Saturday 29 September 2012

Running: The Round Robin Christmas Altered Sardine Tin


The Round Robin Christmas Altered Sardine Tin

sign up by 11th Oct 2012.

In the spirit of collaborative art and Christmas who fancies joining in this funky festive swap?


My inspiration for this project came from this example I found on Flickr by SEVERNHAM (not very festive but still very cool)

There will be 3 to a group, you can be in as many groups as you like (depends how much you like tinned sardines/mackerel I guess :) ).

Each player will provide their own sardine tin.  It will need a good clean, I used an old toothbrush to get into the difficult bits and then left on a radiator for a few days and its now good to go.

A bit like pass the painting, each person will add some funky festive layers. The finished item can be made as a hanging ornament or as a stand alone, the hanger or feet can be added at any stage of the round robin.

There are only 12 Saturdays til Christmas, so there will be a quick turnaround.

Posting Dates 19th Oct, 9th Nov and 30th Nov and to be posted RECORDED for safe delivery.

To sign up please edit this thread to add your name to the list and then contact the person you are posting to directly using the email addy on the list recently sent out by Sarah, to get their mailing address.

I've not made an altered sardine tin before, if you have please feel free to share any wisdom that may help Thank You.

Group 1
1. Poshscot (Lou) posted 19/10/12  received layer2 29/10/12 posted 8/11/12
2. Sonja(wrightboysmum) Failed miserably at updating this bit. Lou Layer 2 sent to Sherry 12/11/12. Sherry layer 3 arrived 10/11/12.
3. Sherry - posted mine to Lou 8/10, posted Sonja's to Lou 25/10.  Received Lou's from Sonja - forgot to update that, sorry!  Posted it onto Lou 24/11/12.  Received my own tin back from Sonja 28/11/12 :)

Group 3 (this is an anything goes just NOT Christmas)
1 .Psychodiva (Pam)
2. Jasmine (Jazz27)  posted 23/10/12
3. Poshscot (Lou)  posted 29/11/12


Thursday 27 September 2012

Mail Art

I had a lovely surprise yesterday in my post :D  I was actually just off out and saw the postie walking towards my house - reading my card !!! lol Thank you to Sarah for brightening up a horrible rainy day ... I will post a pic once I have downloaded the camera !  My mail art will be sent very soon ... promise :D

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Mystery Gift for Michelle

A big parcel arrived for me on Friday, full of wrapped up goodies....it was like Christmas!



Here are my wonderful new crafty bits, all laid out on my workdesk.  I love the Prima crystals (lots & lots!), the stamps all of them, the alphabets, the papers, the paints....well everything actually.


Here is my mystery gift a beautiful handmade journal, I LOVE IT sooooo much. Thank you my secret gifter (I still have no idea who you are!)



Well I just couldn't wait to make something with my new arty bits.
So I got straight to work on the first page in my gorgeous handmade journal.


I had to make something from 3 of my new items, so I used my new journal, the art butterfly stamp, and the making memories transfer letters (love these).

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to my mystery giver. xx
I will treasure it forever. Michelle x

Ive got ..........

Just thought I would drop in and say ive got Efemera's canvas , so I will get it finished this week and give it to her saturday when I see her .

Tuesday 25 September 2012

More mystery goodies.....

When I took a trip to the local sorting office this morning on my way to work, with a red slip in hand, I was expecting the parcel to be the school trousers I'm waiting on for my 10 year old.....but no.....it was MUCH better than that :)  It was my mystery swap parcel - yay!! :) :) :)

All the way from bonny Scotland - thank you so much Lou!

The first item out of the box was this fantastic mini canvas - I think he has something of the Mighty Boosh about him :)  He's currently being proudly displayed on my desk at work as that's where I opened up my parcel, but I will bring him home soon.


And then there was all this too:


Think we can safely say that I've been properly spoilt :)

Loads of goodness in there, but my favourites are the handmade paper, the boot stamp, the black and white spotted washi tape, the texture tool, the textured chipboard alphas, and, most of all, the amazing corrugated card mini album that you can see there in the middle of the photo.

Here's a better look at it, it's properly awesome!


It's all put together with co-ordinated travel themed papers and embellies, and it's in just my colours, I can't wait to add some photos to it, I think I'm going to make a geocaching themed mini book with some of our best caching pics.

But that won't be for a while, so I've done something different for my "use 3 things make" - a page in my pair journal

I've used the boot stamp, the copper Marvy pen, and the washi tape.  And I also used some dark blue tissue paper that had been used in the packaging of my mystery gift.


It has ended up looking a little different from my usual pages but that's what's fun about using stash that has been picked out for you by someone else, it's fun to be pushed outside your box a bit :)

But at the same time as saying that, it's also very "me" - I used to live in my Docs, and still have a few pairs.  None all pretty and tie dyed like these though .... although I wish they were!

Thanks again Lou for the great gifts

MAIL ART FROM DONNA

Had a lovely surprise this week when I received this wonderful postcard from Donna.  So original and so much to look at in it. 



I enjoy all the complex cross hatching every time I look at it, and it's the kind of art I really like that starts a story running in my head.  It's propped up on my easel so that I can glance across at it when I'm working (playing) at my work table.

As a bonus I like the reverse posting side of the card just as much.  Again, plenty to look at and read.



I'm sure our postie, a very pleasant middle-aged man, really had a good time looking at it and reading it.  Seeing Donna's message to the postman makes me want to write on the one I send 'Deliver the letter, the sooner the better' as in Karen Carpenter's postman song.

I've been working on the one I have to send, and think it will be finished soon.

Thank you so much Donna.  The best postcard I have ever received.  Jez

secret swap - Donna Louise Rodgers

if you know me from my blog you will know I can spin a yarn, and if I can be verbose I will, so I warn you this goes on and on....

Sarah (Flo) gave us loads of time to do a making using three items from our secret stash swap,
I received my packet on Saturday,  and I solemnly swear I was not going to open it until I had 'finished' other outstanding work.




 you can see I lasted five minutes

I think we all know the other man's chips taste better, his grass is greener, and he definitely has better stash than me,

so we were all always going to be winners when we decided to swap stash with each other...


Sonja not only sent me some beautiful stash,  she also made me a gorgeous ATC and a lovely little note too



I then thought immediately of a plan to use three items, mainly taking inspiration from a small trinket and a rose that brought to mind Rene Macintosh.  The third item?  a piece of something that I used as a mask and went crazy spraying using WATER based sprays (pigment dye ones and ones with mica)

 I pulled out an unused canvas that has been taking up space next to my desk for over a year...(I would have sent it in secret stash only it is toooo big)







each layer was left at least an hour to dry between each application a second mask  was used when the red colour was introduced - in total, five layers,  three colour/sprays.

Then I drew a macintosh woman in pencil.  You can then paint with a damp brush, using the pre-sprayed paint to create a focal image, using more or less water to create the 'solid' colour. Hence the need to use water based sprays.

I love it when it looks like magic...
 I cut roses from the paper from the secret stash, applied lace and the trinket ( third stash item used)




fiddled a little. sealed it with acrylic wax so I don't have to panic if it ends up outside in the rain...and called it 'done',

Luke says I should call her Onion Woman






thank you so much Sonja I loved making my thing using three of your items and I still have oodles of super stash, you have been very generous...

  I  DO like this early Christmas thing....

Dx

Monday 24 September 2012

Secret Stash received and wow...

...there are so many goodies in my big box from my secret mystery swapper:  A big selection of scrapbook paper, stamps, paint, ink, ribbons, lots of embellishment, old comic, old sewing pattern paper, sequin waste, journal spots, really cool magazine pages and that's just a fraction of what's in there, not to mention the fabulous gift of 4, yes 4 fabulous mail art cards.  WOW, THANK YOU so much for your generosity.  Now to think about what to create, so many lovely goodies to play with :)


  
 . 
 

These are all so cool and I know my Daughters may snaffle a couple if I don't keep a close eye on them.  Thank You 

And this is what I made using scrapbook papers, magazine page, paints and chipboard pieces.

So many goodies still to play with.......



Sunday 23 September 2012

Incoming mail art .....

I've been spoilt this weekend.....

First of all this fantastic postcard from Sonja via the Mail Art Trail :


I LOVE Queen Viv, so this is just perfect for me

And then, a bit of "just because" mail art from Virginia:


and this one sums up my mood this week perfectly as I am very fed up thanks to the toothache from hell - aaarrrgghhhh indeed!

Thanks Sonja and Virginia, both cards are fab

Stash....

 Look what my stash swap partner brought me.....a beautiful kitty canvas and a whole load of goodies.


Isn't that a lovely piece of art!
and a fabulous sentiment.....Thanks Michelle!

Saturday 22 September 2012

Sam and Sue Pair Journal

Finally I have managed to get some more work done in my pair journal! I managed nothing over the entire 6 weeks school holidays, so thought it was about time I got something done.I was working in my journal this time and the theme is 'round and round'.

 I added the freaky skull like drawing to this page with Indian ink and a few more words.
 Some doodling of seed and pod heads
 Sue had done this page with the fab googly eyes. I added the speech bubbles and some red circles in the background.
 I loved this magazine image, I thought she looked like a giant sea anemone.
 Sue had started this page with the yellow background and the journalling spots with black stems. I added the word flower (which I am not to pleased with, I may have to paint over that!) and the little leaves to the stem, some washi tape 'grass' and darkened the background with ink and a flower stencil.
 Another of Sue's started pages. I added the clock hands, the stamped clock and 'time flies' image on tissue paper and the words.
 I had done the background on this page with paint left over from another project and then added a spider web and dandelions and some journalling.
 I used printed scrapbook paper for the background on this page, covered with paint and stencilling then added the balloon from an old book page and a compass and the letter stickers.
 Sue had started this page off with some yellow cogs so I just continued on that theme, layering up with masks and ink and stamps on tissue paper and then outlined the cogs to make them stand out.
Another of Sue's pages. I added the ruler stamp, tape measure washi tape and gave it a very light wash of watercolour.

I will get this in the post to you sometime next week Sue.
Sami x