Fairy God Mum Extraordinaire!

Here are a few edited photos from the Steampunk photo shoot on Saturday!
It was a magical day! Photos by KerryLinn Terrace and Chris Marsala

100th Blog and Giveaway!

The first person to comment on today's blog gets a prize mailed to them (US only, thanks)!

Today ~ I had the awesome responsibility to play dress up as a real live Fairy God Mum for a photo shoot! I can't wait to share the photos with my blog followers!

Wishes really DO come true! Have a great day everyone! Photos to follow soon!

Je T'aime Paris

My latest Altered Domino Collage was on display last spring at The Firehouse Steampunk Gallery in Phoenix, and is now available for purchase at SunDust Art Gallery in Mesa, AZ.

Grungy Monday Challenge

Linda Ledbetter invited me to be a guest designer for a challenge on her Studio L3 blog. My task was to create something using a technique designed by Tim Holtz. His design is from the 12 Tags of Christmas 2009. You can visit his blog here: www.timholtz.typepad.com. If you are not familiar with Tim Holtz, you should be, he's an amazing artist/designer/writer/businessman with some of the best craft products on the planet. I'm in a group of over 2,500 artists called All Things Tim. Here's the link: groups.yahoo.com/group/allthingstim

Here is my design ~ A little book of Butterflies using layered papers, collage techniques, metals, embossing powders, stamping, ribbons, and a dash of inspiration. I chose Butterflies, red, black and brass.

Please visit Inge Bekaert's awesome blog. Inge is also a guest designer this week. http://web.me.com/pinkepinke/pinkepinke/Blog/Blog.html

Linda Ledbetter hosts the most amazing challenges, you can visit her blog here: www.studioL3.com

The best part about some of the challenges I've been participating in, is cost effectiveness. If you don't have the exact supplies, it's okay to make substitutions. You are not required to use the exact stamps or papers or bling suggested by the challenge coordinators or designers. Use the supplies you have, try to achieve the same look. Put your own 'spin' on it, think out of the box! Be yourself! Be creative!

Thank you for stopping by ~ have a creative day!

Collages

These are some collages I've been working on over the last 2-3 years. My son recently visited Europe and I'm pleased to say I use his photo of Stonehenge in one of the collages. Other images include Venice (a hand watercolored photo from my college days), Naples (an old greeting card), and the Alps (an old old postcard in mint condition I found at a lovely little antique store in Gilbert, AZ. Comments and feedback welcome.
Collage sizes range from 16x20 to 20x20

Altered Domino Collage Instructions

A lot of people are making altered dominoes, but as a mixed media and collage artist, I’ve been turning my dominoes into collages.
I use plastic dominoes and always decorate the back, never the side with the dots. Sometimes the idea for a collage would come from having a few cute dominoes left from another project, but now, I like to plan a theme (often Paris or Fairies) or color scheme, I love brown with green or brown with blue). Anything goes! Trust your instincts!
A few months ago my husband gave me a BIG box of 91 dominoes, so I could experiment to my little heart’s desire. I’ve used almost all of those to date, and I’m excited that I’ll be shopping for another big set of dominoes soon.
Okay let’s get right to it!
I’m not big on power tools (in fact while taking a wood class at ASU, I was asked to allow the TA to use the BIG machines for cutting my materials, a bit accident prone I guess, but not as bad as the young woman in the short shorts who spilled hot glue all the way down her leg!). So I don’t drill the dominoes to make bracelets or necklaces, there are plenty of metal findings to use if that is your goal or if you like power tools, go for it! Just be careful!
I start with an image, often ephemera or a piece of paper that I like and cut it to the approximate size of the domino. I used to cut round corners but found a short cut. Use a thin glue to attach the paper to the domino, let dry. Use an old emery board to round the corners! (That’s brilliant, yes?). One of my favorite domino collages is a sepia toned landscape of Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the image. If you have a photo or image you want to use, just make note of where the parts of the image lie so you can get them in order once you’re ready to glue. You can layer your papers but let the glue dry between images. With fairies I often add wings, giving the domino a little more interest and dimension. Don’t be afraid to overlap shapes.
Once dry, I use chalky inks around the edges. I prefer a vintage look, I don’t really want people to notice at first that it’s a domino. You can use one color or two (blue on the top, brown on the bottom for landscapes, etc. you get the idea).
Do this for several dominoes and things really begin to take shape!
I like to use Ranger: Rock Candy over a few dominoes (only takes a few minutes to dry) or colored Ranger: Stickles for outlining, accenting, etc. Sometimes it is those small details that are hardly noticeable that catches someone’s attention.
For the collage, it helps to see a few dominoes side by side, to see what colors and themes fit your end result. I don’t like to put all the dominoes in the same direction, I like a few ‘horizontal’ and a few ‘vertical’ in each area of the collage. However, for the Paris landscape, I did put all the dominoes in a row, and it worked.
Once you have them laid out in order, you can begin adding metals, gems, coins, old stamps, flowers, beads, buttons, keys, old jewelry, metal corners, more inks, etc. Keep in mind, If you’re adding 3D embellishments, you need to make sure your dominoes still fit together tightly!
I don’t like to rush the background for the collage. I often use a frame (take out the glass) or a wooden ‘canvas’. I add paper, shimmer powers, metallic pens, a little stamping and/or embossing powders. The background is as important as the dominoes because it becomes a ‘frame’ to show off your hard work.
Once you’re done with the background, you can start gluing your dominoes together. This is FUN! Just like gluing popsicle sticks together (you all remember making boxes with popsicle sticks in grade school, right?). I glue the dominoes together by the sides first, and only two at a time, as the glue dries I’ll glue two to the section to make four, etc. I like Aleene’s Tacky Glue. It’s strong and trustworthy. It gets a little tricky the bigger your collage is, so be patient and try using a ruler or something sturdy to keep everything aligned. Once you have ALL your dominoes glued together, let them dry for at least an hour. Once they feel sturdy add plenty of glue to the back of your dominoes and set firmly in place, I often use a paper weight to keep things from moving around.
A few more embellishments to tie it all together and you’re done!
Feel free to ask questions or post pictures! ENJOY!

Greeting Cards

I've been making custom greeting cards for 25+ years, such a delight! I enjoy sending little sets of greeting cards to friends and family as gifts, then the cards go out to people I've never met. It's like my little gift to the world. Here are a few of the latest cards.

Steampunk Fairy

Evermore Nevermore invited me to design another outfit for a Sci Fi ~ Steampunk Fashion show held last night at the Nile Theatre in historic downtown Mesa. Here's my little grand daughter Clarah in her first fashion show. She was amazing! She waved, she smiled, she blew bubbles, she even busted a (hip hop) move at the end of her run. Everyone cheered! What a great night!

Altered Domino Collages

Here are a few of the latest altered domino collages. I would love your feedback!

Southwest Altered Dominoes

Following our East Valley Reading Series Southwest Poetry reading at the Elvis Chapel Saturday, I decided to alter some dominoes featuring some of my recent photos of the area. Here is the project. (Available for sale now at The Angel Store and More on 5th Avenue in downtown Scottsdale Arizona) ENJOY!

"Waiting"

This is the last of 35 challenges hosted by Studio L3. This has been quite an adventure through Tim Holtz book ~ Compendium of Curiosities. I found this greeting card a while back and never knew exactly what to do with it, so today, I decided to turn it into a new piece of art, simply titled "Waiting". I'm 'waiting' to see what Linda has in store for us on the next round of challenges.

Thanks Linda, Tim, Gloria, and Ranger for pushing us to new heights! And thanks to anyone who took a moment to view or comment on my blog!

Cheery Cherry Challenge

Thought I'd do a little give away this weekend. Be the first to comment on this blog and I'll send this little "Cheery Cherry" tag your way.

Shhh...

I can't really tell you what I'm up to right now, but I can tell you it's gonna be good!

It's almost Saint Patrick's Day!

How quickly we breeze through the calendar each year. While altering dozens of tiny treasure boxes for Valentine's day, I noticed the boxes were arranged in the shape of a four leave clover. Clever?!? Here's this week's challenge! Titled simply Clover.

Paris Tag

This week's challenge "Rusted Enamel" had me wondering about theme. My son is traveling in Europe this month and will be in France soon, so I decided on The Eiffel Tower as my main image. Je T'aime Paris!

Antique Box Challenge #30

Yesterday, my husband and I took a drive north to the Carefree/Cave Creek area. I found a few treasures at my favorite antique store. My 'best' find yesterday was this simple box with a little stamp on the back that read "Made in Italy". Here is my altered antique box using this week's challenge.

Challenge ~ Weathered Wood Grunge

Here's my take on "Weathered Wood Grunge". Don't you just love an old picket fence?!? Brings back fond memories of childhood...

Boxes and Bags

These little 'tiny treasure boxes' and matching bags are available at The Angel Store on 5th Avenue, in time for all your Valentine's purchases... I love making boxes!

Challenge #28

fragments...

Challenge #27

A greeting card for an ATT friend... Get well soon my friend...

Rusted Grunge ~ Challenge #26

Here's another greeting card, rusted grunge. Great technique!