Hitchcock Halloween

Some months ago Somerset Studio put out a call for Hitchcock Halloween based projects

(the winners are in the current issue)

I began this project at that time but with so many personal issues, did not finish it until this past month

I altered a 7gypsies portfolio creating a Maison du Hitchcock portfolio and then added some mood boards for specific movies. The outside cover is covered with 7gypsies paper that was Glimmer misted over a Prima mask and gaffer tape along all edges. The center image is a Gecko Galz Masquerade ephemera and I added real scissors and a feather.

I filled the inside pages with actual ads from vintage magazines, Gecko Galz ephemera (Haute Couture pages 1 and 2), and actual items - snaps, buttons, fabrics, safety pins, and clothing tags.

Dial M for Murder

Gecko Galz paper and images with October Afternoon "M" stickers, fabric and lace, and a key

Marnie

horse picture from a child's reader, a photo of mine, Gecko Galz ephemera (bump in the night) on an actual employee personnel folder

Vertigo

Gecko Galz paper and ephemera (Marie Antoinette and Bump in the Night) along with actual vintage images from ads and a photo of mine

The Birds

Stampington paper, Gecko Galz ephemera (Little Birdy, bump in the night, and Haute Couture) along with K&co vellum bird, decoupage birds, and feathers

This was a very fun project - almost too many ideas!!!

thanks for looking,

Chris

wabi-sabi a la gecko galz

trying to be a bit more wabi-sabi in my scrapping

getting down to basics

the photos are of the Okefenokee Swamp in February

and of North Carolina in September

the patterned paper is now & zen 

from the gecko galz zen garden collection

the ribbon is hand dyed (what about a tutorial on dyeing?)

of course, the ink is tim holtz distress ink in crushed olive (thanks Leanne!)

and the little golden accent up in the corner is from my

vintage jewelry parts collection

Chris

Crazy clowns - Gecko Galz, 7gypsies, and more

It's summertime - heat, barbeques, swimming, sunbathing, and circuses!

I love my 7gypsies printer's tray because it is so perfect for changing it to reflect the seasons and my current color choices - last summer's blue and white and February's pinkness - but right now it's all about yellows, reds, and oranges with a bit of turquoise thrown into the mix.

I cut out ephemera from the Gecko Galz Crazy Clowns and arranged them into some of the openings. I cut 2 tiny ephemera images to fit into the Gecko Galz locket pendants (in the bottom right corner) and I even added a Gecko Galz button pin with the fun lime green Gecko logo.

I added some Prima flowers and ribbons, some Making Memories flowers and one of their fun vintage groove jewelry pendants along with Prima "Believe" embellishment. I also included one of my handmade ruched flowers in a red gingham with a Jenni Bowlin button as the center.  The button with the Chinese character is from my collection as is the Bingo game piece.

And then I really went crazy, adding an actual matchbox and spool of thread.

What a fun project - it makes me think of the circuses that my grandfather used to take me to when I was a little girl and also of the fun Ringling Circus Museum in Sarasota. If you ever go to Sarasota, be sure to visit it!

thanks for looking and have a super day!

Chris

My chartreuse muse - lots of photos

This little book is what the collage artitst Mary Delany would call "promiscuous assemblage". It started with a challenge to create something using the color chartreuse and then took on a life of its own. I played with words rhyming with chartreuse, beginning with French words and then quickly degenerating into English. I made little rhymes and came up with pages that sort of illustrated the rhymes.

I used ephemera from Gecko Galz and Stampinton Art-to-Borrow. I hand painted the flowers, fabrics, and seam binding. The metal clasp on the cover is from Gecko Galz and the chipboard butterflies are old K&Co. The laces are Prima. I cut the book pages from a faux Victorian photo album (I did a previous Gratitude book from this same album) and sprayed them with lettuce Adirondack color wash.

 Sweet Julie T-W sent me the most wonderful treasure jar of scrapping and gaming toys, and I used some of them here on the back cover. Thank you Julie - I am so happy to have you as a friend and boss!!!!!

Thanks for looking and hope you like my creation. If you have any questions about how I did any of it, please leave a comment and I will respond.

Have a great week!
Chris

Kalahari vest and some fun things happening in the studio

My vest is finished - yay!!!!!! but I will have to wait until Oct or Nov to wear it since it's a bit warm in the summer in Florida to wear something like this!

I finished reading A Discovery of Witches - it's a fun read!

Some fun creating going on in the studio

Gotta head off to work at the book store

See you soon 

Chris

Things making me happy right now

A new mixed-media piece on my worktable

a homemade chocolate chip cookie on a vintage plate

back of my Kalahari vest finished

 hand dyeing seam binding in coffee and tea (ended up too faint so I enhanced it with watercolor paint)

 seam binding sprayed with different colors of glimmer mist and Adirondack spray

Books that I ordered coming today!

Life is good!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND 

I won a $25 gift certificate to Scrapbook.com by winning a Gecko Galz contest with this fan

I am a Happy Camper!

Thanks for looking,

Chris

What's your favorite thing about Spring?

Come on over to These are a few of my favorite things challenge blog and see what the DT has created to show you their favorite things about spring - and then create your own layout and post it to Mr Linky!

Gecko Galz (thank you Leanne!) is our sponsor for this challenge so for this layout about Spring I used printable paper Here Comes the Sun from the Gecko Galz Strawberry Fields collection and ephemera from the Girlfriends2 collection. The flowers are Prima, the alphas are October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket, and the little umbrella is from a drink!

The prize from Gecko Galz will be a $20 gift certificate to use for any products on their website http://www.geckogalz.com/ . Gecko Galz products include ephemera, paper sets, alphabet soup, digital stamps, project kits, cd collections of their papers and ephemera, and fripperies (glitter, ribbons, and antique pearl buttons).

Chris

Gecko Galz for April - a tribute to my Mother

I know that this is a bit early for Mother's Day but really everyday is Mother's Day -

I used Gecko Galz Tudor Rose Hampton Court paper and M is for Mother ephemera. I created the base by scrunching tissue paper and then layering it on cardstock and painting with gesso. After it dried, I sprayed it with Glimmer mists that sort of continued the look of the Gecko Galz paper. I cut out the ephemera and layered it along with Prima flowers around a photograph of my mother and me.

Next week I will be taking a 4-day watercolor workshop from Janet Rogers, a national teacher and painter. I am so so excited!!!! I have scheduled some posts as I know that I will be exhausted every evening.

Hope you have a fun April Fool's Day and a great weekend!

Some more springtime joy Gecko Galz style

I altered a paper advertising fan for a sweet spring project.

The background is painted with watercolors onto which I adhered Gecko Galz Violets are Blue ephemera, Prima flowers, vintage flowers, vintage lace, and a few trinkets.

I tore a piece of Gecko Galz Wonderland paper - Alice - into strips, spritzed it with water, and then gathered it and adhered it to the back of the fan. Then I adhered more vintage lace (actually removed from a Laura Ashley dress that I used to wear).

Finally I tied into bows some Prima lace, hand dyed silk ribbon, and strips of fabrics

Thanks for looking and have a super March 

Did yours come in like a lion or a lamb?

AND be sure to check out the latest challenge at These are a few of my favorite things challenge blog!!!!
I am on the 15th DT but you definitely need to check out the 30th DT creations! Wooooo!

Chris

Gecko Galz Deadwood papers

this is my February project for Gecko Galz using the fun Deadwood papers - Belle Starr and Cowboy Days - the Wild West Women ephemera, and some of their yarn and ribbon fripperies. I added a few touches of my own - a red plastic spoon, a crocheted flower from a hot pad, a Maya road felt flower, a Making Memories clip, some old feather charm earrings that I had made, feathers, a hand made flower, buttons, and some tiny old metal picture frames. Do you not love the little "Sheriff" pin? I got it at Tuesday Morning in a little Generation T kit for altering teeshirts - you will be seeing more of the pieces of that funky kit on future projects. I originally had thought to make a recipe mini book as Leanne had sent us some chipboard pieces - but as you know, projects sometimes have a way of making themselves into something else, and the whole thing transformed itself into a wall hanging - of course, I had to use the classic Carabba's license plate - Ciao Y'all!  The recipes are ones that I actually use - the Red Chili recipe came from a hippie bar in Telluride, Co, the brownie recipe from a bar of cooking chocolate, and the black bean quesadilla recipe from an old newspaper.

Happy February!
Chris

A little bird made some cards

Life has been a bit busy this past week - working extra hours so not much time for playing in the studio but - I did create two cards using some Gecko Galz scraps of papers and ephemera, a little lace, ribbon, and paint. I know that everyone who is any one in the craft world is at CHA - someday maybe...........

With working so much, I have been reading quite a bit in the evening - I found the coolest book at the library about sewing, cooking, and just plain living - It's titled Amy Barickman's Vintage Notions - the illustrations are so charming and the prose is so inspiring!

Have a creative day!
Chris