Beach Babes altered book

I had begun this altered book months ago but then it had been put aside to collect more things together so when I wanted something small to work on on my lap it fitted the bill perfectly.I had already prepared the book and done the cover by using a transfer technique with a piece of 12x12 paper and then added some gesso to give it the washed look, so all that was needed was to do the inside.Because I was on the settee I didn't want to use paints so all the backgrounds are done either using H2o's, watercolours with a water brush or my new fave toy my water soluble wax crayons. Well here it is

Lap work

For the past week and a bit I have been stuck on the settee with my foot up after an op on my ankle. Of course I had to have some art to do and ATCs, Moos and my altered book fitted the bill perfectly. So here are a couple of ATC I have done to fit the "Think Monday think ATC " website challenges, the first was a ticket challenge and the second a stone one. A bit limited as to what I could use being away from my craft room but it is keeping me sane !!

H for Hollywood

For our H page in my A-Z journal the challenge was to use a hidden element and as my H was for Hollywood I just had to build a theater ! Only a flat one this time although I now want to build a 3d one, and of course as the curtain is pulled up my favourite MGM musical "Singing in the Rain" is on ! Where would we be without Hollywood !!

Dad's birthday card

This is another card from our card challenge on alternative, this time for Dad's birthday at the end of the month. Papers and images are from my Joanna Sheen " Tales of the Orient " CD rom.

Just B

The ATC theme last week with altered design was Just B. I am still having fun getting to know my water soluble wax crayons so I used them for the background, over stamped and then collaged !

Triangle ATC swap

I have taken part in the triangle ATC swap on alternative, there was no theme and we just took a regular ATC and made a triangle out of it. They reminded me of the medieval banners they had so I decided on a medieval theme for one of my sets of 3 and for the other my good friend Boo had done me some embossed script pieces on her die cut machine and so I was just itching to do something with them, so I used my chalks on one and my paper stains on the others and made a set of postage style ATCs. Well here they are !

G for Grand Tour

We have got to G in our A-Z journal and for me that was the Grand Tour ! The challenge set for this letter was Grandiose, so her she is enjoying her Grand Tour, sat on her suitcase in a grandiose way !! Just loved doing this collaged page using papers, stickers and stamps

Hot Summer Nights ATC

The next ATC mingle with my Altered designs group was "Hot summer nights " So here is what I came up with

Fathers day Card

Of course couldn't leave Dad out , so I made his Fathers day card using the same sketch and CD rom

Card Challenge

On Alternative we have started a card challenge each month to put some sparks into our cards So here is a card I made from the sketch for Mum for her birthday today, all using images and paper from Joanna Sheen Fashion Boutique CDrom. Happy Birthday Mum !!

F is for Fire

My fire page, the challenge was to use felt, friendly plastic or feathers. Had problems with this one and was going to scrap it and start again but it grew on me and I decided to stay with it , even if its not my best ever work. Never mind ! The image was from Google images and I used Fantasy film to make the flames and added feathers to fit the challenge and give the fire some heat. The rub-ons are Scenic route and yes I have used an r and not a v although I had to look twice !!

USA atc

I have just joined a new Google group called Alterdesignes which I am very excited about. Each week they do a Friday ATC mingle with a different theme each time and on a Monday they give you an image to do something arty with. So, here is my first Mingle ATC the theme was the American flag and I had just the image I wanted to put with it. Hope it is up to their high standard !

E for Explorers

The challenge for our E page was experiment. I had been meaning to play with melting nappy liners as Claudia had shown us on AN for ages so as I wanted a snowy feel I had a go. I was so pleased how it came out like a frosted window, it took some practice to get it like it but it was fun , if not fumy trying. To get the background I slopped on thick gesso and drew snowflakes into the wet gesso and added some texture with a stipple brush, then sprayed the wet gesso with Perfect Pearls. The pictures are of Shackleton and his boat. The E is a clear plastic letter coloured with alcohol inks and the little snowflake is a sizzlet snowflake cut from shrink plastic and shrunk

Book for Lucy

My neighbour Lucy is off today for a holiday in Japan ! So I just had to use my "Tales of the orient" CDrom to make her a book with the good old Bind it all !

Art Quilt swap

I always said I would never allow myself to do fabric work as I know I love the quilting fabrics as much as I do paint and paper and that can only spell disaster for the bank balance but my finger just slipped and I was taking part in the art quilt swap on AN. I had great fun with these, first I painted the background calico with paint and ink, which I wasn't sure would work but I was very pleased with the results. Next the nightmare for me , draw a design ! I chose a house and hill as I knew I could cope with that, and after cutting the pattern and pieces stitched them onto the backing , added buttons and printed the words onto printable fabric and they were done ! I am so looking forward to receiving the other pieces of the quilt, I will make them up into a hanging for my craft room and of course will post the finished piece on my blog

Decopatch

This is my new favourite thing ! Its highly coloured tissue paper that you just tear into bits and stick on with their special glue. My hubby gave me a box blank for Christmas to use as a jewellery box, it has taken me all this time to decide what to do with it as I wanted it just right, well I am so pleased with it and now if it stands still for more than a few minutes in the house it gets Decopatched !!!

D is for dictionary

The D page for my A-Z journal , the challenge was to use distressing so I ripped up the d section of an old dictionary and built up layers with glazes and paint then added crackle medium and more paint. Found an image of a dictionary on the net and added the definition of dictionary from the dictionary and finished it off with the letter

Joanna Scheen CDrom card

I have just bought my first Joanna Scheen CDrom to give my card making a different edge, now I am hooked ! They make great cards and lots of other things I am sure once I get going, there is a huge list in my mind as I type ! Here is just one of them I have made in the past weeks

Scrapbook party Layout

My Friend Sue has just started doing Scrapbook party's and so I had a couple of neighbours and my sister round this weekend to have some afternoon tea and scrapbook. None of them had done any scrapbooking before so they were a bit nervous at first but Sue soon put them at ease and we had a great time with lots of laughs and stories and in the end all finished a beautiful 12x12 layout, well except me who had to sit down after and stick it all down ! But I blame that on hostess duties ! I am really pleased with my layout, great afternoon Sue , Thank you.

Skulduggery book mark

My Nephew lent me the copy of Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy we gave him for Christmas the other day and I noticed as I read it, great book by the way, he turned the corners of the pages down !!!!! So of course I had to make him a bookmark, to thank him but also to remind him gently NOT TO DO THAT !! Skulduggery made such a great subject, being such a good looking chap. If you have read this you would also agree he knows that all too well !

April ATCs

Had great fun with these ! I found a suitable image and then painted out there hair and replaced it with mad hair !! Stamped a crazy background and there you have it , Mad Hair !!! Must do some men too !

C is for the combustion engine

The challenge for the C page was to use collage so here is my page, my Grandad or P op stood with one of his many great cars he had over the years.I just love the shape of those old cars !

Handmade Book swap

I have entered a handmade book swap on Alternative.Three books out and three books back.I love to make books, as you might have noticed, and so really enjoyed making these.The covers are made with tissue paper crumpled and stuck onto card, then painted. I made the buttons using coloured ultra thick and then stitched the book pages into the book. Hope they like them

Dr Who DVDs

I have a nephew who is completely mad on Dr Who ! In the Sun newspaper a couple of weeks ago they gave away some of the DVDs and so we collected them and I made a book with my Bind-it-all machine and some clear plastic DVD covers for him to keep them in. He loved it !

A-Z journal - B page

B is for Bicycle - challenge - to use buttons and beads

The frame has been embellished with tiny crystal beads and then paper buttons have been collaged onto the page. The B in bicycle has been put onto the back of a large clear button.

A-Z journal

At the beginning of this year I joined an online A-Z art journal and got really excited about it. Unfortunately the challenges didn't go with the type of art I enjoy doing and so I have got together with a few friends on Alternative and we are having a go ourselves, every 2 weeks challenging each other to come up with a page that fits in with our themes. My theme is "Echos of the past " looking at things that have been invented in the past or people from the past who still have a huge affect on our lives today. So here are the first 2 pages -

A is for Aviation - challenge - to use paints

I have used watercolour to make the background and then collaged over the top

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.