Bright and cheerful

I fancied making something bright and cheerful. I didn't know what - so this is what I came up with.


The from the Goddess' plate of images.

I stamped it twice as I wanted to collage on the leaves. I am undecided whether to colour the face flesh colour - or leave it as it is.







I used red, yellow and green inks, and dragged them onto the mount board tag to blend the colours.





I stamped on oak laeaves for the background, just to soften the colours a little.

Tag

Well I filled in the gap on the tag I made the other day. For some reason a line from one of Elvis's songs jumped into my mind.

"Love me tender
Love me true
Never let me go"

Not like me to get so sloppy!



And bought a better matching piece of ribbon - so I think it looks better balanced now.

I was a bit of a dope as I printed out the sentiment on what I thought was a transparent label - but it wasn't - and it was too late to do another one.

Tins and boxes

Before half term I had mentioned to some ladies in my class that I was searching out little tins and boxes to alter.

Today, bless them, one lady had brought in a big carrier bag of cardboard boxes. Tea packet boxes of different shapes and sizes, a chocolate box, and a nice little sturdy square box - the latter I have plans to alter.

Another lady brought in a biscuit tin - which sadly is too big to alter - but I have put it to good use and it now has mixed corn inside for my bantams.

And this is the other tin

Isn't it lovely - and it is decorated like this all around the edges. It looks like a very old Cadbury's biscuit tin - a smallish one - but is right up to date isn't it - given that embossed metal is all the rage now - and this is really embossed.
So I won't be altering it - but I will be drawing inspiration from it -and I will be treasuring, and using it. That is for sure

Well what do you think of these?

I go to classes in a little on Wednesday mornings (not arty crafty), and today I had a walk into the centre and passed a charity shop and saw these.



Actually I only saw one - and the price - so I asked the window dresser to get it out for me.



It is made of paper mache.

I didn't have my reading glasses on - so just saw an orange and cream blur - and I thought I could use that to put some arty jewellery on.





It was then that I found out there were four of them -two of each style. The window dresser looked quite surprised that anyone would be interested and asked what on earth I would do with it. So I told her that I did altered art and would alter it.





She rolled her eyes - and got another one out for me to look at.





Then the one below




I chose the more curvaceous models


And paid the princely sum of £1.50 each!








It was only when I got home and had chance to have a closer look with my glasses on that I realised they are covered in what looks like genuine 1950's USA paper.





They are not the least bit dusty or dirty - and have a slight smell of perfume.

I don't think I could bear to paint them all over with Gesso or emulsion paint and alter them.



What do you think - Would you?

* Well after I had blogged this, and looked at them again 'in the flesh' I decided that I would phone up the shop, buy the other two, so that I had two to alter and two to keep. Foiled - the other two had been sold. I could kick myself!*

They are so gorgeous and have a wooden looking patina to them, and I just could not bear to paint them - I love them just as they are. So I might protect them with varnish, and use them as display - and I can always throw a bit of material over them if they clash with whatever I am going to display

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.