Bonanza of good news

I just don't know where to start...First, I hit 300 followers this week and you know what that means, Blog Candy! I am blessed with a nice stash, so I thought I'd share with you.

You know the drill:
be a follower, put the pic of the candy on your sidebar with a link back to this post, then please leave me a comment telling me you would love to win.

 I will draw 3! yes three winners! I will draw the winner on March 31st. Here's just a small pic of some of the candy!

Next, I am oh so excited to be asked to join the Gecko Galz design team. They are a wonderful and fun papercrafting scrapbook supply company out of Texas. Their collage sheets are absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to begin creating with them! They also offer classes, retreats, lots of inspirational work from a stunning design team and a community to enjoy friendship. But wait there's more... they also have a GeckoGalz Papercrafting Yahoo Group  where you will find free collage sheets, challenges, swaps and prizes too. Please come on over and give us a look.

No, I'm not done yet, I am also on the UnRuly Paper Arts team as a columnist. The focus of my column will be the process of creating and the importance of narrative. The column will be called InkTuition. InkTuition is a play on words  combining both definitions of ink  and intuition. "Ink" represent our inks, paints, printed paper and photos. Intuition  is defined as the sense of something not evident  with out the use of rational process. As you can see, the key word is "rational" because how can you be rational if you are unruly!
Funny since in a previous life I was in charge of "Process Improvement" for a fashion company. Isn't it interesting how things go round and round and connect in our lives!

This is a blogozine started by the amazing Sharon Bliss, one of the creators of Gingersnap Creations. Here's her quote:

 

In the words of Thomas Edison, "There are no rules here. We're trying to accomplish something". There's no place better to break all the rules and be truly individual than in the world of art. If you like to get messy, try new things and generally carve out your own artful niche, then Unruly PaperArts is your kind of blogozine!

We'll be featuring articles on stamping, mixed media, collage,altered art, and scrapbooking. Each month, we will be posting a variety of articles, projects, and reader dares all in blog format so there's always something new to enjoy.

Come by on  April 1st to see our first issue.

I am so honored to be on these Creative teams and hope you will enjoy the pieces I create for them.

Hope you will have a wonderful week filled with lots of good news.
take care, gerri

Radiant

Did you know that  this month is Gingersnap Creation's third birthday! Happy Birthday dear Gingersnaps!
For the month of March, Retro Cafe Art is sponsoring Gingersnap Creations  and the theme is  "Family" with a focus on heritage pieces with antique or distressed art. If you read my blog you know how wonderful Retro Cafe Art is for amazing altered art supplies!  I am  lucky to be on both  design teams so, this month will be a dream come true. Don't you love when different  people, experiences or events intersect in our lives. Well, back to this week's  Gingersnap challenge which is called GC141 Granny's Photo Album.  I imagined this card today to be the front of an antique photo album with  working hinges and a cross.

I started with the lovely woman image from Retro Cafe Art collage sheet called Pretty Women. I layered the transparent text from Retro Cafe Arts collage sheet called Daguerreotypes and put her in the Fancy ATC frame that I painted an aged green brown and edged in gold. She was layered on  beige tattered lace on some patterned background paper. I added the Retro Cafe Art Cross Cut outs using a large one with a smaller cross on top for dimension. They were painted gold and red. Some paper hinges came next. Details included glittery Stickles, shiny red pearls and green metallic thread. The sentiment says "Radiant" and was layered on some glittery golden ribbon.

Hope you will have a radiant week.
take care, gerri

"Radiant"

"Radiant Details"

To visit Retro Cafe Art our wonderful  Sponsor this month, Please click here:

You're all I need

For today's Retro Cafe Art design piece, here's a little card. As you know, usually  it's the image that is my inspiration but not today. You'll have to read below to see where I started! Inspiration is all around us even in our bathroom!  LOL. So where do you get inspiration?

I started with inside of the Retro Cafe Art heart ATC , yes I did not even have an image. I looked around and saw my daughter's navy blue nail polish and said....why not try it. I'm glad I did cause, it came out wonderfully, so shiny and thick. Then I had to determine my image and I spied the Retro Cafe Art Vintage jewelry cameo image , I fussy cut it out glued it on and added tiny details. Next came the 3-d wings which were actually a frog closure that I cut apart. Some rope pearls were next and all this was glued onto a navy patterned paper. This then was layered on a fancy cut out chipboard base that I painted silver. More layers for the background of white and navy paper edged with silver came next. The finishing touches were some tiny pearl beads and the sentiment cut from an old sci fi novel...." You made me everything I am, You are all I need."

Hope you will have all you need this week.
take care, gerri


"You're all I need."



Let them eat cakes

Why it's Pink Saturday again and I thought you deserved something sweet. How about a taste of some sweet little cakes. These twincies (2x2") art pieces are something I made for the Gingersnap Creations  current swap. I adore making tiny pieces of art from inchies, to twincies to moos and ATC's. It's surprising how much you can pack into such small spaces.

To make these darling pieces I started with  some cross stitched printed paper and added some tiny rose stickers and pink rhinestones. A layer of pink tulle came next. They are topped with Retro Cafe Art Cakes images. The little cakes have Perfect Pearl accents and green tickles too.The sentiment is different on each one and expresses  my feelings as I savor a sugary treat. A tiny hand dyed rosette with pink Perfect Pearl trim was the finishing sugar these little cakes needed.

Hope you will savor a sweet treat this week.
take care, gerri

"Let them eat cakes"

Missing You

Love living in the south and during our last trip to NJ and  NYC, we tied up all our loose ends and now we are officially southerners! That being said, I do miss my friends and will need to get out and about, to go about making new ones! It's wonderful to know I have you dear blogger friends no matter where I live!

Today's  card is an inkwell template I created. I love to stamp on feathers and that always makes me think of ink quills. There's pink patterned and sparkle paper as the base of an pink ink kissed card. I stamped a swirl on the ink well and the pretty pink feather too. Some swirly black felt on the edges continue the stamping  pattern on the ink well. Some pink Stickles, a "missing you" sentiment and a tiny tag tied to the bottle neck complete this card. Simon Says Stamp has an "Anything goes" challenge, so I'll enter this one.

Hope you will get to spend time with friends this week, so you don't miss them too much.
yours truly, gerri

"Missing you"

Smiling on the back of a bicycle

Been biking around our new neighborhood and just loving  looking at all the new plants and  pretty birds. Soon I will be seeing flowers too, I can't wait. My bike rides inspired this card and I hope it makes you smile too. Fashionable Stamping is looking for "Make it for a child" #16 and Simon Stamp and show is looking for  an Idea-ology. I was able to cover both challenges with this one creation.
To make this card I started by stamping words on the red frame piece and also stamped little circles too. The bicycle image was detailed with pens and red and white string streamers were added to the handlebars. The corners were rusted little houses, Ideology circles with brads put in some inked up bottle caps.  A Tim little metal book plate with "smile" came next. The background is Tim Holtz's  distressed bottle cap paper.

Hope you will smile this week.
take care, gerri




"Smile"



"Ideaology details"

Once upon a time

Once upon a time....there lived a beautiful princess is the title for my Retro Cafe Art collage today. It is my way to pay homage to my new  fav tv show "Once Upon a time". If you haven't seen it you should. Now I know it sounds silly, a tv show about fairy tales but it is quite good. The acting, the special effects and of course the story are so creative.

To make this collage piece which is 8 X 8", I layered all sorts of things on the glitter printed paper. There is the butterfly wings with the cameo frame and the darling  best friend woman image from Retro Cafe Art all topped with their metal gold crown. Do check out RCA, they have fun contests, free giveaways and such cute stuff! So, the tickets came next and  are painted and stamped with hearts with a gold heart charm embellishment. The third part is a black stamped image of a crown that I made using a foam board and added some pink rhinestones and gold ric rac. There's a sprinkling of gold and organza flowers, big bling rhinestones, tiny pink rhinestones, gold Stickles to finish this beauty.

Hope you will get to experience a fairy tale this week.
yours truly, gerri

"There lived a beautiful princess"