Rogue Redhead: A Finale!

I'm sad to say this is my last post for Rogue Redhead Designs.   I'm stepping down from the design team.  I've started the process to get my basement finished (into a "mancave with girlie parts" (or in other words a craft room to die for!!!)).  With that going on I felt I needed to step down.

Here's a little tutorial of how I created this canvas. (note: after each step I dry the canvas with my heat gun.)

I started with a 4x5 canvas, some paints, gel medium, and paper scraps.

I painted a rough background on to the canvas (and on the sides). I do this just because the paper won't reach to the edges and it keeps the edges from sticking out.

I covered the dried painted background with gel medium, layered the paper on, and added more gel medium over the paper. I use a matte finish gel medium.

Next using solvent or oil based inks randomly stamp all over. I used stamps and "found items" (shelf liner, bubble wrap, spray can lids, etc). This is an ongoing step as the layers go down. If you feel it needs more stamping...STAMP!!

I sprayed color in the corner over a mask. I should have put the stamped BEACH BABES down first, but as you can tell, in the end it didn't matter.

I stamped the BEACH BABES on scrap paper and glued down with more gel medium.

To distress the image I used India Ink pens and my finger to add color and then rub it out.

Use a gel pen to add detail to the distressed image. (and notice there was more stamping going down...)

I just bought this Inca Gold - it's a waxy color. I rubbed some along the edges and corners. Buff it with a rag.

After adding the flowers and shells (or between layers to keep them from running) spray with "Workable Fixative". This will give it a nice shine!

So here are some close ups of the final image. After I had the layer of fixative on, I decided to add the sentiment. Just goes to show you...you can't make a mistake and more layers are always good!

Thanks so much to Shar for inviting me a year ago to join the team and allowing me to play with her great stamp sets!


(On this canvas I used Beach Babes, Floriculture, and Relish Reading)

Gingersnap Creations: Altered Cabinet Cards

Oh, I don’t know where to start!

First, this is my last tutorial for Gingersnap Creations…I’ve had such a great time this last year sharing some of my creative journey with you.  Thank you Shar & Ali for your leadership!

Second, I was so excited to see this month’s HERITAGE theme. For the last 10-15 years, I’ve been an avid genealogist. I am currently the archivist of my family’s stories, photos, and details. I’ve bugged my Mom and Aunts relentlessly to share with me their knowledge. They’ve been very generous with their time and stash of photos. A large amount of those photos came as CABINET CARDS. Cabinet cards became popular after the Civil War (cir 1870-1880) as portrait photography. They are generally 4x6, black and white (sometimes hand-tinted), on sturdy pressed paper cards.

Third, Let me say…this is MY METHOD for cropping, resizing, and adjusting photos. I know there are easier ways (for example, it can all be done in Photoshop) but this works for me. Please adjust to meet your needs.

So let's play with 3 of my favorite “Great-greats"!

Meet my Great-great-grandfather, Nels Anderson. Nels left southwestern Norway in 1856 at the age of 20. He settled in Wisconsin and worked for several years as a farm hand. When he had $300 saved he went back to New York, got on a ship bound for Panama, WALKED across the Panama Isthmus, got on another ship bound for San Francisco, and joined the California gold rush (10 years late - 1859). What he did there remains a mystery (for now - I'm hoping to find out one day), but he eventually returned to Wisconsin and married Christina (below).

I started by scanning Nel’s photo. I crop and resize in Microsoft Office 2010 (in earlier editions it’s called Microsoft Office Picture Manager). Select your photo in the folder, right click, selected “OPEN WITH” select Picture Manager (you can check the box at the bottom to make this standard), and EDIT the photo. If you make it a standard, you can right click and EDIT, without the other steps.

I start by cropping to the size I want. Use your mouse to move the brackets to frame the edges of the photo. I didn’t need all the white cardstock around the photo, so I removed it.

Next I resize. This just means making it a standard pixel size. You probably won’t notice a difference other than the size of the JPEG file. I always select WEB – LARGE 640x480.

And then I save and exit from Picture Manager.

***WARNING: I have Photoshop – but I’m new to it and can’t do much other than adjust the light/dark settings.***

Press Ctrl+L ("Ctrl+L" = pressing both the Ctrl key and L at the same time) and the little levels box will display. I move the arrows in on both sides until they are under the first spike. You can move the middle arrow to the left to lighten the picture. Press OK. This is generally where I finish editing my pictures. Ctrl+S will bring up the Save box.

But I wanted to try colorizing Nels for this project. (I removed the background but it's not necessary.) Under WINDOWS open the EFFECTS - PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFECTS. Click on one of the colors and drag to your photo. Ctrl+z will reverse the colorization. When you're happy -- SAVE IT!

So, let’s be honest here…I love Nels’ beard but honestly he looks a bit like a garden gnome. (am I right?)  So I paired him with Retro Art Café’s Vintage Botanical Images Collage Sheet by Debrina Pratt - DP188.  (I think he's approve of being a gnome...he was a farmer after all).

Just a final note. I also have received a few tintypes (depending on the developing method they are called different things, tintype is a generic term). These are photographs that were chemically etched onto tin/metal sheets. Exposure to light and air degrades the image over time. Most of the tintypes I have now are nearly black.   As a result the images are almost gone. To my knowledge there is nothing you can do to restore the image on the metal. If you have any tintypes, I encourage you to get them scanned and digitally preserved ASAP! If you don’t have a scanner, most copy shops can do it for you. A one-time scan will not do more damage, but will preserve the image for future generations.

I used Photoshop to clean up these two tintypes:

 My Great-great-grandfather, John Quammen.

My Great-great-grandmother, Christina Williams Anderson (Nel’s wife).

And here they are “Glammed Up” on those great Retro Art Café backgrounds!

I hope I’ve inspired you to preserve (and have a little fun with) your ancestors!!

Gingersnap Creations: Beeswax

Please hop on over to Gingersnap Creations for a step-by-step on my creative journey with beeswax.


I can't say it's a tutorial but I do share what worked and didn't work for me.

GC120 Turquoise, Blue, and Purple

Over at Gingersnap Creations we're wrapping up Friendship month with a GORGEOUS color challenge! Turquoise, Blue, and Purple...yum!


I wanted to play around with these colors in a background.

I've had the Navy Pearl and Purple Pearl Lumiere for a LONG while (to the point where I was slightly worried they'd be dried out). I've had the turquoise (Stream) Dimensional Pearls almost as long. At any rate, I decided to mix the color into modeling paste. I played with the paste a bit on my She Art girls and love the way it kept it's shape after the mask is removed.

So I took a bit of paste out of the jar, added a squirt of turquoise (in the end I added a 2nd squirt)...

... and mixed it up!

I tried to get some texture with a mask, but the color made the modeling paste too "unstable". Instead of neat little circles from the mask, I just got peaks.

On the other side of the paper, I put two good-sized drops of Lumiere on the page and used a hotel key card to scrap it off/around.

Eventually, I over-lapped the peaks and just went for a "plaster" look. There is surprisingly a lot of texture left when it dried.

And the color is GORGEOUS! I sprinkled some glass glitter on and let it dry over night.

I hope you join in the color fun! You have a month to post your creation and link it to the Gingersnap Creation blog. You just might be named a GINGER GEM!

Watercolor Spotlight

Stop by Gingersnap Creations on a quick tutorial on how I spotlighted this image!


Stamp by Lost Coast Designs

Sewing Machine

Today on the Gingersnap Creations blog, I have a tutorial.

When I first saw the machine theme for this month, my first thought was SEWING MACHINE! I love the look of stitching on cards. It adds such a nice, subtle detail. But I've spent the last 3.5 months (we get the themes very early on) pondering what kind of tutorial to do for the SEWING MACHINE.

I mean....you either own a machine and know how to use it OR you don't own a machine and it's a mute point. Right?

Then this past week I learned the COOLEST photo transfer technique in a class I' m taking and the ideas started rolling around. So forgive me for taking a slight turn...I promise to include the sewing machine too!

These are just the close-ups of the piece.

Stamps: just a clock stamp...but I can't remember what company
Ink: Distress Ink (Pumice Stone and Fired Brick)
Paper: 6x6 manila square, 7 Gypsies LILLE paper, sticky back canvas (ATC sized)
Clip Art: Dezinaworld Steampunk 4
Accessories: 7 Gypsies rub-ons, Tim Holtz gears & mini bottles, Stampin Up! mini tag punch, red Stampers Floss, red glitter, sequin waste, red wire, Tim's tiny attacher, sewing machine/red thread, Copics, black reinker, mini brads.

The image is a Dezinaworld clip art photo on sticky backed canvas. I also used Tim Holtz gears, mini glass bottle, and some 7 Gypsies rub-ons. And some red glitter for "time in a bottle". (wink)

A few more rub-ons, sequin waste, and red wire wrapped into a coil.

I hope you'll stop over to Gingersnap Creations and read the tutorial!!

Tyvek Backgrounds - Tutorial

As promised on Wednesday, here's my Gingersnap Creations BAG & TAG! For a complete tutorial on these Tyvek Backgrounds - please visit the Gingersnap Creations blog!!

Finished bag & tag.

Close up of finished bag front.

Tag - from Wednesday's post.

Gingersnap Creations: TEA BAG TEMPLATE

Today's Random Redhead Challenge a TEA BAG TEMPLATE.

I wanted to do something a bit different with the tea bag template. AND I wanted to make a Valentine gift for my mom. The original template is posted here. I bumped up the size of the tea bag template just a bit and made a mini album with some pictures I took at Christmas. The mini album is titled GG's BB (Great Grandma's Brag Book).

Stamps: Stampin Up! NOTABLY ORNATE
Paper: River Rock
Ink: River Rock, Archival Coffee
Accessories: glitter letters, Prima rose, Basic Grey magnet, Scrapper's Floss


I increased the size of the template just a enough to hold 4x4 pictures. The width is 4.5" (not 3.5" ) and the length is 12" (scored at 5", 5.5", 6", and 11").

I used magnets on the inside flaps.

I cut 3 sets of pages 4" x 9.5" and scored in the middle. This gave me 6 pages for pictures. I used my paper piercer to make holes in the center at 3/4", 2", and 3 1/4". I placed the pages inside the tea bag and punched again.

I used scrapper's floss as binding thread. It's a simple figure eight. The ends of the floss come from the inside to the outside - end and center holes. The thread from the center goes into the other side and out through the middle again.

Then the threads are pulled tight.

And a knot is tied near the outside center. There's a photo section in each tea bag valley.

I picked some of my favorite pictures from our Christmas trip to meet Julian and used Photoshop to make them sepia toned. I printed 4" x 6" but trimmed them down to 4" x 4".

I left pages blank for future additions...

..and included a picture of all the family members. (Here's my nephew, Adam, who finally out grew Grandma).

If you'd like to play along with the Gingers, you have a MONTH to post your interpretation of the TEA BAG TEMPLATE on the Gingersnap Creation's post. Be sure to stop by here and leave me a link to your creation too!

See you next week!