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.

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.

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.

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.

I found it in my garden......

Keron - the "Colourguru" is hosting a deco swap with a difference for the Paper Traders group on Yahoo. We are to make 2 covers - 3.5" x 5.5", 6 pages - 3" x 5" & 6 charms, all of which will be swapped out. Here are my charms & pages.......

The Charms

(Click picture for a larger image)

Nest
Tinted gesso & cheesecloth, gel medium transfer & collage

Rusty tools

Fluid acrylic background, stamping & collage, edges embossed with vintage photo distress powder which looks & feels like rust.

Butterflies

Tinted & white gesso, cheesecloth & collage. Deeper blue added with Neocolour watercoluble crayons.

Beehive

Fluid acrylic & stamped backgound, gel medium transfer & collage. Covered with a gold metallic glaze which doesn't show up on the scan & bees painted with h2o's.

Birds singing

Tinted gesso, stamping & collage

Fossils

Layers built up with tissue, coloured glazes & collage images to add depth with the addition of mica chips.

Grimm Tales - "The Seven Ravens"

Front

back

In my PW group, Lucinda is very kindly hosting a 4x4 Fairy Tale fat book project. As I joined up pretty late in the day, most of the more common tales had been picked so I resorted to a little research and discovered to my delight the tale of "The Seven Ravens"............as I adore these birds, this fit the bill perfectly!

Above is my interpretation.......the two photos show the front & back of the page prior embellishment. Rubber stamps used for backgrounds: tree - Paperbag Studios, diamond pattern - Above the Mark.

Sami culture

Well here is my final spread for the Culture AB round robin with the Altered Art Europe group. It has been quite enlightening, researching & learning a little about each culture throughout this project.
For Maria's book I was thinking snow....hence all the white layered gesso & tissue, which you can't really see here as white never scans brilliantly, I also added Sami symbols & a transparency depicting a Sami family circa 1800 & finished off the edges with some red fibre & ink.
Now it's just a matter of waiting for my Native American book to return home filled with lots of great artwork from the other girls.

Another 4x4

I'm quite enjoying working on this size format for a change. This little Christmas Fairy sits before an old clock face image set on a backgound of seasonal decorative paper. Her poinsettia wings happened quite by accident..... I was attempting to fill in the foreground with a bit of red & whilst placing the petals suddenly realised they looked like wings.........isn't it just great when this sort of thing happens & I'm sure it wouldn't have worked out had I planned it this way!

The "Result"

and here is the final outcome....not an easy task fitting in all those images! The background is stamping on black gesso, I added the fish, the little quote at the bottom & brass heart embellishments. Thanks to Greta for the gift of these gorgeous little hearts.

My Muse has finally returned.....

after having gone AWOL for over a month! It's feels so good to be creating again and here's my next contribution to the Culture RR I'm currently participating in.....

Anke chose the Egyptian Culture for her book & I decided to do a spread about the Blue Nile Lily. Background is tinted gesso, stamping then white gesso over the top, text is printed on papyrus, the 2 lilies are painted with H2O's,they have a marvellous shimmer, which as usual doesn't show up on the scan and the edge of the page is embellished with metallic fibre, beads & charm.