Altered Art????

At the end of our last holiday, we wasted a lot of time
at the airport looking for our suitcase because
somebody else picked it up up by mistake.

We finally caught up with them at the bus stop outside
(purely by chance) and exchanged bags.

I always put my name and address inside my suitcase,
so we would probably have got it back in the end,
but I don't need this sort of hassle!

I wanted to be sure I would be able to
spot my suitcase on an airport carousel.

It was a sort of plain silver colour.

Now it is themed with the season!


I'm not sure it's finished, but I like it better already!

And I certainly won't confuse it with anybody else's suitcase.

Just hope nobody else likes it enough to steal it...

Art & Soul Necklaces

I am travelling from Wales to Portland next weekend - as I am attending my very first 'Art & Soul' retreat. This is a week of luxury in a hotel (no cooking, no washing up, no food shopping, no worrying about what other people want or need), just playing with arty stuff and learning new techniques, playing with new materials, and meeting like minded people - my idea of BLISS!!!!

Part of the event is trading pieces of your art with others. I have made about 50 necklaces from laminate samples, some of which I have uploaded here. I have also made quite a few ATCs to trade. I will be taking lots of pictures of my time in Portland, and also of the time I spend with friends in Wisconsin (the second part of my trip) and I am sure some of them will eventually find their way onto my blog, so keep your eyes peeled!

New background idea

I needed a raspberry-related background
(don't ask, LOL)
and also wanted depth and glossiness,
so decided to play with some of my supplies
and some kitchen foil.

Of course, the scan doesn't show the glass-like appearance,
or the depth of colour,
so you will just have to imagine those elements!

To make something similar to the above background,
take some good quality kitchen foil and crumple it up,
then spread it back out without flattening it too much.

Paint it thinly with 3 or 4 acrylic paints - you can
allow to dry between layers or just slap it on,
but paint thinly, and don't cover the raised parts with paint.
I used Stewart Gill paints.

Add a layer of Opals heavy embossing powder -
Franklin, and before it sets sprinkle some texturising elements
on - I used Stewart Gill Byzantia Gilding Chips & Bijou Blends
and also some Glitterati fibres then added another coat of
Opals Franklin. It was looking pretty good at this point,
but didn't have enough 'depth' or zing.

So I added some more colour by applying
Ranger alcohol inks in Wild Plum, Cranberry & Raisin.

Perhaps if I try this again (and I think I will!)
I won't use paints as the base layer,
but will use alcohol inks direct to the foil
and see how much depth of colour I have.

I haven't tried cutting this into pieces yet,
but if it cracks when I do, I am sure a quick
blast of the heat gun will mend it!

Wedding cakes

My last post reminded me that I sometimes make wedding cakes.

So, I thought I would share a few photos of wedding cakes I have made.

The cake above was for a good friend of my brother's,
and if you look carefully, you can see some of
that 'Rosetti work' I have used on my doodle ATC!

The flowers are all made of sugar paste.

This cake was done to specific instructions,
for my eldest step daughter
(I think she thought I wouldn't like it).

I thought it was the coolest cake I have ever done.

(And the easiest!)

It was a humid day in July,
and the 'spikes' had 'relaxed' somewhat
by the time the cake was cut
(about 2 hours after assembling it)
but I think I liked the 'relaxed' version even more!

There were 5 layers, some madeira sponge cake,
some chocolate cake and the bottom layer was rich fruit cake.
Yummy! I like my cakes to taste even better than they look..

The cake above was done last summer,
for a friend, again to specific instructions!

Flowers and leaves all made from sugar paste

Doodling

Doodled all over this ATC for a swap on
CC Swaps - it was quite fun - I used to
do this kind of wiggly doodling
(called rosetti work) with an
icing bag and tube,
all over cakes,
to give texture!

The background is the paper that lined
my 'spraying box' and caught all the overspill
from any Radiant Rain, Color Mists,
Sticky Fingers colourwashes
or other sprays. It looks so pretty
that I have lined the box with new paper,
and cut this up to use as backgrounds!

Round Robin Board Book

This is a page I have just completed in a 'round robin' board book.

The theme was 'journey' - other contributors had
completed pages on spiritual journeys,
journeys across oceans,
journeys through time,
journeys to particular memorable places,
and the journey within,
but I chose to illustrate the journey of life,
and took Shakespeare's 'Journey of Man'
(from As You Like It) as my starting point.

I used photo transfers onto canvas for the images,
and although I like my doodles :-)
and the background
(torn pages from a thesaurus,
coated with Gesso & Nick Bantock inks),
I am not thrilled with the composition of the page.

It was, however, the only way I could find to
get all the components I wanted to add onto the page...

...and I hope Maggi likes it.

A belated chunky page

Here is a chunky page I made back in April.
I have not been able to post pictures until now because
this was part of a surprise chunky book,
which was presented to the recipient yesterday.

(front of page - closed)


The book was thought up by Debra Cochran,
as a way of saying a special thankyou to
Kathy 'Sweetpea' Beringer, who had done a
fantastic job of hosting a number of chunky books
on CC Swaps group.


(front of page - open)


68 people each made one page for this book -
which had to have a crown shape at the top -
and each and every one of them made an
extra effort to make their page special.

I added an Art quote to the front of my page because
I know Sweetpea likes art quotes,
and a fish because I know she likes fishing!

My page is made from mirror card with
texture added by using a rough embossing powder
(Marcasite by Stewart Gill) then coloured with Steam & Rust
alcohol inks. The front 'flap' is made from fun foam,
heated and stamped into, then painted with
Stewart Gill paints and finished with wax rub ons.

The fish was stamped onto a piece of 'caught in crystal'
and mounted onto a piece of background made by using
Posh Inks on glossy card, layered with some textured paper.

(back of page)

On the backs of our pages, we each wrote a little about
why we appreciate Sweetpea,
and included a photo of ourselves on the page
so that she can put a face to our names.

I understand Sweetpea quite liked the book :-)

Another Geodeco Thingie

Zeborah has a lot to answer for - these things are addictive!

I wondered about adding metallic elements
to the basic Geodeco Thingie
or even making one out of metal -
but contented myself with using
some patinated cardstock, metal tape,
alcohol inks and copper embossing powder
and wire to add metallic elements.

I am half way through another similar
(but improved) version with more
texture - watch this space!

For more information about Geodeco Thingies:

http://www.amstamps.com/geotut/

Metal ATCs

More ATCs for a swap - I am on a metal kick
at the moment - these are done with sticky backed
metal repair tape (bought in the hardware or DIY store).

As the tape isn't wide enough to cover an ATC,
I cut the tape up into small pieces and stick them
down on the cardstock, then go round the edges
making dents with an embossing tool.

A quick dab with alcohol inks,
and voila! a lovely background

I've done this before for altered book pages,
but today I had one of those 'light bulb' moments!

Why not stamp on the metal tape?
I found that Stazon worked well,
then I stuck my stamped images
onto some cardstock, cut them out
and mounted them onto the ATCs

Because the metal is very thin,
it is easy to make marks on,
so if you need letters or words,
just draw them onto the tape,
cut them out, and stick them down!

Arches ATCs

I needed to do 3 ATCs on the theme of Arches.
I saw some lovely stamps and ordered
and paid for them 3 weeks ago,
before the swap closing date,
but they haven't come yet :-(

The swap is due to be mailed,
so I had to go to 'plan B'.

I live in Brecon, which is a beautiful
town with lots of Georgian architecture,
so I took my camera off into town
and took some photos of arches.

Two were arched doorways and
one was an arch 'feature' in the
middle of a wall (why?).

I decided to make the ATCs a little
interactive by placing some
stamped pieces behind the doors,
and went with the theme of
'love' and a wedding!

Geodeco Thingies

Above - gold & black Geodeco Thingie with hot glue heart


Zeborah came up with the idea for Geodeco Thingies,
and has put a tutorial on the
After Midnight Art Stamps website:

http://www.amstamps.com/geotut/

I have been meaning to make one for a while,
but always seemed to have other things to do,
so I decided to motivate myself by running
a Geodeco Thingies swap on CC Swaps:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CCSwaps/


Below - black & blue Geodeco thingie
with air dry clay swirl
(made in a Krafty Lady mould)
and blue star gems

J ATC

I am taking part of an alphabet ATC swap,
where we make one letter of the alphabet each fortnight.
We started with Z and are working our way to A.
I was a bit stumped with 'J' - I could think of lots of words,
but not many ways to represent them.

I finally decided to stop hoarding my gesso backgrounds
and used some for this 'J is for jigsaw' ATC.

Nice Matters Award

The Nice Matters Award is a new friendship award started by Bella Enchanted.
This award is for those bloggers who are NICE people;
good blog friends and those who INSPIRE good feelings and inspiration.
Also for those who are a POSITIVE influence on our blogging world.

Dawn very kindly nominated me, and you really need to
check out the gorgeous new furniture she has purchased:

http://goldbettyboop.blogspot.com/

I would like to nominate these people for a NICE BLOGGER award

Annie - http://anniesatticroom.blogspot.com/
Autumn - http://www.autumnlightdesigns.blogspot.com/
Bren - http://brens-stuff.blogspot.com/
Chrissy - I'd like to add her, but she hasn't shared her blog address!!!!
Fiona - http://www.fionascreations.blogspot.com/
Helen - http://vagabond35uk.wordpress.com/
Maggi - http://fromtheartgrotto.blogspot.com/
Pauline - http://thequietestone.blogspot.com/
Sally - http://sallycraft.blogspot.com/
Sweetpea - http://sweetpeasgotart-i-tude.blogspot.com/
Trish - http://www.trishbayley.com/techniqueszone/
Zeborah - http://zeborahloray.blogspot.com/

I could go on, but these few will be enough for now!

So to all the wonderful ladies listed above I would like to
THANK YOU for brightening my day with your blogs!

Hanging ATCs

I recently ran a 'Hanging ATCs' themed swap on CC Swaps.
Participants had to create a set of 3 ATCs
and they had to be able to be hung on a wall.
Some people hung their ATCs individually,
some in a vertical set, some in a horizontal set.

I made a 'shell' themed trio,
stamping brilliance inks in silver, gold and blue as a resist
to blue & green dye ink,
and making matching shrink plastic 'dangles'.

I was going to hang the ATCs onto a thin piece of driftwood,
but they are going to Australia,
and I was worried that the driftwood
might be a prohibited import,
so I created a twisted wire hanging arrangement.

I rather like the assymetrical nature of the wire,
and the fact that the ATCs don't hang level,
but if my swap partner wants to straighten
it out so that the ATCs hang level,
then there is enough flexibility for her to do that.

ArTiTextural Home Fat Book

I have been quiet for a couple of weeks because
I have been working on 55 fat book pages.

Each picture shows the backs of the pages on the left,
and the fronts on the right

I had to incorporate fabric onto the pages,
and originally made 55 glittery squares,
but couldn't come up with a design which used them in a way I liked,
so decided to use gauze down the side of the page instead.

This is the first fat (or chunky) book I have ever
worked on where the pages didn't need to be as near
identical as handmade pages can be.

It is also the first fat book I have ever worked on where
I will get to meet many of the contributors,
as this fat book is being made for the Portland Art & Soul retreat.



I think it will be a fantastic book,
and with 48 artists contributing,
it will certainly be fat!

I wasn't quite brave enough to make them all different,
but I did vary the design here and there and did five different colourways.

I found it interesting to see how the same design
can look quite different according to the colours used.
When I began working on these pages,
I liked the 'gold' version least, but having finished,
I think I like that page most of all!



Finally, the house which inspired the pages, built in 1873,
probably for the housekeeper and handyman/chauffeur
of the governor of the local jail,
who lived in a much grander house next door!

Gesso Shabby Chic ATCs

I used the background I made to create a set of 3 ATCs.
As I had used a Cory Celaya stamp to stamp into the gesso,
I used three more Cory stamps to stamp into air dry clay,
and then painted them with Stewart Gill Byzantia 'Laurelius' paint.
Once that was dry, I gave the embellishments a quick rub
with turquoise Rub'n'Buff.

I added some coloured mica flakes to the corners,
and mounted them onto a background I made
some time ago using colourwashes
and interference embossing powder.

These are going to my friend Maggi,
I hope she likes them!

Textured gesso

I have been playing with gesso.
I am running a swap on CC Swaps,
where I have asked the players to use one of
four techniques using gesso, so I thought I would have a play
and see which of the techniques I liked best.

The samples below are 'textured gesso'.

The top sample is a piece of cardstock painted
with a thick layer of black gesso, and stamped into
with a flourish stamp while the gesso was still wet.

It looked interesting,
but didn't really do that much for me.

And then I gave it a rub with rub'n'buff wax.
Wow, it really showed the texture, and I LOVE it.

The samples below were rubbed with
rub'n'buff in turquoise (left) and gold leaf (right)

The samples below were rubbed with
rub'n'buff in antique gold (left) and amethyst (right)

The sample below is white gesso,
stamped into with a Cory Celaya stamp
(from After Midnight Art Stamps)
and rubbed over with turquoise rub'n'buff
and tiny touches of gold leaf rub'n'buff.

It looks kind of weathered and 'shabby chic'.

Black & White

Another swap - this time the theme was black & white with a touch of red. I created my ATC and then thought a 'negative' version might be fun, so created that too.

It didn't look as good as I expected, considering all I had done was to reverse the colours - I guess it is all in the way we perceive things...

Neglected Colours ATCs

I made these 2 ATCs

for a swap entitled
'neglected colours'.

These are colours I never use, but might start using from now on.

The slide mount on the right and the matting under the flying beastie below have been painted with Golden acrylic micaceous iron oxide paint. My friend Jessie sent me some, and I have only just started playing with it but I already know
I LOVE the stuff.

Canvas

Been playing with canvas for another swap - this is the final version,
and wish I could take better photographs.
The canvas is more purple than the picture shows,
and the area within the 'picture frame'
is actually coated with crackle glaze.
The picture frame is made from texture paste,
applied to a masked off area, allowed to dry, and painted gold.