Mini Theatre

On AFTCM there is a swap where we create a mini theatre with a theme based on Edgar Allan Poe. I chose to do Annabelle Lee.

I used a piece of board that my hubby gave me for the base and cut out a Birds custard tin for the stage and the top. I covered the top and bottom with scrapbook papers. I printed off an image of a woman and a picture from one of our trips to Scotland.

I used embossing powders at the top of the board and incorporated the sea picture onto it. I then cut out the woman three times to make her 3-D. I added embellishments to the top, button, a seashell and a chipboard piece coloured with gold paint and gems added.

The sides are chopsticks which I painted and covered with ribbon. The bottom pieces underneath the chopsticks are pieces of a pencil. I printed a picture of Edgar Allan Poe and put a page pebble over it added a frame around it. I coloured a shell with gold paint and glued the framed picture in place.  I attached the shell  to the bottom stage piece. This almost made me give up as it kept falling off and I tried every glue in my craft room till it finally stuck!!

I attached the woman to the stage with a little easel and placed a couple of shells beside her. I had a wee bird but it fell off when I took the picture so that has been added back on afterwards.

I felt it still needed "something" so I decided to make some curtains. I took some cheesecloth and sprayed it with some Dylusions sprays and Tsukineko glitter spray. When it dried I attached it to the top portion of the theatre.

I was bored so thought I would make another mini theatre based on The Raven. I covered another piece of wood with some scrapbook paper that reminded me of vintage wallpaper. For this one I chose a different shape for the bottom. It is made from a small box and covered with some lovely ribbon that I received in a Secret Santa swap last year. I covered the top with some wood paper. Added a little piece of scrapbook paper to simulate a rug.

I took an old thread spool and painted it with a Krylon pen and added a little circle of the wood paper to the top to make a wee table. I printed off a picture of Poe's wife from Wikapedia and added it to the table, along with a little book and a teacup.

The images of the Raven are 3-D and coloured with artist grade pastels.  I added little piece of glittered tape to simulate a valance and added beads to each side. I put a little clock face on a die cut and placed it above the "valance".

The curtains are a piece of fabric that was wrapped around some flowers that I received for Valentine's day, held to side with some handmade tassels. 

I glued the beaded fringe to the top, then took a grunge die-cut stamped text on it with a white paint dabber and covered it with distrss stains. I put a bit of the white paint on a metal button and glued both pieces to the top.

I am not sure which one will go to my partner, but I enjoyed the challenge of creating something that I have never attempted before.



Twinchie CItyscape

On AFTCM I am participating in a twinchie swap. We are to create five to six twinchies and add different roofs to each one to create a little cityscape.

For the first one I printed a picture of an old hotel and attached it to some cardstock.

Number 2 is a Memory Box die which I coloured with Smooch ink. I then stamped some trees on another piece of cardstock, cut around them and attached it behind the little house.

Number 3: I took a piece of a background that I had made earlier and stamped a flourish on it. I cut a circle from some iridescent paper and made it look like a little round window. The image is from moonlightjourney.com. and the fence is from freebie sheet from a blogger. To complete it added a stamped number under a page pebble.

Number 4:  I stamped a wood grain stamp on cardstock. I cut out a window from a freebie sheet and cut a piece of cardstock to simulate a door. Added a poster to the door and the travel sign with a stamped word and a paper clip. Cut the back of a brad clock face and attached it to the roof.

Number 5: for this one I stamped a Magenta stamp on a coloured background and added a round roof to the top. I stamped the image again on a piece of transparency and attached it over the original stamped image. I added some pieces to the side so it would look like a window.

To enable them to stand like a cityscape, I attached another piece of cardstock to the backs.

Butterflies and Dragonflies Easel Card

On AFTCM I joined a swap to make and easel card with the theme of Butterflies and Dragonflies with heat embossing on it.

I started with white 130LB cardstock and colored two pieces with fluid chalk inks using Cathie Allan's "stamp smoosh' technique.

On one piece I stamped the Stampendous dragonfly with green pigment ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Cut around most of it leaving an area on the bottom right, flipped it over, then traced around some chipboard letters to spell out the word "FLY". I cut around them, ensuring that there was areas joining the dragonfly and letters to the panel. I edged it with a green marker, and stamped some corner stamps at each corner.

I embossed the chipboard letters with green pigment ink and clear embossing powder and attached them to the front of the card panel.

To hold the front in place and create an easel, I cut a piece of embossable window plastic and folded it in half, attached it to the back panel and then to the front. I attached a little 3-D butterfly at the corner of the front panel.

To complete the inside I stamped a saying and attached it over some butterflies wings.

I colored a piece of ribbon with pigment inks to coordinate with the colours I used on the card. and attached it to the back (covering it with another piece of cardstock to hide it) then tied it in place to keep the card closed.

A-Z techniques

The upcoming ArtVentures technique is Q and I chose to do the Quink ink technique that my friend Adrienne shared with us.

I started by covering a piece of matte cardstock with gesso then stamped into it with a detailed stamp. Sprinkled it with salt then sprayed watered-down black Quink ink . When it dried I brushed off some of the salt and highlighted it with some Goldfinger metallic paste.

I stamped one of the heads from a Diane Reavely stamp set, coloured it and attached it to the ATC, I then stamped the Inkadinkado word stamp "quirky".cut around it and added it. The heart is a sequin.

After looking at the ATC for a while I thought the Blue Heart drew the eye away from the rest of the card so I decided to take it off and added a stamped letter Q instead.

Fairy Tag

On A Mad Crafters Attic we have added some mixed media swaps, rather than just doing Artist Trading cards. This month is the first swap of this kind and we are doing a fairy or sprite tag.

I had bought some scrapbook paper that has several little jars on it and decided to use one for my tag.

I stamped a Hearts in Touch silhouette fairy stamp on the little jar piece, added some stickles around her to look like fairy dust, and covered the heart with some glossy accents. I cut a butterfly wing and added it to the image. Put this aside to dry, then covered it with a piece of transparency.

I had a piece of cardstock that I had used under a project when spraying it with Dylusions sprays and decided to use part of it as my tag base. I stamped some flourishes on it, then added opals embossing powders in some areas and stamped a star into the hot embossing areas.

I stamped some words from a Diane Reaveley  stamp set, cut them out and adhered them to the tag, along with the little fairy jar. Hope my partner will be happy with it.

A-Z techniques - P for Polished Stone

Continuing on with the A-Z techniques, this month is P. I chose to do the polished stone technique. Instead of using the dye inks and metallic acrylic paint, I used alcohol inks and Lumiere paints. The other "P's" are parrot and paint pen.

I covered a piece of glossy cardstock with some rubbing alcohol then dabbed three colours of alcohol ink over the surface. I then dabbed on some copper coloured Lumiere paint.

For the P image I used a parrot from Dover publications, printed it, cut around it and pasted it on the ATC.

I used a chipboard alphabet P and coloured it with a Marvy Metallic paint pen.

To complete it I die cut a Cuttlebug Corner die and embossed it with copper embossing powder.