Weddings of Clay

My very talented friend Judith makes the most wonderfully detailed clay models for the tops of cakes or just as a special gift.  They are absolutely beautiful and so personal.

Please have a look at her new website called Weddings of Clay and see how fantastic they are for yourself!

Elements of Art Journaling

Sorry I've not been around for a while.  Things have just gotten away from me.

I was lucky enough to sign up from the Elements of Art Journaling e-course run by Effy Wild of Wild Precious Studios when she ran a one day only 'pay what you can afford' day.  There was no way my budget could stretch to the original price, but this was I managed to be able to afford it and I am so pleased I did!!

As the description says 'Join Effy on a six week journey through the elements of earth, air, fire, water and spirit! Learn new ways to imbue your pages with deeper meaner by developing your own symbolic language!'.  I nowhere near that eloquent lol!!

We're half way through week 2 so I thought I would share what I've done so far.

The first week was orientation and preparing our journals for the full course.  I used a large Moleskine Cahier.  Effy has made videos for us to watch and PDF's to show us various techniques and how she builds up pages.  I took her technique and tore up various scrapbook papers and stuck them onto the journal covers after I'd gesso'd them and coloured them with Inktense pencil.

I then stuck 3 pages of the journal together to make a much stronger page to use and gesso'd them.  To make the binding on the journal even stronger, Effy suggested tying  fibres or ribbon round.  I made paper beads out of the same scrapbook paper to use on the ends of the fibres.  Carrie has a great tutorial for making these beads here.

I then went on to make my first page which is the back of the front cover of the journal and the first proper page.  This practically a copy of what Effy did.  I am determined that this will be the only wholesale copy of Effy's page that I'll do.  Its to show the relationship between me and the elements.

And now we're doing 'Earth Week'.  Effy suggested that we focus on our relationship with the Earth and a way to do that is focusing on our bodies as that is what connects us to it.  Effy kindly gave us a picture of her from the back to use if we were gonna 'art' along with her and copy the page.  I didn't want to do that so I took the image, made a stencil out of it with thick acetate and scraped fibre paste through it.  I used Carrie's beautiful stamp of the Tree Nymph on tissue paper on the 'body's' back and Rock Crystal Crackle Paint over it to show my broken body. 

This was all over a background of tissue paper, covered by paint, using my fingers to move it around.  I LOVE this page!!!

I've also treated myself to some new toe-posts.  I just couldn't resist them, especially when they were in the sale!!  They are soooo comfy to wear even though they don't look like they will be and so me!

And I've finally given in and I'm waiting for my appointment at Wheelchair Services to be measured for my own set of wheels.  The pain in my legs is made soo much worse by walking so, although I can and will still be walking, I'll have a wheelchair for when I need it.  Its been a tough decision but I've definitely made the right move and I'm content with it :)

Wonderful new bag!!

I was out on Sunday with Jo and we called in to TK Max.  We always love going in there as we never know what we're gonna find.  Obviously the bags always call to us and it'd be rude not to have a mooch round them.  Jo spotted an entire stand devoted to 'hippy' type bags.  Just the kind of thing we both love.  I normally can't get these kind of bags as I need cross body ones so I have at least one hand free when I'm walking (the other is on my stick).

Anyway Jo spotted a couple that were reduced and one of them was a cross body bag - YAAY!!!  So I just HAD to buy it and here it is!!  Isn't it gorgeous?!

Its handmade from selected original Rajasthan rugs and is lovely and bright.  In fact the photo doesn't do it justice.  For any of you who know me, you'll know that its me to a tee!!!

And the best bit - it was only a tenner.  How's that for a bargain (spotted by Jo!)??

Angela's wall hanging and more blog candy

A couple of weeks ago one of the girls I met at the hospital while having treatment was the big 5-0!

I wanted to make her something to mark the occasion, but as it had to go through the post I wanted it to be durable.  So I set about making a wall hanging for using 2 Crafty Individuals swirly frames.  It was based on idea I saw in a Graphicus Guild (now Chocolate Baroque Guild) monthly news letter.

I coloured both of the frames with Chipped Sapphire and Stormy Skies DI's then triple embossed the whole of the front frame and just the swirl of the back frame with clear embossing powder.

I stamped Ophelia from Stampsmith onto watercolour paper put her inside the frames and glued the together.  I needed some way of hanging the frame so, following the idea from the newsletter, I used some thick-ish wire.  The only wire I had that was thick enough was copper so I had to use it as her birthday was in a couple of days.

I bent the wire round a paint brush and added some beads before adding it to the frame.  To tie everything together I made some flowers using the smallest flower from the TH Tattered Florals die.  I used tissue from a drinks coaster and Glimmer Misted it with Timeless Lilac and Cherub Pink and used the same technique as in the previous post to make the flowers.  I used curls of copper wire as the centers.

Moira from Happy Daze has a new blog called The Altered Blog and she has a £30 gift voucher plus free p&p to giveaway.

Follow the link to her blog to enter.

Handmade book giveaway!

I followed a link to a wonderful blog called Sparkle Blue Faery.  I love her art journaling!

She currently giving away a gorgeous handmade book.  Follow this linkto her blog and leave a comment and answer the question and you'll be in with a chance of winning.

Press for Creativity

Carrie has a new blog called Press for Creativity, hence the title of the post! 

She is taking part in 30 Days of Creativity.  Its best to let the site explain what it is:

'30 Days of Creativity is a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in June'

If you needs any inspiration (or are just plain nosey like me lol!!!) go and have a look at her new blog.  Its fab!!

Carrie's Frame

It was Carrie's birthday earlier in May - the big 4-0!!  I wanted to get or make her something special so in January I spotted this frame in a Charity shop window.  The guy in the shop knows me now and when I asked to look at it he automatically showed me the back first!

The first thing I did when I got home, after taking this photo of course, was the take it to pieces and rip the leaves and glittered apple out of it and bin the them.  I couldn't get the glass out as it had been glued to the front frame.  Thank goodness the inside with the recesses came off cleanly!


I didn't need to prepare the surface apart from cleaning as the inside had been painted with some sort of matte paint.  As far as I could see the frame had already been altered into the state I bought it in as the painiting was not factory done. 

I painted the inside of the frame and recess with Viva Precious Metal Paint in Blackberry and then dry brushed the same make of paint in Mother of Pearl over it.  both of thses paints are very high in mica content so shimmer beautifully.  I painted the outside of the frame with Precious Metal in Silver to tie both parts together as the mother of pearl paint has a slightly silver tone to it.  Of course I forgot to photograph them at this stage, but you'll be able to see what I mean on the finished frame.

Next I made some flowers using a tissue drinks coaster and some pages from a book.  I cut both of them with a Nestie circle die.  Especially for S and J at the hospital here are the photos :)

These are the cut circles which have been scrunched up and sort of flattened back out.

The same circles which I have sprayed with Glimmer Mists in Key Lime Pie and Lemon Zest.

And again once they have been dried with a heat tool and ready to shape into a flower around a bead.   Lynn R-H taught me the technique at a workshop.  You start with a bead and a little glue and mold the paper around the bead.  Keep doing this with tissue, paper and glue until you have a flower of the size you want.

  
 And this is a close up of the finished flower.  I made the beads for both of the flowers during a workshop that Carrie, Jo and I attended and had a great time!

I chose bobbins to into the recess as Carries loves sewing.  My Mam wrapped the thread round 2 of the bobbins and I painted the 3rd and put a vintage cigar bad round it with a picture of a german castle on it.  Carrie also loves Germany.

This flower was made in the same way but sprayed with Jazz Blue and Fully Purple Glimmer Mists.

My Mam helped again by filling the miniature bottles with lavender grown in my garden and tied ribbon round the tops to finish them off.  The ribbon is from the loops you get on clothes to keep them on the hanger.  I cut them off and use them for projects!

Carrie love the outdoors and I thought the Lavender would be perfect here.

Placing the bobbins and bottles was difficult as I was shaking while doing it.  Thank goodness the Glossy Accents has a little time before it dries lol!!!

For the middle, I made a torso from pearl UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Powder) using a mold Jo has. It has a front and back to the mold but I just used the front.

The 'pedestal' that the torso is to stand on is a piece of dense foam from the bottom of TH Embossing Folder packaging.  I've been keeping it but didn't know why til now ;)

I painted the pedestal the same colour as the recess and stuck the whole angel together using silicone.









Then it was just a case of cleaning the glass up, bearing in mind I couldn't get it our of the frame.  There was gold paint on it from the last time it had been painted and somehow I'd managed to get the Blackberry colour on the inside of glass right in the middle.  So once I got that off and gave it a good dust, I could put it all together.

Here is the finished frame and it is totally personal to Carrie!