WOYWW #121 - Not a Desk, but A GREAT Day!!

 Well, I am just getting back today, and have no desk yet, so the lovely Helen has linked me here and THANKS to her again... This is my younger grandson, starting a GREAT day of red rosettes for the family!!! he does Best Turned Out Pony, Tack and Rider Lead Rein and the judge was MOST impressed with the way Rosie looked... well done Fred, with tack and Miranda with horse!! Also Matthew for being just SO cute!!

 Fred took her in the ring, in hand, and won... she trotted so nicely... see how beautiful her white socks are?? Jayden washed and washed them till they shone!!

 Jayden carried on the day with Best Rider Lead Rein and I think you can see just HOW PLEASED he is!!
His new jacket matches Fred's and he is very proud!!

 Then this is the Fragrant Freddie on Jade... I am about to buy her, as her present owner needs to sell and has given me a great price... Miranda and I LOVE her and could not think of letting her go!! Miranda is learning to ride her. Fred had no pressure then, us having won 3 reds so far, but you can see, he DID win Senior Best Rider!! Woo Hoo...

So here we are back in the lorry with our haul of 4 first places!!!! Best day ever. Miranda is holding the set of reds, and me??? I am taking the photos, I am chef d'equip, and picnic maker, and I pay to enter the classes!!! But we have a good time together.

Hope you did not mind me having a bit of a brag??!! No art, just my lovely family chez Julia this week, so thanks for looking and I shall pop and see YOU when I get home
Love and Light
Frankie
xx

WOYWW #120 and Second Art Journal Pages + Birthday 66

Well, officially I don't  have a desk today folks, even though it has rolled round inexorably to that mid-week day where we all go a-spying courtesy of Julia at Stamping Ground. That is because I am from home... and off to cruise down the Nile!!!  I feel a Laura Denison vintage suitcase coming on, with an ickle scrappy book of photos and LOTS of  Egyptian stamping going on, when I get back!!! I have the pattern all ready to start!!!

So what can I show you today? Well, I have been playing again - only for a little time, as I have had another awful week with mum, and could not settle to much at all... even TIO has taken a back seat, but the team has done good stuff as ever!! so here goes with my Time to Make Art pages...

 This is the double spread then... lots of clocks and stuff... I MUST get a couple of large alphabets for the lettering... anyone any suggestions at a reasonable price!!??

 Here's how I started, with gessoed page and blue acrylics... great fun splashing and smooching on the paint... VERY theraputic... did this background a couple of weeks ago...

 Then some copper, and afterwards, some blue and pewter Viva paste, through a mask... it was doing this that gave me the idea for the VERY red tag on TIO a couple of weeks ago... that's when I realized the FULL import of this stuff!!

 Left hand...

 Right hand

 and now for some detail... a TH dotty stamp and some gesso and mica smooched  across the page behind the writing, printed on my inkjet, and distressed...

 OOO, I LOVE all this great texture - well you know me folks, it's one of my fave things that is!!! and a TH clock stamp for good measure.

Here is a wonderful conglomeration of all those pastes and stamps and clocks, etc ... I am lovin it!!! WHY did I dally and refuse to try out this lark?? I am not into the diary side of the journalling, but want to do pithy sayings and phrases to inspire and remind myself of stuff...

By the time some of you read this, I should be sunning myself, I hope. We have just looked up the weather and it is VERY hot, so I shall be in my element... a whole week where my arthritic aches and pains (and my poor old mum!!) will take a back seat!!! Thanks for looking and please do comment... I am hoping for some internet time to visit you back...

OH yes... and it's my 66th Birthday today, so Huppy Burpday to ME!!! (equinox baby, and it's all downhill to crimble now!!! boo...)
Love and light
Frankie
xx
PS if you have not linked your birdcage on the appropriate linky thingie... would you please do it, so they are all there together like a gallery for us all to see... taa
xx

WOYWW #119 - Tim Holtz Birdcage Swap Results

It happened, and without too much of a hitch!! One poorly person, and one person away because of a new-born, but otherwise I have not heard of any problems... I expect not everyone has received their birdy cage yet, as many were coming from overseas, but hopefully they will all show and tell about the one they made, here today, via the linky thingy at the bottom of this post... They could be tags or postcard sized. So here is the one I made, and sent to Hels...

 Yup!! Guess what??? It's a tag!!! Hels VERY kindly called me the "Queen of Tags" and said I do the most AMAZING taggy art, on her blog!!! WOO I was SO pleased... but, you are now asking yourself, but where is the birdy cage, arn't you?? Well, you see, the truth is I CHEATED!!

 Yes, I made a tag, but also made a 6"x4" postcard, so I could fill up all the spaces with the ideas I had for this piece!! So above, and below, are both pieces in process of being painted, ready for thier embellies...

 I used some acrylic paint in brown first, then a layer of pva glue with another layer of paint on top, then dried to get these fabby crackles. The thicker the glue, the bigger the cracks so I went for a mixture...

 I had several ickle birdies to make and here are two of them - the larger one was for the front, as you can see below...

 So how did it work with two pieces then?? Well, I decided to fasten them together with some hinges. I would have liked to have real hinges, but don't have any just now, so I made them by cutting a TH die top on each end of the grunge paper, then painted...

 So this is how it stands up to be displayed. It was great having 4 sides to deorate!!

 Here is the inside, showing the bird letters, which were TH alphabet pieces fixed to the grunge blocks, painted and distressed...

 I used rub 'n buff and Viva Inca Gold pastes to colour over the paint...

 Voila, finally, my birdy cage, complete with ickle bird, who sits outside, looking at the bits and pieces... the "lock" diamond is a Vintaj filigree, distressed with paint and paste. Hung from the holes is a chain with a pen nib, bead, metal disc, light bulb and tiny penny farthing!!  At the top is a hitch fastener for the cage to hang from. I also added a spinner and gears and a pocket watch I made from an idea-ology type tag... the 300 is to commemorate my 300 blog posts to that date...

Just a small view to show the key, lock and metal tag on the right hand side... I put the tag through a folder, then shone it up... well thre HAD to be a tag somewhere, eh??

 And now for the back of the project... one of the ickle birdies has sat on the clock hands, mounted on to a large rosette, escaping from his cage beneath!!

 I embossed with several different powders, as on the large one... the green is a wonderful verdigis one I have had forever, it's wonderful stuff... oo I do love embossing... I pressed a stamp into the birdies whilst they were still hot, to make the illusion of feathers... I think embossing powder is like using alchemy...

Hurrah, you shout, this is the end... well yes, this is the last photo of the piece. I think I have showed you most of it... and I hope you liked it. I LOVED it and Hels tells me she loves it too!! Most people who have contacted me say they really loved doing the swap, and want to do another one, so I shall organise that soon... not sure whether to do another birdy cage or to do a different die?? Let me know what you think, if you are interested at all. I would like to put this piece into a challenge or maybe two, so I have chosen

Shopping our Weekly Stash - vintage/distressed/shabby
Make it Monday - anything goes
Gingersnap Creations - crimping/pleating

Now for the real reason for WOYWW - chez Julia (who joined the swap, so that was gudd!!) there is an admirable opportunity to snoop around others' workspaces and stuff, so hop over and take a look... below is my disreputable desk!!!

However, it's full of good intentions, as I am sorting my stamps into disc cases... found LOADS in Pete's cupboard, so I am turfing out the discs, and popping some stamps in... this set on the left is from the ineffable Wendie Rhodes in conjunction with Kanban... so glad to see her back!!

So that really IS the end... Thanks for coming to look and getting here, because it has been a marathon!! I am thrilled that so many of you visit me these days and I look forward to seeing your work too...

Love and Light

Frankie

xx

Simon Says and TIO # 96

 Wanda has chosen to challenge us to show some fashion at TIO this week, and Simon Says Stamp and Show some steampunk, so I just had to conflate the two... especially as I just had some new stamps from Wendie Rhodes at Kanban Crafts. So my tag is on the right, attached to a frame of the tray...

 Wendie's images are very steampunk fashionista... I just added some metal elements to dress them up a little, chains. a key, roses, necklace etc...

 I made a terrific pair of backgrounds, for the tray and for the tag, by stamping layers, as always and embossing in clear ep...

 I also made some more of my roses!! well Lynne's really but I have adopted them as my own!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE making them, and they look so good with these metal twists... I have been asked to show how I make these with my twisty thing, and I will, soon...

 Here they are close up and personal... don't you think they are yummyiness??? and they go so well with the TH gears...

 Here you can see the paper I  made  and the ickle pocket watch... . nice Martha Stewart flutterbies too... also, some more gears and cogs...

So here is my tag for TIO #96 as part of my project for Simon Says Stamp and Show some Steampunk... hope it goes down well in both challenges, and any others I might find where I can slot it in!!! Thanks for looking and commenting... I am thrilled by the reponses I am getting to my work these days...
Love and light
Frankie
xx

I also want to enter this piece into the following challenges
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - tag
Anything goes Challenge -

Art Journaling Page Debutante!!!

So, she said she wasn't going to do this, didn't she???

But she has gone and started a journal!!!

I know I have been saying I would not start an art journal, but the temptation to play got the better of me, folks!!. This is NOT the first page to be started, it is the second in the book - which I made myself, incidentally, from cut down A3 watercolour paper, and bound using my Bind it All FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME!! Yey!!! Cynthia (aka Rainbow Lady) will tell you I have had that beastie almost as long as I have know her, and NEVER had the gumption, nouse or wit to use it before!!!

 Well this was the page at an intermediate stage - thought I had taken a piccie before this one, but no!! I began by drizzling pink and orange acrylic paint randomly on the page, and smoochy-spreading with an old RAC card!! I then dried it and dribbled a bit more - the paint, not me, you understand!!! The odd red dots you can spy are my fired brick distress stain, which dried with a shine on the acrylic base... very interesting... I also did a little direct to paper with a multicoloured, shiny ink pad...

This shot looks different colours, but it's just the lighting, when the sun's not in my craftly'oom... the difference really is down the centre, where I hated the white join, so I took my inktense pencils and scribbled and washed with a water brush... Then the tearing began. I recently could not resist some oriental papers Dawn was showing - might have been last at QVC - well they are beautiful, but just had to be used - it's ok, she has two other sheets in the pack!!  One is patterned and the other has faint oriental script on it. The stamped script is a true old favourite called plum blossom from Stamp Addicts.

 Next it was even MORE of a wrench to cut into a sheet or two of my Kodomo, 12"x12" papers, bought for me moons ago by my lovely daughter, Miranda... The lady was the main image to use, but I cut up the patterns round her for a "Teecha Moore" border. I also dotted some of the flowers around...

 This is my mantra - "Keep Your Balance" but I am finding it very hard with all that is going on with my mum... so I thought I should remind myself, on my debutante page... oriental is all about balance, so it seemed fitting... I don't yet have any large alpha sets of stamps, so I used my TH die, cut out of black card... I think it works...

 So, here is one of those blousey butterflies, up close and personal... I saw Hels use it a long time ago and HAD to have it - great saleswomanship there, darlin!! - I think it is by Jo Capper Sandon for Stampotique - oh my, there are SOOO many of her stamps I MUST have... I stamped and embossed with black archival and clear ep - well it would be rude not to now, cos she always does folks!!! - then scribbled inside the images with my inktense pencils and Lyra crayons, wonderful for this kind of work... my waterbrush smooched the colour around, making the images pop, but stay strangely semi-transluscent... How could I have refrained from playing like this for so long, silly ole me!!!!!!!

 There are other ickle flutterbies knocking around, and the JCS one here is stamped separately and cut out.
To follow, are some more detail shots showing the collage and stamping, and the JCS butterflies up close again, just cuz!!!

So there you have it - my first ever finished page. I am lovin it actually - and she's not at ALL big-headed folks!! - it's a long time since I did something so purely and blatently oriental, but it is STILL a great GREAT favourite of mine, and what I was originally known for - hence the name and the blog design and music ... which seems to soothe and please a great many people, I am told!!

Well, that was a marathon, but I hope you enjoyed my journey, and will pass a comment, as usual, cos that's what it is all about - sharing and caring... Thanks for looking. I am for my bed now, perchance to sleep, let alone dream!!!

Love and Light

Frankie

xx

I would like to share this at

Stamp Something - anything goes, cos they are closing... :(