You may have noticed a new background to the blog? I was making Dad's Father's Day card and enjoyed it so much I wanted to make something similar for myself.

Here's Dad's card:

And here's the picture I made for myself:

The background to the main image is coloured gold with added gold leaf. The images are coloured with watercolour pencils, as is the inner mount The stamps I've used are all Chocolate Baroque: Peacock Parade, Paisley Elephant and Indian Elephant

Thanks for looking!

B is for Butterfly

The second set in the A to Z of ATC are Butterflies. These all use Elusive Images / Chocolate Baroque stamps, as well as a random background stamp I can't remember where from!

Keep 'em peeled for C - coming soon!

Steampunk Clock

Here's another one of those projects that has been a long time in the making! I bought a fairly naff looking clock from a charity shop for a fiver (if I remember!). It was 'mahogany' effect, looked a bit cheap and grim. Perfect for altering! I stripped back the varnish and gave it a coat of white primer before setting to work. I went for a rusted effect, I feel it has been salvaged from a shipwreck, it's gears are falling apart and there are bits of loose wire. Some of the objects that sunk with it have fused to it - I wonder who it belonged to?

Salvaged

Fused

Dial Close-up



Rust Close-up

The Rust effect is all done by stippling acrylics with a sponge, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out in the end!
Thanks for looking, back soon! xx

Hand Challenge - Joy in the Art of Creation

Glenda over at Chocolate Baroque set us a Hand challenge - anything goes. I immediately knew that I wanted to go all 3D, and decided to use rubber gloves as a mould for Plaster of Paris. There is a slight problem with this though, you get a big bulge where the palm should be:

So there was nothing for it but to carve them out!

So then I painted them (using acrylics) and added stamps from the CB Indian range. I stamped the designs onto white tissue then applied it using normal PVA. It was really fiddly (you have to cut the tissue really closely around the design - and there are a lot of elements here!) but I'm glad I persevered and I'm really pleased with the end result. I added a sentiment which says:

'There is such joy in the art of creation'

I'm looking forward to making more of these! Thanks for looking and I'll be back soon :-)

The A to Z of ATCs........ A is for ANIMATED

This year I have set myself a challenge - to work my way through the alphabet with ATCs. Now that probably sounds quite simple, right? Well, I also have to make three different ATCs for each theme. The idea is to try and find new ways of using my rubber stamps - I have some beautiful stamps which I don't seem to use much, and I hope this challenge will kick start some creativity.

So, the theme for A is Animated - the ATCs all have to 'move' in some way.

 For Fairyland Park I took inspiration from a moveable card in Craft Stamper Magazine - the fibres at the top are attached to a ticket which you pull. The boy's body folds up on itself and reveals a different image underneath.

Love Letters opens like a book, and even the scroll opens out.

Vintage is another book style, and I really like the faux leather effect. I used a dark brown embossing powder on a brown, lightly textured paper and I think it worked a treat :-) The book has six pages sewn into it.

I'll move onto B soon, but for now if anyone has any bright ideas for themes I could use for X, Y or Z I'd really appreciate it!
Thanks for looking :-)

Catch up?

So here we are, catching up with things I've been doing....but there is a slight problem. I don't seem to have many pictures to show you! Dang, I failed to keep proper records, but I do have a couple of gems for you.

 

Christmas ATC's, these designs are similar to the toppers I used for my cards last year.

 

Anniversary card, with a background made using a technique from Glenda Waterworth at Chocolate Baroque

 

Serenity ATC

 

Another Anniversary card!

 

In the next post I'll tell you what that ABC of ATCs is all about!

Oh Dear.....Has it really been that long?

Well, hello again fellow bloggers. It's been a long time since I posted here, life has a knack of just getting in the way doesn't it?
In truth, I haven't stopped making things, I've just (rather annoyingly I bet) stopped telling everyone about it!
Now, it turns out that I have more time to myself so I figured the time has come for me to reappear in Blogland :-)

So, what can you expect? To start off with I'll be catching up on some bits that I have created in my absence, and then we can crack on with some new projects. Including my on-going major project for the year: The A-Z of ATC's.                                     

Sound like a plan? I hope it does and I look forward to sharing my crafting journey with you all again my friends :-)

Keep crafting, and I will be back soon!