AlteredPages Artsociates

Since tomorrow is Halloween I thought it would be fun to make and share a little shrine dedicated to the   King of Halloween... Edgar Allen Poe!   This is one of my favorite Poe images and it fits perfectly with this little collage... Edgar Allen Poe - Master of Macabre   For complete instructions check out my blog -  King of Halloween .  You can also enter for your chance to win one of the shrine bases used to make this collage.

I imagine you will all be having Halloween fun and may have already gone to parties dressed as ??? I think Halloween costumes are a larger scale form of Altered Art.     We can be as creative as we like and there certainly are opportunities to explore and techniques beyond what we might usually use.    Our Headdress Challenge was a preparatory exercise for just this event.  Comment to tell us some of your favorite costumes you have worn through the years and if they were handmade.   The Phantom Steeler Eddie and I went one year as a Baseball (him) and an Octopus (me).   Hours of applying paper mache made that a reality.   Paint and stitching made it a really fun memory.   We each had a huge head of paper mache, he wore his softball uniform and I had tentacles hanging to the floor over my grey sweats.  Another year he was a spider with all the legs made from vacuum clean hoses ...

  My husband and I had walked into the local homestore today and I saw the Christmas aisles and a feeling of joy rushed over me.  I love the holidays! As I looked around, I was like a kid in a candy store.  The beautiful lights, ornaments and decorations put me in the mood to celebrate.  One thing I have been thinking of over the last few days is about people who aren't able to visit family and friends and how often they celebrate alone, sometimes even forgotten.  They don't need to be, though.  Remembering these people and bringing a warmth to their holiday season can be as simple as giving them a card.    I created this card to share the Thanksgiving happiness with someone.  For it, I used the embossing frame folder to create a mat for the collage photo.  After I ran the folder through my embossing machine, I cut around the embossed area and inked the edges.  I used the Happy Thanksgiving collage sheet for the phot...

It has been a crazy, busy month for me so making things hasn't been high on my priority list. It makes me sad to miss out on crafting, but sometimes it has to take the backseat to other things. I was looking on my blog for inspiration since I find myself with a few hours today to play. I went way, way back and found one of the first pieces of 3D mixed media I'd ever done for a swap. I still really like it. I used Altered Pages images on the flowers since Altered Pages has always been my number one place to get collage sheets. How funny is this? I can't remember the exact name of the swap, but I think it was something floral (big duh there, right?). I was really worried that what I made wouldn't be good enough because I was so new to mixed media at the time. I had scalloped die cuts that looked like they'd make pretty flowers, and I thought I'd go crazy and make "real" flowers out of portrait like images. Give me some alcohol inks, popsicle st...

Did you know Altered Pages carries a selection of Lifestyle Crafts [Quickutz] cutting dies and emboss folders ? I recently ordered a few to play with since halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. I ordered the frightful edges set which comes with 2 extended border type dies [dripping and fangs/grass] . In addition I also got the tombstone die [it's a 2 plate 2×2" die that also has the letters R I P. Here  I wrote my own grave markers! These tags were easily put together with watercolors, tag, die cuts and some Black Paris Trunk ink for stamping and swiping the edges! Some fun black cheese cloth from the dollar store and Maya Mist Sprays finish off my holiday tags! I hope you enjoy them! Have a spectacular Halloween! ~leslierahye

We have been getting an inordinate amount of spam comments from the blog, so we will institute the robot words before you can post a comment for a while.   I promise we will come back soon and revisit the removal of the irritating little nonsensical words and numbers that we must use. Please tell those BOZOs that create computer havoc to STOP it immediately!       Thanks for understanding!  

Hi Katrina here from the design team. Halloween is almost here now and I just had to make something with one of my favourite images on the Altered Pages collage sheets. I wanted to do something a little different this time.....   We often forget that as the collage sheets are digital we can print onto anything, so I enlarged the image to as big as it would go on an A4 sheet, I only have an A4 printer but if you have an A3 then you can make it bigger, just remember you will need a seam allowance and printed it out on printable cotton. Cut it out with the added seam allowance on all 4 sides, cut a piece of cotton the same size for the backing. I then added some sequins and beads to the sash around her middle. I then used my sewing machine to sew up the little cushion but it is small enough to do it by hand if you don't have a sewing machine.You then need to stuff it and sew up the gap left to turn it, by hand. I added the black pompom trim by hand but if you are clever...