Grimms Fairy Tale ATC Book

The lovely Rebecca is running an ATC Book swap on UK Scrappers, where instead of simply sending each member of the swap a selection of loose ATCs back, she will bind them into a little concertina book.  I have one of her creations on a different theme, which I need to take photos of and post here because it is amazing, so I am looking forward to seeing how she presents the Grimms ATCs.

My chosen story was 'The Golden Bird', and I started by stamping am image coloured with distress markers. I was going to use a stamped bird, but I decided the image was too big so I used charms instead. With hindsight I think I made the wrong decision, but never mind.  Here are a selection of the ATCs that are winging their way over to France, plus the prototype with the stamped bird - what do you think?



A new Chunky has arrived!

The third Chunky ATC swap on UK Scrappers is now in full swing, titled Chunky 3: The Full Chunky.  My own production is a little behind as I has to get some ATC's ready and sent to France, so they needed to go first. 

Mt theme was 'Under the sea', suggested by my daughter as I couldn'r decide what I wanted.  As soon as I sent in my request for this theme though, a certain song started playing in my head and must have been playing in my swappee's head too while she was making it for me!  Even before the wrapping was fully off, I could see tentacles, and when fully revealed it was an Octopus' garden, complete with seahorses and a handmade mermaid, although the crowning glory is the quivering octopus on the top!

This came from Lynn, who didn't take photos of it so I have put three on to show as much as I can.  This is her first chunky, but she has done a wonderful job and it brightened my day!



Swap Goodies

I have taken part in several swaps this year, and have received some gorgous works of art in exchange for my own pieces.  Unfortunately I have been a bit slow popping pictures on my blog!  Anyway, here are a few:

Chunkies:

I received my first chunky from Rebecca:  My theme was Freedom, and she included all my favourite things, as well as a great quote on the back.

My second Chunky was a Gothic one from Audrey, and after going AWOL on its way to me it eventually turned up safe and sound.

I also received a fabulous altered tin:

Collage Swap

AS part of the Secret Swappers I am taking part in a collage swap.  The idea being that we each end up with 4 different sized/shaped pieces from each person taking part, using their chosen colour/theme.  Mine was vanilla and keys, I had to make 12 of each piece but as they are identical I took a photo showing 2 of each.  Once we get all our pieces back, they can be pieced together into a collage.

Wild Animal Chunky

I have made another chunky for a swap on UK Scrappers, this time on a wild animal theme;  her favourites are giraffes and meercats so I went for an exotic animal style, with a couple of handcrafted items from Africa  (the zebra and the fabric panel on the back)

Tinchie swap - the Road Trip

The latest swap I have been involved in on UK Scrappers is a tinchie swap; this involves altering a mini mint tin to a designated theme and sending it to your swappee.  Mine was for Rebecca, and she wanted the theme Road Trip.  Unfortunately I got a bit confused what I was doing and started making a tin on a completely different theme entirely, which wasted two weeks.  As a result, I didn't have much time to plan and carry out the alteration so it had to be done using stuff I had to hand or could find locally.  I hope Rebecca is not too disappointed by the end result.

Box Frame Shrine

A couple of months ago I picked up a double box frame from a charity shop, and have been trying to decide what to do with it ever since.  I decided last weekend that it would make an ideal shrine, and what better time to make it than over Beltane?

It was already painted a weathered white, which I quite liked for the outer part which would represent the Maiden.  I removed the plastic flowers and twigs that were glued in, stood it on it's end and started painting it.  The lower recess was painted red to represent the Mother, and to house a battery tealight to which I had glued an acetate strip printed with one of my favourite images. This is of an amazing wall mural of a Red Goddess.

The top recess was painted in black to represent the crone.  (As you can see the red and black are only roughly painted; this is because I intend to line the recesses with other images, stones, shells etc as I find suitable ones)  At this point I realised that I didn't have a figure suitable to sit within the recess - I have a few moulded and mini versions in stone of the Venus of Willendorf but they were too big or too small.  I ended up buying a block of black fimo, to which I added a small amount of white and red which can't be seen. This was moulded very roughly, as I wanted her to have an ancient and prehistoric feel and look.  Once she was baked I washed her in water from Chalice well in Glastonbury.

I added a moulded white fimo face to the frame section, and printed out  a poem in red, white and black which I cut and added around the outside of the frame and each recess.  To make the frame stand, I glued two old cotton reels at the back, these were from a box of cottons given to me after my grandmother died, so I am very please that something of hers has gone into the making of this shrine.

The shrine was finished as it is now on Beltane, and dedicated that evening; however it is still a work in progress!