Little Houses

These are some houses I made at a recent Workshop at Paddy's Stamping Place in Prestwich, Manchester. The workshop was called "Down Our Street" and the tutor was Sue Roddis - I just love her quirky approach. She never does cute, but often does whimsical, which is something I aspire to myself but never succeed as well as she does! Have a look at her blog - Jabberwocky - by clicking on the link down the left of this blog. I'm sure you'll love it. We had a great time playing with these houses, everyone did something completely different. Sue had brought in lots of samples to inspire us, and they did. I managed to finish one on the day, and have been finishing off the second and working on the last today - it ended up being a boathouse, inspired by the heron! The door is made of broken up coffee stirrers, thank you Subway, Starbucks et al. There is a tiny drawing of a boat on the horizon - thats as near as I get to freehand! I couldn't find a boat stamp small enough. It's hidden by a reed, just as well!

The dangly key and lock are Tim Holtz's idealogies, most of the stamps are Elusive Images or Paper Artsy, but I also used a Tanda one designed by Jane Daffern which is polka dots, and the image is designed to be variable according to the amount of pressure applied - uneven pressure gives a fabulous uneven result. Clever Jane!

The last one has a little story attached - (for you Paddy) - the big bird is a cuckoo and she has just laid her egg (the top one) in the other two's bird house (nest house?). She's hiding on the roof so they don't know! the trim across the bottom is a little row of beaks, waiting to be filled. Sorry about that, but I like my little rationales.

Still here! I've been preparing for a workshop for the last few days, here are some samples:

If we frame Nature, can we call it Art?

This is a thing I've been working on for ages on and off, and have now finally decided that it's finished! Or at least as finished as it ever will be. The idea was to look at images and artwork that reflected nature - who is the artist, us or nature? It's about 50 x 35 cm. The background was made with spray lustre paints, and each of the four larger panels were stamped, embossed, coloured and embellished over Basic Grey papers, using various stamps with a natural theme, then they were mounted on cream card and glimmer paper. The Stampbord pieces down the middle were mounted onto a pre-coloured strip that was printed with a leafy Rollagraph stamp and mounted onto glimmer paper. The Stampbord pieces themselves were pre-coloured, stamped amd triple embossed. Various small items were used to embellish the larger panels, such as ornate brads, die-cut corners, and a small epoxy frame and matching corner stickers. Crystal laquer was applied over various images for emphasis. I'm quite pleased with it, for a first attempt at "Wall art". My Dad is a brilliant artist, so I have a lot to live up to, which has always been a bit daunting, though this is nothing like his work. I shall definitely have another go though! I have just won a Unicorn stamp set from Elusive Images, so maybe I shall use it to make a picture for my little cousin's sixth birthday in December! (Sue, don't read this to Em, it will spoil the surprise!). Anyway, here it is! I'd be delighted to get any feedback.

On another subject, I have a commission to make 3 pieces if Stampbord or shrink plastic jewellery for Christmas presents, so will be putting in some thought about those over the next few days (between working of course) - it's nice to be able to earn a little cash from this expensive hobby of mine!