Meet the diseased squid

Another one of those things that worked better in my head...

This particular infected marine mollusc is SUPPOSED to be a tree :)

Even placing it on a nice grassy hill and embroidering it a few leaves doesn't detract from its undeniable cephalopod-ness.

Ah well, it was worth a try :D

This is my entry for last month's Art Raffle, which I need to send out this week. It's late. Sorry all. Life got in the way big time.


The background is acrylics, Squidney Crosby there was made from airdry clay and painted with brown and bronze acrylics before being varnished, and the leaves are embroidered straight onto the canvas with variegated floss.

I hope the raffle winner doesn't have an irrational fear of poorly sealife.


In other news. Awwwwwww. Darcy. Awwwwww. Now give that baby back to its mother and come heeeeeeere! :D

You know, I think Mr Kesler is getting a leeeetle jealous at all the attention I'm giving his cutie enforcer pal, because this is what he had to say about the Hordibaby photo:

“Embarrassing,” said Ryan Kesler, who sits next to Hordichuk in the Canuck dressing room. “There should be a fine. For him to actually pose for a picture with his shirt off... You’ve seen his body, He doesn’t have the greatest body. It’s like the ‘before’ picture in the Jenny Craig commercials.”

Now now boys, there's enough of me to go round, you don't have to bicker :D :D :D

Woohoo I MADE something!

This is my entry for the November Art Raffle - theme "circles".

As I am currently obsessed with fabric, it's a mini quilt.

Not sure if I like it or not, but hey, I made something. Been a while....

The bird and eggs are from a fabric collage sheet from the Retro Art Cafe.

The nest is made from eyelash fibres sewn down with a zigzag stich

The border was made by sponging blue ink through stencil waste and then overlaying with copper leaf attached to "wonder under" iron-on adhesive.

Congratulations to Clare!

We have a winner over at the Art Raffle, and look at what she won!!!


What a prize, huh????

Please visit the site and check the September 08 gallery for a close up look at all of the individual entries.

And if you want to be in with a chance of winning an equally if not more amazing prize next month, then you need to play! This month's theme is going to be a fun one.

Someone out there is in for a treat and a half....

... as they are about to receive the UK Art Raffle September prize!

We had 40 entries this month - each one amazing

There will be a gallery on the site any day now so you can judge for yourself

Or if you are the mystery winner, you can see them up close tomorrow morning :) :) :)

The new theme will be announced on Wednesday

We have a winner!!!!

Yay!!!!

The first UK Art Raffle winner has received her mystery parcel :) :) :)

Congratulations Pat aka Pinkfairy!!!

Please do check out the gallery - everything entered was SO good!!!

Oh and cousin o' mine? You're starting to scare me slightly with the threats of enforced doorstep tattoos :D :D :D But yes of course you can sign up using my address if you would like to play :) (and your top secret pressie went in the post yesterday...)

it's Art Raffle time again

and like the girly swot I am, I have finished my September entry already.

I've got this done SO quick, that you would ALMOST think I knew the theme ahead of time!

This month our theme is Take Flight - and if you would like to take part, please hop on over to the website and sign up - you have just under four weeks to get your piece made and sent in.

Last month's theme of Summer Sun prompted an impressive turn out of 30 entries, and all the artwork submitted was A-MAZ-ING!!!

The prize was sent to the mystery winner today - and as soon as he/she lets me know that it has arrived, I will lift the curtain on the August gallery over at the Art Raffle website, so that you can see for yourselves the amazing range of entries. I was genuinely blown away by the amount of talent there is out there.

Here's a little teaser:


Even all blurred up it looks like something you'd love to win, huh?

In a nice purty box like this?:


Well then, you'd better take part this month then :)

You got to be in it to win it!

Anyway - where was I? Ah yes - my September entry :)

This is a sun catcher type thingy - made from UTEE mixed with flex, coloured with alcohol inks, and encasing a stamped image (Tim Holtz) on clear shrink plastic.

The basic technique is the same as how I made this pendant - the only difference being I drilled the holes after the piece was set, with a little Dremel type drill - rather than using the straw.

I hung it onto some hemp string and added some copper beads.

Please ignore my dirty windows in the photos :D

Good luck to all of you who enter the raffle this month.

Good morning sunshine

Well - it's pelting it down here, but a girl can dream of her sunny childhood Augusts....

This little triptych (or is it tryptich?) is my entry in this month's Art Raffle. So if you want to be in with a chance to win it - or any of the other lovely little artworks that are starting to pop up on other raffleers' blogs - come on over and sign up!

OK - I promise that's the last of the raffle commercials - to be honest it seems to be gaining momentum all on its own anyway - we already have almost 40 people on the list, and if even half of those send in an entry for August, the prize is going to be so fantastic.

(And I realised the other day that I won't ever be able to win it - gutted - because who is ever going to believe it isn't a fix if I pick my own number???!!!)

The triptych is made from frosted shrink plastic - stamped on the front in timber brown Stazon with one of my favourite ever stamps, an ancient home decor stamp from Rubber stampede. The back was coloured with chalks before shrinking, and the mica flakes were added to the front afterwards. Each piece was outlined after shrinking with a copper Krylon pen, and it's all joined together with copper jumprings.

I wonder who it will belong to by the first week in September?? Exciting :)

And now for something a little different...

Do you fancy doing something a little like a swap, that isn't a swap at all?

Something that requires very little effort and outlay, and with zero pressure to take part every month if life gets in the way - but with potentially very big rewards?

I sound scarily like a pyramid seller, but this is an art project not a get rich quick scheme, I promise! :)

Then follow your curiosity to the UK Art Raffle - and I hope you will want to play :)

(sorry to my pals overseas, but this one is a local swap for local people)

(and yes I know I said it isn't a swap - and it isn't - but swap rhymes with shop...and the joke wouldn't have worked without it :) )