Odds and ends

Here's a collection of odds and ends of things I've been playing around with over the last few weeks.  This is my journal page ready for July.

I altered a mint tin here: coloured with alcohol inks and added a bottle cap and some ideaology bits. There are micro beads filling in the bottle cap and beads on the lid and cord.

I bought this tin of pins because I liked the tin with its polka dots but I decided it needed a little label on the lid so I stamped some calico with a Tim Holtz stamp and the pincushion is a Hero Arts stamp that I stamped and coloured separately on calico and then ironed on with bondaweb.
And finally another apple: I traced round the largest and smallest nestabilities and outlined the shape with stitching.  The fabric is some I tie dyed a few years ago!

Apples again

I'm still playing about with apples on and off and am making a 6x6 inch square book incorporating different techniques using apples as the motif.  I die cut 4 apples and stuck them to the page to make a pattern and then noticed the negative shape in the centre.  I remember that this was an exercise when I took a creative sketchbooks class a few years ago and we were doing pattern making but it is not something I have played with since.  However this time I traced the shape and cut a stamp from thin foam and stamped with it using Big and Juicy ink pads.

 First of all I stamped it all over a page and it became a tessellated image, looking a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.

Then when I stamped it individually I realised it looked like a flower so I added a centre to it.

Then I stamped it in green and it became leaves so I cut them out, gave them a red flower centre and stuck them in a different pattern.

Good fun - must do more often!

June calendar page

Here's my June journal page already to go.  I used bunting stamps that I ordered from Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press and there are so many different designs in the set - they are great fun to play with.  The background is marbled using shaving foam - it smelt lovely for ages!

May calendar page

I'm really ahead of myself here and have done May's journal page already even though I've only just started filling in April.  Using my favourite colour here and the cute Paper Artsy houses.

Craft Stamper free ezine

Craft Stamper magazine is offering a free Best of 2010 e-zine on its website here.  I subscribe to the magazine and always find plenty of inspiration inside so it's worth checking it out.

Printer's tray

I received a Seven Gypsies printer's tray for Christmas and this week I got round to filling it up. I sprayed the tray with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls (present from Tim at the Artsycrafts day!) and used Basic Grey Scarlet Letter papers for the backing and then I just added lots of bits and pieces I had previously made, stamped, embellished etc. but never found a home for.  I made some fresh pieces too to fill up the gaps and I'm really thrilled with the result.

April calendar page

I also finished my April calendar page today, in plenty of time and without an apple in sight.

Tulips this month, one of my favourite flowers, and the polka dot stamp over the background - using it on everything at the moment.