*cough-cough*

and *sniff-sniff*.  Just in case those hints weren't clear enough... I have a cold! Nasty one that makes me feel like my head is stuffed with cotton wool so I am very hard of thinking right now (more so than usual).  Anyway, I think I have got the comments sorted out now.  Thanks to Ruth and Helen for letting me know there was a problem!

Not got much done this week, being poorly sick and all, but I did get a second canvas finished off from the Wilko pack:

This one is in browns and rusty/terracotta colours to match my youngest DDs bedroom.  There are some BG Ambrosia papers in there, a few Cosmo Cricket die cuts, prima flowers and bling and another of my bargain butterflies.  I've also discovered a cute little shop in the centre of Kingston (where I work) which has Decopatch stuff in it.  Never heard of this before, but the papers are really useful, a tissue paper texture which is semi translucent for the first layer then gets deeper colour if you layer it up.  I used a brown and gold crackle effect for the edge of this canvas and it works really well.  I notice that a lot of stationery stores are starting to stock this stuff, and for alterers they have some great items to alter (I particularly love the giraffe).  I found this online store that has details of Decopatch for anyone who is interested.

I also made a find in a charity shop and bought these beauties for £1.25 each!

Aren't they fab?  The possibilities are endless.... which makes it difficult to decide what to do with them!!! Help!!

Well, that's all for now, apart from a big cheer for the away win yesterday.  Torres was on fire! Carragher and Skirtl not so much but hey, everyone is entitled to an off day now and again... as long as they don't make a habit of it.

Canvassing

I picked up a pack of 4 small blank canvases in Wilkinsons a couple of weeks ago.  Blank canvases seem to be available everywhere now, which is great for us crafters who can pick them up at low prices and play around without worrying about the cost! I've now got a stash of all sizes to play with.

This is what I have done with one of the small ones:

 

I had the title text from a jamboree pack of ephemera and I thought it was fun so I started from there and the rest just flowed from it.  The vintage photograph is from an ephemera sheet, the flowers are prima and there is an assortment of tissue papers and bits of lace doilies.  The butterfly I picked up from a little shop in Covent Garden where they were on sale.

BTW I still haven't waxed my Petit Dolls.  I started with the block of wax and the mini iron and wasn't happy with the results so I blotted it off with paper towels.  I'm thinking I will get a melt pot and try putting on the wax with a paint brush then ironing it to flatten it out if I need to.  I know a lot of people find the block and iron gives them more control, but I think I would feel more in control with a brush.  Guess I am just contrary!

Petit Dolls

I've been taking a the August Petit Dolls workshop with Suzi Blu here at her academy.  I first heard about it from reading this post by Leandra Franiche over at Paper Artsy.
Now I'm nowhere near as good as Leandra (not many people are!) but I have been having fun with this class and been suprised at how well my dolls have turned out.

 

First we had to learn how to draw a pretty face, then how to shade it with waxy prismacolor pencils, then draw a body, then cut it all out.  

 


After that it was making lovely, grungy, multiple layers of background with collage, paint, stamps, stencils...... a great adventure.  We then stuck the dolls onto the background and integrated them with more layers of paint etc.  I made two dolls because I was having so much fun! 
The next step is to melt wax onto them... this is the scarey part because after that I can't alter them (other than to add embellishments)!  I have my wax, I have my encaustic iron thingybob and I have a bank holiday weekend to do it!


Well, off I go to heat up by mini-iron and melt my wax!