Easter challenge at My Artistic Adventures

Hello!

It's time for another challenge over at Heather Hudson's challenge site, My Artistic Adventures.  The theme this fortnight is Easter and/or Flowers which should be easy peasy!  Use at least one of Heather's images and come play along!

My project was super fun to make.  It's a set of six 2-inch wood puzzle blocks and I used a different vintage postcard from Heather's Etsy shop for each side.  This is my favorite side.  Those cute little chicks are so adorable.  They're from the Vintage Easter Postcards Collage Set and there are three sheets of images to this set - a super value and so versatile!

These little blocks start out brand new with sharp edges and corners, and after much sanding (and more sanding, and still MORE sanding) and painting and distressing and decoupaging, I end up with cute little blocks that look like they've seen many decades of love.

This image is from the Victorian Vintage Basket collage sheet.

From the Vintage Easter Postcards Collage Set mentioned above.

Also from that set.

And another.  See what I mean about versatile?

And you can't have Easter without a cross.

This is from Heather's Shabby Vintage Easter Cross set.  

Thank you for joining me, and I urge you to go visit Heather's blog and that of the other designers to see their Easter/floral creations too.  

Happy crafting!

I will be entering the following challenges:

Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes 
The Shabby Tea Room #212 - Pretty In Pink (this probably doesn't qualify but I couldn't help sharing since the images do contain all the colors and even images of ribbon! :-)   )
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew #58 - Animals (Easter Chicks and Bunny)
Oldie But a Goodie -  April Showers Bring May Flowers (I followed the floral theme as opposed to the rain theme.  The blocks are over a year old and I was saving them for a special occasion.)
Divas By Design - Anything Goes


Collage sheets used:

         


        

Easter Greetings with Gecko Galz

Hello!

Today's project is one that I'm entering over at the Gecko Galz blog, something that I've long planned to enter but somehow never did.  WELL.  That's all changed now.  Why?  Because just a few days ago I returned from the FANTABULOUS, mind-boggling, craft-laden, prize-heavy, idea-filled, rootin' tootin' Cowgirl Diva retreat!  (That's us, some with cowgirl hats for the contest, some without.  Next year's theme is completely different.)

I'm pretty new to the whole retreat business having only attended one before this and was pretty much the wet-behind-the-ears newbie in awe of all the talent the seasoned veterans who attended displayed.  WOW.  And...WOW again.  In between all the wonderful classes, demonstrations, contests and fun, everyone worked on their own projects.  Well, everyone but me.  I'm so used to crafting by myself that I didn't think I'd be able to work in a room full of women.  HA!  That'll learn me.  My mind drew a complete and total blank even though I toted a cart full of supplies, but I vowed that next year would be different.  I'm taking TWO carts full and will be more prepared to craft with the best of them!  Not that taking tons of supplies is a guarantee of artistic creation, because my good cyber friend Heather Hudson, the uber talented creator of My Artistic Adventures for whom I've been guest designing lately and who I finally got to meet in person (!!) didn't take ANYTHING and created the most wonderful little album using borrowed supplies and the gift pack given to us on the first day.  And she won a prize!  Now THAT'S talent to make a prize-winning piece of art out of just a few things.

At any rate, all that to say I've been newly inspired to create with the wonderfully vintage and retro images that Leanne Seed sells at Gecko Galz.  I've been purchasing her collage sheets and digital stamps and papers for well over a year and was using them in my projects but hadn't entered any of her challenges.  So this is the first but by no means the last for me.  The theme is Easter, and I have used several of her images.  (I will show them below.)

 It is a mixed media collage on canvas board and was one of those projects that took on a life of its own.  I started out by coloring the canvas with various soft Neocolors and decoupaged it with tissue that I stamped with music.  Then I stamped swirls using black archival ink.  And now most of it is hidden, but you can see little bits here and there.  The paper layer is from the Moments in Time paper pack (a retreat gift) and I've distressed it (a LOT) and folded a corner over to reveal the postcard from the Wild About Flowers set.  The real image is much, much brighter but I desaturated it so that it wouldn't detract from the focal point of the project.

I used one of the images from the Easter Bonnets collage sheets - isn't she lovely?  I adhered the image to a piece of grungeboard and then brushed clear crackle paint on top to give her the look of an old oil painting.  The frame is from the Frames set.  I used Photoshop to adjust the size to fit the "painting," then cut out the center, embellished the inner edges with bronze glitter glue and popped the frame up on the image to give it more dimension, then I popped the whole thing up on the base for even MORE dimension.

BTW, the lace up the side was white but I used Neocolors to help it coordinate with the piece.  Pearls were added as well.

 Here's a better view of the crackled layer.

I LOVED putting this floral arrangement together with a big black paper flourish underneath.  The blue rose is my last from the bag of goodies we were given at the retreat and the rest of the flowers are from my stash, some of which I painted with shimmer paints.  I included two bows using custom dyed ribbon and some die cut leaves which I also enhanced with shimmer paints.

And what's an Easter project without bunnikins?  He's from the newly-released Hip Hop Easter collection and I fussy cut him and then enhanced him with various tints of glitter glue and some Glossy Accents on his eye before popping him up for dimension. 

 A close up of the enhanced leaves...

...and the greeting, which was printed on tissue paper and then decoupaged onto the postcard.

I will also be entering this challenge over at Craft Hoarder's Anonymous Challenge #3, the theme of which is Retro/Vintage. 

And that's it!  Thanks so much for joining me and I urge you to RUN over to Gecko Galz and check out the many delightful offerings.  I noticed just today that there are many new collage sheets, so I'll be running there too!  And don't forget to enter the challenge.  You only need to use ONE GG product, and they can be any of the freebies that Leanne so generously offers every month.  Just check the home page at the lower left and you'll find them.  See you there, and happy crafting!

P.S.  This piece is for sale in my Etsy shop!

And now for a couple more pictures...

Heather Hudson and me with our gift packs

Heather of My Artistic Adventures, and Leanne, the genius behind Gecko Galz!

Gecko Galz materials used: