And the Winner Is

RANDOM.ORG HAS SPOKEN

Congratulations Diane.  You are the winner!

 

DianeJune 7, 2012 6:14 AM

Such creativity! Your work is stunning. Absolutely love the Coo Coo Clock!!

Diane please email me your full name and address so I can get your prize in the mail.

aksapphirerose@gmail.com

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Alpha Stamps Blog Hop, hope to see you again soon!

Meet the Alpha Stamps Design Team Blog Hop

Welcome Alpha Stampers!

The artwork I'm highlighting in this post was created using new Collage Sheets made for the Birds in Hats Swap at Alpha Stamps! Click the picture below for more information.

I'd like to share this lovely project I created for Alpha Stamps called Coo Coo for the Birds!  The inspiration for this project came from fellow design team member Laura Carson.  Be sure to leave a comment on this post between June 7 and June 10, 2012 and you could win the lovely "Stage Beauty" ATC I created for Alpha Stamps.  Please leave your name and email in your comment, if you prefer not to leave your email please check back on Monday June 11, 2012 to see if you're a winner.

Coo Coo for the Birds!

I started this project by covering two of the Chipboard Birdhouse Shapes with the shimmer vellum on one side.  To do this I used studio multi-medium in matte (the stuff in the jar), laid the vellum down and then used one of my Tim Holtz grid blocks to squeegee out the excess mutli-medium so that the vellum wouldn't wrinkle (being the use what's on hand person I am, I then placed the birdhouses under my dapping block set which is very conveniently stored in a nice flat wood block and is also very heavy while they dried).  I also covered the backside of one of the houses with the flora & fauna aqua bird eggs scrapbook paper.  (My plan at a later date is to attach a picture hanger on the back so I can then hang this on the wall).

While the houses dried I cut 1/4" strips of heavy chipboard, painted one side with metallic champagne paint and then glued them on edge to one of the Chipboard Birdhouse Shapes with hot glue, making sure the painted side faced out (I wanted to make a 3-D clock with one of the Tim Holtz Clock Keys which you can see peeking out on the left side).  I then painted both sides of one of the birds from the Trinket kit with the some gesso and a couple of layers of the champagne metallic paint.  I then assembled the bird using only one of the niche inserts.  I then used more shimmer vellum to cover the bird.  Inside the niche I used the vintage brass bird charm (cutting off the loop) and added a couple of pink Lucite flowers that matched the cherry blossoms cut out from the Finches Collage Sheet.  

I then began to layer on different bird images and the clock face (I attached the spinner with one of the brads that comes with the spinners, leaving enough leeway so that the spinner would spin).  I glued the clock face down with studio multi-medium in matte (this time the stuff in the bottle).  I love this stuff, I use it to glue down everything.  I used tiny clamps to hold the clock face down and let it all dry.  

I then covered a tiny chipboard house (front and back) with more of the shimmer vellum (before covering the house I colored the edges with a gold krylon marker).  I then attached this using the dollhouse hinge and the teenie weenie little tacks that came with the hinge.  I laid the hinge down and used a stick pin to make pilot holes, used my chasing hammer, a pair of bent noise jewelry pliers,  and hammered the little suckers in.  I then used a 1/16" dowel to help drive in the tacks that were hard to reach with the hammer.  This is where an extra pair of hands would have come in handy!  But after many, many attempts I finally got them in.  I then glued down the bird that hides behind the door, making sure he was hidden when the door is closed.  I then used a copper colored filigree piece from my stash on the outside of the door.  

A picture with the door open

Before gluing the clock face onto the "box" I created with the chipboard strips, I used a crop-a-dile to punch a hole for the clock key and attached it.  I then punched two small holes into the bottom for the dangles.  

To create the dangles I used vintage Lucite trumpet flowers, threaded a golden colored czech rondelle on a head pin and made a loop at the top that I could attach to the chain.  I attached one dangle, threaded the chain through the holes, cut the chain to length and then attached the second dangle.  To keep the dangles from moving, I used some more mutli-medium (in the bottle) and glued the chain down.

A close-up of the dangles

I edged the underside of the roof with the dresden boarders and once dried, attached the face to the bottom of the "box" with hot glue and finally attached the bird trinket to the top with more hot glue.

  

I used the following Alpha Stamps Products in this project:

Songbirds Collage Sheet 

Red Robin Breast Collage Sheet

Finches Collage Sheet

M for the Magpie Collage Sheet 

Bird Trinket Keepsake Kit

Engraved Garden Bird Shimmer Vellum

Flora & Fauna Aqua Bird Eggs Scrapbook Paper

Vintage Brass Bird Charms & Connectors (1 Loop)

Dollhouse Hinges 

Clock Keys 

Thin Fleur Dresden Borders  (I used bronze but you could very easily use black and paint them)

Large Game Spinners

Chipboard Birdhouse Shapes 

Be Sure to visit the other Design Team Members Blogs to enter a chance to win some of their amazing artwork! 

Stage Beauty

I created this ATC for Alpha Stamps.  I started by using a background paper from the Timeless Pad, I then layered on the chandelier image from the Square Shrine Opera House Collage Sheet.  I then added the image from the Sepia Beauties College Sheet and attached a scrap piece of lace.  Next I added the curtain from the Red Slide Mailer Curtains Collage Sheet using foam mounting tape to give a little depth and wrapped the extra to the back of the ATC.  I then began to embellish using the 3 Tiny Brass Leaves.  I cut the loop off and overlapped two leaves to create a hair comb.  I then used filigree drops from my stash and glued the 3mm pearls to hide the loops.  I then created a floral bouquet using the Mini Calla Lilies, Tiny Burgundy Roses, and the silk ribbons.  I then added some stick flowers and the mother of pearl button from the Jolee's French General Mother of Pearl Notion Kit, which I purchased at Micheal's.   I then needed to create some balance to the bouquet so I created a filigree piece from left over pieces of filigree that I cut apart from another project and attached them to the top left. 

Alpha Stamps products used in this project:

Sepia Beauties Collage Sheet
Red Slide Mailer Curtains
Square Shrine Opera House
Timeless Paper Pad
3 Tiny Brass Leaves
Mini Calla Lilies
Tiny Burgundy Roses
1/4 Inch Silk Ribbons - Dark Red
1/4 Inch Silk Ribbons - Dusty Pink
3mm Pearl Beads
 

Hey all this Saturday April 28th at 4pm EST Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group will be hosting a chat with Design Team Member Nichola Battilana.  Come learn how Nichola makes her fabulous fairy houses and learn about how you could win one of the wonderful houses in the photo.  Hope to see you there!

Click Here for More info

New Art Challenge: Think Pink!

Alpha Stamps is hosting a wonderful challenge on Facebook.

What: "Anything goes" art challenge! (But must incorporate something from Alpha Stamps.) Anyone can play. Any media is allowed, too (jewelry, collage, mixed media, scrapbook page, etc. Digital layouts are ok, too).

But needs to incorporate something PINK! (The pink thing does not need to be from Alpha Stamps.) Maximum 3 entries per person. 

You could be the winner of the above piece of fabulous art work by Teri Calia

For more information click here

Transformed Treasures 2012 Completed Project

Before

It's finally completed.  I am very happy to have this table out of my craft studio and on it's merry way to the Salvation Army Transformed Treasure Auction to be held on May 5, 2012.  This was my first and only attempt at doing mosaic tile work.  I can cross this one off my list of things to try.  I can sit and patiently cut out little bits of paper for hours and hours on end, but found that I have no patience for doing mosaic work.  I learned a great many things about mosaic and it really is an art form that I do not see myself exploring again, EVER.  

I began this project by deciding that I needed to leave a border around the mosaic so my sister being the handy gal she is with power tools helped and used a router on the center of the table.  It was not that fun but looking at the final results well worth the hassle, inhaled sawdust and three days of dirty kleenex.

I sealed the center of the table with some studio matte medium gel and then painted the table with a couple of coats of gesso.  Many many coats of Americana acrylic paint in Russet were applied next.  I then used a matte sealer from Krylon to seal the whole table.

  

I broke up all the little plates between two layers of towels with a hammer (this was the most fun step of the whole project) and began the process of laying the pieces on the table.  I found out the hard way that unless you know what you are doing a random pattern is the way to go (and gluing down right away is also not recommended).  I had to scrape off the first attempt and start over.

It took some experimentation with a couple of different glues to find the right one for the plate pieces, I ended up using Weldbond.  It has the same consistency as Elmer's school glue so I ended up using a cheap paintbrush and brushing the glue on.  I found this to be the best method to get the right amount of glue on both the table and plate pieces.  

After gluing down all the pieces I then let glue set up for a couple of days, okay I will admit I left the table for a good week because I was really tired of looking at it and needed a break after three days of gluing down the pieces.  Then came the most frustrating stage of the project, grouting the table.  I found out the hard way you really need to use the right grout for this, and when they say your grout lines can only be a certain size, they mean your grout lines can only be a certain size.  I used a latex based grout that I purchased at my local Michaels store because I was not comfortable trying the mix your own kind of grout (in hindsight this was the type I should have used).  I had many cracks appear because my grout lines were too big for this product.  It took three layers of grout, which I had to rub in with my fingers because some of the plate pieces had a slight curve to them and this was the only way to get the grout under the rounded shape.  As the grout set and the cracks appeared I had to wet a finger and rub it over the cracks to fix them.  This was a lot like watching grass grow and took a few hours but finally got to the stage where the grout was set enough and the cracks stopped appearing.

After letting the grout set for couple of days I had to sand of the grout "finger" prints I managed to get all over the table top, applied some more coats of paint and sealer and finally was able to call my table done.

After

I must admit that the table turned out pretty darned good for my first attempt at mosaic and I am looking forward to the auction to see if anyone agrees with me :)  

Fun with Lucite

This is a copper and Lucite flower ornament I created using doming resin.  I affectionately call this Happy Accident.  As I was curing the piece, the resin slowly leaked out across the background (it was supposed to stay in the center with the flowers).  It created this wonderful magnifying effect that really brought the textured background out.

This is a pair of earrings I made using a lovely mix of autumn colored Lucite flowers, leaves, and butterflies.  I thew in some sugar beads and swarovski crystals to add a bit of sparkle.

Both of these projects were created for swaps with the Crafty Ladies.  The Crafty Ladies are a small group of ladies who used to hang out and take card classes at a local stamp store.  When the stamp store closed, we started meeting once a month for lunch and a swap.  The swaps have died down and we don't meet once a month anymore, but we still have great fun and many laughs when we do get together.