Smiles and Love

Yes, two posts in one day!
Before I share a card with you I would like to remind you of The Stampsmith Challenge. Time is running out but if you are really quick you can still participate in the “Love” challenge. Remember there is a prize up for grabs. A new challenge theme will be announced on 1st February. Click the button on the sidebar to take you to The Stampsmith Challenge Blog.
This card I made for my friend, Debbie’s birthday.
“Smiles and Love” is from The Stampsmith Say it With Flair plate and the sweet child from Thank Heaven For Little Girls.

Call Me Queenie

It has been weeks since I joined the fun at Gothic Arches Challenge. The latest theme is “Queen”.

This woman has a Royal air to her.
If time is on my side I will fiddle with this as the dyed lace is not that colour IRL!

You Can See Right Through Her

When I signed up for Nancy Maxwell James’ Smitten on-line class it appealed to me that we could work at our own pace, use supplies we have to hand and we could either follow the projects exactly or use them as a source of inspiration.
The second  Smitten project assigned to us was an altered bottle. Now ideally I would wish to have vintage French perfume bottles to hand for altering but once I stopped dreaming and looked around to see what I could use, let me say, reality is far from what my dreams are made of.
Towards the end of last year I made an image transfer of the same image I use as my avatar. It is an image I never tire of and as I plan on displaying the bottle I wanted something that would fit with my style.
It was so difficult to source glass bottles, even looking for ordinary glass bottles was a hard task.  Eventually I found a bottle I could use, this bottle is approximately 6″ tall.
It is a cold contact image transfer onto French text. The photo below shows the bottle from the back.
It was fun to look for supplies to use. I wanted to incorporate bits and pieces that I like to use in my artwork, such as sheet music, the French text, flowers.
A necklace was wrapped around the neck of the bottle, I liked the placement of the bow. A bow was cut from a piece of trim to add to the dusky rose velvet ribbon.The beautiful seam binding was a gift from Marie. I had saved this for a special project, which I found with the altered bottle and it is a perfect colour match.
Altering bottles could become quite an addiction, that is if I can ever get my hands on bottles in the first place!

And Christmas Continues

I received a beautiful package of art in the mail the other day from Julie. This package was such a surprise and as I opened it this is what I discovered.
Warm Winter Wishes card. Isn’t that image so lovely.
Also this flag with such an adorable image and notice the little glass bell at the bottom.
If that were not enough Julie included gold braid ribbon, pearl beads and the most unusual brads.
It is said time and time again by all of us that crafters have to be amongst the most generous people. Within the crafting community we connect with each other, will probably never actually meet but are willing to share art and goodies, I am lucky to be part of this and very lucky to have received such a package from Julie. Christmas may be past but her art is on display in my home. Julie, thank you so much. Lynne x

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

Ae Fond Kiss

Throughout the world,  on the 25th of January, the life of Robert (Rabbie) Burns is commemorated.  In honour of the Scottish Bard I am sharing something I made but first I want to share this link of  Eddi Reader singing “Ae Fond Kiss”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJwy2cm9QTo. She is one of my favourite female vocalists, many may remember her from her days in Fairground Attraction.
I found the perfect image at Bumble Button of lovers in the Highlands of Scotland. This could be Rabbie himself with one of his lassies!
The image is printed onto transfer paper and image transferred to recycled curtain lining, then attached to the heart with rustic stitches. Lace inked with Fired Brick and the addition of fabric roses (My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose)

A few lines from Ae Fond Kiss.

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.

Swiss Miss

Louise set the theme “Winter” at Tag Tuesday this week. I already had an image printed (available as a generous freebie from French Kissed Postcards) which suited the theme perfectly.You can imagine her traipsing through the Swiss Alps, though Mary Jane shoes are not the most appropriate footwear!  I stamped snowflakes with white and twinkling e.p onto Ella Blue paper. Layered a scallop strip of Ella Blue and braiding.The flower is layered with a metal snowflake (added Decoupaint Patina in Old White) and a blue flat back pearl and twinkling e.p. onto the flower. I have Marie to thank for the flower.Finished off with some gems and crinkle ribbon.

How A Heart Flutters (Smitten Class)

Nancy Maxwell James creates artwork that always touches the heart with her use of images, text and vintage pieces.  Nancy’s adorably named on-line class, “Smitten”, started on 14th January. This is the first time I have joined an on-line class and I was apprehensive which was silly as friends were also participating – Chris, Marie and Terry. Nancy has created a most beautiful site where she shares her tutorials and we can share our art.
The first project is an altered tag.
Normally my choice of colour would be towards the rose pinks but I had this collage sheet from Gaby and I knew the colours would work well with the Ella Blue papers I have.
The key is vintage. Not entirely sure how old it is but it is very old.