Had a sudden rush of inspiration, and as these don't come very often I just had to go with the flow, now didn't I?

These are also for the "Deco" page swap ... Cynthia's "Wild Animals" ... and they don't come much wilder than an angry rhino!!! The stamp is genuine on these ... I drive a Suzuki and it's there badge ... and the symbols on the blue page are Adingo .. a language in Swaziland.

Yipee, another set finished ... these are "Animals" for Angel. The only animal stamps I have are these cats and one "wild animal" (which I'm using on another page!!) ... so that's what I did!

the "cattitude" one seemed so appropriate for the picture but wasn't large enough so that one had the digi treatment; the puddytat one is the genuine article.

For the other page the first stamp on the left is real ... the others are digified ... counter coloured to match the pussies in the piccy.

These are my second set of "Deco" pages .. this time for Racel .. Oriental.

Again, I didn't have a suitable stamp, so I have used a very small frame one, scanned and enlarged it and used it, as intended, to frame the pictures. The "Haiku" poems I did myself, hence the signatures.... they aren't very good but at least they fit the "syllable" rules!!

Thia is another super challenge from
http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/ ... a background

of carved cherry blossom.

Being a total Dragon fanatic I have voided some

of the original background and added a

baby dragon playing among the fronds. Then I

put a black background behind it to emphasise

the gorgeous carving.

This is the second one ... the stamp on this one is the

"wavy" effect ..... a small stamp which I scanned , joined

three together and used the result twice printed onto a

transparency and laid over the page. The background is pure digi ... a paper, the fish and whales added from all

sorts of places, the photo of the deep sea angler fish mounted on sticky pads as is the title.

This is one of two "Deco" pages I have done for Sandy.
We are supposed to use a stamp of some kind on each one and as I am a digi scrapper I have had to do a bit of
manipulating to get the effect of stamping!! The fish border is an actual stamp ... but it was the wrong size ... so I stamped it, scanned it, resized and re-coloured it and used a "foam stamp" effect on the results. I added the sharks to the photo and mounted it on sticky pads.

I hope it is acceptable, Sandy ... will this do for a
"Deco" page?

Yet another beautiful picture from Artarazzi for inspiration.... Spring Flowers.

At first I had no idea what to do ... nothing seemed to come from it ... and then I asked myself what kind of flowers she had gathered .. oh course!! Narcissus!!!!

Hence the young man, enamoured of his own reflexion, who pined away from unrequited love and turned into the Narcissus..... leaving behind the nymph who loved him .. with no hope of return ... who could only reply to his remarks by repeating the last words ...Echo.

Very late this week with my version of the challenge at
http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/ ... all due to the compy
getting measles!! The graphics card gave up the ghost and
needed replacing (ouch!!) .... but here she is at last ...
Blackbird. The blue eggs in the nest are blackbird eggs,
and I found myself singing the Beatles
song to myself .. hence this ATC.

These challenges from http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/ come around soooo fast ... this one, a mannequin head entitled Despair ... had me stumped for a while, but I think I've got the gist now.

I took more and more colour from her as she came towards us ... until you can see the huddled man reflected in her eye ... cirled in on himself for protection and camouflage.

How time flies ( a bit like the bats in this piccie!!).

This is my version of the stunning piece by Boris Vallejo set as the challenge at http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/ . I have added a diferent background, three small bats, and intensified the "pale but dangerous" look with pale blue eyes, a starred highlight and rouged (with what, I wonder?) lips.

Another week gone and time for another challenge on http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/ .. this one is by Tracey. I've kept it fairly simple ... posterized the seagull a little and joined four of him together as a kite chain. I left the main seagull as he was. I wonder what he made of this man-made intrusion?

All done!! The single is piece number 9, Bluebirds for Natasha .. and the other one is, obviously, all the pieces put together. They just need signing and sending to Netty .. then she has the monumental task of assembling eveyone's jiggy and sending them back to the owners!!!

Nearly all done ... this is number 8, Butterflies & Dragonflies (with one fairy for luck) for Becky. A double layer of butterflies and "shadowed" dragonflies with a single, high flying fairy, for the digi background and then a dragonfly, and two butterflies - one repainted and one home made - as the raised elements.

I really had to think about this challenge from Artarazzi .... the ladies are gorgeous, but how do you make them "different"? I hope I have done enough to make them interesting. The swirls are taken from the background and intertwined with the dancers, as is the writing.

These .. obviously!! .. are some more jiggy pieces! A middle piece, Flora/Fauna for Lis: middle left piece - Woodland for Suzie and bottom right piece - Vintage type Love for Sabina.

Only two to go now .. hope they go as smoothly as these others.

OK, this is number 4 .. Travel for Sonja. Digi background .. but you guessed it would be, didn't you? ... with raised panorama and postcard and a label with Polynesian fishing hook and Camel Tassels hanging from it.

Another super challenge piccy from http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/ .... and she reminded me soo much of Russian fairy tale princesses .. so I did her as Vasilissa in the Firebird.

Definitely on a roll ... number 3 finished ... Yvonne's
Blue/White/Silver Kitchen theme this time.
Again a digi background and then raised cupboards and
plate with "silver" cutlery on top.
So that's the top row finished .. yeah!!

I hope the rest go as smoothly .. though putting that in
writing may well put the kybosh on the whole thing!!!!

Yeah! Another piece done. This is "Dreams" for Lucy ...again a digi background - inverted from black - with the angel, also converted from very dark green, and the cherub printed out and raised on chipboard. Then two layers of transparency - intwined with the cherub, a crystal line made into a hesrt and the cherub given feather wings and a silk sash. I hope she likes it.

OK, I've just finished my first piece for the jiggy swap on UKS ... it's my own piece - just in case I mucked up the first one!!! - and my theme is Underwater.

I've used a digi background with some of it's elements extracted and made into "solid" bits, some transparancy printing, some stripped down fabric and 3-D accents for the bubbles.

Right .. only eight more to go .... now what on earth do I do for Dreams ... and woodland ...... and travel..................

I had a sudden spark of inspiration as I uploaded the last challenge ... and this is the result!! It uses the previous artwork from Artarazzi .. the one I missed ... and it made me think of layer upon layer of paint hiding the original surface .. hence the peeling paint coming away from a thinning layer, which in turn is on top of a masked face!!

Another gorgeous image to use for our Artarazzi challange ... Geisha.

I thought she looked rather wistful so I pictured her remembering her childhood home. The background is from wrapping paper .. with some bits copied and layered to give a bit of depth.

I didn't manage to do last weeks in time but I'm intrigued by the possibilities so I might have a go and upload it here anyway .. watch this space!

Another week and another challenge from Artarazzi .. this time based on "Surreal". I used a picture by Ma Gritte .. the silhouette of a bird, filled with a blue sky, superimposed on a landscape .... mine has a bird of prey, filled with stormy skies, hovering over a calm sea. A leaf/tree is in the distance.

These are my entries for the challenge on

http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/.

The "Coke" one is 6x4, made from their adverts and with the bottle shape picked out for emphasis. The Flower one is an ATC, made from an advert for making Tissue Paper flowers that appeared in the Bloomingdales catalogue for 1910. I coloured a few bits to give it a little more depth.

This is my "page" for Flo (Sarah) in our DSpontaneous Fabric cj. It is black beaded silk, lilac silk .. both with a spray of copper mica mist ... picot braid, shisha mirrors and buttonhole embroidery. The whole thing is hand sewn. The stars are small charms, sewn on.

Yet another challenge on http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/

this time called "Me, Myself and I" ... to include an piccy of yourself .. obviously!! I'm photophobic so this is a near as I get to having a photo of me ... and, yes, some days I do feel that bolshy!!!!!

Inspired by a "fashion plate" given as the challenge on Artarazzi by Taluula .. this is my version. I found Nietzche's quote some time ago and it seemed so appropriate for this image .. hiding things away under that trailing skirt!!

Boy, doesn't time get out of hand!!! I'm a bit late with this ... tooooooo many things to do! This is, once again, a gorgeous piccy for the challenge at http://artarazzi.blogspot.com.

My, how time flies!! This is another challenge from http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/.

The inspiration was the "squiggle" at the bottom of my version ... it comprised of one and a bit sections of the wavy lines ... and it reminded me of the wave form of acoustics - the electronic version of sound - hence the three short and one long sections. This sound .. dit, dit, dit, dah ... is the morse for the letter V, and Beethoven used it to open his 5th symphony. This, in turn, was used as the call sign for the British World Service during WWII .. V for Victory !! and all from a little squiggle!

Another super challenge from http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/ , this time the swirly bit that I have used as a "worm hole" to get my dragon home!! Again this is a digi ATC with the background erased in places to give a starry effect and then the swirl and dragon layered on top.

This is my somewhat tongue -in-cheek version of challenge 5 on Artarazzi. The button and background are from Plum Crazy by Dedicated2Digital. The font is Mariah. The title and quotes are from Jenny Joseph's poem "Warning".

This is my attempt at a mini book using toilet-roll inners. I'm not very good at embellishments .. I'm a digi scrapper and they come with the kit!! ... but I hope this will be acceptable. The "clouds" of words are courtesy of Wordle ... (great place for a play ... http://wordle.net/) and they are on the reverse of the pocket. The tag has a verse on the front, and space on the back for comments. A hanging label and some fibres complete the look.

http://craftyswappers.myfastforum.org/index.php

Great site for all sorts of crafty swaps ...

check it out!

This is my contribution to Irene's cj .... as you can see, I'm not too good on straight edges!!
The background is my Dad's silk paisley Evening scarf, the wide vertical lace is from an Edwardian hanky, the picture is my Mum, age 18 mths, printed onto lawn and the other laces are old cotton/ribbon. It's all hand sewn and IRL doesn't look quite so crumpled!

Yeah, today it worked!! This is my version of the "Marilyn" piccy for the Artarazzi challenge found here ...

http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/ I used the filters in PSE4 and just played around a bit ... I think it would make a great mouse-mat!!

I wanted to upload a digi LO for the Artarazzi challenge but for some reason I couldn't ... so it is here:-
http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=180537&cat=500 I had great fun doing it, and it was actually very easy using the filters that come with PSE4 !!

This is my entry for the second digi challenge to be found here ... http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/ I loved the way this picture shows the absolute trust between the child and the adult .... who's hand is offered - not controlling or grabbing the child's .... with the child secure enough to need only the two fingers for guidance and reassurance. Gorgeous. I decided black and white were the best colours to emphasise the picture without overwhelming it.

A digi ATC made for the Digichallenge on Artarazzi ... Beauty.
http://artarazzi.blogspot.com/

These are my entries for the Pre-Launch Weekly Challenge ... Christmas Decorations.
The top two have digi backgrounds, glazed at the bottom, applied to chipboard and with hand cut chipboard letters. The front set have embossed "snow". Both words are painted with metallic paint.
The Silk bauble is just that .. hand sewn silk, one with metallic threads woven into the fabric .. embellished with hand stitching and tasssell.
The last one is totally digi .. a star made from individual sections fitted together and shaded to look 3-D .. and two small fairies fixed to transparent strips so they can hover whilst sprinkling the fairy dust!

These are my contributions to the Christmas Tag swap on UKS. Normally a digi scrapper, these were a bit of a challenge but I quite like the results.

The top one - Frosty - uses a freebie snowflake stamp and the only snowman one I own ... given to me in last year's Advent swap!! ... using embossing powder to make them stand out. The letters are handcut (you can tell, can't you!!), painted and glitter embossed. Add a few sequins and that's it.

The bottom two are front and back of the same one ... the back is my digi version of Dan's 3-D one.

The front is painted, sprayed with lilac mica powders made up to a mist ...it shows better IRL ... with pale green stamped trees cut out and layered and a large star in Diamond Stickles. A few sequins and a digi title layered with a transparent one to give depth .. my first attempt at a tag.

This is my contribution to Magpie's cj .... the background is what I call "splodge" dyed - wet the fabric and just splodge on some colours and see where they go!!!. The leaves are traced from my garden and the stitches/gel pen shapes are based on Blackwork - except this fabric doesn't have an even weave and I haven't counted any threads, just guessed where to put them! The border is pen.