New Year, New Blog Hop

Happy New Year bloggers! Hope you had a festive holiday season and have big creative plans for 2011. I've got so many things I want to try, to create, and to accomplish on my list already. I'm about to burst!

First on the list is the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop, which I am continuing to be a part of in 2011. We have some new members and some have left the group, so it's going to be interesting to check out the new and fresh artwork that's in store. Be sure to hop through the entire line-up because one of my consultants on my team, Tamra Pope, is toward the end of the loop (because she's a newbie) but MAN-OH-MAN wait 'til you see what this gal can do! She's amazing.

So let's get going. If you are already hopping, you've come from Judy Burger's blog. I'm sure she's made something really beautiful. And don't forget to keep hopping after you've scrolled through my artwork below. The next link is listed there.

The Stamp of the Month for January is called "Find Your Style." You can see an image of the full stamp set in the righthand column of my blog. It's so pretty! Once I got started on my projects, I didn't want to stop making stuff. But I controlled myself for now and will just have to make more later.

For now, I have two projects to share.

The first one started with this little wooden birdhouse purchased from my local craft store for a dollar. (I love those dollar items, don't you?)

And this is the fun little project it turned out to be. I painted the whole thing with black acrylic paint first. All the stamped images you see are from the Stamp of the Month, and the papers are from CTMH's newest paper pack "Wings". With the help of some Sweet Leaf ribbon, a Lagoon sparkle and some black waxy blax, this cute little house makes a perfect friendship gift.

I really like the sentiment that comes in this stamp set, but it was a bit large for the front of the birdhouse so I just put it on the side. Using a masking technique, I stamped the words in Grey Wool and then the capital A in Juniper.

The second project involved this tiny little easel and a 3 x 3 inch mini canvas. (Again, one dollar.)

And this is what it became. I knew I had to use that gorgeous butterfly and I'm betting the Blog Hop is going to be filled with lots of these. I love the text and the different fonts inside the image. I used a couple of ink colors to color the plain white canvas: Pacifica, Lagoon and Juniper. Then I used CTMH's new Spray Pen (3-pack for only $3.95!!) filled with water, Juniper re-inker and a few drops of Pearl Paint. I spritzed that over the canvas and, although it's hard to see here, it created these great droplet marks and the water lifted some color away from the canvas. If you click on the image you'll see it a little better.

I added plain black grosgrain ribbon around the sides of the canvas, some dark blue wire for the antennae, and some black pearl opaques in the corners. The butterfly is stamped twice with black ink. Once on Colonial White cardstock and once on black. The black serves as a shadow. I finished off the project by gluing the canvas right to the easel.


Thanks for stopping by. Now keep on hopping to see what Pamela O'Connor has designed. I can't wait to see it myself!