January Art Draw - and Happy New Year to you too!!

Right. First giveaway of the year and I'm late. And I have an idea that is going to make you happy or fall asleep before you get to the end of this post. Still, read on!!

First, two altered slide mailers, one of these will constitute the main prize for this month's art draw. As you can see I've gone a bit oriental in honour of Chinese New Year which this year signifies the beginning of the Year of the Dragon, one of the most auspicious of the chinese zodiac.

The one on the right has an acetate front which may/may not be hard to see from the photo. Lots of gold embossing powder and a bit of gilding flakes. On the reverse there is a chinese proverb/quote (allegedly anyway according to Mr Google).

I am not quite sure what it means but it sounds like pretty good advice, should you happen to know a local dragon.

For the one on the left I got out some sadly neglected embossing paste and a bamboo stencil to decorate the back and front. Came out pretty well (but oh what a mess you can get into!!!)

I used some of my inca gold to highlight and was quite pleased with the result. Finished off the front with the large coin that just happens to have a dragon on. (I don't just throw this stuff together you know).  Inside I have used the slide 'niches' to add some pictures and another inscrutable chinese quote. More good advice to start the year!!

I did get rather carried away with my general paintiness and inkiness - feels like an age since I've had a chance to be messy - and I was doing a bit of 'resist' work because that is the challenge over at TIOT this week. So I also made a CNY tag which will be part of the giveaway and which is my entry to the challenge. I hope the DT at TIOT won't be cross with me for burying it in the middle of this post but I can't be bothered to do it all separately.  The dragon is the resist bit in case it's not obvious!!

Right usual rules apply. If you would like to be entered in to the art draw please make a comment on this post before 9.00 pm on Saturday 4th February. (I am extending it a bit because it is already the 15th, and also I know I won't be able to get to the pc to do the draw before then). International players welcome. please feel free to link from your own blogs.

Now I am going to make it a bit more complicated. The draw will be for 1 slide mailer, unless we get over 30 entries, when there will be two winners. I will also make another tag and box to be fair (it'll never happen!). First drawn will get first choice. Simples?

Oh what the heck, it's New Year and I'm feeling generous. As I say I got carried away and I also have three tags and three ATCs (most but not all are resist technique as well). So the next six new people to 'follow' me will get one of them as a RAK. (We are currently at 147 and, yes, it's really bugging me that that follower tag has not gone over 150 yet!!).
So there are potentially 8 prizes on offer this month and I hope they will tempt you to join in. Don't forget that although you do not need to have a blog of your own I must be able to contact you if you enter. Good Luck, and
Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Floral Mailer Swap

I have at last finished this slide mailer (sorry, yet another one)for a 1:1 swap on a floral theme. I've taken a bit of time over it because it's for someone very special - at first I thought it was going to be quite bright but it's ended up kind of vintage and I quite like it, hope the recipient is going to be pleased! I wanted to add some embellies but everything I had was too 'modern' in style so I modelled some roses with air dry clay. Had to call upon techniques I haven't used since I decorated my wedding cake nearly 18 years ago but they didn't come out half bad. I've even got some left although I think at least one might end up on a jigsaw piece I'm currently doing.

Slide Mailers everywhere....

Trying to catch up with my various slide mailer challenges that are ongoing, here is the latest one, quite pleased with the way this has turned out. One more to go, have got outside sorted but still needing a bit of inspiration for inside. Have four Jigsaw pieces to alter as well, have some ideas but want to try a few things out first - can't bear the thought of ruining the actual jigsaw piece!! Just letting a few things ruminate for a couple of days and then hopefully I will just be able to do them all in one hit.