Gecko Galz In the Garden

Busy day today.  Click HERE for The East Wind.

                         Click HERE for Lacy Sunshine.  

It's the first of the month so that also means a new Challenge at Gecko Galz. Our new theme is In the Garden.  

I've made a card using the "pyramage technique".  First I chose a paper from the Victorian Garden Papers (from the March Victorian Spring Club Kit, sized at 4 1/2" x 6" ), an image from the In the Garden Collage set and a floral frame from the Victorian Spring Icons (also from the Club Kit) and sized, layered and printed them using my Printmaster Platinum program.  The layered card front was cut out and inked around the edges with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and adhered to a  5" x 6 1/2" card base.

I also printed the collage image separately 4 more times and the floral frame once more as well. To do the "pyramage technique", using my Spellbinders Classic ovals, I cut concentric ovals from the 4 unlayered collage images, starting with the largest one first.  I then used the image with the cut out to place the next smaller oval die on the next image, carefully taping with removable tape, and so on, so that when the die cut ovals are layered and popped with adhesive foam, they form the complete picture. (P.S. You can use the images with the cut outs to do a second card in the reverse, if you wish)

The extra frame was fussy cut and I went around the edges both inside and out with the side of a yellow green Copic marker because it was too difficult to ink but I wanted the raw edges colored. The card was finished off with a triple bow from died seam binding and a crocheted butterfly from my stash.  Be sure to visit the Challenge blog and drool over the vintage goodness from my teamies. Come play along with us, you have all month to join in.

I'm entering this in the Simon Says Monday ATG Challenge, My Sheri Crafts Welcome Spring, The Stamping Boutique More Than One Layer, Creative Knockouts Lots of Layers, Southern Girls Get Your Girly On, the Crafter's Cafe Lots of Layers, Crafting for All Seasons Dies and/or Punches and Simon Says Wednesday ATG.

Smeared and Smudged Guest Designer Challenge and BOTH Blog Hop Winners

I'm thrilled to be Guest Designer this month Smeared and Smudged Forum. Not famliar with Smeared and Smudged? Well, it's a fun, supportive group of "alternative" stampers, hosted by the fab owners of Smeared Ink Stamps. Each month there are a number of different challenges and I was lucky enough to be asked to host the November GDT Challenge. I've used an image from the Smeared Ink Smitten digi set, also available as a single HERE. I chose the image because I'm trying to convince myself that a butt the size of Cleveland can be a GOOD thing since my diet and exercise regimen is not yielding the rapid results I'd hoped for and I'm about ready to eat the furniture. LOL I've added dimension using the pyramage technique with my Nesties. Have you guessed the challenge yet? Well, check it out HERE. I'd love to have you join the forum (just ask) and my challenge this month. And BTW, you get a free digi just for entering. WooHoo!

Now on to the Blog Hop Winners! First, the winner of the BBTB2 Blog Hop and the $40 Gift Certificate from Custom Crops is LUCKY NUMBER 13! Thank you so much Custom Crops for your generous sponsorship!

WOOHOO! Congratulations RO, who wrote:

Now on to the Dia De Los Muertos Blog Hop and the winner of the Cuttlebug With Gratitude Card Making Combo is #15

Congratulations to Ruthie Lopez who wrote:

I want to thank all of you for partcipating in both hops. There are an awful lot of blog hops these days and I really appreciate that you took the time to visit and comment. Winners, please email me at dlmundinger(at)yahoo(dot)com to arrange for your prizes

The Cuttlebug Spot Hat Pins Challenge

This month The Cuttlebug Spot is all about embellishments and our first week features hat or corsage pins. Some of us (like me) used manufactured pins (my little hearts are from Maya Road) while others made gorgeous ones using beads and pearls. Our own Theresa has a wonderful video on making your own right on The Cuttlebug Spot this week. My card is a sort of "Welcome Spring" card using the pyramage technique. I originally saw this technique on Sherry Cheever's Blog and she has a video HERE. The image was a freebie from ? and I used my Nesties Lables Nine for the layers. The embossed frame is from the Heritage Cuttlebug Companion set . The pretty velvet leaves are from 7 Gypsies.

I inked the frame to bring out the embossing a bit and popped it. Usually when I cut a frame in a mat I use a larger Nestie so the underlying mat shows around the image, but I'd used all 5 of the Nesties in the set for my image so I had nothing larger. I still like the fact that it is slighty recessed, though. The rest of the team has done a fabulous job with the challenge so stop by the Cuttlebug Spot and we invite you to play along for a chance to win a $ 20.00 gift certificate from Custom Crops. But remember, although the challenge is about embellishments, we still expect you to use your Cuttlebug or similar machine somewhere on your card.

Happy New Year at the Cuttlebug Spot

Since this is the last challenge for The Cuttlebug Spot until after the New Year, we're celebrating 2011. Had a bit of a tough time with this since I'm not even close to being ready for Christmas, so the thought of New Year's puts me over the edge) but I browsed through my pics for something "New Year's related" and came across this vintage photo from (?) and thought it was a hoot. I printed it 4 times and cut it out with decreasing sizes of my Nesties Classic Rectangles so I could get the pyramage effect. The fun shaped mats behind are Nesties Wonky Squares (I even love the name!) and the white one is embossed with the Cuttlebug Seeing Spots folder. (Looked like all the bubbles in the photo) The larger mat is cut from holographic paper which was sort of difficult to cut because there's a thin sort of plastic coating which didn't want to cut through, even after running is serveral times through the Cuttlebug. The groove was certainly enough to allow me to carefully follow the lines with my scissors, though. Phew! the large black mat is embossed with the Cuttlbug Polka Dots folder which is 5x7. Wish they all were.

The image layers were popped to give the 3D effect and I thought the tinselly fiber looked sort of festive and vintage. 2011 is cut with the Quickutz Haunted Mini Alphabet. (Yes, I know it looks like the Cricut Blackletter font, but I really try hard to keep my Cuttlebug Spot cards all Cuttlebug whenever possible.) The stars are peelies. So I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season but still has time to stop over to The Cuttlebug Spot to see the rest of the DT projects, which are infinitely more creative than mine. Nilda is even giving you a break by only requiring a comment to be in the running for this week's prize from The Craft Barn. Okay, gotta go. Another hair appointment and then back to the city. When the heck I'm I gonna finish my decorating?