A puzzle piece

Tracy over at Noor!UK has asked me to do a couple more guest designer pieces for her so I am back again with another mixed media "piece" for her.

In the packet of goodies she sent me was this great MDF puzzle piece. I also have in my stash the soft puzzle and decided to combine them both with my design.

The Dutchdobadoo MDF pieces are really great quality. I gessoed the base and painted it with Sky Fresco acrylic paint.

I then painted on some Paperartsy crackle and added vanilla paint on top...I didn't take a photo of this bit..sorry!
Next I got out some of my sprays and had a general spraying...

until I was happy with the colours

I then got out my favourite Visible Image stamps...I just love these....and stamped parts of the softboard puzzle with black Archival ink....

And this is what I came up with

 You can see the great crackle effect in these close ups.

 I coloured the stamps with Distress ink and a brush.

 and added a few white highlights with pen

The Tim Holtz tags sum up my mood when I made this......I enjoyed playing and the finished piece really did make me giggle.

I would like to enter my mixed media puzzle within a puzzle into the following fun challenges.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesdays anything goes

Rhedd's creative spirit altered art

Mixed Media Monthly

  summer days I was inspired by the summer themes in the graphic, sunglassess, ice cream and sunshine and  sitting in my garden studio and looking out at my garden in the sunshine. I made a blue "sky" base for my piece and added some summery colours to my puzzle pieces.

Thanks for stopping by and for your very kind comments. Remember that I have a giveway open until Sunday 9th August, the link is in my side bar at the top and also here. Everyone is most welcome to enter.

I'm back again on Saturday joining Tracey over at Noor with their new challenge and to give you a clue I may be handing over to Billy for that post.........and the C word may be mentioned....LOLOL...Vivienne cover your eyes and ears now!!

Thanks so much for visiting,

Bye for now.

Jane x

Last days in July

We really are racing through the year now and in a few days it will be August. July has been a real mixed bag of weather here but there have been some really glorious spells of sunshine and we have enjoyed a family wedding, our wedding anniversary and many other special times. Thank you all for your anniversary wishes for Saturday, we spent a lovely day at Scotney Castle in Kent.

I have lots of projects on the go which I will be finishing off in the next week or so but to say goodbye to July via my camera I thought I would share a few sunny photos taken this month at a garden centre where I had lunch with my Mum and Dad. They were hosting a summer flower exhibition

the flowers were themed according to colours and wow what an explosion of colour there was.
Reds......

Lavender and pinks

 

 Blues and whites

and hot oranges and yellows

There is just such an explosion of colour in nature at this time of the year. I even have an amazing dahlia in a pot in my own garden which is similar to the one above. This is mine below...it's called Art Deco and I bought it at the Hampton Park Flower show last year. It over wintered in its pot in my garden.

and this is the agapanthus I also bought. They have bloomed beautifully this year.

It just shows that you don't need anything bigger than a pot to grow some gorgeous colour in your garden. I even snapped a visitor on one of my flowers.
I love this flowers quote from Walter Hagan.

You're only here for a short visit.
Dont' hurry, don't worry
And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.

I have made a new card for my Etsy shop . It uses one of the wonderful adorable fairies images from Nicecrane from this sheet available here. I adore this set.

I made an inky background with lots of stencilling and stamping and added a Noor Joy frame and some die cuts including my favourite Cheery Lynn leaves and Joanne Sheen ivy.

and I also made a matching gift tag using a spellbinders frame

and decided to put them together as a birthday card and gift tag set

It is for sale via this link

I would like to enter my card (and tag if it is allowed) into the following challenges;

PaperArtsy flowers I just love everything floral!

Mixed Media stencils 

That's Crafty stencils and masks

Creative Inspirations flowers

Noor UK something old something new my new is my birthday ribbon my old are my leave die cuts

Bunny Zoe summer breeze

Try in on Tuesday  hot and wild my colours are hot and my bird and fish are pretty wild!

The artistic stamper  tags

Paper take weekly take your pick I have chosen to include a tag.

Simon Says stamp Mondays no ordinary paper I used mixed media paper so that I could get really inky  with my green backing.

Simon Says stamp Wednesday anything goes

Cheery Lynn anything goes

I am back again tomorrow with a "puzzling" mixed media piece for Tracy....watch this space. Thanks for visiting and enjoy these last days of July.

Remember to smell those flowers................

Bye for now,

Jane x

Summer breeze and feeling groovy

Oh how the Isley brothers' "Summer breeze" song epitomizes  the summers of the 1970s for me...if you get the time have a
listen to it here
 Another song by the Turtles is a summer 1960s song I I love.

Now you may be wondering where on earth I am going with his post...let me explain...........

My Guest Design package arrived from Tracy over at Noor UK last week and among the goodies were these fun Dutch Doobadoo stencils and Paperart words and images. Notice the words Flower power, music love etc.

When I saw the fun mask silhouette  below on the left, wearing flares I was transported back to the late 1960s and early part of the 1970s

I was at primary school for Flower Power but by a teenager you would have found me in platforms and wide flares like those above which had cover your shoes!
The tune Summer Breeze and So Happy Together came into my mind and that was it I knew I had to create something funkie, zany and hippy!

So down to my studio I went to grab the most clashing bright distress inks to make a 60s/70s inspired background for my silhouette.

Yes I did say bright didn't I. Some flicks of water added some more interest.

 Recently I found a fun tin in Tiger...do you remember Spirographs from the 60s and 70s...well you can get this tin for the fab price of just £2. As this was going to be a "Groovy" piece I got it out and played away...such fun.

I had a little practice first , I was transported back to my childhood. 

and then started adding some retro patterns.

Next it was the turn of the new Dutch Doobadoo stencils and masks. I pushed some archival inks through with a piece of foam

until I was happy with a really happy flower power background. I also added some PaperArt words and images.

So now it was time to cut out my girl...who I decided to call Biba as my dearest friend Karen and I spent many a fun day up in London in this cult shop when it was open...just trying everything on!

Now this was to be my finished piece but the minute that I named her Biba I knew one thing...........Biba needed some clothes. I also remember childhood times where we bought those books where you cut out and dressed paper girls with all sorts of fashions..so here we go.

I found the brightest floral paper scraps in my scraps box and drew around the silhouette and added little tabs so that Biba could be "dressed"
Funkie tops.....with long sleeves

or sleeveless

If you have young crafty kids bored over the summer hols you could host a "best dressed Biba" competition....you could add beads, real fabric, anything really. You could even just stick clothes and accessories directly on to the silhouettes if you cut several out.

These are her finished outfits ready for Biba to strut her stuff in...and no sewing was involved!

So here is my finished piece...Biba with her funkie 60s background scene and also with some spare outfits for the festival which I am sure she must be going to ;0)

It was fun making this but I did spend a lot of time on it and a couple of evenings I think my Hb
wondered why we were eating soooo late...LOL. M you are so tolerant of my crafting. I rarely make whimsical pieces so this was a first. Perhaps Daisy might like it when she is a bit older?

I hope my rather "off the wall post" today made you smile on a Monday morning and if you are of a certain age, like me, I hope I stirred some memories of those long, summer days of love days back in the 60s and 70s. Fun times and as I was so young, they were such very carefree times.

Please pop over to see me at Noor UK and perhaps leave some groovy kind of love...yes I know all those songs keep popping in to my head.

I would like to enter my Biba project  into the following fun challenges.

Our Creative Corner mexico moods I was so inspired by the bright clashing colours of the mood board and the round pots and flower in the bottom photo.

Bunny Zoe summer breeze

Mixed Media stencils 

That's Crafty stencils and masks

That Craft Place words

Anything but a card anything goes

We love to create anything goes mixed media



It was my 5th bloggerversary yesterday and I'm having a giveaway of my handmade jewellery..the link to that post is here. Do join the fun, it's open to everyone.

Thanks so much for visiting today and putting up with my mad mind! Inspiration really is everywhere.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

All the products are available for sale in Tracy's shop, just click on the link

A4 Mask Art Flower Power

Mask Art A4 Silhouette Dancers

Paper Art A5 Flower Power

Mask Art 15cm x 15cm Squares

InLinkz.com