Under the Sea Adventure Pages

Here are two 5" x 5" pages for someone's Deco book entitled Under the sea adventure.


Click to enlarge

I painted the pages different shades of blue and green, and used a clear sea green gel to paint over it again - and the fish and shells - to give it a wet look.

It has textured 'bubbles' in the sea green gel too, and the paint is textured.

I was stumped a bit by this title as I didn't really have much in the way of stamps I could use - but I did have my 'mermaid' goddess stamp so used her and gave her more hair etc.

She is wearing pearls - these I made from pearl stickles, and look like pearls stuck on - so too amongst the sea shells - there are pearls here and there.

I guess when you do these things, all you can do is to try your best, and just hope that it is acceptable.

I am looking forward to getting my first pages.

Orange and black themed ATC

This is a stamped Kodomo image on orange card which has been softened with orange chalks.

The actual image was stamped in black then embossed. I painted all the flowers orange, and highlight some of the petals with orange copper metallic paint. The butterflies were painted with the metallic paint too. All the other colouring is with pastels.

I rather liked the urn on this stamp - which is supported by rabbits - which too have been highlighted, along with the urn, in the metallic copper which I think looks really pretty in daylight.

It has all been edged with black - and again for some reason the edges have not been scanned in by the machine! But in real life it looks like a perfectly centred picture in a black frame

I hope the recipient likes it.

ATC Colour theme swap - duck egg blue and brown

The backing card is pale duck egg blue - although the scan doesn't show it. The image is stamped on in chocolate brown and parts of the image - namely the beetles are embossed so they look really shiny like beetles should!

The edges of the ATC have been inked and embossed too - although for some reason the scanner hasn't picked it all up.

Oriental Tag

This is the first tag I have made and it fits in nicely with with the Tuesday Challenge on Created by Hand

I cut out a tag shape on textured red card almost A4 size in length - then stamped using a Kodomo stamp and embossed the left hand side with gold, and used a fine textured Japanese paper bag for the right hand side.

I scanned into my computer a Geisha, enlarged her and then enhanced her with water colours.

On her back I painted the ‘material’ gold, then masked it and stamped it with cherry blossoms masking the stamp to just get three little parts I needed and masking the lady too. I edged it with dark blue ribbon to give it ‘depth’ so that it does look layered.

The patterns on the Kimono I enhanced then clear embossed them, ditto the hair and the shoes which now look realistically shiny!

The calligraphy symbol is made of paper which I enamelled so it looks like an ivory tile,

I edged one side in dark blue ribbon and edged that with gold, using a gold krylon pen to edge the rest.



I punched a hole in the top and added colour co-ordinating fibres.

It took quite a few hours to make - but was fun to do.

Monthly swap - Blue

This months swap on Zuzu's forum is blue. Now that I have caught up with my other swaps I thought I would try out my new Japanese stamps Haruko got for me when she was in Japan.

A Copper Egg

I tried out a new technique today - and this is the result - an ATC size but cut into an egg shape - 'right up my street' with a chicken theme so perhaps that is why I had fun doing it!

Again it doesn't photograph well. But with the naked eye it looks like a piece of thick beaten copper.

I stamped it with a couple of the new stamps I bought from the USA and heat treated the paper with a heat gun to get the dull effect.



Along part of the edges (bottom up to right top) I melted plastic film so it actually looks like an amber coloured solder or melted toffee texture and one big mass rather than the individual bits you can see.




In different lights it looks all different colours - I am going to try and make another to keep for myself.

Blue and white swap for ATCards

The remit for this swap was blue and white - any combination of blues and any mediums.


This has been heavily embossed which does not seem to show up in the scan


These are variations on the same theme but no two are the same. I don't usually do similar ones like these but was under pressure to get them out!




Some embossing on the lettering




These will all be going to different people - plus one extra for the hostess.

Lock and Key ATCs for Zuzu's Forum Swap

I have really struggled with this theme!

The 'lock' is obviously the keyhole - and the 'key' to freedom is the other side of the door - which you can see through the keyhole



Because I have used metallic paint on a very textured paper - the scan doesn't really show them up properly

The gold paint looks really shiny and rich looking - and positively glows in the light.

The borders are the same thickness which for some reason doesn't show up on the scanner!

Oh - there are some little marks on the glass scanner which look like they are on the ATCs but are not.

One more to go for the set

Architecture Swap - For Mandy

This one was made on white card, with a rich cream backing paper which I stamped with Latin text. I carefully inked around the edges to try to give it an 'aged' look with the addition of distressed embossing powder. This I carried across to the architecture to link it all together - and to give the feel and impression of stonework. I gilded the fairy wings to give a focal point.




Black and white study on a black card which has been embossed with a black shiny powder to give the effect of pebble dashing. There is embossing on the building which highlights the fancy brickwork,arch and door.



A black and white work, with a soft white stamped background, the silver on the foreground images looks smooth and dull silver to the naked eye.



I am delighted that Mandy chosen this one as her hostess gift. For some reason you can not see the colouring.

Black card stamped with latin writing, the house I coloured with water colour pencils a pale shade of grey, the glass in the windows a soft pale yellow so that it looks like the lights are on in the house and gives it depth.

The Venus De Milo is coloured pale cream with water colour pencils and the foreground flowers are coloured yellow to mirror the windows - but slightly darker.

I had a real struggle with this theme, but am so glad that it stretched my imagination to think of ways to interpret it. And of course I had a very happy three hours or so 'playing' in my studio making them.

Aussie Swap

I so wish you could see this lizard in real life - he looks so much better and his colouring is far softer and more muted and paler actually. I saw lots of lizards on my trips to Oz - all sorts and all sizes and not all outdoors either. They fascinate me and I think they look like little dinosaurs and such fun when they walk or run away swinging their body this way and that as they go. This is a pen and ink and pencil drawing - then I got a flash of inspiration and added a foreground of dried alchemilla mollis which look the same colour as the water colour background. He really looks like he is hidden behind it.




The inspiration for this tiny fish painting came from some Aboriginal pieces of art I saw - again it is larger than life here.



This is a fluffy little fledgling Kookaburra - another freehand drawing with watercolour pencils - and when wondering what background to do - I just decided to do it in the style of the Aboriginal painters. It took me a couple of hours at least, as I had to keep going over and over and over it to get the right colour on the backing paper.

I used burnt orange card as I wanted to convey the colour of the soil and the heat of Australia.

These pictures are bigger than the ATCs so magnify every detail - some you can't see with the naked eye.


This one did not scan well at all. In reality it is a luminous funky fish - which I drew with souffle pens which give it an embossed effect.

The fish itself is yellow and purple - both bright and shiny. The sea weed is raised too and shiny green, and the blue water colour pencil background is pale not as dark as in the scan.

Because of the luminosity of the paint - it effects the scanner so yellow looks invisible and the green and purple look pale - but I thought I would post it on here anyway to remind me of what I did.

This is for a 'Touchy Feely Textures' Swap

This is another ATC for the Touchy Feely Textures Swap

Yet again the scan does not do it justice one little bit.

The backing card is painted black and has tiny weeny bits of black a silver glitter, almost like dust, so too on the sheep's fleece - but in the picture sadly it looks like a black blob - it looks subtle, pretty and dainty in the daylight!

There is a machine embroidered daisy from Anne which I cut out and used, and some wide hessian type sacking from Momiji which I used too.

The difference in textures feel lovely when you close your eyes and run your fingers over it, - and that was what this swap was all about.

The back has a pretty patterned smooth material on it - which adds another element.

I just have to label them all up, and send them off to the USA.