Creative Connections #4: Party Hats

It's the last Creative Connection of 2010! It's time to create a web of art which stretches to all kinds of wonderful places in the blogosphere!

This month's Creative Connection asks you put on your party hats! Put a party hat into your creation and then link up to us! Let's see how far we can get the party spirit to spread!

Once you have completed your Creative Connection art with a party hat included for your submission, upload it your own blog with a link to the blog where you first heard about this month’s Creative Connection (yes, this post counts) and a link to this post with the following text:

“I am participating in a GC Creative Connection. I heard about this month’s GCCC - Party Hats - from {insert artist name here} of {insert referring blog name and link here}. Why not play along? Post a creation to your blog mentioning my post and the Creative Connection post on Gingersnap Creations. Let’s all craft it forward and see how far we can get this connection to go!”

Then, come back and leave a comment here on the blog post so we can see all the gorgeous art that you have created!

Please note: to participate in this event, your blog post's main focus must be the Creative Connection.

To get us started, Sharon has created a silly sample to inspire you!

Artwork by Sharon Briss

Let's see how far we can get our Only One Creative Connection to go!

Fond Farewell to Katy Fox

As we say goodbye to 2010, we also are saying a fond farewell to one of our Gingers, Katy Fox.

Katy demonstrates such a wonderful range of styles and techniques in her art. From fresh and fun scrapbook layouts to amazingly beautiful and delicate cards, Katy wows us on a regular basis. Her sense of design and her amazing use of color and texture is captivating.

But, you don't have to take my word for it! Take a look yourself!



While her art will be missed on Gingersnap Creations, you can keep up with Katy on her blog, Postcards from the Attic, and in CraftStamper magazine.

We wish Katy all the best and a future of wondrous creativity, fabulous adventures and amazing art!

SP6: Once in a Blue Moon: Ginspiration

With 5 Wednesdays in December, it's time for our Once in a Blue Moon Challenge again!

For this extra special challenge, we've asked the Gingers, our Design Team, to give you lots of options for this challenge! So get ready for some

Ginspiration

to get those creative juices bubbling! Each participating Ginger has picked out their very own challenge topic for you! You get to pick which one suits you!

When the challenge closes on January 25, 2011, we will pick 10 Ginger Gems - fabulous creations that we feel really exemplify that challenge's objective. The Ginger Gems will appear in our wrap-up post and in a slide show in the blog bar for an entire week and their creators will have the honor of displaying our Ginger Gems blog badge.

For your chance to be eligible as a Ginger Gem or as a Home Page Artist, just follow the simple guidelines below:

1) Make a paper crafting or mixed media creation using one of the Ginger's challenges as your theme or inspiration;

2) Post your creation to your blog or online gallery with a mention and link to this post. Don't forget to mention which of the challenges you are completing; and

3) Come back to this post and leave a comment including a DIRECT link to your creation or use the linky application below. Remember to make it a link to the specific post or picture and not just a general link to your blog or gallery. We need to be able to find your art!

For more information on our challenges and directions on linking, please check out our FAQ page.

One random winner and ten Ginger Gems will be announced from the qualifying submissions on January 27, 2011. You have until January 25, 2011 to enter!

The Gingers'
Challenge Assignments
(pick one or more)

Stephanie is challenging you to
Use this Photo as Your Inspiration!

Here's what she made:

Artwork by Stephanie Severin


Petra is daring you to
Use Your Paper Scraps!

Artwork by Petra Berendsen


Jules is challenging you to
Stamp on Acrylic with Permanent Ink!

Artwork by Jules Eickmeier

Jo is daring you to go back
to basics with a Single Layer Card!

Artwork by Jo Capper-Sandon


Helene is challenging you to
CASE Your Favorite Blogosphere
Find and Make it Your Own!

Artwork by Helene Huber


Shar is daring you to
Use Labels Creatively!

Artwork by Sharon Briss

Can't wait to see what you create!

Petra Berendsen: Bleach Stamping

After the fabulous tutorials from Sharon, Jo and Debby, I want to share with you some bleach effects when using different types of stamps (rubber, foam and clear stamps) and papers (colour and texture).

Before starting the fun just a couple of notes about safety when stamping with bleach ... because you never know:

* Bleach can have quite a strong chemical smell, if possible use it in a well-ventilated area.
* It is useful to cover your work area well with lots of newspaper and to cover yourself with an apron.
* Please wash all the equipment which came into contact with bleach straight afterwards.

This is my equipment for the experiment. I used an old plastic container lined with paper towels as bleach stamp pad. Only a small amount of bleach is necessary to soak the paper towels. If there is too much bleach on the stamp, it will show ... it will all be bubbly. Just stamp it off on some newspaper.
1 All stamps worked well whereby the rubber stamp (middle) gave the sharpest image, the foam one (left) the boldest.
2 Different papers produced different results:
The more fibrous the paper is, the fuzzier the bleached image (left). Handmade paper with natural dyes (right) lost the colour and showed the natural fibres underneath. The more textured the paper is, the more incomplete is the bleached image (second from right).
Glossy shiny and patterned papers didn't bleach at all.
I achieved the best results with the light textured card above (second from left, 220 gsm) and Bazill card using the smooth side (below).
3 For the colour test I chose Bazill card (top) and recycled card. This was really interesting, I had imagined that the bleach effect would be deepest on dark paper ... well, I was sort of not quite right. Each colour, each different paper texture gives its own interesting bleach efffect.
4 I overstamped a couple of images (Brilliance ink) which gave a nice batik effect ... begging to be used as background, in individual pieces ... the possibilities are endless.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you give it a try and show us your creations! Happy bleaching, Petra.

Debby Boltman: Highlighting with Bleach

I thought it would be fun to highlight a majestic image with bleach.

So, I gathered my materials: Bleach pen. old disc for palette, old brush, embossing powder, Versamark and my majestic image, Lion from Hearts In Touch #85 Wild Animals Sheet.

I stamped the image with Versamark onto Safari Brown Skinny Column cardstock. Then sprinkled black embossing powder on the image and heat set.

I dabbed some bleach from the bleach pen on to my palette. Dipped the brush in and tried to grab a good amount of bleach on my brush and began dabbing around the Lions head to bleach the paper and highlight the image.

You can wait for the paper to change or be impatient like I am and give it some heat to change color quicker.

And a funny thing happened while I was hurrying the bleach along. I burned the edges of the image with the heat gun. Oh my. Was I thrilled with this? Yes! Gave the image and surrounding area a more rustic look. I loved it. So I purposefully burned the rest of the edges. :)

And added more bleach to certain areas in the process.

And sanded where I thought the bleach effect was too thick.

Bleach is fun. Use it with colored cardstock, splatter, stamp, paint, sprinkle, all sorts of options and a myriad of fun results. Hope you will give it a try and show us. Be sure to wear your bleach clothes or apron. Just because you never know....

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to viewing your bleach creations!

~Debby~

GC84: Color Challenge - Snow, Pine & Mahogany

Welcome to a new Gingersnap Creations Color Challenge! The snowy winter woods inspired our color choice this month, we challenge you to use

Snow, Pine & Mahogany

Artwork by Penny Bennington

When the challenge closes on January 23, 2011 we will pick 7 Ginger Gems - fabulous creations that we feel really exemplify that challenge's objective. The Ginger Gems will appear in our wrap-up post and in a slide show in the blog bar for an entire week and their creators will have the honor of displaying our Ginger Gems blog badge. In addition, we will pick one random winner, whose work will be featured on the Yahoo Group homepage and in the blog's sidebar.

For your chance to be eligible as a Ginger Gem or as a Home Page Artist, just follow the simple guidelines below:

1) Make a paper crafting or mixed media creation using the colors snow, pine and mahogany;

2) Post your creation to your blog or online gallery with a mention and link to this post; and

3) Come back to this post and leave a comment including a DIRECT link to your creation or use the linky application below. Remember to make it a link to the specific post or picture and not just a general link to your blog or gallery. We need to be able to find your art!

For more information on our challenges and directions on linking, please check out our FAQ page.

One random winner and seven Ginger Gems will be announced from the qualifying submissions on January 25, 2011. You have until January 23, 2011 to enter!

Check out this artwork from our fabulous Design Team!

The Gingers

Artwork by Jo Capper-Sandon

Artwork by Dan

Artwork by Petra Berendsen

Artwork by Jean Franks Beck

Artwork by Linda Ledbetter

Visiting Artists

Artwork by Sam Read

Artwork by Terry

Artwork by Maria Ontiveros

Have fun with the challenge - we can't wait to see what you create!

Wrap-Up: GC80 - Vintage Hues

Welcome to the wrap-up for the Vintage Hues challenge. We had over 60 beautiful vintage inspired entries, including lots of our previous Visiting Artists and Muses. Enjoy!

This week's randomly drawn Home Page Artist is

Libeeti
from
Creations with Love

Congratulations, Libeeti. Your artwork will be showcased on the Home Page of the Gingersnap Creations Yahoo Group as well as on the sidebar on the blog.

Now, onto our fabulous Ginger Gems. When each challenge closes, we also pick 7 Ginger Gems - fabulous creations that we feel really exemplify that challenge's objective. The Ginger Gems appear in a slide show in the blog sidebar for the entire week, as well as in this wrap-up post, and their creators have the honor of displaying this Ginger Gems blog badge.

For more information about Ginger Gems and entering our challenges, please visit the FAQ page.

Ginger Gems

Created by Kathleen

Created by Meggymay

Created by Linda

Created by Sarah

Created by Tina

Created by Debi

Created by Electra

We hope you'll take a minute to stop by the Gems' blogs and congratulate them!

Special Guests

Created by former Visiting Artist, Daniele Haddon

Created by former Design Team member, Irit Shalom

Created by former Monthly Muse, Kris Dickinson

Created by former Visiting Artist, Linda

Created by former Visiting Artist, Netty Goatley

Created by former Monthly Muse, Peggy Gatto

Come back tomorrow for a new Color Challenge.