Surprise!

I had the most amazing surprise yesterday. I ordered a book last week called Skulls by Noah Scalin, published in 2008. It is based on the hugely successful Skull-a-Day blog and shares images from the year long project to create a skull a day, fun projects to make yourself and a few fan creations. While Scalin was in the midst of his project I sent him some hand made crafty creations using hand carved rubber stamps I made from his own images. The surprise? My creations are in the book! I had no idea they had been published and it was only by chance that I went back to Skull-a-Day and found out the book had been published. Being a fan of all things creepy I felt I had to buy a copy and when it arrived and I was flicking through it, SURPRISE! Let's just say I was on cloud nine, ten and eleven yesterday. Although the book doesn't seem to be available on either Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk to buy new, it is available from several second hand sellers. If you like all things skully you might just love this book. The really spooky thing is that the book was published on my birthday in 2008.



In other news, I have been making new beads, indulging in some yarnful creations and trying to get work ready for the local exhibition next week. All after a week of dog sitting for my sister. No rest for the wicked.

Mini gift cards for Halloween

I am in love with Stampotique Originals' stamps. In particular the ones by Daniel Torrente with their scruffy, detailed, gothic style images. Last week I treated myself to some of the new release Halloween stamps including Halloween Cube 2 and Puss, Puss to go with Mr Stripes, whom I bought last year. They are just so cute and have a slightly forlorn look that is hard to resist. But then I'm a sucker for a sad pumpkin. However, I also came across Sue Roddis' fabulous bookmarks using the same stamps and had to try them myself. These are the results but instead of making them into bookmarks (I couldn't find mini magnets to use as closures) I have kept them as little gift cards. The two little squares at the bottom are made with offcuts of decorated paper, using shiny foils and texture plates. They are yet to find their destiny but would fit on little cards as toppers. They actually came about as I had a couple of stamped images left over and they just demanded to be used - and who am I to refuse a pumpkin!

Heavenly rottweiler and co.

My recent purchase of Inkadinkado's Dog's Life stamps brought a wonderful surprise with it. One of the stamps is a Rottweiler with angel wings. Those who have been reading my blog for a little while will remember that my sister had a Rottie called Stanley. He is wonderful. Like many people I was wary of Rottweilers. I never thought they were the demons they were portrayed by the media but, still, I felt they might be short tempered. As a pup Stanley was nuts. He paid no attention to anyone and bounced around like a rubber ball. However, he had his first birthday last week and has mellowed beautifully. So I was very happy to find a rubber stamp of a Rottie in a packet of rubber stamps that were mainstream. I had to make something so fridge magnets were the order of the day. A scrap of matt board, hand painted paper and black ink made the base. I added detail of the ginger fur with coloured pencil then used copper tape around the edge. A coat or three of Diamond Glaze added gloss and durability. The final step was a bit of magnetic strip and some Pebeo Metallic Touch dots.

As it happened there was also a stamp in the set like my sister's other dog, Oz. Being a silhouette stamp and Oz being black I didn't have to do much. A little flick of a paintbrush with white acrylic gave the dog Oz's trademark white chest flash and some aluminium tape toned in with the blue background.

I wrapped them up in a little handmade white card box, stamped with another Dog's Life stamp and gave them to my sister.

Post It post

I am a Post It note fiend. I also have a chronically bad memory which is why I need the Post Its. My bookcases, desk and any other available surface has Post It lists attached to it. What to do, what I've done and shopping lists galore. They come in square, rectangular, big and small. In short, I love 'em! So my mini Post Its inspired me to make some covers for them. They are made from hand painted watercolour paper that I rubber stamped using a selection of Inkadinkado acrylic stamps. The holes were reinforced with eyelets just so they last a little longer.

Whimsy Stamps

I just discovered a new stamp company today called Whimsy Stamps. It is brand new and doesn't have a web site yet so it only has a few stamps available for pre-order. The stamps are of cute style animals but are not sickly sweet in style. The are animals with attitude. So far there is a duck, a frog and a turtle. Can't wait to see what else they have in store. To learn more take a look at http://denisesstampingpage.blogspot.com/

Pumpkin pie

I was a little concerned by what I said in my last post about pumpkins being rare this year. It really is a big deal for me. I love my annual pumpkin carving. It gives me another outlet for my creativity. So I was inspired to create my own pumpkin out of wool roving. Craftside posted about making needle felted pumpkins this week so I followed the instructions there and made this little guy. I used a bright orange roving as the base and added a little 'cheesecake' (that is the name of the colour - I was not rubbing dessert over the surface of my creation) roving on top. The stalk was made from a lovely sap green roving. Don't fancy making pumpkin pie out of this one though.

The rest of the greetings cards I have been making are here too. Penny Black stamps were used on the kids cards and a Heidi Swapp mask came into play in making the paper for the anniversary card. It is going to take some time to get used to the mask. The end result is not as slick as I would like. I think I am done with card making until the end of the year when I have a couple of more birthdays. The notebook is a gift for a relative. A standard, spiral bound notebook covered in hand painted papers and rubber stamped with a Heidi Swapp stamp.

Penny Black Saturday

For those who use Penny Black rubber stamps - there is a new challenge blog available. Penny Black Saturday does just what it says. There is a card making challenge every Saturday with prizes and everything. I am new to Penny Black stamps myself. I do not use cute images often myself but recently I have been asked to make cards for children. The stamps are ideal for this, as well as for anniversaries and get well cards. You might want to take a look

This week's artiness

So, on to the arty crafty stuff - I have been carving stamps (some birds, bees and a nice foxy one [if I do say so myself]), painted background papers (take a look at Seth's tutorial for this technique) and started a mixed media nature journal (again, inspired by Seth at The Altered Page). The journal is still work in progress. The pages are not finished but I was pleased with the backgrounds. It is not something I want to rush - this being my first journal.

Another little piece of creative news - my assignment from my art course was returned to me at the weekend. My tutor was very pleased with my work and is looking forward to seeing my next submission. However, she asked me if I would allow her to put my pencil drawing of apples on the art school web site. She feels that it would inspire those wanting to take up the course. A big thank you to everyone for the helpful and supportive comments about my assignment work. They gave me the confidence to keep going and produce something worthy of being put on and art school web site.

Frogs and flowers

When the front door was renewed recently I lost the brass number that was attached to the old door. I have also had several delivery drivers ask 'Is this No.2?". So I needed a new number for the front door.

I made the one pictured out of a piece of 4 x 1/2 inch pine. After carving the number "2" using some wood carving tools I was given a while back, I then painted it in white acrylic and stamped with a froggy rubber stamp. I then drew a few extra bugs and coloured in with acrylic paint. Several coats of varnish later and I had a serviceable door number that hangs from the wall with a brass screw eye.

I also made the card using an alcohol ink background stamped with a hand carved hibiscus. Simple but effective.

More pictures

A few more bits and bobs. The hallowe'en piece was made using hand painted paper and hand carved stamps. It has to be one of my favourites.