Fairy Slippers - W.I.P. Display case

 
 
Just uploading these pictures of the display as it currently is for the slippers, I have to work on the edge of the tin box and inside, but thought I would share so far.
I have applied material with beeswax and some jewels from a stash of junk jewellery that I purchased about a year ago of e bay...I knew it would come in handy some time!!!

Fairy Slippers - Work in Progress....

[If you click on the title of this article it will take you to a site with Annette Emms' workshop.]



The strange thing with this is the fabric was really bright yellow, but when it was put against the black felt and stitched in placed it turned this lovely gold color, more subtle so decided that I liked it.

This second pictur shows the slippers after they have been cut out of previous fabric, and sewn some more.



Over on PAPER WHIMSY I am privileged to be in a swap for fairy slippers, these have been inspired by Annette Emms, the talented lady who designed the template for these wonderful slippers and gave permission for Carol Stocker to host a 1:1 swap.
After the slippers have been made we have to design a place to display them - a book, shadowbox etc. and then say which type of fairy the slippers have been made for.

Over on PW my girlies know that I just don't do sewing, sewing machines brought me out in a cold sweat, literally - fear factor huge!!!
Anyway I was determined to make these and when Gabby and Lorraine allowed me to use their really expensive, super fandangled sewing machines I accepted. I was shaking, my hands, feet on the pedal you name it, but I so wanted to be able to say that I had made them totally.

Gabby allowed me to sew the gold colored fabric onto the felt and to change the settings to get different stitches, flowers, herringbone - totally cool.
Then later in the evening when I went around to see Lorraine with my chest bursting with pride - she allowed me to do zig zag stitches round the edges so the material would't fray. My two friends I am indebted to you both for trusting me with your wonderful machines.
Today I spent part of the morning embellishing one of the shoes, and I will start on the other this evening.
The display is an idea formulating in my head, knowing what to do is half the battle so I am getting there.
And so this is where I am with my slippers at this moment in time, the slipper still has to have a Paper Whimsy element added to it and I am waiting for an order so that will complete them, well that and sewing the sole to the upper.
Enjoy, I sure did and I have laid to rest a ghost from my past and can say that I enjoyed the sewing part, might have to get a cheapo -ish machine to use in my crafting (don't faint, I did just say that lol)

Oh and guess what I just had a thought, here in England there was an earthquake, measuring 5.2 on Richter Scale - maybe it was because I used sewing machine rofl...just a thought!!!!

YOU MAKE MY DAY AWARD

Imagine my surprise when I saw that I had been given my award by Cindy over on Mixed Grill Favorites gave me this award.
I now have the daunting task of awarding it to 10 people - really difficult, but in no partiuclar order I am giving it to...
1.Carol Stocker CAROL always produces the most amazing art, whatever she turns her hand to.
2.Linda East LINDA is a teacher and she creates wonderful art and can do so many wonderful things.
3.Carol Maclaren CAROL hilights other bloggers on her site as well as sharing her wonderful jewellery, felting and her dog "Baby" on her site, so worth a look.
4.Heather Robinson HEATHER is a busy bee, you really should check out her blog to look at her books, ATCs etc. she produces amazing work, I love to go over and check her blog out.
5.Natalie Briney NATALIE is in Oz and she loves to do textured canvases as well as books etc. check out her delightful blog.
6.Barbara Burkard BARBARA has a wonderful mix of art and family on her blog, I love to grab a coffee and drop by.
7.Mary Schweitzer MARY creates amazing shrines and books, she amazes me with her use of all sorts in her art, a great blog to check out - take a look.
8.Hope HOPE shares her art and family on her blog, it is a delightful find, see if you agree, pay her a visit.
9. Kathy aka Sweetpea PEA shares her art and all the techniques she has learnt on her blog, if you are looking for inspiration go take a peek.
10.Trish Bee TRISH is so generous, sharing techniques and encouraging newbies and seasoned artists to try different techniques, if you want to learn how to do backgrounds,weaving - oh the list is endless, take a look at her blog.

Well there you have them, my 10 nominees. There have been so many people that I have encountered in Bloglandia and sadly I cannot name them all so if your name is not on this list then don't despair (Cathy Johnson, Charline Dawson,Joanna Pierotti I would have included you all if I had the space [Charline couldn't link to your blog])

Some of these may be blogs you haven't seen before so click the names and have a look, then you will see why they make my day.
Bloglandia gives us the opportunity to connect with so many people and for that I am thankful xxx Thank You again Cindy xxxx

1st Digital Art

Question "How excited am I?" Answer "VERY!!!" The reason being that I created my 1st digital art today, played around and came up with this using Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. I have a long, long way to go until I get the hang of using Photoshop but this is my 1st step on that journey.All the steps along different paths with one goal - to improve my art with each step that I take.
Over on Paper Whimsy I have joined a fairy slipper swap and the slippers have to be displayed in a shadow box, canvas frame, really whatever you decide. I have it in mind to display mine in a niche book and I thought that as I am making mine for Parvati the Indian Goddess that it would be nice to have an image of her to decorate the book with.
The slippers are still in the thought process at the moment, and I am awaiting for different items to embellish and enhance them; however rest assured I shall post pictures as they progress.
Thanks for looking at my digital art. :-) xxxx

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - TEXTURE

 

The challenge this week is to create something with texture. I bought this fabulous little book and put on this image
and then added Golden Glass Beads gel for texture, I rubbed gold acrylic paint over it. I want to use this book for a deco that has the theme Vintage and so I am just waiting to post it off once the deco starts.
I shall start work inside and then see what others manage to do wit it....I find this so exciting!

I am doing general run around duties at the moment as my son broke his leg on Sunday playing football. He will be out of action for 6 - 12 weeks, he has been playing since he was 7 years old and this is his first major injury so he can't moan (though he does). I am sure he will be counting the days till he puts on his boots again.
Peace reigns in my house at the moment - why? well my darling daughter China has gone off to Hastings till Saturday and she is such a whirlwind that the house is quiet without her! Teenage girls + hormones + impending exams = a volatile mix!!!

Anyway that is it for this post.Thanks for looking.

Sharing is Caring

And here is my chance to share with all who come and view my blog. I purchased a couple of vintage photo albums and decided that I would scan and share them intermittently to Thank all those who visit my blog. So feel free to copy these pictures for use in your art work....lots more to come in due course.

Mixed Media Monday - Love and Romance

Whilst posting for my previous blog I suddenly thought that I could submit this one for the MMM Challenge for Love and Romance so here it is again :-)

ATC amendments

 

 

 

 

I did these ATCs last week with just the background, image and one embellishment. There was a lot of negative space, so this week I added the text to the images and outlined them to bring them forward more, following discussions on the group it was felt that with the size of the images they got lost in the background - an opinion I entirely agree with.
The text has actually been colored with brown chalks to age them, but the appear to be lighter in the photos I took.
I need to be moving on to Week 2 but wanted to finish off these ones first.

I do think the additions have improved the look of the atc's - the top picture with the atcs in a group were the originals.

A Valentine for me..

 

I had to share this with you all because this is a special Valentine. Why is it special, well I am 46 and this is the very 1st Valentine I have ever received from anyone other than my husband. The lovely Carol sent it to me - so THANK YOU Carol it made me really happy to receive it.
I have some other bits and pieces to share with you all, I am off to the dentist so I shall endeavour to upload some more pictures later. HAPPY VALENTINES day to ONE AND ALL XXXX

My Cover and 1st page in NGS Deco RR

 
 
 

Here is the cover and inside page of my book. As you can see it asks the question Who am I? and I am hoping that the girls who work in it will choose a different "character" depicting who they think the person on their page is. I did the first page with Am I a dancer on her tippy toes or do I dance to a different tune....
Hope this proves fun for the other deco-ists to do, we shall see.

Deco book on NGS

 
So this morning in the post I received - ADRIENNE'S DECO to work on, Adrienne has done a beautiful job on her pages and I wanted to create a good spread for her. This is what I have created, I decided to keep it simple as I am still learning techniques and was worried about spoiling pages by doing something new. So I chose the image then worked the background colors after choosing the image.I used mixed leafing paper (if that is what you call it) for the 1st time so hoping that it holds fast. I love bling, so had to incorporate a bit of me into the page hence the bling....
There you have it, I shall dip my hand into the hat of names of girls participating and see who I shall mail it to tomorrow - will it be YOU - who knows keep your eye on those mailboxes ladies.

Flower Doll

I have made this flower doll just for a bit of fun to see if I could make a "doll"
I cut her out of foam, then gessoed it to make it harder, I then applied papers, fabric and flowers - it is not the best thing I have ever made but what the heck, it was a learning process.

Mixed Media Monday - Scrolls & Flourishes

I can't believe that we are in to February and I haven't managed to do a Mixed Media Monday challenge yet!!!!Weekends in my house are generally a no-no as I am busy going shopping with my husband (he is the one who loves to shop) or being a taxi service to my 2 teenagers, Sunday of course is football day! Rain or shine you will find us standing on the side lines supporting Jazz and his team (which Stuart runs).
So come Monday I catch up with housework, go shopping etc.
Today I have managed to put together this ATC which is called Silver Blades, I inked the ATC with a distressed ink pad (broken china) and then added the flourishes with distressed ink pad (faded denim). I then added an image which I got from a collage sheet from Bemuse. The finishing touches were to color the blades silver, edge the card in silver and draw on some silver snowflakes.

More Beads (couldn't resist)

 
 

couldnt resist showing these beads, I wrapped gold thread round two of them and then the bumpy ones had seed beads and tube beads sprinkled on to them when the utee was wet. Loved the way it changed the whole look of them.
Thats all folks....:-)

Paper Beads

Wowza!!! had a lot of fun today trying something new, paper beads for the challenge or should I say lesson on the Artists Circle yahoo group.

The first thing I did was take a brown paper bag and then I randomly painted it with my acrylic dabbers in greens and copper. When it had dried I stamped on it and left to dry.
Once it had dried I rolled it round straws and stuck it down with glue. After this process I dipped it in utee to give them a glassy look.

This is what I ended up with, the utee melt pot I have had for a while but never really used it. I have lots of the paper left so I shall make some more beads, and try and add different embellishments to them.
I will have a stash of beads to hang on fibres etc. to decorate projects.I will cut some of them down so that they are smaller, I am so proud of myself - another 1st, I seem to be having a lot of them lately, but hey it's good to do something new as often as possible

ART from the HEART Book Giveaway

How would you like to win this book, the winner (there will be 2 winners) will walk away with this book courtesy of the author Catherine Matthews Scanlon
Go to her blog and read how to enter...GOOD LUCK!!

ATCs for Lyric Swap

I had to create 3 ATCs for a lyric swap on the yahoo ATC_group here are my submissions.

This 1st one is from the song "Ha Ha Said the Clown by Manfred Mann. It is a simple ATC with the image added to the background.


The second one is from a song called Sideshow, it is a song I have always loved, can't remember who sang it but the lyrics have always stayed with me.


The last one is Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson, I just used a polymer clay face on which I drew some tears then drew on the hat and ruffle.

Hope you like them.

Vintage Fan Swap

So another project is complete! I had to create 6 fan blades for a swap on Paper Whimsy the theme being Victoria Vingtage Romance - Sing me a song being the theme of my group.
Now I have to get them in the post and eagerly await my blades from the other participants in my group.
Yay!!!!

Shadow Box Doll

FRONT VIEW

TOP VIEW
Here is my latest creation, I am posting it on my blog for those of you who are not in the Paper Whimsy to see.
It is a shadow box paper doll. My shadow box was a tray to hold childrens blocks in its former life. I covered the box with papers from Tuscan Rose I then made the paper doll using Paper Whimsy girl and ribbon, mounted on to thick cardstock. I gave the doll her own dolly to hold, this was found in the childrens craft section of a local shop. I cut out a Paper Whimsy face and stuck it onto the dolly. The edges were trimmed with lace and then flowers, buttons and beads added for embellishment - and there you have it; the only thing left to do is to put the small dowels and wire for hanging (made by my lovely neighbour, Gordon).
Then it will be flying across the ocean to live with Linda East in Oklahoma. I have written a "poem" on the reverse introducing Betty and her doll Boop to her. This was fun to make - on to my next project a fan (of course I will post pictures when it is completed).

LEFT SIDE VIEW


RIGHT SIDE VIEW