Ten on the Tenth: Twinchies

I used my January vintage counterfeit kit to create some twinchies (2x2 inch squares) for an art exchange hosted at the Gingersnap Challenge blog.  Got any favorites in this group? If you've never checked out the Gingersnap blog, you really should.  The artists over there are wonderful, and they host all kinds of fabulous challenges.  Today, being the tenth of the month, Shimelle hosts a ten on the tenth link-up. You click here to see what other ten on the tenth bloggers are up to.

Scrapling Returns (and a little tease)

Remember scraplings? They're little 1.5x4.25" bits of art that I posted about here. I participated in an exchange, and these are the returns I picked up in the post this morning. Aren't they lovely?
In other news, the San Francisco Giants finally won the Divisional Championship yesterday. DS Henry was playing in a baseball game at about the same time as yesterday's final game, so we missed the first half of the game. When his game finished, we were too far from home to get back before the game ended. So, we hightailed it over to a pizza place near the ball field (with about half his team in tow) and watched the last hour of action, as well as the huge celebration which ensued, there, at an out of the way pizza place. . . among friends . . . and victory was sweet! Thanks for all the nice comments on our family picture from Friday night's game.  It was taken by a nine year old fan on my iphone! As they say, sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you.
So, sports fans, in honor of the Giants victory, I'll be hosting a give-away.  Look for details tomorrow, along with links to other blog candy.  In the meantime, ponder this question: "Who do you root for?"

Favorite Summer Quote on a Skinni

Just when I thought I had heard of all the different sizes for stamping (inchies, twinchies, thrinchies, moos, ATC's, fatbook, art money), the wonderful challenge blog "Something Completely Different" introduced me to something, well, completely different - the "skinni." It's a 3x5 inch little bit of happiness.  This week's challenge theme for a skinni is "flora and fauna," so I took one of my alcohol ink monoprint backgrounds from Monday, added one of my favorite flower stamps and finished with one of my all-time favorite summer quotes, "In summer, the song sings itself."
Are you partial to any particular stamping size? Do you have a favorite summer quote to share? Love to hear it!

King Tim Twinchie & Blog Question

Birthday month is winding up at Something Completely Different, and the theme for this week's twinchie was "crowns."  Through the serendipity of art, I happened to have this chipboard crown and this shrink plastic "King Tim" sitting on my art desk - right next to the last square of purple spray-inked plaster! Yes, seriously.  So, I trimmed the plaster and painted  its edges black, mounted it on a piece of 2x2" black cardstock, edged the cardstock in gold, painted the chipboard crown black (and then covered it with rock candy crackle paint) and then layered everything together!  The stamp is from the Tim Holtz line, and I always call it "King Tim." Happy Birthday SCD! Thanks for the inspiration this month.
On another  topic, yesterday, I put a little time into my blog, adding labels to about half of my posts.  Will continue the project to get them all labeled.  For you bloggers, I was wondering:
do you label your posts?
what are your most common labels?
is there a point where you have too many labels?
All suggestions/input appreciated.

An Adventure in Paris (SCD Twinchie)

Birthday month continues over at "Something Completely Different," as does their celebration of twinchies.  This week's subject is Paris.  This tiny (2"x2") bit or artwork features some images off a collage sheet I made of photographs I took in Paris.  The Notre Dame gargoyle is matted on plaster spritzed with Adirondack Color Wash (just like the other two SCD twinchies I made this month, here and here).  I have one more square of plaster left which I'll use for their call next week.  I wonder what the subject will be . . . 

A bouquet of flowers for you!

Birthday Party month continues over at Something Completely Different, and they're featuring twinchies this month.  I submitted one with a butterfly theme last week, and here's my submission for this week on the theme of flowers.  I used the same background - plaster, sprayed with adirondack color wash.  I was drawn to a slightly subtle "take" on the flower theme.
Meanwhile, in the Get out of Auto Mode photography class I'm taking at BPS, one of the assignments was to take pictures of flowers using close-up mode.  I was pretty happy with these two shots:

When I took wildflower pictures on my nature hike a few weeks ago, I liked the flower pictures taken in portrait mode best.  To get pictures I really liked with the close-up mode, I found that I really had to fill the whole frame with whatever I was photographing.  I'm still working on the other assignments for the first week of the class.
Finally, here are two photo cards I made with some of the prints from my wildflower walk.

Hope you enjoyed this bouquet of flowers!

Happy Birthday SCD!

One of my favorite challenge sites, "Something Completely Different" is having a birthday this month with lots of prizes!  They select one topic each month and then each week have a different theme.  This month's topic is "Twinchies" (2x2 inch square creations), and the first week's theme is butterflies.  So, here's my butterfly twinchie!  Its base is plaster spritzed with Color Wash.  I added clipart, tiny flower brads and some matting (still just 2x2)!  
I love a good challenge site, sites with prizes and prizes full of information.  Check out the cricut giveaway and coupons at Obsessed with Scrapping. I am also loving a photography site called Digital Photography School because of the amount of information it has.
Do you have any favorite challenge sites or information sites to share?