An Unruly Spooky Column

Today you can see one of my published columns over at Unruly Paper Arts. Since the month of September  over at Unruly Paper Arts had been titled "Off to Collage",  I shared some of my tricks and treats of collage, and of course I used a Halloween theme.You can check out the article by clicking here, but I will show photos of the three projects I used below here on my blog.

Now there are all sorts of way to collage based on it's definition of "An artistic composition of materials and objects pasted over a surface, often with unifying lines and color. An assemblage of diverse elements."  I like that definition, I have always liked to paste or glue diverse elements!
The three projects that I included were a card, an ATC and a tag. All the supplies came from the wonderful and sometimes scary Retro Cafe Art.

Hope you enjoy a good scare this week.
take care, gerri

"The Spooks come out tonight" Card

"BOO EEK" ATC

"You are scaring me" Tag

A Bewitched Marie

Today's post is a little ATC to my favorite queen. Marie Antionette. I while back I read the wonderful book "Marie Antionette" by Antonia Fraser and have a whole new appreciation of her. And no, she never said "Let them eat cake!" The inspiration was the magnificent French Woman Coffered 1 stamp by 100 Proof Press....I like to believe it really is Marie.

What better way to include my favorite queen in the upcoming holiday then to add Retro Cafe Art little black witch hat cutout and masquerade mask. I layered her on numerous papers including a scallop edged beige, a velvet ATC and the bottom layer is orange and green polka dots on black. Of course there is some Stickles accents and the sentiment "Bewitched".

Hope you will be bewitched this week.
artfully yours, gerri

"Bewitched"

"Witchy details"

The Raven Flies at Walmart

Today for Gecko Galz here's one of my favorite shapes....shrines! I love how they can be flat or bent and stand up all by themselves. Todays's is all about my friend Edgar. Edgar Allen Poe that is. It's funny how popular his image  has become over the past few years for Halloween. Who decides that anyway? I'm using Ravens cause they remind me of the big black crows at my Walmart, they're right next to the pond with the alligators. Alligators at Walmart, imagine that!

Well, to make this shrine I started with cardboard arches and painted them bloody red, purples, oranges and added some glitter too. All the Edgar images are from the Poe Collection sheet. The two side ones were printed on transparency, so you could see the background. The center is the Raven poem printed on transparency layered over an Edgar image that I painted the ascot purple. The bottom has a raven border and heavy orange confetti glitter. I tied it all together with black organza ribbon which I think looks like black ravens flying.

Hope you will see some beautiful ravens this week.
take care, gerri

"The Raven and Edgar"

The Waves Crash above my Colorful World

Today at Retro Cafe Art we will be visiting my favorite location "under the sea" for a colorful  sea scape. Since my two favorite things are the  sea and Halloween, I really should  combine them and do  a Halloween under the sea piece. LOL!

I started with a manila tag and covered it with some paper that was sprayed and painted all sorts of fun colors. I added the stamped fan coral, star fish and other coral in black ink. There is also metallic ink highlights, Ice Stickle details and paint dots too. The Fish Papercuts  from Retro Cafe Art came next and guess what? They come precut! Imagine that, it sure saved me time from fussy cutting them all out. I added inks, water color paint and rhinestones for eyes for additional dimension. Layered on top of the big tag is a little tiny tag with paper, fish, netting, some pastel confetti sea shells and the hand cut sentiment" the waves crash above". A little green ribbon finishes off this colorful tag.

Hope you get to go to a colorful place this week.

take care, gerri

The waves crash above

Fishy details

Second Year of Sharing

My oh my, where has the time gone. I realized I almost missed my 2nd anniversary of blogging today! So  am putting this post up late in the day!  It's been a great experience sharing my art with you. I have made some amazing friends, worked for such creative companies and also been inspired and awestruck by your art! Today's piece is in honor of the three companies I currently design for Retro Cafe Art, 100 Proof Press and Gecko Galz. If you've never checked out their shops, you should ....you will be impressed. They always have lots going on with giveaways, blog hops, galleries for inspiration as well as, awesome products.
In today's piece the Gilded Frame stamp is from 100 Proofpress, the Fortunes Has It collage images from Gecko Galz and the little orange bottles from Retro Cafe Art.

For my prize we'll make it easy. Be a follower and leave a comment below. Nice and simple. I'll pick a winner on Oct 1st!  If you want to post it on your side bar that would be nice too. The prize photo is on the bottom. It has all kinds of bits and bobs including tulle, lace, poker chips, appliques, wooden clock faces, vintage images, paper, brads, buttons...you get the idea. And you know I always add to it before I send it.LOL!

Here's thanking you for a wonderful time and here's to many more!
take care, gerri

Witches Cafe, Salem Mass

Gerri's 2 year Giveaway

Spooky Goblins

Yes, it's back to Halloween for me, it's never far from my beating heart. You know it's my favorite holiday, cause it's when I met my hubbie! LOL..... So here's a spookie tag using  incredible Gecko Galz images and an awesome skull and cross bones from Retro Cafe Art. You should drop by these two companies, they have so much to offer including swaps, contests, supplies  and inspiring art to look at.

To make this tag  I used a manila tag  and painted it black and red loose stripes. It was layered with the red robe figure from the  Gecko Galz Poe Collection  and then a transparent printing of the hand skeleton from Gecko Galz September Midnight Hour Digital stamp added on top. A skeleton skull cut out 3D element from Retro Cafe Art came next. It was detailed with bone white paint, red Stickle eyes and ink dots. The final embellishments were the Spooky Goblin stone clay sentiment and the blood red ribbon tie.

Hope you will see some spooky ghouls this week. LOL.
take care, gerri

 

 

"Spooky Ghouls"

"Spooky details"

Together we Dance and Hop with 100 Proofpress

Today is a special day. Why you ask? Well, it's the first ever blog hop for the  100 Proof Press Design Team.  For the blog hop there's even a prize too. If you visit all the Design Team members and make a comment, you will have your name in the running to win a unmounted Postage Paper #5 stamp. And there's more, you could win a $30 gift certificate!!!

"This set is deeply etched unmounted red rubber images sized perfectly for Postage Paper style #5. This set is part of a coordinated line that includes Postage Paper and Templates, however each component can be used alone. This set comes with all the images printed on Crack & Peel sticker paper, for easy indexing. Actual Height 6 '' Width 7''." I put a picture of the stamp  below, so you could see it.

The winner will be announced on the 100 Proof Press blog in one week on September 20th . All you need to do is to visit and leave a comment on all the design team's 100 Proof Press Blog Hop posts. Here's their links: Jennifer Ingle, Tracy Evans, Gladys Chia, Sara Vukson, Amy Tsuruta, Gerri Herbst (just leave it a comment on this post), Alexa Lett and Nicole Eccles.

If you haven't visited 100 Proof Press in awhile, you really must! The website has been updated by Sara Vukson "our illustrious leader", with everything you need to know and see about her wonderful company. There's the shop- where you can buy from the enormous number of rubber stamps over 3,000of them; the blog- where you can find out what's happening and even a gallery-where you can submit your work. It is such a fun and inspiring place.

In honor of this hop, I created a card using the wonderful Animal mask stamp. After stamping them out,  I fussy cut out the two birds and colored them with markers. I put the masks on some Renaissance Dancer figures I had. They are layered on two vine covered paper that I added some rick rack trim too. Of course  I added lots of Stickles glitter, big red jewels and sparkly red tulle. The hand cut text says "I'll dance with thee alone, I'll never leave thy side" which completed this piece. I'm including a picture of the stamp below too.

So this week dance, skip, run or Hop to the other 100 Proof Press Design Team members blogs
and maybe you will be the lucky winner!
take care, gerri

"I'll dance with thee alone and never leave your side"

"Animal Mask details"

Animal Mask Stamp

100 Proof Press Blog Hop Prize







A Sunny Day

Let's try something different, how about a mod collage! It's going to be sunny all week here in the Carolina low country and only in the low 80's with no humidity. If you listen closely you can here me say.... Ahhhh. So for Retro Cafe Art here's a  bright collage I plan to frame and put on my studio wall. Seeing a rainbow always cheers me up!

To make this sign. I stenciled  Retro Cafe Arts's Retro rainbow over the clouds on some black and white graphic paper. I added the colored metal alphabet tags to say "Sunny Day" and tied them with two different color  RCA twine. This was layered on blue and yellow paper and accented with RCA red washi heart tape. Some red rhinestones and Stickles accents finished it off.

Hope you will have a sunny day ...all week!
take care, gerri


"Sunny Day"



"Rainbow details"



Here's a rainbow over our neighborhood



Sing a Song of Grateful

Today for 100 Proof Press I will be sharing with you a little card with one of my favorite images...birds. Why I like birds, I don't really know.... but I always have.  It must be something about their  flight and total sense of being so free, plus they're usually awful pretty! LOL.

So to start, I stamped and water colored painted the darling 100 Proof Press birdcage #2010 on an oval piece of white ceramic. It is layered with some sheer aqua ribbon. On a black card that is  layered  with striped paper, I touched  it with a bit of water color paint and added aqua corners. Some bird stickers were came next that I had been saving, but was determined to use. The words "Sing a Song of" are from Artchix Studio and I added the the "grateful". Some tiny eggs and some Stickle accents completed this little card.

Hope you will sing a song of grateful this week.
artfully yours, gerri

"Sing a Song of grateful"

"Some birdie details"

Vision of a Summer Day

For Gecko Galz's here a little dimensional ATC today. The light shimmery colors are quite summery because, I'm fighting to preserve Summer a little longer. We just returned from taking our daughter to college in Boston so, I have been quiet this past two weeks. But now that I have an empty nest, I will get back to work! Or is it play...LOL!

This ATC is called  Summers Day I used the humming bird from the Gecko Galz Summer Card toppers collection and layered it on painted pink and lavender watercolor paper. It is accented  with aqua hand dyed lace, tiny rhinestones and die cut glitter butterflies. The handcut text says "The shimmering vision of a summer's day."

Hope you will hold on to your summer days.

take care, gerri

"The shimmering vision of a summer's day"

Tombstone Swap

Over at Retro Cafe ARt there is a fang-tastic Tombstone Swap going on. You really must check it out. It looks like some scary fun. As you know, Halloween is my favorite holiday because it's the day I met my dear husband! Also it's right around my birthday so, it's always a special time.

To make these, I started  by using the Retro Cafe Art Gothic tombstones as my base and painted them white, grey and black. I stamped each one with  a background image, one a funeral wreath and the other cemetery gates. The boo-tiful images are from RCA Haunted Mask Marie by  Cassandra Van Curen that were printed on a clear transparency sheet. The  Retro Cafe Art 3D cut out embellishments include skulls, bats , cat masquerade mask and skeleton key. My sparkly accents include Red and Silver Stickles. All the text is hand cut. The Bingo marker with "31" is from RCA collage sheet called Happy Hallow 3. All to celebrate this special day.

Hope my swap turns out to be hauntingly fun!

take care, gerri

"Strange Fits of Passion"

"She stood staring"

"He looked up , the spell broken."

"The Queen, and not forever"



"Tombstone Terror"