Gothic Arches, Art Cards, and Take a Word

On the left is my entry for Gothic Arches (Bedazzled) and for Art Cards (Favorite Stamp). Above is my entry for Take a Word (Angel). The background for the arch was made using Lumiere paints, mica, Stickles and other dazzling paints and materials. I stamped it with clear embossing ink with my favorite flower stamp and heated gold embossing powder on the flower. Sorry the gold doesn't photograph  well on the arch. Please enlarge the photo to see the stamp.

To make the TAW entry I superimposed an angel "stamp" from my digital collection. It is only there in the digital world.

Here is another example of my favorite stamp.

Gothic Arches - Metallic

Here is my entry for the gothic arches challenge - metallic. The metal on my arch consist of a gold button, a brass wire, and some heat embossing, some of which is metallic gold. The background is inked glossy cardstock.

The photo on the left is sharper but it shows the camera flash. So I did a scan, but it doesn't show the shininess of the embossing.

Gothic Arches - New Beginnings

I realize this is a super simple entry to the revamped Gothic Arches challenge, but nothing says new beginnings to me as much as babies. This is my mother and she was born in early 1909. I don't know where the background papers came from. Thanks to Lynn and Effie for starting GA challenge again. I have missed it.

Gothic Arches - Open Theme

This week it is a free and open theme for Gothic Arches. Mine is revealing what I did when my husband was away on a week's fishing trip.

Here is another one. It is all digital using my  watercolor painting of a petunia. The background is pretty involved. First I took closeup pictures of the pink hyacinths in the front yard. I digitally made the picture I liked best into a pattern. The pattern, duplicated, filled up a blank rectangle making a pretty background. But then I used 3 more of the same background, joined together to form a larger patterned background. I made the two arches from this background, one darker than the other.

Gothic Arches - Spring

Gothic Arches' theme this week is Spring. The roses stamp is one of the very first I got when I started doing cards. I don't know whose it is. I tried Prismacolor pencil resist on this with the Technique Junkies method.  I distressed around the edges with Glitz Spritz.

Gothic Arches - Hearts

My Gothic Arches entry this week starts with an arch I made previously and stored in my computer for such an occasion as this. The Li'l Redhead is my invention, based on how my granddaughter looked as a child. I have used this drawing before but without the hearts balloons. I had fun putting this all together last night. I hope Li'l Redhead will brighten your day and bring a smile your way.

Gothic Arches - Queen

OK, maybe this is cheating. I just stuck the "crown" atop one of the Dover freebie images. The arch is one of the beautiful arches that Nicecrane Designs has in their store.

Gothic Arches - Queen

KIS & Gothic Arches

I think this quote from Mahatma Gandhi has universal wisdom so I've used it on my entry for Keep it Simple (bow) and for Gothic Arches (text). Sorry, the bow got skewed in the scanner.

Gothic Arches - Jesters' hats

This is my digital entry for the Gothic Arches challenge this week.

KIS, Gothic Arches, MMM

Today I am entering 3 challenges with these two pieces. The gold, black, and white on the left is for Keep it Simple. I used a handmade foam stamp, clear ink pad and fine gold embossing powder.

The Gothic Arch on the right is for GA and for Mixed Media Monday. The theme for GA is day and night. The theme for MMM is Art. Again I used a handmade foam stamp to represent the sun rising. The colorful background was made using natural inks I made from veggies and fruits. I thought it looked a bit like abstract art (art for MMM). The colors are actually brighter but I had to lightened the whole thing to make the text show up.

The foam I carve is about 3/8" thick. It is not the kind that our craft stores sell. I buy the door hangers and cut them into stamp shapes. The text was written with an erasable pen and embossed with gold e.p.

Another Back to School Arch

I decided to do another Gothic Arch depicting Back to School because I wanted to show off the Gothic Arch I received with my gift certificate from Nicecrane. Thanks also to Dover Publications for other freebies. The tan background is a crayon resist background I did.

More of the Nicecrane digital designs are on my other blog.

Gothic Arches - back to school

This arch is for Gothic Arches challenge this week: Back to School.

MORE COMPUTER PROBLEMS!!!
Our Safari cannot communicate with anything Yahoo. If some of you computer savvy people will let us know what is wrong, please leave a comment. It started with dh's verizon yahoo mail and now has affected my yahoo mail. Sometimes we can't even get a whirling ball when we go to yahoo.com! Thanks.

Gothic Arches - Owls

Gothic Arches' theme this week is Owls. Not a big owl fan, I couldn't find one on my computer. I was glad that Graphics Fairy had one right on the front page. I thought of several directions to go, but ended up thinking about being ecological: give a hoot; don't pollute!

My background is a technique I got from Technique Junkie Newsletter. I urge all who are interested in making their own backgrounds to sign up and subscribe to the newsletter. This technique is called glimmer lace.

Gothic Arches - Open Theme

Gothic Arches has an open theme this week. I used several Dover images to make this digital gothic arch.

The stained glass was not gothic, but a circle head arch. I found a fleur-de-lis image that I made into the pointed part of the arch and attached. I cut out and used only the center part of the window. Then I took the innermost part of the window out and substituted a picture of a surveyor, also a Dover image.

Gothic Arches Challenge - Openings

It's been a long time since I've been able to enter something for this challenge. Openings is the topic for Gothic Arches this week. Frankie supplied us with a beautiful inspiration piece. I thought of the picture Patty had taken of the gothic window (a sort of openings) so I used that along with some things with real openings like the key and the ironwork gate. Thanks, Patty, for allowing me to use your gorgeous picture. And thanks to Dover Publications for their freebies.

Eggs - Gothic Arches

The theme for Gothic Arches this week is Eggs. I found this wonderful birds image at Graphics Fairy. The background is one I created via Photoshop Elements.

Gothic Arches - Crackle

I remembered that I had UTEE and could do the cracked glass technique so the top arch is not digital,  and is made with that technique and glazed with Omni-gel to hold all the cracked pieces together. The background was one of those papers used to protect the desk from sprays and mists of various alcohol inks, glimmer mists, etc. I stamped it with the feather and the bird stamps and embossed them in detail white EB.  It was at this point that I used the cracked glass technique.

The lower arch is one of my watercolors that I "crackled" via Photoshop Elements. The girl is one from ACF, I believe. See other crackle works at Gothic Arches.

Sunday Gothic Arches

My entry for Gothic Arches: Correspondence. The beautiful lady comes from Rein.

Gothic Arches - Weddings

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER!

Weddings is the theme for Gothic Arches this week. In the spring of 1957 one month before the wedding day, the bride-to-be underwent parotid gland surgery, which left the  right side of her face paralyzed (temporarily). With Navy duty starting a continent away one week after the wedding, the couple went on with the plans. The bride couldn't smile on the outside but she was smiling big-time on the inside.

The beautiful arch is from a photo that Patty took and offered as a freebie on her blog. One of these days the rest of that wonderful photo will be used in some art work. Thanks, Patty.

Shabby Chic - gothic arches

Gothic Arches has as its theme this week: shabby chic. I can do chic, but not too sure about shabby. Is that the same as grunge? Anyway, I am entering this arch containing a picture of one of my paintings of a shabby barn with the chic Mrs. Sallie Rhea, one of my ancestors,  in the foreground.