My hexagon day.....

It has been far too long since I have had a chance to blog - life just happens to get in the way on occasion! But I just had to take the time to share my rather disastrous day yesterday - one of those days where nothing goes how you want it too....

A friend of mine once had a scrapbooking lesson which included cutting and placing hexagons into a design, instead of being a fun activity it ended up being a nightmare. One of those occasions where you want to throw it all out of the window and walk away - well my hexagon day came yesterday.

I was at an altered art class held by Scrapbook Sisters, creating an altered clock using a range of Tim Holtz products. Beautiful example to start us all off and lots of inspiration in the room. However, the colours on my clock just would not go right. I started by priming the base of the clock with Gesso, then added Distress Stains on the top - what a disaster, they all came out neon! Fired Brick looked a sugar pink, then thr Crushed Olive looked like radioactive nuclear waste! Really not my colours and everything I  tried to change the colours just made it look worse.......

In the end I gave up on the clock, shoved it under the table and spent the rest of the afternoon making embellishments to use later on. Leaving with just a bag of bits rather than a complete project. Once I got home I had a break then decided to tackle the disaster head on - what a mess I made. Viva Deco Terra and Ferro pastes and metallic waxes, Distress Inks, Rock Candy crackle glaze, metal findings, pliers, metal punch, and glossy accents. Some hours later I finished, and am much happier with the outcome now:

  

Hope you like the end result. Xx

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........

Altered Mannequin

As part of the Design Team for Scrapbook Sisters I was given a mannequin which is about 3' tall and asked to alter it to fit the theme of 'weddings'. I chose to use the Graphic 45 range of papers Baby to Bride as my inspiration. I used the full range of papers and created a dress for the mannequin using paper folding techniques, cutting, punching, and layering. I added detail with punched flowers and butterflies, I created a laced back to the bodice and added a large bow with flowers on the train made from tulle.

To top it all off Graphic 45 have accepted it as an exemplar project on their website. Please visit the link to Graphic 45 and take a peek. I had a lot of fun creating this and cannot wait to start a new altered project.

Altered Time....

Wouldn't it be great to alter time to fit the things you want to accomplish?!! There never seems to be enough time in the day to do all those things I plan to do. Time is the theme for MMM this week, and I have chosen to share a clock which I have altered. I created this piece at the last crop I attended, hosted by Scrapbook Sisters, this was the class that they held during the day.

We were provided with an MDF clock base, a selection of cardstock and patterened papers and the rest was up to your imagination! I chose to use cream cardstock as the backing for mine on which I stamped a selection of images in Timber Brown Stazon. On top this I created a smaller square of brown cardstock and patterned papers I cut and tore into a pattern, I extended the swirls onto the background by using watercolour pencils and fineline pen.

To complete I added some stamped birds from one of the new Prima ranges and hand drew the larger version. These were added with foam pads to raise off the surface - careful to still allow the clock hands to move around!

Friendship...

is the theme over at MMM this week.. For this piece I used an image transfer technique with a photograph of these three boys playing cards, I then stamped and added hand written text over the top and finished by chalking the edges and adding liquid beadz.

Alternative Christmas Ornaments

As a member of the design team for Srapbook Sisters, I was asked to create some alternative ornaments for Christmas. The kit I was given consisted of memory glass, microscope slides, fixings, links, bulldog clips, foil edging, and alcohol inks. I combined these using a range of techniques to create the following:

Some of the techniques I used were those of Tim Holtz, a visit to his blog is always inspirational. If you are in the vicinity of Scrapbook Sisters pop in and have a look, they are so welcoming and helpful, and have a shop sent to tempt!!!

This work also fits the theme of ornamental christmas over at MMM.

Surf For Inspiration.....

I was honoured to be asked by Tracey of This Thursday It's All About.... to be a guest designer for them. Visit their site and have a go for yourself - you could win a set of Tanda Stamps. I was asked to surf for inspiration, starting on their site and hitting five links and then taking inspiration off the one I ended up on. I must say this was interesting and landed on a great site that was full of vintage, aged, distressed images - right up my alley!!! It is a blog site by Sally Jean, so full of inspiration, hit the link and go take a look.

Henceforth I set to producing this great mini book with box on a vintage and distressed theme. I took photographs of my own 'vintage' style items - jewellery that belonged to my Nan & my Mum, a great oil lamp I inherited, old books in my collection - I love books and can't get enough of them!!, and old tools and bikes in the garage, then set to distressing them and adding them to the book. This is the end result. i hope you all like it and gain a bit of inspiration yourself to go and experiment for yourselves and have a go......

For this book I used a range of vintage travel papers, crackle paints, distress inks, chalk eyes, grungeboard flourishes and some flourish stamps from Basic Grey, a bit of stickles, a white pen for doodling and a key to hand on the chain.

I am a bit later than anticipated in posting this - I am currently away from home and having ICT issues in actually getting the computer to read my disk with all the images on - I was having kittens!!!! Still it's all ok now! Have a great time searching for your muse today, and do not be afraid to try new things - those accidents are always happy accidents and can result in some great effects!

Sally x