A fat book page that celebrates the joy of maple syrup so synonymous with spring!! With some internet research I discovered that maple syrup is only produced in a very small area of North America where the conditions are ideal - sugar and black maple trees growing in good, well drained soil that are exposed to warm daytime temperatures followed by cool nights which gets the sap flowing. Sap is collected for only about a month and half in the spring!!

I included a sugar maple leaf on the front of my page which is protected by a transparency. Colour printed the rest and then embellished with my stipple brush and some ink. I added information and photos to the tags which fit inside between the front and the back.

This is a monthly mingle on one of my lists and I really aprpeciate the wide scope of the themes we can use and how open the creative process in which I can engage!!

Thanks for checking out my blog and I wish you a creative day!!

Just get out your supplies and create something!!

Therese

Mixed Media Market
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mixedmediamarket/
My art blog:
http://www.tmalakart.blogspot.com/

The last of the bunch!!

X - pearl ex. I stamped with a clear ink from Perfect Pearls and then applied a variety of metallic powders to the words. It turned out very nice though scanning it was difficult. Have not really used this product before and was happy how this worked out!! Trimmed my X which was printed on a transparency and glued it with double sided tape under the black areas.

Y - yarn. It was a challenge to come up with words that related to papercrafting for each letter of the alphabet. I layered my trimmed letter onto decorative paper and then punched two holes on either side of the Y and tied on a pink piece of yarn. Layered that onto pink cardstock.

Z - zig zag. Layered my trimmed transparency with Z on it over the yellow cardstock and overlaid a black strip of CS onto which I glued yellow rick rack. I trimmed the bottom of the yellow with pinking shears to reinforce the theme!!

Done!!

Therese

U - UTEE. Punched a maple leaf and then added two layers of UTEE in Bronze. I stamped a similarly sized maple leaf into the molten UTEE. Created a cool little accent for this ATC!! Layered the U which was printed on vellum with two copper corners and used hot glue to attach the leaf element at the bottom.

V - vellum. Created decorative vellum with a daisy stamp and my Brilliance ink pad. Stamped both on the front and the back. The Brilliance dried nicely. If you were to use pigment ink would have to emboss the images to seal them. A great technique for creating just the perfect decroative vellum for your card or layout. I attached the trimmed vellum rectangle to the cardtock with clear corners.

W - wax resist. Take a piece of wax paper and create a pattern in it by folding or crumpling. Open it up and layer onto a glossy cardstock. Cover with newspaper and apply a hot iron to melt the wax onto the glossy. Then apply dye ink with a brayer!! Lots of very cool textured effects can be created with this technique!! This works on matte cardstock as well. Give it a try!! I stamped in the words with black memories.

Therese

R - resist. I used white glossy paper and embossed the coffee cup with clear EP to which I applied brown memories ink. After it was all dry I wiped the ink from the EP and layered it onto another piece of glossy with the EP side down. I applied a hot iron from the top which melted the EP onto the new piece of glossy. I actually ironed it again several times onto tissue paper as well before all the EP was melted off the original glossy. I trimmed my R which was printed on transparency and layered it onto the glossy and attached it with 4 copper brads. Then layered onto brown cardstock which had been stamped with my Harlequin stamp in Brilliance "white frost" ink. I stamped coffee with my magnetic alphabet set with the same Brilliance ink.

S - Sewing (really should have read stitching) The S is printed on vellum. I added "stitching" with a marker all the way around. I captured the vellum under two layers of cardstock which had been pricked on the scallop edge as well as at the top to create some faux stitching by drawing with a marker between the holes. Nice to have a few different ways of attaching vellum!!

T - tranfer. I printed images with my laser printer onto white paper and then applied packing tape to make a transfer. The tape needs to be burnished very well and then it is just soaked to soften the paper which can easily be rubbed off. The transfer can then be glued to a new surface. A quick and easy transfer technique which easily adds depth to your creations!! The T was trimmed and attached with double sided tape under the black parts of the letter.

Therese

More ATCs for my Alphabet ATC swap!! Have so enjoyed creating these!!

O - Oval. I created an oval tag with the two SU oval punches and stamped Create in the top one. Punched holes in either side and slid them onto a ribbon which I tucked under my decorative paper layer which I glued to cardstock. It needed something to I added the thin black line all the way around. The O is printed on transparency and trimmed then glued on with double sided tape under the black part of the letter.

P - polished stone. I printed the letter on a transparency. Once trimmed I used alcohol inks to create a polished stone effect on the back of it. I attached to white cardstock with pink eyelets (white ones which I coloured with my Sharpie markers) and then tied the bottom with pink fiber. All of this was layered onto decorative cardboard which I had cut from a tissue box.

Q- quilting. I layered blue handmade paper onto cardstock and sewed a few lines of stitching to keep thme in place. I stitched all the way around the Q which was printed on transparency incorporating a bit of bias tape ribbon on the side.

Therese

Created these with a set of cast off earrings!! As I removed the backings the inner piece of the earring popped out!! Excellent!! With that piece missing I was left with a wonderful little depression I could fill. I dug through my collage stash and found two images to use - one of an angel and the other of a teddy bear reading with his friends. I trimmed the images to fit and glued them in place then covered them with Dimensional Magic. This dried perfectly clear and created a wonderful accent piece for my ATCs. I created a background paper for each - on the left I used watercolour and overstamped with a floral decorative stamp and on the right I used my large definition stamp. I added a ribbon then glued on the accent and layered it onto cardstock. On the right hand one I also punched a hole in the layer and then glued a circle with friend stamped in it. Really happy with the way these worked out. I like filling little spaces with art. I sent one to the swap and the other to my friend, Linda!!

Therese

It has been a while since I posted so I will start with my April Art Lottery submission. I decided to treat the winner with some round tags this month so I created another one of these cards with the decorative paper using the colour blocking technique. The decorative paper is one that I created with direct to paper technique when I was repairing my Colourbox pads. I really like the vibrancy and the depth of colour of this piece!! The round tags were colour printed and then punched with the SU 1.25" punch and the layer was created with the 1 3/8" punch!! Quick and easy!!

Therese