A MURDER OF CROWS

Today it is time to show my last piece as FEBRUARY GUEST DESIGNER for THE ARTISTIC STAMPER........in fact I have made two pieces as I really enjoyed working with this selection of stamps.
This is a sneak peek of my main project.........hop over to 
THE ARTISTIC STAMPER CREATIVE TEAM BLOG to see the complete project.

The second piece I made is another little book......I am enjoying making books at the min!

 Added torn pieces of stamped and coloured paper to the edge of the cover.

 I really like this crow head stamp!

 A simple three hole binding holds the book together.

The stamps I used are
Free as a bird A6 set
Airmail bird collage elements set

In a Secret Garden

The idea for this page came my friend CAROL who runs a craft shop called THE CUBBY HOLE in my home town. On her blog there is an ongoing challenge theme of THE SECRET GARDEN.

 The flowers are from THE OCTOPODE FACTORY first rubber stamp release (just the flower heads, I added the stems and leaves)

 As a child I read the book THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett.....I looked the book up and was surprised to find that its working title had been MISTRESS MARY apparently referring to the nursery rhyme MARY MARY QUITE CONTRARY which in itself has an interesting history alternately being said to refer to Mary Queen of Scots, Mary 1 of England or Catholicism!....click the links if you want to read more.

 

 I wrote the nursery rhyme along the flower stems.

 

Finaly I will leave you with a pic of the beautiful cathedral in the snow in PANFILOV PARK yesterday..........when the temp was -15!!

Oh no.....

.....those pesky PICKLED BABIES are back!!! And this time they have got themselves trapped inside lightbulbs!!!......the lightbulbs are a stamp available from THE ARTISTIC STAMPER

 This page sees something of a first for me......I WROTE ON MY PAGES WITH MY OWN HAND WRITING!!

 That doesn't sound like such a big deal.........but for ME it is!! I find it SO HARD to write on my pages......I use words but they are usually stamped or stencilled or printed and cut up and glued in place......I think I get scared of spoiling the page by writing on it.....stupid or what??? LOL

 I am resolved to get over myself and write on my pages more!

 Changing the subject.....I just wanted to share this great pendant I bought yesterday at the vendors day at the Womens Club I belong to ....it is based on the petroglyph figures that are carved into some rocks outside of Almaty.

Russian tea house!

Ok this is a bit of a silly thing but I had fun making it! I have had the thought in my head for a while now that I wanted to make a house from a tea box (and I've no idea why!!) and then yesterday the theme on CRAZY AMIGOS was HIGH TEA so there was my cue!

 Today while I was at the supermarket I bought this cheap box of tea bags.......I was more concerned about what the box looked like than the tea!

 I dismembered the box, added some paper from a local newspaper to complete the roof and put it back together to make this RUSSIAN TEA HOUSE!!

 I needed someone to visit my tea house so I invited HEART SHIRT boy!

 BIRDS ON A WIRE finished off the house and served to hide the messy join along the roof line!!

Art of the apron

 This book is made from an APRON.....a plain old calico apron that you might buy to cook or paint in......some of you may remember I had a version of this published in CRAFT STAMPER a while back now.

 Fold the apron in half, cut pages from card and see how many you can get between the layers of apron...........

 ......trim the fabric around the pages and then stitch in lace with a sewing machine........I like to keep the pockets, ties and neck band in place so it still looks like an apron.....well sort of!!

 Then decorate the pages.......use paints, inks, stamps etc etc whatever takes your fancy!

 Use tabs to join the pages together.

 What prompted me to share this with you today is that I like to look at JENNY DOHS BLOG (she used to be the editor of SOMERSET STUDIO and now runs CRESCENDOH).....for a while she has had a feature called ART OF THE DRESS and one of the things shown has been aprons! Then I noticed there was an ART OF THE DRESS CHALLENGE! I think the idea is you show how you WEAR your apron .....Jenny makes wearing one look so cool, I would look like I forgot to take it off after cooking........ so I thought I would show my book instead! Not sure it meets the challenge criteria but we will see!

Behind a closed door

 The word on TAKE A WORD is DOOR this week.

 I have a new TINY journal......it's a MOLESKINE....... decided to play in it for the first time for this challenge

 

The little house with Alice inside is on the new CRESCENDOH set I bought recently.......I stamped it and then cut another piece of card to the same size with a tag on one side, glued this behind the house shape to give an opening door over the front.

 These flowers are new STAMPS from OCTOPODE FACTORY (email Lily as stamps not on Etsy yet).....they are very funky....love them!!

 

Been There, Done That!

 No, not me bragging but the title of CRUSADE 48 on GREEN PEPPER PRESS STREET TEAM this month. We are challenged to document recent events, outings or trips in our journals. As regular visitors here will know I like to do this already so it's not that much of a challenge for me but more a chance to do what I already like doing! This spread is in my big A4 journal.

 These pages are made with pics I took at LA BREA TAR PITS museum in LA earlier this month. They are simply printed in gray scale on ordinary printer paper and cut out.......I like that look!

 A DIRE WOLF........what a cool name for a creature......I wonder why its DIRE???

 SABRE TOOTH CAT......not tiger apparently......I really liked them and the way this one all but fills the page!

 EAGLE TOE BONES make a fab background.

Change of subject ........keeping up with what's happening here in Almaty.....this was the view from the balcony outside our appartment this morning......more snow, fog and it's COLD!!!

Mad tea party

Ha, fooled you......bet you thought this would be more Alice! Not this time.........a different mad tea party!

 On WEDNESDAY STAMPER the theme this week is TRANSPORTATION......I hope this counts!

 The tea cup/teapot images along with the bird, the pointing finger, Earl Grey label, little numbers are by CHARACTER CONSTRUCTIONS, the chandelier is INKADINKADO, the Chinese Lanterns are from LAVINIA STAMPS.

A life of contrasts

After a comment left by Piddawinkle the other day it occured to me that recently signed up followers and those just dropping by might not realise that for the past year I have been splitting my time between the UK and Kazakhstan..........the reason being that my husband is working here in Kazakhstan and I come over to stay for several weeks at a time.......this time it's a short visit, only 6 weeks!
So as the titles says I live a life of contrasts! Emphasised more so in recent weeks when I have gone from 70 degrees in LA to -6 here in Almaty!!

Today we went for a walk in the local park.......

 where I wore these.....appropriate for the conditions I thought.......

 ...while others value fashion over warm feet and staying upright!

 A hardy local......rather her than me!

Pretty snow covered trees!