Alice Challenge continues

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

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

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 ...

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.

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)

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

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.