Every Inchie Monday -- Dark

This weeks theme on Every Inchie Monday is 'Dark', and all I could think of was a dark night.
I have managed to do the two again, one card, that is painted with watercolours, and one fabric with stitched lights in the windows of the houses, and a metallic thread for the stars.

Tag Tuesday, & Butterfly challenge

On Tag Tuesday the theme is insects, and I think it will qualify for Butterfly and flowers first challenge as well.
Both tags were coloured with distress inks and then used again with honeycomb and flower stencils. The butterflies were made from grungeboard and stamped card. They are only stuck down the middle to make them 3D. Various other insects joined in with the butterflies, and they have stickles and gloss accents on them to give them some shimmer

Sunday postcard -- Favourite pet

This would have been difficult a few years back, that is before five stray cats decided that they wanted to live here. Only one, the black one was a house cat. The ginger and white ones were left here as kittens by their feral  mother. First she left three out of five in our poly tunnel, and then many months later another one, half dead on the doorstep, a half brother to the others. The black one rules the roost, and the others give her a wide berth. Out of the feral ones, two are very tame and will tolerate any amount of fussing, the other two you can only touch when they are feeding.
So for someone who didn't want any ties as far as pets were concerned, I seem to have been lumbered with more than my fair share.
So for Sunday postcard this week, I have made one with the black cat on, and her thoughts about the others. Not that she is slim or looks anything like my stamped image, but I just love this stamp.

Every Inchie Monday -- Dual

The theme for Every Inchie Monday made me think. Dual, my first thought, several days ago was a dual controlled car. But, my drawing was nothing anyone would have recognized, so dual carriageway it is. As usual there is a drawn and fabric version. I hope I can keep this up all year, even though fabric ones are more difficult to do, especially as I have arthritis in my hands.

Tag Along -- Roses are red

This week on Tag Along the theme is Rose are red, so I decided to make a fabric one. The base fabric has a rose on it, and I made three red roses out of organza. I love making these, so any excuse will set me off. The image is printed on to fabric, and machined onto the base. I cut out and painted some leaves and sewed them on with the machine. The heart is made from felt, sewn on with beads.

Fabric Winter landscape postcards.

I love making fabric postcards, and the title for this one for a swap was Winter landscape. I made one to swap ad one to keep. I used fabric for the sky and hills on the landscape one, and some pine trees cut out of pelmet vilene with a Tim Holtz die. The portrait one has a painted sky. The snow at the bottom is padded and stitched in lines to represent fields.

Tag Tuesday -- Hearts

Gosh it's all hearts this week, and Tag Tuesday is no exception.  I covered the tag with one of Tim's papers, stenciled some hearts on, added a vintage lady in her wedding refinery. I then added some card hearts, one of them embossed, and an embossed paper clay one.

Sunday postcard art -- My heart is blue for you

The theme on Sunday postcard art this week didn't really appeal to me, even though it was in blue. But once I had started on it, I was OK
The background is from Tim's shabby vintage papers, and I stenciled on some blue hearts. Found a suitable picture, and stamped on a few swirls. The heart is made from paper clay, that I stamped on to emboss it, and then painted blue. I added a feather to soften it a bit.

 

Tag Along -- Pink Love

I am a bit late with this one. Tag Along has pink love as it's theme, and I am not a great lover of pink, but enjoyed doing this one. I must work in pink a bit more to get me out of the blue/green mould.
The tag is covered in one of Tim Holtz Shabby vintage papers ( Hardly used stack) and I then stenciled some hearts on with distress inks and embossed them with clear embossing powder. The little girl in the house was something I had made earlier, and was luckily in pink.
 

Tim Holtz style tag February

As I didn't have much for this tag, I had to improvise. The background is distress inks, and I made my own stencil by die cutting hearts and using the negative piece of card. I inked these with distress inks, and embossed them with clear embossing powder. I used one of Tim's stamps for the saying, using his chalk board technique. The heart was added and a friend gave me the arrow and edge stickers.

Every Inchie Monday -- Chocolate

The theme this week on Every Inchie Monday is chocolate. As its in card and fabric the chocolate is non fattening.
For the fabric one, I made a bar of chocolate by sewing a grid on a scrap of fabric, and putting some foil at one end. The card one, I made a little box, painted it in the Cadbury colour, and made some chocolates for the inside with rolled up foil from chocolates. I just happened to have these in my stash, and didn't have to eat a load of chocolate to get the wrappers, no really, I didn't ( Well not today anyway )

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Book of the sea Page 8

For this page I have knitted in garter stitch, and in many different yarns a sea, with beads to add a bit of  sparkle. I really enjoyed doing this one, as it is similar to work I used to do in my previous lfe. I have ben collecting sea colour yarns and fabrics for  a long time, and it is great to be able to use them.

Book of the sea Page 7

For this page, I took my inspiration from some fabulous hearts made by Carolyn Saxby, who lives in St Ives in Cornwall, and loves everything sea orientated.
My base was calico and the sea is made up from bits of fabric, and heat treated fabrics, like tyvek and acrylics. There is some netting from a shower scrubby, and some distressed scrim that I dyed. Some silk tops and French knots, plus two shells finished it off. The fabric for the sky was bought at the Quilt show, and I stamped the sea gulls.

Tiny felt covered books

In a few hours while the rain stopped me going out, again, I  did a bit of needle felting. I didn't really like the end result, so I cut it up, and made a few covers for tiny books. The biggest one is only 3" x 2". I decorated them with a mixture of felt strips, circles, tyvek, stitching and beads. Really enjoyed doing these. They all have paper pages.

Try it on Tuesday - Travel

A lot of the challenge sites seem to be having travel type themes and TIOT was no exception. I suppose I could have used one that I had made for one of the other challenges, perhaps that would have been the sensible thing to do, as I struggled with this one.
The background is distress inks, and I than stamped various images onto separate card, and stuck them on. The tiny Eiffel tower is a brad. The whole tag has turned out rather dull, as the background stamp covered up too much of the colour.

Sunday postcard art -- Italy, The Artistic Stamper -- Use Distress

The theme on Sunday postcard art is Italy, and for The Artistic Stamper it is Use Distress. I used distress inks in spiced marmalade and rusty hinge for the background, spritz with water. I then stamped various images of Italy. The mask is slightly raised and curved.

Artful Times - In the style of Tim Holtz & Tag Along -- Your favourite technique, The Artistic Stamper -- Use Distress.

This time I have made two tags for three challenge sites. Artful Times - Tim Holtz style, and Tag Along - Your favourite technique, and The  Artistic Stamper - Use distress  As one of my favourite methods for doing backgrounds is using Tim's distress inks, I used this on both tags.
On the first one I embossed the tag with Tim's splatter folder and did a little bit of stamping on the background. I made a 3D butterfly with Wendy Vecchi's modelling film, and Tim's frosted film. I coloured it with alcohol inks. It hasn't photographed very well. I added a Tim pen nib, a fancy book plate, and a stamping from his butterfly stamps. The crinkly ribbon is coloured with distress inks, and I have hung two of Tim's pearls on it.

For the second one the background was embossed with Tim's wood grain folder and rubbed over with a darker colour. The leaves were cut from the tattered leaves die, and coloured with the inks. One has distress crackle paint on. I couldn't resist adding some of Tim's cogs, and metal florals, a wooden clock and one of the word bands. I finished it off with a saying held on with one of Tim's clips. A folded ticket covers the base of the leaves at the bottom.

Every Inchie Monday -- Cathedral

I found this a bit of a challenge this week on Every Inchie Monday. A cathedral is not easy to portray on an inch square. I used shrink plastic on the card one, and stamped a map of the underground on the background, and added a London bus, So you can visit Westminster Abbey by tube or bus.
The fabric one ( I nearly gave up on doing a fabric one ) I stitched a ground plan of a cathedral. At 11pm last night a full cathedral defeated me.