Thy loving smile

Yes, I am in a Valentines mood this week, its all about hearts, red glitter and  lace, all the things that I adore. I looked around for something new to spark my imagination and found the Alice in Wonderland Paper Cutouts from Retro Cafe Art. When I saw the heart on the court rabbit I new it was my inspiration. I happened to have a 1946 Alice in Wonderland book that is badly water damaged from my youth. I decided I could cut it up and used the words today from a poem in that book. Ill be using it for other projects too!

Well, to make this little 3d piece I started by painting a Heart Shrine from RCA with white paint. I decorated it with Red Stickles, red paint , a blue pencil and blue Sharpie dots. I layered it on a frilly white paper doily that I added Red Stickles to it too. The Paper Cut Out rabbit has touches of Red Stickles too and some blue dots. The 3D glitter red hearts came next. The finishing touch was the poem from Alice in Wonderland.... "Thy loving smile will surely hail, the love gift of a fairy tale."

Hope you will be given the gift of a fairy tale this week.
yours truly, gerri

"Thy loving smile will surely hail, the love gift of a fairy tale."

Arrow to Amore

Trying something a bit different from my usual girlie style today for Retro Cafe ARt. It's a tag that is something a bit more graphic. Of course, it's still about love but in a modern way. I've been trying to decorate our new home using  a different creative eye too. I'm using all things that I own but in new ways. In a couple of weeks, I will start showing you here on my blog.

I started with a tag that I dabbed turq, red, mustard and pink paint on and also used punchella for a stencil. I layered a painted Valentine Wood Cutout "Amore" that was painted with turq, pink and cream. The Cupid Cutouts is painted turq with a red Stickle heart and white dimensional pearl on the wings. The tag also has a curved arrow and asterisk sticker that were painted, dotted and stickled. Some shiny red heart stickers with dimensional pearl dots add shiny. The final touches were red German Dresden Fancy Border scalloped scrap trim and a bright red bow.

Hope you will find amore this week.
love always, gerri

Amore

Cupid Details

Always Forever Lilly Of The Valley

Today for Retro Cafe Art, I am participating in something that I love to do....a swap. This one is an ATC Valentines swap and you can find all the lovely details here. My little creations  are trimmed with white and pink lily of the valley fabric flowers. We had lily of the valley  in my grandmother's garden growing under the bay dining room window. It was a cool shady spot and it smelled so beautiful. I remember it fondly. I am sharing these sweet flowers with my swap partners, I hope they will enjoy them too.

To make these ATCs I started with the Layered Valentines Frame ATCs and painted them with pink, white and lavender acrylic paint. I cut out the pretty images from the Roses Roses collage sheet.( Studio update, I found my scissors! Hooray!) The ATCs were trimmed with lace punched paper, lily of the valley flowers and a pink embroidered heart. Everything was topped with Pink Stickles, Dimensional Pink Pearl and touches of water color paint.

Hope you will take time to remember a special childhood place this week.
take care, gerri

Be Mine

Today for Retro Cafe Art, I'm playing with my favorite size a nice small "ATC". I had to make a small project because while I am setting up my new craft room, I still haven't found any of my scissors. LOL!
I can't complain though, when it is all done it will be a wonderful place to create. I will certainly share it with you when I am all done!

To make this ATC, I started with  Love Letter Bo Bunny patterned paper from Retro Cafe Art and added the elephant image from the Between the Lines collage sheet from Gecko Galz. I think it's so cute ! Some red shiny German Dresden scrap scallops from Retro Cafe art trimmed the edge. The Valentines cut out words Be Mine  and the big heart  are both from Retro Cafe Art  and were covered with red Stickles for abit of glimmer and shine.

Hope you will have a shiny week.

take care, gerri

"Be Mine"

True Romance

Dear friends, sorry I have not been blogging as of late. Life has just taken hold of me and kept me away from my art. We moved into a new home and I only was able to work on my new studio  a little this weekend. Putting away clothes and kitchen took priority! LOL. Then with working full time and the holidays, it all  really slowed my creativity down. Oh and I cant find my box of scissors so, I had use my husbands to make today's card.

This card uses items from my two favorite places Retro Cafe Art and Gecko Galz, p lease do check them out they have so many fun events, contest and giveaways. Well, to make this Valentines day card, I started with some embossed paper and brushed it with purple watercolor paint. I layered some printed purple paper with an image from Love Love Me Do Gecko Galz collage sheet on top. The multi colored thread ribbon, green paper flowers that act as leaves and lilac ribbon rosettes that  came next add dimension. Shiny accents of purple and olive were done with Dimensional Pearls from Ranger along with yellow Stickles.The final touch were the Valentine words cutouts  "True Romance" are from Retro Cafe Art that are painted with ivory paint and Dimensional Pearls.

Oh, I am also putting a link on my side bar so you can see where we moved. It was a journey moving  from the north to the south but we are thrilled. Take a peak and share my special world.
Hope you get to visit  a special place this week.
take care, gerri

True Romance

Romantic Details

An Charming Unruly Paris Visit

Oh Paris the city of Lights, Love, Fashion and Art,  I do adore thee. Everything about Paris interests me and though I can't live there I can always dream about it . It is such an inspiration place for me so, when Unruly Paper Arts decided to do a Paris Issue theme,  Oh La La.... I was thrilled. Instead of doing a paper project today  I decided to up cycle an old bracelet I had using existing crafting supplies I had on hand  to make it special. You can follow me thru the the steps below:

 This is the bracelet before,  it is cute but I did feel it was missing something. The first thing I did was,  to stamp on the metal discs  a filigree pattern with  black Archival ink. I didn't care that the stamped print  image was off center , it made for a more vintage distressed impression.

These are the  tiny charm bits I added they are the perfect Paris monuments from Retro Cafe Art. You can see the Eiffel Tower, Arc d'Triomphe, a Fleur de Lis and of course, a heart for "amour". The little  vintage paper images are also from Retro Cafe Art, that  I cut out to back some of the existing charms

These are the little wooden charms painted and then over stamped. I also ink kiss the edges for additional depth. I attached silver jump rings too before adding to the bracelet. The next step was to glue the people vintage images on the back of some of the existing charms.

                                            Viola, the finished bracelet. I think it is tres manifique.

Here are some  more detailed photos.  Hope you enjoyed my little up cycled bracelet today .
Here's  to dreaming about my favorite city....Paris.

Yours truly,
Gerri

Sweet Sweet Love

Wishing all my dear friends a happy and healthy New Year! We are settling into our new home. Its been a long year with a lot of change and excitement, from moving from New Jersey to South Carolina and building a house for the first time. It was definitely worth it, except for the boxes....Oh, the boxes, they seem go on for ever! LOL.

Here's an ATC using some pretty Retro Cafe Art supplies. The collage paper base is Debrina Pratt.  I layered some violet flowers,  some tiny mushrooms and some light purple twine. Some Stickles accents and German Dresden scrap were the shiny accents.

Wishing you all some  Shiny Sweet Sweet New Years Love!
take care, Gerri

"Sweet Sweet Love"

"Lovely details"