Welcome to the land of Shiny


The home of exuberant amateurism.

Friday 28 January 2011

Spanky does Welcome and Float On Stampotique!

The Stampotique Designer Challenge is to make a welcome card for the new Stampotique Designers.

So we're wishing all the new Stampotique designers a warm welcome.
You can find them here.

If you are unfamiliar with Spanky, she is a time traveling stylist, she is bold, daring, windswept and dangerous and she knows everything about Romance, she lives here in The Land of Shiny with me, I'm her sidekick and gofer.
Well, I'm just her pale shadow really.

Firstly I must apologise to Alberto who is the only male stampotique designer, unfortunately we are catering for the majority in this post and that is the Wimen.
Fortunately for you, this is The Land of Shiny and regardless of what job title you may hold now or in the future, we shall never expect you to pour the coffee or distribute the biscuits...unless it is actually your turn :-)

Now then.
Come in and welcome.
Come in and share a little LOVE with the Torrente Boys.









Sometimes they like to pretend they are The Floaters.
Oh yes they do.




Aquarius and my name is Heart Throb,
I love a woman who can hold her own,
a woman who can grab hold of my ears and hold on tight.
Take my hand, come with me baby, to Love Land.




Libra and my name is Hunk,
Now I like a woman who carries herself like Miss Universe,
a woman who can balance a crown on her enormous head,
a woman who will take me to Love Land.





Leo and my name is Weasel,
I love all the women of the world,
I paint a new name on my sign every night,
because I love everybody and everything,
and you know what, ladies, if you feel this is you,
Then this is what you do -
Take my hand,
come with me baby, to Love Land.
Float, float on.

Spanky says welcome and float on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvAmTkJmT5c

Come on you know you want to watch the video, I still can't believe that song was taken seriously or that it was even written and performed, I can imagine it was written whilst they were very very drunk but it didn't get laughed at and thrown in the bin the next day did it, we are soooo doomed.
Private Frazer was right.


I am practicing that shaking finger step in the mirror.
I think Himself might like it.

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Saturday 22 January 2011

Challenges for Stampotique, Masks, Scenes and Mona Lisa

I hope you'll forgive me for combining my 4 pieces together in one post, as they are interlinked and were created together with all three challenges in mind.

Stampotique Challenge - Use the stamping technique masks.

Order of the Opus Gluei - Make a scene.

Sunday Postcard Art - Alter the Mona Lisa.

Firstly the Stampotique Challenge.
You know how sometimes you mishear something and go off at a tangent and then somebody corrects your misunderstanding and you go off again and still get it wrapped around your ears wrong???

Well this happens to me ... a lot, so I thought I'd make some joke art out of it, because really when you get it so wrong over and over the only way to deal with it is to make a joke out of it.
Where would be without humour?
While I was ruminating on this idea, Kolossal was bouncing up and down in my stamp draw, shouting "Pick me, oh PICK ME!"
So how could I refuse...

Click on any picture to make it bigger.



So Kolossal rushed back to the drawing board and tried again...




Now then,  the first picture was my first try at masking a scene and I made a right hash of it by getting in a muddle order wise and picking some see through stamps, which um, don't benefit from being masked.  In fact masking them makes them look wrong. Hey ho.
So I tried again and got it right with the second picture.
I turned hanging hearts upside down and I think they make a nice lumpy, humpy,  bumpy meadow with little mushrooms and toadstools growing in it or maybe quirky flowers.
The lovely lady is made up of Prom Queen's body with Clover's head.
Clover is a head only stamp.
I made her by masking out Prom Queen's head with a post it note stuck on the stamp itself.
Inked up the stamp.
Peeled away the post it note and stamped just the body.
Now all Stampotique stamps stamp beautifully but they are on wood blocks which makes positioning them awkward.
I expect if I spent about 100 years puzzling, I could have worked out how to plan Clover's head placement using a stamp positioner, and incidentally I do have one.
But I am an old bird and don't have 100 years left, and also I like to try and live as dangerously and windsweptedly as I can without the cover of Spanky.
So I positioned my nose on my work table so I could look underneath my stamp and at the paper all at the same time (as it were) as I stamped Clover.
It worked!
I then felt I had had quite enough excitement for one day.
Phew.
These scenes are also for the Opus Gluei Challenge
If you have never visited this challenge site, please do so, you'll love them, they are funny, lovely ladies and they set really good challenges.
(Is the cheque in the post yet Rosemary?)

Onto the Sunday Postcard Art challenge to alter Mona.

Have you noticed that tempting open space in Hunk's head where his brain box would be?
It's a wonderful open space complete with tumble weeds blowing around, just like my brain box.
So I thought I would do some more masking and put Mona in Hunk's brain.



 I thought anything other than white space around him would detract from the goings on in his head. So I put only a boarder around the postcard. Mona is stamped in the deliciously lovely and shiny multi colour Brilliance inkpad called Twilight. I used the Brilliance colour combination called Peacock in the next version and it gets even shinier if you heat emboss it with clear powder.




To give a bit more definition to hunk's shape as his outline is quite pale, I cut him out and mounted him on foam pads so he'll cast himself a shadow.
This is the shiny shot.



I painted Iridescent blue twinkling H2O's on navy blue card. The mount makes the postcard 6" by 4".

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

P.S. I still have some wish bookmarks left if you want one, just ask in the comments of that Happy New Year post and it is yours :-)

Happy New Year and GIVEAWAY!

This post will stay at the top of my blog until 22 January.
Please scroll down for later posts.

Happy New Year to us all!
I predict this year will be wonderfully creative for all of us.
So let's get started.

Most years start with resolutions and grand plans that last all of 3 days don't they? ...Hmmm.
So I thought if we start the year by making wishes instead of resolutions we would be onto a sure thing; because wishes are just visualizations (happy brainfarts) of all the amazing possibilities open to us which are only limited by the size of our imaginations.
You just make your wish and keep your thoughts focused on the wish you made.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

So I thought I'd start the new year by being a wish enabler to my blog visitors.
What could be more pleasureful for me eh?
Truly this makes me full to the brim with pleasure, which is a delightful start to my year.
I have made loads of Make a Wish bookmarks for you.
They look all lovely and shiny and just like this.







The black stamping is embossed and the background is all shiny.
(As always they look better in real life.) 

I have tried to find quotes in keeping with making wishes to go on the back.
Here are the ones I found.

Ask and it is given.

We create our opportunities by asking for them.

I accept miracles, healing and wholeness for myself.

(And also this one which is not about asking but it is one of my favourite quotes.)

Angels know no philosophy only love.
 
Basically you can have whatever quote you like on the back.
Just tell me what you would like and I will put it on your bookmark for you.
If it is a short sentence it will look similar to the ones I've made in my photo above. Longer quotes will need a smaller font and different layout.
It's your bookmark so you have whatever quote you want :-)

So do you fancy a little bit of shiny for yourself?

What do you have to do to get it?

Well....... just ask and it is given!

Leave me a comment and what quote you would like on the back of your bookmark and a way to contact you, so I can ask you for your postal address, so I can send it to you.
If you don't want to put in the comments (which are visible to anyone) the quote you want for your bookmark then just email it to me.
gini.owenATgmail.com

All I would ask of you is not to publicize this giveaway, as it is for you, the folk who read my blog, regular lurkers are of course included ;-)  
(A lurker is someone who reads a blog regularly but is too shy to normally leave a comment.)

Let's wish ourselves into the wonderful lives we have imagined.
This year, let's hit the ground running.
Gini
xx