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!

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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!

Starry starry night

 TAKE A WORD.......STARS

Mad Hatters Tea Party at The Altered Alice

Celebrate MAD HATTER DAY with a MAD TEA PARTY, ALTERED ALICE style!

 Every year there are two MAD HATTER DAYS......one in the UK on June 10th and the second in the USA on October 6th. You may wonder why there are two days? It comes from the different ways the UK and the USA abbreviate the dates; here in the UK we use 10/6 while in the USA they use 6/10.
As this date is based on the 10/6 (ten shillings and sixpence) sign in the Hatters hat I have to say that for ME the real HATTERS DAY is June 10th!! But what the heck, I don't mind celebrating it twice!
So this month the sponsor of our challenge is THE ARTISTIC STAMPER, they are offering a 15pound voucher to the winner. Each DT member was given the LUCIE MABEL ATWELL Mad Hatter stamp to use for our inspiration pieces.

The challenge this month is to create a project to celebrate the Mad Hatter, AND to bring something to our Mad Tea Party! You have until Friday, June 24 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4:00) and we'll announce the winner of the £15 voucher for The Artistic Stamper stamps on Sunday, June 26!

Here are the design team's party contributions.

And here is my piece made using the Mad Hatter stamp. I also used a couple of the other Lucie Mabel Atwell stamps also from THE ARTISTIC STAMPER

Be sure and check back on June 10th when I will show you the teacups and saucers I made as my contribution to the MAD TEA PARTY!

Another big adventure!

 Today saw us on another adventure here in Kazakhstan! This time we headed up into the mountains that we can see from our bedroom window!

 First stop of the day was this lovely river.........we walked/clambered/climbed over the huge boulders alongside it ............

 ........this is a rare picture of me.......I am looking at this bridge which was made of rebar, had no handrail, was wet and slippy and just above a raging torrent.........thinking "you want me to walk over this?"......it was pretty scary but I DID IT......and another one.....TWICE each!!!

 The reason for this river trek was to get to this green metal hut!! You might ask why? Inside was a huge metal pipe spouting out hot, sulphur smelling  water......it is a mineral spring! You go inside and sit under the hot water for a few mins and then come out and get into the river which is only about 10degrees!! Repeat as required! There are pictures but they are not for public consumption!!!

 So after the mineral spring we headed further into the mountains to BIG ALMATY LAKE. We sat amongst the wild flowers looking at this view as we ate lunch; headed a bit further up the mountain and walked for a while back down towards the lake before being picked up by the car.

 We were just below the snowline............

 and just above the treeline...........a truly beautiful place!

If you read the written word

then more than likely you'll need a bookmark!

This week the theme on THREE MUSES is THE WRITTEN WORD. 
After some thought I decided to make a bookmark! I have a bit of a "thing" for bookmarks! I have dozens of them collected on my travels.....they make cheap and useful souvenirs.

 I had a hard time getting a decent picture of the complete bookmark.......so it's shown in bits!

It is made from the spines of two old books stitched together! This is the back.

 Skulls with words within them stamped onto paper......as I stitched around the edge of the bookmark I also stitched around the skulls

 

I made a tassel for the bottom......not a very good one but serves the purpose!

 Stitched skull charms and beads around the tassel