Art and Play

Another completed project.

2011-10-04T19:42:00.002+10:00

In 2009 I was invited to join a miniature journal round robin with some lovely ladies in various corners of the world. The format was very small - 2" x 3" - with lots of different themes. On the weekend, I finally finished the outer cover and put the little book together and it's so nice to have another project finished.

The theme of my mini album was "Childhood" and each participant could do what they wanted as long as the page had a picture of their face as a child ... it's so cute, I love the pages that were created.

"Childhood" Collaboration cover and inside cover.

My pages.

Pages by Suze Urquhart from Essex,UK.

Valerie Brincheck from Michigan, USA.

Ali Brandist from Warwickshire, UK.

Joni Owens from South Carolina, USA.

Treez Malyon from Essex, UK.

Sandra Zengler from Scotland.

"Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good,
behave yourself and never mind the rest."~Beatrix Potter, 1866-1943, Author and Illustrator~

Unfinished projects!

2011-10-02T18:51:00.003+10:00

Ever since I moved back to Sydney and started working full time, I really haven't found much time to dabble in the arts and crafts like I used to. I made a pact with myself that I would do a little bit of art of some kind every weekend or every other weekend in an attempt to finish all those half done projects.

Like most of us crafters, I have unfinished projects all over the place. I feel great that I finally finished scrapbooking my mum's wedding photos a few weeks ago, the mini album of my sister's pregnancy of my nephew and a couple of weekends ago I finally made the cards from a card kit I bought in Brisbane in June ... and here they are.

Details of the kit and how to make 9 cards ... I managed to make 16 with some other leftover papers & flowers.

Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806-1861, British Poet~

ATC Quarterly

2011-09-18T12:19:00.001+10:00

When I started creating ATCS in early 2008 I became really active in a number of Yahoo Groups. On one of those groups (ATC World - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ATC_World/) I became a moderator and met so many wonderful friends all over the world. One of those friends introduced me to a small ATC publication called ATC Quarterly (http://www.atcquarterly.com/) published by Ronna Mogelon http://ronnas.blogspot.com/ out of Canada.

Issue #24 has just been released and an article I wrote on making Non-paper ATCs was published. In the list of items you need, gel medium is listed because some products in Canada are different to here in Australia, but I used an inexpensive Impasto / texture paste found in most discount stores ... anything with substance that dries clear will work for this technique.

An ATC of mine also featured in the Centrefold ... the theme this time was 'Dog Days'. The focal point is my beautiful dog Beau on an ATC made completely from fabric. Pam also had an ATC feature ... a hand drawn picture of Beau ... he's a bit of a celebrity in this issue of ATC Quarterly.

Here are some other ATC Quarterly Centrefolds where my ATCs have been featured.

ATC Quarterly Issue 18 Spring 2010. Ob la di, ob la da ... Beatles theme.

ATC Quarterly Issue 21 Winter 2011. Moo... Cow theme..

ATC Quarterly Issue 23 Summer 2011. Queen Bee ... Birds and Bees theme.
Pam's card also featured in this Centrefold.

The very last issue of ATC Quarterly will come out by the end of November 2011 ... the centrefold theme will be 'Goodbye'. Will have to create something special for this publication that has been a part of my ATC journey since the beginning.

"One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility."

~Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962, Former American First Lady~

Getting some creative time in ...

2011-09-17T17:27:00.004+10:00

Friends of ours Pam and Barry travelled from the Gold Coast to Sydney for a visit last weekend. Pam and I always try and fit in some creative time and this time we had a go at a technique in the September 2011 Craft Stamper (http://www.craftstamper.com/) by Trish Latimer called Lemon Juice Backgrounds. My card didn't turn out as nice as the one in the magazine, but I think for a first attempt it's pretty good.

Pam also taught me how to make these flowers ... very cool.

It was beautiful sunny warm weather the weekend before our visitors arrived and then this particular weekend it was arctic! We decided to make a day trip down to the Southern Highlands (about 1.5 hours south from Sydney) and visited an old wares / antique store in Mittagong, had lunch at the Elephant Boy cafe in Bowral ... a sensory indulgence from the days of the british raj.

After lunch, we ventured out in the bitterly cold windy 8 degrees celsius and made our way to Berrima. We found a wonderful little shop called Berrima Patchwork Crafts (http://www.berrimapatchwork.com.au/) that sold the largest and most beautiful range of quilting fabrics I've ever seen ... we had to get Pam out of there quickly as there were so many fabrics she just had to have!!!

Next stop was a quaint shop called The Art of Bookbinding (http://www.artofbookbinding.com.au/) ... again we had to get out of there quickly as they had the largest range of beautifully printed papers I've seen!

We just had to visit the Peppertree Trading Company / Antique shop in Berrima. The place was fantastic. Pam and I could have spent hours there ... we even lost each other a couple of times inside. The shop was a feast for the senses ... there was so many old things it was difficult to take it all in. On top of it, they had a 50% off everything sale.

There were buttons galore ...

I bought a couple of these ...

Just had to have these old bus tickets ... awesome!

"Find something that feels good, that resonates with your heart."

~Dr John Gray~

Spring has sprung down under ...

2011-09-04T20:40:00.002+10:00

We have had the most beautiful weather this weekend ... the first weekend of Spring 2011 in Australia. The Jasmine is growing and smells beautiful and today is also Father's Day here ... so congratulations to all those dad's out there all over the world.

My dad ... love you!

I started my crafting life with scrapbooking many years ago and still love looking at beautifully created scrapbook albums. When my sister Sylvia was pregnant with her first child, we'd taken a photo of her belly every month so we could keep an eye on progress. I put together a little mini album covering the pregnancy, which I presented to her when my niece Alexis was born.

We did the same thing when she fell pregnant with her second child ... took photos of that ever growing belly. My nephew is now 2.5 years old and this weekend I finally finished the album to send to my sister in time for her birthday ... how slack am I!!!

Anyway, here's what I created ... now there are a few pics of when my nephew was just born as I was lucky enough to be at the birth, so if you're a bit squeamish do not go any further.

I have not done anything creative since July and feel fantastic that I finally made time to finish one of the many unfinished projects lying around in my craft room.

Enjoy!

A father carries pictures where his money used to be.
~Author Unknown~

Crafting in Queensland

2011-07-10T15:01:00.000+10:00

On the June long weekend, we drove up to Queensland to visit the family. The Papercraft Show also happens every June long weekend, so Pam and I organised to do 3 classes on the Monday from 9.30am - 4.30pm and little bits of shopping in between classes ... big day

CLASS 1 - MY WISH ...
Double layout with a difference taught by the talented Louise Nelson.

My unfinished layout. I really like this style of art ... scrapping with a difference.

CLASS 2 - BOTANICAL CARDS

Using the Prima Botanical papers and flowers, we created 6 cards in this class. Pam and I got an extra gift because we were the only 2 to finish all 6 cards in the allocated time over the whole weekend!

CLASS 3 - ZENTANLE
Zentangle class run by Kass Hall. I really enjoyed learning how to create different patterns with doodling ... very therapeutic.

And some pics of my niece & nephew ... so cheeky, so cute!

Ideas shape the course of history.
~John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946, English Economist~

Happy Easter!

2011-04-27T21:31:00.000+10:00

In Australia, we managed to get a 5 day long weekend because another public holiday (Anzac Day) occurred on Monday 25th April. I took an extra day's annual leave and we went up to Queensland to visit family and friends.

Whilst I was away, I found out I won the Easter Egg guessing competition at work .... this is what greeted me on my desk this morning.

I managed to guess the exact amount of eggs in the jar ... 244 ... what are the chances! Don't know if I really need all that chocolate.

Whilst in Queensland I managed to catch up with a couple of friends and we got creative playing with background techniques on ATCS. If you think these look familiar you simply must visit http://thekathrynwheel.blogspot.com/. This particular technique is an adaptation of one Kate did in a journal, which featured in the March 2011 issue of Craft Stamper (http://www.craftstamper.com/). Really my ATC is not even close to what Kate created ... it's been so long since I did art of any kind. I had an absolute blast giving the technique a go ... now to add images and final touches.

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.

G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, English Writer

A little bit of art ...

2011-03-13T21:46:00.005+10:00

Here's a few ATCs I've done over the past 3 months. The first one is Paris, which was the theme for ATC Club in December and I was inspired by a very old ATC created by the very talented and lovely Shelly Sessions. The Christmas Tree is a class I did with the uber creative Linda Baldock and is metal shim put through a cuttlebug and the trims were coloured with a blowtorch.

Paris themed ATC for Scraploot Swap / Metal Shim Christmas Tree ATC

Cool Cat ATC for Feline Swap Helensvale Queensland, inspiration & Cat sunnies from Artchix Studios.

February ATC Club at Scraploot - Woodburning ATCs ... what fun!

All of the above, backgrounds with colour, texture paste, lace and heat made at the March ATC Club through Scraploot..

"The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials."
~Chinese Proverb~

A couple of months of visitors ....

2011-03-12T13:38:00.003+10:00

We arrived back in Sydney on 4th January from our overseas holiday, with Ferg's mum in tow. She got away from the cold to enjoy the lovely warm weather Australia has to offer during January and February. We were out and about every weekend to experience something new that New South Wales or Queensland has to offer. Sheelah left at the end of February and I'm hoping that I now might find some time to get some arting and crafting back into my life!

Our beautiful boy Beau came with us when we travelled to Bowral for a day.

The heat in the Hunter! 46 degrees celsius, lots of grapes and wine of course.

... and they don't only serve wine!

Our favourite winery - Tullochs - and an Irish Murphy (descendant) serving us... he reminds us of someone?

Sheelah in Centrepoint Tower Sydney with the north in the background.

Pam & Barry also came to visit us in February.

Nothing beats catching a ferry from where we live into the city and seeing the beautiful landmarks from the water - Sydney Harbour Bridge ...

... the magnificent Sydney Opera House.

We visited Fort Denison for the first time.

... and caught the daily 1pm canon blast.

All of us on the Fort.

“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.”
~unknown~

It was a white christmas ....

2011-03-12T13:13:00.000+10:00

Ferg and I went over to Ireland to celebrate Christmas 2010 with his family. We had a lovely time and the threat of snow hung over our heads ... I woke up regularly in the middle of the night to see if the snow had droppped. Four days after arriving in Ireland, we were in Wexford Town having a lovely cooked breakfast when the white stuff started to drop ... I was thrilled. We quickly rushed around town running our errands and found we couldn't actually drive home, so we decided to book into a hotel and enjoy it without the worry of getting our car stuck.

Sheelah & Ferg in main street Wexford Town.

A foot of snow dropped in around 30 minutes ... Ferg in the thick of it.

Wexford Wharf and Fishing Boats lovely in white.

More snow the next day on Rosslare Strand Beach.

Me & Ferg on the white beach.

Where the snow meets the sand!

A beautiful sun set at north slob from Curracloe House, Wexford.

"Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind."
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge ~

My cousin ... the cabaret entertainer

2010-12-06T19:28:00.000+10:00

My sister Sylvia was on Skype with my cousin I-Lan in England last night and discovered a budding cabaret entertainer ... she's the one on the right.

“Dance as though no one is watching you. Love as though you have never been hurt before. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.”

~Unknown~

ATC Club

2010-11-21T13:59:00.003+10:00

On the second Friday night of each month, Scraploot holds an ATC club. At the last session we played with transparencies and Linda Baldock showed us the cuttlebug, alcohol inks and more ... it was fun to play.

The first 2 ATCs are 2 transparencies sandwiched together with an image in the middle and PVA and alcohol inks smooched around. Some stamping on the left hand side and inking around the edge. The white bits are the PVA that hasn't dried yet so these parts will be transparent eventually.
The next ATC is a transparency put through the cuttlebug with ink on the pattern. A memory mist background is showing through.
The next ATC is a piece of yellow scrapbook paper with a vellum butterfly sticker, transparency with alcohol ink put through the cuttlebug with the tree shape inked.

The theme for this month's club ATC swap was big hats, and here's my interpretation.

"Make the most of today. Translate your good intentions into actual deeds."
~Grenville Kleiser 1863-1953, Writer~

Collaborative Project!

2010-11-20T17:11:00.000+10:00

When I lived in Queensland I got together bi-monthly with a group of ladies to alter books. This year we'd not only decided to alter our own books, but also do a page for each other's collaborative project. The technique I used is one of my favourites and I wanted each of the ladies to have a piece made in my style, hence they all look fairly similar, but are still quite different.

The themes were:

Karla - Hidden
Kay - Spring
Evelyn - Birds, eggs, feathers etc. (canvas)
Amanda - 12 days of Christmas and I did Days 2 and 3.

They'll be in the post on Monday - a little bit past the deadline, because I couldn't get my act together - but I hope they like them all the same.

Belated Halloween ....

2010-11-16T21:33:00.001+10:00

We decided to have a dinner party on 30th October and turned it into a Halloween Party. Ferg was in his element and decorated the whole house with the help of one of his mates Robert. His other friend Neil carved the pumpkin ... what a talent since it's not something we actually do every year like in the States.

Enjoy ...

Pumpkins carved by Neil
Scary hallway decoration
Blue light and skeletons in hallway
Ferg and Robert
Me and Ferg
Our friends
David & Tyrone
Can't have a party without sparklers!

"Eat, drink and be scary."

~Author Unknown~

Sydney Statues Project

2010-11-06T12:56:00.002+10:00

Dressed up and flamboyantly decorated, Sydney's historic statues put on their finery for Art & About Sydney. The talents of established and emerging artists were called upon to creatively enhance some famous figures from our past, inspired by the colourful wearable art scene of the 70s and 80s.

Ferg, Beau and I braved the windy weather and took a tour led by a colourful performance artist - Eddie Sharp - to find out more about our historical statues, their creators and their times, with an entertaining mix of comedy, trivia and fun.

We walked all over Sydney and Beau thoroughly enjoyed his big day out in the city for a few hours.

List of images:

Queen Victoria in front of Queen Victoria Building, gifted by the Irish (after they dug her up from a bog apparently!)
Captain Cook Front
Captain Cook Back
Eddie, the tour guide.
William Bede Dalley, the only Australian on the tour.
Queen Victoria
Prince Albert
Beau and Ferg taking a break.
Il Porcellino, Wild Boar in front of Sydney Hospital. The legend of Il Porcellino is that he will bring you good luck if you rub his snout.
Shakespeare and five of his most famous characters: Hamlet, Romeo, Juliet, Portia and Falstaff.
King Edward VII

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it”

~Michelangelo~

ATC Club

2010-10-24T12:18:00.001+10:00

On the second Friday of every month, I now meet with an ATC Club through a shop called Scraploot. The teacher extraordinaire is Linda Baldock who is fantastic. Here are the ATCs I finally finished for the very first ATC Club swap. The next theme was Vintage Dancer, but because I was in Queensland and missed the second ATC Club meet I didn't actually know the theme.

The third ATC Club meet had us make a box to hold ATCs. I absolutely love how this box turned out ... it was made using a faux rust technique ... and is all Linda's creation. Start with a box template and put it through the cuttlebug ... it'll have to be folded to fit in the embossing template but it doesn't matter that some of the pattern is embossed and other parts are debossed (not sure if that's a word). Paint the whole thing in black acrylic paint. Dab orange paint in spots and dry ... you won't be able to see the orange very well on the black, but it adds depth to the technique. Rub over the whole thing with Gold Gedeo Gilders Paste, making sure to have light and dark areas that show through some of the underneath colour. Dab orange paint in parts again and buff when you have thicker gold area. Rubb black paint over the edges, especially if you can see cracks in the paint. Decorate the inside of the box if you want to before sticking it together. Add fancy clasp to the front and decorate with black german scrap rubbed with the gilders paste ... pretty neat huh!

"Out of clutter find simplicity; from discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

~Albert Einstein~

Knave of Hearts

2010-10-04T12:44:00.000+10:00

The July theme in the Alice Challenge through the PaperArts Yahoo Group is the Knave of Hearts and here is my take on the theme.

It's Spring down under and it's quite a pleasure walking around Hunters Hill with gardens blooming and birds tweeting. Every day our garden has some new colour ...

"A weed is but an unloved flower."
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1850-1919, American Poet and Journalist~

Some of my latest creative escapades

2010-09-19T15:22:00.000+10:00

The theme for September's ATC swap through the group in Helensvale Queensland is "No paper". I cut up a chinese placemat made out of bamboo into ATC size and coated the surface with impasto using a Heidi stencil of a butterfly. Once the impasto had dried and was transparent, I covered the whole thing in two-step crackle medium, then covered it in Ginger Alcohol inks to accentuate the cracks. The butterfly was painted with Black alcohol ink and the edges inked with black StazOn.

Yesterday I did a Mixed Media class with Linda Baldock at Scaploot (http://www.scraploot.com.au/). Linda's a very talented artist and I love her grungy style of art. The class we did was called "Flooded Canvas" and here are some pics of my piece.

The piece is made on the reverse of a canvas. The inside is painted various colours, then a coat of impasto is applied, sticking in beads, watch pieces, rusty bottle caps and bits I've collected over the years, black mesh, rusty keys and a vintage photo. Once touch dry industrial grade resin is poured over the top. My piece is not quite finished yet as I want to do some more colour around the outside edge of the frame. In hindsight, I didn't realise the impasto would stay white, I think I would have either added more colour to the impasto before the resin or if I was making one of these at home, I probably would have let the impasto dry for a few days and go nearly clear. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the piece and I had a lot of fun trying something new. If you want to see more of Linda's art, check out her blog here - http://atclindab.blogspot.com/ .

"Other people's opinion of you does not have to become your reality."

~Les Brown, Speaker and Author~

A trip up north and down memory lane ...

2010-09-18T18:09:00.002+10:00

I arrived in Queensland on 28th August after an 11 hour drive with my mum & dad. A few hours later it was my niece Alexis' 4th birthday party ... she's grown up so much in the few months since I last saw her.

My very cute nephew, Harry, wasn't walking when I last saw him and now you can't slow him down. At 18months of age he could also get the milk out the fridge, unscrew the lid, pour it in his cup and all over the kitchen tiles and sort of put the lid of his cup on ... what a clever boy!

It was great to catch up with family and friends, but the week just flew by. Ferg arrived on Thursday, we celebrated my sister Sylvia's 40th birthday on the following Saturday and very early Sunday we started an 11 hour drive back to Sydney.

Here's a few happy snaps: Me and Alexis; Harry wearing a bucket!; me, Sylvia & mum; me and Ferg; my friends and I creating at Scrapbooks Etc; me and the wonderful Lyndal with a pic made on her i-Phone ... a very cool app; the gorgeous Jill and me.

Jill sent me the link for this cool photo editing web-site - http://www.picnik.com/ - where you can do all these great creative editing features, you'll notice that 3 of the photos have a black edge around them, well you can do that and more on this web-site.

The week after I returned from Queensland, I received my second year of blogging published in a hardcover book. Last year's book had 104 pages in it and this book has 170 ... much more active blogging in my second year. It's so cool to get a hard copy of my blog, every time I open the book I get caught up on all the things I did last year ... like the birth of my nephew for which I was present; the first creative soul retreat I attended and fabulous workshops I did; amazing creative people I met throughout the year; the evolution of my art and growth of our dog Beau ... the list goes on.

If you're interested in publishing your blog, visit this site here - http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ - and click on "Blog Books" ... it's pretty awesome.

Until next time, keep having fun.

"The better part of one's life consists of his friendships."
~Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, 16th President of the United States~

Alice Challenge continues

2010-08-19T18:49:00.000+10:00

I managed to complete another couple of pages for the Alice in Wonderland Challenge being run by the PaperArts Yahoo Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperarts/).

The Mad Hatter

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

I had a blast making these pages up. The Mad Hatter has an old baby wipe as the background that I used to clean up my nieces paints as she kept mixing all the colours up, it looks really cool in the flesh 'cause I covered it in Yellow Glimmer Mists, so it's all sparkly.

The tweedles background is different types of torn paper, covered in a wash of Gold Red Oxide. I then added some packaging fabric and dried it with the heat gun 'cause I was impatient and melted some of that fabric, which gave it a really cool texture. I used Memories Mists, glimmer mists & starburst stains for more colour, shimmer & drips . The tree has an encyclopaedia description of Tweedle Dee & Dum ... how perfect.

Until next time, keep well and keep creating ....

`Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Agreed to have a battle; For Tweedledum said Tweedledee, Had spoiled his nice new rattle. Just then flew down a monstrous crow, As black as a tar-barrel; Which frightened both the heroes so, They quite forgot their quarrel.'

Selft Portrait and Alice

2010-08-14T14:13:00.001+10:00

The theme for this month's ATC swap with the girls back in Helensvale Queensland was "Self Portrait". This theme was my suggestion as I really wanted to get a pic of everyone back home ... or so I hope anyway. I'm still incredibly time poor with working full-time and haven't quite got a routine established to fit more creative time in my days yet, so my Self Portrait ATC is quite simple ... and I also wanted to use up some of the thousands of sheets of scrapbooking paper I have in my stash.

Here's the 4th instalment of the Alice in Wonderland Challenge through the PaperArts Yahoo Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperarts/) and it's Alice herself ...

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
~Frederick Douglass, 1817-1895, American Abolotionist~

Latest creations

2010-07-19T16:04:00.000+10:00

The Helensvale ATC swap occurred on Sunday and I managed to get my ATCs sent to Pam on time who looks after my trades, due to the fact that I no longer live in Queensland to swap in person. This month's theme was "Aussie Slang" and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. Here's my take on the theme. I attempted to do the "faux tin-type" technique, but it hasn't quite turned out how I wanted as the xyron sort of created bubbles when I stuck the transparency to the foil underneath. All the same, hopefully everyone will still like them.

Sparrow's Fart = Dawn in Aussie language!

I was going to join the Stained Glass swap through ATC World, but left it too late and was concerned the cards wouldn't turn up before the deadline. I had fun having a play though. I did the outline in Leadlite and the colours are with Glasslite (Glass paint). It was fun to try something different.

Stained Glass Technique - Tree

At the beginning of this year I joined the Alice in Wonderland Challenge through PaperArts Yahoo Group. With the move to Sydney I'm really behind on creating my pages, but here's what I've created so far. I'm really enjoying the challenge and am even more happy that I only need to create 1 page and I get to keep them.

The White Rabbit

The Red Queen

The Red King

"It is a very funny thing about life - if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it." W. Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965, Novelist and Playwright

A different creative adventure ...

2010-07-03T16:17:00.001+10:00

Saturday 19th June saw me spend the day at the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair at Darling Harbour. I caught public transport for the first time since moving back to Sydney and was at the fair just as the doors were opening. I was like a bat out of hell running up and down the aisles in an attempt to find Wendy Bailye's Felt Studio stand, as I was adamant to get into one of her workshops and have a go at felting. I made it and was booked in to make a scarf and a felt rose.

I also really wanted to do the Japanese Owl workshop, but by the time I got to the stand to book in, the class was already full. I did, however, skulk around while the students were making their owls and have the technique firmly in my mind to create some of my own.

The time spent with Wendy Bailye and her team was incredibly rewarding. After 2.5 hours I came away with lots of knowledge, a beautiful scarf and a rose ... and a bag of woollen fibre to put my new skills to practice at a later date.

For some reason, I wasn't sure if felting would be my thing ... how wrong I was. The practice of placing the woollen and silk fibres into patterns onto the silk scarf and then the unhurried practice of rolling the silk and felt together whilst chatting to the other ladies was almost therapeutic. Wendy and her team were all wonderfully patient with us and provided the proper techniques to produce a good quality output.

I had a fantastic time at the show and was so happy to have finally had a go at a different creative technique.

Here's the scarf ... no photography awards here!

A close up of some of the detail - a felt flower with silk fibres on top.

More of the detail - some swirls.

My felt rose - the 2 back layers are on black felt with red, grey & black fibres on top & the middle layer is on red felt with black & grey fibres on top.

"I cross all bridges with joy and ease. The "old" unfolds into wonderful new experiences. My life gets better all the time."
~Unknown~

A little bit of art.

2010-06-06T14:49:00.003+10:00

Here are few pieces of art I've made recently. The first one is for a Macabre Anatomy swap through http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paperartqueens/ . Unfortunately, I sent these in March and they have not arrived at their destination ... so they're lost somewhere in the Australia Post mail system (very disapointing). I am now going to make some more. The size is 3.5 inches by 7.5 inches.

The following is an ATC I made for a "house" swap with my friends in Helensvale Queensland. I hadn't created anything for over a month, so it was nice to get back into ATCs.

The next ATC is for the June Helensvale Swap and the theme is "Apron". The background is a scrap piece of cardboard I used all the time when painting and I stamped all over it to create some interest ... I love how these scrap cardboard pieces turn out when they're covered with loads of different colours and textures.

"Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud."
~Hermann Hesse, 1877-1962, German-born Writer and Nobel Prïze Winner~

Creative Soul Retreat - Part 3 (final)

2010-05-23T18:30:00.000+10:00

On the third day I did a journalling workshop with Jan. I managed to get 2 more layouts done in my journal, which feels so good. Here's some pictures.

My pages ... I wouldn't say I'm a journalling queen, but I'm happy to have done something.

The whole Journalling class

A picture of Sue Thiel and me ... it was great to get to see each other again..

Me, Jen Crossley & Nic Hohn ... a candid spur of the moment shot.

There were so many others I got to catch up with again at this year's retreat, but totally forgot to get some pictures. Our trivia group (me, Sue, Kyla and Karin) won the final major prize ... we all received a product from Golden - to say I was thrilled is an understatement.

Kyla and I decided to stay in Melbourne an extra day so we didn't have to rush off to the airport. There is so many different styles of "art" around the streets, it's just fantastic. We walked, caught trams and walked some more, but it was fantastic to spend an extra day with Kyla, knowing that now we live in different States, it's not something we're going to be able to do every day.

(1) Statues on the Corner of Swanston & Bourke Streets; (2) Electrical or Phone Box with lovely paintings on each side.

There's plenty of graffiti art in many of Melbourne's alleyways.

Kyla sitting pretty at Chinese ... our hotel was right near China Town, very handy.

The Creative Soul Retreat, which has been running for the past 2 years has been cancelled now, which is such a shame because it's not everyday that us Aussies downunder get to do workshops with those talented tutors from the States. I am so happy with all the people I met and the tutors I got to learn from ... hopefully there will be other opportunities to do workshops with these people again.

Creative Soul Retreat - Part 2

2010-05-22T18:40:00.003+10:00

I'm sure you've been in suspense waiting for my next post on the Creative Soul Retreat, so I shall not keep you waiting any longer (ha, ha, ha). On Days 2 and 4 of the retreat, I had the extreme pleasure of learning all about Polymer Clay from a fantastic teacher, Laurie Mika. She is the most energetic and talented teacher, not to mention her assistant (sister) Leslie, who was such a hoot. I spent two fabulous days with these girls and was so happy that I actually did the polymer clay classes. In the first class we made 3D ATCs and the next one was wearable reliquaries (I'm not even sure I've spelt that right). Anyway, here are some pictures of the things made:

Laurie showing us how flat our clay should be.

All our 3D ATC Masterpieces ... amazine huh!

I made 3 ATCs, one for Kyla, one for me and one for Pam.

Our 3D ATC group.

Laurie and Me

The scalpel was a little sharp, luckily Laurie was on hand with her bacon band-aids.

Some of the group's reliquaries.

The last day's group - that's Laurie, me & Leslie at the front.

Here are all my little pieces from Day 4 and below some close ups.

The last post on CSR will show some of Journalling pages I created in class and some other things I've created since ... there's not much as working full-time and trying to get the new house we moved into in order is taking up so much of my time.

Hope you're all well ... until next time.

Creative Soul Retreat - Part 1

2010-04-08T08:35:00.011+10:00

On Wednesday 17th March I flew from Sydney to Melbourne to attend the Creative Soul Retreat. I met up with Kyla at the airport, who flew in from the Gold Coast ... it was good to see her again. We hung around the airport for a couple of hours until everyone had arrived from all corners of Australia to catch the bus to our venue - A Country Place Retreat in Kalorama.

Kyla and I shared a room in this section of the retreat.

The view as we walked to our room from the main dining area .. just beautiful.

The main dining area is inside behind the balcony.

Our first day of CSR saw Kyla and I doing the Waxy Layers class with Jan Harris. Originally Judy Wise was to attend and run this class, but health issues prevented her from coming. All the same, we had a wonderful fun day learning about encaustics from Jan.

Eliza, Kyla and I working away in the Waxy Layers Class with Jan Harris.

Jan playing with fire ... so much fun.

My two masterpieces??

Waxy Layers Class

An ATC swap was run at this year's CSR and the theme was "Miniature Me" and the card had to also feature a sign. The Miniature Me part was all about your style and for my ATC I used bits and pieces that I love. I started by coating the matte board with gesso, a light wash of paint, which once dry I then covered with my favourite glimmer mist colours of Tattered Leather and Olive. I used my favourite tree stencil with ink, then added a street sign that I photographed at Mt Tribulation near Cairns in Queensland for drivers be aware of the Cassowary, which someone had vandalised - a classic. I added my all time favourite rusty bottle caps along the base and some string to finish off. I made 21 of these cards as 18 people were to participate ... it was a shame that in the end only 7 of us ended up playing along ... no loss though, I owe ATCs to a bunch of girls in Queensland, so will be sending them the left overs.

More CSR adventures and art to come in another post, so watch this space.

"There is nothing like a dream to create the future."
~Victor Hugo, 1802-1885, French Poet/Dramatist/Novelist~

In a new home ...

2010-04-07T11:01:00.000+10:00

My husband and I made the move south from Queensland to New South Wales on my birthday - 9th March. We stayed overnight in Kempsey in a pet friendly motel, enjoying a birthday dinner of Chinese.

At my birthday breakfast, Alexis, me, Harry & Ferg.

Me and Pam.

We made it to my parents place in St Marys after lunch on 10th and enjoyed watching my little brother and sister win their indoor soccer grand final.

The winners! My brother David is the goalie in front & my sister Natalie is second from left in back row.

The removalists arrived at our new home in Hunters Hill on Thursday and so began the sorting and unpacking of boxes. The truck was the length of our home!!

A week later, I was in Melbourne, attending the Creative Soul Retreat, but will leave that to another post. Here are a few pictures from our new home:

"No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change."
~Barbara De Angelis, American Author~

Harry turns 1

2010-03-08T06:50:00.000+10:00

My nephew, Harry, turned 1 on 15th February. A gathering of family and friends went out to dinner on his actual birthday and then we had a party on the Saturday following. Mum and dad even came from Sydney to celebrate. Here are a couple of pics from the event.

The cake at the dinner.

Harry loves cake

... especially ice cream cake!

Alexis enjoying the new gift ... a trampoline.

More cake at the party.

Such a good sharer ... you eat it Harry.

Alexis, Aunty Di, Harry & Ferg.

Dad (Dave), Alexis, Mum (my sister Sylvia) & Harry.

Loads of presents.

When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses. – Joyce Brothers, American Psychologist/Columnist/Author

It's official ...

2010-02-21T13:03:00.000+10:00

... we're moving back to Sydney. After four years of living on the Gold Coast in the Sunshine State of Queensland, my husband starts a new job in Sydney, NSW on 15th March. We've found a beautiful house to rent in Hunters Hill, which is a very nice part of the world ... lots of old world charm and historic buildings in this suburb. It's going to be extremely hectic over the next couple of weeks - I finish my job on 5th March, the removalists arrive on 9th March, then we do the 12 hour drive to Sydney on the 10th March and somewhere in between all that we need to pack!

The other thing that's happening at the same time is I'm also attending the Creative Soul Retreat on 17th March in Melbourne Victoria and have two creative commitments to complete prior to attending ... lots and lots to do and so little time.

Here's a couple of creative things I managed to get done in the last few weeks:

Beatles ATC

I made this card for the ATC Quarterly centrespread theme of The Beatles. The background is gesso, a wash of Gold Raw Sienna, Olive & Tattered Leather Glimmer Mists, Tim Holtz stamp with Butterscotch Adirondack ink, small & large star punchinella with Espresso Adirondack ink and a gel medium transfer of the Beatles.

Kittens ATC

This month saw me and Lois win the WTA (Winner Takes All Lottery) on ATC World. Lois had sleeping cats at her suggested theme, so I made one especially for her. Same background as the ATC above, just no punchinella inking around the edges and the image was printed out instead of doing a transfer.

Alice Challenge

The Paper Arts Yahoo group have a challenge this year where you make a page on a character that gets announced each month, from either Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass. The first character was The Red King and here's my interpretation. The good thing about this challenge is we get to keep our page, we just upload our pictures once a month. The pictures are being displayed on the Paper Arts Blog - http://paper-artz.blogspot.com/ .

Jen Crossley Workshop

Last weekend I did a workshop with the lovely Jen Crossley (aka Captain Underpants) and I made two bezels filled with Ice Resin. I had the best time and absolutely love spending time with Jen, she's such a hoot. I still need to sand one back and add some more resin 'cause it's a bit bumpy, but overall I was really happy with how my two pieces turned out

Calendar Challenge - January

I'd finished my January calendar ages ago and kept forgetting to post a picture of it completed ... not as artistic and creative as some of the participants in Kate Crane's challenge, but I was so happy that I actually wrote in it everyday and finished it.

To finish off I thought I'd show you the number plate of the car we hired in Sydney last weekend ... I thought it spelt Beaux, our dog's name ... perhaps it was a sign??? Well we did get the house we wanted, so it must have been!

That's for now, I been having trouble signing into blogger, hence the lack of posts lately, but for some reason it worked today. The next post will probably be once I've moved to Sydney ... keep well and enjoy.

Calendar Challenge - February

2010-01-30T07:14:00.001+10:00

I went over to my friend Tanya's place last night for an arting and crafting night of fun and finished my February Art Calendar for Kate Crane's 365 day Calendar Challenge (for more details visit this post - http://thekathrynwheel.blogspot.com/2009/12/calendar-challenge.html or join her flickr group - http://www.flickr.com/groups/2010_calendar_365_challenge/ ).

This month I chose "tropical" colours of lemon, lime and watermelon as my calendar base because February in Queensland, Australia encounters very tropical weather. Further up the north coast of Queensland it's monsoonal at this time of the year, with heavy rains, winds and heat ... it's not as extreme down on the Gold Coast, but we do experience some amazing intense storms and heavy rain during February.

The background is a yellow patterned serviette / napkin with a wash of colour in yellow and pink. The green paint was applied with a brayer. Some use of punchinella large yellow circles and then smaller pink ones. Tim Holtz stamps down the left hand side and top right corner, Heidi Swapp mask alpha's and then pieces of matching scrapbook paper, that will get altered more as the days go by.

I've had a blast updating my January calendar every day ... it's not very creative, but I'm having fun with it all the same.

"Every instance of heartbreak can teach us powerful lessons about creating the kind of love we really want."
~ Martha Beck, American Sociologist/Therapist/Author~

Flat Stanley meets some wildlife ...

2010-01-26T11:03:00.002+10:00

Today Flat Stanley went into Dreamworld's Australian Wildlife Experience and met a few famous Australian animals.

He was a little hesitant getting so close to these Kangaroos, but they seemed to be pretty relaxed on this hot Australia Day. One of them even let him go for a ride on his back.

Flat Stanley got up close and personal with two real Koala's, the one of the left is Allira and the other one is Jamaica. He was a little concerned being so close to Allira because she wanted to have a little nibble of his head, but the game keeper distracted the Koala so a photo could be taken and Flat Stanley got away in one piece.

And he also had an opportunity to visit the Australian children's entertainers through The Wiggles World:

It seems Flat Stanley just can't stay out of trouble ... might be time for him to make his way back home to Texas.

All in all a fun day out on the Gold Coast for Flat Stanley.

Happy Australia Day!

2010-01-26T09:55:00.000+10:00

It's the anniversary of the First Landing in Australia today, when in 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Sydney Cove from Great Britain with a fleet of eleven convict ships. We celebrate this special day nationally by having a day off work and getting together with friends for a good old Aussie barbie ... which we'll be doing a little later on today.

Even Google gets into the Australia Day spirit:

So I hope you all enjoy your day and here's Sam Kekovich's Australia Day message ... that is becoming somewhat of a tradition now every year:

"They who came here in chains, who were lashed while they worked in convict gangs at Port Arthur. They who like many others were driven through starvation or oppression from their home-lands to the shores of this new country, Australia. They, who for a multitude of reasons that hopefully, I or my children will never witness or experience, decided not to harbour grudges or discontent but rather to look to the future. They who embraced this country as their own and said; "let's get on with it, this is a new land, this is our home."
~Dennis O'Keeffe - Musician~

Flat Stanley's visit ...

2010-01-25T23:04:00.000+10:00

Allison, a girl in Texas is doing a school project to learn more about other countries around the world and she has coloured in a Flat Stanley picture and sent it to my friend Brenda Grace in Western Australia (visit this post for more information http://mydivinetime.blogspot.com/2009/12/flat-stanley-arrives-from-texas.html ).

Anyway, Ferg, Beau (the dog) and I went out on the weekend with Flat Stanley and showed him some of the attractions the Gold Coast had to share:

Flat Stanley met Beau, a real Australian Working Kelpie:

... and loved the colours and texture of the Australian Eucalypt Gum Trees::

It was so hot and Flat Stanley really wanted to go for a swim with 3 year old Alexis, but was afraid he might disintegrate, so just hung out for a while:

On a trip to Surfers Paradise, the flagged area of the beach was absolutely full of people:

Main Street of Surfers Paradise, Flat Stanley is just loving hanging arounds:

The tallest residential tower in the world ... Q1:

Flat Stanley visited 2 out of 4 theme parks, here's Dreamworld:

Which also has Whitewater World:

... and The Drop ... scaaary:

Movie World is just around the corner:

and Flat Stanley felt a little homesick when he noticed the Australian and US Flags flying side-by-side:

These signs are quite common around Coomera, as the area is a very important Koala precinct:

Flat Stanley sent an email off to Allison today and will be visiting Brisbane soon, so will take a few more pics and then be on his way back to Texas.

"Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always try to be a little kinder than is necessary?"
~James Matthew Barrie, 1860-1937, Author of Peter Pan~

A little bit of creativity ...

2010-01-24T13:52:00.001+10:00

I've only been back at work 2 weeks after having a lovely 2 weeks holiday and have started feeling really run down, so haven't done too much creating. But when the weekend comes, look out ... I'm suddenly on fire and all motivated ... funny how that happens. So here's a couple of things I've been up to lately:

I've finished the cover of the altered board book I worked on with a group of girls in Brisbane in 2009. The theme for this altered book was "Imagine" and I wanted a simple, but rustic cover for my book. The only thing I'm going to do now is add tags with the techniques used on each spread and the book will be finished.

I've also started our next altered book project with the same group and this year I've chosen to document the year of my birth - 1969. The book I'm altering is a Dutch and English dictionary that I especially went searching for, due to my ancestry being Dutch. I'm so excited with this project and the research is so much fun. Here's my first layout and it's on the song that was top of the charts the day I was born.

Here's my latest ATC for the face-to-face swap held on the third Sunday of every month in Helensvale. I'm on a mission to use up my collection of napkins as they're taking over my craft area, so this set of ATCs used up 4 of them in the background and I really like how it turned out:

I got together with Pam yesterday and got a little arting and crafting done and finally started this piece for the Paper Arts Yahoo Group Spooky Book Page lottery. They're holding this lottery because one of each page was held back from the swap for another participant who did not send their pages in. So far there are only 2 or 3 players, so I think I'm in with a chance. There were a few rules to follow, the page had to be 5 x 7 and the other criteria was you must use itkupilli images (http://itkupillishop.blogspot.com/). The skull with the candle on the top of my tree was made by Kelley Smith at this blog http://lifeandartwithglammafabulous.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-skull-with-candle.html ... and I thought it was perfect to be at the top of my Spooky Christmas Tree. There's a bit of lace and crushed velvet ribbon all sewn on with Pam's sewing machine and Pam hand cut out my tree in about 1 minute, much better than what I could do. The "blood" is red dimensional paint and all the skulls are tied on with red DMC thread.

On the home front, Beau has found a new friend ... I thought it was a lovely dog from the neighbouring property until we were advised it's our Neighbour's pet dingo!!! You can imagine that we're not encouraging this dog to hang around the house ... not with 2 young children around ... although he does seem good-natured!!

"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself."
~Josh Billings~

Calendar Challenge

2010-01-04T16:03:00.000+10:00

My friend in the UK Kate Crane started up an Art Calendar Challenge (which I did not sign up for) and everytime I checked out her blog I was in awe of her beautiful calendar creations ... so yesterday I thought I'd have a play in my journal and see what happened and here's my calendar:

I had an existing A4 Visual Arts Diary in which I'd already created some pages from a workshop, so decided to keep using the same journal. I started with a light blue patterned napkin, added a wash of yellow and added orange and red paint with a brayer. I decided to go with bright colours for January as it's Summer and hot here in Australia.

The next layer was stamping with flourishes and patterns around the edges in brown. I used Heidi Swapp mask alphabets for January and temporarily placed the 4cm x 4cm squares, which I cut out of ordinary white printer paper, then sprayed the whole thing with terracotta glimmer mists. My plan had been to lift everything up and voila finished calendar ... but the glimmer mist colour wasn't dark enough to make out the letters and the squares didn't show up enough either, so I used the outside edge of the mask alphbets and inked inside with brown so the month could be read easier and permanently adhered the plain paper squares with a bit of ink around the edges.

I have to say, the calendar thing is kind of addictive and although I haven't "officially" joined the challenge and committed to creating a calendar each month, I really like the idea of recording a few words on my happenings every day ... I could be hooked!

"For last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice."

~T.S. Eliot ~

Happy New Year ...

2010-01-03T07:25:00.000+10:00

Hope everyone had wonderful New Year's Eve celebrations and are ready to start afresh achieving goals and having fun. We had a quiet night with a dinner at a restaurant and managed to watch the local fireworks at 9pm with my niece and nephew ... didn't quite make it to midnight, must have had one too many wines!!

Here's a couple of ATCs I finished for some swaps whilst still on holidays ... just a few more projects to complete and I'm up to date.

Spring ATC for Addicted to Scrap Swap

Donald "Fauntleroy" Duck ATC for Addicted to Scrap Disney Swap.

Letter from a Lighthorsman for AATCUK Vintage Correspondence Swap, hosted by Kyla.

"Then sing, young hearts that are full of cheer, with never a thought of sorrow; The old goes out, but the glad young year comes merrily in tomorrow."
~Emily Miller ~

Merry Christmas ...

2009-12-26T21:08:00.000+10:00

I hope everyone had wonderful Christmas celebrations with their family and friends.

We had a fantastic time starting the day opening our presents ... now this is quite unnatural for us to open presents on Christmas Day because our ancestry is Dutch and we've always had a Christmas dinner and present opening ceremony on Christmas Eve, but as my parents stayed in Sydney this year, we decided it would be nicer for my niece and nephew to open their presents when they wake up on Christmas Day. We went and visited friends for a little while around lunch time and finished the day with a turkey, ham, potato and salmon salad feast that finished off with a divine trifle ... oh, and a few too many wines.

Enjoy.

"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time."
~Laura Ingalls Wilder~

On the tenth, eleventh and twelfth days of Christmas ...

2009-12-25T06:53:00.002+10:00

I finished work yesterday with a half day and have finally been able to log back into blogger to finish off the twelve days of Christmas ... on Christmas Day no less. I better get a hurry on because as soon as my three year old niece - Alexis - wakes up we're opening presents, and still got to get out of my pyjamas.

On the 10th day of Christmas Karin provided this beautifully wrapped gift and inside was this hand sewn fabric cone that can hold things. One of the other girls was going to fill it up with candy canes - I think that's a good idea. Look at the detail, tiny beads hand sewn on in swirls and Karin made 11 of these!

On the 11th day, Lucy (http://artitudebylucy.blogspot.com/) sent this package and inside was a framed wall hanging with the centre cut out and a transparency image in the middle, so you can see straight through it ... beautifully done.

On the 12th and final day of the Art Sisters Yahoo Group 12 Days of Christmas Exchange we received a gift from Margaret and it's just so cute. It's a hand sewn pocket for cards like loyalty cards and when you pull on the string it pops the cards out. I think it's a brilliant idea and might even take all those store loyalty cards out of my wallet and hold them all in this cute little pocket.

I also received the gift I won on Tim Holtz blog this week and I was thrilled. I got a set of his Visual Artistry clear stamps, which are gorgeous and two Pink Paisley Borderlines with a Christmas Theme.

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."
~Norman Vincent Peale~

On the ninth day of Christmas ...

2009-12-21T20:21:00.000+10:00

There were no ladies dancing, but I did receive a gorgeous magnet made by Bevlea (http://www.soularts.typepad.com/) as part of the Art Sisters Yahoo Group 12 Days of Christmas Challenge.

Here's how the package was wrapped ... personally address and everything:

And here's the lovely "d" Marie beaded puzzle piece with wings and a magnet, that is now proudly displayed on my fridge:

"May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!"
~Author Unknown~

On the eighth day of Christmas ...

2009-12-20T08:11:00.002+10:00

... it's my turn so I don't get to open a pressie, but here's what everyone participating in the Art Sisters Yahoo Group will receive.

... a star ornament.

Here's how it's made ... I started with one of those wooden shapes from Kaiser Kraft and I covered both sides with torn pieces of tissue paper glued with PVA. I then stamped swirls over the top and inked around the edges.

Then each of the 12 stars were covered with Gold Webbing Spray.

I used a Heidi Swapp mask with a butterfly and covered the whole star with impasto.

I was quite devastated to find that the impasto did not dry properly overnight ... it's supposed to be clear. I'm sure it's due to the heat as the top coat dried so quickly, underneath didn't catch up. I wasn't going to give up so I kept forging ahead. I coloured the butterfly in with red and gold alcohol inks.

The final stage was to cover the whole thing with crackle medium, allow it to dry and crack thoroughly and then another coating of espresso alcohol ink to show up the cracks. You can barely see the white impasto now and if you look at the first picture taken 3 weeks after it was made, it seems to have dried clear afterall.

Next year's tree is going to have all these wonderful hand-made ornaments all over it.

"It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air."

~W.T. Ellis~

On the seventh day of Christmas ...

2009-12-20T07:08:00.001+10:00

... Julie H (http://isthereashadow.blogspot.com/) sent this very cute package made out of Christmassy fabric with a beautifully handmade tag.

... and inside was this gorgeous necklace that I promptly put on and wore out for the day because the colours went perfectly with my outfit.

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other."
~Burton Hillis~

On the sixth day of Christmas ...

2009-12-20T07:01:00.000+10:00

... I got to open this wonderfully wrapped gift ... I'm loving this 12 Days of Christmas art exchange through the Art Sisters Yahoo Group.

... and received this gorgeous handmade Christmas Tree from Sue Smith (http://www.susiesheartscontent.blogspot.com/). It already has a place on my television set.

"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 and wouldn't dreams be coming true, if we kept the Christmas spirit all the whole year through?"
~Anonymous~

On the fifth day of Christmas ...

2009-12-17T20:47:00.000+10:00

I opened a gorgeous gift made by Celeste as part of the Art Sisters Yahoo Group 12 Days of Christmas Exchange ... here's the packaging:

and here's the gorgeous gift. You'll never guess that it's an altered light switch cover ... clever huh! There's a bit of flash shine (taking photos at night instead of the morning) and also because the image has a luscious coating of varnish.

Oh and here's our christmas card for this year. My husband, Ferg didn't want to grace the cover this year, so our family will get a picture of our pooch ... alas it has now become a new year's card because the cards won't reach any of the recipients before Christmas ...

"And now let us believe in the new year that is given us-- new, untouched, full of things that have never been."
~Rainer Maria Rilke~

On the fourth day of Christmas ...

2009-12-16T20:54:00.001+10:00

I didn't receive 4 calling birds thank goodness ... who knows what calling birds are anyway? I figured in Australia we have the loudest birds calling out to each other (or is it screeching?) and they're called Cockatoos, hence my "4 calling birds" picture for today.

The present opened today as part of the 12 days of Christmas Exchange through the Art Sisters Yahoo Group comes from Samm Menzies (http://sammiam.wordpress.com/). The packaging was so wonderfully put together and inside is an ornament ... have no idea what it's made out of, but next year when I have my own tree, all these lovely handmade ornaments will definitely be on it.

On Sunday I was working away in my office and I heard a rustling noise outside the open window, which is nowhere near my desk. Normally it's my dog, Beau, begging to be let in, so I went and had a look and this huge ancient lizard (probably a goanna) was skulking around in the undergrowth. I decided to to outside and take a picture, but that thing was up a tree faster than I could click the button. I love living on acreage with all the animals around, although, I was a bit disturbed when I entered my office tonight and a huge cane toad jumped out in front of me ... eeeeeek ... how did that thing get into the house!!! Forever a mystery ... enjoy the christmas spirit.

"Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year - and yet, for all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority."
~W.J. Cameron~

On the third day of Christmas ...

2009-12-15T21:23:00.002+10:00

I just looked at the countdown to Christmas widget on my blog and I can't believe there are only 9 days until Christmas ... I still don't have my Christmas cards out yet.

[Not quite 3 French Hens, but you get the drift.]

But the good thing about the lead up to Christmas is opening gifts before Christmas Day and today was Day 3 in the Art Sisters Yahoo Group 12 Days of Christmas Exchange, and it comes. from the gorgeous Nic Hohn (http://nichohn.blogspot.com/).

The packaging, a sewn envelope out of an old map.

Close up of the details (courtesy of Nic's blog ... a much nicer picture than I had)

The gorgeous hand painted hand sewn "Love Heart".

"He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree."
~Roy L. Smith~

On the second day of Christmas ...

2009-12-14T06:01:00.000+10:00

Today is Day 2 of opening presents made by some of the members through the Art Sisters Yahoo Group. I opened a beautiful gift made by Kasha Rolley (http://kasharolley.blogspot.com/), that I would definitely wear ... it's just beautiful.

How cute is the packaging.

and the gorgeous necklace.

Bring on Day 3 ... I'm off to work now.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

On the first day of Christmas ...

2009-12-13T10:36:00.001+10:00

This year I joined the Australian Art Sisters Yahoo Group 12 Days of Christmas Swap and today is Day 1, so I got to open a gorgeous gift handcrafted by Gaye Todd (http://from-the-rooftops.blogspot.com/). I got a bit excited and forgot to photograph the package before I ripped it open, but here's the packaging anyway (LOL). Gaye created this gorgeous 2010 Calendar and I think it's a fabulous idea ... I've already hung it on my wall in front of my computer.

Here's more details of the beautiful collage Gaye created.

On another note, I've been following Tim Holtz' 12 Days of Christmas Tags and they are definitely worth seeing (visit Tim's blog here http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/). Step-by-step instructions were provided on how to make each tag and I learned so much from the techniques he used. As well as the gorgeous tags, Tim ran a competition each day for all those that followed the blog and left comments and on Day 9 I found out I'd won ... how exciting. We had 24 hours to get in touch with Tim and then he would mail out a gift, so watch this space for a picture of whatever I get.

"Somehow, not only for Christmas But all the long year through, the joy you give to others is the joy that comes back to you."
~John Greenleaf Whittier~

Spirit of Christmas

2009-12-09T22:58:00.002+10:00

Some of the local ATC girls got together last Friday night for a Christmas dinner. We each made an ATC form the Twelve Days of Christmas. Here's my take on the theme.

10 Lords a Leaping

Here are some pictures from the night:

Belynda sitting pretty.

Vicki and Sarah ... who looks lovely with that smile by the way.

Kyla successfully comforting Belynda's baby Savannah???

A blurry Diana and Jan ... photographer must have had a few too many.

Diana & Pam self portrait ... another photographer that had a few too many.

Definitely the end of the night ... Diana and Tanya (who would not get a photo taken)

And some of the gorgeous Lyndal Grant, scrapbook teacher extraordinaire from Scrapbooks Etc, who I'm going to miss desperately now that I'm working full-time:

And my beautiful niece at her Christmas concert from last week:

Singing a Wiggles song.

Santa still didn't give Alexis a Mermaid Barbie with Pink Hair ... when is Santa going to get it right?

And I still haven't made my Christmas Cards ... everyone will be receiving them late this year!!

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."
~Norman Vincent Peale~

A new ATC and weekend get-a-way

2009-12-02T07:31:00.005+10:00

I get together with the Addicted to Scrap group once a month for an ATC Swap and the latest themes are November - Zettiology (or Zetti) and Spring and December has the theme of Disney. It was decided that we would meet early December and swap all three sets of ATCs, but this has now fallen through due to everyone being busy in the lead up to Christmas so now the ATCs won't be due until January ... I'm actually quite glad 'cause I was starting to run out of time getting all my projects completed before I start my new full-time job next week. I did, however, finish my Zetti's and took all of my inspiration from Jade Adams (http://jades-funki-junk.blogspot.com/ ), who is the "Zetti Queen" other than Teesha Moore (http://teeshascircus.blogspot.com/) of course. The card does has my face chopped down a bit.

Ferg, Beau and I went away camping with some friends in Canungra last weekend and had an absolutely ball. The camp-site was right on the river, and we spent most of our time in it as it was so hot all weekend. Beau had a great time too and has always been a little hesitant about getting into water especially when his paws don't touch the ground, but he ended up spending all Sunday swimming in the river too ... we were like proud parents watching their child take their first steps.

Beau eagerly waiting for us to leave as we're still packing up the car.

Our Camp Site.

Beau not quite sure about the water, but eventually puts his paws in.

A little further and then bingo ... he's swimming.

Beau swam all the way to the other side of the river a number of times ... how clever he is.

It was all a bit much for Beau.

... and Kyla too.

But there's always cheese, bikkies and wine at the end of the day with Kyla, me and Pam.

"The man or woman who treasures his friends is usually solid gold himself."
~Marjorie Holmes, Author~

In the 'Nick' of time ...

2009-11-26T19:00:00.001+10:00

I joined a project through the Australian Art Sisters Yahoo Group called the 12 days of Christmas. There are 12 players, we each make 12 gifts (or 11 gifts if you don't want to make one for yourself) and each have a number from 1 to 12. On the 13th December, we start opening the gifts right up until Christmas ... it's very exciting.

I tossed and turned about what I was going to make and finally something came together, although it wasn't what I originally had in mind ... but you'll have to wait until 21st December to see what it is because I'm number 8 and I can't post a photo of it until everyone has opened their little pressies.

Here are the packages all ready to go ...

And here are some pics of my fur-baby, Beau, that I took today ... gosh he's a good looking dog and I love him to bits!

The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.
~Anonymous~

Handmade Gift

2009-11-25T17:30:00.000+10:00

My friend Tanya (http://tanyastreehouse.blogspot.com/) makes these gorgeous Voodoo Dolls to sell and gave me one as a gift on the proviso that I make something for her in return. It's probably been close to a year since she gave me the doll and I finally sat down yesterday and made something for her (especially since it's her birthday next week).

So here's my very first attempt at hand making / sewing a doll-type item and I chose a bird that I saw on Samm Menzies' blog last year (you'll find a picture of Samm's birds on this post http://sammiam.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/taking-a-deep-breath/ ... much more beautiful than mine). The actual template comes from another site Spool (here's the link to the pattern - http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/birdpattern1-1.pdf ) and it looks really easy to do, but when you're not very good at using a sewing machine, or reading a pattern and you've used a fabric that frays, it's actually more challenging that it looks.

Anyway, I think I've made good on my promise to give Tanya a hand-made item and I'm pretty sure I won't be making any others (so no orders please) ... but you never know!!!

"A true friend is the most precious of all possessions and the one we take the least thought about acquiring."
~François de La Rochefoucauld~

A trip down memory lane

2009-11-23T14:47:00.002+10:00

It came in the mail today ... a printed book of all my blog posts for the whole of 2008 that I ordered through http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ . I'm enjoying reading back on the evolution of my art, my life journey, as well as watching my niece grow, losing our family pet - Ed the Dalmation (which still brings tears to my eyes), and gaining our gorgeous Beau. There's also the friends I've made, the competitions I've won, the art I've received and some memorable events I've attended ... it's all there ... in print.

It's not to say that I don't love the internet and technology ... I do ... as I've met wonderful people I now feel are friends through cyber-land and blogging ... but there's just nothing like holding a beautifully printed book or magazine, and it's even better if everything in it is all about you. Besides, I always wondered what might happen with all the information and photographs on all the millions of blogs all over the world ... will the space for saving all that data ever run out?

There are a few things I would consider for next time: (a) one is any hyperlinks behind a word don't print out, so if you want a record of complete web addresses, best to have them in full in your post; (b) in terms of formatting, I always have my pictures appear in my blog on their own and centred instead of having the text wrap around the image, I think text wrapping would provide a better looking printed format because there are some pages that have a lot of white space in the book (not that it really matters); and (c) my plan is to print out each year of my blog into a book, so it would have been better if I'd printed it out closer to the year I was printing out (ie, early 2009 for end 2008). The reason for this is I recently changed the title of my blog from Live your Dreams (which is what it was in 2008) to Art and Play, which is what it is now ... so the title of my book is not truly indicative of my 2008 year of blogging, but maybe I'm just being really pedantic.

I'm truly happy with my purchase and it's much quicker to press a button to print my blog into a book than it is to scapbook, journal or make an altered book about that year of my life ... even though I will still create art in some form from my life.

"If you want to know your past - look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future - look into your present actions."
~Chinese Proverb~

It's so very hot ...

2009-11-22T12:25:00.003+10:00

My three year old niece, Alexis, started today off saying "Di, are you all sweaty?" "Yes boo, I'm all sweaty." "I'm all sweaty too, and when you're all sweaty, you really need to go in the pool!" ... it's so funny, she will try anything to manipulate the grown-ups to get in the pool. At 8am it was already 28 degrees celsius (approximately 83 degrees fahrenheit).

I haven't yet gone into the pool, but the chances are good as it's just after midday and at least 30 degrees (86 fahrenheit) ... my niece has already been in 3 times with the other grown-ups in the household ... I'm the last one to go in.

Here's my new favourite book ... Altered Books Workshop by Bev Brazelton. This may not be the book for you if you're an advanced mixed media artist, however, I am just loving it as it shows me step-by-step how to do each technique with a corresponding picture ... for those visual learners (like me). The techniques in this book are for beginner to intermediate and beyond ... I totally recommend it if you're new to altering a book.

"How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!"

~John Muir, 1838-1914, Scottish-born Environmentalist and Naturalist~

More Altered Board Book Pages

2009-11-20T20:33:00.000+10:00

Here's a couple more board book pages from a book I'm altering with a group of girls in Brisbane. At the beginning of the year we agreed to use 12 techniques and I've now done them all.

I'd already scanned a picture of this layout using tea bags and the cuttlebug a little while ago ...

and it now looks like this ...

Here's beeswax and fabric ... every time I open to this double page the smell of beeswax wafts nicely up my nose.

Here's my latest double page with texture paste and transparency. I'm not quite sure that it's finished yet, I may do some stamping around the words to blend the edges of the transparency in, but am still undecided so the pages will stay like this until I meet with the girls tomorrow.

Enjoy and keep smiling.

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
~Nelson Mandela, South African Statesman and Nobel Prize Winner~

Tarot Card ATC Swap

2009-11-12T07:53:00.000+10:00

I just finished my ATCs for a Tarot Card themed swap through Advanced ATCs UK Yahoo Group. The hostess Laura Carson set up a table and we were to choose 4 out of the 52 themes. The images all came from Valerie Brincheck's blog as well as some inspiration in using rust and also the one with mica and fibre was inspired by the lovely Shelly Sessions, although she hasn't blogged in a little while. I was a bit challenged having chosen male themes, but once I got started it all just flowed.

The Emperor

The Ace of Pentacles

The Page of Cups

The King of Pentacles

"The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and their destination."
~John Schaar, a sociologist and professor emeritus at the University of California Santa Cruz~

This is who I am ...

2009-11-11T16:24:00.004+10:00

I heard this song the other day on the radio and loved the words ... of course they didn't name the artist and I had no idea who the singer was, so have been channel surfing constantly since to hear it again. Today whilst I was driving home, they played it again, so I wrote down some of the words and did a search on the internet and found out it's Vanessa Amorosi's latest single called This Is Who I Am ... check it out:

And here are the words ... they really resonate with me and my life:

I spend my life

Trying to do things right

but all I do is fall to my face with my hands and my hips so many times

but then I learned

after being burnt

to get back up, push straight on, stop the tears,

people move on

ooonnnn

{Chorus}

Well it's alright to be myself,

Now I've Learned To Stand

Well its OK to be just who I am

I've spent years really hating me

longing to be friends

Now I hope that you can understand,

This Is Who I Am

Now when life gets tough

I'm quick to hurry up

I run all day

I run through the night

I'll break down walls, I'll hit up high

I don't care if I'm fat,

Or if you think my clothes are bad

Yet i can go to sleep at night I'm a good person and I'll get by, I!!

I need someone, someone someone, someone like me

You deserve, deserve, deserve to have me

Because your world keeps spinning

And don't try to turn it

Oh, take a breather this is who I ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah Am.

"The judgment of others does not change who I am. Quite the opposite is true. It reveals who they are."
~Terry McPhearson ~

Happy Birthday ...

2009-11-10T11:30:00.001+10:00

It was my husband's birthday on Saturday, 7th November and we celebrated in style. We started with a few too many drinks on Friday night with my younger brother - David - who flew up from Sydney. On Saturday, we picked up my younger sister - Natalie - who also flew up from Sydney for the weekend and made our way to Paradise Point to have a picnic in the park. It was a gorgeous warm day with a little bit of a breeze ... just perfect for a day out. That night, Ferg and I went to see the new Australian Outback show ... all in all a great way to celebrate a birthday.

Here are some pictures of our day ...

My gorgeous niece Alexis, who was being camera shy all day and this is only picture I could get.

My brother in-law Dave & little Harry who is nearly 9 months old.

The birthday boy, Ferg cutting the cake - lemon meringue pie, yum.

The siblings - me - oldest, Natalie - youngest, Sylvia - second, David third.

Ferg and I at Australian Outback.

"When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses."
~Joyce Brothers, American Psychologist/Columnist/Author~

Magazine ATC Swap & Award

2009-11-09T15:18:00.002+10:00

Magazine ATC Swap

This month's theme for the face-to-face ATC swap is to use magazines and here are my cards:

It was actually more challenging than I thought it would be, but I'm sure these will do for the swap. I quite liked two of them, so kept these for myself.

Blog Award

The gorgeous Kate Crane awarded me with another Blog Award ... thanks so much hun. There are a few "rules" for accepting this award, namely: (a) thank the person who gave the award ... tick; (b) copy the logo onto your blog ... tick; (c) link the person to your blog ... tick; (d) pass onto 7 others ... tick (see below); and (e) list 7 things that no-one really knows about you ... hmmmm, I'm pretty much an open book, so will list a few things below that hopefully others don't really know about me, so ... tick:

I always wanted to be an archeologist, but never got around to getting an education in this field.
I left school after finishing year 10 at the ripe old age of 15 (ie, didn't go on to year 11 and 12 to get my Higher School Certificate), but still managed to complete a Bachelor of Business degree part-time as a mature age student.
I love all the Harry Potter books and films and am in awe of J K Rowling for creating such an imaginative story, that has taken the world by storm.
I love living on the land and am considering going back to university to get an agricultural degree.
I never understood people's obsessions with their pets, until we got a dog of our own ... I am utterly in love with my pooch Beau and want to take him everywhere with me ... our holidays are even planned around getting pet friendly accommodation!
When I have an ATC deadline looming, I spend every waking moment creating what I'm going to make in my mind ... it doesn't stop until I make a draft ATC, so a lot of the time I've got to "just-do-it" or I end up having sleepless nights.
I avoid conflict at all costs.

I pass this award onto some fabulous creative people whose blogs I love to frequent:-

Kyla deRuiter - http://kyladeruiter.blogspot.com/
Tanya French - http://tanyastreehouse.blogspot.com/
Belynda Duffill - http://belynda-leeduffill.blogspot.com/
Barb Thomas - http://somethingztocrowabout.blogspot.com/
Bevlea Ross - http://soularts.typepad.com/soularts/
Elizabeth Harms - http://thequeenoftoys.blogspot.com/
Samantha Marshall - http://artjunket.blogspot.com/

That's all for now, until next time keep creating up a storm.

"When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character."
~W.Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965, British Novelist and Playwright~

Digital ATCs

2009-11-07T18:22:00.000+10:00

I decided that as a moderator on ATC_World, it would be good if I support more of the swaps that are being hosted through the group, so I decided to join the Digital Duo swap run by Lois Richter. I've never altered a photo digitally except to change the colour to black & white or sepia. I don't have photoshop, so decided to download Picasa and see what that program can do and there are a few different things on the program than what my Kodak software has, so had a bit of a play. The terms of the swap are to send 4 ATCs of the Original or Before photo and then send 4 ATCs of the Altered or After photo, and here they are:-

Statue Before any alterations.

Statue After alterations.

"The displacement of a little sand can change occasionally the course of deep rivers."
~Manuel Gonzalez Prada, Horas de lucha (1908)~

The race that stops a nation ...

2009-11-06T11:34:00.000+10:00

The first Tuesday of November each year brings the Melbourne Cup, a horse race that stops a nation. I always do a scrapbook class with the talented Lyndal Grant at Scrapbooks Etc, where we also have a Cup Day party by bringing along a plate of food to share, play in the sweep and of course we don our fancy hats.

Here are a couple of pics from the day:

All the ladies, with their hats.

Lyndal our illustrious Teacher (I was a bit far away so the picture's not so great)

The food spread ... so delicious.

Each of Susan's cupcakes has the number of a horse ... even the scratched one ... so cool.

Here I am holding my horse numbered cup-cakes ... number 5 came in third place so I won my money back!

"Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see a bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses."
~Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955, American Author and Achievement Expert~

KYPADI Altered Book Group

2009-11-01T18:58:00.001+10:00

Along with two friends (Kyla and Pam), we decided to get together at least once a month to learn how to alter a book. Pam and Kyla both chose the theme of "nature" and I'd just bought a Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tale book from our local Op Shop for $2 so decided to alter that. I just loved what Kyla and Pam were doing with nature, so decided to change my theme of "fairy tales" to "The Nature of Fairy Tales", so I can also incorporate nature into my book too, whilst also relating to the particular fairy tale that appears on the spread.

Here are the pictures of what I've done so far ... there have already been some great learning experiences as well:

So here's the cover of my book as it stands ... it won't look like this at the end.

The first technique we were all to attempt is Beeswax. My first spread is the fairy tale Wild Swans. Throughout the book there are drawn pictures and printed pictures, which I plan to use as much as possible. On this spread I covered the pages lightly with gesso, then sprayed with Olive & Old Leather Glimmer Mists. I didn't realise this, but the glimmer mists react with gesso and gave the pages this cool marble effect that I really like. I hand coloured the picture with watercolour pencils, and glued it back into the book, then stamped around the edges. I added leaves from our property (also stamped so they'd tie in with the background) and sewing thread randomly placed around the pages before covering it all with beeswax.

Technique number two is "Found Words", where we were to use the words that appear in the book but have them say something different. No fairy tale being depicted this time as I wanted my design to tie in with the the words ... "Radiant and beautiful, she is delicate tender and kind. Remember speak into the heart of the fairy and like a dream, the hope of the sunset came, though it must be fresh, they found for their sakes." The words probably don't mean that much, but I thought they were somewhat poetic relating to a fairy and a sunset. So my spread starts with a painted background, Tim Holtz stamps in orange and yellow. Gold, Patina, Lime Green & Spanish Copper rub 'n' buff rubbed around the edges. A fairy I created with leaves as wings, a stick as a staff and bits of paper-bark added around.

There were a number of learning experiences with this technique ... originally I'd blanked out the words with masking fluid and when I tried to remove it, the words and pages ripped out as well (see image below). Luckily, I'd photocopied the page to practice which words I was going to use, so ended up adding the photocopied page back into the book ... probably a bit of a cheat, but I wanted to stick with what I'd come up with.

So after realising that masking fluid might work great on watercolour paper, it doesn't work so great on old text paper, so I started cutting out the sticky bit of "post-it notes" to fit over the words. Another learning experience from Pam is to have a copy of your words, 'cause when you've painted over your little post-it notes, they're really hard to find and lift up ... but they did work a treat.

Technique number 3 that we're all going to have a go at is "Masking Tape". I saw an article in Somerset Studio (Volume 12, Issue 2) where the artist Donna Bauermiller used Masking Tape in her art journals and we all loved how it turned out, so that's what we're to do next ... but because I'm having so much fun, I decided to try another technique that I read about in "Altered Books Workshop" by Bev Brazelton called Stippling. The fairy tale is the Ugly Duckling, so I left the words and a drawn picture to show through. I started with a stippling or stencilling brush in Ranger Antique Linen Distress Ink, then used Adirondack Ginger, the next layer is a light coverage of Adirondack Espresso. I ripped a piece of paper and then placed this around the edges and stippled Espresso ink to create the border. I cut out one of the Ugly Duckling printed pictues and stuck them on top of the drawn picture and stuck the Ugly Duckling image in with foam tape so he stood out a little. I added words from the actual fairy tale and on the left a few feathers adhered with more words.

This is what I've done so far, so when I've got more to show, I'll post again.

"I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."
~Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1878-1969, American Clergyman~

Miniature Journal Round Robin

2009-10-25T19:52:00.002+10:00

I was invited to join a private Miniature Journal Round Robin through Teresa (Treez), who happens to also be a member of the Advanced ATCs UK Yahoo Group. The participants of the round robin are: Alison Brandist (UK), Valerie Brincheck (USA), Joni Owens (USA), Suze Urquhart (UK), Sandra Zengler (Scotland), Treez Malyon (UK) and of course myself all the way Down Under in Australia. The journal is the smallest canvas I've had to work on to date, with a tiny size of approximately 2" x 2", with another inch as the border.

I managed to finish all my pages this weekend, so they will be sent all over the world tomorrow and here are the themes and the person I'll be sending my page to:

MY THEME IS CHILDHOOD

Each participant must create their piece with a picture of at least their head as a child. My piece has a picture of my head as I sleep. The background is a scrap piece of baby wipe with leftover paint on it ... I love it when I can recycle items.

VALERIE - BIRDS

I received the background piece of a dictionary or encyclopedia page with definitions of the Eagle from someone I traded with in the past, I used Tim Holtz stamps and added the image of a bald headed eagle and a feather attached with a small stapler. This is quite a simple layout, but I just love it.

ALISON - PAST TIMES

Ali wanted her Past Times theme in Tim Holtz Style. Now I don't know Tim Holtz' style very well, so I figured if I use Ranger products and stamps, I'd be on my way. The image is a real tin type gem photo that I picked up on eBay recently.

JONI - BEACH / SEASHORE

The blue background is a leftover piece I created using the credit card technique and I think the vibrancy of the colour is just perfect for this beach scene.

SUZE - WINGED TIME

I have wanted to use this paper with the clocks all over it and Winged Time was the perfect medium. Again another simple layout, but I felt if I added more to the piece the simplicity of the message would be overpowered.

SANDRA - CATS OR DOGS

I decided to use a picture of my beautiful Beau when he was a little puppy for Sandra's theme. I adore my pooch and he's still just a cute, just a lot bigger.

TREEZ - OLDE WORLDE

A treasure map where the X marks the spot with a pirate, is pretty Olde Worlde.

When I've received all the pages for my miniature journal and I've finished the cover, I'll be sure to post again to show you how everyone has interpreted my theme.

"No matter how small and unimportant what we are doing may seem, if we do it well, it may soon become the step that will lead us to better things."
~Channing Pollock, Actor, Writer and Composer~

Magazine Reduction Challenge

2009-10-24T21:29:00.000+10:00

The uber-talented Jade Adams ran a challenge/trade on her blog for players to try a technique created by Vivian Young McDonald called Magazine Reduction. I decided to play and here's my creation and Jade's piece. I learned a few things, like, more ripping, less glue and I had to be careful not to go through the final magazine page layer ... it was fun though and I can now use it as a digital background for something else I create in the future.

Rouge Reduction - Magazine Reduction technique by Diana.

Sea Magazine Collage - Magazine Reduction Technique by Jade Adams.

"We turn not older with years, but newer every day."
~Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American Poet~

Arting, crafting and getting away ...

2009-10-23T07:38:00.001+10:00

I don't know how you all do it, I've been working full-time for the past 2.5 weeks in a temp contract after not working for 3.5 years and I honestly believe you need to build up your stamina to work full-time ... so I decided to let the agencies know that I wasn't available for 2 weeks, 'cause I needed 2 weeks to recover ... LOL!

Anyway, there has been some arting and crafting in that time, I just haven't posted about it all, so I'll start with my latest ATCs and then I'll finish with the fantastic weekend I just spent in Hervey Bay ... so grab a cuppa, this post might be a long one, but I plan on adding pictures more than words.

These ATCs were made for a local swap in Helensvale where we meet face-to-face at a local shopping centre. Usually a theme is set and also no theme. Last month's theme was Vintage Baby and I didn't make them so I did for this month's swap. This month's theme is Winged Things and the Double Trouble ATC is for the no theme component of the swap. I didn't actually attend the swap, so the lovely Kyla swapped my cards out for me.

Double Trouble, inspired by Jade Adams with the doodling around the images and the images from Itkupilli.

Winged Things ATC, image courtesy of Valerie Brincheck.

Vintage Baby ATC. Kyla and I got the matt-board frames made ourselves by our local framer, how cool is that.

The reason I didn't attend the swap on Sunday is because I'd booked in to do a Journalling into Fun workshop with the gorgeous Nic Hohn who I met at the Creative Soul Retreat in March this year. I decided to make a weekend of it, so on Friday after work, my husband Ferg and my pooch Beau jumped in the car and made the 5 hour journey from Brisbane to Burrum Heads (near Hervey Bay) with one pit-stop for food and for Beau to stretch his legs too. Our little apartment at Burrum Sands was approximately 20 steps away from the beach and it was the most perfect quiet place to bring a dog away for a holiday. On the Saturday we went for a 3.5 hour walk on the beach and boy did my calves feel it the next day.

The beach after high-tide as it's going out.

Beau can play ball forever.

A little downtime under a mangrove.

Low tide ... where's all the water gone?

Burrum Sands view from the Beach.

Nic in teaching mode.

My Creative Footprint - my first ever journal page ... I love it.

The facing Page.

and here's the real thing ... the foot that is.

Splat Girl - paint and magazine images.

Created with marbles.

Hard at work.

The lovely Nic and me.

All of us with our gorgeous art journals.

And to top of the most perfect weekend, Nic presented me with a handpainted canvas as a gift for travelling to her workshop .... Paper Bag Angel ... and I just adore it. A big thanks to Nic for not only being a fantastic teacher, but also for sending me some photos through for my blog ... my camera ran out of battery

The End!

"Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it and you'll start believing in it."
~Jesse Owens, 1913-1980, Gold Medal Track Athlete~

The week that was ...

2009-09-27T08:34:00.008+10:00

We've had quite a week in Queensland, on Wednesday a dust storm that smothered New South Wales made its way to us. We were hit with strong winds and low visibility on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane. On the roads everyone was driving with their head lights on as if there was a big storm or misty.

I was reading in the newspaper that on a normal day we might have around 10 micrograms of particles per cubic metre of air and a bushfire might generate 500 micrograms. The levels on Wednesday soared to 15,400 micrograms per cubic metre of air in some areas ... that’s just incredible. The Bureau of Meteorolgy said the storm in NSW was the worst in 70 years, if not the history of the state. It’s all due to the fact that we just haven’t had much rain in the last 6 months, so the drought ravaged country areas have been really affected by these fierce winds.

I have received some cool photos of the dust storm via email from my sister in Sydney and also some from our local area, so check them out:

A picture of the Sun when I was in Underwood, Brisbane.

The M1 freeway travelling back from Brisbane to Gold Coast.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge.

A view of Kings Cross, Sydney.

I have made a couple of ATCs for two local swaps this week. The first one is for the Addicted to Scrap swap and the theme was Italian Renaissance, so I used up a stamp I had in my stash that I hadn't used before. I love the quote on this stamp by Da Vinci "Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful more simple or more direct than does Nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous."

Leonardo da Vinci

This ATC was made for a face-to-face swap and I've used the images from Itkupilli Etsy Shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7021557 - I picked up this link from Jade Adams who made an ATC using these creepy doll images ... I think they're divine. I think I might choose a new backgroud from Itkupilli for my blog ... I'm off to check them out now.

"All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them." ~Walt Disney, 1901-1966, Cartoon Artist and Producer~

Happenings and creations ...

2009-09-08T17:24:00.014+10:00

My love affair with paper started when I was quite young (I much preferred stationery as a gift than toys or clothes) and then after years of studying and working, it was rekindled again when I discovered scrapbooking 8 years ago. This love affair has evolved into anything mixed media and the last 18 months has seen me use more products and techniques than I ever imagined possible, in making ATCs.

Last weekend I went away for a crafty / arty weekend and for the first time in ages I was back in the swing of scrapbooking. I still go to my local scrapbook shop at least 3 times a month to do a scrapbook class (so I get through my photos) and the last year has seen all the layouts piling up because I haven't added photos, or a title, some embellishments or journalling ... so it felt really really good to finish a bunch of layouts from a holiday taken overseas in October 2007. I'm still not completely done with the whole trip, but I feel organised and have printed all the photos and now just need to complete the finishing touches.

So here are some pictures from the weekend ...

Here I am doing some scrapbooking.

We awoke to a cool misty morning Saturday.

I shared a cabin with Sandra & Jill ... same one as last year.

A local deli ... my coffee saviour over the weekend.

I left early on the Sunday to attend my niece's 3rd birthday party, but on the way home I couldn't resist the "markets" sign and had to stop in. They had loads of stalls with vintage pieces and I bought this old Italian book and ruler.

My niece Alexis, 3 years old, with her Barbie birthday cake.

Me and Alexis.

My nephew Harry has to get in on the action too.

Here's my latest ATC creation for the Fan Swap through Advanced Artist Trading Cards UK Yahoo Group. I've scanned each individual blade before I put the whole thing together and added embellishments. The theme for this piece is the "Evolution of Life" and it encompasses major experiences in one's life such as birth; education/attainment of knowledge and skills; sharing of life with a significant other; acquisition of a home, car or even having children; then the end / a funeral. I am sending my creation to Suze Urquhart in the UK.

The beginning / birth.

Attainment of knowledge / skills.

Sharing life with another.

Acquisition of house, car or having children.

A funeral / the end.

The fan all together.

A close up of some of the detail.

I received my fan from Heather Fenn-Edwards also in the UK and it's just fantastic. Heather hand made the dragonfly embellishment and is going to be published with this beautiful bead-work, so I'm one of the first to see it.

ATC Fan by Heather Fenn-Edwards.

The amazing dragonfly.

Beautiful bead-work ... a skill that escapes me.

Lovely fibres and beads.

"Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities - always see them, for they're always there."
~Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, 1898-1993, Author of The Power of Positive Thinking~

Blog Awards Galore

2009-09-01T13:12:00.008+10:00

I recently received not one, but two blog awards ... both from lovely and creative ladies. The first one is from Kate in the UK:

and the other award is from the lovely Barb in Wagga Wagga, NSW Australia:

For the award from Barb, I'm supposed to list 5 things that I love and choose 10 of my favourite blogs, so other than my beautiful husband, my friends and relatives my top 5 things are:

My fur-baby, Beau ... I never knew how much love I could give a dog until I owned one.
Creating art and trying new techniques.
Going to a craft fair, recycle centre or a flea market with my fellow arty friends and a great find at either that I can use in my art.
Taking in the wonder of nature, whether on our property, beautiful vistas discovered on trips or just the sound of the ocean.
A glass of good red wine and good conversation ... nothing beats it.

And I send both awards to the people listed below, if they choose to accept them:

Kyla - beautiful art ... if only she'd update her art more often.
Shelly - a gorgeous person and great artist, I'd love to see more of her creations more often.
Nic - another beautiful creative soul
Marion B - such inspiration and the postage people queen.
Samantha - such a diverse variety of art.
Elizabeth - such a giving soul and more great art.
Jo - an amazing painter and creator of art dolls.
Jen - artiste extraordinaire.
Kathy - fantastic artist.
Lynette - such talent ... and personality
Kate - I'll be sending the 2nd award as her art is just beautiful.

All fantastic artists in their own right and even if they don't accept blog awards, I want them to know that I love to visit their blogs and look at their art.

Thanks ladies for thinking I am deserving of these awards.

Giveaway

2009-08-31T14:28:00.004+10:00

I was visiting the lovely Eliza's blog and she pointed me in the direction of Jo James' blog, so I had to go and see her creations. Her dolls are wonderful and she is celebrating her 200th blog post by giving away an art doll and some patterns.

So go and check it out by clicking on this link to find out more - http://thecartbeforethehorse.blogspot.com/2009/08/200-posts-and-giveaway-or-two.html.

"We say that a girl with her doll anticipates the mother. It is more true, perhaps, that most mothers are still but children with playthings."
~F. H. Bradley~

Medieval & Winter ATC Swap

2009-08-28T06:59:00.009+10:00

A quick post today as I'm getting organised to go away for a weekend of crafting.

I met up with some ladies for an ATC swap at a lovely cafe yesterday. There were two themes this month, the monthly theme of Medieval and the quarterly theme of Winter.

My Medieval ATC is based on the 'heretics' and burning of the witches of the time. The first layer is a seviette background in grey tones, with 3 colours of paint added with a brayer - white, grey and black. I rubbed a wooden skewer into white and red paint to add the lines, glued a bit of red German Scrap along the base and rubbed a black metallic rub around the whole perimeter.

The Winter ATC started off with a piece of Basic Grey patterned paper from last year's christmas range ... I love the wintery cool colour of this paper. I stamped the trees with pine cone coloured ink and went over the top of it in the same position with a glue ink pad and added white flocking ... it's difficult to see in the picture but it's all soft and fluffy looking. I inked around the edges in a Nagara Mist coloured chalk ink.

I went for a walk the other day with my husband and look what we found under a large tree ... a tiny little nest. It's just the cutest thing and really small, it fit in the palm of my hand. It's quite amazing to see all the little bits and pieces the birds place inside a nest to make it all comfy for the eggs ... it's a shame they didn't stick this one in the tree very well.

I'm off to a weekend of crafting up at Mt Tamborine this afternoon, so I look forward to catching up on everyone's blogs and creations when I return on Sunday .... have a great one.

"Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it."
~William Feather, 1889-1981, Writer~

Art Sisters - AOTM

2009-08-23T08:08:00.007+10:00

The time has come to complete my monthly creation for the Art Sisters Yahoo Group Art of the Month project. This month I post to Jacky and Samm posts to me ... both amazing artists so take the time to visit their blogs. I always look forward to when the end of the month comes near, so I get to see what amazing creations everyone on the group has made. I was also happy to find that Jacky loves birds, nature, fabric, collage and all colours, which allowed me free reign for my creation this month.

This time I decided to alter the cover of a notebook that I'd bought recently at the Scrapbooks Etc Trash & Treasure. The cover was burgundy, which I quite liked, but you can't see any of it on the end product. I started with cheesecloth glued onto the cover, then a serviette over the top of that so there was a fabric texture. I coloured the serviette with Olive and Creme de Cocoa glimmer mists and found it was too dark, so added another nest from the serviette with a piece of white paper underneath so you could actually see the detail. I used Patina and Spanish Copper Rub 'n' Buff around the edges as well as copper foil tape and german scrap along the bottom.

The chipboard bird is covered with paper from an English / Japanese dictionary with the definition of bird. It has been coloured with Walnut Ink, coated with crackle medium and once dry Espresso alcohol inks to accentuate the cracks. The microscope slide has a feather stuck between the two pieces of glass, again with copper foil tape and aged with Patina & Spanish Copper Rub 'n' Buff, held in place with rusty wire. I was a little disappointed that my microscope slide cracked, but then felt the "rustic-ness" of the broken glass added to the piece.

It'll be in the mail this week to Jacky, so I hope she likes it.

"Out of difficulties grow miracles."
~Jean de La Bruyère, 1645-1696, French Writer~

A Favourite Holiday Photo

2009-08-20T08:27:00.007+10:00

Sometime ago I posted a picture of a photo onto our local newspaper's website (News.com) that I'd taken when Ferg and I went camping on Fraser Island, then yesterday Ferg emails me to say he'd done a search of our name online, and up pops our photo.

Here's the link to access our photo and 19 others that News.com says are a "selection of the best travel photos" - http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/gallery/0,21592,5028152-5007153-10,00.html. Or if it's no longer there, here's a picture of it on the page.

"It is good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven't lost the things money can't buy."
~George Lorimer, 1867-1937, Editor of Saturday Evening Post~