Alpha Stamps Grimm fairytale Collage swap -first prize!

It seriously took me some time to decide on a First Prize winner = the most creative swap entries in our Alpha Stamps Brother's Grimm fairytale swap! I had a long list of about a half a dozen participants who I thought really showed creativity with their 5"x5" collages but it was these collages featured to your left that I kept returning to.

Lulu Hlavin from Des Moines, Iowa is our winner!

Congratulations to Lulu! I loved the way she collaged both the front and back of her cards and she used so many elements . . . dimensional leaves and flowers, beaded trim, large die cut letters, different ribbons & trims, foil pieces, metal trims and spiral clips, fabric rosettes and glitter . . . all put together very creatively with the Alpha Stamps Brothers' Grimm images as well as some of her own childhood storybook images, wow! The photo to the right below, shows just how dimensional, interesting, beautiful and creative Lulu's collages are! (click on any picture for more detail).

This is an Alpha Stamps sponsored swap, and Lulu receives a prize for being the winner! The book below is the First Prize donated by Leslie Elledge at Alpha Stamps.

I know Lulu will love it!

Actually, everyone who participated will be receiving a prize - A gift collage image sheet from Leslie at Alpha Stamps, but I am going to keep what it is a surprise until you receive it . . . .

I have my swap list designed (how I sort swaps out - on paper first!) and I am working on swapping the 200 pieces that came in. If you were in this swap, I will be sending out your package with the Alpha Stamps gift collage sheet sometime next week -I will keep you posted to my progress!

Thanks very much for your participation in another really awesome swap! To see ALL the entries, follow this link for the entire Brothers' Grimm Swap Gallery at Alpha Stamps.

; ^ ) yours creatively, lenna

Grimm fairytale 5x5 Collage swap: Lulu Hlavin

Lulu is a new participant to creative swaps but new or not, her work has impressed me very much! I want to share a part of the note Lulu enclosed with her swap pieces --

"It was so much fun designing them that once I got started it seemed a shame not to use so many beautiful images. I ended up doing eight for the swap plus one extra for you. I cheated a bit and added some extra pictures from my children's book collection (A weak spot of mine). Most of the collages use pictures solely from the Alpha Stamps collage sheets, a few have supplemental pictures from fairytale books I had at home, but all have at least one Alpha Stamps image, except for the one I made for you -yours is totally unique."

The collage Lulu is speaking of, the unique one that she made for me is the very first one you will see when you follow this link to the ALpha Stamps Gallery to view all of Lulu's collages. (Don't rack your brain trying to figure out which Alpha Stamp images are on my collage!)

For the other collages that Lulu created for the swap, follow the link below to see the entire collection of Alpha Stamps Brothers' Grimm images that she chose from.

Lulu's collages are different in that she beautifully collaged both the front and the back of each collage. Like she said, once she got started she wanted to use all the images she had! Here on the top of this page are the front and back of a collage Lulu made. The images on this piece come from the Sleeping Beauty #3 collage sheet at Alpha Stamps.



Here is the front and back of another one of Lulu's collages. Click on any image for more detail - and take a look at the rest of Lulu's collages, which are uploaded to the Alpha Stamp gallery. This link will take you right to Lulu's collages.

Thank you, Lulu. Beautiful artwork!

Alpha Stamps Fairytale collage swap update

I am sorry it has been a while since you have heard from me . . . I am fine! I've just been very busy spending some much needed time working on my new website -- but never fear! I finally got all of the swap entries scanned, yippee! I have sent the scans to Leslie at Alpha Stamps and she will soon have already has an extreamly full folder of beautiful art - with 183 photos from this swap! Everyone has done a fantastic job creating and there is SO MUCH art from this swap that it is incredible, thank you! To the right is one of Lulu Hlavin's collages >>> click on it for a larger view. This is just a little tease as there will be more collages to come tomorrow!

I have an inkling of an idea of who will win the prize for the most creative collages but I am going to wait until I get all the swap pieces uploaded here before I make my final decision. I have the beautiful gift collages sheets for all of the participants as well as the first prize for the winner from Alpha Stamps in my hands and ready to give out. This is getting quite exciting!

Tomorrow I will upload the final swap pieces that came in right before the deadline. They are all prepared (there were A LOT of them). It will be worth the wait as they are gorgeous! You can also go to the Alpha Stamps gallery (link above) to view the swap peices.

Oh! ~ More about my swap related workload of scanning, editing & posting that I wrote about last week . . . if you did not see my earlier comment to the last post, here is my plan: What I have decided to do as far as sharing swap art in the future is to scan one or two pieces myself and then add a link (if available) to the participant's art, if they have uploaded their swap art to their own blog, pictureTrail, Flickr account or other account for sharing photos. This saves me the time of scanning, cropping, resizing and uploading all of the pieces. By forcing myself to limit what I do, it will cut my workload, which is getting too large, but still give a taste of each participants' art by showing a representation of their art. If there are MORE photos available because the participant has scanned and uploaded photos herself, then I will be happy to publish the link if you send it to me. Deal?? Thanks to everyone who wrote me and gave suggestions! : ) lenna