Inchies

I love creating small pieces of art, and what could be better than a challenge to produce inchies! I could have added them to another piece of art like an ATC, skinny, card or 4x4, but I think they are great just as they are! I am in the process of creating a big range of different inchies, twinchies and ATC size pieces of art, so that I can then collage them together into a big mosaic piece to show them all off. So I created these three inchies for CBH on Stampbord, which will be added to the collection.

I first inked the stampbord with chalk eyes then stamped my chosen images on top. The stamps are inchie size and are from a set by Inka-dinka-do. Once stamped I then used a scratching tool to bring out textures and highlights.

In The Garden.......

is where I like to be on hot sunny days.......

But the weather finally broke today and it has rained! The hot sunny days lasted longer than I thought they would, with at least two thunderstorms occuring in the night to leave the days full of blue sky and sunshine!

In the garden is the theme for TMTA this week, and I have chosen to use a photograph I took of a visitor to my garden a few weeks ago. I have these beautiful pink pincushion flowers in the garden, which the bees loved - until the white crab spider took up residence in them! I got a great shot of nature in action, when the spider literally just pounced on this poor bee, turning it into lunch! I altered the photo by scratching areas out with a file, then chalking the edges and adding coloured metallic 'Smootch' inks over the top to highlight areas and finishing my mounting on an ATC, stamping a few flower sections and finishing with a hand-written title:

Hope you like it! Right, off to bed - or I won't be fit for much in the morning........

Summer Sun.....

is definitely shining this week, here's hoping it lasts until the weekend! CBH this week have set the theme of summer, and when I think of that, holidays come to mind. So my interpretation is this skinny below:

I stamped the cute lion (from Magnolia) onto the background and again on a separate piece of card. I then coloured both with watercolour pencils. The leaves I punched from patterned paper and chalked the edges to define them. Then I placed the leaves around the edge of the lion, and cut the head out of the second image and layered on top with foam pads to raise it off the surface, and did the same with the top layer of leaves. I cut the grass and layered that at the front. Hope you like the end result.

Three weeks until my summer holiday starts, and counting........

Look Into A Face.....

and what do you see?

This is the theme for TMTA this week, for which I created this ATC:

First I stamped the face and masked it to stamp the crackle effect. I then added colour with chalk eye and then the beads and flowers to complete.

Recently the hours are rapidly passing into days, and the days into weeks! Where does the time go when you wish you could spend more time doing the things you really want, but just don't seem to get the chance! At least the sun is shining and the birds are singing..................

As Mad As A.......

Box Of Frogs!

What a great saying, a good friend of mine introduced me to that saying, it took me a while to really get it though. It must be a Northern thing! Frogs is the theme over at TMTA this week and I chose to illustrate another frog quote using a cute stamp by Rachelle Anne Miller. I stamped it with Stazon ink and then added colour using watercolour pencils. I then hand wrote the quote, used a fineline pen around each word, cut and adhered to the ATC. Finishing touches were added with Stickles. I love this quote, and sometimes wish we could all do this!

Blog Award

What a nice message awaiting me on my return home today. Loretta left a blog award for me - thank you very much.

It is always lovely to know others like your work, I have been rather busy over the last few weeks, my mojo is slowly returning but I just have not had the time to do as much of my own work as I would like or post as frequently as I would like. Hopefully I will get the chance to do more of my own work soon.

So for the rules of this award:

1.Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who granted you the award, and include their blog link

2.Pass the award to 8 other blogs that you have newly discovered.

There are many wonderful blogs out there, but I have chosen the following that offer a world of inspiration. So, in appreciation of their wonderful blogs and the inspiration that they nurture in each of us, when we visit their blogs I give this to:

1. Nancy

2. Scrapbook Sisters

3. Jeannie

4. Kris

5. Taluula

6. Duda Daze

7. Frankie

8. Scrapperlicious

Click on each name to find some inspiration when you visit their wonderful blogs. Get ready for a mouth watering experience...............

Completed Layouts

CBH this week have a free challenge, so I have chosen to share with you a few layouts that I have finally finished! They have been sitting half done in a large stack of UFO's, but having recently been to a shop crop at Scrapbook Sisters, I had the opportunity to put the finishing touches to them. The layouts involve cutting of patterned paper, stamping and adding embellishments and doodling to finish. I hope you like the end results.

Compelled by Circles

Today I have chosen two layouts I completed a while ago of my mum and I, using a lot of cut and punched circles, and buttons as embellishments. I love these layouts, partly because of the shapes but also the colours of the papers, they worked well with the photos I had. I created these at a fortnightly class I attend at Scrapbook Sisters. They also fit the theme this week for Created by Hand of circles. I do tend to use a lot of circles in my work, there is something strangely appealing about the shape!

That Creative Thing.....

It has been a while since I have had the flair or desire to create anything worth blogging about. Thanks to all of you who have queried my absence from here, it has been a rocky couple of months. A friend and colleague went missing and the resulting outcome was not a good one, we lost a good person (even if he could be stubborn and grouchy!) Needless to say, I lost my mojo and all flair to create anything inspiring! As Karyn kindly said - my mojo went to someone else who needed it more at the time (I like to think that we all share our mojo and inspire others to create when they need the encouragement to).

Then exam time hit us at school and I became inundated with sorting out students exam requirements and chasing them for coursework! Will they ever learn that a deadline is a deadline? But the sun is now shining, and things are starting to look good again, and I have started to create for pleasure, and want to do so! So here I share with you two ATC's I created for TMTA this week on the theme of Egypt.

For the left one I stamped hieroglyphics onto greaseproof paper and added a touch of colour, then tore the edges, crumpled it and added some chalk eyes to distress to look like an old parchment. The background is created using acrylic paint and chalk eye around the edge. The parchment was added using glossy accents.

The right ATC was created by stamping King Tutenkahmun once on the ATC and again on a separate piece of paper to use as a mask. The mask was laid over the top of the stamped image and the background colour added up to the edge of it using acrylic paint. Once this was dry the mask was taken away and detail added to the stamped image using blue pen and white and gold metallic inks. Chalk eyes were used to finish the edges.

I hope you like the end results, and thanks again for your messages. I hope you are all well and each have a share of that mojo!

Using Alcohol Inks...

for the TMTA theme this week. I printed a pattern onto acetate, added alcohol inks to the backgroundm then created a crumpled foil background and applied the acetate on top. Then I stamped some butterfly wings, added alcohol inks to these and adhered to the surface, using a red gem for the centre of each.

It was definitely back to work with a bang today! That first sounding of the alarm at silly O'clock really shakes your bones! But up I got and got to work on time, after forgetting how bad the traffic can be if you hit it at the wrong time, only to find that I could not access any of the school work I had done over the break because I had filled the server disk and it would not synchronize with the school system! So I unplugged it from that and tried to access the files to move them to another area so I could use them, only for the computer to tell me that I could not access them unless I was synchronized with the system!!!!! Argghhhhh........

I eventually managed to move other files around and access what I needed in time for my lessons, then we had a fire drill to boot! What a welcome back, here's to the rest of the week.....

Home Is....

Where The Heart Is.

Most definitely true! There is nothing like getting home after a hectic day and just being able to relax and do as the mood takes you! This is a great theme from Make A Moo this week, I created my pieces using Paper Artsy and Inkadinkado stamps, collaging a background and adding a punched heart, all coloured with chalk eyes.

Using An Old Postcard

Weds Stamper this week have set the challenge to create artwork on the back of an old postcard. As I could not put my hands on one at home, I printed an image off the internet onto glossy paper to use. I then used my Tim Holtz masks with distress inks to add a pattern to the background, stamped a postage mark and flowers from Prima over the top, then punched some leaves and coloured them with chalk eyes and finally added a touch of Tattered Angels mists over the top. It was a little difficult to photograph as it was getting dark, so I will try and get a clearer shot tomorrow.

Nature

Well, what a fantastic day it has been here today, the warmest of the year so far, a balmy 20 degrees! But thunderstorms are due for tomorrow....

I did manage to get the garden straight - lawn mown, dandelions banished to the recycle bin, and flowerbeds weeded. Which put me in the right frame of mind for the Crazy Amigo challenge of nature. I created this skinny by using collage techniques,distress inks, stamps from Prima and punched shapes.

My Cat.....

is an angel....

well, sometimes maybe! As it is a free theme over at GA until next week, I decided to do an arch using on of my favourite cat quotes. I used my Cherry Pie Arts cat stamps, chalk eyes, and pages from an old book to compile this arch. Hope you like it.

Eyes...

are powerful tools, and are generally a thing of beauty. Eyes is the theme for TMTA this week and I have created my ATC using a stamp from Paper Bag Studios, added colour using chalk eyes and created dimension by re-stamping the image and adding half of it raised on top, along with the wording.

Vintage Easter

ACF this week have provided a great vintage image to use for their challenge. I was a bit stuck as to how to use or alter it, but after much faffing and playing with Photoshop, I finally achieved something I am happy to share! This is created by layering the given image with another vintage image of bird eggs, layering with photoshop brushes and a frame mask.

I hope you all have a great Easter break and that the sunshine holds!

Yellow & Easter....

are two words that go nicely together at this time of year, and is the theme for Make A Moo. I have made my Moo's 3D by shaping the card into a daffodil and Easter chick. The backgrounds are colored using chalk eyes and then the shaped applied onto the surface, then finished with some Distress Stickles to add a bit of shine to the Easter sun!

Zettiology

Is a strange but kind of alluring form of art, where all those odd elements are put alongside each other and they just seem to work! This is the theme for TGIF this week, and I have created my Zetti piece on Killer Heels. It is a mixture of collaged papers, images from magazines, newspaper, fineline pens and paint. Hope you like the end result, I am not too sure whether I actually like it or not, I think it might have needed some stronger black lines in there somewhere.....

Eggs....

come in all shapes and sizes, and at this time of year I particularly like the chocolate ones! Eggs is the theme for Make A Moo, and I have hand drawn mine, coloured them with watercolour pencils and added some chalk eyes to finish.

Who Owns....

a teddy bear?

I think that most of us have had at least one great teddy bear in our lives. My sister loved hers to death and he is the most handsome threadbare teddy bear of them all! He even has his own paisley pyjamas and a pair of gold rimmed glasses!

The bear image provided by ACF for their challenge was great, so I created this digital piece making her the focal point.

Inspired by Italy

Italy is a great country and I have visited a few different parts. My last visit to Italy was to Venice, where I had a great holiday with my sister. I chose to use Venice as my inspiration for this weeks Weds Stamper. I coloured the background with distress inks, then stamped the gondola on top. I hand drew the buildings in and added colour to them with chalk eyes. I then stamped the tickets and wording separately and applied them on top.

Cats

I have always loved cats and there has always been at least one in the household all my life. I think now it would feel strange to not have that little person bumping around your legs, jumping on your work, and chasing all manner of things around the garden. Cats is the theme for Inchy By Inch this week and I used a selection of cat stamps and chalk eyes to create mine.

Deco Page Swap

I have signed up to take part in a deco page swap on the Scrapbook Sisters Forum. Where you create a 6"x6" page on a theme decided by the person you swap with. It is easy to sign up and join in, just join the forum, decide on a theme for your deco page and then look for someone who is free to swap. The idea is that we will each build up a book of deco pages from each person who signs up, swapping with everyone eventually!

My theme is bewitched - anything that your imagination sees as being 'bewitched'.......

My first swap was with Julie and her theme of 'Trees' (and their inhabitants). I decided to include some hand drawing / painting and I think this is something that I want to run through all the pages I do. I chose to do a tree frog using a variety of techniques including using Gesso, paper tearing and layering, acrylic paint, Glossy Accents, leaf punches, UTEE in the melt pot, and a charm from Tim Holtz.

I hope you like the end result, I would love to hear what you think.....

I eagerly await my first return from Julie on my theme of Bewitched. I have now managed to get Mazza to sign up and have a go too, so my next swap is to create a page on her theme of 'Love Ya!' Watch this space....

Together.....

I cannot believe it is over a week since I last posted! The end of term was rather busy, and left little time to be creative - my mojo flew the coop!! I now need to spend some time gathering new thoughts and images to use to build up a new creative folio to inspire the imagination.....

To start I have created these ATC's for the TMTA challenge of Togetherness. They are created using stamped images and watercolour pencils, the edges finished with chalk eyes and a small gem added to each one.

Colours of the Rainbow....

It has been a while since I have seen a rainbow - despite the mix of rain, hail and sun we had yesterday! But it is a great theme from Gothic Arches this week - pick two colours of the rainbow, two stamps, and inspirational words. This is the arch I ended up with after deliberating for ages as to which two colours and which stamps! The peacock is a Basic Grey stamp which I inked up in two colours and applied over a background of swirls created with a paper artsy stamp and yellow chalk eye. I added flowers with distress stickles for the centres to add a little dimension.

Yesterday

The days seem to come and go so fast of late, with so much to do and not enough time to cram it all in! Yesterday is the theme for Make A Moo this week and I created these stamped Moos:

Hope you are all having a good weekend. I can't believe it is already halfway through!

Moulin Rouge

Another hectic week is coming to a close, busy but good for the most part! I had the pleasure of going to the theatre with friends to see the 'Vagina Monologes' - what a great show! We all laughed, were shocked, and I think all learnt something new! If it comes your way, it is a great girlie show to go see!

I have now finally found the time to sit and do some crafting and have got around to making an ATC for TMTA this week on Moulin Rouge. I love the film, and wanted to capture the essence of the place, but not use the film as my source. My final interpretation is below, created using chalk eyes to add the colour, stamping, and hand drawing.

Transferring Images....

Is a technique I love to use and have experimented with lots of different ways of doing so, and is the theme for Wednesday Stamper this week. I have chosen to share a page out of my art journal where I have used a combination of gesso, gel medium, acrylic paint, crackle paint, image transfers, doodling and stamping to create the overall effect.

Spring is arriving.....

and what a beautiful day it is today - Happy Mothers Day Mum! I have gone to the seaside to visit my mum today and all the family are here for Sunday Lunch (which I must go to as I am being called!!) then a walk along the seafront and a hot chocolate in Morelli's!

The theme of 'Vernal Equinox' has been set for GA this week and this is my arch: