When Nature Calls

I have a secret that I’m itching to share.  Here’s a hint…

Butterflies, beetles, caterpillars…hmm…

Flowers, fabric…are those bees on that fabulous lace?  I think so…

Okay kids, I can’t contain myself any longer– this latest kit is entitled “Nature Calls”, and as you can see, it is filled with all kinds of little critters, flora and greenery, featuring colours from nature.  In case you need even more specifics, here’s the nitty gritty:

-1 metal beetle paper clip
-1 circular felt dragonfly doily
-EITHER a Plaid cork bee stamp OR 1-2 acrylic butterfly stamps
-several paper flowers in different colors
-5 different bug brads
-1 square enamel brad
-2 rhinestone-embellished butterflies
-2 feather butterflies (1 large, 1 small)
-plastic barrette
-3 fabric butterfly appliques
-2 google eyes
-several rhinestones
-1 plastic bug
-2 fabric swatches – 1 sage green with butterflies and 1 bumble-bee lace
-3 butterfly sequins
-5 foam bugs
-5 wire paper leaves
-1 12×12″ sheet Basic Grey Wisteria dragonfly paper
-1 paper napkin
-1 package Making Memories mini-alpha stickers (spiderweb)
-1 piece ATC paper
-1 swatch window screen
-1 piece bumble-bee wallpaper
-several orange butterfly beads
-1 12″ piece teal leaf punchinella/sequin waste
-7 pieces vintage paper/ephemera
-1 12×12″ sheet Making Memories polka-dot enameled paper
-3 8.5×11″ sheets Bazzill cardstock

See why I’m so giddy?  PLUS, we’re offering free US shipping!  Please stop by our store to get your hands on this limited edition kit.  It’s perfect for scrapbooking your summer adventures…or how ’bout a garden-themed mixed media piece?  I think there may be a mini-book in store for me!

Here’s a peek at the coordinating collage sheet, which is also available in our shop:

We are very proud to also feature our partners, Bombshell Stamps, as a perfectly coordinating product for this kit:

If you haven’t tried Bombshell Stamps, they are amazing!!!  Visit our shop to pick up these lovely collection, entitled Butterfly Dreams!

Don’t forget to scroll down to see what other excitement is afoot here in Gaucheland!  xoxox

When Nature Calls, You Gotta Get Sketchy

Hi everyone!

Maggi here, ready to announce our newest chance for you to win some rockin’ Gauche Alchemy goodness! I’m pleased as punch to tell you that for the month of September, Gauche Alchemy is sponsoring the Sketchy Thursdays Challenge Blog!

Sketchy Thursdays is a fun challenge blog that uses sketches as inspiration for your creations and we here at GA are super excited because we’ve decided to give one lucky participant our new kit, Nature Calls!

For your creative consideration and to use for this challenge, here is the sketch:

Our DT took this sketch, made it their own (in a sort of “smack it up, flip it, rub it down” if you will ) and here are their fabulous projects!

Pam:

I made a card using pieces from the Lady Marmalade and Black Out Mixed Media Color Kits. I am trying hard to use my stash up and have a sheet of boy rubons sent to me when I was on the Kaisercraft DT. They are not the kind of things I would put on a boy scrapbook page though, so I decided to make a card for my 17 year old daughter who is about to leave home to go to university. I don’t think 17 is too young to develop some good healthy cynicism-so this card is to remind her that while many girls wear their hearts on their sleeves, many boys wear their hearts in their trousers!!-so take care!

Yvonne:

I made this layout using the BabyKiddoCutie Paper Craft Kit!

Carmen:

I swear, I SWEAR I was going for kitsch and cute with this. One little Glossy Accents accident on the napkin, I turned her into a zombie to cover it up and… well… I have no defense! Still, What better way to take your mind off being undead than to serve up some brain pie, eh? Mmmm…Brains. *g*  I used the Paper Napkin Art Kit, some Ouchless Cardboard and some bits from Banana Hammock, Black Out and Pink Parts Mixed Media Color Kits.

Stephanie:

I used this sketch as inspiration to create my very first art journal – this is the cover. I used some patterned paper and rub-ons from the BabyKiddoCutie Paper Craft Kit, some Punchinella for stenciling (and Glimmer Mist to spray through it), some random pieces from the Wholey Sheet Kit, some white acrylic paint and some random ‘stuff’ from my stash. Basically, I just sprayed, painted and glued until things were glitzy enough for my magpie self, and the only guideline I was working with was hoping to end up with the final result looking at least slightly like the sketch! (LOL!)

Kas:

The green triangle and cut-out flower are from a wallpaper sample in the Wholey Sheet Kit. I added 2 different pieces of Punchinella to the side. My daughter was 5 in this picture so the money from the Pink Parts Mixed Media Color Kit was just perfect. The butterfly and sequins are from the Wedding Night Mixed Media Color Kit. The buttons and plastic flowers are from the Pink Parts and Envy Mixed Media Color Kits. The doily was from the Kitch Delish Paper Craft Kit.

Merdrey:

Here’s my take on the sketch! I rotated it 90 degrees counter clockwise so it is somewhat like a pyramid!

I used the Wedding Night Mixed Media Color Kit (square button, white fabric leaves, pom-poms), Ouchless Cardboard, Punchinella and the piece of paper that says ‘A Few Notes’.

Angela:

I used the Wholey Sheet Kit, Ouchless Cardboard, Scarlet Fever Mixed Media Color Kit, Punchinella, American Crafts Thickers and free stickers collected in Little 5 Points. The patterned paper is a photograph I took in Little 5 Points in Atlanta that I had made into 12×12 scrapbook paper at craftassy.com.

Deb:

Now that you’ve seen the Design Team’s take on the sketch, head on over to the Sketchy Thursdays Challenge Blog to see their DT’s creations and to link up your own for a chance to win our newest kit, Nature Calls!

Now go glue something awesome onto some awesome something! 

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Want to know what else is brewing at Gauche Alchemy?

Get our ACME kit delivered to your door every month with our ACME Subscription service!
Go shopping for your own Gauche goodies in our rockin’ Store!
E-mail us anytime: gauchealchemy@cox.net
Join the Gauche party on Facebook!
Stalk us on Twitter!
Drool over Gauche creations and add your own in our Flickr Group!

FRONT PAGE NEWS: Gauche Alchemy in Scrap n’ Art magazine!

Gauche Alchemy is proud to announce that we are featured in the Fall 2010 issue of Scrap n’ Art magazine!  Our products and kits are showcased in the “Electic Ephemera” section of this incredible scrapbooking and paper crafting magazine, and you won’t believe the awesome projects that the Scrap n’ Art designers cooked up with Gauchey Goodies.

(and you WILL NOT want to miss the fabulous coupon that Gauche Alchemy has hidden within this issue!  Shhhhhhhh!  It’s top secret!)

Scrap n’ Art magazine is quite a steal at just $9.99 for four issues per year – and each of those issues is jam-packed with over 100 pages of professional-quality scrapbook layouts, cards, mixed-media and altered items, ATCs, and so much more.  And if you love to learn new techniques, then Scrap n’ Art is the mag for you.  Each issue contains tons of unique tutorials and step-by-step projects, complete with color photos.

WIN A YEAR’S SUBSCRIPTION TO SCRAP N’ ART!

Yep, you heard me right.  The nice folks over at SNA are giving away free yearly subscriptions to FIVE lucky Gauche Alchemy blog commenters.  So make sure you leave a comment to this post!  Deadline for entry is Friday, September 10th, noon EST.  Winners will be picked at random from comments, and will be announced here.

Introducing Alchemist Pam!

Hi, Pam here with my first blog post as a Design Team member of Gauche Alchemy. I am so happy to be designing for GA-and am relishing the opportunity to challenge my creativity through the use of the quirky GA kits.

I thought for my first blog post I would tell you a little about me, by showing you some of my work from over the years…

I am Australian by nationality but have lived in beautiful Edinburgh, in bonny Scotland for 22 years, with my husband Malcolm and two kids, Jack and Emily.

We are lucky enough to have Europe on our doorstep and love to travel.

As a family we love to go camping- (Below made using Gauche Alchemy’s ‘Pitching a Tent’ kit)

My artistic endeavours started when I took up scrapbooking, but over the years have extended into mixed media projects…

And photography…

I live an ordinary life…

I get so much personal pleasure and satisfaction from from cutting and pasting, painting and inking and as an added bonus my children have a record of their lives. Future generations will get a glimpse into our lives and the people that we were. All good reasons to keep playing with art!!

Keep visiting this blog for lots of artistic inspiration!!

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Want to know what else is brewing at Gauche Alchemy?

Get our ACME kit delivered to your door every month with our ACME Subscription service!
Go shopping for your own Gauche goodies in our rockin’ Store!
E-mail us anytime: gauchealchemy@cox.net
Join the Gauche party on Facebook!
Stalk us on Twitter!
Drool over Gauche creations and add your own in our Flickr Group!

Theme Day is in The Cards

Hi everyone!

Maggi here with this month’s Theme Day! Today we’re talking all about ATCs and I cannot wait to show you the Design Team’s creations!

ATC stands for “Artist Trading Card”, think like a baseball card for artists. They can be made of anything on any subject but they have to be 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 in size. You can keep your ATCs for your greedy little self or “trade” them with other ATC artists. There’s even an entire forum, ATCs for All that is dedicated just to Artist Trading Cards. But enough chit chat, on to the cards!

Kas:

I made this ATC using the ACME Kit and the Kitsch Delish Kit.

Deb made this awesome ATC, complete with spinning disk!

Pam:

I used braille paper from the Wholey Sheet Kit and rivet/stud thingy from the Wedding Night Mixed Media Color Kit. LOVE that bit of paper with Braille writing!

Erika made these two pretty ATCs:

Yvonne:

I did a little masking on canvas paper and used Ouchless Cardboard and parts from the It’s All Gravy, Baby, Lady Marmelade and Envy Mixed Media Color Kits.

Carmen:

I started off with a cardboard label from a t-shirt as my base and used distress ink and acrylic paint on it (mainly to bring out the raven, love raven images) I used bits from Black Out (the dagger, which I alcohol inked), Purple People Eater and Scarlet Fever Mixed Media Color Kits.

Merdrey:

This ATC is titled “LOVE makes the world go round”! Mounted in a frame =) I used the Ouchless Cardboard as a base..topped off with the punchinella and stuff from the Pink Parts and Banana Hammock Mixed Media Color Kits!

And there you have it!  ATCs out the wazoo for your eye candy enjoyment.    Do you create ATCs?  What’s your favorite ATC technique?  We’d love to see your ATCs so why not share them in our Flickr Group?

Now go glue something awesome onto some awesome something! 

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Want to know what else is brewing at Gauche Alchemy?

Get our ACME kit delivered to your door every month with our ACME Subscription service!
Go shopping for your own Gauche goodies in our rockin’ Store!
E-mail us anytime: gauchealchemy@cox.net
Join the Gauche party on Facebook!
Stalk us on Twitter!
Drool over Gauche creations and add your own in our Flickr Group!

Hot Hot Hop!

If you’ve joined us from the Bombshell Stamp/Gauche Alchemy blog hop, welcome!  The theme of this blog hop is HOT HOT HOT!  Perhaps you love (as do I) Marilyn Monroe’s whimsical ways in the movie “Some Like it Hot”…or hot rod cars, or a hot tamale (do they still make that candy?).  For Amy and I who live in the wretched desert of Phoenix, the word hot is something very specific and tangible to us…like the 115 degree day we enjoyed today!

All sweating aside, I’d like to suggest that HOT is more that just a temperature; it’s a state of mind.

Feeling inspired, I decided to create a little card in honor of summer.  I used some of the cardstock and vintage children’s books featured in the premier installment of our Acme kit subscriptions.  I then added some embellishments from the the Blue Streak color kit, and used the Tattoo font stamps from Bombshell to give it a happy title.

Don’t you love the pink tile in our master bathroom– circa 1957, I believe!

Well, you’ve got alot of hopping to do, so you better get on with it! But before you go, please leave a comment here; the Gauche Alchemy prize for this hop will be a random drawing from the commenters on THIS post for a triple color kit with Banana Hammock, Lady Marmalade, and Scarlet Fever.

Here’s the list…make sure to say hi to all the girls and see what hot hot ideas they’ve come up with!
Kas
Gauche Alchemy **you are here**
Kelli
Maggi
Katie
Cheryl
Angela
Erika
Kathi
Pam
Sy
Meredith
Laura
Merdrey Chew
Angie
Yvonne
Steph
Carmen
Terra
Alaine
Alison

Ode to Tape – Revisited

Really … tape image transferring is too kewl to rule!
It’s also this months Reader Challenge! And we’ve already seen some amazing work … come on and show us more!
Link your work up to this post before Sunday August 29 and be the running for a $10 Gift Certificate to the Gauche Alchemy Artfire Store!

Kas showed us how to make this framed piece in a packing tape tutorial a couple of months ago:

Now, lets see what some of the other alchemists came up with!!!

Maggi created a wall hanging and accented the background with sheet music from the Wholey Sheet Mixed Media Kit using the packing tape transfer technique. I also used pieces from the Wedding Night and Pink Parts Mixed Media Color Kits.

Merdrey made this awwwmazing Alice piece using an old Alice in Wonderland story book (the title and the image of alice falling) and Gauche colour kits:

Deb used ouchless cardboard, sheets from the Wholey Sheet Mixed Media Kit and the limited edition Winter Slush and Silver color kit:

Now get to taping!

Introducing Alchemist Carmen!

Hi everyone, Carmen here aka Whoopidoo in various places around Blogland…unless some other inconsiderate oik has beaten me to it, THEN I’m craftywhoopidoo.  Honestly – the cheek of some people.

I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce myself to you all, let you know the kind of stuff I enjoy doing. I live in the UK and I’ve been crafting on and off in some guise or other for most of my life. For various reasons it tailed off in my late teens and through my early 20′s. Crappy life sucky stuff and all that but discovering Scrapbooking… or rather discovering that what I had been doing had an actual name was the life changing, door kicking open moment that set me off again. I’ve been seriously crafty since my 30th birthday and now at 33 call myself *tongue in cheek* an “artiste” since the GA girls let me sneak on to their team *g* Feel free to pay homage with peanutty M&M’s anytime you like

Funnily enough I don’t scrapbook so much anymore. I’ve found a love of altering things…

I love to draw and paint…

You might have noticed I have a soft spot for a certain Mr Cooper, he crops up a lot in what I make. I’m also inspired by movies… Old black & white movies, I adore Bette Davis – fantasy and horror… not the slasher flicks, I like my monsters decidedly fantastic and NOT of the human variety, I’m a tad squeamish when it comes to that sort. I love anything grungey, vintage or gothic… ghosties and ghoulies, zombies, vampires, werewolves… monsters of myth and legend – they all have their own little place in my heart. Cutesy stuff is more likely to creep me out than any night time scurrying beastie.

I’m the kind of crafter that is easily distracted by other things, techniques, classes – what have you. I’d love to learn it all but I want to learn it NOW! As a result I’m always buying equipment that I desperately NEED. A prime example is the Cuttlebug… which I sold when I NEEDED a Bind It All… which I sold when I absolutely HAD TO HAVE a melt pot… but I now have a burning desire for MORE paint, pencils and brushes… so the melt pots days may be numbered

I love the way Gauche Alchemy encourages you to work outside of the box – look around you for what you can use in your art – be inspired by anything and everything. Since I discovered the blog and the amazing people that frequent it and run it I have been led down so many different creative paths that I doubt very much I would have discovered otherwise… It’s shown me that it’s OK to like the stuff and the art that I do and to actually make what I like and love and not what I think is expected – it’s easy to fall into the trap of “oh but what I do is nothing like that” when you see so many gorgeous blogs out there. But GA has shown me that I can like and enjoy other styles or art and can still do my own thing. I don’t have to follow the crowd – I can be me. And for that I am forever grateful to you all… and am still in slight starry eyed awe that I’m here and part of the team. So hello everyone This is me! Cheers for sticking with this very nervous first post this far

-Carmen

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Want to know what else is brewing at Gauche Alchemy?

Get our ACME kit delivered to your door every month with our ACME Subscription service!
Go shopping for your own Gauche goodies in our rockin’ Store!
E-mail us anytime: gauchealchemy@cox.net
Join the Gauche party on Facebook!
Stalk us on Twitter!
Drool over Gauche creations and add your own in our Flickr Group!

Making time for art… means making time for ourselves

Escape at Twilight by Vanessa Valencia

I have a guilty admission to make.  Even though I am co-creator of Gauche Alchemy and our focus is to inspire people to express themselves creatively, I have a lot of trouble making time for art.

I have my own reasons and challenges that tend to create this situation, but what it comes down to is that I have not been making time for myself to create.  As you may know from reading my last post, I believe that creative expression is a necessary element in a holistic life… so why do I have so much trouble practicing what I preach?

I’m going to sidestep that question because, really, the way it’s asked sounds suspiciously like the snarky tone of my inner judge, and frankly, I’m trying to drown my inner judge in the toilet at the moment.  Instead of saying I should make time for art and creativity (I’m the master of shoulding all over myself – you too?), I’ll say, “I could make more time for art.”

And here’s the question that encourages that response:  What might I do to show love for myself?  (Doesn’t that feel so much better than “Why do I have so much trouble practicing what I preach?”)  And the answer might be, “I could make time for my creative self to play.”

But how?

What do you do when every day seems shorter and shorter?  What can you do when you’ve got so many obligations and interests pulling you every which way?  I don’t know about you, but I am often tempted to all-or-nothing attitudes.  I think, “Well, if I can’t spend [x] amount of time doing what I want to do, then I don’t even want to start.”

So, here’s what I’m trying to wrap my head around these days – small projects.  Partial projects.  Spending 10 minutes if I have it and truly want to use it for creating, rather than waiting until I’ve got a block of a couple of hours and also have the energy to actually do it.  When I feel that urge to create, when I find myself thinking, “I wish I had time for that today…” what’s to stop me from taking TEN MINUTES to do SOMETHING that makes me feel good?

Well, aside from this, I mean:

OMG.  I can’t believe I just showed you that.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is my studio.  I’m lucky enough to have an area to create that is all my own, and… well… *ahem*  pardon me, I need to go put my boot on the face of my inner judge, who’s contemplating climbing out of the toilet for another round.  (Now, if your studio or living space looks this bad, you’ll know you’re not alone.  If it doesn’t, don’t you feel so much better now?)

Okay, so other than the fact that when things get this piled up, I don’t have a surface to work on, what’s my excuse?  I can grab an envelope and a set of Sharpies and make a piece of mail art.  I could do that.  Or, you know, I can still get to my sewing machine and a big-ass pile of paper scraps.  I could do that.

I’m not very good at this whole taking-small-bites-of-things thing.  Not yet.  I’m working on it.  I created this card in 10 minutes as I was waiting on a neighbor/friend with whom I was going to a women’s “goddess group.”  (No, we didn’t chant and dance around a fire naked… hopefully next time… but I digress…)

Here’s the back:

Not bad, eh?  It’s a start… and now I’ve got something to put in that Sharpie-covered envelope, right?

So, tell me – how do you make time for art?  What ideas do you have for the rest of us?  What are you working on letting go, either in attitude or in a too-full schedule so that you have that time to love yourself through making time for what you love?  I really want to know! Please, oh please… ohpleaseohpleaseohplease leave me some comments, faithful readers.  I can use all the pointers I can get! 

Oh, and since you’ve read this far, I think you deserve a reward.  Go here for some awesome FREE downloadable images from Stampington – they are especially cool.

Also, did you know that Bombshell Stamps, our wonderful sister-partner, has FOUR new stamp sets available for pre-order?  They’re even on sale!  Check ‘em out! (Here’s a sneaky little hint – we’ll be releasing a new limited edition themed kit within the next week or so, and one of these stamp sets coordinates with it rather nicely!)

Ode to Packing Tape … CHALLENGE!

Packing Tape image transfers seem to be a staple to many mixed media artists.
They’re easy, fun and can provide layers like nothing else can!
For our August challenge we’d like to see how you all use packing tape image transfers in your work.

If you have yet to try this out, we have two tutorials you can check out:
Lara did a tutorial a couple of months ago about this most delightful technique. And Kas did a lovely tutorial a couple of weeks ago about tape transferring.

To help along that creative flow here’s a couple of different types of projects it can be used with as demonstrated by the Gauche Alchemists:

Yvonne made a scrapbook page. She used parts from the Wholey Sheet Kit. And the transfer tape technique to add a little texture to the background…

Pam created an ATC about one of her favorite things

And, Lara did an Art Journal paying homage to a recent trip to London

Let’s see what you got! Link up to this post before Sunday August 29 and be the running for a $10 Gift Certificate to the Gauche Alchemy Artfire Store!