Hen Art??

OK OK so I may be getting a bit obsessed by my Chickens - so much so that I have made a canvas to mark their new found freedom, it didn't quite start out that way though!

Lynn from The Altered Element sent me some Crafty Notion Spraypaques this month along with some Puff Paint, I have already used some of the paint on the Cup/Saucer below, but this time used them along with the Puff paint on this canvas

The Puff Paint is great fun to use, you smear it on - well I do - sure the more refined amongst you may use a spatula or something, but whilst I have fingers I can think of no better tool to use (at least I dont lose them!) - and then dry it with your heatgun and it expands into.... - well a puffy shape - cool eh?

I then sprayed/painted mine with the Spraypaque and cosmic shimmers along with acrylic paint. You can also stitch into it, I haven't tried that yet but intend to on a future project.

Hels Sunday Stamper Challenge this week was 'Wings' and as I haven't played along with Hels for a few weeks I thought it was a good starting point for my project - you see I like Angels (hold that thought) and I am reading 'Who's your Dada' by Linda and Opie O'Brien - which is the book for my personal monthly challenge for June (for future reference hold the thought that I don't like dolls ) but I do like Gargoyles and Angels - so this was supposed to be a Gargoyle Angel.

I had this wooden Gothic Arch - which goes well with Gargoyles -

I didn't have any Grungeboard wings left so I cut my own Angel Wings out freehand

Assembled Head/Arch/Keys for legs (I like that bit LOL) and then wings............... ummmmm the wings looked more Birdie than Angelie.. so The Chicken Theme came about and I made a metal chicken's head, in true Upcycling I used an empty tomato puree tube purely because it is such a lovely colour!

OK OK so my thought processes do take a few twist and turns along the way but that's OK, projects may not turn out as I initially imagined them, but that means they don't turn out 'wrong' !

So that's my project for this weekend!

Hope it made you smile just a little bit, my chooks make me smile and I hope they are enjoying their new found freedom, but whilst we are on the subject just take a look at the picture below and see the conditions they were living in, I hope it makes people think twice before buying eggs from Battery Hens!

Done it.... I hope it meets approval!

Well I took the plunge and once I got started it was alot of fun. I had no idea where I was going when I started (and I am not actually sure where I finished up!) but I decided to go with the colour scheme of purple and gold so that would go in my newly decorated bedroom.. which is surprisingly enough, purple and gold.....

The frame, which was already highly decorative and needed no addition of embellishments apart from colour, was decorated with Viva paints, Alcohol inks,  Rub 'n' Buff, Metallic Rub Ons, Gold Krylon pen - you name it and it is there! - Oh forgot to mention a few blasts with some pink/purple/gold mica sprays.

The centre piece has one of my favourite PaperArtsy stamps (well all PA stamps are favourites!) which although I love I never quite know what to do with it. But I think it sits quite nicely here stamped on some gold metal and glued on top of some model magic (see post below) which I rolled out, trimmed into a rather organic shape with some decorative scissors and stamped into using a PA squiggly ink tree and a leaf texture mat. The pierced holes around the stamped house are there because I was going to try and stitch it to the clay base, but I quickly realised that it wasn't going to work. It may be because I didn't leave the clay to dry enough, but I didn't want it to dry completely.. so whether you can sew into it is still up for experimentation!

I painted it with Viva Bronze precious metal paint and Viva Bio colour black/gold.. which I have to say I am not at all impressed with, it doesn't to my mind give the illusion of black and gold, but looks OK, just doesn't do what it say on the tin!

Gold Croco Crackle paint behind the lot and voila!

I am happy with it, and it looks lucsious on my bedroom wall, it has just got to pass inspection from Teacher!

Dare I or Daren't I???

Well there is nothing like a challenge to get your creative juices flowing. When KatherineT visited us at Christmas, she presented me and Sparkles with a goody bag. Inside the bag was a few packs of  Model Magic which is a lightweight air dry clay which can (apparently) be rolled really thinly and (apparently) stitched into but that is up for discussion LOL. I have had a bit of play with it, and I'll share that with you after KT has had her birthday pressie from me.

Anyway... also in the bag was a lovely frame made by KT herself, sure she could tell you much better how it was made but basically it is plastic mesh, which has been stitched (pulling some of the plastic strands together) mounted onto a canvas board and then covered with tissue/PVA and painted black.

I ooo'eed I arr'ed I exclaimed at how clever and gorgeous it was..... I planned where I was going to hang it and what image I would place in the centre... when those immortal words came from KT's direction.

"So it's over to you now to alter it, embellish it, paint it, decorate it"

Oh...... can't I leave it as it is??

"No No No" she says in a somewhat exasperated tone, " I have just done the hard bit, the easy bit is up to you!"

So thats my first (creative) challenge for 2010... there have been plenty of other 'challenges' but I come here on my blog to forget about them!

Gulp...... Bull by Horns time, I am off to have a play

PS you better keep an eye on Sparkle's Blog as well, cos she got one as well!

Make it Scary Mum...

Well that is what Edward told me when I suggested making a canvas for his newly decorated bedroom, but we have placed it our of direct eye-shot as he falls asleep just in case of nightmares!  I was feeling a bit mojo'less this morning so went blog hopping and hopped over to Hels blog (ink on my fingers) - and as a result I have done my first ever blog challenge - Sunday Stamper - Halloween. I had made this piece of fabric paper (blogged below)  and it just cried out 'Gothic/ghosts/skull/Halloween.. or something! it just was never doing to be pretty. I like skeletons so I made another sheet of plain white fabric paper and cut a skull from it, coloured it a bit, machine stitched it onto the background after stamping some cobwebs using a previous unused embossing powder, called snowflake - white and glittery - I expect you are supposed to used it on Christmas cards! - anyway.... now what do I do with a piece of skull embellished FP?? ..... Put in on a canvas of course!!

.......and so we did. Edward and I are both very happy with the result. The canvas was sponged with some left over orange emulsion from his bedroom. 'Tims' cobweb masks in each corner and as Edward is going through a bit of a 'gargoyle' phase at the moment I used some new Gargoyle stamps mummy just had to buy, stamped onto cream coloured metal and 'puffed' out, filled from behind with lightweight polyfilla and then cut close to the edges, they look really effective I think. They are standing on two pillars of my new Ferro paints. Grungepaper bats and a few stamped skeletons.. Skeletons, bones and hands are Halloween bits and pieces from the £shop an odd bit of broken bamboo I found in the garden - beautifully weathered, and it all hangs from a chain found in the garage left over from a party..... (no not that sort of party!! - a 70's Birthday party where Matt and I dressed up as punks!)

Throughly enjoyed myself this afternoon!

Still trying to get out a Creative Rut

And having a play with different colours. I have been caught up using mainly autumnal colours, so I am trying to get out of my comfort zone and have a little experiment with some colours.

 I saw an article in the most recent Somerset Studio, where the artist loved pink and green. It looked nice, I thought I would have a play. Mmmmmmmm....... been messing about with this for a few days now, experimenting with different shades of both the pink and the green. The Artist (I'll get up out of my comfy armchair in a mo and go and get the mag and tell you who she is..) did say it is very dependant on particular shades of both the pink and green, and I have to agree. I don't think this is quite what I was after, sometimes I like the whole thing, other times I don't... just not sure. Is it the colour? Is it the whole thing? I suspect it may grow on me, but then again maybe it won't.

 Can you tell I am rather undecided??

Still I have had fun doing it.

 Still rather Kelly Rae Roberts influenced but I hope I have put my own slant on it. The face is on a mini canvas so stands out from the rest and the little girl stamp is on Stampboard.

The whole thing is supposed to tell a story, and it does to me, so I guess I have got quite alot out of making it

Found her - Lisa Kaus - wow check her blog!!

Update from when I wrote this last night! -

 Looking back at the mag i have totally overdone the pink and green, but having said that, looking at this in the daylight I am getting rather attached to it. It's interesting having a play with colours you don't usually use or don't think you like, give it a go!

In the absence of my Mojo...

I decided to organise my craft-room yet again.... which in effect means moving stuff around and not actually getting any more ordered or tidy! I live in a perpetual state of unorganization... well as far as my craft-room is concerned.......... well if I am truthful as most of my life is concerned!!


I have never yet managed to have a major sort out without stopping to make something when I come across something that inspires me a bit..... I moved some bamboo tiles from one tin to another and thought of an idea for an ATC for the ABSA swap I am hosting on DoCrafts. (Alternative Base/Something Altered)... speaks for itself really, the base to the ATC must not be card/paper and it must have something altered on it.... well here is the first one.. The Base is made from metal.... which actually is an old tomato puree tube, so I guess that is altered as well (or is that recycling??) and the bamboo tile is altered, hope whoever gets it likes it.. must get on with the other one!


On the way to bed last night I went into my CR to switch the lights off and saw this awesome ATC I received from my mate Fuchsia (aka The Button Queen... think she may have a proper name as well!!) It was sent as a RAK for hosting the above swap.... well I was told I could choose one of the three she sent.... they are all brilliant but I had to pick this one, and Fuchsia knew I would!... anyway back to the plot! It was crying out to be mounted onto a small canvas, so at some unearthly hour last night, out came the gesso and the red/gold/black paint. I finished it off with the wire and beads (which echos the wire and beads on the ATC) at some unearthly hour this morning. I really should sleep!


Now off to tidy up the mess I made after I tidied up... suppose I had better feed the family as well!

A Joint Effort

I recently took part in a swap on the ATC section of Docrafts, called '1 stamp/5 ways' hosted by the very talented Sian, as the name suggests we had to use 1 stamp but make 5 atc's all with different techniques.... my efforts are further down this blog 'Playing Catch up'

Anyway, I was chuffed that Sian sent me her 5. They were too good to shove away in my ATC album, which isn't looked at as often as it should be, so I decided to mount them on a canvas so they can be hung for all to see. Canvases can be bought quite cheaply these days, I am sure a proper artist would turn their nose up at them, but for my kinda collagey work they are fine. But I wanted a long thin canvas and it seems that odd shaped ones are quite pricey, so I was considering other alternatives until I came across one that had already been 'painted' on in a cheapo shop.......... £1.99 and some gesso later it was a blank canvas again!

So here it is.... the 5 ATC's by Sian and a bit of gesso paint, sculpture gel, more paint, more gesso and some images (the same stamp that Sian had used) and dragon flies stamped onto tissue paper and adhered with Gel medium.......... and hey presto , something to adorn my wall!

Thank you Sian!!

Another Jigsaw swap....

I eventually finished off the Jigsaw swap that I have been doing with a group of friends. What happens is that you set a theme and send a jigsaw bit out to however any people in your group, they alter if for you and send it back, and hey presto you have a work of art. Obviously you do the same for the other people.

My Theme was 'family' and I asked everyone to do an Initial for each member of my family, so thanks to Cindy for M , Margaret for N, Sparkles for G and Sheila for E.

You can't see very well from the photo, but the photo is interesting, I stuck it onto the painted canvas with Gel medium, but it looked a bit stark and I was worried about it fading over time as scanned pictures do (anyone know how to prevent this??) , so I painted over it with clear gesso. It looks fab, the colours are muted a bit and also the finish makes it look canvas like, so it could have been printed onto the canvas itself.

I was going to use the word 'family' but when my daughter saw all the bits together she simply said 'oh it's us'........ and yep we are just 'Us' so that stuck. I have attached by bit with wire strands, with a heart threaded onto it. It's supposed to say that, we are all part of a jigsaw joined by a thread but with wings to fly.

Now.... next question..... any readers of my blog interested in doing a jigsaw swap??

I'm all excited

Here is the result of the Jigsaw swap that I mentioned below... I am absolutely thrilled with all the bits that I got back from......
top L to R Wendy, Maureen,
Middle Me, Jan, Trudy,
Bottom.. Sherry

I mounted it only a 12x12 canvas and very fortuitously my DH brought home some tile samples from work (he is getting the altered art idea!), exactly the right colours, which I stamped 'Every time a bell rings' ...... (an angel gets his wings) a quote from our favourite film It's a Wonderful Life
And it is a wonderful life when you have such talented friends that I have found through 'art'

Thank You Ladies (and an extra big thanks from Matthew who is thrilled that we are actually keeping something, he gets cross cos I give everything away)

http://www.scrapjazz.com/topics/Techniques/Altered_Art/532.php