365 Art Calendar & T!m's Tags

Here is my finished November page, December has also been prepped but I've not taken a photo yet.

So went along the theme of Stars and Stripes, it being Thanksgiving in the USA, plus did it on a very dark day, so used bright colours to cheer myself up.

Tag 1

Tag 2

As always, I had to improvise, blimey doesn't that bloke have some stash, unlike us mere mortals.   Not done anymore yet, and we are off down south tomorrow to stay with friends in Hampton, which will be another world because here in the dizzy heights (around 1000' above sea level) we have SNOW .  We're going ice skating on the rink at Hampton Court tomorrow night, so that should be good, Wednesday we're off to Harrods and Harvey Nicks shopping, then off to Le Gavroche for dinner.  OMG, only dreaming again, although we are going to watch the skaters at Hampton Court, lol.

Ladies Who Lunch

Today was our December play day and we all made a Christmas Wreath, tutored by the lovely Jill (no blog).

We all had a thoroughly good day and here's a selection

Anne's

Pat's

Christine's (yes that is the two finger salute you can see there - she was telling me that her balls were dangling more than mine, although you can't actually see hers here, lol.

Mine

and.......

this is how teacher did hers...

She refused to be photographed and you can just see Chris in the background trying to get her into the picture.

They all turned out beautifully, despite some of (who shall remained nameless) being frightened of the little creepy crawlies which came out of the foliage.

Apologies for the facial expressions, they would not keep still - I shall have to get new models in future.

Bling Bling

Those of you who know me, know that I don't do 'bling', however on the She Art Doll I thought the dress needed jazzing up a bit.

I used Eco Friendly acrylics, Paperartsy Fresco paints, Claudine Hellmuth and Tim Holtz stamps.  I gave her a diamond necklace to finish her off.  On looking again, it probably would have been better without the flower coming out of the side of her head, lol.

Living with Autism

Our friends, Pat and Jim have a grandson, Liam, who has been diagnosed as Severely Autistic and Pat is taking a stall at a Christmas Fair to sell hand made gifts to raise money for the Autistic Society.  Liam's parents Lynz and Phil are doing a wonderful job, because autism affects the whole family and if you would like to read more take a look at Liam's blog here.

Pat has been busy knitting soft toys like these

and I've been busy making shabby chic hearts, gift bags and cards.

I've also made some Christmas cards, but I'll blog them another day.  In the meantime it's to be hoped that people 'down South' appreciate the style of Stampotique, lol.

If you wondered why it says 'general dogs body' on Pat's photo, Pat used to work for me and one day we employed an outside trainer to come and talk to us.  He asked us all to introduce ourself and say what qualifications we had.  Pat was the last and she just came out with Pat Dixon, SRN, GDB, he knew what an SRN was but couldn't work out what GDB was.  Needless to say ever after Pat was known as Pat Dixon, GDB.

Blog Candy from The Craft Barn

The Craft Barn are celebrating reaching 600+ followers and are giving away this fantastic blog candy

All the details can be found here

SDC41 Altered Poison Bottle

I'd bought a few old bottles from a charity shop in the summer and when I saw the latest Stampotique Designers Challenge decided to give it a go.

I'd seen the way Wendy Vecchi had used a new technique, so I painted bottle with Rangers Glue n Seal, waited until it was thoroughly dry, then covered with a layer of Rock Candy crackle paint.  Once dried I had some small cracks and some large ones which were starting to peel off, but added to the overall effect.  I didn't want it all to peel off, so gave it a generous coat of Mod Podge, told you, I love this stuff.  I gave the bottle a good cover of vintage photo DI, made a vintage label and stamped arsenic on, then remembered it was Stampotique stamps only, so made another label to cover it up and stamped poison with the Alphabities stamps.  Stamped 3 in a round and coloured with Neo crayons.  Embellished with chain, metal skull, wire and three further skulls.

October finished at last!

Here's my October page, finished at last, I seem to be spending so much time sewing and quilting that journaling etc., has been pushed to the back of my to do list.

Went with an autumn theme instead of Halloween.

As always this challenge is hosted by the talented Mrs C.