TMTA and Inch by Inch

This is a super quick, middle of the night post, for two challenges that are closing soon.

For the first time, I've been organised enough to get something in for Inchbyinch, where the weekly challenge is Black and White

I would like to note that it was a very hard palette for me to use - I had to drag my hand away from the gold paint. Also, I may be unintentionally breaking the rules by using sepia images. *frets*


Secondly, TMTA's theme is Tickets. I've tucked a ticket under this little girl's arm.


And that's it for me - it's far too late to be up and blogging.

A busy weekend

Easter has been fun - despite the heat and humidity and thunder storms and craziness at work, I actually got a lot of work done.

TMTA's theme this week is Texture Effects. I made an ATC made from a background of scrunched up newspaper, lightly covered with gesso for extra texture, and dry brushed with copper and gold acrylic to pick up the shapes and texture of the newspaper.

I used an image of Virginia Woolf, and once it was down on the card, it seemed to need simple embellishment - a black ribbon and an gold charm holding a leaf pressing. I was quite surprised at the way my subconscious constructed this - it wasn't until the leaf was glued down that I realised it was rue, and then I had my theme for the ATC.



This week's Inching Artists theme is Words. These inchies were cut from a very precious piece of scrap paper that I've been using under my craft work for months, letting it accumulate layers and layers of paint in that perfectly random way that can only happen with scrap paper.



And lastly (how productive have I been this weekend? Chocolate is the super-fuel of the creative mind!), I have a fabric ATC that will be zooming over to WA fro a one-on-one exchange with Debbi Baker. It's a piece of velvet (I know! I said I'd never use that stuff again!), with a layer of blue foil netting stitched over the top, and a motif in buttons, beads and sequins set in the middle. It was fantastic fun to make.

Think Monday: Think ATC

Twice in a row! I'm on fire with the organising and the doing of craft this week.

The theme this week at TMTA is Transparent Art. I took a transparency of an antique daguerreotype of the moon - it's mottled and golden in that beautiful way that daguerreotype photographs are. (I had to use the word twice, to make it worth looking up the spelling.)



The image is over a background of pearly iridescent ink, which of course, doesn't show up in the scan, but makes the image really glow. I took the words from an ancient dictionary.

I love using transparencies, but the hard part is finding original ways to frame the very obvious edge. This time, I put my new sewing machine to the test, and it blitzed through the plastic and card with no problems, even when threaded with horrible, snagging metallic thread. Oh metallic thread! You look so fine, but you are so evil. Same problem that I have with velvet, I think.

Think Monday: Think ATC and Inching Artists

I managed two challenges this week; I'm quite pleased with myself.

This week's theme at TMTA is Fashion. I went for a playing card type of concept, with a glamorous girl whose waistline fascinates and frightens me. I'm not really one to suffer for beauty, unless the suffering involves glue and scissors.



And for Inching Artists, there's a numerical theme.



I really love these inchies! I love them because I used something from UNDER THE MAT. Under the mat is the place where I shove scraps that are just too good to throw away - but I never use these goodies fast enough, and my mat develops hillocks where the stuff has piled up. That's why it's always cause for celebration when I drag something out and use it. This time, it was the cover page from a sheet of Stampers Anonymous unmounted stamps. I cut the numbers out, lacquered them with Dimensional Magic and stuck them down onto a sheet of scrap paper that I slathered with gold paint.

I really need to seek out some swaps for Inchies - I would like to make more. Any suggestions for Inching communities.

TMTA: Mosaics

The theme this week at Think Monday, Think ATC is Mosaics. I took the chance to use up the leftovers from my Christmas card frenzy to make a set of serendipity-style tiles, and it was lots of fun, and quite nostalgic to revisit a technique from time gone by.



Blogger is being a pain with uploading images right now - I have to host this at my Flickr. *waves fist at Blogger*

I am really, really hoping to play with my Lutradur samples that Debbi Baker sent to me. New stuff! I'm going to burn it! (You can't say that about too many things these days!)

TMTA: Masks

This week's theme for TMTA was Masks. I was certain that I had some cute baroque-looking mask charms somewhere in the murky depths of our craftroom, but either I imagined buying them in the first place (which is weird, because I'm sure I've used a few), or I put them in a really, really safe and sensible place, which means I won't be seeing them for a few years.

So, I had to improvise.



The face is from a book of Indian clip art, and it's a mask of some kind, though it's uncannily realistic-looking. I cut the body out of card, and the hair out of some bright orange paper. It's a darker themed card than I'm used to making, but I like it.

ETA: And it looks like I was too slow for this theme - that will teach me to get my act together - I've had this card made for a few days and everything. Never mind!

Think Monday, Think ATC: Smile

The theme at TMTA this week was "Smile". I have to confess, I had a sudden attack of anarchy with this one, and couldn't get the image of grumpy children out of my mind.



It's not that I don't feel like smiling. Not at all!

Think Monday - Think ATC (I know, it's Wednesday...)

I've had a very busy couple of days - a sick girlfriend to take care of, lots of art to do (yay!), and a looming fan-fiction challenge that I'm blithely ignoring. I'm going to be sorry about that last one in a few days when I'm slaving at the keyboard until the wee hours of the morning.

Hey, Scoured! Google Reader for the win! Thank you so much for the tip, I'm cruising along with it now, and it's awesome. And not contributing to me failing to get this fic written, no, not at all.

Think Monday - Think ATC is a weekly challenge to make an artist's trading card to the specified theme, and this week, the challenge was to use a slide mount (the little casing that goes around a photographic slide) in the ATC. This is my first time in this challenge - but oh, I love these weekly challenges already - I can take part or not, as the muse comes and goes, and I'm not letting anyone down if I feel like my work isn't up to showing to anyone.



I'm really happy with this one - I love the texture of acrylic paint when it has bubbled up under the heat gun, and it's always fun to add those wacky triangle embellishments. The face is printed on a transparency, which isn't so obvious in the scan, but the text of the stamp shows through a little.

Yay! I'm so happy to have made something this weekend.