In a Wonderland Of My own

Im in a Paper Craft Wonderland.....
I have been surfing the net this morning and have across this wonderful paper art site. The artists there are absolutely amazing. I just had to join up. They do art trades as well, so as soon as I saw that, I was hooked line and sinker!LOL
The site is called Roses on my Table and you can look it up here if you wish to have a peek.
http://rosesonmytable.ning.com/
They have all types of different groups, from ATC's, Paper dolls, Journals,  altered dominoes, accordian books, altered jars, tins and the list goes on.
Of course I had to join the paper doll group first, as it is my latest addiction.
Speaking of paper dolls... yes I have been bust again last night. I signed up for a "Make me happy" list over at AFA.com and the lady requested a Aries zodiac sign paper doll. Ive never made an animal before so I thought why not, Ill be adventurous. Well here is how he turned out. I hope she likes him..

He was also my first fully drawn paper doll. I printed off a picture to inspire me, but I have to admit it was a bit of a challenge to draw all the components seperately. He has 8 joints in all. I used Twinkling H20's for his colouring, which looks great in person. The camera cant quite pick the sparkle up.

I also was happy to recieve an atc I traded for a few weeks ago. I picked out an interesting paper doll, which happens to fold up to a normal ATC, and then fold her legs down and she is a paper doll. She is so cute I just love her.

More creations!

Morning!
I have had a busy last few days now that I am feeling better. I have been stuck in a whirl wind of paper dolls.
They are so much fun. I think the beauty of it to me is finding a head, and then a matching body and different limbs, its so much fun!

I have also been playing around with some new waterpaints I have recieved called Twinkling H2o's. They really are pretty and give a great twinkling glitterey fiinsh. In this journal entry, I used it on my ladies hair, wings and necklace. I have tried to capture the sparkle on camera. Its just so pretty, I really love these paints.

Isn't it so pretty!

Whimsical Paper dolls

For the past wekk I have been so sick with the flu. My daughter came home with it and yep, two days later I was feeling very ill. You name it I had it. Night sweats and chills, vomitiing, coughing, sore throat, head ache and just plain old I feel like sleeping 24 hours a day.
It's hard to be a caring Mum when you feel like that LOL. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who worked all day then made us dinner, fed the dogs, did the dishes and tucked us in. I am blissfully happy with my man.
Well, Im all better now and during my sickness, managed to google a few minutes a day when I had the energy and found the wonderful world of Modern Paper Dolls.
I immediately fell in love with these beautiful pieces of art and as soon as I was better, I was off to my art desk to create my first two dolls.
The first is a mermaid, made with scrapbooking cardstock, stamping on her arms, floral embellishments and some digital images I printed off. I just loved making her.

The second paper doll is made from mainly digital prints. I used a glitter sticker crown for her head and a floral 3d sticker on her dress. Both are jointed using brads.

Im thinking of making a few more and hanging them from my art desk where I can enjoy them everyday. I also thought they would make great tags on gifts, or I could make christmas themed dolls for the tree.

I have also created a swap over at swap-bot where we will be making 1 whimiscal paper doll for one partner.

Here is the link if you would like to join, or I would appreciate it, if you spread the word on your blog:

http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/123137

sign up is by July 3rd and you must send by July 17th.

Swap-bot is free to sign up with and is a great place to swap. I haven't been there too long yet but in the swaps I have participated in, I have not be disappointed and its been only a great experience. Most people have blown me away with their generousity and go way beyond whats expected. It really is a great place and I highly recommend it.

Getting back on track now...

I am just having so much fun with these and they are relatively quick to make once you have all your pieces cut. I back mine with pattererned cardstock, so they are more sturdy and the paper won't wilt over with time.

Have you made some paper dolls lately? If you have I would love to see.....

If your new to the craft, like me, I found this site:

http://www.theenchantedgallery.com/paperdolls.html

There you can find a paper doll template to cut your pieces out as well as some instructions. It's a great place to get you started.

Don't forget I would love to see your paper dolls, so message me okay!

A Busy Night

Top of the morning to ya!
Last night I got busy, with my exciting first swap as a host on Swap-bot. I created 3 vintage circus ATC's and plan to make 3 more, then I will decide which 2 I shall send off to my partner.

Here are the 3 I made last night. They were so fun to make. The one in the middle is my favourite so far. I knew I was going to have to make a few to choose from...Its always hard to part with ATC's.

On another note. I have to admit Ive been a little slack on my journal pages lately. So I also managed to work in that as well, and came up with a 5 minute page which I really love. It has a nice vintage feel to it and has some collage and I used my new twinkling H2o's paints. I f you would like to check it out please visit my Journal Pages Tab up the  top of my blog.

Vintage circus

Well as you all know, I have been busy making ATC's and have been very active over at Swap-bot and AFA.
I am excited to let you know I am hosting my first swap at Swap-bot.
My atc theme is Vintage Circus.

Image by Rustycage11 (flickr)

I just love vintage themed ATC's and especially of circus images.
My grandfather died when I was quite young and it wasn't until I was an adult that I realised he was actually in the circus when he was a young man. Apparantely, he was a tight rope walker! How cool is that, further more he was in charge of the monkeys and I do have photos of my father with his pet monkeys as a kid.
I wish he had lived longer so I could have asked him a thousand questions.
So this is where my love for vintage circus comes from. A very warm part in my heart!

If you would like to enter this swap head over to Swap-bot for all the details at:
http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/122138

My first Award!

Wow, my first award! Yah for me...Im delighted. I have just been nominated for the Blogger appreciation award by Narda from  http://pink-calico.blogspot.ca/. Thankyou so much!

How it works, is that I now have to answer some questions and then pass the award on.

So here it goes:

How long have you been blogging?

I'm actually very new at it. I think Ive been here for about 3 months. Ive had other blogs in the past, but this is the first one where I feel, it's not only for me, but hopefully other people find inspiration from it as well.

Why did you start blogging?

At the very first instant, I thought of it as an online journal, but as I thought more thoroughly about it and read other peoples blogs, I realised I wanted to inspire people with my art and also give the odd tutorial. I love helping people and I want the whole world to enjoy art and craft. Its just a great feeling to see my art up on the screen as well! LOL

What sort of blogs do you like to follow/read?

I am a self confessed art-aholic! So I must admit, most of the blogs I read are other art and craft blogs. I especially love ones with tutorials as well. I also like recycling blogs, as I sew on the odd occasion and love to find new exciting ways to recycle something.

What is the one thing you would like to improve as a blogger:

I personally think I can be quite funny, but I find it hard to write funny things. So I will have to try and improve that skill somehow in the future. I would like to make people laugh when they read my blog.

Now, My nomination for the blogger appreciation award is passed onto:  

http://jennibelliestudio.blogspot.com/

I just love jennibelliestudio. She has great tutorials and inspired me to make my own handmade journals. I love seeing her journal pages and she is just a delight to listen to. Thank so much for your blog jenni!

Steampunk Card

Afternoon!
It is a beautiful sunny, winter's day today. Im so pleased to see the sun shining and the birds singing.
Today I was inspired by a piece of scrapbook cardstock that I have had for a few years now and have always seemed to overlook.
It just popped right out at me this morning and I just knew I had to make a Steampunk Greeting card with it.
I have fallen in love with Steampunk themes and wanted to try my hand it so badly and now I had the chance!
I gathered some images and managed to create this card. I just love the ferris wheel and glitter and knew it would make a great backround for my steampunk theme.

Hmm, I'm thinking this may be the start of another Trade addiciton perhaps!!!!

Recent Art Trading Cards

Hello!
I have been a very busy crafter lately. Having so much fun.
I am right into the swing of things with my ATC's. I started a little rusty but am now feeling Im getting into my groove again.
Here are some, I made over the past few days. I love them all so very much, they will be hard to trade.
Oh, Im sure I will, but not just for any card. I hope to start collecting my favourite themes.
The masquerade card is definetely for my private collection, as I want to collect this theme, as well as steampunk and victorian vintage styled cards.



My two other favourites hard to part with are, 'The Frog Prince' and 'Legends of Their Time'.

I will list all my trade cards on my Flickr site here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/upcycledtoday/

My username is ARTBYSONYA.

On another artsy note, i have also been making some handcarved stamps. I have done these the hard way as I don't have a carving set yet and had to use my standley knife instead. However it was a good way in discovering if I enjoyed it or not before I fork out for the carving tools. And YES I loved making these stamps. Hopefully I can do more intricate designs when the better tools arrive.

Here are my basic stamps I carved with the knife.

Not too bad for a first attempt I think.

My swapping addiction

Hello again,
Ive got a few minutes before I leave for work, so I thought I would keep you posted on what I have been working on recently.
I decided to join http://swap-bot.com/ because I am just loving the journal round robins I am in at the moment, through  the Doll Dreams site and  can't get enough!
I used to make art to purely sell, and I found a small happiness when a piece sold. However the money was never a part of it. When your creating art and sell it for a small price, I realised your really only in it for the gratification. Then I discovered a whole internet world of swapping.
I can't tell you how much more satisfying it is for someone who creates for the love of it, to do so and then get somebody elses art in return. I highly recommend you have a try, but be warned it is highly addictive!

Here are two things I have been working on. The first one is from the Cardboard Project through
http://dolldreams.ning.com/. Each of us send away a cardboard packet we have decorated with drawings and paint to the person below us on the list and mine is well on its way. I recieved a members project yesterday and was eager to do my cardboard page for her packet.

Here is my page:


Made from torn cardboard, acrylic paint, glitter, watercolor crayons, sumi ink and prismacolor pencils

The second thing I have been doing, is through Swapbot. I have signed up for a Alice in Wonderland ATC swap. Its a one for one swap, but I love Alice so much, I though I would make a whole series of ATC's in this theme and place them on flickr available for swaps. I think I would like to swap with someone else's Alice in Wonderland Atc's.
If your interested I will be listing them soon on my flickr site under the username: Artbysonya.
Here are my 1st two, one for Swapbot and the other one is for my series. I am not sure which one will go to my swapbot partner yet. Which one do you think is the nicest?

Stitched Junk Journal

Hi all,
Yes Im starting yet another journal... hehhe.
For me, part of art journalling is handmaking the journal. It is an art in itself.
I guess one day I will have so many journals, I'll never run out of pages to create in.
This journal is a first for me. I have made it using a fabric cover this time and I LOVE LOve Love it!
I was playing around on the net and saw a picture of one like this, so it's not my brainwave, but I can't remember where I saw it.
Anyway here is my cover so far. I haven't quite finished yet as I still need to sew on the cord to use as a tie to close the journal. Then more fun to come, as I will be stitching all the pages like a junk journal. I will be keeping you upto date with my progression and will be adding a tutorial shortly on my
Handmade Art Journal Tutorials page. ( It's Up Now )
Here's a peek -