Button That Lip!

The Altered Pages Design Team has joined the Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge Blog Design Team for Challenge #14 

Button It in a UP Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome!  Today I am honored to be part of a fun blog hop with my Altered Pages Design Team as well as Craft Hoarders Anonymous.  The theme of this hop is BUTTONS!  Most of us crafters and artists have at least a few buttons in our stash...a few hundred in some cases.  So, take a look at what I have made for you and be sure to check out what at all the bloggers have created as well (listed at end of this post).  Leave a comment letting us all know you were here. We all love to hear from you...and your name might just be drawn to win an amazing stash of goodies from Altered Pages, including Japanese Oil Pastels and oodles of ephemera! 

For this project I gathered up my buttons and put my thinking cap on.  After deciding on the general idea I knew I needed a large surface because I wanted to make a big old set of lips out of buttons along with the saying "Button that lip!"  So, the large Dylusions journal would be perfect.  I love playing in my journal anyway. lol! 

    

In the two pictures above you can see how I started my background using the Dylusions inks letting all that drippy goodness do its thing. The next picture shows how I created the lips out of buttons.  I started with a rough sketch for the shape and then I filled it in with buttons in pale pink, fuchsia and reds, all typical lip stick colors.  I then filled it all the empty space with black and added a white outline.  

To give the background more interest I added texture by using a stencil and gel medium.  I love the result of how it gives background colors an extra pop.  I also added some stamped images and gave the entire page a border.  I added a few more buttons along the border. 

Next, I chose a vintage text page and ran it through the printer with the saying "Button that lip!" in a sassy font.  I then added a coating of clear embossing powder.  This was a very thin piece of text page and I didn't want it getting damaged.  I love the effect. 

Finally, I added a bow that I customized using white seam binding that I dyed with my Grape Crush Dylusions ink.  I also included a little scraps of pink lace and a few more buttons along the border. 

Some detail with my white Uniball pen and it was finished. 

I hope you enjoyed my nod to buttons.  

Thanks for stopping by. 

Stephanie 

Projects used:

Assorted buttons

Dylusions Journal - Large

Dylusions inks - in Funky Fuchsia, Grape Crush, Vibrant Turquoise and White

Gel Medium

Andy Skinner stencil

Seam Binding Ribbon

Crystal Lacquer

Uniball White Pen

Here are links to take you right to the other Altered Pages Design Team blogs.  You are sure to see many great works.  

Robin Horasanian

Danie May

Roni Johnson

Tonya Trantham

Trisha Too

Barbara Rankin

Debi Tullier

Lyneen Jesse

Make sure to stop by the Craft Hoarders Anonymous Design Team pages. To find the links to their posts visit Craft Hoarders blog http://gloriadesignschallenge.blogspot.com/

Amber Milone 

Christy Butters 

Debbie Seyer 

Donna Idlet 

Ginny Nemchak 

Glenda Brooks 

Gloria Stengel 

Jan Marie Ennenga 

Karen Zueger 

Kathy Clement 

Pam Bray

Tammi Bennett

Vintage Flight

Hi friends!  As you may already know for the month of July Altered Pages is teaming up with The Leaky Shed Studio.  We are very excited for this collaboration.  It is sure to be the result of many fun and inspiring projects.

The theme of this month is "flies" and no we don't mean those nasty little fellows that bug us during summer picnics.  We mean anything, and we do mean anything, that flies.

For my project I chose to use Leaky Sheds "Hot Air Balloon 2".  I companied this with some great Altered Pages products and well, my project took FLIGHT!

I am going to TRY and let the photo's do the talking in this post with just a minimal amount of detail for the instruction.  I was a little camera happy while creating this, so there should ample photo examples.  I am not kidding when I say camera happy...you will see.  :-)

I began colorizing my Hot Air Balloon using my Nautical Blue Memento Luxe ink pad and a sponge dauber.

While the ink dried on the hot air balloon, I went to the collage sheet that I was going to basically create a giant tag with.  I used the Steampunk and Gears collage sheet and just enlarged the portion I wanted, cut that out and punched a whole in the top to create a tag.

Next, I colorized the image by taking my Toffee Crunch ink pad directly to the paper.

  

I then added a bit of texture by using a scrap piece of punchinella and my Clear Creative Medium.

    

While the Creative Medium was drying I went back to my balloon and embossed it a few times over, layering it with multiple different embossing powders.  I used a glittery gold, then a timber brown and finally a vibrant turquoise on the body of the balloon.  For the cable and basket portion I used only metallic gold.  A little advice be careful not to overheat your chipboard piece as with most embossing projects.

  

I then went back to my tag and added layers of color alternating with Toffee Crunch, Nautical Blue and Delicata Golden Glitz.  You can really see here the texture and depth that the medium gives you.  I love that you can still see the gear image under it all.

I then took the large tag and mounted it on a larger still piece of navy blue card stock.  I wanted it to really pop and I think the dark background does the trick.  I added gold gilded stickers to the four corners for a little extra shiny goodness.

 

Going back to the balloon now...I added a scrap of the navy blue paper behind the balloon portion and added a charm that is a fun flying monkey.  Maybe he's evil, we don't really know him well enough yet to know these kind of things.  Either way he just fit, plus I always love adding something dimensional and mobile to most of my mixed media pieces.

I also added a scrap of lace that I colorized with the Delicata Golden Glitz, a few pearl Dew Drops and pretty fibers tied to complete the tag.  I actually think this would be lovely made into a card or added to the front a gift bag.

     

I hope you enjoyed my vintage, flight, fun, flying monkey piece. 

 

Supplies used;

Hot Air Balloon 2 

Steampunk Gears Collage

Mementos Inks - Nautical Blue and Toffee Crunch

Delicata Ink - Golden Glitz

Dew Drops - pearl

Punchinella 

Clear Creative Medium

80's Baby!

Hi there and welcome!

Stephanie here and man is this a very exciting month at Altered Pages.  You may have already heard, but this is worth repeating.  We are very honored to partner with IMAGINE Crafts for the entire month of June!   Make sure to check back all month long to see what these two talented groups create for you.

When I was going through my stash of goodies from IMAGINE Crafts there was a set of inks screaming at me to be the focal point.  I knew I had to use the Radiant Neon Ink Pads.  I loved the colors and they immediately took me back to the 80's...hence my title "80's Baby!"   You can see in the picture below I used the Electric Pink and Purple inks with small daubers to get a bright background to kick off this piece.

 

My project is a continuation of my creepy baby book, that you may have seen in a couple previous posts here  and  here , using the Arched Door Book from Altered Pages.  These fun little books are very popular and are back in stock after recently selling out!

 

While working on this the neon colors inspired me to load up my playlist of music with all my 80's favorites, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, Stray Cats, and some Bronski Beat.  The ideas came rolling in and it even reminded me of a few concerts back in the day so I knew where to head with this and I knew I had to give these 80's rock star babies tickets to a show of their own.

 



I had fun creating neon tights, full length lace gloves and Madonna inspired jewelry in this project.  I hope you enjoyed this fun node the 80's, an amazingly fun time in my life, recreated with amazingly cool supplies and tools from IMAGINE Crafts  and  Altered Pages.

Supplies used from IMAGINE Crafts;
Radiant Neon Ink Pads in - Electric Purple, Electric Pink, Electric Green and Electric Yellow.
Staz On Midi in - Jet Black and Cloudy Sky
Ink Blushers
Small Daubers
Pssst! Sheer Shimmer Spritz - Sparkle

Supplies used from Altered Pages;
Arched Door Board book
My Head is Spinning collage sheet
Altered Paper Dolls collage sheet
Misc. embellishments

Thanks for stopping by!
Stephanie

Explosion Box WIP

That moment when you realize it is FRIDAY! Yes, oh yes!

This weekend has exciting things in store and therefore today's post is going to be short and sweet and will showcase a work in progress. This is a WIP as it is going to be taught this weekend at an Altered Pages Event at Vintage Bliss, in Gilbert, AZ. I will be teaching a class on how to make an Explosion Box! 

I love this project because the possibilities are endless. It can be a totally fun greeting card. It could work as a vessel for gift giving or even a self contained mini scrap book. I am 100% for sure making these for just about every holiday...can you imagine Halloween?!?!

I will have a follow up post showing the finished project, pix of the gals having fun making it and all the instructions for you to make one of your own.

For now, I have attached a bunch of teaser pics of the beginning process. We will be adding many layers of embellishments as well as plenty of pockets for cute little tags that can include photo's or little stamped or hand written messages. We will be adding (to name just a few) collage images, crepe trim, seam binding,  ribbon, pearls, charms and just about anything else our pretty little hearts desire. All supplies are available at Altered Pages, of course.  

I hope you enjoyed the baby stages of what is sure to be a blast of a class this Saturday! I promise I will post the end result and all the fun creating it. Have a GREAT weekend...I know I will.   ~ Stephanie

Happy Friday!

Welcome to the blog today. The Altered Pages Design Team is very fortunate to be working with Niji and Yasutomo for the month of February. Please take a minute to take a look at their sites. There is great inspiration as well as tools for all of your art and crafting needs at both locations. 

Today I am showing you a cute little bird I created to sit atop an altered book I have been working on. The book had its own theme going on, but it needed something to be the focal point. So, with a little sparrow shape that I cut out of card stock and vintage text pages I have just what the book cover needed. The book is a salvage piece from a law firm move. They were recycling literally thousands of books and I grabbed as many as my hands could carry and by hands I mean the back of my SUV. SCORE!  The book itself was painted out with acrylics achieving this fun icy blue, green. I then dripped it with liquid black acrylic and then added in the fun graphic poppies.  

To start I sketched out a bird shape on to a scrap piece of card stock and then cut her out. I then basically made individual templates of vintage text pages, one for each wing and one for the body. I used three different text pages to differentiate the "body parts" I needed. I did antique them a bit with my Paris Truck Parchment ink pad.

From there I kept assembling her pieces and added a couple more wings with washi tape. I also used my  Script washi tape tape to create her beak. 

I then went to my trusty waterbrush and metallic watercolor palette to add a bit of shimmer and shine.  I gave her a little twinkling eye, then attached her to the top of the book and viola!

What's on your work space?

Happy Friday Kids! 
Stephanie here again with your Altered Pages Friday post. It's Friday. It's Friday! Yay! As always, be sure to check out the supply list below along with links to amazing deals at Altered Pages.

Can I just tell you in my art lately I have wanted to give myself the freedom to let things happen, let the art just flow, not worry if it was going to be perfect or not. I have a feeling most of you know what I mean. You too have probably said to yourself at one time or another just go with it. Haven't you? Haaaaaaven't you? Okay, so let's go with it.  

While preparing for what I wanted to do for my post, trying to work in this just go with it/freedom theme, I got the idea to only use what was already out on my work space in my studio. I thought I would just let the pieces talk to me as to where they were going and what colors they wanted to be. 

If you are like me you always have a few little stragglers left out from your last project. Oh, wait, this NEVER happens to you? Okay, me neither. Today, I got lucky and there were a lot of great options lying around, party hat collage sheets, Dylusions journal, tags, Dylusions inks, stamps...

do you get where I am going.

So, I grabbed these cute little tags that I had laying about and thought a moon with wings - LOVE IT! Then, I thought a moon with wings and a party hat - even better! Ideas started flowing, colors started moving to the forefront of my mind and I let it happen. It felt great. To be honest this page just developed as I came across each element - one at a time - a little of this a little of that and I think that is what makes it great.

I did all of this with what was already within arms reach. Obviously, it helps that I have a great source for all of my supplies in Altered Pages. The best part is I just let myself be free & I worked with what was in front of me. I was not worried about this being "the perfect page" and I have to say it works!  

In the end I am rather pleased with my little moonflies fluttering about in their party hats. It's a little, okay a lot, whimsical. I love the looseness of it. I love that I only used what was on my desk and I LOVE that I love it. The plan worked...how awesome is that? 

Here are links to just a few of the amazing things Altered Pages has to offer.
Dylusions Journal - lg.  Collage images Waterbrush  Dylusions inks  Assorted Tags and so much more!

One thing I want to mention when working with Dylusions inks they are water based. This is what I love about them. They have play. They are wet, stay wet for a while and can be reactivated with water. 

If you want certain aspects of you piece to be permanent just use an archival ink pad, a Zig pen or your favorite permanent such as Brilliance Ink Pad in black. 

Another little tip, if you want your pages to be pristine just gesso the back before starting a new page.

The back side of this journal page does show some bleed through.
I usually let that be the background for the next entry.

When I don't, though, I just apply a thin coat of gesso to the page, let dry and then give it a go.   Now, go play with your arts & crafts supplies!   Stop by 

AlteredPages.com for all your supply needs.
Happy crafting! 

Free as a Bird

Welcome to the Hop everyone! 

I hope you are enjoying the offerings today by the fabulous Altered Pages Design Team. 

My piece is showcasing products and supplies from Altered Pages and stamps from Pink Persimmon Stamps.

I was given the task of created something using the Parcel Post vintage stamp set. I instantly felt like maybe I could send myself somewhere using this parcel post...okay...I will, mentally anyway. It was funny really, about five minutes after deciding on a travel theme I came across an old broken pair of aviator sunglasses of mine. "Have shades will travel" was my motto now. The theme kept building and building in the back of my mind and I felt that I could be as free as a bird today. Ahhhhhhhhhhh...now I have my title. All this accomplished and I have yet to put pen  paper to paper and ribbon to paper and ink to paper, well you get the idea. So, here I have for you Free as a Bird. I hope you enjoy it. Make sure to continue on the hop and check out all the other great works by my fellow design team members. 

This was mounted on an approximate 6 x 7 chunky piece of scrap wood. I love using what I have lying around and repurposing as most of us do. I adhered and layered papers from Altered Pages in the 8 x 8 Glitz Uncharted Waters collection as well as the 6 x 6 Happy Travels collection on to the scrap wood. I just the little vintage airplanes in the Happy Travels collection. 

You can see her the Pink Persimmon Parcel Post stamp where I am sending myself From: Here To: Anywhere I want to go. I mustn't forget to bring my shades. 

My little birdie images from Altered Pages collage sheets are perfectly perched above offering words of encouragement.  I attached the Welcome to Today phrase to a little scrap of canvas that I had. I first inked the canvas a bit with a coordinating turquoise ink and finished it off with fabric flowers and a bit 'o bling. Bling almost always adds that perfect finishing touch. Again, thank you for taking the time to check out our hop. 

~Steph