90th Birthday

In November of 2007, my grandfather celebrated his 90th birthday. A party was in order, so my mom and aunt got busy organizing. All of his grandchildren, most of his great-grandchildren, and his one great-great grandchild were there.

The photo at the top shows 5 generations, with A sitting on Daddy Clyde's knee. The bottom photo is all of us squeezed in for a group photo. We met at a restaurant in Sweetwater, TX for some good food and catching up. I'm so glad we were able to do that!
Happy creating!
Immi

71 Years

Here is a layout of photos taken on my grandparents' 71st anniversary. It's amazing to me to think of being married that long - longer than some people live! Nanny was no longer able to live at home, but the staff at the care facility helped put together a celebration for them.

I didn't do much in the way of embellishments here. I used a pretty piece of vellum over white cardstock as my background. In my stash I found a neat ribbon with a slide over it which I adhered across the page. (I took to heart the lesson learned from the mistake I'd made with ribbon before!) I did want to cover up the date stamp on the photos, and I had some epoxy word stickers that worked well for that.

Happy creating!
Immi

Sweet Face

First, a note about AARP. My DH decided to apply for membership to take advantage of discounts. Weird enough to be married to a spouse who is a member of AARP. However, when his card arrived this past weekend, I was shocked to see a card with MY NAME on it!!! It's one thing for him to have a card; I wasn't ready for it at all. Sigh.

Okay, now for something fun and young! I took this photo of A back in June, when he was watching a He-Man cartoon. He was so absorbed in the action. My inspiration for the layout came from a post on Ali Edwards' blog - her layouts are always so clean and simple. I particularly liked the half-circle she'd cut out of a photo, with a circular element in the negative space left. I used up what was left of a piece of serendipity paper I'd done, so this really came together quickly. This layout is going in my scrapbook, which isn't chronological; it's photos I love that aren't necessarily tied to an event.

I did learn a lesson from adhering the ribbon to the page. I used some thin, double-sided tape, and put it on the ribbon first. I should have put it on the page, and then put the ribbon on top. Putting in on the ribbon caused the ribbon to get distorted and wavy. I wasn't very happy with the way it looked, but the tape is so strong, that when I gingerly tried to remove it, the paper underneath began to tear. I decided I'd better leave it as is and live with the waves.

Enjoy!
Immi

Inchie ATCs

I recently came across a swap on Swapbot for inchie artwork that would be about the size of an ATC. The inchies had to be connected to each other somehow.

I worked on the one on the left, and was liking the way it looked. I hadn't decided how to attach them to each other yet when I looked back at the rules for the swap. I realized this wouldn't work, because the swap description stated that it should be one continuous image, separated over the inchies used. So I glued them down to a black piece of cardstock, and kept that one for myself.

Back to the drawing board for the one I would send out. Do you remember the glossy photos from the social studies curriculum? I used one of the photos (sans glitter glue) for the background. The bird was stamped on tissue paper, and glued over the photo. I added some color with markers and a fake jewel for the eye, and cut it apart into inchies.

I thought I'd try attaching them to each other with thread. I used a very small hole punch to create the holes, and used sewing thread on a needle, tied in a knot on top. However, they wouldn't stay apart the distance I wanted, and it was all floppy. So I bent the rules a little, and glued everything down to brown cardstock and called it done.

If you'd like to get your feet wet in some swaps, Swapbot is a good place to start.

Till later,
Immi

ATCs

Here are some ATCs I've done for recent swaps. Some are already mailed out; others I'm waiting for an address.

The first two photos are ATCs I did for a Vintage ATC swap. The only rule was that they had to look vintage; you weren't required to use vintage materials.

For the first one, I used (again) a piece from a serendipity page. It didn't need much; I simply added a scrap of lace and a couple of old buttons from my collection. I did "age" the lace a little by rubbing it with an ink pad before gluing it down.

For the second ATC, I chose a piece from my files of a reproduction of an old document. I stamped the flourish at the bottom, and cut it a little smaller than the finished size. I taped it down to a blue background (the same shade as the blue I used for stamping the face).The face is stamped on a transparency, and layered over the "document". I attached the transparency at the top with a couple of eyelets, in an antique looking metal.

Finally, the last photo shows a set I've done for a Sender's Choice swap for September. I pulled out some odds & ends and did a little inking around the edges (one of my favorite techniques) to help them stand out a little from the background (which is from a serendipity page). I glued everything down and that was that!

Happy creating!
Immi

Recent ATCs

Here are some ATCs I've done recently. The first two photos show what I've sent out for a "Fall Fantasy" swap.

The set of three with leaves is done on a background made from one of my serendipity page experiments. I love these, because you've got a lot of the work done already and just need to add something to finish it off. The leaves are something I bought long ago, and thought they'd work well for this. They came pre-cut, colored & glittered, so all I had to do was glue them to the background. I included all three, since the backgrounds were slightly different.

The next photo shows one of a set of three for the same swap. For this background, I used the top layer of a decorative napkin, which I glued to a support underneath. I added another fall image, from the same batch as the leaves. I also added a strip of paper along the left that looks like gingham ribbon. Some text stamping over the top and it was done.

The final photo is an ATC I did as an experiment, not as part of a swap. I've got a lot of glossy photos on heavy weight paper which came from an unused social studies curriculum packet (yes, I had permission to take this stuff home). I stuck them in a misc. file, with no idea how to use them. A couple of weekends ago, I got the urge to find a way to use up all my cheap glitter glue, saving the good Ranger stuff. I pulled out these photo sheets, and began painting over them with glitter glue. I let that dry. Then I stamped an image on tissue paper, and glued that over the glittered photos. I colored the image with colored pencils, and added a fake jewel for the eye, and a small reproduction of a Scrabble tile at the bottom. I think it turned out just "okay", but that's what experiments are about!

Happy creating!
Immi

Reading Glasses

Finally, to finish out the week of collages from the past, here is a collage that got its start because I wanted to use an old, broken pair of reading glasses!

The background is my favorite tissue paper over a book cover, with layers of paint and glazes. I wanted writing on it, so I found some Italian on the internet, and handwrote it. I hope it's saying something nice, because I have no idea what it means!

The glasses are glued down with E6000, a very strong adhesive which is good for things that won't lie flat. The flower is one left over from my daughter's wedding reception, with a couple of beads in the middle.

The curly wire pieces started out very differently from what you see here. I had in mind to use a piece of wire, curled, with beads strung along the length. It turned out awful! Well, I hated to throw it out, so I got some wire snips and began cutting it apart. I liked the way the cut apart pieces looked, so I flattened them out somewhat and glued them down.

This is a brighter piece than I usually do, but that was driven by the reading glasses. I didn't think something subdued would work too well.

Happy creating!
Immi