B. terrestris

Coloring. That's what my husband calls it when I'm working in my craft room. Today his description is very accurate.

I took a vintage image (Graphics Fairy), transferred it to kraft-colored card stock with gel medium (an image transfer) then used colored pencils and distress inks to give it some color.

For me, the biggest challenge when working on kraft-colored paper is making sure I have enough value changes (lights and darks). In this case, the addition of white on some of the long grasses helped.

Dinner Party

The Monday challenge over at Simon Says Stamp is Food and/or Drink and I thought I'd do something with Idea-ology Silverware.

Well, one place setting led to another and the result was a dinner party in an altered Idea-ology Vignette Box filed with silverware, an ornate plate and a salvaged doll with adornments.

Click to Enlarge Photo

All of this covered in tissue paper stamped with tiny text and black dots plus two altered vintage light bulbs (not to be confused with ice cream cones). The large text is an altered quote chip and the roulette wheel is an Idea-ology Collector Layer.

The outside of the box was "pickled" with a white stain. The crown and scepter were tinted with alcohol ink. Red paper was used in the back of the box. Clear crackle medium and walnut ink helped to age some of the surfaces.

My tiny little box will find it's way to a shelf in my studio and remind me that, in art (and also in cooking), all the things we make are as unique as we are. Bon appétit!

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It's been a real privilege to participate as a guest designer this month. I am so proud to be a part of a community that fosters so much creativity and joy.

Why don't you join us for this week's challenge?

If you upload your creation to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog you'll have a chance to win a $50 voucher at the Simon Says Stamp store!

Here are links to the supplies I used for this project:

Idea ology Vignette boxes	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adornments in Silverware	Tim Holtz Idea-ology ORNATE PLATES	Tim Holtz Idea-ology SALVAGED DOLLS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology TREASURES ADORNMENTS
Tim-Holtz-Idea-ology-QUOTE-CHIPS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collector Layers	ranger archival jet black ink pad

Philately

Simon's Monday challenge this week is "You've Got the Edge."

And what has a more distinctive edge than a postage stamp?

Philatelists (people who collect stamps) use magnifying glasses and special gauges (like the one pictured below) to count the number of perforations for correct classification.

So, for my spotlight this week, I decided to make a postage stamp album using an Idea-ology Worn Binder (Notebook) and filled it with pages of postage stamps. See if you can spot the real ones!

The binder was stained with Distress, stamped (Correspondence and Legacy Lower Case), taped (Journey and Aristocrat) and collaged using a real postage stamp and ephemera (Snippets).

A wide variety of products were used to make the stamps including stamp punches (Uchi's Design Stamp Embossing Punch), rubber stamps (Tiny Things), paper stash (Dapper, Correspondence), Ranger archival inks, Versafine pigment ink, Prismacolor pencils, off-white acrylic paint and micro-fine pens (Sakura).

I printed a border on multiple sheets of off-white paper made to fit the binder to give the appearance of vintage postage stamp album pages. I used my trusty old Smith Corona typewriter to document my collection (adding a fair-share of tongue-in-cheek in the process).

Some of the stamp shapes were made from real postage that I covered with off-white paint--it's amazing how tough the paper is. Did you know that to remove the vintage gummed postage from an envelope you only have to soak it in water and it comes right off? Once dry, it's ready to mount in your album (or artwork?) with no harm done.

My stamps were mounted on dark gray construction paper to mimic the mounting squares (which highlight the perforated edges) in real stamp albums. I used a glue stick for all my pasting.

I have extra blank pages and expect to add to my collection in the future especially when I have interesting left-over snippets from other projects. It's a bit like journaling but on really tiny paper. So fun!!
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Please join us for this week's challenge!

If you upload your creation to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog you'll have a chance to win a $50 voucher at the Simon Says Stamp store!

Here's a list of most of the products I used for this challenge:

Tim Holtz Idea-ology NOTEBOOK Worn Binder	Idea-ology Snippets	Tim Holtz Idea-ology ARISTOCRAT Design Tape	Tim Holtz Idea-ology JOURNEY Design Tape	Tim holtz Stamper Anonymous Correspondance
Hero Arts LEGACY LOWER CASE Rubber Stamp	Uchi′s Design STAMP Embossing Punch	Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps 2017 TINY THINGS 2	Stamper′s Anonymous Tim Holtz Tiny Things Stamp Set	ranger archival jet black ink pad
Archival Ink - Cobalt	Ranger Archival Red Geranium Ink Pad	Tsukineko VersaFine ONYX BLACK Ink Pad	Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils-72	Sakura Micron Pens