Tags for free and other stuff....

Hi you all. Hope you are enjoying your weekend.  It's quiet here - as always, so I've been trying to liven things up by holding conversations with myself, but somehow couldn't find the right theme....so it's quiet here, as I already said.

Here are my free craft tags. I got them with a double packet of deep frozen pizza. Really! All you need to do is to open up the package, and start cutting. It made 2 large tags:

6 medium ones:

And a whole load of book plates.

The Pizza wasn't bad either!

By the way, the dark spot on the left hand side was something on my camera, sorry!

Over at 'Artful Times'  the theme is to have a tree as the focal point. I made a tag using one of my  new craft tags. I stamped the background using the whole stamp pad to make squares in rusty hinge, wild honey, forest moss and crushed olive. Then I dusted the squares with  perfect peals in green, bronze and gold, and heated it to fix it. It gave a lovely shimmer, which you can see better in the second picture.

The tree on the left has been sponged through the waste after cutting the other tree. The die-cut tree has been inked with perfect pearls medium, brushed with perfect pearls, and then clear embossed. I added some berries for a spot of colour. And the hedgehog fitted just nicely into the picture.

At 'Out of a Hat' the theme this week is oriental. I altered biscuit box number two, using a dragon image. The box had first been sprayed with gold, then toned down with spray mist in dark red before cutting the paper to size and gluing it down. I gave it all a couple of coats of clear varnish. The paper is from 7 Gypsies.

And I made two tags. I wasn't satisfied with the first one, hence the second attempt. This one has been distressed and stamped using wild honey and spun sugar, and then overstamped with my Japanese plant, which has also been decorated with some berries.

On the second tag I stamped a yellow sun over a pink square, and then used the same stamp as before, once again with black archival ink. The lady came out of my stash, as did the button. I like this one better than the first one.

And that was all for today. Here's wishing you a all a pleasant day. Take care, and thanks for coming by!

Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap

Kat organised a wonderful postcard swap again this year, where almost 200 participants from different countries participated. I am a bit late joining in the blog hop, but better late than never - life  sometimes gets in the way! Here are the beautiful cards I received:

From Marilyn

From Kat (who sent each of us a card - wow!)

From Janet Boosmith

 From Deborah

From Katja

From Marji

These are the postcards I liberated. I didn't hear from all recipients, so hope  they all arrived safely.

The swap was great fun, and I am looking forward to joining in again next year!

Kat made a video, showing one piece of each participant's art, which you can see here.

Great thanks to Kat, for her vision and hard work, and to all who joined in, and for the wonderful cards I received.

Have a great day, and thanks for looking in!

Cissie goes Greek and Paint Party Friday

Hi you all. It's Friday again, which means it's time for Darcy's Postcard Challenge, where the theme this week is Greece; and Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Kristin and Eva.

Here is the latest news on Cissie, Jason & Co:
The whole family is sitting happily round the table, looking at the photos of the opening of Jason’s and Shannon’s new shop, which is called ‘Yesterday in Print’. The opening went well, and the shop is always full of people browsing old copies of newspapers and comics. Elderly people relive their youth with old copies of 'Eagle'. 'Beano', 'School Friend', 'Girl' and many other collectables. ‘I knew it would go well!’ says Jason ‘That’s ‘istory what I’m selling’. ‘People seem to have money to waste on junk!’ sniffs Thelma. (She’s still in a bad mood, because her knees are hurting) ‘But still, if you and Shannon can live off it, why not?’ ‘Yeah, we can!’ says Shannon. ‘Stop knocking Jason, Mum!’

Cissie and Thelma have been invited to an evening ‘do’ at their ladies’ club, and the theme this week is Greece. ‘I’m really looking forward to seeing the slides’, says Cissie, ‘And of course to the food afterwards!’

They get themselves all dolled up in the evening,, both in white and blue in honour of the Greek flag, and off they go. They hear about the history of Greece, about the gods who reside on Mount Olympia, about the culture, language and famous sights, and see lots of pictures. Cissie is soooooooooo hungry, she can hardly concentrate, as she only ate one portion of fish and chips and 2 cream cakes to leave room for the buffet to come….

Meteora Agios Triadas (Holy Trinity Monastery)

Port of Patras

The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens

Alexander the Great /Battle of Issus 333BC

Thessaloniki

The White Tower and Promenade in Thessaloniki

Athens and the Parthenon

Mount Oylmpus

But sooner or later the lights go back on, everybody starts to move towards the laden tables, and even Thelma with her aching knees is almost at the front of the line. Thelma and Cissie get some black looks when the others see that they have once again managed to be at the front of the queue. ‘Well,’ says Cissie; ‘It would be rude to behave as if we weren’t interested in the wonderful food after people have worked so hard to prepare it!’

(All photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

And they are rewarded with platters full of delicious food, of which I am showing just a small selection, which they wash down with copious amounts of Retsina. At the end of the meal they toast each other with Ouzo, and vow to do something like this more often. There is enough food there to satisfy even the hungriest ladies; no one leaves hungry, and from the singing and loud conversation at the end, nobody leaves completely sober either. Cissie and Thelma leave arm in arm, happily singing, with 2 other ladies, whom they do not particularly like, but the Greek spirit seems to have got hold of them. Or did they get hold of too much Greek spirit?

Here is the card they take home for the kids. Cissie was quite delighted that the photographer was able to adjust the photo to make her look more streamlined, and took a note of his phone number for future jobs. Thelma refused, as usual, to be photographed.

Jámas! (Cheers)

For PPF I finished off the triangular painting I started last week, and made a second one to go with it. They have been painted with acrylics, and the 'deities' have been collaged. This time I chose Thot, the scribe, and Lord of the Moon, who is often  pictured as an Ibis. I placed him in front of the sun, perhaps so that he could look at the moon?  The statue is from a museum in Germany.

Side by side

Here I have put a little bronze statue of Thot as the sacred Ibis, wearing the triple  Atef crown, in front of the painting.

Okay, that was it for today. Hope you have a great day, and thanks for visiting!

Another altered box

This time I have altered a box I salvaged from the old-paper container next to our house. The acetate was missing from the lid, but I cut a new piece from the plastic packaging of a die. The box has been painted with gesso and then with 'champagne' acrylic paint. I covered the inside and underneath of the box with some script paper, which I distressed with Inka gold. I stamped around the body of the box using a LaBlanche stamp. I covered the outside of the lid with TH tissue tape, and distressed it all, outside and inside, with more Inka gold. I added a rose transfer to the lid. I hope this will make a nice box to pack a present in.

Before...

And afterwards....

That's all for today. Have a good day you all, take care, and thanks for coming by!

From box to fruit bowl

I have been busy trying to create something for the challenges at *Out of a Hat Creations* and *Recycle, Re-purpose and Re-invent*. At out of a hat creations the ladies wanted to see something made out of packaging, and it's anything goes at Recycle, re-Purpose and Re-Invent, so I decided to alter a small wooden box which was filled with yummy biscuits last Xmas. The tray is made out of untreated wood. I sanded it down a bit, as the edges were rough, and then gave it a first coat of gesso.

The second coat was acrylic paint 'Champagne'

Then I added the images, which I downloaded from 'The Graphics Fairy', fussy cut, and then clear varnished. I could have stopped here, but I prefer to give it a worn and battered look.

Then the messy part started - the part I like best. I aged and crackled it, using a 2-component varnish from LeFranc and Bourgeois, and polished over the cracks with some black ink and Inka Gold.

Then it got a coat of matte clear varnish.

And now it's a nice, 'antique' fruit bowl. I suppose I should have photographed it with pears, but the grapes were all I had.

It was fun doing the transformation, and the grapes tasted great. Have a good day you all, and thanks for visiting!