Altered Cereal Boxes

I wanted to make a magazine holder and chose to use an empty cereal box.  I covered it in some old notepaper, gesso, die-cut flowers, hearts, leaves & butterflies all stuck with matt-medium and outlined with a black pen.

Actually, instead of magazines, I've got my decoupage kits in it. I got fed up with them slipping of the shelf; but now they're neat and tidy :)

A certain wee man asked if I would do one for him as well, so we set to work, (with the box I was going to make my own, second one with ~ ahh, the sacrifices, haha). I had very specific instructions, with no deviation from the plan allowed.

I gave the box a couple of thick coats of gesso and left it to dry thoroughly whilst he was at school. The stencils, colours and some of the stamps were chosen by him and I used acrylic paints for the colouring.  I had forgotten about the ticket stamp from the train set, but luckily he has a terrific memory.  He's very happy with it, bless him, and it is already in use.  Our special children find pleasure in the simplest of things.

I had another idea to collage some of his, extensive, collection of bus tickets and train tickets onto two more boxes for his train and bus magazines, but that produced a very intense, negative reaction, soo.... I think I shall shelve that idea, lol.

So, until next time................
.................eat cereal,
and thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Tag Tuesday - White on White

The theme for this week on the Tag Tuesday blog is White on White.  I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do, so I did a bit of googling, and boy, there is some gorgeous stuff out there!!  So, armed with lots of inspiration, I came up with this

I got to play with my die cuts and embossing folders am really happy with the end result.  I hope you will be able to pop over to the Tag Tuesday blog and see the other White on White tags.

Until next time.................

...............thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring # 19 Close Your Eyes

I was quite wary of this one, but once I tried it first on scrap paper, I thought ~ WooHoo!  I can do this!
Believe it or not - and please do believe - I did these flowers and the butterflies with my eyes shut!

Yes . shut!  The only penned bits I did with open eyes was the details on the butterflies and the painting.  **happy, jiggy dancing**  Such fun.  I hope you give it a go, and share if you do.


Until next time...........
..............thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

The Craft Barn's Q & L Challenge #10 Passion & Music and an Art Folder

The words for the challenge this time around are Passion & Music.  To see the DTs samples and other fabulous entries please visit The Craft Barn.

I knew what I wanted to do for this piece but needed to find a quote that fit.  I found a quote, but it doesn't have any attribution.  There are variations of it, but I prefer what I used ~ 'Passion Propels Your Dreams'.  I think that is lovely quote, and very true.

I got my inspiration from Bibi and all the stamps I used are from Rubber Dance; a new company, with beautifully detailed, deep etched stamps, in red rubber.

I did my background with Neocolor 2s and smooshed with a baby wipe.  After trying Bibi's 'easy face-lift technique', (which I've found isn't quite as successful as it was with the distress inks that Bibi used), I coloured most of the stamped areas with colouring pencils.

Thank you so much for taking the time to come and look.  I hope you like what you see.

Now if you recall this post where I shared my wee boys detailed drawing of, Granny in the Garden, I would now like to share with you the ring binder we bought and decorated yesterday, to keep his art works safe.

We used Stayzon to stamp the VW campers, (we haven't found a proper bus stamp yet), and he stamped his name himself using my wee alphabet stamps.  He has developed an admiration for dogs, but at a distance, and he loves spotted things, hence the choice of stickers used.  He took this up to bed with him last night so that he could look at it this morning when he woke. Awww.

Edited: Thank you to all who commented or emailed me about a bus stamp.  Who knew there were so many out there!?  But the wee fella has chosen and our order has been sent.  So it'll be bus stamping in my near future I think :) 


Well, until next time.............
.........thank you so very much for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Socks, Stripes & Spots

I have a double themed post today, and as you can see, this page shows a very colourful sock that I drew in pen and then coloured with watercolour pencils and a water brush.  The background is covered in the words Socks Stripes & Spots which I simply wrote in pen.

Socks is the current theme set by our host, Michael, at Creative Tuesdays and I have made it to look like a tag because the theme on the Tag Tuesday blog this week is Stripes and Spots, which I used several variations of, in my decoration.  The sock is stuck with just low tack tape; who knows, I may have need of a giant, sock shaped tag one day ;)

It would be nice if you have time to visit both blogs, spreading the love, and have a look at what other people have created for the themes; I am sure you will find lots to inspire you.

And until next time.............
...............thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Rubbings Take2 and A new sketchbook page

I enjoyed doing the leaf rubbings so much the other day, I wanted to do some more, and after a few folk mentioned bark rubbings, I wanted to have a go at that.  But - not being a spotlight person, I couldn't bring myself to take pencil & paper out to any local trees with me.  So, whilst on my walk yesterday I kept my eyes open for fallen bark, which I pocketed and collected a corresponding leaf.  I only found three, from an oak, a lime and a cherry tree, so I pocketed a few different leaves as well to fill up my page.

I really would like to get better rubbings of bark and think that would be better acheived on bigger bits of paper, so I've decided that the next time I go through the woods at the river, I am taking pencil and paper with me :D

My next bit of craftiness from last evening was a sketchbook page.  I had the page completed up to the orange/pink flowers, waaay back last year, and flicking through my book I decided it was the best background for a couple of my gorgeous new stamps from Rubber Dance.  ((Happy jiggy dance))  :D  I used the Robin, a seagull, the vine and some of the words from the sheet named #B3-M: A little Birdie.

They are gorgeous quality and stamp beautifully; so crisp.  I treated myself to a whole host of these new stamps and look forward to playing with them.   Psst - throughout May, there is FREE shipping wolrdwide too!  You can follow Rubber Dance here on Facebook for news, chatter and to keep up-to-date with all their new releases.

I went over some of the background with oil pastels to bring out the colours a little more, and apart from the stamping on my page, which I coloured with a mix of watercolour pencils and Neocolor 2s, I just added some butterflies from a napkin.  Oh yeah, the black leaves are stamped with black archival ink and were made using a piece of scrap rubber, from the edge of my birdie sheet, cut to shape, and then I made the veins with white neocolor and a waterbrush.  Et, voila............. I hope you like.

Well, I hope you have a crafty day, and until next time...............
..............thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #15 ~ Tag Tuesday ~ A Detailed Drawing

A very busy post today, so I shall get right to it.  First of all, here is prompt #15 from Sketch into Spring ~ 'Fill a page with rubbings'. This was lots of fun to do.  Some of you recall doing brass rubbings previously but not from nature. I can reccommend getting your leaves and and textured grasses under your paper and giving them a good rub with your pencil or charcoal. I used a pencil as I don't have any charcoal.  I quite fancy rubbing some tree bark, but would rather find 'discarded' bits and doing it in the privacy of my home, haha.  I'm not a public crafter.

Next I have my tag for this weeks prompt of 'Metal', over at the Tag Tuesday blog.  I didn't have any clue what I was going to do and then after seeing the superb examples on the blog, I was even more mystified! And then, I remembered I had some left-over bits of a tomato puree tube hidden somewhere in my stash, so I dug it out and pondered a bit more on how I was going to make it tag shaped.  ((Light bulb!)) I used my Artful Dwellings die in my bigshot! Yay, me!  Sorry ~ anyway ~ I then used an embossing folder to add some texture.  After that I dripped on my two alcohol inks, blue & yellow, (tried to make green but it didn't mix very well), and once that was dry I added some more colour with alcohol markers.  Finally, I added colour to a ring pull which I fastened on with a coloured brad.

My final share for today is what my wee boy called a 'detailed drawing'.  Something they are working on at school, as he generally does not like to draw.  He was so delighted with it, and do you know, he even went outside to check on the colour of some of the plants to see what shade he should use?!  And he even used a terracotta shade for the roof tiles.  I was so impressed, I thought I would show it to you here.

He has called it, 'Granny in the Garden'.  I Love it Love it Love it! <3  It now 'lives' in my bedroom on the wall.  Of course.

Well, until next time.........

.........thanks so much for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #14 Doodle Butterflies

This was another fun prompt to do.  Well, if I'm honest, it was fun on my second page........haha.  I don't know what happened the first time I tried drawing butterflies, but they looked like anything but butterflies!  If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.  And as my dear departed mum used to say....I am definitely trying!  Haha

I won't say that I am happy with each one of these, but I am happy with the page as a whole .  The background is orange pastel pencil, fixed with cheap hairspray.

The next prompt will be even more fun to do ~ Rubbings!  I hope the weather is kind enough tomorrow for me to rummage around the garden and on my walk, so that I can collect items to use.  Have you ever done nature rubbings?

Until next time...........
.....thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring ~ 12 & #13 Play with Lines & Shapes

Doodles.  Who doesn't love to doodle?!  But Alisa's idea for giving us these prompts is that she feels, 'having a good understanding and appreciation of lines will make you better at drawing'  Well I'll take, and need, any, and all the help I can get!  Haha.  She also says, 'Lines and shapes go together like peanut butter and jelly' - 'most drawings are simply shapes filled with lines'.  I had a lot of fun creating shapes & lines and just let my pen do the work.

I think my favourite from these two pages is the triangle and rectangle line.

Well, until next time............
...........thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #9 Capture the Weather

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this prompt.  Alisa, our teacher, lives across the street from the beach and so spends time down there, watching the ocean and the skys and their ever changing colours.  She advised taking photographs so that we can study them later, as obviously they don't move about and change, (unless you live in the wizarding world with Harry Potter of course).  I took my photos on Monday when the sky was changing minute by minute.  We had sun and light clouds, then dark clouds and rain; the sky was beautiful.

Now, I have no idea what colours to use to get different shades of greys and the blues in the sky and the whites/greys of the clouds, so I just played about with my paints until I got what I thought were the colours I saw in my photos.

I just made simple paint patches on my page and did some writing.  I enjoyed this and think I may explore colour mixing further at some point.

Well, until next time............
.........thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Craft Barn Q & L Challenge #9 Unique & Fame

Hello again ~ I do hope you don't mind another post from me today.  I also hope that my muse stays for a wee while and I can continue to create just as much, for - oh - at least a hundred years or so!  Lol ;)

This post is for the Quotes & Lyrics Challenge at The Craft Barn, where the words this time around are Unique & Fame.

I chose to use Unique and my quote is attributed to Oscar Wilde ~ A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

I used a page that I had been playing about with some homemade stencils on, an age ago, and just added to it, using various stamps, tissue paper, mulberry paper, inks, acrylic paint, oil pastel, white pencil and a wee gem for the large birds eye.  Finally, I did the writing with a Faber Castell pen.  Oh, and the greeny/blue dots were made with my finger in some paint.

To see other takes on this weeks theme you can find lots of links here.

Until next time.........
..........thanks again for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Tag Tuesday ~ Dolls

The prompt for this week at Tag Tuesday is Dolls.  Like other people in the group, I used to play with paper dolls as a child.  I loved to get them every week from the back of my favourite comic, 'Bunty'.  I enjoyed reading The Beano and The Dandy too! haha :D  Ahh, the memories.  What was your favourite childhood read?

I got the main images from a vintage site, I can't remember where I'm afraid, and the background is a mix of a page from a vintage book and a napkin.  The 'tie' is a clothes hanger style paperclip and I edged the tag with Milled Lavender distress ink.

I have used removable tape on the doll and her clothes in case I wish to take them off to play ;)
Here are some pictures of the doll trying to decide what to wear for the day.  You can click on the images for a closer look :o)

This?

This?

Or this?

I think I like the pink dress best.

Click here Tag Tuesday blog if you would like to see other Doll tags.

Until next time.............
..........thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Creative Tuesdays ~ Oak Trees

A second post from me today ~ I must be on a roll ;)

This time around, Michael, our host at Creative Tuesdays has asked us to depict Oak Trees, in whatever way takes our fancy.

I used a mixture of sketching and stamping, and did my colouring with watercolour pencils and an aqua brush.

I found an image on google for the oak tree and the stamps I used were the Acorn Faerie set from Designs by Ryn.  The sweet Song of the Acorn Fairy is by an early 20th Century English illustrator called Cicely Mary Barker.  I wrote the song on a tag onto which I had stamped a few oak leaves and acorns on top of some pale green watercolour paint.  I have since stuck the tag onto the page it is sitting on.

I hope you will have time to visit the other blogs in the co-op and see their depictions of Oak Trees.

Until next time...........
..............thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #8 Thumbprint Birds

Now this was as much fun as I'd hoped it was going to be :-D

Finger prints made with watercolour paints, with fineliner doodles to make them into little birdies.
Great fun.  Why don't you have a go?  Remember to share, if you do won't you :-)

Until next time.......
.........thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #7 Go buggy

I did it! Phew!  I'll be honest here, I nearly skipped this one.  I'm really glad I didn't but I do wish I wouldn't keep making things hard for myself!  I tried drawing from memory ~ very bad idea!  I tried drawing from images in a book ~ another bad idea; waay too many shady bits and sketchy lines = frustration.  In the end I made the sensible decision to google, easy to draw insects.  Et voila!  Simple enough for me and I enjoyed myself............WooHooo! ((high fives self)) :D

First I sketched my bugs in pencil, went over them with a fineliner then erased the pencil.  I coloured in with my watercolour pencils and aqua brush and then did the background with a pastel pencil.  I went over the bee and dragonfly wings with my clear Wink of Stella brush. Love!  And finally I sprayed over it all lightly with a cheap hairspray so that I don't smudge the pastel by accident.

The next prompt is thumb print birds ~ here are some very cute examples :D  Now surely even I can do that?  Oh dear, I do hope I haven't just jinxed myself *yikes!*  lol ;)

I've a long way to go with this class yet, and the new one Online Card Class starts today; oh my. Wish me luck with keeping up won't you?

What are you working on just now? Do tell.......;)

But, until next time..........
............stay well, and thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*

Sketch into Spring #6 Fill a page with pattern

I had lots of fun with this one.  So much so, that I ended up doing four pages!  Yaay!
Very simple patterns, coloured with watercolours.  Perfect for 'in front of TV' play, using a waterbrush.  No muss, no fuss.

#7 will definitely be a challenge for me ~ go buggy ~ 'Representational' will be the watch word for my attempts me thinks, Watch this space.........

Until next time.........
.......thanks for popping by to say 'Hi' *hugs*