the final part of the puzzle!

the empty headed bimbo is complete and ready to be hung!!!

i have used textured painsts, embossed metal and UTEE to complete this frame.

shrine obsession

since spotting some rather fetching shrines at an online shop i have been obsessed with the idea of them. i have found a template to make a biggish one but in the meantime decided i needed to make one with what ever i could find - a very small matchbox, earring finding, bottle top and some metal! hope you like it.

not sure why i bother !

i am pretty certain that this is never viewed by anyone but me but just in case someone looks and they are vaguely interested - part two of the massacre of barbie is complete! no metal involved for once! all the frame is done with the viva special effect paints to create texture and colour.

her head is next!

been pretty busy htis weekend - crafting and cycling

have done quite a bit of cycling this weekend by the river - fab weather for it! tide was wrong for sailing so never got to the water - maybe next weekend?
this afternoon i noticed a cardboard tube containing some rather posh biccies that partner had brought home from a client. it just begged me to turn it into a pen holder for work. given my love for the sea i decided to go for the paper artsy sea theme and be really radical and use blue not black acrylics on it. (that is radical for me - i looooooooooooooove black!) not sure if i like it blue but if you dont try you dont find out! back to work tomorrow so probably no creations all week! blast it wont let me upload a piccie so i will try and add it later! ( if i remeber!)

metal matchbox - not metal mickey!

i made this recently at a class at the craft barn. its my first real foray into metal work and i am hooked! i made an embossing mat to decorate it and emboss the metal. there is also freestyle work on it. the aging was done with simple black acrylic paint. glimmer mists were used to colour the box.

i was so proud of this i oculdnt wait to get home and show it off!

half term mania!

yeeha - i actually booked half term off and i have been quite industrious!

nicks and debs h set challenges on the do craft forum - an altered doll nad an altered frame. i started the doll and she was very naughty and her legs and head are in a box for naughty wont alter items that need revisiting! anyway i decided to combine the two challenges and hey presto! hope you like it! i took revenge on the pneumatic barbie and the result is here for you to see!

acrylic sample book

i really do need to learn how to take decent pictures! anyway thisis an acrylic sampe book. i have imaged bot the chip board and the acrylic so it will create two different pictures.

it just looks messy here but in real life(!) i am really chuffed with it - lots of textures.

i MUST take better pics - ok girrl start practising!

distressed chip board sample book

The colours dont look so good on here nor can you see the distressing - oh well. its a chip board book that i made to try out some different methods on eg masking, shrinking plastic etc. the lock to hold it together has come off our boat - no need to panic there is a new one on the boat so the anchor locker is safe!

lazyitis

I have been really busy working on an altered doll, a metal work class and trying my best to get the students through the exams so they can tak ethier university offers! Consequently despite having photos to put on here going all the way back to ally pally i have not managed it at all yet. I am hoping that half term week (i am actually NOT working for a change) will see me getting caught up with myself!
Ally Pally was excellent - not been to a show of those proportions before and I wasnt sure whether to go until i relaised that soem of the lovely people I wanted to meet would be there!. Everyone was amazingly welcoming and I was really chuffed to have gone. I also spent an absolute fortune - great fun doing so!
meanwhile - i shall pop back to work now from my break and do another extra support class for the little blighters! (whom i secretly adore but dont tell them!)
Hopefully next time there will be piccies going up!
Take care
Jane x

The wonders of a few days off work

Contrary to popular belief I do not get long holidays off. Most of the time the students have been relaxing , sorry I mean revising, I have been in work marking coursework HOWEVER... I have had 4 days off and have been busy spraying everything in site with inks and paints! The paper artsy stamps have come out as have the tim holtz inks! I have been in my element. A large matchbox has been altered and I am busy making a book. There are bottles and tins stashed away now ready to be dealt with over future weekends! I am really looking forward to Ally Pally this Saturday - I hope I get to meet lots of lovely crafters - can't wait. Anyway soon as I can be bothered to take some photographs and fiddle around with the relevant programmes to size them etc I shall upload some more work - cheers i hear you all say- by jimminy we just cant wait for that janie ! See you on saturday -- yipee

Extremely crafty knitting

ok - this was taken when i was ill wearing an enormous kaftan! this looks like a mad stranger in a very messy room!

the point is it shows some extreme knitting i was doing. i had 30 balls of yarn - all types, weights and textures. My darling man made the needles for me as they are 40 mm is size. he went to homebase and did a bit of magic at work for me. I made a rug - its fab and has been in my boudoir wearng very well. the cats loved me making this as it meant they could attack the yarn!!!!

The Naughty Magpies Nest

well....what a terrible photo (you live and learn!) this was an experimental piece trying out different skills. the orange piece on the left is a crisp packet that i shrunk with my heat gun. the film strips werw stamped onto acetate and mounted onto white card, there is even a crepe bandage (brushed over with a thick acrylic paint), a safety pin and even a scrap of fabric off some underwear. The backing card is waterford watercolour paper so it allowed layers of colour to be dragged over it and wiped back giving a lovley texture. the theme for this was a birds nest. i had a naughty magpie in my mind who collected anything it saw hence the eclectic mix of goodies within!...........................

A very unusual Valentine

This is different for a Valentine - my partner adored it as did many friends but equally many found it disturbing...it took a while to make as again it is a project with many processes. It started off as a grotty piece of yellow card with was gessoed and then i glued on a layer of paper and when it was wet tore some of it back randomly. I did this with 4 layers. This exposed under layers and created a lot of texture. Each layer was painted a slighlty different shade and stamped before being pasted on. (confused?!). I then scrunched up tissue paper and then smoothed it out and glued it on randomly - again to create texture. i then stampedover it - the fact that the texture was there made the stamping better as it broke up and wasnt all neat and

tidy and crisp. I loved doing this - lots of messing and not knowing quite how it was going to move forward.....

Mothers Day card

I made this for my darling mum - she likes somethign alittle dofferent. It involved rubbing back acrylic paints, dragging dry acrylic with a very bristly brush for a dragged look and of course stamping and chalk inks .... the pic with mum on is the front of the card, the other is the the insert. This all started as inexpensice white card stock and all colours were and effects were created by me. i loved maing this as it is verytextured.

The Crafty Clock

This probably isnt the best photo but the semi matt varnish i used to protect it has reflected in the piccie. it does not look shiny in the finished article. This took a few days to make as there quite a few processes and lots of drying time needed. Plent of gesso, tissue paper, acrylic paints etc needed. I loved seeing the picture come together. Mounting the time piece was the msot difficultpart for me as i needed to make sure the clock was properly balance. it is a foot long this is deliberate as i wanted it to have functin but look like a picture first and foremost.

How confusing!

Well having arrived here through looking at crafty critters work i have set up a blog and am totally confused! Who knows what will occur or whether I am typing this in vain. it is about time I got my act together and started crafting again. I had so much planned for this weekend but I have hurt my arm which makes it all slightly awkward! It also means the new bike hasnt come out today! Its like sods law - you wash the windows it rains, you buy a bike - you hurt your arm! So here I am web searching looking at ideas and getting back up to speed looking at suppliers etc. i hope to make stuff out of stuff i find knocking baout. In fact I really want to make it my misson to only get new stuuf like gesso etc .The rest i want to recycle. Lets see what happens. i have also started writing poetry lately - wonder if it could be incorporated into my work. Crikey, I sound like I am disappearing up my own derriere here! going to finish this now and do more hunting around for "stuff". Also fancy anotherlisten to the new Placebo track.So for now ...........tara