The Art of Looking Beautiful

I was keen to join the fun over at the Oh La La group at Bella Creations. 2amscrapper always does an amazing job of selecting images for us to use every month and this month was no exception when she revealed an image of three mannequins from Gecko Galz.
The Oh La La group has only one rule, that we do not create large works or art, altered art, etc. It really should be a tag or A.T.C.
The base I used is one of Crafty Individuals large shabby tags.I like the way they are beautiful enough as they come but are also excellent for inking, stamping, painting, etc and they are a great size of tag. I used a large stamp from Oxford Impressions’ Dressforms & Corsets to decorate the tag and then started to decorate the tag with scraps of ticking, dressmaker snaps and stamped elements.I printed the mannequins onto canvas printer paper as it adds lovely texture.Little bits ‘n’ pieces were added to the mannequins.
On the second tag a stamped element.To finish the tag I stamped L’Art d’être Belle onto a torn strip of calico.
The final mannequin has a snap dangling from a safety pin attached to lace.On completion I realised I still had time to participate in Cindy’s Link Party.  Cindy has a new blog, Shabby Chic Girls’ Club which is such a beautiful idea as she shares all sorts of shabby chic beauties.I have to say it was exciting when Cindy contacted me to say she was showcasing something of mine. When I visited here was a notebook I had altered and what was so lovely, I was in the company of two friends. Cindy is tireless in the way she supports crafters by sharing their work on her blog. Thank You Cindy. Lynne x

The Romance of the Ballet

Purely by coincidence all the artwork shown this week has been connected with art groups I am a member of.  Although I am linking this to Pink Saturday, it was actually made for Bella Creations. In the past I’ve talked about this wonderful group. Without going into too much detail, Bellas comprises sub-groups so there really is something for everyone. This particular piece was made for the Oh La La group with Helene (2amscrapper) organising all the challenges. Every month we are given an image and asked to create a tag. We all swooned when we saw the stunning image Helene provided for the July challenge.
The romance of the ballet was always forefront in my mind when making this piece. I wanted to keep a simple colour palette so limited myself to only accents of pink, although I did paint the artist canvas sheet Camisole Pink before layering the net fabric on top. My dilemma, when is a tag a hanging and a hanging a tag? On completion it looked too much like a hanging so I stamped some more ribbon,this time crowns onto sheer ribbon, tying it half way up and this makes it look more like a tag.This Oxford Impressions stamp struck me as being suitable for this piece as it could be the love story danced on stage or it could be that the story about love is the ballerina’s love affair with her craft.
The panel you see above was raised and tucked behind it are two tags. Dancer was also provided for our use along with the image. I stamped the word ballet onto seam binding, tying the tags together.
This is the second tag

This piece was so much fun to work on. If you would like to use this image in your artwork then you could always consider joining Bella Creations. Lynne x

A Shy Smile

I’ve spoken previously of how I happened upon Bella Creations. This group is positively buzzing with activity. Within Bella Creations there are sub-groups, can you believe they even created a group called Jingle Bellas! Anyway, there is a Bella Muse challenge whereby they provide a delightful image for us to incorporate into our artwork. Last month we received a beautiful image of a child. Anything can be created:- scrapbook layout, card, altered art, etc.
On seeing this image I knew I wanted to create something very feminine,so I made a lacy decorative pillow.  Although I wanted a romantic, feminine feel I also wanted a relatively uncluttered look with the image being the main focus. To do so I used white lace and braiding and the only dash of colour comes from the velvet ribbon in a duck egg blue, a glass button and the leaves on the fabric flowers.

A Soldier’s Love

The images on Divas D’Este’s I Love A Soldier collage sheet (CS) are absolutely stunning. You could while away time sitting looking at them and creating little stories around each image, this CS will become such a favourite of mine. The Divas mentioned to me that while creating this CS their thoughts were of anyone whose loved one was serving in the Armed Forces, how suitable it would be for them to receive a Valentine card with images of a soldier in love. These images are so beautiful that I am sure any Valentine would be delighted to see such an image of love on a card.
As I started to work on my tags it coincided with joining Bella Creations. In one of the mini groups I joined a challenge was set, whereby we were provided with an amazing sheet of Love Tickets.  I knew the tickets would be a perfect addition to my tags.
To create pretty packaging for the tags I altered a standard blue envelope with stamping.All tags were created in the same manner. Stamped letter (Oxford Impressions), Love Ticket, flowers, lace,  torn, French text and crinkled ribbon.My choice of colours pick was based on the colours in the images, the pink dresses and blue of the soldiers’ uniforms.This shows the tags tucked inside the envelopeI am linking the tags to Louise’s Tag Tuesday. The theme this week is Valentines.

Update - As I was looking at Cynnie’s Blog, Galerie 46 I noticed some recent challenge themes suitable for the tags
Linking to Theme Thursday: Love
Crazy Amigo Challenge : Tags

Thank You fot taking the time to visit, it is always appreciate. Wishes. Lynne x

Classique

Over at Bella Creations one of the groups I joined is called Cartes Classique. At the moment, the first challenge is underway. There were three elements required on any card made, if you join Bella Creations you can find all the details there!
Here are the cards I made
On both cards I painted white cardstock with emulsion (latex) paint and then set about happily stamping with beautiful set of stamps, Anna Corba French Vintage Labels.
The postmark and bottle are Oxford Impressions stamps.The second card
Touches of lace, French text and a fabric bloom.

If you are interested in joining Bella Creations, click on any of  the badges on this Blog’s sidebar or click the link at the start of this post. They are such a warm group of crafters. Whether you make cards, tags, A.T.C.s, altered art, collage, scrapbooking,  an experienced stamper, new to stamping or never stamped before, there is something for everyone at this group. Lynne x

The Game of Love

During a visit to Helene’s Blog (2amscrapper) I noticed her DT artwork for Bella Creations. The name and badge for Bella Creations piqued my interest. I am already a member of on-line groups and I certainly wasn’t on the look out to join another at this moment in time but Bella Creations looked so different.
There are various groups to join within Bella Creations and the first I joined was the “Oh La La” Group. We were asked to make a tag and use the Oh La La Group’s avatar on the tag. I spent a very relaxing half hour on Sunday evening making this tag.
To tie in with the name of this group I created the “Oh La La” text.

After stamping onto pattern paper I layered a piece of French text, scrap of postcard which was aged, lace and a strip dyed with homemade spray inks. The cameo is made from air dry clay in an art mould (painted and edges inked with Victorian Velvet ink), added a fabric flower and teeny key.