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!

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.

Never judge a book......

....by it's cover! Margaret's challenge this week was a Triptych ATC on any theme. I like the shape of this one as it is just a scaled down version of a gothic arch!

I used several varying shades of blue ink and sponged the background then stamped several of the 'Ink and Nibs' stamps by Invoke. On the front 'doors' I used a small book embellishment and cut out some specs and case from a Tag Art book by Paper Pizazz. Inside, the same book supplied the image of the lady in her reading room. I painted over the entire ATC with mica shimmer powder in Tropic Blue. The finished ATC has a gorgeous shimmery look to it which isn't completely captured by the photo.

TMTA's challenge this week was the colour 'Ice Blue' and I've submitted this - I hope it fits in with the challenge!

Oh and I almost forgot.. a huge THANK YOU to Maureen who gave me an award for being creative - I really appreciate it and it's now on the right hand side of my page!

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.

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?!!!

Can't believe it has been over a week since I last posted on here. I wish I could say I have been crafting but normal life took over this week! I took advantage of a free morning to do my two pieces for Maggies challenge. It was a luxury to be able to make two as normally I only have time for one. The theme this week was Maps. Treasure Island seemed appropriate and as I'm fascinated by our social history since beginning to trace my ancestry, I remembered seeing a map showing how much of London the Great Fire had destroyed! So with the 'fire' map duly printed off, I took an extract from Samuel Pepys diary and printed it onto vellum and then stuck it under a book cover image. I don't normally do ATC's in 'landscape' but the map dictated the orientation. There was so much I wanted to include on this one but was bothered it would become overloaded so in the end just left it as it was. I made the other one by dowloading the Map image then adding an digital 'antiqued' overlay. The background was done with distress ink and then the paper skull and metal embellishments added. I was an avid reader when I was a child hence the 'Alice' extract last week and now 'Long John' this week!

Poor Jack!

This week's challenge set by Maggie was 'Playing Cards'.
So here is the Queen of Hearts surrounded by miniature Heart playing cards ordering the head off the Knave of Clubs for no reason other than he is not a 'heart'!

I have Maureen and Wendy to thank for their tips on triple embossing. My attempts up to now had not been the best but this one finally turned out OK.