Paris Tip-in

Here is my tip-in page for the CCSwaps group -themed around Paris. For the front, I chose that Paris icon, the Eiffel tower. This one is from a digital collage sheet from etsy, and I printed in on transparency to give it a little bit of a different look. I added some bits and pieces from stickers and other ephemera collage sheets. I stamped some fleur-de-lis on the background, but they're pretty subtle. There's also a separate torn piece of paper on the left, but it almost blends in too well. For the back I chose an image of Audrey Hepburn. Even though she's not French, she always gives me that vibe. The background is a piece of Stampington paper.

Complementary Colors

I'm heading out of town today for a business trip, so I needed to complete a swap before I left. This one was entitled complementary colors and required that we make something using just complementary colors (with just a touch of black and/or white if needed. I chose to use blue and orange as my combination. Also, one of my New Year's Art Resolutions was to use stamps that I haven't used before. I love these Impress Me images, but for some reason, they never make it into my art, but they did this time! These are stamped onto glossy paper that I first stained blue with Broken China distress ink. The orange paper has a bit of a metallic sheen, and the small embellishments are shrink plastic stamped with pieces of the same design.

Shining Stones

Creative cards is running a swap for a technique called shining stones. I haven't signed up for the swap yet, but I did have a play with the technique which uses dye ink, brayered over glossy card stock, then spritzed with water, and brushed with a paste made from perfect pearls. At that point you spritz it again and then use a paper towel, with a twisting motion to pull off some of the water and create texture. Because I have a lot of it, I used Pearl-Ex and mixed it with a little gum arabic and some water so it would be sealed. For the blue/green card I used gold and duo blue/green Pearl-Ex, and for the rainbow card, I just used gold.

Crazy about buttons

A group I belong to ATCards was running a swap that required the use of at least one real button. Armed with a whole tubful of buttons and a great Paperbag Studios stamp, here's what I came up with.