Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Embrace the Old

I always like it when I can do two things at once. Today, I am working on the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp, and making my altered Valentine tin for an art swap.

I started with an Altoids tin, and covered it with Tim Holtz tissue tape.

Covered inside and out

Next, I thought I would add a bit of color with some Distress ink.

Added some vintage images to the tin.

New paint to try out from Martha Stewart - pearl, and I like it!

Didn't want to stop playing, so added some crackle paint next, here and there.

Oh, flowers, metal, ruler, metal number to add some dimension inside.

Screwed on a skate key, added on a love key, tulle(Stampin Up) and some bakers twine.

Another new item to try out that I learned about from Creative Jumpstart - glass bead gel medium. This is very cool stuff! It's not quite dry for the photo, should be clear, but I put it on thick, and I need to finish this up. There you go - my altered tin and its creative journey.

Art Gathering Page Keeper Project

My cover

At our recent art gathering, I put together a project for us to do.  We made a book to keep LFB (little fat book) pages in. These pages are 4"x4" and the new Martha Stewart plastic sheets hold them perfectly.  I made kits with papers, embellishments, fibers, and cut the plastic sheets in half.  Everyone had the same types of materials to work with, but each kit was different, and everyone added their personal style to their book.

Details on inside front cover

Details, inside page

Tag I made and tied inside the book.

Details, inside back cover

Stamp Camp Card Exchange for January

I wanted to try out my new stamp set with all these cool "retro" designs.  I was thinking of friends, and the sewing machine design and saying just fit the bill.  I used my punch on the blue paper to make it look like I had taken it out of a notebook, added a bit of highlighting with a white pen,  layered it on bright yellow patterned paper, and added a few buttons for the sewing theme.  I used my word window punch to cut the half circles at the bottom so I could thread the baker's twine around several times.  ...and there you have it, a nice, simple, classic design.

All materials from Stampin Up, except buttons 
baker's twine (Martha Stewart)

Halloween Card Ideas

I wanted to share with you two cards we made at Stamp Camp last week. Michelle is our Stampin Up friend, and once a month my group meets at her house. We usually do a card exchange and make a couple of cards or an altered item, and it's lots of fun!

Both card bases are black cardstock - perfect for a Halloween card. The first card is layered with patterned paper and cardstock, and the insert is a new product from Stampin Up, which we filled with M&M's before we sealed the card. It looks colorful and provides an emergency stash of chocolate if you really wanted to open it.

The second card uses a pattern paper background, then we stamped the pumpkins and colored them in, added googly eyes for fun. The bats are made from a Martha Stewart punch and we added dimension to a couple of them - makes them look like they are flying.

I hope this sparks some ideas for Halloween this year for you!