Every year, like millions of people across the UK (and beyond, I suspect!), I tune into the BBC’s Children in Need Telethon and enjoy watching outrageous performances, hearing inspiring stories and using a good box of tissues watching footage of children and Groups in communities, who have been helped along by this wonderful cause.

Read MORE about Children in Need and my auction in Handmade News. (Thanks Scarlet! xo)

This year I wanted to take part in fundraising too, so I painted this 12″x12″ mixed media canvas to auction for the charity.

It’s listed on Ebay in the Ebay for Charity section, HERE. There’s a full description of what went into this canvas, and you know me… I don’t do anything by halves!

There’s collage peeping through the layers….

Look how the light catches the colours from different angles…

All the sides have been painted, so it won’t need a frame and can go straight on the wall…

It’s completely sealed with tiny microbeads that you can touch – they catch the light completely randomly…

Am I selling you yet?

Please help spread the word – tell your family, friends, anyone you know who may like to own this original painting. Help me help the kids…

Happy Halloween to you all, I hope you have a wonderful weekend – I’m off out tonight and working a 14-hour day tomorrow, so you probably won’t hear from me again till Monday… xoxoxo

This was a bit of fun for The Three Muses challenge this week… and you can probably tell that I’m well into “Strictly Come Dancing” again this year!! I’m especially fond of the extremely eccentric, but lovely, Claudia Winkelman, host of SCD: It Takes Two… bizarre and very fun half hour, behind-the-scenes look at the stars and the cast of the show!

Here’s how the farmyard scene is looking…

Images courtesy of Google.

Gothic Arches theme this Sunday. Great contrasting colours, aren’t they? The background here is left over paint from backgrounds I was painting for my art journalling class. No spare cardstock goes unpainted when I paint – any surface is fair game not to waste paint. The stamps are all handcarved by me and the image is from Crafty Individuals Miniatures. I used thin copper wire to attach the image and the metallic elements – no glue! Here are the pics…

“You do not realise how far you have come, till you look behind.”

A brass nut, and some tube beads…

Wrapping it all up…

Little spiral to finish, plus an orange seed bead!

A couple of weeks ago I made this wacky jewellery set for The Seventh Wave Gallery to display to show some Day of the Dead artwork. I see that Theme Thursday’s challenge this week is “Faces” and would like to share them with you here as my entry/take on the theme:

It comprises a bracelet, a pair of earrings and a necklace, all fashioned from acrylic 2″ squares, stamped with Tandastamps Spider’s web, recycled bottlecaps and DOTD Rounds from Ten Two Studios… here are some detail shots:

Lovely challenge from The Three Muses this week – “long ago… and oh so far away…” just like the Carpenters song. Talk about flights of fancy! I chose to go digital because I am simply too full of cold/flu to go upstairs and get creative with paints, paper, etc. So, next best thing, I used one of my scanned in painted backgrounds and some excellent images from the Graphics Fairy.

DH was watching me manipulating the bird and made a few helpful suggestions on how to make him ‘pop’ even more! I used one of the artistic filters on my painted background and the glyphs came via an email this week – somebody trying to sell me a lucky bracelet! I figured I’d use the imagery and see if that works instead of buying the bracelet!!

It’ll be a long day, with a good chance of getting soaked again, then home, eat and back out for the Scrapstore Management meeting for the forthcoming Craft & Food Fair on November 7th. Roll on Thursday!

When I saw that Nancy’s theme this week at Gothic Arches was to be “Risque”, I remembered the Faux Postage Nudes sheet I had from Ten Two Studios and thought they’d make a cute little Gothic Arches booklet. It did prove a bit tricky as I am full of a cold virus at the moment. It just meant that I had to work quickly, before I lost my train of thought!!

A lot of stitching and very little glue… The rose bud broke off so I threaded a tiny vintage button onto the stitched stem, gluing the bud to that – problem solved! Those are metal washers on the leaves at the bottom, recycled from a card that was just too naff to survive!

The inner pages are recycled pages from an old book and I’ve outlined words to add interest.

The small stitched block in the centre holds the pages together – look Mum, no glue!!

A stitched piece wouldn’t really be mine without some “frays” on it, would it? This is the inside back cover, so a bit of planning required to line things up before stitching. Also, note how the charm is attached with a brad poked through from the back? Here’s why:

The tiny metal tab I have used to close the booklet was a RAK from a very good friend who collects “junk bits” she comes across and sends to me when she has a bag full! The heart brad is left over from 2 Christmases ago!

Do you see my 2 heroes - Harry & Giles? I had stamped these two characters (from Ria’s Home Impressions Victorian Plate) onto scrap book text simply because there was still a fair amount of ink on the rubber… I just knew these two boys would get into some project with ladies in it!

Tips: I cut out the card shape first, on the fold plus a tab for the flap closure. Then I cut the arched book pages, leaving tabs for stitching in the middle. I created my pages before stitching them to the covers. Use minimal glue and avoid edges you’re going to stitch…

That’s what inspired this altered jigsaw piece for Wednesday Stamper’s theme - Key *Keys! All the tins of corned beef here (that I have bought), are opened with these keys… Shame to waste it, no?

Stamp: Cherry Pie Artstamps. The background is acrylic paint in shades of ochre and burnt umber, mixed with a little acrylic glazing liquid and then edges are made using Neocolour II black crayon. The key is attached with thin copper wire. Fun stuff!

I can’t resist…SaWo this week is challenging us to Recycle it!! Gotta love Sandy’s timing!

Check out my funky Day of the Dead Jewellery HERE… I had such fun putting it together! It’s at The Seventh Wave Gallery in Bude at the moment.

Inspire me Thursday - “Winged Things”… I couldn’t resist playing with one of my painted backgrounds in digital form. I just added a few googled butterflies and brief text, et voila!

Isn’t that pretty? I’ve also written my first Studio blog post on my ArtFire Studio Blog this evening! Yes, those great people at ArtFire have made Studio Blogs available to us artisans – how cool is that? Click HERE to have a peek! Yet another fab marketing tool to interact with buyers and prospective buyers – where will it all end?

I’m taking care of poor DD who’s picked up another virus – the Doctor said she has to rest and take plenty of fluids and Neurofen to cure the neck ache, headache and sore throat… and lots of sleeps.

I’m struggling to finish a canvas which I am stuck on at the moment, but I also covered another handmade art journal this evening, so at least I feel I’ve achieved something arty today!

Tomorrow’s another day (in the words of Scarlett O’Hara!)…

All for the sake of The Three Muses “Give me a head of hair!”

Well, the head of hair is a tree from Dover, cropped to fit his head. The leaves are Photoshop brushes in autumn colours. The fancy brush bottom right is from a blogger who wrote a fab tutorial on making your own PS brushes – I made this from one of her images. Will link as soon as I find her blog (apologies) and the background is one of my art journal pages scanned in!

A bit of fun as I’ll be at market on my feet all day, although the weather forecast is fairly reasonable for Wednesday. I may yet come home without webbed feet!