Goddess

This beautiful image is at Soartful Challenge this week. It can be used in the artwork or simply as inspiration.

The background is a piece of embossed wallpaper (a little sample from my local D.I.Y. store!) to which I applied  Rococo emulsion paint and also some gold and bronze craft grade metallic paint using baby wipes. Added the image, piece of torn sheet music, LLB Venaissance vellum, K&co flower sticker and a Greek column (melt children’s wax crayons in melt pot and poured into an Art Mould).

This Is A Story About Love

This story is about truth, beauty, freedom, but above all things, this story is about love. Moulin Rouge

For this project I returned to one of my absolute favourite themes, Paris, especially Vintage Paris. This altered matchbox is being entered into the following challenges:-

CHALLENGES

More Paper Than Shoes – Vintage Paris

Supplies: fabric, a piece of metal and acrylic paint

Surface: any

Technique: crackle

Items I used for those requirements

Supplies: fabric – organza and lace. a piece of metal  – metal flower and fan acrylic paints – cream, blush pink and copper used to paint the matchbox and to paint lace

Surface – large matchbox

Technique Crackle – Distress Crackle paints in Vintage Photo and Tarnished Brass and Crackle Glaze applied to decorative paper element in matchbox drawer.

Vintage Udfordring 5

An Altered Item – large matchbox

The Shabby TeaRoom

A Little Bit of Metal – metal flower and fan

The French Cupboard

Creatalicious – Vintage

Large matchbox

There are no instructions for this matchbox apart from pointing out that the Eiffel Tower is made from beeswax  (Art Mould) then painted with copper acrylic. Painted lace panel to form a canopy in the drawer. Silicone glue was used to enable me to build up layers inside the drawer. The gold organza I cut into a long strip which I then tied around the matchbox cover before tying into a large bow.

This Is A Story About Love but the twist to the story, this is not a romance involving a man, the love element is Paris herself. The front of the matchbox cover shows the woman in her latter years as she reminices on certain stages of her life.

 A woman whose life was dominated by Paris and the Moulin Rouge, a place she called home and where she wooed the audience, also a place that would consume her life. The drawer of the matchbox depicts this stage of her life

The back of the cover

 depicts her as a young woman, from a privileged background and what appears to be an air of innocence but she is also at a point in life whereby certain decisions can alter a life’s path. She is already planning her life in Paris and not the life expected of her by her family.

This matchbox can also be viewed in reverse but I like the idea of the woman looking back at her life. Whether she is fondly reminiscing or looks back on her life with regret – that is for you to decide.

Gifts from the beach

In the post “A Day At the Seaside” I showed the altered matchbox I sent to Dawn for our “Vintage Bathing Belles” swap. Dawn altered a wooden box for me with a bathing belle taking centre stage.
and she sent me wonderful goodies to play with including shells, a miniature bottle with tiny shells, trim and a pastry fork which will be lots of fun to alter and a challenge at the same time!
also decorating the inside lid with another image, sequins and stamped shells.
Dawn thanks for everything. Once again this was a fun swap and enjoyed every minute of it. Lynne x

Centre Stage

At the beginning of my term on The Stampsmith’s DT I used  The Ballerina for the post titled Prima Ballerina.
If you look at The Stampsmith link you will notice that I  cut away the background leaving only the actual ballerina.

“Paris” is from The Stampsmith’s Paris plate which I stamped onto a piece of script dp (not from the same pack as the other papers used here). It doesn’t show up but a must have product is silicone glue as you can create a sense of dimension and movement in the ballerina which you cannot achieve with regular glue or foam pads. Using dimensional paint in Pearl I added dots along the hemline and her waistband and a vintage glass flower button. The bloom at the top of the card is a fabric bloom layered with a paper rose which I inked with Victorian Velvet. Finally I created a dangle with various beads. Hopefully I managed to conjure up an air of shabby romance.
Challenges.
LTD  theme this week is “Buttons and or Beads”
Crafts and Me theme is “Petals and Pearls”

Sleepy Head

“dreams are illustrations … from the book your soul is writing about you.” (Marsha Norman)

For the month of August, Gingersnap Creations has set its challenges around paint. One of the challenges is “Famous Paintings/Painters”. I am lucky enough to have stamps depicting some of my favourites, da Vinci, “Girl With a Pearl Ear-ring”, quite a few Klimt inspired stamps but I had to go with an image from “Soul of a Rose”. This was the first set I bought from Oxford Impressions, primarily for the image, “Soul of a Rose” but also for Fredrick Leighton’s “Flaming June”.
The background design I stamped using Antique Brown and Copper acrylic paints and added some imitation copper leaf. Painted the image with NeoColor II watersoluble crayons, added an epoxy frame and epoxy corner sticker, strip of Venaissance vellum and some ribbon.
Shows close-up of the stamped background and light reflecting off the copper leaf.

Rosebud

 Pink Roses signify grace, elegance, sweetness and poetic romance
The Shabby Tea Room “The Delicate Cottage Rose”
Art Cards “Peeled Paint”
Gingersnap Creations “Go 3d”
Preparing this canvas I had Art Cards  “Peeled Paint” in mind but soon realised I could use the one canvas for three different challenges.

This is the photo inspiration for The Shabby Tea Room.
For my canvas I chose blush pink, old white patina and pistachio. I wanted to use green to signify greenery in a garden and to keep it fresh chose pistachio instead of a dark leafy green.
 For the Peeled Paint I started with Pistachio acrylic. Once dry I stamped all over with a rose stamp then added the Vaseline, then soft blush pink acrylic. Once the Peeled Paint technique was effective and after cleaning I added Old White Patina. The patina also used on the heart shaped frame.
Shows a close-up of the peeled paint.

Both photos will show all the bits and pieces, such as the dried rosebud in the frame.

Hanging By A Thread

Returning to what appears to be a favourite topic of mine, sewing, I made this outsize tag for the following challenges:-
Tag Tuesday – Not On Paper
The Three Muses – Wheel
Mixed Media Monday – Embellish (if I’d had more time I would have made another project, really gone to town on the embellishments)
There is nothing much to explain, cut tag from upholstery weight fabric and stamped onto it. Layered pieces of fabric, sewing image, a piece of stamped vintage dressmaker tissue and added bits ‘n’ bobs.
I also made this with a friend in mind, in fact I picked the theme because of her.

Everything Stops For Tea

Unwrapping August’s DT package from The Altered Element I was delighted to see Character Construction’s Mannequin Cafe No 5, a bundle of May Arts ribbons and buttons with the utterly irresistible name of “Blushing Mushrooms”.
Lynne does the most amazing job at tailor making the packages for the DT members. I’m sure you agree that the above goodies are very “me”!
With the Character Construction stamp sets it really is a time to let the imagination go a bit wild, if you choose to do so.

I prefer to stamp onto watercolour paper and when using Character Construction, I get the best results when using Verasfine inks. Instructions – paint a 4 section tray with acrylic paint. To stamp the tea cups directly onto the tray I ink up the stamps on an acrylic block then carefully peel from the block making sure not to smudge the ink, place the stamp onto finger (so my finger becomes a substitute stamping block) and stamp directly onto the tray. Cut wooden trim to required size and paint.  Cut lace style trim to form curtains. Gather at the top and glue to top edge of tray. Add painted trim. Ink the upside down teacup (part of mannequin) and also the torso (this will become a tab). Fussy cut, paint, fold torso to form a tab. Gently bend the cup to add some shape. Glue to top of tray. Cut thin strips of lace to create tie-backs. Stamp one arm, paint and cut a piece of crochet trim (from a crochet coaster) as a cuff. Stamp teapot and attach to her hand. It will slip onto the fingers. Use silicone glue to attach arm to tray.

First Day of School

Gothic Arches Challenge Blog set the theme of “Back To School”. Well thank goodness for vintage images 🙂 as I had nothing suitable in the stamp line.

Stamped an alphabet background then added school girl image and paper images. The strip at the bottom is stamped with a long alphabet stamp (thank you Debbie!) and cut with scallop scissors. Added a suede texture brad, stamping the “a” with Staz-on and finally the word tile.

The sharp eyed amongst you will notice school reports and you may wonder, are they vintage? Well unfortunately they probably would be labelled as “vintage”, they are my Primary School Reports!!

A Few Surprises

I am not one to write a post that doesn’t include artwork of some nature but last week was quite a week for crafty surprises which I wanted to share today. It kicked off last Saturday when a friend sent me some  American style blue ticking. I cannot tell you for how long I have wished to get my hands on such material. Along with the ticking, cotton and also a canvas weight fabric, all impeccably ironed (!) plus a stunning tag which was obviously made with me in mind as it contained all the things I love.
The surprises continued when on Monday, a guy from ParcelForce handed me such a huge package it was a struggle to carry. Unwrapping the brown paper I discovered thisA canvas storage box. I should have measured it as this might not look much but let me tell you it is indeed a large box and look at some of the items I received.
Only some of the contents that were inside the storage box!
 Considering they are laid over one another and I also received packets of card blanks, A4 card plus ribbons that fill a very large bag, you start to get an idea of just how incredibly lucky I am. So who is my Crafty Angel … Doli. Doli and I “met” through swapping A.T.C.s, probably 4 years ago, she was the first person I swapped with one-on-one. When I started swapping with Doli her art opened my eyes to the possibilities of stamping as an actual art, completely inspirational and from day one she encouraged me to find my own style and do what I wanted to do and very quickly the A.T.C.s became secondary as we formed such a good friendship. As you can tell, this woman is incredibly kind. This package was for no reason other than she was tidying her craft room and wanted to send me these goodies.
Then on Saturday I receive an e-mail from Jack with a link Jacks Arty Crafty Kreations. She is participating in a Chunky Alphabet Book Swap at K.C.U.K. and for the letter “A” she chose my Blog! She centred her page around elements that I have become “known” for such as pink, lace, flowers. Please take a minute to visit her Blog.
So three kind souls who made this past week very special indeed. At such times I really don’t know what I have done to deserve such kind acts but Chris, Doli and Jack, many thanks 🙂 Lynne x