Wednesday Stamper - Be Square

This week's theme over at Wednesday Stamper is "BE SQUARE" so I am posting a square card from an article I have in the latest Stamping & Papercraft magazine (which arrived in my letter- box today) - it features a great square image from Crafty Individuals. I know birds are everywhere at the moment but I just can't help myself!

PS I am addicted to adhesive paper lace too!

And the lovely Eva has blessed me with a "Sweet Home Blogger Award" so I will pass that on tomorrow night. Thanks Eva, it is lovely to think of all the blog reading and sharing that goes on around our planet!!

Mixed Media Monday & Wednesday Stamper

This is my entry for two challenges this week - the Mixed Media Monday theme is "Gold" and the Wednesday Stamper theme is "Words" so I have combined the two in this piece.

It is a small canvas board which has been painted black and then covered in black lace strips. I've added a walnut ink stained shipping tag that has been stamped (mostly Oxford Impressions and one from Lost Aussie Designs) and stitched. The whole thing has then been coated in beeswax which holds the dried fern leaf and tiny dried flower in place. It has then been sprayed lightly with Moon Shadow Mist in Medieval Gold and dry brushed with Lumiere Sunset Gold, emphasizing the canvas edges. There is a small metal spiral pushed into the wax over the tag hole. Because the canvas is my "ode" to Paris I have used the word "dream" to finish it off (I can but dream of Paris!).

Wednesday Stamper - Diamonds

Just a quick post - this is my "Diamonds" piece for the latest Wednesday Stamper challenge. The diamond background stamp is one I love but don't seem to use that often. The little girl is of course an image from the new Oxford Impressions Winter Snow plate - she is so cute!

Wednesday Stamper - Chair

This week's Wednesday Stamper theme (which of course changes tomorrow) is "Chair". I found that, in my thousands of rubber stamps, I was chair-free apart from this wonderful Non Sequitur Egyptian image (which, while not chair-focused, at least includes a chair of sorts!).

The background is a piece of Basic Grey paper which has been painted with diluted Distress Ink and then stamped with a very large hieroglyphics image. The triangle metal embellishment has been "coloured" with Krylon Pale Gold and is meant to create a visual association with pyramids! My scan looks a bit darker than the real thing.

I got back this afternoon from my trip out past Meekatharra - two very busy days of glorious sunshine and a lot of dirt-road kilometres! Only one eagle, but 8 goannas (man, they were big ones!), lots of kangaroos, one emu and lots and lots of wild goats. Too may ants to mention!!

Wednesday Stamper - Leaves

I love stamping with images of leaves and usually use chalk inks as I love their softness and blend-ability so for this week's Wednesday Stamper theme of "Leaves" I have dug out my Burnt Sienna and Charcoal Chalk Ink-pads. The leaf is by Amazing Creations, the tiny text by Collections and the crackle is one of four images on an "aging block" by Lucy's Stamps. Scrap of scrapbook paper (very appropriate, hey?), some gold sticker strips and a recycled op shop button to finish.

And while I am writing a post I thought I'd load a scan of a piece of fabric I have decorated with Shiva Sticks (green, black and gold). I think it will make interesting backgrounds for some fabric postcards and ATCs. I used the swirl and circle rubbing boards that I posted about a few weeks back. They worked a treat so I am going to make up some more with different shapes. It is a great way to use up old dimensional paint and I have heaps of it left from my T Shirt decorating days.

Wednesday Stamper - Wild West

The week's theme at Wednesday Stamper (until tomorrow at least!) is Wild West. This gave me another great opportunity to make an ATC using the Oxford Impressions Cowgirl Blues stamps. I had to include a lasso again too! And the cowgirl doesn't have a tattoo - although the walnut ink spray gives that impression.

If you haven't already checked out the just released Winter Snow collection of stamps from Oxford Impressions I suggest you do! They are lovely and very versatile for Christmas stamping.

Wednesday Stamper - Growing Old

"Growing Old" is the current challenge on the Wednesday Stamper site - I have been very stumped by this one! This ATC is coated in beeswax and there is a little bit of stamping - some numbers and symbols. I love the image of these two "aging" blokes. The background and words are from a 1918 directory that I found in an antique shop when I was in Adelaide for a stamping convention several years ago - it is a terrific source of old advertisements and details.

Wednesday Stamper - Children

The theme this week for Wednesday Stamper is Children and of course I had to use one of my new Juxtaposed children stamps by Melanie Sage. Stamping on textured water colour paper is not the greatest idea but I loved the colours on this scrap and just had to use it for this ATC!

Yesterday I made really good progress with my metallic fabric inchies - they are fiddly but a lot of fun. I have all the bases done now and quite a few finished with the rest just needing embellishment. As soon as they are all finished I'll upload some pictures - they are pretty sparkly!

Today in the mail I received a replacement blank jigsaw so that is my next project - I feel so bad messing up the first time round so I will be taking a great deal of care numbering the pieces and linking the right names this time. Thanks to Elaine and Annie for getting me the jigsaw!

PS I'm doing a lunchtime post as I am flying to Perth tonight for a training course tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow evening.

Wednesday Stamper - Inchies

I love inchies (one inch square pieces of art) and this week the Wednesday Stamper "theme " is inchies!! Perfect for me as I love them.

I have made this set tonight from a background that was sitting in one of my many scrap boxes. This one is from at least 5 years ago when I was making Post-It Notebook covers for a swap using multi-coloured inkpads and a brayer on a linen look paper. It had even been through the Xyron so it was pretty easy to cut it up, ink the edges, do some background stamping, punch out some collage images, add some prima flowers and finally doodle and dot with a white gel pen. The white gel pen always makes me think of icing on cupcakes...

Wednesday Stamper - Autumn Colours

This week the Wednesday Stamper theme is "Autumn Colours". I decided to go with the usual autumn leaf theme so I have used a shipping tag with a few different chalk inks to stamp a favourite Hero Arts leaf image and some text and then sponged the tag with the same inks. I really love the way they blend. The tag is then coated with melted beeswax. The woman is stamped on tissue paper and then ironed into the beeswax using a mini Clover iron stamp. I also added some partial swirl images to frame the top of the tag.

Wednesday Stamper - Moo Cards

This week's challenge at Wednesday Stamper is "Moo Cards". These are little cards (2.8 x 7cm) that were originally printed from a cropped photo or design as a small business type card (picture one side, details the other) - see here for details - but now they are being individually created as yet another fun size card for stampers/crafters and artists.

This was my first go at making them and the size certainly takes a bit of getting used to! I think they would be a great way to cut down and use up botched cards etc. All of my focal images are by Oxford Impressions.

Wednesday Stamper - Fish

I've missed the last two Wednesday Stamper Challenges as a result of being away and then too busy, so I thought I would ensure I joined in this week by doing something simple and quick as a relaxing Friday night lead in to the weekend (a long one at that as I have a day off work on Monday!!)

As the theme is fish I thought I would use this lovely Pisces stamp by Chapel Road. I bought it in Brisbane (when there for Stamping Down Under) three years ago because I just loved it, but incredibly, this is the first time I have used it! How/why does that happen??? Perhaps I have too many stamps...

Anyway this ATC only uses this stamp and a favourite tiny text stamp by Collections (Julie van Oosten) and has a background which has been coloured with Starburst Stain (in a blue shade), Moon Shadow Mist (aqua and gold) and also gold, white & black inks. I used a gold gel pen to emphasize the wording. As per usual the glimmer from the Moon Shadow Mist doesn't show up in the scan.

Ciao for now...

Wednesday Stamper (Stitches) & My Mail Today

I have missed the last couple of Wednesday Stamper themes so I was determined to come up with something for this one. The theme is "Stitches". Although I often sew on my paper-based items, this time I have just used stamps. The stitch images are from Nadine Anderson's "andstamps" range and the vintage women are from Paper Artsy (chosen because they look so "stitched up"!). The background is pink acrylic paint with lots of Moon Glow's Starburst Stain in Tiger Lily Red Orange and Moon Shadow Mist in Crow's Nest Copper.

And I survived the first day back at work after holidays - maybe it was because I discovered at lunchtime that my copy of Artful Blogging had arrived! It has been hard waiting for it given that everyone overseas has been buzzing about it for weeks now! Thanks to Jo at Artistic Journey for making sure my copy got to me as fast as possible. The issue of bedtime reading tonight has been resolved.

On a personal front - the new (and hideously expensive) solar hot water system finally got installed today, Zach has soccer matches three nights this week plus Sunday (and that is not counting training on one night), Joseph goes away tomorrow morning for a couple of days with work, I booked my first mammogram today, I didn't get to a bookshop or the library today despite having great intentions and I am about to go make marshmallow brownies as a treat (special request!) for my Edith Piaf loving Zach. I love it when my music choices become cool!

Wednesday Stamper & My Mail Today!

The current Wednesday Stamper Theme is an open one so this is my piece.

It is a collage on a canvas board and uses an Oxford Impressions stamp (Passaporto) and a Lazar Studiowerx image (the antique compass image that is cut into three pieces and placed around the edges of the canvas). The background is a copy of an old map (I forget what the process is called when you get the blue effect in the photocopying!) and I have uncharacteristically, and much to Joseph's distress, added white fibres around the edge. I have also added one of my favourite little metal rings as it makes me think of portholes.

(Jacqueline's wonderful package)

Today was a totally fabulous mail day - I came home to a wonderful selection of fibre ATCs, a tag and special embellished fabric piece for our latest exchange from Jacqueline, a wonderful box of things, including a great card, a packet of beautiful napkins and the cutest dress styled notepad, from my wonderful friend but non-blogger :(( Sue Smith in Albany (who incidentally has another great article "Rustic Charm" in the latest Stamping & Papercraft), my ribbon order from Really Just Ribbons, a gorgeous tag book for a round robin that I am participating in, my collection of "inchies" from the recent blue inchie swap, a bag of yummy stuff from the inchie swap and, to top it all off, a carton of champagne from my wine club. AND no bills!!

(Sue's card and gifts plus Inchie Goodie Bag from Pamela Gilfoyle)

(My ribbon and ric rac order from Really Just Ribbons)

Tomorrow I will post a photo of all the wonderful blue inchies - I want to assemble them for a photo as they are just gorgeous and look spectacular all together!

PS Last night I decided to try and work out the whole banner thing - I really wanted to use this piece of my artwork for Oxford Impressions and I think it looks OK although I will probably try and make it smaller (or maybe just go back to my plain header!). Whatever I decide I am glad I worked it out even if it did mean I didn't get anything else done!

Wednesday Stamper - Hats

This week's Wednesday Stamper theme is hats. This is my submission, created last night in between trips to the soccer field to drop off and pick up Zach.

I love this "Paper Artsy" stamp and thought it would be nice to do a more masculine style for a change. I do have a lot of trouble with this stamp though in terms of getting good ink coverage on the solid parts but this was my third go so I "settled" for a less than perfect image! I also used a great stamp by "andstamps" (Australian Nadine Andersen's great range) for the border.

Just for a change (I'm kidding of course) I used some Adirondack Color Wash (this time it was the Denim one) as well as walnut ink to add a bit more colour to the background paper.

I have also finally finished my 63+ Blue Fabric inchies so I just have to work out a way of nicely packaging each set and filling a goodie bag and they can go in the mail. I will even be mailing them with some time to spare! I will post a photo before they are mailed as they look good en masse. I really enjoyed these so I hope there is interest in another round, hopefully green.

Now I am off to hang another load of washing on the line and then I am going to do some fusing experiments.

Wednesday Stamper - Eggs

I have been stamping a lot recently with the latest Oxford Impressions plate (The Bird's Nest) and had a whole pile of bits and pieces left over so I have used them to create a wall hanging collage called "New Beginnings" for this week's Wednesday Stamper theme of Eggs. All of the colour is via Adirondak Color Washes in Bottle Green and Butterscotch (which I need to buy bulk I think, it is such a versatile colour!) with a bit of walnut ink and a lot of water. The collage is made up of several layers - a tag, heavily textured watercolour paper and heavily scrunched (and then ironed) photocopy paper all stitched to a backing layer of lutrador for strength.

And as an addendum to this morning's post, Natalie has asked about the background technique: Paint a piece of heavily textured watercolour paper (the cheap stuff!) with two shades of blue acrylic paint. Mist the paper so that it is wet enough to manipulate the edges. Lightly tear strips from the top layer to create white streaks through the shades of blue. Apply light washes of blue paint to parts of the background to tone down the white and to add variation.

Wednesday Stamper - Polka Dots

This is my submission for the current week's Wednesday Stamper theme of Polka Dots - not a colour combination I have used before! The "beautifully perfumed" image is a Lost Aussie Design stamp and the background text is Oxford Impressions. Quick and fun except for ten minutes mucking around deciding what to do as an embellishment!

Wednesday Stamper (Flowers) & Artwords (Dwelling) & A General Progress Report!

I have been busy and have just realised that I haven't posted here for days! On Friday (day off work) I spent the morning catching up on washing and playing with my blue fabric inchies. These, of course, are not the things that needed doing first but as usual, the thing I felt like doing was not the thing that needed doing! Inchies are surprising addictive although I think I would find the paper ones too fiddly - especially the sticking down bit (I can get glue everywhere really really easily!). I have included a scan of one set that I have decided are finished. I am doing nine different "designs". These ones are based on the felt/blue fabric/angelina sandwich that I posted about last week and have little gold sequins and pink seed beads sewn on them.

Around lunch time, Mum and I decided to head down to the one and only craft shop to get some more yarns for the No-Knit scarf that Mum is making while she is up here. I bought a new Kai Wheel Cutter so I could have a wavy blade for cutting my fabric without having to change blades all the time. I also bought some pretty silver charms. While we were in the shop we heard that the only Bead Shop in town was closing down and that they had 30% off everything. Needless to say the two of us are bower birds who just love pretty beads so of course the next 90 minutes was spent (along with some serious $) at the bead shop. I now have enough seed beads for a lifetime of fabric inchies I think. Mum bought some lovely beads including some shell based ones and she has since designed and made a lovely necklace. She just has to sort out what sort of clasp she will use and it will be finished. After the bead shop we went to the fabric shop to get Soluweb (for the No-Knit scarf) and to the library to get some beading books so it was nearly 3pm before we had lunch. Headache territory!

On Friday evening, I picked Joseph up from the airport (he had been in Perth last week for work) and then Mum and I went to the opening of an exhibition at the Mining Hall of Fame. The exhibition was of artworks by Paul Trinidad (lino cuts, prints and dirt paintings) and photos of the Australian outback by Jane Poynter. None of the artwork was really appealing to me personally but it is always interesting to look at the way artists interpret their environment. The photos were interesting, especially the series where she had blown up tiny portions of photos that were on display and added poetry type text. We had fun trying to find the photo from which each of the detailed shots were taken. The Mining Hall of Fame also has a stunning mineral display which is always lovely to look at, so we did that while finishing off our wine!

Yesterday, in amongst normal domestic Saturday stuff I worked on some cards I am doing for a magazine and also did some more inchies (I would have been happy making them all day actually!). I pulled out lots of copper tissue mesh and wire and spent some time tarnishing it using Lime Suphur (as a substitute for the normal stuff which I haven't been able to get locally). Dreadful smell of rotten eggs of course which made for some predictable comments from my 16 year old son. I need to make my mix less concentrated I think as it was an instant reaction on the copper. I put some in a spray bottle and just sprayed it on one piece and that was a more subdued and controlled effect.

Last night I made a yummy Tuna & Spinach Risotto for dinner and watched an Andre Rieu DVD with Mum. Today I am finishing my cards before I make any more inchies!

This week's Wednesday Stamper theme is flowers and I am just not going to get a chance to make something specially for it so I have included a scan of a piece I did a while back in a Purple Deco. I really do love incorporating stamped flowers in my work but in this piece the stamping is text and postmarks. The lace has been hand painted with lace dyes which I love using.

The Artwords theme this week is "Dwelling" and again I am not going to have the time to make something so for this one I have included a scan of a double page spread I did in a House Shaped Deco for an exchange some time ago. I used the most beautiful shade (Green Gold) of Golden Paint for this page which includes a gel transfer of some Victorian ladies sewing in their parlour.

Next week I am promising myself that I will use the themes to make new pieces!

Wednesday Stamper - Door

This is my submission for the current Wednesday Stamper theme of "Door". The stamps are by Green Pepper Press and I have to admit that I have never used them before although I am sure that at the time I bought them I was sure I would use them a lot! I couldn't get the effect I was trying for and it was a bit of a rush job last night. What I did learn was that one of my white gel pens worked quite well on top of the painted canvas.

Anyway as I am not very happy with the canvas I am also including some pictures of pages I did in a deco for Gaye Triggs a couple of years back. I made the doors in these but there isn't really much (any) stamping, mostly paint.

My Mum arrives today on the train so I am about to have a lovely couple of weeks! Might even talk her into keeping a blog!! Now I had better get moving and get ready for work...

Wednesday Stamper - Games

Well I ran out of time to do anything especially for this Wednesday Stamper theme so I am posting some pictures of items I made a while back - the one above is using Oxford Impressions stamps - riding a bike like this looks like a game to me! This one has heaps of stamping with the background as well as the photo stamp.

This one was for a deco exchange - the theme for this one was Playful. I loved this transparency of the children playing dress-ups. There is a little (tiny) bit of stamping involved!