Themed Thursday

'You hold a special place in my heart'

Either of this or the one below could be entered for the 'Script Theme' this week - but I will enter this 4 x 4.

Stamped and embossed wording for the background paper. A Vintage card picture torn to fit the page. (I aged it with Tim Holtz distress inks and highlighted parts with water colours.

Another First - a 4x4 inch

Sorry about the photo - the artwork is square and there is no white showing - as in the scan!

I have never attempted a 4in x 4in altered artwork - this is my first attempt.

The image is from a vintage card which I have torn into a 'heart' shape - and painted the edges with distressed inks.

The quote was very kindly sent to my by Caz which I have torn and coloured with distressed inks too.

I have edged it with UTEE to which I have added embossing powder

My very first altered arch

Another all time first - an Arch - bigger than the ATC’s that I have been making so a different challenge. ‘All things pink’ is the theme for the swap.

I stamped pink swirls on mottled pink card then embossed them so to give a raised finish - and painted around them with several layers of gold paint to make them show up. Photos and scans of gold do not really show up well!

There is crinkled gold paper along the left hand side edge. The roses, dotted paper, gypsy image, and labels were all collaged on - and have been highlighted with sublte gold paint, then embossed. Again the embossing doesn’t look ‘right’ in the photo but does look nice and smooth with the naked eye.

I rather enjoyed making the arch so I think I will have another go at one in the week

Another go at the green ATC swap theme

I am going to keep 'plugging' away at the green theme ATC's until I get three that I like - or I may just enter one.

This is another go.

A stamped image which I took ages to paint with acrylic colours, several layers. I embossed areas with several layers too although it doesn't show up on here. The fish and other areas look really 'wet' and shiny.

There is also shiny gold highlights which look dull in this picture.

Still I have fun making it!

For Mandy's Birthday

It was Mandy's 40th birthday this month and Zuzu had the lovely idea of compiling a book for her.

We each made an A5 page decorated both sides any way we wanted - here are my efforts




This is the front of the page - painted lavender then different shades of lavender inks swished across the page - it is paler in real life!

I made a sachet out of paper and filled it with dried lavender from my garden. On a piece of thin tissue paper I painted a butterfly then painted several layers of gold paint around it - and once dry glued it onto and over the edges of the sachet. It looks like a little silk pillow and smells lovely.

I used really thick paint to do the gold pattern to give it lots of texture.

This is the reverse of the above page.



I painted it matt black then whirled lots of thick gold paint onto it and heat dried it to give a nice texture.

The Victorian birthday card print, I enhanced with watercolours - it actually looks better in 'real life', and painted gold around the frame.

It was the first time I have ever done anything like this and it took me several days to do both sides - and allowing for the layers of paint to dry.

I hope she liked it.

Apparently it smelt wonderful when taken out of the packaging - which was just as I had intended

The Theme for November is the colour Green

These are for an ATC swap on Zuzu's forum. We do a different colour each month - and this one is green.

I scanned these into the computer - but I am not keen on scanning as it magnifies the image so that it is bigger than in reality - and so you get a different perspective than you would with the naked eye. The colours are sharper and darker and smoother not 'coloured in' looking as the scan makes them look

I coloured photo paper card with alchohol inks and when dry I stamped on the butterfly image and cut it out.

The backing card is green too although the scan makes it look cream. It
has been stamped, and I have painted colour on the flowers and leaves.

All the edges are painted lime green as a frame - but for some reason the scan hasn't picked up some of them!





For the above I have stamped the butterfly directly onto the card and also the flowers and foliage which I painted as above.

One more to do - might do a totally different medium for that - just waiting for some inspiration to kick in.

Autumn Inches

I have only made inches once before - they were all painted - then embossed - one of which is in my blog header above.

I decided to take up the challenge of making nine inches for a swap on Zuzu's Forum.


The Japanese calligraphy says 'Autumn' and is embossed with Tim Holtz distressed powder.

The little Japanese dahlia stamp is embossed with shiny clear embossing powder to make a contrast.

I rather liked making these.