Birthday card

My sister wanted Itunes vouchers for her Birthday and so I created this card to accommodate the gift card as well. Thanks Rosemary Mary for the idea on QVC Craft day !!

Spooky ATCs

I felt the need to make some spooky ATCs , a couple of these will go off for this months swap on Alternative. I had great fun with these images I found on the Internet and am pleased with the spooky results !

Canvas clock

One of the projects I did over the summer was this canvas clock. Just a normal canvas, mine is 6x6 I think, then decorate as you like, push a hole through the middle and fit a clock. Make sure you do the centre screw up tight otherwise as happened to me you will have a clock that keeps stopping and days of scratching your head trying to work out why !! It took me ages to figure out that the second hand was getting stuck. Its working fine now though !

Paper art dolls

I have just completed a family of 5 paper art dolls for a swap on Alter Native.I have had great fun with these, never done any before and now find myself looking out for things to use to dress a paper doll, so I don't think these will be the last. The template was from the Internet and then corsets and hats from a reprinted Bloomingdale's catalogue I bought years ago, told Andrew it would be useful !!!! The little grey feathers were a gift from Herman, my cockatiel, who is moulting, promise ! The Geisha was my own design. Now all I have to do is say good bye and send them off to their new lives, sob sob

Seaside ATCs

my set of beach babes ATCs as an introduction to an altered book I want to work on

Holiday journal

When ever we go on holiday I like to keep a diary.Helps us when we have to put all the photos in order ! So here is the one I made this June for our holiday in Filtmoos, Austria. Had a bit of a fest with my 12 inch long dies for my cutter. We had a great holiday, walked almost every day and had fantastic weather, except for the thunderstorms.Would you believe I had bruises from the hailstones when we got caught in one storm !!

Finished Fat Book

Well just to prove to you it did get finished, her it is all done !

sorry its been so long

I can't believe its been so long since I have added to my blog. Although I have had a terrible summer health wise I have been playing and so have some new things to show you.If you would like to see the rest of the fat book pages, it did get finished, you can see them in my folder on the forum website. Please don't be shy and leave a comment, otherwise I don't think anyone ever looks !

Fat book 13

Challenge 13 - Use gold on your page - I found a wonderful autumn image on one of my image Cd's and so used that with some loose flakes of gold leaf stuck down by PVA. I put that onto a background painted in gold, added the Autumn and it was finished.

Fat Book page 11

Challenge 11 - make a monochromatic page and use a fragment of something - I had been working on a page that wasn't quite working when I watched Rufus Wainwright, one of my favourite singers, he is often on my CD player whilst I am working in my craft room. He was a guest on the Johnathan Ross show and had a fantastic broach on, a square that was encrusted with shiny bits a bobs.That gave me the idea for this page, I am sure mine, a star cut from grey board and covered with blue beads and glitter is not as expensive as his but hay I love it and liked it so much have made a smaller one to wear as a broach, this time in pink. Oh the fragment I used was a fragment of sequin waste that fitted in well and was used as a stencil to make the background too !

Fat book page 12

Challenge 12 - Use stitching on your page - There are loads of ways you can do that, using a machine or hand stitching but I loved the large flower I had bought ages ago especially this colour so I decided to use the flower to stitch on and added some beads then attached it to a page.

2nd ATC challenge

Our second ATC challenge this cyber art month was to make an ATC for the Eurovision song contest.I had no images that would help me out but lucky for me had a blinding flash of inspiration whilst doing the hoovering today and so made this ATC which fits nicely in with the theme

Good Time Girls altered cj

Book number 2 in the altered book circle journal is this one by Tree entitled "Good Time Girls " I had such great fun with this one , it is such a great theme, all you had to do is invent a character and give her a good time, which I think Mavis had, lets just hope her Mother ever found out !!

Fat book 10

Challenge 10 - Use some rubbish either found on the street or intended for the bin - As altered artists we are for ever picking up bits and bobs from the street, this time I used a bit of a Chinese newspaper I had been given and the images from the chopsticks we had at the Chinese restaurant on Monday

Fat book 9

Challenge 9 - make a shrine - I had never made a shrine before so I played with several things before deciding on using this German scrap metal one.I had to cut it down a bit to fit on the 4x4 page.Then I had the problem of getting a door to fit, again I played with several things before settling on a velum one with a brad handle.

ATC challenge- International workers day

As well as the fat book challenges we are given an ATC challenge each week. The first was to celebrate International workers day. Here is mine, I wanted to keep it simple as the picture was so great. I don't know how they did it ?!

Challenge 8

challenge 8 - Use something unusual on your page - I had kept a roll of camera film when one didn't load in to the camera ages ago and so chose to use that.The problem was getting it flat, after trying several things I heated it and that worked like magic.The film said Hollywood and I just happened to have a picture of Ava Gardner on a image disc , she fitted perfectly.

Fat book challenge 7

Challenge 7 - pull apart a magazine and use only what you find on your page - I had to beg an old Gardeners World magazine from Andrew for this, poor chap, his stamps, the last of his apples for challenge 6 and now his magazines ! I was lucky to find this great picture and an article about the sweet pea growers and so could make up this for challenge 7

Fat book challenge 6

I have been spending today catching up with my fat book challenges.

Challenge 6 - Use a apple or pear to make a print - which I did after painting a background with watercolours.It was also Sigmond Freud's birthday on May 6th and so I found one of his quotes " Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar " and tweaked it a little to fit my page, sure he won't mind.

challenge 5

challenge 5 - tear book pages to create a tropical page. This was great fun too, once you got into it the tearing was quite easy and of course I couldn't have a tropical page without a parrot !!!

challenge 4

Challenge 4 -Use as many postage stamps to create a page. My hubby collects stamps so I had a great advantage and could rummage through his box of stamps I was aloud to use and find a collection of bird stamps so I could create a tribute page to those pigeons who passed messages back and forth in WW1. The Pigeon post

Challenge 3

As it was National Scrapbook day challenge 3 was a joke at scrapbookers expense, sorry , to use a scrapbook sketch to create an altered page. So where my windows are should have been 2 photos and the HOME should of been the title.

challenge 2

Challenge 2 - Create an art doll. Here he is, with a half flower for hair, a token for a head, stamped postage tag as a body, safety- pin arms and nib legs, great fun to make !

Fat book challenge 1

Each day of the Alternative cyber art month we are being given a challenge, with that challenge we then produce a 4x4 inch page and at the end of the month we will then have 31 pages we can bind together to make a little fat book. So far I have completed 5 of the challenges and here they are -

Challenge 1 - May 1st is Beltane day and so we had to create a background and burn the edge ( for the Beltane fires ) the add a image of a woman as the fires are to increase fertility. My background was made by crumpling up the card, smoothing it out and rubbing over Ranger distressing ink, several colours, spraying with water and then ironing dry.

Title page

The other class I took was a sketch class and so got the title page done for my album for the holiday in October, just have to get the other pages done now !!

First digi scrapbook layout

During UKscrappers cybercrop they ran a digi layout class.It is one thing with scrapbooking I have never done so I was keen to have a go.Here is my first attempt, I enjoyed it and the class was very good but I think I will stick to paper and glue in future. The photos were taken last October in Austria whilst on holiday with my Austrian penfriend Susi.

May ATC challenge

During the month of May on Alternative there is to be a cyber art month with challenges and classes through out the month. To get us in the mood we had to make and then swap an ATC , the theme was May. As soon as I read the challenge the rhyme " here we go gathering nuts in May " but whats nuts can you gather in May ? So my artistic take on that rhyme was this !

April challenge

We also have monthly challenges on Alter Native and the challenge this April was to use paint, something stamped, holes the project, string or wool and glue to make something. So to make my little notebook for my bag I painted some stiff card, stamped a design onto it, punched holes to add the wool binding, the only problem I had was the glue, well the masking tape I used to make the hinge has glue on it doesn't it ??????? Challenge completed, well almost, with a bit of cheating perhaps !!

Creative journey challenge 6

For challenge 6 of the creative journey we had to make 3 ATCs and then post them to another member of the group, as I love my ATCs I really enjoyed this challenge and here are the results, now winging their way to Jill, hope you like them Jill !!

Little book of inspiration

A friend of mine is going through a very tough time at the moment with her health and I wanted to give her more than a card, something that would help cheer her up in the hard months to come. My talented friend Carroll had found a class to teach at Bristol Scrappers, the crop I go to each month, that was perfect for what I wanted. It is a book made up from cardboard CD cases, then covered and decorated. I was then able to make tags to slip into the pockets with inspirational and funny quotes printed on and decorated the inside with a few more quotes just for good measure. This way I hope she will know we are thinking of her all the time and will get better very soon.

Comic ATCs

After making a birthday card for my nephew by ripping up and creating a collage from a comic I decided to do the same and make a series of comic ATCs to swap on Alter Native. They were great fun to make !!

Triptych

I have taken part in a triptych swap on Alter Native, here is the triptych I have made which has gone to Linda and then I will receive another Triptych back from another player in the swap. I really enjoyed making this and am pleased with the result. Hope you like it Linda

Time altered book circle journal

This it the first month of my altered book ATC circle journal.The theme of Galefrays book is Time and so I chose "Time for tea ". As I had some beautiful teapot and tea cup stickers the whole page was built around them and then I added some quotes about teatime to finish the page off. The ATC is sticking out from behind the tablecloth. Hope she likes it

Fridays challange

Last Fridays challenge was to bring spring into your craft room by making an ATC using bits from your garden.So out came the microwave flower press and using primroses from the garden along with violets I came up with this

Chinese bookmark

My Tai Chi teach is off to China to visit the village our Tai Chi family comes from, it is a small village high in the hills and so to wish her good luck bought her one of my favourite books "Snow Flower and the secret fan " and made her this bookmark to keep her place. She loved it !

Creative journey challenge 5

Our next challenge on my creative journey was to use clay. So after a lot of thought as I am not that good at using anything I have to model, I can see it in my brain but my hands just don't quite get it, I decided to try a camera. My theme is " the golden age of travel" and every traveler had to have the latest camera. So here is my interpretation of a 1940's camera.

Friday challenge

This weeks Friday challenge was to produce a piece of art 4inches x 4 inches using yellow. So here is my little piece of yellow art, that I have just heard I won , again !!

Geisha altered book ATC CJ

I am hosting my first altered book ATC circle journal on Alter Native. As I have been facinated but the secret world of the Japanise Gasha I decided to have that as my theme. We will all post on Monday 12th March and then the 12th of each month for 6 months. So the next time I see my book will be sometime after August 12th and it will be full of the work of my fellow circle journal artists, in the mean time I would of worked on all their books too, can't wait !!