Blue Moon

I had a spare couple of hours this morning so made an ATC for the swap on MAMMA. The challenge was to use a backgournd of your choice and there must be fabric, a traingle shape and some metal incorporated into your piece.

I used slate and silver mixative alcohol inks for the background and cut out a triangle of blue 'tie dyed' fabric which I glued to the left of the piece of card. I copvered the ATC with some 'moondust mesh' then made a fimo face. I painted the face with Tropic Blue mica powders and highlighted the eyes and mouth with a silver pen. I stuck the face into a bottle cap and added some blue seed beads for definition. Finally, I put the silver bead spray embellishment to imitate shooting stars and stuck on some small fabric silver stars.

We were not supposed to use metal brads but I hope I can be forgiven for the large silver one as it was the only way I could think of to secure the bead spray!

One I made earlier!

I have had major problems the last week accessing my blog! Had tried absolutely everything... (well not quite... I DID manage to resist the 'resort to hitting PC with hammer' urges.....JUST!) The darn thing let me open the page but not sign in.. and then when it let me sign in, it locked the PC.

After much frustration and a few more grey hairs OH said it might be the playlist.... apparently there is some legal dispute going on in USA about the playlist ..... so finally we managed to get onto the blog dashboard long enough for me to delete my much loved (by me) music. Since the playlist has gone I've had no problems.... so am hoping that OH can find another music gadget for me to add (I know some of you find the music annoying, but some people have said they like it!) and also that I have no more problems getting on the blog!

Right that's enough explanation of my absence.... (bowling season still busy too....) and I have spent the last hour trawling through the challenge sites to see what I've missed - which is a lot!

My friends at Flickr will have seen this ATC before - but as the theme on So Artful was 'gypsy', I decided to post this on my blog and enter it into June's challenge!

Nice Day for a White Wedding?

Today has been a beautiful day here in the North of England - just perfect for a white wedding! (Or a wedding of any colour!)

This pic is another which you need to click on and enlarge to see. I really must sharpen my photography skills!

Margaret set us a challenge of making a 'White' ATC for MAMMA this week, - I had several ideas, White Christmas, White Diamonds and White Wedding.

I remembered this image of the 'bride with no dress' (!) from the Flickr group and thought I would try and base an ATC round it.

The 'My Trousseau' background is also courtesy of Flickr.

I added some lace, two 'silver'rings, a heart gem ,a shoe and some ribbon and tulle secured with a pearl brad.

If this was her actual wedding outfit I wonder what the groom wore??????

Sew Time

My blog posts today are like buses....... you wait ages for one to come along, then two arrive together!

I kept my promise to myself to make something tonight after being 'craft less' for nearly a week and here it is!

The challenge on Theme Thursday was 'Sewing' and Margaret's theme this week was 'Time'.

I have combined the two challenges and made this mixed media ATC.

The background is a pretty fabric that was sent to me by another crafter, the image is from Seneca Pond Crafts, the embellishments, lace and ribbon were from my stash.

Dreams

Maggies challenge this week was to make an ATC using this beautiful image of a young girl.

As soon as I saw it I thought about how innocent childhood is and it just seemed so apt to make a 'thoughtful' ATC with it. Children have such wonderful imaginations and because they are so untroubled by all the humdrum of daily life can allow their thoughts to raom free.

I used a background from the Flickr collage pool - I don't normally use the colour green a lot so this is a bit of a change for me.

After adding the image this quote from W.B.Yeats came into my mind -

'I have spread my dreams beneath your feet, Tread softly because you tread on my dreams'

and it seemed to capture everything about the expression on the child's face and the thoughts behind her trusting eyes.

To complete the ATC I added some vintage lace, a silk flower and 'cobwebby' fibres in an attempt to carry on the 'Dreams' theme throughout.

I have also entered this into the challenge on Saturday Suprise this week as the theme is 'Childhood'.

I hope this child, whoever she was, achieved her dreams.

The Golden Egg

This weeks 'Mamma' challenge was an ATC sized egg!

For the front I used embossed gold paper and ran some organza ribbon around the entire egg. I added some sparkly ribbon looped into a flower shape, secured with a shiny gold brad and some gold and pearl beads on gold wire. The sparkly ribbon has string threaded through it so I used the string to 'tie' the egg closed.

Inside I used gold embossed paper again, two printed images from my stash, some red/gold lace and red gems...

The opened out egg needs enlarging to view properly!

Margaret set us a challenge this week of 'Birds' on MAMMA's Monday Musings. I have to confess this ATC took me ages to do - and the finished product is really only a paper collage with a feather! I found the composition difficult - put it down to this dreadful cough making my already bad neck even worse!

As usual, finding the images took me an age.... good job I found the birdie pic last - poor old song sparrow would have well fallen off his perch waiting for me to find the music sheet...will somebody please come tell me why I put a music sheet into the 'hobbies' folder when I have a folder specifically for music sheets? Not that there's many in the hobbies folder............ they're obviously filed somewhere else too! Used Basic Grey paper for the background, Sparrow image came originally from Flickr as did the Music Sheet. Distressed the papers with Antique Linen distress ink, stamped a few musical notes around sparrow and added the feather.

Heart

Over at MAMMA, there is a Valentine's challenge using a heart shaped template.

I am not good with a sewing needle and find working with fabric quite difficult so I opted for the safe old paper creation! Whilst I have in my list of favorites things pink, romantic and vintage I decided to have a change for this challenge.

The background of this heart is handmade paper which has been 'crinkled' although this doesn't show up very well on the photo. (In fact, I am not pleased with this photo as I was happy with this project once I'd completed it and I don't think this shows it off to it's best, so trust me, it DOES look better in 'real life'! If you want a better view just click on the picture - it makes it larger and clearer.)

After adding the crinkle paper, I double edged the heart with two different layers of lace. I placed a second layer of corrugated card over the back attaching the brown hanging ribbon before glueing.

The little brown spotty heart at the top is made from thin wood and I added fibres, a flower and a skeleton leaf and two fabric butterflies before attaching the silver 'Love' word charm. Over at 'Created by Hand' the challenge was to create something using the word Love - so here it is!

Gentlemen

Here is my ATC made for this weeks MAMMA challenge. The theme was 'Men'.
I reprinted the background paper to less than 50% of it's original size as I liked the design but it was too big for an ATC.
I stamped the 'real gentlemen' image with Stazon onto a kitchen work surface sample (part of an extensive collection from a local DIY store when I couldn't make my mind up about what worktop to have in the kitchen!). I like the effect of the stamp as it has turned out with a 'mottled' look instead of just perfectly flat and smooth.

Decorations

Margaret is hosting a Christmas Bauble Decoration swap. All the baubles are the same size and shape and we could embellish in any way. Time has been at a premium for me this past week but I found a few hours yesterday to craft.

My new work room is almost completed, so I really need to be sorting out the stash all crafters accumulate rather than actually creating....but I am so ill disciplined!

The poinsetta decoration was cut from a piece of Christmas ribbon and fixed onto some strong card. I then mounted it onto some glitter card and embellished the edge in gold. I used gold and pearl seed beads to highlight the centre. The back is identical to the front.

The other is an attempt to use some of the christmas craft stuff housed in a red box! I found the domed snowman skulking away at the bottom of the box and the foam words and snowflaes were in yet another box inside the big red one!

I really am going to have to be more strict with myself... I still have so much to do...my backgrounds for my jigsaw jams to finish, some more cards for my crafting friends, (daren't send THEM shop bought ones!), blinds etc to buy for the new work room, the whole house needs cleaning as we have also had some work done inside whilst the builders were here and of course I have to sort the crafting stuff out as mentioned earlier! That LITTLE job alone will probably take me to Christmas!

But I have just had a quick look through the challenge sites.....and there ae sooooo many interesting challenge themes this week..................................

Remembrance

Maggie set her weekly challenge as Remembrance with Armistice Day fast approaching.
I thought a lot about this theme. A week or so ago we had done a Vintage challenge and I'd make a tag with an image of a WW1 soldier and the words from the poem Flanders Fields so I wanted to do something different for this week's.
I remembered seeing this photo of the soldier overcome by his grief crouching down in front of the line of boots and rifles which depicted all his fallen comrades and thought this was a fitting image to use.
The 'Soldiers Poem' is a a favourite and I think it reminds us all that our freedoms were obtained at great cost.
I printed the poem over a Union Jack on acetate and placed it over white card.
The blue cross is in remembrance of all those who paid the ultimate price and the cream ribbons and dove the symbol of hope and peace.

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!

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?!!!

Nature and Nakedness!

Maggies Challenge this week was 'phone books'. I remembered seeing a dress shop called Fine Feathers in the local yellow pages so this image seemed to fit! I have bought a lot of stamps on line recently, some have arrived and some not. The other ATC is one of a pile that arrived yesterday! I love this image, her face is so serene. I inked the background and after stamping the image sponged over it lightly with white ink. The skeleton leaves and lace I added afterwards and does anyone else have trouble with 'rub ons'? I never seem to manage to get ALL the transfer off onto the project!