Birthday canvas

Another friend, with another birthday... this friend likes hearts, so I used those instead of/as well as buttons.


I painted the canvas with white gesso, then added a coat of Golden fluid acrylic in titanium buff, then coated the top half in Golden fluid acrylic raw umber, then added a little more titanium buff where the colours joined, to blend the edge a little.

I stamped some flourishes using Golden fluid acrylic bronze, then 'sewed' the hearts on with gold 28 gauge wire.

Birthday canvas

Life has been way too busy of late, and I haven't really had much time to have fun, but this canvas for a friend's birthday was fun to do!!! The background is canvas painted with white gesso, then acrylic paint, then stamped with white gesso. The heart is fun foam - heated, stamped into while hot, and cut out when cold. A touch of rub on wax in a metallic finish adds something, too.


I hope she likes her 'birthday card'!!!

Victorian Gothic themed wedding

So, when a friend invites you to their wedding, and tells you it is 'Victorian Gothic' themed in terms of clothing, you have just the thing at the back of your wardrobe, don't you?

After trawling through what seemed like millions of websites, and a couple of costume hire shops, I decided I would have to make my own costume.

I'm not quite sure what Victorian Gothic looks like, but I couldn't find much in the way of sewing patterns, so I went for a 'kind of' medieval style of dress, and thought the dark colour of the taffeta fabric made it a bit more gothic. As the wedding was in mid August, when it is supposed to be hot here in the UK, I took the advice of the fabric shop staff, and lined the dress with antistatic/anti cling lining material. Of course, that meant making 2 dresses, and sewing them together round the neck. About half way through, I did begin to wonder about my sanity...



The front of the dress has a net panel, with small diamante gems and iridescent beading, using seed beads. I did the beading while working away from home last week - about an hour before breakfast and 2 hours after dinner for 3 days.


Husbands like to take pictures from the most unflattering angles...




The back of the dress is laced. We hunted everywhere for the right kind of ribbon or cord to lace it with, and eventually bought some braided cord in a pale gold, which I was dyeing with Adirondack colorwashes 2 hours before the wedding. I went to the wedding with very gothic looking deep green fingers LOL.

The bride wore a blood red dress with a basque style top and medieval sleeves. Only a few others dressed up, one lady had a black dress with some sequins and embroidery on the bodice, and several men wore frock coats, frilly shirts and cravats. I didn't feel too out of place, and the dress attracted a few compliments!

Iridescent gift wrap background

I have been in a fantastic 'angelic' skinny page swap which involved quite a few Australians. Some of them had used fantasy film in an interesting way on their pages. They had stamped and embossed an image onto their backgrounds, coated the page with gel medium, added fantasy film and heated. The embossed pattern shows through the fantasy film - a really neat effect. I tried it with a couple of chunky pages I am making and it was a complete disaster - the fantasy film shrank and distorted the pages beyond any possible flattening out. I wondered if I had done it wrong, or should try again using much thicker cardstock.

While I was thinking about this, I remembered some other 'stuff' - a year or two ago, Zeborah (see blog links) was playing with some iridescent gift wrap, trying to make 'faux dichroic glass'. I couldn't get any of the giftwrap here in the UK, and 'Legs' (http://www.picturetrail.com/queenoftexas) very kindly sent me some. I have since discovered fantasy film, which is thicker, has better colour, and stands up to heat better. However, for this technique, I think the thinner iridescent gift wrap has the edge.

I painted some cardstock with Stewart Gill Byzantia Aegean paint, then embossed it with a Stampcamp stamp which looks like the veining in rock, and a deep green iridescent embossing powder. I coated this with some gel medium, laid the gift wrap on top, and zapped with my heat gun. This is how it looks:


I then used the background to make some ATCs - for this one, I stamped onto heatproof acetate, and embossed the image in white. It is adhered to the ATC with Glossy Accents.



For this one, I stamped and embossed the image on acetate, then added some embossing to the background so that it is hard to tell where the acetate begins and ends.


For the final ATC, I dumped a small pile of 'Macquirie' Opals embossing powder onto a craft sheet, heated until melted, then stamped into it using this stamp from Cre8it. Once it was cold, just peeled it off the craft sheet and stuck it onto the ATC.

Had to have it swap

For this swap, you had to use something that you 'had to have' at the time you purchased it, but haven't actually got around to using! There were so many things in my stash to choose from...




In the end, I chose 3 things - some charms which I love but couldn't bring myself to use; a pasta machine which I had bought with the intention of conditioning polymer clay; and polymer clay, which I bought ages ago but haven't had the confidence to play with.


I covered some mountboard (about 2.5 inches by 4 inches) with brown paper, and gave it several coats of purple Stewart Gill True Colour paint (I still seem to be on the 'purple' trip!).

I stamped it with a texture stamp in Brilliance Galaxy Gold, and didn't like it, so gave it another coat of purple!!! It does have slightly more depth as a result.

I used black Fimo polymer clay for the embellishment in the centre - Fimo is most commonly available brand of clay in the UK. I conditioned it in a pasta machine, then stamped into it with a flourish stamp. I trimmed it into a tile shape, and brushed it with purple and gold PearlEx before cooking it in my Melt Pot (which I hardly ever use).

I attached a little hanging bracket to the back, and adhered the polymer clay tile and charms to the front, using Golden extra heavy gel medium. I hope my partner like it, because I will have a little trouble letting it go!

Purple & gold skinny page

I made this page for a small swap, the brief was that we had to make the page mostly purple with gold, and that we had to use a Paper Artsy stamp somewhere on the page.

The front of my page is on the right, I painted white textured cardstock with some purple Stewart Gill paint, then painted a layer of Jo Sonya's gold dust medium on top. This is a thinnish gel medium with small gold flakes suspended in it. When it dries, you can't see the medium, just the gold flakes. I accidentally did a second coat on one page and the medium has gone semi opaque, I won't make that mistake again.

Next step was to add some gold down the left hand side. I have some starry punchinella, so I stippled gold paint through it. I then stamped the Paper Arsty stamp several times over the length of the page, and embossed with violet interference embossing powder. This gave quite a subtle look to the pattern. The main embellishment is a moulded piece of friendly plastic - I like the partial mould effect rather than the 'perfect' moulded piece. Friendly plastic is lightweight and resilient, and survives postal journeys really well.

The back of the page is sprayed with 2 or 3 purple colour sprays, the daubed with some scrunched up plastic to give some texture. I stamped the image 3 times with Versamark and embossed with jewelled gold embossing powder, then stamped the image twice more in purple dye ink.

Fabric paper ATC

I made an ATC for a friend, using fabric paper:

http://adriennegoodenough.blogspot.com/2007/11/beryl-taylors-art-soul-class.html

as the background.

I stamped and embossed it and added an air dry clay face. Sadly, it hasn't scanned too well, because of the thickness of the face.
It's a shame to send him on his travels,
I'd quite like him to stay and keep me company!!!

A deco book

I haven't had a deco to work on for a little while, then this one arrived. It was completely bare, i was the first person to work in it. Daunting, or what. I looked at the blank page for nearly a week before I managed to put some paint on it.

Finally, I coated both sides with Stewart Gill paint, then adhered a piece of fantasy film (mother of pearl) with gel medium, then ironed the page between 2 sheets of baking paper. It has left a kind of mother of pearl effect on the page.


I stamped over the fantasy film using Ranger archival ink in grape, and used the same ink to stamp the words above.


The back of the page is also 2/3rds covered with fantasy film, and the purple piece is a piece of glossy cardstock, stamped with an image (Diva Impressions) in Brilliance, dried and rubbed all over with purple dye ink. The Brilliance resists the dye ink.

Row Houses

Well, I know these little row houses are very popular, and are popping up all over the net, but I had real trouble with them!!! I needed to make 26 for a swap. I looked at other people's, and loved them all, but couldn't quite get my own take on them straight. I have dabbled and dabbled, which is why there are several little groups of differing styles within the pictures.

When I finished, although they don't seem to have a cohesive 'style' I was happy with all but one. Can you guess which???

Update - I mailed these to the swap hostess in two batches (because I left the top 5 on the scanner bed and didn't find out till the next day). And only the set of 5 arrived. Somewhere in the British postal system, reside my 21 row houses, all unappreciated. How sad is that?

Angelic pages 2

These are the other 3 angelic pages I made for the Angelic Tall & Skinny book (which is going to be the fattest skinny book I have ever seen!)


Group 4 pages - I started with some dark pewter flower patterned/textured cardstock, and smooshed a black inkpad over the textured pattern to bring the pattern out. On the other side of the card, I used a magazine page to dab various shades of metallic, transparent and opaque acrylic paints onto the page. The paints were a mixture of Golden fluid acrylics and Jacquard Lumiere paints. Once dry, I stamped over them with some antique text in Galaxy gold Brilliance ink.

The angel on the left is actually Victory, it is a photograph of part of a a Roman bronze relief plaque found at Caerleon Roman Fortess in south Wales. I separated her from her background in Photoshop Elements.

The angel on the right is a scan of a half finished angel as used for one of my previous pages, before I added the upper body. I rather liked it, so I used it as one side of this page.


Group 5 pages - the images are both Tiffany stained glass panels. I love Tiffany glass, the coliurs are so rich and the designs are beautiful. I didn't want my background to detract from the beauty of the glass, so I just crumpled some black tissue paper, smoothed it out, and stuck it to cardstock with gel medium. I smooshed over the top of the creases with Versamark, then used 2 colours of Moonglow embossing powders mixed together - Angel Peacock Wings and Desert Moon Copper Pine. These turned into gorgeous deep green pearlescent highlights on the page.


Finally, my Group 2 pages. The page on the left is another crumpled background - this time it is crumpled copy paper. I coloured it with colourwashes, dried it, crumpled it, and used a Pearlescent Purple Brilliance pad to highlight the raised areas. I took the photograph of the graveyard angels, and turned them purple in Photoshop Elements before printing onto transparency. I used gel medium to adhere the transparency onto some iridescent textured gift wrap, which just adds some glittery sparkle behind some parts of the image.

The page on the right is a digital collage of a child graveyard angel, layered onto a background of a faded wall with ferns growing in it. I stamped the phrase using pigment ink.

Time tip in page

The theme for the CC Swaps monthly tip in page is 'Time'. I am still playing with fantasy film, so thought I'd make my page embellishments shine. I used 2 colours of film, and inked up some time themed rubber stamps with black Stazon ink, laid 2 layers of fantasy film on top, a layer of copy paper on top, then ironed with a dry iron on the cotton setting. This fuses the fantasy film layers together and heat sets the ink into the film. A quick trim around the edges, and you have gorgeous shimmery embellishments. Stamps by Non Sequitur and Invoke Arts.



The backgrounds of the pages were plain cardstock, painted and daubed with Stewart Gill Pearlise paint in Mermaid and Paua Shell. They are all shimmery. I stamped the 'time' background and embossed it with 2 different embossing powders - and interference one (which doesn't show up because the background wasn't dark enough), and a gorgeous pearlescent one from Simply Craft in Cardiff. The owner has had her own range of embossing powders made to her own specification, and they are gorgeous. They are a little more expensive than the ones I usually use, but I think they are worth it. Finally, I stamped the 'time spiral' using turquoise Stazon ink.

Angellic skinny pages

What was I thinking??? I signed up for 6 sets of 12 pages for this skinny book. Each set has to have a different design. Mind you, that's better than doing 72 pages all the same, which would have driven me nuts. But it is stretching my brain, thinking up new designs. I think each page is marginally better than the previous one - so the last one should be GREAT - unless I peak early!!!


The front of this page has a fantasy film embellishment, the back is the same design, stretched, and printed onto transparency. The background is pale blue cardstock, dabbed with iridescent medium.


This angel is based on a Diana Twedt template - I shrank it to fit my page, then covered it with printed paper and overlays of stamped tissue. The printed paper is pretty unique - it comes from a very old New Testament, which has each page printed in Welsh, with the English version on the other side. I thought it appropriate for angels. Her upper body is a combination of stamped tissue and stamping. The wings are only glued under the body, so they are free to flap... The hair is Golden mica flakes. The back of the page combines elements form the front - mica flakes and the printed pages, with an angellic cherub stamp (Bella Rosa).



This angel is a photograph of a ceramic sculpture that I photographed in a gallery a couple of years ago. The background is colourwash sprays, overstamped with chocolate Brilliance diamonds which are made up of fine swirls (Innovative Stamp Creations). The cardstock is textured on the front, so the background looks slightly different on the back. I stamped the angel wings all over (Invoke Arts) then added detail with a white pen.

3 sets done, 3 to go - and 2 of those are half done, just waiting for the postman to bring more printer ink and a new stamp!!!

Sweetpea's deco

I was looking for something new to try, and wanted to use an interesting background. Rachel Bland made a gorgeous background for the background swap a while ago, so I thought I'd give her background technique a try. I covered a piece pf copier paper with 2 Radiant Rain dauber colours. One daubed much better than the other, so in the end I took the dauber off and used a paintbrush... I let the paper dry, then crumpled it up and smoothed it out again. At this point, I was supposed to spray it with webbing spray, but my webbing spray is inaccessible, so I just smooshed a Galaxy Gold Brilliance inkpad over it to highlight it. I added some crumpled gold paper and some stamped embellishments.

For the back, I used the same paper, but made the embellishment by ironing fantasy film onto a stamp inked with Stazon. The stamps are both by Stamp Diva, and remind me of some Paperbag Studio ones, but I like the sentiments on these. I added my name using a child's dymo machine!

Angel with lace

I am involved in a big skinny book swap with the theme of 'angellic', so I have been exploring ways of representing angels. This angel is a Christmas decoration (why did i think of this in July???) based on an idea and template by Diana Twedt. I have made it from cardstock instead of the foam core board and matt board Diana uses - because I wanted this angel to be light and flat for mailing. I used stamped tissue paper to cover the angel body, and brown and embossed torn papers for the torso and arms part, which lays over the body. I thought it would be fun to use faces clipped from magazines instead of stamping a face, and the wings and halo are made from Sheer Heaven, which will take any amount of punishment.

Architecture swap for Fiona

I have been working on an architecture themed swap today. As you read this, you will begin to see how my mind works, and also how my artwork never ends up anything like the original plan!

I fancied the idea of a little shrink plastic 'house' that opened. I took pieces of shrink plastic that were 4.5 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide, cut some diagonals off to make a roof shape, sanded, coloured, stamped and shrank.

The front doors

The inside of the front doors


The inside

The back.

At this point, I decided that the whole thing was way too small to send as a swap, and wondered how big a piece of shrink plastic I could shrink to make a bigger house. When I looked at my shrink plastic stocks the question became immaterial, as I didn't have enough white shrink plastic to try!

And so began version 2 of the architectural swap...

Fiona had sent me a tin to alter some time ago. I decided to use it as the basis of the swap. I painted the tin with 4 very thin layers of black gesso, then stamped the spots with brilliance ink. I fused some fantasy film using a stamp, Stazon and a hot iron, to create the embellishment. I edged the piece with cream dimensional paint. I may yet dust this with Pearl Ex to make it less stark. I attached the key and keyhole to finish the front.


I painted the inside to match the front, and created a little shrink plastic shrine. The shrine is two layers of shrink plastic, glued together with spacers after shrinking. The door opens and Fiona will be able to see who is inside.

I thought I had finished at this point, but decided the left hand side looked too bare.

I searched through my stash and found some clear shrink plastic wings left over from another project, so that led me to think of an angel... and this Paper Whimsy image that was just the right size. It still looked a little stark, so I decided she needed a halo. I also decided I should have painted that before I stuck her in!!! Which is why she ended up with a blue starry halo.......

I hope Fiona likes it!

Playing with moulding compound

I bought myself some 2 part silicone moulding compound from Polymerclayexpress. It is $7 for a small pot - considerably cheaper than some of the big brands available on other websites and in the shops, and it works just as well. In fact, mould'n'pour costs £13 here in the UK, almost 4 times the price.

Actually the compound from Polymerclayexpress works better, as it has a 10 minute curing time instead of a 3-4 minute curing time. So you have lots more time in which to work, if you need it. if you want a quicker result, Polymerclayexpress also do a yellow version which cures in 2 minutes or so. You don't have to use a whole pot at once, like I did!!! I did mix it up a bit at a time, but once I had made the first 2 moulds, I got carried away and kept going until the pot was empty! It took maybe 20 minutes to make these. Eleven moulds for $7 has to be a bargain, and I also know that the embellishments I make will be different from those that I see on most other people's artwork.


I bought the charms form Fancifuls Inc a while ago. They have the most extensive and fabulous range of charms there, in a wide range of sizes. if you go to their website, take a big pot of coffee because you will be there for a while. And their website does take a bit of navigating. I have to have a pen and paper by my side to write the codes of the ones I like down as trying to find them again is too time consuming!

I LOVE charms, but there are times when you don't want a metal embellishment, or even a shiny embellishment, and when you need an embellishment that is more flexible than metal. So, a mould opens up the possibility of having the same motifs in air dry clay, in whatever colour I want!


The other moulded items are some resin sticky backed embellishments I bought during my trip to the US last October. I have never seen them here, so I thought I would take moulds of them to re-create them in air dry clay once I have used the embellishemnts on projects.

Oriental Little Beauties

As many of these have raised embellishments
on them, they proved difficult to scan.
My photos are not that much better,
but at least they aren't all blurry!


These were made by adding 3 layers of deep green
embossing powder to chipboard,
stamping into it before it cooled,
and adding shrink plastic and metal embellishments.


Shrink plastic & metal embellishments mounted
onto oriental printed mirror card
- coloured red with a Stazon pad -
and layered onto black glossy card.



The left hand Little Beauty is an air dry clay
embellishment (Krafty Lady mould) mounted
onto a handmade scrunched magazine background.

The centre one is stamped (Curtis Uyeda at Paula Best)
and embossed and layered onto a handmade background,
and the one on the right is stamped
onto black card with Versamark,
brushed with Pearl Ex and sealed with hairspray,
then mounted onto gold mirror card.



The Little Beauty on the left is stamped
and embossed onto printed paper,
layered onto black glossy card
and finished with a peel off.

The one on the right is an air dry clay moulded
embellishment (Krafty Lady) mounted onto
black glossy card and finished with red peel offs.

Autumn's deco

This page is for Autumn's book.
I know Autumn likes mermaids and I did
consider them as the theme for this page,
but decided that as many friends have sent a mermaid
to Autumn this month, she probably has enough
mermaids right now! I decided on women, instead...

I used a page from a Welsh book,
some stamped tissue, some textured card,
and a Little Beauty sent to me
by Carol Sweeney (see blog links)






For the back of the page, I sprayed the card with several
shades of blue colourwash, and it was very bright.
I felt it needed to look 'older' to go with the front,
so I gave it a wash of walnut ink to age it.
I stamped it with a texture stamp from Hearts in Touch,
and framed a Crafty Individuals transparency
with a frame made from a Crafty Individuals
'framed bird' stamp with the centre removed.

Sweetpea's deco book

I worked on a couple of pages for Sweetpea.
I had seen Annette in Oz (see blog links)
do some work using cuttlebug folders
in a slightly different way,
and wanted to try for myself.



I quite like the textured effect,
but need to work on the technique some more,
as I like the way Annette's colours blend
more than mine!!!

I also had a play with laminating fantasy film,
to get a slightly firmer embellishment than the
kind I get when I iron it onto stamps.
The sheets are stiff, and can be stamped on.

I found out it gets some interesting striped effects
as it gets heated inside the laminating pocket.

I also found out that Brilliance ink takes even longer
to dry on laminating pouches than it does
on shrink plastic or acetate...

Final Diamond tip in page

The background card had small flecks of deep blue and red,
so I changed from black to blue...



The embellishments are stamped white shrink plastic,
tissue and background done as in previous posts.