Febs ATC

Here is this months ATC

Valentines gifts

Each year I try to make my hubby something a bit different. This year I had fun making a small heart accordion card, which was painted and collages. Then using a K&Co kit and some photos, I think are very cute, of him as a boy ( he has other ideas ) I put together a sweet little album so he can actually look at the photos rather than them being shoved in a bag on a shelf !!

The second item I had had trouble getting a decent photo of was my Family Triptych. I have a beautiful old Bible album full of photographs of my ancestors, trouble is no one knows who they are, just that they are on my Mums side of the family.I just love all the photos in there but chose 3 of my favourite to use in this Triptych. First I copied and printed off the photos onto good quality poster paper, not photo paper as I find that too thick. then painted the plain white triptych to match the paper I had chosen and decorated it front and back using foam stamps. Once I had stuck the photos in I then coated them in Tea dye varnish as I found them too fresh and new looking. Finishing off with few embellishments and words.

Heres two I made earlier !

I decorated my little dressmakers dummy back last year but had trouble getting it to look right in a photo, but managed it today. I painted the wooden top and bottom then the body itself with a pink metallic paint, then collaged over the top with old paper dressmaking patterns and made the skirt from book pages finishing it off with a fabric tape measure.

Still scrapping

I must be on a roll as I got this layout done of James Birthday this week. Its only been sat there waiting to be done for almost a year !

Valentines swap

I have taken part in Alternative valentines swap, make up to 3 heart shaped books and then receive a different heart shaped book form another artist. So here is mine The background id done by embossing a crackle glaze stamped image and then ink stains applied over the top. Then I collaged over the background and added fibers and tags

Boo !! It's finished !

I started this Halloween layout at the last crop, managed to finish it yesterday.I had a great time putting all the spiders on it, every time I dropped on on the page I thought wow, that looks good there, oh and there and there, in the end I had to put them away before I got too carried away ! They were just the confetti things you get to throw on the table for a party. Must say, it was Andrew who carved the pumpkin, rather well I thought !

Then of course still in snow mode I made the warm hat one, I have been meaning to make this one ever since I had the photo printed almost a year ago, knew exactly which paper I would use then Andrew took the photo for me, now that's planing eh !!

Off to play in the snow !!

As I do every year about this time, well to tell the truth as soon as winter starts, I feel the need to play in the snow !! So we are off to Austria very, very soon and of course I have all my snow papers and bits and bobs out to make my diary to take and had a play with some ATCs for this months Alternative monthly swap. So with a bit of luck that will be me on a toboggan whizzing down a snow covered hill very soon....... can you tell I am a tad excited ??

Last years Chirstmas makes !

As well as all the Christmas cards and crackers I made this year I managed to squeeze in a secret Santa swap on Alternative. We had to send a tag at the beginning of December then a handmade gift for the big day. Well here is the tag I made but unfortunately in my bid to keep my new years resolution to sort out all my photos on my computer, I appear to have lost the photo of the gift I made ! It was a bound book, ATC size,with pockets, for Pat to keep a years worth of ATCs in.

The Christmas card is the one I made to send to my Pen Pal in Australia, Trish. A few years ago someone on Alternative sent me this cockatoo stamp and I have been meaning to use it for Trish's card ever since as she is as huge a parrot lover as me and has a cockatiel of her own, this year I thought about it in time for Christmas, well about the beginning of November in order for the gifts to get to the other side of the world !!

Piano hinge book

I taught this book at Bristol Scrappers, my local crop, a great way to bind a book, its called a Piano hinge book because the spine should look like a piano keyboard when you have finished. I chose to fill mine with the photos I took of last years fantastic Autumn. All the pages inside were cut in a different way to make the book a bit more interesting.

2008 already !

I am sorry I haven't been keeping my blog up to date but I do have an excuse, honest ! Just before Christmas I went into hospital to have an op on my ankle and so was banished to the settee for 2 weeks and then could only hobble around for another few weeks, back to normal now though. I did craft though and here are a few of the things I managed to get done, just before I had the op and while I was on one leg, well had to feed my addiction !!

First, I wanted to make a set of ATCs for remembrance day, I love the way they turned out.I found the old images on the net. I wanted to include a poppy so ended up scanning in my poppy and then printing it out smaller and used a black brad for the center.

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 !