Present for a Dear friend

Today I am posting some pictures that were for a Christmas gift for a dear friend. All the members of the Creative team of Flying Unicorn were asked to create a 6" X 6" ....2 sided layout to thank Alda, the founder of the Flying Unicorn. These pages were then all assembled and given to Alda as a mini album. It was a wonderful way to say "thank you" and also for her to have a creative memory of all her designers. That being said, today is my last day on the Flying Unicorn Creative team. It has been an honor and a pleasure to create along with this talented group. I will certainly be checking in on the Flying Unicorn social group, but now as a friend and general member.

To make this piece I started with layering Pion paper that I found at the Flying Unicorn store, of course. After fussy cutting the butterflies, I watercolored them in pastel colors and added matching Stickles. Some flowers, clear clock faces, rhinestones, stamped sentiment and a pretty female image completed this side.

For the back it was the same layered Pion paper but also an ATC frame insert painted with crackle paint. I added a few cut out words that had meaning to me. On this I added the same details that I used on the front but there is also a pocket with a special message to Alda too.

Hope you have someone to be thankful for,
artfully yours, gerri

"Front"

"You are a dear."

"Back"

"For the song,the act, the dance was in itself a work of art."

She is more Precious than rubies

For today's 100 Proof Press design piece here is a tag using a stamp that I just adore. The stamp is called Madame Birdcage Skirt 6392. I like how the shape of the skirt is represented by the bird cage with it's captive bird. Is this a symbol of this lovely ladies life? I wonder...

Enough heavy thinking for now.... So to make this tag, I sprayed it first with orange Glimmer mist then used a Tattered Angel plastic stencil and sprayed  that with a green Glimmer Mist and used it as a stamp. The Madame Birdcage stamp in black came next. Some paper flowers, green organza ribbon and a golden key from Retro Cafe Art were put in the corner. On the lower right, a picture of a nest and the sentiment were glued. Some pink watercolor accents, gold dresden scrap and glittery Stickles helped finish this sparklie tag.

Hope you will find something precious this week.
take care, gerri



"She is more precious than rubies."



"Precious details"

Look Closely

The final challenge at Gingersnap creations for the December Holiday Lights is one all about color. GSC#132 is all about the combination of soft yellow and white. Come on over and play with us or just stop by to see the amazing artwork of the brilliant design team. This month is sponsored by Pennywise Arts so check it out you could win a prize too!

To make today's tag I painted a sheet of  already embossed card stock pale yellow, this made the swirls stand out. I added rub-ons of the opera glasses and the sentiment "Look Closely". The lovely female image was edged with white german scrap. Using my new favorite supply "Glubbers" I made the lace rose using scraps of different laces I had. Glubbers are big dots of glue that you can create flowers with! Some lace trim, pearls and white Stickles and my little yellow tag was all done!

Hope you will "Look closely" this wee.
sincerely, gerri

"Look Closely"

"Close details"

A Butterfly Cathedral

For today's Retro Cafe Art Design team piece, I created a little hanging piece. Sorry for not posting yesterday, as we continue to settle into our new house, I just couldn't get anything done. I can't wait till I get to unpack my craft room, right now I am still using the supplies I put in a suitcase when we moved!

To make this piece, I started with an Fancy frame ATC insert and painted it silver and added silver glitter. The butterfly is cut out of the daguerrotype collage sheet using a butterfly ATC opening as my template. It was painted with pastel colors for dimension. Blue Stickles and pink rhinestones were added details. A medium gothic arch coated with silver glitter was layered on top. Sparkley pink tinsel and blue metallic ribbon were the finishing touches.

Hope you will spot something sparkley this week.
take care, gerri

Merry Christmas To You

Here's wishing everyone who celebrates Christmas........
a very Merry Christmas today to you and your families!

take care my dear friends,
 gerri

Snowflake Seasons Greeting

During the holiday season I like using the icy blue color palette and this card is one using just that. I have already made and sent this out this year, thank goodness. Unpacking has not been fun! Also not everything has arrived from the movers, tomorrow should be the last bit. Hasn't really felt like Christmas, maybe we'll buy a tiny tree today and then we will feel better!

I used Pion Paper from the Flying Unicorn store for this card. It is such a delicate pretty paper. A  punch created snowflakes, a tiny silver bow, filigree buttons and some Stickles all added the sparklie details. A Seasons greetings stamp from Inkadinkado gave me the sentiment.

Hope you have a sparklie week where ever you are!
artfully yours, gerri

"Seasons Greetings"

"Snowflake details"

Merriment with our Vintage Santa

Here's a little card that I sent as a Christmas card. It's one of my favorite Tim Holtz stamps cause it has so many cool retro images and they have it at Retro Cafe Art. This project is all about my fav artist Tim. You'll see many of the products I used were designed by him.

I started with a RCA ATC frame , that I cut and then covered it with Tim Holtz Tidings tissue tape. Neat stuff! I rubbed it with a silver ink pad then highlighted with blue ink and silver Stickles. Tim's stamped Holiday image was colored in and rosy red cheeks were added, of course. A merriment muse token was rubbed with silver ink and tied to the frame for dimension. The silver card is wrapped with sparklie fiber then the ATC is glued on top. I think the blue fiber has a vintage feel too.

Hope you are feeling nostalgic this holiday season.
take care, gerri

"Merriment with our vintage Santa"

"Merry details"

May your days be Merry and Bright

This month at Gingersnap Creations we continue our "holiday lights" with a challenge using chandeliers GC131. This challenge is sponsored by Pennywise Arts.Come join us and see the other design teams art or to enter this challenge for a RAK prize.

To make this card I used Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium and stenciled the chandelier with liquid pearls. I added gold german scrap. I added some details with rhinestones and gold filigree stickers. The final touch was the sentiment "May your days be Merry and bright."

Hope you will have a time of merry and bright this week.
sincerely, gerri

                

View of a Vintage Christmas Tree

Just a quick post since we're still unpacking. So for Retro Cafe Art design team I created a fun vintage inspired tag with 3D items. It reminds me of our Christmas tree when I was little, with candy canes, colored bulbs and little toys.

To make this tag I painted the tag with red and gold paint. I stamped green pine branches next. The light bulbs, the candy canes and the ornaments, rocking horse are all from Retro Cafe Art. A big red bow and I was done.

Hope you will fondly remember a distant Christmas.
take care, gerri

Christmas Virgin and Child Earrings

For my 100 Proof Press design team I tried something different today  with a pair of Christmas glass pendant earrings. I would have shown them to you with MaryLou but unfortunately she is  still away. We are finally moving tomorrow and all our belonging which have been in storage for three months will arrive. No more living out of suitcases. We are very excited! Talking about excited 100 Proof Press is having a fantastic contest, check it out here.

To make these earrings I stamped #3099 Virgin and Child Window on tissue paper and used ModgePodge to adhere it to the glass pendants. Some sequins and sparkle fiber completed these holiday accessories.

Hope you will see something sparkley this week.
artfully yours, gerri

On Golden Shimmering Angel Wings

Here is a  golden ornament with angels for my Retro Cafe Art design piece. I love the theme of angels, it makes me think of my mom. My mom loved angels and when she passed, my daughter would point to them and say,  "Look mommy, there's grandma with her friends the angels." It made me smile everytime.

To make the ornament/tag, I started with a metal tag that I painted bright gold. The beautiful angels are from Retro Cafe Art collage sheet called Assorted Christmas by Debrina Pratt. Some sparklie paper trim, a bit of gold fiber and dots of silver and gold Stickles were all it needed to  complete this sparklie remembrance.

Hope you will be greeted by an angel this week.
yours truly, gerri

"Angels Up Above"

"Angelic Details"

Have you been Naughty or Nice?

I believe this is my favorite Christmas card this year and I've sent it to a special friend! It has all the things I love wrapped up in one card. First there's vintage as in the  image from Retro Cafe Art, a wood door from Artchix Studio, then german scrap, gold glitter Stickle accents for shine and a punch of black for the background. Plus it tells a sweet story of the children peeking thru the door to catch a glimpse of St Nick!

So have you been naughty or nice this year?
artfully yours, gerri

ST Nicholas

Christmas Dreams Fulfilled

Here's a wild extreme card for Flying Unicorn group that I design for. There is a challenge in December to use your Christmas trims in an extreme way. Come on over and play. I know my card is over the top, but I think it's fun!

There's layers of  different papers, a 3d cuckoo clock and the sentiment "Christmas Dreams Fulfilled". For the extreme I added gold fiber trim, shiny copper ribbon, a gold leaf and gold german scrap! There are touches of gold Stickles and some tiny rhinestones too!

Hope you will have your dreams fulfilled this week!
sincerely, gerri

"Dreams fulfilled"

"Extreme details"

Pretty Pink Christmas

Some times I like to use unusual colors for the holiday, instead of the traditional reg and green. When I saw this sweet Scrapcake paper from the Flying Unicorn store that was all pretty pink and mint, I knew I had to make something right away.

You know how I love to fussy cut so I cut out  all the ornaments, stars and hearts. I used my favorite snowflake punch too. Some paper layering, pink Stickles and pink glitter letters were my added little touches. I also liked this paper so much I am making tags for Christmas, so I included a photo of that too.

Hope you are having a pretty holiday season.
take care, gerri

"Joy"



"Joyfelt details"



"Pretty Pink Tag"

Reindeer Extraganza

This week I'll continue showing you my Christmas cards that I sent out. Today it's all about Retro Cafe Art  and  the cute  "Hello Deer" Stencil. I did go kinda crazy with this because it was so versatile. Some of my cards are artsy, some elegant, some are natural and some are silly like my Rudolph and Clarice.Retro Cafe Art is also having a contest where you can win  one of two $25 of their amazing supplies. Check it out here.

This first one is my  favorite cause I love the real acorn caps that I added the glittered jingle bells as the acorns. I used RCA german scrap and the center of a Fancy ATC frame for the deer stencil.

Here is another.... I added a pine tree stamp and lots of Stickles.

This one is a bit more elegant with flocked paper, glitter leaves and gold swirly stickers.

This one is for my husband, who's favorite holiday movie is "Rudolph , the red nose reindeer". See his shiny red nose?

The final one is simple, just the black stencil, a big swirl stamp and white Stickles as snow.

Hope you will see someone deer this week!

take care, gerri

Christmas Tree O'Christmas Tree

Well everyone, I finished all my Christmas cards and sent them out today. Hoorah! So for today's 100 Proof Press  Design team post, I'll show you a few. I used the Big Black Tree #6218 to make the ones shown today. This year I sent cards and sometimes tags. I liked this stamp because it was so much fun to add the little details. Next year I have more ideas for this stamp. Even if I use the same stamp, each one is a little different.....so which version do you like?

These are very simple with watercolor paint and Stickles accents. Can't really get the shininess of the glitter in the photos and you know I can't live without some Bling. LOL.

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season!
sincerely, gerri


Version 1




Version 2





Version  3



Baby Its Cold Outside

Here's an icy blue card for the Stampsmith Challenge called Shimmer Sparkle and Shine tsc#25. This Stampsmith stamp of the Flapper with the fur trim coat made me think of her wearing it in a snow storm of  snowflakes that shimmer, sparkle and shine and wondering where she was off to?

Well to make this card, I added icy Stickles to her fur, watercolored makeup to her face and added a pretty shimmery icy corsage to her coat. It was layered on two different pale blue Fabscraps Heritage Script papers, the solid and the script side. To  this paper I added silver and blue sparkley snowflake trim and pretty shiny two tone fiber tinsel. Clusters of glitter snow flakes were added to the corners. The sentiment "Baby it's cold outside" was the final touch.

Hope you'll be nice and warm this week.
artfully yours, gerri

"Baby It's cold outside"

"Icy details"

Santa's Workshop- Doilie Angel Ornament

Again today at Flying Unicorn there's a Santa's workshop where the creative team is doing a different tutorial everyday for 24 days. There are even prizes given away if you make something and post it on the site using the tutorials. Today its my turn again and I am going to show you how to make my Doilie Angel Ornaments. I was asked to do a tutorial and I didn't know what to do so....... I said doilie angel .  I hadn't even created anything yet.  LOL. Well ,I'm always up for a challenge and this is what I came up with!

First you need two doilies, one I  cut into wings by folding the doilie in half and then cutting a free form wing shape. Save the scraps, you will use it later in the project. The other doilie I folded in the sides , as the picture in on the right. You can use any size or color doilie you have. Imagine how pretty a gold angel would be if you used a gold doilie.

On the body doilie, take a gold ink pad and swipe it down the front and across the bottom. For the darker detail I used a gold marker to highlight the details.

Do the same gold ink details on the wings and add gold dew drops, then put this aside. You could also use rhinestones, Stickles or even beads. 



To the body, add gold fiber and also a lady image for the face before gluing shut. You could use lace trim and could even personalize your angel with photos of loved ones. In the right hand corner, you'll see that I took a few ribbon roses and surrounded them with a doilie scrap, to create a bouquet. I also added a bit of doilie for a gold crown.

 

Next assemble your angel by gluing the wings to the body. Detail the angels robe with gold dewdrops or whatever bling you have on hand just like the wings. You can add a sparklie flower behind her crown, if you'd like. Add a bit of gold ribbon around the bouquet and glue down. The final touch is to glue on the gold ribbon hanger. Now your angel is all set for your tree.

Hope you will meet an angel this week.
sincerely, gerri

Santas Workshop - The Snowflake Ornament Tutorial



Today at Flying Unicorn there's a Santa's workshop where the creative team is doing a different tutorial everyday. There are even prizes given away if you make something and post it on the site using the tutorials. Today its my turn and I am going to show you how to make my Snowflake encrusted Christmas ornament. This will give you an idea of how I create...its all about glitter and shine for me .LOL.

To begin I used the postcard page from the Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium  paper found at the Flying Unicorn store. You will need a front and a back. (A fun idea would also be to make a postcard if you didn't have this paper.) One additional  piece of paper is needed  to make a  snowflake stencil. Use your snowflake punch to create this . Remember to save these punched out snowflakes to be used later  in our project.




After placing the punched stencil on the postcard, use a blue ink pad and dab on top creating a snowflake patter. Then overstamped with a Tim Holtz Christmas stamp in black ink. You could use any Christmas stamp you wanted here.


 

The next step is to take some plastic snowflake confetti and put them in a plastic bag. I used Alcohol ink to color these . Using the plastic bag is a great way to color little items without getting your fingers too inky! You could also use solid colored punches and color them anyway you'd like also.

 



Add some Blue Stickles accents to both of your snowflakes. The Flying Unicorn store carries lots of colors.



 

Add some shiny blue metallic ribbon to your postcard front. Just glue the ends to the back of the card since we will be adding a back so they will be hidden.



 

Also add some silver tinsel ribbon to attach as your hanger. You could use any ribbon you have on hand too. Add some Stickles accents to your stamped image.



Place the another postcard image on the back to hide the shiny ribbon and silver tinsel ends. They will now be sandwiched in between the two postcard layers. This way your ornament will look good from the front and the back.




 

Turn the ornament over to the front and glue on your snowflakes remembering to mix up the solid and the patterns as you go around.



To finish the piece add some a nice sprinkle of rhinestones for additional shine.



Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial...I will be back tomorrow with another one, called The Doilie Angel.

Take care, gerri