Through My Window & Some ATCs

Hello :)

I've just completed an entry for a Circle Journal called "Through My Window". It was what you wanted to see through your window and it could be ANYTHING. And I was glad as although looking at my back garden, my neighbours back garden, the street over there and the East Lancs road is quite nice (believe me I've had much much worse views) if I could choose to see anything its unlikely my imagination would stop there. Instead my imagination went here...

So what is through my window? The text reads... "Through my window I see art and beauty everywhere, every colour and wonder of nature, every season and all of time brought together in harmony. I see dream upon wings and hear music that sings to my soul. I see poetry written upon flowers and under the stars a moonlit swing waits for me beneath rustling trees that glisten with magic."

The bottom two pictures are my matching sign in tag.

Now... ATCs. I joined the ATC swap in March because there was no tag swap and it was a free subject. I was itching to do something that wasn't confined to a specific subject as a lot of my swaps have had quite set themes lately. So I had to create 5 ATCs on whatever I liked. I rarely create the same piece twice and so I made 5 different ones and here they are:

1/5 - "Freedom"

2/5 - "Punk Rock Giraffe" (Octopode digital image)

3/5 - "Penny Farthing" - Stampotique image

4/5 - "The Hangover" - Octopode Factory image

5/5 - "Dreamer" - (using Anna Dabrowska-Pecocka's Dreamer papers)

Mystical Steampunk Cats???

They said it couldn't be done. And they, whoever they are, are probably right. But I have to say I think I did a pretty good job of creating a matchbox shrine on the theme of mystical, steampunk and cats. My swappee wanted any one of these themes but after some joking around on the swap thread (on UKScrappers) I knew I had to incorporate all three! At first I planned to do a large matchbox on the mystical theme with two smaller matchboxes inside one steampunk, one cats. But as often happens in the creative process something else appeared. And here it is!

It's fastened with some grungeboard hinges that i inked with Pine Needles Distress Ink. the hinges attach to two small brads. The outer box is covered with paper from the DCWV "Immortal Love" paper stack, based on the twilight series. Inside I've used hunkdory paper. I've used teal paint to cover the ends of the matchbox.

Underneath the lid is a steampunk image from Jem's Designs Steampunk for Men CD. I've inked a chipboard cog and glued it over the top and then placed a black cat on top of that. The rest is metal embellishments.

The inner part of the matchbox has three images, the middle one taken from a Josephine Wall cd and the outer two taken from a Jem's Designs Unicorns cd. I've attached the images to dark purple mirrorboard and attached them to the box with ten layers of foam pads so they reach the edge of the box. I added the tree charms to the message which follows on from the large "Imagine" on the outside (Imagine the mysteries contained within your soul)

And finally a side view complete with the usual mess on my craft table. Actually its hugely tidier than usual. Now just the wait to see if swappee likes it.

Steampunk Screen

Another swap for UKScrappers. This time a mini 8 inch high four panel screen as featured in Craft Stamper magazine. We were to create our own in the style of our swap partner. My swap partner wanted steampunk. As luck would have it I'd ordered a Steampunk craft CD that day from Jem's Designs and being quite a fan I had some chipboard and metal embellishments - not enough of course so I had to order more, you understand!!

In Craft Stamper one side was patterned paper and the other was more decorative and embellished so working along those lines I decorated one side first:

I added the smaller panels matted onto black cardstock at the end as I felt the panels looked a bit flat. On the other side I covered the panels with a background paper from the digi kit Robot Rust available at Daisytrail for Craft Artist. Then I added inked and embossed steampunk embellishments.

I took plenty of photos but haven't got the hanging of lighting on my camera yet. The first shot was taken with the flash on which on the camera screen looked a lot better. The second shot was without the flash. The first picture shows the colour more realistically.

I attached the panels with metal eyelets and copper wire.

Finally I made a card for my swapee:

Thankfully I've heard from her and she likes it. Phew!

Spaghetti or No Spaghetti?

I've just completed my latest entry for the UKScrappers Rock Ressurected Circle Journal. This month was Sarah's amazing idea of creating a box filled with records and empty record sleeves. The challenge was to pick an album we loved but whose cover we thought was well... rubbish! Then we had to create a better version.

I decided to go for Guns N Roses' "The Spaghetti Incident". The reason being it is an album full of punk cover songs and the cover is a plate of spaghetti - and Im not talking lovely spag bol either Im talking spaghetti out of a tin. Take a peek:

With it being punk, I decided to create a cover that was punk inspired. I had a look at a number of punk covers, punk art and the punk style and tried several different versions of the final cover. I tried stamping, painting, cutting, gluing... but the one I preferred the most was one I created digitally then stamped over with a Tim Holtz stamp using bright pink and bright yellow. So here's the reveal...

The record reads: "I chose this album because I love GNR and their Appetite for Destruction cover was amazing but this - yuck! Apparently it's an in joke to do with a fight involving spaghetti that the police called "The Spaghetti Incident". But it's a punk album so I've tried to bring the cover back to PUNK with punk inspired alpha and stamping. I've used bright colours associated with punk art and possibly the only early picture of GnR NOT wearing glam outfits, makeup and hair! It was the punkiest pic I could find. I defo feel less sick looking at this new cover!"

Oh and I realised after I'd finished that my record opens from the top not the side - ahh well, call me a rebel! And that's what punk is all about!

Hope you like it Sarah xx