Snow...

I feel is going to be a popular theme over the coming weeks, and snow is this weeks theme at Gothic Arches. For my arch I have used Penny Black stamps. Stamping the trees in black Stazon, then the deer using Versamark and embossed with silver and stardust to get a mottled look. I then added ice stickles ot the ground to make it shimmer like snow, and finished the edges with chalk eyes. Unfortunately this scan does not do it justice, it has lost its bling. I will photograph again tomorrow in daylight to get the shimmer on the deer and snowy ground!

Little Monkeys

Monkeys are very intelligent animals and have so much character to them. This is an interesting theme set by Make A Moo this week. At first I had no idea as to what I was going to do, I do not have any monkey stamps or collage materials, so decided to draw my monkeys on acetate in permanent marker, adding colour to the cream card background using chalk eyes in abstract blocks of colour. I used glossy accents to adhere the acetate on top and finished with some blue stickles.

Snow Is Falling....

Well, it did last weekend, but no snow today, just very cold and windy. I got up early to go do my Christmas shopping at Bluewater, thought I was early - but my, was it busy! And after all that, found a real lack of inspiration in the shops and left with hardly anything bought!!

Anyway, the theme this week over at TYI is snow, so I created this tag by layering a patterned paper onto an inked piece of card and added some EP to make the snow shine, then stamped the wording onto cream card in blue and added EP to the edges. I then added this to the main tag with a snowflake brad and added two cream snowflake eyelets to complete. It would look good on my Christmas pressies - once I find something good to buy!

UK Art Raffle...

Set the theme of Circles for November. It took me a while to find inspiration for it, and due to a very hectic shedule over the last couple of weeks, I only managed to finish it on Thursday and post it on Friday, hoping it arrives today! If not it will be entered into the December raffle instead. If you haven't checked out UK Art Raffle yet I recommend a visit and sign up, you can win some amazing forms of art.

To create this I drew the face outline in pencil, then added colour with watercolour pencil, creating the hair from overlapping circles. I once dry I stamped some circles on top in Versamark and added a translucent gold EP on top to highlight a few areas. I hope you like the end result, would love to hear your opinions of it.

Detail:

Favourite Colours?

Time is very definitely limited this week, a very busy schedule that shows no sign of letting up yet! So I have combined Arty Girlz and SWI&T this week.

My favourite colours - that is a hard one, there are so many lovely colours in the world and different combinations evoke so many different emotions. In the end I settled on a colour range that I really do use a lot - purples, blues and browns. I created this card using some inchies I had made previously and applied them to the background, which has been coloured with distress inks over a Tim HOltz mask. I drew around the inchies and the border to define the shapes and patterns, then mounted it all onto black.

Playing With Paint...

Is one of my favourite mediums, and as an Art teacher I get to play regularly!! For This Thurs I have chosen to share two different paintings I did a while ago. The first is a watercolour of some flowers using colour wash techniques for the background and then the flowers in detail on top.

Details of the flowers:

This second painting is done in fabric paint, layering it quite thickly and painting to show texture and mark making techniques.

Joker

Is the theme for SPA this week. It has taken me a while to produce something that I am halfway happy with - the creative flow is not as clear as usual, too many other things running through that I need to remember to do this week! Anyway, I have opted finally for a digital piece, layering images, textures and colours using a range of opacity filters and effects to end up with the following. Hope you find the end result interesting....

Art Creations Friday -

Is a brand new challenge site, set up by four very talented artists. Their first theme was to use the image provided on their site and create your own piece of art incorporating it into your work. The image is a beautiful vintage lady, and it just cried to be used in a piece of digital art. I created this 8x8 piece using layering techniques, colour balance and varying opacity features. I will probably use this as a background paper in a further piece of work. Please visit Art Creations Friday and give your support, I hope you like my take on the challenge theme.

9 Lives...

Pets is the theme for Make A Moo this week, and those with 9 lives are my favourite. I have always had at least one cat in my home, and found it very strange not to have a pet while away at university. Since then I have had Hugo, my adorable all black moggie.

I created these by stamping the cats and then the wording over the top, added gems and chalked the edges. Quite simple but effective because of the bold stamps.

Blog Award

I was given this award by two creative people - Leona and Crissi.
This is the message for the award. It is to be passed to 8 other bloggers for the sentiments below.

This award states that:

This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships.These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends, they are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.

I am passing the award onto these creative people:

Bernice, Heather, Clau, Lani, Scrapbook Sisters, Jeni Boyns, Mary-Beth, Scrapperlicious.

Alternative Christmas Ornaments

As a member of the design team for Srapbook Sisters, I was asked to create some alternative ornaments for Christmas. The kit I was given consisted of memory glass, microscope slides, fixings, links, bulldog clips, foil edging, and alcohol inks. I combined these using a range of techniques to create the following:

Some of the techniques I used were those of Tim Holtz, a visit to his blog is always inspirational. If you are in the vicinity of Scrapbook Sisters pop in and have a look, they are so welcoming and helpful, and have a shop sent to tempt!!!

This work also fits the theme of ornamental christmas over at MMM.

Cute

Is the theme over at SMWI&T, and what cuter than my great reindeer stamp. I love the expression on his face! I stamped two inchies with his face at different angles, added colour with markers and then added stickles to highlight specific areas. Hope you like the end result.

Right, off to the next thing...
This week has been so busy and is not set to calm down until the end of the weekend, everything always seems to come around at once! Looking forward to my night out and my day scrapping tomorrow at a CROP held by Scrapbook Sisters.

Food....

Glorious Food!

I really do think I have an addiction for chocolate - anyone else out there share that sentiment?? For TMTA I chose to hand draw my ATC this week as I found I do not have much craft stash around that theme, and what is better than chocolate! I hand drew my chocolate coated cake and added colour with markers, using a water brush to blend it out. Once dry I added stickles to really give it that sticky feel and added this great little quote I came across, which also meets the theme over at Arty Girlz. Think I might have to go see if I have any chocolate in the house now...

Red and Green Christmas Tag

As time seems tobe very short for creating this week, I have combined the theme of red & green over at TYI with the Christmas tag one over at CBH. I love this reindeer stamp and used olive green stazon to stamp it onto cream card, I then used my markers to add colour and a water brush to blend it and fade the green out. I cut a decorative edge and chalked in red. All of which I then mounted on a further piece of cream, chalked the edge green and added a red ribbon at the top. Hope you like the end result...

Marvellous Metallics

Metallics are great to work with, but a real pain to photograph to get the shimmer right! I either get too much shine or not enough! I made this ATC for This Thurs challenge of metallics using stamp 'n' bond and gold foil for the butterflies, writing in gold ink and then finishing the edges with bronze chalk eye. I will endeavour to get a better image in daylight!

Bookmarks..

Are one thing I am always finding myself without - despite the fact that I do actually have quite a lot around somewhere!! So the challenge at OPH to create a bookmark was pretty apt, as I am currently in need of one.

I created two using collage and stamping techniques. I tore a text page and inked the edge in dark brown then glued to the background. I inked a word stamp in Versamark and stamped over the top, then added either clear emobssing powder and red distress embossing powder, then rubbed distress ink over the top once cool to make it stand out. To the left one I added the butterfly inchie stamp coloured with distress inks, and to the right I stamped some ink blots over the top and finished both by chalking the edges.

Kreativ Blogger Award

A creative friend of mine has given me this award - Ed - Thank you very much. I am glad you enjoy my blog and the work I post. Please go and visit her site to see her wonderful work.

So the rules of this award - state 6 things you value, 6 things you don't, and 6 new nominees......

6 Things I Value
1. My family - without whom I would not be who I am, I love you all unconditionally.
2.My true friends - those who are there no matter what, and however long it is between phonecalls!
3. My eyesight - sounds strange, but do not know how I would cope without it, everything I do revolves around it, made especially valuable since my mum has MS and it has affected hers.
4. Those small things that others take for granted - sun sets, a cat's meow, laughter, wind in the trees.
5. My gift for art - thank you for those genes and the gift of creativity.
6. Every moment I am alive - there is so much I still want to see and do!

6 Things I Hate
1. Bad manners - manners cost you nothing, and go a very long way!
2. Greed - there are too many people out there with nothing, while others have too much to know what to do with.
3. Violence - for whatever reason, there is always another way.
4. A lack of repsect for others - both of people and their belongings, and especially our elders.
5. Cruelty to animals - there is no need for it at all. I have a rescue cat who is blind in one eye because he was mistreated, and he is the softest thing in the world, loves a hug and would not harm anyone, who could do such a thing?
6. Road Rage - we all have a right to be on the road, and get to our destinations in one piece, safely.

6 Nominees - blogs I regularly visit as they are crammed with loads of inspiration and stunning work.
1. Femmy - http://zoiy.blogspot.com/
2. Hermine - http://herminesplace.wordpress.com/
3. Sandy - http://stempelchaotin.wordpress.com/
4. Willy - http://willyanderson.blogspot.com/
5. Kaena - http://www.mailartweb.com/
6. Nellie van Leeuwen - http://dutchstamptramp.wordpress.com/

Please visit their sites and see the inspiration for yourselves....

Silhouettes...

Is this weeks theme at Gothic Arches. I chose to create mine on a cornflower blue paper, stamping the faeries and then masking them out and stamping the flowers and swirls over the top. I then added glossy accents to the faeries to make them stand out slightly more. This also fits the theme over at Arty Girlz of blog inspiration, while blog hopping I came across the blog - http://elusiveimagesdesignteam.blogspot.com/ - and was inspired by some of their work to create this arch.

The Human Body

Is the theme over at MMM, and is a much used theme in artwork. I have chosen to share one of my favourite life drawing images in charcoal on A1. I drew this while at university and find it a very hard thing to get right - if the proportions are wrong it shows, faces are difficult to draw accurately quickly and hands and feet are a nightmare!! For this piece we had to draw the figure without drawing a direct outline - not easy - so the whole image is made up of crosshatching. It is framed and hanging in my house, so was difficult to photograph. Hope you like it.

The First Time...

I have used Stamp 'N' Bond in any of my work. This is such a great theme from Make A Moo this week, although I did have to rack my brains a bit to find something that I had not used one way or another!! I used a flourish stamp by Tim Holtz and stamped it in Versamark on dark chocolate cardstock. I then added the Stamp 'N' Bond and heated so the powder went clear, then laid on some gold foil and let it cool. Once cool I peeled the sheet of foil back and was left with a gold flourish - magic! I then stamped the cats - Cherry Pie Arts stamps - on top in Versamark and embossed in red. I prefer the left one, but find the end result interesting and definitely worth further investigation.....

Hats...

I love hats and have several different kinds, so the theme over at TGIF was a perfect opportunity to do this layout showcasing some of my hats. The paper is the Archaic range from Basic Grey and sets the photos off well, each being partially matted with cardstock (thanks Julie for that idea!) and the metal tag letters added as a title embellishment. Sometimes I wish we lived in an era that still loved to get dressed up to go out - not just once in a blue moon, there are some great fashions out there, but nowhere to go in them on a frequent basis - why do we not get dressed up more often?

Alcohol Inks

Are a fantastic medium to use, they work on any shiny surface and come in a whole range of colours, even metallics. I love working with them, and there are some great techniques that can be done using alcohol inks. Over at CBH the challenge is to use alcohol inks in a piece of work. I made these two Skinny's with alcohol inks as the backgrounds. I then stamped a tree in Versamark on top and embossed in white. Finishing with some punched butterflies. The photos do not really do them justice as it is dark and the flash is going off, but it adds a very shimmery effect to the top one! Will try and take some photos during daylight tomorrow.

I will have some other techniques using alochol inks to share soon, as I have some work I have completed for Scrapbook Sisters as part of their design team, but need to share with them first! Keep checking back...

Doors...

Come in all shapes and sizes, colours, locks and keys... They are the theme over at TGIF. I made these two ATC's.

For this I stamped the background image and then added a lock and stickles to the Fleur de Lis on the panelling.
For this I stamped a face on the back piece of card, stamped the doors on another ATC and cut them so they opened. I then layered the two together and added a few flowers around the face.

Purple...

Is one of my favourite colours and the theme at TMTA, so I wanted to find an image that would show it off in all its glory! I have some great stamps from The Queen's Dresser Drawers and felt this butterfly one was apt. I first covered a plain ATC in versamark and then added purple Brightz UTEE to it and heated it, adding more of the powder so I had about four layers making it thick. On the last layer I added some copper EP and heated to melt it into the purple. While it was still hot I stamped into the surface with the stamp and let it cool. I re-stamped the image on acetate in purple ink and cut out the butterfly. I added copper Krylon pen to the edges of the butterfly and over the wording on the background to finish. Hope you like the end result, would love to hear from you all.

Friend For Life...

Dogs are man's best friend, so they say. But I do not have many craft items relating to them, I am rather a cat person myself!! However I do own this gorgeous stamp by Cherry Pie Arts, and decided it would be perfect for the challenge over at SWI&T. I found a scrap of paper that matched the stamp perfectly, the orange and brown complementing the shapes and patterns on the dalmation., which was stamped on a separate piece of card, cut out and placed on top. The wording in handwritten, and it is all finished by chalking the edges.

Buttons...

Most people I know have inherited, or have in the family, a button box - who doesn't love to rummage around in it? There is something strangely fascinating about rummaging through buttons, and I love to add them to my work! This is my arch, for Gothic Arches, on the theme created by layering two background papers together and placing a photo of my own inherited button collection on top. I manipulated the image in Photoshop to give it a more common colour theme. I then added buttons - some of many I own, and hand written wording. Hope you like it, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.....

Angel...

...Is the theme over at TMTA. Having gone through all my stamps I have concluded I do not have an angel stamp, just a whole lot of wings! So I coloured a blank ATC with smoke blue and wisteria Chalk Eyes, then stamped a Tim Holtz stamp over the top in Timber Brown Stazon. I then stamped my angel wings onto a page of an old book so the text shows through, cut them out, chalked the edges with dark brown and glued to the background. I finished with a brad in the middle.

Tic Toc

Time and all things related is the theme over at Tag, You're It! I love using elements of time in my work, even though I never seem to have enough of it to do all that I want to!

The background was created by painting the background with acylic paint and laying cling film over the top, you get a great texture. I then stamped the large clock on top in copper acrylic. Once dry I then stamped clock hands, the phrase Time Flies and a few pocket watched over the top and rubbed them off the acryic clock so they appear faded. To finish I chalked the edges and added ribbon.

I started this tag at Scrapbook Sisters and just completed it as it fit nicely with the theme - if you have not visited their site go take a look, they have a great online shop and blog full of inspiration, they also hold some great classes for both beginners and the more advanced crafters. Happy creating!

Colours of Autumn

Autumn is one of my favourite times of year, unfortunately we have not had many dry days in which to enjoy it and go take new photos. I made this layout for MMM, I took the photos last weekend, on a wet Saturday morning, all the rain was dripping off the plants, it was foggy and the sun was doing its best to shine through.

I spritzed the background with Tattered Angels spray, then matted the photos on black and added them to the middle of the layout. I printed leaves and swirls onto acetate in oranges & reds, drew on large leaves and cut them out. The edges were finished with shimmer red Krylon pen, then added to the layout. I hand drew words around the leaves and added the monogram to finish. Hope you like the end result.

Paris Moos

Such a great city, so much to explore - architecture, art, people, shops, food, gardens, history. Paris is the theme this week for Make A Moo, below are the Moo's I have made. I coloured cream card with blue chalk eye and stamped on top - one from Crafty Individuals, the other a Tim Holtz one. The left hand one I added a Quikutz Eiffel Tower, both were then finished off with gold pen and Gold Krylon around the edges.

Girls Can Never Have Enough......

SHOES!!!

Everyone I know loves to look at all those shoes for sale, some of us just can't resist and buy them too!!! I have far too many pairs of shoes according to some - but I just love shoes! All colours, buckles, heels, boots, laces, buttons, who could resist?

This is my layout on shoes for last Friday's TGIF challenge, slightly late I know, but it has been one very hectic week! Long hours and little sleep - I could sleep for England right now, and really need to go to bed once this is posted. Hope you like the layout and are having a great, productive week.

Burning The Candle.....

at both ends really isn't leaving much room to party! It has been one very long and hectic week so far, with 12+ hour days, then more work to do once at home! But I did manage to find a few minutes of down time to complete these for Make A Moo this week. They are hand drawn and coloured using watercolour pencils and distress inks. I then chalked the edges and added some tickles to the glasses and balloons to add a bit of glitz to the party feel. Hope you like them.