Tag Art Swap

Vixykins is hosting a tag art swap. There are ten members in the group and the theme is 'Vintage Ladies'. Each member sends 10 tags off and gets 10 different ones back.

For mine, I inked and rubber stamped the base of the tags, then stuck some old dressmaking patterns over the top and painted a thin layer of Gesso to tone the whole thing down. I photocopied some images from the covers of various vintage dressmaking patterns and stuck them down. Finally I machine stitched around the edges and added some scraps of material and lace - and not forgetting a button or two!

Altered Jigsaw Piece

This puzzle piece is from a children's puzzle and measures just under 4" x 4".

The base was painted off white then rubber stamped with a 'Stamper Anonymous' stamp from the Tim Holtz collection called 'pattern pieces' which is one of my current favourites.  The smaller puzzle piece was stamped with a PaperArtsy mini stamp (MN20).

I then attached some vintage paper pattern pieces over the top with melted beeswax and coloured the edges with some dark brown and black melted wax crayons.

The holes to hold the embellishments and ribbon hanger were Crop-o-diled.

The torso / mannequin was moulded with air dried clay and covered with some more of the vintage paper pattern.

I think I may need to stock up on the beeswax now as I'd forgotton how enjoyable it is to work with - lol.

Distressed Gesso Background Technique

The current theme on the MAMMA group over on Flick is to make ATCs with a distressed background using Gesso and inks as described by Trish Bayley in her great tutorial.

The theme was 'Friends' but of course I overlooked that and was merrily making some ATCs using this technique using some rubber stamps with vintage adverts on them - doh! I made a couple more with a friendship theme too! My efforts are shown above.

Easter at MAMMA's

This week's theme over at MAMMAs Flickr group is 'Easter' and the challenge is to make an ATC using the template drawn by another member of the group Tracey AKA Angellea whose own ATC can be seen here.

Once I'd figured out how to attach the top and bottom parts of the egg to the backing ATC (with ribbon sandwiched between card)I really enjoyed making my ATC - although it is rather plain compared with some of the others so far made on the group.

For the outside I painted the egg with MiniMezze paint (Pacific colour). This is a lovely paint as it has a gorgeous metallic sheen to it. I then rubber stamped in a light blue colour all over, then coated it with a crackle glaze. Once that had dried and been cracked, I rubbed some metallic rub on so some of it seeped into the cracks. The outside was then finished off with a lovely vintage image from another collage Flickr group.

Inside the image again came from the collage group. The egg was painted with Folk Art paint colour Taffy and lightly rubber stamped. The Happy Easter greeting at the bottom was rubber stamped in gold and embossed.

I'm thinking this template could be adapted to make other shapes - it's nice to make an ATC which holds a surprise for the receipient once opened up!

Mother's Day Card

I didn’t take a photograph of this card I made my Mum for Mother’s Day so had to borrow it back from her to take one!

The background is rubber stamped with versamark ink and brushed over with some mica powder(in reality the green is a little deeper than it shows up in the photo). I printed out ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ and mounted it onto the card with 3d foam pads. The ‘MUM’ at the bottom is rub on letters.

The heart is made from plaster cloth - I cut out a heart shape from card then covered it with the wet plaster cloth all over and moulded it to the heart shape. A few beads and some ribbon - all in Mum’s favourite colour - green, finished it off nicely. The heart is detachable from the card and can be used as a little wall or door handle hanging.

I’m pleased to say she loved the card and we all had a lovely day - despite the fact that I cooked Sunday lunch for everyone which for once turned out half decent - lol.

A quick 'n' easy ATC

This week's MAMMA theme is 'Mona Lisa'. Using an unmounted stamp of the lady herself, pressed directly into a petal point ink pad a nice effect was created. I rubber stamped some text onto the base and coloured it with some grey pastel and edged it with the same petal point dye ink. The Mona image was then mounted onto the base with some foam pads and a dymo strip 'Smile' completed it.

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).