Saturday, June 30, 2012

Good Fortune

Well its week three of yummy ice cream inspiration at Kristins Summer of Color challenge. This weeks "Good Fortune" is baseball nut.... a vanilla ice cream with a ribbon of  raspberry and loaded with cashews by Baskin Robbins. Cant wait to try this flavor.

To make today's card I started with the pretty vintage image of the lyre or harp player, added sparkley details and glued her on the raspberry swirly paper. Then this was layered  on raspberry shiny paper touched with vanilla paint, trimmed with brown Dresden scrap and edged with glitter paper. The finishing details were the vanilla bow, Good Fortune stamped sentiment and the painted  glitter touched button.

Wishing you good fortune and delicious ice cream this week!
sincerely, gerri
"Good Fortune"

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

So how old are you?

Over at Stampsmith this month the challenge TSC#31 is "Humorous birthday", not my usual topic but I do so like a challenge. During the up coming months, I have lots of friends birthdays whose birthdays are in the summer, we'll see which young one gets this one. LOL! I imagine the conversation going something like this....So how old are you? after her youthful reply, I would respond, why I have shoes older than that!"

I used the Stampsmith Flapper sheet for the stamped image. Stamping it on glossy paper, and layering it on a glittery ATC. This was placed on a harlequin paper dabbed with silver paint. The accents are Retro Cafe Art cute tiny shoes and a square cut flower with a harlequin center. The sentiments and the silver Stickles accents complete the piece.

Hope you will find a youthful friend this week and some good old shoes!
take care, gerri

"So how old are you? ...........Why I have shoes older than that!"


                  
"Soleful details"


Tuesday, June 26, 2012

16 Rue Marie-Stuart Paris

A quick post  for Retro Cafe Art today with a golden card. It uses all my favorite themes...hearts, Paris, glitter, flowers and of course a pretty vintage image. This striking image of a vintage of a young woman  is from the Vintage Belles collage sheet from Retro Cafe Art. Speaking of young women, I'll be getting our daughter from  NYC and we can't wait!

To make this I painted the heart that is the inside of a heart frame ATC from RCA with golds and cream paint. The image came next and and golden scroll stickers too. This is layered on a butterfly paper, gold crinkle paper and is  trimmed with a stamped frame with an address in Paris. There are gold rose appliques and gold fabric roses too. Some gold Stickles and gold foil accents completed this card today.

Hope you will find a golden heart this week filled with all your favorite things.
artfully yours, gerri


"16 Rue Marie Stuart, Paris"

"Golden details"

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Where joy does sit on every bough

This weeks inspiration at the Summer of Color is my all time favorite ice cream flavor... oh yes, the joyful mint chocolate chip. Yummy! I love it so much that it is also the colors that I use decorating my house with  sage greens, tans and brown. LOL. I decided on a nature theme this week so my creation is full of green ferns and bronze butterflies. Over at Fashionable Stamping the theme for challenge #24 is  "Nature" so this will be my submission.

Lots of layers with this piece. I started by stamping a transparency with green and brown Stazon ink with ferns.This is layered upon a stamped image of ferns and butterflies that have been water colored. They are surrounded by green glitter tape. On top of the transparency are bouquets of paper ferns and real pressed ferns too along with some tulle, sequins and brown glitter brads.(the chocolate chips!). More  cut glitter ribbon on the corners with brown glitter brads.The sentiment is from a poem of  William Blake...."Welcome stranger to this place. Where joy doth sit on every bough."

Hope you are sitting amongst a joyful bough this week.
take care, gerri




Friday, June 22, 2012

You deserve the best

A bit of a masculine take today using an image from the Gecko Galz collage sheet  set called Man 'O Man. I do so adore Leanne's images...Over on the  Gecko Galz Yahoo group they have lots of fun  challenges and when I saw one  called "Brown and Blue" I knew this was just the thing. If you get a chance come on over and play and create with us! Over at Simon Says Stamp and Show their challenge is "A bit of Brown" so this works for that too!

After I choose the ATC image I painted it with blue and brown touches,. Don't you just love his blue fedora? Wonder if he has blue suede shoes too? LOL. I added some glitter, not too much and some screw brads. The little mustache is from Retro Cafe Art. It is layered on some painted wheels on brown flocked paper that I added the blue accents. I love the sentiment..."You deserve the best".

Hope you receive the best this week!
artfully yours, gerri
"You deserve the best"

"The best details"

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The Perfume of Paris

Thought I'd share another one of my collections in my studio today...it's tiny perfume bottles. I pick them up at flea markets and tag sales, they were my inspiration for my jeweled bottle today for Retro Cafe Art. I have several collections including rocks and sea shells, which I have shown you before. I don't what makes some of us collect different things. Do you have a favorite collection?

So, to make this little square perfume bottle, I covered each side with some collage paper...Paris themed of course. I painted and covered with glitter the Paris  Retro Cafe Art cut outs . I used the Eiffel tower, Fleur de Iis and Arc d'Triomphe, and the  little scalloped heart. I over stamped these with words and images of Paris. Next came the water color paint, pearls, rhinestones and Ranger Stickles accents. The topper is a jeweled button and some thin gold ribbon from my stash. It will join my perfume bottle collection in my studio.

Hope you will  recall the scent of a wonderful memory this week
take care, gerri









Sunday, June 17, 2012

One week of Rainbow Sherbet

On and off last summer, I participated in the "Summer of color" challenge by Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle Like a Star. I vowed this summer I would try to do it every week. I'm glad I did..... because this year the color prompt inspiration is favorite ice cream colors! How cool (LOL) is that! For  week one  it's rainbow sherbet...I wouldn't really consider using orange and raspberry together, but it really does work! I am entering the challenge all summer  and I hope you will too.

To make this collage I started with a cream frame and stamped 100 Proof Press sunburst #6350  orange and water colored over it in raspberry. The main  curtain image is a from the Theater Collage Sheet found at  Retro Cafe Art  and is topped with a sweet confection of paper, glitter and fabric flowers. The darling dancers are from the Retro Cafe Art collage sheet Best Friends XOXO. Everything is accented with dots orange and pink  Ranger Stickles and highlighted with water color paints. There are some raspberry pearls for a bit of shine too. The sentiment reads "You're a star."

Hope you will be a "star" in your own performances this week.
take care, gerri


"You're a Star"

"Star Details"


Friday, June 15, 2012

Tell Me A Story

Once upon a time, I wanted to be on a magical design team  in a world of endless creativity and inky joy. Well, guess what? I was selected and joined this world as an UnRuly Columnist and this is my very first article. My column is called "InkTuition '. Sharon, our illustrious editor, asked me to write about "process" so, I asked myself, what to write? When she described my work as "telling tales with collage work and that each project has a narrative quality."; I knew that my article  would be titled  "Tell me a story ". My UnRuly article  highlights my process or philosophy that everything we create is really another way to tell a short story. Now, I can hear you say, I'm not a storyteller, but every one really is even.... when answering a simple question like "Tell me about your day."....you are telling a story! So here are my steps for creating a collage, card, tag or altered item using the steps to write a story.

1. Appreciate and Look around: The first step is to appreciate stories and to understand their form by reading them, so for us, that would be to look at lots of artistic creations. Now I know we all do this with the Internet especially with blogs, but there are also art magazines, galleries, craft fairs and even museums. The more you see the better you will be at understanding a good story or design. These are also wonderful places for inspiration too.


2. Parts of a Story: The parts of a story are the setting, main character and the plot. That will translate for us to the background, main image and your sentiment or feeling you are evoking.

 The background can be specific signifying the time, place or even the weather. It can be general and just be a color or some thing to denote the atmosphere. This is were our main character or image will live or exist.

The main character is the who or the what and does not have to be a person or animal, it can be inanimate like a cake or a balloon or even a flower. When you choose one, you may find that if you listen closely they will help you by telling you their story. Now it helps if they  have a personality that is consistent with your setting or background.

The last part is the plot, conflict or action. This is done with our sentiment whether you use "Happy Birthday", quotes or hand cut text. A lot of your characters action can be implied in only a few words.

Below are four different tag stories, can you see the setting-background, the main character and the beginning of the  plot-sentiment? I don't always have everything in front of me when I create, I tend to have most of it and then look around my craft studio for the accents, embellishments and sentiment.




Some other pointers given to short story writers are:

3. Limit your scope: All well written stories have just the right amount of information, description and dialogue and you should follow that in your art too. Keep what's important, remove what is not.







4.Grab your readers attention: The first page usually draws the readers in and we can do that with our creations with the addition of something whether, color, theme, technique or style that captures the attention of our viewers.

Well, that's my version of telling a good story through our collage, cards and tags. I will end it with the four finished tags so, you can read their completed stories.





As if Life's business is a summer mood

Happy for You

Tea in the Garden

True friendship is a plant of slow growth.

THE END

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Darling, it's the Ballet

I had a wonderful time watching one of my favorite PBS series from 1979 called "Lillie" recently. Its about "Lillie Langtry, the  "Jersey girl"  (UK not US. LOL) who had Victorian high society gawping and gossiping as the mistress of the Prince of Wales, later to be Edward VII. She was the only woman Oscar Wilde ever loved; the woman who sent King Leopold of the Belgians packing when he tried to make love to her at breakfast; the woman who created such a sensation that Society ladies stood to catch a glimpse of her." She travelled to America and was on the stage too. I am dedicating this Retro Cafe Art piece to her.

I used lots of RCA supplies including the Ornate Theatre Shrine, Gold Theatre Curtain collageDebrina Pratt Dancer Collage Sheet and Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe cutouts. All the pieces are moveable so I can image plays and ballets and move my little character and sets around.

Hope you will have a week of magical performances this week.
take care, gerri
The Stage

The Chorus
 
<>
The entire cast and set

                     
The Prima Ballerina


Saturday, June 9, 2012

My King of the World is Published

I don't usually dedicate  a post ,but today this post is dedicated to my dear husband. He is a artist of junker model cars in 1/24th scale and I've shown you his cars and etsy shop "classicwrecks" before. The big news is that this month (June),  he was written up on two pages in Top Gear UK magazine (on pages 103 and 105). The magazine is out across the pond and doesn't come out in the USA till June 15th. You can find it in Barnes and Noble stores! We are so very excited that he got a mention. Top Gear is a TV show all about cars  and is quite entertaining and funny.  There is a show in UK and there is a USA version too. I am including a scan of the fabulous article today to share with you all.

I also made a little ATC in his honor. I stamped the 100 proof press Gilded Picture Frame #4058 and surrounded a Gecko Galz image from the Man o Man Collage Sheet. Some cardboard, brads, painted metal gears and some hand painted rust complete this piece. The sentiment reads "You are the king of the world", which is what my husband is! I am also  entering this in the  Art with no Boundaries challenge Anything goes Heavy Metal.

Hope you get to spend some time in your favorite car this week.
take care, gerri
"You are the King of the World"



Article about my husband in Top Gear magazine

Friday, June 8, 2012

Perwinkle and Primrose Dream Box

I love altering Altoids tins. You see, I have a thing for boxes, bowls and containers, just ask my husband. I swear if I bring another bowl into the house, he will just go crazy. Only kidding.... It must be a woman thing to keep thingscontained and bunched together. Some people even say a bowl is a metaphor for a woman's womb? A bit too heady for me.... LOL.

Well, I did so enjoy making this little box. I painted it periwinkle and then worked on the paper for the top and inside. It is white dimensional floral paper that I water colored, shimmer painted and added Stickle accents to bring out each individual flower. Layered on top there are paper flowers with jeweled centers and tiny pnk plastic ones too. Some cut ribbon leaves and glitter accents were added for dimension. Around the outside is some periwinkle organza ribbon. Inside is a bit of a poem from Wordsworth and the rest of the painted paper.

Hope you will enjoy the air you breath this week.
artfully yours, gerri



Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Theater of my heart

I guess I am still in a neutral mood with this card for Retro Cafe Art. I do so love the way the simple palette of black and cream or the black and white look. It is especially wonderful for stamping, giving it a great punch for the image.

It was this RCA Steampunk heart stamp that was the inspiration of today's piece. It was stamped on transparency, one of my favorite methods. Well, the background is printed paper with music notes. Layered on that was  a piece of old lace, the black paper heart edged with cream paint and the Debrina Pratt ATC Theatre image from Retro Cafe Art. The Steamy (punk) heart completed the layers. A rosette in the corner was made up of lace, music paper and a tiny light bulb wrapped in waxed thread. The finishing touches were the black German Dresden foil edge and the sentiment that reads "Theater of my heart light up the night.".

Hope you will light up the night this week.
take care, gerri
"Theater of my heart light up the night"

"Steamy(punk) details"

Monday, June 4, 2012

Vixens of the Silent Screen

Had a fun weekend here in the lowcountry, the weather was amazing warm, sunny and a cool breeze. I also bought some of my collages to a shop, we'll see how that goes....I did have time to do some creating too. I worked on this collage mixing some images from Gecko Galz Vintage Vamps and some Graphic 45 paper I had from the Flying Unicorn store.

I fussy cut and layered the Graphic 45 paper with black German Scrap and printed text flowers. The Gecko Galz were cut out and placed in side the frame of the film. Some copper Stickles accents, black water color details and black dimensional paint add the dimension. The  sentiment reads "They were all Vintage Vixens of the Silent Screen."

Hope you will act like a little vixen this week.
take care, gerri

"They were all Vintage Vixens of the Silent Screen"

"Camera ready details"

Saturday, June 2, 2012

There's nothing like a good Pout

For the month of June, Gecko Galz has some new fabulous collage sheets. The topics are Vintage Vamps(my fav), Masculine images(for Fathers Day ) and Americana (for 4th of July). There's also a special going on all month.... buy one get one free. They also have a great Geck Galz Yahoo group where there are swaps, challenges with prizes and free stuff too!

When I saw this Vintage Vamp with such a pout, I just loved her attitude! I put her in a Retro Cafe Art ATC heart frame painted with antique white, silver and grey paints. I outlined the heart cutout with my favorite tool, a black Sharpie! A little heart, black rhinestones and four different lace elastic lingerie trims were the added special details. The sentiment reads"There's nothing like a good pout!" Don't you agree?

Hope you will have a good pout this week.
artfully yours, gerri

"There's nothing like a good pout."

Friday, June 1, 2012

I want my fairy godmother!

I was lucky to win some wonderful candy of the Oz giveaway from Lily at Octopode Factory. She has fabulous rubber stamps and collage sheets too. I love her blog, it's so much fun too! This prize was fabulous, since I always wanted to create with her different quirky images. Oh, I am such a lucky gal! Here's what I created using the Fairy Godmother image...at least that's what I call her! LOL.

I stamped her and painted her with acrylic paints and Stickles for accents...of course. I added the sparkly wand, the torn netting and layered her on bright pink glittery paper. The watercolored sentiment says "I want my fairy godmother."

Hope you will find your fairy godmother this week!
take care, gerri

"I want my fairy godmother."


"Octopode details"


"The awesome giveaway"


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...