Well it certainly took some hammering!

As the main focus of the penultimate Altered Element DT Project, Lynne sent me an Eco Green Crafts Board Book to play with. A simple project I thought, but this has undergone several changes and has withstood the battering very well!

First of all I painted it with my favourite Eco paints and sponged on some Brusho mists, Lynne also sent and stamped it with the Artemio stamps I received as part of a pack a month or two ago. It looked ok I thought, but then I went away on holiday but when I returned and found a few minutes in between washing sleeping bags I realised I didn't like it at all.

As it had had a coating of acrylic paint it would readily take some alcohol inks, they went on very well and the result was pleasing but it didn't please me enough, so I used some alcohol to remove them.

This did no harm at all to the book, just harmed my mojo a bit as I was at a bit of a loss as what to do with it, so left it for another couple of days.

Now this is an interesting subject, I wonder what your views are? The finished article is to be a small token present for a special friend of mine, just to say thank you and that I luvs her. Now here's the question, when you make something for someone do you think you should make it to suit their taste and style or do you make something in your own style but is straight from your heart? This is so far removed from what this person would choose to have in their house but I am hoping they will love the fact that it is part of their friend Nicks. I'll tell you when they have received it.. but they will say they love it anyway so that's no test is it!!?? tell you what I will pay a surprise visit and check which drawer they have shoved it in LOL

Anyway back to the plot, as you can see it has now been painted, inked and sprayed for a 3rd time. It has been blasted with a heat gun on several occasion's and suffered no ill effects at all. That just goes to prove recycled stuff can be of the highest quality!

I painted the book with shades of gourde, orange and sunflower eco paints and then blended some Barn Door distress ink around the edges.

I edged it with some torn double sided tape which I gilded with Crafty Notions Gilding flakes I also gilded the edges of the pages inside.

Regulars to my blog will know I love my chooks (and the recipient is a bit fond of my girls as well - damm too much info I bet she will guess now) so I just had to buy this paperartsy stamp and use as the main focus of the cover, I love the way her legs dangle off the end and her wing goes the edge, I don't 'do' straight edges very well! Her body is made from some metal I embossed and her legs are made using Lin and Leandra's clever tape sandwich technique, but in this case its a more of a triple decker sandwich as it has metal on both sides. The same gold metal was used to cover the top and flap of the book, but has been coloured slightly with acrylic paint and sprayed with cosmic shimmer. I have bought some really cute chicken stamps from T.A.E and will use these inside

Lynne also sent three shades of the new Brusho Mist Spray's  these are a joy to use and I used them to colour some watercolour paper which will act as the backing papers fo the pages inside (which i cant show you until the recipient has received it!)
I also sprayed these onto a small piece of card onto which I did a touch of journaling and put behind a microscope slide.


I think thats about it apart from a few other bits and pieces I added from my stash including the cutest chicken button I received in the post today from my fellow fowl lover Kathy -thanks Kathy - very oppurtune, you are a brave person if you read this far..... sorry bit of an epic post!

Remember to treasure your friends because

and

Now off to tidy up, if you saw the state of my desk you would faint with horror!

PS................
The Altered Element will soon be calling for a new Design Team, if you are interested keep an eye on their blog. I have really enjoyed my time with them, why dont you give it a go?
http://alteredelement.blogspot.com/

Blog Candy, Workshops, Clever Tots and Bargain Buy

Another workshop all done and dusted and they have booked me again for a double session next time for a Christmas Project, so much more can be accomplished in two hours! I love to see what people come up with when they are given a free hand to do what they like, more than that I love to hear those words 'Gosh I didn't realise I was Artistic'

Everyone has an artistic side - look how young children love to paint and draw without really caring what it looks like as long as they like it and mum and dad are sure to praise that's all that matters, sadly sometimes along the way the creative side is squeezed out of us and it needs to be rediscovered.

Talking of young people, have a look here at a selection of peoples finished projects and tell me which was done by a four year old who came along with her dad.!

.......

Oh and I would like you to meet Billie....

First Issue of a new mag called 'How Your Body Works' you know the sort , you have to buy every issue to build your complete skeleton, which @ £4.99 an issue will end costing you hundreds of pounds, but issue 1 and Billies skull is only 99p... ripe for altering!!

...............

and the answer to which project was completed by 4 year old Charlotte is...
.

When asked if it was for her mummy, she said..... 'No it's for me!'

and lastly.... just to check whether or not you are still awake....

If anyone would like one of the sample projects that I did for the workshop (apart from the bird one, that's going to the Art Raffle) then leave a comment and next saturday I'll pick 3 names using random.org)

Very therapeutic

Well I was supposed to be tidying/organizing my craft room but I got a bit sidetracked when I came across Pbirds Round Robin page which I really should have passed on by now! (sorry Paula will pass it on tomorrow!) but anyway I had been musing over Paula's theme of Imagine and then came across my new acrylic bits and my Alice in wonderland stamps, which were out because I am sadly lacking inspiration for an AIW swap...

Anyway back to the plot... if Lewis Carroll didn't have an amazing imagination no-one did, so I decided to base the RR page around Alice. So here it is, I had a delightful time doodling/colouring and really like the result. My colours are getting brighter and bolder by the day! If I was a proper artist I could say I was going through my 'Bright Period' lol

The strange surreal stuff on the side is some Vilene that I was bought for my birthday... spray it heat it, it becomes holey... am I doing it right?? Anyway looks cool here! I did have a bit of a blonde moment though, thought it may be a good idea to put it through my hardly ever used Xyron machine, except I had a laminating cartridge in it.. whoops! with much care I managed to extract it!

It's a bit different from my normal stuff (if you can call anything normal) so I hope Pbird likes it!