JABBERWOCKY

More..........

2012-02-10T18:35:00.000Z

playing just for the heck of it!!

Well that, and using things I have bought and never used.........this stencil and dies both come into that category!

I have a bit of a confession......I don't really like spray inks, especially through stencils! I think I must be a bit anal but I like to be more in control of where stuff goes and sprays are just a bit random. I do use them......like on this page.....as a general spray over a background and then work on over that.

I read on MICHELLE WARDS blog that we should remember that we don't always have to get stencils wet to use them! So, I first drew through mine and later used ink on a sponge.

I LOVE this image:)

Masking tape, strips of book page, painty circles and paper clips and a black gem.

Just for the hell of it!

2012-02-09T17:31:00.000Z

After a morning of doing other everyday necessary stuff I felt the need to make something this afternoon...............the only problem was I had no idea what!! So, I sat down and fiddled around and came up with this..........no idea why except that I had this owl stamp that I had never used sand when I stamped him he reminded me of a Victorian school teacher!

Just to show how small this journal is:)

COMPLETELY by chance it says THE CAT IN THE HAT on the bit of paper I used for his hat.....and yes, I do know he's an owl but he does have a hat on:)

Don't be a sheep...............

2012-02-06T16:13:00.000Z

but if you have to........be a black one!!

I think what I mean by this is don't just blindly follow, try to be a little (or a lot) different, to stand out from the crowd............be a black sheep in a crowd of white ones!

And what prompted this?

Well......let me just get me soap box out and climb up on it......

OK, I find it very strange that a product only has to have Tim Holtz written on it for all common sense to go out the window regardless of whether the product is good or not........want an example? "new" stamps that are just old ones re-sized.......paper clips with gems stuck on, screw eyes....and the best of all the new Stamp and Cut which cuts out Tims stamps......even the square and rectangular ones.....by means of a mega expensive die cutting machine......I mean, come on!!

Is it just me that thinks this way??????

Just my opinion:)

Reaper of Hearts

2012-02-05T14:52:00.000Z

I started this page yesterday......had to leave the drips and splatters to dry ............

.......I like this little quote.................

........meet Saint Valentine......he is a new image from Lily over at THE OCTOPODE FACTORY

Lost in Lace

2012-02-04T13:31:00.001Z

I was so taken by one particular piece that I saw at the Lace exhibition in Birmingham the other day that I decided to use some of my pics for a journal page. A few days ago I bought myself a new Moleskine journal.....a nice red one.......and I decided on a ruled one just to give another dimension to the pages. The idea is to leave some of the lines showing or to actually use them.....not too sure I achieved that on this page! Oh well!

First step was to use up the left over watery brown paint you can see sitting on the tile in the picture above.....ooops made the pages curl.....heat gun sorted that out!

Before it was completely dry I rubbed over some Pan Pastels in orange and brown....................

........then stamped some lace around the edges and used a credit card dipped in black paint to echo the lines in the photos......................

The finished thing..............my natural inclination was to add the pics at angles and overlapping each other but I resisted and put them down on the page straight as contrast to all the crossing lines

If you are interested, the artist who created this installation in the exhibition is

CHIHARU SHIOTA....click to read more.

Oh yes.....I used my Poloroid Pogo mini printer for the pics.

Lace and a metal man

2012-02-02T19:53:00.000Z

Today a friend and I went to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to see LOST IN LACE......a contemporary look at lace...it was very interesting and certainly not lace as you normally think of it.

This was made from metal.............and look....a skull!!

A beautiful wire and bead chandelier- like piece........

here are two pieces......the one in the distance is made with punch cards and wire................

.................. the nearer one looks like punched paper.......all these were lovely but.....

MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE PIECE WAS THIS..................WOW, WOW AND WOW!

its hard to see the scale of this.....it was set into the corner of the room and the dresses were hanging free and were more than life sized.....

the black lines are lengths of black wool representing the lace aspect..................

it had something of a creepy, slightly spooky feel to it but I LOVED IT!

Then outside of the museum was this................I was thinking

"it looks a bit like the Angel of the North".......

and lo and behold when I went to look it is called "Iron Man" by Anthony Gormley!

A Winter Day

2012-01-31T18:00:00.000Z

and today certainly was.............a WINTER DAY that is.

My friend Tracy and I decided to head for a local garden centre for coffee and a scone .....they make particularly yummy scones:).......before going junk shopping.............boy was it COLD and even tried to snow at one point...........as soon as we had bought what we needed we headed home!

I could happily have spent the rest of the day on the sofa and dozed with a book but instead decided not to be lazy and to work on another page in my map journal.

Foundling, a girl 11868

2012-01-29T19:38:00.000Z

Yesterday I spent the day in London. I met up with a friend at The British Library where we saw an exhibition of Illuminated Books that have been owned by royalty.........it was beautiful.

After that we went to The Foundling Museum to see an exhibition of paintings by Quentin Blake, great fun and quirky................but I have to say that the thing that stays with me from the day was something I saw in The Foundling Museum itself.

These postcards show scraps of fabric..........many of the children left at the Foundling Hospital had these scraps of fabric attached to their clothing by their mothers in the hope that they would stay with the children so that if they could ever retrurn to collect them they could identify their children.

There were also display cases of other tokens that had been left with the children...........from coins and medals to tiny twists of wire to little strings of beads to scraps of sewn fabric, whatever the mothers could afford to leave with the children they could not look after..............I have to say the heart shaped pieces were the most poignnant especially when we read that the tokens etc were not kept with the children so even if they did return the mothers couldn't identify their children...............it was heart wrenching.

So, today, unable to get it out of my head I decided to make a journal page to remind me of the day...........this is my tribute to all those mothers who could not look after their children and had to give them up.

The children were given numbers..............foundling, a girl 11868, b.1759

The background to my page started out as squares of paper ( my shopping from Anthropologie was wrapped in it......love that shop!) glued to the page so the edges were not stuck down completely.......I like the way it came out, will use the idea again!

Big hat?

2012-01-23T10:08:00.001Z

This is another page in my new map journal (see previous post). I have decided on a sort of theme for this journal............I am going to keep it simpler than usual as I don't want to cover over the maps completely......especially those pages that have more mappy bits on them.....so, I'm going to use black and white images and probably only a quote......we'll see how it goes!

Answers on a postcard please!!

I love this image!

I drew around the bloke a bit as he had faded into the background with all the red and black inky circles and drips but had to stop when he was in danger of getting drawn on glasses!

Black and red inky circles, drips, spots and spatters! Oh and a long-legged beastie!

Did you know that I LOVE alphabet stamps?? Well, I do!

I popped into Hobbycraft at the weekend.....was meant to be going to Currys but Hobbycraft is only two shops down so rude not to.................and they had these little alphabet sets for only £1.50!

I like the slightly Gothic looking one very much!

"edit"...I just saw that MACABRE MONDAY has the challenge to use a map......so as this qualifies I'm entering it to the challenge!

Rabbit hole

2012-01-19T14:34:00.001Z

At Christmas my friend gave me these three really big maps (thanks Zoe)......they are large scale maps of Essex printed in 1920. Apparently they were being sold as alternative wrapping paper......it's a bit of an artsy place Suffolk:)

So, today while I am confined to this little space in the kitchen (wood floor being fitted in living room) I decided to chop one of them up and make myself a journal...........the paper is pretty thick so I think it should stand up quite well to being painted etc.

I cut the map up and stuck pieces back to back so the pages were a bit thicker and had map on each side....................

......then I bound them together with a very simple 3 hole binding......I used this ribbon cos it's all I could lay my hands on.......

some of the corners are nice and ragged and aged.........

and some edges have the original binding......I tried to keep those things visible..........

mmmmmm I wonder what "Poor law unions" are?
edit.....curiosity got the better of me, I looked it up.....click here if interested!

Then I decided to decorate the front cover......mmmmmmmm what to use? I know, I have that Dracula Rabbit image...............it will go with the ribbon!!

So, here he is searching the map for his rabbit hole!!!!

I'm really pleased with the way this came out......I love recycling old stuff and I now have a fun new journal to play in!!

Finally.................

2012-01-15T16:47:00.000Z

I could stand it no longer.........the not making anything that is.........so even though my studio is still full of stuff (that's wood flooring in 7/8foot long boxes)............. I climbed and clambered over the boxes, moved crates and doors and furniture and pulled some bits and pieces out into the kitchen

and made this journal page using a couple of postcards I bought at the Grayson Perry exhibition at The British Museum recently.....it's not the best page ever but at least I got to play a little!

The exhibition was fascinating and the one phrase that has stayed with me and danced around inside my head ever since is this one

HOLD YOUR BELIEFS LIGHTLY

which I take to mean...... believe in what you believe but be prepared to accept that others believe different things and sometimes to be persuaded to change your mind......

I find it a very thought provoking statement.

this slightly risque chap is a tomb guardian!

I used the pipette thingy inside a bottle of ink to write my words.......they came out a bit blobby but I quite like that!

The final piece in the exhibition was this FANTASTIC cast iron ship......

...it was huge and FABULOUS!

I knew very little about Grayson Perry before this exhibition......other than that he is the artist who dresses up as a woman....... but now I'm a FAN!

If you want to read more about the exhibition I thought THIS LINK was good and has a couple more pics of pieces from it.

Is Spring sprung?

2012-01-10T15:28:00.000Z

When we had the wall removed (see previous post) we had to have a radiator moved.........while doing that the plumber looked at our boiler and discovered that it was in pretty bad shape! As you can see above it looked like some weird rock formation going on inside it. Poor thing is.....or rather was.......21 years old!

Although not in the original renovation plans we took the decision to have it replaced.............so, my studio has looked like this for the last 2 days......the boiler lives in the corner...........will I ever get back in there!!!!??LOL

So, having spent all of yesterday sitting on the sofa I couldn't face another day of that so I headed into the garden. As we all know the weather has been very mild recently.......... (for which I've been glad the last 2 days with no central heating......I do have a gas fire but that's another story......it's in nearly as bad a state as the boiler :( .............

................ I was surprised how many bulbs are coming up..........I just hope that if there is a frost that they don't get nipped...................the ones above are Fritillaria Persica........not grown them before so I hope they survive.

These are..............can't remember! They came free with a bulb order............whatever they are there's lots of them!!

Here are some Aliums peeping out from under some Foxgloves......I'm hoping they will look good together!

And these I THINK are English Bluebells!

Next I decided to get some leaves out of the pond..............and out came this very sleepy frog......put him back quickly so he could go back to sleep!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-05T21:08:00.000Z

We had a fabulous time over New Year.....we stayed with a friend in Suffolk and headed into London for the day on 30th Dec......we went to the Grayson Perry exhibition at The British Museum......it was very interesting........go if you get chance!

we had dinner at CAFE PACIFICO......a Mexican Cantina.... in Covent Garden

the margaritas were yummy!

New Years Eve itself was spent in Sufolk.......we had fireworks!

New Years day was walking the dog! We came across this old moated farmhouse.

Festivities over we headed home on Jan 2nd to get ready for the next stage in our house renovations......the removal of a wall between our new kitchen......you can just see it here through the gap in the wall.......and the old dining room that didn't really get used

As a consequence of the ongoing work my studio has ended up as storage space for all the furniture and building materials and so I can't get in there to do anything.......hence the lack of any artwork!

It will be worth it in the end.......the extra usable space will be lovely!

Eat, drink and be merry

2011-12-23T10:31:00.000Z

the rest of that quote says "for tomorrow we die!" A bit excessive for this time of year but the sentiment is that we should enjoy life while we can!! I certainly try to do that!

For us the seasonal festivities started a couple of days ago with dinner out with very adult....not....friends at a fav place of ours The Dysart Arms in Bunbury in the lovely Cheshire countryside.

I am done with Christmas craft makes, Christmas cooking takes over now (which I actually enjoy and look on as another creative outlet) so this is going to be my final blog post of 2011 as family stuff starts tomorrow and we are heading to a friends in Suffolk for New Year.

See you in 2012!

So, this little forest of felt trees is my final offering for the year......I made them for friends and most now seem to have reached their destinations so I can share them!

I kept this one for myself and made the cream one to go with it!

So, as it pours with rain outside and I head to the kitchen I will wish you and yours a

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

from me and mine!

Ho, Ho and Ho

2011-12-21T09:53:00.000Z

are my SPIRITS OF CHRISTMAS PAST here to bring you

SOLSTICE GREETINGS on this MIDWINTER'S DAY!

they are also here just in case you thought I'd gone too conventional Christmas!

With a slight wink towards The Day of the Dead my chaps have milagros stitched around their Santa hats!

HAPPY SOLSTICE!

the days just get longer from now on:)

Just had to share

2011-12-20T09:43:00.000Z

I saw this on TERRI WINDLINGS BLOG this morning and just had to share it!

It is the story of pieces of book art appearing in Scottish libraries and other literary associated sites......read the story HERE

It is a lovely story and I ADORE the art pieces!

I hate sewing!

2011-12-16T19:02:00.000Z

Quite a while ago my friend TRACY suggested that we do something different and make some sewn Santas.

So, off we went and bought fabrics etc which we then put into a cupboard and forgot about .....until last week when we decided it was time to get them made.

.....mmmmm doesn't look much like Santa yet!

Here is Tracy ironing some part or other on day one of Santa making............little did we know what went into toy making.............day one and no where near finished!

So, today while it was doing this outside we determined to get the thing finished..........

.....with the help of many of these we set to...............

This is what mine looked like at the start of today...........

.......during the day I came to hate this Santa.........I wasn't over keen before we started today having had enough on the first day.........at one point he ended up thrown across the floor (sorry about fizzy pic)

.....and with a needle stuck in his head...........not really his fault, more the crap instructions in the Tilda book we were working from...........so vague as to be of little use!

I ended up making it up as I went along!

Anyway after much perseverance he is finally finished and I am so glad it is done......

NEVER AGAIN am I going to make another!

I hated dressmaking at school.....I am old enough that at school (girls only grammar school) I was made to take sewing cos I was a girl even though I HATED it and making this made me remember those days!

So here he is my one and only TILDA SANTA!

Meet Frosty.......

2011-12-14T12:24:00.000Z

and his mate............Frosty!

I have to say I am loving having the extra time to make more stuff and these were great fun!

Somehow this Frosty managed to end up with a slightly birdy-looking face!

The theme on THREE MUSES today is 'TIS THE SEASON...............and apparently it might be the season for snow for a lot of us later this week bbbbbbrrrrrr!!

Credit where it's due.......the torn paper as snow was not my idea.....I saw it on

WILLY ANDERSONS BLOG

Even..........

2011-12-12T13:03:00.000Z

scary little skeleton babies like to wait for Santa!

Well, in my world they do!

I've been out junk shopping a few times recently and on one trip found this old first aid tin.....when I opened it I realised it would make a great alternative to a configuration box! I also bought an old green metal funnel, a Santa head Christmas ornament and a heart with bells (which I didn't end up using)

From this "stuff"plus some other "stuff" I already had lying around came this.......

..my "found" version of a configuration box!

Added the Santa head to the inside of the tin lid.....it fitted like it was made for it!

Painted a small porcelain doll to look skeleton-y.......added a Santa hat.....aka a metal piping nozzle.... and here she sits waiting for Santa

Three plastic cherubs got a paint job..................

........a metal moose wishes everyone.......

.....MERRY CHRISTMAS....

..with bells on his antlers

The funnel became a Christmas tree with rusty star and a screw head..................

......a partridge in a pear tree???....a small bird cookie cutter....

Still waiting and wishing....................

I saw that the challenge on SIMON SAYS STAMP AND SHOW is to show something with depth.....I hope this might count!

As my husband said when I sent him a pic of this .....a weirdo Merry Christmas to you too!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-11T05:00:00.001Z

from the ALTERED ALICE team!

Not surprisingly this close to Christmas the theme on Altered Alice this month is CHRISTMAS!

As inspiration we are offering the Lewis Carroll Memorial window in the

Daniell Chapel in Daresbury, Cheshire....these are some of the pics I took when visiting a while ago.

For my Christmas piece I have made an

ALICE IN CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND

snow globe!

I found the snow globe in Hobbycraft........it's quite a clever thing, there is a slot in the centre that can be used for photos or in this case a couple of small Alice themed scenes!

Madame Chatelaine goes steampunk

2011-12-09T15:18:00.000Z

This is a piece I've been working on for a couple of weeks......it started out as an old doll with a fabric body and ceramic head, hands and feet.....I added the clay twist thing on her head...not really sure why, just liked it!

Peering out through a giant lens.....poor thing lived before single eye glasses were invented

A spare hangs in front from an old brass curtain ring.....just in case

she stands on an old meccano wheel............................

unfortunately she did NOT want to stand up straight so she had a metal pole inserted in a very undignified place.....that'll teach her!

like every good housekeeper she has a big heart and her CHATELAINE with her scissors and key to the pantry, her watch and her teaspoon

extra stitching added around the arm and leg seams.......just for fun!

So was born

STEAMPUNK MADAME CHATELAINE!

Trees

2011-12-07T15:23:00.000Z

After making the folded trees over the weekend I decided to take them a little further...............

I had a stand from an old dress form......it made a perfect base for the bigger tree.................

..........for the smaller one I used two rustic reels (available from The Stamp Attic) glued together

They look quite nice sitting on my kitchen table!

A paper Christmas

2011-12-04T19:01:00.000Z

What a lovely weekend it's been!

On Thursday evening my good friend Wendy (of THE STAMP ATTIC ) fame came to stay. On Friday we headed into Chester for a day of shopping..............

........some of the Christmas lights were very pretty....................

On Saturday we went Christmas decoration shopping interspersed with cake and coffee and then dinner in the pub.........this light strewn reindeer was outside the garden centre we visited...............then home for Strictly and popcorn in PJ's.........nice end to a lovely day!

So, today we decided to stay in and have a play day........a good plan as the weather turned horrible......we saw these fab folded trees made from magazines on GEZ'S BLOG.......there is a link to a tutorial on Gez's blog...........and just had to have a go.......these aren't finished yet.....will show them again when they are.

Next we moved onto folded snowflakes..........I had seen these earlier in the week HERE

great fun once we got the hang of them.......we used double sided scrapbook paper........

..........the finished snowflakes................

.....and finally we made folded baubles! The tutorial for these can be found HERE

Punch circles from mag pages...............

.......fold and glue as per instructions...............

........to get your bauble!

The results of the day of playing!!

I'm not weird

2011-11-28T22:52:00.000Z

Have you ever given much thought to how the comments you leave on blogs or Facebook are received by the person whose blog/FBpage it is?
I am OFTEN called WEIRD and I know that 99.9999% of people who say that mean it in a kindly/friendly/fun way and that's how I take it......in fact I quite like being a bit different :) but every now and then some comment makes me stop and think...."OK, you don't know me well enough to say that".......it happened recently (I'm not saying where or by who....this is not the place for that) and I've been thinking about it since!

It prompted this page!

This quote has been appearing on Facebook pages a lot recently and I thought it apropriate for how I've been feeling!

My taste might not be your taste but please think about how you express that opinion! Not just on my stuff but on any blog etc that you choose to leave a comment on.

I'm not trying to be funny or provocative here or to offend anyone, just saying it as I see it!

As my Mum always told us as kids "If you can't think of anything nice to say, don't say anything!"

You know the comments that really say it all are those that say "this might not be my taste but I can really see the work that went into that" or " I don't like the subject matter but I can really understand what you are trying to say"

I'M NOT WEIRD

I'M LIMITED EDITION!

Humpty and Alice

2011-11-27T15:49:00.001Z

HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON A WALL...

HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL...

When I went to the Alice exhibition at the TATE in Liverpool recently I picked up this postcard of Humpty Dumpty.........I've used it as the starting point for this journal page.

I also used the exhibition entry tickets and some digi Alice images.

Did you know that although Humpty appeared in Alice Through the Looking Glass (he even explained the meaning of the Jabberwocky poem to Alice!) the rhyme is much older?

It was first published in 1803 and then again in 1810 with slightly different words than we use now

Humpty Dumpty sate on a wall,
Humpti Dumpti had a great fall;
Threescore men and threescore more,
Cannot place Humpty dumpty as he was before

I also bought this slightly strange postcard!

This Alice peeping round the curtain was on the What's On guide I picked up.

ALL THE KING'S HORSES AND ALL THE KING'S MEN

COULDN'T PUT HUMPTY TOGETHER AGAIN.

A fractured fairy tale

2011-11-25T16:32:00.000Z

A group of us that went to the Michael deMeng workshop in Portugal this summer decided when we came home that we would work on another project and share the results on a date in November......well most of us missed that date and have continued to work on our pieces! We have a new reveal date of December 10th but I admit to having got a bit fed up with my project hanging around part done so today I decided enough was enough and I've finished it!
The theme of our projects is fractured fairy tales click to see what that is

Meet Mr F Prince F.R.O.G.c.... Fellow of the Royal Organisation of Green clairvoyants......

pond clairvoyant extraordinare!

Here he is in his clairvoyant office at the bottom of the pond................

all dressed up in his tie.....................

with his fancy crystal ball....................

......his office is decorated with pearl acorns.....

and ferns and hung about with spotted spiders.

And here is my fractured fairy tale!

Are you sitting comfortably?

Then I will begin..............Once upon a time there was a clairvoyant.....Mr F Prince …...he was a very good clairvoyant, he even belonged to a professional body......F.R.O.G.c......Fellow of the Royal Organisation of Green clairvoyants. He worked from his office at the bottom of the pond, turn left at the lily pad and ask the snail.

One day he was sitting at the edge of the pond lamenting the loss of his crystal ball.......it had been broken by a bunch of pesky pissed newts a few days previously. He could not work without his crystal ball.....what was he to do?

He had often see the Princess running along the river bank playing with her golden ball......he normally took little notice of her as she was often rude to him......once she had even called him a warty old toad …..TOAD? TOAD? I'm a FROG! But today he was watching her carefully, if he was nice to her would she come close enough for him to nab that ball? It would make a perfect replacement for his broken crystal ball.

Now being a clairvoyant he had seen what his future might be......kiss...turn into prince.....live at palace with spoiled Princess......no thanks.....all he wanted was that ball.

So, he decided on a charm offensive......to attract her attention he did spectacular dives into the pond, leapt athletically from lily pad to lily pad until he was exhausted...............just as he thought it wasn't going to work the Princess wandered over to see what this strange creature was up to.

Once she was close enough the frog took one more giant leap and landed one almighty huge sloppy slimy kiss straight on her mouth! The Princess was so horrified and so busy jumping up and down shouting EW! EW! EW! and wiping her mouth that she didn't notice the frog pick up her golden ball and jump into the pond with it.

So, Mr Prince had a new crystal ball and the Princess had to go home to her father the King and explain how a frog kissed her and that's how she lost yet another really expensive golden glass ball!

The end.

Weird and wondrous creatures!

2011-11-21T21:02:00.000Z

I have to say thanks to everyone that left comments on my last post......I was a little wary of showing it but I am happy it was so well accepted even though it re-inforced my weird taste!

So, onto something slightly less weird! A couple of cards featuring weird and wondrous creatures!

I used embossing folders and Pan Pastels to make the backgrounds for my cards.

Stitched into the centres of the flowers with my sewing machine.

Added electrical thingies, star washers and metal star flowers as embellishments.

The image is from LOST COAST DESIGNS

Stitching around the moon adds texture......

Another strange creature......I really like this one!

PAN PASTELS are available from THE STAMP ATTIC.........below are sneek peeks of more cards using the Pan Pastel/embossing folder technique......you can see the full cards and step by step pics of the technique over on THE STAMP ATTIC BLOG

3 blind mice

2011-11-19T11:41:00.000Z

3 blind mice

see how they run

they all ran after the farmers wife

she cut off their tails with a carving knife

did you ever see such a thing in your life

as 3 blind mice!

Have you ever thought how gruesome some of the nursery rhymes we taught our children actually are??!!!

I have been working on another piece and it has given me cause to think about the fairy stories and rhymes we all grew up with.......most are pretty gruesome and even downright scary!

I mean a wolf that ate your Grandma!

While all this was running around my head I was shopping trying to find plastic frogs (that's turning into an impossible task........why do all toys now need batteries?) when I came across these quite sweet plastic mice (Early Learning Centre) and that is where this idea started!

The rhyme ran in circles round my head.....I couldn't make sense of why BLIND mice would run around after the farmers wife.....I mean how could they see her?!! My thoughts took a sideways step.....why were they blind? maybe the farmers wife was a sadistic old bag who put nails in their eyes before chopping off their tails?!!

If you look the rhyme up there is speculation it had a hidden political meaning as a lot of old rhymes did......decide for yourselves!

ONE.....

TWO....

THREE....

BLIND MICE!

Before I glued the mice to the knife I took some pics of them and then printed them out using my Poloroid Pogo printer....see this post.....and used them to make a journal page.

I used braille paper in the background!!

Some of you are going to hate this!!

2011-11-17T17:54:00.000Z

BUT I LOVE IT!

Well of course I do, I made it!!

Yesterday I bought these plastic skeletons and bats and spiders.

So, I took one of the skeletons, one of the bats and added a skull ring and a deer head with antlers

this is one of my moleskine journals......getting pretty fat and bent!

cut the head off the skeleton, the wings off the bat and the skull face off the ring and glue in place........I added the antlers (cut off the deer head) later!

And it became this!!

Now I can't take all the credit for this.......... I saw the idea over on ART BLISS BLOG.

THIS POST was my inspiration and there is a downloadable tutorial

As soon as I saw the packets of flat-ish skeletons I knew exactly what I was going to do with at least one of them!

My journal now has a pretty freaky cover!!

The new kitchen

2011-11-15T16:54:00.000Z

is FINALLY finished!

I don't often show much personal stuff on here but I have mentioned the new kitchen.....and hassles it has caused......a few times so thought you might like to see the finished result. I am beyond pleased with it:)

I say finished..........it is...........for now! We have decided to have the wall between it and what was our dining room taken out to make the room bigger......in January!

But for now, it's done!

Looking from the living room door

New back door

I love that cooker!

Looking from the back door into the room......the right hand door leads to my studio

the wall with the dresser against it is the one that is coming out!

Door to the living room

new sink area (always wanted a Belfast sink)......the old back door was were the right hand window now is.

Autumn colours

2011-11-13T05:00:00.002Z

It's ALTERED ALICE time again and this time the challenge is to use
AUTUMN COLOURS.......we are sponsored this month......as last month....... by INDIGOBLU......a quintessentially ENGLISH stamp company!

I made a journal page..........

Begin at the beginning

and go on

till you come to the end

then stop!

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum...............

.....The Mad Hatter..............

......and the White Rabbit...................

I made my page on just one side of a double spread.........the other side I glued on some leaves cut from book pages.........a good start but not sure what will happen next:)

I am......

2011-11-08T12:26:00.000Z

a very lucky girl!
You know I said it was my birthday over the weekend? Well, I got some fabulous pressies but I just had to share one of them with you..........it being arty and journally and all:)
The friend who gave it to me.........you know who you are....TRACY.........went over and way above the call of duty!

She COMMISSIONED a HANDMADE JOURNAL for me from LUTHIEN THYE from ALTERED ALCHEMY

I have long admired Luthiens work...if you don't know it go spend some time on her blog

(link above)

It is called DREAM KEEPER

and it even has a little skull inside the window in the heart!........

.......... and a beautiful handstitched spine

.....inside are watercolour paper pages......all clean.......waiting for ink and paint...............

THANKS AGAIN TRACY......I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!

She also gave me a box of genuine German frozen charlotte doll parts.......she knows me well! These are perfect sizes for jewellery.......I feel a necklace coming on!

A Curious day in Liverpool

2011-11-06T17:46:00.000Z

So, today is my birthday!!!! To help me celebrate a friend came to stay for the weekend!

Yesterday we headed into Liverpool..............

to The Albert Dock.....................

where something curious was happening..................

at the TATE art gallery..........................

ALICE IN WONDERLAND exhibition!!

It was an interesting exhibition! The theme was to show art INSPIRED by the Alice in Wonderland story.......I have to say some was interesting, some was strange and some was downright weird! Some I liked, some I loved and some I didn't like at all!!

All in all though worth going to!

I now have an Alice calendar for next year.......................

and I added to my collection of Alice books.....I like to collect different illustrators.........the top one is illustrated by Mervyn Peake and the bottom one by Tove Jansson who is the author of the MOOMIN books!

Picked up these postcards too......I really liked the Humpty Dumpty illustration by

Peter Blake........

and although this by John Wesley is a little strange I kinda liked it!

After the Alice exhibition we went to the EMPIRE THEATRE to see STRICTLY GERSHWIN by the ENGLISH NATIONAL BALLET.......it was fabulous......I recommend it!

Work in progress......

2011-11-04T16:23:00.000Z

or stuff not finished! That is all there is here just now!
A while ago some of us that went to the Michael deMeng workshop in Portugal decided that we wanted to make another project and that we would reveal all this weekend............well, life gets in the way and no-one is ready.....me included! I have made a start but there's some way to go yet!

I chopped the head off a plastic frog and replaced it with a doll head!

So, what to do with the frog head? Stick it on a stalk of course!

I got as far as painting my book.........................and I think he's going to sit on it somehow......but that's it so far!!

Watch this space I think is the appropriate thing to say!

A new toy!

2011-11-01T18:19:00.000Z

It's not often I get excited by technology! But I have a new toy and I LOVE it!! I first saw this on ART IN RED WAGONS blog a couple of weeks ago and was so taken with it I ordered myself one.....I got it from Amazon.

This is a POLOROID POGO printer and it's tiny and portable.......it measures about six inches long by a couple inches wide.......you can use it to print pics direct from your phone or camera.....................

.....the paper fits inside.....there is no ink....... heat activates ink in the paper................the pics are 2"x3" and sticky backed........perfect for journals which is what I intend to use it for.
When I go on holiday with my friend she sits and writes up a journal every night.............I always feel I should do the same but can never be bothered! With this printer I can print a couple of pics each day, add any ephemera from the day, write a few captions.......journal for the day done!

So, today I printed a couple of pics from my trip to WIGHTWICK MANOR the other day and used them to make this journal page in my passport sized journal......I sanded the edges of the pics and discovered that the colour changes (the yellow-ish patches).......I also found that you have to be careful with a heat gun, again the colour changes (the turquoise areas) and they start to shrivel!!

As it says..............WHAT A HOOT!

Happy Hallowe'en candlestick

2011-10-30T16:55:00.000Z

This year I have made so little for Hallowe'en I'm getting withdrawal symptoms! With one thing and another I've had no time but I have managed to make this candlestick.

He started life as a ceramic money box............I painted it with several layers adding extra to the teeth and eyes..........................

.......gave him a hat made from a little flan case and a cream horn tin................with painted lace, feathers and crystals added around and underneath............

.........on top of the candlestick is a hook thingy that came with a dress form................and hanging from it are dolls arms....of course......every self respecting Hallowe'en candle stick needs hanging arms!

......more little skulls on a wire fence around the bottom............................

The skull piece just sits on top of the candle stick so it can be removed and a candle added!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!

Owls and bats

2011-10-29T20:32:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I escaped my kitchen makeover once again and went to WIGHTWICK MANOR (near Wolverhampton) with a couple of friends.....the main reason for going was a WILLIAM MORRIS exhibition.............I have to say the exhibition was a little disappointing.......a good job that most of the rooms had original William Morris wallcoverings and fabrics on the sofas etc...............the added bonus was that there were loads of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, drawings, ceramics, tiles everywhere.....BEAUTIFUL! Unfortunately no photos allowed inside:(

Quite appropriate for the time of year....I thought.... were these two carvings on either side of the front door:)

No art going on here!

2011-10-25T12:03:00.000+01:00

Being still in the midst of the kitchen re-fit and now with husband home too there is no art going on here! While I can't get in my workroom I have been wandering the web and doing a little shopping.
I have something on order that I will share when it arrives, hopefully in a couple of days but in the meantime I thought I'd share what came in the post today:)

These two nicely wrapped little packages......................

....the wrapping is dress makers tissue tied with sari silk strips................

.....inside were these.................

......and this.............meet Benny!!! I got them from here........

A SPECTACULAR MESS on Etsy....

...I am having Benny earrings made to match!

All things weird and wonderful

2011-10-23T20:29:00.000+01:00

Yesterday my friend Sarah...... of ART OF MOODLING fame..........and I headed to Knighton on the Shropshire/Welsh borders to go to an open studio event. There was lots of fun stuff to see...........first the WEIRD! The angel/cupid thing on the wall above was huge and gaudy and to make it worse THERE WERE TWO OF THEM!

Then there were these bucket lamps.............I kinda liked these:)

And this was a ship covered in carpet..........HMS AXMINSTER!

And now the WONDERFUL!

This piece was entitled............THE VOLES THINK GOD IS DEAD!.....this I really liked:)

The dog in a chess pieces box and all the pieces below are by a fav artist of mine......LUCY CASSON.....Sarah and I wanted to go to one of her workshops but the only 2 she is doing are full:( We did talk to Lucy about future workshops so fingers crossed.

I LOVED these crows!

The Pastry Cook!!

Lucys little figures all have such character!

Another fabulous day out......nothing better!

Pumpkin doodles

2011-10-21T10:41:00.000+01:00

I still can't get in my workroom cos it looks like this.....it's turned into a store room for stuff from the kitchen!
So, I have been sat on the sofa doodling! I really liked the way the pumpkin on the previous post came out so I did some more!

This was my fav one!

And I think this one is having a bad hair day!!!

The magic of secrets

2011-10-19T15:11:00.001+01:00

This morning I saw that the challenge on GINGERSNAP CREATIONS is RAVENS. I have never joined the Gingersnap challenge before but I do love ravens so decided to play along.
Not having full access to my stuff just now (see previous post if interested why) I grabbed a few collage sheets, my PAN PASTELS (available from The Stamp Attic)glue stick and a journal and this is what I came up with!

You might ask why the quote.........well, no good reason really.....I went through the Radio Times looking for interesting wording and came up with THE MAGIC OF SECRETS.....I kinda like it!!!

I used Pan Pastels to colour the background and also to colour my pumpkin.......which I drew myself.

Do you think ravens know THE MAGIC OF SECRETS?

Pretentious? Moi?

2011-10-18T11:01:00.000+01:00

Not wanting to sound pretentious or anything but I have discovered that "my head has to be in the right place" to be creative! Or to put it more simply.......I have to feel settled!

I wonder if you find the same thing??

At the moment I'm not that settled..................the reason................well it's a good reason.......we are having a new kitchen fitted............

............this is what it looks like this morning...........the floor is being tiled this very minute but it does mean I can't get into my workroom......it's behind the door with the calendar hanging on it!

So, I'll show you a journal page that I made last week..............it's not finished..........it's a double page, below is the right hand page, it needs some words but not got round to those yet!

I used a couple more digi mages that I got from DLLYBEANSTAMPS

and I added a moustache to the skelly.........makes me smile!

Spooky pumpkin!

I really liked the way this part of the pages came out.........gesso through a square stencil......paint........more stencilling over the top with a tree stencil.

Lynne Perrella

2011-10-16T13:21:00.000+01:00

As I said in my last post I went to a workshop taught by LYNNE PERRELLA on Friday.

This is what I made!

I really liked what Lynne called her "low tech" approach..........not using lots of overly expensive "stuff".
I mean you have to buy some"stuff" but sometimes not so expensive "stuff" can look great too! And the other thing about using individual "stuff" is that your work doesn't then look like everyone elses! I have always liked to use found things in my work so this approach suited me!

Not to give anything away here as it is Lynnes workshop but I think I can tell you that that face started as a very un-promising looking photocopy that had most of us looking sideways at it! Lynne said that although we were learning her method of working our finished pieces should still look like WE made them. I hope you think this looks like I made it!

There were lots of stamps available to use to make embellishments but I decided against that (as part of the individuality thing) and when I discovered a bag of black feathers what came to be known as my spirit bundles came into being!

This brass number 2 is the only thing I have added since I came home......it was meant to be used as a house number on your front door.......again that "found" object thing!

No one here but us dunces!

2011-10-15T10:45:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I went to a workshop with LYNNE PERRELLA.......it was good fun, I learned some new stuff, met up with new and old friends and generally had a good day out! My piece is NOT QUITE finished so I'll show it in the next couple of days when it is.

So in the meantime..................

...........MEET THE SKELLY DUNCES!

They are appearing in my A4 journal......I printed them full size on A4 paper and they fill the page quite nicely! Ok, so I know they are heading towards the cute but they just about make it onto my whimsical radar!!

Aren't they just the funniest things?
I saw them here on MANDYS BLOG (she is Lily of THE OCTOPDE FACTORY fames Mum!) and they made me smile!

They are digi images from SILLYDILLYBEANS

Pumpkin anyone?

2011-10-12T17:19:00.001+01:00

Wendy over at THE STAMP ATTIC sent me this Acrylic Shadowbox Frame Pumpkin to have a play with a while ago .......it has a back piece, three frame pieces and then an acrylic cover......you add paper, paint, stamp etc etc to it and then assemble the pieces together..............the only problem with that is that the acrylic cover is shiny and getting a good pic was nearly impossible........you could reflections of the camera, the rest of the room, me................so, I took it apart so you can see better!

This is the inside and the frame sections.....................

.....this is the acrylic cover with its added decoration........the leaf comes with the kit, in fact there are three of them......................

.....this is inside with stamped STAMPOTIQUE bods......I 3deed them a little so they stood out better..........

.....this is the leaf on the acrylic cover with added twisted wire and plastic spider......they are from the supermarket, amongst the Hallowe'en junk:)

Go over to THE STAMP ATTIC BLOG for more pics and details.

More birds

2011-10-11T05:00:00.002+01:00

This is my third piece as guest designer for 3D JEAN..............go over to their blog SCATTERED SCARLET to see more of the project.

These birds are by THE OCTOPODE FACTORY...............I think the bigger one looks like a budgie!

Is it a blackbird?

2011-10-10T05:00:00.002+01:00

The theme this week on TAKE A WORD is BLACKBIRD.......I have a soft spot for blackbirds especially crows, I have to say:)

I made this journal page as my entry.....not made a page for ages it seems so I treated myself and started a brand new A4 journal. In my other one I tend to work across a double page spread but in this one I'm going to work on single pages

I used collage sheets from ARTCHIX STUDIOS for my background and the bird dolls........

and new pennant stamps from STAMP CAMP that I bought at the Port Sunlight stamp show yesterday!

Where ever I lay my hat?

2011-10-09T05:00:00.000+01:00

It's ALTERED ALICE time again! If it seems to have come around again really quickly that's only cos I was so late with my piece last month!
Anyway onto this month where we are celebrating Mad Hatter Day in the USA.......Mad Hatter Day is determined by the label in the Hatters Hat so in the UK is June 10th and in the USA October 6th......any excuse to celebrate it twice!
Your challenge is to celebrate the Mad Hatter, and as OPTIONS you can use something that twinkles or shines AND/OR you can bring some spookiness into it since we are all having a "Twinkle twinkle little bat" sing-along around our mad tea table!

So I made my version of the Mad Hatters chair.......it seems he left the table and forgot his hat!

This month we are sponsored by new quintessentially English stamp company INDIGOBLU

I used three Hatter images from their 2 Alice stamp sets inside the spaces in the back of my chair and as we are in the Hallowe'en month I opted to add some bats!

The Hatters hat hangs on the back of the chair...........along wth its usual price label it also seems to have acquired a bat!

My bats are made from bottle caps( with bats printed on them) and wings from previous sponsor Stampotique.

Filling in time

2011-10-07T15:21:00.000+01:00

Today I was working on a couple of things that I had to keep leaving for paint to dry or for glue to set so in the time between when both were not workable-on I made a card!

This time last year I bought these kids skull thingies.......so today I took the skull off the purple heart, snipped the shank off the back, sanded it to get rid of the shiny bits and painted it......looks much better now!

Makes a spooky alternative head for this bat figure from Stampotique!

I do love these pumpkins, also Stampotique!

Don't be scared, it's only a painted doll!

2011-10-05T08:24:00.000+01:00

I haven't joined in a challenge for AGES but when I spotted the theme on THE THREE MUSES this week I had to play along.......the theme is BOTTLES or JARS.

I have something of an obsesssion with dolls heads just lately!

And an ongoing obsession with skulls!

Can you see them peeping out at you?

Isn't he cute with his big toothy grin??!!!

A skull with a moustache?

2011-10-04T05:00:00.001+01:00

Yes, you heard me! A skull with a moustache!

I recently got this fab steampunk skull stamp along with a steampunk spider stamp and a set of moustache stamps......can see those being used LOTS.........and some Pan Pastels....a new favourite thing........from THE STAMP ATTIC........if you go over to
THE STAMP ATTIC BLOG I have done a mini tutorial showing how I made these pages.

The wire mesh is from the garden section of B&Q!

Watts Cemetary Chapel

2011-10-02T19:05:00.000+01:00

This weekend I headed south to Compton a lovely little village just south of Guildford and discovered this ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL place..........Watts Cemetary Chapel.......designed by Mary Watts the wife of Victorian artist George Watts (his newly refurbished and re-opened gallery is also in Compton and well worth a visit)

The outside is decorated with terraotta mouldings.....I really liked these owls!

Beautiful faces..................

The entrance door surrounded by a choir of 15 angels.................

.....and then the inside..............OH MY!!!

Designed to represent The Tree of Life it is covered with BEAUTIFUL 3D raised decoration.....my pics don't do it justice.

This is the celing...............

Back outside in the GLORIOUS October sunshine there were some lovely tombstones in the graveyard.......here's just a few of them.

If you get chance to go please do, it was fantastic.

The scarecrow

2011-09-30T05:00:00.002+01:00

This month I have been the guest designer for 3D JEAN......I'm running a bit behind as it's the end of the month and I've only made 2 of the 3 pieces I should have done so it looks like I will be running over into October!

This time I've made a book using the scarecrow,one of THE OCTOPODE FACTORY stamps.... and Studio2Mers 12"x12" papers.

Pop over to 3D Jean blog........SCATTERED SCARLET.......to see more of the project.

Stampotique and sculptures

2011-09-28T21:00:00.000+01:00

First things first........I've recently made quite a hard decision and have stepped down from the Stampotique design team. I'm going to miss working with the rest of the fabulous design team but the time has come for me to move on. I will of course still be working with Stampotique images as I love them to bits!

Onto other things...........today I visited an open garden with a friend....it was a joy walking around in flip flops in glorious sunshine at this time of year. The garden hosts a sculpture exhibition at this time of year and these are a few of the things I saw. I wanted this hessian hares head to come home with me......but.....it was TOOOOO expensive!

There was also this hares head.....it was BIG.....about 4' long!

This rope spiders web.....thank goodness there wasn't a spider to match!

and these really fun wooden....huge.....conkers, on the ground and hanging from the trees

a lovely carved wooden owl.....again huge!

and finally this metal seed pod thingy........I wanted this one too!

Nonsense

2011-09-25T05:00:00.000+01:00

The challenge on ALTERED ALICE this month was to use text as nonsense - not to read but as pattern on your project, you could still have words or sentiments, but the main thing was to use text used in a non-reading way. The challenge is now closed but I have had such a busy month I didn't get to show my project before now!

My piece started out as this book.......it was in THE WORKS.....as you can see it was a buy one get one free bargain! I turned it into one of my fav folded paper page thingies! The pieces out the sides are the book covers.

This month ALTERED ALICE was sponsored by a UK stamp company.........
STAMP ATTACK......they have several Alice themed stamp sets...I used Mad Hatters Tea Party and Alice 2 sets

These silhouette images are a bit different.....I love them! I used them stamped in black for dramatic effect around the centre of my piece.................

and also stamped on thinner paper in a pale ink and added to the sides of the piece to give a shadowy effect

STAMP SALE

2011-09-23T09:40:00.000+01:00

This past few months have seen big changes in my life.......moving back to the UK in June being the biggest one..............and these changes have prompted big sort outs here! We are about to start on some building work at the house and as you have seen I have been having a HUGE sort out of my home studio space........sooooo this leads me onto the purpose of this rambling...............
This SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 25th I am going to have a
STAMP SALE combined with a
FREE TO A GOOD HOME EVENT........I did this before I left for Kazakhstan and there is still more to go!!

Stamps are going to be SILLY prices!

I know it's short notice but I just realised how little time there is till the builders come in!
If you want to pop along and need the address email me.......I'm in Crewe in Cheshire just to give you a rough idea!

And just in case you thought my studio space was perfect...............

this is the view of the other end of it.......you can see my desk on the left.......I have to share space with a fridge/freezer, washing machine, boiler and assorted shoes, coats and fishing equipment!
Such is life!!

This is the storage that sits to the right side of the pic above!

Stacks

2011-09-22T09:55:00.000+01:00

Stacks of what you might wonder!
Well, I just discovered Seth Apters blog (via INGRID DIJKERS blog)............THE ALTERED PAGE.........where he has a thing going called the PAPER STACK PROJECT........the idea is to take a pic of your favourite stack or stacks... cos we all have them lurking in our creative spaces.........post the pic(s) on your blog, email Seth the link and he will add it to the list on his blog for others to visit and gather inspiration!
So, here are my stacks!!

A stack of journals waiting to be worked in................

.......a stack of worked in journals..............

.....and a stack of one of my fav things.....old books to be used in my work!

It's getting to that time of year!

2011-09-21T05:00:00.000+01:00

Hallowe'en that is!!

I do LOVE Hallowe'en and I can't wait to get my Hallowe'en crafting into full swing!
In the meantime it's STAMPOTIQUE CHALLENGE time again and I'm using this months challenge of "black and white with a hint of colour" to show some more of the new stamps.

For my trick or treat card I have used FRANKIE 9219, CORIE 9217, COOPER 9218 and SKULLBOY 9221 which are new stamps and then ALPHABITTIES 6010 which is not new!

Stampotique stamps are available in the UK from THE STAMP ATTIC

Look.....

2011-09-18T10:01:00.000+01:00

where I've been!
Last week my husband decided we needed to get away for a little while before he heads back to work in Kazakhstan on Thursday so he booked us a hotel overlooking this.......................

The Angel of the North

In fact this is the view of The Angel from our hotel window.........it was called The Angel View Inn!

it's been a bit of a standing joke between the two of us......every time The Angel has been mentioned on TV or wherever my husband would groan as he knew I was going to say "you've never taken me there!!"

now he can say........"you've been so shut up!!"

I have to say it's a fantastic sight!

On the way home yesterday we decided to stop off at Killhope Lead Mining Museum(I am married to a geologist!)..........to get onto the site you have to drive through a ford in a stream, which we did........at the ticket desk the girl said we had just beaten the bloke who was putting out a sign to say the ford was too deep to cross and that we probably needed to wait a couple of hours to let the stream go down before we could get out!!!

This is that now innocent looking ford two hours later after the sun came out!

So, to kill the time we took a tour underground of the mine......this involved white wellies, hard hats, miners lamps and wading though cold water in the dark!

We also walked through the forest in search of red squirrels.........not a one to be seen!

A fun day.......with a story attached!!!

The makeover continues.........

2011-09-14T19:08:00.000+01:00

and has become something of a major re-shuffle.......much more than first planned! Yesterday we decided that I needed a new chair......previously I used a high stool but its too high for the desk.........not ones for "new" furniture we headed to a local antiques/collectables place and found this lovely cane seat and back chair.

Of course while there it would be rude not to have a root about among the other stuff.......found this lovely "thing".....not sure exactly what it is but I think something to do with loom weaving.......plus the other stuff on the chair.

We also found this printers tray........here it is getting a bit of a clean!

So, here is the re-modelled work space.......there is still PLENTY to do but it's getting there and I'm really happy with the way it's looking!

Mexican papercut skeleton with porcelain doll collection underneath..............

......the printers tray in place............

........close up of dolls............

.......old Meccano box.......mirror...........other "stuff"!!!!!

This is one reason

2011-09-11T09:06:00.000+01:00

for my lack of creativity lately! My creative space is having a makeover! There is so much STUFF in there that is never used and is using up space while I have other STUFF that there is no room for...........so the time has come to be ruthless! I also wanted to fit in a desk that had been lurking around getting in the way.

This is it part way through............more work on it today will hopefully see it looking better! And I can then get back to making stuff in a better feeling space!

Shuttle-cock?

2011-09-06T18:07:00.000+01:00

Nooooo shuttle-owl!!
I can hear you wondering what the heck I'm on about........well the feathers I used to pad out the wings came from an old shuttlecock........I heated the feathers till they shrivelled somewhat and then painted them...............................

..............I have to tell you that burning feathers STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN!
I did one indoors and had to do the second outside!

The owl is mounted onto a small cigar box (one of my Portugal purchases) that I covered with braille paper.....a pressie from a friend........if anyone knows where I can get more I'd be very grateful :)

Sides of the box covered with some tape I bought a while ago........it melts if you heat too much but I liked the effect!

More braille paper inside the box. So, why did I make this box.........JUST FOR FUN!!!!!

Guest designer

2011-09-05T06:00:00.000+01:00

I have been asked to be the guest designer for SCATTERED SCARLET...the DT blog for 3D JEAN. This is the first of 3 pieces that I will make during the month of September.

Visit SCATTERED SCARLET for more pics.

Art from the Heart blog hop

2011-09-03T10:00:00.001+01:00

Welcome to a very exciting blog hop in Celebration of 10 years of Art from the Heart!

Lots of exciting things happening at Art from the Heart next weekend where the big birthday bash is happening. Want to know more then do click here

So in Celebration we are having 5 birthday blog hops.

You should have reached my blog from here and are on the STAMPOTIQUE hop

here is my project

I used some of the new stamps that I am lucky to have now as I'm a member of the Stampotique DT......they will be available in the next couple of weeks

Bat like wings 6131

Mela 6134

Skullboy 9221

Frankie 9219

Tetewea 6132

Before you move on - you will need to collect a letter from me which is W

This is part of an anagram of a STAMPOTIQUE product

Once you get back to Dys blog please email your answer to Ben.

So after leaving me a comment you need to move on to

SHEILA

Have fun hopping!

The thing I made in Portugal

2011-09-01T17:37:00.000+01:00

I can finally show you all the finished (not quite) piece that I made in the workshop I just took with Michael DeMeng in Estoril in Portugal. First I want to say that Michael is a great teacher.......a very funny man with the patience of a saint......and I would take another workshop from him ANY day!!

On the front of my book is a metal shrine with a small glass bowl in the bottom of it that I bought in the flea market in Lisbon.......I also bought the porcelain doll whose head now sits in the glass bowl and the small light bulbs in the flea market.

......loved the little light bulbs.........

The clock parts I took from home.................

the inside of the book with niche.........

....large plastic doll hand and small plastic doll sitting on it......................

......on the inside of the cover..........

.......the edges of the pages...............

the spine made from curtain header tape...........with screws as attachments and as decoration.......

and finally two extra doll pieces!
The larger green one came to be known over the week as frog face or frog boy.....can't think why! Originally he was going inside the book but it turned out he was too big and the cover wouldn't close! So I have him for another something!!

New Stampotique

2011-08-31T07:45:00.000+01:00

Have you been chomping at the bit waiting for Stampotique Originals to release some more of your favorite stamps? Well, you have stopped in at the right place today! We are thrilled to announce our newest releases featuring many of your favorite designers.

We've got new images from Jo Capper-Sandon, Maryse Carrier, Janet Klein and Daniel Torrente and Jill Penney. There's a great mix of Halloween images, nature images, some winter images and some cute kid images. There's an image for everyone to ink up and you are sure to find more than one that you will have to have.

Are you drooling yet? Are you wanting to see some of these creepy, crawly, cute and furry friends? Then join the design team and our special guest for our new release blog hop today starting here. Make sure to leave a comments along the way and a randomly chosen commented will win some of these new stamps.

If you arrived here from DUTCHSTAMPTRAMP then you are in the right place. From here you will want to visit VALERIE

Below is a complete list in case you go off the beaten path and need some redirection.

Let us know what you think of the new stamps and which ones that you have seen are your favorite.

And the next day..............

2011-08-27T18:22:00.000+01:00

Here is my book in pieces, I spent a lot of time today putting it together......the inside pages with a niche.......the front and back covers..........

....here it is put together with orange, yes orange duct tape!

Don't worry.....it's not staying orange!

This is the spine........can you work out what it's made from?

Chopped off baby hand......................

with a gruesome little baby (I LOVE making these!) sitting in it, and placed in the niche in the book. Still lots of work to do!!!

Portugal progress report

2011-08-26T18:21:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd share some pics of the fun here in Portugal!
Here is Mr DeMeng wearing very fetching googles chopping my doll head in half...........

.....the head in two pieces..........

......with her eyes poked out........

.....Mr DeMeng again, this time demonstrating his creepy baby paint technique.....

......ooohhhhh creepy!!!!!

This is my book cover with a metal shrine and doll head I bought at the flea market in Lisbon.......

.......shrine in place.......little light bulbs added and moulding paste as texture...................

......little doll head with eyes from the half head added with with washers......................

......the 2 doll heads after several paint applications................

.....book cover with lots of paint...............even more added after the pic was taken!!

OK, more later as the book progresses!

Bookmarks

2011-08-24T05:00:00.001+01:00

It's STAMPOTIQUE CHALLENGE time again! This time KATE CRANE chose the theme and it's to make a bookmark. I LOVE bookmarks......I got carried away and ended up making 4!

I used JEEPERS 6082, JILL 6083, MISS SNOTTIE 6085 and CLOVER 6086

STAMPOTIQUE stamps are available in the UK from THE STAMP ATTIC

Tomorrow

2011-08-20T17:43:00.000+01:00

I am heading to Portugal! I am going to Art Paradise in Estoril and I'm going to take a 30 hour workshop given by Michael DeMeng called THE NAVIGATORS JOURNAL.........I am so looking forward to it.
I am taking my computer so watch this space for pics during the week :)

Puzzled owl?

2011-08-19T17:02:00.000+01:00

I've not joined in
THE OCTOPODE FACTORY FRIDAY CHALLENGE for quite a while now so thought I would this week! I made a tag.......not done that for a while.....it was fun :)

The theme is BIRDS OF A FEATHER......I used one of the owl rubber stamps

Detail of the top............

and the bottom ..........

....and a fun way to stand a tag up.......a bulldog clip!

Frustrating.......

2011-08-17T19:39:00.000+01:00

Have you ever spent time trying and trying to get something to work and it just won't come out how you want? Well that's what I've been doing for the last hour or so..............I now have 2 journal pages......one that is completely gessoed over ready to try again and another done but no use for what I needed it for! Aaarrgghhhhhh!
So, I decided I needed something I was happy with otherwise the time would feel completely wasted. Sitting on the side was a few pages from a dictionary and some new stamps.......................

so, stuck two dictionary pages in a journal.......no colouring cos that was the bit that for some reason was not working...........................

Stamped the hares (from 100Proof Press) onto card and coloured and cut out....................

stamped the circles (100 Proof Press) and then added the words....................DONE!

What's black, white

2011-08-16T15:04:00.000+01:00

and "red" all over? A newspaper of course!
That is all I could think about when I saw the theme on CRAZY AMIGOS this week.....it's black, white and red!

So with the newspaper thing in mind I used a piece of book paper across the centre of the card to represent it, I also stamped the pumpkins onto book pages and then cut them out.

The alphabet is ALPHABITTIES by STAMPOTIQUE and the pumpkins are rubber stamps from THE OCTOPODE FACTORY.

Sooooooo did you know that Hallowe'en is coming?????

Roses are red

2011-08-14T05:00:00.001+01:00

Altered Alice challenge time again!! This time we are sponsored by CREATIVE INSPIRATIONS.......each DT member was given a pot of garnet paint.....a lovely bright sparkling red. So, to go with the paint what else could we use as inspiration but the chapter of the book where the playing cards are painting the white roses red!

I used the red paint to stencil roses across the pages before adding small playing cards.

The hand guiltily dripping red paint is from THE OCTOPODE FACTORY

You might wonder why I have the numbers 2,5 and 7 on the page......if you read the chapter in the book these are the numbers of the cards that are painting the roses and arguing between themselves!

A La Dina

2011-08-11T14:22:00.000+01:00

It has been an absolute age since I last made a card, in fact I can't remember when it was!! I had dropped into thinking that cards were somehow "lesser beings" which of course they aren't and so stopped making them. I intend to rectify that situation starting with these!!

I bought these DINA WAKLEY (you should visit her blog if you don't already know it......she has a fab style all her own) stamps recently from THE STAMP ATTIC.
I intended using them in my journals mainly but they are equally good used on cards. I used the top page off my work pad that was nicely splattered/sprayed and splodged as my background, adding extra touches where needed......the odd bit of stencilling through sequin waste, extra spray of ink, strip of book paper, punched hearts etc etc.....a bit like a journal page really....only smaller!!

This is SILHOUETTE SCRIPT

and this is GRUNGY SILHOUETTE

To alter a page

2011-08-10T05:00:00.001+01:00

is the challenge issued by dt member Valerie Wilson this time at STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS CHALLENGE. As always there is a $30 gift voucher up for grabs for the winner.

I have taken a slight liberty.....as is my want :)............with the theme! I took some book pages and folded them, then I took a book cover and cut it down to make new covers for my new book and then glued a piece of page around the spine

The images I used are GOBBY LIN (6116) and GOG LIN (6118) by Jill Penney........confession time....these images were not an instant favourite of mine but they have really grown on me, they are so whimsically cute!

I like the way the little characters are peeping out of the pages......can you just imagine them peeping cautiously out as if to see if anyone is around? or is that just me?

Stampotique stamps are available in the UK from THE STAMP ATTIC

The theatre

2011-08-08T16:44:00.000+01:00

here in Crewe, Cheshire is 100 years old this year. There will be a week of celebrations in September including an exhibition of pieces based around the theatre and its history.......I am going to have a canvas panel in the exhibition that will be similar to this journal page.

I was allowed inside the theatre to take pics.....the one on the right is of one of the boxes overlooking the stage........the one on the left (and below) is of the outside of the theatre

This plaque is on the wall outside

The ballet dancers came from a leaflet advertising an upcoming performance.

I do love adding words with strips of paper :)

One of the reasons

2011-08-06T10:45:00.000+01:00

things have been a little quiet on here is that I have been preparing for the customer exhibition being held at my local craft shop......THE CUBBY HOLE......the shop is run by my friend of many years CAROL. Part of the shop is used as exhibition space for local artists and the current...as of yesterday.....exhibition is called SHARING THE DIVERSITY......customers were invited to create one piece on the theme of summer that would be displayed as a collage of pieces and one other new piece on any theme, then 2 or 3 other pieces that could be older work. The preview night was last night and was a great success.

This is the collage of summer themed pieces........

my summer piece!

And this is the new piece I created for the exhibition....it's called "FROM THE PAGES OF A BOOK"

The rest of my pieces......I carried the book theme over to these too..............

This is my "about me" label!! Short and to the point!

This was also a new piece......the other two....the steampunk and Alice themed pieces were older pieces.

Travels near to home

2011-08-02T20:57:00.000+01:00

As you may have gathered if you visit my blog regularly I love to travel and see new things......while I do love to travel to places far and wide I also think we should appreciate what is on our own doorstep!
So today a friend and I headed to CHEDDLETON which is near LEEK in Staffordshire.......the reason for this visit? To go to St Edwards church....pic above!

Inside this church is a most beautiful stained glass window by the pre-raphaelite artist EDWARD BURNE-JONES.
Three panels with angels with red wings!

Edward Burne-Jones was a friend of William Morris and a partner in Morris's company.

Another friend of Morris was Thomas Wardle who was a silk importer, dyer and printer in nearby Leek and William Morris who believed in only using natural dyes, spent three years at the factory learning dyeing techniques before he started his own famous company........you may wonder why I'm rambling on about silk dying but there is a connection with the church! The chancel roof is painted with symbols significant to the local community......one of these is a plant called the Wild Madder which produced a dye used by Wardles company to dye silk fibers. This also leads to the next connection...........

Wardles wife Elizabeth was given some of these dyed threads and asked to devise a method of embroidery to encourage the use of the silks. In 1879 Elizabeth founded THE LEEK EMBROIDERY SOCIETY .....it became well known for large church embroideries........and there was a beautiful example on display in the church.......I apologise for the poor pics but the embroidery was behind glass and the light from the windows behind did not help! I hope you can see how beautiful it is.

I hope you don't mind me rambling away about all this stuff.......but I find it fascinating and I hope some of you do too!!

Mum was a dress maker

2011-07-31T13:17:00.000+01:00

I grew up with

because

she was also a

and an

I just bought this BIG dress form stamp......this page is A4 so you can see how big it is......and it prompted a lot of childhood memories.......my Mum used to make bridesmaids dresses.....I remember people coming to the house for fittings......once the dresses were made of red velvet and we had red dust for weeks! This dress is stamped on canvas!

This page already had "stuff " on it.....been there WELL over 12 months, didn't like it much, couldn't decide what to do with it.......can you see the doily? looks almost like cogs......and the hole protectors? I worked over them, they added to the texture!

Yesterday.......

2011-07-30T11:46:00.000+01:00

I went to London and met up with a friend.
We had a full day planned that started in the British Library looking at an exhibition called OUT OF THIS WORLD Science Fiction but not as you know it.......it was really interesting, well worth a visit.........I have postcards so watch out for a journal page coming soon!
Next we went on to TEMPLE CHURCH....it's just off The Strand....this was our third attempt at visiting this church and it was finally open! This is the church featured in Dan Browns Da Vinci Code film, but that's not why we went! It is a medieval church built by the Knights Templar and has an unusual round nave......that's why we went!!

Next on the list was The London Review Bookshop in Bury Place right next door to Blade Rubber Stamps........now this sounds very worthy and while I do love a good book shop (which this was) the other reason to go there is that they have a coffee shop attached with THE MOST YUMMY cakes ever!!!!
Then just across the road to THE BRITISH MUSEUM to see their latest exhibition .....TREASURES OF HEAVEN......which was fantastic....lots of reliquaries.
By this time we were hungry again so we headed to COVENT GARDEN and an Italian restaurant called DA POLPO........yummy veggie (meat) balls and spaghetti!!
PHEW!! Time to head home..........I discovered my ticket home was FIRST CLASS......not planned, it was just the cheapest option......but very civilised......sandwiches, crisps, cake, tea/coffee and glass of wine......perfect end to FABULOUS day!!

To use red, yellow and orange......

2011-07-27T08:56:00.000+01:00

is the challenge presented by KAZ on STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS this time.

I took a slightly darker take on the theme than most of the other DT members......I was going to apologise for that but then decided it's just the way it is!!
I used NETHER(6073) and WINTER(6053) both quite dark characters!! Also CIRCLE BORDER(9136)and BLA BLA BLA(6991)

I found the quote in a magazine and it just seemed to fit somehow!

STAMPOTIQUE stamps are available in the UK from THE STAMP ATTIC

Do you know where you are?

2011-07-25T20:12:00.000+01:00

Do you ever get that feeling when you wake up that just for a few seconds you don't know where you are? Just lately I have had that feeling quite a lot! Not only do I not know which bed I'm in but I lie there wondering which house/apartment I'm in and then which country!!

I'm hoping it will get better as time goes by and I settle back into home here in UK!

This page shows how my head feels sometimes!! LOL The doily over the mouth is there for no ther reason than I drew around the mouth then didn't like it so needed to cover it over!!!

One of the things that is helping me settle back in at home is my garden........this plant is doing particularly well........

......so I cut some and took it into the house!!

A hoard

2011-07-23T20:59:00.000+01:00

This is my first proper blog post in 2 weeks!! On one hand I have missed blogging but I have to admit that the break (even though it was un-intended) has been good!!
I am now more or less settled back in at home here in UK and my husband is heading back to work next week so I am looking forward to getting back to more regular creating and therefore blogging.

While he was home one of the things we did was to go to Stafford to see THE STAFFORDSHIRE HOARD......a fabulous collection of Anglo Saxon gold and silver unearthed in a field near Lichfield.
This seahorse, which in real life is tiny, was one of my fav things.

I used a leaflet from the exhibition as the background for my pages, cut some pics from a couple of postcards, adding some stencilling and stamped some words.

Making these pages set me off on thinking about what makes a journal.....again!!! I mean does using leaflets and postcards from the exhibition make this more a scrapbook than a journal??? What do you think??
I don't really mind what it's called......art journal or just journal or scrapbook.....whatever it is, it's where I have fun, catalogue things that make me happy/smile/remind me of days out etc etc

I've been asked a few times what I use for my large lettering.....I use these (and other sets) foam stamps that I've had for EVER!! I love them dipped in paint!

SORRY..........

2011-07-18T10:13:00.000+01:00

for the lack of activity on here just now!!! What with moving back to UK, boxes arriving and unpacking them, decorating kitchens, fixing leaking showers and now a few days away in Suffolk things have been a bit hectic!!!

Normal service will resume as soon as possible! For now I'll leave you with this fun pic I took on Saturday!

Anyone 4 tea?

2011-07-10T05:00:00.003+01:00

Today is my day for my official piece of inspiration for ALTERED ALICE!

ALTERED ALICE!

This month we are sponsored by ONECRABAPPLE Etsy shop.......she has some quirky collage sheets (and not just Alice!) and is offering 5 collage sheets to the winner.

The challenge this month is to use a teacup or teapot in your piece.......I used both!!

ICON

2011-07-06T20:11:00.000+01:00

This is a piece I started while still in Kazakhstan but finished here in UK. It is made using an embroidered piece I bought in a haberdashery shop in Almaty........I have a liking for icon style images!

I used a cut out of the cathedral to stencil the outline around the embroidered piece and then across the other page.

I like this orthodox version of a cross.

Our packing boxes with our stuff from Almaty arrived yesterday, way sooner than we expected so my house now looks like a bomb hads gone off while we try and fit everything back in! 3 trips to the tip later.....the crap you keep is amazing!!