Wednesday 30 May 2012

WOYWW 156–Altered Boxes, Zentangle Art and a Birthday Card

Time for the world’s most famous nosey fest again – courtesy of our lovely Julia who tries to keep us all under control – click on the link in my sidebar to take you to her blog to find out what it’s all about, and join in if you dare like!

Today is my birthday, and we are going out, and I’m already running pretty well on empty so I can’t guarantee how active a participant in WOYWW I shall be this week. This is my desk as of yesterday.

I’ve been working on a birthday present for a friend. It’s her birthday today too and as usual I’ve been working at the last minute. We’ve been too busy for comfort recently and what with all the extra activity and also the hot weather, I’ve not been very well and haven’t had any reserves for being in my ARTHaven but it’s been a bit cooler these past couple of days, and I’ve been working hard, trying to finish the project in time. I bought some little plain boxes for altering at a craft show a while back, and I’m giving my friend one of these. I thought I’d work on two others at the same time. They are being covered with different coloured scraps of tissue paper, stuck down with regular matt gel medium and then embellished. I’ve got on quite a bit further since this photo was taken, and my friend’s box is now finished apart from drying time. I shall be doing a separate blog post about the whole project so won’t go into a lot of detail here, but if you’re interested to see how the boxes turn out, watch this space!

On the desk you can see bits of the tissue paper, my gesso and gel medium, some acrylic paints to paint the small embellishments (a starfish and a shell, and a few of my air dry clay pebbles made for my on-going Choc-a-Bloc project – no, Julia, they really are NOT Imperial Mints lol!!). I’ve added some yarn to the first box as well, to make a wave/ripple texture. Also on the desk is my palette with a piece of damp kitchen roll draped over it in an attempt to keep some acrylic paint from drying out! Looks pretty manky, doesn’t it.

For the benefit of those of you who only visit my blog for WOYWW, I thought I’d show you my latest zentangle art which I did this week, which I have propped up at the back of the desk. Here’s a larger version. She is called “La Bella” – “The Beauty” – and I hope she lives up to her name! (The link will take you to the post about this, which also includes some sketches from my zentangle journal.)

Last night I made a card for my friend to go with her present – when I made my hubby’s card for our anniversary, I made two almost identical backgrounds and used the second of these, and I deliberately made the box to co-ordinate with it. It’s a relatively simple card, with a stamped heat-embossed sentiment, and some flowers cut with my old Cricut cutting machine a while back, which I had in my stash of flat white flower cut-outs which I can then colour and embellish as required. In this case they were coloured with Distress Stains (Faded Jeans, Broken China, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles and Picket Fence) and hand embossed, and the veins being painted in with Pumice Stone Distress Ink, and layered and applied with Pinflair glue. The centres of the flowers were done with Stickles. The whole thing is matted onto some plain white card which I have distressed using Broken China Distress Ink.

Sorry to be so hopeless at visiting everyone last week – given how busy I’m going to be this week too (and no doubt having to recover afterwards) I can’t guarantee I’ll do a lot better this week. Thanks to everyone who visited last week – I really appreciate all your lovely comments, and those who have decided to follow me.

Happy WOYWW, and have a great week, everyone, with lots of opportunity for creativity.

26 comments:

  1. Happy birthday! Hope you have a really lovely day!

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  2. Pretty card, love the artwork you are great at doing these.
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUN xxx

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  3. Wishing you the happiest of birthdays, Shoshi - hope you have a lovely day out!
    Your zentangle portrait is stunning - I said it before, you have found your calling with this artform. It is just sensational.
    Hugs, LLJ #77 xx

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  4. wow! now that's a zentangle! truly amazing work! and happy birthday :)
    hope you have a great day and an even better week!
    no. 59

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  5. Happy Birthday - I hope you have a really great one (and enjoy your new inks!).
    The card is fabulous - I love the colour combination of green and blue - it's so striking - what a lucky friend!

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  6. Hi there, just popping in to wish you a happy WOYWW 3rd anniversary! Who would have thought it would grow to be such a weekly treat for us all to catch up and see so much inspiring creativity! Here's toasting the next year.....
    Happy birthday too and I just LOVE your artwork!

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  7. Happy Birthday, hope the rose lasts the journey over to you
    _____/)___/)______./¯"""/')
    ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\)¯¯\)¯¯¯'\_„„„„\)
    Every week I hesitate to visit your blog because my jaw drops so low I have a hard time trying to pick it up after I see your latest zentangle lol. It just gets better and better. Seriously you are one heck of a zentangle artist. Love that background on the card
    Bridget #25

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  8. oh pssst I have an atc for you, if you could send me your snail mail I will send one off to you bridget.larsen@gmail.com

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  9. Happy Birthday! WOW- gorgeous Zentangle lady, love her! Trish #79-ish

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  10. Wishing you a wonderful birthday (mine was yesterday) and hope you have a lovely evening out. I would love to send you a little atc thank you for all your wonderful comments and suggestions you have made on my blog over the year. I don't want anything in return. If you are happy for me to have your address please email me on desand@optusnet.com.au
    Sandra de

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  11. Happy Birthday ! Hope you have a fabulous day!

    What a stunning piece of art work that is! Just beautiful! She would look great 'blown' up poster size and framed in a black frame! Absolutely gorgeous!

    Just been for a look your zentagles journal and wow! I really MUST have a go at that! Mine are just pretty basic at the moment! But I do like the idea of combing those patterns to make a larger piece!

    Thanks for sharing and I hjope you have a great day!

    Jackie #115

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  12. Happy Birthday AND WOYWW! Have a fab day, love the work you're doing.... Helen 8

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  13. Happy Birthday!! I hope the cooler weather sticks around a little bit longer, we are having a lovely day over here now that the rain has moved on! LOVING your zentangle art, wow, that is GORGEOUS!! I hope you are having a great WOYWW day and hopefully you will show a picture of all the ATC's, that would be great fun to see! waving hi from the hills of North Carolina :)

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  14. Happy Birthday dear Shoshi. Hope you have a wonderful day. I love your Zentangle drawing its so ornate and beautiful. Hugs Rita xx

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  15. Hi Shoshi I love your zentangle work, stunning. Plus a lovely card just my colours. HAPPY BIRTHDAY for today...I'll let you into a secret it's mine tomorrow too!
    Great desk space and happy 3rd anniversary, hugs Erika.

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  16. Happy Birthday to you Shoshi! That card is gorgeous and love the colours. As for your zentangle - WOW!
    Happy WOYWW
    Hettie #50
    p.s. loving your bees! I am married to a bee keeper!

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  17. What a stunning zentangle and card... AmAzing work.... Have a happy week, Hugs May x x x#4

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  18. Hi Shoshi, Happy Birthday! I would love to send you a little BRAK if you send me your addy. Now don't go wearing yourself out with too much celebrating!! Your 'Beauty' is just that - an absolutely stunning piece. She reminds me just a little bit of some artwork that went with (a rather old) children's book called 'The Owl Service'. The detail you have included is amazing!! Happy WOYWW, Hope to hear from you soon. Cindy #66

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  19. Happy birthday! That is a fabulous zen-tangle drawing! Awesome!

    Happy WOYWW!

    Katie (38)

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  20. When I do zentangling it is really a doodle but yours is an amazing piece of art ...Wow ...it took my breath away..Happy 3rd woyww birthday

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  21. Belated happy birthday wishes. Participating in WOYWW is a lovely way to "meet" fellow crafters such as yourself and see what you are up each week. Love the card - gorgeous colours and the flowers are stunning. Happy belated 3rd WOYWW anniversary! Elizabeth x #94

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  22. What a gorgeous zentangle. I love it. Happy day after WOYWW from #2.

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  23. Happy Birthday all be it a little late, I hope you had a wonderful day. Your work is amazing and your zentangling is perfect. Thanks for sharing.

    Eliza #140
    http://queenartoypia.blogspot.com.au/

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  24. Wow! La Bella is fabulous. I noticed her right off. She is one fancy zentangle for sure! I really am enjoying seeing what people are doing with zentangles. Originally I only saw them as doodles but now people are doing things with them and that's just awesome. The birthday card is great too. I'm impressed with the stickles in the flower centers-they look like gems.

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  25. Love the Zentangle, so intricate, very lovely. Barb #121

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  26. Wow, your zentangle art is just stunning! So beautiful and so much detail. It caught my eye immediately in the pic of your desk.

    Thanks for sharing and happy WOYWW anniversary!

    Ali #86

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