Robin's Birdhouse: Chattering Robins

Showing posts with label Chattering Robins. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Collage Card

Greetings! It's Trending Tuesday over at Altered Pages. My project today is a collage card featuring a stenciled background. You can see everyone's project here.

I used Ranger's Tim Holtz Distressed Paint to make random smears on the paper and then laid the Time Travel 12" stencil over the top and used black acrylic paint to sponge the clock image on top. When the paint was dry, I took a wet paint brush and went over the blue to reactivate the paint. For the most part it stayed in place but in some spots I got a nice faint tinge of blue over the star

Using my finger, I went in with metallic melon and blood orange Gelatos by Faber-Castell where there was no other color. I chose those two colors to accent the rooster image that will be the focus of the card. The sheet of images had a lot to choose from but this one just spoke to me.

Because I printed this little guy myself he is just on regular computer paper. To give him some stability I glued him to a square of regular white card stock and cut him out along the image border.

I added a smudge of the blue distress paint to the edges and at the bottom around his feet to help blend him with the background. I noticed that the stencil packaging I had set aside to recycle matched the blue paint! I cut both the main panel for the card and the smaller panel for the rooster out of the package. Everything was layered on a black card base.

Altered Pages and The Robin's Nest have partnered in March. The words were stamped on a scrap of The Robin's Nest paper that I used on a project last week. (Yes, I admit that I haven't cleaned off my table since then.) The words were backed with another piece of blue packaging. Four black Diamond Drops were used to define the corners of the card and an old rooster button from my collection was the finishing touch to my collage.

Make my day and leave me a comment or follow along with me using the links on the right! Until next time...happy crafting!

Friday, March 14, 2014

Walk Like An Egyptian

I was browsing the Altered Pages collage collection recently and saw a wonderful page of Egyptian images (AP-137). I love the pyramids & pharaohs. It's the one type of documentary I will voluntarily watch on TV. Absolutely fascinating, beautiful artwork in that ancient culture.

I cut out several of the images and tried out several different combinations until I found the one I liked best. I cut the pyramid landscape scene in half so it can be seen on both sides of my card.

Since Altered pages is partnering with The Robin's Nest in March, I chose their dark distressed red scrapbook paper for the top layer and a textured dark green heavy card stock from my collection for the body of the card. Once the images were attached to the scrapbook paper I stamped two obelisks on the same red paper and cut them out. I used them to cover up some of the darkest background on the pharaoh image. The word Egypt was stamped onto the landscape image.

Then I needed some embellishments to give it a little life. I used a clear Stickles glue on the yolk the pharaoh is wearing and chose some Robin's Nest chocolate Dew Drops. And then I spotted this awesome border by Bazzill Half the Edge Cardstock Strips in a package of embellishments I also purchased at Altered Pages. Doesn't this remind you of an ankh? Perfect! It was already a beautiful neutral color and worked well with the collage, but to give it a little texture I used two different shades of brown Crayola markers to make the dots. The darkest green Mini Dew Drop from the hillside color collection went into each of the circles. The Dew Drops were all adhered with 3D Crystal Lacquer.

I think it works as either a masculine or feminine card. I hope you like it, too! And I always like to share a scan as well as a photo when my project is a card. I think you notice different things in photos vs. scans.

Make my day and leave me a comment below or follow my blog with one of the links on the right side of the page. Until next time...happy creating!

Friday, March 7, 2014

The end of another long work week

It's the weekend! That wonderful time when we get to unwind from the long week of putting our noses to the grindstones and our shoulders to the wheels. (sigh) I'm ready for it!

I took one of those silly little Facebook quizzes to find out what kind of crafter I am. It's a game right? They couldn't possibly know me from 10 questions. What did I get? Niche crafter! And I thought, "Darn it! I'm trying to break out of my little box!" Think I'm taking that little quiz seriously now? Yep! So this weekend is going to be spent on new-to-me projects. Yes, I will probably make a card or two as well, but I'm going to try to keep it all new and different.

I had a new experience this week. I went to my first class at Painting With A Twist. So much fun! I've been thinking about going for a little over a month and when I saw that they had a class on painting the TARDIS I couldn't resist any longer. One more Doctor Who art project added to my collection. Did you notice that the windows are wrong? I was so caught up in the class and trying to do as Jackie suggested that I didn't realize she told us the wrong shape on the windows. I can go back for their SOS day, but I think I'll try to fix it at home first. Heaven knows, I have plenty of paint!

For the first time, I also decided to frame one of my art journal pages. Surprisingly, there is none of my original art on the walls in my own studio! I've decided that should change. I like this pretty floral and decided not to keep it buried in a book. Plus, my craft room is pink and green so how could I resist? I was thinking a square of pink Dew Drops around the glass and leaving the rest white. What do you think? Keep it white or paint it pink before I start adding the bling?

And now, before I log off to go and get painty I will leave you with this joke. It's an old one but it still makes me laugh. Enjoy...

This "warning" was forwarded to me by a friend.

A recent study indicated that rubber stamps and embossing powders give off certain pheromones that actually hypnotize women and cause them to purchase unreasonable amounts. When stored in large quantities in enclosed paces, the pheromones (Rubber) cause memory loss and induce the nesting syndrome (similar to the one squirrels have before the onset of winter i.e. storing food), therefore perpetuating their species. Sound tests have also revealed that the rubber emits a very high pitched sound, heard only by a select few: a breed of women known as "Rubber Stampers". When played backwards on an LP, the sounds are heard as chants, “buy me, stamp me, emboss me."

Studies have also indicated that aliens have inhabited the earth, helping to spread the effects that these Stamps have on the human population. It's also been experienced that these same pheromones cause a pathological need to hide these Stamp purchases when taken home (or at least blend them into the existing stash), and when asked by a significant other if the stamp is new, the reply is: "I've had it for a while."

Have a wonderful weekend! Drop me a note in the comments below and make my day!

Monday, September 30, 2013

Halloween Banners

Hi everyone! I am the guest designer over at Chattering Robins today – the blog site for The Robin’s Nest. I’m so excited to be able to share my project, which uses their wonderful scrapbook papers & embellishments. I created two different holiday banners using the same technique but different papers and embellishments.

Each of these banners was made using two different sheets of The Robin's Nest papers. One uses Black Bats Glitter (the B side) and Almost Black Classic Glitter Cardstock. The other uses Ghost Camo Glitter and Haunted House card stock. What fun patterns! I also used some wonderful glittery black chipboard bats from the Transylvania collection. And I can't forget the Dew Drops! They are were awesome to add dimension to this project.

Each banner is 6 /14" wide and 12" long. The width of the banner was designed to fit on a #2 pencil. I chose to use a pencil for the banner's top bar to make it easier to hang without allowing it to curl. Here in the Midwest we get dew or frost most autumn mornings, which can be a little rough on paper decorations because of the humidity. Using my craft knife, I cut the erasers off of two Halloween pencils and glued Dew Drops to the end of each one with Sakura's 3D Crystal Lacquer.

When I sat down to make this project, I was only going to make one. The black bat banner is what was in my head. I thought about it for a day or so before I actually put scissors to paper to make the panels. After adhering the inner two paper panels with double sided carpet tape, wrapped them with a metallic orange honeycomb ribbon to give the banner a little shine. Once the ribbon was taped in place on the back of the center panel they were attached to the back piece.

I stamped and heat embossed letters from the Almost Black cardstock so that they would blend in and colored them in with an orange glaze pen. A strip of orange glittery ribbon at the bottom of the banner gives it a nice border to balance out the orange pencil at the top. I pulled the black Diamond Dew Drops from my bottle of the Abracadabra mix to accent the ribbon and two black Tear Drops for the head of the bats.

After the panels and embellishments were in place, I used an eyelet template to evenly space the ribbon holes and then added copper colored grommets. (Silver was used on the other banner.)

When I ordered the Haunted House paper I thought it was just going to end up in my scrapbook. Wrong! I couldn't resist making another banner with it. It's so cute! And while the first banner took a while to design, this one practically made itself. The B-side of the Ghost Camo Glitter is a black and orange striped design, which made a wonderful background. The haunted house is matted on a black panel for a better outline.

The top of this banner is another strip of black card stock that I punched using my Fiskar's leaf border punch. The back of Haunted House is a different orange and black striped pattern and there was a wide orange stripe exactly the right size to fit under the leaves so that they show up without black stripes going through them.

I heat embossed "BOO" on the second half of top of the haunted house page so that they would color match. The largest of the leftover ghosts from the second half of the camo page was fussy cut (with a few additional curves trimmed off) and I attached both the word and ghost with foam tape. Black and pearl petite Dew Drops from the Classified mix adorn the fence posts. And because the haunted house page was cut down a couple of inches, I ended up with half of the fence leftover on my table. I cut out the little faces and added them with foam tape, as well. The little pumpkin on the fence is highlighted with orange and green Glaze pens.

Once the banners were done, the pencils were laced on using thin ribbon - making sure to securely wrap around the pencil at each hole. I started in the center and worked my way out to keep the pattern even on both sides. When it was in place, a tiny drop of 3D Crystal Lacquer was placed along each edge of ribbon...just enough to keep the pencil from slipping around. I removed the two tiny pieces of scotch tape that were holding the ribbon after the glue dried.

Now they're ready to hang up and join my other holiday decorations. And since I made two instead of one, I'm going to take the extra to work and decorate my work cubby. I just need to decide which one...