Good Hair Day???

Well I promised a couple of pics from last Wednesday so thought I'd better post them!

Please click on the pic of the whole gang outside the Clubhouse for a view of some ridiculous outfits.

Charlotte looks very serious painting one of the men's arms (after she'd painted on my poor long suffering OH's face a fab pink breast cancer ribbon and a heart and we'd sprayed his hair pink), Eileen obviously going back to her youth in her 60's garb... (couldn't resist the caption - LOL) and one of Yours Truly complete with bootiful pink hair............ I rather liked it and wanted to keep it but OH was a tad unsure...LOL

The gorgeous shabby chic brooch I have in the centre of my top was a lovely surprise gift from Maureen (ably assisted by Jan I'm told....) - it has a breast cancer pink ribbon in the centre and everyone wanted it! Maureen made me lots of goodies to sell and I want to again say thank you to her, Anne, Sassy (even though she isn't doing much crafting at the mo) and Jan who all donated stuff and money to my charity.

Since last Wednesday some of my friends who could not make it have given me donations too - and I also got a donation from a lady I've never met but is a friend of a lady at the Club - how nice was that?

So I am so very proud to tell you that I have today written a cheque for the sum of..... (big drum roll please...)

£1,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unbelievably gobsmackingly amazingly AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pinked Out!

Well here is the first post from me for a couple of days - Pink Day was a roaring success and raised over £600! So the total for year from me to date (excluding the donations for Mum) is currently standing at £869!!!!!!! I am worn out but it was worth the effort I think! One of the members took lots of pics so hopefully will be able to scare you all very soon with a pic of me and my pink hair! OH nearly had a heart attack when he saw it................... lol. He was even more stunned when I decided his hair would look good in a shade of pink too.........

So in the run up to yesterday and in between dyeing hair, I finished a couple of cards and as they say ' here's one I made earlier' -

As I didn't have any 'wedding' cards in the stash, I decided on a (quick - lol) clean and simple card - the cream background card has a fabulous irridescent sheen on it and I used the cuttlebug 'Textile' folder to emboss. The image is one of Mo Manning's and I think it's real pretty - I decoupaged the brides 'bustle' on the back of her dress to give the card some dimension. The whole thing is mounted onto gold mirri card and a gold and cream organza bow added.

Pear Tree Designs' challenge is 'Weddings' and Stamp Something is 'Digital'

Aud Sentiments and Stampin for the Weekend both have the theme 'Anything GoesChallenge up your Life's theme is 'Celebrations'

and over at Creative Card Crew and Rainbow Ladys Challenge Blog the challenge is 'Sparkle and Shine' and I hope the sheen on the cream card qualifies!

Wistful Wanderings

Another card from me this morning - using an image from the same set of stamps as the 'Water' card. I stamped these images at a craft meet a couple of weeks ago using the hosts stash and I wish I'd made a note of the manufacturer when I used these cos I would probably now be investing in them!

This is another one of those drawings that somehow make me feel relaxed and peaceful - the girl standing barefoot on the grass, collecting wildflowers and watching the butterflies dancing in the breeze........ooo listen to me waxing lyrical!!

Back to the card - the image was coloured with a mixture of Promarkers and watercolours and the background papers are from Papermania's Capsule Collection 'Sunshine'. I used a Coredinations 'whitewash' paper run through the flowers folder, then sanded for the right hand side panel and matted all the various elements onto DCWV mustard yellow card before adding to the card. The sentiment is by Inkadinkadoo and cut with the nesties.

The Incy Wincy Colour Challenge this week is 'yellow'

The Secret Crafter's Challenge's theme is - What are little girls made of'

Rainbow Lady's challenge is 'Paint It' and as I used some watercolours I hope I qualify!

Water

Tueday Taggers theme this week was 'messing about in boats' (!) or water .

I love these sketch stamps - not mine unfortunately - but they have such a 'peaceful' quality about them and I have a few stamped images courtesy of a crafting friend . This one fitted the challenge perfectly.

I coloured the image with promarkers and made use of the new stash of Nestabilities to cut out.

The edging is a Martha Stewart punch. The ships wheel I found in my stash whilst I was looking for an anchor or shell or similar to put on the card - I'd forgotten all about it but it looks just fine!! I resisted the usual tempation to overload with flowers/ribbons/embellishments - I wanted the image to really be the focal point and like the simplicity and clean lines of the finished card.

I have also submitted the card to the ABC Challenge - B is for Blue.

Tussie Mussie

I have been itching to upload this!

I made this as a present for my good friend Jan who has a birthday coming up very soon.... Jan is known for opening presents as soon as she gets them irrespective of if they're sent 3 weeks early! She is currently enjoying herself on holiday (and no doubt buying up everything at every craft shop in the vicinity) with Maureen and as usual could not wait until her birthday to open the present I'd left for her.

I have fancied making one of these for a long time and have seen some absolutely awesome examples on blogs owned by people with far more creativity than me - but - am real pleased with the way this turned out - particularly as this was my first attempt!

It's basically a paper cone made from some gorgeous DCWV paper embellished with lace, pearls and ribbons. I used a row of tiny pearl beads to create a hanger (don't think this shows very well on the pic...)

I popped in some dark chocs which are Jan's favourite (and yes the box I bought did have too many in it to fit in the tussie so I reluctantly had to eat the left overs!).

Flushed with success from being the Art of the Week last week at Mixed Media Monday I have entered the Tussie for this week's challenge too - which is 'Embellish It'.

Challenges galore

After the canvas and the mixed media project I made a card!

This oriental blossom stamp was amongst those that I bought when I decided to see what all the fuss was about when people were raving about stamps! So it's been with me for a few years and have used it a few times on various things and confess to liking it rather a lot!

I found this lovely sketch over at The Sweet Stop blog and was determined to use it to make a card with!

I used aqua blue coloured card for the background then mounted some chinese washi papers onto white linen card before matting again onto gold card. I love the feel of washi papers and I haven't yet found a design or colour scheme that I don't like!

I then stamped Cherry Blossom onto the same aqua card and embossed in gold, and layered onto the same white and gold card.

The 'lace edging' is a Martha Stewart punch (what else???LOL)laid over the gold card and with an offcut of the washi paper on top. Finally some fabric flowers which were all white were coloured with a promarker called 'Cool Aqua' and a metal butterfly from my stash were added to complete the card.

This card fits the following challenges too this week

Sweet Stamping Challenge - Favourite Stamp

Totally Gorjuss - Aqua

Simon Says - Summertime Blue

One Stop Craft Challenge - Oriental

Unbelievable!!!

I am sooooooo excited!!!! Can you believe that I have been chosen as 'Art of the Week' over at Mixed Media Monday???
How cool is that?
There were brilliant submissions from everyone again this week and I am really honoured that my Marrakech canvas was considered good enough to be chosen. So a huge thank you from me to everyone there for making my day!

Vermeer

Jan (Johannes) Vermeer was a 17th century Dutch painter and is one of my favourite artists. Although he was not a prolific painter (it's thought he only painted about 35 works of art during his short lifetime), his ability to capture the effects of light and his attention to detail within each work is amazing.

Probably his most well known piece is 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' which is an awesome interpretation of youth, beauty and innocence.

I have made this project using the one of Vanmeer's painting's that ranks amongst those at the top of my fave list. This is called 'The Lacemaker' and depicts an industry which was flourishing at the time in the Delft area where Vanmeer lived. I love the concentration on the face of the lace girl as she uses her bobbins to make a border for maybe a tablecloth or pillow.

My piece measures about 6" square and is made from mountboard. I printed the image onto linen textured paper - I like this paper for the 'oil on canvas' effect it gives. I used K and Co 'Madeleine' backing paper and then added a variety of cotton lace from my stash, including a small crocheted coaster/doily which I think once belonged to my gran! The oversized needle must have come in a button pack at one time (don't know how long I've had it.....) and I know the two cotton 'spools' (probably from the same button pack) are not strictly to do with lacemaking but hope I'll be forgiven.

The rose lace in the top corner was cut from a wide strip and the addition of 2 buttons finish my small mixed media attempt!

I am submitting this into Gingersnap Creations C65 - Famous Painter or Paintings.

and Play Date Cafe's Colour Challenge is green, beige and dark brown - and as one of my little 'spools' is dark brown I am entering this there too!

Marrakech Remembered

I chose a fanciful title for this fanciful piece of work! Please click on to enlarge for a better view!

I spent yesterday pricing up the cards and other fabulous things made by Maureen for the charity day and then turned myself away from card making and lifted out a plain canvas. A rather large canvas for me actually, as it measures 15" x 12".

The images are torn from a paper napkin - don't you just love these elephants??!

(Why anyone would want to use napkins as pretty as the ones that I've managed to acquire over the last couple years to wipe their mouths with after eating is just beyond my comprehension!)

Anyway back to the napkin and the canvas..... this gorgeous coloured piece of paper just evoked images of the Souks with their array of wares in strong geometric designs in rich spicy colours.

So the background was done using red, orange and yellow acrylics and a baby wipe, the napkin torn up and stuck on with gel medium. I rummaged through the crafty stash and found these jewels, rings, buttons and tassel and the fabric bag revealed some small pieces of silks and organza in red and orange. (The fibres taken from the edges of the silks were just thrown randomly onto the canvas background whilst wet and I then built up the design over them). The gold jewelled engraved 'tube' I sewed on as well as glueing the length because of the weight of it. I have no idea what purpose in life this piece had. I have put a cklose up pic of it on my Flickr account and maybe somone out there can tell me what it began it's life as?

I am quite pleased of this canvas - I have placed it on the work room wall and every time I look at it I can smell ginger, cinammon, paprika, saffron type aromas!!

Mixed Media Mondays theme this week is Memories

One Powerful Hour has a challenge of Vacation

Gingersnap Creations Theme Challenge 64 is to used Yellow, Red and Orange.

'nother Card!

Forgot about this one!!!

'Here's one I made earlier'........................

and as it fits with challenges from -

Cute Card Thursday - 'Whateva'

Charisma Cardz - Teddy Bear

Penny's PaperCrafty Challenge - Anything Goes

Fab and Funky - Spots and Stripes

- I decided to post it!

A new Friend

I have been promising to set the cards to one side and do something else for a while now but somehow time has just slipped by and I have had nothing very much to show for it. I was forced into action by the fact that over at my Flickr group Art N Soul, the last challenge had finished and everyone was waiting for me to set a new one!

I have been meaning to have a go at creating one of these lovely strange ladies since Sue Roddis did some examples in the March issue of Craft Stamper.... so here I am four months later finally getting round to it!

Meet REELA COTTON!!!!

Reela was made from card and her body was done by tearing a lengthways strip from an A4 sheet of paper and folding in half, then tearing several strips about 1-2cm from another sheet of card, folding in half, positioning centrally round the 'spine' and glueing. To give the body some strength, I then applied a layer of gesso. Once dry I used Red, Sienna and Sap Green acrylic paints over the body and wiped with a baby wipe. I stamped a bit of text using grey Stazon and random dots using Crushed Olive distress ink and then cut out the body shape.

I packed OH off to the local Coffee Shop to get me a wooden coffee stirrer and he duly arrived back, cappucinno encrusted mouth but clutching the precious stirrer!

I painted it with sienna acrylic paint and stamped a bit more text onto it.

Reela's face was done by stamping onto some cotton fabric, sponging with the previously used baby wipe and sticking onto mountboard. The coffee stirrer was glued into place and then I found some fabric wings in my stash. The same text stamp was used on the wings and the stained baby wipe still damp was wiped over them randomly before I stuck the wings onto the doll.

Some pins for her 'hair', a few buttons and a wooden heart shape finished the project .... oh and a very old Silko wooden cotton reel!

Mixed Media Monday's theme this week was 'Past Loves' - not old boyfriends but things that you used to like doing and haven't done for a while...... and me making messy with gesso, paint and inks is definitely something I haven't done for a long time................ and I'd almost forgotten how much I enjoyed it!