Black With White Stripes or......

White with black stripes? Actually it is neither, Zebra's actually have alternate stripes, there is no background colour.

For Wednesday Stamper the challenge to produce a piece on pattern. I created my own patterned background and created a layout using photos I took at Port Lympne animal park earlier this year. The stripes are made from a Basic Grey stamp, I then mounted the photos on black and arranged them on top and added a flower and buttons to decorate. I finished by chalking the edges and adding the wording up the left hand side.

Colours of Autumn....

This is a popular theme among many at this time of year.

I love autumn with all its fantastic colours. An early start on a crisp sunny autumn day to go for a walk around the woods, park and lake is fantastic.

I put together this layout from photos I took last autumn, and am waiting for the leaves to turn - they are starting to - so I can go take more photos. This fits the theme this week for Arty Girlz and Created by Hand. I combined autumn with dragonflies, I stull have dragonflies flying aroundmy garden, enjoying the autumn sun.

Homophones...

What???? That was the first question I asked myself, then all became clear - Two words that sound the same but are spelt differently. I should probably know that, and remember doing English work using them, but their proper label escaped my memory!

So for TMTA, the following ATC uses homophones:

Hope you like it, it was a really interesting theme to work to. Loads of scope for creativity. Enjoy!

Take Flight......

Was the September theme for Art Raffle. If you haven't visited go have a look. It is a good monthly challenge, and one lucky entrant will win all the entries submitted for that month!!

I made a mixed media image depicting a 'Winged Guardian.' I drew the image in ink first and then worked on top with Tattered Angels misting sprays, spattered ink, pen and stamped butterflies on acetate. I finished by chalking ht edges and mounting up on black. I hope whoever wins the bundle of entries likes it!!

I am now looking forward to the October Theme and waiting to see if the posty brings me a parcel!

Music.....

Is the sound made by the morning chorus. These inchies are my interpretation of the theme for the Small World of Inchies & Twinchies. I stamped the music background, cut to size and chalked three different colours, I then stamped the birds in blue and finished with a gem on each.

The dawn chorus is always great to hear, especially on a summers morning. It reminds me of many holidays and early starts.

Autumn Is In The Air

There is a definite chill in the air in the mornings now, but does warm up. I got home form work today to a lovely sunny afternoon and was able to get out on the patio and enjoy the warmth still in the air.

For Arty Girlz thsi week their theme is Autumn, this is a good time to share an altered photoframe I created at a class called 'Picture Perfect' hosted by Karen of Scrapbook Sisters. I chose to use autumnal coloured papers, cutting out the background paper to fit the frame and chalking the edges. I then punched several leaves from a Woodware punch distressed them and then added to the bottom left. I used a quote from a sheet of paper and added above the image and then stamped some butterflies and dragonflies on acetate, cut out and added with glossy accents.

The full quote reads: 'If Nothing Ever Changed, There Would Be No Butterflies.'

Daydreamer

Daydreaming is something we all slip into now and then, be it dreaming of an upcoming holiday, that fabulous pair of shoes in the window, or wondering what if.......

For Tag, You're It, I created a tag using muted greens and blues. I used a stamp by Paper Bag Studios on cream then distressed and inked the edges. I added a strip of patterned paper to the green tag and then added the image on top. I finished with a handwritten title, gems butterfly and ribbon.

Some Of What I Love To Do

MMM set the challenge to show what you like to do, well....

This proves a bit of a problem because I love to do so many things and love to keep changing my focus to stay fresh an interested in my work. So today I am sharing a few scrapbooking layouts, this is one of my loves, but there are many more.

This first layout is based around a photo I took of my sister sharing a hug with Hugo my lovable moggy! The brightness of the photo went well with the burgundy red papers and black background. It is quite simple but one of my all time favourite layouts. I mounted the photo, added two strips of paper to the background and added the photo on top. I then punched a range of flowers and used Quikutz dies for the titile. I then placed these on the layout and added buttons to the centre of the flowers. I finished with a bit of white doodling.

I loved this photo of Hugo looking up, it made me think that he is looking at something just outside his reach. I glittered up the pattern on the paper and the butterfly, double mounted the photo and added it to the paper. I then stamped a few butterflies and dragonflies on acetate and cut them out, adding them to the edges of the photo. The strip of blue butterflies is created by chalking through a strip of cardstock I had punched a row of butterflies out of and used it as a stencil.

This last layout was created at a class at Scrapbook Sisters. I like it because of the contrast between the bright pink and black, this is a few steps away from my own choice of colour pallette, but the blossom on the branches are set off against the background.

Circus Delights

Who doesn't enjoy a visit to the Circus every now and then? I love the atmosphere, drama and laughs all rolled into one. Only thing I have never been over fond of are the Clowns, sorry to those of you out there who like them, but they are a little sinister for me.

Anyway, for SPA this week I chose to adapt my Stampotique stamp and turn her into a highwire artiste. I altered her legs to look like she is balancing on a wire, and cut two skirts and bows out and layered them together (although this photo does not show that too well). I coloured her with pens and then added stickles for a bit of bling on her outfit. The background I created using pen and adding a water wash over the top to bleed the colours, drew on the highwire and added brads at each end. I then added my artiste and stamped the title. I hope you like it!

Autumn

Today was the first day of Autumn, it will soon be time to put the clocks back and get ready for those really cold nights and very early sunsets. It would be good to have a few more days like yesterday before that though. I spent my Sunday sat on the beach, it was really quite hot!

Autumn was the theme for Make A Moo this week and these are my creations.

I coloured up a piece of card with orange, brown and copper chalk eyes, then stamped some leaves on top in Timber Brown Stazon. I cut this out and mounted one piece on black and used it as the background for the other. For the left one I then stamped a leaf on a separate piece of card and cut it out, mounting it on foam pads. The right one I punched out the leaf onto an autumn patterned paper, cut a black strip of card with the wording on and mounted both onto the stamped background. Both Moo's were finished of with Cinnamon Stickles.

Birthday Wishes

I find cards a hard task, thinking what to put on such a limited space and make it look interesting and not flat and lifeless. Well, I had a bit of practice over the past week and a bit with two birthdays to produce cards for. I can now load them as both have been passed to the respective recipients! I hope that you had a good birthday Julie & Mum!

They also fit the challenge for Arty Girlz this week. This first card I used two stamps by Stampotique Originals. I stamped them on to separate pieced of card and coloured them up with watercolour pencils, added a border to one and cut the other out, layering it on top. I then added this to a card, added a second border and added a hand written - Happy Birthday.

For this card I used a cute little stamp I have of a cats face. I embossed this with black embossing powder, coloured the eyes green and added glossy accents. I then added whiskers using nylon thread. I cut around the stamp and mounted on black card. Then used rub-ons to add the wording at the bottom. I finished by chalking the edges and addding to a card base.

It was good to have the practice, but not sure I could do cards all the time!

Family Relations

Sisters was the theme last Saturday of Small World of Inchies & Twinchies. I made this Twinchie for it, but events overtook and this is the first chance I have had to upload it.

I used several differnt stamps from Paper Artsy and 7 Gypsy's, layering them together, adding a bit of colour with pen and glimmer mist and then adding glossy accents to the two figures.

Lets Play Tag.....

Leona has tagged me, so now I'm it! This is the first virtual game of Tag I have played.......

Here are the rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Right, so now a little bit about me:

1. I have always loved anything creative - working in many media.
2. I am a Visual learner - I learn mainly by seeing (rather than Auditory or Kinesthetic)
3. Teaching is my career - Art and Textiles of course, to some wonderful teenagers!
4. I love cats - am owned by a beautiful all black - Hugo.
5. I aim to visit Egypt, The Great Wall of China, Macchu Piccu, Red Square, and Safari in Africa.
6. I would love to find the time to write a book, pass on my passion for creating.
7. I have a wonderful family, whom I would be lost without.


Now to tag some other fantastic friends and allow you to see their creations:

• Julie & Karen (They come as a team! Scrapbook Sisters)
• Jeannie
• Sarah Fishburn
• Morag Cutts
• Jenni Boyns
• Ed
• Hermine

Have fun passing it on further!

Sally x x x

Chasing My Tail

This week has been so hectic I really feel that I am just chasing my tail, as soon as I think I have caught up with everything, there are another 10 things to take their place!!! So I have covered two challenges with this piece - Flowers for SPA & Crows for Created by Hand.

I used a Heidi Swapp mask of a bird on black paper and used turquoise acrylic paint over the top. When the mask was removed I then added some black paint to the bird and gave it a larger beak, like a crow, added some highlights and then moved to the flowers. For the flowers I used three sizes of a retro pop flower and punched them from several patterned papers, layering the sizes and attaching with brads. The flash going off has made my crow look a bit bright, but is much clearer in the detail shots.

Where Has All The Time Gone?

There just does not seem to be enough hours in the day to cram everything in that needs to be done at the moment. But I managed to find a bit of time to finish of this piece for Gothic Arches.

I used a selection of time stamps from Cherry Pie Arts, skeleton leaves, a tag, and a butterfly punch for this arch. Cream card with blue and creamy brown chalk eye rubbed over the surface was used as the background. I then stamped one stamp directly on the background and then two others onto pages of text and cut these out to apply on top. I then added the strip of paper with watches on and the tag and skeleton leaf. I then added a few punched butterflies on top to complete.

A section of the arch. I am not sure why I link butterflies with time, but for me the two seem to work together well.

SBS24

Well, I joined group 24 of SBS, a site where you can get to know new people, make friends, share your work and get constructive feedback! I am looking forward to getting to know all of you in my group and explore your work. From what I have seen we are all so diverse and that is so inspiring!

Please scroll through my site to see all that I do, a mixture of many types of art, craft and scrapbooking!! I get excited by all kinds of art and craft including Altered aRt, Scrapbooking, ATC's, Photography, Textiles, Mixed Media........The list could go on!

I aim to update my blog and create new work as often as I can, but sometimes the dya job can get in the way! I am a teacher of Art / Textiles so in a way I do not mind it getting in the way as I am still creating - unless I have a stack of marking to do!

Handwriting.....

can tell a lot about a person. This is the theme for TMTA this week. I have chosen to focus on the tools of the trade - pen and ink. I stamped the pens on the background and the ink bottles on separate paper. I also stamped the handwriting piece on a separate piece of paper, trimmed and chalked to look like a letter and attached it over the pens. I coloured up the ink bottles and attached over the top with foam pads so they are raised off the surface.For this one I stamped the pens on the background and the ink bottles separately. I cut around the bottles and added a little colour and chalked the edges. I then laid a piece of acetate over the background ans stamped the handwriting and attached in the corner with a brad. I then added the bottles of ink to the bottom, again with foam pads to raise them up.

I enjoyed layering these images and using traditional means of creating handwriting, I still love using dip pens, although I tend to use them to draw with rather than write! You can get some great results.

In Miniature

It is an open theme at TGIF this week, so I thought that this was a good opportunity to share with you a miniature project I completed over this summer. I attended a class run by Karen at Scrapbook Sisters where we were given a small box as part of our kit and had to alter it and create a small book to go inside. This is my end result:

The mini book is made from one sheet of 12x12 paper, which was folded and cut in the right places to fit together. I decorated my pages with a mixture of stamps, leaf punch, photographs and journalling.

Cities of Europe

Was the theme for Make A Moo or Two this week. I chose to make two different sets, one on London and the second on Venice.

For these first two I drew an abstract Union Jack in chalk eyes on white card, then stamped a vintage skyline of London over the top, I then selected the two best areas and cut them to size, adding the wording to finish.

For Venice I chalked white card with two shades of blue, then stamped a Venician Gondola on top. I then took a small square of Stampbord and chalked the background to match the card and stamped a section of the gondola on top. I then scratched out the highlights and coatd in Glossy Accents. Once glued onto the background image in the right place I added the wording to finish.

Pretty in Pink?

Pink is the theme set by Gothic Arches. I found this hard as I really am not into pink, but came up with two very different arches. The first one shown here is my second attempt. I used a pink cardstock as the base, tore up some text and added chalk to the surface and edges then glued this down. I then stamped two trees and embossed with a gold shimmer so they blend into the background. I then added a third tree in the middle and embossed in white, adding pink glitter to the leafy part. I finished by adding a few stamped butterflies and spraying a glimmer mist over ir all.

The arch below is my first attempt, I had something in mind but it did not work as well as I wanted it to, I wanted something a little different and quirky. I used Alien Quikutz dies and punched them out of varying pink and text papers. I stamped the circle frames and glued on two strips of text. I then placed all the little aliens and added glossy accents, and finished it all off with a few pink flowers and stickles.

Dancing...

Personally I have two left feet, but Dancing is a great theme for an ATC from TMTA. I created two very different ATC's.

This first has a more traditional dancing feel, made using a stamp from The Queens Dresser Drawers. I chalked arounded the figures and then added a couple of buttons for interest.

This ATC was made by chalking the background with yellow and red,then adding some black streaks across, giving the impression of a light beam. I then stamped the little silhouette figures, these are stamps I have borrowed from a friend, I love them and wish I knew where they came from, as I would love to own them too! I then stamped DIVA and added glossy accents to the dancing figures.