Think and Wonder Plaque

I've made this plaque for the Artistic Outpost anything goes Referral Programme for November using the little girl from the Think and Wonder plate. I stamped her onto shrink plastic which I cut with the Tim Holtz arch die and then filled in the edges with the floral border from the Flapper Fashions plate and coloured it with Pro Markers. I painted the plaque with various green shades of Fresco Finish, giving a mottled effect.

I used some grunge paste through the Mini Art Is stencil and then mixed some with the Fresco paint and spread it through the Mini Chicken Wire. I stamped the plaque with text from French Flight and Flower Market in shades of green and blue Archival ink, and then the flowers and butterflies from Flower Market in Black. I filled in with the mesh from Whimsical Musings. I made some clay wings to go behind the shrink plastic arch and highlighted them with Treasure Gold in Ice Fire.

To finish off I edged the plaque with Ice Fire and added some pink hanging cord.

You can get Artistic Outpost stamps from them here

Art Doll Carol Singer

I just got back from France this evening and I must be crazy as I walked in the door and straight into my craft room! Whilst I was away I had spotted that the lovely people at the Eclectic Paperie were having a challenge to make an Art Doll. I really fancied this and some ideas started to take shape over the coming few days, thinking I had all of November. Then I thought to look back at the challenge deadline and realized it was today, my return date! I also wanted to join in the Indigo Blu challenge which is Chocolate Orange, which also closes today, at 8 pm, just to make it that little bit more interesting! No chance of photographing my make in daylight but I can always switch the photos tomorrow. For what I had in mind I thought the new Jane stamp by Indigo Blu would be perfect. I had wondered about using one of my favourite Lynne Perella stamps but I felt for an art doll something without too much decoration already incorporated into it was the way to go. I also felt as it is such a huge stamp that it would work well on shrink plastic and that this would have more substance than just a stamped image on cardstock.

 

I always think the difficulty with art dolls is making something self-supporting and I'd had an idea for a while of using a mini easel so that the struts were the legs and the canvas the body, and the whole thing would then stand up on its own and everything else could hang off it. I painted the canvas orange and covered it with music script tissue wrap and painted the easel chocolate brown. I stamped Jane in brown and made an orange shrink plastic flower for her hair from the Live Laugh Love set. I didn't completely shrink it but stopped whilst it was curled up a little to give it some shape so it would sit proud of her head. I gave her rusted wings and a ruffle collar made from the Alterations rosette die so she looked like an angelic chorister with the music script body. I added a rusted light bulb so she could look like she was going carol singing with a lantern.

I gave her 'dress' a zipper and added a row of tiny orange and white buttons along the bottom. I pulled the feet off a skeleton and painted them a 'live' flesh pink and glued them onto the struts of the easel. I finished her off with orange lipstick and pearl earrings. Well, it would be rude not to!

Exciting News - Snazzys DT!

I hope you will share with me my exciting news! I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the design team for Snazzys scrapbooking and stamping design studio in Swindon, which also has an on-line shop. It is the perfect opportunity for me and I am so excited. Congratulations too, to my new teamies Diane and Claire, and to the lovely Minxy who is staying on.

My introduction is over on the site and I would love it if you said Hello to me over there. We were asked to pick a favourite item we had made in the past as an example of our work. I chose the tin man which I made a long time ago now but still like. It is not a very 'stampy' project but it was fun and reflects my love of using things that I have lying around and upcycling them. The original project is here.

I am really looking forward to making my first projects for Snazzys!

New Crafty Individuals Stamps!

Crafty Individuals have just released five gorgeous new stamp plates! The top three are Christmas although the girls under the umbrella could be used without the greeting at any time of the year and I think will be a favourite. I am crazy about that Alice Palace owl though! The bottom two are perfect for friendship and the flappers will co-ordinate with the previously released flappers if you already have any from that range. The one on the right says, 'To Love and be Loved is the Greatest Happiness'. That's my belief.

You can get the new stamps from here.

Lynne Perella Canvas Board with Metal Flowers inspired by Alison for Paper Artsy

 

 

 

I didn't have very much time this week but I wanted to make something for the Paper Artsy challenge as the lovely Alison (butterfly) has been Guest Designer. She made an amazing house with lots of layers of paint, stencils, and stamping, and I particularly wanted to try the rusted metal flowers. Alison used rusting powder but she also recommended a combination of Blood Orange, Cinnamon, and Brown Shed Frescos so I used these on some metal flowers from a Primark necklace and some leaf charms and photo corners. I added a sprinkling of Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder for the textured aspect of rust, which works well. I did as Alison suggested and painted some of the flowers with Vanilla and then sanded back to the rusty paint.

To save time I wanted to use a substrate I had already prepared. A few weeks ago you may remember I was transferring Thorndon Hall papers onto canvas using Fresco Satin Glaze so I used one of these. I wanted to use the new Lynne Perella stamps I had chosen from winning the draw last week. Thank you Leandra! I painted the lady with Frescos and then added a feather from the same set, LP 007. Such a gorgeous set!

I am entering this week's challenge which is here.

Flower Canvas Inspired by Jo Myhill for Paper Artsy

 

 

This week Jo Myhill has been back at Paper Artsy as Guest Designer with some more beautiful artwork including showing us how to make a masterboard. I chose to make some of the Lin Brown Eclectica flowers and, like Jo, I don't have the die, so I did the same as she did and stamped them out to use the shape. I loved the colour combo of Frescos she used of Claret, Pewter, and French Roast!

 

I painted the six by six inch deep canvas with Vanilla and used grunge paste through the Mini Ledger mask and highlighted the raised areas and the edges with Claret on a piece of cut n dry foam. I used some of the buttons on the sides which we made during Alison Butterfly's recent week as Guest Designer, which I thought was a lovely idea and I knew I'd return to it.

I embossed the flowers as Jo had done with a dots embossing folder and highlighted them with Ice Fire Treasure Gold. I didn't have the embossing powder she used but I found an old one in my stash called Silver Pearl by do crafts which worked out ok. I coloured the resin flowers which I bought from the Paper Artsy stand at Ally Pally with more Ice Fire which I also used on the metal leaves.

I am entering this into this week's Paper Artsy challenge.