The Three Muses "Something old something new"

I decided to show two of my journal pages, one in "new" one in "old" style.
Recently I have been feeling I should do some actual painting rather than just collage and stamping and so I made myself create faces and portraits in different styles. You can see a few more of htese in the post below. If I am really honest though I have to say I enjoy both the process and the result of my "old" style better.

More Art Journal pages

Here are some more of my recent pages

Art Journal pages

I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful Moleskine art journal as one of my Christmas gifts. I can't wait to start on it but have resolved to finish the pages in my old journal first, so I have been busy creating new pages in that. Here are a few samples:

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

A very happy Christmas to you all!
Thank you for visiting my blog and for all your lovely comments. They mean a lot to me.

Two Christmas four by fours

Spent the evening making two similar four by fours out of some previously created fabric paper. They are pretty much the same just in different colour ways. They are intended for two crafty friends. Now the question is, which one will get which colour...

The Three Muses "Bottles and Jars"

"Bottles and Jars" is the theme at the three muses this week. I altered this little jar.

Gothic Arches "Regal Ladies"

The theme at GA is "Regal Ladies". I called this arch "Summer Queen" in honour of my friends in the Southern Hemisphere where it is now summer.

Vintage Round Box

I made this box for my sister in law who is expecting a baby on boxing day. I am going to fill it with pampering goodies for her. This because so often all the attention goes to the new baby, but I reckond it would be nice to give her something just for her

The Three Muses "Fun and Games"

Have been so busy making Christmas cards etc that I have hardly blogged at all, but tonight I thought I should do something.
The theme at The Three Muses is Fun and Games. I made a tag. It went through the cuttlebug, was sprayed with various colours glimmermist. Then some gesso was added and finally an image of Itkupilli. The cheeky look on te girl's face suggested fun and games to me...

Calendar pages

Decided to make my own 2010 desktop calendar. Here are some of the pages, further pages can be found on my Flickr photostream. I am putting this in for the Three Muses' Challenge where the theme is time.

Gothic Arches "Stars"

The theme at Gothic Arches is stars this week.The faux metal look on the the frame of my arch was created using a technique described in the December issue of the UK publication "Craft Stamper". It is metallic card, embossed with the help of a cuttlebug folder and then painted with a dark colour of acrylic paint which is rubbed into the relief created in the embossing process. Before drying most of it is then rubbed off to create the look of old metal.

The Three Muses "In your dreams"

The theme at the Three Muses is Dreams. I'm afraid to say with about 70 Christmas cards to make, I decided to cmbine this one with a Christmas card. I've called it "Dreaming of Snow". I do dream of snow as I love the white stillnes and serenity a soft layer brings on a crisp winter morning. Here in Scotland we don't get many of these. Winter usually means damp, cold, soggy rain, but hey, here's hoping...

Gothic Arches "Tickets"

Here is my Ticket to Fairyland arch

Gothic Arches "Leighton"

The theme at Gohic Arches is to use an image from a painting by Lord Frederic Leighton.
I had so much fun with this challenge. I chose one of his images,(thanks for the link Nancy!) worked on it in photoshop then printed it and integrated it into a collage using lace, tissue paper and various Stewart Gill paints.

I recently discovered a brilliant way to construct a gothic arch in pretty much any size. All you need is a compass and some (very basic) knowledge of geometry. If you are interested, just email me and I will send you instructions.

The Three Muses "Fowl Play"

"Fowl Play" is the theme at the three muses. Mine is rather a dark piece....

Gothic Arches "Orange and Black"

The theme at GA is Orange and Black to go with Halloween.
Here is my "Samhain Greetings" (Samhain is the old celtic word for Halloween which seemed suitable as I am in Scotland:o)arch.

SaWo "Make your own jewellery"

Here is a watch strap and chunky bracelet that I made out of grungeboard. I saw this while wantching a programme on Create and Craft of all places. Not often they use Tim Holtz products there... I just had to try this one and it worked really easily. There is a video on You Tube on how to do it too.Fun if you like chunky jewellery...

Ginko Canvas

Today I felt like doing something totally different for a change. I made a textured background by setting Tyvek and crumpled tissue paper onto grungeboard, using PVA, Golden Matte Medium and Gesso. I also added some salt while the gesso was still wet to add further texture. When it was dry more or less I painted it with a mix of Stewart Gill and Lumiere paints. Finally I added the Ginko leave which is made from Utee poured into a mould and then coloured with Perfect Pearls from Ranger. Finally I finished it by embellishing with some beads.

The three Muses "Long ago and far away"

Long ago and far away is the theme at the 3 Muses. The perfect theme of course for something vintage, which is my favourite style. I created a 6 x 6 page which eventually I will use as a book cover. The image is from a cabinet card I bought at an antique's fair. The lace is also genuinely antiques. The other embellishments are mainly grungeboard, painted ad distressed with Lumiere paints, Perfect Pearls and Stazon ink. Unfortunately the photo turned out a lot bluer than the original.

Gothic Arches "Risque"

The theme at GA is Risque. I had so many ideas as I really liked the challenge of this theme. Unfortunately by the time I had finished with my creation the end result was not very risque at all but just my usual sort of slightly vintage, romantic kind of thing that I always seem to do.....:o(

SaWo "Recycle it"

Recycling something is the theme at SaWo. Well I am in the process of creating a minibook out of beer mats so decided to show some pages for this challenge, as no doubt if I had no picked up these beer mats in a pub the other day, they would have landed in the bin.
More pages can be seen in my flickr album.

Art Creations Friday

ACF provided such a lovely image this week, I just had to play.
I made a digital 4 x 4 as that was all I had time for...

TGIF "Pointy Hats"

The theme at TGIF is pointy hats.
Here is my ATC. Image as most people will recognize is from Paper Whimsey, hat and spiderweb etc. are hand drawn as I have very few Halloween stamps.

Mixed Media Monday "Pink"

Because of Breastcancer Awareness Week the theme at MMM is "Pink".
Here is my pink creation:

Gothic Arches "Twilight"

Twilight is the theme at Gothic Arches. I loved the idea of this theme but when I tried to start to create my arch inspiration kind of left me. After staring at my empty arch for a while I decided to hand paint a kind of twilight scene. I am not sure about the result. I used a mix of |Ranger dye inks, distress inks and Derwent colour soft pencils. The background paper I created a while back in Photoshop elements.

TGIF "It's Raining"

The theme at TGIF is "It's Raining". Well it certainly rain's enough in Scotland at this time of year. Decided to do something totally different for a change, so here is my scrap card

The Three Muses "Numerology"

Haven't found the time to partake in this challenge blog for ages, but at last I managed again to do at least something. 7 is defenitely my lucky number.

Mixed Media Monday "Maps"

The theme at MMM is Maps. The background of my 4 x 4 is an old map (I created it with a photoshop brush set from Brusheasy. The image is from Itkupilli

TGIF "The colour White

The theme at TGIF is the colour white.
I used images from "Digital Collage's White sheet for this beeswax collage. Though it is not completely white, white was defenitely the main colour... I called it Vintage Bride

Slide mailer

I was recently really inspired by an article in Craft Stamper where they showed some altered slide mailers including mirrors. I made various ones, here is a small sampler.

TGIF "Wonderful Trees"

The theme at TGIF is "Wonderful Trees", suitable theme to the approach of Autumn. Autumn certainly is well on the way here in Scotland, so I tried to create a real autumn mood with my card.

Two Cute Christmas cards

Cute is not usually my thing but I could not resist these stamps from the Scandinavian firm Panduro, I therefore started to make some Christmas cards.