Q is for Quangle (plus final catch up)

 

Q is for Quangle

 

All caught up over at the Craft Barn's challenge HERE  Please excuse my poetic licence in using this word, I have taken my inspiration from a poem by Edward Lear, The Quangle Wangle's Hat.  My children adored this poem and I am sure they had their own pictures in their minds of how it should look.  I have decorated the hat with ribbons and bibbons and buttons and lace and bells and added pictures of all the creatures that came to live on it.  If you have never read the poem here is a link click here and you may have seen a couple of the illustrations before, adapted in my own style.

 

N is for Nectariferous

  

I always thought that Nectariferous meant insects that drank nectar, oh how I was wrong.  It means secreting nectar as in plants.  I decided to do a lot of stamping on my spread this time, flowers along the bottom using Anna Griffin pens with brush tips, and an assortment of bees, butterflies and a dragonfly all coloured with Inktense watercolour pencils.  Background is painted loosely with watercolours.  I managed to use the "N" from my dictionary this time to start my choice of word.

 

 

 

Z is for Zentangle

I chose to do a Zentangled tree and to Zentangle the word itself.  This is a time consuming craft and one that I have only just begun to try.  I love the end look, especially when a trompe d'oeil effect produces 3 dimension to the item.

I really enjoy looking round all your dictionary spreads, thank you for sharing them with us all.  Comments, as always, are greatly appreciated.

L is for Lace/Lacing (and more catch-ups)

L is for Lace/Lacing

I love using lace and this was a fine opportunity to go wild.  The tag on the left (you may have seen this before) has a photograph of a misty scene through the window with net curtains.  Lace edging for the pages and two line of lace in the center laced together with crinkle ribbon to reflect the ribboned lace on the undergarment of the lady on the far right.  Die cut swirls and leaves, paper flowers and paper lace finish it off.   Join in the challenge over at 
The Craft Barn HERE

O is for Op Art

I promise you the right hand page is perfectly flat.  Op Art, also known as optical art, was a 1960's style of visual art that made use of optical illusions, contrast and a precise, mathematically-based composition to trick the eye.

D is for Delft

I cut some thick card into a square and painted it with gesso then drew the corner patterns and circles in watercolour pencil.  I tried to coat the tile with a thin layer of wax but that didn't work too well so I stamped the ship in the center and coloured it with ship blue alcohol ink.  Some of the wax remains and gives it an old look.  White gesso pages of the dictionary are painted with an some old Delft patterns and I copied a makers mark from the bottom of an old Delft plate.

Thank you as always for looking and for your encouraging comments, I love looking at everyone's work and am constantly inspired by you all to try new techniques and projects.

Still Playing Catch Up over at The Craft Barn

J is for Joker

Getting there slowly, just a few more to catch up on.  My choice of word for the letter J is Joker.  I covered the pages with harlequin and gold tissue papers then made three tiny ATC sized envelopes, embossed at the top and lined with gold tissue paper for the tiny Joker cards.  the image on the right I layered on the contrasting paper to match after embossing the edges with gold.  Sticker letters and the dictionary entry finish the card.  Please take a few moments to check out my other catch up letters below.  Link to the challenge can be found HERE

Off to enjoy the other posts, thanks for looking and comments and suggestions are always welcome.

T is for Tulip

The tulip is one of my favourite flowers, it heralds Spring with such vibrant colour.  To echo this I used Gelatos for a dripped background on gesso.  Stamps and stencils remove and add colour to the pages.

Y is for Yurt

The letter over at the Craft Barn is Y with some yellow on your page.  I chose the word Yurt.  Sprayed glimmer mist through stencils background.  Texture paste spread through leaf stencil and painted black then highlighted with Viva paste.  Window cut through several layers to reveal the inside of a yurt.  On the outside of the window is another photo of a yurt.

B is for Bathing Beauties, Beige, Black, Border, Brown, Brownie

Beige brown striped paper background, harlequin stamp, Edwardian girls at the seaside photo with black die cut border.  A cardstock sticker of a Brownie box camera and a rub on word.  All with a lace border.

Christmas Cards - Step

Finally got round to making a few of my Christmas cards.  I bought a Cutz Mountain Lodge die last January in the sales and this is the first project I have made with it.  On the left side I embossed the white cardstock with a holly embossing folder and coloured the berries with bright red stickles.  On the right side I frosted the trees, the background stamped cardstock and mountain lodge diecut with crystal glitter.  

From the side it looks like this, instructions for the construction of the card can be found on Youtube.

 I made a couple of alternative cards using blue and white cardstocks, each one is pretty in its own right but I much prefer the black and white version.

Craft Barn Dictionary Challenge Catch-up

G is for Gable

 

Sorry for my long absence, so many letters to catch up on, had my hip replacement and been to England to stay for 6 weeks with my daughter and my grandsons, oh what fun we had.  To continue on with my altered dictionary challenge over at The Craft Barn Blog HERE for the letter G I have painted a watercolour of a barn showing the gable end.

 

If you have time please look at my other letters below that I have finished so far, still got a few more to go but on my way. 



 

U is for Urban Decay

 

 

Seen to much these days, I found this photo of what was once a splendid building.  So far I it has not been painted with graffiti, so I added some of my own.  My first ever attempt at this art form, and believe me it is not easy. 

 

 

F is for Ferruginous

 

 

The colour of iron rust.  Acrylic paints in black, rust red, yellow and orange brayered onto Tyvek and stuck to the pages to make the background.  The same colours used to stencil across the bottom of the page.  Two pockets torn from the painted Tyvek on the right side hold tags of red headed girls and the main picture on the left is matted onto blue cardstock and edged with gold marker.

 

K is for Knot

 



 

 

Love this photograph on the right of rope knots had to use it.  6 knots tied with cord and mounted on cardstock.  Tried to get a nautical feel to the pages with the use of red, white and blue colours.

 

A is for Aquarium

 

 

Two zipper plastic bags filled with hair gel and placed on a mixture of blue sprayed background with stamped fish and ferns.  Frames of cardstock hide the edges of the bags.  The cheaper the hair gel the more bubbles you get in it.

 

W is for Wall

 

 

 

I removed a piece of from the keyboard of my computer which made a perfect stencil for the wall.  First coated pages with gesso, printed a picture of poppies in a field (circle heads) and stuck it to the pages.  Cut 3" circles from cardstock to mask the "hole" and masked an inch strip along the top with paper.  Another coat of gesso over the whole page, let it dry.  Keyboard mask down sprayed with watered down ink. Flower stamps coloured with Twinkling H2Os.

R is for Robin's-egg Blue

  I chose Robin's-egg Blue for my letter "R".  I used my water soluble oil pastels for the background, nest and eggs.  Stamped an American Robin in brown Stazon ink and coloured it in with the oil pastels too.  Die cut silhouette letters on robin's egg blue speckled paper backgrounds (though you can't see the paper clearly in my photo) finish my page.







Garden Art Butterfly, Butterfly Feeder, Butterfly House, Dragonfly, Abstract Garden Art and Potting Benches- Welded Metal and Woodwork

As you can see below my partner has been very busy welding some garden art from scrap metal while I have been recovering.  I love his creativity by up-cycling old pieces of metal to create something for my garden.  

A butterfly for the new butterfly garden, my flowers need to grow up a bit but give them time.

A butterfly feeder made out of a chips and dip tray and a sauce holder and mesh scourers.

A dragon fly to accompany it

This is what my daughter calls Road Runner

A fish jumping after a dragonfly

A trellis for our Monkey Brush Vine

Butterfly House

Finally, potting benches for my orchid shade house, notice the new trellises at the end for my Passionflower incense (smells wonderful) and Thunbergia mysorensis Acanthaceae.  

I am so lucky to have such a wonderfully gifted and practical man.

Bracelet for a dear friend

This is my take on one of the bracelets from Melanie Doerman's book "the Art of FORGOTTEN Things".  I made this bracelet for a very dear friend of mine I hope she enjoys it.  The leaves are Lucite, the charms are bead flowers, the button an antique that was asking to be decorated with matching beads.  It took a long time to make but I had plenty of that after my operation.

Altered Book Alpha Challenge - P is for Pirate and Privateer

Thank you everyone for your kind comments last challenge, I really enjoyed looking at everyone's work.  As you know I have just had a total hip replacement that has left me unable to do much crafting, if any.  But I just had to keep up with this one.  The background is a copy of a treasure map showing the wrecks of the Spanish Fleet around the coast of Florida, aged with walnut ink,on top of which is my favourite drawing of Blackbeard the Pirate, gold doubloons, rubies, pearls, gold ingots and emeralds all caught in a net along the bottom.  A copy of a Letter of Marque on onion paper singed at the edges with a wax seal and my torn out dictionary piece for Pirate and Privateer finish off the spread.

At the moment I am not supposed to bend more than 90 degrees so sitting and typing is banned.  Got my partner to do this for me.  I will continue to look at and enjoy everyone's work but comments will be few and far between.

Link to challenge HERE

Altered Book Alpha Challenge - M is for Mask

Thank you everyone for your wonderfully encouraging comments last week for my watercolour sunflowers.  My entry this week in the Craft Barns Alpha Challenge HERE is a 3 dimensional page made with Sculpey. The inspiration for this spread was from a piece of work that I saw by a Swedish lady, Mikaela, whose work with Fimo is amazing.  Two pieces of cardstock form the base for the pages and a thin layer of sculpey transparent placed on top.  After stamping and creating texture with chains I made two eyes from yellow cardstock with a pupil drawn on each and then stuck with glossy accents to flat bottomed glass rounds, the type used in floral decorations.  Each eye was surrounded with clay and  moulded to form the lids.  Tiny cuts for lashes and balls of clay surround the eye to give it dimension, some of which are squashed flat to make the scales.

 A vine of clay, leaves and the word mask are additional decoration.  I have used a base coat of black gesso and then rubbed with olive green and copper Inka Gold to highlight the stamping and texture of the pages.

May not make the next challenge for a while as having a total hip replacement and not sure how comfortable I will feel at my crafting desk, but I will try my best to keep up. 

Kids Daily Calendar

I made this for my grandsons so that when I go to visit I can start the day off with learning about the date, season, weather and give them a chance to try to identify how they are feeling that day.  I have put some cards in with activities that we will do together on the days my daughter is at work.  I put a section at the bottom where they can stick stars on when they have been good or helped in some way.  Everything is made of felt except for the clear plastic pockets, edging and activity cards.  My daughter says they both benefit from knowing what they will be doing during the day, so I hope they like this activity with their "nanny".

Altered Book Alpha Challenge - H is for Heliotrope

The Alpha Challenge over at The Craft Barn HERE this fortnight is the letter H.  Sunflowers are one of my favourite flowers and my page this time is H for heliotrope, any plant that turns to face the sun.  The head of a sunflower will follow the path of the sun through the day and I chose them for my watercolour pages.

Thank you everyone for the wonderful comments you left me last week, I look forward to seeing all of your pages for this letter.

Mouse in a Tin

I made these two mice in Altoid tins for my grandsons.  I got the idea from Pinterest and they are made from small scraps of material with felt for ears arms and feet.  My grandsons are at a very nurturing stage so my daughter said they would love something like this.  One of them asked me just the other day to make something and send it to them, hope they like them.

Kids Theater

Made this puppet theater for my grandsons today out of a curtain and some remnants of material.  The stars on the curtain are glow in the dark which will be fun when the lights go down.

Altered Book Alpha Challenge - E is for Enamelling

This fortnight's letter over at The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge HERE is "E".  I chose to do some paper enamelling, (English preferred spelling) it has the most wonderful effect almost like broken pieces of china too.  First cover the surface with snail glue or double sided tape the old birthday cards are cut up into pieces and placed randomly over the page leaving spaces between.  Gold leaf in this case or mica powders or mica flakes are then brushed over the top and stick to the cracks.  Two coats of perfect paper adhesive gloss over the entire pages gives the faux enamelled look.  The pages looked so pretty without any other decoration I left them as is.  This technique also makes wonderful toppers for cards if done on ATC sized illustration board. 

Thank you for all the wonderful comments that were left last week, I greatly appreciate them.

European Peg Bag

My old peg bag that hangs on the washing line finally broke. I still hang my washing on the line outside for that wonderful fresh smell, not to mention the money savings from not using the tumble dryer, so I needed to make a new one.  This time I chose to make an apron that holds the pegs.  I used an upholstery remnant that I bought from Michaels to make this European Peg Bag.  No more falling off the line and pegs strewn around for me.  It works perfectly, even has a little tag at the center front for hanging it up in the garage when not in use.  If you want the instructions on how to make one for yourself you can find them at Mother Earth News HERE

Reading Corner Blanket

Taken me 3 weeks to complete but here is the blanket I crochet for our reading chair.  It is made from Homespun wool in two colours, pearls and barley.  The chair is leather so needs a little warming on these cool winter mornings. 

Altered Book Alpha Challenge - Celestial

Another letter to chose from for the altered dictionary challenge.  For the letter "C" I chose Celestial.  My pages are first painted with a mix of ultramarine blue and black acrylic paint, carefully leaving the chosen word clear.  I then splashed the whole page with alcohol (isopropyl not my best vodka) and then splattered with a mixture of Lumiere paint colours to create a planet at the bottom of the page with flares radiating out.  The comet was splashed on top of more alcohol and allowed to drip up the page toward the top right hand corner to create the tail.

I really enjoyed looking at everyone's letter last week and I am sorry I didn't get a chance to leave comments on them all due to time restrictions, but know that I loved them all and thank you for your encouraging comments on my first spread.

To join in this challenge please go to The Craft Barn's home page HERE

Knitting Needle Case

My daughter asked me if I could make her a knitting needle case that was strong as the one she bought not long ago the needles have poked through the end already.  I found a wonderful pattern an instructions on Loulabelle's blog HERE, thank you Loulabelle.  I used the double sided stitched material that I had left over from my knitting basket cover plus some homemade bias binding made with the singer bias machine that my son bought me for Christmas.  It is very sturdy indeed.  Hope it is big enough for her needles an that she likes it 

Indonesian Batik Shirt

Not made any clothes for a long time, since my kids were little, they are now in their thirties.  Recently bought myself a desperately needed new machine and a few patterns and some material in the sales after Christmas.  This shirt is made from Indonesian Batik cotton, ooh how I love sewing with this material, it is light, doesn't make bulky underarm seams, doesn't move when you sew it and comes in such pretty colours.  I am really please with the end result and this pattern also includes a mid calf dress in the same style and some day I will get round to making it too.  By the way this piece of material cost me $1 at Walmart, it was a remnant exactly one and three quarter yards long, perfect.  

Tag Tuesday - Alphabet Tags "A"

Another alphabet challenge for me over at Tag Tuesday.  I intend to try and keep up with the challenges this year, I sadly fell behind a bit last year.  The quality of work over there is really amazing and I love to look at everyone's work each week.

 I have chosen to make my tag in the shape of the letter "A".

I brayered Pearl Turquoise and Pearl Violet Lumiere paints over the base and stamped and embossed in white diamonds and squares over the top.   I cut a square of lace paper and emphasised it with Distress Stickles.  A border of fabric lace, more Distress Stickles, pearls,  beads and threads through a eyelet finish the tag.  Sadly the shimmer does not show on the photograph.