Hello Dolly

Hi

Do you remember the doll swap I signed up for? So far I've had visits from two dolly friends to have their body decorated (best not mention that!), their face created and most recently I had a new arrival for a hair appointment. 

Meet Dolly.

Dolly belongs to Sonja and I did check with her first if she wanted to keep tabs on Dolly's progress so Dolly says 'Hi Sonja I hope you like my hair?'. And as all good hairdressers do I'll show you the back view too.

Dolly is packing her bags and getting ready for the next step of her journey while I await the arrival of a new doll.

This week I've been getting to grips with a new addition to my crafting kit - a Silhouette. I'd considered getting one some time ago and then reconsidered but after seeing how much Sandra liked hers and finding one at a bargain price I took the plunge. And now? I'm so pleased I did. I've been amazed at what it can achieve. Here are a few cards I've made using it.

This card uses the free shape for download last week - a dressform. (yes, that is more Glitz paper you can see!)

I couldn't resist this Keep Calm and Carry On sentiment.

This Happy Birthday sentiment comes free with the software. I put it together with a card blank by Craftwork Cards they measure 8x8 and I love working with them. This one is inked with distress inks and stamped with a leaf stamp around the edge. The watch stamp was free with craft stamper last month and once stamped I finished it off with a bit of glossy accents on the watch face. Some die cut tattered leaves and a couple of flourishes to finish. 

I have to say that I've had fun learning how to use it so far and I hope to learn lots more. I'll keep you posted.

soup never looked so good

Tin is the theme this month at Alter It Monthly be it an altered tin or using tin or metal on your project. Luckily I had just used a tin so after a bit of ferreting around my recycling I managed to retrieve it to alter. I first coloured the edges of the tin using watermelon alchohol ink and covered the whole thing in a book page inked with worn lipstick distress ink. I have fallen in love with the tattered floral alterations die so made lots of flowers die cut from lots of bright papers, the larger ones have a brad and large black sequin for their centres. Another favourite technique at the moment is embossing good old kitchen tin foil using the cuttlebug. I cut out my initial in cardstock and covered in foil and then run through the bug using the roses embossing folder, therefore adding another tin element to my project. Around the bottom edge I added a scrap of black lace.
You may remember my new art doll stamp, well I have now put her together to adorn my new tin. I added a wooden coffee stirrer to the reverse and that sits inside the tin allowing her to perch on the edge.

I'm going to use it as a pen holder in the hope of trying to restore some order to my desk. Why not take part too there is a prize draw with a £15 gift e-voucher on offer from Happy Daze

Ever Increasing.... Butterflies

In response to my last post Sian made the brilliant suggestion that the butterflies would look great mounted in a frame. Well as it happens I had a frame that had been sitting around my craft room just waiting for some inspirational idea to come along...........What do you think?

It would make the perfect gift for a butterfly loving friend and the butterflies could be coloured in their favourite colours or to match decor or even stamped on some pretty paper.
Thanks Sian for your suggestion, all brilliant ideas gratefully received :-)

Last week at the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking show I bought an art doll stamp from B Line Designs. I'd been debating for some time as to whether to buy one or not but it was there right in front of me........so far I have only got around to stamping and colouring the image, she is still awaiting construction. I think the main body part would look good as a dressform on a card.

There were so many stamps to ponder at the show and my resistance was low, I'll share some more of those next time.Thank you too, to all of you who suggested a tutorial for the wreath - I'll get working on it. I'd love to share my idea with you and hopefully I'll have it ready soon.

An Art Doll

In the latest copy of The Craft Stamper there is an article all about making art dolls. I'd been wanting to make one for a while and had thought about ordering some character stamps or stamps of body bits (not as macabre as its sounds!) but using this article I had everything to hand and was ready to go.

A while ago I was very lucky to find some vintage wooden cotton reels in a charity shop which cost me about 50p each. I wish I'd bought more. I'd used all the cotton from the one used in this project so I wrapped some checked ribbon around it which was just the right width. The body is painted with acrylics and then stamped with a great stamp from the PaperArtsy minis range (MN20). It's a small section of a paper sewing pattern.

I added a tiny torn piece of a book page which is always going to make me smile when I look at it, it says 'Foo Tang'. I bought a book specifically to use in craft projects and it almost seemed like vandalism to tear it up. However, once I'd torn out the first page I got over it and I always have a little read of the page. Foo Tang features alot and amazingly was even printed on both sides of this tiny scrap of paper. I then added some stickers saying ' I Love To Create'. The wings are made from a free heart stamp I got with a magazine stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with H2Os and the face is a stamp by Hampton Art stamps which I've had for ages. The final stamp I used was a royal crown by Pink Paislee which I decorated with some pearls and jewels. My finishing touch is a flower which I made and finished with a felt ball centre.

......and if you're wondering how she stands in the cotton reel I used a wooden coffee stirrer stuck to the reverse - now I know why I squirrel these things away.