Winter Arch

This week the theme over on Gothic Arch Challenge Blog is winter.
Here is mine.Thanks for stopping by :)

Christmas Traditions

I made this Arch for a forum challenge. The brief was to create something Christmas themed, without using anything Christmas specific - so no Santas, no Reindeer - you get the idea lol.
My thinking behind this piece was to create a Christmas Eve scene. I thought the little Paper Wimsey boy sitting with his teddy was perfect, it looks like he is listening out for the sound of Santa's Sleighbells ting-a-linging! In the background is a little clock showing almost midnight, on the 24th. I added a little white acrylic paint frost aound the edges to add a hint of winteryness. You may be wondering why I chose to add the word Tradition to the little hanging piece, well, when I was a child, staying awake as long as possible on Christmas Eve, and listening out for Santas bells was one of the most exciting times of the year for me and my siblings, and even as we all grew up, it became a little tradition of ours to stay up together on Christmas Eve.
I still love Christmas Eve, possibly even more so than Christmas day, its so full of excitment and anticipation...and hard work too. But I am in denial. Its all going to go fabulously rofl. Well, its better than getting stressed out isnt it lol.

This is my entry for this weeks Saturday Stampers were the theme is Christmas with a twist. The twist being that we use NO Christmas products, papers or stamps in our creations.
Thanks for looking :)

Gothic Arch

This weeks Gothic Arch theme as chosen by Nellie is Chocolate..."Chocolate is a girls best friend". How could I resist!
I decided to go with a "Chocolate Box" feel, I found this background paper in my stash and it reminded me of the stuff they put inside boxes of chocolates so it was a perfect place to start. I then found the little vintage poster I used in the background, changing the word "soda" to read "chocolate" fountain. I just love this Paper Whimsey image of the little girl, I thought she was perfect for my Chocolate Box Arch. I added a little sparkly gold ribbon over one corner and embelished with a couple of flowers.

Thanks for looking :)

Wednesday Stamper

This week over on Wednesday Stamper .....

We all know that “diamonds are a girl’s best friend”. This week we’re challenging you with DIAMONDS. Whether you choose the diamond shape or the diamond itself is entirely up to you!!

I made this for the challenge. It is a hanging, so it would make a much better picture if it was actually hung but I'm afraid we have have a few technical problems - mainly being that my 2 year old daghter stuck something in the lead port were the camera gets connected and shorted it! I'm waiting for my hubby to connect a new one then it will be buisness as usual lol.

To make this I used Basic Grey "Scarlets Letter" papers, finally having the courage to cut into them after hoarding them for several months! Stamps are Crafty Individuals for the main image and Cats Life Press for the Friendship quote.
The chipboard scrolls ( which I got from Scrapz ) I painted with copper paint and added a little patina using metalic rub-on. I then added a few highlights to the piece using white acrylic paint. I decided not to colour the main image - a first for me lol, I just felt the image was more striking left black & white, and it worked well with the background papers.

Lastly, I just want to say a HUGE Thank You to everyone who visits and takes the time to comment on my blog. THANK YOU!!!! I appreciate it hugely.

Winter Wonderland

I have made this gothic arch for an inter-forum swap with a "winter" theme.
As this weeks theme over at Saturday Stampers is also Winter, this is my entry for this week.
To create the background I used water colour paints with a hint of irridecent H20's mixed in for a hint of sparkle. I also used Basic Grey rub-ons, snow flake brads, white lace, tear drop crystals and stamps from PaperBag Studio's and Art Journey.

Friendship.

I have made this hanging as a gift for my forum friend Seona. I used K&Co paper and stamped onto vintage text paper taken from an old book. I added the word Friendship using my Dymo, attached a piece of soft green ribbon using antique brads and added some vintage lace at the bottom.
The stamps used are PaperBag Studio's arch and the little girl is from The Queens Dresser Drawers.
This is my submission to this weeks Wednesday Stamper as the theme is Children.

Saturday Stampers

I made this tag for a swap with a "pink ladies" theme. I used foreign text to create the background, pink papers from Daisy D's and the stamped image is from my favourite stamp sheet from Paperbag Studio's. I used an assortment of pink embelishments, including lots of pretty pink ribbon, I tied knots in one piece of ribbon as a sign of Rememberance.
As this weeks theme over on Saturday Stampers is Pink Ribbon ( in reference to this month Breast Cancer Awareness month) I'm using this as my entry :)

For Carrie....

I made this card for Carries Birthday using K&Co papers and Paperbag Studio's stamp. The butterfly I added using 3-d foam to give dimension under the wings but it looks rather flat in the photo.
I just want to add, the green and pink paper in the background isnt part of the card - it was a bit of a blooper on my part taking the picture on top of the paper pad, but my desk was so cluttered i couldnt find a space anywere else lol.

Art Doll Challenge.

Ive been neglecting my blog recently, life has been a bit chaotic with family stuff, and then there was the hastily made decision to redecorate the entire downstairs before the christmas trimmings go up ( 1st december if you were wondering lol ) so I decided to make use of these wee small hours I'm spending with Jack while he makes up his mind if he is tired enough to go to bed, and blog a couple of recent creations :)
I made this polymer clay art doll for a forum challenge. I used my prefered polymer clay - Fimo (prefered only because its the only polymer clay I can source locally lol ) an art doll face mold and I collected a selection of fallen leaves from the garden. I spent a few minutes kneading the clay to a workable state, then rolled it using a 6" brayer - I really do need to remember to buy a pasta roller lol. I cut a art doll template from textured card, and lay this over my sheet of rolled out clay and cut around it with a craft knife - the texture of the card was transfered to the clay giving it a nice, bark like finish. I then made the face cab using some left over scraps from the body. The tricky part was making the leaves, I wanted to get the clay rolled as thinly as possible, but only having a brayer meant I was finding it difficult to keep an even thickness.When I was happy with the rolled clay, I lay a leaf onto it and pressed it into the clay, transfering all the texture and details to the clay. I cut around each leaf with a sharp craft knife. Once I had a selection of leaf types and sizes I lay them over the art doll, to create a feeling that she is a little Wood Sprite hibernating for Winter - it didnt turn out exactly as I planned, I was struggling for time as Jack was unwell - but I'm sure one day I will get to create the little wood sprite currently hibernating in my imagination :)

I would like to thank the lovely Gillian for my Rocking Girl Blogger award! Yes Gillian, I am extremley slow on the uptake, but better late than never as my mum always says :)

I now need to nominate five other girl bloggers for this prestigious award, but as soooooo many of my favourite bloggers already recieved their shiny pink trophy i'm gonna need time to think.

One blogger springs to mind, the fantabulously funny Amy . I love Amy's blog, she always makes me smile :)

I made this card for no particular reason other than I really wanted to play with my new stamps from Paperbag Studio's and Art Journey. I used Glimmer Mist to create the background, applying with a paintbrush direct to the card and spraying onto the foreign text. This card has quite a mournful lonely feel to it which wasnt my intention at all, I'm not quite sure what happened lol.

For Nellie

I have made this card for Nellie. I used my new Art Journey stamps and water colour paints to colour the image. The back ground is a flower stamp with yellow chalk ink. I have been experimenting with using colour recently in my effort to use less brown, and I love the yellow and green together - such cheery colours. I think I'll be using much more colour in future :)

Poetry Challenge

This weeks theme on Saturday stampers is Poetry. I made this bookmark using stamps from PaperArtsy and Stampington & Company, the background is Adirondack colorwash and Glimmer Mist.

Birds Tryptich

This weeks challenge on Wednesday Stamper is to create a Tryptich.
I made this using The Birds Nest stamps from Oxford Impressions, and I took inspiration from the work Audrey Hernandez did with these stamps for the Oxford Impressions gallery. I had a lot of fun creating this piece as I really enjoy working with water colours, and it was great to use so much colour on a piece! Although there is still a lot of brown lol.

Wings Tag

I have made this tag with my favourite new PaperArtsy stamp. I used a black tag and applied a little moonshadow mist and acrylic paints. I stamped the image on white card using black ink and i applied a coat of clear embossing powder to the image to add texture. I coloured it using water colour paints - I was really tempted to use browns as these are the colours I seem to find easier to work with, but I decided to try and create a more feminine look. I gave it a spritz of red Glimmer Mist and added a piece of acetate cut into a tag shape. I used a Dymo to add the quote "we each have only one wing, in order to fly we must embrace."
I really enjoyed making this piece:)

Happy to be.........

Scrapping again!!!! I havnt done any scrapping for so long I didnt know were to start! I bought these K&CO papers over 6 months ago, so I decided its time I stopped hoarding fab papers and started using them!
I got out my box of photos and thought this one of Jack - then only 5 days old - worked well with the blues. It was hard work choosing which papers to use and how to arrange them, I wont divulge how long it took me to make my mind up!!! I'm quite happy with the results, tho its not as "scrappy" as I would have liked, but I can always do more work on it in the future as and when I find the right thing for the job:)