postcard challenge

week 18...

going down under this week, to the land of many sheep....

NEW ZEALAND


I wonder what trouble we can get up to while we are there???

see you back here on Friday for the link up.

Art journal

So I decided to start a brand new journal just for me, and this is the first page.

The inspiration came from watching Tee's show.. those of us in the chat had such a giggle, and by the end a challenge was set to paint something that included a random sock...

I knew straight away what I wanted to do..

First I worked on the background.. this was done with acrylics, blended  and then dimensional paint squiggled on top. once this dried I painted the blue square.

Next I added the green hill..

Then I added my house..

I used paint skins, a piece of sequin waste, music paper, a watch face, and a doorway from an old boardgame..

I then pushed some wall filler through a stencil, and added some ink drips..

When the wall filler was dry, I stamped some text over it and then coloured it with ink..

I drew my unicorn onto separate paper and glued him onto the page.

Then I coloured him with neocolors, before adding the white frame. I wanted it to look like an old polaroid photo. Of course I added the obligatory sock on the end of his horn..

postcard challenge

week 17.. Norway,

My cousin married a Norwegian in 1981, and moved over there. i went to visit in 1984, when I was 14. I loved the country, so very beautiful..however very expensive.

I have this book that my cousin sent,

I also found out these postcards that I bought while I was there..

I even found my travel documents and my 1year passport...can you believe that we used to be able to get 1year passports??

..and just to prove that I was a crafter...otherwise known as hoarder....even back then...here are the leaflets,bus tickets, serviettes and menu!!!!! that I picked up and brought home with me. Even back then I was collecting crap everywhere I went..

I also used to have a 'moose crossing' road sign but I have no idea where it went to....so I used the idea to make my page..

and here is my card.. drawn up and coloured with prismas..

and the back of my card.. Charlie is still hot on the trail, looking for numbers that will make up the combination to the briefcase that was found...but in Norway, the numbers were removed...by who? this card was waiting upon return to the uk..

who is watching, who sent the card? why don't they want the case opened? and more importantly why don't they want Ren to be found?

THIS IS WHERE YOU LINK UP... add your blog link and name and then go visiting..

Please only link up if you are taking part in the Postcard Challenge..

birthday card

I made this card this week ...

This is the front of the card..

and here is how I made the INSIDES...

First I made a multi layered platform..

I then cut a vase shape which I decorated with doodling and a punched edge.

I cut lots and lots of leaves and flowers from Basic Grey, and started to attach them to the 3 layered platform, plus some on the background.. I doodled around the edges of the flowers and leaves..

I then decided the background was too plain, and carefully peeled everything from the card. Took a fresh card and added a vellum background, before reattaching the platforms and flowers.

I wrapped the flowers in a little coloured tissue paper and added the bow around all 3 layers.

It took all evening lol it was very fiddly to cut everything out, but it turned out ok I think.

It does fold flat...ish...well enough to still fit in the envelope, though a little bulky.

postcard challenge

I am just off to the gym, but thought I would swing by here and leave you with next weeks country.

We are off to the land of Trolls and Fjords...

NORWAY


I won't be able to walk when I get back lol so I shall curl up with a cuppa and come visiting your blogs.

See you back here next Friday.

Postcard Challenge 2012

week 16 Romania..

 buna dimineata, ce mai faci?

This country is a favourite of mine, I would dearly love to go there. Not just for the Dracula legends, but also for the scenery and the people.

One of my lovliest friends is Romanian. This is us a couple of Christmasses ago..

Because of him I started to learn to speak and read Romanian.. These are my books..

last time he went home, he brought me some postcards and bits back..

Occasionally I order food and beer from this romanian supermarket.

My friend lent a recipe book to me, and I made the Romanian rhubarb cake, you can see it and the recipe here...

Although I am not a fan of dance music, I do quite like it when it's in Romanian, and actually learning songs is a great way to learn a language. I often drive my household to distraction by singing along in Romanian lol My favourite group from over there is DJ Project.

DJ Project.. <---video

So onto my card. The Romanians love to give painted eggs at Easter, and as we have just had Easter, I thought it would be appropriate.

Romanians believe that painted eggs bring luck and protect their homes against demons and unholy spirits. The shells of the Easter eggs are blessed, they should not be thrown away, but sprinkled over the soil in gardens to provide for fertility and richer crops.

and the back..

and the page, I used the colours of the flag, over which I stuck a romanian beer label and bottle cap. I then added a poem in romanian. The owl and the Pussycat, not an original romanian poem I know, but it was one of the things I read when first learning some of the language.

HERE IS WHERE YOU LINK UP, add your name and blog link and then go visiting..

Please only link up if you are taking part in the postcard challenge..



Pe Curand...

Postcard Challenge 2012

Do you want the new country a little early???

Week 16...

we shall take ourselves off to the land of vampires....

the birthplace of the legend of Dracula...

ROMANIA


See you all on Friday. x

Postcard Challenge 2012

week 15 Iceland.

This week I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

Firstly i printed off, albeit  smaller, a journal page about the Iceland Sagas that I made ages ago, last year some time.

HERE IS  the blog post where I showed how I made the journal page. Since then I have gessoed over the left page as I didn't like it, I still need to rework it.  But I did love the tree side, so I scanned and printed that as my page for this week.

So next I did my card. I wanted to do a music based card. There is a group from Iceland called Sigur Ros. I adore their music, I often listen to it as I am falling asleep.

This is part 1 of a documentary about them and their beautiful music..

part two

part three

So I looked at one of their album covers..

THIS IS  their album cover...

and this is my version..

and the back of the card. Charlie has the first number of the combination and is on the track of the second number.

THIS IS WHERE YOU LINK UP...add your name and link then go visit each other.

Please only link up if you are taking part in the Postcard Challenge.

Happy Mail..

I just wanted to share with you something that I received in the mail about a week ago. A while back I left a comment on Gina's blog after she announced a give away. I never expected to win, but it's always nice to leave a comment anyway. Well imagine my suprise to get an email from her saying I had won. I was so happy, I never win anything lol

So this is what came, and OMG how amazing is this...

firstly there was a lil envelope stuffed with postage stamps....the geek in me had a grand time sorting them into countries and putting them in lil labelled baggies haha

as if that wasn't enough i then opened this...

Isn't it just stunning! The covers are hard, like a childrens board book maybe? they are joined by a strip of leather. As you can see the cover has a design painted on it and also some dimensional paste or spackle on the edge.

Here you can see the covers and the spine, showing the stitching..

the pages inside have all the edges roughed up making them appear really thick and vintage.

many of the pages have antique type stains on them, done with maybe ink or even coffee?

I am just totally thrilled with it, and as yet have no idea what I am going to use it for. I don't want to ruin it lol I will be keeping it for something special, and once filled it will live in the bowl on my coffee table ..

cards..

Postcard Challenge 2012

Winner of the March, end of month competition is

NATASHA  with her card from Israel.

there were 26 votes and Natasha received 8.

Your prize will be posted out to you sometime in the next week. x

Postcard Challenge 2012

Week 14 Singapore...

Jeez this was by far the worst week so far for me. I changed my mind so many times and hated everything I did. I hope you had better luck than me.

I still hate what i ended up with, but life is too short to worry about it, so i called it done...

The page in the book...collaged squares, stencilling and some fabric cars..

the card in the envelope..

Front of the card, quick sketch...and I do mean quick, cos I was totally fed up by this point...patterned tape around the edges and fabric flags.

Back of the card...Charlie is on the trail of the combination for the briefcase..

IMPORTANT...PLEASE READ...


As this is Easter weekend, many of you may not be around on Monday, so I have decided to reveal the next country today.

We are off to ICELAND...


Don't forget to vote for this months winner, 2 posts down...




HERE IS WHERE YOU LINK UP..

Add you name and link and then go visit each other.

Please only link up if you are taking part in the Postcard Challenge.

You can still link up even if you are showing a 'catch up' card.

I would like to tell you about Natasha.. some of you will already know her, as she is a part of the postcard challenge. She makes wonderful art...and she has just put together her very first online workshop.

Go here and check it out..

Click here...

on-line workshop

Cotton Candy Girls

It is a 5 week class, and I just know you will love it. Go and take a look, sign up and lets all paint Cotton Candy girls.

Postcard Challenge 2012

week 14...a brand new month.

Don't forget to read the previous post and cast your vote...

 Numbers have slipped an awful lot. The first week we had 83 cards and last week only 29 lol so lets hope this week really fires up the imagination. I really love seeing all your cards, and reading the stories.

We are off to Asia, to a relatively young country, an island country, made up of 63 islands.

Let us jump on a rickshaw and take a tour of...

SINGAPORE


Come back on Friday to link up. Have a great week everyone.