Happy Anniversary....

to my sister Tracy & brother in Law Martin.

Having seen the Jennifer McGuire Holiday Thinking Inking on 2peas & seeing the lovely examples of the block background technique on Godelieve's blog I decided to have a go. Unfortunately it went wrong afterwards & to rescue the card from ending its life in the bin, I had to cut the coloured piece with all my stamping & mount it to the front of another card!
Happy Anniversary to you both.

More Cards to Sell

Since I took a batch of 25 cards into work to sell, I have sold 9 of them. I decided to create a few more to replace the sold ones at it is easier to do it regularly rather than wait until they are all gone. I did make 3 but due to poor light never got a photo of number 3. Better luck at the weekend!

A Chrysalis Forum Birthday

We had a forum birthday a few weeks ago, but couldn't do the birthday game straight away. (We try to guess who made each card) The game is finally over today, so I can blog the card I made for the birthday girl, Carrie.

My card was made using some textured leather look cream cardstock folded. I then covered it with a piece of gorgeous soft brown handmade paper which encased rose petals. The next layer was just some torn mulberry paper in a softer brown. My image (Loast Coast) was stamped onto my homemade coffee stained paper in Archival Sepia ink. I added metallic eyelets to 3 corners. The strip of ribbon is some Anitas new Christmas range of sticky ribbon, which I actually attached some gold beads using silicone glue, nut not clear in the photo. The white paper flower was gently overstamped with a Stampers Anonymous image & then coloured using Antique Linen Distress ink. The flower centre is a broken ear ring someone gave to me.

I loved browns & creams & really wanted to create something in these colours. My only wish is that I had stamped my focal image in Smokey Grey Versafine to tone the colour down a bit & added some specks of melted gold embossing powder. Or even better, if I owned some Distress Embossing powder in Antique Linen I could have mixed the two together!

Almost Complete

I have been out and about visiting friends this weekend. I haven't had much time to create but I do have another project on my table that is almost finished. This minibook "The Best of Me" was started November 2008, using an add on called "Lost Valley", which formed part of a Studio Calico kit "Fountain Square". Again, I am ashamed to admit it was left unloved & unfinished on the shelf.

It is a collection of my favourite photos taken of me by two professional photograhers. It is almost done, just waiting for good light for photos. Hope to share the rest later in the week.

Capturing Time Final Pages

Here are the final 4 pages!

Page 49 Try

I love to try my hand at new things so I picked a photo of my most recent acrylic canvas.

Page 50 Home

I love to get home every day, but nothing beats a Friday nights, curtains drawn, candles lit.

Page 51 Drama
I adore Mystery drama such as Inspector Morse, and I love a good costume drama. The very newest of them being Downton Abbey.

Page 52 Remember

I made the final page based on remembering why I began this project. The background behind the acrylic Heidi Swapp clock is made with Adirondack inks Caramel, Butterscotch & Raisin. The picture is of a card I made a forum friend, Jo, back in April. I thought it quite fitting as I love the image & imagine that at any moment the butterfly will float off on shimmering wings.

Well it feels fantastic to have completed this minibook.All 52 pages look amazing together!

Capturing Time Project Part 1

Blogger would not let me upload all 6 pictures at once!! So I will upload in several parts.

Here is the finished Capturing Time project that I began in 2008. See the post below for links to the very first pages done.

Page 47 Time for Winter

The photo was taken by me using my mobile phone when we had thick snow at the begining of this year. It is our largest local church.

Page 48 Time to IndulgeI believe everyone should have a small indulgence and mine is a full body massage every 6 weeks at Hayley's beauty spa. The picture doesn't show the room clearly.

Happy Birthday, Ange!

One of my scrap friends (SSG teamie) had a birthday today and here is the card I sent her.

The main card was overstamped with french script. I then coloured a square with distress inks, Victoria Velvet, Shabby Shutters & Brushed Corduroy. Images are Innovative Stamp Creations. Butterfly was stamped in newspaper coloured with peeled paint.

I am going to be all technical now & schedule a blog post for tomorrow as I have finally completed a minibook I begun in 2008 Capturing Time. I embarked on what set out to be a 52 week project but life got in the way and after page 46, Ronda didn't do anymore prompts. I often look at it sat on my shelf beside the sofa & at the weekend I decided to finish it. I came up with 6 final pages & tomorrow I will share the photos.

The Finished Piece!

Remember this piece that I showed you a few posts down, well I have finally completed it!!

I selected a bird stamp by Crafty Individuals & used a freebie image I got from my blog friend, Rein.

I think the image is just perfect & I am so happy it is finished after being sat for a year unloved.

Acrylic Collage Canvas - Family

I made a collage on canvas around two years ago for a forum swap, but it was using distress inks.

This is my very first acrylic paint collage. My chosen design, family, was based on my main image, it is my Father & Grandfather. I also wanted to use earthy colours as my Grandfather was a farmer. I read books by Ann Baldwin & Claudine Hellmuth on glazing paints for backgrounds & decided this was for me. My support being a canvas board 5x7".

I began by selecting my background images & stamping these onto tissue. These were then "glued" to the canvas using Matte Golden Regular Gel Medium. I then tore two strips of patterned paper in designs I thought worked well with the colours I had in mind. I then began my glazing thinning the acrylic paint slightly with water just to get the right consistency. I used an overall colour of Cadmium Yellow Deep, as my first layer. I didn't want to cover the background completely as I felt the stamps were important to the piece. My Grandfather always wore a waistcoat & in the pocket he always had a pocket watch. The receipt type stamp is probably similar to the receipts my Grandfather received for buying goods for the farm.

Once I was happy with my layers of paint, I "glued" on my two pieces of text, both of which are open to interpretation. I thought "Life is a stage" quite apt because everyone has several stages in their lives. The single word "Life" supports the main image showing them both living their Life at that moment the camera captured them. Finally I added my main image & then cut my Father seperate from a second image & added him over the top of the original which gives a very nice 3D look ( which you probably can't pick up in the picture) but it represents him as the main part of this piece. Finally I took the Burnt Umber & applied in areas using my fingers to edge the piece & add shadow & depth around the base & side of the image.

Stamps; Prima/ Stampers Anonymous/ Artistic Stamper

Papers; 7Gypsies

Paint; Cadmium Yellow Deep/ Yellow Ochre/Burnt Sienna/ Red Ochre/Burnt Umber
Image; my own photo printed onto ordinary copy paper.

I am happy with how this first attempt turned out and am burning with ideas for a second!