I Heart...

I bought a five aperture frame in the post xmas sale at M&S outlet store a couple of years ago (cheaper than cheap!) and immediately got inspired to create an 'I love...' piece, based around little polystyrene hearts I got in Hobbycraft, a different themed heart in each box.  It started well, decoupaged old map paper (from 7 gypsies) on one (for travel), music tissue paper on another, paper flowers (nature and wildlife) grungy metal (science and industry)...and then got stuck.  Couldn't think how I could do the night sky/space on a heart.  So it all got stuck away in a box, languishing for want of inspiration.

And then in December I went to Liberty of London and saw some fantastic beaded birds and animals

That's it! !  I covered the heart with stretch netting to represent the fabric of space and time (actually from inside the cushion covers of an old sofa we threw out- recycling at its best), painted it with mod podge and black paint, and then used pins to stivck various glass beads.  I made a telescope out of kebab sticks, rolled paper and jewellery findings, and covered a little plastic rocket with embossed metal tape which turned out a bit Wallace and Gromit, so very cute.

Here are all the frames:

Travel

The background papers are a mix of tim holtz and Graphic 45, and I made the battered suitcase out of foam rubber and strips of leather.  Wish my suitcase looked like that, but it is pristine as it hardly ever comes out of the storage cupboard due to me having married a reluctant traveller!

Science and Industry:

The background to this one is a bit of broken printed circuit board out of a redundant piece of audio equipment my hubby was ditching.  Light bulb is tim holtz ideaology as are die cut and embossed metal cogs.

Night sky/space

Quite proud of that telescope.  I used slightly glittery midnight blue paper behind this one. Hard to see in photo.

Music:

The music box is a die cast pencil sharpener (car boot), and the little dancer is from Prima.

And finally Nature and Wildlife:

Little plastic elephant and a cigarette card I got from car boot sale.  The butterflies are cut from Graphic45 Old Curiosity Shop and paper flowers are a mix, don't know makers.

Each frame has a related tim holtz ideaology word band attached.

Here's the whole thing

 

and some of the details

It took a while, but I really like it now it is finished.

Postage Stamp for my Dad

I had to take the day off work today because the cold I've been fighting off since Hogmanay finally caught up with me and I felt awful this morning, achy and shivery.  A couple of extra strong Lemsips later and I'm feeling a bit better, but still coughing like a drain.

Not one to look an unexpected day off in the mouth, I finally got around to making a little frame for a favourite picture I have of my dad when he was about 2 years old, which would have been circa 1922.  I used the Tim Holtz Alterations Postage Stamp Frame to make a small box frame, with paper from Tim's Vintage Shabby paper stash.  I also used the dies Elegant Flourish and Honeycomb, and a small heart from Movers and Shakers Cupid set.  Some ideaology in the forms of a word band and memo pin, a bicycle (probably Prima, but out of packet so not sure) and some flowers and ribbon hand coloured using distress pens and inks finish the frame.  

I've got a picture of my mum at a similar age that I think I will do another frame for, as a matching pair.

The letters are Victorian or Edwardian bone squares from a partial set that has been kicking around my family for as long as I can remember.  Something that was used in the schoolroom I think, and as my grandfather was a schoolteacher that would make sense. They have lowercase on one side and uppercase on the other.

The frame is about one inch deep.