Fresh Picked Fruit

It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do for this Inspiration Card. I chose the prompt "fresh picked fruit." Initially, I had visions of Carmen Miranda, but eventually I began to think about Eve picking the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. I found an Art Nouveau styled figure with her palm outstretched. I placed her under a sprawling tree, decorated the flowers in her hair and gave her a succulent apple to hold. I took a flat glass marble, glued it onto a piece of cardstock painted with red glitter nail polish to make a 3-D apple. I used a decorative corner punch to break up the heaviness of the black on the right side of the card and completed the image by stamping the word "forbidden."

Festive Mardi Gras in October!

What fun I had with this AB spread in Gretchen's book entitled "Celebrations!" There are so many things--big and small--that we celebrate. Having just visited Venice, the city of Carnavale, I really wanted to do something with masks. Why not a pop-up mask? So very moi!

For this spread, I used a manila folder as the base for my pop-up. I used Mardi Gras color Lumiere paints to create the background. On top of that, I layered "happy" and "sad" mylar face cut-outs in the same Mardi Gras colors. Lucky for me, it's Halloween season and it was not difficult to find a purple sequined mask for my showpiece. I added the gold trim to finish the edges and then built a feather "crown" by anchoring feathers into a piece of cardstock I secured above the mask. I think I got a bit carried away with the height of the feathers, because the feathers stick out of the book when you close it! I really struggled with the idea of whether to add strands of Mardi Gras beads, but there was no way the book would close if I added them to my spread. Somehow, I don't think Gretchen will mind...

Dreams About Flying

I knew I would make an inspiration card for Su based on the prompt "Dreams About Flying." When I was small, I used to have a recurring black and white dream where I was riding on the back of a man in a spotted "leopard" suit. We would fly through the trees in the forest and also high in the night sky amongst the stars. I found it a bit difficult to find the exact images I had in my head. Eventually I found this photo of black and white trees which reminded me of the forest in my dream. I also liked this image of a flying silhouette (sans the spotted leopard suit). I decided to print both images on transparencies so I could super-impose the silhouette on top of the trees. I put the word "Dream" on the card (black and silver stickers) and then placed the two transparencies on top. The skewed angles of the transparencies simulate the motion of our flight. Finally, I secured the transparencies with eyelets.

It's Halloween!

Here are a few of the postcards I made for a Halloween postcard swap. The background is black gloss paper with stippled Lumiere paints and Perfect Pearls. I added glittered spiders and rubber bats for an extreme 3-D Halloween postcard. (Bet the Post Office will love these!) Can't wait to see what postcards I get in return!

The Season of Barefoot Approaching...

For Gretchen's inspiration card, I wanted to create something light, fun and very blingy!! I took turquoise glitter paper and embellished it with as many summer-related things I could find! Does this make you think of "The Season of Barefoot Approaching"?

Free to Fly

The book I am working in this month is entitled "Free to Fly." Two of the previous artists created spreads having to do with skydiving. As I am afraid of heights, I had no similar experience to share. Fortunately, a few of the prompts had to do travel, journey, escape. Since my husband and I just returned from a fabulous trip to Italy, I thought I would do something related to our recent travels.

Italy is half-way around the world from Hawaii. There is a 12-hour time difference. It took 36+ hours to get to our final destination, Bellagio. During our 10-day trip, we rode on planes, trains, automobiles, ferry boats and more. At last count, I came up with no less than 20 different modes of transportation! As a tribute to our journey, I created a flag pull-out to showcase each of them--including our tired feet!

I wanted to create a fresco-like textured background. I wrinkled wax paper and glued it to cardstock. I then smoothed and sanded the wax paper. I lightly inked the surface with an ink pad. On top of it, I wrote all of the different places we visited on our trip.

One last note, it's difficult to see it in these photos, but the edge of the pull-out is decorated with a piece of handmade paper (mustard yellow and cream colored) that I picked up at the paper shop in Venice claiming to be the oldest paper shop in the town!