Thursday 31 July 2008

Going Travelling?

A while ago now I did a class using a Bo Bunny word book - TRAVEL. I really enjoyed doing this and the colour of the papers we had matched my photos from a trip to Venice. The book has a basic chipboard pages, each one cut into the shape of a letter, they are then held together with ring binders. They can be covered in any papers you choose and then embellished using buttons, ribbons, stickers, stamps - anything you have in your stash.

Below is the end result:


Bo Bunny books come in many different words including: HOME, LOVE, BELIEVE, FAMILY, BABY, BEACH.

Tuesday 29 July 2008

Dressed......

...To Impress.....

A while ago I was introduced to the dress form manequins made by Creative Imaginations - http://www.creativeimaginations.us/index.php


A simple body form ready to be dressed up and decorated. Karen of Scrapbook Sisters demonstrated how to cut and form paper around the body. I had a theme in mind when I started and chose two Basic Grey papers in reds, greens and browns. My Elizabethan themed result is below:

I made the collar by cutting out a 'donut' shaped circle and stamped it with a flower image in timber brown. I then cut around the tops of the flowers to give it an interesting edge and pleated the inner edge. I chalked the edges to finish it off and attached to the neckline of the dress:


Finishing touches were added with beads, gems, a large flower and platinum stickles:


I have a second dress form ready to dress, this time from a different era...............

Saturday 26 July 2008

Ever Lost Sleep................

...........Due to a Pea?

One Princess did. Once upon a time....In a land far, far away.......

This is my altered art piece based on the Princess and the Pea Fairytale. I took a tealight holder and transformed it into an embellished room, housing a lavish four poster bed kitted out with several hand made mattresses and completed with a sleeping Princess and a large pea:



I added embellishments with flowers, gems, threads, charms, stamps and Gold UTEE:
The room opens to reveal the four poster bed:
I formed the Princess from wire and papier mache, and then dressed her in ribbons and chiffon:
I carried the embellishments through to the inside:

I hope you enjoyed viewing this. Altering everyday objects can lead in many directions and is not as difficult as it may look. Find an object you like and have a try for yourself - paint it up, cover it in papers, add embossing powders, stamp it, anything goes.......................

Thursday 24 July 2008

Skools Out for Summer.......

The end of term finally arrived........ now to deal with the clearing up, final planning for the new year, resourcing new projects and eventually taking some time out to be creative!!!

I will eventually get the time to go out and about to get new inspiration. But for now, some inspiration I had over this last year came from a visit to Kew Gardens to see the Henry Moore Sculptures in situ.

It was a fantastic day out, and the sculptures looked amazing in the setting of Kew. A few of my many shots are below:

Monday 21 July 2008

Any Piece of Paper........

.............Can be turned into a work of art.........

In an earlier post I refered to a paper artist Paul Jackson - http://www.origami-artist.com/ - from whom I received a workshop while at KIAD in Maidstone. I love the way in which he takes a simple sheet of paper and turns it into amazing sculptural forms full of texture and detail.

Below are sculptural corsets I designed and made from paper while in the first year of my BA(Hons) Decorative Arts at Nottingham Trent University. We had to produce work based on architectural forms found in the city.

I started with drawings in mixed media - newspaper, ink, charcoal and graphite, and progressed from here to producing background images in ink and bleach and monoprints which I then folded into sculptural shapes inspired by the tiled roofs, railings, brickwork and layering I found in the city. From here I then formed three basic corset shapes of card and added to them using the folded forms. The results of which are below:










Close up details of the folded forms:







These may look complicated, but once you know a few tricks on how to fold the paper, it is not as daunting as you think............

Thursday 17 July 2008

A New Town is Created....

On arriving home late from work yesterday, I was greeted by a parcel on the door mat - my Houses Swap had arrived - Yipee!!

I unpacked it to find inside a lovely set of houses made by some creative people. My new little town looks as follows:








Thank you so much to everyone who had a hand in creating my little town. Just waiting in anticipation for the last one to arrive. Let me know what you think..........

Tuesday 15 July 2008

Little Houses Swap

A couple of months ago now I was fold about a swap which I signed up for - to make 21 little houses - each had to be exactly 2.5" wide and between 3 - 6" tall. They could incorporate any media and let the imagination run wild. See the link here:

Below are the houses I sent out, and am currently waiting for my new city to be returned. I had so much fun creating these I hope you like them: