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??????

Key to the Heart?

I am a member of a monthly altered art group and the challenge this month was to alter a key.

This is my first attempt.

The back of the key can be seen on my Flickr photstream here

I painted the key with black acrylic paint, then dabbed some of it off using a paper towel - some parts of the pic make the key and charm look red but this is due to me wearing a red shirt when I took the photo!

I used two silver filigree circles front and back. On the front I used a silver rimmed black button and glued on a pink heart gem. The lace was stuck on for no other reason other than it was lying on my desk and destined for the bin - waste not want not!!!

I am not sure if the addition of the two plastic leaves were a good idea as they are not particularly strong, but I liked the irridescent effect so decided to take the risk. I stamped the 'woman of spirit' image onto shrink plastic and panicked as usual when it began to curl up before it flattened out again - I added it and the silver cherub charm using silver chain.

The back of the key has the same silver filigree and lace scrap and I have added some pink gems. I am feeling quite relieved that today I have finally managed to make something - but also feeling guilty that I should have been catching up with the dreaded chores!

Not to worry - the dust will still be there next week won't it????

Peace

You really do need to click on this picture to see it properly!

Gothic Arches had a theme of 'Peace' this week. It seems such an age since I entered an arch into a challenge so thought I would give this one a go - it will then become another page in my gothic arch book!

The quote 'Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of God' seemed apt and I tried to construct the arch around it.

I collaged the two Forces statues (obtained from Google!), the background was stamped with versamark ink and I cut up a paper flower for the 'petals'. The tiny beaded wire angel was one of several of varying sizes brought home for me by my Mum some time ago when she went on a visit to Prague - she says every time she sees these angels she remembers how her wheelchair bumped across the cobbled streets!

I am not completely happy with this effort - it has been so long since I have had any ideas and this has not turned out as well as I'd hoped. There appears to be something missing but don't know what!

Hope the inspiration returns soon.

Normal service has resumed.........

At least I hope it has!! Have been without a full broadband connection since last Wednesday and I wouldn't have believed how annoyingly irritating the last week has been. I have felt bereft without being able to speak to all the friends I have made here in blogland and cyberspace. I could read and send e mails with the aid of a mobile broadband dongle thingy but couldn't do anything else!
I've had the dear husband ranting and raving at the ISP every day for a week (not only on my behalf I might add... he's been unable to sink submarines or shoot anyone with all his 'clan' friends which has made him extremely tetchy!). The dear husband is a computer whizz and has been telling the ISP that the fault was at their end not here.... finally this morning they sent an engineer round to the house....OH told the ISP that the engineer was wasting his time.... miraculously once the engineer arrived our internet connected without him doing anything!!!!!!!!!!!! Spooky??? Or just the ISP deciding that dear husband was right?????
Right, enough of the internet problems...
In the absence of connection I've been at a bowling green somewhere in the country nearly every day and have had no inspiration for any crafting (probably cos I was too irritated!). My County Team recorded their first win in the first inter County game of the season which reminded them that they achieved the impossible last year and won this Inter County league ! Hopefully the Team Manager (Me) can keep all their spirits up - there's a long way to go and there's bound to be a few slip ups on the way!
I have posted a pic of an ATC I made under the term 'fiddling about' (which is what I do when I have no inclination or ideas to make anything meaningful!). It's a sponged ink backgound with an oriental style stamp and a pretty oriental facial image printed on vellum then mounted on card. A few fibres etc added to give some depth. Not one of my more adventurous efforts but wanted to post a pic!!!

Faces

I know it's a week since I posted - I have suffered from severe crafting withdrawal symptoms as I have had very little free time - and what free time I have had I've spent selecting teams for forthcoming games and when I'd finished that I was just too tired to do anything!

I did however manage to scrape a win last Saturday in our first event of the season! If you want to look at a pic follow this link!

As I've had no crafting time this is something that I made a few weeks ago and didn't get round to posting on here - it was made for a jigsaw charm swap. You could send a 'stand alone' jiggy charm to be put onto a bracelet or a charm mounted onto an ATC, and the swap host would send you soemthing similar in return.

I am not very good with small jiggy bits!!! Only large ones!

I wasn't particularly confident of being able to produce something that would be good enough for attaching to a bracelet, so I decided to put the jigsaw piece onto an ATC. The background is a paper collage of various cities, I stamped the face image onto the acrylic painted jigsaw piece and coloured it before applying a couple of coats of glaze and once dry then added the charm at the bottom.

As I haven't entered any challenges for ages, I have submitted this into the 'Lots to Do' challenge this week who's theme is 'Faces'.

On Safari

Just been doing bits and bobs lately and nothing particularly creative or constructive!

I made this ATC at the weekend.

I used two different mediums for the background, imitation fur skin sent to me some time ago by a crafting mate Sassy - it has a lovely soft feel to it (a bit like stroking a cat!) and a strip of some patterned paper which co ordinated with the main zebra image.

I mounted the zebra on card then used 3d foam pads to raise it.

The beads are from a set in my stash and I finally managed to stamp a word into Sculpey clay that you could read! I covered the clay with gold ink and added a few fibres.

Da Vinci's Dreams

Theme Thursday's challenge was 'Famous Faces'

I have done a paper collage ATC in a tribute to Da Vinci.

Although Mona is a beautiful portrait, I think Da Vinci was an amazing scientist as well as a fabulous painter, and definitley born well ahead of his time!

Egypt

It's been a lovely day here, lots of sunshine - fingers crossed the sunshine stays with us for tomorrow as it is our 'Official' Club Opening Day!

I started this ATC last night and finished it this morning. It wasn't made for a challenge or anything, merely made because I have done so little in creative mode just recently.

I covered the ATC in brown mulberry paper and then distressed using a cream versamark ink. I then added the hieroglyphic printed paper attaching with 3d foam.

I have hardly used this set of stamps from Hero Arts so decided to give at least one of them a try! I stamped it onto black paper and then gold embossed, I think it's turned out OK! Again this was attached with 3d foam. I randomly gold embossed the entire ATC before threading the beads onto wire and glueing in place. I chose blue, black and gold as these colours always remind me of Tutankhamun's mask.

To complete the ATC I used a black cat brad, a 'coin' and glued on a couple more loose beads in the same colours.

Tea Time!

Not much spare time again this week to craft but have made a couple of ATC's to stave off the crafting withdrawal symptoms!

'Glamour Girls' is the challenge at this week's Theme Thursday.

Here's my entry!

(I have been unable to post my link on the Theme Thursday site - don't know why!!! But I confess to feeling a little frustrated about it this morning!" Never mind, at least I got to take part in the challenge even if no one from the site can see it!)

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.

April Evening

This week has passed so quickly! Have been catching up with a few jobs and have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather we've had.

I spent Friday in the garden and yesterday I was where I love to be on a warm sunny day - on a bowling green! We were invited to Opening Day at Southport BC and it was a really lovely afternoon and a great start to the outdoor season.

Today has seen us back out in the garden - am hoping to do a bit of crafting this evening but in the meantime I popped out, camera in hand and took a few pics of part of the garden in the evening sunshine.

The magnolia is one of my favourite plants - I adore the flowers and am real sorry they don't last all year! When I planted this shrub it was a mere 2 feet tall!

Isn't the double daffoldil just 'peachy' ?! (In more ways than one!)

I remember buying the yellow flowered plant a couple of years ago... it's now spread itself into several parts of one of the borders.. it only lasts during spring, but I love the huge glossy leaves and the tiny flowers... I just wish I could remember what it was called! I think it's an orchid of some description.... but whatever it is, it has certainly made itself at home!

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!

Someone to Watch Over Me

Do It In An Hour's challenge was on the theme of 'Eyes'.

I made an ATC using a cream parchment paper background and stamping the eye image on it in grey Stazon. I then printed out the guardian angel image onto an inkjet transparency and overlaid the stamped parchment, securing it with a couple of brads. I thought it looked rather bare and flat so added a few fibres at the bottom to try and give some texture and then added a silver cross.

'Perhaps the idea of Guardian Angels is a fanciful one. They could be something invented by humans to help people cope with the difficult times in our lives. They could be real. Perhaps only your own faith or experience can determine their reality. Are these spiritual beings really "assigned" to assist people here on Earth and is there one angel per person, one angel for several people or several angels for one person? Ulitmately, perhaps only your own faith and experience can determine their reality. But whether you believe in them or not, or whether you want one or not, believers insist that you do have a guardian angel. '

I have called this ATC, 'Someone to Watch Over Me' and hope, if angels do exist that one is assigned to me!

Mother Nature

I suppose many of us could be forgiven for thinking Spring had arrived here judging by the lovely weather we had last week and at the beginning of this - once again we were fooled! Despite the blooming daffodils and other spring flowers Mother Nature dealt us a blow with some really cold winds, very heavy showers and grey skies!

I have completed a piece today and have submitted it for two challenges.

The theme at Awfully Big Art Adventure was set by Patty and it was to 'alter cutlery'.

Heather had set a theme of 'Mother Nature' on the Saturday Surprise blog.

Having viewed some amazing pieces of altered cutlery on other blogs I managed to dodge the husband before he put locks on the kitchen drawers and found a couple of old forks. Unfortunately, the forks weren't old enough because they were almost impossible to bend!! (They must have been nickel plated.)

Undeterred I managed to bend the tines on one even if it wasn't to the shape I wanted!

I alcohol inked the fork using 'Lettuce, Meadow and Ginger' inks. I made Mother Nature in the centre of the fork with a Sculpey head (smudged suitably using a felt pen before colouring the mouth and eyes), and made her hair from a collection of fabric leaves wound onto long wires. The wires I then wound to create arms and legs. I added a sparkly dragonfly a shell shaped flower with a silver ladybird charm and the words Create and Grow which to me represent Nature. Finally I put the little foam bird onto the top of the fork with a few tiny twigs and a piece of green wool to try and represent a nest.

This was one of those things where I was quite surprised that it turned out not bad for a first attempt.

Ruler Book

Those of you who follow my blog will know that I am a member of a group called the 'Six Inch Square Club' - all ardent crafters are part of this group even though they mightn't be aware of it - its for all us messy artists who no matter how hard we try to be tidy always end up with only 'six inches' of usable space on their work tables!

The very talented Ange is the group Administrator and she sets a project every couple of months for us to try. I was lucky enough this month to win the basics to make the project of a Ruler Book. Ange sent me the ruler, fixings and the board.

Here is the result. I decided on a 'Garden' theme and used the image of the garden landscape design as the basis for the front cover. The large lace flower (dyed with distress ink), the daisy lace, green ribbon and small flower were all part of a 'lucky dip' bag I bought at the NEC. I painted the chipboard piece with Distress Crackle Paint then ran another distress ink pad over it. The background paper is from Basic Grey and the tag and butterfly were from my own stash. The rusty key used to open our old garden shed!

Inside the book I made a couple of pages to depict the garden seasons. All the background papers were from my stash and the larger tags are K and Co. I added smaller tags with leaves etc and also glued a seasonal 'tip' onto the large tag before putting the tags into the lace and paper pockets on each page. A few lace and floral embellishments finished the book.

I really enjoyed this project. I have uploaded the inside of the book as smaller images so as always if you want to see the detail you need to view each pic by clicking on it individually!

And of course if you want to join the 'Six Inch Square Club' Ange would love to see you! Just follow this link or click on the pic on the right hand side of my blog.

The lovely weather this week has meant I have been outside in the garden during the day. I went along to the bowls club on Wednesday for the first time this season to indulge in some much needed practice before the season starts in the middle of next month! Consequently I haven't done much crafting, although I have thought about the layout for the ruler book and am hoping to make a start on that this weekend.

Having not managed to do last week's challenge on 'Tag You're It', this morning I made an effort to do this week's!

There was an open theme but you had to include 3 elements - a ribbon, buttons, and brads or eyelets.

Here is my tag! I crumpled up some green tissue paper then ran 'Shabby Shutters' distress ink over it. The little lion and the monkey's head are buttons and the lizard background is from Hot Off the Press. I put a small green brad to secure the lizard paper onto the main tag. I used black eyelets to thread the ribbon through at the top. I finally added some small chipboard scrabble like tiles for the greeting.

A winner!

Well, I just can't believe it! One of my most talented blogging friends Ange (otherwise known as Agnes the Red) sets a challenge every couple of months over on her 'Six Inch Square' Club and blog.
This month was to make a ruler book.... and she set up a prize for someone to win all the stash to make one of these gorgeous books (inspired by the lovely Tim Holtz, of course!) ......AND I WON!!
I'm so pleased cos I've been looking for wooden rulers everywhere without success so I could try one of these and now I've won the makings!
Please go and have a look at Ange's blog, her work is fab, she is full of inspirational ideas and has lots of tutorials for you to learn from.
Thanks Ange, promise I will try to do a real good ruler book for you!

Mother and Child

The challenge this week at Gothic Arches was 'Mother and Child'.

Having already immortalised my great-grandmother and my father on ATC's, this was the perfect opportunity to use some more of my relations!

This picture is of my Nan and Mum. Nan was only 17 when Mum was born and this pic must have been taken late 1927/early 1928. I love this photograph.

I used Basic Grey paper for the background, then stuck the lace onto the same paper and cut out following the line of the lace. I mounted the two pieces onto the arch shape to 'frame' the image.

I finished the arch by adding a couple of buttons, a heart button with some organza ribbon and a couple of timy pearls. I added the year on the top of the arch digitally.

I have been researching my ancestry for about 5 years now and it is as addictive as crafting! I have printed this quote ' The Family is link to our past, bridge to our future' onto the front of my ancestry journals.

Playing with stash!

Cards finished so tipped the contents of the carrier bags out onto the work desk and began to have another look at all the stuff I bought with Maureen at the NEC.

We had spent a bit of a time admiring a 5' tall 'Decopatch' giraffe and as mad crafters do had bought a 'starter' kit! (Don't panic - We didn't buy anything as big as the giraffe!)

The decopatch papers are absolutely beautiful. Gorgeous colours and designs and as part of the deal we got 4 papers of our choice... I spent ages choosing but eventually much to Maureen's relief (as she was itching to go into the sewing section) I made my mind up!

Here are the results. (You really need to click on each pic to get the full view of the different designs on the papers).

I enjoyed doing this, tearing the paper up though was a bit of a wrench as the designs were so pretty- but I steeled myself to destroy it consoling myself that it would be reborn!