Crafting in Queensland

 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!

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 ...

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 ....

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 ....

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

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

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.

1. 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.
2. The next ATC is a transparency put through the cuttlebug with ink on the pattern. A memory mist background is showing through.
3. 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~