Gothic Arch Challenge

Today's challenge at Gothic Arches is "Mona Lisa."  And since I have a stamp of Mona in an arch I could hardly pass it up.  I gave her a funky hat and some pearls though.  And placed her on an alcohol ink arch background which has a nice glimmer to it but doesn't quite show up in the scanned picture.

Stamp by Lost Cost Designs.

Gothic Arch Challenge

Made this for the Gothic Arch Challenge which was to make a fold out card.   I chose to make mine in the shape of an arch although you didn't have to.   Not bad for 2:30 in the morning, don't ya think?   I'll bet I'm the first one over there to post.........

Gothic Arch Challenge

The challenge at Gothic Arches today is tags.  How could I resist a tag challenge?  It gave me a chance to use some of my new Tim Holtz paper (which, to tell the truth, makes me feel guilty as it does a lot of the work for you). 

I also got to use one of my arch stamps from Invoke Arts as well as do some white embossing because Jacqueline has inspired me to do so.

I created a little door in my arch that opens up to show the image as shown in the second picture.

Gothic Arch Challenge -- Wild & Wacky

Well this was a challenge indeed -- Wild & Wacky -- from the Gothic Arch challenge site.

I had fun with it though.  Used my palm tree stamp for her hair and a spoon stamp for the arms.  The feet are a set of quotation marks.  It's fun to look beyond your stamps and see what else they could be.

Looking forward to seeing the other wacky artwork at:  http://gothicarches.blogspot.com/

Gothic Arch Challenge

The theme this week is "Paris Exposition."  I used an image from Graphic Fairy.  My Eiffel Tower is a tad crooked, but it was five o'clock in the morning when I created this. 

A fun theme this week.  You can see all the arches at http://gothicarches.blogspot.com/.

Gothic Arch Challenge -- Correspondence

I have the privilege this week of being Guest Hostess over at the Gothic Arch Challenge.  I chose the theme of "correspondence."  I've been wanting to ink up this angelic scribe stamp I acquired recently.  I think he's so sweet.

Hope you have time to join in this week's arch challenge!
You can find it here:  http://gothicarches.blogspot.com.

Gothic Arches -- Weddings

The Gothic Arch challenge this week gave me a chance to use a new arch stamp I bought at convention.  It's from Stamp Camp.   I stamped it on a background painted with gold Mica paints.   I then cut it out to use as my background for this wedding card.   I also added a vintage image I cut out from my stash of  '50s wedding cards.  Finally, I attached some gold leaf flowers from Making Memories and a rub-on sentiment.

Gothic Arch Challenge

I made this skinny arch for the challenge this week at Gothic Arches.   The theme was "shabby chic," and as part of the description was "romantic," you know I'd be in!

All kinds of new stuff were used for this skinny arch:

New vintage background stamp from StampinUp.  It's a border stamp I "unrolled."

New flowered background stamp I bought from Lost Coast Designs at the convention last weekend.

New lace strip I found at the antique mall yesterday.  A nice little bag of lace borders.

New Tim Holtz snaps I grabbed at the Convention because I heard he wasn't going to be selling

these anymore.

New image from Digital Collage Sheets (a few of these sheets were a birthday present to myself:)

Gothic Arch Challenge -- Domestic Goddess

The theme today at Gothic Arch challenge is domestic goddess -- which seems a good chance to make something a little fun and retro.

Gothic Arch Challenge

It took a bit of time to finish the Gothic Arch challenge this week which was to create a shrine. I'm ahead of the holidays here with my Valentine's Day box, but here it is anyway:) I altered the box I had to create an arch at the top.

Basic details: To create my shrine I used a book style box I had been saving for something just like this. I shaped the top of the front cover to create my arch. I applied a layer of gesso over the whole box.

Inside I pasted some book text. If you look closely, you'll see the word "disillusioned" at top which I thought went well with the theme. I then copied a vintage postcard (1915). I cut the sentiment from the postcard to use on the top of my Valentine's Box. My vintage postcard was then popped up over the text.

On the front I stamped some text and brick backgrounds. I added some German scrap roses and the pieces of my sentiment. Finally, I covered the whole box with a clear finish.

You can see all the other submissions at http://gothicarches.blogspot.com

Gothic Arches

Gothic Arches has a new home -- you can find the weekly challenge at http://gothicarches.blogspot.com. Personally, I'm glad to see it back on blogger:)

The challenge this week it to be inspired by the work of Lord Frederick Leighton. Not to be intimidated -- there's a link on Flickr to some of his fabulous works.

Gothic Arches -- Inventors

The theme at Gothic Arches this week is "Inventors."

George Ferris (1859-1896)

My nod to George Ferris, inventor of the Ferris Wheel, stems from some of his ties to my home state and city.

He was born in Galesburg, Illinois in 1859.

His claim to fame originated during the World's Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago, Illinois in 1893. Ferris desired to build a structure to outdo the Eiffel Tower which had been the centerpiece of the Paris Exhibition of 1889.

The rest, as they say, is history. Ferris' wheel, which was modeled after a bicycle wheel, was the hit of the Exhibition.

Gothic Arch Challenge - Fall

My contribution to the Gothic Arch challenge of "Fall."

Gothic Arches Turns Two

I can't believe the Gothic Arches site has been around for two years already! But they have and they are celebrating with some special challenges the next two weeks.

This week's theme was cupcakes, so I created my arch using my favorite cupcake stamp from Oxford Impressions.

Gothic Arch Challenge

Today's theme at Gothic Arches is "Little Boys."

Gothic Arch Challenge

I really liked the theme of this week's Gothic Arch Challenge which was Edgar Allan Poe. I didn't do any stamping on mine, but I used images from Digital Collage Sheets and the background is a page from one of the Stampington magazines.

Gothic Arch Challenge -- Roses

This is my "rose" arch for this week's challenge at Gothic Arches.

You can see all the other arches at http://gothicarches.ning.com.

Gothic Arches

The challenge at Gothic Arches today is to create an ATC sized arch. Which isn't so easy because by the time you create an arch on an ATC you haven't much space left to work with! I went off the page a little bit with my hanging frame and gold scrap, but otherwise I stayed inside the lines:)

You can see the other arches at http://gothicarches.ning.com.

Sunday Stuff

The theme at Gothic Arches is Postcards. So I made one reflelcting one of my favorite cities.

I actually own a house in London and travel there frequently -- oh, but that's the London in Kentucky:) Actually, the London in England is one of the places I most want to visit!

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For those that have been checking out my samples for the birthday celebration at the LSS, Craft Fancy, the day yesterday went very well. Had a lot of fun hanging on with these bloggers -- Michelle, Sarah, Martha, Marnie. And of course, one of the owners, Simone. Some very talented ladies!

Gothic Arch Challenge

The Gothic Arch Challenge is back after a few weeks and the theme is "black and yellow." I cut out an image from a a '50's cookbook to use as my main image.

The cake border is a stamp from StampinUp.