Inchie Houses with Twinchie Gardens

Quick blog post. I have been busy over at The Weird Scissors recently and taking a little break, but here is a wee project which I started as a swap ages ago, and wanted to get something out there even though it's not finished yet!

I can't find the link but it was on Craftster - little inchie houses. I thought they were adorable. So far, from left - right, I have received from Chris, Lou, Mags, me and Frances. I'm hoping these will provide some inspiration the remaining houses yet to be done. Plus, I discovered a stash or reasonably good quality envelopes that I will never use for cards, so I decided to make some mail art envelope houses to pack them in :)

Well, that's it for now. Later maybe.

Bex

Altered Mannequin Head Swap

Just a quick one. I have been doing a stay at home kind of swap, so I get to keep the results, which is a bit of an odd one for me. It's a polystyrene head, cheap as chips from ebay, which I decorated in a day of the dead style. I used the glass leaves, paper spiral flowers, bling, heart and ribbons using bits that the lovely Netty sent to me for the swap. I'll probably add some more to it, although I quite like it as it is.

She Art Style Canvas Swap

A bit of a departure for me, but then that's part of what I love about swaps. I joined a she art style canvas swap, run by the lovely Sian,  Not my usual style, but I thought it would be fun to have a go. My swap partner, Sarah,  wanted pale/neutral colours and liked willow tree figures. I had never heard of them but after a bit of googling I decided that they would work really well. Because this is outside my normal comfort zone I made three, and sent all of them to Sarah so that she could use them as a triptych is she wanted or just change them around. The odd lines on the dresses are because I stuck an old sewing pattern onto them. Sarah seems to like them, which is fab, a she is also my team leader on UKS and is superb, so I really wanted to make something she would appreciate.

Junk Journal 2 Swap

Well, I had so much fun with the last one I had to do this again.  Warning - this post is photo obese!

Firstly, I have now finished binding all the books so here is a peek of the covers in all their glory.

Sue and Lynn

Sian and Irene

Pauline and Chrissie

Jules and Alison

Chris and Cynthia

Lorraine and Yolanda

Mags and Karen (who will do her covers when the book gets home)

Gill and me

Also, here is a closer look at mine. There are more pages than this, but you get the idea. I love how chunky the books all are.

I still have to package them up and add in some extras for those lovely swap partners who sent paint chips (for another project) but they should be on their way home early next week and that will wrap up another sap.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Comic book ATCs (warning - more postage stamp heads)

Okay, when I said in my previous post that it would be the last of the postage stamp people, I lied! I did some more, this time with comic books. Some I really like, some are a little too busy for it to work, but overall I think most of them worked out okay.  Sorry about the poor quality - technology hates me!

Have a good one, and thanks for looking.

Stamp head ATCs (last one - I promise!)

These really are the last of my adventures with postage stamp heads. For one thing, I'm mostly just down to standard queeny head stamps now. I thought I would try something other than magazine images with them. Mixed results methinks. The first lot are a mixture of a vintage style couple stamps that I forgot I had (not sure whether I prefer them landscape or portrait) and some body stencils. The second lot are with my Stampotiques, as they are the only other body stamps I have. The most detailed ones don't work so well for me as they fade into the background, so I have just chosen the remaining ones. I have done more, but they are much of a muchness so these are just examples.

Thanks for looking.

Stamp Head People ATCs (again!)

More stamp head people ATCs. I do love making these but I think I'm a bit of a one trick pony when it comes to them. You know, take a magazine image, stick a stamp on, a bit of pen, a bit of washi tape, and bob's your aunty's brother. I don't have many people stamps though and my drawing skills aren't up to bodies. Just had a thought though - the standard queen's head type stamps may work with my Stampotiques as they are not too big. Off for a play - hopefully I can get some more done in a different style.

Thanks for looking.

Freaky People Tags

I am in love with doing weird freaky people at the moment (see my stamp head ATCs) so I have also made some freaky tags. No postage stamps this time, just cut up magazine images. I went through my embarrassingly large stack of fashion mags and cut out bodies, legs and heads and then mixed and matched them. Stuck them on to inky painty tags and roughly (it is supposed to be rough - honest)  outlined them. I'm quite pleased with how most of them came out, although some are not freaky enough for my liking! They have names because they are being sent with the junk journal swap I am running over on UKScrappers.

I still have some tags left over so I may just make some more for me.

Thanks for looking and enjoy the day.

Stamp Heads/Postage Stamp People ATCs (almost)

Strictly speaking, not ATCs at all as I used the wrong die. Oh well, so they're a little bigger, but that actually works better for some of the images I think. I have some old stamps kicking around and I thought it would be fun to do something with them. I took my stamps with heads on and placed them on images cut from fashion mags. I tried to match them as much as possible for size, colour, position etc. You'll see what I mean. I poscaed (is that a verb? it is now!) over the bits of the images that didn't fit in and voila! Stamp head people.

I thought these might make a good swap over on UKScrappers - off to do a write up.

Thanks for looking.

Steampunk Altered Paintbrush

I am on a roll at the moment. I have also done two domino pendants but the photo is rubbish and they have been sent now. Not that this photo is much better, but hey ho.

My theme for this on was steampunk and I was making for Frances who made this amazing witch doctor altered brush for Lou. So, no pressure then! Mine is not as wow, but I think it does look better than in the photo. The face is made from liquid fimo from a mould I made, then painted to (hopefully) look like an old bronze so beloved of the Victorian era. The handle was covered with a door fitting and then the whole lot was smothered in watch parts. Reminds me of this fab song!

I hope she likes it.

Junk Key

Another quick update. I have finished a few bits all at the same time. This one is a junk key round robin where we all take a key and start adding charms and other bits to it according to our theme. Mine is Day of the Dead so I have taken an old house key and added some appropriate charms and a bit of ribbon from the lovely Sian.

I also received a key from Frances who had a fairy tale theme. She had already added the teeniest genie in the bottle. I added a miniature book that I made myself from a Walter Crane illustrated Cinderella book. You can't see it in the photos but it is a proper opening book with pages. I also added a wish charm and a fairy godmother cardstock tag.

The other ones in my group will be steampunk, gothic/Edgar Allen Poe and Alice in Wonderland. I can't wait to see them.

Spoon Angel

I love swaps - they give me a great excuse to try out new stuff without having to live with the results!

One of the ones I have joined recently was a spoon angel swap run by the lovely Chrissie. Inspired by an article in Craft Stamper, the deal was to make an angel out of a teaspoon and stick it on a canvas. Hmmmm. I am no good at painting faces on anything that is not totally flat and I didn't get the swap partner who didn't want a face, so I had to think. A rummage through my pile of crafty stuff and my daughter's toy box led to a combi of silligum and an old doll. I made a mould, filled it with liquid fimo (love that stuff) and shaped it to fit the spoon. My swap partner wanted teal/purple/black as her colour choice, and that was it. However, I happen to know my swap partner a little and she is, like me, a bit of a sci-fi geek and likes Dr Who. So, going with her colourway, here is my angel, loosely based on the weeping angels and set in a spooky graveyard, with "don't blink" written underneath. I really hope she likes it.

Thanks for looking.