Spotted Sweetlips

and his friends Regal Dragonfish, Four Eyed Butterfly Fish and Polka Dot Grunt!

These are real fish names......I found them in this book...........

and used them on this journal page along with Stampotique fish!

  Texture with gesso through a letter stencil.

I'm on a bit of a STAMPOTIQUE-fest at the min.....I do LOVE their quirky images! 

So, I am entering this for the current  STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS CHALLENGE, the theme is NATURE!

Just hanging around

and moving swiftly on from the Voodoo doll that seems to have been a step too far and scared most away from leaving a comment:) 

Not that I blog just for comments, I do what I do and blog it cos I like to share but I have to say that, of course, I do like comments as much as the next person!  

 This page is much more colourful than I have done for a while! I used spray inks, stencils and a bit of paint for the background......

 The baubles are old book pages.....a bit of gesso and a bit of pink Distress ink and then stamped over

 I am entering this for last weeks STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS CHALLENGE where the theme was "something hanging"......I know I am stretching that theme somewhat  as it is intended that the thing you make can hang but I like to push the boundaries:)

Who would you voodoo?

You can blame Andy Skinner for this......there was a bit of a voodoo thing going on on his Facebook  page a couple of days ago and it set me thinking about Voodoo.......this doll is the result!

 I looked up MAKING A VOODOO DOLL and discovered that they were usually very simple things, a couple of sticks tied together in a cross shape, I used a couple of coffee stirrers! Then they are wrapped with some sort of stuffing.......I used a length of cotton tape......after that I deviated somewhat and used an old doll head.

 Further decoration with beads

 The hole in the doll head was filled with feathers from an old shuttlecock.......

the traditional pins to stick in the doll are made with heart beads stuck to dress making pins

 

Used beads for the eyes......again a traditional thing to use......gives quite the doll quite a stare!

So, who would you Voodoo?

In Flanders fields

Today is Remembrance Day.

 I made this in commemoration.

I have used a First World War poem by John McCrae on my pages but I am well aware that Remembrance Day commemorates those who have died in the line of duty not just in the First World War but in many wars since then.

 I used this picture as my background.......I took it a few days ago in Prague, it is the Old Jewish Cemetery and although it is not a war cemetery I use it as a symbol of all those fallen and buried.

Remember.

Ossuary

I just got back from a few days in Prague (a birthday treat) and I'm not going to bore you with lots of pics but just had to share this place......it was weird even for me!!!!!

Inside this quite innocent looking chapel on the outskirts of KUTNA HORA (a town about an hour or so drive from Prague) is the 

SEDLEC OSSUARY 

 

 

 The ossuary is thought to contain the bones from 40-70,000 people.....most of which have been arranged to form decorations for the chapel!

 The decorations include a chandelier..................

four large mounds or pyramids......

 these candle holder thingies......

 

 and this coat of arms of the Schwarzenberg family.......

 a detail of the coat of arms........

 An interesting if slightly strange experience!

Winter is coming

 This page has been wandering around in my head for the past several days, it was time to get it out and into a journal, now I can stop thinking about it!

 I've had this skull/tree stamp for over 12 months, it was time it was used......I LOVE IT!

(the words aren't on the stamp, I added those)

 If you watch GAME OF THRONES the quote

 "WINTER IS COMING" will be even more significant!

 OK, confession time......while I was making this I thought I'd use a different alphabet than usual.....its easy to reach for the same one every time so I was rooting through drawers and even I was surprised how many alphabets I found:)

 2 drawers full of boxed alphas and another with unmounted ones, 

my name is Sue and I'm an alphabet addict!!

Forever in pursuit of

the unpredictable let me introduce you to my 

HALLOWE'EN RABBIT!

OK so I can hear you thinking "aren't rabbits usually associated with Easter?" 

Well of course they are, but then that's the whole point of using one for Hallowe'en......you don't expect it:)

 He started life as a quite ordinary looking white fabric rabbit that EFFIE sent to me ages and ages ago........I painted him black then added old book pages to the body. Next he was painted to give him a jacket....I had to resist painting him stripy trousers so he had a spotty jacket instead!

 He has a spooky spider skull necklace........

 and wings.....why not???? (they are from Stampotique)

 He is fastened to a decorated old book cover

I am entering this piece into the current 

STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS CHALLENGE

......the theme is "funny Hallowe'en"......

what could be funnier than a Hallowe'en Rabbit???