Happy Australia Day ...

Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated every year on 26th January, the day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the unfurling of the British flag at Sydney Cove and the proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia.

Australia Day is an official public holiday in every state and territory of Australia, so most businesses do not operate ... although in recent years, most retail outlets and restaurants do now open.

When we lived in Sydney, Ferg and I would always go into the city with friends as there was a food and wine fair held in Hyde Park. We'd have our fill of foreign foods and then make our way to a pub at The Rocks, drinking and laughing the night away.

Now that we're on the Gold Coast, we'll be going to a friends house for a good old Aussie lamb on the barbie ... that'll make Sam Kekovich happy (check out the videos below) ...

HAVE A GREAT AUSTRALIA DAY!

Blog Play ...

Blog-land is full of fun things to do and I was attracted to this one that my friend Shelly posted on her blog. The game is to Go to the "Pictures" file of your hard drive. Choose the sixth folder. Now, open the folder and choose the sixth picture from that folder. The picture that comes up is the one you are to post.

The photo that came up is of our beautiful puppy Beau and it was taken on 27th September 2008. He was 8 weeks old in this photo and we would have been in our family for just over a week. The little darling is chewing on an old pair of Ferg's socks ... I just think he's the cutest thing.

We just went away this weekend with Ferg's mother-in-law up to the Sunshine Coast and I was suffering from separation anxiety being away from my baby ... he's 2 weeks shy of turning 6 months old and is now 15 kgs and really big so it was quite nice to visit a photo of him when he was an itty bitty thing.

"Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well."
~Josh Billings, 1818-1885, American Humorist and Lecturer~

Naked Lady ...

I finished my ATCs for the Naked Lady swap through Addicted to Scrap due at the end of January.

This ATC is quite different to what I normally do, for instance, it's off-white and lately I've been using a lot of colour especially red & copper ... I've used pieces of tulle, fabric & lace and had good intentions of sewing these on, but was afraid the cardboard might be too thick so just used gel medium to stick them on instead. I nearly left the edges plain, but I kept thinking the ATC wasn't finished so I used Spanish Copper Rub 'n' Buff and although it just looks like a brown edge, if you tilt the card up to the light you can see a copper sheen, it quite subtle.

I used a translation web-site for the words "Dame Nue", which are supposed to say "Naked Lady" in French, but whether this is true or not, I have no idea ... still, I thought it could be right, so I used it.

What a grand thing, to be loved!
What a grander thing still, to love!
~Victor Hugo, 1802-1885, French Poet/Dramatist/Novelist~

Happy Birthday ...

It was the lovely and talented Shelly's birthday yesterday and I'd made her an ATC to celebrate this occasion about 2 weeks ago, but couldn't post a picture of it until she'd received it of course.

She's a bit of a fan of Gerard Butler (and after watching Tomb Raider again last week I can see why ... he's quite easy on the eye) so I used a picture of him as the focal point of this card and did the transfer technique, which is quite unpredictible although I quite like the 'rustic-ness' of how he turned out.

"Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world."
~John Evelyn, 1620-1706, English Diarist/Writer/Gardener~

Gargoyle

Some of the members of ATC_World started posting pictures of their Gargoyle ATCs and I thought they were awesome, so at the last moment I decided to play even though my mum & dad have only just left to go back to Sydney and my mother-in-law arrived on Monday from Ireland (the great thing about overseas travel is jetlag ... so I've been able to duck away into my craft room a little bit and finish my ATCs)!!

Here is my Gargoyle ATC with the title "Grotesquerie" ... I borrowed that word from one of the Anne Rice Vampire Chonicles books about the Vampire Lestat ... isn't it a cool word!! The dictionary definition is - (1) grotesque character; (2) something grotesque; (3) grotesque ornamental work - perfectly describing gargoyles I thought.

They're now on their way to Vonda in Michigan USA ... hope they turn up by the deadline on 23rd January.

"One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again."
~Abraham Maslow 1908-1970, Psychologist~

Angel re-done

I felt that my Angel ATC really needed a bit of wing showing behind the shoulder that's cut off. I didn't have any more German Scrap wings to use for that little bit, so I cut some wing bits out of some cardstock and made them up . It looks a little dodgy, but I think it's better with it there ... my eye kept being drawn to the empty space.

I'm off to the airport to pick up my husband who's been in Sydney for 3 days and tomorrow we pick up his mother who's flying in from Ireland ... so there might not be a lot of creating or blog postings happening over the next month ... or maybe I'll be able to duck away from time to time!! Watch this space.

If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.
~Chinese Proverb~

Angel ATCs

The December theme for the Stampers Hut ATC swap is Angels and it's lucky the shop closed down for the Christmas / New Year period because I only just got them finished today. There's also a new blog created by the talented ladies that host the PaperArts Yahoo Group called 2cre8art and every month they are going to post a creative challenge. This month's challenge is Peeled Paper, so I decided to incorporate the two and kill two birds with one stone.

Here's the finished ATC and if you want to see how I did the background, I've scanned it every step of the way and posted the pictures below. I received the image of David Borneanaz in an email from the very talented Linda Baldock and he looked so hot in the picture I just had to use him in my "Angel" themed card ... considering he was also the vampire "Angelus / Angel" in the television series a few years ago.

Finished ATC

Step 1: To do the Peeled Paper technique, I basically stuck down pieces of printed paper all over my base - I chose 5 different papers and made sure there were no straight edges in the centre of the page. I used a glue stick to stick my papers down because that's what the technique called for and I actually added the papers to ATC sized bases instead of a large base that can be cut down afterwards. Once all the papers were stuck down, I trimmed the edges and then stuck masking tape down in some areas and ripped off to remove some of the paper / text - hence 'peeled paper'.

Step 2: I painted over the paper in red and dabbed paint off in some areas to reveal the text.

Step 3: I painted over the base colour with Making Memories Copper Glaze paint. Again I've dabbed some of the paint off.

Step 4: Add a little watered down black paint in some areas and rub off quickly with paper towel.

Step 5: I added a little Making Memories Ruby Glaze Paint over the black to tone it down a little.

Step 6: I've used a Tim Holtz splatter stamp with clear ink and embossed with red powder because my Angel is really a vampire and I wanted it to look like blood in the background. The embossing is actually not part of the Peeled Paper technique, but I added it because I like texture.

Step 7: I've inked around the edges in StazOn Timber Brown Ink and painted the German Scrap Swan wings that started off white with similar paint colours as the background, red and copper. I then used black rub 'n' buff and some gold rub 'n' buff on top to tone the black down a little.

In the final stage I added the words "Angel of the night" which I'd painted in the ruby glaze paint and inked around in the StazOn Timber Brown. You can still see some of the words from the original text through the paint, although it's difficult to see in the scan, but if you want to see more, just water down the paints and dab more off before it dries.

"Angels are messengers, but sometimes we misunderstand their language."
~Linda Solegato~