Hoops and Yoyo

 

 

 

So time to update you on what HOOPS and YOYO have been up to. Yesterday they got into the excitement of the F.A. Cup Final which this year was between Portsmouth and Cardiff; Portsmouth won 1-0. Hoops and Yoyo got into it all and were both glad that they had sided with the winning team....they were awed by the singing from the fans and the general good nature of the day.
Earlier in the day they were introduced to Betty Boop, I think they both developed a crush for this beauty and were fighting to be the closest to her as they had their picture taken!
They also had a ride on Betty's dog, they thought this was such a hoot!
To calm them down I showed them the shrine that I had received from Mary and the Fairy in a dell from Theresa, they were excited to meet the Watering Can Fairy that their mum had sent over from the States as part of the Paper Whimsy Anniversary swap.

Hoops and Yoyo

 

I would like to introduce you to Hoops and YoYo. They have arrived here for a holiday in England. They have been jet lagged so I gave them a day to get over their travels before introducing them to you. So where have they come from you might ask. They are here from Alama, CA, U.S.A.
They are going on an extended holiday/vacation and you can read all about them at the blog of their mom Peggy Gatto
They haven't ventured out yet, been busy checking out my home, boy they are soooo nosy, into everything - very intelligent, inquisitive minds...
The photo above shows them having a go on Enzo's swing, as you can see Enzo is my parrot (blue and gold macaw) - she was not too impressed with these strangers on her swing and started shouting out "Mum" repeatedly...
When Enzo starts chatting, going through all of her vocabulary Hoops and YoYo look on in amazement. Where do these sayings come from I can see them thinking, "Am I bothered" "Who are ya" "Whatever" all alien to these 2 lol!

As I write this Enzo is happily swinging on her swing having reclaimed it.
Anyway they are staying with me till next Friday when they shall be of to their next destination, secret right now, so after they have gone and even whilst they are here you can check out about all their other adventures at Peggy's blog and of course I hope you call back to see what they are up to in England xxxx Love Hoops, YoYo and me

Another project

 

Here is a look at the latest project I have been working on. This was fun, it is an 8 x 10 size and at some points I thought I was going mad and others I just went with the flow, hope you like xxx

Mermaid swap

Here are some photos for a Mermaid swap on Paper Whimsy. I used a chipboard book as my shadow box. The cover has been gessoed and then mahogany crackle paint over the top. Then I cut out a mermaid and added some scroll stamping.
Inside I painted and decorated with shells, beads, grungeboard and some lace (for coral). I added some bling for her decorative bra and as a mirror.
The glass vial has the words to a ditty written on it. The same words are on the score sheet on the inside cover.
Here are the words that tell the story of the mermaid...
"One Friday morn as we set sail
and our ship not far from land
we there did espy a fair pretty maid
with a comb and a glass in her hand, her hand, her hand
with a comb and a glass in her hand.
[chorus]
While the raging seas did roar
and the stormy winds did blow
and we jolly sailor boys were up, up aloft
and the landlubbers lying down below, below below

Then up spoke the captain of our gallant ship
who at once did our peril see
"I have married a wife in fair London town
and this night she a widow will be, will be, will be
and this night she a widow will be.

[chorus]
And then up spoke the little cabin boy
and a fair hair'd boy was he
"I've a father and mother in fair Portsmouth town
and this night they will weep for me, for me, for me
and this night they will weep for me
[chorus]

Then three times round went our gallant ship
and three times round went she
for the want of a lifeboat they both went down
as she sunk to the bottom of the sea, the sea, the sea
as she sunk to the bottom of the sea.
[chorus]

When I signed up to do this swap the 1st verse and chorus to this ditty popped into my head; I sang it at school with my class mates in an assembly when I was 9, we acted it out too, I really loved it and I suppose that is why I remembered it all these years later.
I put in the first verse into google and it found it for me much to my surprise and delight.
Thanks for looking x

Fabric Gothic Arches for a swap on Paper Whimsy, hope the pictures are visible serious problems with uploading images, gonna upload this post to see if it is okay

Cakes for Dorothea

A couple of weeks ago I made my 1st cakes for a very long time, I blogged about it and tried to upload a picture but it just wouldn't happen so I deleted the blog. Anyway today I made some more as I was so happy about my fairy slippers arrival from the States. Here is a picture of the cakes with the slippers and both went down a treat in my family. So now I can look my friends Lorraine, Sam and Gabby in the eye and say I have joined the club as far as cake making goes lol, they are all wonderful cake makers.
Anyway Thanks for indulging me with my crazy blogging, hugs Dawn

Fairy Slippers - from Linda

Imagine my delight when I opened the door to the postman today and he had me a package. Even before I opened it I could feel the magic within....as I carefully opened the box I found a little card from Linda Kunsmann describing her work in creating these gorgeous slippers and I quote "Dear Dawn, I do hope you like my fairy slipper project. I am by no means a great "seamstress" but this wonderful project took me out of my comfort zone and was a pleasure to create! The little book is attached with velcro as are the slippers so they can be removed & the book can be opened. Enjoy, Linda"
I hope you can read the inside of the little book it has beautiful words, the box is wonderful and I am doing a HAPPY HAPPY Dance after receiving these slippers.....

PIRATE SPREAD

These pictures are of my 2nd spread in Krissie's "Secret" Altered Book.

I decided that the secret would be where the treasure was stashed hence the pirate theme.

The left hand side of the spread has the story of Blackbeard the pirate (briefly) printed onto transparency and then laid over a piece of distressed canvas. I included Blackbeard because it mentions Benjamin Hornigold who was the pirate who gave Blackbeard his first vessel the Concorde after they had looted it. Hornigold was my husbands name at birth, it was shortened to Gold on the death of my husbands grandfather because my FIL did not like the "Horni" part of the name.

I have used a skull and crossbones grungeboard piece, I painted the Pirate banner after printing it on to canvas. The parrot is de riguer in all pirate stories so that had to be included.

The piece de resistance for me is the altered altoid tin in which I have glued some jewels. Other elements are the map of the world, the rolled up map and the little disk in the corner actually gives instructions, i.e. walk 2 steps forward, turn left...etc. etc.

Hope Krissie likes it, I shall let the jewels dry thoroughly and then this will be in the post to Linda tomorrow.

Fairy in a dell

This delightful little fairy was purchased form Theresa Martin's Etsy Shop she arrived today and is beautiful. She has a little porcelain arm and vintage metal leaf wings. She is in a half bell and standing on a wonderful base. I love her.

I have tried all morning to post this picture and finally succeeded so I am glad that I can share her with you all.

Heart Shaped Deco

Sorry about this having to upload photos
separately as there is serious problems with uploading pics; seems
to do one at a time, so here is the 2nd deco I have worked on this morning.
Hope recipient likes it as much as I loved doing it....

Deco book for Treasure Art Trends theme of Romance.

My beautiful new car

So, let me tell you I am married to a man who is obsessed with cars. I passed my test in 1991 and I have lost count of the number of cars I have had in that time...this is my new baby, she is beautiful. What I LOVE about her is that she makes me fell YOUNG!! and hey that can't be a bad thing.
China thinks the interior is too small, I think she is too tall - lol.... Jazz loves it, he wants to know if he can borrow it to go cruising! typical boy thinking of it as a babe magnet. I know I have to do my share of the school run but Harry who jumps in with me on the way home hasn't complained and he is TALL so if he is happy then it can't be a bad thing.
I was lucky to have a day of sunshine so was able to put the roof down and really feel the breeze. I can't wait to go out for lunch with the girlies, what fun that will be.....
Anyway excuse me for sharing but we are supposed to share that that makes us happy right?
hugs, Dawn

Secret page for Altered book RR

These are photos of the altered book I am working on, this is for Krissy's book - her theme is Secrets. I have two lovers meeting in Paris.
I have been having problems uploading pictures to my blog, hopefully these will get uploaded, more to share but got to rely on the uploads!!!
Going to check it now, fingers crossed this will work! if it does I have to catch up on some posts....

More images from my art room

I have spent the last couple of days trying to getting some organisation into my art room. Boy oh boy what a job it turned out to be. Now I feel that I have a semblance of organisation which will enable me to get on and create art knowing where to put my hands on my collage sheets and embellishments not to say paints etc.
This first picture shows my acrylic dabbers, reinkers etc (stored in a custom made tray by my lovely neighbour). Below it I have all sorts of embellishments in chinese take away trays. I have labelled them for ease of identification and numbered them, what I intend to do is write what is in each numbered box and put it on a sheet taped to the inside of my supplies cupboard.

Can you see the little wooden "stamps" in the window, these are like the things (for want of a better word) that Tim Holtz puts his felt pads and the foam pads for using with re inkers, these were again made by my wonderful neighbour Gordon.

This shot is of part of my shelf, the little cabinet with drawers in holds all manner of goodies, rusted items, buttons, metal charms, bottle tops etc.etc.That is the first part of this post, another to follow

p.s. These postings are now out of synch as the images didn't upload and I have had to play around in blogger to sort it out, this was originally the 1st post in respect of my room but it is now the last uploaded!!!

This picture shows the drawers I use for my collage sheets; the sheet used to be stored in order of the place that I purchased them from Paper Whimsy, Artchix, etc. but it was a nightmare when I wanted to do something, as I had to look through all of the drawers to get the image I wanted. Now if I want to use an image of a girl I just pull out the drawer labelled girls, like wise if I wanted men, nature, scraps etc...you get the picture.

My books are in here too, as are my sewing items, grungeboards, melting pot, all sorts of paraphanalia...
It gives me a clear head being able to see everything.

Now I can get stuck in to crafting instead of hunting and searching when I want something.
I have a stack of Really Useful boxes with more bits in and more stuff, stamps etc. in the drawers under my desk. Hope you have enjoyed seeing my room now.
As it is the weekend I won't really get a chance to put it into use until Monday but I am looking forward to going in there....

More about getting organised

 
This photos shows my shelf with distress ink pads, misters, golden stuff, etc.
 
This little basket I picked up for a £1 at a church sale, perfect for storing ribbons and threads.
 
Behind the door of my wall unit I keep my books, canvases etc. that are they for me when the mood strikes, I can't resist picking books and canvases up whenever out shopping.
 

What lies behind the doors, next post will show you...I have started putting art pieces that I receive up on the door so that I can admire the art that I receive.

Tagged....Six Word Memoir

Whoa! I have been tagged by Carol Stocker to write a 6 word memoir, where do I begin I wondered. Then these words just popped into my head

I CAME, I SAW, I TRIED....

Don't know where they came from but as they popped into my head I used them. (Spiritual guidance no doubt)
So now I have to tag according to these rules

The rules:
1. Write your own six-word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog (and include a visual illustration if you'd like).
3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post.
4. Tag 5 more blogs with links.
5. Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.I am tagging:

1. Paulette Insall
2. Cynthia Powell
3. Angelina
4. Linda East
5. Jeanie
So there you have it, 5 I have tagged who all offer something in addition to art, I love there blogs - and I love lots more but wanted to highlight some new people to introduce you to their blogs.
Have fun visiting

xxDawnxx

Antique Fairs and Prom Dresses!

 
 
Saturday Lorraine and I went to an antique fair in a local village. We had a great time mooching about looking at all the bits and pieces. I found this book (£1) the little sewing tin, which when I opened had the pen nibs inside...(£3.50)
and the little jewellery pieces for £1.
I also worked on this rinky dinky tag book. I tried to post this earlier but for some reason blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures so the writing is brief.
Went looking for a prom dress for China but no joy, have to hit the shops again soon to try and find that elusive dress...nightmare; long, short, what color all questions unanswered - she will "know" the dress when she sees it. I can relate to that so I will grin and bear it, June 19th will come around so quick!!! Hopefully she will find that perfect dress sooner rather than later

Next Generation Deco

Worked on a Deco for one of the girls on the Next Generation Stampers. It came all the way from Alaska, that is one of the things I love about working on decos, the fact that the come from North, South, East and West - and the anticipation of seeing whose book I will be working on next....such fun!!

 
This is the front of the page, I used a Paper Whimsy image.
 
The back of the page also has a Paper Whimsy image, Artchix wand and Grungeboard.
This book was hand made and I think it is a really neat little book, got to think who to send it to next!

What to do waiting for the T.V. repair man

Don't you just hate it when you HAVE to wait in for something, Repair man, Parcel - whatever...Generally I pace up and down waiting for the knock at the door.
Today I thought to take my mind of it I would do something constructive. I had received a package with 2 decos to work in, and I had another to do - I hadn't started it as I was trying to plan it in my head.
So this morning I packed China off to school with Lorraine and got down to it...
These are the results of my "labour" - or should I say "fun time" - Stuart my husband popped in about 12 and I said "I haven't done the housework yet - got more important things to do" he said "let's see what you have been doing then" so I showed him as I am showing you.

This was the 1st spread I worked on, it is for Keri in her "Romance Deco". I love this book, it is a hand made one made with cardboard.

This 2nd deco is also a "Romance Deco" and it was created by Jo Crabtree. It is a delightful little book in that the pages pop open when opened. My page was the middle of the book so didn't pop; The poem in the page is one I wrote back in 1981, I found an old poetry book of mine recently so decided to incorporate the poem.

This final deco was for Cathy Johnson's "Vintage Deco". She sent out her deco with a selection of vintage photos and the "challenge" was to create a make believe family album. So I chose Priscilla as my family member and decided that she loved to play the piano in the drawing room.
These will go in the post tomorrow as it doesn't look as if I will get out today waiting for that repair man...this is one time that it has been a pleasure to wait in.!