'Jane' MDF Hanging Heart

 

I made this MDF heart for the Indigo Blu Challenge which is your favourite stamp, and the Eclectic Paperie Get Altered Challenge which is Hearts. I painted the heart with Fresco Finish paints in Pansy, Lilac, and Eggplant and then mixed some of the paint with Kroma Krackle and spread it around the three 'corners'. Once it had crackled I rubbed on some Treasure Gold in Ice Fire and stamped the heart with the script stamp from Sarah's Choice in Vibrant Violet Archival Ink. I coloured Jane, my favourite Indigo Blu stamp, with Fresco Finish paints. I stamped the Dinkie Butterfly, which is actually quite large, on tissue paper, and painted it with Frescos before adhering to grunge paper and painted it with Fresco Gloss Glaze. I then painted some shrink plastic with Frescos in Limelight, Claret, and Green Olives, and stamped with a selection of flowers and the leaves from Live, Laugh, Love. I finished off with some ribbon to hang the heart by, and some pearls for Jane's earrings.

Dolly Daydream for Paper Artsy, Inspired by Claire Lloyd

 

Happy New Year! It's exciting to see what the new year will bring on Paper Artsy, and who will pop up. It looks like there is lots in store for us, and this week's Guest Designer is Clare Lloyd, whose beautiful work I have seen before on Unruly Paper Arts, so I was delighted to see her! I was inspired by her art doll spool on day one, so let me introduce you to my alter ego, Dolly Daydream.

I bought loads of spools when France Papillon made her spool key rings and I love art dolls, so I was very pleased to see this. I made mine with Dolls plate one, and The Eyes See Everything. I deconstructed the doll and used the tape measure from the set for the bottom part of her torso. Clare had used metal embellishments at the top and bottom of the spool and I had an I Ching coin knocking around on my craft desk which was taken from a belt and therefore had loops on either side where the chains had attached together. This gave me the chance to reconnect the legs either side of the spool so they would hang from jump rings.

I had stamped the doll on book paper and backed her onto card so I wanted to use translucent Frescos so as not to cover the text. I wanted to use a wooden button over the button on her chest so this dictated my colour choices, and I added a bit of Inky Pool to the flower on the button to tie everything in. I used some Treasure Gold Ice Fire round the edge of the button and the spool and the butterfly wings. I finished Dolly off with some hand shaped charms hanging from her arms which say Hand Made on them. It's all a bit mad, and definitely reflects part of me that tries to get out sometimes.

I am entering this into the Paper Artsy challenge for this week.

Crafty Individuals' Challenge - Santa and his Sleigh

 

There is still time to enter the December Crafty Individuals' challenge which is to make something Festive. Why not enter those Crafty Individuals' Christmas cards you have been making? All the details are here, and there is a fab prize.

I have made this Santa sleigh, covered with Crafty Individuals' Christmas background paper. The recently released Santa stamp was embossed in black for definition and coloured with Distress Inks, as was Rudolph, which was cut away from the stamp 332 so that he appears to be pulling the sleigh. I embossed loads of fir trees in green embossing powder from the set 257 to fill up the sleigh.

Thank you so much for all your support, comments, and friendship this year. I hope you have a very happy and healthy Christmas and New Year, surrounded by those you love.

12 Days of Christmas Noel Plaque for Snazzys

Over on the Snazzys Blog I have my second make using the gorgeous Graphic 45 '12 Days of Christmas' kit. I would love you to pop over and visit me there!

12 Days of Christmas Clock

Today is my first day as Design Team member over at Snazzys! I hope you will pop over there and say Hello. We were sent a fab Graphic 45 '12 Days of Christmas' kit to work with and my first offering is this clock.

I went to Snazzys in Swindon for the first time yesterday with my friend, Jean, and had a good natter with Val and Don who were so kind and friendly. If you are within striking distance of Swindon it is a fabulous shop to visit and has such a great selection of products by Ranger, Eco Green, Paper Artsy, Kaisercraft, Chapel Road, and lots more. If you are a shopaholic as I am, it is very near the Great Western Factory Outlets!

For more photos and details of how the clock was made (a trip to Poundland was involved!), pop over to Snazzys!

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!