Four Seasons Fat Book Swap March 30, 2008

Marg Byrne held a Fat Book swap through the VicStampers group. We started in November 2007 and completed the project by the end of February 2008. The theme for the swap was Four Seasons. The size was 4″x4″, with 8 pages.

Here are a few pages from the book I received from Marg:

Here are a few pages from my book, which I sent to Claire Kelly:

These books were great fun to make, but a lot of work.  My pieces from the 4×4 Friday challenge helped to get the feel for the size.

Happy creating!

Michelle

GPP Street Team – Crusade No.18 March 29, 2008

After much lurking on the GPP Street Team site, I’ve joined the crusade for March. This month is all about making your own tools, through carving your own stamps. I’ve approached it a little differently, as I don’t have any carving tools and have been saving all my offcuts from UMs for ages now, with the thought that I’d be able to turn it into my own stamp (and I’m not good at throwing potentially useful things away!)

So here are the results: a triangular mosaic stamp, attached to a mints tin (35mm x 70mm). I didn’t allow for the flexing of the tin when inking and couldn’t get an even coverage, so I prised the lid off and now it’s like a finger puppet stamp. This allows me to get my fingers into the tin and press into the middle of the stamp.

I used my stamp to create a border for an image I had done ages ago. The technique of mosaic images was shown to me by Maria, at our local stamping club (South Eastern Rubber Stampers).  Images from art-e-zine, a great place for images and ideas.

These pages came together quickly. I stuck the scrapbooking paper in with double sided tape and added a wash of gesso in a swirly pattern to look like waves. Stamped the shell border. “The Sea” was written with Twinkling H2Os and an aqua pen (like I had done here). Wrote in the text with things about the sea and added the last image when the ink ran out in my pen (simply an unexpected design change). Found a grungeboard heart in blue, so added that as well.

Looking forward to next months crusade (stencils),

Michelle

MMM Bright Colours March 26, 2008

This week for Mixed Media Monday, the theme was bright colours. This was well-timed, as I had recently got out my big set of coloured pencils (that I look at more than I use) and coloured in these cats. I was in an unusually colourful mood. I was going to use them for the 4×4Friday theme of “Pets” but the week passed me by, so I decided to make a card for my niece’s 2nd birthday. I had lots of fun as I haven’t made a card in a while.

Cat stamp by For Me and My House (one of my first stamps that I REALLY fell in love with!) Writing and border with Twinkling H2O Passion and aqua pen (have to practice that). Used foam tape to get layers, with two layers of tape for the front row.

Happy Creating,

Michelle

4×4 daVinci’s women March 26, 2008

Another great theme for the 4×4Friday Challenge; da Vinci’s women (minus Mona).

Leda image from Go-Make-Something (a few years old now). Vitruvian man stamp by Stylish Images. Quote form Collections. Painted background by me!

Leonardo da Vinci is one of my favourite historical people, both as a artist and as a scientist, showing that the two can go together. Many know that he painted Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, but less people know he invented scissors, dug up dead bodies and dissected them to see how things worked and drew some of the first flying machines. Certainly a person with a curious mind!

Michelle

Easter Crafting March 23, 2008

Woohoo! My family has gone away and left me to crafting. I’m so used to spending only an hour at a time, that a whole day is a little daunting; so much opportunity, where to start?

I’ve got plenty done: this weeks 4×4 Friday challenge of diVinci’s women complete, a MOO card swap well underway, my stamp made for this month’s Green Pepper Press’ Street team Crusade and a start on next weeks Mixed Media Monday’s Bright Colours. My only problem is that my family has taken our camera, so I can’t take any photos to post. Arrgghhh!

If one creates art without anyone seeing, has one created anything at all???

*sigh* all the pics will have to wait until next week.

It is awfully quiet here…. They can come back now!

Michelle

MMM Purple & Gold March 15, 2008

This 5″x7″ canvas board was a lot of fun to make. It has a background of Twinkling H2O’s, stamps by Buzz and Bloom, image by Ten Two Studios and embellishments, including rub-ons. The rub-ons worked really well on the canvas board. It felt great to have such a broad theme with the colours. I decided to keep the collage simple to allow the background to show through.

Keep creating,

Michelle

VicStampers Grungeboard March 3, 2008

I got to attend the VicStampers meeting this month. We had a great demonstration of Grungeboard by Monica, of Beachhouse Boulevard. I had read a bit about the stuff and seen what Tim Holtz could do with it but it was fun to touch and play (and buy) it. Here is the 4×4 I made from the bit I selected.

The harlequin grungeboard is inked with Red brick Distressed Inks. Image from Collections. Swirls from Autumn Leaves.

Happy Creating,

Michelle