Art Nouveau Frame - Altered Watch Bracelet

When I went to the car boot sale on Sunday I picked up loads of bits of jewellery, including this watch (should have photographed it before I decorated it), which had a bracelet made of circular links with nothing in the centre, each link surrounded by diamontes although some have come away. The catch was broken but the watch still works. I had Pauline and Jack here yesterday and I was sorting through and cleaning the pieces I bought when I looked at the watch links and thought 'Circles - The Stamp Man challenge!'. Jack thought it would lend itself well to an Art Nouveau style so that got me started. I used a selection of 1920s lady stamps with hats, and this very Charles Rennie MacIntosh rose, all from The Artistic Stamper. The rose determined the colour palette. I then went through my Joanna Sheen Art Nouveau flowers paper pad and chose this Old Rose colour design.

First of all I stamped some ladies in hats and coloured them with Pro Markers and glued one behind each bracelet link (these are my Circles, for the challenge theme), and filled the centres with Glossy Accents. I then stamped the lady in the ermine coat and coloured the roses. I reversed a canvas so that I had the depth I wanted for the bracelet watch and covered the frame part with texture paste, then painted it with Old Rose paint. I stamped up the Roses, coloured them, and used them to decorate the frame. I then glued the paper inside the canvas and added the lady and the watch. To finish it off I added a chandelier earring from my car boot haul, to give the impression she is dancing in a ballroom. Finally I photographed it against a fur stole.

I am back on 'Pretty' after my foray into the dark side for Hallowe'en!

Gingersnap Creations - Typewriters Challenge

Gingersnap Creations have a new challenge starting today, incorporating Typewriters into your artwork, with a Work theme. I thought I would use a CD case to make a stand for a desk calendar. I used Darcies stamps from Craft Obsessions, and added a couple of pen nibs, which you can get from the Artistic Stamper or the Fruit Pixie. I then aged a calendar tab by crumpling it and using Distress Ink, and added it to the front with a bulldog clip. I added some typewriter style twill to the clip, also from the Fruit Pixie.

Christmas Gift Boxes

Col asked me just before we went away for Christmas if I would make a couple of little gift boxes as we were giving his Mum and Sister Pandora charms for their bracelets. The first one is a papier mache box which I painted with pink Viva Precious Metal Colour, and then added some bronze Viva Croco to the top. Whilst it was wet I 'stuck' a few tiny pieces of left over friendly plastic onto it and melted it in with the heat gun. I then made a grungepaper rose using Hels' Stitchels stamps from the Artistic Stamper, coloured with Distress Inks.

A side view to show the little pieces of Friendly Plastic

This one was a wooden magnetic clasp box and I painted it with a cheap shimmery blue/green paint and blasted it with the heat gun to make it blister, in the same way I did the notebooks recently. I added some Angelina fibres around the edge and some tiny blue beads. I then made a friendly plastic frame from my new Krafty Lady art mould, which I love. I added a Crafty Individuals Father Christmas image to the centre and filled it with Glossy Accents. I was quite surprised that my MIL and SIL liked the boxes as I thought they would just look at the gift inside, but they seemed to, which was nice. Although they don't do the same sort of crafting as we do, they are both very crafty and they take an interest in the things I make, which is lovely.

I 

Stampbord Little Boy in Copper Frame

I have made this frame with a Stampbord coaster in the middle as a gift for my dear friend, Petra. She has invited me to a cupcake tasting at her home this afternoon. Her baking is amazing and she grows the fruit she uses herself. I am very lucky to have a wonderful friend who bakes, crafts, is on the same design team as me, and lives only half an hour away! I hope she will like the frame which is not at all what I intended to make. It is one of the large papier mache frames from the Artistic Stamper and they are great value and you have the benefit of a wide frame to work with but also a deep recess, almost like having a shadow box. I had intended to decorate the frame with Stampbord inchies to co-ordinate with the design in the middle which is from two Art Journey plates, Writing and Inchies. My lovely friend, Alison, was very kind and ordered from Art Journey for the two of us as I am not brave enough to order in a foreign language in case there is some small print I haven't understood. In this instance, though, it does help if you know what Winkel means! Anyhow, when she came for the day and delivered my stamp set she also lent me her brand new Inchies set, how cool is that! I did make all the Inchies but they will be on a mirror which I will blog soon. I changed my mind because I liked the Viva Croco Copper background so much, I didn't want to cover it, so I just added a few pieces of the leaf stamp on Grungepaper, coloured with Pro Markers to pull it together with the central design.

For the coaster itself I coloured the Stampbord with Kaleidacolor shades from the Pastels set, and then stamped the little boy and the arithmetic from the Writing set, and the sentiment and the scrolls from the Inchies set, and then glazed it with clear embossing powder. I normally use Glossy Accents but it was such a big piece. As there was a slight gap between the coaster and the edge of the frame I wanted to fill this in some way and I tried out various colours of cord and braid which wasn't quite right, so I have used one of my fave products, Deko Ice glass glitter, from the Altered Element. I added a little extra on the frame to again try to pull the design elements together but I stopped after a few sprinkles as it was just buried against the copper background.

Sorry the photos are so dreadful but the glaze on the tile was causing a lot of glare, but I hope you get the general idea! I hope you like it, and I hope Petra will be able to find a little home for it. Off to have a bit of quiche now before I go out, as I need to have something savoury before I start on the cakes!!

Alcohol Inked Notebook

This is a close up sneak peek of an alcohol inked notebook I have made for the Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog. Hope you like it and will find it easy to follow!

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!

Bathing Belles

I've made a fun little heart shaped album in a matching tin, using the Artistic Stamper's Seaside Plate and Gibson Girls Plate 2, for the launch of their new Creative Team Blog. These Graphic 45 'On the Boardwalk' papers are great. What is it I love about them? Is it the quality? Or the lovely soft vintage colours? Or is it the fact that the girls are unashamedly flaunting their white limbs, plump midrifs, and cellulite?! Makes me feel I could almost brave the beach! I think they had the right idea in those days, with the maximum coverage bathing suits - the men wore them too and look hideous - worse than Borat. The girls did worry about one thing we worry about today, though - Sunburn! Hence the advert for Frostilla I had to include on one of the pages - 'For irritated skin, golfer's neck, and hiker's foot!'

If you would like to see more of the pages, and how it was made, hop over to the new Creative Team Blog of the Artistic Stamper!

A Seaside Canvas

 I made this back to front canvas using a gorgeous plate called
Seaside No 1 Plate by the Artistic Stamper. It features a range of shells, the Ship's Wheel with the two little children in the centre, the fish, the parasol, and this lovely Marilyn Monroe style bathing beauty having a paddle. I used Crackle Paint around the edge, and then Distress Inks and shimmer spray. The shells around the edge were made of clay with a little Stickles over the top, and the mould was lent to me by my friend Von when she was here to play - she buys her moulds from her local greengrocer! The little beach hut is actually one of the very reasonably priced wooden bird houses sold by the Artistic Stamper, and I just pulled out the perch and the hanging loop and decorated it with blue and white striped paper and shells. There will be lots more using this plate of stamps as it is so versatile, and captured the wonderful feeling of this hot summer we are having.

Sing Bird, Sing

I made this card using the Tim Holtz Sissix Alterations dies, and the Bird Collage stamp all from the Artistic Stamper. I used the Caged Bird, the Flourish, and the Tattered Florals dies. I cut the pieces in grungepaper and inked them with Distress Inks, embossing the bird cage in gold and giving it a shabby, patchy look. I made a piece of background paper using Distress Inks spritzed on a craft sheet, and some water flicking, then stamped music script with Archival Sepia Ink all over. I then stamped the words 'Sing Bird, Sing' from the Bird Collage set in black. I cut away the branch from underneath the bird but used it to cut feet, stamped her with more music script and added some feathers. Her eye is one of the holes from cutting the bird cage, coloured with black marker pen and I have given her feathers and a gold princess charm for a crown. I shaped the cage a little so it was convex and added a bit of the gold leaves braid I had left from the previous project, and also the left over bit of chain for the cage to hang from. I then added a Flourish and small Tattered Flower, the centre of which is the 'hanging bit' I cut off the top of the crown charm. I should admit to something embarassing at this point. You know 'What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday'? Well, for ages I thought it meant you had to make something with the bits floating around on your workspace from your last project. Well, this is what I often seem to do because I am so messy. So that is why I have used up all these little bits but fortunately I never went ahead and entered the 'challenge' and showed myself up!

The final fun bit of my card is that I thought my bird should not only sing, but play the Saxophone too! I have had a novelty button for ages that I didn't want to part with, and when I had my blitz with Mould N Pour recently, I made a mould of it so that I could replicate it in friendly plastic. Both my brother and his little girl play the sax, and I love jazz, so it would be a fun card for them. Hope it makes you smile!

Papier Mache Mannequin

I made this papier mache mannequin using one of the collage plates from the Artistic Stamper, and their Dressmaking Plate.

I painted the mannequin with flesh coloured paint and stamped a variety of the images onto tissue paper, including the words 'Perfectly Fitted' and the tape measure from the Collage Plate. I also stamped some of the images onto her 'work pinny', which was a Poundland crochet coaster, to which I added a few buttons and poppers, a safety pin and pearl headed pin for texture and interest. I added a scrap of lace to her neckline as a collar, which was my friend, Von's, idea, as she was here yesterday and I said, 'where shall I put this scrap of lace?'. I cut a piece of tape measure twill, also from the Artistic Stamper, and added a bit of memory foil to the ends to look like the metal ends of a tape measure and to stop it fraying and make it drape a bit better.

Finally I stood her on two old wooden thread spools, but I haven't stuck them down as I am not sure about this bit? My thinking was, it makes her look like she has chunky thighs, but as she has a perfect bosom and a tiny waist, that seemed only fair!

Birthday Cards - Masterboard Backgrounds

When I was doing background techniques with the students recently I made a batch of A4 size masterboards, which I have now made into some birthday cards. They were a mixture of Distress Inks on a craft sheet and spritzed, bubble wrap, sequin waste, and some Tim Holtz Masks.

The images on these are from a Time to Stamp A5 plate and I have added an art mould I Ching coin and a Fragment to the Geisha one:-

And this one is a completely different colourscheme, for the Butterfly Girl from Crafty Individuals, one of my favourites. It seemed strange composing cards in this way, from the bottom upwards, and keeping the main image plain, but I think I will do this again.




This one was made with the Artistic Stamper Cycling Plate, and the two little boys CI 080 from Crafty Individuals:-

Collage Woman Canvas Board Hanging

I made this canvas board wall hanging using the Collage Woman set from the Artistic Stamper, one of my all-time favourites. I coloured the background with Silkies, which were my new discovery at the Biggin Hill show last week, made by Imagination Crafts. I stamped the images and adhered the tissue to the canvas and added a few fibres, and some tags from the Scrabble and Tags set, also from the Artistic Stamper. I recently bought a necklace from Primark to take apart which my forum friend, Minxy, had mentioned on her blog. I took the pieces apart and made moulds of them with Mould N Pour, also from the Artistic Stamper, and then made the flowers up with friendly plastic. I then adhered them by softening the back a little with the heat gun and pressing them in position.

Windmills of your Mind

The Gingersnap Creations Blogspot Reason to Stamp for today is Windmills. This automatically made me think of the song, 'Windmills of Your Mind'. Of course I don't remember the Petula Clark 'Thomas Crowne Affair' version, and was barely a twinkle in my Dad's eye when Sting brought out his version! Here is my interpretation:-

I wanted to just represent the one verse of the song in this card as there is so much imagery in the complete song - maybe for another project. I computer-generated the verse to run around the edge of the card as a spiral, as well as the Artistic Stamper stamped image. I also used the wheel from the Cycling Plate, and the new Cogs. The words have a pastel brayered background but the main background is a mixture of distress inks dabbed onto the craft sheet and spritzed, and extra colour and 'circle' imagery added with bubble wrap dabbed on in the same colours. I stamped the face three times without re-inking to give a fading away effect, and moved the clock hands each time to create a sense of the girl slipping away from her lover as the summer romance comes to an end.

Hope you like.

Mould n Pour Friendly Plastic Moulds

I have had great fun the last couple of days with a batch of Mould n Pour I've just bought, and Friendly Plastic. It's only the second time I have bought it and the first time I wasted a lot of it and didn't do very well, but this time I am much happier with the results.

This is a friendly plastic frame taken from one I bought in Poundland, and a Tim Holtz Ornate Frame:-

And here are some musical instruments and a dressform and sewing machine which were novelty buttons, and the dolls house sewing machine from the other day.

So here is the canvas from a few days ago, but with the sewing machine and dressform replaced with the ones I have made, and another mould I made of a pair of scissors:-

I found it really satisfying and fun to make these items myself, as I felt more of the project was done 'from scratch'. I made some more moulds today but they are drying as I used clay and have glazed them. When I bought Mould N Pour before I thought it was expensive but that's because I made such a mess of it. Having managed to make a dozen moulds this time, it was well worth it. You can get the Mould N Pour from The Artistic Stamper or The Altered Element.

'Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk'? and other Nonsense from the Hatter!

This is my favourite stamp from the Artistic Stamper Mabel Lucie Attwell Alice in Wonderland Stamps - the Hatter and the March Hare putting the sleeping Dormouse into the hot tea!

My lovely students asked if I would show them how to make canvases yesterday - I had to demo, of course, which is Lucy-speak for 'I fancied making one myself!'. I coloured the canvas with vibrant StazOn colours first, then stamped the Tea Party onto a piece of tissue which I had cut to fit. I added a touch of colour to the images with Inktense pencils. I tore around the piece of book text relating to putting the dormouse in the tea, then tore it on the diagonal so the piece top left and the piece bottom right are continuations of the same piece of the story as I liked this bit! I added a touch of the same StazOn colours to the book text to blend it all in. After I had adhered the whole lot, I added this gorgeous gold tea pot charm which my kind student, Jude, gave me - isn't it perfect? Then I re-stamped just the tea-pot part of the stamp onto blue willow pattern paper, cut it out, edged it in black, and added it over the top of the tea-pot with 3d foam pads and added Glossy Accents, to give a sort of porcelain look. Actually, I don't know if anyone knows the answer to this but I couldn't find anything showing what the tea pot design was meant to be in the original drawings, e.g. stripes or flowers?

Then I tore out a piece I liked from the book about tea-trays in the sky - difficult to choose between this and the bit about 'it's always tea-time', which it is in my house! I didn't colour this as I felt it looked more 'highlighted' compared to the other text if I left it plain. I also gave the characters their names in book text.

Finally I added some white opaque pen to things like the Hatter's 'Harry Hill' collar.

I am a little worried that it is the madness of the 'Alice' story which makes me keep returning to this theme .....

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.

Poet Tag

Oh dear, I had intended to upload this yesterday for the Gingersnap Creations Blog's Poet challenge for 1 April. I'm reliant on Colin to do my photography at the moment, which means you will get a few days of decent photos, but he was cooking me a curry yesterday and I didn't dare ask him!

I love this Clock Lady image from the Artistic Stamper, which seems to beg for Flower Soft everytime I pick it up. The background text is one of those stamps that never goes back in the pack, but lives on its acrylic block as I love it so much - it is She Walks in Beauty Like the Night by Byron, hence the Poet theme (from the Collage Woman set). The scroll stamp at the top is from the Garden Plate. All from the Artistic Stamper.

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!

Gingersnap Creations Blog - September Muse

I have had some exciting news this week, and I am allowed to share it with you! Gingersnap Creations, which is a US Challenge Blog and associated Yahoo Group, have invited me to be their 'September Muse'! I am incredibly honoured, happy, and excited!

I joined the Yahoo Group a couple of months back, which I have been really enjoying. For the month of February, Jennie from the Artistic Stamper, sponsored a challenge where each member of the Gingersnap Creations Design Team, and Jennie's Design Team, made an item each week with the theme of Romance, using some gorgeous Twenties, and Heart stamps which had just come out. I just enjoyed this so much! The stamps are stunning and it was such a great thing to be a part of. I made a heart shaped tin with an album inside, a mobile 'phone charm and gift box, an altered CD box, and finally an accordion card to celebrate Gingersnaps' First Birthday.

Then something even more exciting. If you have looked at my blog before you will know I have a wonderful and talented friend called Lynne. Well, Lynne is currently their March Muse! You will enjoy having a look at what she has been doing, if you haven't already. So now, it means we have another lovely thing to share with each other! I will let you know more about what I will be doing when we get nearer to September - my mind is buzzing already!

What's the SP? A first attempt at Steam Punk

I thought I would have a little play around with some Steam Punk ideas but I am not sure I have properly got my head round this genre! The wooden frame is from Paper Artsy, and I painted it, then added Crackle Paint and Cosmic Shimmers, and dropped some silver EP into it whilst it was wet and heat gunned it, then added some metallic rub-ons and a little Distress Ink. I recently bought some Tim Holtz Sprockets and Gears and as they are a bit expensive, I thought I would use them as masks first, to create a background paper, before adhering them around the edge of the frame. I dabbed Distress Ink over them, and then sprayed the whole sheet with Cosmic Shimmers to blend the whole thing together and just get a shadow of the sprocket shapes (later in the day I realized Tim does sell these in the form of masks, and the new die, but wise after the event as usual!). I then added some tone on tone stamping to the background with images and words mainly from the Artistic Stamper Clocks and Keys Plate 1, which is such a versatile set. The tiny bits of gold hardware round and about are just the pins pulled out from the dominos, when I made the domino box. I just blobbed some Glossy Accents and then sprinkled them on.

The two Victorian lady images are cameo sheets from Debbi Moore, which I love. I punched circles from them and the larger one has been edged with black lace, which I ruched with a running stitch, and then added a pin with a pearl pushed on the end. The other image has been glued to a gold button, to create a frame, and I then covered both pieces with Glossy Accents.

In the bottom right corner I have used a piece of Victorian Mamelok, which I embossed a little with an embossing stylus, and then added a touch of Stickles. Bottom left is a zip, which was white and I coloured with a permanent marker. I opened it out, and did a running stitch along both edges, so that it formed two coils, and then added a pearl to the centre. I made a shrink plastic clock with German Scrap wings at the top, and the hands were a piece of jewellery finding which was lurking on my work space, which I broke in half. I made some shrink plastic keys from the Clocks and Keys plate, and hung them from a piece of chain. I made a clock from Fimo and Cosmic Shimmer Gold, and another shrink plastic clock, and linked all the pieces together with the remainder of the chain and glued it down with strong glue.

Sorry for the lengthy explanation.