I'm late I'm late for a very important date.....

I started this project ages awhile ago, and then life took over and I never managed to get it finished in time for its original purpose of entering it into the Craft Stamper Competition, but whilst attempting a tidy up in the craft room today I decided to finish it off so thought I would share it with you anyway. Hey whilst writing this I have realised the background is green, so I can enter it into Hels' Sunday Stamper Challenge, so all is not lost!

As you can see it is an altered book. I love to see books that are a bit worse for wear because they have been read, and re-read and well loved. I don't think this readers digest book had actually ever been read, but it now looks like it has!

I cut a hole in the pages to accommodate a 'house clock' and each chipboard tile has been coloured with distress inks, stamped and then triple embossed with clear UTEE. Its a busy book, with well thumbed pages, and I like to think as the title suggests it has been read 'Time and Time Again'

The cover is a bit rough and ready - I didn't want it to be perfect as it was supposed to be well handled and maybe even shoved in a bag everyday to be read on the train to work or as in my OH's case, shoved done the side of the loo - I never understand the attraction of reading on the toilet, think its a man thing!  - The cover is made from Grungepaper - grungepaper/board doesn't really care for heat embossing, but in this project that was perfect because it curled the edges somewhat - It does however like being stamped on - take a look at this gorgeous stamps I bought from The Artistic Stamper - great aren't they!! I didn't know quite what I would use them for when I bought them, but knew I had to have them .... hey presto they are just perfect for this project! They are quite detailed and I was really impressed how well they stamped onto GP.

Perhaps I better start on an entry for the CS now for 2011, then I may get it done in time!!

Oh just noticed my clock is a bit wonky in the photo - that will be because I havent fixed it in properly yet, it will be straight once i find my magnetic strip to keep it in place but easily removable for battery changes etc, so please pretend you didnt notice that LOL

Hen Art??

OK OK so I may be getting a bit obsessed by my Chickens - so much so that I have made a canvas to mark their new found freedom, it didn't quite start out that way though!

Lynn from The Altered Element sent me some Crafty Notion Spraypaques this month along with some Puff Paint, I have already used some of the paint on the Cup/Saucer below, but this time used them along with the Puff paint on this canvas

The Puff Paint is great fun to use, you smear it on - well I do - sure the more refined amongst you may use a spatula or something, but whilst I have fingers I can think of no better tool to use (at least I dont lose them!) - and then dry it with your heatgun and it expands into.... - well a puffy shape - cool eh?

I then sprayed/painted mine with the Spraypaque and cosmic shimmers along with acrylic paint. You can also stitch into it, I haven't tried that yet but intend to on a future project.

Hels Sunday Stamper Challenge this week was 'Wings' and as I haven't played along with Hels for a few weeks I thought it was a good starting point for my project - you see I like Angels (hold that thought) and I am reading 'Who's your Dada' by Linda and Opie O'Brien - which is the book for my personal monthly challenge for June (for future reference hold the thought that I don't like dolls ) but I do like Gargoyles and Angels - so this was supposed to be a Gargoyle Angel.

I had this wooden Gothic Arch - which goes well with Gargoyles -

I didn't have any Grungeboard wings left so I cut my own Angel Wings out freehand

Assembled Head/Arch/Keys for legs (I like that bit LOL) and then wings............... ummmmm the wings looked more Birdie than Angelie.. so The Chicken Theme came about and I made a metal chicken's head, in true Upcycling I used an empty tomato puree tube purely because it is such a lovely colour!

OK OK so my thought processes do take a few twist and turns along the way but that's OK, projects may not turn out as I initially imagined them, but that means they don't turn out 'wrong' !

So that's my project for this weekend!

Hope it made you smile just a little bit, my chooks make me smile and I hope they are enjoying their new found freedom, but whilst we are on the subject just take a look at the picture below and see the conditions they were living in, I hope it makes people think twice before buying eggs from Battery Hens!

Arsenic and Old Lace?

Or should that be Beeswax and Old Lace?? I suppose quite rightly that Joseph Kesselring didn't think Beeswax had the same ring or poisonous qualities as Arsenic, but for me and Hels Sunday Stamper Challenge the Beeswax worked quite nicely.

I had some unexpected free time this afternoon, so decided to have a go at Hels 'Lace' challenge.

She must have know that I picked up 2 metres of lace for 20p at the mini-scrap box yesterday, just hours before she posted the challenge - I am not a lacy girl so it must have been fate!

Whilst tidying Sparky's craftroom last time I visited I found these rather cute 4"x4" deep sided canvas's and she kindly gave me a couple. Since I will be staying with her in 4 sleeps time I thought I better use one or else she will moan 'haven't you use those watsits yet'

I also wanted to have another play with the Eco paints, and then that obviously (!) led me onto deciding to try out some beeswax I bought a while ago and the because I was listening to 'Les Mis' on my Ipod I remembered I had this lovely stamp which is of course iconic of LM and fits beautifully on the canvas. So I painted and then stencilled through sequin waste (note to self - put Jennies stencil waste rubber stamps on my Ally Pally shopping list!) Then I brushed on layers of beeswax and stamped the girl onto tissue paper and 'glued' it onto the canvas with more beeswax. Then 'I dreamed a dream' started playing. It was then a 'happy accident' occurred... I got some shrink plastic down from the shelf so that I could make a 'tag' (dream a dream) -- now my shelves are rather full - some may say overfull - and down came a bit of an avalanche, I was showered with clay moulds but more importantly floating down was the gold transfer foil I bought yesterday for 40p a metre - would it work on hot wax?? yes it bloomin does and it looks fab!

I am a serious wax novice and I was trying to get it smooth but soon realised that I liked the 'bumpy' effect on this project as it looks more dreamy. Finally I mounted it on a couple of cotton reels I had knocking about, so it can stand up rather than being hung on a wall.

All in all I am really happy with this quick bank holiday afternoon project.


*** Update... I searched youtube last night for more info on Beeswax and watched one done by the Queen of Wax Suze Weinburg, and guess what she used foils on her wax....
and there I was thinking I had made an useful discovery LOL ****

Two Out of Three Aint Bad

but can I make it 3/3.... or can I kill 3 birds with one stone??

1. My Dads 80th Birthday 'card'
 2. Hels Sunday Stamper challenge is Men ..... and this is for a Man and she can only be hugely impressed that I actually did some stamping on this one.
3. Tuesday Taggers challenge this week was to get Messy.... and messy I got in true Sir Tim Style

So pretty please can this cover all three??

Here is the cover, metal work of course and I am so loving my new metal alphabet punches that I used for the wording on the cover.

I would love to lay claim for the paper used on the back cover, but it is some luscious handmade paper I bought from my recent trip to The Craft Barn. I must love my Dad to use such precious stash

Here is the Star Card/book opened out, it's very trick to photograph, but basically its bound together with I think its called Japanese Stab Stitch ?? I may be wrong

so that's the Men bit and my Dads Birthday taken care of

now for the Tuesday Taggers messy bit

Think I have managed that bit as well don't you??

Sunday Stamper, Squares and Journals....

This weeks challenge over on Hels Blog is 'Squares' - I have just bought myself a sewing machine and I have a stock of fabric paper which I made a while ago, one of which has you've guessed it Squares on it....

I was being  a very good girl and tidying my desk before I started another project and I came across this months Craft Stamper, which has a project in it for making a Journal by Kate Crane, so my effort for this weeks challenge has been heavily inspired by this.

As you can see I have managed to get my machine working and have done quite alot of stitching on this the cover to my Journal. I wanted to stitch metal and was pleased to find out it's very easy! Lots of ideas have been whirring round my head with metal and fabric.

The front and back covers will be joined together with LARGE Book Rings, but I couldn't get them in the scanner. I'm hoping for fill it this year with lots of different pages. When I am feeling creative but don't know what to do I can make a page!

Don't take too much notice of the 'Do Not Look Inside' message, I may share a few pages with you as and when I do them.. but maybe not everything!

Thanks Hels for making me think again on a Sunday!

Not a Domino in sight (or Triomino!)

I am known for changing my mind, and I know only this morning I was planning to alter some Triomino pieces for an Altered Game Piece swap... but that was because

a) we weren't allowed to alter domino's - why? cos that's what Trish the Host said, and if you host a swap then you make the rules

b) because I couldn't find the Da Vinci games pieces that I really wanted to use.
but then, I found the Da Vinci bits I really wanted to use

Da Vinci Game pieces? Ever heard of them? Nope didn't think you had! A few years ago during the height of The Dan Brown 'Da Vinci Code' mania, I found a game of the same name in a bargain bucket and purchased it as a stocking filler for D.H.  Well we soon found out why it was it the bargain bucket, it's probably the most boring game in the whole wide gaming world and actually 'bargain' could be stretching a point, unless of course they fall into the hands of someone who rather likes altering things and sees them as (potentially) very cute little 'shrines'

As always I had - not a clue - what I was going to do with them when I managed to grab a bit of me time tonight, but I came across these three lovely - albeit bloomin miserable looking - ladies who fitted beautifully inside the pieces.

I randomly tore a page out of an old book I use for text pages and challenged my self to find some apt text to make a mini collage inside each one. Each one as had a few layers of UTEE which gives the glassy look

All three ladies are I am sure unrecognised Angels, even if they do look like three miserable old buggers, so they all have stamped and embossed wings.

Off to have a think about another challenge - take a look over at Gingersnap Creations - Metallics... yum!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments, I really do appreciate it xxx

Another Day.. Another Challenge...

I was invited to join in with the Tuesday Taggers by the talented Clarky J when it first started a few months ago and never quite got round to it, although I do pop by every week to see what they are up to. Well the challenge yesterday set by Avril really caught my eye and stirred my Mojo, so in-between doing a bit of housework, freezer filling and ironing, I kept popping into the craft room and had a play. I finally finished it late last night in semi darkness so I was quite pleased when I woke this morning to find I did quite like the colours!

At the last Ally Pally, I dropped by (as always cos it is the highlight of the show) the LBcrafts stand and watched Lin playing with Metal, Ferro and Terra Paints. Generously she has repeated the technique on her blog, so hop over and take a look. So here is my version of her tag, and entry for the Tuesday Taggers Challenge which was simply a Bird on a Tag.
The Bird (any twitchers out there who can tell me what species it is, I am guessing its not an Owl!) was a die-cut which has been randomly covered with various colours of UTEE and embossing powders.
Not sure if it is a water bird but it is now because I had an odd urge to add a couple of Bull-rushes made from some odd flocky sheets I had (why I bought them I don't know but everything has a use eventually) and wire.  I stamped the words Take Flight into some gold Metal Magic... it hasn't worked terribly well, but it does look better in real life than it does on here

Now the next question is should I take part in the WOYDW - What's On Your Desk Wednesday which I came across via Jennie of The Artistic Stamper fame.... It's not good..... it is rather shameful.... be prepared for a dreadful sight...

... oh, I don't know if I can

....... I can't help it I have tried and I cannot work neatly

..... Deep Breath here goes

Told you it was bad.... full of stuff from my last few projects...

My MIL bought me a Fridge magnet for Christmas which says 'A Tidy House is the Sign of a Wasted Life'

Well rest assured that the rest of my house is clean and tidy (apart from No1 DD's room, but we wont go there, in fact no one dares to go there) but when it comes to my desk... well you can see for yourself!

I think I better go and have a tidy up, don't you?

While I am gone I dare you to join in WOYDW!!

Frivolous Feet

I fancied having a go at a blog challenge so had a look yesterday at Ink on my Fingers Sunday Stampers.

This week the challenge was entitled 'Tiger Feet' and being a Mud fan in my day I just had to have a go.

Luckily you didn't have to include the Tiger bit just the feet bit.!! Now... I am not over-run with feet stamps, but I did come across these lovely Stockinged Legs that I bought from Dimension Forth ages ago and never quite had a reason to use them. So I am hoping Hels will allow these stockinged feet!??

(If you click on the photo, you will see there are various references to feet)

Now to me Feet means travelling, and if you have had a look at my blog before you may remember 'Auntie Gertie' - I have been thinking about her since I found the stamp which reminded me so much of her and have wondered what her life was really like, she died before we could have a 'proper' adult conversation.

I wonder if that spinster lady who looked after her parents until they died and as far as I can remember hardly ever left her home town, never mind her home county, had a secret desire to (or in fact actually did) wear frivolous /daring underwear and dreamt of taking off and travelling the world.

We will never know, but if she did then this collaged mirror is a tribute to her secret desires.

Dare I or Daren't I???

Well there is nothing like a challenge to get your creative juices flowing. When KatherineT visited us at Christmas, she presented me and Sparkles with a goody bag. Inside the bag was a few packs of  Model Magic which is a lightweight air dry clay which can (apparently) be rolled really thinly and (apparently) stitched into but that is up for discussion LOL. I have had a bit of play with it, and I'll share that with you after KT has had her birthday pressie from me.

Anyway... also in the bag was a lovely frame made by KT herself, sure she could tell you much better how it was made but basically it is plastic mesh, which has been stitched (pulling some of the plastic strands together) mounted onto a canvas board and then covered with tissue/PVA and painted black.

I ooo'eed I arr'ed I exclaimed at how clever and gorgeous it was..... I planned where I was going to hang it and what image I would place in the centre... when those immortal words came from KT's direction.

"So it's over to you now to alter it, embellish it, paint it, decorate it"

Oh...... can't I leave it as it is??

"No No No" she says in a somewhat exasperated tone, " I have just done the hard bit, the easy bit is up to you!"

So thats my first (creative) challenge for 2010... there have been plenty of other 'challenges' but I come here on my blog to forget about them!

Gulp...... Bull by Horns time, I am off to have a play

PS you better keep an eye on Sparkle's Blog as well, cos she got one as well!

Make it Scary Mum...

Well that is what Edward told me when I suggested making a canvas for his newly decorated bedroom, but we have placed it our of direct eye-shot as he falls asleep just in case of nightmares!  I was feeling a bit mojo'less this morning so went blog hopping and hopped over to Hels blog (ink on my fingers) - and as a result I have done my first ever blog challenge - Sunday Stamper - Halloween. I had made this piece of fabric paper (blogged below)  and it just cried out 'Gothic/ghosts/skull/Halloween.. or something! it just was never doing to be pretty. I like skeletons so I made another sheet of plain white fabric paper and cut a skull from it, coloured it a bit, machine stitched it onto the background after stamping some cobwebs using a previous unused embossing powder, called snowflake - white and glittery - I expect you are supposed to used it on Christmas cards! - anyway.... now what do I do with a piece of skull embellished FP?? ..... Put in on a canvas of course!!

.......and so we did. Edward and I are both very happy with the result. The canvas was sponged with some left over orange emulsion from his bedroom. 'Tims' cobweb masks in each corner and as Edward is going through a bit of a 'gargoyle' phase at the moment I used some new Gargoyle stamps mummy just had to buy, stamped onto cream coloured metal and 'puffed' out, filled from behind with lightweight polyfilla and then cut close to the edges, they look really effective I think. They are standing on two pillars of my new Ferro paints. Grungepaper bats and a few stamped skeletons.. Skeletons, bones and hands are Halloween bits and pieces from the £shop an odd bit of broken bamboo I found in the garden - beautifully weathered, and it all hangs from a chain found in the garage left over from a party..... (no not that sort of party!! - a 70's Birthday party where Matt and I dressed up as punks!)

Throughly enjoyed myself this afternoon!

Still trying to get out a Creative Rut

And having a play with different colours. I have been caught up using mainly autumnal colours, so I am trying to get out of my comfort zone and have a little experiment with some colours.

 I saw an article in the most recent Somerset Studio, where the artist loved pink and green. It looked nice, I thought I would have a play. Mmmmmmmm....... been messing about with this for a few days now, experimenting with different shades of both the pink and the green. The Artist (I'll get up out of my comfy armchair in a mo and go and get the mag and tell you who she is..) did say it is very dependant on particular shades of both the pink and green, and I have to agree. I don't think this is quite what I was after, sometimes I like the whole thing, other times I don't... just not sure. Is it the colour? Is it the whole thing? I suspect it may grow on me, but then again maybe it won't.

 Can you tell I am rather undecided??

Still I have had fun doing it.

 Still rather Kelly Rae Roberts influenced but I hope I have put my own slant on it. The face is on a mini canvas so stands out from the rest and the little girl stamp is on Stampboard.

The whole thing is supposed to tell a story, and it does to me, so I guess I have got quite alot out of making it

Found her - Lisa Kaus - wow check her blog!!

Update from when I wrote this last night! -

 Looking back at the mag i have totally overdone the pink and green, but having said that, looking at this in the daylight I am getting rather attached to it. It's interesting having a play with colours you don't usually use or don't think you like, give it a go!

Finally Finished!!

Bittersweet moment, the AB I have been doing for an online Altered Book Course is finally finished.... well almost just a few tweaks here and there which may or may not happen.

I have really enjoyed the fact that doing a course does focus you and 'makes' you sit down and meet the 'deadlines' I have other projects half finished, which will get done one day but really I do work better to a deadline... usually someones birthday!

Anyway here it is... on the final pages we finished the niches that we cut at the very beginning. Now obviously when I cut the niches I knew what I was going to put in them as they are a very specific size and shape... well that was ages ago and now I have forgotten! But as the book has changed course many times then I;m sure that what ever it was wouldn't look right now anyway. The final page now signifies the end, and the words to Frankie's 'My Way' seem to me to be very apt! The Skeleton inside a Tic Tac box inside the biggest niche was not done by me but was sent to me by the very talented Trudy on the DC forum. Instead of sitting on my kitchen window sill it is now living in my book and will be admired and treasure now for many years, along with a few of my most favourite ATC's sent to me by other people which also reside here.

The Cover is decorated with my two most favourite mediums, polymer clay and metal, and as you can tell from the spine, my book has finally got a name 'Class 101' the name of yahoo group which runs alongside the AB Blog.

I'm a bit sad now it's all over.... now what to do??

Thank you to Elizabeth who ran the course, sure it has been a hard slog for her but it has been a very enjoyable few months for me!

One last thing..... it was said at the beginning of the course not to expect the book to close properly ever again.... well thats definately not going to happen with my book is it !

Bottle tops and more on my book! Oh and a question....

Well the British Summer has been and gone, back to socks and woollies and my snug craftroom, the nice thing about the British weather is that when it isn't good you have no guilty feelings about creating, so I have done a couple of things this week (well 2 and a half, but more about the half later!)

The very talented Tish challenged us on the DC forum to alter a bottle top... the beer kind! Mmmmm they were supposed to be charms, but since when have I done exactly as I was told and mine have turned into magnets! The nice thing about magnets on BT's is though that you don't have to glue them on as the magnet sticks to them as well, so it the recipient wants a charm they can remove the magnet and use that on something else. Having said this these magnets are so strong you have to prise them off !!

Oh look........... yet more clay! And a bit of grunge paper!

This week has been a free week on the Altered Book course I am doing, to allow people to catch up although you could do a spread if you wished to. I have done a two page spread using the clay leaves that I put through the pasta machine (post below) and inspired by Ingrid's button edges I have edged the pages as well with some grunge paper which extends further than the rest of the pages (as do the buttons) I really like this look, although it would counteract the effect if you did it on two many pages. A simple idea to edge you pages, but I wouldn't have thought of it so thanks Ingrid for your inspiration!

Not sure if you can see from the picture but I have found a few words on the pages and painted around them, making up my own 'quote' but this involved reading the book... mmmmm it's actually quite interesting, maybe I shouldn't have started altering it !!!

Now... My S.I.L. has come up with a brilliant fundraising idea for the Norfolk Deaf Association for whom she works, but it involves altering something................ can anyone can guess what it is?, I bet noone will ever ever guess.... Will post a piccy when it's complete , probably early next week!

Twice In One Day!!

Well the plan for today was to do a bit of washing... went to laundry basket to find it had magically been filled overnight I was sure it was empty yesterday! - SHOCK........... Kids had tidied their Bedrooms. HORROR..... This resulted in a load more washing!

Plan 2; Do the Ironing. Well that hasn't happened.

Plan 3; Attempt some altered bottletop charms for a challenge I am taking part in. Well I tried, honest I did, I flattened, I removed plastic bits, I made holes, I ran out of inspiration.

OK onto Plan 4; Prepare food for tonight's dinner... forgot to take meat out of freezer last night... that's OK , Lentil Roast prepared instead, that will keep meat hating DD happy.

Plan 5; Continue with the Altered Abacus I started at the beginning of the year.... yeah sommat has gone OK cos it went to plan (well almost) and is now finished. Not bad, I planned on it taking most of the year as I wanted to do it bit by bit as and when I had time and inspiration to do another bit. It's June tomorrow and it's finished and I am happy with it so all is well in Nicks world.

It doesn't really take much to make me happy... take a look at these two beauties! Playing around with a pasta machine, some clay and some leaves. Heidi uses alot of leaves with her silver work and silver clay, so I thought I'd have a play with my polymer clay. Just ran the leaves through the pasta machine along with the clay and then highlighted the clay with some mica pigments. As they are so thin they will go into my altered book as they are only the thickness of a stiff card. One uses a rose leaf from a rose OH brought in from the garden for me, and the other is a lily leaf and some gypsophilia that came in a bouquet recently sent to me from Mrs Bessie.... cool eh??? they look groovy and are a bit of personal memorabilia, well I'm happy LOL!!