Mica Powders, Stamping into UTEE, and Another Flying Head

I had a flying head left from when I did my flying heads ATC a couple of weeks ago, so decided to make another ATC with it. I've used the same stamp as before but this time stamped into the UTEE. I've used clear UTEE over the top of a background made using Cosmic Shimmer Powders. The head is made from air dry clay painted with gold acrylic paint, and the wings are Friendly Plastic.

This one's going on the ATC canvas that Matt's forcing me to make. I'll post a picture on here when it's finished, but don't hold your breath - it's taken me nearly 8 months so far! (If only I could have a few more hours in every day).

Think Monday - Think ATC

This week's challenge on TMTA is Walpurgisnacht (night of the witches). I've made the witch by assembling various bits of Paperartsy stamps (and a little bit of drawing). The background is Versamark resist using distress inks (sponged on) and a Cherry Pie cobweb stamp.

There's a link to the TMTA blog on the right.

Make a Moo or Two: Girls

This week's challenge on

Make a Moo or Two is Girls, and these are my Moos. I'm not sure why I've chosen to do them like this as I hardly ever do pink, and I almost NEVER do girly, but these are, I think, the pinkest and girliest things I've ever made. I can only assume that somewhere deep inside me there's a little bit of girliness waiting to jump out whenever I give it the opportunity! Ah well...

Green Queen

This is another one for my Stamping With a Twist swap. I've stamped the image into Friendly Plastic, and the background is stamped into UTEE with Radiant Rain spray behind.

Green is not a colour I use very often, but my Friendly Plastic order has got stuck somewhere in the postal system (or at least I hope it's just stuck, and not lost), so it was the only colour I had enough of left.

Stamping With a Twist

I'm hosting a swap on the DoCrafts Forum entitled 'Stamping with a Twist', the twist being that the ATC has to have a stamped image as the main point of interest but it can't be stamped on paper or card. This is the first ATC I've made for the swap. I've stamped the image into clay and then painted it with metallic acrylic paints. The background is PVA and mesh painted with metallic acrylic paints, and I've added some wire and beads to finish it off.

Flowers in Her Hair

Well, I haven't been very productive over the last few days. I'm on a diet and doing lots of exercise, and it's making me tired. I made this one on Thursday night and it's probably my favourite of the ATCs I've made this week. The background was made using Twinkling H2Os and clingfilm (there are lots of shimmery bits but they don't show up very well in the photo), and the flower is cut out from fabric. I've coloured the lace with inks to match the background.

Think Monday - Think ATC

I decided to have a go at the TMTA challenge this week. The theme is mermaids and sea sprites.

I created the background using Twinkling H2Os and clingfilm then added a bit of irridescent embossing powder in green and blue. At the bottom I created a rock using scrunched up tissue paper with silver acrylic paint and a bit of green embossing powder and glitter glue, added some seaweed made from fibres, some sandpaper and some real pebbles and driftwood. The mermaid and fish are printed images, and the shells preserving her modesty are hand drawn on white paper. I've also added a bit of green mesh at the top (well, I do have to use mesh on everything at the moment!) Finally I added a bit of Stickles glitter glue to make it look a bit more magical.

Make a Moo or Two: Vintage

These are my efforts for this week's Make a Moo or Two. This week's theme is vintage. I enjoy doing these as it's a challenge to work so small. I think there will be lots more moos to come!

Bits & Bobs Challenge

This one's my favourite of Bobs' challenges so far. Bobs supplied a piece of paper tape measure, a piece of corrugated card, a button and a safety pin. I don't do a lot of fabric work but I thought it would look good with these items and decided to give it a go. I've added a piece of linen, which I hand dyed using reinkers and water (I didn't have any proper fabric dye and didn't want to get any when it's something I wouldn't use a lot), silver thread which I've hand stitched around the edges, a bit of ink, and various ribbons and fibres which I've tied through the safety pin and the button.

A Bit of Aqua

I'm getting ahead of myself at the moment, but I wanted to do these because aqua is a colour I really enjoy working with. They're for the DoCrafts colour swap in June (turquoise/aqua).
The top one is a stamped image and fusible film background. I love the way the fusible film has turned out on this one. I didn't get on with it the first few times I tried, but am glad I persevered.

The second one is Friendly Plastic with mesh, wire, gems and accent beads on a stamped background with a bit of shimmer spray. I'd originally intended to use the Friendly Plastic piece on the fusible film background, but when I put them together I found that the background was a bit overpowering and took the eye away from the Friendly Plastic, so I decided on a simpler background with the Friendly Plastic and a small stamped image with the fusible film so that the background is the main feature. These were great fun to do!

Tick Tock

This is for a challenge I've set for Bobs on the DoCrafts forum. Bobs does a monthly challenge for whoever wants to join in, so I've been sending her some challenges of her own as I thought she might like to have a go! The only problem is I have to do my challenge as well. This month's challenge was to make an ATC using a watch face, a plastic slide mount and a piece of bubble wrap. All I've added on this one is acrylic paint, wire and the words "tick tock" stamped into air dry clay.

Flying Heads

I'm not sure what was going through my head when I made this one. I've combined rubber stamping, UTEE, moulded clay and Friendly Plastic.

Mr Sunshine

This is a another possible entry for Nicks' ABSA swap. It's an altered lip balm tin lid on a stamped leather background. I've painted the lid using bronze acrylic paint, attached a moulded Friendly Plastic face in the middle and Friendly Plastic rays around the outside. I've also added a few accent beads around the face.

Altered Matchbox

This is an altered matchbox for a swap I'm doing on the DoCrafts Forum. I've been working on it over the last two weeks, as I've had to keep waiting for things to dry, (something I'm not very good at!)

I've painted the matchbox with metallic green and champagne gold acrylic paints. On the outside I've added mesh, craft moss, a few natural fibres, and a leaf which I've made by stamping into clay. I've also added some beads which I've attached with wire. The inside is painted gold and I've added bark, a skeleton leaf, more mesh (I have to get over this obsession with the stuff), more craft moss, a paper flower, a dried pine needle and a frog moulded from clay. I've also added some gloss finish around the frog to resemble water and a few droplets in various places inside the box.

Make a Moo or Two - Women

This week's theme on Make a Moo or Two is Women. I enjoyed doing this last week, so decided to give it another go. I think it could get addictive!

Lucky Jim

Firstly, I will say in his defence, that that is his FOREFINGER he's holding up!

This is an altered poker chip on an aluminium mesh background edged with copper tape (a necessity because the mesh has very sharp edges), and is another possible entry for Nicks' ABSA (alternative background, something altered) swap. I still need to make a couple more before I decide which ones I'm putting in. I think this is a great swap and Nicks is very mean for only letting us do two!

I have distressed the poker chip using a PVA/acrylic wash which I've rubbed hard to make it peel a bit, and then a metallic rub-on over the top. I've added legs and the left arm made from beads and wire. The right arm is an old pen nib with copper wire wrapped around it, and the head is moulded Makin's clay painted with copper acrylic paint and a black PVA/acrylic wash.

Only the poker chip is attached, so the other bits move around - he just decided to cross his legs while I was taking his picture. I've decided to call him Lucky Jim.

Encaustic Art

I managed to get a couple of hours to do some encaustic art yesterday. This is something I don't get to do as often as I'd like because I work in the conservatory as the light isn't very good in our house. Unfortunately this means that, for the moment at least I can only do it during the day, which can prove difficult with two young children. Roll on summer! The pictures shown are ATCs and are my two favourites of the ones I did yesterday.

I find encaustic art very difficult to photograph, and the colours never look as vibrant as they do in real life, even with adjustments, so these are actually a lot more colourful than they look, especially the bottom one.

Gypsy Princess

Just the one for now! I made this one on Thursday night. I'm hoping to get a few hours to do some encaustic art over the weekend so I should hopefully have a few more things to upload over the next couple of days.

Back to Work

I am unfortunately back in work tomorrow after having been off for the last three weeks, so this will probably be my last post at least until the weekend.

These two ATCs are for a Faces themed swap, and I wanted to try and do two that were completely different. The first is a stamped face coloured with inks, made into a flower using petals cut from the page of a book which I have also coloured using inks. The background is again stamped and inked, and the words are handwritten on more bits of book page and inked. I have added micro beads around the centre of the flower and gilding flakes around the edges of the ATC.


The second started life as a stamped image, but I have changed it a bit! I started by colouring and highlighting various parts of the face using inks, then added tissue paper around the edges which I painted with acrylic paints. I then painted the eyes with acrylic paints and added Anita's Gloss Finish under the eyes to give a "teary" effect (this doesn't show up well on the photo). I also added Anita's gloss finish to the lips. Finally I added a piece of shiny mesh across the bottom.

New Stamps

I got some new stamps this morning (my first in ages). They're Tim Holtz ATC collage stamps and I love them! Unfortunately I haven't had chance to try them all out yet, but this is an ATC I made using one of them. I've used distress inks, brads (made to look rusty with distress powder), and part of a tag that came on a pair of jeans. I'm going to send this one in for the swap in Craft Stamper Magazine as the current theme is modes of transport.

Make a Moo or Two

I have been doing a lot of blog hopping over the last few days, as there are lots and lots of very talented people out there and I love looking at their work.

I have recently come across Make a Moo or Two and thought I would give it a go, so this is my first moo. This week's theme is swirls and flourishes. I hope you like it! Now, if only I could find it. I know it's on my desk somewhere!

Arte y Pico Award

Arte y Pico Award

I was very honoured to receive this award this afternoon from Wendy. Thank you Wendy!.
Now I have to nominate 5 blogs who I think deserve this award too.BUT ... my winners then are requested to do the following :
1) You have to pick 5 blogs who deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and also contibutes to the blogging community no matter what language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to the blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award .
4) Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "arte y pico" blog (linked in my title) so everyone will know the origin of this award. (Cut and paste the info into your blog to make things easier)

As I'm very new to blogging I've struggled a bit deciding who to nominate, especially since most of my blogging friends have already got the award.

Anyway, my 5 winners are:

The extremely talented Heidi whose work is truly inspirational.
Joey who has some very original and absolutely stunning work on her blog.
Paula whose blog is almost as new as mine but has some fantastic artwork in it and I know there will be more great work to come.
Cindy, another very talented artist, whose work is much more beautiful than mine!
Sam, who I've known for quite a while now and whose work I find very inspiring.

OMG! I made Something Pretty!

LOL, I'm not sure what's going on here. I didn't even think I could DO pretty any more! I decided to do a bit of stamping as it's something I've not done a lot of lately, and this is what I ended up with. It's not how I'd envisaged it when I first started, but it was one of those where I just kept thinking it needed something more, and this was the end result.

Get Me Out of Here!

I got a bit of free time this afternoon whilst Matt and the boys were busy doing boy things, so I made another ATC. I think I'm in a silly mood at the moment!

The background is inked and doodled, with a bit of mesh and fusible fibres.

The colour's not great on the picture as the light was fading(it's a bit brighter in real life), but you get the idea. I'll update it tomorrow if I get the chance.

Handsome Prince?

I hadn't done any collaged ATCs for a while, so thought it was about time I did some. I was feeling very inspired this morning after an hour's blog hopping and seeing lots of lovely purples, so this is what I came up with. There will be more to follow soon!

Key Fairy

The finder of lost keys, or the person responsible for losing them in the first place? I'm not sure.

This is an altered key on a copper mesh background. I've used wire, beads and fibres with Makin's clay wings painted with gold acrylic paint. She's holding a little tag with my details on, as there was nowhere to put them on the back.

I might put this one in Nicks' ABSA (Alternative Background, Something Altered) swap, but I haven't decided yet. I need to do a few more and see which ones I like best. If I decide not to put it in it will be available for swap.

ATCs with Tags

I did these last night for a swap where the ATCs have to incorporate a tag. I wanted to to three that were completely different. On the first one I have used heat embossing and Cosmic Shimmer Powder. The middle one is a gesso image transfer onto a stamped and inked background, and the third one is stamped in Stazon on leather with an acrylic paint and metallic rub-on background.

Peaches and Cream

These are for a monthly colour themed swap. Anyone familiar with my stuff will know that these are colours I would not normally work with, but a I like a challenge every now and then!