Altered Head(s)

This was a challenge! Altered bodies ... no problem ... swap a leg here, swap an arm there or something like this but altered heads (heads and shoulders only)? Oh dear .... at first I really struggled to get MY head around the challenge set by Debs for the first Art 'n' Soul swap this year: You can alter your head(s) in any way you like. But remember, 100% digital is not allowed.
Format: TRITYCH ATC
Once I had organised myself I then managed to ruin two pieces just before completion ... this was definitely not planned! So what you see here is plan C .... I created an ATC Tryptich where the middle part is split into two halfs and opens out to the side. The base was cut from relatively strong white card and then covered with 7 Gypsies paper (actually all patterend paper is from 7 Gypsies). For the outside I stamped the paptterned paper with a stamp from Impression Obsession which I embossed with mirror gold embossing powder. For the 'topper' I stamped an image from Lynne Perrella and layered it on patterend paper. As adornment I chose some blings and a little plastic flower ... this topper extended the front part a little bit .... For the closure I attached a woven wool ribbon which is closed with safety pin and book screw
.... and I gained a little bit more space for the inside decorations (lol). To create the inside I stamped and embossed all three sides ....
... the left and right side with PaperArtsy stamps and the middle with a component stamp from Tim Holtz. The next step was the decoration .... The eye from the Graphics Fairy ... coloured with Koh-i-noors ... behind the alteration wheel cut with a Sizzix die-cut and heat-embossed while the alteration letters on the right hand-side are from BoBunny

For the middle part I stamped again an image from Lynne Perrella, cut it out and embellished it with hook, circle and bling

Have a great weekend, Petra.

Linked to: Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes

Vintage Twinchies

The first art exchange this year for Gingersnap Creations and as usual it was a wonderful challenge: Vintage Twinchies ... 6 of them ... with more than one layer. I created my twinchies in pairs on different days and in different moods
I am not quite sure what this little boy is up to ... but I am quite sure if he would have the choice between reading books and getting on a bicycle it would be the bike (lol): background - the Graphics Fairy, image - Freubels, stamps - Hero Arts and RRD
And the little girl is ever so sweet with her letter and the bunch of flowers: background - Papertraders, image and label - Freubels, printed sentiment and some little paper flowers
Mdm Ismelda and the Clown .... do you want to know your future, do you really want to know? Give Mdm Ismelda your hand and she will surely read the lines: background - Freubels, image - the Graphics Fairy, stamps - Waltzing Mouse, 7 Gypsies
Oh! My Pa-Pa (originally German: Oh! Mein Papa) was sung by a young woman about her once famous father who had been a clown. When I saw the image the image it reminded me straight away of this song: background and image - Freubels, some doodling, Stickles
I love this little darling image and could not resist to use it: image - the Graphics Fairy, paper: EchoPark, stamp - PrimaMarketing, pearls, Stickels, jewellery label, button twine
And these Newspaper Boys look quite chripy as they prepare to deliver the newspapers: images - from the web and The Sum of all Crafts, newspaper
Have a lovely evening, Petra.

image sources: Freubels, The Graphics Fairy, the web, The Sum of all Crafts

Holidays & Ornaments

Last week we went for a short city break to Hamburg, Germany's biggest port. I hadn't been to Hamburg for about 20 years and was amazed how the city has developed (and still is) during the last years. We found an eclectic mix of new and old living very happily next to each other .... wonderful restaurants with fresh fish .... Christmas market stalls at almost each corner ... lots of very small and very big boats in the harbour to watch. The weather was not as friendly as we had hoped but there were always some very lovely cafes with wonderful coffees and delicious cakes (lol)
We will definitely return to Hamburg but on request of a gentleman only when it is a bit warmer (lol).

Before going on holiday I received all the wonderful Holiday Ornaments from the Gingersnap swap, thankls to Laura. All ornaments are absolutely stunning. Ladies, thank you so much.

Suze and Laura
Emma and Kezzy

and a wonderful tag from Laura

Wishing you all an enjoyable Advents weekend, Petra.

Holiday Ornaments

.. for the Gingersnap Creations Art Exchange. I did enjoy it a lot and it got my right into the Christmas Spirit - creating four Holiday Ornaments in any shape but sized at least 2" x 2", it had to include some stamping and more than one layer. Every ornament is sort of similar but also slightly different. All of them have a decorated front and back. All of them consist of three layers of paper/card for the base. All shapes have been cut with Nestabilities apart from the snowflakes (Marianne Design) and holly (Tim Holtz Alterations).

The patterend base papers are from Kaisercraft edged with Stickles. For the second layer I cut some cardboard which I crackled with dark red/green and cream acrylic paints (Lefranc & Bourgeois) and crackle paint (FolkArt). This created the frame for the stamped Santa Claus images (Tim Holtz). I decorated the ornaments with some bakers twine and a snowflake charm at the bottom. For the top of one ornament I die cut the holly leaves and embellished it with some gems asberries. The gems are covered in red Stickles. For the second ornament the snowflake was cut from patterend Kaisercraft paper for both front and back and glittered the front with Stickles. The finishing touch is a Kanban pearl.
The back is the same for both ornaments: patterend Kaisercraft paper, a stamped sentiment from Elzybells stamped onto patterend Kaisercraft paper.

For the remaining two ornaments I took a slightly different approach using vintage images and having the stamping only on the back ... hope this counts (lol)
The patterend papers are from JillibeanSoup, Kaisercraft and BasicGrey. Some of the little stars on the base layer in the front and the back are glittered with silver Stickles. The image of the two rather sweet coral singers is from The Graphic Addict, it is slightly raised with foam pads to give it some more depth. The ornament is decorated with organza ribbon, two little jingle bells, a snowflake and a glittered pearl. The stamps for the sentiment on the back is from Artistic Outpost, the stars from 7Gypsies.
This ornament evolved around an image from the Graphics Fairy ... I wanted to use it for a long time and it seemed to be perfect for this occasion. The design principle and supplies for this ornament are the same as for the previous one apart from using just Stickled pearls, some woollen lace and a little bell for decoration.
Hope everybody likes them and I cannot wait to see what everybody else created. Petra.

Late Halloween Postcard

Late with posting here on my blog but hopefully not too late arriving at Chriss' doorstep ... for the Kindred Spirit Postcard swap. Chriss wanted to see bats on the postcard
The base for this postcard is again a watercolour-paper postcard which is brilliant when using lots of paint or ink ... lots of inking for the background with Distress inks ranging from scattered straw to fired brick and lots of stamping with Archival and Memento ink (stamps: Artistic Outpost, Elzybells). Hope there are enough bats on the postcard ... Petra.

Autumn Leaves

For Alexa and the September KindredSpirit Postcard challenge I created an autumn leave postcard. The base was a pre-prepared watercolour postcard which I worked on with various shades of distress ink to create the background.
For the stamping I used real leaves from the garden. The idea came about when a little while ago I found a little table cloth in my drawer which had been decorated with leave prints. And I remembered that my kids and me created this cloth during a weekend activity a VERY long time ago
For the postcard I collected acer leaves in varied sizes which I brushed with acrylic paint and pressed them onto the background - I covered the leave with white paper and rolled it very lightly with a brayer. I like this technique a lot. When taking the leaves off, quite a bit of the leave structure has been preserved
And who is just taking a quick peek from behind the leaves? A little witch from the Octopode Factory who is just about to go for a little ride (sentiment from Red Lead PaperWorks) (lol) - Petra.

Birdsong

I created this book for the last Art 'n' Soul challenge: GOTHIC ARCHES with a MUSIC/MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS/ANYTHING MUSIC OR SONG RELATED theme. We had to make three arches with front and back decorated. I chose birds and birdsong as my musical theme

The book pages are connected at the top with some string. The edge of every page is also lined with string to give it some definition. These are the plain individual pages of the booklet

All patterend paper is from The Girl's Paperie, stamps are Stempelglede, Red Lead PaperWorks, Obsession Impressions, Darcies and 7Gypsies.

Petra.

Knit Happens!

This is a postcard I made for the Kindred Spirit Postcard exchange. It is for the month of August and went to the lovely Christine from Change of Heart Creations.
Here theme was: pick your own theme/anything goes ...

The base of the post card is digital cloud paper from TracyAnn Digital paper. For the second layer I first stamped all the images (stamps from Kraftie Kimmie and Little-Z) on white card and then coloured the background and the images with Koh-i-noors and Copics. And ... I know it is a postcard ... but I couldn't resist to give it a bit more depth and a bit of a three-dimensional feel by adding some 'true' knitting (the knitting needles are pins), make the sheep all fluffy with cotton pads and add some stamped (stamp by Elzybells) and cut flowers.
Wishing you a great weekend, Petra. x