room on the front, so the quote is on the back of the page.

For the front: Collage Stuff products used in this design include the vintage English vocabulary card, large brass flying bird charm, vintage sheet music and a 4" round paper doily.

The construction of this was pretty simple - pretty much gluing all the elements down. Before I glued everything down, I edged everything with a gold Copic marker. I used some images that I acquired taking an online class with Green Paper Packages. I did tone done the white doily with some Sandal Paint (Ranger Paint Dabber). The Sandal paint is a perfect shade of beige as far as I'm concerned. I ran out of glue dots, so the bird charm is adhered with gel medium. Gel medium glues down just anything.

For the back: No explanation necessary - print, cut, and paste everything down! I printed the words with my computer, & colored them with the gold Copic marker. After the words were glued down, I highlighted them with a black Copic marker.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cowboy ATC

The February ATC swap at Collage Stuff is a cowboy/cowgirl themed swap. This is my design. Collage Stuff products used include the "Things Western" collage sheet, Red Single Star German Scrap Border and Marlowe's Theatre Tickets. I colorized the little cowboy in Paint Shop Pro X3. He is black and white on the collage sheet. The map in the background is a map of Texas in the shape of Texas. I found this image on the internet. Before I glued on the stars, ribbons and words, I applied a thin coat Instant Age Varnish to tone down the map and boy a little. If you'd like to participate in this swap, you can find the details at the Collage Stuff Yahoo Group. Check the database page to sign up and the files page for the swap guidelines. Thanks for stopping by!

New Postcard

Here's another new postcard that I created to ship with Collage Stuff orders! This will begin shipping with orders in the next few weeks. I used images from a 1955 French fashion magazine. The background is a set of horoscopes! Fun! Thanks for stopping by!

January 4 x 4 page

For January, I needed to create a 4 x 4" page with a nature theme, so here it is! The main image and the background are images that were part of a class I took with Green Paper Packages. The Collage Stuff products I used include a foreign postage stamp, Marlowe's theatre tickets, large singing bird brass charm and 5" white paper doily.
I started by gluing down the background paper. The white doily was too white, so I darkened it with a Sandal Paint Dabber and then followed up with a light misting of Sour Apple Perfect Pearls Mist. You can't see the mist in the photo. I cut the doily to size and applied it. I only wanted the numbers on the theatre tickets, so I trimmed those off. I wanted them to more or less frame the main image. That went onto the page next. The words are from an old childrens' book. I edged them with a gold Copic marker. I edged the main image with the same gold Copic marker. I have a stash of real vintage Dennison red border labels that I picked up at an estate sale. I didn't have one the right size for the words, "full of joy", so I cut one in half and used it. Backing the "full of joy" is a red foreign postage stamp. I used a small piece of foam tape to adhere the bird charm. Before I applied the ribbon, I edged the page with the gold Copic marker. The ribbon is applied by using thin red-line tape. Thanks for stopping by!

New Postcard

I know many of you are fans of the postcards that I ship with the Collage Stuff orders. I had to design a new one tonight as my stock of postcards is just about depleted. This postcard uses some of my favorite imagery, cemetery statuary. It's so beautiful and haunting. This postcard will begin shipping with orders in the next couple of weeks. If you're a fan of the postcards, you can purchase blank notecard sets here: http://www.collagestuff.com/page82.html Thanks for stopping by!

January ATC

Tag ATC's or ATC's with a tag in the design! That's the January ATC swap at Collage Stuff. This is my entry. I started out with a large tag and trimmed it down to 2.5 x 3.5". I trimmed the top corners. The background was made using many things including a floral The Crafter's Workshop Template, white gesso, yellow Glimmer Mist, Hot Pink Dylusions Mica Spray, white acrylic paint and Picket Fence Distress Stain. I started out by apply gesso over the floral template. After it dried, I applied the mist sprays, and dripped Picket Fence Distress Stain from the top. When that was dry, I used white acrylic paint and dry wall tape as a stencil to make the white dots. The background is soft, textured and sparkly.

I applied some drywall tape at the bottom of the ATC. I love this stuff. Get it at your local Lowe's or Home Depot. You can can paint it, mist it, whatever! I dug around in my stamps and a suitable one. I stamped it on white cardstock and embossed with black detail embossing powder. I colored the flower with a paint brush using the same yellow and hot pink mists. I softened the pink UK bus ticket with Picket Fence Distress Stain and added some hot pink mist when the stain was dry. The UK bus ticket needed something more, so I added the yellow blank raffle ticket before adhering the floral image. I printed the words on my computer and the color is applied with a paint brush and hot pink mist. The last step was applying white paint on the edges of the ATC.

Much of the background detail is not visible in the photo, but I had fun playing with the gesso, mica sprays, distress stain and paint!

Thanks for stopping by!