Thank you

I have lots of people to say thank you to - for all the encouragement, inspiration, comments, for all the links to sites, all the advice you give on your blogs and the forums I am on - so please take this to be just for you.



I have made another wallet, and used my bargain priced Tim Holtz stamp on the outside.



I cut out a tag from mount board, and a smaller tag of the same paper to glue onto it - it looks a bit lighter because of (a) the part of the pattern I used and (b) the acetate.


I have been experimenting lately with stamped images - reducing and enlarging them by scanning them into the computer, then printing them out. I got my son to print out some for me on acetate on his laser printer as it doesn't work on my ink jet, for some reason the ink never dries, no matter which way around I put the acetate in!

The acetate I glued on to the tag, then cut around it - the printed surface is behind - so is kept clean and doesn't wear off.


This little acetate strip was a 'freebie' from a forum I belong to, thanks Moira. It is clear acetate, with the thank you message on it. I coloured the back with Expresso alcohol ink and kept applying it until I got the depth of colour I wanted - then threaded some of the ribbon I bought last week - and wrapped it around the back.

Welcome Home Tag

Well I didn't have a go at another ATC - I just couldn't get into it - so made a tag instead.

The threads are the wrong colour - so I will remove those and find something better - and there is a 'gaping' space beside the couple that could do with a sentiment - so I will search out, type up, and add one there.


Apart from that I quite like the colour combinations.

Coming, Ready or Not!

We have just has the school half term holidays here - but you would never know it!

It made me think of school holidays in the 50's and what we used to get up too.

I haven't made any ATC's for ages - but now I have a free supply of mount board off - cuts I can play to my hearts content.

I scanned this in so the colours are not quite true.



This little girl is playing 'Hide and Seek'

I have painted it with dark peat, over stamped with dark brown, and the little girl is painted in peat and aquamarine.

The numbers of course are embossed to make them stand out - which does not show up in the scan

The screen image is larger than the actual size of the ATC - well it is on my screen!

I think I might try out some different techniques on ATC size pieces of mountboard - and keep them to refer too.

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!