Happy Birthday Paul

Don't think I will have time for any crafting today as I am busy working on the corset "Construction, Deconstruction, Construction" and have to go to the osteopath this afternoon.

Couldn't upload this card before today as today is my friend Paul's birthday (Happy Birthday Paul). I used one of my LLB stamps, because I know he is a favourite designer of Paul's, which is stamped and embossed in gold. The beige looking paper covering most of the card is also from the LLB collection. The letter "P" is a Spellbinders die cut.

I hope he liked the thought behind this card and that he is having a terrific day.

Serendipity

Over on one of my Yahoo groups the Challenge this month was Serendipity. Now not being able to cut straight or mount straight I was shying away from this but at the very last minute I decided to have a try.

This is my Serendipity Card which has an Oriental flavour.

That will be all for today as I must get my head working on the latest piece in the altered corset swap I am in. Really need to think about this one as the title is "Construction, Deconstruction, Construction" and previous work on it is fabulous.

Lots to Do Challenge Part Two

Not a brilliant picture (taken with my mobile phone) but here is James Martin (he looks even better in real life than on tv) at the book signing in Bolton this afternoon. I hadn't realised I could buy a book and get him to sign it without having to have a ticket to watch his demonstration. The books were £20 and you got them signed (if you queued long enough) but with not being able to look to see what was in the book first I decided not to bother. Besides which I got Simon Rimmer's autograph (swoon) last year and it cost nothing. Guess they realised that there is a market out there this year.

The whole event was much bigger than last year and was obviously a huge success with lots of stalls selling produce and lots selling hot food. Mind you at £4 for a small loaf of bread (French bakery) they may not have sold much. Hope it does not put them off and they all come back next year.

Anyway, earlier I had said I would make a Stazon Technique card - here it is. So now it is an official entry in the Lots to Do Challenge.

I really like this technique so hopefully I will make some more another day. Trouble is finding alphabet stamps the size you want. My white pen is a Signo and this is my favourite of all those I have tried.

Lots to Do Challenge

For the Lots to Do Challenge this week you had to use "words" in your work and so I decided to do the "Stazon Technique". I regretted my choice at doing it on a tag (they are only 1.75" wide) but carried on regardless. The problem was finding alphabet stamps small enough to fit on my tags. Yes, I was creating another tag for my box I began last week. The alphabet stamps that would fit on were too small to enable me to outline well in white so I am not too happy with the result.


I decided to only put two words on the other side, keeping in with the theme of "travel", so that made it a bit easier.

Think I might have to do a card later and upload that as well.

I was in a bit of a rush because we are off to the Food Festival in Bolton, disappointed because we thought we could just go and watch the demonstration by James Martin (like the one by Simon Rimmer last year - whoo hoo I got his autograph) but yesterday found that you had to have tickets this time. Guess what? They have sold out. Still the Food Festival looks good so off we are going.

Ready Steady Stamp Challenge

The Challenge this week on Ready Steady Stamp was to create something with the following ingredients:

Letter "A"; colours Brown, Cream and White; Raindrops (I used Glossy Accents as I don't know what the raindrops are); Scalloped Circle and Canvas.

This is my entry. It is done on one of those 5" square box canvases that are 1.5" in width.

First of all I Gesso'd it and then painted it all cream. The image of the girl on the beach is an um and I haven't a clue who it is by but she is stamped on white with Brown ink. The lettering "A la" is done with Spellbinders alphabets and then painted brown and the word "Mer" is computer generated, again in brown, on white card and then die cut with Spellbinders Classic Circle smallest die.

The netting at the bottom is some loosely woven hessian and has some seashells and something I once made in a mold stuck on it. If you look closely at the photograph below you can see the "raindrops" I made with my Glossy Accents.

This is something I wanted to do for ages but with "Alice in Wonderland" rubber stamps which would not have qualified for this Challenge as they are "cute" so I will have to get another of these canvasses if I am going to do that.

Anyway, I wanted to utilise both sides of the canvas so here is my second version, which may not qualify because it also has Turquoise in it. For this one I again painted the canvas and the wooden surround in the centre cream then I went over the wooden bit in turquoise and filled in the centre hole which is the back of the canvas.

Then I took some pictures of fish and scanned them as transparencies, cut them out, stuck two on the back and hung two from the inside top edge of the hole to give the three dimensional feel to it. Because I wanted to use "raindrops" (ie Glossy Accents) to act as bubbles from the fish in the forefront I had to put a piece of acetate over the opening.

Words again are done as on the front side of this canvas but this time using the Petite Scallop Circle from Spellbinders. To finish it off I have used some diecut shapes which my friend gave to me when she was showing me one of her cartridges for her Cricut. The ones at the back are painted with Ranger Dabber Espresso and the swirly one is painted in Brown.

Not sure what I think of this but will definitely get another one and do "Alice" in it now that I have seen how the back can be utilised.

Tag for Hilda

This is the tag I made yesterday for Hilda who is hosting the swap over on Lots to Do Challenge. If you remember I could not upload it yesterday as the Glossy Accents on the doll face had not dried.

I did the background with the Distress Inks on my craft sheet and the spritz of water technique, then I put some encyclopedia paper above and below the image and, masking out the image, used my Crackle stamp from Stampendous. the main image is Lost Coast.

Not a clue who the words are by but they were stamped on bits of paper and then stuck on. Hope she likes it.

That's probably all for today as I am out with my friend Naomi and her delightful little girl, Chloe. Can't wait to see them as they have been away for two weeks in Greece.

Lots to Do Forum

Been tagging it today. On the Lots to Do Forum there is a Tag Swap which has to incorporate "Art" somehow - it can be the word or the image so I have made my three tags and here they are. I haven't put fibres in them for scanning as it does not show up the picture the same when you including the fibres.

The first one shows an image from Onyxpressions with leaves from Graphicus. The background is done with Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters Distress Ink sponged on. The main image was stamped and embossed twice so that I could cut out the letter "N" and put it on some foam buddies as I did with some of the leaves. Took ages to cut those leaves out.

This second one is using a wax resist background in Brushed Corduroy and Frida is a Lost Coast Design I bought in Germany at Stempel Mekka the first time I went. The word ART is from Time to Stamp.

The third one uses two Art Doll stamps from Cats Life Press, both embossed on the background which again is sponged - this time with old Paper, Antique Linen and Broken China Distress Inks. The ampersand is a diecut from a Spellbinders Die.

I have done another tag for the hostess but as I used Glossy Accents on it it still is not dry so will have to be uploaded another time. I tried to make all my tags have totally different subjects but still use the word "Art" in a true context.