Laura and family
I absolutely loved Papercraft magazine Dec issue, containing Ginger bread men and houses, sweets and trees. All these sweet Christmas cards will be sent to family members and I have reserved a couple for my friends in Canada.
Bernadette and family
My daughter has me painting shells for her school friends and the list is growing! Lol
Amazing build by my son Jeremy. He is JERACRAFT and now has nearly 6,000 subscribers! Really proud of my son.. # Jeracraft has now reached 10,000 subcribers and will be posting to mark this occasion, a downloadable world of fantasy and adventure, Exotopia, for his followers to enjoy! (Dec 2013)
Made this is a fun Birthday card ideal for girls celebrating their special day during the summer. Love the cute bikini, hat and towel! The decorative diamonds and hearts gives it a touch of glamour.
(Sorry for the quality ~ Ipad photo)
Best friends forever photo printed on white card and adding bits and bobs of colourful and fun decorations, ladybirds, butterflies and bright patchwork flowers in felt and card. Happy Birthday Sidney!
My dear friend Laura is leaving Gibraltar and I wanted her to take back to her country a reminder of what she now considers to be her home too. A place where she and her family have made so many friends. My family and I are so privilleged to have met them and to be part of their circle of friends . I painted this picturesque view of the Rock in acrylics. Laura was over the moon when I gave it to her and I was beaming to say the least! So happy to have made such special friends and to have made them happy in return.
MOTHER'S DAY CARDS
This is the free upload I used for my card. I have been searching for the source but I have not been able to locate it. I know it was a lady's blog and this design was an old one she had kindly posted together with I believe two of her other designs. I may have obtained it originally from Pinterest.
For my Mum on Mother's Day. I like the small framed pictures. If you get a Cross stitch magazine you will find many tiny cross stitch designs, which you can cut out and stick on hard cardboard or leather and frame with carved tooth picks. You can then proceed to varnish it to give it a more realistic look. The pink flowers I made sometime ago. I cut them out of the egg cartons that is why they have that beautiful curved petals. I stuck embroidered flowers from an old piece of material I had kept. Just love keeping buttons, scraps of material and so many other stuff. I just have to stop myself sometimes, although I would try my hand at recycling almost anything!
This card I made for my Mum-in-law. love the lace and bow. The small picture is that of an English Country Cottage.
The Mother's Day cards with the miniature gift paintings, which have a little message painted on the back of the canvas. I enjoyed making everything so very much!
(IPad photo)
I am absolutely loving to paint in miniature! Finally I am getting a feel for painting not in a big way, as I said before I have no space at home to plonk a big easel although I've done it before, this is satisfying my desire for now. These are my mum-in-law's pressie (she has been wanting Raffaello's Angel for some time now) and my mum's pressie (she loves Our Lady and I love William-Adolphe Bouguereau's paintings, this one is inspired by his 'Madonna of the Roses') both for Mother's Day. I also managed to create Mother's Day cards for them, which I will be posting sometime this week. I will explain how I created them and the fun stuff I used.
It has been nearly 20 years since we discovered a lovely cove in the south of Spain. Little did we know as we climbed down a steep stony hill that we were going to find a little beach full of beauty and treasure in the form of tiny sea shells of every variety. I still have two containers full of these shells and always bring in some more every time we re-visit our favourite summer cove. I had a nice herb bottle that I didn't want to get rid off, a glue gun, lots of patience and enthusiasm and this was the result. It also has been nearly 20 years since I decorated my bottle and I think it's time to start looking for another project along this lines, maybe a frame or box....what do you think?
Took this pic with my Ipad, just wanted to let you know that it was not Nicky (he would have taken a great photo with no shadows!)
This is a lovely example of what you can achieve with some shells, starfish are very decorative and the added pearls gives this frame a touch of glamour. I definitely must try this out.
First I should lay the frame flat with the shells spread out on the work table and then play around with what I have arranging them in position until I am happy with the result. Hopefully during this time I will be getting inspired and run around the house looking for dribs and drabs to add on. When everything is set, I'll get cracking sticking the pieces with the hot glue getting my fingers burnt in the process but never mind as by this stage I will be too enthralled to notice! Oh yes I'm getting ideas already........aha!.....I may have an old frame ready to be recycled.
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Love the beach, the seaside, anything to do with the sea!
Inspirations
Though what I have always loved is drawing and painting, the tools to achieve this is not readily accesible to me. It is difficult to sit in the middle of the living room with an easel, palette, paints etc. when this room belongs to everyone in the family to enjoy. No spare room or extra space is available to me. No worries I like diversity and that is exactly why I don't regret not having gained the experience as a painter. Well just a little bit of regret, but if God meant me to paint in a big way, then he would have provided me with an extra room, with plenty of ligthing, just for me!
My Greeting cards are made with whatever bits and pieces come my way and that is my contribution to recycling for the planet. I do have a basis from which to start and in this last card I made I just had to have a teapot, cup and saucer, the rest just followed. I used air-dry clay and acrylic paints. I knew that I didn't want a 'flying' pot so I made a table (hardly visible) cut out from a red shoebox and a lovely scrap of polka dot material for a tablecloth hiding most of the cardboard. My mum, bless her, keeps loads of scrap material for me. The apron was an added bonus, for the person this card was meant for, is an avid cook and this was a way of saying that it was personally made for her (just love that personal touch). Oh by the way, the lovely pearls were from an old dress that definitely needed recycling. I love poetry but in this case I was concentrating more on making the card. Though the poem did require some work. I chose bits and pieces from a few free suggestions I found through the internet and then pieced them together. Knowing the person the card is meant for helps tremendously, if this is not the case, then asking a lot of questions about the receiver of the card, if you want to go into all this work, also helps.
I have a friend Najade, whose facebook link you will find at top called 'Naj Creations', has been making cards for some years now. I have been inspired by her work, by her personal touch.
Last January as I had to go into hospital for an op, I decided to buy a magazine to keep me entertained. I found the Craft Magazine and later the Papercraft Magazine, thank God! I loved them and was completely inspired to get cracking! Now I can't stop and I hope everyone who comes here will enjoy my Blog as much I have enjoyed making it.
Sweet Dreams Sara
This Garden Guardian is missing her wings and it's just that she looked lovely without the twigs. I made her special for my dear sister's birthday and will most probably hang on her kitchen. The watering can made out of clay and painted silver to look like a tin one, is personalised with her name carved on top. Happy Birthday Gina xxx
Dad's Elegant Christmas Table Display
This was made by my Dad so it's clear from whom I get my artistic flair . Although my sewing abilities must also stem from my mum's side.
The decorations were collected at one of our picnics to the nearby countryside in Spain at Pinar del Rey. Love it dad! xxx
Happy Birthday Mum and Dad
Their birthday's on the same day and it is next month. So they haven't seen it yet! I suppose I could have chosen another theme like their hobbies for example. But I really liked this idea. I used a milk top and card to make the hat which was them covered with material and decorated with bits and pieces I could find. The shirt made out of clay is a great idea because you can use a matching colour of paint. The fan was somthing I added later, I got the idea when I browsed through Papercraft magazine. I now wished I had waited and I wouldn't have stuck them so in line (they would have looked nicer if they had formed a trio instead)
The Seaside
When I did this small cross stitch design, I spent months looking for the exact frame and could not find it anywhere. The frame had to be square and I was already dreaming of a boxed frame where I could incorporate a lighthouse. Then when I was not looking, we had a family trip to Ikea just before Christmas and hooray! I found the perfect one. Following you can see the result which is now hanging with pride and joy on my little girls bedroom wall.
Tilly's Doll
I got a lovely quaint sewing machine for my birthday. I had already seen a pattern from the Craft Magazine and was ready to try out my new sewing machine. After my first attempt, my mum-in-law who loves rag dolls, asked me to make her one. I gave her this one and the first one I did I gave to my mum, both on mother's day.
Happy Birthday Tilly
I really enjoyed making the handbag and shoe. I found a mobile sticker with loads of lovely pink and clear diamonds which you can cut and stick. I found it at a large Chinese warehouse and was quite cheap and I still have loads of them left to use.
This card was especially made for my mum-in-law. She loves her shoes and bags! She was so pleased she asked me to do one for her sister (that's the teapot with cup and saucer)
Happy Birthday (Casino Card)
When I got down to doing this special card for my son, who is a croupier. I already knew how and what I would be incorporating. Though I never realised it would come out looking so effective with the tiny decoupage playing cards and the roulette!
St. Therese
I was requested to undertake this painting of St. Therese by the then parish priest of the church of St Theresa. I very much enjoyed carrying this out, although I felt I had a daunting task ahead of me when I first started I was more than pleasantly surprised to feel truly inspired, it was amazing to feel such love. I wish though, I had been given the true likeness of St. Therese and not a poster picture to copy from. I have added an authentic portrait taken of her. She died at 24 loving Jesus all her life.
Painting titled Mother's Love - April 1999
I was admiring some photographs taken from the Philippines when one of a mother holding her baby caught my eye and I kept going back to it. I was inspired to undertake this painting from that photograph. Although the painting has many alterations and doesn't look like the photograph itself, the similarities to the central figures of mother and child only alter in that the mother's hair is longer and I have lovingly placed a flower in her hair wanting to enhance her exotic beauty. As well as the shawl, which at first I hesitated to add but now I am glad I did as I loved that she would have something to enlight and show off the beauty of her motherhood.
(IPad photo)
It has been nearly 20 years since we discovered a lovely cove in the south of Spain. Little did we know as we climbed down a steep stony hill that we were going to find a little beach full of beauty and treasure in the form of tiny sea shells of every variety. I still have two containers full of these shells and always bring in some more every time we re-visit our favourite summer cove. I had a nice herb bottle that I didn't want to get rid off, a glue gun, lots of patience and enthusiasm and this was the result. It also has been nearly 20 years since I decorated my bottle and I think it's time to start looking for another project along this lines, maybe a frame or box....what do you think?
