Various Artworks

I made this wall hanging for the lovely Kate Crane to celebrate her birthday. I'd never made anything like this before and hoped she would like it. I used pre-cut chipboard frames that Jen Crossley created and sells, so if you're interested in buying some feel free to contact Jen through her blog.

I have also completed an ATC for this month's Scrapbook Cupboard swap with the theme maps. I colour copied an old Brisbane Street Directory and this made the base for my ATC, I then cut out the shape of a lady and placed a piece of white cardstock behind it that I'd coloured with glimmer mist. The technique of cutting out the image I learnt through a book called "Book & Art: Handcrafting Artists' Books" by Dorothy Simpson Krause ... and what a talented artist this lady is. To finish off the ATC, I inked around the edges in black, added 3 - 4 layers of UTEE to tone down the colours and then added the dymo tape word "missing" with some Tim Holtz mini-brads.

I didn't know what to do with the cut-out image of the lady, so I just added it to the back of the ATC with my details.

Kyla and I got together on Friday to have a play with copper etching ... and here are some of the pieces made. We had so much fun playing with this technique and it's relatively easy to do ... albeit a little messy. Once the pieces were etched, we painted the metal with a patina solution to create the aged copper look and I then sanded over the top to bring out the pattern ... these pieces are great as embellishments for ATCs or art journals.

Image has been increased in size to show detail, size of piece 5cms x 7cms (2 x 2.75 inches). Stamped with Paper Artsy Mini Alpha (MN24)

(1) House 2.5 x 5cms (1 x 2 inches) stamped with Leonard da Vinci script and Eye from Paper Artsy Ephemera Plate 2. (2) Rectangle with PaperArtsy Music notes 2 x 2.5cms (3/4 x 1 inch). (3) Flourish by Prima Marketing (#830205) 2 x 2.25cms (3/4 x 7/8 inch)

Flourish 5 x 5.5cm (2 x 2 1/8 inch)

"Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves -- to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today."
~Stewart B. Johnson~

Imagine ... Altered Book & ATCs

I joined an altered book group this year so that I can have a different creative outlet from ATCs. The group gets together every 2 months, so in the week leading up to our get-together I'm working frantically to have something done for show and tell. As it turned out, we didn't end up getting together this weekend, but I'm happy to say I did at least finish my pages ready for our next catch up in a couple of months time.

At the beginning of the year, a list was compiled of 12 techniques to be used by the end of the year. So far I've used 8 of the techniques and here are the pictures as a recap.

First layout in my altered book ... techniques serviette and crackle medium.

Layout number 2 ... techniques peeled paper and alcohol inks. Words added since last posted "Imagine ... boundless creativity and freedom."


Third layout ... I haven't posted this one before because it wasn't finished ... and it still isn't. Techniques used Tea Bags and Cuttlebug. Not quite sure how I want to finish it, but I think I want the shadows of some trees outlining the edges and then I'll add my "Imagine ... " quote.


Layout number 4 ... background using the credit card technique. I started with Making Memories Emerald green glaze that I applied with the credit card. I then added Golden's Blue fluid acrylic. I spritzed the page with water, counted to 20 then scraped the water off with a credit card ... hence the light blotches all over the paper (for the full tutorial on this techique visit 2cre8art blog. I then sprayed over the top with Gold Webbing Spray.


Layout number 4 finished ... final technique used Pop Up. The borders are made of scalloped metal that I cut out and then ran through the Cuttlebug for some texture. The corners are German Scrap. I added patina & gold rub 'n' buff over all the edges to finish off.


Altered Book Side View.

I also received some more ATCs this week ... 3 of which I won through the PaperArts Yahoo Group WTA lottery and the other was a belated birthday gift from the gorgeous Barb Thomas ... I'd been admiring this ATC on her blog and now I'm the lucky recipient of it.

ATC by Roslyn McGechan.

ATC by Debbie O'Callaghan

ATC by Christine Treleaven

Gorgeous mermaid by Barb Thomas ... what a wonderful gift and surprise.

I also made a gift for a friend overseas a week ago ... will post a picture once she's received it.

"Don't burn bridges. You'll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river."
~Source: H. Jackson Brown, Jr, Life's Little Instruction Book~

So much has happened ...

... since I last posted on my blog. My husband had an operation last week (which was successful) and I've been been running around for him most of the time (and keeping me out of the office for long periods of time). We've also been experiencing some connection issues with our network at home, which has stopped me from being able to access the internet ... and didn't I suffer withdrawal symptoms ... sad huh! So to get to it ...

One of my ATCs was awarded Home Page Art on a new Yahoo Group that I'm a member of - Art Sisters. I felt very honoured and surprised that my ATC was chosen as there is quite a bit of talent in this group.

I managed to finish a couple of ATCs for some swaps. The first one is for a swap at Addicted to Scrap and the theme was outside the rectangle, ie, the card was still supposed to be the same size as an ATC but not shaped as a rectangle. I decided to have a go at a fan ATC (the template of which I received from Laura Carson through Advanced ATCs UK for a swap coming up later in the year). I wasn't overly happy with the end result because I think it's a bit boring, but as I needed to make 12 for the swap I tried to keep it quite simple. I was also concerned that if I added too many embellishments, the fan wouldn't open and close properly or might end up being too thick. I have to say, I don't think I'll be making 12 of these again in a hurry ... very time consuming, hence the simplicity.

5 bladed fan closed ... ATC size

5 bladed fan open

I finished my ATCs for a swap hosted by Laura Carson through Advanced ATCs UK with the theme "What Lies Beneath?" (the ocean, a river, etc). I love the background I made for this card but took ages to decide what the main feature was going to be. In the end I made fish out of friendly plastic that I melted into a pattern and quite like how it turned out ... looks better in real life though because the scan is a little blurry. The background started with a dictionary definition of Fish and some torn pictures of seaweed (although you can't really see much of that anymore), I then used a brayer to paint 3 different colours: a shimmery light blue, a shimmery emerald green and then a Golden blue. I added some torn pieces of metal tape and egg shells across the bottom, which I coloured with bottle and denim alcohol inks. I stamped some swirls in Ultramarine StazOn and inked the borders, stuck the fish on with a silicon glue and it's finished.

I also managed to win the Winner Takes All (WTA) lottery through the PaperArts Yahoo Group for the month of June, which is quite funny because I am a member of 3 ATC related Yahoo Groups and have now won the WTA on all of them ... might have to stop playing and let someone else win for a change (LOL). So far I have received gorgeous ATCs from Jude Wagner, Kaeren Sutherland, Denise Ferguson and Elizabeth Harms.

ATC by Jude

ATC by Kaeren

ATC by Denise

ATC by Elizabeth (aka HRH, Queen of Toys, Your Highness, etc)

"Yesterday is not ours to recover,
but tomorrow is ours to win or lose."
~Lyndon B. Johnson, 1908-1973,
36th President of the United States~