Another Triptych ATC - and Happy New Year!!

Following on from yesterday's post I made another triptych ATC,

although this is a more formal, serious one - lol!

It's another 'altered head' one and I used a

postage stamp over the head of the stamped image

the idea coming from the 'Postage People' tutorial video.

I used paints to merge the postage stamp into the image,

you can see the edges of the stamp at the neckline if you look closely.

The image is a rubber stamped one this time,

- called ' Madame's Portrait' from B Line Designs.

I added lace and beads to finish it off.

The ATC base is a piece of Tim Holtz' Kraft-Core card

from the 'Nostalgic Collection'.

Well that's about it for now ....

except of course to wish you all a

Happy New Year

and thank you for all your visits and comments

left here on my blog - which still astounds me (the comments

and visits that is, not my blog!!)

I hope the New Year brings all that you want but

most importantly that it is a Happy and Healthy one!

Ta ta for now xx

Triptych ATC Swap

The current swap over on the Flickr group

Art 'n' Soul as chosen by Deb

is to create a triptych ATC using one of two formats.

I chose the easier option a gatefold ATC.

The theme is 'Altered Heads' and the head of whatever

image we choose may be altered in any way we like.

I remembered seeing a great tutorial video once

 and managed to find it again called

 'Postage People' 

where a postage stamp was used

over the head of an image in a collage.

I decided to go along those lines too. 

Starting with an image which I cut out - and cut off

the head completely, I replaced it with an old postage stamp.

I then merged the postage stamp into the image by

drawing in the shoulders and joining it to the main image.

Before all that though I started with a piece of white card

covered it with some book text, painted with acrylics and spritzed

 (Crafty Notions - Creative Colour - Spraypaque Fire Opal)

to give it a lovely glimmer.

I hot glued a piece of sari ribbon across the back.

The centre back panel will be covered with

my details before I send it out.

For the front edges I die cut (Alterations/Sizzix On The Edge

'Plaque and Postage') a strip of card decorated in the same

way as the rest of the card.

The little head I cut off from the main image fitted just

right in the hand and appeared to be looking up at the

new head.  It therefore had to become Shakespeare's Yorick

from Hamlet -  the words I used were the best

I could come up with! 

I added three bells to a jump ring and tied them to

each end of the sari ribbon - so it's nice and jingly too!

The deadline for this swap isn't until 15th February

so I'm nice and early!

Thanks for looking :)

Aaron's "He-Art"

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and enjoyed the festivities

and got all that you wished for from Santa.

We had the pleasure of the company of our nephew and niece

again over the past few days

and following on from my previous post where

Chloe created her own She-Art girl, this time, Aaron (aged 8)

got to do his very own version - a He-Art boy!

Aaron is not afraid to show his feminine side and chose

very glittery paper to dress his boy - he was going for

a football outfit - hence the pink shiny shorts!

His canvas started off with a variety of map pieces from

an old Atlas, then a combination of acrylic paints and mica sprays,

stencilling through sequin waste and using bottle tops etc.

(he did get very messy!)

Aaron chose the words

"Face Your Fears Not Your Tears"

which is a saying he's been bandying about 

ever since visiting the

Adventure Island amusment park at Southend-On-Sea

and watching a roller coaster called 'Rage' 

which he's too young to ride on at the moment.

I think those words were the perfect finishing touch

to his canvas and we both loved what he achieved.

So there it is - "He-Art" or Yeeehaa as we were calling it - lol.

Thanks for looking :)

Chloe She-Art!

My niece Chloe (aged 11) worked along side me in my craft room over

the last few days and we made some She-Art together.

She was a little reluctant at first, but just look at the

beautiful She-Art Girl she created!

We used dressmaking tissue for the base, then a

combination of acrylic paint and mica sprays

brayered, scraped and stencilled on.

Chloe chose the words 'What's not to love' which were on

printed on her T-Shirt and seemed to fit perfectly!

As Chloe is my little ray of sunshine, those were

the words I chose to put on my She-Art Girl.

Chloe's little brother Aaron was a little upset as he didn't get

to play with us so I've promised next time we'll try to

create some He-Art!

Watch this space!

Christmas Card - Simon Says Stamp - Projects with depth

I've decided to make only one special card this year

and it's for my Mum and Dad.

It's based on one of the tags from

Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas from last year

- tag number one in fact and you can see it here.

The background is Adirondack dye inks

- Denim for the sky and Lettuce for the land.

I brayered the inks on - Barbara Gray of Clarity Stamps style

- at least that's what I attempted, she makes it look so easy

on her TV demos.  My background is rather flat so I blinged it up

at bit with some twinkling stars (Silver Stickles).

The stamped Santa in his sleigh with his reindeers in front

of the moon is from 'A remountable set of Christmas miniatures'

from Claritystamp.

The house is die cut from Grungeboard using the Rickety House

Bigz Sizzix die and Notebook Texture Fade embossing folder.

The windows have acetate behind them coloured with 3D Crystal Lacquer

- I think an orange colour rather than yellow would have been better

as the the yellow is a bit too similar to the colour of the land.

If you look closely you may be able to see a Christmas tree

through the downstairs window

 (it's actually a Christmas button embellishment).

Can you also see who's peeping around the porch -

if he's there, I don't know who that is in the sky steering the sleigh!!

The fence in front of the house is also die cut from the Sizzix Alterations

range of 'On The Edge' Bigz dies called 'On the Fence'

I glued it down only at each end, thereby creating a bend in it,

 giving it some dimension.

I'm hoping that this card fits the theme on the current challenge at

Simon Says Stamp and Show

which is

 "Thru' the Looking Glass - Projects with Depth"

There are some amazing projects full of stunning dimension on

their blog from the Design Team - well worth a drool over.

This is the first time I've joined in with one of their challenges,

so really hope my card fits the bill.

Thanks for looking :)

Christmas Ornaments - again!

Here are the Christmas ornaments I received back from the swap

 I took part in recently on the Button Floozies blog.

The wire heart green ornament was made by

Barbara of Vintage Bunty

The red and white candy cane was made by

Zoe who doesn't have a blog just yet

The button Raggedy Annie doll was made by

Mrs A of It's An Alien Life

All the ornaments are completely different and I love them all!

Thank you again ladies.

The ornaments I made for my swap partners were Button Angels

and the blog post showing them is here if you want to see them.

I recently made a couple more for my niece and nephew

who have a small tree of their own in their respective bedrooms

(as seems to be all the rage these days!)

Blue for a boy

and pink for a girl!

We had intended putting our Christmas tree and decorations up at the weekend but after spending the best part of the day sorting out the

garden / greenhouse / shed for over winter we couldn't muster up

any energy and enthusiam to climb up the loft!

We'd better get a move on - as there's only 12 days to go

according the Christmas Countdown Calendar!

Do you want to know what I was doing exactly

nineteen years ago today?

.... becoming a Mrs!

Thanks for looking :)

Christmas Button Tin

It started off as an Altoids mint tin

I gathered together some bits and pieces

and gave the tin a coat of gesso

I need not have bothered with the gesso though

as I covered the tin top and bottom with fabric

The flowers I made last year with two punches

one punched out the shape and the other embossed it

I rubber stamped the ticket onto white card,

coloured it and gave it a coat of glossy Mod Podge

to stiffen it.

(Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz Collection

'Odds and Ends CMS100')

I kept the inside simple with two

large Christmassy stickers -

I don't normally like to use stickers but these

fitted the bill perfectly and it was really

all about the buttons inside!



I managed to fit in just over 100 buttons

in the tin in the Christmassy colours of

red, white, green, gold and crystal

Ta-da!!!!!!!

Thanks for looking, I appreciate it x