How I love the autumn, with it's changeable days. Today I woke up to glorious sunshine and as I looked at the garden, I could see the silken threads of spiders' webs glistening with dew. All the leaves are turning now, with greens, golds, browns, yellows, brightest oranges and reds all burnished with copper and bronze hews. The berries are plump and bright red just waiting for the birds to come and taste. Everything appears to look mellow, getting ready for a winter's sleep.

This week we took the caravan to Shrewsbury and spent five days just drinking in the autumnal beauty of the countryside. We watched squirrels collecting their acorns, hedgehogs rooting for insects and feeding themselves up for the winter retreat, and birds building themselves up on juicey blackberries. Now is the time to be putting food out for our wild animals as they prepare for hybernation.

Even though hanging baskets and planters will look rather untidy if left to themselves over the winter, try to leave them as they provide a harbour for insects etc, which in turn will feed the birds. Look all about you and drink in the all the lovely sights, sounds and colours of this glorious season.

To mark the advent of autumn, I decided to take part in an altered tin swap with an autumnal theme. I really enjoyed this project and loved the bright colours used. The challenge was to alter a tin, box or spectacle case with the theme of autumn.

I was given a cd rom tin for my birthday - something that might have found it's way into the rubbish bin in any 'normal' household, but great treasure to me. It was from AOL and inside was a trial cd rom for their internet services. I had the idea of turning it into a small memory album.

I painted the edges of the tin with copper leafing pen, and found some images on a copyright free sight, of autumn leaves. I was given a sample of printable cotton fabric by a friend of mine, and so thought to print out my autumn leave design onto it. Unfortunately my printer decided to have a tantrum about it and wouldn't accept my material, and I ended up drawing all the leaves and painting them with my brush marker pens.

I must say, I thought the finished product looked very bright and gaudy - bordering on garish. Then I looked for an autumnal backing paper I knew I had somewhere which was printed with a photographic image of autumn leaves. When I eventually rooted it out, I realized that my painting wasn't too far out at all!! In fact, as I looked out at the trees over the last week I can honestly say that in nature the colours are even more garish.

I used the fabric to cover the top of the tin and the backing paper to cover the base. I then put some lavish gold braid around the edge. Whilst rummaging around in my craft box I came upon a beautiful gold button in the shape of a large cabbage rose - ok you might think it's out of season, but believe me there are still some late roses blooming in sheltered gardens. I saw them for myself this week in Shrewsbury - in fact a lot of the summer flowers are still in bloom down there.

I also found a lovely tawny-coloured heart that was carved in a beautiful swirling pattern. The heart had a bale and so could be used as a pendant. I stuck the rose in the top left-hand corner of the lid with silicon glue and just before it dried I added some beautiful fibres and ribbons in autumnal colours. A bow on the other side secured the heart pendant.

For the inside, I decorated the cd rom laying a background of butterscotch coloured mulberry paper, which was ripped and torn to give it a feathery edge. I then covered some card with double-sided adhesive film, layed down a piece of lace onto that. I sprinkled green glitter over the lace and pressed it firmly onto the double-sided film. Then I pulled off the lace, leaving gaps on the film where the glitter could not penetrate the lace, I then sprinkled on some gold, again pressing it onto the film. I cut leaf shapes out of the glittered card and arranged them on the mulberry paper background.

I wanted some pages, so that whoever received my tin in a swap could use it for keeping memories. So before I decorated the cd rom, I drew around it on some orange card - it took three sheet of A4, folded in half. I cut the circles out, being careful to leave about 2 inches uncut on the fold. Then I stuck them together to form a 'concertina' of pages. The cd rom was glued to the first page, and the last page glued to the base of the tin.

I finished the tin off by placing some letters (that looked like old-fashioned typewriter keys) to spell the word 'memories' scattered down the center of the lid - like falling leaves.

I want to thank my wonderful friends, who rang to tell us that they had booked to go to this lovely place and asked us if we would like to go along. We had the most delightful time and enjoyed their company enormously. In fact we have been caravanning together for many years and have experienced some of the best holidays we can recall. I love them dearly.

I just wanted to show everybody how the altered book looked before I sent it off on it's travels around all my 'altering artist' friends. They are each doing a spread in turn. The book is called 'Castles in the Air' and is about fairy tales and fantasy.

The front cover has a rustic looking frame made from balsa wood, inside the frame sits a fairy on bow of a blackcurrant bush and the background is a watercoloured sky. It doesn't show up on the photographs, but the book cover is painted in a twinkly paint, with a little extra glitter added. The inside covers of an altered book is important, as it is here you state any rules - likes/dislikes and instructions for the participants. I made a little pocket in which I sat a mini-book, the front page of which, had some instructions, mainly asking the artists to enjoy themselves and further pages for their signatures and comments.

I did the first spread to give the book a start. Naturally, as parchment craft is my first love, I had to encorporate some of that. The tree tops are all parchment as well as the fairy queen of the enchanted wood.

It is a while now since I update my blog and I have been really busy creating. There have been lots of ATC swaps, altered book round robbins. One swap that I really enjoyed was 'no paper' ATC challenge. The theme was 'Out of Africa' inspired by all the beautiful imagery and colours from the film.

A while ago I was given one of those mini sewing machines to play with, so I decided that I would put it to use for this swap. I had some fat quarters in my fabric box, one piece that had a kind of 'ethnic' feel - cream background with tan, blue and brown patterns on it. I had a scrap of fabric that had some african masks printed on it, and some left over from making cushions for a friend - not really my cup of tea, but it was bright orange with navy patterns on it.

Armed with these bits of material and my mini sewing machine, I decided to start on my ATCs. I made a couple of mini-quilts, I matted and layered the different fabrics. Cut out the masks to appliquet onto the quilts etc. I also found a bit of green jute in my craft box, so added some of that to a couple. I carefully frayed edges and so on. It needed something more though - something to give it more dimension.

Searching though my stash of crafting goodies, I found a tub of beads - I had only paid £1 for a tub full in a home decor shop. I found some beauties that would go perfectly with my theme. Some had a leopard skin pattern on them, some were brown with silver patterns on - very ethnic - and some looked like amber with inclusions. Brilliant - now what the thread them on.

I went on another search - this time through all the fibres in my stash. I seemed to hit a brick wall with it. In the end, I just picked up a thin length of twine, threaded three or four beads onto it, tied a knot in each end and then stitched on end down onto the ATC. It looked ace. I was so pleased with it. Now I needed something to stiffen them with, as they just looked like bits of floppy stitched together material with no substance.

Well, the challenge was that we were not to use any paper - unless the ATC was temporarily fixed (by a mini peg, or clip of some sort) to a piece of card. I didn't really want to do that - I wanted to try without paper altogether. That led to yet another search through the craft stash - talk about a treasure hunt. I came up with some papyrus - disqualified that as a kind of paper, although it is from a plant.

In the end I came up with some funky foam! Great stuff is funky foam. There is so much you can do with it, and kids love playing with it. It is a very slim piece of foam, A4 approximately in size and can be got in all sorts of colours. Kids love to cut shapes out of it. It can also be heated and stamped onto - just hold the heat gun onto it until it softens, then stamp into it with a ready inked rubber stamp. It looks just like figured leather. You can put metallic rub on to the raised bits and add definition. Enough digression!!

I cut the funky foam sheet into ATC sized pieces and stitched each ATC to one. Great! It worked a treat. Not only that, I could take my cd marker and write all the necessary details onto the back.

I hope you like them. The recipients were very pleased.

Here are some ATCs I have done for another swap called Serendipity. I must admit, although I had heard of this word in connection with Flemming, who discovered penicilin and also seen it as a name for an antique shop, I had to look it up to find it's true meaning. Serendipity means discoveries made by chance - hence the connection with Alexanda Flemming who discovered penicilin by accident after he left an old experiment to go mouldy. It let me to think of all the discoveries that might have been made in that way. Gravity, for example, was discovered by Isaac Newton after an apple fell on his head. This in turn led me to think how come they found out that the earth takes twenty-four hours to turn on it's axis and how long it takes to go around the sun etc etc. Which in turn led me to ask 'How was time discovered'? The only answere I could come up with was serendipity.

I am glad that I came to that conclusion, whether I am right or wrong, because that led me to create my ATCs for the swap.

I started with some glossy white card, which I stamped pocket watches, clocks and dandilion clocks all over in Versamark inkpad - this ink dries clear and create a 'resist' rather like wax would do. I then used dye-based inks with a brayer. The card then needs to be polished with a soft tissue or cloth. I then took a black dye-based ink pad and stamped the clocks again in a random pattern. Once all of that was dry, I use alcohol inks in meadow and grape colours, metalic mixatives and alcohol blending solution and created a 'polished stone' effect over the whole design. I used a Krylon guilding pen around the edges and mounted the designs onto a heavier card. A friend of ours had bought a 'job lot' of pocket watches some time ago, and there was some loose watch parts in the bottom of the box. Being the hoarder that I am, I couldn't let him throw them out. I am glad now, because I threaded them onto gold thread and wrapped the thread around the cards and I think the results are rather nice. The watch parts either have jewelled fixings or some engraving, so they are beautiful in themselves. I added some little home-made word stickers - 'time' - 'fluke' - 'chance' - 'discovery' - 'serendipity'. I dabbed some dye ink onto them to take off the whiteness of the paper. Unfortunately the photos can't really pick up the polished stone sheen, but I am very pleased with the results.

Well, I love my dear brother and my sister-in-law very dearly and enjoyed seeing them for a whole month in Cyprus. However, I did miss my friends whilst I was away, especially the ones I have met through artists' forums. So when I got back, I couldn't wait to start joining in on the swaps. These are ATCs which I have done this weekend and are actually for two swaps, which have Victoriana/Victorian themes.

I was really lucky to find some lovely little cameo buttons, which gave me the inspiration for three of ATCs. The profile of the lady is from a rubber stamp, done in black dye-based ink, I chalked the skin tones in and some brown to add highlights to her hair, cut her out and mounted her onto an oval background. I had to work really hard to get the shanks off the buttons in order to stick them down, but I think the effect is worth all the effort. The one in the center of the bottom row, is made from the same rubber stamp, but done with Stazon ink onto shrink plastic. I used an oval template to get the shape. The plastic shrinks to 1/7th the original size and thickens too. I went around the edge with a gold guilding pen to give it the effect of a cameo, matted and layered onto contrasting backgrounds, I was rather pleased with the effect. I hope the recipients like them too.

Well, I finally acheived something I had wanted to do for a long time. Some time ago I designed and made a parchment craft card for a very good friend of mine who loves art nouveau. I was so pleased with the results that I sent it off to Parchment Craft Magazine to see if they would publish it.

I waited and waited for a reply and even looked for a letter from them when I got back from my month in Northern Cyprus, but nothing had arrived.

This morning we went out to stock up the food cupboard and on the way to the supermarket we called in at my local craft shop to pick up my copies of the magazine. Later, having a well-earned cup of tea, I opened up the June issue of the mag and found that my work had actually been published! It had a little introduction just inside the magazine and then a two-page spread with lovely photos and a list of instructions I had written for the completion of the project. I am absolutely thrilled that I managed to get something published.

There was no financial gain or anything, just the satisfaction of a bit of recognition and the joy of sharing an art I love with my like-minded friends. I am sure they will have many happy hours of pleasure with this design. It was also a very lovely feeling to know that my friend, Diane was thrilled to bits to receive the card.

I have been in Northern Cyprus for a month visiting my brother and his wife. They have decided to spend their retirement years in the sun and have had a very beautiful house built. With gorgeous views of the mountains to the front of the house and an olive grove leading down to the sea at the back, it is a most picturesque spot and such a peaceful place to be.

The only draw back is that there is not much disability awareness in the North of Cyprus at the moment. It was not until the visit was coming to a close, when I found out about a local group of campaigners who are lobbying to get accessibility and equal rights for people with disabilities. I have to admit, though, it was like going back about fourty years in time. I noticed just how few people with disabilities were out and about, and the majority of them were Europeans. Of the Turkish-Cypriot population, in the month I was there, I saw only two wheelchair users and a couple of elderly people using a walking stick. I also noticed that I got stared at constantly, sometimes from curiosity, but many times I received looks of near contempt. I tried to understand why, rather than get unhappy and hurt about it and in the end, just put it all down to ignorance.

It will be a really tough battle for the campaign group to make any progress in N. Cyprus, not just because of the inaccessible public places, but because of the attitudes towards disability they have to overcome. I don't know an awful lot about the Muslim faith, so I can't make assumptions that it might have something to do with the attitudes towards infirmity or disability, but I do know there is something withing the culture of these people that creates a barrier towards, not only disability, but other features of human life that could be construed at 'weaknesses'.

The Cypriots who got to know me soon realised that I am not a weak person and indeed have overcome many obstacles throughout my life. I found it very gratifying to earn the respect of someone who had previously looked at me with pity in their eyes. Some of the people did not even take the time to get to know me, dissmissing me as though I was not even present in their company.

One encounter actually left me in tears. One of my brother's friends came to the house and brought his son with him. He came in and shook hands first with the men in the house, including my husband and another English friend who is a neighbour of my brother's, then he kissed my sister-in-law on both cheeks. The son did the same. I was so distressed because they did not even acknowledge my presence there, did not talk to me, did not even look in my direction. The worst thing was, not one of my family even noticed this slight against me. It almost breaks my heart to write about it now.

This is one bad encounter out of many good ones, though, and I still love Northern Cyprus and the people there. However, I do offer a note of caution to anyone with a disability wishing to visit, to make sure that you are aware of the lack of facilities everywhere.

It is so good to be back where I can take it for granted that if I want to cross the road, visit a shop, get something to eat and go to the loo, I can go out without worrying that the places I go to will be inaccessible. I know we still have a long way to go, but we are so lucky in this country, with all the freedoms we have. Be aware that much of what we have here in the UK has been brought about by the lobbying of campaign groups, just like the one that has started up in Northern Cyprus.

I want to say a big thankyou to those groups in this country that have worked and are still working, mostly in a voluntary capacity, towards the great amount of accessibility we have right now in the UK. More power to your elbows!!

These are some ATCs I made yesterday. The lily stamp is part of a set that was bought me for Christmas. I have used the other stamps in the set, but hadn't got around to this one. I decided to try the same image with different techniques to see what I could come up with.

Unfortunately the detail is lost in the photography, but in the two bottom, right-hand ATCs I have used paper weaving to add texture to the image. I stamped the image twice, then cut them into strips - one lengthwise, the other depthwise. The pictures were then woven together in such a way that the image could be matched up. The top one is overlaid with just the lily cut out, shaped, chalked and decoupaged to give it some depth. On the bottom ATC, I stamped one in black the other in sienna, cut them up and wove them together in the same way to give a checkerboard effect. All of the are matted and layered with black and gold - hence 'gilding the lily'.

Yesterday I learned of a swap taking place on one of the forums I am a member of and the title for one of the swaps was 'Floral Beauty' - a perfect swap for my lilies to be a part of, and so three have gone off to new homes. I await three new pieces of art by different artists in return - lovely.

Mining Community

I was born in the 1950s, into a small mining community. There was already a village of Blidworth long before the pit was opened there. Once the pit opened, the village began to expand and new housing to accommodate the miners and their families had to be built. The Blidworth that already existed became Old Blidworth, and where the miners live was known as plain 'Blidworth'.

The old village is steeped in history, with a medaeval church called St Mary's of the Purification. It was built long before Henry VIII. There is supposed to be some connection between Blidworth and Robin Hood too. Apparantly the grave of Will Scarlet is in the churchyard somewhere.

I lived in the old part of the village in a rented house that was owned by the colliery. I was the youngest child of six brothers and sisters. The eldest brother being nineteen years older than me. I did have an older sister, but she died when I was a baby and I never knew her - had she lived, she would have been the eldest and twenty-one years my senior. I had two other brothers and also gained a sister.

When my late sister got married, she also married a miner and also went to live in the village. She was very happy when she found out she was expecting a baby, and my Mum found she was expecting me too. Both babies due round about the same time. When the time came for Joyce to have her baby, she was admitted to the local maternity hospital (most women had their children at home in those days, but Joyces had a physical disability).

Joyce had her baby, but the baby was very poorly and was Christened straight away. My Mum took the baby home with her and looked after her, because Joyce was ill also and had to stay in the hospital. It took a lot of time and patience to look after Denise, but she began to thrive eventually, though Joyce didn't seem to be getting any better.

Inevitably the time came for me to arrive, and I was born at home in my Mum and Dad's bed. I was a big, healthy baby and caused no concerns, which was just as well, for Joyce, after tests, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was moved to another hospital, miles and miles and three bus rides away from Blidworth. My mum went to see her as often as she could.

One day, she was on the bus to Sheffield and she had the terrible feeling that something was wrong - she actually felt she could here Joyce calling for her. When she got there, she could see that her daughter was going to die very soon. Within the hour she had gone - my mother was devistated.

She carried on looking after Denise as well as me, because Denis worked shifts down the mine, and anyway, men didn't bring up children in those days, it was women's work. Eventually he asked my mum to adopt Denise, because he had met someone else and had the opportunity to be happy again. My mum bought us up as though we were twins and I grew up knowing that Denise had been my sister's daughter, but couldn't think of her as anything other than my sister.

It is a long story to have to explain to people who don't know the circumstances, so we never do try to explain. That is why a lot of people we have known for many years don't realise that Denise started life as my niece and I her aunt.

Noddy Car.

I was talking to my friends on the Altered Art forum yesterday. They were reminiscing about their biker days. One of the girls has a bike at the moment, called 'Thumper'. Unfortunately Thumper broke down and caused a whole list of catastrophies which went on throughout the rest of the day. Hence the discussion about biking memories.

As I have already said elsewhere in this blog, I am a disabled person, and so the only thing I could contribute to this journey down memory lane, was my stories of my Noddy car. Noddy was a fibreglass, three-wheeled invalid carriage, powered by a 250cc two-stroke engine. It had a tiller-bar steering mechanism which had a twist throttle and clutch lever. The gear level was on the floor of the car. I couldn't work the clutch with my hand so the 'boffins' attatched it to the gear lever, so that when I put the car into gear, I had to do it slowly to let the clutch out at the same time.

It did 3000 miles to the gallon - ok an exageration - but it went a long way. I could get 20 mph out of her, but I could not hear myself think at that speed. It would tip onto two wheels if I went round a corner too fast or at the wrong angle. It got blown all over the road in a wind, and puddles were just a no no.

Apart from the fact you could take nobody with you when you went anywhere, it would break down at the drop of a hat. In the days before mobile phones, or even cb radios, this could prove very very inconvenient. I always made sure I told people where I was going and estimated arrival times, then when I didn't show up they could sent out a search party.

A Shakey Start

I was 17 when it was decided that I needed this vehicle to get me around and enable me to travel to a job. It all had to be approved by a specialist at the hospital, then I had to go for an assessment to find out what adaptions I would need on the vehicle.

Eventually a letter arrived one morning saying that Midland Garage (dealers for our area) would be delivering a car on this date at that time, please be ready for a tutorial when they arrive. The tutorial consisted of the mechanic sitting on the floor of the car beside me showing me the contols and what I needed to do to make it go forwards and backwards. He then got out of the car and said "Go on, off you go". It was the most nerve wracking thing - I had no experience of the road at all. Anyway, I set off - a bit of kangaroo juice in the tank I thought, but I managed to get round the crescent without killing anyone and came to a stop outside my house. The guy then asked me to go backwards, which I managed for a few yards. All I had to do then was set off forwards back into my parking space. "OK, you are on your own now. Here's the paperwork and the phone number for when it breaks down - see you in a couple of days hahaha"!

I sat there for ages just looking at the road in front of me wondering if I would ever get up the nerve to set off on my own. Well, all I had to do was keep going forward and as it was a crescent where I lived, I would just end up back at my house again. So I set off and completed my second circuit successfully. I did this a few times, building up my confidence as cars, trees, people and animals remained unscathed.

Eventually, I decided it was time to take the car off the crescent and go further affield - to the next street actually, but at least it was away from our windows where I could see my brother having a really good laugh at me. Off I go, to the T-juntion, stop look right look left, all clear, off we go. Oh this is a breeze, so I go to the next junction and the next, turning right, turning left and around the village.

Then the inevitable has to happen, I meet a bus in a narrow road, and I am the one expected to back up into the 'hammer head' of a cul-de-sac. 'Alright', I tell myself, 'Don't panic, just take your time and try to look as though you know what you're doing'. I put the car into reverse and very slowley start backing up, but I had never reversed round a corner before, and the bus driver decided to start coming forward as I started reversing, unnerving me and I felt the back wheel start to mount the pavement. Instead of the hitting the breaks, in my panic I twisted the throttle - I mean, how can anyone mix those two up??? The next minute I am through someone's privit hedge and almost on their lawn.

The owner of the hedge and the bus driver had to pull Noddy out of the hedge, set me on the road again, pointing towards home. I couldn't think of any alternative story for explaining the lump of fibreglass missing from the bumber and the scratches which actually looked like the little branches of the hedge that I'd had the encounter with. I was frightened to death of the flipping thing by now.

This is me sitting in my favourite chair. The arms are just the right height for supporting my arms and there is a stool, which is perfect for my legs. Whenever I am in pain, this is the place where I am at I most comfortable.

As promised, here are some of the ATCs I have received from my friends on the altered book forum. Every artist has their own particular style and techniques.

The theme for this swap was 'This is Me'. We could use the cards to tell our friends something about ourselves. Our favourite colours, styles of art, technique , era, a memorable holiday, the possibilities were endless and some of my friends produced lots of cards. I received back as many as I made and sent out.

I love the diversity of styles, colours and subjects. I also feel as though they have given a little but of themselves when they gave me their cards. Also, this kind of excersise really helps for future swaps as you get to know who likes what. When I work on their altered books etc in the future, I have a much better idea on what they want in their books.

ATCs or Artist Trading Cards, for those who don't know are like the swap cards people collect eg footballers, cartoon/comic book characters.

The card usually measures 2.5 x 3.5 inches, has the art work on the front and the artist's details on the back, plus a series and edition number. For instance here I have seven cards in the series, and so the first one is 1/7 and the last 7/7.

These are some ATCs I made for a recent swap. The set theme was 'Circus/Music Hall. I didn't have many stamps or collage images that I could use for this particular theme, so I sketched the showgirl and clowns.

A couple of the backgrounds have glittered lace - made by laying a layer of double-sided film over the card and applying a piece of lace. Take a dark coloured glitter and press it firmly into the lace making sure the whole of the film is covered. Tip any excess glitter back into the pot. Take off the lace and you will be left with blank bits of sticky film to fill in. Apply a contrasting coloured glitter. The effect is amazing. I used the same method for the headdress and spotlight behind the showgirl - top row, second from left.

The clowns were sketched and water coloured - some of the paints used were Luminarte Twinkling H20s which give a pearlescent sheen.

The background for the Annie Oakley ATC was watercoloured and then a black and white image applied on top. The edges of the curtains are glittered.

I have taken part in about three ATC swaps now and thoroughly enjoy receiving other people's work and learning their techniques. I shall be photographing the swaps I have received and posting them up here too.

This is a parchment craft painting I did whilst I was on holiday in Wales. I always take some projects with me on holiday, because it is the way I relax. It is done on two separated pieces of parchment vellum - A3 in size and ivory in colour. The lady is on the bottom layer with the window frame overlaid onto it.

Parchment vellum has a certain amount of transparency, so you can work on the back as well as the front and the work will show through and give a 'cloudy' look. She was drawn first in pen and ink, then her drapery was painted in water colours. You have to be really careful with paints on vellum, because it 'cockles' terribly when it gets wet. I had to mix the colours I wanted then dry my brush on a piece of tissue before applying a thin coat of paint. It was a slow process, because you have to let it dry before coming back and adding more paint.

I could have coloured her with pencils or even oil pastels, which would have been more friendly to the vellum, but I like a challenge. I did use oil pastel on the back though, to create the shadow behind her. Once I was happy with the picture, I turned over and embossed it on the back. Another property of parchment vellum is that when you use embossing tools on it, you can shape it, and add more dark and light as you create 'hills' and 'valleys' in the paper. It also turns white on the front where there is no paint, and adds highlights. Also, when it is coloured on the back, the parchment will still turn completely white when embossed on the back. For this technique you have to place the parchment on a rubber mat.

The window frame in which the woman is sitting, was also drawn in pen and ink, but painted with pearlized acrylic inks, giving it that leaded light feel. The sides and centre of the frame was cut out using a special twin-needled tool which cuts the parchment as you perforate it, creating an edge which looks like the edge of a postage stamp and adds to the 'lacey' look of the piece.

The lattice work was done on a grid, which has 24 holes to the inch. You lay the parchment on the grid and perforate through the parchment into the holes. You can see the grid through the parchment, and many lacey patterns can be made using the grid. When all the holes are perforated the parchment is removed and then the holes are cut to form the pattern of the lattice work. There is also embossing as part of the pattern.

All the other elements were cut out, painted and shaped and then set with silicon glue, before being assembled for framing. Due to the 3D properties of the piece, it had to be tripple-mounted before framing, but this only added to the look of a leaded-light window. I now have this picture hanging proudly in my lounge and I have a great sense of achievement when I look at it.

Introduction

I am Glynis and am quite a novice when it comes to computers. I have decided that I should strive to learn something new everyday, and today I have been learning all about blogging. Although I am coming to love the computer, my first love has to be arts and crafts.

I have always loved making things, from the time my Mum taught me how to knit and sew. I am now into paper crafts, rubber stamping, painting, collage, decoupage - anything and everything to do with paper. I think parchment craft is my favourite and I like to encorporate it wherever I can into as many genres of paper craft as I can.

Recently I have discovered 'altered art' and this has opened up a whole new world to me. There are so many things one can alter, encorporating all kinds of techniques most listed above and more besides. It was only after I joined a forum for altered books, I realised that I had been 'altering' stuff for years. If a photo frame doesn't quite go with a picture I want to put into it, I change it - paint it, rubber stamp onto it, add embellishments etc etc.

At the moment I am preparing a book for altering. It was quite difficult to find a book that I wanted to pull to pieces. It is quite heart wrenching at first, but later once the alteration is taking place, you can see a new work of art emerging, from something that was falling apart and had pages missing anyway. Anyway, I found this book at the back of my bookcase, the fabric on the cover torn, pages coming loose, and decided it should be the candidate for alteration. I felt bad because it was George Elliot's Mill on the Floss, and it did seem a bit sacreligious to start dismantling it.

Anyway, I have the number of pages I want, and am currently bonding groups of pages together to make 'spreads'. I have decided on a title and a theme - 'Castles in the Air' - Fantasy and Fairytales etc. In my head, I have the cover design and the first couple of spreads. This book is going to be sent around the people of belong to the forum 'Circle for Altered Books', and will be worked on by the artists it gets sent to. In turn, I will work on their books - they will choose their own titles and themes. I love doing this, as it sets a challenge every time you work on a different book.