Halloween Jewellry and Paper Artsy

I was delighted to be asked back to do another demo for Paper Artsy -

the theme being wearable art.

  I just love the Tim Holtz Poinsettia die and I've been thinking for a while that it's much too nice to keep just for Christmas, so I decided to give it a Halloween twist and make a necklace and cuff.   

I stamped the petals in gold using some Paper Artsy stamps, edged them with Glossy Accents and black glitter, and then assembled the flowers.  I then used a hot glue gun and added leafy ribbon or beaded wires between the petal layers.  Before fully cool, the hot glue allowed the petals and wires to be arranged at the right angle to give a good 3D effect.

If you would like to see more details about how they were made please pop over to the Paper Artsy blog here.

Midnight Garden and Paper Artsy Challenge

 I so love my garden at night - it changes into a mysterious magical place.  

I have been working on a series of collages about my Midnight Garden and in this collage I am looking at how the garden changes at night and the secrets it holds. 

There is a thread of time running through the garden - the transient sensory experience that is over so quickly when the dawn breaks; the elusive scents, the night creatures and insects, and the dark and shadowy images of the garden in it's strange moonlit colour palette. 

I am linking up with Paper Artsy for their latest challenge called Time.  

Coral Dreams - A Boat Full of Treasures for Paper Artsy

I was so thrilled to be asked recently to do a blog post for Paper Artsy, on the theme of stencils.  

The finished piece was a little boat surrounded by coral and filled with seashells and other special treasures!  Step by step instructions and information on the techniques I used are on their blog here.

 

Spring Nests and the Paper Artsy Challenge

The new challenge over at Paper Artsy is 'deconstruction' - using items, materials or products in a way they weren't originally meant to be used.

Leandra's video inspired me to get out my box of old thread spools, and after some deliberation I decided to make a nest - the birds in my garden are looking very smart and I think they are beginning to choose their mates and gather nesting materials ready for the Spring!

I used some vintage sheet music around the spool, and the nest was made of feathers and moss, with a little egg on the top!  The miniature tag is ready to be decorated with an initial or message when I decide who to give it to!

Winter Seed Head and Paper Artsy Challenge

I have just finished this little piece of work that I'm entering into the 
Paper Artsy challenge - the subject is miniature art, and on their blog I was particularly inspired by a domino with a pretty bunch of wire and bead flowers attached.  I immediately thought of seeds and twigs! 

I found this seed head in my studio and I used copper gutta around the outside.  I filled it with silk clay, into which I stuck wired beads and then wrapped wire around the stem - I also used Treasure Gold on the outer shell, on the stem and on top of the clay.  The bowl is about 3cm in diameter.

Winter Garden Ring Box and Paper Artsy

As soon as Paper Artsy announced that their next challenge was to create a piece of miniature art I knew what I wanted to do - I have a collection of old ring boxes and I wanted to make a winter garden with one of them!   

I used old linen, twigs from the garden, pearl beads and matte glass beads, seed heads, wire with beads on the end, and a vintage pearl button.  I also used a little Treasure Gold around the edges of the ring box and on the twigs to give a soft shine when the light catches them. 

More of my Winter Garden art can be seen here, and why not pop over to

 Paper Artsy to see their beautiful and inspirational miniature art - I was inspired by the little village on a rock, and I wanted to create my own tiny individual world.

Tyvek Lacy Papers

The Paper Artsy Challenge last week was to make art with fragile papers, and it coincided nicely with me seeing a fab technique over on the super-talented Angela's blog at Felix the Crafty Cat - she laid Tyvek over a rubber stamp, covered it with greaseproof paper and ironed it to create some amazing and beautiful lacy papers. I just had to have a go - I knew they would be perfect for the challenge - you can see how I used the scraps of Tyvek for my collage here.

 My collection of fragile papers included some scraps of delicate 'paper' using Angela's technique - although they look fragile, they really weren't!  In fact they were as tough as old boots and I had a really hard job tearing the bits apart for my collage!

 I originally tried working with Lutrador but nothing happened - luckily I found some scraps of Tyvek I didn't know I had and here are the results, which I'm quite pleased with. 

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.