A SET OF "DON'T OFTENS"

This set of cards is my entry for the PLAY DATE CAFE colour challenge where the colours this week are pink, purple, a sort of orangey yellow, green and white.



They also represent a set of don't oftens for me in that I don't often make cards these days, I don't often stamp in anything other than black and I don't often work this simply...........but then why not challenge yourself every now and then?


The colours suggest flowers and indeed SARAHS inspiration photo is of flowers but not wanting to go with too traditional a flower look I decided to use these seed pod/ retro flower looking stamps are by ELUSIVE IMAGES that I aquired recently.

TIN MANS WEIRD FRIEND

When I made the TIN MAN piece (couple of posts back) I started out using an ALTOIDS tin for his body but couldn't make it work how I wanted so set it aside.
Today I am yet again messing around when I should be doing something else (sorting all the stuff in my work room out!) and came across the discarded tin and decided to have another play with it..........here is the result!

The wings are an old shuttlecock with actual feathers (I bought 9 of them recently!) cut in half and glued to the back of the tin.
The rusty bit in the back of the tin is rusty paint that fell of my garden gate and the thing standing to one side with the hearts dangling from it is an old valve!

I am reading DISSOLUTION by C J SANSOM (good book by the way) at the moment and the main character is Matthew Shardlake who is a hunchback...........wonder why this made me think of him!!??


The red glass heart is hung from a fishing swivel! I LOVE my old junk and collected stuff!!

Oh no not more snow!!

As I was doing my usual scoot around blogs this morning I spotted that SARAH over on THE ART OF MOODLING has entered the latest challenge issued by Michelle Ward over on GREEN PEPPER PRESS. Not one to be left out and trying to find any excuse to do other than what I was meant to be today I decided to go over and check it out! So, below is what I ended up doing instead of what I should have been!!





The challenge is to paint a double page spread with gesso, add acrylic paints, drop on water, wipe or dab and then cut paper snowflakes to use as stencils over the page. The stencils are then added to the pages for texture. My poor flakes were falling apart by the time they had been used a couple of times..........they were only paper after all.............but that was OK, in fact I liked that!

I then added a few words, went round with a black pen, added some black and white charcoal, played a bit more etc etc!! Still "feels" like they need some more adding but they meet the challenge so far so here they are!

THE VENERABLE BEAD!

This weeks colours on PLAY DATE CAFE are black, white, red and turquoise.

Yesterday I went to my monthly Embroiderers Guild meeting where someone was showing us how to make bead and wire beads, I already know how to do this but haven't made any in ages and the thought occured to me that I could make some for the colour challenge!


So, here they are made into a hanging wire and beaded bead tassel! Fun things to make and great embellishments for cards, boooks, anything really!


A close up so you can see them better!

LIVE WISELY

Yesterday I had a very lovely day as Sarah from THE ART OF MOODLING came over. First off we went craft shop shopping and then we came home to play with the things Sarah bought that morning and my new stuff from my visit to THE STAMP ATTIC over the weekend.

The journal page above was the result of my playing around with my new TATTERED ANGELS stamps and screens. I love the owl with his swirly tail and I really like the woodcut look to the leaves, they are from THE GRACEFUL JOURNEY set available from THE STAMP ATTIC

TIN HEART FOR A TIN MAN

A few days ago I saw a post on GINNY'S SMALL STUDIO BLOG that set me to thinking! I hadn't made an altered something for a while but I have been collecting STUFF when I see it and have quite a little pile of things lying around to dip into and play with, sooooooooo here is the result of my messing around!!


An old light bulb for a head, a watch case for an eye, a wing nut on the top!!


Corned beef tin for a body, Altoids tin lid wired to that to hold the bulb, old dip pens for arms!


And these VERY cool bolt thingies for legs.........I really like these!!

ZETTIOLOGY

The ARTIST TRADING CLUB theme this month is set by HERMINE KOSTER and it is ZETTIOLOGY. These ATCs are my entry, I had such fun making these!!

For those that might be wondering what ZETTIOLOGY is, it's a style of work (and a stamp company) made famous by TEESHA MOORE. It's a very eclectic style that is quite hard to describe, best thing is to go visit her blog and have a look for yourself!!

BLACK & WHITE WITH SILVER & GOLD

These are the colours for this weeks PLAY DATE CAFE challenge.

A while ago I bought this small journal with black pages thinking it would be interesting to start with a black page rather than a white one but that was as far as that idea went! So this challenge gave me the ideal opportunity to start it. An interesting idea that I am sure I will play with some more!!
As often happens with a scanned image the colours can be a bit dodgy! In this case the large letter S is actually silver metal with some black paint rubbed over it, the silver has got a bit lost! The only bit of gold I have used is the small heart.

JANUARY

I spotted recently on KATE CRANES blog.....THE KATHERINE WHEEL ....that she is organising a calendar challenge. I thought it was a really great idea but I have decided that I can't join the challenge as I know there will be times in the coming year that I won't be able to keep up (big changes coming in the Roddis household in the next few months......will tell more as things develop).
So, I decided I would still do the challenge just not officially.............so, here is my JANUARY page. It looks like it's two pieces here but it is just one page, I just couldn't get it all under the scanner at once and it's too dark now to photo it!