Thank you Margaret!

Margaret has given me an award! 'Blogging Friends Forever' She is a lovely lady who over on her MAMMA Flickr site gives us loads of laughs - as well as an ATC challenge every Monday! I feel very honoured and lucky to know her.

The rules attached to the award are:
1. 5 people are allowed to receive this award.
2. four dedicated followers of your blog.
3. one is to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. please link back to the person who gave you this award.

As I don't think I can comply with all of these rules I'd just like to give it to all the wonderful, talented and friendly people who look in on my blog. Hope this is ok and I'll probably have the award relinquished now! LOL

UK Art Raffle - 'Dark'

This is my entry for the above raffle. This month's theme is 'Dark'.

It is a canvas 5"x7" which I've called 'Adore'. This is the first completed canvas I've done and it was a bit scary at first, but once I started it was fine! It's another beeswax collage which I started by scribbling some oil pastels in black and blue over the canvas then melted some beeswax over the top and blended it altogether.
I then put a bingo card on with more beeswax and blended that into the background. I then overlaid some white tissue to soften the overall effect. A piece of wide dark blue ribbon was then laid on and some more fibre at the bottom. The image was next - again adhered with more beeswax. Finally a ticket saying 'adore' was distressed and put at the bottom right hand corner and a flower at the top. This was quite a messy job and I ended up with pastels everywhere - so I sealed the whole thing with some porcelain gloss spray. It didn't take completely but it adds to the whole distress finish (yeah, right!!)

I am pleased with how this has turned out and it's given me the confidence to try to some more.

I hope whoever 'wins' it in the raffle likes it - if not, they could always send it back to me as I'm sure I'll find somewhere to hang it!

Caricature Fun!

This is an ATC I did for a lottery I'm in for a Yahoo group. I was lucky enough to win the previous lottery and will be sent all the ATCs entered, the theme was 'Yellow'. As the winner, I then had to set the next theme and thought 'Caricatures' would be a bit different. This is what I came up with - the amazingly talented Miss Amy Winehouse. (I cheated a bit but sssshhh don't tell anyone!)

Another ATC Swap with a difference!

Sian is hosting a couple of unusual swaps at the moment which I couldn't resist having a play with.

This one is a 'See-Through' swap. The only rule being that at least one part of the ATC must either be transparent or translucent. Well, this is all new to me - never done anything like that before! So, I kept it fairly straight-forward and for each one used 2 pieces of card with a piece of acetate sandwiched between them.

For the first one I die cut out a little man in the card and put some old text in the middle. I also stamped a crown on some text and stuck that on his head. Lastly, I rubber stamped a face on the acetate (oh, and drew in his lttle gold tie).

The middle one I cut out a jigsaw shape (bit wonky as I did it free hand!) and alcohol inked the acetate. The background is coloured with some distress inks, and finally a real jigsaw piece was stuck over the top.

The last one I punched some squares out of the card and coloured with distress inks. The top piece of card I rubber stamped some swirls on using Versamark ink and then brushed some Cosmic Shimmer powder over the top. This gives a lovely effect. I alcohol inked the acetate again, and rubber stamped a face onto it.

I also did another two but haven't included them here. I'm looking forward to receiving some swaps back to see what other people have done.

Traffic Lights Swap

This is the second of two swaps Sian is currently hosting. We had to make three ATCs, one in each of the colours of traffic lights (red, amber and green) and each ATC also had to have on it some wire, some metal (in addition to the wire)and some plastic. How does she come up with these ideas!!!

The bases of each of my three ATCs were covered with some bright silver sticky tape which I then embossed (each in a different way) and then coloured with alcohol inks. The red and green wasn't a problem, but for the amber I used the Caramel ink and then went over with some amber metallic rub ons. The red and amber both have faces moulded from friendly plastic. This is the first time I'd used the plastic in a mould - I'm sure it should be easy but I think I need a bit more practice. The green one has a plastic button in the centre. The metal on each of them is - for red, the head-dress, for amber an old bottletop (the head is mounted in) and for green it is the metal corner pieces. The wire is for red, interlinked with the head-dress, for amber, the stem and leaves and for green it is attaching the button to the ATC.

Despite the gruesome looking face, I think my favourite of the three is the amber one. The petals are pieces of amber coloured acrylic mosaic. None of them have photographed very well unfortunately (well, I would say that wouldn't I!!)

Home Sweet Home

This week's theme on Maggies Monday Musings is 'Home Sweet Home' and here's my offering. I used a PaperArtsy mini stamp and some aluminium to emboss it into. The background is some scrapbook paper and the tree is another rubber stamped image. MAMMA gave me an award for this one (wooohoooo!!!), that's the second one in two weeks - so I must be doing something right! All down hill from now on then:( lol

All the other entries for this week's swap may be found in the Flickr group - the link is on the Maggies Monday Musings blog (link above).

I've Been Tagged!

Just for a bit of fun John from his Artyfax blog has 'tagged' me so I need to list here six random things about myself.

So, here goes:

1. I can juggle with 3 oranges all at once

2. I love Spongebob Squarepants (....he lives in a pineapple under the sea)!

3. I think I must be the world's worst worrier

4. My favourite snack is salt and vinegar flavoured pringles

5. I am the oldest of three children (although we're all grown up now!)

6. My husband proposed to me in the middle of Tower Bridge in the snow on Valentine's Day a few years ago now. He stood on the south side of the crack in the middle of the bridge (as he's from south London), and made me stand on the north side (coz I'm a cockney girl!!). He did go down on one knee but got his trousers all wet from the snow! How romantic - lol.

The rules are as follows:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

The six people I have tagged are:

1. Cindy from 'Plant's List'
2. Sian from 'Bits and Pieces'
3. Ange 'Agnes The Red'
4. Dee from 'Dee's Dabblings'
5. Hannele from 'Hane's House of Cards'
6. Katherine from Katherine's Dabblings

Have fun, and I look forward to finding out a little more about each of you!

Mannequin ATCs

I've joined another of the hosted swaps over on the DoCrafts forum. This one is a 'Mannequins' swap and is being hosted by Helen whose DoCraft's name is Smellihelli!
She said we could interpret the swap however we liked and I hope my interpretation is acceptable because I used a rubber stamped image of a dressmaker's form on a couple of the ATCs which I suppose isn't strictly the same as a mannequin as the dictionary defines it as a 'woman who models clothes'. Near enough I suppose - well I hope so anyway!
I couldn't resist using my favourite medium again - beeswax - I just love it! So all of the backgrounds have either dressmaking tissue paper or plain tissue paper beeswaxed onto them. The 'mannequins' are rubber stamped images onto Grungeboard (the pretty pink one and the yellow dressmaking one), the red one is rubber stamped onto metal which I then embossed and coloured with alcohol inks and finally, the one with the red button on is rubber stamped onto shrink plastic (that's why it's so tiny!)
Some lovely Mannequin ATCs have been appearing in the galleries and blogs of other participants and some absolutely stunning ones can be found in Sian's. I do hope that I'm lucky enough to get one of hers back in the swap. Wonder if Helen is taking bribes this time around - lol!!

Matrimony

This week's theme on Maggies Monday Musings is 'Matrimony'. I found an image of a happy couple, just married and decided to place them before a stained glass window.

I had some old plastic packaging which was quite rigid so I cut that into an arch shape and painted it with some Gallery Glass paint which I've had for over 10 years. When I took the top off the bottles I expected them to be dried up, but no they were still fluid! I could have used some strong, garish colours, but decided to keep them subtle to blend with the image. A fabric rose at the top finished it off.

Now I'm thinking about how else I can use the Gallery Glass paint - otherwise it may be another 10 years before I use it again!