Mermaid pages for Cat

We're still exchanging skinny pages (sized 4 x 8") on the OhMyGothic Yahoo group and will continue to do so till March next year. Every month one artist makes a page for my album (which is dedicated entirely to all things Venetian) and I make a page for another fellow artist. This month that was Cat and her album is filled with watery images and mermaids.

On the first page (see above) I have incorporated a gothic arch shape into the skinny page in honour of our original swap of gothic arches that inspired the name of the group. It's ages ago since I last made one and the urge to do so struck! I liked the idea of having gothic arches at the bottom of the ocean. The mermaid comes from a commercial fabric and has been embellished with beads. She is partially caught in a net and I've added a shell trim to the bottom (available from Alpha Stamps)

On the second page I've added pieces of a water themed fabric paper collage to a background of fabric featuring fishes. The mermaid image is also fabric and available from Alpha Stamps.

Steampunk Arch

Here is my final and favourite piece I made for the Steampunk Design Kit I received from Alpha Stamps.

I made a new fabric-paper collage background for this arch in which I used the Decor Notes Sheets by Screenprints, available from Alpha Stamps. I also included a paper napkin featuring cutlery in the mix.

It seems like ages since I last made a Gothic Arch (I've banned myself from participating on the Gothic Arch site as really I don't have the time, but I do miss it!!) so it was a real pleasure to be able to indulge myself. Also the shape seemed very appropriate for a Steampunk piece as it has a real Victorian feel to it.

For my image I used a fabric one from the Charles Babbage/Lady Lovelace collage sheet and I stitched it on. I added the watch face as well as the 3 keys, all also from Alpha Stamps. The text: Time is the Key! was done on my Dymo writer and stitched on. The arch was finished by zig-zag stitching in a green metallic thread.

Snow Gothic Arch

It's unbelievably cold at the moment (apparently record low temperatures for November here in the Scottish Borders!) but at the same time beautiful outside. Frost and snow have come very early this year and to walk the dogs I am wrapped up in multiple layers of clothing, a large coat, a woolly hat, gloves and an extra pair of socks in my wellie boots.

The views are amazing and every day I'm spotting the same group of deer, a mother and her 2 young ones. Fortunately Troi is on her lead and Rueben is extremely well behaved and a firm no keeps him in check so that I can have a good look before they catch my smell and hop away into the forest. Needless to say a lot of winter pictures get taken even though it's hard and cold to take my gloves off to do so. More pics tomorrow but above is one which formed the inspiration for my Gothic Arch this week, for which the theme on the Gothic Arches Challenge site was SNOW.

To make the arch itself as shown I printed out the picture onto glossy photo paper and layered it with white felt by stitching around the edges. I layered a transparency on top (from PaperWhimsy) as the girls' eyes were just as blue as the sky. I added vintage blue trim (LostArtCreations) on the bottom and added blue snowflake shaped sequins with a white seed bead.

I then added the backing watercolour paper and satin stitched around the 3 remaining edges and stitched on size 10 seed beads in a white transparent colour. The text Peace on Earth was added at the bottom of the image.

Finally I added the silver moon at the top, which is a left over from a pair of earrings (no idea where the other one ended up!).

Celebrate Gothic Arch

It has been such a long time since I last made a Gothic Arch for the Gothic Arch Challenge but the theme this week is Celebrate and since today is my 26th wedding anniversary it seemed to be my fate to make one specially for the day.

As you can see I have made a fabric/paper collage which shows dreamy vintage landscape pictures, fragments of roses napkins and a mix of pink/green, which always reads as sweet in my mind. I also added art glitter when I made the collage although the sparkle does tend to disappear in the scan! I cut out the Gothic Arch shape and layered it with felt by stitching around the outside edges.

I then added a paper image from Alphastamps Art Deco Valentine sheet (glued on) and coloured it with colouring pencils and rub-on metallics to melt it better into the background. I added a dictionary description of the word celebrate (also rubbed with red metallic colour) and added flower sequins by sewing them on with a size 11 seed bead each. At the bottom of the arch I added the transparent pink ribbon, which came with my box of chocolates given to me today by that lovely husband of mine!!

A wooden heart button was sewn on and the entire piece was layered with watercolour paper and the edges finished with pink satin stitch.

Arch for Karen

On the OhmyGothic Yahoo group it is time for our latest and in fact our last arches! Karen is getting the Time for Tea arch which could be seen on an earlier post and I finished my second arch for her today. I only needed to put on the back as it was more or less complete before I went to Belfast.

One of Karen's preferred themed was Gothic Architecture and I used one of my photos taken at Rosslyn Chapel printed on fabric (from Crafty Computer Paper) which was put onto a green velvet quilted fabric background. The arch for some reason made me think of knights and I knew I had a suitable image. It just took me awhile to find it but it came from LostArtCreations and was in vellum. I cut it so that I could lead it past the arch and stitched it down. I added a star like charm (also LostArtCreations) at the top and beaded it.

I found suitable text in French: Je ne l'oublie pas (I don't forget it) which in my mind sort of refers to the promise of loyalty knights had to take.

Tea Time Gothic Arch

I'm quite late with my contribution to this weeks's theme at the Gothic Arches Challenge site but better late than never!! The theme is Time and I've chosen to interpret this as Tea Time, despite the fact that coffee is my preferred tipple! But I had such a great fabric/paper collage background all ready and waiting featuring tea cups and it seemed just the thing for the theme.

I cut it to arch shape and layered it with white felt by stitching around the edges.

I then added the fabric image of the tea drinking lady (from Alphastamps Tea #2 collage sheet), which was partially glued and partially stitched. I outline stitched the tea cup with blue running stitch and added a stamped spoon (from Alphastamps Teaspoons Clear Stamp Set).

I added the tea pot charm (from Collage Stuff) to make it look as if it was pouring tea into her cup and added the clock charm (7Gypsies) to go with the title which was added with my Dymo writer and stitched on. Finally I added a fabric as backing and satin-stitched around the edges to which I added blue size 11 seed beads by hand.

End of Summer Gothic Arch

End of Summer is the theme for the Gothic Arches Challenge this week and indeed it really feels like that here in the Scottish Borders, with lots of showers and it's also getting dark so much earlier already.

As I also needed to make another arch for Linda K, who loves all things French, I concentrated my arch on that place and cut the background from a fabric/paper collage made quite some time ago which uses paper napkins featuring Paris cafes etc. I thought about holiday romances and how the end of the summer usually means the end of the romance too, so I added a paper image of a couple in each other's arms (European Papers) as well as a transparency of a kissing couple (Divasdeste). The text: The end of a summer love affair was added with my Dymo writer. I'm not sure any longer where I got the clock charm but it also says Paris and seemed to go with the theme of End of Summer

To illustrate the story even more I made the above back for the arch, with a paper background overlaid with a French text transparency. The image of the adoring couple is from Altered by Design and the Bonjour text comes from an old calendar with vintage French images. The front and back were adhered to each other by gold zigzag stitching around the edges.

Black and White plus Red Gothic Arch

The latest theme for the Gothic Arches Challenge is to use black and white with a little bit of red. I've combined this with the first arch I'm making for Linda K. as this is also one of her favourite colour combinations. She also adores all things French so this arch also has that certain je ne sais quoi, I hope.

The background is one of my paper/fabric collages in black and white only to which I have added an image from the Beauty Queens collage sheet by Alphastamps. I love her nostalgic look and she also looks distinctly French. I coloured in the flowers on her hat with red colouring pencil and did the same with the apple which formed part of the original collage. I added the text: Bien-Aimee, je suis a toi.... I leave the interpretation of the arch up to you!

The arch was mounted on felt and a red fabric was added to the back with Mistyfuse. A ribbon with red hearts dangling was added at the bottom (from Alphastamps) and red satin stitching on the sewing machine was used to finish the edges. Finally a red self-adhesive heart was put at the top.

Renaissance Gothic Arch

Our theme for the Gothic Arches Challenge this week is Renaissance and I whipped this one up very fast as my mother is still here so there is not much time for my art and I must readily admit that my fingers are literally itching to get back into my studio!

Making this art certainly relieved this feeling somewhat!

The background is a previously made fabric/paper collage which had the theme of Venice and a stamp of a detail of Botticelli's painting. To this I added a detail of Michelangelo's ceiling painting, showing just Adam, to go with the definition of Renaissance which I also added. One of the definitions reads: "a coming to life again, especially in art". The image is from a vellum sheet by LostArtCreations.

Finally I layered the arch with Timtex and watercolour paper and stitched around the edges with gold zigzag stitching. To the top I added a charm (also LostArtCreations).

I've said it before but it is so true that I will repeat myself. Sometimes having to make art really fast does wonders for it and these arches are a case in point!

Red Queen Gothic Arch

I'm once again combining various threads into one arch! The theme for this week on the Gothic Arches Challenge site is Royalty Crowns and also today the new Alice in Wonderland goodies are revealed on the Alphastamps website. As a Design Team member I had the privilege of seeing these sheets before anyone else and they are truely delightful.

Playing with them is a real pleasure and this arch was no exception. My chosen royalty is the Red Queen, whose motto in the Alice in Wonderland book is: Off with her Head!

The background for this arch is watercolour paper onto which I have adhered a paper napkin based on playing card imagery. I used matte medium both underneath and on top of the napkin.

The Alice in Wonderland scrap (from Alphastamps) was glued on next, followed by the Red Queen pronouncing judgement, the Cheshire cat at the top( both from Alphastamps The Red Queen collage sheet) and finally Alice herself (from the Alphastamps Mad Hatter's Tea Party #1 sheet). She looks remarkably cheerful considering the verdict! There is however one head sort of rolling around next to her.

To unit all the different elements I applied watered down Titanium White fluid acrylic (from Golden) and also lightly sprayed the entire arch with Gold Glimmer Mist.

The card was sewn onto a felt and watercolour paper background with gold stitching and a gold edge was applied with a Krylon pen. The Cheshire cat was crowned to top the arch!

White Gothic Arch

Finally there is some time to participate again in the Gothic Arches Challenge where the theme this week is white. I also made this arch for Heather R in our OhmyGothic Yahoo swap group as she loves vintage children. She also gets the arch I made for the Cat challenge several weeks ago.

The arch has a background of vintage white damask fabric onto which I have stitched white lace. The fabric image is from PaperWhimsy and was also stitched on. More white lace was added to the bottom and a vintage white flower to the top. A large bead was stitched onto the flower and smaller white beads to the bottom lace. I also added white sequins with white beads all over the surface as well as white beads along the satin stitched edges.

Cat Gothic Arch

I did not play in the Gothic Arches Challenge last week as the theme was patriotic and my feeling of nationality is very confused. Officially my passport says I'm British, but really I live in Scotland and by birth I'm Dutch. I'm no longer sure who deserves my loyalty!

But this weeks' theme was irresistible as it is Cats and I have combined it with the July Image challenge on the Lost Art Creations Yahoo Group where we are given an image each month and it's up to us what to make with it. The image was of a vintage boy, dressed in a sailors' suit.

It made me think of ships and of course ships used to have a ships' cat to kill the mice and other vermin.

The background for this arch is watercolour paper and I added the top layer of a sea-themed paper napkin, using Mod Podge. I cut out the vintage boy which I had printed out onto photo paper and stuck it on with the same Mod Podge and I added the sailor's hat to his outfit. This too came from the same napkin and was applied in the same way. The cat was cut out of a vintage book and placed underneath the boys' hand. I added a shell German Scrap border (from Alphastamps) and some star fish which were adhered with Diamond Glaze. The whole arch was then stitched onto felt to give it more substance.

The text: Jolly Jack the sailor boy and the ships' cat was added with a Dymo writer.

Arches for Debby

I''m sorry to say I totally forgot to check this weeks' theme on the Gothic Arches challenge (it was mermaids). I will have to try and do better on Sunday when the next one is announced. But instead I have been working on my arches for Debby. We're doing an exchange on the Ohmygothic Yahoo site, swapping with a different artist every month. I know what Debby likes by now as we have been participating in numorous swaps together by now and she is also one of my fellow Colour Groupies. The first one has vintage brown and orange colours and is made on a background of delicious brown velvet which has been machine stitched. For the image I turned to the work of the painter Velasquez with this delightful portrait of a Spanish infanta. Isn't she pretty? I just know Debby will love her. She was printed out onto self-adhesive cotton fabric (from Crafty Computer Paper) and applied to the velvet background. I added a vintage flower and a crown (both from Lost Art Creations) and also adorned her dress further with beads.

I added the text: A smile stole through her tears and the arch was finished with a satin stitch using gold thread.

For the other arch I turned to the photos I took some days ago of the orange and pink flowering rhododendron in our garden. I printed this out onto the same self-adhesive cotton, cut it into the arch shape and adhered it to Timtex cut into the same shape. The image is from an antiqe garden statue I came across on one of our garden visits and it seemed to be made for Debby who loves vintage children. I added the bird transparency (from Divasdeste) by stitching it on. I remembered one of my favourite quotation: What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare? I'm trying to spend as much time as possible in the garden during the summer, and simply follow that advice! The quotation was stitched on and surrounded with green size 11 seed beads. This arch was finished with pink satin stitching.

Clown Gothic Arch

Last week I totally forgot all about the Gothic Arches challenge. No idea how it happened apart from the fact that the week before there had been no challenge and it had been a rather eventful week.

However despite a busy day I did manage to check the new theme today and it's Clowns, set by Nancy who is our overall hostess on Gothic Arches.

Some of you may remember that I made a whole set of works for Alphastamps using a Circus theme i.e. a large collage and also a set of ATC for a circus related swap on the Alphastamps Yahoo Group. I still had a bit left of the paper/fabric collage I created for those so immediately grapped it from the shelf and started work on the arch.

I added a fabric image from Alphastamps Clown Valentines sheet, which was stitched on with yellow zig-zag to blend her better into the background. I also lightly coloured the white areas with Tsukineko ink (orange-beige colour) as the white was a bit too glaring.

I added the elephant (from Alphastamps Elephants #2 collage sheet) and produced the text: Don't be a Clown! with my Dymo label maker and stitched around it. I added the transparencies (from Alphastamps Clowns # 6 sheet) turning one over so it faced the other way and stitched them on as shown. I added a clowns party hat in charm form (Artgirlz, available from Alphastamps), added a seed bead through the top of the hat and also around the clown.

Finally I layered the arch up with watercolour paper cut in the same shape and satin stitched around the edges apart from from the transparencies , as shown.

Gothic Arches for Linda E

My partner this month on the OhmyGothic Yahoo group is Linda Eustace, the winner of the PW Quiltie Competition (see sidebar). Her only specification for the arches were vintage, love, romance and I can certainly do that, as these are my favourite subjects too. I combined her first arch with the LostArtCreations May challenge too. Terrie from LAC provides us with a downloadable image which then use in our challenge. This month it was a lovely soft image of a mother and daughter, dressed in dreamy, pearllike clothes. I printed this out onto photo paper and glued it onto one of my fabric/paper collaged backgrounds which features roses and other romantic images in rose-like colours. I added beads to their clothing to look like pearl and added the fabric text La Alegria (Joy) from a now discontinued Artchix Studio sheet, and surrounded that with size 15 pink seed beads. At the bottom I glued on pink Dresden scrap (also from Artchix Studio) and one was also added at the top. These were also adorned with the same seed beads. The card was mounted onto felt and oilcloth and all the layers are connected with pink satin stitching.

I used the same fabric/paper collaged background for Linda's other arch and on this arch you can see I also used some stamping in the background. The Love text stamp was a free gift from the Craft Stamper magazine. To this I added a fabric image from one of my very favourite Alphastamps collage sheets, called Lovers and vintage text which reads: Do I not Love you?

The whole arch was mounted as described above and to the pink satin stitching I added size 11 pink seed beads. At the very top I added a very decorative brad (available from Alphastamps).

Flourishes Gothic Arch

A new theme this week on the Gothic Arches Challenge site, set by Kelly Burton and it is Flourishes. As you know I was the hostess last week and had the hard task of selecting my favourites among the Vive la France arches. It was so difficult as there were really beautiful arches to choose from and I finally settled for my favourite 10. I just could not whittle it down even more!

Flourishes set me thinking and I combined it with my new Alphastamps kit (I'm a member of the Alphastamps Design Team!) which featured a lot of images of my very favourite fairytale Sleeping Beauty, also called Briar Rose and in Dutch Doornroosje which I feel is a much more descriptive title than Sleeping Beauty. It signifies that there are no roses without thorns and harks back to a much darker interpretation. Most fairy tales started their life that way and were sanitized over the years and are still being changed even more in these politically correct times, taken most of the fun and the scare out of these tales which are part of our social heritage. If you go to the relevant Alphastamps page you will find recommended books at the right hand side. Click on them and you get taken to Amazon! I find it hard to resist and have ended up with most of these recommendations and haven't regretted it yet!

On to the arch! The background started life as a fabric/paper collage. I started off with a piece of calico (muslin in US speak) which I pre-stamped with a selection of Alphastamps stamps, among them the Architecture Clear Stamp which you can just see peeking through! The collage was cut to the arch shape and stitched onto felt. I added paper images from Alphastamps Sleeping Beauty #1 collage sheet. Both are from the same image but I've cut them apart to arrange them better on my background. Sleeping Beauty and her prince were surrounded by felt self-adhesive flourishes (also available from Alphastamps). I added size 15 and 8 seed beads to the figures.

I looked up Flourish in my books of quotations and was very happy to find: And all things flourish, where you turn your eyes. It seemed suitable both for the flourishes theme as well as the fairytale. Finally I stitched the arch onto watercolour paper with gold thread and added a gold border to the arch with a Krylon pen.

Vive la France Gothic Arch

Quel honneur!! I've been chosen to be the hostess for the Gothic Arches Challenge this week and I had so many ideas that it was quite difficult to make my final choice.

But I just had to honour a country close to my heart. I've been a Francophile all my life (although I ended up in Scotland eventually after moving out of The Netherlands! How did that happen???). I love everything about this wonderful country, the language, the landscape, the historical buildings, La France profonde and the sunflowers and of course the people.

France is also the first European country which addressed Human Rights in its Declaration of 1789 during the French Revolution, under influence from the USA. Many of the current European laws about human rights were heavily influenced by the French version. One big difference though, in 1789 it were only the hommes who received these rights despite women playing important roles during the Revolution (they did not just knit underneath the guillotine!).

In these more enlightened times we femmes also count!!

I used one of my paper/fabric collages as background. It features some French themed paper napkins. The transparency is from a vintage French book published in the 19th Century. I scanned this into my computer and printed it out onto a transparency. The text is from the same book.

Hope everyone will enjoy our visit to France this week!! Bon voyage et vive la France!

Chair Gothic Arch

The theme this week for our Gothic Arches Challenge is chair, which did not immediately fill me with inspiration, but a dogged search through the remains of my fabric/paper collage remnants came up trumps with an image of a chair (originally part of a Greek napkin which I bought on Ebay). What to add to it??

I did not want anything too sweet this week and by necessity the chair had ended up at the top of the arch as I had such a small amount of the collage left. Did I have any other chair images?

Again a frantic search which turned up an image from the Animals in School collage sheet from Alphastamps. This required a lot of cutting but looks quite jolly at the bottom of the arch. But there was still little connection with the unoccupied chair at the top. Next I found one of my trusty quotation books and looked under chair. I found the following quotation:

We shall meet, but we shall miss him,

There will be one vacant chair

That was more like it, the reading donkey could be reciting this and it explained the empty chair spendidly.

I added the C (from Alphastamps ABC Books#3 fabric collage sheet) as in C is for Chair, mounted the arch on watercolour paper, finished the edge with satin stitch in a variegated thread and finally mounted a hat charm (Party Hat from Alphastamps) on top of the class dunce!

And I ended up being really quite delighted with my Chair Gothic Arch

Sunflower Fairy Gothic Arch

The new theme is up on the Gothic Arches Challenge site and my very good internet friend Debby is the hostess this week. The theme is Garden Fairies, rather appropriate for the first day that we have been able to sit outside this year. The daffodils in our garden are finally flowering too and I love their shining yellow faces but my all time favourite yellow flower is the sunflower, a taste I share with a much more famous countryman of mine, Vincent van Gogh. By great good fortune I found one of my fabric/paper collages in which I had used vintage French text, lots of yellow and napkins with images of the French countryside and of course the totally stunning fields full of sunflowers which you can admire there later on in the year.

Fortune kept on shining on me as I immediately found an image to fit the arch, from the Alphastamps Quite Contrary#2 fabric sheet. I cut the lady out and added her sunflower wings which came from a sunflower fabric (I have what can only be called a collection of them!) and which were Bondawebbed (or Wonderundered in US) underneath the image. Another fabric provided the little sunflowers which adorn her dress, the bouquet in her hands and the sun image at the top of the arch. To all of these I stitched gold size 11 seed beads. The arch really needed nothing else but being sewn onto a watercolour paper background with a variegated yellow cotton thread and satin stitch.

To check out my collection of sunflower fabrics I'm also showing you a quilt which is a class sample, not one of my exhibition quilts. Nevertheless, it's one of my favourites as it just lifts my heart whenever I see it. All that yellow is so joyfull. It's called Vincents Flowers (what else??).

Arches for Shirley

I've missed chatting to you, but really there was no new art to show you as this week I just had to get to grips with all kinds of admin, the bane of an artists' life. I think I've got it under control for now but helas, this is a never-ending source of frustration!!

I have been working on several large projects as well but they will remain my secret for now. However I did get around to making my arches for the monthly swap in the OhmyGothic Yahoo groups where we swap 2 arches with one other artist each month. This month I swapped with Shirley and she has a wide range of things she likes so it wasn't difficult at all to come up with her two.

The first one uses all Alphastamps image and stamps. The background was made for another Alphastamps project and features Pen and Ink clear stamps. I added a stamp from the AS Numbers clear stamp set at the bottom and a paper image from AS Chalkboard collage sheet. The arch was layered with watercolour paper which I have adorned with oilcloth (also Alphastamps) and everything was sewn together with a satin stitch and a variegated thread.

For Shirley's other arch I choose to use Lost Art Creations products on a pre-made paper/fabric collage featuring flowers and greenery. The image is a vellum one from LAC Artist Muses sheet. The quotation: Suddenly she started, and seemed to listen, is from one of my vintage books (The Broad Highway) and at the top I've added a peace dove (also from LostArtCreations) and at the bottom a lovely fiber from an LAC fiber pack. The back and edges were finished in the same way as the other arch.