A Curio Christmas

A few weeks back i spent the day at my friend Karen's house for yet another fantabulous play date.  Along with three other crafty friends we enjoyed Karen's gracious hospitality and all created dozens of Christmas cards.  I got off to a quick start with this kit i picked up at Ross (of all places).  It is the Curio collection from Basic Grey papers.  I just loved the assortment of vintage patterns mixed with flowers, birds and butterflies.

Here are how the 8  cards looked made almost exactly like the kit!  Needless to say  - i was WAY ahead of my friends, although it wasn't really fair since all my pieces were pre-cut!

 

Because i loved the papers so much, before the play date i ordered a 12x12 kit from the same collection online. It came with some matching stickers and borders, and even a page of letters.

What i loved most about these papers is that they were DOUBLE -SIDED! - think what cool cards these would make!  (the card kit above, is NOT double sided, they are plain white inside, but still quite nice!)

You had to think hard about which side to put on the outside they were so darn pretty.

I did a bunch of 8 x 4" tall cards.

And i did some 5 x7", a couple of squares.  Since i had an assortment of envelopes, figured i would mix it up!

As you can imagine, created cards out of 12 x 12" paper leaves alot of nice scraps.  Check out this lovely pile!

 So, i had no choice but to make more cards!  I used a stack of pale olive green card stock Lucie gave away at the play date to create standard 5 x 7" folded cards.

 I paired up two or three coordinating patterns amongst the 24 or so cards.

 Then i glued them all on in a pleasing patchwork.  Perhaps not the most "christmas-y" of pallets, but the soft pinks, greens and browns all worked so nicely with the card stock.

 Then i added embellishment with stickers, lace, birds, butterflies and flowers.  On some i added "merry christmas in copper embossing, but i found melting the embossing powder caused the cards to curl and separate.

 When i counted up all my cards i had about 50 - but i need 60-70 to cover my annual christmas card list.  So i turned to this cute bird themed kit i picked up at Anthropologie.

 It contained 24 postcards, three rubber stamps, red ink, and a stack of cute stickers.

I used plain cream card stock, folded in an 8 x 4" card.  I bordered the postcards on some more scrap Curio paper and glued to the top of the card.  On the bottom i added a snippet of sheet music and some ribbons and more embellishment.

 I would have LOVED to add three dimensional objects like buttons and charms to these cards, but in the interest of safe (and cheap) mailing, i went with all flat embellishment.  Now i just have to write a personal note inside each one, stamp and address the envelopes and we're done for another year!

Happy Halloween!

 Here are some simple collage cards i made a few weeks ago.  Instead of actually mailing them to anyone - i used them as wall art to decorate my office for the month of October.

Most of these cards were made with the Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland 8x8 paper collection.  Each card is an 8x8 sheet of scrapbook paper just folded in half, for a generous sized card.  The papers are also double sided - so they are just as cool on the inside!

Here is the complete paper collection!  Special thanks to my friend Karen for sharing!

Altered Photographs Play Date

 I spent a fun afternoon Saturday altering photographs in a style my friend S learned at Art Unraveled this year.  She took a workshop with Karen Michel and learned various techniques she shared with us.  I  started with a picture i took of the Wentworth by the Sea, an abandoned grand hotel in New Hampshire i took back in the 80's.  After wetting the photo i started to sand off the edges with fine sand paper.

This is what the hotel looks like today - i just googled it - back in 2003 it was rescued and returned to its former glory!  This makes me very happy.

 But when i took this pic - it was just sitting there - sad and alone - perfect material for a creepy altered photo!

 After sanding off the edges i scraped into the trees and added details with an awl.  Then it went into a coolaid bath (unsweetened!) to turn this ghostly red colour!

 Next i took two picures of my neice and nephew sitting on my mom's back patio steps.  The pictures were taken one year apart.

 Here they are after wetting and sanding off all the background.  See below how they look with some added colour.

Here they are after their coolaid bath and some rubber stamping.

 Here is a beautiful victorian house, or Queen Anne perhaps? taken in Kennebunkport.

 Here it is sanded down.

 Here is my sister and BIL on a mountain top skiing.  I added some stamping to this you can see below.

 Here is a "before" shot at christmas about 16 years ago.  I felt quilty erasing my mom out of this one, but it isn't like i don't have hundreds of other pictures with her in them, right?

 Here is an array of L's altered photos.  She went with interesting graphic designs and lots of hand painting.

Here is a closeup of two of her pictures.  Aren't they magical?

 Here are S's and D's shots.They added collage materials and lots of vibrant colour to transform the mundane snapshot into something artistic.

 Here's Z's images - not quite finished - but really cool how you can take something and turn it into something else!

 Here are more of mine with the sanding and colour tint added.

 Some landscapes.

 D's image of a quilt altered to hightlight this gorgeous tree.

 My husband's family at christmas - they'll all be getting fun and kooky looking paper hats!

Jim and I with our respective mom's in front ot our old flowering apple tree on Mother's Day back in the 90's. Both these ladies are alive and well!

  Check out the bottom left house and scroll back up to see the before - too cool!  I added more colour to these with Caran D'ache crayons and a bit of water.

 We just loved how cool those circles look on this image!

Here are all 16 images i altered yesterday - so much fun to spread them all out the next day and see them with fresh eyes.  I need to add some finishing touches, some captions, some stamps - but aren't they cool!  Thanks as always to our host D for another creative play date.  And to S for showing us how to do this.  Fun times!

Craft weekend Teaser

Here are some shots of my craftastic weekend with Karen.