Hey, that sounds kind of porno, huh?  Not intentional, it's just a G-rated greeting card.

I made this with silver and black embossing powders using a pink notecard I got at Target and a light pink paint chip - (thanks for the free craftin' supplies Home Depot!!)

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/drgflycard.gif

Thanks for looking! 

These are a blast to make!!  I always wreck about half of them, but that's part of the fun.  You can get a big tin of dominoes at Target for about $7 - you can make a ton of pins and you get a tin to decorate too!

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/dom3.gif

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/dom2.gif

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/dom1.gif

Thanks for looking! 

My gal pal is getting her Masters in Education this weekend (she's a teacher). I need to bring her a gift, but I have no idea what! She's very girlie, and likes country music.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated - I need to pull something together in a hurry!

I *love* old movies and am fascinated by the (often tragic but sooo interesting) lives of screen goddesses of bygone eras ... I also wanted to play around with some new paper techniques I am working on..  so I decided to make a movie star book with some of my fave screen divas for fun.  It's still in progress but here's what I got so far...

(it looks simple, and actually it pretty much is  - but if you only knew how many hours I've put into this silly thing so far!!!)

(hard to see in the pix, but the pages are cut out so you can see thru to the next page)

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/leg1.gif

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/leg2.gif

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/leg3.gif

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/leg3b.gif

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/legx.gif

Still in progress so more to come :-) thanks for looking!!

My sweetie gave me an AOL tin to play with this weekend (he didn't even want it.. go figure ) so I made this...


http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/aolt1.gif

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/aolt3.gif

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/aolt2.gif

Check out my groovilicious newly retooled b/c dispenser!

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/bc3.gif

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/bc4.gif

( I got the idea for this from the awesome " Decopaged Birth Control!" thread by kidkoala at http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=38825.0 )

I was totally inspired by kidkoala's b/c dispenser art so I decided to try my hand at something with mine....

Here's what I started out with:

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/bc1.gif

Then I covered it with some gold UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) and fired it up with a heat gun:

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/bc2.gif

It only took 2 coats to get a nice smooth gold sheen.  Then I added the sequins and rose.  Super fun to make - I wish I had another one, I could make these all day!!

Well, I just finished up my first mag ad ever this week ...  It will be in the next issue of Bust and I am super excited. Hooray!!!

... I hope it looks as good in print as it did in Photoshop, but that's a discussion for another thread...

Bust had an *awesome* deal for small-biz-gals like me that I could actually afford, and I think that other Bust-y type gals will dig and appreciate my stuff and not just think it's weird.  That's my hope, anyway.

Anyhoo, I would like to place a few more ads in other mags & wonder if anyone has suggestions. I'm poor, so they have to be rea$onably priced, and I'm hoping to reach other folks who are cool & crafty & might have a use for my rubber stamps.  Ideas, anyone?  Or first hand-tales of the results you got from various ads? Any info/advice I can get before plopping down more $$$ would be greatly appreciated.
 

I'm looking forward to any advice ... (help!)  Big (virtual) hugs and kisses to anyone can help!!

I got Dead Can Dance tickets for one of my boyfiend's birthday gifts & was looking for a creative way to wrap them up...

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/dcd2.gif

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/dcd1.gif

I searched the web and found a pretty image from one of their albums, printed it off on grey paper, and tinted it like an old photo using a cotton swab and colorbox inks.  

When I was done, I went over the whole thing with clear embossing ink & embossed it all so it has a bumpy glasslike sheen (hard to see in the pix), mounted it on cardstock, and cropped it to mount on a white background. I popped it in a frame & in the back I used another album cover image on cardstock & cut a slit to hold the tickets..

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/dcd3.gif

I wrapped it backwards, so when he opened it, he would see the front first and think that was the whole gift.  Then when he flipped it over, he saw the secret surprise!

Unfortunately, ticketmaster didn't send the tix in time so I made some fake ones with rubber stamps - on the back it says "Pretend these are real - I got two tickets to Dead can Dance!!" It says some mushy stuff too, but I'll keep that part to myself  

I'm in the process of making 75 of these for a stamp zine I'm contributing to.  So far I've only made 20... it's a lot of work making the same thing 75 times!!  I'm taking a break so I thought I'd float one up here and see what y'all thought.

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/sidsm.gif

Each page is 8 1/2 x 11.  Here's a detail of the sid face:

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/sidface.gif

So I started out making a card for my boyfreind's birthday and I ended up making a matchbook shrine instead.  (Don't worry -  I got him real gifts too!!) I was going to put a picture of him but he is super wierd about pictures, so I knew it would end up in a drawer if I did. So, I made him a shrine of me!! He only has one pic of me and it's super old. Hopefully this will get a choice spot on his desk so he can think about me longingly when he gazes at it! 

For some reason the scanner pooped out all my colors - in real life they are a lot more vibrant & loud!!

I kind of want to put some kind of romantic message on the back but I can't think what yet.  Hopefully I'll figure it out soon.. his birthday is tomorrow! Suggestions welcome!!!

http://www.astaarts.com/craftster/meshrine.gif