Mini Memories

I belong to a small group DCI comprised mostly of Australians, but there are few of us from North America. The current swap is to make Mini items that can all be placed into a larger frame. Each participant has chosen a theme and a colour scheme. Some have stipulated a certain size and others have just left it up to the artist.

For the month of August Trizzy is the chosen recipient to receive a creation from 10 other people. Her theme is "Wings" and the colours blue and/or green with silver, with no specific size.

I recently bought a couple of stretched canvases at the dollar store and decided to use one for this project, but using the back instead of the front.

I covered the whole piece in gesso, then painted the inside with 3 different tones of blue acrylic paint. Still thought it needed "something" so went over it with blue H2O's - still not happy. So I took some silver fabric glue paint and slapped over the top portion and ran an old comb through it and rather like the effect as it looks like rain or a waterfall.

With my Cuttlebug I embossed some plumbers tape using the bird embossing folder (keeping the wings theme) and cut it to fit around the outside of the frame. I coloured the embossed parts with Adirondack pens then sprayed it with a setting agent.

I painted the inside edge in green but it did not seem finished so I tried several different things...stamping, lace, beads and even some green cording, however, none of them appealed to me. Into my stash!! I found some sea glass but it was too bulky; then I discovered some little plastic mosaic pieces and there were enough blue and green ones to fit around the edge. I adhered these with some of the wonderful Sookwang tape (Picture and giveaway on this blog) then used silver seed beads as the grout.

I stamped and coloured a cattails stamp by Hero Arts with Prismacolor pencils and and H2O's, and cut it out. I did not like it with the brown cattail head so cut them off and attached the rest of the image to the inside background. I had some little icicle embellishments in my stash and added them as more fauna. I added a jewell to a round paper clip and attached it to simulate the sun.

I have had the dragonfly ornament thing for years and this was the perfect opportunity to use it. I added some bead chain to the body and some beads on the tail, then attached a butterfly charm. I glued this to the frame with some super glue. However it would not stick. So I revised the piece. This was the original.

I took off the bird and replaced it with the butterfly. I cut off a piece of the dragonfly's tail and screwed it to the frame, then added a green jewell to hide the screw head. Much happier with it now and will mailing to Trizzy this week!!

Tool Time

I signed up for the tool time swap on CCSwaps. We are to use one or more of our tools to create an article for our partner. The tools I used were my Cuttlebug, inkpads, rubber stamps, alcohol inks, punches, transfer foil, mica watercolour paints and my computer.

I decided to make a mini calendar for this swap. I started by colouring an acrylic tag with alcohol inks to use as the back.



I got out my stash of homemade background papers and tried to choose an appropriate colour for each month of the year and punched out small tags. I stamped images that would also go with the seasons of the month. After that, I printed off a full year calendar from Calendar Home and cut it to fit on the tags.

For the front cover, I chose a white cardstock that I embossed on the Cuttlebug. I coloured it with Marvy stampads, then adhered transfer foil to the raised embossing. Since it did not adhere to all of the embossing, I then painted over the whole piece with my Mica watercolours from Art Quest which gave it a nice vibrant look.

I added the year by stamping then punching out on some worksheet glossy photo paper, and attached a leaf to finish it.

I was going to put this together with the bind-it-all but decided that I would use a binder/looseleaf ring instead, so that the recipient can make new calendar pages the following year or recycle some of the pieces .

August Quote of the month

The August quote is: "There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart" Charles Dickens

I got a head start on this one now that I have most of my other swaps finished. While rooting around in my craft room I came across a piece that I had never finished from and online course that I took and thought I would use it for the August Q.O.T.M.


The background was done on watercolour 140LB coldpress paper and the body and head were already attached. I took some ephemera pieces and coloured them with chalk inks and attached them to the piece. Found some nice heart stickers and added them around the piece. Did the saying on my label maker machine and attached it and am quite happy with the finished item. This is a totally different colour pallette for me as I normally work with blues and greens, but I like the vibrant tones.
Now my biggest problem will be to find some cardboard and a large enough envelope to mail it once the partners list is posted.

Friendly Plastic

Over on CC Swaps one of the current swaps was to create something with friendly plastic. I have never really played with this medium so thought I would give it a try.

I started by cutting 3 different pieces of friendly plastic and placed them together on a craft sheet and heated them, then ran an old comb through them.

I took a small piece of chipboard and embossed it with pearl embossing powders and added texture with a stamp. I then glued the friendly plastic to it. I attached a piece from an old earring to the top, then added some seed beads.

I cut out a woman's face and attached it to a flattened pop bottle cap. I added a coloured page pebble, and then realized it was actually a tag shape so had to cover the hole somehow, so I put some crystal laquer on it and added more seed beads.

The final touch was to attach an old earring from which I removed the back.

This will be making it's way to Sweetpea in the next few days.

July Quote of the Month

This month's quote is : "The man who has no imagination has no wings" Mohammud Ali

I have been trying to think of something a bit different for this swap and decided to make a photo or recipe card holder.

I had a small block of wood and one of those old fashioned clothespegs so thought I would use them. My DH attached the clothespeg to the small wood block and added a base.

I painted it and added some texture and colour. Added some pictures to the sides and back. I found a picture of Muhammed Ali and framed it with a chipboard frame coloured and embossed then added the quote and embossed it in clear.

For the "wings" part of the quote I added a butterfly with a piece of wire for the feelers and beaded the ends.

This will be going to my swap partner Debbie in the next couple of days.

Artist of the Month

We have had another Artist of the Month swap in CC Swaps and this time it was Beryl Taylor style. I, as usual, jumped in with both feet since I was positive that my DH had bought me her book. Well, when I started my project I discovered that I did not own the book, so had to "wing it" when working on it.

I made the fabric paper using cheese cloth, wrapping paper and tissue papers (knew this part from a previous project). I then adhered this to a piece of felt and then to a piece of watercolour paper.

Since my sewing machine is out of commission I had to use glue and double sided tape to add all the elements.

I started by punching out circles from another piece of fabric paper and stamped them with platinum paint. I then punched a hole and added brads to the centre. I punched a second circle out of watercolour paper, sewed them together with metallic thread and added batting to puff them up.

The sides of the piece are lace, the top is a piece of metal tape which is coloured with various mediums, the bottom is a piece of eyelet fabric which I coloured with fluid chalk inks. I also coloured the lace flowers with the same ink and added some gems.

I punched out some heart shapes from a Cuttlebug embossed piece, which was coloured with the fluid chalks and highlighted with Goldfinger gold. I attached the large hearts to gold punched hearts, and the small ones I left as is.

The centre piece was another scrap of the darker fabric paper which I embossed with gold embossing powder. The heart is a doily coloured with the fluid chalks and highlighted with the Goldfinger gold. The final touch was a paper flower with a flower bead as the centre.

I drew Adrienne as a partner for this swap, and I must admit I am a wee bit nervous about it. She has done several items in the Beryl Taylor style so I hope she will not be disappointed with my effort.

Image transfer swap

I recently signed up for an image transfer swap and decided to do a canvas. Well it was one of those days when no matter what I did nothing worked!! I must have done about 5 attempts at the transfer and was really getting discouraged as none seemed quite right.

I coloured the canvas with gesso and then added layers of acrylic paint. I then used gel medium to transfer the image directly to the canvas. The final look is quite faint, but I think it just gives it an aged look.

I added some images from tissue paper, stamped and embossed swirls and then stamped a text stamp around the canvas.

I took a chipboard frame and embossed it with platinum embossing powder and UTEE, then stamped directly over it while hot to add texture. I used this to frame the picture. Fiinally, I added the little saying piece to complete it.