Summer of Colour-Purple

Kristin  over at Twinkle Twinkle has chosen Purple with bling, glitz and or glitter for this weeks challenge. As you know, if you follow me, I have been making altered canvases, so this week I did one for the challenge. I was going to make greeting cards and I do have a purple card but I am not submitting it for this challenge.

The canvas was too much fun.

I enhanced an image in Gimp and made a purple background. I covered the main canvas with cheesecloth then painted it with Ice Storm Violet acrylic paint. I had a purple paper picked out as well but the flip side was green and I wanted to break up the purple a bit so I opted for that instead. Then I painted the smaller canvas piece with some cheesecloth on it with Pansy Lavender. Added some sequin waste, doily, and my bling is the Stickles I applied to my flowers in the bottom LH corner. I also have a handmade stickpin with a purple bead but you may have to click on the image to see more details.

Thanks for dropping by.

Now to catch up on every one's creations from this weeks Summer of Colour Purple creations.

~♥~

Lots of scrumptous mail

Yesterdays post I was grumbling but today I am so happy. I love getting nice mail. I love sending mail.
You know when you enter blog land and meet so many like minded peeps, when you receive something from them it is very special.
Well my birthday was back in May but I received 2 birthday pkgs in the mail. First one is from my long time painting friend Becky. She got me Monika Brint's newest paint book. I have my eye on a few projects in there already but like everything else I do, I will put my own take on it and change the colours up a bit. Not crazy on the colour selection of some of the projects. And, some scrabble tiles, a couple Asian scrabble necklaces, some mini dominoes, as you can see I already opened the package to take a peek, Becky got me 2 packages, yippee skippee, how cool are those, can't wait to try them and some brad buttons, and some crocheted scrap embellies to use. I already used  one of each on my sewing canvas I posted yesterday.
Thanks so much Becky.

Next some goodies from Jenxo in Australia. Jen sent me Asian papers, a canvas she made, a brooch some laminated bookmarks she made, and this wonderful shrine. Jenxo asked about a shrine I had posted way back in the beginning of the year so she had some time and was able to make me one. This shrine is incredible. There is a little wire birdcage with a swing inside and a door. I am not sure if Jenxo made this or purchased it but it is incredible and I love the little round flowers with beaded centers. Thanks so much Jenxo. I feel so spoiled by these girls.

And a few months ago I entered a bookmark swap over at the Yahoo group for Gingersnap Creations and the theme was travel the world. As you know we had a postal strike and now that it is over we received our bookmarks. These bookmarks were not marked in the back by the artists so I am not sure who to thank, but they are so lovely and I got an Asian one. Some peeps are really paying attention to my likes.

So I want to thank you very much Jenxo, Becky and the bookmark gals.

Today was filled with happiness and after yesterday, tomorrow truly is another day.

Next post is the Summer of Colour.

Post number 2 to follow.



Canvases and a matchbox

I have been a little pre occupied of late. Some things have been going on the my hubs new job and we weren't sure all the paper work was in order. He has been sitting waiting for the the phone to ring for him to go to work but it never rang. After waiting and waiting finally a call went through to the HR dept only to find out that he was not on the call in list. Are you kidding me? He went through a long drawn out process just to get the job and these people are not very reliable as far as their word. They say the will call but you wait a long time. Anyways after finding out he was not even on the list, the HR person said she would look after it and then call him back. Well a week and half later no call. Hubs by now is ready to blow his top and then some and he calls to find out she is on vacation for 2 weeks. Are you kidding me. When someone says they are going to call you back would you not think before you were to go on holiday you would tie up loose ends? Apparently not. Even if you are just a call in for now and need to get some hours in for future full time job prospects you would think they could at least straighten something out and let the guy be assured he is on the list. Well he finally got fed up and went to the actual office where his supervisor works which is a different location then the HR person was in and spoke to the main man. Apparently there was an email, things are straightened out and hubs is on the list. My goodness, sleepless nights, worry, anxiety, and no stop talk of this has been going on and I am trying to keep the anxiety level down and on even keel. Phew am I glad now that tempers are not flaring and the nervous system has calmed down.
Anyways a bit of how life has been on the edge for us but come September things are going to pick up.

Now onto art......

I made these 2 canvases  in the last week. They were works in progress. I found a tutorial on the web but I can't for the life of me remember what blog it was so I am sorry I cannot give credit to the person who posted this. If you are reading this please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.

I cut a canvas board in half which was originally 6x8. I didn't want too large a background for the smaller images I was using. I used an Artchix image I had in my stash of a woman sitting at her sewing machine.

I placed gauze on my canvas with gel medium. Let that dry then applied some lace all around the edges. Not so much in the middle as it was going to be covered. Let that dry and with the humidity it took longer than I had patience especially this week. After it was all dry I applied Burnt Umber, black and Copper acrylic paint to the surface making sure I got all the materials and lace covered. Again dry. Then I went to town and embellished. I took a piece of chipboard because I didn't have an old book cover and painted it a tan colour, then scribbled wax on the edges and then painted black over that then sanded the black off to reveal a scruffy cover. Works for me.  I added a bit of a piece of a sewers measuring tape (was actually a scan of my mother's, I remember when she taught me to sew I used it and I have fond memories of it) half a spool, some buttons, lace etc . This turned out better than I imagined. I think I will be giving this to a friend of mine who loves to sew.

The next one is similar but for a Bella Creations Challenge for the Oh La La group. The image was provided to us by Gecko Gals  and we were to use it to create anything we wanted. So naturally after going the first canvas I thought why not do a ballerina one. I even made the little slippers out of air dry clay and painted them a very light pink colour. I have been playing with the Gimp program so I made my own background, removed the original background for the ballerina, I used a free gimp music brush. I then inked the edges with some java ink. Assembled and this one is going to another friend who loves ballerina's and dancers.

And last but not least is a matchbox for the FlickR monthly matchbox swap and my partner is Smiff or aka Jan. The theme for this month was my favourite things, so we were to make a theme that our partners liked. So I know Jan likes vintage and sewing etc so I made this little sewing themed box just for her in mind. I even made the dress form out of air dry clay, covered with sewing tissue then glued on pink lace, ribbon and some pearly buttons. I really enjoyed making this and the drawer pull was an earring but I took it apart and attached it to the box. I also filled it and a small baggie of stuff for Smiff. I couldn't fit it all in that tiny matchbox and Jan spoils me every time we trade so time to give back some art love.

Well that is enough rambling for one post. Thanks for hearing me out.

I am just waiting for some things to dry and next post I will be posting this weeks Summer of Colour Purple challenge.

Grandma's Attic Matchbox swap

No this isn't the Summer of Colour post yet, I just wanted to show you a matchbox I did for a group I belong to on FlickR called the Vintage Dragonfly hosted by the lovely JoAnne.

The swap is called Grandma's attic and we are to alter a matchbox that holds 250 matches then fill the box with vintage items, buttons, ribbons, papers etc. Well as usual I have to really do my matchbox up. I have some beautiful vintage paper I used for the outside. I covered a chipboard frame with paper I embossed in the Cuttlebug then I took a piece of acetate and used alcohol ink on it to stain the glass to make it look old. I found this photo of Grandma who looks rather stern but as I remember from reading, people used to have to sit for long periods of time when having their photos taken, so this sort of looked like Grandma's time ended with the smiling and this is the end result. I also added some nice vintagey looking ribbon, added my homemade roses and those pears I removed from an old pair of earrings that I bought at a used goods place.

I hope my partner Gail likes it. I have filled the box full of goodies then I also added a plastic bag because it wouldn't all fit inside. I mailed it out today so I am hoping Gail will have it in no time.

Still thinking on my Summer of Colour, I have it stirring up in my head so hopefully I can start it soon. It all takes careful planning sometimes.

Thanks for dropping by.

Gingersnap creations- Gogs Gears and Watch bits

GC110_Spicy Supply Challenge

When this challenge was announced I thought to myself..I know what I can do and I will kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak. I swap dominoes monthly with an online friend and our swap for this month was time so this was meant to be.

I had some chipboard gears that I purchased from Artchix Studios and I painted them gold. I stamped my domino with Stazon  Black with an Inkadinkado watch stamp. I then used Lettuce Alcohol Ink on the background. Applied my little fairy in the corner and that was it.

Oh how time flies doesn't it?

Thanks for dropping by and til next time stay cool in this heat!!!