Stone angel ATC

I'm a bit late, but here's my contribution to Think Monday, Think ATC whose theme is stone angels. I'm also entering this ATC for Created by Hand, which asks us to do something with red and green this week.

Dans ma maison il ya un jardin

The theme at Dans ma Maison... is gardens. After embossing the garden with a stencil, I placed the leaf roof, but I wasn't quite happy with it, so I added a stamped bird; but somehow the design of the bird didn't combine with the embossed roses and leaves, so I ended up replacing the roof with a scrap of wrapping paper.

Thanks for looking!

Blue girl house

I had a great time making this crooked little house and now that I've made it I really wonder what has been keeping me from participating in the "Dans ma maison il y a..." challenges all this time. After all, I love houses. I guess every time I looked at the gorgeous houses of the other contestants I just found the challenge too difficult and time-consuming for me. Well, it's simply great fun!
This week's theme is blue. The girl is a freebie from graphicsfairy and once again I've used "Kinder" chocolate foil.

Sorry for the bad photo and thanks for stopping by.

Christmas ornament

I loved creating this Christmas ornament. I bought a few styrofoam hearts last year before Christmas and I planned to do some découpage with them so that I could hang them on the Christmas tree, but I guess I was too busy with other things last year or maybe I didn't have enough motivation... (I found blogland in January 2008, right after Christmas...)

I used two images from graphicsfairy and a serviette from "Ihr" (It's a German brand although I bought the serviette in Portugal). Then it was all about sticking everything in place with Alkyl, a glue that is also a varnish. I've also used my flake punch and some gold thread around the heart and I've tied the ribbon in such a way that I can turn it the way I want. The "front" image was supposed to be the girl, but then I realised I liked the bird image better although I damaged it a bit when I was gluing it in place. Finally I added two little bells, so that even if the ribbon is facing the other side it still looks interesting enough on the backside.

Just a remark: by the time I took the pictures (with my lousy camera, well, it's actually quite good for a mobile camera), I hadn't stuck the flakes properly yet. I had glued them with UHU glue, but they obviously couldn't go without Alkyl for a glossy finish.

Check out all the other Christmas ornaments at Mixed Media Monday.

"Birds" is also the challenge at Theme Thursday, so I'm combining the challenges.

Hats ATC

This was a snap and I made it for Thank God it's Friday whose theme is hats. Thanks for looking and sorry for the bad photo.

Winter wonderland

At Make a Moo or Two this week we're supposed to use a technique, stamp, material etc for the first time. This is the first time I use my flake punch to create art and it's also the first time I use metal foil... Well, this is actually the wrapping of a "Kinder" chocolate bar, but anyway, you can doodle on the back of it and it makes an interesting textured effect. I'm also entering the moo for This Thursday It's All About, because the chosen theme is metallics. The little girl image can be found at http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/.
Thanks for stopping by.

Bookmarks with wings

I'm entering these for One Powerful Hour (whose theme is bookmarks) and for Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog (the theme there is things with wings). I made these bookmarks a while ago for a bookmark swap. (One of my swap partners liked the colour lavender and the other was very fond of fairies.) I made several attempts to design a template that looked like fairy wings, but I ended up designing something that looks more like butterfliy wings. Still I'm happy with the final result.

Hallowe'en - Small World of Inchies

The theme this week at Small World of Inchies and Twinchies is Hallowe'en. I made a bunch of inchies using the stamps I've recently bought in a toyshop called Imaginarium.
Thanks for looking!

Angel(s) ATCs

"Angel(s)" is the theme both at Think monday, Think ATC and Wednesday Stamper. I love angels, so I guess I got a bit carried away... I think I might include some of these ATCs in Christmas cards. My favourite ATC is the one which has the brown-stamped angel caressing the dove and the scalloped little blue flowers on the right side. (It's the one at the bottom of the post.) However, I also like the one with Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus - I love that Bouguereau image! - and the other one with the golden angel playing (with the music notes in the background). The two ATCs in the middle were kind of experiments... that didn't turn out so well... Tell me, what's your favourite?
(Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures. I'm still using my Sony Eriksson mobile to snap them.)
Thanks for looking!

Boo!

And thanks a lot for visiting my blog!

Hallowe'en - Think monday, think ATC

I'm entering these for TMTA, whose theme is Hallowe'en. I'm sorry the photo is a bit dark, but it was taken with my Sony Eriksson k800i because my brother has taken the Canon camera with him to the Azores where he's teaching now.

Thanks for looking!

Wings - Make a moo

The theme at Make a Moo or Two is wings. Here's my contribution. I'm sorry the pictures aren't very clear but I didn't have my camera nearby. I had to used my Sony K800i mobile.

(The angel picture is a decoupage picture by Stamperia.)

Peace by priority airmail - Wednesday Stamper

Today is the International day of Peace.

This week at Wednesady stamper the challenge is to make art on Peace.

The white cross with the heart-shaped red seal on the card is meant to have two meanings: I first thought of it as Jesus' cross, so that heart would be Jesus' heart because on the cross He gave us His Peace. Then I just thought I might use this card at Christmas time and in that case the cross with the heart would also represent the ribbon and bowknot that wrap up the present within, which in this case would be Peace, of course. Does that make any sense to you?

I had a few problems with the sealing wax, though. It turned out too dark. I then watercoloured it in red, but it lost its shine and became too matt, so I cleaned it off and applied some red glitter. 

As for the ATC, it was a quickie and I made it mostly with scraps. 

Tag using scraps - Step outside your box/Saturday's workout

The theme at Step outside your box Saturdays is scraps and the theme at Saturday's workout is an open one. So I'm entering this tag I made using only left overs (except for the beads and the brad). It was great fun doing something creative with the scraps that keep piling up on my desk instead of throwing them away! I used my favourite technique, which is collage.

100% Joker - Theme Thursday

Some time ago I found this Joker card in very bad shape inside the drawer of my mom's sewing machine. After a lifetime spent inside the pack with no use, a coarse heart had been drawn on it and the word "dama", which means "queen" in card games, had been added because the Queen of Hearts was nowhere to be found. And so by means of a simple pen surgery Mr Joker had become the Queen of Hearts and the 40 cards deck was complete again. When I found blogland, I realized that playing cards could be successfully used in crafts projects, so I kept this card for future use. I honestly find the Joker figure on this card completely hideous, but I guess that on the whole I managed to give this card enough beauty to enter the altered playing cards challenge at Theme Thursday.

Rust - Mixed Media Monday

This week's Mixed Media Monday challenge is to make something with rust.

I altered this chocolate box a while ago and I've been using it to keep cards and letters ever since. It's a hard plastic box and the top was transparent, so I started by coating it with Rembrandt's pearl green acrylic paint. Next I découpaged the napkin flowers and the Stamperia ducks on it. Then I applied Decoart/Rayher's  Antique Medium I and II to obtain a crackling effect. For the rust effect I then used Ceramichrome Mineral Spirit Translucent Stain (MS1 Walnut). It  was very dark and had a very heavy look, so I had to wipe off the excess rust and apply some white acylic paint to make it softer.

Mona Lisa and friends - Make a Moo or Two

I had great fun making these for Make a Moo or Two. I have only one Mona Lisa stamp and it's actually quite large: it's 4''x3 1/2'' and it's part of the Jim Holtz collection for Stampers Anonymous. So instead of "Mona lisa and friends", I focused on the several faces and ages of Mona Lisa. From left to right I present you GreatgrandM(on)a, GrandM(on)a, Hippy Mona, Goth Mona and Sleeping Mona. :-)

Fairies - Small world of inchies

Fairies is the theme at Small World of Inchies.  I'm not sure, but I think the picture I used to make the inchies is from http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ (I downloaded it some time ago.)

(I uploaded two photos because neither the glitter in the inchie of the baby fairy nor the embossing effect of the white background paper were visible enough.) 

Colourful - Think Monday, think ATC

They're asking for colourful ATCs at TMTA. I'll entitle this one "Come to the circus!" Only the clown stamp is a new stamp. The other three stamps are vintage stamps that belong to my Dad. He's got a box with 15 circus stamps and it was really difficult to make a decision on which to use for this ATC because they're all great! When I was a little girl (back at primary school) I used to have lots of fun stamping (and of course colouring) my notebooks with these and other stamps which my Dad had bought to use with his primary school students.

Birds - Make a moo or two

Black and white was the theme at MMT last week but guess what... When I was going to post these moos I realized that the challenge for this week is birds. Yippee! :-) So here they are... I guess I'm going to colour Woodstock after all. I hate seeing him so "pale".