I finally carved it!

This image (Stars by M.C. Escher) has been taunting me for years, so when Beetle listed the Great Works of Art swap, I saw my chance. I'm not completely satisfied with this carve. As usual, I took out too much, but I'm relieved that I finally carved this image.

Designing the card was a whole lot more trouble than the carve. I originally made a flashy background for this card that I loved, but I just couldn't make the stamp fit in. I sought the advice of a few more LTCers when I went to Oregon, and Camp Fire Lady pointed me in the right direction. She said that I needed to highlight the image and tone down the background. I knew she was right. (Thanks CFL!)

When I saw some Smooch Metallic Paints on sale at Michael's, I bought several. I used them on the central image, and I'm super pleased with the result. (I also used Smooch Spritz on the background. It was also on sale at Michael's.) I embossed the edges, added a foundation, and finally added some gold beads to the edges.

I invested A LOT of time in these cards. I'm such a sloooooow painter.

We're All Mad Here

I made this card for the Things Esmerelda Taught Me swap. Esmerelda's Dragon card was my inspiration, and I tried to think like Es on this one.

Layer #0: I used black paper, edged with a gel pen.

Layer #1: I stamped the cat on white paper, painted the eyes with Twinkling H20s, outlined the eyes with a black pen, put epoxy stickers on the irises, embossed the pink in the corner, and painted the corner with Twinkling H20s.

Layer #2: I stamped the cat on green paper and embossed, painted the fur with turquoise, shimmering purple, and silver glitter paint, painted the nose and teeth, and cut out the eye holes and ear.

I think this is my best card. I really like it. Thank you, Esmerelda!