W......

is the letter on the Craft Barn Alphabet Challenge.with circles in the background,( I nearly missed this )  My first choice was "windowsill" a word I have always liked saying. ( It has a kiss at the start, in the middle and a smile at the end, try it.)  but it wasn't in the old dictionary I am using for the definitions.  There are some really nasty words beginning with W, who knew I suffered from "wind-dropsy" I'll let you look it up, I am too polite to mention. In the end I settled for warpaint as it was a word I could play with.My old dictionary said "paint on the face and other part of the body on going to war, a practice among certain savage nations" don't know why I suddenly thought of football fans.Then I thought of how we like to don out warpaint before we do battle with the world.I gellied a background and  made a war mask and searched for suitable images so here it is.

 No copyright breach intended, if anyone has a problem please advise and image will be removed.

Experiments....

I thought I would explore a few ideas I found in my wandering...this is the link to a tutorial on making stencils with hot glue and this is my stencil and a test piece.

The I tried glue resist from here,  I didn't have the Elmer's Gel so I tried a Pritt Stick, the white one made quite a good resist

the green stick less so but I still quite like it,

The third thing I tried was from Andy Skinner, well my crackle didn't crackle, (I didn't have the same products) but I really liked the results, especially as the used two acetate prints I have had for ever.

and finally I saw this, again, I didn't have the exact products so my rust became patina instead but I would never have thought of using it on fabric.(the little square)

I had forgotten just how much I like the atc format.  My thanks to all the artists who so generously share their knowledge and gave me a lovely mornings play.  I do which Hobby Craft would up their game, my local branch is undertstocked and over priced. Or better still Michael's  and Joann's open up here and bring a little competition (and all their lovely products)

Maryland.....

 

is this weeks stop on the Big Road Trip.  This is what I have learned, it has very varied scenery and is a must unusual shape.

I noticed a town called Cumberland so, of course, I had to visit.  
It looks interesting and it has some very nice houses for sale.
Red Crab Soup is a speciality and this recipe makes it sound good, I might try it one day.
Baltimore has one of my favoured NFL teams, The Ravens, could be something to do with quaterback Joe Flacco.

My last bit of learning is that it was in Maryland that the Ameican National Anthem "The Star Spangled Banner" was written. So I made a tag as my piece of art work.

Virginia next, better start looking out some photographs because I have really been there.

A little book....

I "found" two more lanscapes in my gelli patchwork, desert sunsets.

(I wanted them side by side but blogger wouldn't play)
So delighted with my little creations, I made a little book.

Firefox and Google seem to be having trouble talking to one another at the moment, finding it very difficult  to leave comments.  Thank you Debbie, she is working on a beautiful rust cloth here.

Anyone found a good substitute for Google Reader yet?

A new handbag......

I wanted a handbag that was light, would go round my neck and was big enough to take my ipad!!!  I tried everywhere, why do they make handbags that weigh a ton before you even put your phone in them? So.. this is my new handbag, made from experiments while working with Jude Hill,  I built it round my ipad, but I wanted safe pockets for my cards and phone.  I went to buy a zip....£3.50 for the smallest size so I went to the charity shop, paid £1.95 for an old handbag and had a ready made secure pocket and phone pouch to put in my new bag with very little effort.

This front and back.

Louis Vuitton it ain't ..but it is just what I wanted.

More Gelli ,,,,

yes I know.....

I was thinking patchwork, crazy patchwork to be exact and then I thought what if I take some gelli prints and cut them as you would for starting a quilt. I took five prints and trimmed them to size.  I am sorry there are no step by steps, it all came together too quickly. Then I clipped them together and drew wavy lines on the back and then cut along these lines  so I have five piles of five. Then I took one from each layer and glued them to another sheet. These are the ones I liked best.

They are approx 10" x 7"
What I didn't realise until I started to play with the ones that I wasn't to pleased with as that of course this made then the perfect size to make ATC's.  As I looked at the pieces I'd cut I began to see little pictures.
So with a little help from water soluble crayons and a few judicious lines these emerged.

R is for....

Rubbish. This was my immediate thought in the Craft Barn Challenge this weekend and once there it wouldn't budge so not being the weather to rush out and pick daisies I went to play.  My first association was with the lovely Eric Morecame,  (One of his catch phrases). How many have happy memories of getting the family around the television to watch the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special? Then as I worked on the page the images I had seen of children searching rubbish tips, trying to find something to sell, became firmly lodged. So this is the finished page.

Gelli background, the word made in Paintshop Pro with lots of layers.  The rubbish made from pieces torn from magazines. The definition from the very old dictionary I am using reads " Rubbish.- fragements of buildings or any structure: ruins: waste matter:anything worthless."
I am sure, by now, many of you will have seen this video but I think it is worth repeating here.