art from the well

garden fairies of course!  for a little midweek inspiration for the lunagirl moonbeams seed packs/vintage garden challenge i matched a garden fairy from the lunagirl "fly away home" collage sheet with a watermelon seed pack from the "summertime seed packs" collage sheet.


i've also got 2 kinds of designer paper, tissue tape, and a lovely butterfly adorning this piece.  this challenge runs until september 8 and the randomly selected winner will get a gift certificate to the lunagirl shop.   lunagirl shop.  until then check out a seed pack free image on the lunagirl site!

love to all.

we're playing swinging sixties at tag tuesday and my thought was to play with the explosion of colors and the feel of flower power.  here's what i made:


my papers and embellishments picked up the colors and flowers that were a part of that era.  the stamp is by "paper inspirations" and i chose it because it reminded me of face images used in ads at that time.  this is also one of my favorite stamps and it was time for me to use it again.

enjoy; love to all.

it is week two for the cheerful stamp pad "your choice" challenge.  link up whatever goodie you are making for a chance to win a prize from our challenge sponsor bombshell stamps, a purveyor of fun images of both the rubber and digital varieties.  i stayed with the "bombshell" theme for my week 2 creation but this week my source for images is lunagirl moonbeams.


this image from the lunagirl "beauties #2" sheet is such a stunner.  i paired her with some pink background paper which was a design created by lunagirl owner karen and made available for FREE on her website. behind that is some nice script paper from seven gypsies which i've been using a lot of lately.  i recently bought some wonderful new rolls of paper tape from cavallini and i used a strip of it here.  this card was relatively quick to make once i decided which elements to use and in the end i pretty much love it.

link up what you love to our challenge!
love to all.

the latest tag tuesday theme is "windows, gates, doors and portals."  i thought i'd make a piece that might also inspire my readers to consider joining the "alice in wonderland" challenge at lunagirl moonbeams -- you have til the 25th to play along.


the tag is covered with some paint chip paper in shades of yellow and orange, and a designer hole punch reinforcement.  i took one of the book covers from the lunagirl "alice in wonderland book covers" collage sheet and cut an oval window out of it.  i adhered a portion of an alice image from the "watercolor alice" collage sheet, also from lunagirl, to the book cover so that you see alice through the oval window i made.  i attached this to the tag and added some additional embellishments to pick up the coppery orange color in alice's hair.  the book cover overhangs the side of the tag, perhaps a little like a door.

by the way karen at lunagirl has some alice-themed  FREEBIES on the lunagirl blog so feel free to sample them and join the alice challenge there.

enjoy; love to all.

for week two of the lunagirl moonbeams alice in wonderland blog challenge i decided to create a party invitation.


i cut a 4 x 6 cardboard base as this is a postcard format.  i covered it in some swirly red designer paper.  i stamped the invitation (stamp by rubber soul) on vellum paper and adhered to the card base.  i love this particular image from alice in wonderland, when the frog courier delivers an invitation to the duchess to play croquet with the queen.  you may recall the duchess is inside holding a baby which later turns into a pig after sneezing its poor head off from the cooking pepper.  this image is from the "watercolor alice" collage sheet at lunagirl.  i also used a white rabbit image from lunagirl too -- he is holding his watch of course since whatever this invitations is for, you won't want to be late!  i have some nice sparkly swirly stickers, hearts and some tissue tape here as well for embellishment.

if you're an alice lover please play along!  whoever is randomly selected as winner of this blog challenge will get credit to purchase goodies from lunagirl, home to no end of gorgeous vintage images.

by the way, all the lunagirl alice sheets are on sale...

well anyway, enjoy.
love to all!

the new challenge at the cheerful stamp pad is "your choice" but our challenge sponsor is the fabulous bombshell stamps so i made my first DT creation using several digital images from our sponsor. bombshell has digis and rubber stamps in all kinds of fun, classy and humorous styles.


by signing up for the bombshell stamps newsletter i got access to a lot of freebies and one was the "wanted poster" frame.  the frame was a perfect match for the cowgirl riding a pig which is sold in the digital images section. i figured she is in big trouble for rustling up a pig instead of riding a horse to rustle up some cattle!

the cowgirl (pig girl?) and the sheriff stars were all from the same sheet of images and i colored those as well as the wanted frame with promarkers.  i had some DP that made me think of a a wooden saloon wall where this poster might be displayed so i covered my tag with that paper.  i really hope she doesn't get caught.  why not ride a pig?  she's just an unconventional thinker!

make something new and fun and ink it up to the challenge!

love to all.

the theme for this week at tag tuesday is complementary colors.  though i had a clear idea in my mind initially about how i was going to work a green/blue to red/orange arrangement, purple to yellow ended up in there too before it was all over with.  so this tag is pretty much a tag of many colors!


i wanted to get inky with alcohol inks so i wandered around the web looking for ideas and found a nice tutorial over at gingersnap creations for the polished stone technique.  this is great fun and makes such gorgeous backgrounds.  i did one with green and blue inks and the other with red and yellow (you can see how the original color scheme plan was already falling apart!).

i stamped a beautiful seahorse stamp, a ching chou kuik design sold by sweet pea stamps.  i colored it with markers in purples and greens (see, i was totally forgetting the original plan again!).  in the end i made a pretty tag so i posted it anyway.  and the colors DO complement each other!

enjoy; love to all.

we are starting a new two week challenge at lunagirl moonbeams on a theme beloved by many crafters (and readers of course!) -- alice in wonderland....


i almost didn't succeed in getting my DT piece done as i had a touch of flu over the weekend.  bleagh.  i'm on the mend though and this is a theme i cannot resist.  i thought alice wanted to be in a gothic arch so i traced one with cardboard (a backing from a notepad), covered with DP from seven gypsies -- chosen specifically because of the wonderful combination of script along with the many eggs on it (even though in the end the eggs can't really be seen, but i like having it back there because the dodo bird is a key feature here) and then i collaged a number of images from two of the lunagirl collage sheets -- "watercolor alice" and "alice book covers."

i do hope you'll grab your alice stamps or vintage images and play along.

i also thought i'd link this up to the our creative corner words-words-words challenge as i feel the alice story is very much about playing with words and i also have plenty of words here.

enjoy; love to all.

for week two of the cheerful stamp pad challenge to make something using vintage images of children, i chose to make a card with the "butterfly child" vintage image from our challenge sponsor twisted papers.


i started with card stock and cut an oval using a stencil from fiskars which i've had tucked away for years.  i lost the cutting tool long ago so after tracing the oval i hand cut with scissors and was grateful i didn't ruin it! this inspires me to use the stencil again though.  i "framed" the oval with a pro marker.  behind the oval i attached designer paper with a dreamy cloudy sky and balloons flying upwards.  the balloons don't show so well in the scan though in the card you can really see what the child is gazing at.  the vellum sticker quote was a lucky find in my stash -- perfectly fits this card!  the sticker dots are called "raindrops" and are lovely little translucent bits.

have a wonderful week and i hope you'll consider joining this challenge.
love to all.

this is a card i gave my honey for our 9 year last week:


i picked a couple from one of the twisted papers couples collage sheets and the envelope they are rising out of came from the carte postale collage sheet from lunagirl moonbeams.  other goodies are from ye olde stash.

i got a quite extraordinary vase of flowers delivered and we had a nice dinner and celebration together.
love to all.

here is a third and final ATC that i created for the july alphastamps "sea siren" swap.


this siren fell so in love with her own song that she is lost in her own reflection.  the siren image, oyster shells, and sand dollar borders are from alphastamps.  the tissue tape and background papers are from my own stash.

soon i will receive swap ATCs from other participants which i will share here as soon as i can.  if you'd like to learn about participating in alphastamps swaps you'll need to join the yahoo group here.

enjoy your week; love to all.

the steampunk girls blog challenge at lunagirl moonbeams blog is on for one more week (deadline to link up is august 11).  would you like to learn more about steampunk?  see karen's informative blog post on the topic here.  and for the on sale steampunk themed collage sheets at lunagirl visit here.


because jules verne is the father of steampunk i started this creation by going online to find a good photo of him and also an original book cover from one of his books.  the cover i used here is “voyages extraordinaire” or “extraordinary voyage.”  this steampunk girl is truly ready for adventure!  she has her luggage and her compass and she herself  is dressed to kill.  the hand and eye of fate in the corner above her suggest an element of danger but her patron saint jules verne is right behind her luggage.  what could go wrong?

"vintage children" is the new challenge at the cheerful stamp pad.  make any sort of creation you choose featuring vintage child images.  our challenge sponsor is twisted papers.

i love love love collage but my first love is stamping and i have drawers and drawers of stamps going unused lately.  literally hundreds of stamps....  thus i decided i should use stamping for the next challenge i enter.

so here's a little something i'll be linking up as follows:
wicked wednesday ATC challenge #95 "zodiac" and
scraps of color  #30 "black, white and pop of color" challenge.


this ATC honors sagittarius (my son's sign!) with its symbol "the archer."  the archer stamp is from "marks of distinction."  i stamped it in black, masked it, and then stamped the crackle background (from "sonlight impressions").  i went over everything with a black ink pen to make it pop a bit more and then outlined the borders and added some color with promarkers.

what shall i stamp next?

love to all.

earlier this week i posted one of the ATCs i submitted for the july swap at alphastamps -- "sea sirens."
here is another:


i cut the girl out of the beach scene she was in so i could plunk her little log into the sea anemone of a different scene, deep in the ocean.  both scenes were from alphastamps collage sheets.  the saying at the bottom was a part of the original beach scene with the girl.  the turtles are digital stamps from mcmahon five designs which i added for an extra bit of whimsy.  if you follow the siren song of this lady you may find yourself at the bottom of the ocean...

love to all.

since joining the blog at tag tuesday i've been having fun making tags based on their weekly themes.  this week the theme is "travel."  since i've been working with the fabulous images from lunagirl for the current two week lunagirl steampunk girls blog challenge i decided to go with steampunk travel for my creation:


this steampunk travel girl is headed to far off places in her mini plane.  the background of this tag is part of the carte postale collage sheet from lunagirl and also part of a torn piece from an old address book i had with vintage globe and map images. there are a couple travel tags from twisted papers and other elements include the antique camera and the girl herself  (both from the lunagirl "steampunk girls" collage sheet) and a writing pen -- this was from a sticker set -- for when she gets ready to send her postcards home.

this was fun to make.  the steampunk girls challenge at lunagirl continues until august 11.  you can see the other artists' weekly tag creations at tag tuesday.

love to all.