A Rosy Glow

 In the short time I have been using images I have noticed that some of the child models pop up time and time again. This little girl is one of them.
This card was made for a friend, someone I associate images of children with and also the use of fabric. You probably cannot tell but this images is an image transfer onto fabric. By doing so it adds a tactile quality to the card.  I collaged French text, lace, fabric ribbon sticker and a tiny scrap of lace tied around a paper flower.

Vintage Love Affair
I speak often of my  love for vintage, whether genuine vintage or creating in the style of.  Over the years many a happy shopping jaunt has been spent in charity shops (or car boot sales and antique shops) and what makes it more fun is shopping with a likeminded friend, although the downside is when both of you fall in love with the same item. My craziest purchase was  from the Flip store in Glasgow, a pair of trousers made from vintage material, they looked as though they had been curtains in a previous life, possibly the 1950’s and yes, I did actually wear them!
One aspect I love about charity shops is you never know what you will discover.
 Last week I made a long overdue visit to the charity shops. I was on the look out for bottles, buttons and old spoons, neither I was able to find but sitting in the window was a rosy hued glass vanity table set. It was obviously waiting for the moment I passed by. My memories are of such a set on my Gran’s dressing table, after all they were very common.  So this was my purchase along with the lace it is sitting upon. Could I have purchased more that day? Yes, because my ultimate wish item was sitting in the window alongside the vanity table set, an Underwood typewriter. I am sure my heart skipped a beat when I caught sight of the typewriter but I had to walk away. Such an item deserves to have the correct setting and at this moment in time I don’t have the perfect spot to do it justice. Whoever eventually purchases it, I hope they give it the good home it deserves.

Janette’s Correspondence

Today I am sharing my final piece of artwork as Artist In Residence for French Kissed Postcards. The image I selected for this piece is Victorian Beauty Actress. As mentioned in previous posts for FKP, Trishia compiles as much information as possible for each of the digital images she sells. It is fascinating to read such information.
For my final project I altered a clipboard, creating a little vignette. On seeing this image it conjured up a genteel lady sitting in her study as she contemplated the words in her mind before committing them to paper, possibly correspondence to a beau.  As I was incredibly lucky to receive some vintage postcards in the mail from Trishia I decided to scan them and incorporate a few of those postcards into this piece of altered art.
The photograph below shows Janette in clearer detail. After re-sizing I printed her onto canvas paper which is suitable for inkjet printers. Through trial and error I have discovered the most successful  results when the image is not too small.  Canvas paper is wonderful for distressing the edges by pulling the “threads” and inking with Distress Inks.
This particular clipboard was purchased as a blank, ripe for altering. I prepared the surface with two layers of Gesso prior to painting with my favourite colour of emulsion (latex) paint. This particular paint has a chalky appearance in a heritage colour. Once dry I stamped a letter which is called “My Beloved” but any text stamp would work well. Then the postcards were scanned, re-sized and printed onto white cardstock and distressed.
The clip of the clipboard was also painted with the same emulsion paint and then Decoupaint in Old White Patina. It was then adorned with a beautiful fabric bloom, tassel, teeny key and a little frame. Inside the frame  is a postage stamp cut from the scanned and printed postcard.
Finally adorning the bottom with coffee coloured lace
a piece of lace dyed with homemade spray inks and a smaller piece of vintage lace. To tie in with the era of the image, a cameo made with air dry clay painted with emulsion and a touch of Distress Ink. Janette would write her correspondence with a fountain pen so here sits a discarded pen nib (the vintage pen nib had Old White Patina applied to it).
Clip boards are wonderful to alter as it is just that little bit different from an altered canvas, creating a beautiful piece of wall art.
Over the past four weeks, if you have never used digital images in your artwork I hope my projects have encouraged you to at least try them. I also wanted to show that it is not merely glossy photo paper that can be used. My projects are the tip of the iceberg as there are a vast number of possibilities of what you can do with a digital image, especially when using mediums to transfer your image onto a variety of surfaces.

Before I say Au Revoir to French Kissed Postcard Friday I want to say how honoured I am to have been Artist In Residence for February. Trishia has been a gem to work with and her images, as you can imagine, make creating artwork a dream.  You will remember that every Monday Trishia is generous enough to provide a free image for you to use in your own artwork.  Lynne x

Art Gifts

I have some tags to share with you with which I received from my friends Cynthia and Cindy. Many of you will know both of those women and their Blogs but if not why not pop on over and see what amazing artwork they both create.
First up is a tag I received from Cindy
Beautiful textures on the tag and she used one of my favourite paper sets, Ella Blue and some gorgeous seam binding.
From Cynthia (her Blog is Galerie 46)  I received two tags. One of the tags was attached to a bundle of paper napkins/serviettes (yes, this is where Marie’s gown in the “Sweet Marie” post came from and she also sent lots of paper flowers and leaves.)
Isn’t that a cute tag
Then this hand painted tag
Cynthia has an abundance of talent as not only is she a papercrafter she is a painter and she also makes the most incredible books from scratch.
Thank you to both friends for all the gifts received. Lynne x

P.S. I will return in a short while with my final piece of artwork for French Kissed Postcards. Hope to see you soon.

“I Do”

I am not sure if this applies to other countries but I believe, that traditionally, Springtime was a time for weddings, this apparently was the case in Scotland. I would be interested to know if anyone has any knowledge if this is true or not. Anyway, when I received this stamp, which is part of Wedding Bells plate, it brought to mind Springtime weddings. Looking outside my window it doesn’t appear that Spring is heading this way any time soon but in crafting we create our own realities, don’t we!.
For this altered canvas, as you can imagine, I did not use vintage or expensive lace. As I wanted a tiered and fluted look I found that lace with a slight stretch was easier to work . This was very messy, in fact my fingers were sticking together as I worked on adhering the  individual sections of lace to the canvas. Relaxing but time consuming. The image was adhered with silicone glue to give dimension and layered onto pattern paper which is called, appropriately,  “Wedding”.
Glamour was created with pearly bead trim, fabric flowers and to  add sparkle,  seed beads scattered randomly over the lace.

A gentle reminder that The Stampsmith Challenge Travel theme is now underway. Lynne x

Watch Me Fly

Before we know it Spring will be upon us and for many crafters we are focusing towards this time of the year. When I received Divas D’Este’s “Playful Butterfly Women” collage sheet (CS) it was impossible not to embrace the springtime colours in the images. This CS is one of Divas D’Este new releases.
One of the images from the CS takes centre stage on a flag I made.You might be able to see the butterflies I stamped onto the pale blue ribbon and also stamped onto the pink paper.  The pink lace was dyed to tie in with the colour of her dress and a little butterfly charm dangles from the bottom of the flag. Finally adorned with a “B” sticker and gems.
She is flying off on her travels to reach a friend’s birthday in time.
I have no doubt you will see more of her butterfly friends very soon. Lynne x

Faithful Friends

“Friends” is the challenge theme at Tag Tuesday this week.
For my tag book I used a beautiful collage sheet from Divas D’Este “Going to the Dogs”.  When I laid eyes on this CS I knew it wouldn’t be too long before I used it. Unable to select one particular image, I decided to make a tag book.
Mostly the tags were  made from scraps. I stamped Anna Corba Vintage Labels onto the papers. When the tag book is closed you get a little peek at the  lace and scalloped edges from the other tags.
I printed words onto white cardstock.
Scraps of fabric ribbon stickers and glittery stickers added to the tags.
You can see why I struggled to select only one image for this tag challenge, the images are so beautiful.

Accessorise

For this week’s French Kissed Postcard I selected an image titled English Beauty. There is such a serenity and elegance to her, an everyday elegance. On first seeing this image I could imagine her as the leading role in a Merchant & Ivory film.
I am not a digital artist and initially that was one of the reasons I backed off from using digital images in my artwork. Now I view them as a substitute to a stamp. After re-sizing the image I printed it onto iron-on transfer paper. If Image Transfer is a new area for you and you are apprehensive about trying it this is probably a good starting point. It is a clean method of transferring an image and you will be so delighted with the outcome it will be a springboard for you to delve in and try other, messier, methods.
I used a mix of new and vintage lace. The special touches were the vintage glass button and the vintage mother of pearl buckle which is from my Gran’s button box.

A little note to anyone who visits my Blog.
Recently my Blog has been quite busy with lots of new posts and I want to say thank you for always stopping by to have a look.  Lynne x

Sweet Marie (GSC)

Joining in the fun at Gingersnap Creations has been long overdue so the weekend before last I settled down to a relaxing evening to make something for their  “Kings and Queens” theme.  Sometimes when we start to plan a project all the pieces come together with actually, very little planning, just pure luck. I had just the perfect stamp for this theme from Character Constructions (CC stamps and making art dolls go hand in hand) but of course she would need a gown. Well I did not need to look very hard as that same day a bounty of goodies arrived from my friend Cynnie which included a bundle of serviettes/napkins. One in particular caught my eye because it had  “Chocolat” and a French address, could this be anymore perfect for Marie’s gown, I think not.
Marie was stamped onto watercolour paper and painted with washes of delicate colours, imagine the colour of French macaroons.

I know that vintage is my preferred style but now and again I like a little whimsy and CC stamps are whimsical in abundance.I trimmed the hem and bodice of her gown with pink lace .Her bodice edged with the finest French lace!
Her hair is so high she doesn’t realise she has the Eiffel Tower caught in it. I spy a feather, could there possibly be birds nesting in her hair?
From the tip of the feather to the hem on her dress, she stands at more than 12″ tall.

OWOH – Winner

This was my first year at OWOH and I want to say a big thank you to Lisa. This woman obviously doesn’t sleep for the duration of the event!
I was so touched not only by the number of entries to my Giveaway but the comments themselves. As I read the comments it reminded me once again that Bloggers are such generous souls. I was made to feel so welcome at this event and I also discovered Blogs that I had never visited before of artists in the field of painting, photography, teddy bear and doll making, the list goes on.
My “door hanging” was this fabric heart. The winning name drawn at random is ….

lululiz

If I am unable to make contact with lululiz withing 24 hours I will pick an alternative name from the hat.

I am so glad I decided to join in, even though I wasn’t ready when it started on the 30th of January but as one person who left a comment said, “better late than never”! If you have never taken part before the good news is that Lisa has plans for another event to take the place of OWOH. This is the link for Lisa’s Blog. Lynne x

Memories from my Travels (TSSC#8 Travel)

The Stampsmith Challenge is underway once again and for this challenge the theme is Travel.  I must remind you that if you participate in this particular challenge you must use at least 1 stamp from The Stampsmith.
The reason I picked Travel for this theme is because , for me, travel inspired artwork is one of my favourite themes, especially vintage travel. There are several stamps in The Stampsmith range suitable for this theme:- From Russia with Love, Ellis Island, Australiana, etc.  For my project I used my all time favourite Paris plate but remember it is how you interpretate the theme set.
I selected 3 stamps from the Paris plate for my B.I.A. Journal (Journal is approx 22cm x 14.5 cm). Making notebooks and Journals from scratch is a favourite of mine. As I wanted a shabby chic appearance to my Journal I stamped directly onto the painted (Camisole Pink emulsion paint – this is a heritage colour which is chalky in appearance) canvas sheet (I adhered artist sheet canvas to recycled notebook cover). This gives a lovely faded appearance to some of the stamping.  As you can see I layered some French text and then the stamped image takes centre stage. Lace added to top and bottom of the Journal and the stamped cancellation marks.
I made a dangle using pearls, crystal beads and an Eiffel Tower charm (from an old keyring) and further embellished the Journal with a fabric bloom and crinkle ribbon.
As with any challenge theme we want to see your interpretation. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a travel stamp, add your own twist to the stamped image to make it fit with this theme. The Stampsmith Challenge team look forward to seeing your creations. Good Luck. Lynne x