Thanks Penny - A Makeover

You may have noticed Arty Retreat just had a makeover :)
I hope you like it as I adore it and my wonderful friend Penny Duncan designed it for me
Isn't she brilliant ? If you would like to see her wonderful art backgrounds and headers and her gorgeous art work please pay her a visit. Just click on the moving widget at the top of my sidebar to visit Pennys blog

Altered CD & Postcard

Sunday Postcard has a theme 'Life is good' and I thought the loveliest thing at the moment is spring and the celebration of colour beginning to burst forth with all the fresh new flowers and trees and the beautiful birds singing in the gardens each day.
Here is my mixed media interpretation for the challenge

I also decided to do an altered cd for the weekly challenge over at my own craft site. This one is to alter a cd in any way you want to. Here is my version. I used 2 cd's one plus a mini cd in the centre. If you look closely you will see the leaf pattern i stamped into the outer part with stazon black cherry. The cd's was first alcohol inked with red and gold and yellow tones like butterscotch, rust and gold mixitive etc. the outer edges were blackened with stazon too and then i layered and added embelllishments that i further inked.

Catching Up

I am trying to keep up in between everything and hope to get around to all my friends blogs as i get the time. I hate missing a thing lol but guess its just too hard to see everything when you dont get much time on pc.
I have a couple of my makes to show you that i havent shown before so thought i would share today. Hope you like them



















Mixed media and collage necklace


















My large paper flower brooch - Many thanks to my wonderful friend Jude for the wonderful prima flowers she sent me which not only brightened my day but along with her care and friendship have brightened my month. Thanks Jude . See Judes blog Here



















Angel watcher collage on stampbord














The beautiful notebook and slide mounts and images were a gift from the lovely Lottie :) Lottie's art work on one of the slide mounts really captured my heart and after seeing it and commenting Lottie shares some of the few she had left with me plus this gorgeous altered notebook See Lotties slide work here
I have given this a go and below is my first altered slide mount. ( it didnt photograph well and what looks like yellow is actually gold lol - Thanks again Lottie :)

The Vagabond

coming from nowhere , with nowhere to go ...I named this one the Vagabond as it suited , however none of that matters if you have a big heart ..

Tribute to Mothers everywhere

I made this atc called Mother Of Pearl ... due to the fact that its about mothers and the tummy on the right hand side lady statue is made from mother of pearl. Its my little contribution and tribute to mothers and well just women (whether a mother or not) all around the world. Hope you have had a happy mothers day everyone !!

Experimenting Again - Lemon Burning

Lemon burning technique has been used to burn the edges around the torn stamped paper before i mounted onto inked background on the first atc and distressed.

The second atc has also been burned directly on a printed piece of card then distressed by sanding.

The third atc is just an extra one i made today using book text and images plus embossing

It was lovely to play today as have spent the first full day at home for a while. I enjoyed my usual experimenting :=)

atc x 6

I am a little behind with posting work so it feels like ages since i did these but wanted to share with you all. These are 6 atc's i made for a swap with DEB (rustycage ) and PATTIE .. both are excellent artists and i was thrilled to be able to be in a swap with them both.

From the top :
Patties chosen theme was BLUE TEXTURE ... I made the dragonfly with acrylic paint and crackle background plus glittery embossing and dragongly stamp and pen
The blue dreamer was made using an image i cut from magazine and altered with paints. Also painted with acrylics over lace and dyed string for the texture

The theme i chose was SOFTNESS ... My first with the vintage horsewoman was on textured card and i added and blended many chalks and pastels for the softness. My second one for this theme was a base of green felt then the image was added, the fur stole around her arms is made soft and fluffy using some 'white flock' and then i also added a mini harp and a feather for extra softness

Deb's theme was BALANCE .... I chose to use the yin yang as the focus for balance on the red atc. I also wanted something else to reflect the balance and colour so chose a tree stamp which i stamped in black stazon on the right then in white acrylic on the left over a patterned red card.
The other balance one was just a pair of dancing legs with the dancer 'balancing' on her toes. I used paints and pens in sakura and gel for this one on charcoal card which was inked and scribbled on in 'stardust sakura.

It was fun to tackle these themes and i hope to do more in the future

Something i finished today

Well its been a nice day as i have been able to do a little painting and inking . Nice to get my fingers inked lol
This is a recycled cardboard mail box that i have used as a canvas lol ... it was just a mad idea but i enjoyed it. Mixed media painting.

Work from the past

These multi pictures are of a collage of single works i have made in the past and added them to a huge piece of hardboard which will be mounted eventually on my craftroom wall. I still am not able to craft much so thought i woud share it with you :)

Things are much the same at the moment and my son is continuing to recover. Thanks to everyone who has been so kind and thoughtful and asking how things are and sending me some wonderful cards and wished and even goodies ... You know it has helped tremendously to keep my spirits up when i have been so low and worried and EVERY SINGLE comment and prayer has kept me going and helped my family ... thank you

Yay got some playtime

Ok no more time to play but had some this morn so here are 2 atc's i made
Thanks to Cassie for the beautiful ephemera i used on the bird sing atc -- Cassie you are special !!
The nude lady atc is built on a piece of magazine text :) Some of the flowers were sent to me by my lovely friend Jude recently - Thanks Jude , you too are special !!!
And while we are talking of special people. There is another very special lady who sent me the most beautiful card. I had admired this one because it gave me the most wonderful sense of peace. I have bought a frame to alter for it too and will do that when i can. Thanks May

ATC swap and update from me

Once again i am just catching up on things including a blog or two. Thank you everyone who has left me messaged and emails. I have found all your support a huge help lately and its helped to keep my spirits up.
Adam is still doing ok and altho he is so tired all the time i try to get him to try to rest and not be in a hurry to do what he was doing before as he just gets exhausted when he does simple things but being 30 years old he cant understand the lack of energy so its a tough job to keep him from doing too much lol.
I am ok but of course also very tired as i am not used to so much to do lol ... guess i will be soon.

Anyway also i wanted to share this altered necklace that i made yesterday morning before my family arrived lol. It was nice to spend a little time crafting and especially as its a while since i made any jewellery at all.This is a mixed media work in blues and purples and i quite like the result too as they are my fave colours

Update

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to pop in and update you all on whats happening.
My son had a relapse last friday and since then has been recovering. His wife works and Adam can no longer do his own job as it meant working nights .. alone and they said it was not a good idea even when he recovers which will be a while anyway. They have two small children and this means its not easy to get the peaceful atmosphere needed to aid his recovery so i have been around my sons most days from morning until night helping out. The good news is that Adam has had some good days and rang me this morning to tell me he feels ok. Its Andreas day off today so i dont need to be there and thought i would try and catch up on a few things at home.
I hope you are all ok and hopefully i will soon be blogging and visiting blogs again.
Here are some pics..

TOP PIC : ANDREA / ME CENTRE/ ADAM
BOTTOM PICS : Adams little boy Hayden aged 3 - Adams little girl aged 9 months now

Reiki Help

Reiki has been a lot of help to me in the past from a good friend of mine Al. He has recently opened a forum and does weekly distance healing at 8pm GMT every wednesday night. Its simple just join and request some help on the date for today. I would like to thank him for all his help and energy over the last few weeks in particular.
Here is the link AL'S REIKI

Butterfly flight blue/yellow

Thought i might try the blue and yellow challenge over at Arty girls

Acrylic in blues plus yellow/gold twinkling h2o's and stamped butterflies with sakura details

3 atc's & a fab award

Three very different atc's from yesterday's play



















Black and white - Masking, stamping and embossing with various













I call this 'Battered Harlequin' Because of the colours and texture. This one i used embossing paste to make the texture then peeled holes in parts. Then i coloured with paints and mica and sealed with hairspray



















Alcohol inks with heat set fabric paint in cornflower blue and white gel pen

I recieved this fantastic award from Penny and when i read about it, i felt very honoured to recieve it. Thanks Penny I really appreciate it and am proud to display it.
It asks that you pass it on and I will do that but as I have had so much support and love from many, many wonderful blogging friends this last fortnight while my son has been very ill, I would find it hard to choose the right amount of people as you all deserve a huge thank you .
So I would like to pass this award on to everyone who has left me a message of support for my family and Adam. I sincerely hope you will take the award and add it to your blog as what you have done for me is beyond words of gratitude. You have all kept me going.

You know who you all are and this is what the award means :

The Premio Dardos award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in their effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day.The rules are:1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person that has granted the award and his or her blog link.2) Pass the award to another 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment.

new atc's

Just made a few atc's today. Some are still drying but here are two

In the mood for altering i made a second one for Lotstodo challenge - This is an old wooden key holder that i altered.

I used a crimper ( first time in ages ) to crinkle the copper metal

i used alcohol inks on the metal star

stamped and embossed the background ( doesnt show much 0 made the words on psp and printed then added those and the little amber star and the image then matte accents were added

Jigsaw Necklace & alter it

I thought i might try my hand at the 2createart challenge which is altering a jigsaw piece.
I used a large childs wooden puzzle piece and altered it with paper,pens,stamp and embossing, brad, glitters, trinkets including owl pendant and the necklace thong.



















This one is for the theme at Lotstodo This one was a challenge to alter something.
I altered everything about this postcard. Used, vellum, ribbon punch,ribbon, inks, photograph, flowers, silver embossing, stamps, 3d paint, die cut parasol