what can you do with all that mirri board ?

Well as i said the other day, I want to use up all those scraps. One of the things i have that i hardly ever use is mirri borard. So today i decided to try using some.

I cut an atc sized piece of gold mirri board
I took a piece of sandpaper and rubbed gently to distress
I pressed reddish brown ink to the whole thing colouring the revealed white bits and changing the tone of the gold to copper as the scratches took on the ink
I then added torn paper edged with the same ink
added my images
added my heart ( This is a digital one i designed ages ago )

I have called the atc 'He brought me flowers'

One for the boys

Here is my mens card for the one for the boys challenge over at One stop craft challenge, I chose to use inks and paints and a beautiful vintage picture of wine and cheese plus stamps. Its a very grown up card and the greeting says eat drink & be merry

Two lil atc's

Just a little bit of play using up scraps.
I have decided that i need to use up as many scraps as possible and in doing so i shall make lots of atc's and other items which i shall have to give away later as i cant keep them all in this tiny flat

Hope you like these ones - The oh so pretty one is an image i coloured then added to card i added paper hearts made from torn scraps. The text is real vintage from a storybook which i also tore and added and then blended it all in ghostly white with acrylics

The tree one is a scrap of chalked card i had left from another project and then stamped and added to another card which i added more trees. All in stazon navy blue ink

Faux tiles

I wanted to try and create a mosaic tile effect frame today and this is the result.
I used :
Punched out squares of card
Galeria glass beads texture gel
purpley blue and deep green acrylic paint
Twinkling h2o's
Anitas 3d gloss

The image is printed then I added my own design in strokes of gold h20's and pale luminart iredescent gold

Finally

FAIRY CARD
I got to play a little and made a fairy card with my paper artsy stamp and lots of pens, h2o's paint.
The mounts are 1/ purple card with black stamped music & silver embossed the edge
2/ textured card which has been chalked with pastels in purple/pink ,turquoise and blue.
I added a glittered flowet and a stamped and painted butterfly with mica

JOURNAL PAGE
The journal page is a wonderful thought about seeing yourself as part of the world and the world as part of you. The background is mixed media including my new textured gel and acrylics , nail varnish,pens plus images from many places but the fish and ladies rainbow shades are from a sheet i got from dezinaworld.com

7 day giveaway

There is a fab place called the crafty pad that is having a 7 day giveaway. All you need to do is pop over there and take a look at the fab stamps and wonderful work that is going on there. I am intrigued and love the cards that are on show too.
Pop over and take a look

I will be back myself later when i have something made but at the moment i havent had time to craft

Lavender in my art room

Today i cut the lavender in the garden and tied to dry a bunch. I have hung it up in my art room as its probably the best place for it. My art room by the way is actually a cupboard .. a largish one but still just a cupboard :) so hardly a room but as we only have a small one bedroom flat, i tend to call it a room ... well i sit in there ..

Here is the lavender

Fun in the sun

well not exactly but i thought i would have another little go at this painting lark and did another jenna type character. This time just her face and I used her on a card ... then i decided she was a bit sad and since i was sat in the sunshine painting her, i decided to shower her with wishes to 'Be Happy'. I might have to draw a series of jenna's as she seems to have just decided to 'arrive' from my pencil and from nowhere ... i didnt even know she existed ... Oh and if you are wondering .... I guess i probably am quite crazy ... but i think it was the sunshine that did it
Hope you all had a lovely day

Brooding ( mama rainbow bird & her golden egg )

Just a wee little atc i made this morning. I had to just make something as needed the therapy
Hope you like her

she is on anna griffin paper plus textured torn papers. Inked and distressed with sandpaper
Bird and Egg graphics from Dezinaworld.com and they have added touches ( the eye is drawn & the egg is coloured with ink )

Meet Jenna

Hi everyone,
Once again I am here without much in the way of art as i have had a lot going on at home.
For those who know me, we have had more news about Adam. He went to hosp yesterday and they have decided they want to operate on the anuerysm. This is very scary for us all and as his mam, you i am sure can understand how i am feeling. On the other hand the risk is also high if it is left to chance so something has to be done. The op will be within the next 2 or three months time. All going well, once this is done he will be able to lead a more normal and less worrying life.


On a brighter note. I have just managed to draw a little cartoon figure. She is JENNA and she is my first ever attempt at cartoon drawing. I had most trouble with the arms .. i obviously need practice but would appreciate your thoughts
Here she is ...

Update

Hello everyone, I just thought i best leave a post here for anyone who follows my artyretreat blog. I haven't found time to do any artwork lately so there is a distinct lack of posting here. I know that my lovely blogging friends worry about me when i am not here due to my family worries but i am ok i promise its just ... sadly ......... no art :(
I am active over at art freebies and art on the darkside though so do pop and see whats new there

Keep your fingers crossed that i get some time at the weekend to play will you ?


Here are three of the 7 grandchildren who help steal my time lol














Laurel, Jacob, Joshua

New Technique

As I said when i was playing yesterday i sort of discovered something i liked. I was drying my page in a hurry ( as ya do ) and some 3 d paint that i had used for texture ( I use anything and everything when it comes to texture )
Well ..... it started to bubble of course, and me being me - Just couldn't just leave it, I had to carry on to see what it would do. would it burn ? would it bubble more? would it disintegrate ? or would i set myself on fire ? ... only one of the above happened !!
It bubbled more - I heated it up more with my heat gun .. it bubbled and crackled and stretched and reminded me of when i was a child with bubble gum. I then took a pin and pricked the bubbles. took the heat away .... then did it again, and again.
this was the result ....













A fabulous foamy looking texture that i loved. (this one was done today for demo ) Its shiny because the 3d paint stuff is. But it could be deshined i reckon with a little acrylic but i haven't tried that yet but i like the shine anyway.
So as we all do, we like to try something else, just to enhance the texture yes ? YEP
I used Adirondack wild plum alcohol ink and a pearl mixative and blending solution. The result is below ... isn't it fabby ?? well i think so hehe. I love the light, the texture and the colour. I was thrilled. Ok I know i am getting over excited for such a small thing but hey ... it was fun

To see how beautiful it is, please click on the pic to see the full size

Art Journal Page

Its time i shared an art journal page again. I do them all the time ( not every day though ) but when i can and this one is a celebration of woman and myself. I hope you like it. It was a lot of fun and i discovered a fab new technique which i will share when i put it to use deliberately maybe on an atc etc.
With all thats happened this year its been a long time since i actually felt like i was truly back into art. Making this page brought with it the satisfaction that art gives.

Oh Devine

Our greatest British Band play my fave song.
STOP !!! smell the roses for a couple of minutes ??? Go on have a look and a listen this is so beautiful

Artarazzi challenge

This one is for the artarazzi challenge. Hope you like it. Its been a while since i played with digital much.

spring flowers hair adornment

Spring and summer fashion for hair this year is floral and so i thought i would make a fun, bright hair slide. Layered flowers decorated with pearl and floral glass beads. These were sewn and glued and added to a hair slide fixing.
It was fun today to have a little play with something different.
Many thanks go to my lovely friend Jude for the prima flowers i adore

Little birdy Keyring

Here is a little birdy keyring I made. Its made from card and paper,vellum, stamps, stazon and genuine vintage music sheet. Also glazed and rings attached. Its ages since i made anything like this and i did have fun with it

Shell

Today i have had my grandson all day so the only craft i got to do was the art of keeping a three year old out of mischief ... hard work it is lol. I am getting too old for this methinks
Anyhow i hope to get a little crafting done tomorrow but you never know, my days never work out as planned.
I did take a pic of this beautiful carved shell that my mother gave me. I do treasure it as i think its so clever and beautiful. What do you think ?

A ride out with dad and mam & a card

Today was beautiful altho a little bit windy here in the north east uk. I spent the morning with my parents Dad drove and we went to see if we could find the black Grouse which is supposed to be around at this time of year up on the moors. We didnt spot it but it was a nice ride out in teesdale and took dads mind off things a little. We saw the deer at a place called Raby Castle and that was nice altho we couldnt get very near.
Later i sat in our garden and made this card which is the first card in a while and just wanted to make something different from my usual collage and atc's

Just an update

Hi everyone, not a lot to show you i am afraid as have been very busy with life and family etc. I just like to pop in and leave a message as i know many of you worry. I am around and ok but had bad news this week as my uncle has died. Its a sad time especially for my dad. I am around though and have just not had a lot of time for anything much online or craft wise. I have lots of ideas just not the opportunity to follow them just yet.
Hope you are all ok and will be back to share soon as i can. In the meantime i thought i might torment you all with a little of my writing hehe

this is a poem i wrote a few years back called 'nobody'

Nobody
(c) J.mac 2006

A cake of resin in a pocket,
four pounds twenty in his tin,
wearing fingerless gloves,
he cradles his fine violin.
Sweet silver notes unheard,
pennies of throw away pity.
On the library step he plays,
in a time-driven selfish city.
Into neon-bright night he plays,
over a receding traffic drone.
His gliding bow softly sounds,
a Haunting, melancholy tone
A cake of resin in his pocket,
five pounds ten in his tin.
He shuffles away to nowhere,
clutching his fine violin.

French Marmalade

Well he looks like marmalade and definitely french, hence the title. He is for the challenge over at Lots to do ... which is for stripes. I do hope you think he is fun !! He made me smile today.
The image is from my own collection which i have featured as a freebie on my other art freebies blog

STAMPBORD
DARK BLUE STAZON
STRIPE BACKGROUND STAMP
EMBOSSING POWDER NAVY
ALCOHOL INKS
STAMP QUOTE
IMAGE ART FREEBIES

Framed Fae for rainbow lady

This one i have created for the challenge at rainbow lady
The challenge was to frame something.

This is how i achieved this one. I made the background by using a piece of blue floral paper and distressing it by crumpling, inking, sandpapering and finally lemon burning to get that distressed look.
Then i colour tinted the lady dancer which was black and white origninally and added the beautiful dancer who's wings were designed by myself and cut out and added to her back

The image was then set on a blue randomly stamped card and then i added a frame which i had picked out for the challenge.
I glued the frame over the image to finish. stamped in pale antique pink and added a leaf stamp in blue and smudged lots.

Theme Thursday Dance

Thought this might work for the theme at theme thursday which is Dance

Its a very complicated mixed media background with all kinds of materials and techniques used but a simple cheeky dancer just seemed perfect to celebrate all that colour lol

This one is a digital i made for the digital challenge over at artarazzi. We had to use this picture



















And this was my interpretation of the picture

Family box shrine

I have just managed to finish this which i started a while back but have not had time to get it all finished. I added the last bits today and finally have something to share with you here. Its an altered box cupboard originally designed to keep keys in but i took inside parts out and have used a whole host of mixed media to create this final piece which is for my family. Hope you like it

getting there ... thursday freebies

Oops we;; that was a great blooper hehe. I posted my art freebies blog freebies here instead lol. Ok i am off to post in the right place so do pop over and snag your free images
Hugs June xxx

No art from me but isnt this amazing ?

Hi all , nothing to show but thought you might enjoy this as much as i did. what an amazing young man. This is something incredible
Have a lovely evening ....

new stuff

Hi all, Things are much the same but i am going to visit the doctor myself this week as my chest still isnt right and have some pain so best get it sorted. Adam is doing ok and just needs time i hope for things to settle. I have a free day today so wanted to come and catch up a little and share a little as it feels like forever
I want to say a REALLY SPECIAL THANK YOU , to every single person who has left me comments these last couple of weeks including the lady that signs as anonymous ( i think its a lady lol ) I can't get to visit everyones blogs as have so many to visit from this and my other blogs but i will do eventually so in the meantime i just wanted you to know i am thankful for your kindness.

Have a lovely bank holiday everyone

Here are 3 little atc's i managed to make over the last week. It was nice to sit and play a little again.

Just a little update

Hello everyone.
I just wanted to come and explain whats been happening so that you very kind and caring people who have left beautiful comments and prayers will know how things are.
As many of you know, my son had a stroke in february and we have been very lucky that he is here with us. He has been recovering since then and having medications to try and bring his blood pressure into check as its still too high. Before i left the last message, Adam had paid a visit to his doctors and his bp was high again and he had been feeling dizzy a lot. The doc did some checks and arranged immediately for a scan at a hospital out of town after the weekend. At the time it all seemed to really close in on me, maybe because we had already been through so much and it seemed like a new worry and i also have asthma and chest problems right now so i maybe was just vulnerable. I was trying to be strong but it all got too much so i just couldn't cope with managing all the things i do and also be happy and upbeat online .. couldn't face blogging etc.
Since then we have had the results back from the scan. Without going into details, the news is that nothing has changed. This is good news because adam still has a small anuerysm which he worries about. The doctor rang him and told him that the dizziness is caused by the healing of the site where the stroke was so its very sensitive. This is huge relief and i feel much better in spirit now and able to cope again, however i am a little under the weather with my cough and asthma so i shall be taking things slowly.

Thanks so much to all of you for your kind thoughts, and hope to get around to visiting each of you just as soon as i can
June