Sunny California

disappeared under grey clouds this morning and the temp dropped 10 degrees from a lovely 75 degrees to about 65 degrees! Not that it really mattered as it was day 2 of the show and we were inside all day!!
So, todays stuff to see is as follows.................

 ....a fab handmade book............

 ......a funky metal owl.......I want to make one of these!......

 ......love the use of cardboard packaging in this piece............

 ...........canvas with tree and niches........

 ........I LIKE these!!!.............

 .......one in use!............

 ........another lovely piece in an emboidery hoop......mmmm bit of a theme going on here!

........and finally..............I wonder who these hands belong to????? Hop over to WENDYS BLOG to find out!!!

FOUND BARD

 Stampotique is sponsoring a sketch challenge over on CARD POSITIONING SYSTEMS challenge blog. This is the sketch.............

and this is my version of it!!

Stamps used are:
Bard 7021
Altered found 7181
Swirl stalks 3028
Crayon circles 8948

Let the show begin

So, CHA began today...............we have been "walking the show" all day........my feet hurt!
I thought I would share some of my fav art that I see each day.......so today we have.......

 ....a stern looking owl ...........love the swirl detail........

 .......a metal cogs book.........

 ........a bird in a tin........

.......and a piece inside an embroidery hoop!
Off to soak me sore feet...................more tomorrow!!

Talking of favourite art...........today sees the first of the new monthly ALTERED ALICE challenges......."changes in form and dress forms"..........pop over to the blog to see the first set of  design team art work ........the rest will appear at weekly intervals throughout the month......mine being on the 13th of Feb.

Not what you are expecting I think

but the fact I am married to a geologist might help explain where we went today!! Some of the influence wears off after lots of years married!
After registering for the show his morning we had the rest of the day free so we decided to do something completely different!!

 LA BREA TAR PITS is a world famous fossil site......it is an naturally occuring source of asphalt.......the stuff bubbles up out of the ground and thouands of years ago creatures fell into it, couldn't get out and were preserved........giving a huge source of fossils today.

 The gases etc bubble up under this lake.....we stood for ages waiting for bubbles!!! It smells too, like when they re-surface the roads!!

 A MAMMOTH with Wendy for scale!!

 A DIRE WOLF!!

 There were some very clever displays like these 404 dire wolf skulls!!

 And these GOLDEN EAGLE foot bones!!!

 And finally, forever the paper crafter.......an origami mammoth!!! The show starts tomorrow so expect CRAFT pics tomorrow!!

Hollywood, baby!

Well not quite......downtown LA to be exact!!! Yes, you got it I am in LOS ANGELES!!
Wendy (from The Stamp Attic) and I decided to escape to CHA (trade show if you didn't know) here in LA. We arrived yesterday after a very long flight.......

checked into our hotel........ found something to eat.......slept for several hours.........and this is the view from our hotel window this morning.
Watch this space for all the fun and interesting stuff from the show which starts tomorrow.

A little garden in which to walk....

It's time for the STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS CHALLENGE again. This time it is hosted by WILLY ANDERSON who chose the theme orange and turquoise.

 This is in my little passport sized journal.

 More of those painty lines again.......this time used to cover over some stamping that did not work out how I wanted!

And those cute (did I say CUTE???) birds are here again!!
Stamps used:
Garden block 9061.......not easy to see, it is the text in the background
Grow girl 9069
Bold Birds 2070
Sun design 2095
A little garden in which to walk 9087
Stampotique stamps are available  in the UK from THE STAMP ATTIC

Little bird book

 STAMPOTIQUE do a lot more stamps than just the Daniel Torrente ones which happen to be my absolute FAVOURITES! The bird stamp I used for this little book is by Maryse Carrier and is called BOLD BIRDS.

 The pages!!! The pages are stitched together but you can't really see that here!

I am loving making these random painty lines.........just dip the edge of an old credit card in paint and press onto the paper.....some will be thin, some thick, some blobby!

HELLO!

You might have noticed somewhere along the way that I like ALICE IN WONDERLAND??
Well..........the Oh Alice! challenge blog site has been a fun place to indulge that love but the BAD NEWS is it is closing its doors................but the GOOD NEWS is that one of the DT members.....LYNNE PHELPS.....has decided to take it over, move it to THE ALTERED ALICE blog and carry on with challenges. The other good news is that Lynne has asked me to be on the new DT......how could I refuse!! There will be a few changes....the main one being that the challenges will now be monthly instead of weekly with DT artwork spread across the month.
The last challenge on OH ALICE! is to make a HELLO or GOODBYE card.

 I used card letter stencils that I hinged togerther and then painted/stamped/doodled on them. Stamped the Alice characters seperately, coloured them and cut them out and added them to the letters.

 Details of a couple of the letters.

On a different subject I went to see BLACK SWAN last night..........it was in places scary, gruesome, beautiful but overall thought provoking.........I enjoyed it......unlike the bloke I overheard on the way out who said it was the worst film he had ever seen and he could not believe he had been made to sit through it! Just goes to prove we are not all the same.......thank goodness.........I would say I recommend it but it certainly was not a feel good/ easy film to watch.

Something altered

for a change!
Just want to say thanks to those that left messages re my running out of space dilemma.......as you can see I sorted it, I bought some extra, so business as usual!!

 Can you tell what it is yet???

 Of course......it's an owl with cogs and a propeller on his head!!!

 Here he is in all his glory.......he stands on what was part of the outer casing of a clock.......his eyes are big washers that I scratched and then aged with black paint.,.......cup washers, press studs and black crystals in the centers.......pen nib beak.......wings are card......die cut then trimmed to give layers..... painted, ultra thick embossing powder randomly added for texture, more paint etc etc.......held in place with screws and cogs.

This is what he looked like to start with!

Out of space!

OK, so I tried to blog tonight and I get a message telling me I have run out of space for photo storage!! I am surprised, did not know I had limited space!! Has this happened to anyone else out there??
It tells me I can buy extra storage, anyone done this?
Think I am just looking for reassurance that I have not done something wrong!!!

PLUMP PEARS

It is just me (I don't think so) that gets easily distracted?
A couple of days ago I saw that the daily journal prompt over on
MILLIANDE ART COMMUNITY was PLUMP PEARS (not know about Milliande? click the link to find out).........so into work room I went and pulled out  pear stamps and set them on the surface to remind me till I had time to play with them.
Then today the challenge on WEDNESDAY STAMPER 
 is TAGS......mmmmmm......was mulling that over when I spotted that one of the pear stamps had a tag on it! So, what I was meant to be doing went out the window and this is what I made!

 

 Here is my tag!!

 I liked the different pic angles I tried out the other day so here are a couple more!!

I REALLY like the way this came out........it is a little different for me, there is a lot of empty space!! I struggle with empty space, feel the need to fill it! Normally I would put some words in the space but could not think of what to use so am leaving it for now........or even FOR EVER cos I don't want to spoil it!!

I used the brushless watercolour method..............Distress Ink pads onto stamp, spray with water and stamp, I like the random-ness of it. The two slightly more solid looking pears on the right hand page were stamped onto more absorbent paper, torn out and glued in place.

You might already have guessed........

Sorry could not resist a few more pickled babies seeing as they seemed to go down quite well last time!!!!! This is in my little passport journal.

IRACEBETH OF CRIMS

is the name of the RED QUEEN in ALICE IN WONDERLAND, her sister is the WHITE QUEEN, MIRANA OF MARMOREAL. 

The challenge on OH ALICE this week is inspired by the two Queens and we are asked to choose to work in either mostly red or mostly white.......I went for mostly red with a fair amount of white thrown in!!

I used one of the fab ALICE  images from OCTOPODE FACTORY for my journal page.
Thought I'd try out a couple of different angles for my pics too........like or not??

Take a word

 BUTTERFLIES

 This is my entry for this weeks TAKE A WORD challenge......the word is BUTTERFLIES

 The dress forms and butterfly wings are download sheets from CEMERONY.........the rest of the words and images are OXFORD IMPRESSIONS Field Notes sheet

This one has an owl in it......love it!!