SPA – summer…

As they said, it hasn’t been very summery here this weekend especially… and laid up with a sprained foot, I have been frustrated by the whole situation. Having said that, I did spend a bit of time yesterday evening, playing with watercolours and drips and stuff…

The background started out more blue in hues, and of course, I have been carving small eraser stamps too! So this piece of paper was the foolscap sheet of lined white that I used to check my carving, that I then painted over!

The fun part was then scanning that into my PC, changing the hues and then playing with a new set of brushes which were presented to us over at Digital Whispers ning group. These are quite advanced files as I only have CS2 and when I downloaded them originally, I couldn’t open them! However, being married to a “web guy”, I offered to share my new toys with him and he opened them for me and sent them back so I could play too! (Doesn’t that sound complex??? Lol!)

So today I made this hybrid postcard for Sunday Postcard Art’s “summer” theme… using a few of the lyrics from Club Tropicana by Wham!

This is my promotional postcard for my new beach bar – Club Tropicana – which will open for business when I have the funds in place!!! 😉

Advertisement

Things my mother should have told me…

The title is taken from a brilliant book I bought last year at a Flea Market – “Things my mother should have told me – The Best of Good Housekeeping 1922-1940”. As today’s SPA theme is “vintage glitz and glam”, I thought I’d take a look at it for inspiration, especially as I made a mistake when stamping and embossing a 1920s image!! So that melted into the background (quite literally), and I cut this advertisement from the right side of one of the pages…

Isn’t that a fab ad for Helena Rubinstein? And the text is so 1920s… my Mum used to buy HR cosmetics when she could afford them!

The biggest problem with that book is that it’s absolutely fascinating – a charmingly retrospective look at women and how their lives changed during those formative decades. There are “Housekeeper’s Diary” notes, recipes and problem pages, fashion plates… I could spend a lot of time lost in its pages! 🙂

Eggs for breakfast?

Admittedly, Gordon the Gnome was a little surprised at the size of the egg he’d collected for his breakfast that morning, but he was really shocked at the size of the birds flying overhead… He wondered what their eggs looked like? Hmmmm….

For Sunday Postcard Art today!

I created the background artwork last night with watercolours and Gordon was discovered today, courtesy of Google images!

Have a great weekend! 🙂

Vintage Men

My vintage man is a gentleman dressed and equipped for salmon (game) fishing… and I’ve put him on one of the bubble background postcards I made yesterday. The fish are from a brass stencil and the frame is inspired by Marit!

Game Fishing

For this week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge! 🙂

At last! Bubbling!

At (Marit’s Creative) Summer camp we are exploring simple pleasures, like marshmallows, camp fires, ghost stories, techniques and prompts. Here’s the result of me happily playing with food colourings, baby shampoo and a straw!

A girl can never have too many colourful backgrounds for ATCs, postcards, etc. 😉

It’s all about… ME!

For Sunday Postcard Art this week –

The fabric pieces are all attached to a postcard about planning for the future and that’s exactly where we are at the moment… planning. So, really, this postcard represents me totally! 🙂

Romantic greeting cards…

I was working on some romantic greeting cards yesterday and if I had even glanced at my horoscope before I started out, I would’ve sat and watched TV all day instead! I have some beautiful Fabriano watercolour paper, pre-creased cards – 5″ x 7″ – left over from making handmade art journals, year before last. These feel absolutely gorgeous, so I decided to use them for my contemporary range of greeting cards.

After a long argument with my printer and some choice phrases thrown at Photoshop, this is what emerged… a set of 3 “variations on a theme”.

That’s for those who love denim, or your favourite cowboy/cowgirl! Then, in shades a little warmer… and just because I’m a Joe Cocker fan and that song has been on my mind lately, and because 3 really is a magick number, I created this one too:

And then came along this one:

And, well, this is a way of saying “I miss you…” without saying those words, isn’t it? Or telling a loved one – adult or child alike – that you were thinking of them?

And, ultimately, we must never forget our friends, must we?

See?! I like things in 3s!! I wanted to do some fun and witty cards using some of my vintage pics, but by the time I had finished these and edited them to my satisfaction, I was too frazzled, but I have those in mind, so they’ll be along soon enough!

If you like these cards, I shall be listing them in my Etsy store tomorrow. 😉

Chain Reaction…

is the song title I chose to depict for Sunday Postcard Art’s challenge this week. I like the catchy beat and lyrics and I liked bending and blending the lines of colour…

Chain Reaction...

Diana Ross has never been someone I am comfortable watching, but I do like her voice. Who makes you uncomfortable? 😉

“Ethnic” and very colourful post!

I liked the theme at TMTA this week – Ethnic… and I have used some great Tribal-style stamps for this ATC. The background is brayered paint and I stitched the tribal figure to the ATC and added a few strands of suitably ethnic fibres to frame the ATC. By twisting the fibres slightly, I was able to “couch” them more easily (Scatter, are you listening? For when you dust off your sewing machine!!!)

suitably ethnic and full of fibre 'o)

The stamps are from Home Impressions. Love ’em! And also from The Netherlands today, the most delightful, nay, colourful, envelope and collaged card… from my good (blogging) friend Marit!

The front

The back

The wondrous collage...

I am such a lucky teddy!! All I did was send her a pair of “wristies” because she’s such a chilly-bird! 🙂

By the way, Marit’s also got a 2-month online workshop called Summer Camp coming soon (registration’s already open) and as soon as I have my 15 Euros put to one side, I am signing on! It’s even multi-lingual – a Dutch speakers room and an English speakers room, but a joint gallery, so we can all share the art-love! I think it’ll be a great summer camp – and there won’t even be any insects to worry about! 😉

Cat House…

Or Salon Kitty? Fun themed ATCs this week at TMTA. House-shaped they must be!

Kitties at the windows...

I love using old ATC backgrounds and turning them into something completely different! This particular ATC “blank” has been altered 3 times now, this time with handcarved stamps, Hello Kitty stickers and watersoluble pencils. (Plus a bit of judicious doodling!)