altered shoe polish tin

For a swap on my forum.. I am very late with it .. its to go to Mel.. hope you like it Melly Mel x

Its an empty Shoe Polish tin

Altered Domino Keyring..

Another item for an over due swap on my forum.. For Sandy.. Sandy I am so sorry I am late with this.. I have another to send also.. but they are done and ready to post on thursday at last..

Peacock Canvas. 2 ft square

Please click on image to enlarge.
Well for various reasons 2009 hasnt started with a huge crafting bang for me.. so much so that this is the FIRST thing I have made this year lol.. and I started BIG with a nice 2 foot by two foot canvas...

One Powerful Hour Ocean/Sea

My Friend Caro asked if I might do theme for One Powerful Hour this week.

I have to say that although the Ocean is not my favorite places to visit (I'm more of a mountains lakes and forest person) the ocean ans the sea side is one of my favorite themes to explore.

Colours Ranging from the yellows and browns of sand and rocks,

greens of the seaweed and deeper parts of the ocean..

to the blues and turquoises of the Mediterranean.

then you can add in the bright colours of sail boats nd children's buckets and spades.throw in textures of sand or shells.. pearls and lost treasures.

transparencies for that watery look.glossy accents......

I just think the possibilities are endless. even making an old item look as though its been lost at the bottom of the ocean.. a treasure chest and old rusty key.

Anyway I am rambling on but I think you can see my enthusiasm for the topic and its wide range of possibilities.

I would invite you to join Caro and I at One Powerful Hour and show us something you have made or are in the process of making. only 2 of the pieces in my collage took an hour I have to admit.. there was drying time set aside .. but I just wanted to give a flavour, good luck and have fun.. I'm pretty sure Caro will turn a blind eye if it takes just a little longer (who's going to tell lol)

The altered Match box a little down the page on my blog took UNDER an hour so it can be done :-)

Zuzu

new monthly challenge blog..

http://www.ctpub.com/client/client_pages/sites/rtgbbb_index.html

This company make some wonderful paper craft items for altering.. shadow boxes , boxes , cubes, various shaped holders, books, you should take a look .. and if you have any then get therm altered and entered in to their challenge blog .. there is a prize!! and spread the word. I am lucky enough to have been given some of the items to alter from friends and I will be buying more!

Here is one of the cubes that I have already altered and shown on my blog previously.

Altered Matchbox

.. just because..

I wanted to distract myself from getting edgy lol.. so I made this quick simple altered matchbox

Another Canvas...

.. to match the last one sort of.. The square one was a gift for someone.. but I liked the general theme of it so made something very similar for myself.

Spray backgrounds. Saturday Workout

Please click on image to view details

My Tim Holtz Masks arrived along with my new glimmer mists today .. so I got stuck in and made a canvas.. I used my spray glimmer mists with the mask to create the background as suggested by Saturday's Workout..

Its called "Bird Song" and it measures 18inch x 18inch

Altered Card Block

Please click on image for details

I got a few lovely gifts to alter from my forum friend Moira.. Moira has a shop called Happy Daze. Among the goodies she sent were a wooden block and a nice quality card block.. I altered them both today. This is the card block.. I cant get a picture of the stamped side as I sprayed it with glimmer mists and varnish so it glared back too much.. I may add a picture later if I can get one to work.

Dream Block

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Another of the blocks from Moira's shop Happy Daze. this is a wooden block . its been painted.. stamped on.. embossed and fantasy filmed... I added letters and flourishes my friend Ginger (Carol) cut out for me on her cutty out machine thingy.. spelling out DREAM .

One Powerful Hour

Altering Dominoes is the theme at one powerful hour. I am guest designer but due to all the stuff happening recently I didn't get time or feel able to make anything new. so this is an accordion book I made last year.. it doesn't take long to make these little books.. if you fold and prepare your little pages ready to go between the dominoes whiles the alcohol ink is drying on the domino its easy to do in an hour. so long as you have decided on and prepared the images and colours for the pages in advance.

I have added pictures of a few of my altered dominoes to let you see .

Dominoes are one of my favorite things to alter and can be as simple as colouring the domino and stamping on it.. to turning them into books.. or little art dolls.. they are effective simple or elaborate. So if you have never tried one give it a go.. I think they even look like precious stones if they are simply alcohol inked and nothing else! So no excuse. no matter if you are a beginner or been at it for years.. you CAN alter a domino.

If anyone wants more info on any of the dominoes email me and I will be happy to explain.

Lisa Volrath images

Lisa Volrath / Ten Seconds Studio / Go Make Something is offering free images / collage sheets in a great big advent calender.. opening one image sheet per day to be saved and used for your personal use.
go look...

newspaper carrier bag (Altered)

Please click on image to enlarge to view details

when shopping in a wee arts and crafts shop near derby i was given my purchases in not a plastic bag but a recycled newspaper bag.. its lovely, but decided it would be lovelier if it was altered. I am thinking about giving this to my friends Daughter Katie if it turns out OK when its done.. This is just one side so far. Here are before and after Pictures.

Back of the newspaper bag

I did the other side today ,.. i decided rather than make it match, I would have it so that Katy can have it turned to the colour that fits her mood or what she is wearing or whatever.. so this side is sepia and rust. I am going to leave the sides blank so that people can see it is actually made from newspaper.

I love the bags and found out where to order more from. my only problem is some of the stories were very dire.. just as well it gets covered up! lol

Altered shoes/mixed media monday

well they are slip ons but were really past it and needed the bin, but I decided to alter them (inspired by my friend Linda :-) )and wear them when I do my craft demo...

texture paste, alcohol inks, moonshadow mists and embossing powders used.. (hope it doesn't rain lol)

I am showing them in mixed media monday as anyone who knows me will tell you .. i love texture paste alcohol ink and embossing powder all in one project.. canvases, 4x4s ATCs anything altered... and now Shoes! ...

They are very "me" .

Treasure chest

Please click on image to enlarge for detail.

Originally made for something I had hoped to take part in but with my time being suddenly very very busy I am just blogging it.. it will be the last thing blogged for a wee while unless I discover anything else I have made and not yet blogged lol.

This was a blank standard yellow/white pine chest.. I added paints..crackle paints.. fusible film... glitter.. and embellishments.

Dream Canvas (this thursday)

Please click on image to enlarge.

I liked the colours of the bag so much I decided to do a canvas for ME in a similar vein as I will have to part with the bag in August! the canvas 18 inches tall.

I am entering it for the "this Thursday its all about..." Challenge as we have to enter something that we believe to be useful or truly beautiful.

Recently I have started to like what I make and this is my favorite to date.. the colours are so pretty.. I keep going back and looking at it and saying "I made this." in a surprised voice lol.

One Powerful Hour /Christmas Ornaments (altered dominoes)

One Powerful Hour this week is Christmas Ornaments. It obviously took more than an hour for them all .. but individually it took an hour for the 2 tags. under an hour for the 7 swans and slightly over for the large domino.. the triple domino admittedly took quite a bit more than an hour!

I wont be making much for a while as My mum Died last night after a difficult time with cancer.

She was a gentle unassuming caring soul and her Family and friends are really going to miss her.

Halloween Hanging

Please click on image to enlarge

Made for the Swap Mel is doing on my forum.. I had made a glass ornament thing and it went a little wrong. I kinda thought ... "its OK... it will do!" then I saw Gillian's entry so back to the drawing board...!!! lol

Thank you for the proverbial kick up the bum Gillian ... It made me actually apply myself :-)

Autumn is my favorite time of year.. I love the colours but also its a starting point for all the celebrations.. birthdays Halloween... Guy Fawkes ...Christmas..

Halloween is my favorite Autumn celebration as we always have fancy dress.. pumpkin soup and "dooking" for nuts. because I always think of halloween when autumn turns up I am going to enter this for the "craft away a sunday" challenge blog

MADJAK stamps

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My Stamps arrived from Madjak recently and I got stuck in today at last. I have started with the Familiar set. I actually went to my craft room to make something sparkly and glittery but ended up with vintage (again) lol.. this has a glimmer mist and perfect pearls background as well as crackle paints and acrylics. so although its not got glitter .. it does glow in the right light..

I am pushing this up my blog as I would like to enter it into Mixed Media Mondays weekly Challenge. The theme there this wek is the colours Blue and Purple.. I think there is enough subtle hints of purple for this to count! ( I hope)