Fishy Fishy

Here is this  months Paper Arts ATC Swap for December 09 - with the theme of 'Fish'. Just a sneak peak and I will be back tomorrow with the how and more :)

As always my Flickr Account which you can get to from here by clicking on these words - have loads more photos and a tutorial of sorts and what I did to make these. Enjoy xxx

Paper Arts - November Swap - Diamonds

I have no idea where this last week went and how I have managed to not post for almost a week now! There are major renovations happening here at home at the moment with stage one just completed on Saturday after 5 weeks of mess and noise, I guess that kept me busier than I realised! Photo's will follow soon - a whole new backyard and stunning water feature at the front entrance so far.  However,  still months of work yet to happen well into next year at this stage. I'm excited but what chaos it has created on my otherwise very normal life.

So a quick post on what went out this week for the month of November for the Paper Arts ATC Swap - Diamonds. This one has perfect pearls  - interference red used as a feature in the background, with lots of yummy bling red and light pink diamonte flowers on the dress and jewellery. I a little had fun creating a frame this time with my corner punches and running the whole thing through the cuttlebug for something different to a standard stick on finish.

 

I ended up with three different versions on this one which are shown in my Flickr account as usual but showing here is the one sent as the swap. nest swap is 'Fishies' and it has be in by the 15th so I best get these ideas out of my head and onto paper.

Soot Technique on Gloss Card

A n old technique from a recent class with Kelsey - quite simple and once again using alcohol inks dabbed onto a white gloss card as the first step. Then cover the card with soot from a candle flame by actually passing it throught the flame just quick enough not to burn it but to leave a layer of black soot. Stamp your image onto the soot surface very carefully trying not to touch the surface with your hand or moving the stamp. An amazing surprise when you lift the stamp if you are lucky and finally a quick spray of fixative to secure your image. Loads of quick easy Fun. 

The title was cut from exactly the same stamped image but this time on a red gloss card and no alcohol inks were required. So exactly the same image is used on the top as below and the word 'Dream' was then embossed on top in Gold.

Here is a whole image stamped on red gloss card only, but it dosent photograph so well with the shiny surface unfortunatly.

And finally here one with the original technique used in the beginning with White Gloss Card and Alcohol Ink as a background before placing the soot on the surface and Stamping. All these stamps are from Cherry Pie Stamps.

Layers of Collage into an ATC

This ATC actually has a lot more work in it that is really obvious to the naked eye on your screen I daresay. There is actually 10 separate steps taken just to create the background before there is even a start on the finished and composed surface embellishing and they all have a secret hidden meaning. The words 'Hope' 'Delight' and 'Imagine' as used on another two ATC's below are a part of  a 9 in total series and refers to the tiny baby hidden in the collages and now showing in the backgrounds of these ATC's. Once you know they are there you don't have to look to hard. I have actually just uploaded the step by step process I took to create this layered background and they can be viewed in detail here just click on these words. This was a technique I learn't quite some time ago with Audery Underwood whilst doing a "SHE" journalling class which I must photograph and upload sometime soon.

The ATC 'Imagine' is actually avaiable as a swap on my Flickr Account at the moment if you would like it.

A dreamer - Now living in the USA

A dreamer - Now living in Illinois with the darling member of Flickr Lorri AKA Card Happy. What a wonderful swap this has been.

This is a card made with water colour paper and glimmer mists as the background. Gold embossing, stamped and inked Domino, a picture with a double cut frame in gold with Stampin up's oval punches and some simple sticker borders.

A Holiday in Finland

My Freak Imagination is on it's way to Finland for a permanent holiday - retired at last LOL. Via a swap with Tatsi on Flickr.

This one was a class in Gloss Card Backgrounds and has real crystasl on it.

She is off to Norway!

This little domino faced darling is making her way to Norway as a swap with Flickr Member Liveartnow.

ATC Paper Arts Swap - October

This is part one of  my October swap with the Paperarts girls - my ATC's. We had two themes this month being ATC's ' Fractured Fairy Tales' and then a slide book on any theme you wanted - I chose to do an Alice in Wonderland theme .

My chosen fairy tale was 'Beauty and the Beast' and with all the hype of Twilight of late and Vampires I figures if Beauty had a chance to update her choices she may well only date Vampires these days? Or at least that was my take on the 'Fractured Fairytale Sarcasim I could come up with any way. Above is the ATC made from the left overs on the right, the middle is the back of the ATC's and the one on the right is one of 12 made in the series.

I enjoyed using the new Marth Stewart dripping blood punch as you can tell, along with Tim Holtz rock candy crakle medium. I played just a little with Picasa to create the background picture and the grave scene. Lots of red Copic pen and an old German Noval lost a few pages in the process.

And you can never get enough of embossing so just a little here on the cross for a lttle touch of drama on the 'left overs' ATC.

Melt Art , Texture Paste and Goldens.

I must confess give me colour and texture and I think I am most likley in my favourite zone when it comes to creative time. I am in the process of working with just these mediums on a new project and so was inspired to share these older faves in the meantime.

This photo shows a mould I made from a brooch of mine that I have never been quite game enough to wear - love to repurpose!  So a mould from some of Suzi's 2 part moulding compound was createdand then poured into with her clear UTEE. This gives me the perfect way to use it over and over again  in a variety of colours and textures once tarted up they all have a character all of thier own. All I have done on this one was is to use my Golden Paints and colour her up to my hearts content no sealers required before or after.

However of course there is always left over paint and left over mess from any creation of mine and  the temptation to use it all up on anything else around me is usually the next step. There were these pieces left over from a swap some of you may recognise and they were soon revamped as well into the following work using the same techniques.

Now for those of you who actually read to the bottom of posts here is a giggle for you - I have been very quite and unable to blog over the past 6 days because I - yes me - not my son as he moved on some time ago now actually exceeded my massive download limit for the month and so was booted off! I have never done that before in my life and had to laugh at some now fond memories when this was usually a result of excessive downloads by a teeneager hoarding music and movies onto his computorium as he would call it. If he reads this I will never live it down!

A Thought for the Day

A recent ATC share - Spin and Splash Technique.

ATC Update - Almost all Loaded!

Here is the first ' bulk upload' of most of my completed ATC's from the past 2 years mostly from Kelsey O Mullanes Fortnightly Classes at Scraptivate and the occaisional Lorrie and Bec Lennox get together at Scrappindipity along the way too.

Some works are actually in progress because I felt they still were fun to photograph anyway. There are much more to come as I arrange a few playdates and get those nearly finished all done at long last. As always view everything in my Flickr account here  as I can't get too many on my Blog with out slowing it all down too much. A slide view to the left is in progress and should show up soon if it's not there yet.

ATC's and New Light Box - Testing

Had to play with my new light box before going to bed since buying it earlier today. So bear with me and let me know how it shows up on your screens if you don't mind by leaving a comment for me 'please please pretty please' as my mother would say. Especially before  I go ahead and photograph them all (again ) LOL

This one titled 'Forbidden Tales ' was created a few months ago with Kelsey at Scraptivate in her fortnightly technique classes. Her technique has us using a scrunched up piece of tissue paper in the background and then using an embossing pad over the raised surface with an embossing powder. You can see her work on her blog listed in my favourite blogs as KO OK to the right, and you can see more of this particular ATC in various shots on my Flickr account -Enjoy!

Tell me if you see a difference - the top picture was taken in a different spot in the light box than this one and this one was uploaded from Flickr as opposed to the first one was direct from my hard drive. I seem to find the one's from Flickr look better but are often shaped wrong?