OFF ON MY TRAVELS

I'm off to Canada for two weeks so won't be blogging again until after the 5th August - go on, say you'll miss me and that I'm not talking to the sky??

Planning to get all sorts of art materials while I'm there, and eat a lot of fish (my favourite) not to mention yummy ice cream, so much better than the UK. Alas no crafting but the stash shopping will make up for that!

But because I'm ever so nosy, I'd like to ask these questions of all my blog visitors in the two weeks I'm away:-

1. Your couldn't live without it arty tool or technique?
2. Name one blog that really inspires you ?
3. What cheers you up when you're down?
4. Your favourite smell?
5. The book you read over and over again?
6. What's the worst feeling in the world?
7. What was your first car?
8. Where would you build your dream house?
9. Name a small thing in your life that makes you happy
10. Can you tap dance?
11. What do you worry about in the wee small hours?
12. What are you doing tomorrow?
13. What's in your handbag?

And these are MY answers!
1. Chalk inks
2. http://saray-viola.blogspot.com/
3. Chocolate
4. Jack Daniels whisky
5. The Clowns of God by Morris West
6. Rejection
7. Gorgeous blue mini
8. By the ocean
9. My computer - it brings the world to me
10. No
11. Money
12. Flying to Canada
13. Tickets, passport, dollars, disabled parking permit

SERENDIPITY

I really enjoyed making this, which fits into two challenge categories - firstly the Wednesday Stamper's two-tone theme. I love green and blue, particularly together and these tones just zing! It also works for the Theme Thursday hearts.

I made the background with Distress and Colourwash inks - and then chose this image, partly because of the soft turquoise blouse, but also because I love her eyes. The word "serendipity" (meaning a happy accident) is a rub-on, and the raised dots around the edge are done with relief outliner (a product I've recently rediscovered). The woven texture is a Hero Arts stamp. The little heart is a chipboard shape I've painted with metallic acrylic, and to which I've added relief dots, and the butterfly just sort of needed to be there to finish it off!

This is one of my favourite ATCs - I think its because I love the colours so much, but I will trade it if you really really insist .....

PLAY TO WIN

NOW TRADED
Made this for the TMTA games challenge. The background is linen finish card plus distress inks, over which I stamped the texture. The numbers are by Alpha Stamps and the dominos are Tim Holtz distressables. It all began with this man from a Crafty Individuals sheet and his left hand is in a funny position, almost as if he was hiding his dominos from other players! Our local pub held regular domino drives and you wouldn't believe how seriously it was all taken, or the grudge matches that were played!

I'm getting ready for a trip to Canada leaving on Monday - our second house swap. The only downside is that you end up trying to get the house virtually PERFECT and start poking in all the corners you normally ignore! This doesn't leave much time for creativity, but then I do have to have a lot of rests in between bursts of housework .....

PARIS COLLAGE

NOW TRADED
This project grew out of a challenge Linda and I set ourselves. She bought the stamp on the left and we each took a print of it in black on white card - and challenged each other to do something with it. I couldn't manage to use all the squares but several of them were Paris themed, and so this is the result!

The background is a sort of newsprint, because the Wednesday Stamper challenge this week is newspaper, and this also fits with last week's Crazy Amigo travel challenge. I was making up stories again, about a woman who in her youth made a bad decision and married the wrong man. Once a year she travels to Paris, ostensibly to shop, but really to stay in room 105 Hotel Chatham and indulge her memories of the man she really loved. The little fragments in various shades (from the stamp) along the bottom represent the scraps of memory she treasures. This piece is bigger than usual at about 5" x 7" and if anyone wishes to trade for it just let me know.

MY LATEST BABY!

From my earliest efforts I think I've got the hang of the beading techniques better now - and this is my first ever Icicle doll, inspired by some I saw on my visit to Linda.

She's made with a Kaffe Fassett fabric in the pinks on black colourway (well it had to be pink didn't it)! I've beaded all around the patterns in a random design. She has hair made from sari thread (another introduction from Linda) which is rather wonderful stuff, and her wings are pink German scrap. The charm at the bottom says "create".

I'm afraid I won't be trading her as I made her for ME, and she makes me smile every time I look at her, but I'm sure I'll be making more if anyone wishes to set up a trade.

CORSETS

Back in vintage mode with this one - I've always been fascinated by corsets (although I thank God I don't have to wear one)! There's something rather beautiful and sculptural about them don't you think? I wasn't working to a challenge or theme, just messing about entirely to please myself which is my favourite activity, especially when as now I feel a bit moth-eaten and tired.

I began with a page of newspaper advertisements, firstly the corset, and the rest sort of followed. The background paper made me think of faded parlour wallpaper, and the button is a genuine pewter antique. I didn't make up a story exactly, but I was sort of thinking about a door to door corset salesman with a long overcoat and a brown battered leather suitcase .....

FRIDA AGAIN

I've been making a pile of these for a Frida swap I'm taking part in. I took the background colour from the colour of the chair - and it's a sort of coppery colour. I don't know what it is about copper but I'm just crazy about it at the moment, and the copper scrap at the bottom just seemed right. I used a crackle stamp on the background because I thought how much her life was fractured by the terrible injuries she suffered, and the crown is above her because despite this she became a celebrated princess of art. Exhibit A is there because she painted herself and so showed her inner self for those who could see, and the wording just speaks for itself.

MEET THE GIRLS

I keep making these lil darlings, and although I wasn't all that pleased with my earlier efforts, I do think they are improving all the time. Did I mention how addictive they are? This is a slightly refined pattern and the blue one is rather better than her sister! I'm still getting a grip on this beading business.

Having just spent a WONDERFUL couple of days playing with Linda, I've come home inspired to make even better ones, and made a start on my first icicle doll last night. We can't really show you pictures of anything we actually MADE, as we mostly got wonderfully inky trying out new techniques to make splodgy backgrounds, talked non-stop, and shared ideas and know-how.

I'll be back to my card and paper as soon as I can get my breath back, but my head is buzzing with new ideas and I may have bought one or two goodies to play with as well . . .

ANTIQUE ATCS?

I made this for the Wednesday Stamper challenge, which was to use newsprint. I thought I'd have some fun at a site where you can make up your own news clippings, and went for the story about an exhibition of ATC art (don't you just WISH). Having made that it seemed like a visual joke to make something "modern" into a vintage style - yeah well I thought it was funny at the time! The "Believe" tab reflects my hope that our kind of art will gain more recognition.

I used a scrap of Basic Grey paper, with an image of Edgar Allen Poe from Digital Collage Sheets, plus some additions from Tim Holtz distressables.

ROCK STAR

Well .... this isn't quite my usual style, but I definitely had FUN! I made it for This Thursday's challenge which was to use something clear. Now this isn't necessarily my strong point but I thought I'd have a go - so I stamped one of my Invoke Arts houses onto acetate, which I coloured with permanent markers. Then I masked the background to get the purple swirls and added the image with the acetate over the top. Then it seemed a bit bare looking and I went all zettiology .... not stamps I own, but I've been quite taken with some of the work I've seen done with them lately. These stripey shapes are actually a hat from a Paper Artsy plate, and the number and title are also Paper Artsy.

And the story ....? Well she's a bit of a way-out chick with a strong sense of altered reality (that'll be the mushrooms she's always smoking), so it doesn't particularly make any sense because it doesn't need to, except that it's her house and she lives at 59!

Today Carole gave me this blog award! That is SUCH a nice thing to happen and I'm amazed that almost 3,000 people have visited since I started it in February!! Keep coming back often, I love all your comments and since I don't go out much it makes me feel part of the Global Village.

Now what I have to do is:-

1. Put the logo on my blog.
2. Link the person I received the award from.
3. Nominate other blogs and link those sites from mine.
4. Leave a message on the blogs nominated.

So these are the ones I LOVE to visit and hope you will also enjoy!

http://lindavincent.blogspot.com/
http://creativesolace.blogspot.com/
http://dotslifeandart.blogspot.com/
http://www.thecreativejourney.typepad.com/

CAPTURE THE MOMENT

I think I was even humming "Among my Souvenirs" as I made this (sorry, that's a VERY old song). I chose this little dancer for the Mixed Media Monday challenge. She looks very young and I was (as usual) daydreaming a story about her.

I was thinking about an old lady rummaging through her memories of an earlier life - this picture taken when she was a young dancer in the Corps de Ballet in London, the background is to suggest faded letters, the clock represents the time that has passed, the lace is saved from one of her costumes, the label is from her travelling trunk when the company went on tour, and the little gold locket was a gift from a stage door johnny! Fanciful that's me.

The background script is a scrapbook paper, the image is from a collage sheet by Enchanted Mercantile, the clock stamp is by Cherry Pie, the tag is Paper Artsy and the little heart is a Scrapz charm.

A BIT NAUGHTY

I've only just got this Paper Artsy stamp (although I've had my eye on it for ages) so I just HAD to play with it! I thought it would work well for the Created By Hand challenge, which this week is black/white/grey. The background is a paper which looks like grey marble and although I stamped the image in black I watercoloured in some grey shades (I DID so want to paint his hat red) and used my white pen on a few areas.

Maybe it was because it all seemed a bit boring and I don't know what came over me, but before I could stop myself I'd given him a moustache and beard! A bit naughty I know but I couldn't help it, honest!

SET IN STONE

This week's challenge on TMTA is a "stone" theme which really got me thinking .. and at first I was a bit short of inspiration. Then I came across this rather grumpy "green man" and it all fell into place. I used a paper which rather reminded me of mossy stone as a background, and added a bit more shading with chalk inks. The latin text was stamped in grey - I was sort of thinking about latin inscriptions etc and the green man was mounted onto card to make him stand out. The square stamping along the bottom represents some kind of stone base or pedestal. The key is my favourite bit! I made it out of Delight Clay using a mould, then painted it black before distressing it with touches of rub on copper - really had fun with that.

And of course a story was forming in my head about a lost garden and the green man's face half hidden in the overgrown ivy. Clearing away more ivy reveals the latin text which tells you how to find the door which the key will open .. and yes of course I grew up on The Secret Garden! Didn't everybody?