More year round tags!

Hi there!

So as promised, here are two more of the tags I sent to my girlfriend for her birthday in July:

All these tags are using the Prima printed tags sold in stacks of about 40.
March:

• Used an Aquarelle green tag as the base and stamped the tag with the Magenta Clocks Stamp (C95.255.R) in Timber Brown StazOn Ink. 
• Layered the Crafters Workshop Script stencil on the diagonal and sprayed with Tsukineko Eucalyptus Walnut Ink
• Cut two of the Cheery Lynn Designs Hearts 'n Gears die and trimmed the hearts off.  One green brad placed through the bottom of the hearts and into the tag held them in place.
• The greeting in from Heathers Stamping Haven 'I wish for you...' (CHS#193G)

April:

• Used an Aquarelle yellow tag for the base and punched the bottom with the Martha Stewart Large Flower border punch.
• The tag was run through my newest toy: Cut N' Boss with its Herringbone embossing folder.
• I ran a Butterscotch Adirondack pad over the raised portions to emphasise the pattern.
• The egg is cut using Spellbinders Filigree Egg die
• The top tag is also by Spellbinders: Fancy Tags
• 'Happy Easter' is an old stamp by Stampin' Up and the bunny is Harvy Hare by Comotion Rubber Stamps

Enjoy!

Where is she?

Hello!
One of the annoying things about being creative is that once in a while you lose your mojo, your ambition, your courage... Big changes tend to do that to me and I haven't been motivated much lately.  I finally sat down to checking my Bloglovin account and getting caught up and noticed a few that are no longer posting for various reasons and decided to unfollow them.  Then I realised Hey!  That could be me!  I do love to share and blog and this epiphany was the kick in the pants I needed.  Thank you to the ladies I do follow!

So Here is a project I completed at the end of June for a girlfriend I care for very much.
I have been participating in a tag challenge at a local store this year and some of the tags were sent to my girlfriend as a birthday present.  I created some more to add to them and made a year round hanging decoration...  Here are the January and February tags:

The February tag was described in my post here.
The January tag was truly made just for her...

I started with a spraying ink through a snowflake stencil.  Let dry.
Took a second stencil and used clear embossing paste over top the first pattern. Let dry.
StazOn ink was used to stamp the greeting in the bottom right.
I stamped two copies of the mandala image by Outlines Rubber Stamps in StazOn and accented with silver pen.  I cut off the last three layers off one stamped image then layered the rest at an angle over a whole mandala.  I then took the cut off edges, flipped them and attached to the outside edge to look more snowflake-like. I used pop dots to adhere the centre portion.

I'll be posting more of her tags in the next couple weeks.
Hope you enjoy and hope you still wish to follow me!
Hugs!
Happy Thanksgiving from this Canadian!

Annual Publishing Event

Hi!

One more Oriental project to finish off my birthday month and my reign as Spotlight Artist of the month :) 
Each year at OSA we run a swap called and Annual Publishing Event.  A wonderful organized person takes charge and chooses an theme for the year along with the size.  At the beginning of summer the final numbers are tallied and we are to make that number of pages and two covers and send them to this person.  Just after the new year we all anxiously await delivery of a finished published book. 

This was the book I received for 2014.  Looks yummy doesn't it?  The theme was 'The Year of the Child'.  I covered my front and back covers with washi papers from my collection.

For my page, I started by stamping many copies of the stamp 'Yoshimi' by Sister Stamps and colouring them in with my Wink of Stella and Wink of Luna brush pens by Zig.  They give everything a nice shimmer.  Then I hand cut them out...

The background paper is by Basic Gray called Konnichiwa-Hello Friend.  I edged it with one of the brush pens, then added a torn corner of gold vellum.  The kanji stamp is by Art Neko called A pure Heart.  To hold the gold vellum in place I used the EK Success Fastenater and a gold staple.

Now off to plan for this year's APE- Kites and Flowers!

Underwater fun

Today is my birthday!  Happy Birthday to me!!! (liberties taken with the popular song on the radio)

Today I thought I'd show you a card I made for an exchange at Oriental Stamp Art.

 I used some washi purple paper as the background and stamped this mermaid from Inkadinkado.  I covered it with a same size piece of Vertigo sheet by Imagine.  The layer was wrapped with sheer purple ribbon and held in place by Stickapodomous Stickers. The combnation was matted on another purple cardstock layer and placed on a black card front.  The right edge is punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

I hope I captured the watery effect in this shot for you.  Cool stuff these Vertigo sheets!
Hugs!

Show Off Your Paper!

Hello!

At a meeting of our stamp club in April I was reminded of a way to show off our special pretty paper that we all collect or make!  A simple layout that we can make lots in one session.  For those of us at Oriental Stamp Art who collect a lot of Asian Washi paper, this is a wondersul way to share some our stash:) 

 Pick two patterned papers that have a similar colour in them in common.  Separate with band of plain paper or ribbon.  Add a simple greeting or image and you're done!  You can mat the papers like in my crane friendship card or mount them flush to the edge.

I like to use the scraps to decorate the inside to match the front of the card. 
Have fun!
Hugs!

Cancer Donation + Mojo Monday

Hello All!

I know I promised this to be a month of Oriental cards, but I've finally been able to do something I've been planning for a while now:  Donate my hair to cancer.  We lost my dad AND father-in-law to 2 different cancers in 2009.  I found out this was an option to donation a couple years ago when a friend's son started growing his hair to donate...  This month my hair was the minimum 8 inches long ponytail to donate.  So my sister, a red-seal hairdresser did the honours for me and when sending it along to Pantene... well we must make cards!!!

I did this card using the sketch at Mojo Monday for their Challenge/Contest 405.

I used Best Creation glitter cardstock, black glossy cardstock, cancer print paper by Me & My Big Ideas, pink paper from a gelli plate session, a flower from the Re-Use Centre here in Edmonton, half pearl from Stampin' Up! and a Magenta Stamp called Be-YOU-tiful.

These other cards used various supplies from my stash, a ribbon stamp and various greeting stamps.

I wanted to send 10 cards so I included a card I did last year and recycled a beautiful pink oriental card I received from Bonnie at OSA last year too.  Hey!  I guess there is some oriental!!!

Here is the package ready to go through Canada Post :)  The girl at the counter said I got points for wrapping! :)

Oh yes.... Here are before and after of my hair, if you're interested...

Hugs!

July OSA Spotlight Artist

Hi All!

Lots of activity here in the Connell household...
The Oriental Stamp Artists named me the Spotlight Artist for the month of July and I'm thrilled!
OSA is a stamping group on Yahoo Groups and we have multiple challenges, swaps, mingles and share art on an Oriental theme all around the world!  Check us out if you also enjoy oriental art...

So for my project I decided to complete another page spread in one of my art journals:

Started with a set of pages I had already prepped in purple watercolour, some scrap paper and images cut out of advertising.

Then I found some perfect stencils in the Stencils 201 Book.  I used acrylic paint through the stencil to get these pretty blossoms:)

Then my stamps and Adirondak inks were added to continue the flower theme.  All was well until the last impression on the far left...  Arg! Hate edge stamping!

So I took out another stencil, my Inka Gold paste and my trusty finger to cover some of that up and provide some texture.

To finish it off, I stamped this greeting onto vellum and matted it onto some washi paper.  This placed on the gold pattern finished it off. 

Keep checking this month for other oriental projects!
Hugs!