Postcard from Asia

The Three Muses challenge this week is 'Mail Art'. It also by chance fitted in with the current April/May challenge at the Art N Soul Flickr group which was to create a postcard and incorporate metal.

This piece measures 6" x 4" and is based onto mountboard. It was a change for me to leave the 'cute/girly/CAS cardmaking behind for a while and get back to creating purely for creating sake rather than for selling for charity!

I really like the rich vibrant colours in washi papers and this is what I used for the background. The geisha images are from Somerset Studio and the chinese writing paper and letter from the College of Japan were from my stash. 

I tied the metal coin on the card using some metallic gold thread  and added a chipboard embellishment, a couple of tiny fabric butterflies and a large orange gem which is supposed to represent the 'rising sun'!

I gold embossed the outer edges of the card and chipboard piece and dabbed a few bits of gold powder randomly across the card. 

The back resembles a postcard complete with chinese stamp.

Job done!

Autumn Leaves

Am a bit like a bus today - don't see one for a while then two come together!Second post for today is a project done for my Flickr group 'Art n Soul'. The challenge for October (unsuprisingly) has a theme of Autumn or Fall. (How original I am when setting these challenges I hear you say!)

The difficulty was that the theme had to be interpreted onto a Beer Mat.

And no this was NOT an excuse to visit the pub - as fortunately (or UNfortunately depending on your point of view)- one of my crafting friends had sent me a stack of beer mats a while back. I shall refrain from naming her as I don't want you to think she spends all her time in licensed premises......

So here's the finished project! I covered the coaster with glossy paper. Then coloured with a combination of Sunset Orange, Caramel, Ginger and Butterscotch Alcohol Inks. I then stamped some leaf images (Elusive Images) randomly onto the background.

I used a wee bit of copper embossing powder round the edges before adding the text. The text I found some time ago whilst blog hopping and it amuses me as I think it's absolutely so true! The large leaf was another Elusive Images stamp done with Stazon onto a Ten Seconds Studio metal sheet then cut out. I embossed it to 'puff' it up a bit and filled the back with Polyfilla to make sure it didn't squash before fixing it to the coaster.

Some leaf shaped buttons and some fibres to finish.

Paperplay Challenges, Creative Inspirations and Theme Thursday all have set challenges of Autumn this week.

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!

Queen of the Screen - But no crown.......

Have had a small break from card making for a couple of days and caught up with other things (not housework...lol).

The next challenge at the Art'n Soul flickr group was to alter a jigsaw piece using monochrome colours. Although the closing date for this challenge isn't until 3rd April, I thought I'd better get this done whilst I had the chance otherwise as usual I shall be dashing about at the last minute!

The jigsaw piece measures 5" x 3" and was sent to me by Maureen some time ago. Poor old Thomas the Tank Engine was unceremoniously ripped off the front and I painted the piece with white acrylic paint to get rid of the grey card back and sides. On reflection I could have left these cos the theme was monochrcome..... doh!

I covered the front with random alphabet paper ( have no idea where this came from... found 2 sheets of it at the back of a drawer!). Used black and silver embossing powder on the edges and stamped the Paperartsy image onto white card with black stazon. I mounted the image and words onto silver mirri card and glued in place. The camera and film strip are a black and white photocopy of K and Co scrapbook paper suitably reduced in size to fit the piece and I finished with a silver star and heart. I then took what I thought was a metal crown charm from my stash - it was curved and wouldn't sit flat so I decided to flatten it............. this was NOT a good idea as the charm was plastic and promptly shattered into about a million tiny pieces when I pressed down on it with the edge of the hammer........................ so my 'Queen of the Screen' is currently crownless until I can get some flat crowns!

Despite the monochrome theme, I couldn't resist giving her a teeny touch of red lipstick!

Creative Inspirations is predominantly a card site but does permit other projects to be submitted for challenges. Their theme this week is also Monochrome so have linked this and Fab n Funky's challenge is black and white and fotunately for me so was Little Red Wagon's!

Egyptian Discovery

I have set the challenge on our Flickr Group - Art 'N Soul- this month. The challenge is to make a 'Circle Book'. I have made one of these before (which can be seen here) and have been wanting an excuse to do another! So my poor friends in the group were challenged to make one for our next swap!

I have used the theme of Egypt for my book as I had recently bought quite a few egyptian type stamps (they were a bargain in a sale - honest!!).

I once again have to apologise for my photography skills - not made any easier by the light or the shape of the finished project either! (Enlarging each image helps!) But if you want to see a 'step by step' account and also have the template to make one, they can be acquired on my photostream here.

Inside the book, I used some parchment type paper for the backing of each page, some vellum, a variety of the stamps, embossing some with gold onto a black background and also using some images from a variety of sources.

The front and back covers are thick gold embossed paper and some torn muslin was used for the ties which were distressed with 'Antique Linen' ink. The 'mummy' on the front is made from air dried clay using a Krafty Lady mold, then I used Mod Podge to stick the muslin on the body! The Mod Podge has given the muslin a harder feel and it is quite rough to touch now, which I am happy with - after all, if you've been stuck in the ground for thousands of years you'd expect cloth to be hardened wouldn't you???? LOL