It's all gone a bit Tolkein........

UK ART LOTTERY

The theme at UKAL for February is 'Trees'. I have been making some cards using a lovely dreamweaver stencil I have, so I thought I would use it again for this challenge. I love tree images, and this particular stencil always seem very mysterious, putting me in mind of the Tolkein stories with their magical forests and giant trees.



I started with a base of gold mirri card, then inked through the stencil onto heat resistant acetate and embossed. I had no idea where this was going when I did that, but the end result is rather pleasing as the mirri card catches the light and reflects it back. For the gothic arch shape frame I once again used my divine swirls embossing plate in the cuttlebug with rub on highlights. I had recently bought (very cheaply) 4 negative tree images stamps depicting the four seasons. I decided to stamp them onto opaque shrink plastic to make little charms. I did worry that they woulkd be a bit dark but in fact being a negative image worked very well and tied in better than an 'outline would have. At the top I did another shrink plastic tile of another tree image and added a short quote from one of the many poems in the Lord of the rings. Brill.





WALL ART - MATCHBOX SHRINE

As I liked this piece so much, I decided to continue the theme for our challenge at SIS which was to make an atc/altered hanging shrine. I love the idea of shrines but always have a complete mental block about what theme to use - so I thought I'd strike while the iron was hot!



After taking an ATC sized base, I cut a hole so that the recess formed by the matchbox could be seen. (instructions HERE) At the back of the recess I did a little painting of the lonely mountain. I hung my wedding ring (I haven't worn it over 10 years and now I will be looking at it every day so I consider that put to good use) which is a plain gold band from the top and put another little shrink plastic tree in the front. The shrine does open and behind there is a quote 'it's a dangerous business going out your front door'. I haven't shown it very well but there is a dangky bit with two more SP charms - a dragon and another tree (told you I liked trees). I don't know why the rest of it looks like a castle, I had thos bits of door left over from 'practising' for the previous project so it seemed a shame not to use them. I suppose a round hobbit hole door would have been better but I couldn't get my head round it. The bottom quote is a little bit of the poem 'The road goes ever on and on' several versions of which crop up in the texts. So, my first proper shrine completed yay!!

AND THE WINNER IS........

hee hee gotta go and do the valentine draw.

THE WINNER IS GWEN (MINIMAKER). Thanks for stopping by, and look out for next months giveaway, - can't tell you when it'll be, it all depends lol.