Gingersnaps September Muse Interview and Create Blooming Art

Sitting here in my jimjams but thought I had better let you know that it looks as if I have been busy during the night as my interview is up on the Gingersnaps Blog. I mentioned before that Ali and Shar had asked me if I would like to choose the items or should they, and I was happy for them to choose. They have chosen a nice variety of things. The one I chose as my own favourite was the first one I blogged with, the Artist Palette Wall Hanging, using the Artistic Stamper Artist Plate;-

I have a tutorial on the site on Monday which I do hope you will like, and which also uses the Artist Plate, which is one of my favourites.

I am joining in some of the challenges on Gingersnaps this month and I hope you will too, as there are some great themes.

Over on the Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog I have a little wall hanging using a new frame Jennie has brought out, with the new Flower Blooms stamps. The depth of the frame was perfect for tiny dominoes.

Sorry I started to type this earlier and got hit by a bad head but I thought I should say I am not still in my pyjamas at 4.30 pm! I would like to say a huge Thank You to Shar and Ali for giving me the opportunity to be their September Muse. Just to show that I don't take myself too seriously, and that I don't have a big head as well as a bad head, I thought I would give you the alternative interview with me, as I don't often share much personal and non-arty information. So here are a few facts about me that you probably don't know, mixed in with some bare-faced lies:-

- My Mum and I once went for a swim in the sea with Cliff Richard, just the three of us,

- When I was a kid I drank some bleach and ate a tube of Airfix Glue (on separate occasions) - Mum had the Toxic Substances Advice Line on Speed Dial!

- Not known for my drinking, I went to a Hen Night in California, got very drunk, smoked a cigar, hit my head on the underside of a table, and woke everyone up coming home at 4 am singing 'Wey Hey we're the Monkees' (and I swear I don't know the words),

- I worked in a Psychiatric Hospital for 16 years and one of the delusional and psychotic patients said I was the loveliest girl who worked there!

- At a dinner-dance at the Hilton, the waiter dropped 8 portions of steak chasseur on me from a great height, smothering me from head to toe, including my hair, in front of 200 people. They let out huge cheers and clapped as I exited the room, and the staff had to sponge me down in the ladies' changing room.

Don't think even those of you who come for play-dates at my house will know if all this is true - we will see!

Dressmaking Themed Canvas

I made this 'Shadow Box' which is really a reversed canvas yesterday. One of my favourite stamp sets ever, is the Sewing Plate from the Artistic Stamper, and I had wanted to use it in conjunction with this wonderful Torso art mould from Krafty Lady, called Mini Torso Front, which you can get from The Stamp Bug, and also I wanted it to be a canvas to use the tissue paper technique as I had some of this dressmaking tissue which I thought would work well. I cut the bit of tissue I liked best to do the stamping part for the centre of the canvas, and cut another good bit to fold to make a sort of folded pattern embellishment for the top left corner. I used Viva Gold Precious Metal Paint on the canvas, which you can get from the Artistic Stamper, then a crackle paste I got from somewhere else as an attempt at a substitute for crackle paint, but I'm afraid I wasn't happy with it. I then sprayed the lot with glimmer mists.

I have been crazy about the shadow boxes Hels has been making but had found it difficult to source them, so I thought I would use a reversed chunky canvas so that I had the sides, and the edges, to work with. All around the sides I stamped a selection of the smaller images from the set, which gives you a lot of images to work with. I made up the torso with some flesh coloured pearlescent friendly plastic, and stamped a bit of twill to wrap across it using a tape measure stamp, and put a strip of gold card on the end the way tape measures sometimes look, and stood it on a mini wooden cotton reel. The adorable iron sewing machine, which reminds me of the one my mum inherited from my grandmother and used when I was a child, is actually a dolls house item. There was a story to this as I bought it years ago when I was in a craft shop with a friend and she thought it was expensive and I would never use it and I shouldn't buy it. I was in love with it and virtually had a trantrum in the shop and lay on the floor kicking my legs! In the end I sloped back to the shop on my own a few days later and bought it! Big confession - it is not stuck down to the canvas as I can't part with it for one particular project so I will re-use it. Likewise the dressform as the mould itself is out on loan to a friend so I only have this one left that I had already moulded.

Around the edges on the tissue layer inside the canvas I have used various items to embellish it. A shrink plastic tape measure, made from the ruler in the Artist Plate (from the Artistic Stamper) and a black and gold shrink plastic sewing machine from the Sewing Plate, and then a needle threader, and some poppers, a special silver button I had been saving, a dinky minute zip, and a pair of scissors from one of those novelty button sets. Around the edge of the canvas itself I have added some buttons and a piece of tea dyed lace, with a hat pin pushed through it which is a lovely little touch I have copied from my dear friend, Lynne, so I hope she doesn't mind!

Here's a close up of the Torso mould:-

I have also taken close-ups of the dolls house sewing machine, and also the shrink plastic one made from the Artistic Stamper stamp.

Gingersnap Creations Blog - Birthday Postcards Swap

Hels organized the UK end of the Gingersnap Creations Blog Birthday Postcards swap - thanks, Hels! The brief was postcard size items with a Happy Birthday Gingersnaps theme, as they are one year old.

The pencil background stamp is from Lost Coast from Happy Daze, and the other stamps are from the Artistic Stamper. I used glossy postcards, and stamped the pencils with either White StazOn or Jet Black StazOn. I then brayered over the top with Kaleidacolor in Baby Powder. With the white background I stamped directly onto the card, and with the black background I brayered some more glossy card, stamped the images, then decoupaged them over the top. The Happy Birthday wording is being held by the mannequin, which was Von's idea as she was here with me when I was making them. The Creativity wording is Tim Holtz, and the other images are all from the Artistic Stamper Artist Plate. I love this plate and use it such a lot!