A Girl's Best Friend

Tag You're It this week came up with the theme 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend'.

So here is my tag!

Box

I was sat there on Thursday looking round the crafty space for a cardboard box when the postman arrived. The kind people at the electric company had sent me 2 free low energy light bulbs - I wasn't bothered about the bulbs but was more interested in the packaging!

The bulbs were contained within a cardboard box measuring 6" x 4".

Tossing the bulbs aside I thought this little bit of cardboard was just the right size for me to fiddle with so I could take part in this week's Awfully Big Art Adventure which had a theme of 'alter a blank'. I had been really excited at being put onto the front page of ABAA with my milagros heart and then disappointed last week when I hadn't found time to take part in the challenge again - so I was determined that one way or another I would find a box or something to alter this week!

After moaning to my lovely postie that the box wasn't in mint condition (those nasty people at the electric company had glued labels and stuff on it and one of the sides hadn't been folded under properly) I decided to make a 'Memory Box' with it.

I covered with some mulberry paper that had a 'raindrop' design on it and added some antique lace round the entire base of the box. On the top I used the same lace and made a 'bouquet' of fabric roses, blue and cream organza ribbon , with a gold and pearl wire flower bunch. I finished the bouquet by cutting out a cardboard bird. A chipboard 'Memory' sticker finished the top of the box and a fabric rose onto the front conceals the velcro 'hook and loop' fastener underneath.

Silhouette

Wednesday Stamper's theme was 'Silhouettes'.

I am not sure if i like this ATC or not! I wanted the red heart to highlight the kissing couple but think it's placement leaves a lot to be desired! it was well stuck by the time I thought it might have been better put elsewhere on the card!

The background was lightly sponged with Whispers Starry Night ink, then the wording stamped and embossed over.

I stamped the silhouette couple onto blue cardstock and used 3d foam pads to attach to the ATC.

Butterfly

Have been catching up on a couple of challenges. Arty Girlz's theme was Butterflies.

I made an ATC by using paper from the Oriental paper Stack for the background, I stamped and embossed the cherry blossom image in gold and ran the embossing powder round the edge of the ATC.

The fabric butterfly was cut from a piece of material, treated to prevent fraying and mounted onto card.

I used a Gold Pearl Stickle to highlight some parts of the butterfly and finally added a chinese coin.

The Perilous Sea

This is my first attempt at altering a tin. I have wanted to try something like this for ages and last week managed to get hold of some old small tins. After picking the brains of nearly every person I know who likes to alter stuff asking daft questions like 'how do you get the glue to stick ' and 'do I use primer or can I paint straight on it', my patient (if long suffering) fellow crafters gave me lots of encouragement and lots of useful tips!
So with tin on the desk I then sat and stared at it whilst I decided on a theme. I had bought the metal mermaid recently with no particular project in mind, but decided to use it as a base for the 'tin adventure'! I have seen lots of projects where mermaids are seen as 'cutesy' but I wanted this tin to reflect something a little darker. One of the greatest sights is surely watching huge white frothy waves crashing onto a shore and it reminds me of how powerful the sea can be. So with that in mind, on the inside of the lid I tried to portray the image of the ship sinking (by the small hand painted miniature- not painted by me I hasten to add!), and above I added the 'Sailor's Hymn' music sheet which was distressed with 'antique linen', and the cross.
The base of the tin was made by using tissue paper painted with acrylics then the gold glitter added to give a 'sand' effect. I used a heat gun on the base and mixed some 'Tropic Blue' shimmer powder onto it whilst heating.
I hand painted the little metal mermaid, sat her on some shells and positioned her above the sunken ship - this can be interpreted either be her being the bringer of bad luck to the ship and it's crew, or as the beautiful rescuer of stricken sailors.
On the outside lid I placed some string through the metal anchor running it around the wording. Finally I added some shells, sticking a small pearl in the centre of one of them.
I was really apprehensive about tackling something like this, particularly as a lot of my friends have made some tins into beautiful art objects, but it gave me great pleasure to do!
Theme Thursday have set the theme of 'Nautical' today! So have submitted this for the challenge.

Oriental Dreams Part 2

As if the weekly challenge and the monthly art doll swap wasn't enough to keep us all occupied Margaret thought we should do another challenge. Both Margaret and I wanted to do something altered but the problem is the group is international and postage and packing might be a difficult (and expensive) problem for large or bulky or fragile items.
I was the host for the first 'Altered Swap' and I chose to challenge everyone on the group to alter a CD. I selected the theme of Oriental and here is my completed CD.
I love this sparkly hand made backing paper. I think the colour is striking and set this as the base for my colour scheme. I stamped and embossed the images in silver onto blue vellum which I then mounted on thin card to give them a bit more body. Holes drilled in the top and the bottom for the fibres and I also stamped and embossed a flower image onto the back of the sparkly paper (the plain side) and hung this from the bottom fibres. The ric rac braid and the 'dream' chipboard sticker carried on the colour scheme. I added a glass flower to the bottom (unfortunately this hasn't shown up too well on the photo!) and some fibres round the outside edge of the CD. I enjoyed doing this so may make another one as the closing date for entries isn't for another 3 weeks!

The theme of Altered CD's is also the challenge on Saturday Workout.

Valentine's Day

Not surpisingly all the challenge sites this week have themes which relate to Valentines Day.

Tag You're It was no exception! Their theme was entitled 'Love and Romance'. As today is also husband's birthday it would have been nice to have made a tag that I could have attached to his birthday present - but in typical 'husband' fashion he has been using his present ( a new PC keyboard specifically for on line gaming) for the last week!!!

But HAD I been able to prise it from his mitts and wrap it, I would have used this tag!

I promised myself that I would keep clear of the usual reds/pinks but then had to spoil my resolution by photgraphing the tag on some heart paper!

Milagros Heart

Looking at the blogs of two of my very talented friends recently, I thought ' I'd like to have a go at making one of them!'

'One of them' was something called a Milagros Heart and it was this week's challenge on 'Awfully Big Art Adventure' . I have to confess that I didn't know what a Milagros Heart was until I saw the explanation on Jan's and Maureen's blog.

The word Milagro means 'miracle' and in Latin American countries such as Mexico and Peru, milagros are small metal religious charms which are pinned to wooden statues or crosses of various saints.

I made the heart shape from mountboard and covered with paper from the 'Once upon a Time' paper stack then added some Enchanted Gold embossing powder round where the picture was to be sited. I thought this image of the Madonna was so beautifully serene and hope it is up to the mark for the ABAA challenge.

Once I'd placed the image onto the heart I then triple embossed the whole piece. The metal embellishments were originally intended as corners for scrapbooking. I added the metal cross and the metal heart with wire to two of the metal corners and put them at the top of the heart shape, adding the third corner to the bottom of the heart.

Watch the Birdie!

I am taking part in a Bird Journal 'Jam' over at New Inspirations. Margaret suggested it after seeing how it was done from the Stampington tutorial.

Each person chose a theme and a colourway for their own little birdie book, with the 'journal' part being optional and each member of the group will complete a bird shaped page for all the others.

So here are my first birdies.

I chose the theme Vintage Floral with muted pastel colours (vintage - now there's a surpise for me!! Not!) and I stuck to a mixed media collage for both sides using lace, satin ribbons and beads.

Margaret chose Nature as her theme with the predominant colour being green. The background paper on the 'Wise Owl' page is courtesy of Flickr as is the Owl image. The eggs are actually cut down plastic eggs which were in a little bag along with a tiny bird in one of the drawers. I have no idea where they came from or how long they've been there but it just proves that my 'I'll keep it cos it may come in useful' habit DID have a purpose this time! The tail feathers are from a large 'peacock' feather that am afraid looked the worst for wear (again stuffed in a drawer!) so I just cut off the 'peacock eye' bit which was in a mess and singly stuck on the rest of the feathery bits. The other side is a distressed background (Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint Inks), with collaged images. Crows aren't known for their tuneful singing so it amused me to stamp musical notes from it's beak! I added a fabric leaf and stamped the leaf images, again using distress inks.

When each member has received all their pages, they're bound together so I will undoubtedly be adding some fibres etc for some texture round the bindings. And of course will be posting the others as soon as I have done them.

Hearts

The Gothic Arch challenge this week was the theme of 'Hearts'. I'm flitting between Art Nouveau, Art Deco and my usual Vintage passion at the moment and I really like this stamp!

Normally if you mention 'Queen of Hearts' I immediately want to shout 'off with his head'!! And then I start dreaming about Alice In Wonderland!

This stamp is by 'alpha stamps', the background is vellum and I used a heart shaped brad to secure the glitter thread at the top then secured behind the stamped image and fanned out. I coloured the stamp with gel pens and watercolours and finally added the 'teardrop' shaped gems.

Inspired by Oriental

I know red and black is much over used when it comes to things Oriental, and much as I like the greens, blues and golds also associated with it, the red/black combo I am still drawn towards, mainly because I think they're striking together.

We were given a sketch this week as a background template on 'Tag You're It' and here is my tag.

The oriental images are printed on a transparency and mounted onto white card hence the pic isn't as sharp as in real life!

(By the way, one of my bloggin 'sisters', Kristen has a draw going on for some Basic Grey papers and other must-have stuff. Draw will be done on Valentine's Day, so why don't you pay her fab blog a visit!)

The Kiss

I made the front page of the blog on Wednesday Stamper with my entry into the Handbag theme set last week. I was chuffed to bits!

So here is the entry for this week which has the theme of Kiss Kiss! I think this image of the 2 cherubs kissing is beautiful.

I decided to use it to make a journal page, so I used pearlised card for the background, then stamped and distressed and used some vintage lace, ribbon and a heart button with a pearl centre.

The wording on the tag reads ' The treasured heart you keep inside will keep my dreams away from harm'- (if you click on the image you get a better overall view - it is definitely not a day for taking photos- too grey and dark!)

I added some paper flowers to the top of the tag and distressed these using 'Tattered Rose' colour.

Spring???

Margaret decided we needed something else to occupy us other than the weekly Monday challenge so she set up a group called MAD Mamma on Flickr..........it stands for Monthly Art Dolls although it does actually describe the participants very well!

This month's theme was Spring.

So please say hello to Flora or Marigold or Daffodil or Daisy....... can't quite decided on a name for her yet! As the weather at the moment is nothing like Spring poor Flora/Marigold/Daffodil/Daisy may have to wait a while longer to take her seed packets from her waistband and use her fork and watering can to plant them !

She's 6" tall and made from a template. After cutting out the body parts I stamped small leaves all over her and made her a 'skirt' from fabric flower petals and added a further yellow flower . Her hat is two fabric leaves and the two ladybugs are tiny wooden embellishments. I put a sparkly fabric flower on each of her feet and gave her a cardboard watering can and fork. Her joints are all connected by brads.

As everyone works off the same template it's amazing how different everyone's interpretation of the theme is... I never thought I'd get into making paper dolls, but have loved doing this!

Tag Your Arch!

Seeing as how I only commented a couple of days ago about how much I was enjoying making tags, imagine how I smiled when I saw this weeks challenge on Gothic Arches was called 'Tag Your Arch'!

I completely resisted the temptation to use one of the tags I had recently made and went off in search of this stamp.

It's one by Elusive Images and I really think it's pretty. I like the co-ordination and duplication between the large plate and the smaller tag.

I sponged and distressed the background in varying shades of pink and used watercolour paint to colour the hydrangea petals.

This arch and it's tag will prbably end up on a card!