Gothic Arch Challenge - School

Nancy Maxwell James has started a great new challenge blog for Gothic Arches here & she kicks off by challenging us all to create an arch with a school theme, as I'm in a Gothic Arch frame of mind at the moment whilst creating my pages for a swap I'm hosting on Paper Traders, I just had to have a break from mine to enter.

The background stamp is by Rubber Baby Bugger Bumpers, School Report stamp by Oxford Impressions , quote by Paperbag Studios & image by Paper Whimsy .

I'm hoping that I'll be able to participate in this challenge on a regular basis as it would be great to bind all the pages created into a little book over time.

TMTA - Metal

The theme for this week's Think Monday Think ATC is metal, I don't think I'll have the time this week to make some but here are a couple that I made as part of a swap last summer. The background for the No 4 of the above ATC was painted with bronze & silver Lumiere paint (silver was mixed with a little black to darken it) , applied fairly thick, then dried with a heat gun to bubble it up & create the texture.

The background on the above Atc is masking tape, painted with black gesso then highligted with metallic rub-ons. The fabric overlay is actaully very fine woven steel fabric which has a lovely texture & sheen.

Award

Sandra of Aquareelle in France has nominated me for the Rocking girl blogger award, thank you Sandra for the honour :) Do visit her site, the art work is truely beautiful.

As for me nominating other bloggers, I find this an impossible task as all the blogs listed here that I visit rock, so consider yourselves all nominated!

New Work Colleagues

Meet Wolfgang & Barbara, a delightful pair of Andean bears who will sort of be my new work colleagues. I have just landed myself a new job working in Administration at the Durrell Wildlife Trust here in Jersey, woohoo, must have done something right to deserve this! OK...so I won't be working directly with the animals but will have the chance to see them on a daily basis during my lunch hour.

Above we have Ya Kwanza, our Silverback lowland gorilla & a photo of one of his many wives, then last but not least one of the Meerkats.....I love these creatures too & could just sit there for hours watching them get up to all their antics......... this one was on lookout duty.

ATC - I Spy Inchies

Well I've always wanted to have a go at making a few Inchies (tiny 1" squares ) but couldn't decide how I would display them as they can get lost so easily...........this is where the "Atc Master", Mr Nick Romaine came up with a very clever idea in one of my groups, stick them on an Atc...thanks Nick. While you're checking out Nick's picturetrail, do stop over at his Watercolours & Atc Farm series albums.....this guy is one talented artist!

The "spy holes" were created by burning the text squares with a lit incense stick, do take care if you try this & have a bowl of water handy near by should the paper go up in flames!

Check this out!

Click to enlarge

Would you like to create a wonderful Altered suitcase like this? Well now it's possible......my dearest friend Maureen has set out on a new venture & is offering this online class through Joggles.com here.

I'm sure you're all familiar with Maureen Blackman's gorgeous vintage signature style as portrayed in Stampington's Inspirations and Someret Studio, so now's your chance to learn how.......& I can assure you she is a great tutor. Maureen taught me the bulk of what I know about stamping since we first met about 10 years ago & most of it being over the phone. So what are you waiting for, go on over to Joggles, sign up & have fun!

By the Sea

Once again Hermine has created a fabulous background & challenges us to make ATC's or cards with it. I just love the colours of this one & had to have a go...how could I resist!

Flower Art on a Grand Scale!

Last Thursday (9th August), Jersey celebrated it's annual Battle of Flowers parade which is always an astounding spectacle. As I live right on Victoria Avenue where the parade takes place, we always have a fabulous view of the event with St Aubin's bay in the background, as well as the Moonlight parade which takes part on the following evening where all the floats are illuminated.

The work which goes into constructing these floats is mind blowing as all the fresh flowers are stuck on individually usually about 24 hours prior in order to retain freshness. The detail especially of the overall winning design "Baobab", an African themed float above & below is out of this world!

Detail of the Baobab float

.....and here's one for all you Aussie's out there!

An Indian themed float & an amazing Viking ship

Gargoyle detail, Notre Dame de Paris float & a Tiger created with dyed harestail grasses, many hours go into these creations! Hope you enjoyed a little peek into Jersey's Battle of Flowers.

Visual Anthologies

If you've never visited Judy Wilkenfeld's blog...well now's the time as you're in for a real treat, not only is the art out of this world but the accompanying process of creating these pieces is truely thought provoking and at times heart wrenching.......as in her latest project "Numbers",
do scroll down & follow the whole story from the beginning.
Another of Judy's wonders is "Of Elephants & Dreams" which is a must see & read (scroll down to the beginning of May to follow the story in sequence). Here again, this amazing artist takes you through her thought process in creating this astounding book.
So put aside a fair bit of time & an ample supply of coffee, you'll need it & believe me it's well worth it!

Circle Book

Finally managed to complete some art today...........these are for Lenna Andrews Circle Book swap. We were each sent a 7 Gypsies circle book kit & instructed to decorate pages in multiples of 5 with a colour theme......... I chose to make 5 each of blue, white & tan.

The Tan pages were created using some wonderful diagrams from pages of a vintage Patent Catalogue sent to me by Mary, check out her eBay shop for great vintage paper & items to use in your artwork.