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

Opus Gluei Challenge 119. Gingerbread.

The lovely Jana over at Opus Gluei has challenged us to
Run, run as fast as you can...
and create something inspired by the word Gingerbread.

Like many others I don't like the taste of ginger in any form of sweet or pudding including gingerbread but I do love all the creative ways gingerbread is used. It is practically an art form with my favourite use being the making of gingerbread houses.

So I have made a christmas gingerbread house out of card, paper and a little bit of shiny.

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

 

I got the idea from the book Mixed Mania by Debbi Crane and Cheryl Prater,
( I've linked to the USA amazon store only because it has the look inside the book feature which isn't available on the UK amazon site, but you can buy it through amazon.co.uk.)
This book is visually feastworthy and the layout using the idea of a cook book style is very slick, novel and appealing.
Another huge draw for this book is that both these ladies keep up a funny dialogue throughout the book. They are both funny and artists, a combination that is seemingly quite rare, quite why I don't know but there it is.
Do publishers think we can't cope with both together or that we wouldn't want that?
Anyway I recommend this book as a stocking or under the tree treat for yourself.

Undone this is what the house looks like.

It is quite straight forward to draw yourself a template, which is what I did.
Each house panel is a 2 inch square. So draw a 3inch by 8 inch rectangle.
The gable ends (the triangles) are 1 inch deep, so draw a horizontal line at 2 inches up the rectangle and draw your triangle points at 3 inches and 7 inches along the top line.
After you have cut it out, score vertical lines downwards at 2, 4 and 6 inches so your template looks like my photo.
The roof is an ATC size, 2 and a half by 3 and a half inches.
Aha! Have the eyes lit up of the ATC makers out there? Just think of the possibilities. You just need to remember it has to fold in half width ways to make the apex of the roof.

There is another lovely surprise in the instructions for these little houses but I'll not spoil it, you'll have to get the book.

Ingredients.
I used Co-ordinations card in Bon bon for the gingerbread.
I used polar white flowersoft on the roof to make the snow which I stuck down with permanent double sided tape that comes out of roller gadget made by Stick it! I don't have any sheets of double sided tape which would be perfect for this.
A wet glue like white PVA (which you would normally use for flowersoft) over the whole area will warp the ATC and you'll end up with a wonky roof so use a dry glue of some sort.
The card candi is held on the flowersoft using silicon dimensional glue.

Plan how you are going to decorate the sides of your house first before you cut the door and windows in case you need to leave enough room for a particular embellishment.
I needed to leave enough room under my windows for the picket fence.
I cut the windows and doors without measuring using a metal ruler and a craft knife.
I used Martha Stewart border punches in Picket fence and deep edger Garden Trellis which I glued on with white PVA and used Anita's 3D gloss to glue on the bugle beads.
The snow on the sides of the house is Stickles in frosted lace (yes another one Electra!).
Make two holes using a pokey tool, one for the brad and the other for the embroidery floss, see the photo above for placement. Wind the floss around the brad to hold the house together.

My prototype house was this one.

 

 

 I didn't like it being held together by 2 pieces of embroidery floss tied in a bow, it looks a bit messy so I change it to a brad and embroidery floss on the gingerbread house.

So are you tempted to join in?
Happy creating!
Gini
xx