T!m Tag No. 8

My daughter Lillee and I have been following the T!m Holtz "12 Tags of Christmas" on T!m's blog (with fingers and toes crossed each day in the hope of winning one of the packs). Lillee and I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon playing the the craft room following T!m's technique for Tag 8. My tag is on the left and Lillee's is on the right. I didn't have the Lake Shore Dabber so we used Hazelnut instead. Tag 9 should be up around 6pm AWSST. You know where I'll be....!

Seasons Cheers!

Getting Creative

This atc is for a Calender Swap that I'm in. I used the inspiration of the Gothic Arch Door that I made. The lock is made with a Krafty Lady art mould and water soluble paper from The Thread Stuido. I then painted over both the embossed card and the lock with various paints (as discribed in the Gothic Arch door Blog).
This tag was made using the T!m Holtz technique for day3 of T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas. Gotta love this guy and a West Aussie has won a pack - Yipee for Natalie Briney. Keep putting a comment every day and you've got the same chance as everyone else! Merry Christmas everyone.

ATCs and Inchies

This ATC is for a arty_oz swap with the theme of Autumn Leaves ie: You have to use an Autumn Leaves stamp on the it somewhere. Just gotta love a good Flourish!


This 9 Inchie set is from a swap I hosted on Callingallstampers yahoo group. Looks great don't it! Good challenge as well, each of us had to create nine different themed inchies. Have a great day and thanks for looking.

Collaborative Book

I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in a Collaborative Book with some very talented Aussies. One of the original participants left the online group and a post was made searching for a person to complete 23 pages with 3 weeks before the closing date! What a challenge, how could I resist!! So here is my page. I have used the Dress Pattern technique that I love so much as well as a gel transfer technique for the face on the RHS.

Thanks for visiting.

Gothic Arch Challenge - Flowers

This piece was created by my lovely daughter, Lillee. Lillee has used Autumn Leaves Flourishes with gold ep and Med Whale of a Punch Retro Flower Punch. Lillee is 7 and thinks that Mum's craft room is wonderful - however, Lillee needs to be reminded that not everything is for her use and that she needs to ask before using 'that piece of paper' or 'that particular embellishment'!

Nature's First Green is Gold

Here is my entry for this weeks Gothic Arch Challenge theme of 'Gold'. I have choosen a poem by Robert Frost titled "Nature's First Green". I remember being 12 and my Mum (being an English teacher) brought home the movie 'The Outsiders'. I must have watched this film about 35 times over the two weeks that Mum was using it for her year 9's. I have never forgotten this poem and I often recite it to myself whenever I'm up early enough to see the sun rise.

A Title at last!

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Milady the Most Honourable Genevieve the Sanguine of Porton Down Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

and

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Lord Steven the Saturnine of Heffton St Mallet Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

I always thought that Sir Steven and Lady Genevieve sounded good but these titles are even better. I think I'll go and get some for some friends of mine as well...

Wednesday Stamper - ATC Tryptich

Here's my piece for the Wednesday Stamper Challenge - ATC Tryptich. This weeks challenge has been set by the very talented and uber lovely Carmel Trigwell, a lady who I have had the pleasure of meeting on several occasions. My theme was inspired by an ATC swap that I am participating in with the theme of 'Something I Love'. I love dragonflies, Stampers Anonymous stamps, Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Flourishes! This tryptich has all these elements. The definition and bug stamps are by Lost Coast Designs. Thanks for coming over to look. Cheers!

Gothic Arch Challenge - Family

Here's my entry for this weeks Gothic Arch Challenge - Family. The family in the picture is actually ancestors of mine that I found lurking in a old photo album at my Mum's house. The album was rescued from my Granmother (on my Dad's side) many years ago. As the story goes, my Dad's Great, Great Aunt was a Lady in Waiting to Queen Victoria and travelled the world with the Royal Family. Some of the albums that my Dad remembered seeing in the attic had photos of the entire Royal Party with Massai Warriors. Also in the Attic were sheilds and spears from this tour of Africa. Now my Granny, not being of sound mind, threw most of this stuff on to a bonfire! Some of it was rescued including some of the larger albums and the one my Mum is now in possession of. Almost makes you want to cry.....

Gothic Arches and the Moon

After visting a few blogs including Nat B'sI wandered over to a new challenge blog by Nancy James. The above Gothic Arch is my first which ended up becoming a door. I've used a scrap piece of cardstock that I had embossed with one of my Cuttlebug embossing plates. I then used several paints including Payne's Grey, Cerulean Blue, Metallic Antique Copper, Metallic Peridot and Metallic Silver Stirling Acrylics to create the aged look. I added a Collectionslock and a die cut piece again from Cuttlebug, all having the same treatment as the main piece. Where to with this piece now....hmmm...it may sit on the shelf awaiting a new home or inspiration to open.

The Enchantress of the Moon was my second piece that I created with the Gothic Arches blog challenge directly in mind. I don't often paint, rather using stamped images or collage, but I felt the need for a bit of painting this arvo. Thanks for coming over to look at my art. Cheers!

More flowers and a little Art

This is a cousin of the Pale Sundew, similar in habitat but with a beautiful pink flower. Couldn't tell if it had a perfume as I have a charming cold!! As do both my children - so I've prescribed a day of rest for all!!.

And now for some of those great little houses from JVO. I created a little family from some Victorian era Calling Cards of my relatives that I found lurking in a leather bound album at my Mum's. You'll be seeing more of these guys that's for sure!

Pale Sundew in Flower

I noticed this morning that the Pale Sundew that I photographed the other day (see last post) had flowered, so I stopped by and snapped this. One thing I hadn't noticed before was the delicate perfume this flower has. I love this planet of ours, full of wonder and surprises. I truely believe that this planet is Heaven and that if only more people realiesed it (and stopped dying to get there) that we'd look after this truely magnificent planet better than we do. Don't forget to tell your Father that you love him.

Early Mornings and a Spring Flowers

I've been getting up early (read 5.30am) the past few mornings, too many ideas wanting to get on to the page and out of my head. I thought I'd share this photo of the view from my craft room. Most of our 50 acre block looks like this (without the fence of course). We are so privilaged to live here and be able to share the most wonderful wildlife and wildflowers. So far we have seen a regular group of Western Grey Kangaroos with white markings on their heads, an emu that wanders through every now and then, echidnas, Brush Tailed Wallabies, bobtail skinks, carpet python (he measured over 6ft!), possums and the most wonderful assortment of birds. White Tailed Black Cockatoos, Red Tailed Cockatoos, 28's, Kookaburras, Scarlet Robins, Splendid Fairy Wrens.

I believe that this flower is a Isopogon dubius or pink coneflower. I often take the camera when going for walks on the block. Just going to get the post is a treat as our driveway is 600m long! and on the way back it's all up hill!!!

This one is Drosera pallida or Pale Sundew. These plants have a sticky residue on the leaves and a beautiful white flower. However, my all time favourite Western Australian Wildflowers are the Nodding Lily and Fringed Lily. So beautiful and delicate and they flower right through the hot summer months!

Thysanotus multiflorus or Fringed Lily
Dichopogon capillipes or Nodding Lily

Inchies

I enjoyed a lovely morning with my good friend Lisa C creating our first inchies. I am hosting an inchie swap on the stamping group that Lisa C is host mum of and we thought that we'd better have a crack at them! LOL I quite enjoyed the challenge of creating such a small piece of art work and decided to place my three inchies on an ATC. The background is a leftover piece of the 'Dress Pattern' Technique (see last post) and I've added a piece of german scrap that I purchased (after Kelsey 'showed' it to me - read...encouraged me to buy the last time I visited Scraptivate)
Now it's off to drink another glass of quality red wine after DS (age4) has added a few more grey hairs with his behaviour today...I'll put the bad behaviour down to the storm and full moon! ARGHHHH!!!

Time for some creativity

This ATC is for an ATC Technique Book that I am participating in. The background is the Dress Pattern technique that I have used before (see post about the Post it Note Swap). The idea for 'Jude and Trude' took ages to come up with as the background that I had created had me stumped. I knew that I wanted to collage something...but what?! Then in a 'light bulb' moment I thought of using an image from one of the 1950's era dress pattern packs that I have. Don't stress I didn't use the actual dress pattern paper for the background. I've kept all of the dress pattern papers intact as they are too precious to use for this technique. ( I may even make the angular apron for myself!) I tend to use some horrible '80's patterns for the back grounds....ohh just hideous!!! And as for 'Jude and Trude' I just love these two characters from the Kath and Kim show.

I created this piece for a friend after visiting Kelsey's blog and looking at her step by step process for creating a 5"x7" canvas. Thanks must go to Kelsey for showing me the wonderful scroll die for the Cuttlebug and its many uses.

Make It Happen!

How cool is this, first we could make our own library catalogue card and now we can generate our very own concert ticket! Hopefully the link will work or type in the following: http://www.says-it.com/concertticket/index.php

On the Piste Again!

Ah yes! The snow, something us West Aussies must travel to see!! Hubby and kids plus myself had an absolute ball skiing on Mt Buller in Victoria last week. First time in skiing/snow for the kids. DD didn't want to come home but conceded that Dad needed to work so that we could return at a later date.

My parallel turns still need a little work but at least my legs got a break from doing the SNOWPLOUGH in a effort to stop, even progressed to doing a parallel turn to stop.

If you get the opportunity to pick a destination for a holiday and feel that the old bod is still up to it, I thoroughly recommend a skiing holiday. Best thing about Aussie Ski trips are: You won't get blown up by some maniac suicide bomber, you can get accomodation on the mountain and ski from the hotel front door, it's quicker to fly there and the locals speak the same language - except for the many ski instructors who travel from the Northern Hemisphere to teach.

Weather could have been better though, back in '99 we had perfect blue skies every day. Mt Buller pulled the fog over us and we battled gale force winds, sleet and low visability most days - but that didn't stop us!! Oh no! Not when we'd travelled to the snow, we skied anyway!!

Here's Cheers! to being on the piste again.

Me and My Mess!

This photo was taken the other day by my 7yo daughter Lillee. It shows that I really need a bigger craft space....house extension plans are with the draftsman (me!) at the moment and hopefully, this time next year I will post a photo of my much larger studio!!

Chunky Swap ATC

This ATC is for monthly online swap. Chunky is the theme, this piece has 4 layers all up. I picked up a great Zettiology set of ums from Scraptivate. Lots of new stuff to play with including a Cuttlebug and some Collections chipboard houses. Just got to find the time to play.

Cheers!

Post it note completed

Here's the finished piece! All I have added to the base shown in the previous post is an image transfer of a lady and a stamped image from Stamp It along with some copper leaf edging. Hopefully the other swap participants will like them too!

Base for collaging

I thought I'd show a basic collage piece that I'm working on for a swap. This piece is 7cm x 7cm square but started out as a piece that was 21cm x 21cm square. I used the gesso/acrylic/dress pattern technique that is described in the previous post. Doesn't it look scrummy and ripe for the altering. I'm looking at adding an image of a lady on to one side, I'll see where the image takes me. Stay tuned for updates.

Cheers!

Mystery Muse

I thought I'd put this up as I'm really enjoy doing these 6"x6" mixed media works. I created this piece for a Mystery Muse gift. My MM for May should have rec'd this whilst she was away at Art Camp. I, unfortunately couldn't go, as I had purchased a ticket to see Pink! in concert on the very same weekend - arghhh! I'll make sure I keep the June long weekend free for next year.

I started my chip board piece off with gesso, once dry (thanks to the heat gun - I'm too impatient to way for nature to dry it!) I paint over the gesso with slap dash strokes of a chosen acrylic paint. I then press a dress pattern piece into the wet acrylic (I got this technique from ClothPaperScissors Mar/Apr 07 issue - Art to Art interview with Lizzie McDonald), and cover with a light sponging of another acrylic colour. Dabb some of the colour off with a damp cloth and paint over the piece with Matt Gel Medium. I then use things like collage pictures, words,zapp cloth/fibres, stamps and embossing powders to finish the piece.

Floral Explosion

The first card I made for my DD's 7th Birthday using the Blossom 12x12 paper from Crafty Kids and the second card is one I show to my customers at demos. I have used the Oh La La! 12x12 paper again from Crafty Kids. Both cards are very easy to make and look great.

15 Minute Challenge winner

Well we have a winner for the 15 minute challenge. Bit of a one horse race. Seems time caught up with some! lol.

Congratulations to Justtera for her entry, a lovely bookmark!

Please email your snail addy to: gspayne1@bigpond.com and I'll post a scrummy Crafty Individuals unmounted to you.

15 Minute Challenge

Because I so enjoyed setting a 15 minute time limit for my artwork, I thought it would be fun to see what everyone else can come up with in 15 minutes.

So, set your timer and get going....the heat gun really comes into play with this if you are using paint, gel medium etc. Make sure you have your computer running and that you don't stop to think too much about what you are doing. Leave a comment with a link to you blog with a post/photo by Monday 28th May.

Just make sure your piece is dry before putting it on the scanner bed. lol.

Up for grabs an unmounted stamp by Crafty Individuals.
(winner choosen at random by DD)

Wednesday Stamper - Fleur de Lis

When I saw the theme for Wednesday Stamper was Fleur de Lis, I couldn't resist putting something together. But what? So I set myself a 15 minute challenege. Create something in 15 minutes or bust! It was so great to challenge myself, limiting myself to a certain amount of time limited the amount of time spent procrastinating about what to stamp, colour to paint with, image to use etc.

This piece has now gone off to a new home, that of my close friend Lisa H (Happy Birthday Lisa!).

Dad

20 years ago today, my Dad was killed in a car accident. I simply can not believe that it has been 20 yrs! I certainly don't feel that so much time has passed. I will go and visit Dad today. This is something that I haven't done in years. I don't feel the need to to visit Dad's grave, not even on his birthday (March 20th - my wedding anniversary) or on Father's Day.

My Dad is always with me, by my side, watching over me. He is a part of me, intwined with my soul, is his.

I love you Dad, I miss you all the time. I cannot allow myself to dwell on things I can't change but sometimes the pain of lossing you is too much and I must allow myself a moment to grieve once again.

Wednesday Stamper - Grunge

This is a piece I did after visiting the Wednesday Stamper site I really enjoyed doing this grunge technique. I think I'll have a go at some atcs in this style. Maybe after I've finished the soot technique RAKs that I've been working on for ages. Once again my links aren't working, so here's the long way to it...http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com

Michelle Ward Crusade No. 7 - 'Say What'

Have been lurking around Michelle Ward's site over the last couple of weeks and thought I'd take part in this crusade. Can't provide link so here's the long version - http://michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/

Sayings used in our house...

'Hello McFly' from Back to the Future Movies - used in our house when someone does something particulary stupid or states the bleedin' obvious.

'Lunch at 12' used by my sis and I to point out that there is an incredibly good looking guy around without being obivous.

'Smile' code word for 'please check my teeth and tell me if anything is stuck in them'. Well used by sis and I.

'My imaginery friend, Petri, did it' - oft used saying by DS (4) whenever I notice something is broken, ruined, not where it should be etc... I'm sure will become the much stated answer 'Petri did it' whenever someone asks 'who did this!'

Dragons of the Crystal Cave

I received the Dragons of the Crystal Cave sets as a Birthday present and since getting them, I have spent ages wondering how I was going to display them. The answer came with an email from Dusk and a search of the online store. These wall sconces look great with the Dragons hanging from them, thank you to DH for being such an understanding fellow and allowing all these lovely creatures into our bedroom and all the other that are dotted around the house. PS. I recommend Dusk very highly for service as I only ordered the wall scones on Tuesday morning and they arrived in the post on Wednesday!

60th Birthday Card & a New Baby

A Vintage Pointy Hat Party for Aunty Katy's 60th Birthday bash. A rather large family gathering at Whiteman Park - luckily we got most of the party done before we all got soaked! The second card I made for a friend who had a beautiful baby girl on Friday 13th. Here's to the young and old who keep us amused and delighted.

Sea Goddess

This is the Sea Goddess. Waiting naked and unadorned, the Sea Goddess has sat on my window sill for more than six months. Inspiration has taken its time and like the ocean, has washed upon the Sea Goddess and left its mark upon her. Finally, the storm has passed and now she is complete.

The School Holidays are Here!!!

Yep, the kids are at home and wanting to get into all my craft stuff - argh!

I think I'll buy them lots of easter eggs and I'll get some art done while the kids are in a chocolate induced coma!! I'm kidding. Really.

As for the wireless broadband - that didn't work, apparently we're 20kms from any of the 3 nearest towers. No chance of getting a signal, but the satellite broadband works really well. Welcome to the real world at last.

I hope to finish off a microscope slide book that I'm working on. I just have to decide whether to solder the edges for leave them with the copper tape. The book pages are laser transparencies stamped with various images and sewn together in the usual book making manner. Here a pic of the piece under construction. The other quondary is how to glue the slides to the transparencies.

Happy Easter everyone.

Art Doll - Heather

As previously posted, I thought I'd try my hand at an art doll.... and here she is - 'Heather'. Heather did have two legs, however the legs being made of thin cork meant that one broke whilst being attached with the brad. The legs were sent to me as part of a mystery muse gift from Dawn T. therefore I wasn't able to create another leg for 'Heather'. I have a few ideas in mind for other Art Dolls and I have had a crack a making another one. I'm on the look out for some suitable 'arm' and 'leg' stamps....I have search the net without much success but I get very frustated at the amount of time things take to load on dial up. This frustration may soon be a thing of the past as I'm being sent out a Next Gen wireless broadband modem to try out - who cares about the possible adverse effects from all those electrical pulses being emitted - bring on the faster download!!! LOL.

On a different note, spent a hot but wonderful day at the Aus vs NZ ODI at the WACA with the family yesterday - AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE, OI, OI, OI!!! I was very proud of the way my kids behave considering the stifeling heat!

Til next time - Cheers!

Credit Card Technique

I went along to SAJ's the other week. Kelsey O'Mullane did another great demo with the soot technique, however it was the credit card technique and colour combo that interested me. I have used the credit card technique in the background of this card I did for a staff member who's wife has just had a baby boy. I love the old look of the background and how distressed and aged it looks. I have also become interested in doing Art Dolls. My next post may well show off a creation that I have in mind....now off to buy the necessarty components.