Trees

This is my DT piece for the new TioT "Trees".

I took the picture of this knarly old tree this autumn although it was not the photo I had in mind for this project.

I recently went on a day photo shoot in the New Forest and there was a single tree on a hill that I captured and this was the image I wanted to use.  However, I did a recent cull of some of my photos and unfortunately the tree images got zapped at that point.  So, I looked through my hard drive and found this one which actually has worked just as well as it is an interesting tree (to put it mildly!)

I used DI with water to create my tag background and them stamped music and trees and embossed snowflakes.  I tore my image out and added a little glitter here and there to the edges for that festive feel before attaching it with a mini silver peg and some silicone glue.

I covered my card in vintage music onto which I randomly stamped a crackle pattern before coating it all with crackle rock candy.  Once this had tried, I added more DI in iced spruce, pumice and gathered twigs.

The plate is cut using an alterations movers & shapers die and the sentiment is embossed in gathered twigs.

A little twine and ribbon and it was done.

Check out the other DT contributions this week as they are all very different.  Hope to see your trees breaking free of the forest and joining in with our last Challenge before Christmas!

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

xx

Fifty Shades of White ...

So this is my first Christmas card of 2013.

As a rule, I don't make Christmas cards but this fortnight the challenge at Tiot is White on White so it was almost a no brainer to head to a Christmas theme.

I have seen some really cool and stylish projects created in only white but I must confess to an element of terror at the prospect of pulling it off myself  I saw this topic was coming up some weeks ago and had visions of a sitting at my desk with absolutely no idea what to do (Help!!).  But, once I got all my white papers out and started to play about, I realised how many whites there were and I actually started to get really picky about which would qualify as white!! 

So, I opted to only the brightest white for everything and used dimension rather than textured or varying shades of white (is that possible or is there only one white?)

My ledge was created in the card and then covered in white flock embossing powder. I stamped and embossed the snowflakes in holographic powder.  Onto the ledge, I added the reindeers and trees which were all cut from mini alterations dies.

The 25 was also an alterations die cut from white glitter card which looks really creamy when sat against bright white but does give some nice contrast and matches with the snowflakes.

The white ribbon and crystals added the finishing touch to my card.

This is a more tricky subject (in my humble opinion) but well worth getting to grips with as it gets easier once you get all those lovely white things from your stash.  I love a challenge and this one didn't disappoint.

Hope to see all your great posts and come and visit your blogs for a peek.

xx

Creepy Coffin!!

I LOVE Halloween!! 

This fortnight we are aptly focusing on it at TioT and our challenge is obviously entitled 'Halloween'!!!

It's funny as it was never something I ever did as a child and 'Trick or Treat' was not something my parents allowed us to do. 

But at some point, I caught the Halloween bug and since then I have made it a big thing in our family.  I don't really go in the Trick or Treating either but I get the whole team involved in making decorations, carving pumpkins as a competition, baking and playing games and quizzes.  We have a great half term week every year and despite all my children being mid-teens, I have managed to find new things to keep everyone having fun!!

So this year, I have made this coffin and I am going to get all of them to make their own version of it.

I started by printing out a coffin template which I cut from black card and assembled.                                                                 
I then made the rivet strip for the lid and added some crumpled tissue to give is some textures.  

I added various embellishments including plastic creatures, a balsa wood cross, bits of die cut weathered clock face, cogs and bit & bobs from old pocket watches.  Once I had the arrangement done, I painted everything with black gesso and then used a combination of Viva Ferro 901 and 912.

I used matt medium with Shimmerz Silve Fox Enamel to make some small molten metal areas and then finished it with Platinum Liquid Pearls for rivets.

I tied together some pretty pink rose buds and then "halloweened" then with Lumiere Halo Pink Gold paint for a macabre faded bouquet and dribbled orange acylic ink as a finishing touch!

It was so much fun making this coffin and I hope it inspires you to think 'outside the box' and join in the challenge!!

Wishing you a Spooky Week ...

x

Older & Wiser

I just love this cat - he's such a cool boy (all 14lbs of him!) - so I had to show him off with a page of his own!!

And the TioT challenge launched today is Textures!  Oh my goodness - this challenge was made for me as I LOVE textures of all sorts (I'm not fussy!!) Lumpy, bumpy, stripy, spotty, crackled or crazed - they are all my kinda thing!!

And, not only is this challenge super fun but there's a $10 prize for our winning entry to spend with Smeared Ink.  They have loads of great images to choose from and a rubber stamp club so it's a great prize if you get your textures rockin'!!

This layout was all about my lovely boy growing up.  He's a 8 years old and has put up with many changes throughout his years.  He has lost close companions and put up with unwelcome additions to our family and throughout he has always been a kind and tolerant boy.  With his size, he could easily hurt smaller pets, but he always takes the quiet option and simply observes or turns away from confrontation.  He is a King amongst cats and we respect him for his lovely nature.

So, onto the page ...

I used a doily on the side of the page for my first texture.  I painted it with gesso and them used molding paste and a circular stencil to create the panel for the baby photos. The frame stamp around the photos and in the top corner is by Prima.



I used gauze bandage, which is a great and inexpensive way to add fabric texture to a project, along the bottom of my page, which I painted with acrylic paint.  Small dots from a white paint pen, outlined in black, add more interest as do the few extra dots from the stencil.








I clustered up the lovely Prima blooms with a vintage watch face and a Prima metal plate.  The large flower was stamped and embossed in silver with some glass glitter in lavender added using glossy accents.  I finished the layout with funky fibres and a metal photo corner which I painted with white acrylic paint.









This layout was so much fun and came together without my usual angst (a rarity!)  I hope you get chance to pop by my other DT pals' creations as they are all inspirational.  So crack open your textures and get those creative juices flowing!  The $10 prize is only a texture away!!

Have a great week ...

x

A Bit More JOFY ...

These flowers are just gorgeous!  I love cone flowers in real life and have them in my garden but it is a constant battle to keep the plant, let alone get a bloom as they are high on the list of favourite foods for slugs!!

What I have found with these stamps is that they stamp beautifully every time and they seem to look good coloured in any combination which is a great as it takes the pressure of finding shades with will work.

I made this card for my daughter and it was the last of the 3 cards needed for my triple team.  She's a very girly girl so I decided that pink with crystals would be a perfect combo.

I decided to combine her card with my DT piece for our new challenge at Try it on Tuesday, which this fortnight is 'Going Dotty'. 

I started by using crackleglaze over bubblegum acrylic paint on the corrugated card before adding the white top layer.  I am fascinated by the speed it crackles up - the effect is so cool.  I love that you can make bigger or smaller cracks depending on the paint thickness.  

I kept my crackles quite small and I wiped a few areas to expose more of the pink.

I coloured my blooms with DI using the pads with water and also the distress markers. 

The dotty background was make using more DI with a great circular mask.  I then used a new stamp by Stampotique to add all the flower words.

It would be great to see all your dotty entries this fortnight so get your spots and dots ready and join in with this fun challenge.

x

Seagull

Our new challenge at TioT is On the Wild Side (featuring Animals of Birds).  I love this one as it's something a bit different - gets your creativity all fired up!

I am still exploring how far I can go with drawing and I wanted to do a page about gulls ...

For the first 30+ years of my life, I lived in-land and only came to the beach on holiday.  I remember sitting in the back of the car with my brother waiting to be the first to see the sea.  The excitement of that stays with me.

We moved to Poole a few years ago and now live next to the beach.  Seeing the sea each day still gives me a thrill and when I am in my garden and a gull floats above me or stands on the roof calling (as they do!) it reminds me of where I now live and how much I love it here.

So this was the background inspiration to my page.

I started by drawing my gull and then I sketched in the land.  I stamped some elements here and there and some fish in the sea (hard to see in the photo) before using gelatos and watercolour pencils to colour my page.

One of the most fun parts was painting waves in water and then feeding acrylic ink into the water - it just spreads out in the most lovely way travelling along the watery paths you create.  Amazing to see!

I spent some time getting the journalling right and then used a stylised text to handwrite it.

The finishing touch was some drizzles of clear tar gel which I coloured with acrylic inks for some texture. 

Balloons

Our challenge for this next fortnight at TioT is Inventors, Inventions and/or Steampunk.  

I have a fascination with hot air balloons and so this challenge allowed me to go to town with lots of different ones floating about in the sky.

I started by stamping my card with some keys and my dream stamp to create the background.  I converted a photograph taken on my recent trip to Cornwall into monochrome and then downloaded my hot air balloons from the Dover Book of Old Transportation onto a sheet of acetate.  I coloured the balloons with Sharpie pens and used Helmar 450 to fix my acetate to my image.

The large balloon was stamped and coloured with pencils and I used some red crystals to highlight the strings.  The rosette was cut using an alterations die to which a couple of cogs and ribbons were added.

Check out the rest of the TioT DT entries as they are really inspirational and will hopefully get your creativity fired up to join in the fun!!

Genuinely Jane Studios are our sponsors for this challenge and they are very kindly giving a Gift Certificate of $25.00 to the monthly winner.  

Remember you can only enter your work into 5 challenges including ours if you want to be in with a chance to win the prize.

Genuinely Jane Studios produces dozens of different styles of natural birch wood albums and mini-albums for scrapbookers, mixed media artists and altered artists. We also offer complimentary products including paints, inks, adhesives, glitters and much, much more.

Have a great week ... the sun is shining here in Poole and the sky is blue so maybe the summer is finally here?!!

x

I am entering this into the Colour Challenge at SSSS  as kindly suggested by Terry!