Q&L - Music - Tiny Dancer

Hi all.  Time for the fortnightly quotes and lyrics challenge from the Craft Barn again.  This time it is Passion and Music - oh yes.  So, sticking to my 'I must have seen them live' criteria, I went for Tiny Dancer, by Elton John.  I think Madman Across the Water was the first album of his I bought, and I remember dancing round my bedroom to Tiny Dancer (and Indian Sunset... what a song, what an EPIC song...), I dreamt of marrying a music man...  That went well - NOT!  Anyway...

Blue Jean baby, LA Lady, seamstress for the band

Pretty eyed, Pirate smile, you'll marry a music man

Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand

 

Hold me closer Tiny Dancer

Count the headlights on the highway...

 

The Madman cover is embroidered denim, so I wanted to start with blue.  As I have been on a Kate Crane weekend (another one, at The Stamp Attic), and Kate does love a good colour wheel, I went with green. It had to be Dylusions!  I added a little Radiant Rain, for bling.

 

Dylusions reacts with water, so I used a mask or two and dabbed through it, with water, and with distress inks - that was a good effect!

Picking up on the seamstress idea, I used his Holtzness' blueprint stamps top and bottom, and reverted to handwriting (I must restart the calligraphy classes) the lyric.

 

Finally I added a couple of embellishments, a dress form, and some rain drops to act as headlights.  I love the way the glue soaks up the dylusions.

 

All in all, I'm pleased with it, so I hope you like!

 

 

Resources

 

Paint and Ink

Dylusions: White linen, After Midnight, London Blue, Polished Jade, Black Marble

Radiant Rain: Pearl Blue

Distress Ink: Black Soot, Stormy Sky

Archival Ink: Jet Black

 

Stamps

Stampers Anonymous: Mini Blueprints CMS150

 

Bling and other stuff

Tando Creative Mask: Music

That Special Touch Mask: Piano Keys

Studio 490/Blossom Bucket: Mannequin

Prima: Raindrops

Robins Nest Dewdrops: Fairy dust

Crafty Notions: Stellar Flash

Eye of the Tiger?

No, not another music page, but some jewellery I made, this time for myself.  I love Tiger's eye, mainly because I remember my mum wearing the most preposterous cocktail ring, which she got out in the Gulf.  Unfortunately, when I got burgled a few years back, this was one of the things that disappeared.  Completely irreplaceable, but I can use the same stone and give a little smile to myself...




Anyway...  Because I NEED to have my glasses on a chain ('on and off more often than a whore's drawers', as my mum used to say..) necklaces don't really feature, but glasses chains do! This is where I started, combining organza ribbon, suede and rose gold findings with a couple of red tiger's eye beads.

Then I moved to the bracelet, same components, but with rose gold chain too.

The earrings use the rose gold findings with tiger's eye beads.






Finally, the brooch - lots and LOTS of tiger's eyes, mounted on copper coloured wire, with some wire coiled on the gizmo, and included within the design.  Thanks to Louise Jacobsen for the idea, from her wirework course at Jewellery Maker last week.  She used this for a ring, but it works brilliantly for a brooch.

Q&L: Fame - Life's been good

Hi there!  The challenge this fortnight was Unique and/or Fame.  I was struggling, then the good old iPod did it again...  Life's been Good by the Eagles (or Joe Walsh), and yes, I have seen them a couple of times!  I'll be able to stick all my old ticket stubs into the book at the end of this!  So here is the verse:

It's tough to handle this fortune and fame

Everybody's so different, I haven't changed

It's a difficult one to illustrate, this, so I didn't!  I went for abstract.

My A3 substrate this time was watercolour paper.  Because I wanted to move the acrylic about on the paper, I gave it a coating of Matt Medium (which I managed to squirt all over my trousers, my T-shirt, the floor, before I got it on the paper...), and then used the Eclectica limited edition Paper Artsy paints in blocks, with a smidge of Nougat, for graduation. 

My Kate Crane/Kathryn Wheel stamps turned up yesterday, so I used two half circles on the lower edge, and outlined them in white. 

In keeping with the fame theme, I stamped stars in metallic Brilliance around the edge, leaving a gap for the words.

Added the words, and details of the song/band, and hey presto!

Hope you like!

Resources

Substrate
Winsor and Newton Cotman Water colour paper

Paint and Ink
PaperArtsy: Tikka, Chartreuse, Chutney, Nougat
Distress Ink: Black Soot
Brilliance: Mineral

Stamps
Hero Arts: Life of the Party Stars

Bling and other stuff
Edding 751 creative: White Marker
Pitt Calligraphy pens: Black
Winsor and Newton: Acrylic Matt Medium

First Jewellery Commission!!

The other week my sister sent me some beads, and said 'make me a bracelet and earrings with these'...OK.  Chums on FB seemed to like them, and so I got a commission, 'something like that, but really dark purple'...  Hmm.  So, trawled through a few bead shops (now, THERE was a hardship) and used a couple of techniques from Louise's wire-working class at Jewellery Maker last week, and came up with...  (the flash wasn't right... better piccies below...)

The bangle on Memory wire is agate beads - big ones - with flash silver spacer beads.








The link bracelet, with matching earrings, was a bit more interesting.  I made the enhanced figure 8 links from silver plated wire, and attached 'charms' to them.

I used head pins and eye pins to hold the beads, which are a mix of onyx, tourmaline, and agate.

The clasp is also silver flash.






Matching earrings with tourmaline and agate, on 925 silver shepherds crooks.

One small matchbox made with a Sizzix die, and 3 gems...Voila!  My first commission - one happy customer, and maybe the start of actually USING and selling what I buy, rather than stroking it!!

Hope you like!