An Awfully Big Art Adventure ... Absolutely Charming ...

Linda and Rosie's Awfully Big Art Adventure for the first week of 2009 is Absolutely Charming and you're invited to make charms. Both Linda and Rosie have created some beautiful pieces and I thoughtI would have a go ....Top left is a 'bracelet' made from Style Stones, which have been inked with Distress Inks, stamped with the Stampendous Marble Texture Cube and embossed a number of times with Amazing Glaze. The Style Stones and the beads were threaded onto some elasticated thread. Top middle is a 'sandwich' of 1" x 3" Memory Glass ofTim Holtz images and bordered with copper tape. Under the 'bracelet' is another Memory Glass 'sandwich' made in the same way. Next to that is a Bottle Cap, which has been Alcohol Inked, with a Crafty Individuals image, and then glazed with Glossy Accents. Bottom left is a wooden letter inked with various bright colours of Stazon, stamped with the Marble Texture Cube, embossed a few times with ordinary clear embossing powder and edged with gold Krylon pen. Middle bottom is a domino, done in the same way as the wooden letter (I didn't realise you decorate the undotted side of the domino - lol). On the right, the letters of the word Love are Grungeboard, inked with Distress Inks, a touch (well more than a touch, actually, lol) of Icicle Stickles and linked together with jump rings through eyeletted holes.

None of them can hang - I can make the holes (I have a braddle) but I don't have the equipment to solder on the hooky and hangy bits. I can just see my son's face when I say I want to learn about soldering and the like - he'll put me in a home - lol !!!

An Awfully Big Art Adventure - An Altered Tin ...

The challenge over at Rosie and Linda's this week has an environmentally friendly and green theme - alter a tin ...... I don't generally eat tinned stuff but after ferreting around in the back of the kitchen cupboard I found a tin of baked beans. I didn't really fancy beans on toast, so they are in the fridge (maybe later) and the tin was washed out.

So, what can you do with a tin? I didn't dare attempt cutting holes out of it with scissors and pliers (I once had a most unfortunate experence opening a tin of corned beef, which involved copious amounts of blood, fainting and five stitches) so I stuck with the old faithfuls - Alcohol Inks, my Crop-a-Dile and some eyelets.
I thought the end result was pretty boring really, so I decided to use it as a vase. I shoved a piece of that florist's foam in the tin (gosh that stuff gets everywhere) and stamped out Fresh Bloom by Stampendous a number of times, water coloured the flowers with Aquatone sticks, used gel pens to highlight the stamens and stuck them to florist's wire. The curly bits are pieces of that Japanese cord beginning with 'M', which I can't remember the name of - lol.
The tin still looked boring, so I put ribbon through the eyelets and put some smaller stamped flowers around it.
I took the photo before I went to work this morning. The light was really bad outside and it was raining anyway, so this was taken indoors - flowers look great - shame about the tin .....

Theme Thursday .... Tags

Gosh - there's a Challenge (and if the truth were known more than one) for every day of the week. I found Theme Thursday while I was looking for something completely different but c'est la vie .....it all adds to the excitement ....This large Tag was made for my first ever Challenge entry back in the mists of time in June this year and I thought I would revive it !! For anyone who missed it this is what I wrote - " ... coloured with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and then stamped all over with the Stampendous Marble Texture Cube in gold The check pattern is B-Lines Checker Board stamped in Olive Green Staz-On. The main image is Classmates by B-Lines, stamped on glossy card and then dabbed with Lettuce and Butterscotch Alcohol Inks, with just a touch of Stream; and mounted on black glossy card. A 7-Gypsies Friends tab is at the top of the image and a pink flower and black ric-rac was added to finish it off".
Hope you like it - again .......

Summertime Blues ...

Got the day off today (well 'til 7pm) because I am going to a Garden Party ....
No - not at the BIG HOUSE lol - but at an equally impressive establishment near where I live.

Not being one to waste time, I thought I would catch up with a little private monthly ATC swap I am involved in. Not a good idea really because to get covered with Colour Wash Spray and Alcohol Ink is not a good thing to be doing, a few hours before an outing - lol.
This month's theme is Summertime Blues and apart from THAT song, I could see the beach, which I just love ..... so ....

The first one from the left is an Alcohol Ink background, using Stream, Silver and blended with Solution (the photograph makes it look a bit 'muddy' - it is better in real life!). The middle one is another Alcohol Ink background, just using Stream this time. The background of the one on the right is using the Shades of Blue Marvy Blending Blox. The stamps are from Rubbadubbadoo - Beside the Sea and At the Beach.

This is where I really made a mess .... The first one to the left is on ordinary card sprayed with Adirondact Colour Wash Sprays - Bottle and Stream. The middle one and the one to the right are both done with the Shades of Blue Marvy Blending Blox on glossy card. The middle one is stamped in black StazOn and the one to the right with Azure StazOn. The image is Bathing Beauties from The Queen's Dresser Drawers.
Hope you like them .....
By the way, I managed to get my hands resasonably clean before I went to the party (and I did some housework) - lol

Sunday Stampers - Week 22 - Friends

Well, well, well - I've had my Blog for a week and here I am entering a Challenge! I have spent the day - off and on - looking at all those Challenge Blogs out there. I can see this as becoming quite a serious addiction! So this is my first ever Challenge entry .....

I chose to do a large Tag - which was coloured with Shabby Shutters distress ink and then stamped all over with the Stampendous Marble Texture Cube in gold ink. The check pattern is B-Lines Checker Board stamped in Olive Green Staz-On. The main image is Classmates by B-Lines, stamped on glossy card and then dabbed with Lettuce and Butterscotch Alcohol Inks, with just a touch of Stream; and mounted on black glossy card. A 7-Gypsies Friends tab is at the top of the image and a pink flower and black ric-rac was added to finish it off.
Hope you like it .......

Paris .... on a clipboard

This is a 'work in progress' that has been in progress for quite some while! I went to Paris once, ages ago, for the day - and loved it. Maybe I will go again, when I retire! Paris themes seem to come and go and this is one of my pieces .....

The masonite clipboard was bought from an office stationers and, despite being thick, can be punched with a Crop-a-Dile. The surface was painted with a very light brown acrylic paint and then with Paper Glaze Sheer Gold Glaze. The clip was dabbed with Wild Plum and Lettuce Alcohol inks.
The Paris word idea is from a back issue of Somerset Studio Gallery. It is cut from foamboard and covered with pages from a French book out of the libary, which were inked with Old Paper and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. The stamps used are from Tim Holtz - I See Paris; and the Oxford Impressions plates - Paris Poste and Travel Journal; and are all stamped with a Ranger sepia Archival ink pad.
Other images - the Parish metro map, Moulin Rouge, Mona and the French flag were all from the net.
Even though I say the piece is finished - everytime I look I think - does it need something else, that 'je ne sait quoi'. Post a comment and let me know what you think.......