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.

Scratch paper backgrounds

When tidying my workspace after the mess I made playing with the Glimmer Mists, I was loath to chuck the scratch paper that was left with all the shimmery colour overspray. So I picked out the bits I wanted to save & used them as backgrounds for these ATC's.

In the Pink

Well I woke up to a lovely surprise this morning to see that some ATC's I had submitted to Gale at Paper Whimsy have been selected to be included in a special edition collage sheet,which will only be available for a limited period & the profits of all sales will be donated to promote breast cancer awareness........I couldn't think of a more worthy cause as it affects each & every one of us in some way or another.
To purchase these just pop on over to Paper Whimsy & remember they are only available until 31st December 2007. While you're there do check out all the other wonderful collage sheets & art supplies that have recently been added, wonderful ribbons, rusty tin tiles and the most adorable paper roses you've ever seen!

Trip-fish

As I had 3 slide mounts left from playing around with the Glimmer Mists, I decided to use them for this weeks WS theme, triptich.......so here's my trip-fish! Unfortunately the scan just doesn't pick up the wonderful glimmer created by the mists and the colour isn't spot on but you get the general idea.

TMTA - Slidemounts

This weeks submission for the Think Monday- Think ATC challenge is a slidemount that has been stamped then coloured with turquoise & orange Glimmer Mists which I allowed to bleed into each other to create a tarnished metal effect. The background was also coloured the same then covered with punched computer paper from Random Arts which allows glimpses of colour to show through the holes. Stamps used: text - Toybox, ringbinding edge - Paperbag Studios & number at the bottom - Ma Vinci's Reliquary.

Family.......

......is the theme for the Gothic Arch challenge this week. The background is made up of lovely vintage wallpaper that Keron very kindly sent me all the way from Australia! This is edged with torn text sponged with moonshadow ink. The image was first transfered onto a book page then cut out & the edges smudged with charcoal pencil.

Call again

Quite a while ago Mary very kindly sent me some of these vintage Hat labels to play with & I was desperate to use them, but could not incorporate them into anything until this morning when I had one of those aha moments! Below is an ATC which was the result of that moment.
Mary has quite an eye for picking up amazing vintage ephemera and embellishments, the surplus of which she sells on ebay , do go check it out as there's always something really unique to be found.

A few more

Still having fun with gel transfers, so here are a few more ATC's created with the images.

TMTA, Gothic Arch & WS

For once I'm early in joining these weekly challenges, mind you being on holiday this week also helps! So here we have an ATC for Think Monday Think ATC, this weeks theme being "Men" and my submission for the "Moon" Gothic Arch challenge posted each Sunday which also qualifies for the Wednesday Stamper theme this week....."Blue".

Gel medium transfers - further experiments

click to enlarge

Following on from my previous post.......
Having successfully transfered images using Paper Whimsy collage sheets, I was curious to see if my own inkjet prints using my HP home printer would work as well. All my images were printed using the best quality print setting.
The image above shows the various papers I tried as well as an Artchix Studio , laser printed image at the end.

What I learnt:

1. You do need to burnish (I use the back of a tablespoon) the back of the image for a good few minutes once you've applied it to the receiving surface & do let it dry for 5 minutes or so.

2. When I used the baby wipe to rub off the backing paper I found it started to dissolve the ink so, for the above transfers, I discovered it was better to dampen the back of the transfer with the baby wipe, then gently rub the remaining paper away with just my finger, with just a touch of dampness added as required to completely remove the remaining paper fibre.

3.Don't rub too hard or you'll rub off the transfer, as I did on my 2nd fish!

4. Use a good quality matt photo paper to print your images to ensure a good quality transfer.

Conclusion: It is possible to transfer inkjet images with the gel medium technique, hooray! Once again, thanks to Carrie for sharing this technique.

Gel transfers & disasters...

Do you have trouble with these? Sometimes they work & then other times they are a complete disaster! I've had a fair amount of success using gel medium & transparencies, but other methods have been a bit of a flop until I tried Carrie's method explained here. Thanks Carrie :)
I wasn't sure if it would work with an inkjet print so I had a go with some of my Paper Whimsy images & voila....perfect 1st time!

The transfers ended up on these ATC's made up of bits & pieces I had on my work table. The background of the 1st one has been built up in many layers which can't be seen in the scan, believe me they are there! lol Do you get those days where bright ideas just don't work either, this background was one of those, so I ended up covering it with gesso & spraying it with Moon Shadow mist.

GPP Street Team - Crusade 11

Wicked Game - I have always loved Chris Issac's song, then one day my son played me this version which in my opinion was even better. H.I.M. appeared again in my life via Michelle Ward's blog....I had to hear more of this band...only to discover my son had one of their CD's...Razor Blade Romance which I love! As Michelle would say...How cool is that!

Personal Jesus - Thanks to Nicole, I've discovered another great rock artist & just had to post my favourite song of his......don't you just love the beat to this track! I appreciate that Marilyn Manson isn't everyone's "cup of tea" & no offence is intended by posting this, so just skip this track & move on to the next one if it's not your "thing" :)

Lifted - ....and just to show that I'm not a complete rock freak covered in tatoos (I only have one!) here's something more mellow, have always loved the Lighthouse Family....shame they no longer play.

This is just a small selection of my music, my taste varies greatly on the mood I'm in, my collection also includes artists like Santana, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Sting, Pink Floyd and Ben Webster amongst many more.

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.