Journalling Again

I decided I wanted to do one of my journalling pages on "Paris" as I love visiting this city and as a result have quite a few images relating to it. It wasn't going to be something I did immediately but then I went on Lots to Do and saw that this week's challenge was "Paris" (and what it meant to you). Ideal - I had to get started - so this morning I splodged some colour on a new page and was away.

Remember my "An Altered Paris" album? Well, I have some bits of paper left over from where I cut out the windows and lo and behold they have pictures of those truly evocative lamps on them. Had to include a bit of that paper. Then out came my stamps, far too many, so choices had to be made. I sat down and wrote a list of my favourite things/moments from my trips to Paris and so I included some of those. The reason for the ladies face at the top right is that it depicts me remembering all those wonderful times in Paris. Saying that we have never had good weather when we have been and the bottom left corner has got some rain splashes stamped on it - just to remind me.

No picture of Paris would be complete without the Eiffel Tower and I had a rubber stamp of the Arc de Triomphe so had to use those. (I resisted my Paris skyline showing various buildings as I thought it could get too busy). How I wish I had a rubber stamp of Sacre Coeur, somewhere I have to visit every time I go to Paris.

I love the signage in Paris, the wrought iron, the curls, the lettering and so two lovely stamps are used which are so evocative. Do you like my imitation of the "Metropolitain" sign? Underneath I tried another style of writing (not very successful - need to practice) by writing some of my favourite things about Paris in blocks.

Anyway, here it is - my entry for the Lots to Do challenge this week. Hope you like it?

Skewy Scan

Today I made a birthday card for someone at the Stamp Club I go to (Victoria Stampers) who is 80 this coming weekend. I don't know what kind of images she likes but suspect cute and flowers will be the sort of thing.

I stamped this fairy, which I really do like, and cut her out after I had shaded her in and coloured her wings with Twinkling H20's. Then I mounted some pink paper on another piece of card and tore a hole just off centre. Edged it in gold Krylon pen and put some glitter on it (very subtle).

I stamped some tiny fairies on both sides of the card, painted them with Twinkling H20's as well and put some dots of glitter around them. Then I put the verse on and added some Prima type flowers.

The "holey" main part of the card stands off the folded card with sticky pads and the fairy is stuck into the hole kind of "in relief".

Sorry the scan is a bit wonky but it is late and I have been making other cards (in various stages of completion) but I so wanted to get this one uploaded. Hopefully more tomorrow.

Oh Sarah!

Yesterday I took a workshop at Paddy's with the talented Sarah Anderson showing us all how to begin "journaling". How I wish I had resisted attending. I loved it - every minute of it - and now am wanting to do more journaling. Time, time, time!

I got rather carried away with my painting pages and covered five of them, didn't want to stop but Sarah needed to show us how to do other things (other than splodge paint all over like pre-school kids - oh how we enjoyed ourselves). I found it rather difficult to go out of my comfort zone with paint but eventually I managed it, thanks to the tutor.

I loved one of Sarah's pages and had to do something similar, liked the idea of her 'numbers' showing house numbers where she had lived in the past so I did mine on the same theme. This morning when I came to work on it I realised I had begun life at a house numbered 11 and now lived at one with the same number. So I journalled it. I have not got the hang of this writing so it is not very good but it is my first attempt so be gentle.

This is another page, using my friend Chris's bird stamps (Crafty Individuals) which I fell in love with and have now had to order. Not sure what I will write on this page although I have something in mind but need to clear it with my son as it concerns him and a certain baby blackbird.

Another unfinished page (below). Again using Chris's stamps (Stamp Bug) which I have to have. Was really nice to find that the designer was none other than Penny Bearcroft who I met in Germany last year and who is a member of a stamp group I am on. Love these designs Penny!

No ideas as yet what this page will contain to complete it but I am not rushing into things and spoiling the pages I like. The other two pages are nowhere near stamped up or anything so there is little point in showing them here.

Hope you enjoy this brief look into yet another of my crafty (new) hobbies.

Oops! Forgot!

You remember me saying I was in an Altered Corset swap? Well, my book got lost (we are each doing a record of the progress of our corsets and each person adds photographs of their contribution to each one) so I had to set to and make another one this week.

In an attempt to ensure this new book does not get lost I decided to make a bag for my corset (title: Viva La Diva) and put a pocket on the front solely for my book.

Yesterday we had been to Ormskirk to see Chas's aunty so when I got home I was full of enthusiasm and got some material out and made a bag. Now I am no great stitcher so it does not bear scrutiny but I was rather pleased with my effort. It is a long bag (the photograph makes it look a different shape as it was taken on the table) and I have put some rubber stamping on it.

The fastening for it is actually two suspenders on the "lid" which fasten together with two buttons stitched on the main corset.

The pocket fastens down with velcro but as I had only the sticky stuff I thought I had better stitch it on my mother's ancient sewing machine. It looked a bit of a mess so I put some lace over the top to hide the stitching.

I really enjoyed doing the stamping and have written a couple of comments on as well, including one inviting people to "Graffiti it". I wonder what they will think when I hand it to them tomorrow. Hope my corset is at Paddy's so it can go in.

One or Two bits

I did a collage a few years ago at Kars but it fell to bits. It wasn't very good as the paper we used and the glue they gave us did not seem to work, so today I decided it looked far too tatty and needed redoing. I pulled it to bits! It is still quite similar in design to the original one but much better constructed.

I first of all painted the canvas with Peach Bellini (Paint Dabber) and then stuck a piece of scrapbook paper over the top leaving a small margin round the edge. Took some more scrapbook paper and added torn bits in various places. Some of it I scrunched up as I do like texture on my pictures. Then I kind of dry-brushed some gold paint on but using my Gold Dabber to do it, a little Espresso and the base was complete.

Two bits of Melt Art in the top left corner plus a key from 7 Gypsies, a tiny piece of ribbon, the charm used for the two Melt Art pieces, some wool and more ribbons and it was more or less complete except for the photograph. The photograph is a copy of one I cherish. It shows Chas's Great Grandmother with his father sitting on her knee. I think she is an absolutely beautiful lady and will always cherish this photograph.

This now hangs in my stamp room next to my beeswax collage I did as a sample for my very first beeswax workshop - do you remember it Paul?

The beeswax collage below has a photograph of me when I was seven taken as a bridesmaid for my cousin Ken and Audrey's wedding in the bottom left hand corner. The other photograph is one of my mum and her older sister Caroline taken when she was a child. Love the clothes they are wearing.

Now my memory is having to work on this one but by the looks of it I painted the canvas first of all with Stewart Gill paints and then stuck some paper on which I had bleach stamped. There is a piece of bandage soaked in beeswax by the side of me, all scrunched up (remember I like texture), some plastic net behind my mum's photograph and a skeleton leaf at the top right hand corner with another one below it.

Then there is a bit of Glitterati by the side of the photograph which leads to a metal charm saying "What one loves in childhood stays in your heart forever". (This has special meaning for me as when I lost my mum I had "And into my heart forever" inscribed on the memorial stone at the crematorium. I so loved my mum and miss her still despite the length of time she has been gone.) Two silk flowers with beaded centres and a strip of lace down the right hand side complete this canvas.

Amazing that the whole thing is held together by beeswax and has not needed touching in a couple of years or so since it was first done.

Think I have been having a bit of a collage day as I decided to finally attack something which my friend, Lynne, had given me a couple of months ago. In truth I began it earlier in the week (because it is simply corrugated card so the recesses in it had the raw wiggly edges showing) as I started sticking pieces of torn paper towel over it to give it more body and cover those raw edges.

Today I painted it bronze and then went over it with some gold acrylic paint. Painted the recesses with black acrylic paint to show up whatever I decided to put inside it. Not happy with it I then added some utee with bronze Pearlex added and some with gold. Then I stamped with my Hero Arts Italian Poetry Background stamp to give an impression in the utee.

I have added the following to the recesses: a piece of Friendly Plastic which has been pushed into a mold and a Domino which I have decorated and wired;

a style stone - stamped and decorated; a shrink plastic butterfly, and finally a paper cast head coloured with Rub-ons. Wonder what Lynne will make of it when I show her!

Just seen Alsion's comment on yesterday's work so I will enter today's for the Lots to Do Challenge. Not sure how to do the link though.

Now to pack my bag for tomorrow's workshop - for once I am a client and I am really looking forward to doing it. Maybe more tomorrow?

Better IRL

Today, apart from sitting out in the sun for a while - and feeding next door's cat - I messed about with some clay images I had done whilst at my workshop on Saturday.

Above is one of my favourite images when stamping in clay. I think it might be an Elusive Images stamp but I could be wrong. Am sure someone will let me know. Anyhow, it is a town scene, Christmas undoubtedly, and when imprinted on black clay and dusted with DuoBlue it looks fabulous. As there was no black clay on Saturday I had to be content with doing it on brown. I went over it with goodness knows how many colours of Pearlex and it came out a sort of greenish shade with copper windows. Still prefer the DuoBlue.

Some other images I liked were from one of Elusive Images' African plates with the heads of four ladies on. They look really good when impressed in clay. I dusted them with Perfect Pearls 'Perfect Bronze' and then I made a background on a piece of Greyboard (Paddy had tried to find a photo frame for me which would take the four images - no luck!) which I covered in Gesso and then painted using Stewart Gill's 'Mandarin' (True Colour range). I put some scrim on and scrunched some bits of it up and added torn pieces of mulberry paper which someone sent me from Africa some time ago. I also stamped "I dream of Africa" (Non Sequitur) on some copper clay (Premo) and cured it before attaching to the picture.

The frame was also cut from Greyboard and is 1 cm wide with tiny triangles stuck on which then has aluminium foil over the top and is finally burnished. This is then coloured with Alcohol Inks in Copper with touches of Black brushed across the top.

Not sure what I think of it but I did enjoy doing it. Now will it qualify as a collage?

Multi-use

I have had this stamp from Paper Artsy for simply ages because I thought it would be good for inchies. Needless to say I have never joined an inchie swap since getting it. Decided to get it out and use it today so I stamped it in black and put clear ep over it. Then I began turning the image into cards. I needed some birthday cards pretty quick!

This one uses just four of the faces which I mounted on black and white first going over the images with my Brilliance Aurora inkpad.
Another four of the faces were just used in this pattern and I stamped a tiny birthday greeting in the squares left over.
The final one was using the other four faces and again and a couple of word stamps. The one at the bottom has more words on but they were not suitable for this card as they were talking about elves.
Remember the other day when I cut the centre from a Paper Artsy stamp and replaced the image with a Dragonfly Lady? Well, this is the bit I cut out so I mounted it up and voila - another card.
Hopefully I will get some more cards made tomorrow as I have so many birthdays coming up I need them!

The rest of today and yesterday has been spent doing my stint on one of the altered corsets. Sorry I do not post pictures but I don't think it fair to post them until the actual unveiling in Dorset in September. Hopefully then I can show you all the work that has been done by the eleven participants.

I was totally blown away by the stitching that has gone into the corset I have just been working on, it is absolutely fantastically, gorgeously, blooming lovely!