Dreams Contest Chip & Large Chip

Here is another formica chip, but this time a large one! I love doing these too! This one will be sent out as a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) to someone. Part of me wants to keep it because it is the first large one I have done. But I think I'll get more joy out of giving it to someone, so off she will go. The name of this collage is "Flowers in Paradise".

The small chip above has been submitted for a Dreams lottery at ArtChix. The winner gets all the cards that people created for the challenge! It's a great game and I hope someday I'll be the winner! :) The name of this one is "Dreaming of Home". Sometimes I think I enjoy naming my collages as much as creating them! Ha Ha Ha

Formica Chips For ArtChix Swap

Here are three more chips I created for an ArtChix Formica Chip Swap. Again, they are a little fuzzy because they have the jewels on them. I used paper, vintage stamps, jewels, ArtChix images, and fibers on these. The words are from vintage sheet music. These can be tricky to create as the formica doesn't like glue - stuff just slides right off of it! But I found if I put a thin layer of rubber cement down first and let it dry, that glue sticks perfectly!

From left to right, these are: "Starlight, Starbright", "Longing For Summer", and "Melancholy".

Formica Chip Swap

These are three formica chips for a swap with ArtChix. They are done with paper, vintage postage stamps, ArtChix images, little jewels, and fibers. The words are all from vintage sheet music, which is one of my favorite things to use!

From left to right, they are: "Little Bird", "Lighter Than Air", and "Follow Your Heart". Sorry for the fuzziness, but things with embellishments are tough to scan. :)

Party! Party! Party! Swap

These nine cards were for a Party! Party! Party! themed swap. From left to right they say: "Connie was always the best charades player", "Luau", and "A lady does not macarena Barbara".

I had the most difficult time deciding what type of cards to make. Then, the day before I had to mail them in, I found these vintage images and knew they had to be my party cards! The series is called "Retro Party Girls" and I made up the wacky words to put on them. They had me chuckling to myself while creating them. And I hope the new owners like them too!

This one was my favorite of the bunch. I love the number stickers on the hats. I almost kept this one, but didn't.

The words on these from left to right say: "B 55 Bingo!" and "Margarita". The Bingo one is from a slang saying about playing "backseat bingo" which means...well, YOU figure it out!! ;)


From left to right these say: "Shirley, Marge, and Donna wore special party hats", "Helen loved pink elephants", and "Let's Go Go", which is Shea's favorite of the bunch.

Note: I used scrapbooking paper for the backgrounds on these. It is amazing the amound of cool designs you can find out there in paper. And they are so fun to tear up! Most of them also have stickers that I found in the same scrapbooking store. :)

Frida's Final Adios (For Now)

Here are the final three cards I sent in for this swap. This will not be the last time that I attempt Mexican or Frida themed art. I loved the freeing nature of the colors in this type of art. And again, I was able to learn a little bit more about an artist I have heard about but never really studied. There is a connection there with Frida for me, as I too was in a horrible accident that changed my life. She painted to work through the boredom and constant pain. I create art as a way to deal with chronic pain as well. It is amazing what allowing the creative portions of your brain to work can do for your entire being. There will always be pain in my body, but creating a small work of art that I can share with others somehow makes it all a little more bearable. :)

Viva Frida Continued!

Here's a very interesting note about the creation of these cards. When I sat down to start making them, I used various bright tissues (I thought!) and some tissue flowers to make the base. But I found that the colors I started with were way too dark and the Frida images looked completely wrong on them! So I dug into my paper box and found the RAK's from Lynnette and Mija and decided to give those a whirl. And lo and behold, the SUPER vibrant colors worked beautifully! It was as if Frida herself would not allow me to do anything but bright, bright, bright. I suppose this is appropriate since Frida was a great shining light in the world of art!

Viva Frida!

A Frida Kahlo swap has been my latest love. I had never done Frida or Mexican themed cards and was excited to try them out. And I had a great time creating these nine cards! So much fun that I stayed up until 5:00 am to finish them! I just couldn't walk away! In these cards I used pages from a vintage spanish dictionary covered with colored tissue (thank you Lynnette April!) and papel picado, a mexican designed tissue paper with cut out shapes (thank you Mija!!). I then used various images from vintage Talavera pottery, rhinestones, vintage pics of Frida, and embroidery thread throughout.