Gothic Arches "end of summer"

The theme at Gothic arches is "end of summer". Rather than thinking of a particular event like back to school or labor day, I thought of the mood late summer calls up in me. Normally i would not think of blue, but this summer it never got really warm, so blue seemed quite appropriate. Imixed it with some brown, the end of a season always conjures up the feeling of old for me, a little wistful, thoughtful and sad. Now I can't wait for the crispness of autumn to start....

The gorgeous image is from Nancy's freebies.

Small world of Inchies "Leonardo"

The theme today on the Inchies challenge blog is Leonardo. Just as well my OH is such an avid collector of postcards and art books, - never a shortage with themes like this...

Anyway, here's my contribution

Dans ma maison "Elves"

Today the theme at ma maison is elves. I have no suitable images or stamps at all really, I therefore decided to do a hand painted house for this challenge. The really weird thing was that already last night I had a premonition the theme would be something like this and I thought I would do my house in the shape of a mushroom, so here it is...

make a Moo or Two "Butterflies"

This week's theme is Butterflies. Here is my contribution, not very original I'm afraid :o(

Wednesday Stamper "Circles"

The theme at WS is circles. Last night I made this necklace and as it is both a circle and stamped I decided to enter it for this challenge. It's made from polymer clay, rolled out and cut with a cooky cutter. I then stamped it several times with a swirl stamp, coloured it with perfect pearls and added some little copper beads to finish; baked it and that was it.

Mixed media Monday Recycle

The theme at MMM is recycling or reusing.

I took a very old bit of muslin that I still had lying around and made it into what the famous mixed media artist Beryl Taylor calls "Fabric Paper". I basically followed her instructions. First you cover the whole bit of cloth with PVA glue, then you collage it with various bits of paper and images, leave gaps inbetween and fill in with craft tissue. Cover the whole piece with a second layer of PVA and leave to dry before using it for whatever you wish.

I took about half of my piece and made it into this card which I embellished with lace and flowers and over stamped a bit. Not sure about the flowers, but I felt it needed something to brighten it up. I think next time I do this i would plan it all out a lot more carefully and use a bigger image to give it more focus.

Gothic Arches Black white and red

The theme today at GA is black white and a hint of red. Nice change after Renaissance last week. Decided to do something slightly Art Nouveauish. The image is from a vintage CD I have as is the red butterfly. Arch itself done on black card and than stamped with Brilliance moonshadow white and edged with a white pen.

Small world of Inchies

The theme today at Nancy's challenge blog is to create something with Inchies on twinchies.

Great fun. I decided to make a little series and put them on a card.

All the images are from Lisa's altered art.

Dans ma maison "Orange"

Finally took the plunge and joined the dans ma maison challenge. The theme this week is orange, - not my colour at all but it's amazing what happens when you start to go through your stash and I do like monochromes. Colours i used were Adirondack terracotta, butterscotch and cranberry, oh and a little expresso for the stamping etc.

Tag challenge "Punch Art"

The challenge at he Tag you're it site is to create a tag using punches. Now that was a real challenge for me as I haven't really used punches since my early days of paper crafting. I do however have a small collection of them and have to say, once I got in to it I had great fun. I used an autumn/fall theme and called it season of mist. I had this stamp from Clarity Stamps with the beginning of John Keats wonderful poem on it, so this was a great opportunity to use it at last. All the papers I used to punch are hand painted. The tag is an ordinary shipping tag.

Crazy Amigo Vintage

Crazy Amigo's theme is Vintage or Distressed. Well just about everything I do fit's that theme...

Anyway, here is my entry for this week's challenge. Another ATC.

Created by Hand Tuesday challenge "Dream"

Dream is the theme at created by hand.

Here is my entry. It's an ATC and the image is from Lisa's altered art.

Mixed Media Monday "Numbers"

The theme today at MMM is numbers. I have made a modest little contribution. I had to do an ATC for a one to one swap, so added a number to iyt and gave it the title Two Today

Gothic Arch "Renaissance"

he theme today at Gothic arches is Renaissance. I chose a Raphael Madonna as my main image, that way I can always use it as a Christmas card...

Sunday Postcard "Children)

The theme at Sunday Postcard is Children today. As a teacher I always love themes to do with children. The little message on the card may just appear whimsical, but for me it is symbolic as I feel many, many children feel that way, even if they are unable to experess it in so many words. By being forced to early into education that is often only geared toward the academic, they are deprived of their childhood and forget "how to fly"!

Make a Moo or Two "wheels"

The theme today at make a moo or two is wheels. I found it quite hard as I have very few stamps with wheels on them. Anyway, here is my little effort. Great theme though Femmy!

Tag challenge "Christmas in August

This week the challenge at Tag you're it is Christmas in August. Funny I was just thinking the other day what a fun theme that would be to get in the mood.

Anyway, decided to make a tag with a difference, it's a charm actually. As I am only just learning to solder, it's a bit "rustic" so don't look to closely:o) I'll add a suitable ribbon closer to the time

Theme Thursday Marie Antoinette

The theme today at Theme Thursday is Marie Antoinette. I made a little card... Here it is

Wednesday Stamper - "Keyholes"

The theme at Wednesday Stamper is keyholes. Here is my contribution

Created by Hand Tuesday challenge "Journey"

The challenge at created by hand today was to make something with the theme of Journey. I made an altered shipping tag, as that gave me an association with the theme. The background is Adirontack distress ink and perfect pearls. The image is from a CD I have. The message says: Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Gothic Arch "Crowns"

The theme at Gothic Arches is crowns. I do not have any crown stamps apart from a tiny one. Decided to just draw one myself. I called this little lady, "Queen for the day".

Sunday Postcard "Doors"

The theme this week at Sunday Postcard is Doors. I love doors and the symbolism that goes with them.

Saturday's workout Altered Domino

The theme today at SaWo is to alter a domino. Great fun, hadn't played with domino's for ages. Decided to make my domino into a necklace. The image is a Alphone Mucha. The background was a mix of alcohol inks and lumiere paints.

make a Moo or Two "school days"

Well as a teacher of course I liked this theme. I bet teaching online college classes or even better taking them, is a lot of fun!...Anyway! Here is my contribution, the one is little miss goodie twoshoes, the other a little fellow who thinks going fishing is much more fun than going to school. Guess which one I like best?

TGIF Earth tones

This week I was invited to be guest designer for TGIF's challenge on the theme of Earth Tones. I felt very honoured to be invited, loved the theme, as earth tones are some of my favourite.
I added quite a bit of red to my card, to indicate the warmth of summer (though in Scotland we've rarely felt that lately)...
The image is from Paper Whimsy, I thought this girl looks rather "earthy", but I thought there is a lot more going on in her than meets the eye, therefore I have called it "her heart sings"
Thank you so much TGIF team for inviting me!

Hermine's challenge

The very talented Hermine, co-author of the book Art specially for ATC lovers, has set a challenge on her blog, - to use her back ground. Here is my contribution. I did not want to cover up too much of the background as it is so beautiful, so I basically made a card topper, trying to blend in the colours, (a mix of alcohol inks and water soluable crayons and some gesso), with her background. I then embellished with some wire, beads and buttons. The image on the topper is from an antique postcard I picked up at a flee market in Brittany.

Theme Thursday Stone and Statues

Here is my entry for this week. The image is from Michaelangelo's Pieta, one of my favourite statues.

Pages from my art journal

This year I decided to do an art journal while away on my holidays. As it turned out we forgot our camera (how stupid is that), so all the more reason to get the old water colours out and do some good old fashioned sketching. Gosh, had not done that for years and years. Makes you realize how much you actually see, when you take the time to sit and sketch, so different from just snapping pickies. I always sketched in a small book with a soft pencil, while we were out and about and then used those sketches to create my journal back at our gite. Had great fun doing it, though i'm not entirely sure about the results. Ah well, it's very different from my other stuff as you can see.

Round Robin Journal pages.

Here are some of the pages i recently did for our Round Robin journals. Had great fun doing them, now i just hope the recipients will like them....