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!

Drosera pallida

I decided to have a play around with some of my Grungeboard and put this 12x12 SB page together yesterday morning.

The photo is of Drosera pallida or Pale Sundew. A beautiful, delicate climber that produces these amazing white flowers. I have used Peeled Paint Distress Crackle paint on the top RHS and then stamped Autumn Leaves Flourishes v.2 using Peeled Paint and Black Soot. Grungeboard flourishes have been inked with the Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

I think I'll pop this page in one of those perspex frames and hang in on a wall.

Hope you're all able to avoid the dreaded early cold - I'm off to take a home remedy and fingers crossed that it'll work!

Cheers!

A talented artist

I have been admiring the artwork of the ubber talented Nat Briney and decided that I had better purchase some of her work before Nat became too famous and I couldn't afford her! LOL

So above is my acquisition which arrived on Tuesday just gone. I haven't found the perfect home for it yet, however after a visit to the new Ikea store I've decided that the background colour will be the feature wall colour in my new bedroom and the painting will hang in there.

Speaking of the new bedroom. The frames have arrived for the extension and DH will be putting on his business hat this weekend and putting all the sand in place for the sand pad. Building licence is currently in the approval prosess (should get this by the end of the following week). Concretor is booked in for first week of May as is the plumber. Then you can all pray that the rains hold off until we get the roof on and the outside cladding and windows in, once that's done it can bucket down all it likes!

Have an inky and creative weekend.

Cheers!

Gothic Arch Challenge - We'll always have Paris

Thought I'd do a Gothic Arch Challenge. This weeks theme is 'We'll always have Paris' and wouldn't you know it, I don't own a single Paris themed stamp. So, collage it is!

Knocked this one up in about 15 minutes.

Thanks for visiting.

A Little Flourish

Had a little play in the craft room today and came up with this. I had previously done the background which is Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink mixed with water and Perfect Copper Perfect Pearls in a Mini Mister (see T!m Holtz' blog)spritzed on to the size 8 shipping tag and heat set. I was testing out a few colours and in an effort to get creative, started playing with my Autumn Leaves Flourishes V.2 set. I've used Black Soot, Spiced Marmalade and Frayed Burlap Distress Ink on the background flourishes, added an Artchix collage image and a Grungeboard flourish sponged with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. A few fibres through the hole at the top, a word at the bottom and viola!

What you can't see in the picture is the lovely sparkle that is achieved from the Perfect Pearls.

Thanks for dropping by.

Beaded Art Doll - Thanks Kelsey

NATS MINE

I was so looking forward to today and what a blast I had! The above photo shows the finished product. My sister, Natalie and I went along to Scraptivate and did a Beaded Art Doll class with Kelsey O'Mullane. Kelsey had the whip cracking for the first half of the day but eased up after lunch so that we could concentrate on the beading. It was lovely to share the creative zone with my sister, who hasn't done alot of this sort of stuff. Also in the zone were, Julie H whom I met for the first time;Dawn the Prawn and Nikki the Paper Pixie, Shirley from Dowerin and Karen. There was also another table of equally creative ladies but I'll have to get to know them next time.

Lots of great beading techniques were learnt as well as some tips on burning organza.

Of course I could not leave the shop without spending some money on product. I've also but my name on the wait list for the Fiberlicious class in June.

Thanks for visiting and have a great week.

12 Tag Techniques

Boy does time fly when you're having fun! I didn't realise it had been over six weeks since I'd last updated by blog....

This is a sneak peak at my tag that I've just completed 12 of (yay!) for a swap I'm hosting on stampgropers yahoo group. I was inspired and in awe of Tim Holtz's blog before christmas where he showered us with the gift of a different technique every day for 12 days! This bloke is amazing!!! So each person in the swap has choosen a technique from the 12 tags of christmas and will produce their own tag. We're not talking about christmas repetition here - we're talking putting your own spin on the technique.

I will post further updates as we get closer to close off date.

Meanwhile, I've been turning my house upside down for a couple of special rings that I misplaced! Where did I find them? In a box in amongst all my craft bits and bobs - don't ask how they got there but these were lost for a good 5-6 weeks!!

Cheers!

Dance ...

I have spent the last couple of days working on this 5"x7" canvas for a friends birthday present. I used gesso as the base then texture paste on the bottom right hand corner with Making Memories foam stamp impression. Once this was dry I applied a wash, which is a mixture of Golden's Nickel Azo Yellow and Quinacridone Burnt Orange. Next I used several pink's and oranges from my Portfolio water soluble oil pastels, as well as some gold paintstick. A little gothic text and some flourishes plus an Artchix Studio image, some wording, sunflower brads and german scrap and hey presto we're finished.

I had an idea for the Wednesday Stamper Asian theme for last week, I attempted it and quite frankly it sucks!!

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers!

Gothic Arch Challenge - Valentines

Now that my youngest is at full time school, I have some time to myself to create. I do love doing the Gothic Arch Challenges. This weeks theme is Valentines. Although my hubby and I don't do Valentines (my birthday and our wedding anniversary in March) when I saw the challenge this came to mind. Got to use some yummy T!m Holtz goodies that I had in my stash as well as a Gothic Arch background that I had created for another challenge but never got around to completing.

Next post should be for a Wednesday Stamper Asian piece that I'm working on - must wait for the layers to dry (even with the temp here in Perth hitting 37 degress C everyday for the last couple of weeks!)

Cheers!

Gothic Arch Challenge - Guardian Angels

Okay, I'm several weeks late in creating this and a couple of weeks late in posting but it's here how! Having the kids home on school holidays has meant little time for playing alone in the craft room. Bless the kiddies, but my craft room is small (but i'm thankful I've got one!) and having myself and the two kids in wanting to 'play' with my stuff is almost more than one can handle.

The base of this piece is water soluble oil pastels over Gesso. I've then photocopied a piccie of me and my sister and one of my dad. Winged frame is a stamp by Artistree from PaperForestDesigns. I've always believed that those you hold close to your heart become your Guardian Angels once they have passed away.

Thanks for coming to visit.

Cheers!

Let's try this again!

Had to make some cards for birthdays and a card swap and was looking through the Art Specailly for You card book for some inspiration when I came across a lovely card that had a wash as part of the background technqiue. The last one I've used only stamps sold by Kaszazz (for whom I'm an indepenant consultant)as it was for a card swap.

This is the 3rd time I have tried to post these images, but for some reason it keeps failing!

Good news! I will have the final plans for our house extension in my hot little email box later this morning! I just have to give the drafty the final approval and then the plans can go to the Engineer and Environmental Approvals guy then it's off to the City of Swan for building approval. I'm hoping that by the end of Feb we'll start to see some movement of soil. The whole thing is timing as we need to remove one external wall on the western side of the house, which means all manner of things may enter! Including the hot weather (if we start too soon) and cold weather and rain (if we start too late)! I will definately be posting the progress.

A little Mystery

I finally got 'round to doing my December Mystery Muse gift! After much deliberation, I just started to play around with some things that came to hand and things started to fall into place. Sometimes, I find, that I become frustrated when I start thinking too much about what to create. Just relaxing and letting my mind and hands wander produces some interesting works. I have used a Collections photo fob and embossed with Antiquitties Verdigris EP from Scraptivate (found that I had bought two jars on two occasions - don't ya hate that!). Image on transprency is a stamp from Paper Forest Designs it's one of their Artistree stamps. Charm was bought from Scraptivate. This will be on it's way to it's Mystery Muse owner today!
All comments and visits to my blog are much appreciated.
PS. The plans for the house extension are almost complete and my Studio(4.5m x 3.5m)is well on its way to being a reality!! YIPEE - complete with sink and exhaust fan - for doing all those smelly burning/soldering type things....speaking of which, this is where I currently create...

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!!