Altered Jigsaw & Mini Houses

These 2 projects were created for a swap hosted by Greta in Australia. The puzzle swap uses the wonderful Basic Grey background paper from the Urban Couture range, Paper Whimsy images, rusty vines & filigree corners, as well as die cut lenses from Julie Van Osten's Collections chip board range.

These miniature houses are chipboard die cuts from Julie Van Oosten's Collections range as well as some of the letters & numbers. Couldn't resist going back to my favorite background technique & colour for this project.

Paper Whimsy Banners

These were created for a banner swap in the Paper Whimsy yahoo group, there were groups of 3 creating words such as Art, Joy & Fly in 3 colourways, Pastels, Jewels & Earthtones.......guess which word & colour group I was part of!

For the background I simply sprayed some vintage book pages with Moon Shadow Mist and added the swirls with a stamp by Christine Adolph from Stampington using Timber Brown Stazon ink. The tiny laser cut filligree butterflies were a gift from my dear friend Cynthia . Thanks Cyn :)

I'm Back!

First & foremost I would like to thank you all for you wonderful comments left here as they really are appreciated & apologise for not being in touch for so long.....you'll see why below.

Hadn't intended to be absent for so long, but December was a really hectic month as we were busy packing for a house move just before Christmas, then had a flying visit to London for a couple of days where I saw Marilyn Manson in concert yeah! The tickets were a treat from my son who came with me........you're never too old to rock you know!

We also visited the British Musuem full of wonderful ancient history and the fabulous Terracotta Exhibition from China as well as the Natural History Museum.
Since the move we've had endless telephone & internet connection problems which has really handicapped my online presence, Jersey Telecoms have been working on this for a month now & I'm hoping the fault is finally resolved.

Anyway, I haven't been bone idle and have managed to unpack enough art supplies to complete some swaps that were due. Will reveal all in the folowing posts.

TMTA - Houses

Here's my contribution for this week's challenge, used my stamped & distress inked tissue paper again and some silver leaf coloured with black alcohol ink. This one is on it's way to a dear online friend who has been very patient with my delay for a recent trade.

A Walk in the Country......

We had glorious autumnal weather here this last weekend, that Max & I decided to have a little walk in the country for a change. He's still doing really well on his medication & plods along at his own pace...well, after all he is 13 years old now, which I've been told is pretty good going for a Labrador.

Of course he's loves to have a good old sniff as dogs do......most of the time I'm left there standing & waiting while he checks out all the different smells!

Way behind

Well as the title of this post says....I'm way behind with all my Gothic Arch Sunday challenges...so in my attempt to catch up, here's my Gold contribution. The stamps used are from the Printed Matter sheet by Green Pepper Press for the text background and the Icon stamp is by B Line Designs.

I had the idea of stamping the icon on gold gilding to recreate the effect of ancient religious icons & used black Stazon ink, but the impression was really poor so I ended up painting in the design in order to create the effect I was looking for....so it turned out ok in the end :)

Lets get Gothic!

Michelle is celebrating the 1st Anniversary of her GPP Street Team Crusades with the launch of the 13th crusade being..........Gothic........what else could it possibly be?
I'm currently hosting a Gothic arch swap in one of my groups having always loved the idea after first seeing this on Belinda's blog, then on art-e-zine here. Just to be a little different I designed a taller, slender arch page and the swap would include charms as well, all on a Gothic theme of course.

There are some fabulous pages being produced for this swap & I love seeing how each individual artist interprets the theme, you can check some of them out here........ Marion's (scroll down) , Angela's (scroll down), Keron's, Jane's, Cynthia's, Rebecca's & Wendy's. I'll add more links as they become available.

If you would like to have a go at making this taller style gothic page here's the template and instructions:

Gothic Arch page construction:
The basic Gothic arch begins simply enough with a straight, horizontal line.

You will need:
Firm cardstock
Ruler,
Sharp pencil
Compass.

1.Mark out a rectangle 3.5 x 7.5 inches on a firm piece of cardstock, measure 4.5 inches up from the bottom of your rectangle (portrait orientation) & draw a line across…. This is the baseline A-B
2.Extend your compass out to the exact same length of your baseline (3.5 inches).

3.With your compass needle at point B, construct arc A-C.
4.With your compass needle at point A, construct arc B-C.
Voila…you now have your Gothic Arch page ready to cut out & use.

Thank you! & the Winner is......

Thank you from all at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust for your amazing feedback on the site which has now gone live....check it out here.
They were so impressed with all your comments that copies were made & taken into the Board meeting for all the Directors to read through & one of the Directors popped up to my office to thank you all personally for your great comments.......needless to say they were well impressed :)
Now that the site is up & running, don't forget to forward it on to all your family & friends, the more people are made aware of the plight of these species in danger the better.

Now the bit you've been waiting for....... and the winner is..........drum roll here.........

Rebecca Holso !

A huge favour & a prize!

To all my blogging friends out there I have a huge favour to ask....... as you know I've recently started a new job at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, this Thursday the Trust is launching a brand new website, but would value some feedback prior the live launch.

If you could spare a few moments of your time to navigate around the site & should you find any difficulties or have any suggestions to ease the use of the site, please leave a comment either today Monday 17th or tomorrow Tues 18th, in order that Caron has time to make amendments before Thursday 20th Sept. Here's the link.

Now for the prize part......

For all you lovely people who leave feedback about the site, I will enter your names into a draw on the weekend to win a lovely goody package which will contain a selection of Paper Whimsy & Artchix Studio images, vintage lace, wonderful fibres, metal embellishments to name just a few things that will be in the box as well as the Gothic arch "Family" which I created for a challenge last week..........now how's that for an incentive!

Looking forward to hearing from you all.