The Whole Point of Patchwork is......

Greetings and welcome to the last day of August 2013.  Wow, where did that go.  Oh gosh, where did it go.  This might not get posted til tomorrow cos tomorrow is almost here!  So welcome to the first day of September 2013.   I've had an intensive craft session this evening which involved the Sewing Machine.  I think I shall henceforth call it the Scary Monster.  Anyway, we seemed to be on the same page tonight. 

Over at PaperArtsy it's Darcy week and she did just so many cool projects.  Tonight I'm trying out the patchwork project.

I started here, but decided after playing for a while that three sheets was too much for my resources.

So I combined my colours on one sheet and after doing what Darcy said got this

The Scary Monster seemed to like the project and we got to this

Some stamping, some doodling and we got this

As well as the Scary Monster I used various masks from Tando Creative, PaperArtsy fresco finish paints and stamps from LPC001, LPC022, MN16, SM12, Winter Wonderland Plate 6 and maybe more.....

Joining the fun at
PaperArtsy
Craft-room Challenge - Something New so much new here you wouldn't believe!  Technique, stamps and mask I never used, the Scary Monster behaved, now there's something really new!!
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping by.  I just need to think what to do with this fabby background.  It almost seems a pity to cut it up!  Take care, be crafty

I was one of the Top 3

Raise Your Expectations

Good evening and welcome.  Just getting in a bit of midnight crafting.  Over at PaperArtsy Darcy has been wowing us with a vast array of projects.  Where does she find the ideas and the time?   Time is something I never seem to have enough of.  Anyway, I'm starting small with an idea inspired by this post  Do check out the denim journal Darcy makes.  I have been inspired by her tags.  It's been a while since I made a tag and it will be a bit longer because I decided on an ATC.  Ha ha...... 

I have used PaperArtsy metal card.  This is a layer of metal bonded onto card.  I have embossed metal sheets before but there is the danger of splitting the metal.  This metal card is a dream to work with.  I cut using my Sizzix ATC die and then embossed with Spellbinders Sea Beauty.  I coloured with PaperArtsy Inky Pool and then added Limelight to the ferny bits.  

The tape is my own made washi-style tape.  Check this post.  Another Darcy inspired make!  Then I stamped SM30 and coloured with Limelight and some yellow chalk.   

Joining the fun at
PaperArtsy
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes 

Thanks for dropping by.  Your comments warm my soul.  May inspiration strike you just when you need it.

Bring on The Clowns

Hello again blog friends, followers, happy hoppers.  So glad you could join me.  It's nearly the weekend and the end of the month so working hard to finish up some projects and get them posted.  Over at Altered Pages the challenge this month is Green.  What a great colour.  What a great idea.  Let's go green....

I started off by upcycling some wooden domino's I found in a charity shop.  It's the green thing to do ;-)  These places can be little treasure troves.  You never know what you will find.  I found these....

Hey 99p how can you go wrong?  Actually they are quite cute but I was thinking more the altered art possibilities......   So I sanded a few and painted them white, cos the cows were quite difficult to get rid of.  The rabbits went whoosh, but those cows were a bit persistent.   

Then I added the green collage background from Altered Pages Time Collage Backgrounds 1724D

Some patterned tape involving elements of green

Some clocks from the same Altered Pages collage sheet

Some dots of Pebeo Fantasy Prime in Emerald. 

A clown from Altered Pages Victorian Clown Collage Sheet 1153D.  I have to admit at this point that this is the second clown I used, and the second domino.  I took pictures of my first one but they were so blurred I decided to make another and try and get some better pictures second time around.  

Back to my first choice clown, because he was wearing green.  I wrapped my domino with copper tape.  This is called new wave I think.  It comes with one edge cut to a nice wave pattern so stained glass artists can look really fancy.  I bought this in the US many years ago and it wasn't available in the UK at that time.  Maybe it is now.  You have to love the bling.  I covered it all in glossy accents. 

I made a little chain of polished jade chips so he can dangle.  Very pleased.  As mentioned I made a second.  I managed, despite best efforts to get a couple of air bubbles in the glossy accents.  I pop them if I see them but these little blighters stayed hidden til it was too late.  Any tips gratefully received.   Is there another product out there anyone would like to recommend that gives a good glossy cover and is hard wearing.  I thought this would make a good key chain or dangle but don't know if the glossy accents will survive being in a pocket with keys etc.  Maybe I'll give it a test run.  I'm sure if it survives me it will do well anywhere.  

 

Here's my clownish pair.  What a great little gift.  I can see me making a small pile of these.  Must check out Altered Pages for some more fun collage images.  

Joining the fun at
Altered Pages - Green
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge -  Dotty
Craft-room Challenge - Something New this is the first time I have altered dominos
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challange - Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping by.  All comments  welcome and any tips on the glossy stuff gratefully received.  Have a great day. 

I Choose You....

Greeting everyone.  Well it's almost the end of August.  Everyone is talking about the end of summer, autumn colours, Christmas.  Personally I am hoping for autumn to hold it's horses because things are just coming good in the garden and a cold snap would be very disheartening.  I am however going to address the Crazy Season.  It's Christmas card time!!    I have been creating for LOTV whose challenge is Festive, and of course this will be going towards my BtCR total.  A worthy addition to the Xmas card stash.....

This one was actually a bit more difficult than it looks.  I spent ages trying to decide if I should emboss, ink, frame, fancy cut or bling up the background.  In the end I opted for CAS.  

 

So I cut a whole stack of trees using Memory Box Frosted Christmas Tree die, embossed them and added some DI Mowed Lawn.  Then I stuck them on a plain card of the same card I used to cut the trees.  I realise they look stamped here but that really is three diecuts.  They do say you can't see the forest for the trees......

More trees, the one front right is on sticky pads.  Then I cut another from white card, added iridescent glitter on the embossed parts and cut off the top to make a small tree.  The little girl is from LOTV art pad Just for Girls and I have dressed her in a red glitter dress and slippers so she can go out in the forest and add a star to this special little tree.  

A close up.  Hopefully you can see the glitter a bit better.  Maybe not!!  Ah well

Joining the fun at
LOTV - Festive
Me and Mine - BtCR (total 24)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge 139 - Cute 
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - August 

Thanks for dropping by.  Hope you are having a good week.  Soon the weekend......

Old Photographs

Hi everyone.  So glad you could join me.  If you are expecting to be going down memory lane with me then you may be a little disappointed.  I have been playing with a technique that Carol Quance has been sharing over at the PaperArtsy blog and it reminded me of negative images, hence my misleading title.  But then again my titles are always a little quirky so maybe you weren't expecting anything but great art.  ROFL.  Ah, midnight humor strikes again.....

OK, so you have got to try this.  I have spent so long tweeking my photo's trying to get the true intensity of the colours I have totally missed a deadline over at Cheery Lynn.  Ah well, today is a new day.  All things are possible.  Carol has been stamping on black with the PaperArtsy fresco finish paints.  Now I resisted buying these for a while because I already had lots of different paints.  Duh, how stupid am I?  OK, maybe not stupid.  Maybe just weighing the purse against the existing stash.  These are really as great as everyone says and you really need to get these if you aren't already in the know. 

I just can't get the colours as wow as they are in the real but I hope you get the idea.  I have used my most favourite Modern Girl from the PaperArtsy LPC022 set.  Top left I started with fresco Pansy and Limelight.  Moved on to Inky Pool and Pansy then reversed them just to see.  Then introduced some Pea Coat.  The Pansy looks quite white in the photo's but it's the best I could do.  I applied my paint using a finger dauber.  I mention this because I had enough paint out for one more image which I stamped on a new black sheet.  Then I decided to clean the dauber on the sheet, rather than wash it which I usually do......

 
Look at all that paint!!  I could have washed it away and wasted it.  Instead I have a fabby background.  Very pleased with self.  OK, itching to do something with these fab images I have but what.......

Carol was using flowers and was putting them on a pale background.  At this point the Cheery Lynn challenge, the one I just missed, put in an idea.  I was supposed to be using doilies so I thought lets see where that takes me.  So I got this....

I've used an English Tea Party doily cut from mauve card which I then daubed with fresco Pansy.  Then I did some white dots with my galaxy marker.  I've mounted it on my happy accident background and added some faux stitching.  Then I mounted one of my images in the middle.  Then I decided I didn't like the faux stitches!!  Exasperated hands in the air.  Nothing for it, it must go!  So I ripped it off.   Gasp, horror.....

It's better I think.  I like the ragged black edge.  Good contrast.  See, totally different colours to the one above.  It's the same honest.  I photographed on a white background.  Obviously need some lessons in digi manipulation.  Who's got time for that!!  Had another idea.  Something profound I said earlier but it's late, or maybe early and I might not have time to take another shot at this later so I'm going to link it in to the fun at

PaperArtsy
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Carnival because I think it's wild and fun colours.  Also PaperArtsy fans should check out this link cos Suzz made a masterboard using fresco paints and it's fab.  

Thanks for dropping by.  Good night, God bless, may sweet dreams and inspiration find you. 

Oh Christmas Tree dee dee dee dee......

Hi blog friends.  Welcome to a festive edition of nomad wanderings.  It's Beat the Christmas Rush deadline today for this month so here's what I've been working on.....

Blingy cards always look so nice in person, so to speak, and are rarely photogenic!!  Anyway.....  I've used a green card blank that I swiped with galaxy gold Brilliance ink.  The frame and backing paper are from the stash, I don't know the maker.  I cut an aperture in the tree paper and then ripped a bit more off to give the white edge.  I stamped the background in silver ink with various snowflakes from Papermania Sleigh set.    The tree is Memory Box Frosted Christmas Tree which I have added red glitter glue to.  A couple of glittery flourishes cut using Sizzlit flowers with stem and leaves and a die cut Season greetings with green glitter paper backing.    I've got  a couple more trees glittered up.  Just waiting for them to dry and the plan is to make a couple more of these later.  I'll update with a photo and my running total for BtCR.  

Joining the fun at
Me and Mine - Beat the Christmas Rush  Total to date 21
Joan's Garden Challenge - Christmas Card
Papirdokkene Utfordring 49 - Julen
Kort o Mania Utfordring 91 - Blomster 

Hope you are having a sunny Saturday.  Thanks for dropping by. 

Learn Something New Every Day

Good evening followers and friends.  A special hi to my most newest followers.  Our little band grows.  Thanks for all your support. 

I really believe that we should all try and do something new or learn something new every day.  It is so easy to fall into the same routine and not take the time to see things from a different angle or just try something new.  So I thought I would share with you a few of things I learnt today. 

Make your own mask from one of those dies you have.  It's fun and easy but make sure if you are going to use it with a 'wet' medium, and lets face it most of them are, then maybe you should consider something a bit more hardwearing than card.   

When spreading texture paste on your mask, a piece of card is not the best applicator due to the wet medium theory discussed above.  If like me you are very loyal I would suggest one of the store loyalty cards that are taking up too much space in the wallet/purse/pocket book.  Not your current credit card though cos you may need to be buying some more crafty goodies soon and the texture paste plays up the card reader something rotten. 

Smile when it goes right.  Smile when it goes wrong.  You might get wrinkles but they will be happy ones and whatever the outcome a smile restores the soul. 

OK, that's my little bit of wisdom for the evening, on to the craft.  I have been spending quite a lot of time over at PaperArtsy.  They have their birthday thing going on and a new post every evening this month and this week Carol Quance is back with some fun projects.  She has given some insight into the design process.  I usually don't know exactly where it's going until I get there, they say it's the journey not the destination, so it was quite nice to go through the steps of the design with Carol.  As she suggested I started with a stamped image.....

This is from PaperArtsy Bricks and Mortar SIBM4.  I coloured it with Butternut and Galaxy Markers. 

Then I assembled some more bits.  I am using the Tando Creative Home Sweet Home Plaque.  I decided to use Leandra's texture paste/stamp technique for the texture.  I made a mask with circles using a spellbinders die, added texture paste and stamped with small stamps from PaperArtsy LPC022, LPC001 and SM12
I wanted my plaque to be bright so picked reds/orange/yellow as my colours.  

Unfortunately I didn't have fresco paints in the right colours.  These I used didn't sand well over the texture areas so I cheated a bit and daubed on some white paint.  

The house is painted with PaperArtsy fresco paint Pansy then stamped with Hampton Arts I Love Thee stamp.  This was the biggest text stamp I had and I thought the lovey quotes were quite apt for my home sweet home plaque.  The roof bit has been painted, stamped, no don't like that, painted, doodled on, no don't like that, painted again in white.  I tried the Magic Roundabout mask from Crafty Individuals with more Pansy paint.  Me likey.  Then I decided to add iridescent glitter glue for a fab finish.  I use this quite a lot and never really know how it's going to turn out.  It looks different on different colours.  That is white and Pansy under there, honest guv'nor.  I used the same glitter glue on the polka dots on the house image and a birdie from Stampotiques Birdie Up has appeared at the window.  He's in the Limelight! 

The letters also got the I Love Thee stamp treatment with added glitter glue.  Love the texture made by stamping into the texture paste.  

This little project is joining the fun at
PaperArtsy
Tando Creative Challenges - Feel the Heat
Stampotique Designers Challenge 112 - Polka Dots 
Crafty Individuals

Hope you are having a great week.  Thanks for dropping by and staying with me through this long waffley post.  

Catching Blue Dreams

Good evening everyone and welcome.  A special welcome to Martha and Trisha who have recently joined the following.  Welcome, welcome, one and all.  We are looking after the neighbors dog this weekend and I have just taken him out for a walk.  Or maybe he took me!!  I was hoping to be back before it got dark and started to rain but failed with both.  Isn't it great to be a dog and just have to shake.  

There are a couple of monochrome challenges at the moment so I decided to go with my favourite colour.  BLUE, you can't have enough BLUE.  So many shades of BLUE.  Gosh........

Also over at Cheery Lynn they suggested we have Fun With Letters.   Hmmmmmmm......  So I had a look through the stash to see what phrases or alphabets I could come up.  

I started with a pale blue card.  I cut a Cheery Lynn Pocket Watch.  This is one of their brand new dies and I love it.  Fantastic detail and it comes with an angel wing as well.  Anyway, I used this as a mask with DI Salty Ocean and then spritzed with water.  I reversed the diecut mask a few times just to keep it interesting.  Time has no direction in our dreams.........   I had masked off a border around the edge but when I started to add the other elements this looked boring, so I ripped around the edge of the pocket watch background, matted on pale blue glitter card and then on a dark blue card. 

You need to see this close up to get the details.  I wrapped the card with some Basic Grey Granola Fibers.  I cut a Cheery Lynn Spider Web Mesh Border, this is sooooooo gorgeous,  and added some gems.  I cut Imagine with a Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Die.  I decided I needed dream as well.  I used American Crafts fabric Thickers in black which I covered with blue glitter glue.  There's the CLD Pocket Watch again cut from the pale blue glitter card with a pale blue background.  There are hands also supplied with this die but since I was starting to get a dreamy feeling I decided to use the feathers from CLD Dream Catcher #2.  This is a gorgeous little die.  I think it's excellent value and it cuts all that detail on the feathers.  Fantastic.  So because I was feeling a bit like I was making a big square dreamcatcher I cut more feathers and hung them on the fibers.  A couple of CLD mini dimensional butterflies in shades of blue and voila.....

Joining the fun at
Cheery Lynn Designs - Fun with Letters
That Craft Place - Monochrome
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Monochrome
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Make the Cut
Craft-room Challenge - Bingo (blue,mask,gems) 

Thanks for taking the time to drop by.  I hope you are having a fun, fab, crafty weekend.   If you have the time or the inclination leave me a little love so I know you passed by.  Craft on good friend, craft on..... 

I was one of the Top 3

A New Heart For Piggyfeather

Good evening everyone and welcome back to a session of midnight crafting.  I am not a morning person.  Never have been.  Always do my best work evenings and into the wee smalls.  I know there's folk out there saying I'm missing the best bit of the day!  The birds are singing and the cock is crowing.  Not here matey.  Ninja takes after me.  He's a nine o'clock starter.  Yeah really!  I used to have one that got up at four in the morning and thought everyone else should be up then as well.  So glad Ninja isn't an early riser.   I do try and get up earlier now and again.  It's always worth it when the sun is shining and they say the sun will be shining tomorrow so maybe.......

Over at PaperArtsy the birthday celebrations are in full swing.  France is strutting her stuff and what great stuff it is.  I've been inspired by her first post this week where she coloured and stamped on a wooden heart.  I've gone for a slightly different colour scheme, mostly cos I am sadly lacking in red, both alcohol inks and fresco paints, but do have a goodly selection in the green blue range......

I started with this chunky wooden heart which has quite a rough finish.

I coloured with slate, mushroom and bottle alcohol ink and blended with a paint brush cos I don't have blending solution.  A bit of an alcohol ink novice really.  

Overpainted a layer of PaperArtsy fresco Inky pool.  It was a bit green so added a layer of Pea Coat.  Stamped a flower in Pansy, that's the paint colour not the type of flower, and a small heart in Snowflake.  Both stamps from PaperArtsy SM12.  

I have decorated both sides so I was looking for two sentiments.  Finally decided on Lots of Love and Have a Beautiful Day, both stamps from Papermania Birdsong set, stamped on pale blue handmade paper and then torn.  Glad I left the string white, it matched the paper edge.  








Joining the fun over at
PaperArtsy

Thanks for dropping by. Hope you have a great day, whatever time it starts for you.  Don't forget to be crafty. 

Happy 10th Birthday PaperArtsy

Good morning everyone.  So glad you decided to spend a little time with me.  I am a relative new comer to PaperArtsy, having only discovered them last year, but I love everything they do.  If you haven't discovered them you need to go here.  They are posting fun and inspirational projects on their blog every day this month as part of their 10 year birthday celebrations so check it out.  This week Sue Carrington has been wowing us with her fab projects and I have made a simple little arch inspired by her box frame post. 

I have used Tando Creative's Arabian Style Arch.  I really liked Sue's idea of an old wall.  I added some texture paste and then used Fresco Inky Pool and That Special Touch Bamboo mask for a brickish effect.  Then I painted Fresco Limelight over everything.  I went over the texture paste again with the Limelight to give a stronger colour and added some red highlights using Brilliance Rocket Red Gold.  Then I stamped using PaperArtsy Squiggly Ink SM12.  All these stamps are in this credit card sized set!  Glorious.

I painted the frame black and then stamped with the bubble stamp using the Limelight again.  I'm going to fix a hanger so this can go on the wall.

Joining the fun at
PaperArtsy

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great Sunday and don't forget to check out the PaperArtsy blog.  Lots of good things and excitement over there this month. 

The Ghost of Birdie Up

Hi followers and friends.  Just a quick post on this lovely Saturday evening.  I have been working on a little something for the Cheery Lynn Challenge where the theme is Anything Goes.  Not much to start with there but luckily I had a delivery of some of their new dies a couple of days ago and it also fitted nicely with the Stampoutique Challenge of purple, orange and yellow.  So I got to thinking of Halloween, a favourite of mine, and since it was the brand new Spider Web Mesh Border that had landed in the mail box I thought yeah, why not, lets pimp a pumpkin.

I started with the large pumpkin carriage from Tando Creative

Here's my pimped up, or maybe that should be Blinged up version.  I painted the pumpkin orange and then used glitter glue all over and stuck on my Cheery Lynn Spider Web Mesh Border which I cut from purple glitter paper.  The top is green glitter paper, the wheels black glitter paper with a gold mirror center cut with Cheery Lynn's Dreamcatcher #2.  Goes nicely with the whole fairy tale look.  The spring is also gold mirror card.  Bling.

Inside the coach, well, I told them it was a masked ball so they all decided to come as ghosts.  Their masks leave a little to be desired but they are keen and eager to PARTY.  It's three birdies from Stampoutique's Birdie Up stamp.  The effect behind is PaperArtsy Limelight fresco paint on gold embossed rays.  Isn't that spider web fanatstic!

These guys are joining the party at
Cheery Lynn Designs - Anything Goes
Stampotique Designers Challenge 111 - Purple, Orange, Yellow

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great weekend everyone.  

Ahoy! Me Heartys

Hi and welcome aboard.  Doing a bit of midnight crafting.  I have been trying to do a tag for the Basic Grey challenge using some lovely paper I got the other day but you know how you have an element you want to use and can't see past it to the design.  Maybe it's just me.  Anyway, I decided to have a little look around at some other challenges and see if they could break my jam and lo and behold, a light in the east, courtesy of the Craft-room Challenge where their bingo square worked perfectly for me.  

For the bingo I've chosen to use middle straight across so it's rubber stamp, stencil or mask and brown.  The base tag is Basic Grey Offbeat Novel ofb-1390 which is a gorgeous chocolate brown with lovely white strings and bubbles.  So there's my brown.  The stamps I used are all from Kadoodle, Pirate Dan, Treasure Chest and Skull & Swords.  I stamped my pirate in black and then masked him and stamped the background using London Fog.  The yellow is Colourbox Chalk Butter.  I coloured Pirate Dan using Colourbox Chalks Plumeria, Arctic Deep and Peach Pastel and also American Craft Galaxy Markers in red, brown and black.  For the earring and the buckle I used a gold Pilot marker.  The silver charms are from Korthobby.  A little sword to see off unfriendly natives, a key to his treasure and a bone for the ships cat.  It's a tough cat OK!  

I ripped around the edge of the image and used four black pearl brads in the corners.  Every pirate should have a few black pearls.  I distressed the tag edge and used a piece of homemade washi tape for the tie.  For details see here.

Pirate Dan is joining the fun at
Basic Grey Challenges - Make a Tag
Craft-room Challenge - It's Bingo Time
Korthobby Utfordring - Fargerikt

Thanks for dropping by everyone.  I might have to send this to my nephew Danny who would probably look quite good dressed as a pirate.  Hi Danny.  Hope you all have a great weekend.  Craft on....

Cup Kitten

Hi everyone and welcome to my crafty space.  Hope you are having a great day.  It's very pleasant, warm and sunny, so I have been out in the garden continuing the battle of the weeds.   I find I get into quite a meditative state right up until I have to battle a big one.  Some of those roots take some digging.  It's a resting flower bed and I have been ignoring it a bit in favour of other areas of the garden, but have decided to throw in a few tomato plants that are being sadly neglected in their buckets.  At least in the open soil they might have a fair chance.  

I have been working on a baby card for a boy.  I have used one of Joanna Sheen's decoupage Cup Kitties with the baby flask.  I thought with the green colouring it must be a little boy kitty.   

I started with a yellow Bazzill bling base card and matted a piece of Basic Grey pattern paper.  This is offbeat novel ofb-1390.  I found this in the lucky dip box at my local craft store.  I always find shopping for papers a bit like shopping for music.  The new, organised sections are just so large I don't know where to start so I tend to go to the bargain box where there are one or two of a lot of sheets and I can just spend some happy time flicking through.  And get a bargain.  Wish they had had more than one sheet of this.  Love the plain brown with the white strings and bubbles.  I have added iridescent glitter glue to give it a bit of bling.  Then I added my kitty and some letters cut from Sizzix Alpha Bubbles in gold mirror card and the same Bazzill I used as the base.  So there it is, not high art, but a nice cute baby card.  

Joining the fun at
Joanna Sheen Challenge- Boys Will be Boys 
Hjerteboden Utfordring 8 - Baby

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great evening. 

Happy Shiny Tag

Good morning blog followers and friends.  A special hi to Tracy who has just joined the following.  We have been having some amazing thunder and lightning storms the last few days.  At least it has cleared away the humidity.  I wasn't sure whether it was the heat or the humidity that makes me feel so uninspired.  Anyway it's cooler, wetter and greyer.  A good excuse to be in and craft.  

A few sites are looking for tags, oh goody I love tags, and also there are a lot of summer themes around.  What better way to spend a grey wet day than making a summery tag?  

There's quite a lot of 'new' in this project.  I finally got around to using my new for me Stampotique's Birdie Up stamps.  He's so cute.  I've coloured him with PaperArtsy Fresco paints, newly acquired, Limelight and Inky Pool with some additional colour from American Crafts Galaxy Markers.  I am not the world's greatest colourer, is that a word?, but I am quite pleased with how this birdie turned out.  My tag is Bazzill card embossed using Sizzix Rays folder and then embossed with gold embossing powder.  I have been meaning to try this double embossing technique for a while, so another newby.  I have a bit of powder in the wrong place or missing but I think it works well with the distressed folder look.  

I was looking for the perfect tag tie and had some lovely black fringe ribbon but couldn't find a gold to contrast.  Then I spotted this.....

Uhhhhh, what dat den? I hear you cry.  This is my pot full of stripy pipe-cleaners.  Amid other stuff.  Perfect, maybe?

OK, so it's a bit of an exotic top.  I used a Sizzix original Sun #2 cut from some gold packaging, old chocolate box I think.  Then I went a bit mad with a couple of the yellow/brown pipe-cleaners.  They were a bit indistinct so I doodled with a black marker.  That was a bit of an adventure.  No return for mistakes there.  I think it sort of worked.  Then I added a metal flower from Korthobby and a decorative brad.  Oh yeah, I grounded Birdie using a stamp from Woodware Angels set and a bit of doodle dots and then smudged a bit of DI Walnut Stain because it needed it.  So no, that's not accidental smudgy fingerprints.  That's intentional smudgy fingerprints ROFL.

OK, no holds barred on your comments.  I think Birdie is definitely going to get the lion share of comments but if anyone is brave enough to comment on the fluffy embellishment top then speak your mind, I can take it.  

My fluffy top tag is going to join the fun at
Stampotique Designers Challenge 110 - Tag You're It 
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes 
Korthobby Utfordring - Fargerikt 
ALBC - Summer Sun 
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes 

Thanks for dropping by.   I really appreciate the time you take, your comments and your support.  Have a great day everyone. 

In My Dreams....

Hi and welcome.  The craft is sure flowing tonight, uhhh, this morning!!  Ah well, today is another day and bright the sun may shine.  Hey, I can wax and wane all over the place at this time of night.  Talking of waxing and waning over at Altered Pages the challenge is Dreamy Nights.  Not sure that my dreams are as organised as the DT pieces suggest but to me it's blues and blacks and moons.  And when the moon is full don't you just got to get howling........

Is that in focus??  Maybe it's just me old eyes complaining of too much screen time.  Anyway, I used various acrylic and distress inks on the base card over crumpled tissue paper.  The Raven is a Crafty Individuals stamp coloured with DI which started about ATC size and then got seriously distressed.  I stamped the ravens head on an Eco Board Inchie from Altered pages, coloured and then added glossy accents.  Over on the left the coyote is a homemade mask inked in black with Tando Distorted Harlequin mask below.    The butterfly wing is Altered Pages Jar Fairies Wings Collage Sheet 1008D.  I thought it fitted perfectly with the colour scheme.  I printed the words a la me, cut and paste. 

Joining the fun at
Altered Pages Challenges - Dreamy Nights
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for joining me.  Again.  Always a bit crazy at the end of the month.  And when the moon is full.  Or there's thunder and lightning.  Take care.  May all your dreams be sweet.  

Inspired by Francis Picabia

Hi and welcome followers, friends, fellow bloggers.  Back again for a last minute post over at Tando Creative.  This one has been a major challenge, in the end a lot of fun but definitely well up there on the out of your comfort zone scale of 1 to 10.  The challenge is Favourite Artist.  Now I had an idea a while ago but that got sidetracked so I decided to consult the book Modern Art 1890 - 1918 by Jean Clay.  Modern huh??  Everything is relative I suppose.  Maybe I should mention that I am very bad at drawing.  No, I mean very bad.  This was a big challenge.  Anyway I was really taken by Francis Picabia Portrait of Mme Robbie de Massot.  If you want to check it out you will have to look it up cos I didn't want to upset any copyright laws.   Anyway this is my version.  The original is definitely worth a look and has eyebrows that don't look like Groucho's!!

I used coffee filters in white and brown for the face and hair.  Button eyes, a metal key from Korthobby tinted with black paint for the nose, Tando Creative mini leaf for the mouth and  two pieces from Work of Parts Come Fly With Me for those amazing eyebrows.  More charms from Korthobby in the hair, card candi, Mowed Lawn DI, white acrylic paint and Pebeo Porcelain black outline for the line.  It's art lovely.  Thanks to Francis Picabia (1879 - 1953) for the inspiration.  Mona Lisa eat your heart out.....

Joining the fun at
Tando Creative Challenge 
Eclectic Paperie e-team picks challenge - Kitchen Papers - I used coffee filters
Korthobby Utfordring - Fargerikt

Thanks for dropping by.  Take care and remember get out of your comfy chair and craft on.......