Tuesday 20 April 2010

Chinese Chicks

For the new challenge site The CD Sunday Challenge

Image and backing paper from Joanna Sheen's Eastern Treasures CD
Mounted on toning cards and gold mirror board and embellished with ribbon, two gold metal butterflies and gold Card Candy.

Wednesday 31 March 2010

You are what you eat...

....is the challenge at Three Muses this week.
When I saw what the challenge was I immediately thought that I could no better than Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Milan 1527 - 1593)  Italian painter. He began his career as a painter and designer of stained-glass windows for Milan Cathedral. In 1562 he moved to Prague and became court painter to the emperors Ferdinand I and Rudolf II. He also painted scenery for the court theatre and became skillful at illusionistic imagery containing allegorical meanings, puns, and jokes. He is known for his eccentric and grotesque Mannerist compositions of fruits, vegetables, animals, landscapes, and implements arranged to resemble human forms. The style was regarded as being in poor taste until the Surrealists revived the art of visual punning in the 1920s.
All I did was add an appropriate frame with the addition of the four pears in the corners as I really couldn't improve on the original!!

Wednesday 24 March 2010

It's Four O'Clock..........


and time for the challenge at Three Muses as well as a cup of tea!
Credit to Irene Alexeeva for all the ingredients for this fantasy.

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Mona Incognita

 Original image from The Sum of All Crafts.
Font is Speedball3

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Sir Christopher Wren and his creations

For the Three Muses challenge this week
I have always considered Sir Christopher Wren to be one of England's greatest architects and to my mind infinitely better than today's practitioners! 
I found this lovely background image on the internet showing many of the towers of Wren churches in the City of London together with the dome of St. Paul's; the portrait of Sir Christopher is also courtesy of the internet; and, as he was reputedly a freemason, I have added the square and compass to represent this.
Font is 'Caslon Antique,

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Thursday 11 February 2010

A Welcome Letter




For this week's challenge at Three Muses 
For some reason I couldn't post the image directly from my computer but had to go via Photobucket.
Credits to Pixel Music for the background which I turned into a giant postage stamp, and to kingkongphoto123 on Flickr for the main image. 
The letters etc. are from a CD of vintage ephemera I bought a while ago. 

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Longing

For the Collage Obsession challenge this week
 
Clarabelle hoped that she had finally saved enough to buy the new shoes she had been longing for for ages.
Would that shoes only cost $3 nowadays! 
Credit to ArtbyChristi on Flickr for the background advertisement. 

Monday 8 February 2010

Saint Paul's

This card was made for a forum swap which was for a shaped card. I know that it has already arrived with its recipient so it's safe to post it here.
 
I took an old photo of St.Paul's and created the effect of a charcoal drawing in PSP. I printed it on the front of a 300gsm A5 (A4 folded in half) card and then printed it out four more times on matt 160 gsm paper to create several decoupage layers. I then printed the sky photo (one of my own) on an A5 sheet to create the background/insert. 

Sunday 7 February 2010

Happy Family

For the challenge at Sunday Postcard Art which is one of my favourite things 'Cats'
 
Just playing around with PSP and images from my computer and Google 

Wednesday 3 February 2010

George and Arthur are back!!!

For this week's Three Muses Challenge which is 'Birds of a Feather'
 
George and Arthur strut their stuff as Birds About Town.
Credits to Lorie Davison, Itkupilli, Pixel Music and Google for the ingredients. 

Tuesday 2 February 2010

A Plethora of Pairs

For the challenge at Collage Obsession 
 
My first entry to this fairly new challenge.
Credits to Lorie Davison and Studio Tangie (Tangie Baxter) both @scrapbookgraphics.com; 
to cajoline-scrap.blogspot.com 
and to Honey Designs.
Font for the Two Times Table is 'SKETCHY' 

Sunday 31 January 2010

Chocolate Thoughts

For the challenge at Sunday Postcard Art
 
Images from the internet. 
Font for Chocolate is 'Caslon Antique' 

Friday 29 January 2010

Heavy Metal

My 3rd card as Guest designer for Crafty Ann's Challenge which this week is 'Metal'
 
I used another one of Ann's great digital stamps which I coloured in PSP to produce some metallic effects. I then cut it out and mounted it on two layers of metallic holographic card and cut out the words 'HEAVY METAL' from the red holographic card using my Cricut. The whole was then mounted an a black base card which unfortunately looks brown in the picture. The holographic effect is, of course, much better in real life!

Thursday 21 January 2010

Weekend Fliers

For this week's Three Muses Challenge

Superman had had enough of these weekend fliers getting in his way when he was trying to rescue someone!
Credits to Lauren Bavin 'Seriously Steampunk', ArtByChristi and wackystuff both of Flickr., and Google

Saturday 16 January 2010

A Fishy Journey

The Three Muses challenge this week is 'Water'

And since it's been pouring with rain here since the snow melted it wasn't difficult to be inspired!
Credit to Kubivet and Pixel Music for the ingredients.

Friday 15 January 2010

My 2nd DT card for CraftyAnn

Challenge # 6 at Crafty Ann's was embossing - dry or heat or both.

I used another of Ann's digi stamps for this and coloured it with Promarkers. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder for the pale layer and a texture plate from Sizzix for the darker layer, both in my Big Shot Express. The leaves and fern decoration were done with punches which also, in the case of  the leaves, emboss the veins. The final touch was some Card Candy in a milk chocolate colour.

Wednesday 6 January 2010

I'm No Angel

The challenge this week at Three Muses is 'Angels'
so I decided in my normal contrary fashion to go for the opposite - No Angel - inspired by the title of one of Mae West's films.

Font is 'SpeedballNo3'

Sunday 3 January 2010

Let's Dance

The challenge at Sunday Postcard Art this week is 'Top Hat & Tails' so who else could I use but my favourite star - the fabulous Mr. Fred Astaire?

So here he is digitally altered in PSP for this Post Card .
Font is 'ADVOKAT MODERN'

Friday 1 January 2010

New Year,New Inspiration!

A Very Happy New Year to you all
I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the guest designers for the challenges on Crafty Ann's challenge blog this month and this is my offering for the first challenge which is 'New Year, New Inspiration'

 
Ann's instructions were ' Be inspired by something new – new stash for Christmas, a new technique or a new idea you've picked up while blog hopping and tell us what the new bit is.
My new things were one of Ann's fabulous digital stamps, and two of her backing papers - all available from her shop; experimenting with subtle digital colouring in using PSP; and Card Candy (the eight pink circles which resemble brads). I also decoupaged the bird and added some extra flowers which I clipped from the original image.