Tag Archives: Altered art

April Showers bring…Paper umbrellas!

April Showers bring…Paper umbrellas!
April Showers bring…Paper umbrellas!

 

Wheeeeeeeee! It’s spring! Unfortunately, here in the Great White North, spring is a relative term. We may not have cherry blossoms and lilacs yet, but at least the snow is mostly melted.

Even if the weather is not cooperative, everyone knows that April showers bring May flowers. Of course, April showers also bring a need for umbrellas. Here at Paper Calliope, that means lots and lots of colorful polka-dotted paper umbrellas!

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Never too late for Tim Holtz tags

Never too late for Tim Holtz tags

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Even thought its March, I wanted to join in the fun of the 2015 Tim Holtz tags. Never one to just follow the rules, I decided to make two tags for each month–one a traditional Tim tag and one with a circus theme.

To be honest, i planned to actually provide you with a tutorial and supply list, but the world’s worst and longest lasting plague has kept me from accomplishing many of my plans.

So without further delay, here are my tags for March.

March 2015 Traditional Tim Holtz Tag

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Be a trendsetter–join the fun of Artist Trading Spoons

Be a trendsetter–join the fun of Artist Trading Spoons

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 You’ve heard of Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) and Artrist Trading Blocks (ATBs), but I bet you never heard of the Artist Trading Spoons (ATS). Why? Because I just invented them!

To accompany the Robin’s Nest recipe themed blog hop, I decided to have some fun and create some retro ATSes featuring bold and fun mid-century graphics.

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Check out this Artist Trading Block in honor of spring

Check out this Artist Trading Block in honor of spring

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Some of you who live in temperaturesane parts of the world are already enjoying spring. It’s usually a different story here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, where winter almost always lasts well into April.

To remind myself that spring will eventually come, I made this Golden Spring Artist Trading Block (ATB). Please check out the tutorial over at the Robin’s Nest. Read the rest of this entry

Hop to it and create some springtime decorations

Hop to it and create some springtime decorations

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Beginning this project was scary. Burned into my memory is the clay dog I proudly gave my mother when I was in elementary school. Purple, with orange zig zags and green dots, it was supposed to be an artsy rendition of our Golden Retriever. In reality it looked like it have five legs and a mass of tumors. I guess I really can’t blame my mom for her less than enthusiastic reception–or at least that’s what I have been telling my analyst every week since 1979.

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You don’t have to stretch your neck far to check out this ATC tutorial

You don’t have to stretch your neck far to check out this ATC tutorial

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Today’s artist trading card (ATC) tutorial over at the Robin’s Nest features a fun giraffe with frivolous shoes.

Marilyn Monroe said, “Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.” Well the giraffe on this tag is certainly doing her best to stay on to of the world in her shiny purple shoes.

Quick and easy way to use paper scraps

Quick and easy way to use paper scraps

 

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My post today over at the Robin’s Nest is a crafter’s dream-come-true: it’s quick, it’s easy and it uses scraps. Even better is that when you are done, you have a pretty and useful paper tape that you can use in your scrapbook layouts, crafting and gift wrapping.

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Playing with glassine bags

Playing with glassine bags


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I recently acquired  a butt-load of embossing folders. Hey, what can I say–they were 80% off–someone had to buy them. For the last month they have been sitting on a shelf, singing their siren song, trying to woo me into playing with them.

So on a recent arctic afternoon, that’s exactly what I did. However, once I began playing, I couldn’t just take out one toy. Noooo, I’m an everything-in-the-toybox-kind-of girl. I took out glassine bags, paper bags, Divine Twine and every color of ink ever conceived by Ranger Industries. All-in-all, it was a perfect day.

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I’m a winner and it’s signed, stamped and approved

I’m a winner and it’s signed, stamped and approved

 

CRAFT ENGINEER BUTTON winner

 

You may recall that I entered my Elfville project into a craft engineering contest last fall. I was pleased as punch when I learned I was a winner and got some fabulous prizes.  Yesterday, I got even more exciting news.

The folks over at the Robin’s Nest sent me this permanent badge for my blog. They have been so busy with new product launches that they didn’t have time before now to send out the winning badges. I am honored to display this on Paper Calliope. Thank you Robin’s Nest!