Forever Autumn

Lots to Do has the theme of Nature this week.

I think Autumn is a lovely time of the year. I love to see the leaves changing colours, there are some many different hues

(Mind you, I just wish they would stay on the trees as I'm not so keen in having to get out the rake to scoop all the dropped leaves up from the lawns!)

This unmounted stamp is just a single tree, so I needed to stamp a couple of times in varying shades to try and get some appearance of depth, and I added the buttons in different colours again to try and reflect the shades of the leaves I can see at the moment in my garden.

It is unseasonly cold here at the moment, some snow flurries all over the country but hopefully this won't last.

Autumn should be clear blue skies and cold windy days - it shouldn't be grey skies and snow!

Wee Witches

This is my second Halloween Arch! This one though is for the 'Wee Witches' theme over on Gothic Arches this week.

It is similar in style to the last one I made, and I've used the lovely spiders web fabric I picked up at the local haberdashers as the background. I like 'cute' in moderation but am not normally pre disposed to use lots of it in my work.... but I actually liked this image of the cute wee witch! I tried to lose some of the 'kitschy' by using a copy of an old poster advsing the towns residents to rid themselves of the evil that had moved into their neighbourhood!

The tiny decorative bat, moon and pumpkin brads were a present from the USA (Thanks Renee!)

How Fairy Tales were really written....

Over on Rainbow Lady's blog the challenge this week was 'magical and mysterious'. I have had this stamp for a while and thought it could be used to interpret the magical world of fairy tales. I'm not sure if it really fits in with the theme but have linked it anyway!

Several different colours were used to ink the background, then the gold lettering stamped and embossed. I added lace, a star brad to hold the tag and a fabric flower. The words are from the 'Once Upon a Time' paper stack.

O Christmas Tree

Halloween not yet here and the shops are already full of Christmas stuff! Quite depressing really, it seems to me all the magic of Christmas I experienced as a young girl has disappeared completely. I remember well the excitement of seeing the first Christmas tree in the front window of a house or the tree and Nativity scene that was placed outside the local church mid December...now the decorations are up at the end of October, making the christmas 'season' almost as long as the four natural ones!

Anyway, without wishing to become like 'Scrooge' altogether I decided to take part in this weeks challenge on Tag You're It - Christmas Tree!

This tag is a scaled down version of a hand made Christmas Card. I sponged the white card with 'fir tree' colour ink and drew the 'tree' in gold pen. Overlaid a piece of vellum that had been edge embossed with 'seafoam white' and added gems for sparkle on the branches of the drawn tree. A piece of green organza ribbon and a red corrugated card tub finished the tag.

Monochrome

This week


This weeks Mamma challenge was 'Black and White'. For some inexplicable reason I found this challenge difficult. I had lots of ideas but nothing came together properly.

I wanted to do a plain stark composition but after a total disaster with a gouache and ink drawing (twice!!- my drawing is dreadful), I gave up that particular idea..... so it was (sigh) back to the Fimo faces!
This ATC is so similar to an altered CD I did some time ago but was the best I could come up with. This morning I now have loads of monochrome ideas whizzing round in my head but these will have to be put on the back burner.

The background paper is cut from a card sent to me by Renee in the USA last week. She must have had a premonition about this weeks challenge cos it fitted the theme perfectly.
I was happy that on this fimo face I managed to do her heart shaped beauty spot perfectly, less happy that once again I smudged her eyeliner!

Stone

Lots to Do this week has set a challenge of Stone. This is a paper collage with a 'stone' head. The head was one of a large matchbox full of similar heads sent to me by Maureen.

I used a stone 'gothic arch' background, coloured the windows with watercolour paint and a stone headless winged angel whose wings were accented with fine glitter. The words are a quote attributed to Pablo Picasso.

I have to go out today but am hoping I can check all the other challenge sites and get on with doing some tonight! I was out all day yesterday so am getting withdrawal symptoms again!

Embossing

Over on Lots to Do Challenge the theme this week is embossing. Those of you who knew me in my former life on the DC site will have seen this card that I made for Mum's birthday before.

This was a large project for me as I'm still very much a learner with regard to parchment, but I felt it was my best embossing effort to date on parchment paper so decided to submit it! (Even though i took the picture of it before the glue had dried!)

Vintage Tags

Maggies challenge this week was the theme of Vintage Tags. Time has been at a bit of a premium so although I love vintage, I had to make these in a hurry. Suppose it's a bit early for a remembrance one, but then really rememberance should be done all year round not just on one day. The ATC sized tag is a vintage paper collage , with a skeleton leaf, a photo of a soldier and a made vellum envelope. The poem 'Flanders Fields' always brings tears to my eyes, and after making the vellum envelope I popped in a copy of it. The paper poppy is secured with a black brad.

The other tag is again a paper collage, added a few bits of lace,ribbon and a little crocheted flower secured with a pearl brad. Isn't her hat very grand?!!!

J'adore Haute Couture...........

but can't afford it!!!!

This weeks challenge over on Gothic Arches was 'Haute Couture'.

I really struggled with this theme for some unknown reason...considering I LOVE clothes, especially handbags and shoes as everyone who knows me will testify!

I eventually sponged a background then used black indian ink before adding the image, lace, sequins, feathers and words to make a mixed media collage.

Windows and Squish a Boob!!!!

The Creative Wednesday challenge this week was 'Windows'.

I have done a 4 x 4 piece. The background was done using Mica pigments in Golden Pear and Violet Frost with a blend of a pale pink ink sponged background. The lady image and the words were printed on acetate to allow the shimmer powders to show through, the flower swirls stamped and the sleeping mask and beads are suspended from the top of the window.

As I have used 3d pads to mount the frame the sleeping mask turns round! I added the lace, fibres and gems in an attempt to give the piece even more depth.

For those of you that have followed my blog this year you will know that the Breast Cancer Campaign is close to my heart.

This little 'Squish a Boob, Save a Life' penguin is a real cutie and as October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, please pick him up, pass him on and pop him onto your own blogs!

D.D.G!

So there I was this morning looking out on a rather grey day when the postman arrived. I opened this jiffy envie and suddenly the sun came out! Inside was this exquisite little work of art from Jan.

Isn't this just gobsmackingly beautiful? The little bird is on a scrabble tile..... and the colours are awesome! Once again the pic does not do this justice!! So thank you again Jan, there was no need to send it to me but am really glad that you did!!

Oh and for those of you who are wondering what D.D.G stands for in the title it means -

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS!!!!!!

New stamps!

Haven't done a lot of one to one swapping recently, but made this for a trade.Well I had to play with my new stamps didn't I??? I think this is a really pretty face! I am still trying different methods of using stamp ink for backgrounds and this one was just three different ink pads swirled on with a piece of felt. I love this irridescent vellum which I used to cover the bottom stamped image - trouble is I haven't got very much of it left in this pearl type colour, so will now have to try things with the other colours! Some of the other stamps I bought are too big for ATC's so will have to try 4 x 4's or maybe another wall hanging next!

Turquoise Dreams

This is my submission to the theme of 'Turquoise' on Gothic Arches this week.

A Leap and Time!

These two ATC's are for a swap on the DC Forum. The theme was altered playing cards. It has been quite a while since I took part in a swap on this forum but the subject appealed to me! Both are basic paper collages, the playing card corners have been coloured by using alco ink on the 'Jack' one and Distress Inks on the Queen. The Queen image made me smile cos it doesn't matter how early I get up, I'm always rushing about at the last minute before I go out!

St Joan and Embossing Powder

Have called this ATC 'Look to the Light'. This stamp is one of my new stash. Once I'd stamped the image the thought of Joan of Arc came into my head... maybe it's because the face is looking upward and I seem to remember an old drawing of the Maid of Orleans at the stake looking toward the heavens. Anyway, I decided to try and follow the theme using the stamp as the base. I added some meshy fabric frayed at the edges to try and give a sense of imprisonment and collaged the shield and sword. I recently bought some 'Enchanted Gold' embossing powder and had been disappointed with it as I felt it didn't give enough depth, I thought though that it might be delicate enough for rays of light. I first used white embossing powder and ran the brush through it before heating to give the 'rays' effect then once heated added the gold one over. I allowed the gold one to scatter a bit onto the face. Finally I added the cross charm.

I am pleased with this project but don't think this pic does it justice. I feel that I am learning new things all the time - just wish my photography skills were improving too!

Halloween

There was an 'open' theme on Gothic Arches this week so I took the opportunity to post a 'fun' arch! The background of this arch is fabric - it looks like a sparkly spiders web- which I spotted in the window of a small haberdashery shop in the nearest town to me - I have another Arch almost completed (not a halloween theme!) and really should get round to finishing it! I've got loads of ideas for gothic arches as i really like the shape and size, trouble is I never have enough time to make any of my ideas come to fruition!

I've also had a bit of a spend on some stamps this week, so have been too busy stamping the images in different colours seeing what they look like instead of actually doing any proper crafting!