Christmas Chunky ATC - Octopode

I think this is my final crafty swap for the year over on UKS and it's yet another chunky ATC. This time my theme was alternative/freaky/bah humbug! Ironic really, as that was also the theme I had chosen for mine. I hope the Octopode images I used are freaky enough and I used a couple of sentiments which I hope also fit the bill.  I painted the backgrounds to two chunkies and glitzed up the Octopode images with some glitter and glossy accents. The snow globe and the gingerbread house have teeny tiny lights behind them - press the door knob on the house or the red button on the little snowman and you get 20 seconds of randomly flashing little lights (you can just about see in the photos). The colours are much better in real life, so much more vibrant, and there is lots of sparkle but none of that shows up because the light is poor and the borrowed camera I'm using hates me! Oh well. Apologies to my swap partner for it being late but they will be on their merry jingly way tomorrow.

Here you can just about see the lights on the fronts.

Vampire Burlesque Altered Fish Tin

This is what I love about swaps - you get some unusual requests that you wouldn't have thought to do yourself. This one was for an altered fish tin on the theme of Vampire Burlesque. What a great theme.  However, a real pain to work with as in my head my tin looked great but getting the physical reality to match that image proved extremely tricky. In fact they don't at all (I ended up doing two tins for the fun of the theme) and I think I have something better still in my head - it just needs a better person than me to make it!

Apologies for the photos - they were taken in a hurry with my daughter's camera which I couldn't figure out - techno dufus me! Hopefully you get the idea. I made them as hanging tins with dangly bits and made the fimo vampire lips myself for the one on the right and the illustration for the one on the left is from here as it was just too perfect.

I really did enjoy doing this but it has taken way longer than I expected so I have a few other bits to catch up with now.

Have a good one.

Music Cards

More cards for another swap. The theme for Sian's card swap was music, with the option of metal too. I only had time to do a quick scan of two of the cards, but they're all similar. The inside has an insert with the sentiment "listen to your heart". You get the idea.

Circle Journal - Once Upon A Time ...

My latest completed project - a CJ on a storybook theme. Hosted by the lovely Jas, I got to do her entry first. Her book is stunning (sadly I don't have pictures) and so the book sat here for a month with me just looking at it, being too afraid to start on it, and putting it away again!  Well, I eventually got around to it and here are the results.

Jas asked for stories from out childhood, so my first was The Little Mermaid by Hans Christen Andersen. It was one of my favourite fairy tales from my childhood and I was lucky enough to see the statue in Copenhagen when I was eleven.

My second entry was for the science fiction novel Chocky by John Wyndham. Published in the year that I was born it introduced me to the world of science fiction which I still love today. My eldest daughter thought my entry looked like a logo for the rugby world cup but it stayed in anyway!

Yhe text on the left is part of a little mini book where I copied the blurb from the back, for anyone who hasn't read the book.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

AJ pages done and in progress

Aj page for Leanie  done - check!

I so anted to do a happy affirmation type page for her but I ended up feeling stressed bout the time so I made this.

However, it is at least happier looking than her first (abandoned) page which currently looks like this and will be recycled elsewhere!

Chunky ATC Time Again - Halloween!

Time for more chunky ATCs. I think I love making these, even though they normally sit naked and untouched for a week or three after I've got my swap details before I get around to actually covering them in goodies.

Anyway, the theme for this round of chunky swaps (the ghoulies) was all things spooky. I'm not going to say who these are for as they've only just been sent today, but here are my contributions.

First chunky - a gothic (hopefully) haunted house, spooky graveyard, flying bats. You can see in the second photo how boingy the bats are as thy were still moving when I took the picture. The house windows, skull and moon have all been painted with glow in the dark stuff so when you turn the lights out they should still have a spooky afterglow.

The second has witches over a bubbling caulron with an array of potion bottles and a broomstick (although only one - do they have to share I wonder?).

The reverse with a spooky tree, owl and pumpkins. On this one the cauldron contents, two of the potion bottles, moon, owl's eyes and pumpkins should glow in the dark too. France's blog is here

And last but by no means least, here is the surprise one I got from the lovely Frances, who made me this after I lusted after a similar one she made for the swap. A big thank you Frances - it's gorgeous and it was such a lovely surprise and so very thoughtful. Her blog is here where you can see lots more fabulous chunkies.

Well that's it for now, but I am working on more Halloween stuff at the moment. Thanks for looking.

Alice Themed Circle Journal

I've just started a new circle journal - Once Upon a Time - so I've chosen to base mine on the Alice stories by Lewis Carroll. Now, I've seen a couple of other people's starts and they are stunning and mine looks quite dull, but I struggled with the covers I wanted to do and instead went for something plainer that would at least protect all those lovely entries.

This is my cover to keep the page protectors from getting damaged. I want to stick the finished pages into a book but postage costs make it cheaper to send it out like this.

The inside of the cover, with the rules by Royal Command of course!

The sign in page - I decorated envelopes with little labels to look a bit like tea bags (well, if you squint and the light's bad!) and some characters and there are little tags inside for people to decorate.

I quite like the 3D look when you take the tea bags out.

And this is my first entry.

I'm really looking forward to getting this back - there is lots of superb talent in the CJ so it will look amazing I'm sure.

Octopode Freak Cards

These are for Sian's card swap and the theme was FREAKS with two optional themes of dark rich colours and grunge. For once, inspiration was immediately forthcoming and I dusted off a couple of my Octopode collage sheets (pre-coloured so that made it nice and easy), hand inked, stamped, stained and painted some backgrounds, then stuck on my freaks with an apt (but useless) sentiments. I know, when are you ever going to need a card with these sentiments? Still, they were fun to make and they fit the criteria of the swap so that's good enough for me.

Thanks for looking and have a good day!

Leanie's Collage Swap

First of all, a huge thank you to the lovely Leanie for organising this swap.  We all made little bits on a colour and theme (mine was marmalade and metal) and Leanie mixed them all up and sent them back. I mounted mine onto a canvas and used the space to put a photo of Isi. She would have loved it - it's so tactile. It has pride of place on the wall next to my craft table so I can admire it every time I do some work. Thanks to everyone who took part in the swap for all of the wonderful pieces. I hope my arrangement has done them justice.

Finally - Sian's Stampotique Frame

Of course, this is for a swap - it seems I don't do much crafting for any other reason!

This is for my friend, the lovely Sian. She hosted a swap to alter a frame based on one she's seen in a Craft Stamper article some time back. I think the example was part of a configurations box, but I went for a canvas frame. Her theme was Stampotique stamps, and she very kindly stamped some out for me as I didn't have any at the time (a sorry situation which I can happily say has now been remedied).

Now, Sian's a bit of a rock chick so I decided to go with a rockin' out sort of theme. I got a bit carried away and thought that it needed lights and sound too.  So, after a lot of faffing and a couple of ebay purchases it has it all now. You'll see what I mean.

I've already shown the back, which is the front of one frame. The recessed bit at the back of that holds the lighting. Then, there is another frame that sits on top to make the whole thing (the two are just held together with slim magnets but can be pulled apart easily) and this time I decorated the back.

See those things that look like guitar amps in the corners? They are the diddiest little ipod speakers and they just went perfectly. I found an old, sometimes iffy, ipod shuffle on ebay for eight quid all in (sorry I couldn't afford a fancier one Sian) and loaded it up with some of her current favourite music

And here's a short clip so you can see what I mean about the sound and lights. It sounds and looks rubbish because I am having technical probelms, but actually the little speakers sound okay and it looks way better in real life.

So there you go Sian - I hope you like it.

I am also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog as I did use Sir Tim's tissue tape on the frame (although you may have to make the picture bigger to see it!).

Circle Journal - Lyrics

An older thing but something I didn't put up before. I have a fabby altered frame to share but my camera has gone walkies and I am so frustrated, so here is something in the meantime. It's my entry for the CJ I was in and the theme was song lyrics. Honestly, I did try and make it upbeat but I don't listen to much happy cheery music (never have).

It's a double page layout

Add caption

And the CJ owner asked for the lyrics to be included so they are behind the heart.

 And this is the tag behind the photo which explains why I chose the song.

And that's it until I can find my camera!

Have a good one!

Octopode Alice Cards

These were made for the lovely Sian's monthly card swap. where the challenge was to use books as your inspiration. I just had to go for Alice, so there is some text from the book in the background and the quote is also from Alice. I photoshopped together a frame for an Alice illustration from Lucky Palm with some flowers and Alice from the ever wonderful Octopode Factory and hand coloured everything with a mix of distress inks, watercolour pencils and a water brush.

I'm entering this in the Octopode Challenge for how does your garden grow? and the Altered Alice for lovely garden and bright flowers.

Thanks for looking and have a good day.

Art Journal CJ - round one

I thought I would post my first entry for the art journal  CJ I've just joined. This is for Caroline and her theme was "How do you feel today?". Well, she caught me on a bad day so it's not exactly upbeat, but here it is. I hope she likes it.

I'm entering it into the Stamp Man Challenge Blog as the theme this week is to use hot colours!

Shakespeare Domino Book

The latest swap I've been doing in a domino book. There are some gorgeous examples out there but they are very fiddly to make, especially with my fat fingers! This time, my theme was Shakespeare. There is a lot of scope with that, but I ended up doing a two sided book to illustrate two of his plays - a comedy (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and a tragedy (Romeo and Juliet). The illustrations inside the book are taken from various old paintings and I am indebted to The Illustrated Shakespeare for most of the images.

So, without much ado about nothing (sorry!) here is the book. I'm entering it in The Stamp Man Challenge Blog as the theme this week is alter it. The dominoes, and indeed  my Cluedo dagger, have certainly been significantly altered.

The front cover of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with trees, fairies, fairy wings, hearts and flowers to represent the story.

And the inside with a quote and some illustrations.

The Romeo and Juliet cover with a tiny bottle of poison and an altered dagger from my Cluedo set, plus a double skull charms, roses and a star.

The inside of Romeo and Juliet.

The side view - it's surprisingly substantial for such a tiny thing.

 And here is the gorgeous one I received from Jasmine for my theme of Edgar Allan Poe. It arrived in this gorgeous box and it's beautiful as you can see. Thanks jasmine, I love it.

Art Journal Style Canvas Frame

I've been experimenting with art journaling recently. I certainly haven't got the hang of it and whatever Kate Crane might say there certainly are mistakes to be made! However, here's the first thing that I've made which I'm reasonably happy with. It's a canvas, which is going to be the back of something else, but I wanted that something else to be nice on all sides so I thought I'd experiment with the back first. After all, if it didn't work then there's always black paint instead!

Anyway, here it is and I'm entering it into the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog as the theme this week is anything goes and The Octopode Challenge blog for circles.