Saturday 31 October 2009

What Price a Life?


Our new art group, Artful Ideas has the theme of 'Remembrance' for the next fortnightly challenge. The theme was not soldier/war specific and the only stipulation was there had to be a poppy somewhere on the ATC. I chose though to stick with the armed forces theme as this is the one that I feel most drawn to when the subject comes up.

I stamped this poppy image, distressed it with 'Antique Linen' colour and mounted it onto black card. The poppy was painted with water colours and I used a tiny amount of black shiny embossing powder for the centre.

The image of the soldier comforting his friend was printed onto acetate and then attached.

Finally I added the cross, a small metal tag (to represent a dog tag) and a silver coloured dove.

The stamp has an 'invoice' background which prompted me to think about the heavy price that is paid by those that engage in conflicts on behalf of others.

In memory of all those who have lost their lives in the name of freedom.

Thoughtful


This card was inspired by Graphicus. I love everything about Graphicus - the designs are wonderful and they have such a huge and varied range of stamps it's impossible not to want to buy!

The stamps used for the image, quote and background are all Elusive Images. I picked them up in a sale and they were a real bargain being less than half price - so much of a bargain that I bought 2 different sets!

I backed the card using dark green mulberry paper, then sponged a pale green ink over cream pearlised card before stamping over with the tiny fern stamp. I rolled some pale green ink round the image before colouring with watercolour paints then mounted both image and quote on the same dark green paper.

I am going to do some more of this design using different colours for the basic theme as this is one project that I am happy with!

Thursday 29 October 2009

Flight of Fancy




I am really quite disappointed with this photograph. The original looks so much better ( well I think so anyway! LOL)

This is a 6" x 4" greetings card. I bought these stamps ages ago -(can't for the life of me remember whose they are)- the plate is four birds with varying degrees of fancy tails and flourishes. The challenge at Tuesday Taggers this week is 'Bursts of Colour' and over at Theme Thursday, this week's offering is 'Favourite Colours'. As I love all colours I couldn't select a favourite so decided to do a rainbow of colours instead and combine the two challenges.

The bird was stamped using Brilliance Ink Pads in Peacock and Twilight colours on glossy paper. The irredescence of these inks does not show up at all on the pic - (tried using the flash on the camera too - all I got was a silver outline!) - but trust me the lovely shimmering effect of these ink pads looks really nice on the gloss paper!

I used the same ink pads for the background of the card and this time ventured a try out with a brayer. Must confess I'm not very proficient with brayering technique but am not too upset at how the background turned out really, even though I definitley do need some more practice! I then used the flourishes from another of the bird stamps and stamped over the background.

Finally I stamped the words using the purple part of the Twilight ink pad. The rainbow organza ribbon came from my stash - can't remember where I got this from either - but I definitely need some more!

The Craft Barn is one of Tuesday Taggers sponsors - click on the owl above and go and visit their fab website and treat yourself!

Monday 26 October 2009

Cutey Spooky!


I haven't had a lot of free time as I have been attending four Presentation lunches in the last 8 days all over the Northern Counties! Whilst pondering how I'm going to get rid of my expanded waistline I found some time to make a birthday card!
The recipient is away on holiday and will receive it when she returns home at the weekend.......

It's a bit 'cutesy' which is something of a change for me but I really liked the little witch and her cat! The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil. I coloured it with watercolour pencils, mounted it onto black card and the background is a freebie from Glenda's 'Artylicious' blog with some flowers and a couple of lightly glittered pumpkins mounted onto card and a greeting printed from the PC.

I have linked this to the challenge on Tuesday Taggers - pop over and see some fab interpretations of their 'things that go Bump in the Night' theme

and also at One Powerful Hour - who's challenge this week was 'Something Spooky' ... OK I know she isn't exactly SPOOKY but perhaps if you stretch your imagination you might find her just a teeny bit scary?????!!

Saturday 17 October 2009

Altered Bottle Tops


We have a new Flickr group called 'Art 'n Soul' . The group challenges run every month and the first challenge is to alter 3 bottle tops....


Here is my entry. The pics were from a book by Hot Off The Press called 'Easy Peasy Jewellery' and they have the added bonus of having matching acetate overlays, intended for making pendants, rings etc.

I thought they were perfect for the inside of the bottle tops!

I have edged the inside of each top with some seed beads and then added a scrap of vintage lace and a silver heart charm at the bottom.
There is a challenge at Dezinaworld to use lace in a project... OK there isn't a lot of lace on this piece but there is a teeny weeny piece!

Sunday 11 October 2009

Imagination


OH has 'man flu' and is feeling sorry for himself today - I have come outside to the craft room under the pretext of not wanting to catch his germs...... (well I thought it was a good excuse anyway!)

I have made this tag this morning as I had bought some stamps before I went away and hadn't tried any of them out, so I am sat here surrounded by a pile of 'virgin' stamps and also a pile of papers where I have stamped other images onto!

Stamps by Crafty Individuals, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous and The Stamp Bug and the papers are Basic Grey. Little half flower and fibres from my stash.
I am submitting this for the challenge this week at Three Muses which is 'Numbers'.

Thursday 8 October 2009

Back to normal


Ah well, the long days gazing out on a clear blue sea or up into a clear blue sky are behind me for another year (at least!). We had a fabulously lazy time, weather was fantastic but sadly all good things come to an end don't they?

So on my return I set about finishing the ordered Christmas Cards. After declaring yesterday I was sick of looking at Christmas cards and this year I was sending shop bought to everyone, this morning I decided to tidy the desk.

Under all the mess there were two stamped images which I had done before I went away and promptly forgot about...... so I made them into a Christmas card!

The backing paper is from Papermania 'A Christmas Carol', and has a fab linen feel to it. I used distress inks on the stamped images and added some pearlised crimson paint for the berries. (On the pic there is a block of red behind one of the berries... don't know ehere this has come from cos it ain't on the card!!!)

Quite like these two images together.... might make some more...................................