The Lovely Kate Crane ...

The very talented and lovely Kate Crane in the UK has awarded me a blogging award titled "One Lovely Blog Award" ... thanks so much Kate, I love all those little pictures running down my blog sidebar. You can visit Kate's blog here - http://thekathrynwheel.blogspot.com/ - there's some delectable art eye candy on this site for sure.

Like other blog awards, to keep them alive you pass onto 7 other bloggers. I love and visit regularly so many blogs and find it's so difficult to choose just 7 so feel free to click on any of the blogs I have in my list to the right of this post.

If any of you bloggers that are in my list are reading this post, please feel free to use this image on your own blog as I pass it on to you. I know some of you don't believe in accepting these awards, but as Kate said in her post it doesn't stop me offering it to you and if you want to feel free to pass onto 7 others that might like to receive this award.

While I'm on the subject of Kate, I just have to share with you the Christmas ATC she sent me. I am in loooovvveee with this card and keep looking at it daily, in fact it sits on a miniature wooden easel in front of my computer so I can see it all the time ... pride of place. There are so many layers to the background paint job, I can't stop trying to figure out how she's done it all. Anyway, I know I've already sent Kate a thank you email when I received the card, but I'm going to say thanks again because I can't believe she sent it to me after admiring it on her blog ... thanks so much Kate, you're so lovely and I'm treasuring this miniature artwork you've sent to me.

"Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together."
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832, German Poet/Dramatist/Novelist~

Bernie Berlin ATC Workshop #5 Swap ... more

My very first attempt at Bernie Berlin's Transfer Technique was a bit daunting initially because I just couldn't get the image to "transfer". Let me tell you that Epson gloss photo paper allows the ink to "stick" too well and the image just won't come off, no matter how hard you burnish it, whether with gel medium or onto watercolour paper with water. I dug around my office and managed to find a cheap no-name brand of photo paper and when I stuck it onto the wet watercolour paper, the ink just just came right off and transferred the image. Of course, I couldn't get the amount of water on the watercolour paper quite right so the images either ran too much or were too light ... either way, I'm pretty happy with the fact that my transfers kind of look like the image I started with.

Here's a couple of the ATCs that I'll be sending to Tammy in the US tomorrow as part of the ATC_World swap - the first one you can see the image has bled a bit and the second one you can see is fairly light and then I've added the original picture...

An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.
~Charles Horton Cooley, 1864-1929, American Sociologist~

Bernie Berlin ATC Workshop #5 Swap

I've finished a couple of ATCs for the next instalment of the Bernie Berlin Artist Trading Card Workshop swap through ATC_World. This time the techniques to be done are Fun Foam, Tissue Paper and Transfers. I have yet to tackle the transfers but here are the others.

Tissue Paper

Fun Foam

Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself.
~Liberace, 1919-1987, American Pianist and Entertainer~

Wacky Chairs Swap

I finished my ATCs for the Weird and Wacky Chairs swap through the PaperArts Yahoo Group and sent them off on 22nd December. I made 11 of these and loved making them, although I was a bit over cutting out the little lantern part of the Genie. The background is painted with Making Memories Glaze paint in Emerald Green and then I've sprayed with a bronze glimmer mist and also a black glimmer mist that I dabbed off a bit so it wasn't too dark. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but there's a mist of Kindy Glitz rising out of the lantern and some embossing in the background with Lime Green and the Tim Holtz coffee cup stain stamp to add a bit of texture.

I love doing swaps with the PaperArts group because the quality of work is phenomenal and it has helped me improve so much. I can't wait to meet some of the members at the retreat next year.

Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers. ~William Penn, 1644-1718, British Religious Leader and Founder of Pennsylvania~

Merry Christmas ...

Where did the year go? Suddenly it is December ...... AGAIN ...... Christmas Day no less ..... and we realise that with giant strides we started in January and within a blink of an eye, 2008 is almost over!

A big "Thank You” for your friendship, mateship, laughs, creations and memories during 2008. Without you, I'm sure that 2008 would have been extremely boring.

I wish you all a magical festive Season filled with loving wishes and beautiful thoughts. May 2009 mark the beginning of a tidal wave of love, happiness and bright futures and I hope you get all that you wish for in the year to come.

And to those who want someone special, may you find true love;
To those who need money, may your finances overflow;
To those who need caring, may you find a good heart;
To those that are unwell, may you find health and happiness;
To those who need friends, may you meet lovely people;
Should you be driving during this time.....please take care and stay safe! And please if you win Lotto, remember who wrote this lovely note - "ho, ho, ho".

Merry Christmas and a have a wonderful and prosperous New Year!

So remember while December brings the Christmas Day, in the year, let there be Christmas in the things you do and say. Wouldn't life be worth the living? Wouldn't dreams be coming true? If we kept the Christmas spirit all the whole year through?
~ Anonymous ~

Extraordinary Dog ...

I'm so into dogs since Beau became a part of our family and I just loved this video of Kate & Gin from the show "Britain's Got Talent". Gin is a Bordie Collie, a working dog breed just like our Australian Working Kelpie Beau .... hmmmm ... I can see the lights now ... hmmmm ... Beau, Beau, come here boy ... let's get dancing ... only joking!

Have a wonderful Christmas.

More ATCs completed ...

I finished a couple of ATCs for swaps due this week through The Scrapbook Cupboard (in fact I'm a few days late for one of them).

The first one is for an "Era" swap and the title of my card is "Renaissance painters ... end of an era!". The picture is a tissue that I stuck down with Mod Podge with two angels that look as if they've been painted during the Renaissance period . I then added a frame of plumbers tape that I embossed with the Cuttlebug and rubbed black rub 'n' buf over the top. I used Tim Holtz splatter stamp to add som paint splats.

The next ATC is a very simple one for a "Christmas Tree" swap ... I had good intentions of doing a really cool transfer technique of the tree and then add the bauble and sign ... but time just ran away and I decided a quick card will have to do.

You'll be happy to know that I have done and posted my christmas cards ... finally ... and here's the finished product. Primarily family gets the hand-made cards ... I'm sure friends wouldn't want to have a picture of us sitting on their mantel. Ferg was a pretty good sport about the picture on the card in the end ... although in some of the Irish cards he wrote that he sat on Santa's knee for a promise!! He's a funny boy.

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."
~Norman Vincent Peale, 1898-1993, Pastor, Speaker and Author~

Christmas Carol

On Thursday I went to the Addicted to Scrap swap to hand in and collect ATCs with the theme of a Christmas Carol ... there was a little twist to this card as we were to depict the carol without using words. Of course, the carol I chose (We Three Kings of the Orient Are) I didn't even know (did a search on the internet) so I had to place the words on the back anyway just in case anyone was in the same position as me.

I had the best time making the backgrounds. I was inspired by one of Linda Baldock's techniques that she did sometime ago and I think I could be addicted to it. So here's what I did, firstly I cut up sheets of canvas into ATC size, I then ripped up loads of pieces of tissue paper and stuck them onto the card with Mod Podge or PVA ... I sort of kept the bottom area free, knowing that's where my image was going. Once the cards were touch dry, I sprinkled embossing powder over the card and melted with a heat gun. The next stage was PVA randomly swirled over the card, then zapped again with the heat gun ... this part was really cool because the embossing powder and glue bubbles and pops. I chose two colours of paint - light blue and purple - glaze paints by Making Memories (Linda originally used Lumiere's) and covered the entire surface, again I got out the heat gun until the surface was touch dry ... I really liked this part too, the paints also bubbles up and creates all this extra texture, not to mention the PVA and embossing powders underneath get going again. The final background stage is to add a little bit of gold Rub 'n' Buf and it's done ... voila ... backgrounds ready for image to be stuck down. Here's a pic of the background before I added the picture ... pretty cool huh ... well I thought so anyway.

Oh you might be pleased to know that I actually got my hands dirty ... yep, my hands were covered in glue and paint ... see Kyla, I can get my hands dirty!!!

Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?
~Cicero, 106-43 B.C., Roman Author/Orator/Politician~

ATC Quarterly finally received

I received my copy of ATC Quarterly today and I was a little bit chuffed to finally see my work in print. I was featured in a Triptych layout as well as the centre spread with one of my ATCs called "Two Birds of a Feather Flock Together" as the theme this time was Puppy Dogs.

One must lose a fly to catch a trout.
~George Herbert, 1593-1633, English Clergyman and Metaphysical Poet~

Live Swap Meet

I went off the the Live Swap Meet at the Scrapbook Cupboard today and finished 12 of these ATCs this morning ... just before the swap mind you. The image is by Crafty Individuals, scrapbook paper by Cosmo Cricket which I ran through the Cuttlebug with the diamond embossing plate which I'd rubbed Ranger Antique Linen ink all over it and to finish off a little pice of Mica adhered with a few brads.

Now onto the next lot ... Christmas themed ones - Christmas Trees and Christmas Carols Without Words.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

~Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804, German Philosopher~

Bernie Berlin ATC Workshop #4 Swap

I feel like everything is moving at super speed in the lead up to Christmas ... I'm either just getting my ATCs created by the deadline or I'm late (because of Christmas need to get them in earlier). I finished the final touches on my cards for the ATC_World Artist Trading Card Workshop Swap Part 4 today and quickly rushed down to the post office to send them off to the wonderful host Tammy (feel free to visit her blog - http://twodogstudio.blogspot.com/). I'm hoping they will arrive on time, but if it's like the last lot I sent to her, they will probably get there a day or so late.

Anyway, here are my interpretations of Bernie Berlin's techniques from her book - Nevr Dull, Phone Book Paper and String:

NEVR DULL - believe it or not, I actually found Nevr Dull at a shop called Horseland in Underwood (right around the corner from Scrapbooks Etc where I spend every Wednesday). As this is a product from the USA, it's not readily available here, so this was a real find. The background was a magazine image of a tiled wall, so I placed the PVA on alternating tiles and then rubbed out the bits in between with the Nevr Dull. The colour I added is of course a Glimmer Mist in the terracotta colour.

PHONE BOOK PAPER - I actually tried Claudine Hellmuth's Peeled Paper technique with the telephone book paper and loved how it turned out. I started with a canvas cut down to ATC size, then used various paints for the background ... I probably could have taken some more colour off as it's a little bright but I liked it so stuck with it.

STRING - by the time I got to the string technique, I was out of ideas and inspiration, so this is a very basic card with scrapbook papers as the background, a public domain image and string to look like rope to make the card appear like it's got something to do with sailors (the title is "Ahoy there Sailor).

I love trying out Bernie Berlin's Artist Trading Card Workshop techniques through this swap and will be doing one of her workshops at the Creative Soul Retreat in March 2009 ... I can't believe I'm actually going to meet her ... it's so exciting.

Now I'm off to start creating some ATCs for the swap I committed to attending on Saturday ... rush, rush, rush, rush, rush ... lucky my hubby's out of town this week. See ya!

Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
~Source H. Jackson Brown, Jr, Life's Little Instruction Book~

Things that fly & Tanya's Birthday

I finished this ATC for the Stampers Hut swap which is always due at the end of the month. The theme this time is "Things that Fly" so I figured there would be lots of butterflies and birds and things, so I went with a "Flying Fish". The background is tissue paper sprayed with Sapphire and Spring Mint glimmer mists (I love those glimmer mists ... they're so easy to use).

A group of the scrapping / ATC girls went out to lunch today to celebrate Tanya's 32nd birthday. I was surprised at how many people turned up considering it is a work day ... it was so nice to get together with everyone, it's been ages since I've seen some of the girls.

L to R - Belynda, Kathryn, Kerri, Kyla, Tanya (in the black outfit), Pam, Jane, Lisa, Me (Diana bending), Sarah. Sarah's daughter Claire who's 5, took this photo, isn't she a clever little ducky.

Me and Tanya

You can always guarantee laughs when Kerri & Tanya get together.

I made Tanya an ATC for her birthday instead of a card ... I love receiving small personalised gifts like this and hopefully Tanya did too. The background is courtesy of Valerie Brincheck ... I just love having some ready made backgrounds lying around and the ones she created are beautiful. By the way ... Tanya loves owls, hence the theme.

"You just don't luck into things as much as you'd like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it's friendships or opportunities."

~Barbara Bush, Former First Lady of the United States~