Altered Jigsaw Canvas - Revamped

Several years ago I, along with six other

crafting friends did a Jigsaw Jam Swap -

my chosen theme was 'Beautiful Vintage Ladies'.

When I received all the jigsaw pieces back

I mounted them onto a canvas

(From the top, the jigsaw pieces from left to right

were altered by Wendy, me, Nicks, Maureen,

Jan and Trudy.)

 

Until about a year ago, I'd had this hanging

in our dining room but was never entirely happy

about the background - too heavy and orange.

I've been re-organsing my craft room (again!)

and when I found the canvas again thought

 it was about time it had a revamp.

I took all the pieces off

Sanded down the canvas, gave it a rough coat of white

acrylic paint and found some lighter coloured handmade paper.

 

 Then stuck the jigsaw pieces back on.

(It's actually lighter than the photo shows)

I added some lace top and bottom.

Put the vintage looking earrings

back on, but dispensed with the beads.

I also added some real pressed flowers which

I attached with Liquitex Gel Medium.

Aaah, that's better!

Here are some close ups.

I've always loved these beautifully altered jigsaw pieces

and now I can appreciate them even more!

Before

After

As the canvas has butterflies (the earrings)

and some flowers on it, I am linking this to

Mrs A's new Butterfly Challenge site -

and hoping that she doesn't chuck me off 

as it's not a completely new project!

Thanks for looking :)

 

Deck The Halls .....

At the weekend we finally got around to decorating our house for Christmas. We bought a tree from a local garden centre on Sunday morning and spent what seemed like the rest of the day getting boxes down from the loft and then putting everything in place. The tree we chose was only about 4 foot high but we've stood it on a little table so it looks a lot bigger than it is - lol! I did try to take a photo of it but couldn't get the flash right. I think it looks pretty even though the same old decorations come out every year - mainly Disney ornaments from a summer visit to Florida about 15 years ago. There was a Christmas shop in the middle of the Magic Kingdom and it was John who got a bit carried way - not me, honest! Each year I usually buy one or two new things too, but this year added to the tree are some beautiful baubles from the MAMMA bauble swap.

Other new items added to our decorations this year are two altered Jigsaws from jam swaps I was involved with on the New Inspirations Yahoo group. I'd like to say a big thank you again to everyone who was involved in these.

My themes were both Christmas but with a different slant on each.

The first one was 'Musical Christmas' in the colours red and gold. I sent out my puzzle pieces to each of the other 5 players who duly altered and sent them back. I then pieced the puzzle back together again and stuck them onto a piece of mountboard which I gold embossed around the edges and dotted around some gold stickles. It is hung up by a simple gold beaded hanger. Here's who did what: From left to right, top Margaret, second row - Wendy, me - third row me, John - fourth row Viv, Carol.
As there was some empty space on the mountboard I included two ATCs - top left hand corner from Maureen and bottom right Trudy (from last year).

The second jigsaw was 'Christmas Folk Art style' in muted colours. The pieces for this one were quite large and as I didn't have a canvas large enough I decided to hang them un-mounted with a simple wire hanger (plus a few wooden beads and scraps of fabric). This one was done by (from left to right starting at the top) Jinny, Viv, Sheila, me, Wendy, Cindy.

They are both now hanging in our dining room and they look great together. I'm sure they will be looked at over a glass or two of something sparkling over the Christmas period!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone xx

Jigsaw Jam Swaps

I've recently been taking part in two separate Jigsaw Jam Swaps (on New Inspirations Yahoo group) - so had my work cut out since I needed to alter a total of 10 pieces for other people. (If you want to know more about the concept have a look at this page.

I've now finally finished all the pieces I've been sent and must say that I've thoroughly enjoyed altering them all - even though it is a bit of a worry since you're altering something for someone else and you want to make sure your own piece will fit in with all the others - but you don't know what all the others will be like - scary but challenging!

All the pieces I've done I've put onto my Flickr photostream which may be accessed via the link on this page (see box on first page). I've chosen to blog about my favourite 4 pieces - so starting here with the piece for Carol.

Carol's theme was a 'Vintage Christmas' using colours red and gold. The background to this one had quite a few different applications - white acrylic paint, gold perfect pearls, metallic rubs ons (in various shades of gold). To create a peeling paint look I then applied some vaseline randomly and painted over with some red acrylic. Once that was dry, I then rubbed some of the paint off (where the vaseline had been applied). I stuck the vintage imagine on and some open weave gold fabric. I used a cardboard heart (coloured with red ink and more metallic rub ons) to link in with the heart the little girl in the image is holding. I threaded some gold coloured beads onto some wire and looped it around the heart and down to the bottom of the piece ending with a little metal gold heart charm. At the top are some pieces of thin wood with tape image transferred words 'Spirit of Christmas'. These transfers weren't a complete success since they've buckled slightly, probably because I coated them with some glossy accents which may have been too heavy. However, the words are still legible and add a bit of dimension to the piece. I hope Carol likes it.