Elf door

As a follow on to the Halloween witchy door I have made a Christmas version. Except it's not a door - ooops.  Well, if the big guy can make it down the chimney then I'm sure his litle elf helpers can do the same, so here is my Christmas fireplace.

This is the front, with a little fire, handmade little snowmen in what is supposed to be snow but actually looks more like raging fog.

And the back. The fireplace is made from 12 little matchboxes and each one has a little present inside for my swap partner. The out of place black thing hanging in the middle is the control for the lights around the mantlepiece.

Please excuse the crappy photo but I forgot to adjust my camera and it did not like the flashing lights, but as you can see it does light up. The fire is also a little light (switch under the bottom).

I have added in a few extra bits (stockings, candy cane, etc.) that my partner can use to decorate it further if she so desires, and I hope she likes it.

Cheers. Bex

A super quick spooky post, seeing as it's Friday 13th today. Here is a witchy door that I made for a spooky door swap hosted by the lovely Jas. I don't want to say who it's for as it has only been posted today (it seemed the perfect day to do it!). Hope my swap partner likes it though :)

Tw/inchies

Lots of these - 98 to be precise - for a swap. They are fun to make but pants to cut! Twinchie themes were - free for all, Oz, Alice, anything goes and yellow. Inchies were anything goes, Alice, blue, yellow. Red Queen and indigo. Phew!

Rock Gods Fan Club Swap

I have wanted to do something like this for ages, but nothing came up so I ran it myself. The idea was to send a load of little goodies to your swap partner based on their favourite band/solo artist. Sort of like the fan club welcome packs that I so looked forward to as a teen, but the contents this time could be whatever you felt like.

This is the one I made for the lovely Jas based on Dave Grohl.

Firstly, there is a little box of notecards.

Inside the box is a pic with an appropriate quote.

And just some of the notecards, all with illustrated Dave Grohl lyrics and envelopes. I think there are about 14 in all. Just an aside - I do NOT like making envelopes!

The next part is the tins. The big one is the top of a tin containing some canvases (more on that soon).  The little rectangular tin contains some fun Foo Fighters plectrums (with lots of them featuring Mr Grohl). The plain silver tin has a necklace with a pic of Dave and some appropriate charms. On the right is some temporary tattoos that I repackaged. 

Actually, I bought them online with no measurements and they are teeny weeny but similar, so I did this for the back.

Hmmmm, what else? Oh yes, the canvases. A little triptych that I made.

Plus, I discovered that the Foos have some great gig posters, so here is a little book of  about 30 of them.

And finally, no swap would be complete without chocolate, so here is a repackaged choccie bar, Dave Grohl style.

Jas, I really enjoyed making it and I hope it's okay.

Cheers for now, R x

Hot Tickets for Hotluca

Just passing through with a quick swap. Decorated ticket strips from the Tim Holtz die. Lots of watercoloured backgrounds using distress inks, some rub ons, a ton of background stamping and job done. They are much brighter in real life, but my scanner hates me and dulls everything down!

Thanks for looking and take care.

Dragon Chunky ATC

This is a swap for Frances. Now, she makes the most fabulous chunkies herself (see her blog) so it is really hard to make for her. Plus, I did one for Frances on the last swap. Plus, it's dragons! I don't have a good picture at the moment - only this one (note to self - must update) but here is my effort. And boy, was it an effort. Air dry clay was too brittle so I redid it in Fimo, plus the gold leaf is not behaving well!

Crappy photo taken from a borrowed ipod (I neeeed a camera!) but hopefully you get the idea. The chunky is covered in gold leaf with the Fimo dragon wrapped around it (and guarding it, obviously). Perched (but not stuck) on top is a treasure chest made from a cat food box. I'm actually pretty pleased with how that turned out - the rest doesn't quite match the vision in my head but hey ho. Having said that, my eldest made the dragon's head and I think that came out pretty well, so thank you Alex. The treasure chest does have contents - is Frances brave enough to face the dragon to find out ....?

Not me for once, but my daughter Alex

These aren't by me - they are all done by my amazing and talented daughter Alex.  At just fourteen she shows great artistic talent and I'm very proud of her so I just wanted to give her a shout out really. Love you Alex.

Inchies and Twinchies

Large parts of the crafting world have obviously passed me by - until now. I have never made inchies or twinchies before, although they have been around for ages. I did some for a swap recently, and I only had time to lob some onto the scanner and hope before sending them off. Well. the pic is rubbish but you get the idea. Now, I've found out that the host has used the same stamp for one of hers but hopefully it will all come out in the wash.

Steampunk Valentine Chunky ATC

My latest take on the chunky ATC theme - this time a steampunk valentine. Now, I love steampunk but I really do struggle to do it. I hope I've sort of captured it. Here's the front, chip[board heart and wings, cogs and wach bits. I did want to make this move, so that when you turned the cogs the wings flapped, but it didn't work out. I'm going to have another go at that with thinner cogs.

This is the other side, where I transfer printed a free vintage image and added a watch mechanism plus some other bits. I was aiming for a sort of etched copper look and it's close enough to make me happy.

The top's a bit overloaded!

The sides are just covered with some cog and wheel die cuts and I didn't get a picture of those, but hopefully you get the idea and thanks for looking.

Mini Canvas

Just a wee swap - after the next couple I'm going to cut right back to concentrate on a personal project that I finally feel ready for. This was to make a 5 x 7 mini canvas on our choice of theme, to be mixed up so that we get a random one back. Oooo, the suspense is killing me! Anyhoos, here are mine (I made 2 so the swap host can either keep one of mine, or swap it for a better one!).

Hope it fits the bill and should be on its way soon.

Affirmation Postcards

I joined another swap (what a surprise!) for affirmation postcards. One set is positive, one a little more twisted, and here they are ...

Collaged postcards swap

I'm doing a wee swap at the moment - just collage. Do you know what that means people? No ink, paint or sprays! So out of my comfort zone here. Anyway, here are my backgrounds, to be covered, sorry, prettied up, by some of the other artists over at collaborART.

Cheers and thanks for looking :) Have a good one!

Art Journal Calendar

I've just joined a wee group on facebook doing an art journal calendar and it's really got my creative juices flowing again after the Christmas lull. So, here is my first page for January.

I used one of the fab Octopode images which just summed up how I welcome the new year so it seemed very apt. I'm entering it into the Octopode Challenge Blog because I can!

Off to finish February now. Happy new year everyone :)