Oopsie...

I totes forgot to make my post so that you know that it's MY WEEK over on the Snazzy's Blog
My first project is there right now..
Do go over and show me some love, Love make the world go round you know!
Here is a peek to entice you over..

I'll be back tomorrow with more arty offernings.
Stay Inky

A Country View

Country View Crafts have launched a brand new Challenge blog which is awesome as I absolutely love their online store.

For their first challenge they have a 'Pick & Mix' theme.

So with permission to go make whatever I pleased, I gathered up the poppies I had made last week with my Tim Holtz tattered pinecone die and got to work on a canvas.

I first glued a circle frame art part to the canvas and gave the whole thing a coat of gesso.
Then I got to work tissue texturing the whole thing. I was inspired after watching Laura's use of tissue paper to create some great texture on books but I wanted a much lighter look.
After the tissue stage was dry I gave the whole thing another coat of gesso, then used several of my 'green' distress stains to colour the area.

I then did a bit of stamping direct onto the canvas, and also some stamping on tissue so I got a nice crisp image of the butterflies.

I did more distress staining and stamping onto a scallop art part.

Cut some circles with my nesties dies, and did some watercolour stamping.

I then put it all together and voilà, the perfect country view.

I had tons of fun making this and very much look forward to the next challenge.

***
I'll be back tomorrow with my regular ritual of desk hopping.
Stay Inky

All You Need is Love!

Yippee.. Today you get to see some actual artwork... I've not been the best at blogging lately as I have actually been spending my time making stuff.. I know shock horror!!!
So today I wanted to share with you a piece I made for this months
Artistic Stamper Challenge,
It's been a while since i've joined in so when I saw it was 'Hearts & Flowers' the perfect project came to mind.
*****
Remember this:

Well I decided I needed to re-purpose it as it wasn't floating my boat any more so I ripped it apart, jiggled it about and came up with this.



I gave the whole thing a couple of coats of gesso, and then a top coat of 'snowflake' fresco finish paint with a a light rub of 'ruby' & 'white fire' treasured gold to highlight the die-cut texture I had added.

I embellished with a selection of fimo pieces that I had made {mini frames and wing}

Several hearts made from 'hearty clay' {which is a very lightweight fluffy airdry clay} which I painted with 'ruby' treasured gold.

And then I finished with a few pins & trinkets.
The inspiration for this piece was from me old young mate Hels who had a piece in the craft stamper a couple of months ago that was inspired by Finnabair.
But obviously i've given it my own twist.
I hope you have enjoyed the art today,
I'll be back again later this week with more as I have a few journal pages i've not yet shared.
Till then..
Stay Inky

♥ HUGZ ♥

Random Art!

As you can see from the following bit of random art my mojo has been somewhat hit and miss lately.. This being a mega miss but hay I thought i'd share it anyway just so you have something to look at.

Today see's my first project of the month over on the Snazzy's DT Blog
It's definitely a hit compared to the above piece lol
Please pop over and show some love,
here's a peek

Stay Inky

♥ HUGZ ♥

Alter It Monthly!

Well i got there in the end, I managed to finish the challenge piece i was going to blog yesterday.
And as you can see from the title it's for the Alter It Monthly challenge which makes it's return to blogland after a little break.
This month the theme is
Shrines, Nichos, Alters and Dream Boxes
I started off with this...

Added some matt gel medium
and a canvas to the mix and got this...

Then with a bit of green and blue patina eco paint,
some cutting, sticking and fiddling, oh and some trusty dymo tape.
I ended up with this...

I had several people ask what the little winged thing on my desk a week ago would become
and at the time i really didn't know, but as you can see she evolved into what i'm calling a
'CYBER PUNK' angel

She's made from hearty clay, old watch parts and hardware findings.

To be honest i'm not really up on what nichos and dream boxes are so I hope this fits the bill for the challenge..
Thanks for stopping by x
♥ HUGZ ♥

Journal Pt.3 & An 'Alternative' canvas!

So todays Journal pages were created for Tracey

And these were the pages she created for me...

As you can see i had no set formula to any of the pages, i just went with the flo for each individual person. 

***

Now this is the canvas i originally started to make for the Simon Says Stamp'n'Show challenge but bottled it as i wasn't sure if i wanted to share it.. but I had a little time to think and decided 'oh bugger it' i'll do it and that will be that.. so here it is...

 As you can see I masked the background using the spiders web and a home made red glimmer mist.

The girl has been hand drawn, than coloured using polychromo pencils and acrylic paint.

Not sure why i was so worried to share this, I guess it's just not my usual type of thing and being a first attempt well i was just being silly i guess!

Anywho, Thanks for dropping by. TTFN.

♥ HUGZ ♥

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge

I only just came across this new challenge the other day having missed the first.
Linda over at Studio L3 is challenging all to create art following the rules of our mighty Lord Tim and his newest book The Compendium of Curiosities
This week is 'Fragments Basics' from page 62
Here is my take on it...

I used some of the oval fragments to make a flower, and a page from my timmy lost and found pad

The background of the canvas was partly covered with a pre-stamped dry wet-wipe.

I used some texture paste to stick the wipe and also to add some texture to the canvas, I then inked over the whole thing with peeled paint, stormy sky and fire brick.

I assembled the fragments flower and stuck down.

I used some grungepaper flowers i had pre-made with charm letters to form the stem and then coloured some grungeboard letters with black soot and pewter distress stickles to finish the piece.

I very much look forward to the next challenge..

Off now to see what everyone else created.

♥ HUGZ ♥

Inspiration Strikes!

Do you ever start a project and then slowly it starts to go horribably wrong..so you leave it.. sometimes months and months and then one day you look at it agan and a wash of inspiration takes over.. Well thats just what happened with this piece.

I decided to re-visit it after months of it sitting on top of the unit beside me to create my woyww challenge piece, but it wasn't working for that either so i left it again till the other day.

I splodged some paint about, collaged some lost and found timmy papers about the place, a smidge of ink, bit more ink..a segment of car grill left over from when my OH re-meshed his bumper, a cardboard cut out of Mona from an old jigsaw box... some metal letters and a couple of screws and voila..
One rather large {14" x 10" x 1.5"} Mona Canvas.

She is now hanging proudly in my bedroom, reminding me every morning to SMILE! 

♥ HUGZ ♥

Delayed WOYWWAC and I love Ebay

Hay there you..Hope you've been enjoying the glorious weather we've been blessed with just lately.
I finally finished my anniversary piece for the woyww challenge.. if you visit often you will know i wrote a poem for the event but ran out of time to make it into something.. well its now on canvas.. some words were changed/cut from the original to make it fit and flow better and it looks like this..

It took an absolute age to cut out all the words but i really like the finished piece which is already hanging in my craft space.
***
Talking of craft spaces mine just got that little bit smaller {but only for a short time}!!!
What i hear you ask.. well i've decided to have a bit of a move around when i'm on holiday at the end of the month..and was just looking into units and what not that i might like in my new space.. i has seen some ikea storage that was nice but kinda pricey.. so just on the off chance.. not expection much i hopped onto ebay.. and there they were not 1 but 2 at a cost of less than 1 new one...AND just down the road {they were pick up only}..I couldn't believe my luck.. It was a tense couple of days wait for the auction to end but i was the only bidder thank goodness and now there here with me.

WHOOP WHOOP i'm just sooooo happy.. Is that really sad.. that im so happy about storage.. well i dont care coz i am and i can't help it lol
Roll on holiday time so i can fit them into my new space properly {they are already in and full i might add but its made the room extra cosy shall we say PMSL}
Enjoy the sunshine, lets hope it lasts all weekend!
♥ HUGZ ♥

Theme Thursday

Firstly i must say sorry i missed woyww yesterday.. that pesky thing called work got in the way but i will be back next week to celebrate the 1st birthday edition.
.........
The theme this week over at theme thursday is 'Beauty' and what is more beautiful then a mermaid!

This is just one of those random projects that actually started off as just some texture on a 4"x4"canvas.
Then i came across a scrap of fabric that sparked the imagination and the mermaid was born, She has a moulded utee face that i coloured with copics to blend in the fibre hair i gave her.
..........
She is actually looking for a new home...so if you would like to take care of her, say so in your comment and i'll pick a new home for her on saturday evening.
Thanks for stopping by, Hope you all have a fab weekend.
♥ HUGZ ♥

Lots To Do !!!

WOW, there goes another week.. and so much for it being a holiday! I've have Lots to Do myself... but i managed to squeeze in making this ickle piece for this weeks 'Canvas' challenge!

As you can see i've gone for the shabby chic look, just having a play around really, the pretty lace at the bottom is actually from the arm of a top that i just cut a strip from!
This also fits in with
Sophisticat Challenges - Embossing {i embossed the white swirl on the sheet music and also the text is embossed}
The Secret Crafter - Stitching {i've gathered and stitched the lace at the bottom}
Crazy 4 Challenges - It's all about Texture
Creative Inspirations -Monocrome

Yesterday i had the bestest day at a friends house playing with my melt pot, a craft sheet and lots of Timmy stamps... trust me there is no better way to spend a day.. other than with Tim himself of course but i know that ain't never gonna happen!  Oh just a little note though.. never try and melt fine embossing powder in your pot, it just does the strangest thing.. or at least it did in mine.. it melted but only slightly and then was like a stiff honey that i had to spatular out.. i didn't waste it though and i'll have photographic evidence up when its finished lol.. well waste not want not.. i also saved the canvas board i smeared it on from my mates bin.. hay just doing my bit for the enviroment lol

Don't forget to come back on monday to find out the winner of the lovely Laaaaaaady stamps :)
♥ HUGZ ♥

Bit of Altered This & That...

I've been trying really hard of late to get back into my altered art projects, i came over all cute for a while {well i still am to be honest} but it's trying to find time to do a bit of both seeing as i really do enjoy both styles.

However these past few weeks the art has been flowing... totally messy and inky and lots of fun...
And i start you off with this ickle 4"x4" canvas.

I've used a fair selection of this and that on this piece, I started by coating the base in Terra to give it texture, Once that was dry i added a mix of ranger gold dabber and some liquid acrylic in copper and green {both pearlescent}

I topped the finished canvas with a number of small tiles that were made from a few different things..

Stampboard covered in gold UTEE,

TH Fragments which i stamped images onto {stamps by The Artistic Stamper}

Old game pieces using the back side of them to create little frames, and i filled each with some paper scrap and finished with the word ART in metal that i embossed from a stamp {again Artistic Stamper}

You will find it is possibable to get rubbings in metal from any stamp, you just need to do it gentaly with a paper stump and then define it afterwards.

The other little 'bits' like the string knot etc were odds from my stash

I finished the canvas by attaching a paper clip to the top so it can be hung.

I'm quite please how this turned out.

Pop back soon for more of what i've been up to.. fabruary is going to be a good altering month for me i can tell :p

♥ HUGZ ♥

'Canvas'ing for Time!

It's been ages since a did a mini canvas, but the need to get inky was strong so i went with it.

I also hadn't played with metal for a long time... but after this project i remember why!

This is one of those times where you have an idea but it never quite goes to plan.. I thought i'd be clever and use one of my Mabel stamps and try and take a rubbing in metal, but being rubber it isn't as easy as i'd hoped and the whole thing nearly went in the bin, eventually with much much patients i got an image that looked almost like the stamp, i added colour in the form of sharpie pens to the metal to define the image further.

The canvas was created by inking it all over with a mix of the brown tone distress inks. I then stamped different clocks onto a sheet of tissue paper, i let this dry and then made a square on the same piece of tissue using the measure tape stamp from the Ephemera 1 plate roughly making the square so that when i wrapped it round the canvas the edges would be.. as seen below

Once i'd stuck the tissue to the canvas using gel medium i smoothed it over very delicatly and added more medium over the top to seal it all. I let this dry.

I stuck the metal to the canvas using E600 and also added several actual small watch parts.

I wording was stamped onto a piece of torn cardboard and also glued on, with the finishing touch being a small chain to hang the piece.

All in all a fun afternoon was had although i really need a masterclass on metal use lol

Thanks for visiting x

♥ HUGZ ♥

A real Tweet!

I spotted this beauty in my garden the other day..

Think its a rare Houndtooth Crested Blueback.
Predominately found in warmer climates, because we've had a few hotter spells here I'm guessing it may have got lost, but what a treat to see one up close!

{materials used: Canvas fabric, Gesso, Garden Wire, Broken china and Spiced Marmalade distress inks, Houndstooth & Chicken Wire background stamps from the artistic stamper, brads, spacer beads and screw head snaps}

♥ HUGZ ♥

The Artistic Stamper DT Call

Just a quickie to let you know in case you hadn't already seen, Jennie over at The Artistic Stamper is on the lookout for some fun and fresh talent to join the creative team.... Do you like to get inky and messy and do you love stamping.. then this could be your big chance to become part of a fun friendly arty team.. for more info and details check out Jennie's blog Here. but dont dilly dally, you only have till the 6th sept! {extended till the 12th}

............................
...Mini Art...

This is just a little canvas i altered using some old inky dried up wet wipes, wire, grungepaper, matt gel medium and some of the fab new flower and background stamps from The Artistic Stamper available here.

I inked the grungepaper, then stamped the flowers, cut them out, inked some more, stamped some background onto them, layered them up, and then kinda fiddled with all the elements till i came up with something i liked and that you now see before you!

Hopefully you will start to see more inky messy fun as i'm slowly learning to balance my cute and altered side, and i'd like to thank those of you who have been following me even though my altered side has been in hiding for a while...

♥ HUGZ ♥

February Me 2 U

This is actually the very last Me 2 You piece i will be doing as a whole year has passed since the swap began.

I made a mini 4"x4" canvas

..

..

You cant see from the pic but the bird is on a stampboard tile and i used a textured paste to add some dimension, the letters are covered in glossy crackle as is the grungboard swirl.

I coloured the piece using gesso, acrylic paint and copics!

I have thoroughly enjoyed making each and every piece each month and am kinda sad its all come to an end.. So i would just like to say thank you to Claire for organising this swap and to all my fellow Angels who took part.

Think I'll have to start a swap or 2 of my own to keep me occupied each month!

Watch this space!

xx Hugz xx