The Silly Season is upon us

This canvas I did for a teacher at my kids school who is leaving to be the founding pre-primary teacher at Madeley Primary School. Ms D will be greatly missed as she had a lot of time for the kids as well as being very inspirational. My kids could not have had a better start to their scholastic career. Thank you Ms D!


I loved the Keepsake Ornaments that were designed by Donna Tew in Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft Vol 14 No.4, so much so, that I did one as a Mystery Muse gift for Julie H.



I hope that all of you have a Christmas and New Year filled with Love, Peace, Hope, Good Health and Happiness. Hug your family and friends and tell them that you love them and appreciate the qualities that make them who they are.

Cheers!

Look out three posts in one day!

Whilst having to put my feet up due to breaking my toe earlier this year I was able to enjoy some quality time in the craft room.
The three cards below are the result. I submitted these to Kaszazz, for whom I'm an Independant Consultant as a 2 hour workshop and to my delight Kaszazz recently added this to their fantastic range of 2 hour workshops that all Kaszazz Consultants can run for their customers.
The stamp set that I have used is the Love and Cherish Stamp set by Kaszazz.



The picture below shows a new 2 hour workshop that I put together one day last week. I have again used only products available from Kaszazz and I will be submitting this to them for inclusion in their range of 2 hour workshops. I have used the new Ebony and Ivory SB papers and stamp set, which is exclusive to Kaszazz.

If you would like to do either of the above workshops or enquire about the wonderful Kaszazz range of products, feel free to post a comment.

Please feel free to use my artwork for inspiration but please don't reproduce my work without my permission or without attending a Kaszazz workshop.

Thanks for visiting.

And now for the extension

Well we have finally broken through to the other side as it were! Now the dust and muck can inhabit both sides of the house - arghhhhh!! I never was a great fan of dusting anyway.

Battling a nasty head cold, both Steve and I pushed through the 'why can't I just lie here and envelope myself in my own snotty misery' and managed to get all wall panels up as well as the ceiling panels in the studio and lounge over the weekend just past. Next weekend we will finish putting up the plasterboard and then it's up to the tradie to come in and make the wall and ceiling joints look good. Once this is done, Steve can do the cornicing and spray paint the ceilings and I can get on with painting the walls.

We aim not to have a deadline to finish the build by, but I'm hoping that the end of January will see us moving furniture and fitting out my studio - YIPPEEEE!!

Thanks for visiting and being so patient.

Update, Update, Update and about time too!!

In October I had the chance to travel to Melbourne with my beautiful sister Natalie. We timed the trip to coincide with Paperific (paper arts expo) and we had a fantastic time including getting a Henna tattoo at a 'Celebrate India' festival that was held in Centenary Square.

We stayed at the Hotel Tolarno in St Kilda and really enjoyed travelling on the trams and discovering different places and not having any set agenda, apart from going to Paperific.

We both loved Acland St in St Kilda and enjoyed shopping here more than anywhere else, the vibe was just fantastic. We spotted Guy Pearce at an eatery on Fitzroy St, St Kilda however I wouldn't recommend a balcony room on Fitzroy St unless you like the sound of doof doof cars, loud music and merriment until the wee hours of the morning!

Spent a lovely evening with the girls from the arty_oz yahoo group for dinner at the Medici restaurant at Docklands and had a chance to chat and catch up with Julie from Collections and Jenny Crosley as well as meeting some new faces. The lovely and talented Teresa Abajo took the photo of Nat and myself that you see above.

Free Handbag

Gotta love some free accessories. Register to win a Free handbag. Go on, you know you really want to.

Update on the Extension

This photo shows the rear of the extension from up the garden path (where I spend a lot of my time LOL).
Next photo is of the front of the house.
This photo is a closer view of the rear of the extension, Steve has even done some cladding in amongst the prescribed burns that the local Volunteer Fire Brigade has been doing.
And this photo is of a bobtail or Blue Tongue Skink that I happened upon whilst up the garden path taking photos! Lots of these guys coming out from their winter hibernation, wandering into the sunshine. If you live in WA watch out for these guys on the road and try your best not to squash them!

Thanks for visiting.

THE ROOF IS ON!

Yep, the roof is on the house (as it should be I hear you say!). I will take a photo and upload over the weekend - too early and cold to go outside at the moment. The roof being on means that we can start putting the external cladding on and we're no longer restricted by what Mother Nature throws at us - yippeee!
Cheers!

A little more fun on the wing

In a previous post I mentioned Linda B's blog and her great YouTube tutes. Well, yesterday I had a chance to play with the first tute using acrylic paint, gold foil, fusable film and foil (no surprise I had everything in my stash!) I've also stamped the large butterfly from MADJAK stamps with Staz On and added some 7gypsies tape to the side. Not sure if I'm needing to add words. I think I'll put it up somewhere for a little while and something will come to me. I had great fun doing this and I didn't waste any of the paint the you scrape off as I've taken to having a couple of small canvases and journals handy and I wipe off any excess paint onto these as well as stamping off the stamps onto the journal pages to creat interesting backgrounds.

This card is in the same style as the one from the previous post and once again made for a friends birthday.
Thanks for visiting and hope your gettin' inky today.
Cheers!

A productive week

As I said in the last post I've been spending some time in the craft room this last week and below are some of the results. The card is alcohol inks with an Artchix collage image. Made for my friend Lisa who turned 40 on Thursday. I also made a journal for her using a background technique in the current issue ClothPaperScissors (July/Aug) by Pam Carriker. Had lots of fun doing it to. I'm inspired and I plan to do a few more using this technique using different colour ways.

Lisa's 40th Birthday Card

Front

Back
Front Detail

I also popped over to Linda B's blog and Linda has a great technique video on Youtube and funnily enough I've got all the materials required!! LOL. So some time in the near future, I'll be trying out this technique as well.

Hope you all have an inky weekend, thanks for coming to visit. Cheers!

Ouch!

See the straight line of a bruise under the toe nail, that's where the very large and very heavy office desk fell. Did such a good job that the Dr. recommended that it was placed in plaster! Needless to say, I've had plenty of time to play in my craft room. Hopefully one more week in plaster and then I might be able to drive the car.

Did this card using some of the Treasured Memories stamp set from Kaszazz.

Hope your fingers are getting inky. Cheers!

School Holiday Fun

I have been asked to provide a photo update on the extension - so here it is. DH has been hard at work on the timber verandah post, beams, rafters and battens, we are now waiting on the tin roof to be put on (at least DH can take a break as someone is doing this). Once the roof is on we can get started on the exterior cladding.
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS are here and it's been wet and cold, however, we did manage to meet up with some friends for our school holiday walk in the John Forest National Park. The kids are under the strict understanding that there is NO JUMPING IN PUDDLES until we're on our way back to the car from the falls. And as you can see they found the last puddle and went for broke!! We have learnt from previous walks to pack a change of clothes and I'm glad that on this occasion my Mum's house wasn't too far away. (Hot shower and a cup of tea went down a treat!)



I have been feeling a little frustrated as I haven't had the opportunity to get in the craft room and play but today I've managed to creat a couple of cards using the new Kaszazz sets. I will have a little play tomorrow as well and then I might upload a few sneak peaks as I'm going to submit some of the cards as a set to Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft magazine.
Hope you weekend is filled with love, art and inspiration and that you're managing to stay warm!
Cheers!

ATCs and The Extension

I've just posted off some atcs for a background swap. Talk about a challenge! This really pushed me artistically. To receive 9 different backgrounds and then having to create the foregrounds, often in styles that aren't me. The 'Think outside the box' atc is what I created for my background. Credit Card technique background using Jo Sonja's Aqua and Folk Art Antique Copper. Images are Zetty (like you couldn't tell - lol) and word stamps are from a Paper Artsy plate.


Well the frames are up and we're now waiting on delivery of the timber for the verandah posts and beams. DH will then spend a week or so notching out and putting up before we can put some tin on the roof frames. The photo above is looking at the south side of the house, craft room on your left and lounge room on your right with its big opening awaiting the french doors. The photo below is looking directly into my craft room all 3.5m x 4.4m of it! Yipee!!!

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers!

WS and Niche swap

I love it when I can kill to birds with one stone - so to speak! This is an Inchie Niche that I recently completed for a Niche Swap. Hopefully the recipient received this in the post today. This piece fits perfectly with the current Wednesday Stamper theme of 'ART' - ie use the word art in your artwork.

I have used Kaszazz chipboard letters in the background as well as felted silk waste and dominos coloured with Alcohol Inks and stamped using the beautiful Stampers Anonymous 'Artful Mosaic'. I have also used this stamp to add detail to the boarder of the Niche. I have also used Collections chipboard branches and Collection stamps.

Thanks for visiting.

Niche Swap

Here's a sneak peak at a Niche Swap piece that I've nearly finished. Lucky me, I got to spend the entire, wet and cold day in the craft room creating. The basis of this piece is a 1"x 1" inchie that will sit in the middle of the niche. The only two rules of this swap were to use an inchie and a 6"x6" stretched canvas frame. I want give to much away about technique etc. More once my swap partner has received it.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers!

12 Tag Techniques of T!M

During December 2007 T!m Holtz kept us all inspired with his 12 Tags of Christmas. I was so inspired I decided to host a swap were each participant picked a technique from T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas and then used this technique to create their own style of tag. The pictures that follow are the result. I hope each of the talented participants enjoy the finished product as much as I do. All tags were placed on a large hinged ring to form a swatch of T!m's techniques. All of the participants are Western Australian artists who belong to the Stampgropers yahoo group. The Tag Technique No. next to each participants name relates to the Tag No. on T!m's blog under 12 Tags of Christmas.
The Cover - using the Perfect Pearls/Distress Ink Refill Spritz technique.

Bec Lennox - Tag Technique No. 1


Genevieve Payne (mine) - Tag Technique No. 1

Jo'anne Spouse-Nastasi - Tag Technique No.7 & 5

Jen Jones - Tag Technique No. 1 & 2

Charmaine Black - Tag Technique No.5

Christina Blackburn - Tag Technique No. ?

Me again - one lady had to drop out of the swap so I did a second one so it could be a truely 12 tag swap - Tag Technique No.10

Sharon Allen - Tag Technique No.5

Nikki Blowers - Tag Technique No. 10

Michelle Smith - Tag Technique No. 7 & 9

Meredith Lane - Tag Technique No. 8

Margaret Chapman - Tag Technique No. 7

Thanks for looking, now go to Tim Holtz' blog and get your fingers inky!

Recovering

Luckily I'm not recovering from illness, just recovering my dining room chairs. The photo below is the before. As you can see the fabric is rather yuk!border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5193337997308827714" />
These two photos show 3 of the newly covered chairs. I had been given a large upholstery fabric swatch from a friend and have had it stuffed away in the cupboard for a few years now. Each of the six chairs will have a different colour scheme. I'd like to think that I'm doing my bit for the world by recycling something that I would assume is noramlly thrown out once the company has finished the fabric run.


Now these next photos show my DH in his loader pushing the sand pad in.


Now it really is a matter of waiting for the building licence approval. All things are ready to go and although it's very exciting, the waiting game is becoming frustrating.

Hope your fingers are getting inky this weekend.

Cheers!