'Small is beautiful'

Hi, it's time for our June challenge over at Stamps and Stencils and the very talented Julia has chosen the theme this time. Here's what she has to say about it. For this challenge you are asked to make or alter something small. This could be a tiny book or journal, an ATC or ATB, a small canvas or box/tin of similar size - anything as long as it is small.You must use at least one stampand one stencil on your project.

Well I quite like making small things so I had lots of ideas but eventually settled on altering a small ATB (3.8cm). It's very quirky for me, so I'm hoping at least one visitor I know may like it.. DG?

A few years ago I never really 'got' art dolls, things have changed and I've now become quite smitten, especially by the very talented Trish Latimer's art doll creations. I was influenced by her work in creating mine...though you might not think so :-)

I used copper wire for wings and the colour scheme just grew from there. The photo above is on canvas but I swapped it at a later stage for a larger photo as the canvas didn't look right. I used greyboard squares for the panels.

We have to use at least one stamp and one stencil this month..well I used 2 stencils with art basics graphite texture paste and 3 stamps with the triple embossing technique (see Yvonne's fab tutorial here) 

Copper treasure gold..in abundance!

Cotton reel painted in black gesso and some text stamping with copper embossing (of course) and I used some texture paste on the base panel.

Still not sure if the photo is too large but I wanted to use the image of my mother when she was about 10. Paper flowers transformed the same way and some beads in gel with mica powder.

It was so difficult to choose which panel should be on the front, as I liked them all.

The graphite paste has a sparkle which catches the light as well as the sheen from the copper.

Please hop across here for all the details and visit the rest of the very talented DT creations, hope you'll be inspired to join in, we can't wait to see what you come up with!

Anne's ATBs!

Hi everyone, a quick post just to share my finished perpetual calendar inspired or even totally copied from 'Redanne'. Anne kindly sent me some blank ATB's last year and I've eventually got around to making one of her fabulous calendars.

I really enjoyed making it and kept it fairly simple as I wanted to match a desk set I'd revamped pre blogg life.....that's if making it vintage can be classed as revamping?

The papers are Thorndon Hall from PaperArtsy, the numbers Tim's wordplay die and the letters are a Hero arts mini alphabet stamps. Add some brown archival to distressed edges and a little treasure gold and it's finished. Even though it's not my original idea (see Anne's post here) I'm still linking it to the A Vintage Journey challenge as it's about special numbers and a calendar is full of them. I've even waited till today to post it as it includes a significant number to me. 4 is part of my birthday, my son's birthday and has always been the number I pick if asked to choose one for something.

Thanks so much for stopping by, time now for me to catch up with some blog visiting as I've got behind...again!

What's in the box?

Over on Frilly and Funkie the challenge this time is 'Hip to be Square'. It's all about ATB's so I've made my first one and entering it in the challenge. It's made out of coasters as I don't have a die.....although the lovely Redanne has since sent me some die cuts to try, so I will have a play with them in the near future....Thank you Anne!

It presented a few difficulties with round edges and trying to make a cube with a hinged lid. Having gessoed it, I painted the edges with antique linen paint, then used potting soil archival on the edges and finally knocked it back with a dry brush of gesso.

I decided to go for a shabby chic look and use Tim's wallflower stash. I cut them to size, distressed the edges and applied to the inside and out. I love the papers and didn't want to hide them so just used some of Wendy Vecchi's clear embossing paste through the doily stencil, once dry, highlighted with some treasure gold. Not as ornate as many but the fitting together of coasters and setting a hinge in took most of my afternoon up so although I had thought about using the other ATB's inside the box, I decided to do something else instead.....so what's in the box??

The feather is stuck to the lid so pops up when you lift it, it was fun to do....

.....hope you enjoyed the post and thanks for stopping by.