Opus Gluei Challenge # 139 See you in September

This fortnight the lovely Deena is asking for a school themed project.

Both my sons cycle to school and one of them cycles past a wood with ponds in it, and this is what he sees when he looks around.
Click on it to make it bigger.

It's a 12 x 16 inch canvas and the stamps are Octopode rubber stamps, aren't they great characters?
I like to paper piece so I prefer to buy rubber stamps but Octopode have a huge range of digi stamps that are all fabulous.
Here's a link to the digi stamps Octopode Factory.
I bought the rubber stamps direct from the owner Lily through her blog FrillyUnderwear.

The owl on the right is in an unusual pose. Then I realised it's because something is poking him in the ear.

 Don't these little birds look dapper in hats?

I had to draw this little bird a worm to hold as she has that look of frenzied excitement mixed with obsession that only finding a juicy worm gives you (if you are a bird that is, not me personally..or you).
She's thinking "Mine, mine, MINE!"

What better than a swim on a hot day.

Now these flamingo's have a very smug look about them and are thinking "Aren't I just the dog's bollocks?"
(Which is slang for exceeding handsome and lucky or the best over here in England.)

I got mirror images of the flamingo and the duck by stamping onto a sheet of plain rubber and pressing a piece of card onto the plain rubber. I think the technique is called reverse stamping.

I'm also entering this canvas in the Octopode Challenge "How does your garden grow?"

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #135. Where'd you get your suntan?

This fortnight's challenge is mine and it's to make a project based on anywhere you could get a suntan.
I thought we could think about traditional sun holiday destinations or your back garden/yard, on top of the Eiffel Tower, sitting in a canoe, anything really that you can make a story up to explain how you are getting a suntan so it fits the challenge, you know how I love a tall story.
For example, the mermaid whose dream was to get a suntan and how she managed to fulfill that dream. How did she do that? Was Sponge Bob Square Pants or the police involved? Maybe her fairy Grandmother came to her aid? How did she stop her scales from drying out?

I am over here in very soggy England, we have had rain, rain and more rain for what feels like a very long time but if it would just stop raining for a few days I might be able to get a suntan in my back garden.
If I was to lie on tinfoil out in my garden right now you would here the rain drumming on the tinfoil fortissimo style (the music term for very loud which I looked up on Wikipedia, gotta love that website and all the wonderful people who have contributed to it).

I need a raincoat and some fake tan...

So here is our house in the middle of our street.
 I loved that Madness song from 1982, yes, it really was that long ago!
You can see them in action over here on youtube if you fancy a bit of nostalgia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwIe_sjKeAY
Pssst turn it up very loud ;-)

Click on it to make it bigger.
I used a 5x7" canvas that I painted with acrylics to make the background in nice bright colours. I put a coat of Decoart Ice Crystal glamour dust paint over the top. This gives a wonderful subtle sparkly sheen to it.
I die cut some white clouds on textured white card using Memory Box dies.
I used book pages from the wonderful Author Louise Rennison book "It's OK I'm wearing really big knickers!"
 If you love colloquial English then you will love Louise's writing style plus she is very funny.
I used a retired set of Chocolate Baroque stamps called Retro Florals and the brights range of Ranger Adirondack Dye inks to stamp with.
The birds are Inkylicious.
I used scraps of designer papers for the windows and doors and the die cut fence panels are by Go Create.


Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee celebrations with Drag Dressforms

The Queen Of All She Surveys is pictured here with her dearly beloved family, The Pearly King and little Miss Right Now (Goose Neck is impersonating Joan Collins from her Dynasty Era, yes, doesn't she just!) and probably the most important person present; The Tea Boy.
Enjoy the Jubilee celebrations wherever you and are whatever you are doing.

Click on them to make them bigger.

Happy Jubilee creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #127. In like a lion out like a lamb.

The lovely Deena over at the Opus Gluei Challenge Blog is asking us to use an animal in our projects this fortnight.

As I am feeling less than dapper due to a stinker of a cold, I really do have MAN FLU ladies.
I apologise profusely to you all for not doing any blog visits this last fortnight and I do feel I should mention that I have MAN FLU even though I have girl parts, because it's crossed the species barrier - what can I say.
I will be short and to the point, if you can call 5'9" short that is and I'm not actually particularly pointy either; more soft around the edges because really why would anyone want to do exercise when they could be making something out of paper, shiny and glue?
And also I'm working steadily towards beating the world record for "an arse so big it blots out the sun" (just joking,  hmph).

I love making Birds on Wheels pictures and a bird is an animal too.
I have blogged this design before as cards I like to make, and honestly I could use my whole stash of designer papers making them, hundreds and hundreds AND hundreds of them but then I would be like the lady with 40 indoor cats; what on earth would I do with them all...and wouldn't my house stink a bit and wouldn't that seem a tad compulsive disorderish too?

However - this is the very poshest Bird on Wheels I've made to date, it's another 5" x 7" canvas as I seem to be going through a phase of making these canvases lately.
It is a flocked paper bird and it's so posh and shiny it's probably illegal, I mean regal.

 

Happy Creating!

Gini

xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #126 Branching Out with Madam Fairy.

The lovely Electra over at Opus Gluei has set the challenge this fortnight to use anything to do with trees or nature in general in your project.
Please welcome Madam Fairy who enjoys nature so much that she is often referred to as Nature Girl.
Click on the photos to make them bigger.

Of course her spare time is quite limited because she is such a busy Queen dealing with her royal subjects and doing her fairy duties as well as attending school.

Her mother thinks she is a proper little Madam and this off duty candid paparazzi photo clearly shows her mother to be right.

 Oh where would we be without the paparazzi and their high moral standards and their profound understanding of dignity and human rights, eh?

I tell you what; I am hopeless at using up my scraps by turning them into something artistic.
I think this card clearly shows that from now on my scraps and surplus bits need to go in the bin not in my shortly to be defunct scraps drawer.

For the canvas I wanted to use my new Memory Box die - Catalina Wreath as it has branches holding it together; well at least when I had the idea it seems like it had branches on it but maybe they are more like long green bits but very natural green bits... Anyhow I used white card to die cut it which I coloured with a cotton bud and Versamagic inks in Aloe Vera and Pixie Dust.
I stamped a Lost Coast stamp with Adirondack dye ink in meadow onto white card then cut it out with a Nellie Snellen die.
I painted a 5"x7" canvas with acrylic paints and used bubble wrap to apply some of the paint and then dry brushed white paint over the top to calm the whole thing down because it was very bright, which was lovely but didn't make a very good background as it competed dreadfully with Madam Fairy and that would never do.

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #111. Oh I do like to be beside the seaside and all things fishy.

It's my turn this time to set the challenge over at the Opus Gluei Challenge blog.

So are you ready to roll your trousers up, tie a knot in each corner of a man's hanky to wear on your head, get sand in your hair and sandwiches?
Then finally in the early evening, to sit on the beach with your red peeling nose eating fish and chips covered with lashings of salt, malt vinegar and red sauce (Ketchup) out of a newspaper wrapping with a useless wooden fork provided by the Fish and Chip shop and to have the setting sun in your eyes.
Yes?
Well, it's time to put all your seaside memories or fantasies into a piece of art.
It can be based on the beach, sandcastles, donkeys, shells, beach huts etc. It could be something set on the sea, maybe a watersport such as sailing or surfing or just a seagull floating on the sea contemplating his next fish and whether or not he could ever become a pirate.
Perhaps you would rather go under the waves and use fish, mammals and other marine seascapes. Sunken vessels and treasure or mythical mermaids or even Kraken's. I don't know what a Kraken looks like but maybe you could show me.

I decided to represent through the medium of art; The birth of the Stampotique Mermaids.
Now as we all know, mermaids are born out of mermaids purses, which is presumably why groups of young women in the 1980's used to dance around their handbags down the disco often drunkenly and with their singing skills enhanced by the drink in an attempt to lure mortal men to their sides. (Mine's a Barcardi and diet coke please. Why yes, these white stiletto court shoes are very attractive.) They were of course mimicking the mysterious and beautiful mermaids singing to sailors and luring them to some fishy lovin' or to their doom depending on your point of view.
This is a 10 x 12 inch canvas that is shiny shiny shiny.
Click on any picture to make it bigger.

What I used.

10 x 12 inch canvas coloured with acrylics. 

The sea foam is Stickles frosted lace.

The background was covered completely with DecoArt glamour dust glitter paint in Ice Crystal. 

The Derwent inktense pencil coloured mermaids were overpainted with the other colours of DecoArt glamour dust glitter paint.

The text is Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations die cutter called Typeset (which is already falling apart after about 8 uses, so it has not been a good purchase for me.)

Other Stickles colours used were Waterfall and True blue.

Fushia glitter glue by Glitz-it.

The seaweed is one of the Spellbinders shapeabilities from the foliage set.

The various swirls are from two different Sizzlits Medium sets; Butterfly, Flower and Swirl set, and the Decorative flourishes set.

The fushia border diecut is from the Papermania chipboard set called Floral.

Hope you are inspired to join in.

Plus I am entering my Mermaids Purses canvas in the Alter It monthly challenge Sirens, Mermaids and the deep blue sea.

Happy Creating!

Gini

xx

Dress Form Canvas using Tim Holtz Die Sewing Room

I'm entering this canvas in the Crafts and Me Challenge 46 which is the theme, Anything goes.

I'm also putting it forward for My Mojo Monthly and the August theme of Muse it and Use it.
This splendid project is the brain child of a lady called Sarah (Sasa) whom I've not come across before but is very talented (makes amazing Clean and Simple cards amongst many other styles) and she gives lots of creative ideas and interviews a well known artist each month and she also asks you to talk about your project and your creativity.
She interviews colourer extraordinaire and fabulously diverse paper crafter  Kim Dellow this month, Craft Stamper published amongst many others and member of many Design Teams past and present.
Now Kim says she's just starting her creative journey so that would make me a single celled egg still waiting to split ;-)
Kim also says the best way to improve your paper crafting is practice practice practice. Which is so true and so obvious, but like many obvious things unless some one points it out to me I don't necessarily realise these obvious things.
I think this is a good example of how beneficial pointing out the obvious can be!
It's a great post, interview and blog do check it out if you have the time.

My contribution to this topic is not to underestimate the usefulness of designer papers to get a stalled project completed. 
How many projects do you have hanging around unfinished because you've made a mess of the background or other part that you created yourself?
Which ink, stamped or paint background didn't go right for you and so your project remains unfinished because you got disheartened by your efforts?
When this happen to me which is often, I go look through my designer paper stash and see if there is one I can use to rescue my project or I buy one especially for it.

This 5 by 7 inch canvas is an example of how a Designer Paper got this project finished.
Underneath the Tim Holtz designer paper background (from the Vintage Shabby pack) is a really boring acrylic painted background I made that I thought was too mheh, on top of that is the ugliest mess I've seen in a long time which was my first attempt at collaging torn book pages and torn designer papers and tying them together (I use this term very loosely) with more acrylics.
I'd already made the embelishments, the die cut sewing room and tattered florals by Tim Holtz and was pleased with them but was disheartened at this point with my canvas and ready to give up.
So I found a designer paper that complemented the embelishments  and got this project finished and me smiling again.

One of the questions Sarah asks her interviewees is "You are going back-packing in the Himalayas for a year and may only take 3 crafting items. Which - and why?"
My answer would be a mirror, tweezers and a back up pair of tweezers 'cos I ain't making nothing with whiskers on my chinagin. 

Click on it to make it bigger.  Said the bishop to the actress. (That one's especially for you Linda, I bet that afterwards they drank chicken soup.)

 
I made you all wait for the picture, sorry.

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #110. A picture is worth a thousand words.

This fortnight's challenge is a tricky one if like me, you like to add words to your creations, and I nearly always do so.
The Opus Gluei challenge is to create something without words and let the image speak for itself.
I have created a 5 x 7 inch canvas which hopefully makes you think of summer.
Click on it to make it bigger.

Now you know how it is when you are desperate (oh so desperate) to get hold of a crafty item and then when you finally get it, you sit and sit and can't quite come up with something to make that you know you will actually love and want to put it up on your wall and not just making something for the sake of it, which is quite different.

Well this is what happened to me with the Woodware pack of 12 blank jigsaw puzzles which size at 4 x 51/2 inches, which are great and need NO surface preparation.

But thank goodness a trip around my favourite blogs in blogland took me to the super talented stamper Willy Anderson and her jigsaw creation in this post which has inspired my canvas. Thank you Willy!

How I made it.

If you like working with acrylics you may have come across a series of special property gold acrylics that you can either:-

• use on their own,
• over the top of coloured acrylics to add a translucent shimmer (similar effect as watercolour H20's give), 
• or mixed into a colour to produce a unique lustrous shimmer to the colour.

I use Golden's  Interference Gold (Fine) #4040-4 from series 7
and 
Golden's Iridescent Gold (Fine) #4010-4 from Series 6.
(Golden is the company name.)
They give the most amazing shiny effect, I  mean really majestic shiny as oppose to glitter glue shiny.
Don't get me wrong I love my Ranger stickles but these are in a whole 'nother league of shiny.
I'm talking 'bout POSH shiny.
 For this project I used Golden Interference Gold (Fine) #4040-4 from series 7 neat (I'm talking hardcore shiny) on a white canvas.
It gives a shimmer so good you could rub your cheek on it and give it a lick, yes truly, it really is that good.
This paint is truelove shiny.

The Woodware jigsaws come in plain white.
I used Chocolate Baroque (formerly Elusive Images) Doodle Birds and Doodle Butterflies collection stamps.
I stamped straight onto the jigsaw firstly the peacock feather with versamark and clear heat embossed it and then stamped the bird (and the butterflies on white card) with Brilliance Ink in Mediterranean Blue and clear heat embossed them.
I used tumbled glass and mustard seed Distress Inks and the applicator tool to apply them.
I liberally used Arctic Frost Glitz Gel (Imagination Crafts) over the stamped images. I spread this gel with a small wet paintbrush which I keep re-wetting, because squeezed neat out of the tube this gel is very thick and looks like kiddy snot combined with rabies froth, sorry but it does and it isn't a good look.
I used white PVA to glue the jigsaw onto the canvas and glue dots for the butterflies.

So do you feel like making a shiny something or a picture that is worth a thousand words?
You have until the 13 August to join in using Mr Linky over here!

Happy creating!
Gini
xx