Debbi Baker

Flow!

2012-01-01T13:05:00.000+08:00

My painting for Sue Ettridge for the Nanga 8 December Exchange (30x30cm)

Happy New Year!

Let's hope we all have a wonderful 2012.

I only managed 21 posts in 2011 so I am not making any promises to myself about blogging this year - it will all depend on how much creative time I get and how creative I am feeling at those times because that is what this blog is about! I am, however, doing the wonderful Flora Bowley's online Bloom True painting course in February so hopefully that will provide me with heaps of creative motivation. Look here for details if you think you might like to give it a go too.

Christine Kane promotes a "word for the year" concept to replace the traditional New Year Resolutions and it has worked really well for me over the last few years. I have been mulling over my 2012 word for a few days now and last night, sitting on the beach, watching the waves as the sun went down and saying my goodbye to 2011 and welcome to 2012, I realised that my word is going to be FLOW.

I want to let go of my desire to control (and fix!) situations, to be liked, to please others, to achieve specifics. To let go of fear. I need to be like water - to just flow with it, to wash around and over hurdles and to accept that ebb is part of flow. I want to let my creativity flow too!

Ciao for now & enjoy this first day of a whole new year!

Zentangles - An Addiction!

2011-10-02T19:20:00.001+08:00

Yes, I am officially addicted - zentangles are just so much fun! This is a selection of recent ATCs I have made in the zentangle style. So far I haven't tried shading them - just black and white doodles, some with borders, some without.

My favourite pens at the moment are Faber Castell Drafting & Sketching Pens (Ecco-Pigment) - they are technical drawing pens and come in a pack of four with sizes ranging from 0.1 to 0.7. Absolutely wonderful!

What I think I like most is that you can just work on these ATCs in very small bursts of time - there is no excuse when you only have five minutes plus they are so transportable! All of these ones are on Strathmore Bristol Smooth ATCs.

Let me know if you love zentangling - perhaps we could trade???

A Mixed Media Exchange

2011-09-25T15:38:00.000+08:00

My houses for the swap

I recently hosted a mixed-media "hanging houses" exchange on the Aus_ArtSisters group following the wonderful results from earlier heart and bird exchanges. We had eleven participants in total and we all ended up with one of each of the other participants houses, all of which were quite different in style, material and embellishment! My dining table looked rather glorious while I was sorting all of the 120+ houses that had arrived here.

The photo at the top is a group shot of the fronts of the houses I made. I wanted to do "bright and cheerful" and decided to decorate them all differently (reduces the boredom factor!) and then I personalised the backs with the recipients name etc. The hearts on the front are blanket stitched felt for a bit of textural contrast.

And here are my houses from the other ten participants (not all have blogs unfortunately) -

aren't they all wonderful?

Sue Smith's "tea" house

Margaret Cullen-Erickson's house

Lucy Leatham's "bird" house

Judy Timmins house

Bevlea Ross' house

Celeste Santin's house

Jacky Williams' house

Vanessa Henry's house

Kasha Rolley's house


Gaye Todd's house

And now of course I must find somewhere lovely to hang them all!

Something Different...

2011-09-18T16:34:00.000+08:00

Well so much for my intention to do some catch-up posts a fortnight ago! Time really seems to be flying by this year - I really can't believe we are only a little over three months away from Christmas.

This painting is something completely different for me. I painted it on my weekend in Denmark recently with my wonderful friends Sue Smith and Jhodi Bennett. We were sharing some inspiration and different techniques and Jhodi got us to paint on big wood panels using what I call a grunge-y technique - lots of bright colours, scribbles and handwriting covered with white paint scraped over the top, and stencilling and splashing and dripping and sponging and sanding back. Although I love "loose" and "messy" techniques in other people's artwork I am not naturally comfortable actually doing it myself, so this really was a stretch for me.

I loved it though and I think it was because I saw it as "play" - I had no expectations and no feelings that it would matter if I didn't like the result. It was a damp weekend in the bush weather-wise so this has had ants crawling on it and rain drops land on it when I didn't get back outside quick enough when the weather changed! I can't wait to do more - probably smaller pieces though as it will be a bit easier for me to work on inside - the wood is such a lovely firm surface and I love the idea of being able to hammer in nails and add texture without worrying about the impact on a canvas.

Next post I'll share the results of the little hanging houses swap that I really hosted - they are so cute!

Beautiful Art Received!

2011-09-04T13:30:00.000+08:00

This beautiful piece of artwork is from Vanessa ("Ness") Henry - she made it for me in a one-on-one exchange (my little quilt for her was the subject of my last post). I just love it - it sparkles and has lots of lovely details and arty touches (very Ness!). I have it displayed in my bedroom as it looks perfect there and I can look at it every day that I am home!

I can't believe it has been so long since I blogged but life has been hectic - we are planning a trip to France (in 2012) and as a result I seem to spend every spare moment searching for apartments, reading about France or googling images! Very addictive, I must say. I had a lovely "long" weekend away in Denmark a week ago with two beautiful friends and although I have had a week or so of leave the time has just flown! I've also been working on and off over the last several weeks on some small "hanging houses" for a swap with the Australian Art Sisters group so I haven't had anything much arty that I could blog about. I am intending, though, to do a couple of catch-up posts this week (as soon as I edit some photos!!).

Mixed Media Fun

2011-07-03T21:14:00.000+08:00

I joined in a one-on-one art exchange this month in the Aust Art Sisters Group and made Ness (who doesn't have a blog) this little hanging "quilt".

I guess it is a quilt as it has a front made of fabric pieces (and an image printed on acetate with a paper doily and an old book page trapped behind it), a layer of batting and a fabric batting. It was a lot of fun to make and I added some beading, laces, buttons, ribbon and a metal embellishment that I painted and personalised. I love recycling paper bag handles as hangers so that is what I did here with a white bag.

And this is a card (also made to hang) that I made for Alice for her June birthday. It uses handmade paper, and lace, tape, buttons and rub-ons with machine stitching. I really love making these collage style mixed media cards - I have a whole pile in varying states of completion.

I was in Albany again for work a week ago and here are some pictures of bird activity during my dawn walk (I actually prefer walking after work but it was too dark by the time we finished for the day so I substituted a very fresh and invigorating morning walk!).

Lots of seagulls flying from the left

They all landed a little further down on the jetty.

Virtually single file - and they were making a racket!

I've seen lines of birds on a wire before...

Amazing!

My New Love and Some Little Creations

2011-06-19T19:01:00.000+08:00

I just have to share my new love - Japanese masking (tissue) tape....so pretty, so versatile...

And a few things I have made lately:

A little rustic hanging house for my sister Kathryn (instead of a birthday card) - made from fat quarters of beautiful soft patterned fleecy fabric that I bought in Melbourne at least three years ago. It is a little "bee" hanging from the heart - my name (Deborah) means "bee" in Hebrew and Kathryn and I have an ongoing "bee" theme happening.

A card for my Mum's birthday (we have several family birthdays in June!) - note the use of Japanese tape (I used it inside as well to cover the machine stitching).

And a fabric ATC for my long term trading partner Anne Lugherini over in beautiful France (where I hope to spend some time next year). The fabric is some that I recently painted and stamped and I have scanned the ATC atop more of the same fabric.

We've had a lovely weekend here with some rainy periods - beautiful weather for walking - we are so desperate for rain with the dams so low. And in case anyone noticed that I wrongly labelled some photos in a recent blog post, I suddenly realised what I had done and I have now corrected them! I have been travelling a bit in the south west with work and obviously wasn't thinking very clearly when I did that post.

My Birds Arrived!

2011-06-12T18:40:00.000+08:00

And they look gorgeous. This is a photo of them all hanging in front of my blind in my little "bliss box" (craft room). And here is another partial shot with the blinds open. They look gorgeous with the hearts from the last exchange.

Close-ups of each bird:

Susie's Bird

Margaret's Bird

Marlene's Bird

Ness' Bird

Lucy's Bird

Gaye's Bird

Kasha's Bird

Celeste's Bird


And mine.

We are doing houses next!

Another Mixed Bag!

2011-06-06T12:13:00.002+08:00

Sunset Bunbury, Western Australia

Painted Fabric Postcard for Surface Design Exchange

This is one of the fabric postcards that I have made for a Painted Fabric Postcard Exchange through the Surface Design Yahoo Group. It is actually a lot more vibrant and sparkly than it looks in the scan! I had a lot of fun painting and stencilling and stamping a range of fabrics, some of which are included in the progress photo below (which is more accurate colour-wise). Naturally I did far more than I needed for this particular exchange - I think I like doing backgrounds more than anything else actually!

I have ~~five~~ 4 postcards that are available for trade if anyone is interested -

they look like these ones:

I am happy to trade postcards or ATCs for them - just send me an email or comment here.

Next in the bag to share is this beautiful ATC that the very talented Moya Scaddon has made for me as part of an ATC exchange - my theme is vintage and I love Moya's interpretation.

ATC by Moya Scaddon

And now for a few more shots from a recent work trip to Bunbury - firstly the soft dawn light as seen facing away from the sunrise from my hotel room - I just love the colours.

Then some sunset shots (and I know there is glare and red spots but it was beautiful and my camera is basic!):

And finally the Bunbury lighthouse for anyone who loves lighthouses! (Taken from the walking path below the lighthouse because of course my main purpose was to get some exercise, not to take photos!)

A Mixed Bag - Paintings, Collage and Photos of Perth!

2011-05-08T19:19:00.002+08:00

This blog post can only be described as a mixed bag!

Finished (I think!)

Early progress photo

Later progress...

With letter stencilling added

Nearly finished...only highlights to go

First off - a painting I recently completed (I've started about 20 since the painting weekend with Flora Bowley). It is a small scale painting using learnings and inspiration from Flora's teachings (which are for large scale paintings). I've included a few progress photos (underneath the finished painting) to show how it developed. The last layers involved considerable use of stencils, masks and Tattered Angels Spray products!


Jen's Collage

I recently purchased this lovely collage from Jen (over in the east) and it arrived in the mail on Friday.

I love the wrapping and the gorgeous laminated bookmarks Jen sent with it (almost as much as I love the collage)! I always have several books "on the go" so bookmarks are always appreciated around here.

And here are some of the many photos I took earlier in the week from the roof of Perth's Central Park building.

This is the new BHP building and it is going to be at least as tall as Central Park. I look out onto this building (from a lot lower down) and it is just fascinating watching a huge building get built!) You can see the shadow silhouette of our building in this photo.

PS I was going to add captions to them all but just getting all the photos loaded has taken ages! Email me if you have any questions (Perth really is a pretty city).

My Day!

2011-05-04T20:02:00.000+08:00

Just a quick post to share an experience I had today. I work in the tallest building in Perth (currently the 7th tallest in Australia) and today was the day when I was one of a small group that had the once-a-month opportunity for "tenants" to take a roof top tour 51 floors above the ground. It was fantastic - Perth is such a pretty city anyway with Kings Park, the Swan River, Darling Scarp and lots of greenery but it was pretty special to have such a bird's eye view (I work on a floor much lower down). To make it even better it was a lovely crisp and sunny autumn day. I took 40+ photos so once I edit them I'll post some here but in the meantime this is a colleague's snap of me "on the edge" overlooking the Swan River and South Perth. (And I'll admit that the claustrophobia of the very fast goods lift was worse for me than the height issues once we got onto the roof.)

A Flock of Mixed Media Birds

2011-04-17T12:49:00.000+08:00

The latest Art Sisters Exchange is all about mixed media birds and yesterday I finished mine. There are nine of us in the exchange so once again I have broken my little promise to myself about not joining exchanges where I need to make lots of the same thing! The funny thing, though, is that I found making these birds to be almost meditative (well at least once I make a prototype that I was happy with and then later, except when I stitched two to the wrong backing pieces!)

I wanted my birds to be a recycling effort and to be simple in style. The front of the body and the wing is crumpled recycled brown paper packaging. I painted the body parts patchily with gesso and then stamped them with a new little abstract stamp that I love. The wings are plain and then stamped with another favourite new text stamp called "Jack and Jill". I wanted to make my birds with materials I already had so I've used a piece of fusible fleece and another piece of quilted calico (both of which I must have had for at least 15 years) for the middle layer and backing. The fibre, buttons and beads likewise all came from my well-stocked craft cupboards. The trickiest thing was sewing all the bits together without making too many holes in the paper.

I'll share the results of the exchange later in May when all the other birdies fly over here.

And to finish - last weekend we had a family brunch for my husband's birthday and once we'd finished eating a couple of uncles (our two youngest sons who are of course now young men) took charge of the "keeping the nieces (2 & 5 year olds) occupied" department. Neither son willingly participates in photographs very often (especially if there is the remotest chance I might share the photos beyond the family) so I took this quick snap as I just loved the symmetry of the four of them.

A Beeswaxed "Bee-Themed" ATC Exchange

2011-04-04T20:47:00.000+08:00

This is the result of the recent beeswaxed "bee-themed" ATC exchange that I participated in. Lots of bee goodness! The scan is not brilliant - the ATCs were sliding around a lot on the scanner! All of the other participants were American and the wonderful Kimberley Hopkins was the organiser.


Clockwise from top left, my ATC, then ones by Heidi Elmendorf, Darlene Hagopian, Kimberley Hopkins, Connie Fendley & Joyce Rainwalker.

And an update on my mixed media birds - my first prototype (experiment?) with a gesso-ed brown paper front and a quilted back looks OK but a bit too plain for my liking. I think I am going to stamp the paper first on the next one and see if that makes it more interesting looking.

Mixed Media Hearts!

2011-04-03T12:00:00.000+08:00

Here are the results of the fantastic mixed media heart

exchange that I participated in back in February

when of course all things heart dominate!

The hearts hanging in my "bliss box" (aka my little papercrafting room)

Another view - the lanterns look so pretty at night!

Gaye's adorable heart

Gaye's packaging - a beautiful pocket

Sue's gorgeous heart - showing the little lacy heart that lives in the pocket on the front of the heart

Margaret's beautiful layered heart & stitched envelope (I don't think Margaret has a blog)

Jacky's gorgeous recycled linen heart

Kasha's sweet felt heart

Nic's very unique wrapped heart (love the shell dangle)

Nic's lovely tissue pattern packaging

Vanessa's lovely recycled jeans pocket heart (I don't think Vaness has a blog)

Another view of Sue's heart - this time with baby heart tucked back in its pocket!

My heart

My next project is very similar -

mixed media hanging birds -

still playing with ideas at this stage but

I need to settle on one and get on with it as I making nine!

A Catch-Up Post about some ATC Exchanges

2011-03-27T10:38:00.006+08:00

This is a little bit of a catch-up post about some ATCs trades. I belong to Surface Design Group and recently participated in a Metallic Theme ATC Exchange with a group of people located in the US, Scotland, the Netherlands and Australia. Their ATCs have started to arrive and I think most have received mine, so I thought I would post about the ones I made.

This is a fabric-based group so it is generally preferable to use fabric as an important element in any exchange although there are no restrictions about what else is added! The colours in the top photo are a lot more accurate than the photo of all nine of them

I had some stretchy very bright green stretchy sequin fabric (I think it is mostly used for dance costumes) which I toned down by painting it with a few coppery and olive shades of Lumiere paint. It is layered with a felt and then cardboard backing and the metallic embellishments are beads on metallic wires and squares of copper sheet that I heated, cut, embossed and distressed with black paint. I thought I would make the copper edges less sharp by folding over all the edges but it created a nightmare for my sewing machine when I came to stitch them on! I eventually finished them although by sewing some of them on by hand because I got so tired of the thread being cut on the metal.

I also belong to a Beeswax Collage group and a small group of us are exchanging "bee" themed beeswaxed ATCs. I had to join that one seeing as my name (Deborah) is Hebrew for bee. My ATCs turned out quite a bit darker than I intended as I wasn't thinking about how much a black background would darken the dictionary book page once it was covered in beeswax and made semi-transparent. I have stamped stencilled, coloured (with inks), machine-stitched, foiled the edges and added a little square sequin and seed bead in the corner. The orange layer is just background to the scan!

I'll share the ATCs I receive back once they have all arrived. And now I am off to paint - still inspired by last weekend's workshop and wanting to play while I remember Flora's techniques!

I've got a Whole Lot of "Flora" Love Happening!

2011-03-21T17:04:00.000+08:00

Flora Bowley with her two paintings

This afternoon I got home from a totally wonderful two and a half day intuitive painting workshop ( in the Western Australian bush ) with the incredibly talented Flora Bowley. Flora is a fantastic teacher and her love of painting just oozes from her. She has a beautiful serene way of encouraging each person to open up to possibilities and to have trust in themselves and in the process. Seriously good fun too! My camera was playing up so I only have a few photos but this one is last night when we were sitting out on the deck at sunset taking turns to talk about our paintings. Flora is standing next to the two wonderful canvases she painted as her demonstration pieces during the workshop. I don't think of myself as being drawn to the colour red but the red painting in particular was absolutely stunning!

Flora's paintings underway (on the easel & central wood pole)

I painted on 30 inch square canvases and it was the first time I have painted on anything that big (and although I haven't finished either of my two) I am surprised how much I enjoyed the freedom of big paint strokes. Most of the group painted on even bigger ones and Flora reassured us that it was a case of the bigger the better with her painting style. I'm looking forward (already!) to getting back to my two - maybe next weekend, with a bit of luck. I had taken a photo of each of my canvases at some point during Saturday and I almost didn't recognise them today when I uploaded the photos as they changed so much the next day. A good reminder to document the process occasionally!

Michelle, Dixie and Jayne on the deck taking a break from painting!

Donna Jensen organised the workshop and it was fabulous to meet her and all the other girls - it was one of those incredible situations where a bunch of strangers (only two of us had any sort of previous in-person connection) come together and have a wonderful time. I've included a couple of photos that I took at one stage when nearly everybody was inside getting a cuppa so that you can see what a wonderful outdoor "studio" we had (although we all got a big lesson about kookaburra aggression!).

The setting for our painting workshop!

Special thanks to Flora and Donna - I had a wonderful time!

February = Hearts (of course)

2011-02-20T18:13:00.000+08:00

These are my little fabric hearts made for an Aussie swap with some friends spread across the country. (You can see what Nic and Jacky have made here and here).

Mine are made with white fabric that has been stamped, masked and sprayed (a lovely heart shaped mask and Glimmer Mist in Coffee Shop both by Tattered Angels) and have some iron-on fleece in the middle to get a bit of "puff". I forced myself to loosen up and do some pretty random machine stitching around the heart shapes before adding the extra layers and embellishments on the front.

And this week I received these two fabric ATCs from a trade with Chantal from France.

These are my ATCs for Chantal - one has a sun printed fabric base with two overlays of different tulle and some small fabric embellishment rectangles (it is actually a lot brighter than the scan shows) and the other is an extra from an earlier ATC swap and is based on woven ribbons.

Stretching Those Boundaries!

2011-02-13T19:05:00.000+08:00

Very exciting news - a couple of weeks ago I heard (via my art friend Julia over in Melbourne) that the wonderful Flora Bowley was coming to Western Australia in March and doing one residential weekend workshop - it is an intuitive painting workshop - "Bloom True"!

For the last several years once a year I have treated myself to an annual art retreat of some sort, usually in the eastern states, although the first one, which was fantastic was organised here in the west by Jo and her mum, Jackie. No-one was however organising one for 2011 so I figured I'd just save my money, but as soon as I saw this, I was hooked. I like to play with paint and I love working on canvas but I am definitely not a painter (yet?) but this workshop seems like a great opportunity to stretch my boundaries and to loosen up. What has made it even better is that I caught up recently with a new"ish" art friend and she immediately decided to go too!

In the meantime I am gradually getting back in the creative swing and I've been working on some fabric hearts for an Australian swap and some ATCs for one-on-one trades. I've also been "playing" with some paint and canvas too because I got so excited about Flora's workshop - so at the top of this post there is a progress shot of one background (that will be largely covered up later of course)! PS I am a bit addicted to masks and stencils (as it seems is the rest of the blogging world!)

I had some time recently to re-organise my little "bliss box" (aka my delightful but very small paper-craft room) so I thought I'd share some sets of the bedlam. I was going to say that it looks a lot tidier now but it doesn't really because I have stuff everywhere because I decided to stamp and spray (with Glimmer Mist) the fabric for the hearts I am making.

Finally I have to tell you about my latest book purchases - firstly the awesome Pam Carriker's "Art at the Speed of Life" has been released and recently arrived in the mail,

then I bought this one on ebay "Incredible Acrylics" bu Jean-Paul van Boxtel

and finally these two at one of those "remainder shops" - "Nature Inspired" by Tracie Lyn Huskamp

and "Playing With Books" by Jason Thompson. They are all wonderful and quite different. It seems my art/craft book collection will never reach saturation point...

Surface Design & Why I Love It!

2011-01-15T12:58:00.000+08:00

There is something about the words "surface design" that I just love - perhaps because it is JUST so open - so many possibilities! A few months ago, as part of my gentle re-invigoration of the creative side of my life I joined an ATC exchange that was run by the Surface Design Yahoo Group. The theme was leaves but was otherwise open to interpretation as long as it involved surface design in some shape or form. So this was what I did.

Painted a piece of heavy weight lutradur with diluted acrylic paints in shades of green, yellow and blue to make the leaves. I just adore lutradur (almost as much as paper fabric!)

Painted, sprayed and then stamped a textured "kitchen cloth" fabric for the background layer of the ATCs. I bought the packet of cloth for art purposes of course as soon as I saw the lovely woven type texture. I can't find the packet though at the moment to tell you what it actually is called.

Created a basic leaf shape template and then cut out leaf shapes from the painted lutradur.

Used a wood burning tool to melt and shape the edges and to create scored lines imitating leaf veins.

Manually folded the leaves down the middle on the scored line and pinched them until they maintained some "lift"!

Cut the background "fabric" into ATC sized pieces and then machine- stitched the leaves down the centre vein across the ATC. Decided they looked too plain so melted holes in the leaves (again with the tip of the wood burning tool as this was before I had bought my Versa-Tool) and sprayed the whole lot with some gold glimmer mist. I guess the impression is that there were a lot of bugs having a feast but they really looked way too plain with the sort of background I had done.

Finished off by backing the cards and zig-zagging around the edges with black thread. I actually did one more step after I took this last photo and that was to ink around the edges with black ink and the added contrast was an improvement.

I haven't gotten around to scanning all the ATCs I received back in return but Ellen (who is am amazing tatter over in Singapore) has pictures on her blog if you'd like to have a look - there was a lot of variety of colour, style and technique!!

Working Within the Box!

2011-01-09T12:37:00.000+08:00

I am part of a small Australian group that has an "Art of the Month" one-on-one exchange and in October I made this for Jacky.

I had bought the shadow box some time ago specifically with the intention of taking out the mass-produced item that it featured and replacing it with a collage of my own. Needless to say I did not get around to doing it and in the interest of using up the items I have on hand (and there are an awful lot!), I decided to use it as the basis for my item for Jacky. I stamped the text on the front white exterior with StazOn ink but decided it looked a bit stark so cut the black and white paper to fit on opposing corners.

Photographing it flat really shows that it is a shadow box!

The collage inside is based on some beautiful blue handmade paper. I used the colour as the basis for the rest of the collage, using some painted vintage paper, stamping, decorative paper scraps, paper flowers (I know they are everywhere but I just love them and I want to start making some of those gorgeous spiral ones), a vintage image and some machine stitching to hold it altogether. I stitch all of the collages that are based on the handmade paper as I find things don't stick to it terribly well and I don't like to use much glue on them.

And to share some Western Australian beauty this was the sight out of my front door one evening recently. It was absolutely stunning in its vibrancy!

I loved the colours at the end and cloud patterns too!

A Christmas Themed ATC

2011-01-03T09:48:00.000+08:00

Thank you so much to everyone who has welcomed me back to blogging! I had forgotten what a thrill it was to "connect" and to read those lovely comments. Next on my list is to catch up with some blog reading!

And to make sure that I don't fall off the cart with my new found blogging intentions, I thought I would share a Christmas themed ATC that I recently made for a one-on-one trade with my long term trading partner Anne Lugherini over there in beautiful France. The card is made with fabric paper (a la Beryl Taylor with a bit of adaptation) - using a stamped image on tissue paper, watercolour paints and lightweight fabric.

Yesterday's polymer clay "tile" making session was a success so today I think I may just make some more - a very soothing activity! But I also want to play with my "Creative Versa-Tool" ..(so thrilled that The Thread Studio ended up stocking these with the Australian voltage as I have been wanting one ever since buying - and loving - Rebekah Meier's book "Fabric Art Collage").

So many choices - it certainly isn't hard to practice abundance thinking.

A Fresh Start...

2011-01-02T10:51:00.002+08:00

It seems that the longer I took to get back to blogging, the harder it became! So 2010 has been and gone and what a wonderful year it was, even if I didn't do much on the arty / crafty side of things. And really that is probably the main reason I wasn't motivated to blog - the purpose of this blog is mostly to share what I am doing in that department.

So to get me started again I thought I would share some of the little creative efforts I did make in 2010!

A Canvas Board Wall Hanging for Kasha

Surface Design Zodiac ATC Swap


Zodiac Swap - we actually made 12 each

An ATC made for a one-on-one trade

A Canvas Wall Hanging for Tegan


One of a set of five waxed ATCs made for an exchange

I only made a few Christmas Cards - two variations

The other Christmas Card variation

A Collage Card

Another Collage Card

A Sympathy Card

And one of the contributing reasons I am not doing as much arty stuff as before - too busy enjoying being near the beach after sixteen years in the goldfields on the edge of the desert! And this is just our local beach - there are lots of other swimming type beaches close by.

Bye for now...today I am going to play with clay to make some little tiles a la Laurie Mika.

Back to the real world!

2010-05-06T20:13:00.001+08:00

Hi everyone!

I may have thought that my blogging break would only be until I moved into my new house and had the internet reconnected but I completely under-estimated just what was involved in the move. So a quick update - Zach and I "camped" in the house for the first month until Joseph and the furniture arrived. I started work straight away as my employer was incredibly helpful and gave me an immediate transfer. (I have since started another job but again with the same department - I have been incredibly lucky and I am so happy!)

I think the reason I didn't blog once we got the internet organised was that I wasn't doing any arting or crafting and that really is the focus of this blog. Anyway once the 120 cartons of "stuff" and the furniture arrived, unpacking was the priority! I had forgotten just how exhausting that process can be and of course I want everything to look lovely straight away (which is an impossibility when you have way too much "stuff").

When I still had the 40+ cartons of art and craft stuff to unpack it was time to go to the Creative Soul Retreat over in Melbourne - something that was planned a year ago when a move to Perth wasn't even on the radar. While the actual retreat was four days I had booked for a fortnight away so that I could have some time with one of my sisters who lives there and then with Joseph who arrived midway.

The Retreat was wonderful and just the rejuvenation I needed - I am really looking forward to get back into some creative stuff now. I did a couple of workshops with Jan Harris (who stood in for Judy Wise as she has health issues that forced her to withdraw) and a couple with Laurie Mika. They were all terrific but I absolutely adored working with the polymer clay and can't wait to do more mosaic style pieces a la Laurie. Melbourne was fantastic fun- Joseph and I had our first holiday alone for about a decade and we are already planning the next one! Shopping, eating, looking and walking - did we cover some territory!

After getting back from Melbourne I had a final week of my holidays to finish the unpacking and to get the house looking reasonable and it was fun (although at times I wondered whether I was just walking around in circles moving stuff!). I have set up a craft room this time from scratch - in the past I have used all the bits and pieces of furniture that were excess to other rooms/needs. I am now a walking talking IKEA advertisement in fact - I love their white bookcases, tables and drawers and I have used them exclusively (it is a very small room so it didn't need a lot). Big thanks to my son Zach for having the patience to put all the units together (my role was limited pretty much to the "needs two persons" pieces). I recovered the window pelmet one night and had to compromise when I found that I had misplaced (lost) my sewing machine power cord somehow in the move - thank goodness for fusible webbing! So glad that there is a Janome shop close-by now - nice not to have to think about long distance purchases, postage etc. I'll take some pictures soon to share but in the meantime I just keep having a peek in there to make sure it is real! Can't wait to actually get creative in there...this is a photo of my new desk area a few weeks ago (I have already made some changes of course!).

My sewing room, on the other hand, is a bit of a disaster and I am planning to really change my layout and storage there as soon as higher priority items are attended to (like a range hood and new oven, a new dining table, new blinds ... etc etc).

So this post is not without some arty content here is the mosaic personal shrine (still without the middle "shrine" bit) that I made in one of Laurie Mika's Creative Soul Retreat workshops and a very blurry picture of one of the personal reliquaries that I made in the other workshop I took with Laurie. This one was for my sister Marrijane in Melbourne. So much fun! I've bought a toaster oven (I didn't even look for a secondhand one when I found out how reasonable new ones are these days!) so expect to see more clay/mosaic work soon.

I'll be back soon (promise)!

About my Unscheduled Blogging Break...

2010-01-01T18:10:00.002+08:00

Just popping in to say that my life has taken an unexpected but very exciting turn which means that I don't have any time for blogging. We are moving back to Perth early in 2010 so we are using every spare moment to de-clutter and prepare our house of the last ten years for sale. Joseph has a job transfer and Zach is starting uni in February so it is suddenly up to me to find a job in Perth too! I am really hopeful that I will be able to arrange something (quickly!) with my current employer but I am of course looking at all the options. What we are discovering is that you suddenly "see" your home differently when you know it is going to be seen by a potential buyer's eyes - we have a lovely home but suddenly the backlog of maintenance seems so obvious!

So you can guess how I have spent the last couple of weeks - firstly packing up my art/craft rooms so that I can get in there to re-paint and then of course the actual painting. I had forgotten how much it hurts my neck to paint above my head height and guess what else - I had forgotten just how much "stuff" I have accumulated and how it very quickly translates to an enormous number of cartons!! If I had more time I would try and thin it out but unfortunately I am going to have to try and do most of that at the other end. The whole exercise of packing it all up has made me really want to streamline and to establish some focus in my art - it is crazy to want to try everything and to buy supplies for every style and technique that appeals to me! I need to face facts - I would need another five lifetimes, at least, to do justice to my acquisitions to date and I certainly would need to give up my day job and that is not going to happen in the short term!

So exciting times ahead - I am so looking forward to living in Perth after our 16 years plus in Kalgoorlie - to be close to friends and family (and the coast!!) again but of course there are also moments when I think of what we will miss here - this place has been good to us and for us!

I'll pop in occasionally to provide updates but there won't be any art to share for a little while (but can you imagine just how hungry I will be to get my new space set-up and functioning!!) The only blog I am reading at the moment is this one!!

Happy 2010 to you all!!

December Calendar Girl Postcard

2009-12-13T16:54:00.004+08:00

This month the image we are using for the Calendar Girl Postcard inspiration is a fractal chosen by Neki - see below. For some reason I just couldn't get inspired by it - all I could think to do was try and reproduce the effect using my embellisher but several of the other participants had already done that (and done it really well) so I decided to go for a very "loose" interpretation.

I've concentrated on the blue, black and red colours and not worried about getting a result that looked anything like a fractal! But I am really happy with it - I hand needle-felted some silky fibres onto black commercial felt and then machine stitched the rays in black and then metallic blue thread. The little square sequins are iridescent blue and I've added a scattering of tiny clear sparkly seed beads as well. It is very glittery and pretty in real life although as usual it doesn't really show up that well in the scanning! My postcard goes to Sandy this month.

This week I received this gorgeous fabric ATC "Strata" in a trade with Sally Westcott. My ATC for Sally was the one in my last blog post.

I've really slowed down with my blogging (and my creating!) as I am away from home so much these days but I noticed today that I am slowly getting closer to my 500th blog post so I guess I should do something to celebrate that milestone...my thinking cap is on and I'll let you know what I decide! Bye for now...

Rusted Fabric ATC

2009-12-06T14:11:00.006+08:00

Just a quick little post to share an Artist Trading Card (ATC) that I've made recently for a trade with Sally in Tasmania.

I've used some of the fabric I had previously rusted (heavily rusted actually!) and added some hand stitching, a bit of stamping, a strip of dyed muslin and some seed beads. I've used more of the fabric as a background when I scanned the ATC.

On a more general note, I just can't believe Christmas is SO close - I think all the travel I am doing with my job means that "normal" weekday life doesn't happen so weekends become a little over-crammed with activity and so I have the sense of time passing extremely quickly!! For a range of reasons we are not going to Perth and Margaret River for Christmas/New Year this year and it feels really strange as it will be the first Christmas we have had at "home" in Kalgoorlie for the 16 years we have lived here.

Anyway after being in Wiluna last week, tomorrow I am off to Esperance first (the coast!) and then to Laverton, and will be back Thursday afternoon. Lots of driving involved - four hours down to Esperance and then seven and a half to eight hours up to Laverton before the drive back to Kalgoorlie but at least I get to see the ocean if briefly. Even if it is blowing a gale, I am going to walk on the beach before heading back to the dusty inland scrub!!

I love arty mail!

2009-12-01T21:24:00.003+08:00

Look at the wondrousness (makes me want to add some more nesses, just saying that word) that has recently blessed my letter box -

These sweet ATCs from Jenxo (above and below)

These extra goodies from Jen (thanks!)

A Calendar Girl Postcard for October from Jenny -

and this Calendar Girl Postcard for November from Neki -

There is more but I need time to take photos!! Off to Wiluna again tomorrow
(for work, of course) - be back by the weekend.

Heart Pins & Calendar Pages

2009-11-29T09:51:00.006+08:00

It feels as though I haven't blogged for weeks (and that is because I haven't!). First off our internet provider had a hardware crash and we couldn't access the internet for days and then I was away all this week with work. Amazing how frustrating it was not being able to read blogs or emails all of last weekend! But I did get a fair bit of reading and mending done instead so it was probably good for me...

This week I have been making my five brooches (pins) for the small monthly swap group I am in. I decided to do bright needle-felted heart pins. I've needle-felted bright pink and orange organza to the same colours of commercial felt and then added some wool roving on top. The organza really makes them quite sparkly but it is amazing how much organza gets gobbled up by the needle-felting! I've used a lovely variegated embroidery thread to add some stitching around the edges of the hearts etc and then added some beading for a bit of extra sparkle. To keep the pins robust I have backed them with pelmet vilene plus (the strong iron-on one) which I have painted pink and then they are finished off with a brooch back. I "sort of" want to add something dangly to the base point of the heart but I am resisting as I can't think what would look good.

Below are the pages I recently made for a West Australian Calendar Swap - my pages are for January and I originally intended to do a beach theme (January being one of our glorious summer months) but somehow they turned into a "new beginning" theme. I did a painted background that is then "polished" with distress ink. I should be receiving the calendar back in the next few weeks so I will post all the other participating artists' pages then. The hostess for the swap (Genevieve Payne) is mounting all of the pages on black cardstock so that is why mine don't have a black border and look a bit "unmounted"! The first picture is a bit blurry because the metal embellishment that I used on the gate is quite dimensional. I should have taken a photo really but I am a bit slack and the scanner is sitting right next to me!

Today we have a glorious sunny day and I feel as if I should do something outside to make the most of it but I am travelling a lot with work these days, so my creative time is pretty much limited to weekends and I have some ATCs I want to make!

I have received some lovely art (ATC, postcards and my altered book) recently so I'll post about that as soon as I get some pictures taken. And about the books I've bought - my Christmas present to myself - six (!!) wonderful creative books and a packet of Leslie Riley's TAP (which has yet to arrive but is hopefully close).

A Blog Award & New Stamps

2009-11-15T12:06:00.004+08:00

The wonderful Bevlea bestowed (isn't that a magnificently "old" sounding word!) me with a Kreativ Blogger award this week which was a lovely compliment - thank you Bevlea! The way it works - (a) thank the person who gave the award (b) copy the logo onto your blog (c) link the person to your blog (d) pass onto 7 others and (e) list 7 things that no-one really knows about you.

This time I am not actually going to pass it on as I always find it very hard to pick and choose when I read and love SO many creative blogs but this is my list of 7 "unknown things" (for what it is worth!):

1. I've lived in 20 different houses/units etc although I spent the first 17 years of my life in one house and have lived in our current house for 10 years.
2. I really dislike routine but have forced myself to have some important ones so that I can be part of the workforce and a reasonably capable parent!
3. I love lots of clothing styles even though I wouldn't ever buy/wear them.
4. I love lots of different decorating styles even though I wouldn't actually choose them for my own house.
5. I love cooking but hate cooking for formal type events (which is why I gave up on dinner parties nearly three decades ago!)
6. I love simple things.
7. I have a ridiculous number of ink-pads (too ridiculous to enumerate publicly).

Gosh that was hard - I am pretty much an open book so it is hard to find things that people might not know about me.

I've had a bit of a little splurge lately after a period of "saving" and I have some lovely new stamps - the Funky Flames one below (stamped twice here) from the Tim Holtz collection at Stampers Anonymous and the Christine Adolph Fresh Flowers Giant Cube are the latest ones I've acquired! I'm going to play with them this afternoon hopefully although I have to finish my 12 pages for a Calendar Swap first.

And just so there is actually something to look at, here are the first couple of pages in my article on using Metal Tape in the latest Stamping & Papercraft magazine (Vol 15 No 7) - Metal Tape, the Cuttlebug, Alcohol Inks and Black Gesso - a really fun combination!

Calendar Girl Postcard from Carol McFee

2009-11-14T11:35:00.004+08:00

In the Calendar Girl postcard exchange it was Carol McFee's turn to make me a postcard for the month of September but Carol has been extremely busy especially with the latest Fibre in-Form online workshops that she and Lynda are running and so my postcard was a little delayed. It has, however, arrived and it was well worth the wait. It has a lot more "zing" than shows in the scan! Just in case you don't remember the Calendar picture (Hundertwasser's Green Town) that was the inspiration for September, you can see it here.

October ATC Exchange

2009-11-12T07:43:00.003+08:00

I am part of a small monthly exchange and for October we exchanged ATCs on a spring/flower theme. It was my choice as I just love spring and have really enjoyed it these last few months. Lately however we are experiencing an early and very hot summer! My ATC (above) has a Twinkling H2O painted background with stenciling, stamping, stitching and beautiful Japanese transparent ribbon with an adhesive "jewel". All the ATCs are wonderful and so different!

From Ann in the Netherlands

From Annie in Kalgoorlie

From Carole in New Zealand

From Doreen in Canberra

For November Carole has decided we will make pins (brooches) so that will be something completely different for us! I'll have to get a shuffle on to get mine made before the end of November!

Tuesday's Thoughts (or Monday's Musings a day late!)

2009-11-10T20:00:00.005+08:00

This is was supposed to be last night's post but I got distracted by more pressing matters and it didn't happen! Stuff to share - I am pretty sure (positive actually!) that I have worked out that my recent allergies are due to Nurofen - everything fits symptom wise (hives and swelling of the tongue, lips and face) and I think in my case my intolerance has developed over the couple of years that I have been using Nurofen for my neck pain/headaches. But no more - I have to detox first but I will be avoiding NSAIDs from now on! Feels so good to have worked it out - I was starting to worry about when I would next feel unwell and have sausage lips!

Other stuff to share - these two pictures are of my pages in Jacky's Altered Book. I have had quite a break from Altered Books until this year and I must admit I want to do more! Might have to just work on some of my own that I started a few years back but never finished!! The first one has a Twinkling H2O background, white embossed stamped images by Stampin'Up and some doodling. The second one has a background made from spraying various products over a Tattered Angels Mask on a brown paper bag with some Tattered Angels swirly stamp images (my newest and current favourite stamps!!)

This is my ATC for a trade with Deborah K in South Australia (no blog, as yet). It also has a Twinkling H2O painted background with the same Tattered Angels stamp as well as my favourite Hero Arts text image - yet again!).

And this is Deborah's sweet ATC for me!

My Calendar Girls Postcard for November

2009-11-08T09:32:00.004+08:00

This month's inspiration for the Calendar Girls Postcard exchange is this picture below by Arthur Rackham and while it provided heaps of inspiration, I was mostly drawn to the tree shapes, particularly the branches and canopies. So I decided to stamp a tree branch image on some hand-dyed fabric. The stamp is a large one from the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection. I added some text stamping as well as the picture naturally makes me think of fairy stories! And of course I just love text images and will use them whenever I can!! This one is a long-standing favourite and is by Hero Arts.

I had to have a couple of goes at the tree image as it is quite a detailed image for fabric stamping but I had much better luck the second time once I had heavily re-inked my black Fabrico ink-pad. The fabric was dyed using Adirondack Colour Washes and I over-sprayed it, once stamped, with Moon Glow Glitz Spritz in gold. It makes the fabric really sparkle and look quite luminous but unfortunately the scanner doesn't pick it up. I thought about adding some beading but decided I liked it as is. My postcard goes to Carol T this month.

Check out the Calendar Girls blog top see what everyone else is doing this month.

Results of the Red Fabric Inchie Swap!

2009-11-01T15:06:00.006+08:00

A few blog posts back I posted some photos of my red fabric inchies made for a swap my friend Annie and I were hosting on the Aus_NZartquilters yahoo group and today's post is show you everyone's inchies and my temporary display of about two thirds of them. I am still thinking about a more permanent way of displaying them, but for the moment this is it! Apologies for some of the blurry photos - I am building up to buying a better camera but I figure I need to be willing to actually spend some time on my photography skills/knowledge first!

By Sally Westcott

By Pauline Brewis

By Nia Tilley

By Kerrie Bowles

By Jane Symes

By Fionie Williams

By Annie Laing

By Anieta Barendrecht

A single special one by Andrea Carew

By Andrea Carew

A different photo of my higgledy-piggledy temporary display - amazing how the colours vary!!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T14:55:00.004+08:00

Well here I am again saying that yet another week has passed!! I've been travelling out bush again with my job most of the week, we have had a hard drive failure (thank goodness most stuff was backed up on the portable drive!) and, to top it off, I'm still having allergic reactions to "something" - or actually somethings as I am suddenly getting hives for the first time ever as well as a swollen numbed face!But it is Halloween and I thought it would be good to share some recent art for Halloween aficionados! Both are small canvas boards and stamps are of course by Oxford Impressions. More art tomorrow - I'm still reloading software etc so that I can function properly so this is just a quick little post!

An ATC Trade

2009-10-24T20:25:00.005+08:00

This month Anne Lugherini from France (still no blog to my knowledge) and I traded ATCs again - Anne makes the most amazingly detailed cross stitch ATCs and this one below is no exception!

My ATC for Anne is at the top of the post and is another Twinkling H2O painted background. I've used a partial image of one of the Stampin'Up stamps I've recently invested in. plus some favourite background type stamps. I like the silhouette look for a change but I outlined it with white gel pen for a bit of "pop"!

Today I am working on my "flowers" ATCs for a small group exchange. I just love spring and flowers just keep springing to mind whenever I start working on something at the moment!

My October Calendar Girl Postcard

2009-10-24T19:32:00.005+08:00

This month's Calendar Girls inspiration was a bit tricky for me (see below for the Alphonse Mucha image we were using as inspiration) and I couldn't see past the circle element so I decided not to beat myself up about it and to just go with it! I've appliqued hand-dyed silk in orange and lime green to a piece of dyed muslin and then couched fibres and stitched and beaded until I was happy with the result! And yes the half circle is as wonky as it looks on screen as I really wanted it to look a bit free-form (although maybe not quite so...)

PS I've been away a lot with work, had family visiting and then had some computer issues, hence the blog hiatus! Plus I've been reading lots of escapist books...

Halloween ATCs

2009-10-10T12:12:00.008+08:00

By Meagan

I am not a big fan of Halloween - maybe because I didn't grow up with it and maybe because I'm actually pretty easily spooked but over the last couple of years I have enjoyed making some Halloween themed art. I just don't go for the really macabre stuff! A group of four of us in Kalgoorlie have started monthly trades (the first round are shown here) and this month Renaye chose Halloween as our theme.

Both by Renaye

Anyway Renaye made two ATCs for each of us (bit of an indication about how much she loves Halloween) and I haven't caught up with Christine yet but I just had to share the results of our exchange so far. The first ATC at the top of the post is by Meagan and the next two are by Renaye (neither have blogs unfortunately). Renaye is even running a special kids' Halloween craft event at her shop "Keepsake Krafts" - wish I still had little kids I take!

This one is mine. It started with an experiment when we decided recently to try making Annette Husband's "Opals Paper" - vilene with various colours of Opals (thick embossing enamels) ironed onto it. I used orange and purple Opals (must have been thinking Halloween subconsciously!) - they have fancy names but I forget what they are. I added some orange Starburst Stains to cover up any white patches. This is what it looked like before I cut the vilene into ATC sized pieces.

Once it was cut up I used StazOn black ink to stamp my Oxford Impressions tree and tiny bat images onto the vilene. The image was patchy as the Opals surface is not ideal as a stamping surface (noting however, that it is ideal for stamping "into") so I used a permanent black marker to fill in the gaps. I added the checked ribbon and black German scrap sewing the vilene to a strong mat board base. I rubbed the black scrap and ATC edges with orange acrylic paint and then covered the rest of the ATC with several coats of clear UTEE as I didn't have any of the clear (Franklin) Opals. This was the least successful of the four ATCs so I kept it for myself but I forgot to take a picture of the others before trading them. The glossiness was more even on the other ones. I'd definitely try the vilene/opals technique again for a different sort of background - see here for information on the technique.

PS A couple of nights ago I happened to check my blog stat counter and the number of hits was sitting at 59999 - I thought it was pretty freaky but I guess it would have even been more so if it had been 60000 just as I looked. Have to say thanks to everyone for continuing to visit - I know I post a lot less often now that I am travelling so much with my job!

Some ATCs

2009-10-06T21:06:00.004+08:00

For some reason I got the urge to play with water colour paints on the weekend and I especially enjoyed painting up a whole pile of ATC backgrounds on lovely textured watercolour paper. These simple ATCs are the end result of some of these backgrounds (using those magic little Twinkling H2O pots of paint and lots of water misting) plus some doodling, punched or cut paper shapes and a little bit of sewing. Sometimes simple is SO much fun. PS The cards have a lot more sparkle than shows on-screen!

The big flower one is for a trade with Jen but the other two are available if anyone wants to trade and I would love to make more!! (I have the backgrounds already painted.) Just leave a comment or email me...

And this totally gorgeous and very vibrant ATC is the result of my recent trade with my blogging friend Sephi. I think she inspired the colours in my ATC for Jen!! Have a look here for some detail photos.

A Thought or Two...

2009-10-04T10:51:00.005+08:00

This week I had the thrill of receiving a complementary copy of the latest Stamper's Sampler magazine as I had two cards included in it in the feature on using serviettes/napkins.

These are scans of the magazine cover (isn't a nice cover!) and the two pages that include my cards (and yes I have sliced off the side of one of my cards in the scanning process!). As I LOVE using serviettes in my art, I had intended to send in lots of cards for this issue but I just didn't get myself organised enough and just made these very simple floral ones.

Anyway, getting the magazine in the mail and having the thrill of finding my cards inside made me think about the whole publication thing so I thought I would share my thoughts. When I first "discovered" Somerset Studio many years ago I was relatively new to stamping and I was instantly smitten. I just adored the magazine and chased down all the back issues, including out of print ones. After some time I decided to be brave and submit a couple of cards and when they were published I was just over the moon (major understatement) and so motivated to keep going! So I set myself the target of making something for each issue using the theme for each issue's call for submissions. I did this for several years and I can honestly say that the thrill of getting something published really didn't fade! Nowadays I only submit to Stampington magazines if I have the time and if the theme stimulates some ideas but that early decision to try for publication really did end up giving me a lot more confidence in myself and my art/craft and opened up lots of other doors.

PS My arty mate Annette (up in Darwin) is having an amazing give-away on her blog so pop over if you would like to be in the running for an etched metal house that she has made!

Vintage Fabric 4x4 Swap

2009-10-01T20:13:00.004+08:00

Tonight I thought I would share the results of the little "vintage fabric 4 inch square" swap.

This one is from Carole in New Zealand -

This one is from Annie here in Kalgoorlie -

And this one is from Ann in the Netherlands -

And these were mine (as posted on my blog ages ago as I got enthusiastic and
made them early for once!) -

My Red Inchies - Finished at Last!

2009-09-29T20:52:00.006+08:00

This afternoon I made the most of my extra long weekend and finished off my red inchies for the latest exchange. I have made nine different types and the top photo shows the finished set. The next two photos are different views of the 81 inchies in all their red goodness!

These are photos of each type:

Red patterned fabric with a red flower eyelet and white dimensional paint dots and hearts.

Red text fabric with a large red sequin, small black sequin and gold bead stitched on.

Measuring tape patterned fabric with red cord, red flower trim and white mini ric rac added.

More of the red text fabric but this time with a red velvet ribbon and tiny gold bell stitched on.

Red fabric with a mini yoyo stitched on with a red sequin and white seed bead in the middle.

Oriental patterned fabric with an octagonal coin stitched on.

Swirly patterned fabric with organza circles folded and stitched on with a gold sequin and bead.

Checked fabric with buttonhole stitched edges and a red button.

Acorn patterned fabric with gold glitter edges, a red netting overlay, crinkle ribbon piece and with black seed beads sewn on.

My September Calendar Girl Postcard

2009-09-28T20:47:00.005+08:00

This is my postcard for this month for the Calendar Girl exchange. It goes in the mail tomorrow to Doreen over in Canberra and I have just snuck in before the end of the month!

The inspiration this month was this calendar page featuring Hundertwasser's Green Town so I decided to focus on the green colour and a few of the stronger lines and shapes. I pulled out my Embellisher which has been tucked away all winter (when I most logically would have been using it seeing as felt and wool are much more user-friendly in the winter months!) and machine felted a piece of light olivey-lime stretch velvet to a piece of lime green commercial felt. I added some yummy thick wool fibres (the sort that have colour that changes along the length) for the lines and small circles of darker green and black velvet for the trees, machine-felting them all in place. I added some hand stitching and sewed on a few sequins and beads to add a little bit of "something". And it has made me want to do some more stuff with the embellisher!

I have been making the most of the beautiful spring weather and doing lots of gardening over the last two days so finishing off my little red inchies will have to wait until tomorrow.

The Start of a 4 Day Weekend!

2009-09-26T14:32:00.005+08:00

It is a long weekend here in Western Australia this weekend and I am very fortunate in having an extra day off on Tuesday, making it a four day weekend - what bliss. I think I am going to need it though just to do what I would normally do in a two day weekend as I have had an allergic reaction to something this week since I got home from my work trip to Wiluna and Leonora. I am operating rather below par at the moment (although my swollen and numbed face and lips have gone down a lot thank goodness). This is the second time in just over a month and something I haven't experienced before, so I'm trying to work out what I have been in contact with (or eaten) that might do this to me!

I finished off my pages in Samm's altered book this week and I did end up adding something to the first spread - the textiva dragonfly that I recently made! You can just see it peeking through the arched window on the left side. The arch is painted with Lumiere paint and then stamped and sponged with black ink. The light has obviously hit the textiva at a different angle as the colour is completely different to the previous view as seen here. The green pages are painted with acrylics and gloss medium using the plastic wrap technique (a favourite for quick interesting backgrounds).

And this is another little lock and key ATC I made this week for a trade with Sephi. It is a bit blurry as I was too slack to pull out my camera and made do with the scanner. The little keyhole was a bit too dimensional for that to work well!

I have been puttering away with my red fabric inchies and I am also working on my September Calendar Girl postcard so I'll have some pictures to share soon. I have actually pulled out my Embellisher for the first time in months and I am really enjoying making my postcard with it using stretchy velvet, commercial felt and some beautiful wool. More tomorrow...

There is Nothing Quite Like Sea Air!

2009-09-20T07:44:00.007+08:00

Earlier this week I had to go to the town of Esperance for work purposes and what a blessing that was! There is nothing quite like sea air (and beautiful views and the feel of the ocean and beach sand between your toes) and when you live inland your appreciation of it quadruples (at least!).

Esperance is on the southern coast of Western Australia and can often be very windy (all those southerly winds blowing straight up from Antarctica) with fast changing weather conditions but on Monday we arrived in time for a pre-sunset walk along the town bay promenade and the old long jetty. Totally glorious - no wind and a beautiful clear sky. The first photo is the view as we stepped onto the jetty and the next is the view on the way back down the jetty.

The next day showers were forecast for the late afternoon so we decided a lunch time walk was essential. We took our (late) lunch and went out to Twilight Cove which is a short drive out of the town. It was getting a bit windy but it was mesmerisingly beautiful and it was lovely to walk on the beach.
The clouds came in a bit earlier than expected though and we had a faster walk back to the car than expected. It started raining shortly afterwards and yet looking at these pictures from 45 minutes earlier, it is hard to imagine!

At the bottom of this post there are a few other photos taken from the town lookout first thing that morning.

On the arty/crafty scene I have not had a chance to do a real lot but I have some things in progress - my red inchies (nine different types in lots of nine), an altered book, some ATCs and my Calendar Girl September postcard. Yesterday I had a lot of fun using various sprays and some glimmer mist masks/stencils - I set myself up outside so it wouldn't matter if I made a mess - and I did of course. I might even do some more today (on fabric perhaps) as it is another lovely spring day here again!

This is one spread I have completed in Samm's Altered Book "Through the Window/Still Life". I think I have finished it although I may of course change my mind before it is time to post it on to Jacky! I think the arch window frame looks less "prominent" in real life - or at least I hope it does. I'll probably finish the spread beneath it today so I'll post a picture in my next post.

This week I have received a gorgeous leaf themed fabric postcard from an exchange with Leah in Texas. And Leah included an unusual card (by Sandra Donato) and one of her own funky mixed media ATCs. It makes me feel joyful just looking at it!

This week I am heading to Wiluna for a couple of days - the opposite direction to last week - so bush, red dirt and eagles will replace the waves, sand and seagulls of last week. Contrasts!!

Photos of Esperance and surrounds from the town lookout.

So What Have I Been Up To?

2009-09-13T15:55:00.006+08:00

Just a bit of this and a bit of that! First off I finished my "key" themed ATCs for the first swap with a small local group of friends. I used my latest Cuttlebug embossing folder (Ironwork), metal tape and black gesso for my background. So glad I bought this folder - it is a lovely detailed image. The keyholes on my ATCs are Collections Chipboard which I have painted with my beloved Lumiere paints and the keys are from "Life's Journey" but I have coloured them using my Krylon silver leafing pen.

My swapping partners (Renaye, Christine and Meagan ) outdid themselves with their ATCs and I am thrilled to have these ATCs in my growing collection! Our next theme is Halloween so I am going to have to put my thinking cap on...

I have been playing with angelina fibres, textiva (fusible film) and opals/utee etc. These two "fabrics" are so much more ethereal and sparkly than they look as I had to scan them on calico.

They have little organza snippings and mini sequins mixed in with the angelina fibres. I think I will be cutting out shapes from the fabric to make mini embellishments or maybe just layering them as a background on fabric ATCs.

This is an embellishment made with two sheets of textiva with angelina fibres in the middle. The sheets are laid on an inked stamp, covered with a teflon sheet and ironed until the textiva does what textiva is made to do! I've trimmed it and love its sparkly transparency (you can see how transparent it is in the scan as the fabric underneath clearly shows through the dragonfly). It would be even better with a more open stamp - mine has a bit too much detail so too much of the ink shows. The result looks quite blue in the scan but it changes a lot depending on the angle.

I am also making a page in Samm's "Through the Window/Still Life" themed Altered Book so I covered a Collections chipboard arch with various thick embossing enamels and textiva. It ended up being multi-layered as I wasn't happy with the earlier results! And now I am going to go and sit at my desk and enjoy the last of the day's beautiful sunlight and work on the book.

PS I have a stunning piece of art to share ("Art of the Month" from Marlene over in Queensland) but I have to get a good photo first! I am away for the next few days with work again (but this time I am heading to the coast instead of the desert!) but I will post it when I get back.

Wishing you a wonderful week,

You are my sunshine...

2009-09-07T20:19:00.004+08:00

Recently I was asked by Cardmaking, Stamping & Papercraft (CPS) to participate in a feature celebrating song lyrics and this was the song that jumped straight into my mind!! I had to go with it as it was so instinctive...

This card is in the current magazine issue and guess what - my blogging pal on the other side (of Australia) Sephi Kemp went with the same lyrics on her card!! Some songs just stick! My card uses a very large and particularly gorgeous detailed quarter circle stamp by Fancy Pants.

PS Blogging time is in short supply at present but I am back from the bush and trying hard to get myself back into my creative routine - yesterday was however completely absorbed in overdue paperwork and tax stuff ... it was a lousy way to spend Sunday but it is certainly better out of the way and I am of course promising myself that I am not ever leaving it to pile up again!

A Little "Quilt" Hanger for Julie

2009-08-30T13:26:00.004+08:00

As I have mentioned before I participate in a small "Art of the Month" exchange that involves making a small art piece (can be anything creative) for one other participant and this month it was my turn to make something for Julie.

It was one of those months when inspiration did not come quickly and being away so much with work has interfered with my "flow" but I am happy with my eventual result. Julie loves greens and rusty colours and is a nature lover so I decided to make a little mixed media "quilt". I've used fabrics and papers I have dyed, stamped, sprayed and generally had fun with! One of the layers is a beautiful lace paper that I bought in Melbourne a couple of trips ago (have I ever mentioned how much I love Melbourne???) and it has taken the walnut ink "wash" beautifully. I used a different stitch on my sewing machine to add some variety in the border.

The scalloped layer is a piece of commercial felt to which I have fused and sealed a decorative napkin to which I have added extra colour. The bird collage stamp is from Oxford Impressions. and is stamped on some fabric I dyed and then sprayed with Glitz Spritz and diluted walnut ink. I have then stamped it again on tissue paper and cut out the bird and a few extra bits and applied them on top of the original to make the composition stronger.

I did a bit of experimenting with some freestyle foiling using gold and copper foils and then used black StaZon ink and a brush to tone down the brightness. I am recycling all the twisted paper handles from off those good quality paper bags - I think they make a nice rustic hanger and a change from wire, ribbon or twine.

Now I am off to get organised for my week away...

ATCs

2009-08-29T15:30:00.005+08:00

(My ATC for Meagan)

My new ATC trading partner, Meagan and I traded ATCs again this week and this time we set the theme as "asian". I used to do a lot of oriental themed paper arts and I can feel a revival coming on! It took me half an hour just to decide which of my asian themed stamps I would use on this one ATC. But it was fun going through my stamp "catalogue" (which desperately needs updating with all the stamps that I have purchased over the last few years - I used to be so disciplined about stamping new images and recording them by brand in my file but I have got very slack).

For this ATC I used some vintage text (lovely thin paper), a piece of beautiful yuzen paper , a bamboo printed ribbon and some thin red paper tape. I coloured the image with my Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, blending with odorless solvent and a stump. It made me realise just how rarely I do detailed colouring.

(Meagan's ATC for me)

And this is the gorgeous ATC Meagan made. I love the way she has layered papers on top of each other to get such a lovely effect. And I am applying lots of pressure about starting a blog!!

I have been away with work quite a bit lately and I am away again this week so blogging his taking a bit of back seat but I am working on a few things so I will post about them once they are finished.

Fabric Collages - Vintage Style

2009-08-23T10:21:00.006+08:00

For September a small group of us are trading four inch square fabric collages with a vintage theme. The theme was set by Ann over in the Netherlands and you can see the collages she has made (well in advance!) here and here and here and here! I have a pretty busy month coming up with work trips and with the red fabric inchie swap, so I decided to do mine this week while I was in the mood. I've re-sized and printed the vintage postcard image on those wonderful ready to print fabric sheets and added a touch of text stamping (got to be true to my rubber stamping roots).

The calico base fabric is tea dyed and the very old lace on the left (recycled from the early 70s) has been coffee dyed. All the other laces and fabrics are new - I wanted to include a bit of green and pink to make the collages on the "pretty" side of vintage. The little squares are backed with a cotton batting and a sheet of cardstock for stability. My art friend Coralie sent me the hand woven twine - it was perfect for the hangers. I added some silk ribbon I had dyed previously. Must nearly be time for another day of painting lace and ribbon. Sometimes playing with fabric just feels right...

This week I received these two gorgeous fused plastic ATCs from my trade with Jen (apologies for my crooked scan) and she included some yummy bits of interesting fabrics that will definitely be fun to use! Thanks Jen.
PS My love affair with the Cuttlebug continues - I bought the new "ironwork" borders embossing folder this weekend and I just know those borders are going to feature a lot in my stuff from now on!

Monday Night & This is as Imaginative as I Can Get!

2009-08-17T20:22:00.005+08:00

Wouldn't you think that a blog post should be a relatively straight forward thing to give a title to? Seems not...This week Meagan and I traded "Paris" themed ATCs - the one at the top of the post is from Meagan and I just love it!! Below is mine (the heart is my new Nestabilities die- so glad I eventually got a Cuttlebug!) PS Meagan needs to start a blog...

And I have to thank the super duper ATC (and Technique) Queen Kelsey for passing on the "Fab Blog" award to me. I know blog awards can seem a bit of a "pass-around" but I really do like the idea of honouring some of the blogs I love, so here goes (and there is absolutely no requirement to pass this on BTW).

I am to list 5 obsessions (what only 5!!) and 5 blogs:

My obsessions -

1. Living authentically (meaning making sure I am being "me" rather than who I think I should/would be)
2. "Simple Abundance" - being grateful!
3. Art/craft (in so many forms...)
4. Straightening up the crooked bits! (includes tucking in the tags on strangers' clothes!!)
5. My family (this is a biggie!!)

5 blogs I love:

1. Jas - The Gluten Free Scallywag - She is my one and only and very special niece and I can't claim any credit but she has a wonderful foodie blog (especially wonderful if you are looking for gluten-free) PS She has style!
2. Celeste - Paper Planet - I finally got to meet Celeste at the Creative Soul Retreat in March this year - she has a wonderful detailed and beautiful collage style!
3. Jen - Jenxo - I haven't met Jen (yet) but her blog is always interesting!! We are currently trading fused plastic ATCs!
4. Caitlin - Caity Quilter - I'm fairly new to Caitlin's blog but she has a way with words and she really strikes a chord with me. Love her art too!!
5. Carole - Kiwi Carole - Carole is in New Zealand (in contrast to the Aussies above) and I just love the variety that you get visiting Carole's blog - stunning photography, food, quilting, art, life, pets ...PS She is also a trading pal!

And I ended up making some changes to my little beeswax tree page for Julie's book - I am much happier with it now the clock to symbolise that time is passing and the environment can't wait!)

All Sorts!

2009-08-15T12:52:00.005+08:00

I thought I would share the few bits and pieces I have been making recently. I haven't been overly productive in the evenings as bed and a good book seemed more appealing! It must be my "end of winter" syndrome!

Anyway Meagan (my new ATC trading partner who has yet to establish a blog or Flickr album) and I traded "vintage" themed ATCs this week. I made the one at the top of this post and this one is Meagan's. It is just gorgeous and it has the loveliest background - I had to photograph it on the angle so you could see her beautiful Perfect Pearls background. Pretty classy hey?

I am participating in a very small Altered Book round robin and the first book I am to work in is Julie's and she has the theme "Forest Industry". Julie hasn't actually used an existing book but has made some glorious metal book covers and pages that are not much bigger than an ATC. They are made from a lovely thick watercolour paper (think really thick) and so they have lent themselves to some robust treatment!

I have done the backs and fronts of two of the pages and focused on birds for the first two and the environment and ecology for the second two. Julie included a bag of interesting bits and pieces for us to consider using, so my first page uses her little metal birdhouse, the vintage bird card (which I aged with inks) and a bit of her beautiful frayed silk ribbon.

My second two pages are beeswaxed and include old text and a leaf cut from a napkin. The green on the tree page is melted wax crayon. I feel as though the page is a bit on the dull side so I might add a charm or something in a puddle of beeswax. I have sprayed a bit of gold glitz spritz over the beeswax and like the way it has dried in little droplets. It remains to be seen whether it stays there indefinitely but this morning it didn't rub off when I was buffing the beeswax.

I have also made another fused plastic ATC for my trade with Jen - this time I covered the painted plastics with Golden's GAC and I really like the shiny effect.

I enjoyed sewing all the various pieces of fused plastic together patchwork style. I can imagine making a journal cover from this stuff!

Last but not least, I received this funky Calendar Girls postcard from Pat - it is a terrific take on the inspirational calendar page. I have included a shot that shows how dimensional the face is!

And Pat sent me some great napkins as well - and as it happens, I don't have any of these in my "collection". Thanks Pat!A very wintry day here today - perfect for arting and crafting inside with an endless supply of steaming hot cups of tea. Might have to make some muffins to make the afternoon extra perfect...

PS The lovely Kelsey has honoured me with an award this week (thanks!) but that will have to wait until my next post.

My Green Inchie Display

2009-08-10T18:36:00.003+08:00

So far I have participated in five fabric inchie swaps with the latest being the green one. Each time I think "this is my favourite one" but really they are all wonderful. Yesterday I got around to mounting all the green inchies from the last swap and I just adore the results!

All of my inchie mountings so far have been "temporary" and this one is no different! All I have done is mount them as a grid on some black cardstock but they look fantastic stuck on the wall in my sewing room (the "fibre arts" studio!).

I REALLY do love green!

(This is a lousy photo but it is more accurate colour-wise,
the first two have a blue tinge that isn't true to life!)

(And last night I started pulling out all the fabrics, fibres, yarns and embellishments that I am going to use in making the red inchies that are my next inchie project!)

Leaves - A Fibre Postcard & Art Now For Autism

2009-08-09T10:58:00.006+08:00

I had a lovely surprise this week when Leah in Texas commented on one of my posts and said she'd love to trade. Now I am nearly always up for a one-on-one trade so I quickly said yes. We agreed on a postcard with a leaves theme. It is not due to be posted until the end of the month but yesterday I got the urge to start and before I knew it, the postcard was finished.

I have used a text printed fabric background (you can see it in the background of my picture) but the muslin that I layered and stitched on top has virtually obscured it. I'm telling myself that it is "providing depth" as I hate to waste expensive fabric, especially text fabric for which I am forever searching. I coloured the muslin by bunching it up and spraying it with various Adirondack Color Washes - I love those sprays! Because I have been reading Lesley Riley's book "Fabulous Fabric Art With Lutradur" I wanted to make my leaves from lutradur, so I dug out a piece from a whole pile I had painted a couple of years ago and used my woodburning tool to cut out some free form leaf shapes. I used the tool to score the leaves a bit to imitate veins and then stitched them onto the background using a green metallic thread. I added a bit of organza under the middle leaf, sewed on some miniature sequins and a backing and then decided to add some glitz by spraying some Glitz Spritz in green and gold. They give it a lovely radiance in real life!

Now as a result of "meeting" Leah I had a good look around her blog and found out that she is supporting "Art Now for Autism" through a fantastic and very generous give-away on her blog (appropriately called ART GIRL!) So pop over and have a look and decide if you too would like to link to the Art Now for Autism site and enter Leah's giveaway. Unfortunately the deadline for art donations for the on-line fund raiser is 1 September so I won't be able to make anything for it this year but I will be checking out the art available at the auction, that's for sure.

Bits & Pieces...

2009-08-06T21:02:00.004+08:00

Just a quick post tonight - can't believe it is already Thursday, where did this week go??

This is my first go at making a fused plastic bag ATC. It is for a trade with Jen. It was good fun although I had a bit of trouble getting my paints to stay on the plastic! Expect to see more ATCs made from these experiments as I have a lot of painted plastic surfaces sitting on my desk!

And this ATC arrived today from the prolific cross-stitching Anne (no blog) n France - this was the ATC she sent me for our latest trade. I think this is my favourite from Anne (so far!) - gorgeous bright colours and such lovely delicate work plus beading!!

As a result of a recent ATC trade with Margaret, Cynthia Peck contacted me and we also traded ATCs. And I now have my first digital ATCs -and I love them!! I have no desire at this stage to make them myself but I respect and enjoy the tremendous skill and artistry involved in making them and Cynthia's are beautiful.

My friend Annie has shared her latest napkin purchase with me - this is a really lovely napkin - love that pattern in the corner!

And to share what else is happening in my life - I received this gorgeous little metal covered "book" this week from Julie. We are participating in a small Aussie Altered Book Round Robin and I am really looking forward to it as I haven't done an AB for ages. I forgot to take pictures of mine before sending it off so I will have to just share the whole lot at the end when it comes back to me! Julie's theme is "Forest Industry" and I am thinking about what I will do for my pages this weekend...Don't you just love Julie's presentation!

Other things that are happening - I have managed to temporarily forget my horror of repetition and I have signed up for my first ever calendar swap! I picked January as my month so I could do bright and sunny summer pages (given that it is a West Australian swap and January is a summer month) or maybe vintage bathing beauty pages. I am also running another fabric inchie swap with Annie on Aus_NZartquilters and this time we are doing RED inchies so I guess inchies are going to feature here rather a lot again for a while!

Calendar Girl Postcards

2009-08-04T20:16:00.004+08:00

I decided to make my Calendar Girl postcard for this month as early as possible so I started it this weekend just gone, doing the finishing touches last night. The Erika Oller painting (pictured below) which is this month's inspiration just didn't "do it" for me in terms of any wonderful ideas for surface embellishment etc, but I really liked the soft colours so decided to focus on them and the heart shape.

I printed the image out on A4 size paper and cut it into varying width strips. Once it was woven together, I backed it with a lovely green organza (to show in the little gaps between the strips) and Pellon stabiliser and did some machine stitching in a basic grid to keep it altogether. This is what it looked like at this stage -

Next I coated it with gel medium and adhered white netting across the top to make my own version of a fabric paper. I cut out the postcard-sized bit I liked best and sprayed it with a blue Glitz Spritz for some glimmer!

White sequins and lemon seed beads form the heart shape. I decided to edge the postcard a bit differently this time so used a small but thick blanket machine stitch. Even with the calico backing the card is a bit transparent if held up to the light and I really like that effect!

And I have just realized that I haven't posted a picture of the beautiful Calendar Girl postcard I received from Val for July - here it is - isn't it gorgeous. Look here for more details!

My New (Big!) Pincushion

2009-08-03T19:30:00.006+08:00

(My 15 year old pincushion - looking pretty tatty now!)

About fifteen years ago (maybe more) I had a crafting blitz making pincushions in little baskets. I made several miniature ones as gifts and a larger one for my own use. That pincushion is still going strong but looks pretty tatty compared to all the beautiful ones I am seeing on the net these days!

(A Christmas scrap fabric wreath from a craft period quite some years ago!)

While I was thinking about making myself a beautiful new one I decided I would need to make it quite large as I like to have lots of pins available and also plenty of space for needles, including all those pesky threaded ones that so easily get in a tangle! Not long after this I was cleaning out a cupboard and found the fabric Christmas wreath I made at about the same time as the original pincushions.

(My very large new pincushion - the Christmas wreath turned over -
a variation on the turning over a new leaf approach!)

And it suddenly hit me - turn it over and use it as a giant pincushion!! Not beautiful or fancy but it works great and I can even hang it on a chair or on the wall to get it out of the way. Re-purposing - I love it!

A Little Quiltie for Mandy

2009-08-02T16:53:00.004+08:00

I participate in a small Aussie art group that has an "Art of the Month" exchange and, for July, I was to make sweet Mandy something. I met Mandy at the Artistic Journey Retreat in Melbourne in 2007 and she really is the sweetest person, so I had a lot of fun creating a little quilt celebrating the theme of "home' for her. From reading her blog (just love her blog name!) I think she is having a bit of a rough time at the moment so hopefully this will be a little bit of a "cheer-up".

Incidentally I can also tell you that it was in the making of this quilt that I managed to damage my finger (in an automated car window no less - the mind boggles, I know...) but needless to say, that has nothing to do with Mandy and everything to do with my focus!! I know, be here in the now ... (just in case my wonderful sister Marrijane reads this!)

The little girl image is a freebie download printed on fabric from the wonderful Gaby. The quilt actually has a frayed edge and a hanger but those bits didn't fit on my scanner! And I don't think it is crooked in real life (although I am starting to wonder, having said that two posts in a row!)

PS I am in love with velvet ric rac (or is it rick rack?) and what's more, I can buy it in Kalgoorlie from the wonderful Renaye at Keepsake Krafts! This is an expansion on my ongoing leaf trim love (which I have to buy on the net)!

PS (+) Prepare yourself for some more inchie madness as Annie and I are hosting another fabric inchie swap with the Aust_NZArtQuilters group - this time the colour is way out of my comfort zone - it is RED!

Remembering the Fabrics from My Earlier Years!

2009-08-01T13:53:00.008+08:00

Some weeks ago I mentioned that my Mum had made me a beautiful quilt using a lot of fabrics from clothes my sisters, Mum and I made during the late 60s and 70s. We all grew up sewing as virtually all our clothes were homemade. It is the first quilt Mum has made and I am thrilled that she has done this for me. My photo makes it look a bit crooked but it is just my photography skills (or lack of!).

There is so much work in it - all the little hangers are embroidered and each of the little waistcoats is lined and has an inside pocket with a little treasure inside. Mum has used embellishments to link the quilt with me - my name (Deborah) means "bee" in Hebrew so there is a bee, there is a school satchel because these fabrics come from when I was still at school, gardening tools because I love my garden etc etc. Just had to share it with you! I love having it hanging in my home and even though my Mum lives about 1000 kilometres away, I feel as if she is closer every time I look at the quilt.

(Detail of one of the waistcoats)

PS If you met my Mum you would love her (everyone does) but if you mentioned this quilt I can guarantee she would tell you all the faults she sees in the quilt and all the things she reckons she should have done differently!

Black & White + One

2009-07-23T20:41:00.004+08:00

This month the "theme" for a small group exchange was set by Doreen and she decided on ATCs that were "black & white + one". A good choice! These were the results - clockwise from top left - Annie Laing, Carole Brungar, Ann Buskens, me and Doreen Grey. A lovely mixture of fabric, paper and nixed media.

PS I am travelling with work a fair bit lately and I have also damaged a finger on my right hand so I am a bit limited productivity-wise! Trying to finish the little quiltie from the previous post but it is a slow process without normal dexterity! Bear with me..I'll be back!

Wednesday Night & I'm Back in Town!

2009-07-15T19:56:00.005+08:00

(A peek at this month's AOTM quilt that I am working on)

I forgot to mention that I was going away for a few days with work, so sorry about that. I got back tonight and found that I had three new books (my first ever Amazon order) waiting on my doorstep as well as some wonderful ATCs from a trade with Margaret Roche. While I was away I used my evenings mostly to just read my book "The Trout Opera" by Matthew Condon (which I am struggling with, but determined to finish even if I skip over some of the more turgid passages!) but I did get a bit of the hand stitching done on the little art quilt I am making for Mandy as my "Art of the Month" commitment for July.

These are my ATCs that Margaret chose -

Napkin Collage on Stamped & Painted Canvas

Painted Vliesofix on Fabric with Painted Felt Flowers

Beeswaxed Stamped Tissue Collage

And these are the ones I chose! And look at the attention to detail in Margaret's packaging - so special - a beautiful card, envelope and some yummy ATC sized papers.

And these are my new books - don't they look gorgeous!

Postcard & ATCs

2009-07-12T11:10:00.008+08:00

My July Postcard for Pippa

It must be the season (cold wintry weather) but I am in a bit of a "fallow" state creativity wise. I have a head full of ideas but don't seem to be able to settle down and actually do much with them. I am finding easiest to work on things that have to be done such as monthly exchanges etc. Nothing like a commitment or a deadline to motivate me!!Yesterday I finished my Calendar Girl Postcard for July. This month it was my turn to make one for Pippa and it is actually the month that Pippa chose the Calendar Page so a little bit of added pressure!! (Not really, but you sort of know that if someone picked a picture they really liked it so you want it to inspire something they are going to like as well!!)

As soon as I saw the picture (which is the glorious photo of the glacier above) I knew I wanted to do something that was textural and that would focus on the bottom two thirds of the picture - ie not the sky. So I started with a piece of fabric paper "a la Beryl Taylor" that I had previously made with a calico (apparently called muslin the US) base, torn pieces of scrapbook paper and a crumpled (then flattened) Monet napkin as the top layer. I had dry brushed it with gesso to emphasize the wrinkles.

This was what the base layer of fabric paper looked like before I added multiple layers!

I decided it needed a lot more texture so I added some more layers of torn and crumpled napkins using the inside layers to get a subdued colour. Once they were dried I continued with the dry brushing of gesso and then added Quink Ink layers in blue and black to get some depth. More gesso, some sprays of Glitz Spritz to get the brighter blue at the top and then I ironed on a Pelmet Vilene backing. At this point I discovered the Quink Ink is reactivated by heat(!!) and that it even spread further so after machine stitching around the edges I went back and added some more gesso (surprise, surprise) to emphasize the mountains. Then for a bit of sparkle I added just a little turquoise Suze Weinberg Ultra Effects and some Judikins silver roxs. Not sure why I ever bought either product (including several other colours of the roxs) as I can never think of anything to do with them. At least now they have had a little use!

Yesterday I also finished my ATCs for a small group swap - this month it was Doreen's turn to pick the theme and she chose "Black & White + One" and we all had to chose different accent colours. I went for bright orange! I used a lace patterned napkin and adhered it to cardstock and then cut out the lace shape and stitched it to the orange fabric layer, adding a black ribbon and white button (I was determined not to use a flower this month!!). and some adhesive pearls. I knew it needed something else and I tried a lot of different things but in the end I covered each button with Dimensional Magic and a punched out alphabet letter to match the recipient's name. There was one spare which has a "6" and black "gems" instead and that has now been traded (edited 15 July). I have received two of the ATCs for this month already but I will save them until I have received them all and share them then.

A close-up - needless to say the button was too dimensional for the scanner to cope with!!

Spare ATC - (Now traded)

Now for something completely different - have you discovered "Spezify" yet???? It is wonderful and such a great way to spend even more hours on the net!! It is a search engine that gives you multiple results at once. Try "mixed media" or "fabric collage" or even your own name - it is fascinating what comes up and it so visual. I'm seriously addicted - maybe that is why I haven't been doing much ...

Stitching the Textured Surface!!!

2009-07-09T19:50:00.005+08:00

Look what came in the mail today!! I just love a wonderful mixed media book and this one is superb - stunning photography of the samples and such a good balance between close-ups and longer distance shots. It is has just recently been released and is written by the extremely talented duo Lynda Monk and Carol McFee - see here for more information about them and their online classes (in the unlikely event that anyone reading my blog isn't already aware of them!!)

Now I am off to have a good detailed read!!

PS If you were thinking you wouldn't need this book because it has stitching in the title - you are wrong as the stitching bit is more about how you can make sewn things with the textured surfaces that are the mainstay of this book. It really is a fabulous technique based book.

Drifting Through Sunday...

2009-07-05T13:55:00.008+08:00

(Mel's Birthday Card - I love using collage "scraps"!)

(Inchies by Kerrie Bowles)

I am having a lovely weekend - no major commitments so I can drift through the days doing the basics when they suit me (you know the washing and cooking etc), doing art in my pyjamas and doing lots of blog-surfing which is something I haven't done for sooo long. I've had a head cold this week so this sort of weekend is just what I needed.

(Inchies by Kathryn Robertson)

(Inchies by Anne O'Connor)

(Inchies by Pauline Brewis)

On Wednesday night my friend Annie and I sorted all the Green Fabric Inchies from the exchange we ran on the Aus_NZartquilters yahoo group. We had 20 participants so you can imagine what the table looked like with 1080 plus inchies on it...GORGEOUS! The inchies were mailed back to everyone on Thursday and it will be a few days I guess before everyone gets their envelopes but I can't resist posting some scans of the sets I ended up with.

(Inchies by Jane Symes)

(Inchies by Helen Dyer in NZ)

(Inchies by Annie Laing)

Some lovely people sent Annie and I extras, plus we each made an extra set to swap with each other, so I have a lovely assortment for my next wall display (which I will post as soon as I get around to attaching all the inchies to the backing material which takes ages as I play around with the inchies to get the arrangement that appeals most to me).

(Inchies by Cait Gordon)

(& assorted extras from some wonderful fabric artists)

I had a pretty quiet week creative-wise as a result of the head cold - all I wanted to do when I got home from work was eat and sleep! But I did get a little collage card made for a family member's birthday (pictured at the top of this post) and then this weekend I have been playing around with some more backgrounds - gesso resist, scraped paint (which is a sort-of credit card technique on paper that has been used underneath other techniques!), Adirondak inks on gloss paper and Claudine Hellmuth's peeled paper technique.

I am also working on a little altered book for a round robin I am about to participate in. It has been a couple of years since I did an Altered Book so I am having some fun with this. My "theme" is quotes as I want a little book full of quotes. It also means everybody can have a lot of freedom with the techniques they use which should keep it interesting.

And now I am off to do some more pages in it and maybe work on some Black & White Plus 1 colour ATCs that are due this month.

Wonderful Art Received!

2009-06-30T19:54:00.004+08:00

I have the good fortune to be part of a small group of Aussie art sisters who have the option each month of participating in an "art of the month" exchange (as mentioned in yesterday's post) and this month the person sending art to me was Nic Hohn.

Yesterday I received this wonderful package - a beautifully wrapped piece of art, a gorgeous beaded bookmark and two of Nic's vibrant "love" cards! I feel so blessed - so much abundance!

And at the top of this post is the "you are loved" artwork that Nic sent - isn't it special?

PS While my Mum was visiting she gave me a very special little quilt that she had made especially for me (yes, I am glowing with all this specialness coming my way!) and as soon as I can take a decent photo of it I will be sharing it here. It ieatures fabrics that my sisters and I and our Mum used to make our clothes when I was a young teenager! Needless to say they are as good as vintage fabrics now!!

Finally I'm Back!

2009-06-29T18:48:00.006+08:00

(Front View)

Well I finished the bulk of my clean-up and reorganization last Sunday a week ago (and I am feeling very pleased with myself!!) but then had to go to Leonora/Wiluna for work purposes so I haven't been around much lately. This weekend just gone, my son Josh flew up to Kalgoorlie so I made the most of his few days with us (and it was my birthday as well so it was extra-special family time!)

As a result I haven't been doing much creative stuff (outside of the kitchen) although I have finished a couple of art commitments. The first one is a fabric journal wrap that I made for Samm as my "Art of the Month" for a small group exchange. It looks a whole lot better in real life but my camera batteries were flat and I needed to get it in the mail today so I have made do with scans! Inside the wrap I have included a lovely colourful journal which I liberated from an unappreciative owner at our local monthly trash and treasure market. The wrap has pockets to hold the journal and is made from a mixture of vintage kimono fabric, new asian themed fabrics, a felt backing and some delicious velvet ric rac. The ties are dyed leather with recycled asian decorative coins.

(Back View)

I also made this little bird fabric ATC last night for my latest exchange with the cross-stitching ATC Anne Lugherini.

I have been blessed with some lovely mail of late - here is the first instalment! This is Pippa's interpretation of the June Calendar Girl picture (by Ton Schulten) - I love her dreamy postcard. And it came in this wonderful fibrous painted (internal!) envelope with some yummy clay beads/buttons.

And Cait sent me a gorgeous green ATC (along with her Green Inchies) - Annie and I are swapping them all out this week so I will be posting pictures later this week of all that green inchie goodness (there were 20 players who each sent 54 inchies so I guess you can imagine ....the mess that Annie and I could very easily get in!!) PS Sorry again about the blur - the ATC is quite "dimensional" and I really should have waited for a photo!

And last but not least, here is the latest ATC I have received from my exchanges with Anne Lugherini (Iam always running late!).

More tomorrow...

Why My Blog Has Been Neglected of Late!

2009-06-17T06:50:00.005+08:00

Just popping in to explain the unscheduled blogging holiday I have had this last week or so! (And which will continue for the next few days I expect.)

The story goes like this - over a six month period an arty/crafty woman gradually spreads beyond the two spare but small bedrooms that form her creative (storage!) space into the study/guest room. It starts when the youngest son of the household finishes school and has a gap year before leaving home to pursue a higher education in Perth. It is possible because the guest room is only needed infrequently. Initially the "spread" just involves a large trestle table/surface area for projects, but over the months a significant flow of materials and supplies of every kind start following the woman who loves them.

Suddenly it is June and the woman's mum (who lives about a thousand kilometres away) is due for her annual visit and it becomes blindingly obvious that she will be sleeping on a couch in the lounge room unless a certain arty/crafty woman takes immediate action. The same woman reflects on the situation at night while trying to sleep and decides that she is feeling very disorganised and over-whelmed with her creative spaces and that a nice little clean-up and reorganisation is necessary (not a total blitz or anything, just a nice sedate reorganisation that involves chucking out junk and rubbish that sticks to this woman like glue - sensing maybe that a accumulative "recycling" type personality lives within?). It seems possible (at least in the middle of the night) to imagine a couple of days of the following week's recreation leave being sufficient to complete the task and still have enough time for more leisurely and pursuits with her mum.

So it starts on the evenings after work a few days before the crazed one's mum is due to arrive - everything that that should not have found even a temporary home in the guest room is moved to the lounge room "for sorting". Fortunately the household includes an incredibly tolerant and bemused husband and an 18 year old son who couldn't care less as long as their path to the kitchen is free and their activity room (the one with the computer, the Foxtel/bigger TV, the drums, the treadmill and the family bookcase etc etc) is left unscathed.

One very loved/loving mother arrives by train late on the evening of the 12th of June and immediately assesses the situation - this is not a holiday she is on, this is a mission! It starts the next day with a realization by both the crazed woman and loving mother that the task needs also to involve the "stuff" in the other two rooms as well. Days pass with both immersed in the task - amazing things are discovered (on the spectrum that caries from "oh my god - what was I thinking" to "WOW - how wonderful - I had forgotten about that tool/supply/material etc") and some progress is made.

By the evening of day four (last night) however, the task is seeming a little too big and a little too over-whelming and both the crazed woman and the loved mother are grateful that the wine supply is good and that the middle and younger sisters are out of eye-sight (on the other side of Australia and in Perth respectively) because both know they would be aghast at their mum and sisters' inability to chuck out/recycle/give-away 30 perfectly good strong handled brown paper bags. OR the reasoning behind the accumulation of boxes (and boxes) of superseded office letterhead paper (that just needs the letterhead cut off and then it will make perfectly good notepads for next to the phone for about 200+ years). OR the lovely wooden spoon handles that eventually fell off the Balinese cooking utensils bought on a family holiday a decade ago (but which could make really interesting art quilt hangers.) OR the 20 spare rolls of foam mounting tape tucked away in a box in a cupboard where they would never be found at a time when they were actually needed. And it goes on and on....

So today is day five and I have missed my blog so thought I would spend a little time sharing the chaos that is currently my life!! All of these photos, taken at 6am this morning (which is after we "tidied up last night!!) are not of the actual creative rooms themselves, just the overflow into the lounge-room and family dining area where I have set up trestle tables to save me squatting on the floor all the time (middle-aged thighs don't cope well with squatting for more than about 10 minutes a day!!). Ask me how I know...

And to finish on a creative note - all of the ATCs below are the ones I have received from the "recycled ribbon" challenge. Such great variety!!

(Clock-wise from the left - by Annie Laing, An Buskens, Doreen Grey & Carole Brungar)

Yesterday's mail brought this lovely package of music sheets and plastic lace (for sun-printing!!) which I had won on a give-away on Jo Wholohan's blog. I'm excited about this lace as I have been enjoying the sun-printing process and this lace is quite different to the ones I have managed to find. Jo's packaging is just gorgeous and she will be selling these through her etsy shop soon if you are interested.

Tuesday's This and That

2009-06-09T18:34:00.004+08:00

(Having fun with gesso!)

Just a quick little post to say thank you to the Queensland girls (Jo, Kasha and Gaye) for insisting 13 months ago that I REALLY didn't know what I was missing by not even checking out the Cuttlebug machine!! Well I may be a bit slow on the uptake but I have discovered you are right - the Cuttlebug is amazing and I love it already!! Accumulating embossing folders at a rate of knots and watching all the you tube videos on different "recipes".

Blog Warning: Everything I make in the next three months is bound to have been put through the Cuttlebug at some point!

(From Doreen)

My mail this week has been wonderful - yesterday I received Doreen's beautiful ATC with the recycled ribbon (and yes, we really did manage to do very similar things but without any collusion at all!) as well as Kasha's Art of the Month - a wonderful set of button jewellery!

(From Kasha)

Then today I received Sharon's June Calendar Girls fabric postcard (and what a gorgeous postcard it is - see here for details ) and the latest "Studios" magazine. I just love reading about other people's art rooms/studios! Very inspiring.

(From Sharon)

At the top of this post there is a scan of are some pieces I am working on at the moment - in between emptying the guest room of all my art & craft overflow so that my Mum has somewhere to sleep when she arrives on Friday night!!

PS Jo has a blog give-away happening so check it out before June 12!

Recycling Packaging Ribbon

2009-06-08T19:27:00.006+08:00

I had a quiet weekend as a result of a killer headache on Thursday - decided to be gentle on myself and it was a good move - I feel much better for it! It did mean however, that I didn't get much art or craft done except for some ATCs for a small group trade.

Annie decided the "theme" this month and she required that we use some "ribbons" that her husband brought home to her after finding them as packaging material in some boxes he was unpacking! The ribbons are synthetic and quite firm so I decided (after a couple of abortive attempts at other things!) to weave them together as the base for my ATCs.

Here is a photo of the weaving underway - I used various pins to hold the ribbons in place on two sides as I did the weaving. The base was a piece of cork covered with paper-backed fusible adhesive. Once the weaving was completed I ironed the whole sandwich (well, minus the cork!) and then backed it with green fabric so that there was some colour showing in between the ribbons. I backed this with Pelmet Vilene Plus and then used a couple of decorative stitches on my Janome to add a bit of interest. I backed them again with fabric and cut them into ATC sizes. After finishing the edges I added painted and stamped paper flowers with some adhesive "jewels" but then I decided the ATCs still needed "something". So I got out my wood-burning tool and melted little holes in the ribbons - I think it adds some texture!

PS The scan of the ATCs at the top is not really accurate colour-wise - the photo of the weaving is much closer to reality.

My June Calendar Girl Postcard

2009-06-02T19:35:00.006+08:00

Hopefully pride won't come before a fall but I made my June postcard for the Calendar Girl swap yesterday - on the first of June!! That is a record for me. below is the calendar page we were to use as an inspiration - it was chosen by Sharon. It positively screamed at me - use your sheers - do lots of layering. So I did. And had a lot of fun doing it. Now I want to play some more with sheers! The first picture above is a photo and the second one is a scan. The photo shows up the glittery organza fabrics a bit more but the scan is truer colour-wise!.And then today the postman delivered my comp copy of Art Quilting Studio (I should not have doubted Stampington!) so tonight I will be losing myself in its pages!

This morning we had a glorious sunrise and as I haven't shared any early morning photos for ages, I thought I would show you this series from over my east facing backyard fence. Love the way the moon shows up in one of them!

Inchies!

2009-06-01T11:27:00.007+08:00

Finally finished my green fabric inchies for the exchange Annie and I are organising. Some of the colours in the photos were "off" so I have scanned some of them to get a more realistic look.

Below - shiva oil sticks painted onto white satin, stamped with a text image in black ink. Large sequin stitched on with dimensional gel paint "bead" and edging.

Below - sun-printed lace fabric with decorative fibre tied around the inchie.
Stitched on fabric flower and bead.

Below - Sun-printed fabric with white glitter mesh and metallic heart brad.

Below - sun-printed fabric covered with glitter tulle, decorative machine stitching with sequin flower and bead sewn on.

Below - hand-dyed silk with green lace, decorative fibre and "jewel".

Below - cream fabric stamped with green ink and hand coloured paper flower adhered with small green brad. Inchie sprayed with green glitz spritz.

Below - cream printed fabric covered with light green organza with small green pompom.

Below - Green velvet with bamboo fibre bow and gold flower brad.

Below - green fabric with felt fusion and a pink sequin stitched on with decorative fibre.

Below - hand-dyed lace sewn to decorative fabric.

Exciting News!!

2009-05-30T16:24:00.004+08:00

My friend Annie ordered a copy of the new Stampington publication "Art Quilting Studio" from Dale at The Thread Studio and when it arrived she discovered that these two little art quilts I had sent in (many moons ago) had been included!

Needless to say I am thrilled and now I am eagerly watching my letter box in the hope that Stampington remember to send me a copy! I have seen several other blog posts where people in the US are just receiving their comp copies so I guess I'll need to wait another week before I follow it up. I only had a quick look through Annie's copy but it looks like a nice mix of styles and techniques are included - love love love DJ's quilts and this one of Denise's is just gorgeous.

Makes me want to start another art quilt right now!

Some More Inchies

2009-05-25T20:29:00.004+08:00

This weekend I managed to make some good progress on my green fabric inchies - this set is finished. The scan is a bit blurry as the inchies are quite dimensional but I couldn't be bothered taking a photo - the scanner is a lot simpler (and closer)! They are quite pretty in real (inchie) life.

I used remnants of the piece of fabric I sunprinted for my April Calendar Girl postcard. It has a sparkly fine brown tulle on top and I've added some decorative stitching and the sequins and bead. I decided to sew on the beads after the inchies were cut and backed with the pelmet vilene plus but it was pretty fiddly stitching them on! An exercise in patience, especially as invisible thread really is!

This next picture is a scan of several other bases that are ready for the next steps - decorating and finishing the edges (only on those that need it!). I have used two pieces of sunprinted fabric (ones I made using plastic lace table runners a little while back), a piece of polyester satin coloured with shiva oil paint sticks and then stamped with a text image, a piece of fabric with that die cut felt fusion on top, fabric covered with sparkly organza and another one cut from a rich plush piece of velvety upholstery fabric. I have another inchie base on the sewing machine as well - hand-dyed silk gifted to me by the wonderful Joanna!

I'll be working on my inchies at Annie's on our regular Wednesday night get together - they are very transportable and will be a good little project for me to focus on (instead of just talking and drooling over Annie's latest book purchases!!).

Today was a good mail day - Carole's "Things that start with the letter L" ATC arrived today. That is the last of the ATCs from that swap for May. Annie has chosen the theme for June and she has provided a mystery material that we are to incorporate into ATCs for the group's June exchange. Watch this space - I have my thinking cap on but as yet I haven't settled on an idea !

I Love Sundays!

2009-05-24T16:08:00.008+08:00

I couldn't sleep last night for some reason so I gave up and started the day VERY early (especially for a Sunday)! Flagging a bit now but it has been a good day. I made this canvas board for Kasha - she is my Art of the Month partner again this month. I got to use my new Fiskars Border punch (Treading Water) on the roof section - I really do love scalloped edges and the little holes add a little something. I think I may have gone a little overboard on the floral embellishments...and I have just realised that I used the same flowers on last month's quilted wall hanger! See what happens when I leave stuff out on my desk - I actually use it. I also used my not-that-new but previously unused little blue wired leaves - I've been saving them as they are so gorgeous but I am trying to practice thinking abundance!

This is what the background looked like before I started collaging. I painted it first (dark green), then dry-brushed it with white before sponging on inks and stamping etc. I love this script image - it is from the new Oxford Impressions range.

And for a bit of variety here are some photos of scenes around Leonora (two and a half hours drive north of Kalgoorlie) taken this month after lots of rain - everything is so much greener than usual for this time of year. And the dam has a lot of water in it! Several of the shots are taken from the top of a small hill.