Awfully Big Art Adventure Altered Cutlery

This week on the Awfully Big Art Adventure challenge blog we have a guest hostess.
The lovely, and very talented Patty Szymkowicz has challenged us to alter cutlery this week and I have seen some beautiful entries so far, there are so many talented bloggers out there. You have got to see the georgeous works of art that Patty has created with cutlery too, I am suprised they have any left in the house :)

I created something that is so "me" , and I went with a spoon I had spray painted last year to make this nesting decoration which I can hang on my cupboard door.

I did it all with the glue gun, using bits of vintage doilies, some blue pearl beads for the eggs and some vintage pearl buttons up top.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you are having an art filled, creative day :)

With A Song In My Heart

My muse switched today, and it has to be the sunshine :) I went for soft and pretty.....
This is a 4x6 flat canvas. I wanted so badly to try a new technique that I read about in the latest issue of The Stampers Sampler. It may not be new to some of you , but to me it is, so I was thrilled when it actually worked for me , and I am in love with the effect.

Many thanks to Caroline Moore from the U.K. It was her amazing art work that was a feature in the Feb/March issue that inspired me to give this a try and it is so fun and easy. They did not list your blog Caroline, but I googled and found you :) This is one very talented lady, you have to go see her work, just click on her name and it will take you to her blog.

Can you see how the image of the beautiful, beautiful , little girl is transparent? That's what I love about it. I suppose you would call it a "gel skin" rather than a transfer because it is the actual skin from the gel medium. Take a look below, I just had to show you how it looks after you rub off the paper.

If you want to try it yourself, then print an image on a laser printer. Give it a few coats of gel medium letting it dry in between. I found three coats worked good for me. Turn over to the unprinted side of the paper and dampen the paper until you can rub it off, but be very gentle, I ripped my first one using my nails, so instead I used a damp makeup sponge to rub it off. Once done add it as a collage element as I did with gel medium. Ta Da.... I just love it!

The very beautiful girl is a free image from Susan Buckner

Theme Thursday Circus Challenge

This week's Theme Thursday Challenge is to create something in a Circus theme. Something that comes to mind when you think of the Circus.
The last book I read was "Water For Elephants", it's a great book and this Elephant reminded me of Rosie so I made an ATC with her. Maybe it ended up in such dark colors because it is such a horrible dark and wet day here, but that's ok, you never know what will come when you sit down and just try something :) Hope you are having sunshine wherever you are.

Giveaway at Retro Cafe Art Gallery

Kristin at Retro Cafe Art Gallery is having a giveaway of her beautiful paper cuts and collage sheets. Head on over there and take a look at them and enter her giveaway too. You won't be sorry, I have some of her collage sheets and the quality is excellent :)

Awfully Big Art Adventure Birdhouse Challenge

Here is my entry for Rosie and Linda's Awfully Big Art Adventure for this week. The challenge was to make a birdhouse in some form or another, and I had this box which was a gift box given to me for my birthday last year already in the shape of a bird house.
I am posting a before picture at the end of this post too.

This is one of my favorite blue colors, and I started by using some 12x12 papers I had in my stash, which are just beautiful. The lid opens with a ribbon, I changed that to brown to co ordinate with the paper, and then I went with the bird, nest theme of course.

I was going to leave the little hole open then changed my mind and decided to add a sentiment on a bottle cap because it fit the hole perfectly. What luck :)

Below is the back of the box, and I left the paper as is, I think it is perfect already. If you like this paper it is a double sided paper, darker blue on the back, and is called Bluebird "All Boy" Dragonfly by MME, Bohemia. The gorgeous paisley paper on the roof is by Deja Views called Blue Raspberry Paisley.

Below is how it was before. A lovely gift box from Crabtree & Evelyn with Lotions , scrubs and some ceramic plant markers gifted to my by my neighbour last year.

Thank you Rosie and Linda for the challenge, this box could have sat in my cupboard for another year if not for you :)

Bird on branch and eggs from digi sheet at Retro Cafe Art

Easter Swap......... bunny HOP!!!!

Can you believe how lucky I was with my swap partner for the Easter Swap at Etsy Cottage Style?
We were to send at least three items, something each that included a bunny, a chick, and an egg.
My swap partner Margaret from The French Bear, makes the cutest, sweetest hand sewn bears, bunnies and chicks, among other things, but I held my breath, didn't really expect her to go to all that trouble and make one of her bunnies, or chicks, for lil' ol' me, BUT.... look what I received today.........
The sweetest bunny in a so, so, soft shade of pink, with the cutest polka dot overalls and adorable little party hat. She is holding an egg that is decorated with little flowers, and is pulling the most adorable hand made chick I have ever seen who is sitting on a little pull wagon :) This little chick, also has a tiny little party hat, I think they must be off to a Bunny Hop or something *giggle*

I am thrilled to have something so precious, and made especially for moi :) I know I have already thanked you a couple of time Margaret, but again, they will be treasured for years to come because I so appreciate the work put into them, and they will be honored with a spot in my curio cabinet all year round. They will fit in perfectly with my bear collection :)
Thank you SO much....

On another note, I am not sure I like seeing my own face every time I see my blog, or post on another blog, it just seems too weird to me, and it's actually a good photo of me, taken at a dinner dance, while I was on the dance floor with a red boa around my neck having a great time :) This may have been two years ago, but I don't think I have changed all that much, at least I am smiling on this photo. SO, don't be surprised if I change back to my other avatar, not sure I like having that there :) Just don't want to confuse anyone.

Theme Thursday Challenge Orange

Theme Thursday challenge this week is to use the color Orange, and for it to be the predominant color. I think I have used orange only once before, so this was a good challenge for me. I had time today to make this ATC using an orange scrapbook paper and part of a label reproduction which is on an ephemera collage sheet from Shabby Cottage Studio.
I then stamped imperfectly in places, and sewed a piece of an already cut up doily.
The beautiful little girl is from Outsider Artists and is one of their free images, and this gorgeous butterfly is from The Vintage Moth, also free :)
I have attempted to make it look as though the girl is wearing the butterfly on a string around her neck, and have shaded, highlighted and used chalks on the girl's face to soften everything. At the last minute I decided on giving her a cone hat, placing it in her hair :)
Thanks for looking!

I just want to say how much I appreciate all your comments. I visit everyone who leaves a note and am finally all caught up, so I think tonight I will do some rounds of blogs I follow, which is becoming an ever growing list. I hope to go rent a movie too, I just feel like one of those nights cozied up on the couch.

Friday Challenge at ECS

Last Friday Carolyn hosted our challenge at ECS Mixed Media Challenge Group, and we were to use an egg shape in an Easter theme. This was fun, thanks Carolyn :) I made this very cottage style egg for my swap partner in the Easter Swap at ECS. I have told her not to look here until her package arrives *giggle*.

I found a bag of these plastic ornament things at the thrift shop last year, only one egg shape though, and I thought ok, I will buy them, never know what you could use them for and they whole bag was only 50c. I used only half of the egg and painted the inside so you can't see through the back. It worked pretty good:)
They are meant for hanging so that was perfect, and I have the other half still so I can make another one. I love when I get to use something I had no idea what I would do with it don't you?

I will post the other things I made for my swap partner next week, by then she should have her package.

Head on over to Rosie and Linda's Awfully Big Art Adventure, you have to see Linda's birdhouse it is AMAZING! and the challenge this week is , yep, "birdhouses", which would be a perfect project for the first day of Spring :)

Theme Thursday Flowers Canvas Block

Pansy Girl on Canvas Block This is my entry for this week's challenge on Theme Thursday. This week's theme is flowers, just perfect with Spring almost here in Canada, and I just love purple and yellow pansies together, I can't wait to plant some.
I found this beautiful Pansy Girl holding her Pansy Doll on one of my clipart cd's while I was looking for flowers to print. She just looks so sweet and innocent, and I just fell in love with her.

I sprayed some gold Glimmer mist on the block when I finished but I don't think you can see it unless you click and view the closeups. I really enjoyed making this block and am going to get some wood rather than the canvas blocks for next time.

Awfully Big Art Adventure Challenge

At Awfully Big Art Adventure this week the challenge is to make something from news print. We don't buy newspapers so I used a piece of paper on this tag from an old dictionary. You may have to click on the image to see the close up, I painted over the paper with a shimmering gold paint and wiped some off. It does glimmer too :)
The tag was then stamped on and stitched before I added this sweet little girl who looks a bit fed up at having her photo taken. The girl and butterfly wings are from Digital Collage Sheets and I was so happy to find a use for her today :)

I hope you have all had a good Sunday, it was a beautiful, sunny but cold day here and I spent most of it playing in my studio. Still too cold for me to play outside in the flower beds, but soon I am sure :)

ATC Sewing Theme Friday Challenge

The Friday challenge on ECS this week was to make anything in a "sewing" theme, so I created this ATC.

Awfully Big Art Adventure ~ Bookmark

I love the challenge blog of Linda and Rosie, Awfully Big Art Adventure, and I wanted to join in this week so here is my entry. This weeks challenge was to make a bookmark, and I love making them because it's a great way to use up bits and pieces of paper from previous projects, and it's quick and relaxing :) I am still into the nature theme, and think I will be for a while, I just have an obsession with birds and nests and butterflies, what can I say?

Digital images from Digital Collage Sheets.com

Soul Journey Altered Postcard

I am finally starting to join in some of the challenge blogs, and this is my entry for the Mind Wide Open challenge for this month, using the beautiful image provided by Gail, and the word prompt was "Journey".
This is an altered postcard, and I printed the image on transparency, then stitched it by machine onto the card. It's the first time I have printed on the transparency sheets and it really does come out nice, but then it's a bit hard to add it to the paper isn't it?
I am still not sure on the metal butterfly but it's stuck there now :)

I havn't been able to create anything for two days now, hope I can get back into it today. I have 3 Easter items to make for a swap and I have creative block all of a sudden. I guess the best thing to do is just start something, anything, and go from there, that usually helps. Wish me luck :)

Altered Book Cover

This is my challenge for Theme Thursday which is a Nature theme this week, and it is also for the Friday Challenge at ECS which was to alter a book cover.
I am still on a nature kick, but at least I changed colors from brown to blue this time :) The book cover has a blue binding so I just went with it, and the blue background paper is from an old fairy book, if you click on it you may be able to see some fairies hiding in there.

Credits:
Shabby Cottage Studio
Digital Collage Sheets
Retro Cafe Art

And look who was taking a nice long nap just outside my studio while I finished this today...
There is a little step up to a landing outside my room and he likes to go up there and lay in the sun, he is so cute, just so attached to his blankies :)

Sing Sweet Bird

Another piece in my nature series, this one on a wooden heart.
I know...... I have used this little girl on another piece but I just love her :)

Digital images from:
Digital Collage Sheets
Retro Cafe Art

Vintage Hedgies :)

This post is for Lynda and my German friends mostly :) For Lynda because I know she has a thing for hedgehogs and my German friends because these little guys are from Germany, and are now about 40 years old. I wondered if anyone has seen them before, the brand name is "Peter". You "must" click on the photo and see them close up, I left it really large. They are so detailed and the Barber who's little foot is loose, well you can even see the dust on him LOL.

As a child growing up in England I travelled twice with my parents and grandparents and my best friend Su, through Belgium, Germany and Austria. We camped and even as a child I hated it LOL, all that driving too waaaahhhhhhh. The countrysides were beautiful though and I can never forget some of it. I especially remember Salzburg, Austria because we visited some spots where "The Sound of Music" was filmed. This was one of my favorite movies growing up.

At the age of 15 I travelled again to Germany and Austria with my school, yep a bus full of teenagers, oh that was fun and I fell in love for the first time with a boy a year older than I during that trip.

On my trips with my family I collected these little hedgehogs and they have been with me ever since I was 10 years old. I had packed them up for the last 10 years maybe and now that I am going through and clearing out clutter, displaying things I love instead of keeping them in boxes and just generally trying to reduce the amount of "stuff" I keep, I thought it would be fun to show them :)

I often wonder if at some time in Germany I walked past my husband when he was young. He lived in Germany from the age of 5 to 12 years old before he moved to Canada. Now wouldn't that be cool, if our paths had crossed and our chemistry , our energy, could just never leave each other apart after that? *giggle, I like to think so.
I moved to Canada with my parents and sister at age 17 and met him when I was almost 19 years old, so you have to wonder :)

Have a great Monday :)