I've got the bug

I haven't got my 'photographer's hat' on today so haven't made a good job of the photos - ran out of daylight.

In reality they all look deeper and richer the flashlight 'washes' them out somewhat




I made this tag out of thick mountboard and painted it with deep shades of yellow, lime and blue - to contrast with the reverse.

I stamped over it and then embossed it with black embossing powder - to give it a nice texture.

The butterflies were embossed too - with two layers of clear embossing powder - it makes them nice and bendy.

I had ribbon to match - but no beads that looked right to me - so I painted a scrap of paper in the same colours I used on the tag, and made my own - as before - and with three coats of UTEE to compliment the tag



The reverse of the tag I colour washed with shades of blue, yellow and lime - it is more 'colourful' than this photo shows.






Behind the acetate I used Cosmic Shimmers in pale gold on the dragonfly wings, and here and there.

Bottle caps

I can't seem to get a decent photo of these today!




These four bottle caps have been sprayed with black paint, a vintage photo inserted into the centre, the rims pressed, then filled with UTEE - which I think is the reason why I can't get a nice crisp photo because they are so shiny they keep reflecting the light.




It looks much better in real life. The mountboard cream tag has been stamped with a TH stamp in a rich brown and I have edged the border with copper rub and buff paint and shined it up. I also swished some over the patterned area to give it a lovely subtle copper sheen. I then did the same to picture 'frames'.

The copper eyelet matches perfectly and the brown organza ribbon has a copper sheen to it - and is long enough to put a not in to hang on the wall.

Les Papotages de Stamp Franciso

Lovely blog candy for Easter here

It is a lovely site.

The Tears of Africa -Deco Pages

I foolishly entered a Deco swap not really knowing what it was - I thought it was Art Deco.

I was a bit shocked when I found out last week that it was a bit like a Circle Journal - but instead of sending on the book - you just send your two pages. There are six in a group and each has a different theme.

These are the pages I have made for the theme 'Africa'

I thought about it quite a bit - and decided to do an 'historical' Africa


I have called it the 'Tears of Africa' because of all the continent's hardship over hundreds of years. The pages are 6"x6" so quite large for me!

The stamped wording as the background is about 'flying away' and escaping. The centre panel is a stamped image which I enlarged and painted and gilded with gold - although it is hard to see the gold earring and border patterns. The blood red embossed border represents all the bloodshed from the slave trade, and fighting etc over hundreds of years. The paper I coloured with oranges, browns, and black.

Right hand page is the same colour as the left - its just looks different because of the angle.
Again it has the wet embossed blood red border. The map on the continent I embossed with UTEE and let it run down the map to represent tears. - You can't really see it here but it is looks really wet and realistic in the naked eye.

The stamped trees are those gorgeous ones you often see in photographs of African plains - with the orange background of sunset. The postcard I stamped several times on paper and collaged it onto the page. It looks lovely under light (well I think so) because some of it is black embossed; the scarab beetles are too and look quite real. The egg shaped disc on the left is collaged on and painted gold and embossed so really shines. The postcard is collaged on too - some of it embossed and primarily painted gold. This represents Egypt - and the tomb raiders.

For some reason, when I think of Africa it makes me feel sad because of it's history of being plundered, the fighting, the pyramids being raided, the poverty and hunger.

I think too much I know! It's just a bit of art!

Tag with wallet - Listen to your heart

Look what the postman brought


I received this lovely tag and wallet from 'Momiji' as a thank you - she doesn't have a blog sadly so I can't add a link.



It has been created using K & Co materials - isn't it gorgeous - she also thought that it would give me some inspiration to try something different - and it did. I didn't have the K&Co papers - so I adapted it.

Here is my improvised version.

You would never believe that I photographed these on white paper would you -why it looks blue I do not know!



On a sheet of A4 pearlised paper, I printed out a backing sheet, and swiped over it in shades of yellows and greens. It has a nice shimmer all over it.


The darker shades of green are the clear embossed areas, the lighter shades of warm yellow have Cosmic Shimmer on them.



I cut out the templates - and I was off. I have made this over two afternoons.

The tag image I coloured to blend with the tag, and she is meant to be the older version of the young girl on the front. She is 'Listening to her Heart' as the sentiment implies.





I found a single pearlised yellow button that matched perfectly - and I stamped the image on top with Stazon. The butterfly is from a book of them which I bought from Crafty Individuals last year.





The ribbon holding the button on with the dual purpose of being a hanger - is cream organza and matches too, although it looks white in the photo.
The lace is vintage cotton - which I aged a bit more with ink




The little girl image I glued behind a scrap of plasma, it has a bit of Cosmic Shimmer around the edges which you can't see. Jo Capper Sandon used it to make a tag which was featured in February's Craft Stamper. I had never heard of it before - thanks Jo.

The quote stamp is a Tim Holtz one and I have clear embossed the stamping.

When I saw the serious image of this little girl I just had to use her - and the sentiment seemed befitting. So I found an image which looked similar for her to make the tag with!

Wings Tag

I just had to make something with a piece of my free mount board - so made a tag.

This is for the Lots to Do Challenge this week.

I graduated the colours from hot red at the bottom through to deep orange and paler until it ended up a warm yellow at the top - but the photos do not show the depth of colour or the graduation sadly, and there is not a line of red - it's the flash of the camera tsk. I made this late in the afternoon and it was dusk.

Using the same colours I dabbed over some sequin scrap to add areas of deeper colour, then stamped the image at the bottom.


It's that butterfly again - the free download, which I have just enhanced with deeper shades of its colours - which in 'real life' to match the colours exactly on the tag.

I just love the texture of heat embossing so it got a clear coat of embossing powder




I brushed over Cosmic shimmer powder in an orange colour which matches exactly the top colour of the tag - but sadly you can't see the wonderful warm shimmer, and how it softens the sequin scrap 'dots' and the dark stamped image at the bottom. I added the stamped ART and some deep brown organza ribbon across the bottom, and a narrower ribbon for the tag top with matching beads.

The mount board was really nice to work on - and makes a nice change from paper glued onto a piece of cereal box!

Who's a lucky lady then?

I get the Freecycle newsletter most days, and have given lots of things away over the past couple of years - including a shed, lots of flower arranging things, vases etc. and so much more.

Imagine my surprise when I saw listed some mount board off cuts up for grabs. It was under the heading 'Youth Clubs, Associations, Charities' and went on to say that they get lots of mount board off cuts and so to get in touch with them if they would like some.

I left it a couple of days and sent a nice email explaining that I was none of the above but would love some mount board off cuts if there were any going spare as I use it in my art work - and so do friends of mine.

I was really surprised to get an email back saying that I could go and collect some and the days and times. They were based in a town about 13 miles away. Luckily we could 'team it up' with other things we needed etc so off we set early this morning in the pooring rain!




This is one of those big storage boxes on wheels - so there is a lot of board - and the reverse of all the coloured pieces is white of course.

They had it all ready for me in another big plastic box and how my husband carried it I do not know - it was so heavy.

I had made some chocolate brownies - so took them with me as a thank you - and was invited to go and collect more any time that I liked - as they get so much each day!

Whilst I was in the town, I found a little craft shop - so got some bits and pieces including some organza ribbon!

RESULT!