Circle of Friends

Here is a little piece I made as part of a swap over on UK Stampers Forum entitled Creative Designs or CD for short. We had to make a piece of altered art using a CD as the base.

Here we go with the instructions:

First I took a CD (the ones that come through the door and normally end up in the bin!). and covered it with some grey pinstripe paper from Basic Grey. I used a gluestick to adhere the paper to the CD. Next I stamped a swirl stamp from Wendy Rhodes with Versamagic tea leaves chalk ink and allowed to dry. Then I applied a fairly thick coat of Ranger Distress crackle paint in antique linen around the edges and when dry rubbed over more of the tea leaves Versamagic ink.

I then applied a variety of paper flowers in cream and white from Hero Arts with glossy accents and filled the centres with Pearly Doodles cream dimensional paint from Sticky Fingers. I also used some Viva gold metallic paint applied to highlight the flower petals as shown.

The final metallic 'Friends' word in green gloss finish was stuck in place with more glossy accents. A folding stand for the back of the altered CD was made from board and hinged with masking tape to support the piece in a display position.

Sid xx

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'Nature' Box

Here is a little box I have decorated for an altered swap over on UK Stampers Forum. The brief was to use something which had grown from the earth or in the sea and to turn it into a piece of art for swapping.

I had collected a piece of very lichen covered deadwood from under some trees ages ago and this has sat in my hall waiting to be used ! I had a plain box which is 8cm long x 6cm wide x 3cm deep. I painted it in a pale green semi-gloss acrylic all over and allowed to dry. I then used a couple of rubber stamps from Crafty Individuals (one a single bird and the other a branch with birds) in eden green Stazon on the top, 3 sides and all sides of the base of the box. Once dry I sprayed desert moon gecko green Glitz Spritz generously on all surfaces and allowed this to dry naturally. Once dry I added tiny blobs of pink Pearly Doodles dimensional paint to represent blossom on the leaves and branches on the top only. The words 'far and away' were stamped on the top of the lid in black Stazon. The mica shine does not show very well on the shots unfortunately, but they are quite shiny !




I then stamped 3 birds eggs (PaperArtsy) in vintage sepia and used a waterbrush and Marvey le Plume II pens to colour the eggs in green, blue and brown. Once dry I applied Versamark from the pen and heat embossed them with clear detail EP. I then trimmed them out carefully.

I wanted to make a leafy background and on a piece of beige paper stamped a leaf stamp (Crafty Individuals) onto a background made with Distress inks in pine needles, shabby shutters and peeled paint. Three of the leaves were trimmed out for decoration. The background was stuck in place with double sided tape.

I broke my twig into useable sized pieces and stuck these in place with clear silicone glue, arranging them to suit. The eggs and leaves were then shaped and also applied the same way to provide a 3D effect..........loosely resembling a birds nest ! I am quite pleased with the effect overall and its great to use natural pieces in your artwork too.

Hope you like it :-)

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'Ophelia'

A bit earlier this week with the TMTA Challenge for a change. I think that some of the contributors must be up at dawn on Monday mornings making ATC's to be the first to enter !!!!

This weeks theme is 'Ophelia' so I wanted to do something a little stylised and depicting the glorious figure of the lady of Shakespeare's Hamlet fame and fortune.

I took some plain white card and embossed with a swirl Cuttlebug embossing folder. This was then wiped over with the Versafine onyx black inkpad to ink only the relief swirls on the card. I then cut this to ATC size. I then used a stamp from the Majestic Women plate from ISC and stamped on pastel pink tissue in Versafine onyx black. When thoroughly dry I applied this over the inked ATC with lots of ModPodge paper medium and ensured that the tissue was firmly pushed down over the relief before allowing to dry.

The background swirls did show through but in a muted way and obscured the image of the girl with the flowing hair. I used a water brush and inks to colour the face, lips and eyes of the girl and highlighted the swirls in the girls hair with dark brown pen to accentuate the hair.

Then I took some paper flowers and adhered with glue as shown and highlighted the centres with dimensional pearl paint in silver. The word 'Hamlet' was stamped as shown with magnetic stamps from Making Memories and onyz black ink.

Pastel pink Colorbox chalk ink was applied around the edge of the card to finish. I thought the overall effect was subtle and had depth.

Hope you like it :-)

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Sunday Challenge No 1 entry

Here are my two cards made for the first Sunday Challenge on UK Stampers Forum. The first uses the first stamp I ever bought. It's a small rubber bare tree stamps (no make).

I made a background on light green card using direct to paper technique with fresh green Colorbox pigment ink which I sprinkled with Moonglow orbit olive gold embossing powder and applied heat from a heat gun to melt the powder. I then stamped the tree in eden green Stazon ink. I used the same pigment ink and EP to make the 'inspire' decal using a magnetic Making Memories stamp. I stuck the tree on the background into the aperture and the decal on the front and then cut a small thin strip of the green card and applied this to the bottom of the card, finishing with some mint green Pearlydoodles.

The second uses the last rubber stamp I bought. This one is from Zettiology (11-44-G) and I love Teesha Moore's stamps......even though they ARE very weird. I made a white tall thin card for this on textured card and rubbed a Versamark inkpad on the front of the card randomly before applying a coat of Moonglow aurora embossing powder and heating with a heat gun. The stamp was stamped onto plain white card in onyx black Versafine ink and was then hand coloured with a brush and Inktense water soluble ink pencils to achieve the effect. This was trimmed to fit, edged with purple Colorbox chalk ink and stuck onto the card.

I love the moonglow EP's, which don't show up very well in photos, and adore my latest Zetti addition !!

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Quotations ATC Set

These three ATC's were done as a swap on UK Stampers Forum

The backgrounds were first brayered with various colours of Whispers Dye Inks until a colour density was attained. A swirl stamp was used to decorate each ATC with Versamark and various Moonglow embossing powders which were heated with a heat tool. The diamond check was stamped in onyx black Versafine Ink in various positions. Finally some K&Co quotes were inked direct to paper and adhered with glue. Some dimensional paint blobs were added to the corners of each of the quotes to finish.

Hope you like them !

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