52 Cafe Card Challenge

I am taking part in a year long challenge with the  group at  Maremi Creative Cafe ...the aim is to  to alter a playing card (from an ordinary standard  pack of playing cards) each week with each one being themed by using a letter of the alphabet.

So we started week one with the letter A...is for Art.

For all the cards I start out with a base layer of gesso  (I gessoed a dozen to start me off so they are ready when I am ready to start) and then for this one I added some decoart acrylics in multiple colours over the top. I  stamped the paintbrush stamp (from VLVS)  and the wording (from Chocolate Baroque) onto white textured paper and added colour to them. I adhered the brush to the card with matt medium and then added some more acrylic paint which I allowed to drip off the ends of the brush. Once that was dry I adhered the words and ink edged the card to finish it off.

I hope you like it, I had fun making it.
 Week two to follow very soon...
Until next time, take care
Cxx

Find your Tribe....

I have been away for a while - we spent December in Las Vegas and it was fun catching up with friends and just taking a break from real life....Vegas is possibly the easiest place to break from reality for sure and we had a great time... but we picked up (and brought back) what is known at "the Crud Virus" and it is a real beast. Brit papers report it as a virus which mimics or results in severe bronchitis I think the Americans have a better name for it as it really does make you feel like poop on a stick...and it is relentless.

To add to my general misery we began a major renovation on our kitchen a couple of days after we landed back in the UK...so jetlag and the crud virus plus a renovation finds me escaping into the craft room for a huge dose of the inky painty antidote to all that chaos

And its postcards again...I joined up to a couple of postcard swaps groups - one is UK based and the other International...and then another craft group I am a member of decided to have a postcard swap this month...so I have been concentrating on postcards...and they are very addictive indeedy.

I made six yesterday but I think this is my favourite so far. I used 99% stamps from VLVS....(along with one stamp form Andy Skinner's Toxic set) I love their quirky designs and they do some really great sayings too. If you can't find what you want elsewhere, VLVS probably have what you need.

Anyhow this postcard was  fun to make and I decided to enter it into the Craft Stamper January Take It Make It challenge. There will be more postcards following shortly...but that's it from me for now.
Until next time,
Cxx

A Postcard from....

Some boring life stuff got in the way a little bit for a while there, but today I would like to share this project which was made for a swap. There was no particular theme for the swap but it had to be a standard 4x6 post card size and had to include visible collage as part of the design.

I began by thinking about where I might like to send a post card from...and since San Francisco is on my bucket list, I decided that would be my starting point... When I think of San Francisco two songs immediately pop into my head... I left my heart in .... and be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.... and so these were my reference points. In the background you can see there is an ornate heart and hopefully the flowers reference is blindingly obvious.

I had great fun with this project and I loved using up some old book pages. The one tip I would give anyone using book pages in any art project is to check the text. Make sure that the text content is suitable for the audience. The text may or may not have anything to do with the theme of the project (in this case it does not) but people may still read it and it is vital to make sure there is nothing contained within it that might cause offence. (A few years ago a craft magazine issue carried free papers that included a text design, but they clearly did not check because the content would make even a sailor blush! They withdrew it of course but not before it had been viewed and complained about...OOps!)

Anyhow that is it for me for today. I hope to be back with regular projects moving forward and I have great plans for the New Year... more about that later.
Bye for now, take care
Cxx

Inspiration Journal sneak peek

I take part in a monthly Art Swap  over at Jenniebellies Journal Workshop forum and this month we each had to make an Inspiration Journal for our swap partner. 

I had such a blast with this. I can't show the whole thing here today because
A) there are just too many elements (cover , pages, pockets and tags)
and more importantly
B) I only just posted it off so my swap partner won't have seen it yet...

which is why I am sharing just one photo today...of the back of the journal...and no close ups!

This is the first time I have made this particular format and I was stunned by simple it is to assemble... in fact it was so easy I assembled three other bases at the same time as I made this one just so I have them ready to start on when the mood takes me. I particularly love that you may them in many sizes, the final size simply depends on the size of the sheet of paper or card you start with as your base.

I will be back with more details of this little project and hope maybe it will inspire someone else to have a go.
Until next time
Cxx

Inspired by Lucy

Last weekend I, along with hundreds of other craft addicts, went along to the Craft show at Alexandra Palace. I went armed with spending money but no plans to actually spend it as deep down I know (and I need to whisper this next bit...) I really do not need anything else to be able to craft... in fact I could probably craft daily for the next ten years and not need to buy anything other adhesive... but of course when faced with lots of products the temptation is great.

So feeling virtuous I decided I was going to go along simply to watch the demos...and this is where Lucy comes in... She was helping out on the PaperArtsy stand and she began to make a rather lovely tag...using ordinary tissue paper, inkfusions and treasure gold... and we chatted as she worked and she very kindly gave me the tag to take home...and it is gorgeous...

and because of Lucy's generosity of her time, skills and in handing over her creation, I decided I must try my hand at a similar project... and this is it. It is nothing at all like Lucy's lovely creation of course .. not helped by the fact I was slightly sidetracked by watching an art journal video online while making this (which is where the flowers came from) but the background was definitely inspired by Lucy...so Thanks Lucy, I had fun!

Until next time
Cxx

Bright Birthday

I spotted this image on some patterned papers in my craft room and really liked it... so I cut one of the sheets down and used it for this bright card  (which with the addition of a computer generated sentiment became a card for a Granddaughter.)  I chose two of the colours from the image to tie in the mats and used a wink of Stella pen in the centre of the three coloured flowers for a little subtle sparkle. I was quite pleased with the end result.

Until next time,
Cxx

Hello again

I have been languishing in self imposed exile while recovering from a small  surgery, but now I am back with a selection of tags I made for an International swap.

The tags on the right I made using brushos,  stencils and stamps

The tags on the left were made using  Decoart fluid acrylic paints.

It was such fun to simply relax and play with the materials and tags are fast becoming a favourite of mine.

Hopefully my swap buddies will like them ...

Until next time, take care
Cxx