BITE ME!!

 

Making this I thought to myself..... I know that things are getting bad when even I think I've lost the plot!!

 I spotted that the theme on CRAZY AMIGOS this week is CUPCAKES! As it happens I had just been printing some of these ALICE cakes from THE OCTOPODE FACTORY for another project so I just printed out a few more! Looking at them the EAT ME label stood out and for some odd reason the saying BITE ME! kept popping into my head! And from there my thoughts wandered off into a strange place where if the label said BITE ME would they be cup cakes fit for a vampire!!!

 

 I thought I'd give you a little glimpse into my workspace.......I have missed having this dedicated space while I have been away from home! Now I'm back I'm looking forward to settling back in....just need the packing boxes to arrive.....not that I'm short of stuff to play with here!

Only 2 days to go!

Only 2 days to go till I head home.
Today we took our lives in our hands and took the scary cable car up to
what is called KOK TOBE.......a great view point above the city.
It was so worth it for the views over Almaty.

Huge chickens! with "Swear word warning"

These pages are inspired by some silliness over on FACEBOOK yesterday!
Dyan Reaveley posted this link
http://thebloggess.com/2011/06/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/........I
think the general opinion was that we all wished we had thought of it!
At least it gave me some inspiration.......sorry if you don't like the
swear word :)

Bad girls win every time!

I don't necessarily believe this blog post title!!
It was just a headline in a mag that caught my eye so I cut it out and
kept it as I knew I would use it at some point!
And I was right......I used it for the latest challenge from
STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS.......this time the challenge is to use up scraps
you would normally through away.
I don't make cards very often these days so I don't tend to have scraps
of card or coloured papers left over but what I do have often is
leftover paint.......see first pic........and I quite often have
coloured and cut out stamped images that I didn't end up using and
words cut from mags......see second pic.......so I combined these for
this challenge.
So think outside the box a little and use up what might otherwise be
thrown out!

As well as the usual challenge the rest of the DT are having a BLOG
HOP! I'm not actually taking part as I am in the middle of moving
country and am having blog access problems........hence the slightly
strange look to this post.......I am having to blog via email and can't
put the words between the pics like I usually would! Oh well better
than nothing!
The BLOG HOP starts from the STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS blog and there are a
couple of random prizes to be won along the way as well as the usual
gift voucher......there is also a chance to be guest designer for
August!

One last trip

As you now know I am leaving Kazakhstan to return to UK. With this in
mind we took one last trip out into the countryside this past
weekend..........I have to say I am sad that this was the last trip,
there is some fantastic stuff to see.
THe first pics are of Iron Age burial mounds at ESIK.......there were
more than 20 scattered across the valley. In the 60's one of these
mounds......ISSIK KURGEN... gave Kazakhstan one of its great
treasures......the GOLDEN MAN.........a burial containing a body
adorned with lots of gold decoration. There was a small but very good
museum with some of the stuff found.
After that we moved onto TURGEN GORGE where there was this lovely
waterfall.
And then back to ESIK for a visit to ESIK LAKE........a beautiful
glacial lake. In the 60's this lake was much bigger but a flood of
meltwater ran down the valley and broke the lakes natural dam, the
waters continued down the valley killing over 200
people.......thankfully it was very peaceful when we visited.
THe old style sign is a remnant from Soviet days and warns of
avalanches! I like the old style of the drawing!

=

Boxes everwhere and big news!

I have been having major problems accessing my blog over the past few
days.....hence no posts......it has been driving me crazy! While
searching around for solutions I discovered that I can post via email!
It is not a perfect way of doing things but I have to say it's better
than nothing!!!

So, here is the post I wanted to make last week!
A while ago my friend GEZ told me to go look at the blog ART IN RED
WAGONS......there was a post using old book covers to make
boxes!.......it is here
http://artinredwagons.blogspot.com/2011/06/box-with-lid.html
Well I use old book paper/covers a lot so this appealed to me......I
had to have a go! It was great fun.....I can see me making more of
these!!

Now for my BIG NEWS! My husband has been offered a new contract that
will see him working on rotation......5 weeks in KZ and 3 weeks in
UK.......... so I AM MOVING BACK TO THE UK!
We are in the process of packing up here in KZ......these are the
packing boxes in the hallway of our apartment.....waiting for the final
contents.......hopefully they will be on their way later this week and
me shortly afterwards!!

Circles, circles, dots and circles!

 

 INKURABLE STAMPERS runs a monthly challenge. The theme for June is SPOTS, DOTS & CIRCLES!

This is my entry! The STAMPOTIQUE mermaids and octopus are stamped onto canvas, machine stitched around and then torn into circles.

Will you step into my parlour?

This week the word on TAKE A WORD is INSECTS

For my entry I worked on a piece of canvas and machine stitched a spiders web.........

 

 

......I made a spider from a squashed night light candle holder and three wire hair pins......only had 3 so that's what I used.......the fly was stitched onto a seperate scrap of canvas ........they both have faces cut from The Octopode Factory figures....

 Ok, so I know that TECHNICALLY spiders aren't insects but then TECHNICALLY this isn't a spider as it's only got 6 legs and spiders have 8......so I am hoping to be forgiven my artistic license!

On looking up the quote I used I found that what I had always thought was "welcome to my parlour" said the spider etc, is in fact "will you walk into my parlour?" ....the stuff you discover!

TODAY IS MAD HATTER DAY!

Over on ALTERED ALICE we are celebrating the MAD HATTER this month with a MAD TEA PARTY!!
All the DT members decided to bring something  Alice-related to the tea party......my choice was the CUPS AND SAUCERS.

 A while ago I saw this post on EFFIES BLOG and so I decided I was going to MAKE my cups and saucers!
Effie had used a template that I had also seen and stored the idea away for future use.......it's here on ANN WOODS BLOG.......be sure and check out the rest of Anns blog....she makes INCREDIBLE owls and other birds!

 So using the template I cut out 6 cups.......I then wanted to do the papier mache covering with old book pages.....but I didn't have the wallpaper paste suggested so went back to my childhood and mixed some good old flour and water paste! It was a messy, gooey process but fun!

 After setting the cups aside to dry.....they took a couple of days to be completely dry.......I painted them with gesso......let dry again and then with paint, some of which I removed with baby wipes so you can still see some text.

 Each cup was then decorated with a different pattern and a black pen.

To make the saucers I cut a small circle, then cut a slit into the circle and overlappeed the edges to give a slightly concave shape.......tape in place and then cover with paper sand paint as per the cups. The concave shape means that the saucers don't sit completely flat.......press them down a little to get them flat enough for the cups to sit on them........I wanted them slightly wonky to fit into the MAD tea party theme!!!

Birds, birds, birds

and paint, paint, paint!!
Although I enjoyed yesterdays little foray into clean and simple it's nice to be back in my comfort zone!

 This journal page.....in my A4 journal.......is inspired by a page I saw on 
DINA WAKLEYS  blog recently.......I even managed to leave some of that ever elusive white space!

 For the bird shape I used the CLAUDINES HELMUTH large foam bird stamp......stamped onto card and cut out to give a shape to draw around.

 It just so happens that the theme on THE THREE MUSES this week is BIRDS!

Rather than sit my birds on branches I turned them into carousel birds!

Clean & simple

It's time for another STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS CHALLENGE. This time Joanne Wardle challenges us to be CLEAN & SIMPLE. 
Joanne works in this style so effortlessly but for me it really was a challenge! But then isn't that is what a challenge is all about, to work in a way different to your own?

 I used a manilla tag, stitched around the edge, stamped HEART SHIRT onto a book page, cut him out, glued him in place, stamped and cut out a few extra hearts (from his shirt), added these and the word heart (from the old book) to the bottom corner, tie a black ribbon in the tag hole........done!

It's WAY simpler than I usually work but I have to say I like the way it came out!