JFF Altered Tin

This time the Just For Fun challenge was set by Von  and her challenge was to recycle book pages or magazines so I decided to use an old copy of Living Etc magazine to alter a tin - to hold pens in. I used Dylusions and Tim Holtz stamps and mixed them up to create figures. I cut out images from the magazine to create furniture and splodged a lot of mod podge around. Yet again apologies for evening photos...I began by layering white gesso on the coffee tin. I then stamped the image above onto dictionary paper - in two sections and coloured with pro markers and stuck it on. I began to build up images using other stamps but for these ones I decided to stamp directly onto magazine pages to colour and create the image.

She has a dylusions head and legs and a dress I cut out for her with a sofa and cushions collaged behind. I liked an orange chair for the vibrant colour but added TH birds to perch on it.

This one's face was on a very dark image  stamped on top of a photo of black kitchen units and the body was over a garden image. There is a chandelier cut out behind her and more of the cushions and couches.

My big mistake was applying my stamped and collaged images t to the white gesso as I had gaps and wanted a different colour as a background. It was a bit fiddly to paint around images.

 Late last night I mixed a little pink acrylic paint with mod podge - but this morning I realised it was a little brighter than intended.

The final colour was green acrylic paint and mod podge. The finish is really interesting and layered but I don't think the evening photos show this. The umbrella was stamped over a two tone piece of magazine.

Apologies for showing another tin - my glitter tin was my first altered item and this is my second, I think the third one might be more embellishment heavy but as I pick up and move these tins all the time they need to be sturdy to withstand my careless handling. I quite liked using the magazine images to "colour" my stamps as the effects were often not what I expected.

Extravagant Art Journal

Almost caught up with the prompts again. This time the theme was extravagance and I added some expensive ribbon and some very bling buttons from the ribbon girl.

I stamped the background with a shorthand text stamp from Paper Artsy and then that hair dying comb came in useful as I made white dots all over page.

I used Claudine Hellmuth's Dwelling stamp in purple acrylic and then stamped the second part of the stamp with embossing powder and silver pearl embossing powder. The journalling was written on black paper.

Art Journal almost step by step

First of all apologies for the photos but I am not getting home in time from work to photograph in natural daylight. This page was in response to a UK Stampers prompt asking if we were lucky. Am I? Not in the conventional sense of winning money but in having a wonderful husband, fab children and great friends I am. I was taking photos as I went. It began with the lyrics of Kylie's song " I could be so Lucky" which I printed out and and randomly applied to the page. I added spiced marmalade and Dylusions lime green ink.

Deciding it was to bright I swiped on some white acrylic paint and using a ranger black medium pen wrote words like "lucky" and "flip a coin" on the page which I then applied Blonde Moments pearl pigments to.

I then stamped the dots from Claudine Hellmuth's dwellings stamp with embossing ink and more pearls. You can see all the layers in the photo above.

Next Tim Holtz bird and butterflies, some straight onto the page and others onto card - I also added pearls to some of these which you can sort of see. I cut some rough strips for journalling and added them too.

I discovered that if you dip a silver charm in alcohol inks and then perfect pearls the pearls stick and give a coppery effect. Finally I sprayed orange ink over the top and added a few acetate stars using free Craft Stamper stamp. The page looks great and shimmery on my desk and the photos do not really reflect how I see it but I need to resign myself to dodgy photos now that it gets dark at 6pm in Scotland.

Family musings and rare photos of me

Family is something we all (mostly) have in one shape or form and when I have not been working I have been doing family stuff this past week or two, so less time to craft. Our other son was 21 last week and we had a party for family on the Saturday night and he then insisted we went to his club night as on the Sunday. I got to bed at 2.30 am that night and two late nights makes me a little tired. We really enjoyed it and for all of those who wonder what I look like the evidence is above. I hate getting my photo taken as I cannot reconcile the current "bit chubs" bespectacled person I see with the person in my head. My other son refers to people as a bit chubs and it perfectly describes my giving up smoking rounder shape and the fact that I eat too many biscuits and cakes.

It looks like I was horrified by Lens Guy's dancing - probably correctly - but I was also showing off the lost in the woods dance mood which is a bit of a family joke. I had meant to touch up the scary grey hair but was too busy entertaining family and working. Still needs done.

youngest daughter and son

Family also took over in the form of my mum this week as she had a fall last night and I had to go over and sort things out. Luckily she did not fracture her skull but one eye is totally closed and the other is going that way. I do have a photo of her, modelling the 10 rounds in the ring with Mike Tyson look, that I took to send to my sister so she could see damage but no one else should see it. Mum is now staying with us for next 5 days so Lens Guy can look after her when I am at work. I love mum and enjoy having her to stay but the wee selfish imp in my head is crying "bang goes your planned weekend of crafting..." I might  manage a little if lucky. Thank you for dropping by.

Art Journal Page

As I am yet again trying to catch up with prompts on UK Stampers weekly challenge here is week 37 - Laugh (just 38-40) to finish now... To save time I used a mop up page as my background.

 Because I was thinking about Monty Python's parrot sketch which always makes me laugh

I decided to create odd stamped images using images from Dylusions and Tim Holtz.

 I was going to use scrapping alphas but did not have the letters I needed so cut out the waste and then sprayed Dylusion orange ink over before removing the ink. 

I stuck to the organey green colour scheme on the mop up page using the inks and distress stains to colour the images with.

Altered Tin, Just For Fun

When I saw the challenge on Just for Fun Challenge blog which was "Anything But A Card" and the challenge on UK Stampers to use up some glitter stash I decided to try my hand at altering a tin. I've never altered anything like this before so it was very experimental. I have a pile of old coffee tins that I store pens, brushes, tools and stuff in and I decided I wanted to try and alter them. I painted the tin with three coats of gesso, very roughly, so there was a lot of brush stroke texture (not sure how to make it smooth unless I sanded it). I then glued Martha Stewart glass beads around the base and then splodged on distress stains in peeled paint and broken china. I used a christmas foliage stamp from Shady Tree Studios as I thought it looked like seaweed. I stamped Smushasha from Stampotique twice onto acetate and liberally applied large flakes of glitter from MS. I then stuck the together and suspended her from the top of the tin using thread. I painted vague fishy shapes in glue on the tin and added more glitter and round blob shapes became bubble in glass beads. I used free Jo Capper Sandon stamp from Craft stamper and glued more glass beads to back of these and then stuck on using raised sticky pads.

I enjoyed experimenting with this and my second tin of collaged stamps is now under way.