Altered Tin & Book

I've been working on a swap piece for a challenge on one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. The idea of the challenge was to create a piece of artwork inspired by this quote:

There is an Indian proverb that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, an emotional, a mental, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room everyday, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.
Rumer Godden

I decided to alter a house shaped tin I had and make an altered book to go inside it. I sanded the tin and then gessoed it before stamping randomly all over it. I then added the border around the bottom and fiddled about with gold foil around the edges of the shapes. On the lid I stamped the four "rooms" along the edges and wireded embellishments through the four holes that DH drilled for me. ;o) Each embellishment represents one of the "rooms" - spiritual - feather, mental - spiral, physical - body and emotional - heart. The chunky board board book that I altered is more of the same (gesso, stamping and gold foil), with hand written quotes for each "room". The book sits in white net inside the tin.

Here's a few pics but there's more on my Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/58739721@N00/

Another sketch!

I went to London this weekend to see a show for a friend's birthday and we stayed over in a hotel. I was lying in bed, wide awake, while my two friends slept peacefully, pondering the painting reflected in the mirror opposite and decided that since I wasn't sleeping I might as well use my time wisely and propped myself up on the pillows and drew the view! Here's the end result! It all went a bit pear shaped as I wrestled with defective perspective and trying to put shadows in but it filled a wee bit of what turned out to be a loooong pretty sleepless night!!

Sketch

I babysat for a friend this evening, the children went up to bed as good as gold and I settled down to do some drawing. And this is the end result! It took me the best part of an hour and I really enjoyed it even if there's a bit of artistic licence involved! LOL

Collage

Scrabble board, viintage invoice, watercoloors, vintage photo, vintage fuse, wire, dry letter transfers, brads, beaded trim.

I made this piece of collage for my friend, Skippy's, birthday. I'm into fuses at the moment! The word on it is "dolce" again! Really enjoyed making this piece, it's lovely making gifts for friends and family. :o)

Arty Meme PS

Pssst I don't think the arty meme police are watching so feel free to comment even if you don't want to post the meme on your own blogs! I'll still send the first five a piece of artwork! Go on, you know you want to! :oD

Arty Meme

My friend, Laura, posted this meme to her blog and I jumped in to take advantage of a great idea so now I have to post it to mine too! :oD

So, the idea is that the first five people to respond to this post (via comments) will receive a piece of art from me! I know not what the artworks will be so there's surprises in store! :oD The catch, of course, is that if you respond, you then have to post this meme to your blog!

Altered Tin

I've been working on this tin over the weekend and have finished it this evening. I just wanted to make something for no reason other than doing it and this is the end result! In a former life the tin was a puncture repair kit. I've sanded and coloured it with spray alcohol inks and added metal bits and bobs, a chopped up photo, Titanium earring, fuse with added text ("dolce") and a quote. I'm pleased with it and it may even find it's way onto Etsy! *gulp*

Everyday book Spread

This is my spread for the latest round of the Everyday Book RR on my Yahoo group. This time the theme is courage/black & purple. I struggled with this theme but eventually came up with this!

Assemblage

This is my personal present to Laura. I found the lock on the local junk stall a few weeks ago. Well, I couldn't pass it by when the label said "happiness", could I now?? So I used it on this assemblage to celebrate Laura's 40th birthday. I turned 40 earlier this year and it's shaping up into my best year yet in a lot of ways. Laura is starting out on a new chapter in her life very soon too, I hope it's the beginning of a fabulous 40th year for her!

Chunky Book

I've been holding off posting because both of the things I have to share were for a friend's birthday and I didn't want to spoil the surprise beforehand! So, my lovely friend, Laura, turned 40 yesterday! I organised a chunky book as a surprise for her and this is my page in it.

Mini Collages

I've jumped on the 1" square collage bandwagon today and these are my first efforts!

Assemblage

I finished this piece at the weekend but haven't posted pics until now as it was a present and I didn't want the recipient to accidentally see it if she visited my blog! :oD It's a house warming gift and is made from a piece of rusty pipe I found on the beach on holiday, a vintage brooch, copper wire, fibre, rusty bottle cap and some veneer. I absolutely loved doing this, I adore rusty metal and I was really pleased with the end results. ;o) I'd really like to explore assemblage much more. Not a brilliant picture, I've had to lighten it a bit and it doesn't show the depth of the pipe, it's much better in real life, honest! LOL

And another deco!

This deco's theme is "going postal" and each spread has to include a "beautiful" postage stamp! Not sure this stamp comes under that heading but once I found it I just HAD to use it! I've tried to create a faux metallic background with aluminium foil tape, alcohol inks and black gesso then just added some simple metal objects. Text on the tag is "hallmark".

Decos

Completed these two decos this morning. First is a faces theme and the second is "childhood, ready for action.." theme. Not sure about either of them but they're done now!

Deco

I worked in this angel themed deco this morning. The page opposite mine also used stitching so I thought I'd kind of try and balance it out with some on my work as well. I have a love/hate relationship with sewing machines (I'd love to be able to use one efficiently but they all hate me and break when I'm within a 100 paces of them!) and something is wrong with the tension on mine that no amount of knob twiddling seems to cure, consequently the top thread has pulled the bobbin thread through but I quite like the effect! Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! LOL Enjoyed doing this, there was no pressure and I just sat down and did it within 10 minutes! That'll be the one and only time no doubt!! :o)

AB Spreads

And last for today are my last two spreads in a mini AB on the theme "simplify". I used metallic rub ons, which I bought over a year ago but have never used, on the black gessoed page and really liked the effect.

Everyday Book Spread

And here we have my artwork for the latest round of the Everyday Book RR running on ANUK. This theme is sunbleached colours and seaside. I wanted to go for a simple, old fashioned (predictable I suppose!!) seaside kind of thing. The background is supposed to look like weathered beach hut paint but I think I was a bit light with my ink! I like it nevertheless although I think the shells should be more to the right.

Deco

Next up is my piece in my friend, Kath's, deco on the theme "where would your wings take you?". Couldn't get a decent scan because of the
chunky earring embellishment! The wording on the centre tag is "beyond my dreams". The rainbow background wasn't me unfortunately, just the scanner picking up CD's shine!

ATC

I've been having a planned art day today and have several things to share. ;o) This first one is an ATC for my local art group. We've been taking it in turns to choose ATC themes and my choice was lines from films. This is my effort, they're all very similar so I've only scanned one, with a line from my all time fave film - The Railway Children.

Pendants

These are pendants I've been making for my craft stall with Laura this weekend. My aunt decluttered lots of old netball and badminton medals and gave them to me for arty purposes! I prized off the cheap plastic picture bits, cleaned the centres of glue and then added stuff of my own. I wore the butterfly one to work and rehearsal yesterday and got lots of positive comments so I made these other five today. I might keep the sing one though! Still have a few left so may make some more yet if time allows.
Scan isn't very good as the glass nuggets stuck up somewhat on the scanner!

Everyday Book Spread

This is my artwork for the latest round of the Everyday Book RR running on my Yahoo group. This theme is green & gold/grow. I found these rolls of stuff at the scrapstore, a bit like bandage but not sure what they are! I coloured them with paint and zapped them with my heat gun. It's groovy stuff! Added to strips of that are some gold foil (also from the scrapstore) which I also zapped a bit to crinkle it. I sewed strips on to my background and then just whacked "grow" onto it with my metal stamps. Scan doesn't really do it justice but I'm really pleased with this one!

Chunky Book Page

My friend, Laura, is hosting a chunky book on the theme "Words to Live By" and this is my page for it. The deadline is Thursday and I was sure I was going to miss it as my original idea for the page didn't work out and I was feeling stumped for another but then it popped into my head last night! ;o) I'd already got the backgrounds done so I set to this evening and got the rest of them (23 altogether) done and dusted.

AB Spreads

These are two spreads I've done in a mini AB on the theme "simplify".
Both backgrounds are done with my home made alcohol ink sprays which I'm using to death at the moment!!

Log Box Project

This may be seriously boring but I'm dead chuffed with myself so I'm blogging about it anyway! LOL I have a log box that my paternal grandfather made. It's rather battered but is quite precious to me. When I inherited it I decided I would recover the lid of the box and accordingly took the old covering off. Well, I can't even think how many years ago I did that! Grandad died the year we were married and we've just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary!! Anyway, this morning I started and finished the project! Yay! So, here we go with some pics!
This is the log box before I started on it.

Bit of a funny pic as I was working on the dining table in front of the window. This shows my wadding for the box lid which I made from several rectangles of an old blanket which I then tacked together. I stapled the base layer to the box lid so it wouldn't shift about while I was putting the fabric over it. Then I stapled the fabric on. The corners were a bit fiddly but I got there in the end (must be the Arian stubbornness in me!) and then I covered my staples with braid and hammered the gold studs through it.

And, hey presto, here's the finished article! It's by no means a professional looking refit but I am over the moon with it! ;o) What's pleased me even more is that it barely cost me anything at all. The fabric is a remnant I picked up for 50p ages ago, the blanket was given to me (to use at the V Festival last week and then to be thrown away) and the trimming and the gold studs came from the scrap store. Nice new log box and one happy bunny! :oD

Deco

This is my work in my friend, Becky's, very inventive first deco. The "pages" are 12" long pieces of MDF and the theme is Tall Stories. I've used rainbowy foil on my little fishie but the scan doesn't show it very well, it's very sparkly in real life! DH was roped in to fashion the wee hook as he couldn't reach his fishing tackle at the back of the shed for a real one!!

Today's drawing

So, since I said it last night I'm having a stab at drawing everyday and this is today's offering. Can you tell what it is??

Two sketches

Whilst I was away at the V Festival this weekend I managed a couple of creative moments and these are the results. First is a watercoloured pen drawing of the view from our tent. I think I managed the tents alright but the perspective is all wrong and the fat necked, flat faced woman and stiff legged chap are a bit unfortunate, although in my defence they wouldn't keep still! LOL Next up is a pen drawing of my walking boot. I had my foot propped up on my other knee to draw it and I used a fine liner pen that I'd been writing with (i.e. I couldn't be bothered to get up and find my black pen!!). Again the perspective is cockeyed, I thought it was the toe that was wrong but DH thought the heel. Maybe it's both! I quite like the laces part though. I'm thinking that I'd like to start (again!) trying to draw something everyday, does perspective come with practice??

T shirt

Thought I'd share a couple pics of the t shirt I did while I was away a couple of weeks ago. It's done with Brusho and stamped with some black Tri-Chem paint (who remembers that??). It was a nice day so we were in the garden under a gazebo making stamps and background papers and generally having an arty good time. ;-) Flinging paint about always makes me super happy and I had purple toes for days afterwards! LOL

More scrapbox postcards!

Everyday Book Spread

This is my latest spread in the Everyday Book RR running on my Yahoo group. The theme and colourway this time was memories/cream & brown. I'm not sure my piece hits the spot on either of those but I was pretty emotionally charged when I was creating it and it kind of took on a life of it's own and practically made itself.

Mail Art

This is a postcard I've made today for a travelling mail art project. It's a series of envelopes all filled with papers and players get to choose an envie and use the contents to make something to go back in the envie. As ever I've had this a while and it needs to move on so I only did a postcard instead of something more all singing and dancing!

My first Soul Collage card

I am the one who stepped into the light
I am the one who reaches further
I am the one who is strong in body and stronger in mind

I give to you the life that has always been yours but you have not taken until now
Brush away your fears and fly into the light

I want you to let the light flood into your body and soul and illuminate your inner strength, shining brightly for all to see

When you see the light outside of yourself you will remember the unextinguishable light within. It will be ever present to remind you of your brightness and strength.

Everyday Book Spread

Ahead of schedule for once, this is my spread in the latest round of the Everyday Book RR on my Yahoo group. This time the theme was copper/celebration. I've used good old tomato puree tin to emboss on then copper alcohol ink and black Sharpie, nice and simple! The words are the title of a Mediaeval Baebes song and mean everybody celebrate (I think!). Not a very good scan though!

Postcards

More scrap box postcards!

Postcards

Having finished some pressing art commitments yesterday I kicked back for an hour this afternoon and made some scrap box postcards.

ATC Book Spread

This is my spread in a love themed ATC book. This is the last book I have to work in for this RR and I'm pleased it's done as I'm trying to scale down my current commitments.

Decos

The other two decos I did today were on the themes of Christmas and favourite toys. The Christmas one came a bit hard - not that easy to think wintry thoughts when it's SO hot! LOL I like the slide I did though and it's given me a Christmas card idea...if I remember it! I couldn't really think of a favourite toy but got to thinking about the family games we used to play with my maternal grandparents. We played lots of card games and darts as well as shove ha'penny. I dug out some veneer I got from the scrapstore and found some ha'pennies and the job was done! :-D

Decos

First two decos of the day were on the themes of beach days and best friends. I've had the beach photo for a while now and have been waiting for an opportunity to us it. I love it! How English is it?? :-D I had fun making the bit of friendship bracelet (inspired by Kari!) too!