And The WINNER is ...........

Congratulations Cindy Jo!

Now you can add 3 more stamps to your collection! Just pick any 3 stamps from the Giveaway post , there are 7 total, and email me with your selection and your shipping address. Your stamps will go out in the mail on Monday!

This drawing was done the old fashioned way. Each name was written on a slip of paper, folded up, and placed into a bowl. The paper pieces were mixed up, and my 9 yr old niece happily drew a slip of paper out of the bowl and read the name to me.

Thanks to everyone for participating and making this a successful Giveaway! I hope to have many more in the future so be sure to stop by once and while and see what's going on :)

Rubber Stamp Giveaway! 4th of July!

Comment on this post until 11:59pm today , July 1st, and you will be entered into a Random Drawing to be held tomorrow, July 2nd,  at noon. If enough people comment, I will giveaway 2 sets of stamps. There are a total of 7 stamps with a 4th of July theme, so I will break them into 2 sets.

Here is the first stamp. It is a large stamp to be used for a background stamp or embellishment on colored or decorative paper for card making, scrapbooking or any other paper art.

The stamp shown here has a slight error, I missed the cross of the "T" in  the word "equality", so I will be carving a new stamp to giveaway.

here are 3 more stamps in this series. The last 3 will be uploaded later this evening so STAY TUNED!

Here are the final 3 stamps in this series!

The winner will receive their pick of 3 stamps from the entire set!

Good Luck! and Happy Stamping :)

RUBBER STAMP BOGO 50% off SALE

Here is just a sampling of some of the Hand Carved Rubber Stamps ON SALE NOW at The Star Box on Etsy. Buy One Get One of equal or lesser value 50% off.  If you love cardmaking,  rubber stamping, collage or making altered art, this sale is a must see! Check it out - and Happy Stamping :)

Snail Mail Stamp

5pc Art Doll Stamp Set

Marie Antoinette Art Doll Accessories Stamp Set

Chandelier Stamp

PostCard Stamp Set

Skeleton Keys Stamp Set

Rubber Stamp Sale and Bonus Giveaway!

Offer Good thru May 15th - Receive 25% off your purchase of the Art Doll Stamp Set when you mention this blog post in the message to seller portion at check-out! Include your PayPal email address in the message and I will send you a revised invoice with the discounted price. You can also go directly to My Etsy to make your purchase.

Giveaway Bonus - comment on this post now thru May 15th and enter to win a handcarved Monarch Butterfly Stamp!

In addition to my love of all things fiber, I am also very active in ATCs and Mail Art trading. My interest in ATCs is what led me to creating my own hand carved art stamps. Recently I joined a Mail Art Swap on ATCsforAll to create five 4x4 chunky pages featuring people themed art dolls.

I created these stamps specifically with this swap in mind.

Here are the 6 Art Doll Chunky Pages I created for the swap.

I used a vintage digital collage sheet of children and a 1 inch circle punch to cut out the faces and glued them inside a bottle cap which I then filled with Diamond Glaze.

I decorated the backgrounds with randomly selected papers, scraps, Sharpie markers, and Bic Mark-it pens.
I hope you have as much fun creating your own unique ART DOLLS as I did creating mine :)

Happy Stamping!

Collage-a-thon ATCs and a Postcard

This weekend I have really jumped back into creating ATCs and Postcards. I used to trade regularly on ATCsforall and am really excited to get back into it again. I have joined a few swaps that are due in March, but since my nieces were here with me this weekend I spent some time doing art with them on Monday and this is what I made.

This is a postcard I made for my Aunt Mary. It is a little more sedate than most of my other artwork. I did not want to shock my Aunt Mary with the clown cheeks and crazy embellishments of my usual style, I thought I would ease her into it. Even with all the color and embellishments on this one, I really did restrain myself a little bit. My Aunt Mary taught me how to knit, so I thought it would be fitting to create a card that resembled a group photo of a ladies Knitting Society or Guild. This postcard was created using images from a 'Vintage Victorian Ladies" Collage Sheet I purchased from DKMRamay15 on Etsy. Basically I used every lady on the sheet for this group photo.

I think I should mention right away that these cards were made courtesy of some free ephemera I found here on Flickr. Her username is Autumnsensation and you can also check out her blog

Basically I downloaded the Cabinet Cards Images I liked, opened them up in my PictureIt program and printed a sheet of them at Trading Card Size 2.5 X 3.5 on matte photo paper. Then I cut them out and glued them to lightweight cardboard (cereal boxes I had already cut down to 2.5X3.5 ATC size). This gave them a good weight reminiscent of real cabinet cards, and then I sanded them lightly to give them a more worn look and then I altered them as I would a traditional Cabinet Card. It makes it a little more challenging than just using clipped images and piecing them together for a collage. For the Elephant Rider, I actually used an exacto knife to cut around the face and then gently peeled the layer off the cardboard, so the card stayed intact and I just lifted out the face area leaving the backing in place. then I covered it with decorative papers and continued as I normally would in creating a background. The images shown here were printed in B&W, but I also printed them in color, which gives them a more authentic look.

The Elephant Rider ATC

This is an interactive ATC. The elephant and rider are all one piece and it is attached to the card through a slot and then a piece extends over the top and connects to the tab on the back. I glued a big button to the back for easy gripping and you can slide it from side to side and make the elephant and rider move along the card. I really like it and will definitely be making more in this style for trading.

Portrait of a Woman

This one is just a standard ATC. It was made using a cabinet card image and various collage papers, sharpies, BIC mark it pens, gel pens and some ephemera.

This was the first ATC I made yesterday. I thought her facial expression was rather somber and I had some book pages with text that seemed very fitting. I embellished the card in a whimsical way to give it more of a dreamy effect, like she has withdrawn into a dream rather than face a harsh reality. Maybe it is a little deep. But it was what got me started again. My final card was the Elephant, so you can see, the layout and ideas just got better as I went along.

Please check out the links I have noted here and have fun creating your own ATCs and Postcards!

Sunday Postcard Art Challenge

This week's challenge is all about EYES! This is the perfect challenge for me. I am very well known in the trading circles for my BIG EYE girls, birds, and anything else I can put ONE GREAT BIG EYE ON!

Here is my entry for this week's challenge.

The Queen Bee Society - the EYES have it!

I am really glad to be getting back into my art again. This week my nieces are here visiting, and so they also made postcards for this weeks challenge.

Abigail's Entry - Age 8

Jordan's Entry - Age 10

The girls had so much fun making these that they are working on two more postcards right now. We are going to be mailing ours to family later this week!

Funky Bird Collages

I am in a mail art swap on ATCsforall and the theme is funky birds. No matter what I do I just can't seem to get away from color. I love big, bright and bold color, no art piece seems to be complete until I throw some bright color on it. I have to make 3 more pages before I mail them out to the hostess and so I am going to take some photos and possibly some video of the step by step process of making one of my Funky Bird Pages.Next, I will be making some mini ATC's. I dropped by Rocnic's blog at www.whatsuproc.blogspot.com and was inspired by her mini ATC collages. If you haven't dropped by her blog yet, follow this link and check it out!

Happy Birthday Sunday PostCard Art!

Here is my entry for today's theme titled ; Crowns and Cake!
(Starring my oldest Pup Queen Isabella)

Sunday PostCard Art is Celebrating their 1st Birthday. If you haven't checked them out yet, Click the link and take a peek at today's submissions in Honor of their Birthday!

This Dog's Life!

My Entry for the Sunday PostCard Art Numbers Theme for May 24 2009

The other day while I was browsing thru a book in my collection called "Pockets, Pullouts, and Hiding Places", I came across a design for a simple flip book I wanted to make. Since My Etsy has been pretty busy this week, I thought I would take today off as a short break from carving stamps and make some art. In preparation for today's dedication to the creation of art, I stayed up until 1am cutting and assembling the peices for my flip book. Early this morning I arose, made a pot of coffee and sat down to go over my ideas. At first I had thought to make a scrapbook style book documenting my dogs' trip here to SC with me. I planned to call it"How I spent my summer vacation", and I would fill it with cute little pics of my dogs Isabella, Loki, and Princess. And Maybe my mother's dogs would make a guest appearance here and there.

Well, the plan has changed a little bit. I started a page showcasing Loki and the theme was derived from a newspaper clipping advertising 'All You Can Eat Pancakes 99 cents". I thought to make a caption that read "My mom's Pancakes Beats I-HOP any day". I liked this theme for Loki since she is an obsessive FOODie and will eat practically anything.......and she is very vocal about it if she doesn't get what she wants.

I pulled out the paints and papers and started on the backgrounds. When I finished painting the basic elements for 5 pages, I printed out the pics I had already chosen for the project. While I was waiting for the pics to print I browsed a few of the sites I frequent and noticed that last week's theme for Sunday PostCard Art was Numbers..........HMMMM, I thought since I already had the 99 cents on there I could go a little further and turn this book page into a Postcard. It was the right height and I would just need to add a border on each end to make it the right length. One thing led to another and I can honestly say I am pleased with the results.

I have decided that I am even going to type up and print my HomeMade Pancake Recipe and glue it to the back. Maybe then I will send this postcard to my daughter along with a dogbone cookie cutter to use as a mold for making her own little doggie some super yummy pancakes for breakfast!

Debi:)

Rubber Stamp Giveaway

Hooray! It is finally here! The beginning of the celebration of my blog's upcoming 1st Birthday!

This is the first of 4 weeks of Giveaways - Ending with a big Birthday Celebration!

As some of you may know, I have become addicted to carving stamps within the last year, so addicted that I started selling them on my Etsy and use them to create my altered art. So it is only fitting that my very first giveaway should be a mix of hand carved stamps and altered art. So what do win you ask, well here it is............

The Grand Prize!

Set of 4 spring themed Hand Carved Stamps!

A Packet of Collage Papers and Ephemera!
(The same items I used to create the cards shown)

And my most favorite of all 4 cards entitled - SPRING!

I will also randomly select 3 Runners up who will each receive one of the following Altered Playing Cards:
.......................and a Celestial Coupon to Receive 10% off on any purchase at my Etsy Shoppe The Star Box!

Since March is the month in which the seasons change I thought Spring would be a wonderful theme for this week's giveaway.

ENTER TO WIN!

To be entered in the drawing please make an ATC, Altered Playing Card, NoteCard, Postcard etc with a Spring Theme and use at least 1 Rubber Stamp. Post the image of your completed Art Piece to your blog or flickr or etc and mention this giveaway in your description or blog post, and post a link to your submission in the comment section of this post.

All entries must be posted by Friday February 27th to be considered. I will select the Winner and Runners Up randomly and will post their names on Monday March 2nd when I give the details for the next giveaway.

Thank you so much for participating and I can't wait to see what everyone creates.

Happy Stamping:)
Debi

Saturday Art-a-Thon!

I have devoted the entire day to the creation of ART! I have many trades going on at AFA and I haven't really been able to free up any time for art lately. So Today is the Day! I am not answering the phone, I am keeping a pot of coffee at the ready, I have pencil, paper, and scissors at hand.....so I am off to create:)

Here are just a couple examples of what I have accomplished so far today.

The front of my 4x4 Halloween Chunky Page

The back of my 4x4 Halloween Chunky

A Cat themed Matchbox Shrine for PIF (Pay It Forward) trade.

The Little Book Swap!

Well, I have not yet completed Wednesday's Challenge because I finished off my Little Books for a swap on AFA and sent them off in the mail today.

I really enjoyed making these books. They are both 3 1/2 X 3 1/2, include 20 pages of white card stock, and are bound together using ribbon stitching. I collaged both front and back covers inside and out, and rubber stamped on them using my hand carved rubber stamps, I topped it all off with a little bit of hand drawn embellishments and paper words and phrases.

I have already cut out materials for a new book. This time I am going to make it a Deco Book and ask friends from AFA to decorate it with me.