First Week of the New Year

Three posts this week, that's not too bad.
Today's theme is leaves.
Main leaves on the left tag are coloured die-cuts with a band of embossed leaves at the bottom.
The leaves on the right tag are leaf shapes that have been hand-cut and embossed with some clear embossing on top. The lower band is an image transfer.

Last Day of the Holidays

I'm enjoying the last day of my holiday break.

Spent the morning cleaning my art room in anticipation of all the art I'll be making this year.

I've been inspired by Tim Holtz of late so I'm tag making these days.

Today's theme is ravens.

Yes, that's a flattened beer cap on the tag on the left.

The diamonds at the bottom of the right tag was made with a sizzix embossing folder that I got for Christmas and then colour added to the raised edges.

News Years Resolution

My resolution this year is to make more art and post more art.
So I spent yesterday in my art room, quietly and happily playing.

Today's theme is the samarai.

With a Michael's gift card that I got for Christmas I got a bunch of Tim Holtz distress ink pads.

The samarai have been transfered onto tags and small embellishments added.

Troy Art Exhibition

Enviro-man front view

Enviro-man torso detail

500 artists from around the world were selected to participate in the Troyart International Exhibition at the MuBE - the Museu Brasileiro da Escultura in Sao Paulo, Brazil (http://www.mube.art.br/). Each artist was sent a unassembled robot-like figure produced by Troyart (http://www.troyart.com/) which they were to “personalize” in any way they wished. Once finished, artists were to send the completed figure to the museum where it will be exhibited from January 15 to 30. To view the artists’ work that has been submitted to date, visit http://www.toymube.blogspot.com/.

Open House

I'm having another open house this weekend with my sister and daughter. Sister Della makes the silver jewellery and daughter Cory makes the fashion accessories. I've designed cards to go with the asian theme that sister Della has used for her pendants and charms. Each card uses a collage that I've created in various colour schemes. On top are various asian designs - asian vectors filled with the same colours.


To make each card unique, I've added to each card a 1-inch pin with either an asian design or asian character, echoing the colour theme background.

Silhouette Die Cut Cards

Back in June I purchased a Silhouette SD machine, but never got around to playing with it.

I have a Cricut machine, but was unhappy with the fact that I had to buy cartridges for any new designs or fonts I wanted. With the Silhouette you can use any font on your computer. As a collage artist and computer graphic person, I have collected thousands of fonts and dingbats as well as images. The software was pretty straightfoward and I figured out how to convert files for use in the Silhouette, so the possibilities are endless.

First, I bought a couple of the designs from their online store and started experimenting with the cutting machine. Not wanting too get to elaborate with the print and cut function, I printed paper patterns onto cardstock on a laser printer and then cut the image files using the printed paper. Because I have tons of small scrap collage pieces, I laid a piece on the inside back of the card. With the collage scraps all being different, each card is unique.


I then attempted to create designs in the software to make similar die cut cards. I'm getting a feel for what works and doesn't work. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Vintage Paper Dolls

I came across these fun vintage paper dolls! I know there aren't too many paper dolls around anymore but I bet little girls would love to play with these. It's so fun to look at the outfits from the fifties and sixties.

These are quality images that you can print for free. Fun thing to do on a rainy (or hot) afternoon!




Betsy McCalls First Ten Years

Jani Hile's Betsy McCall link

Terri's Paper Doll links

Free Paper Dolls and Paper Doll Outfits

Lucinda Cunningham's Paper Dolls