Mixed Media Monday - Ornamental Christmas

Gillian has set us this festive challenge. My entry started life this morning as a vase, I wanted something that could would be a table centre piece and therefore be seen from all sides. After masking off three squares, tamping and embossing flourishes in gold and attaching acetates in the three blank areas we have a tea light / candle holder.

Gothic Arches - Silhouette

This charming chap is Byron courtesy of the very generous Trudi. The background is tree stamps from Elusive Images, Grasses from Crafty Individuals and Birds from Lavinia coloured with dye inks.

Sunday Postcard Art - Hats

A re-take on the magic trick of pulling a rabbit from a hat, this is of course the divine Jessica Rabbit from the movie "Who framed Roger Rabbit". The background was made using a variety of Sticky Fingers summer spray and lustre inks, images are googled.

TGIF - Hats and SAWO - Thread Technique

I have wanted to do both these challenges for ages but never get the time so I decided to make a piece that would fit for both challenges, so here I have my young lady in a hat posing against thread technique background made with a variety of spray inks. Don't you just love how ridiculous is the hat that she is wearing, it is almost as big as her, I suspect she would topple over if she tried walking in it!

Mixed Media Monday - Body Parts

I believe that often the whole is more than the sum of the individual parts, and this is rarely more true than in people, yet often it is only the individual parts that are considered. Henry Ford who pioneered assembly line production is reputed to have asked why it was that when all he wanted were the hands did they have to be attached to whole man. So I have taken some parts - an eye, a neck, a back, a face and a foot (well shoe to be precise) and arranged them to a cube. I have used a variety of acrylic paints and texture gell, done a gell transfer of the music onto the cube and the "body parts" ( I begin to feel like a pathologist!)are on acetate making them less than the whole.

Gothic Arches - Buttons

This is my piece for Buttons. The background is collage which has had gesso wiped over and stamped. The image of the three children balancing on the plank. or is it a seesaw, is from my collection, but aren't they sweet stacked up like that! .

SaWo - Altered Paper

Last weekend I attended a canvas workshop with lovely Lynn Robinson-Hunter. During the workshop we used the exercise of picking a piece of paper at random from a cup each with a different technique to use on the canvas. I wanted to try out the full range of Stewart Gill paints so started with those and having decided this would form part of the birthday present fro my DH I added image and text from a magazine, liquid ink splatter, stencilling with distress inks and paints, all sorts of inks and textures and I coloured some lace to attach and complete the canvas at home. I managed to sneak it into the house but when I came to work on it next day there was no lace, I found it 3 days later caught on a shrub in the garden, it must have come off en route from the car. Of course 3 days of rain meant it was no longer coloured so out came the Ecolines and along with some crackle glaze, a good soak of Iridescent Gold Glimmer ink, a re-application of stencilling where the glimmer had dissolved it (!) and attachment of some hardware meant I was complete. It was Richard's birthday on Friday and he loved it and had it hung in his study before breakfast.

I am entering it for SaWo because magazine paper has been added, distressed and altered in the process.

So many thanks to Lynn, the other wonderful women who were at the workshop and Rosie who set the Blue and Purple piece for Mixed Media Monday a few weeks back I can see canvasses becoming a habit!

By the way Glenda Waterworth of Elusive Images, whose blog gets a mention in this month's Craft Stamper, has a wonderful background paper freebie for download on her blog.

Mixed Media Monday - the colours of Autumn

In our part of the UK the period where we get the reds and golds of leaves is very short, in fact a flurry of snow and freezing temperatures last week have pretty well ripped any leaves from the trees now. This year we seemed to go from Summer to Winter via a one week of Autumn. The clocks have gone back by an hour as well so it gets dark now around 4.30 pm and dusk is a sort of bruised blue, hence my colours of Autumn for this petal pot . The colouring is using Distress inks and the tree stamps are by Elusive Images. The leaves dangling from the top are shrink plastic.

Craftaway Sunday - Stripes

For the theme of stripes I have a little vintage girl in her dress with blue stripes.