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.

Think Pink, 7 Random Things & 7 Tags

Seeing as I seem to be on a pink kick, here is a page I did in a Pink Journal a couple of years back - I love this magazine photo and I thought adding the feather to her hair really added something! I also love leather eyelet trims - I must have a look and see if I have any left.

Well in response to Sarah's tag of yesterday, here are seven random things about me:

1. I lived in one house from birth to 17 when I left to go to university.

2. I have lived in 17 houses since (not including a residential uni college).

3. I have a degree in Anthropology but didn't ever get the urge to work in that field even though I love the subject!

4. I hardly ever watch television but I really enjoy a good movie and I do lots of reading.

5. I am never bored and think I will need at least another 7 lives to do all the art and craft things I want to do (and to use up all my supplies)!

6. I know that I limit myself by wanting to be good at things as soon as I try them and that this means I sometimes / often don't try things that I would probably really enjoy (this is a trait that is well represented in my family so perhaps it has a genetic basis!!)

7. I love self-development and personal growth/inspirational books. My all time favourite is Sarah ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance which I re-read at least every second year but I have heaps of other favourites including anything by Stephanie Dowrick.

And now to tag seven others who I sincerely hope don't mind me doing this and who of course have the option of "skipping it":

Jacqueline in the Netherlands

Natalie in Western Australia

Jo in Queensland

Marie in the Australian Capital Territory

Jen in Victoria

Sephi in New South Wales

Diane in Canada

Artwords - Fabric

The theme this week at Artwords is "Fabric". This should be easy for me but all of the things I am working on are "in progress" so I am uploading a photo of a canvas I did for the Somerset Studio "Retro" theme some time ago. Colorwise it is quite consistent with yesterday's post!!

This piece uses fabric I have hoarded for a VERY long time. The first piece on the left is from a fabric sample that Nana Wilkes (my maternal grandmother who would have been a 100 this year) gave me in the 1960s to use for dolls clothes. The other two pieces are from fabrics I used to make clothes while I was at uni in the 70s - a hot pink caftan (the groans are audible!) and a psychedelic shirred top (even more audible!). I loved both of them at the time, needless to say.

This theme has had me reflecting on the part fabric and sewing has played in my life and then today I received in the mail a piece of needlerun lace from my Mum's 27 June 1953 wedding dress (how is that for timing!). I had asked for a piece so that I can create a special memento but to have it arrive on the 27th of June was special. This of course has led me to reflect on the young woman that wore that dress and who only dreamed of the lives (three) she would create and of the ongoing circle of family and love that has flowed from her life and love.

PS And before I get totally sentimental I should mention that I have been tagged for the first time as a blogger (by Sarah) and I am to list seven random things about myself and tag seven more bloggers. This requires some thinking and will need to wait until tomorrow!

Something completely different!

These two pictures are of my two pages in Fiona's Heart Shaped book. It is part of a small round robin based on shaped books (mine was the arch). Other than using the heart shape for our pages, Fiona's only other requirement was that we include something we love at the moment. I am in love with the pink and orange colour combination and have been for quite a while although I don't actually do that much art in this colourway so my pages celebrate this love! The background to the scans is silk fusion paper which I have also made in these colours but I didn't end up using any on the actual pages.

The first page is based on a piece of very pink fabric paper that I made some time ago (a la Beryl Taylor). I have toned it down with gesso and then added some stamping, the picture, beading, the orange flower trim etc and a final dusting of Micropearl Pearl-Ex which is a product I have had for several years and hardly used.

The second page is based on striped scrapbook paper which had been stamped several times in different colours (white gesso, Orchid Chalk Ink, Brilliance Orange) with flourishes/swirls (Fancy Pants and Rhonna Farrar), text (Oxford Impressions) and a small heart. The picture, embellishments and trims are then added along with some dots of dimensional paint and gel pen. The flower in the little girl's hair looks too big but it only just covers the enormous bow she was actually wearing in the photo! The ric rac doesn't go all around the heart as Fiona is binding the book on the bottom left side and that part needs to be relatively flat.

A Small Quilted Wall Hanging Finally Finished!

This is my piece for Fiona in response to a small group challenge to incorporate paint, metal and fabric in an item for an allocated partner. I am running late with mine but this is the link back to the beautiful piece Jo made for me.

My quilt is based on a stamped image from the Oxford Impressions Bird's Nest plate on beautiful smooth Fabriano printmaking paper. For some reason (no doubt the photographer!) the photo is a bit blurry. Anyway I coloured it with Adirondak Color Washes and then sprayed it with my favourite Gossamer Gold Moon Shadow Mist. This piece is stitched to three layers - a piece of Lutrador that I painted with green acrylics and Glazing Medium, a piece of music themed fabric and then a piece of felt.

The lutrador has been melted around the edges with a wood burning tool which I also used to make all the little holes to get a polka dot effect. Lots of little yellow seed beads were stitched on to anchor the frame part of the Lutrador and then the quilt was free motioned stitched with gold thread. It then was beaded with little brown seed beads.

The key and other metal piece were glued/stitched on. I bound the quilt with tarnished copper mesh tissue which was lovely and easy to sew through and the backing is the same music themed fabric as the front. The hanger is tarnished copper wire with a few sweet little rusted diamond shapes (that I have been saving for years for a special project!).

I'm quite happy with it although I would do a few things differently if I did it again - such as use a more rigid backing given the type of hanger I wanted to use. It wouldn't have mattered if it was hung on a rod/sleeve arrangement but I wanted to use the wire and I think small quilts look better with hangers a lot of the time.

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.

Artwords - Centre

Last week's Artwords theme was "Centre" and I am just scraping in before the theme changes later today! I'm calling this piece "Central to my Outlook" as "carpe diem" really is central to the way I approach my life. I originally called this piece "Astrological Projections" and it was completed for a Somerset Studio project where I had to show a few different ways of using the carpe diem stamp. This one was on shrink plastic but the fun part was doing the torn paper and paint background underneath the transparency (which is a favourite image of mine and one I keep using).

I didn't do any art yesterday as I was cooking for a party but today is a play day and I have about six things I want to work on!! Dilemmas of the best kind...

A Comment on Comments

I'm not really sure how to put this but I have noticed that some lovely people send me an email when I comment on their blogs whereas I hardly ever do. The reason I don't is that I just don't have enough time, although it is obvious that others actually make the time and after all, we all only have 24 hours in a day! So for anyone that ever comments on my blog posts, please KNOW that you make my day big-time when you comment and that I love the connection you create even if I am not able to reply.

On the same general subject I have to admit that I was not even aware that there were any blog protocols (such as linking the blogs you love to your own) and I really hope that everyone I ever link to sees it as a compliment. I didn't realise for the first year of reading blogs that strangers actually commented on blogs they read. I thought everyone actually "knew" the person whose blog they commented on! I now of course know that I can comment and have made some wonderful connections as a result. I really hope I am not the only person out there who struggled to work it all out!!


Now to more creative stuff - I have (finally) finished my wall hanging for the Paint Metal Fabric Challenge for Fiona and was going to post a photo tonight but I have just decided to change the hanging part! I am determined to get it in the post on Monday so I will make the changes tomorrow and show you the final result.

The photos today are of some pages I have created in journal exchanges. Both of them reflect my love of patinas and metal products - the top one has fine copper mesh which has been scorched over a gas flame and cut and folded to make a frame and the second one has a faux verdigris patina (using those wonderful products by Langridge) and oxidized copper tape. Now I am off to hopefully resolve my dilemma with my Paint Metal Fabric hanging...

Rusted Fabric Experiments & Assorted Stuff!

Well I have just got back from taking Mum to catch her train back to Perth (it will take about 7 hours) and then she will overnight in Perth before catching the bus to Margaret River tomorrow (about 4 or 5 hours on the bus I think because of the stops). We have had such a lovely time although it always surprises me how quickly a fortnight can go!

The picture at the top is of my patchwork applique quilt that I started for Mum several years ago (before I was doing anything experimental with fabric or surface embellishment). It is birdhouse themed because of Mum's love of them. I used a Debbie Mumm pattern and adapted it a bit - it will look nice in Mum's living room I think (that was the plan and the reason I originally used those colours!)

The next photo is of Mum's No-Knit scarf drying on the pool fence. It is very pretty and lacy looking. You can see from the photo that Saturday here was an incredibly sunny winter's day!

The photo above is of my rusted fabric experiements when I first unwrapped them. The rest are scans of small sections of the fabric once it had been washed. I learnt a lot in the process and I think re-rusting and over-dyeing will yield really interesting results so I am going to try that too. I was surprised that all sorts of different fabrics reacted to the rust quite well. I think I like the results best on the soft silky fabric (it isn't silk but a soft fabric remnant I bought with no details). The markings are very crisp on that fabric and it is a fairly large remnant so I will be trying some more variations with that one. It is the top piece in the second photo below. I also love the copper rust patina effect on the small piece. It was a very old hair adornment that was very rusty but it must have some copper content I guess!


Tonight I am hoping to finish the beading on my "Paint Metal Fabric" quilt for Fiona - I am now weeks late with that and feeling very bad about it. I keep changing my mind about what I am doing on it!

PS I have made any inchies for days!! (I am suffering withdrawal symptoms ...)

Mum is 75 today!!!

I haven't been blogging because I have been making the most of my Mum's visit. It is her 75th birthday today and here is a quick snap I took of her last night. 16 year old Zach was actually in this picture as well and they were posing for me but I know Zach will kill me if I include his pose. We went to a new Italian Restaurant here in Kalgoorlie (Villa Maritana) to celebrate the birthday and Mum wore her scarf which you can see a little of. It really looks great and I am now a convert to the benefits of soluble fabric.

I finished Mum's Birdhouse quilt yesterday (after all these years!) and I must admit I am relieved that it is finally finished. I don't like to leave things unfinished especially when the bulk of the work has been done! So Mum is having to find a space in her case for it.

Tomorrow night I will upload some pictures of my rusted fabric - some worked well and some are pretty ordinary but all will get used in one way or another. I have a much better idea of the sort of things I will need to do to get a specific result next time. Now I'm off to bed.

Artwords - Exotic

This is my submission for this week's Artwords theme - EXOTIC! I just love this Stamp Francisco image of the veiled woman, my idea of exotic. This is a page in an altered book and incorporates a decorator napkin as a background over the text. I think purple and orange and purple, yellow and red are exotic colour cominations!

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!

Such a Great Mail Day!

We had a great night at Annie's last night - she has invested in several new and very inspiring books which we all avidly perused and added to our future buy lists! (Dale's Surface Tension, Fabric Leftovers, Fabric Journals etc etc). I did also work on the next set of inchies as evidenced above but mostly I talked and looked at books and ate Tim Tams.

I had a sleepless night (worrying about certain aspects of a new role I am about to take on at work I think) and felt pretty yuck all day really. Things improved immeasurably however when I got home tonight and saw my mail - I had received Fiona's Heart Shaped Book which I will be working on this weekend, the latest Stamper's Sampler (and congratulations to my gorgeous friend Sue Smith in Albany who has a whole wonderful page in there on her first go with this great publication - I have scanned the page above but the left side is a bit "pruned" unfortunately) and my copy of Gina's Artful Purpose Zine (the cover of which is also scanned below - I just love that cover!).

Now I am off to work on my Wednesday Stamper submission for this week - this time I am doing it early in the week!

P.S. Funny story of the goings on in this house of ours - this morning after the rest of us had left the house for work and school, my darling Mum mistook the garlic flakes in the pantry for flaked almonds and added them to her morning cereal! Can you imagine how gross WeetBix would taste with garlic flavoured milk, even if you have also added sultanas!! Mum has forbidden me from sharing this little "event" but I know you will want to sympathise with her - it is just me that finds this hilarious! What's more she didn't tell me until I asked her what on earth she had eaten for lunch that made her was so "garlicky"!!

A Wonderful Tree

I know this will seem a bit out of the blue, but when I was in Perth two weeks ago I took a quick photo of this wonderful tree outside the offices of some people I was meeting with. The texture of the paperbark was just too incredible to ignore. As a result of some of the reading I am doing I am becoming a lot more interested in recognising that surface design inspirations can come from the images in my life and everyday environment. This was not an everyday image for me but it was certainly one I took the time to notice!

Tonight I was going to make the base of some more inchies so that I could bead and embroider them when I am at Annie's tomorrow night, but after dinner (and a wonderful Andre Rieu in Dublin DVD) we decided on the spur of the moment to go through some of Joseph's slides from New Guinea in the period 1966 to 1973. Fascinating pictures and lots of colourful inspiration. To set up the slide projector we of course had to move the metres of no-knit scarf yarns and fibres that are decorating the lounge room at present (and Mum, if you read this tomorrow, I am just teasing!).

Blog posts look so lonely without pretty pictures so tonight's artwork is of some pieces I have previously made. The first is a page I made for a friend's deco - I used a floral print tulle over the page to get the soft effect and then added beading and a hand stitched edge. The second one i s a simple journal cover I made for a young friend. I need to remind myself that I often find a simple "look" very attractive and that I need to do them more!

More Fabric Inchies

I just love Sundays!

The day started off pretty overcast and dismal looking but by lunchtime we had a lovely sunny winter's day. Crisp and cool but sunny. Perfect for eating lunch outside (which we did). Joseph's beloved Dockers had a win, Zach's soccer team won against a team that "killed" them last time, Mum made great progress with her sample version for the No-Knit scarf (it is the first time either of us have used soluble webbing and it really is amazing stuff!) and I got my cards made and just have the instructions to type up.

I completed a few more sets of my blue fabric inchies and even managed to do some more hand quilting on Mum's birdhouse quilt. I can see that if I stick at it over the next week she will (finally!) be able to take it with her when she goes home. The scan of my inchies is not brilliant as the beading means they don't lie very flat on the scanner. The glittery bits and the iridescence don't show up very well unfortunately. Joseph made us all lovely Madras and vegetable curries with basmati rice and Garlic Chappatis for dinner so all in all it was a great day.

Back to work today of course but the sun is shining and it looks as though it will be another beautiful day here.

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!

Some more journal pages

These are some more pages I made for the "Midnight" Journal. I really do love using black and purple and gold. It is so rich looking. The two purple pages go together "at midnight she dreamed dreams of wild abandon and passion"! My clock image is a dinner plate image cut from a magazine and the beautiful purple paint is Lumiere.

I have a day off work tomorrow so that I can have more time with Mum and so I can catch up on some of my arty commitments. We are really looking forward to setting up a table and getting out a lot of stuff to play with. Last night Annie and Narelle were showing us all their wonderful new purchases from the Craft and Quilt Fair they attended in Perth a week and a bit ago so we are all filled with inspiration and are itching to get down to it.

Mid Week Musings

Well it is Wednesday morning and I have been sitting here watching the dawn - mornings really do make you think of fresh starts and new beginnings!

My Mum arrived safe and sound yesterday afternoon and she has arrived with a mission to introduce me to the wonders of Andre Rieu and his music! We watched part of one of his DVDs last night (Mum has come equipped with six of his DVDs) and it really was rather lovely. Apart from the lovely music, he really is a performer and his passion and enjoyment really shine through. I gather (from the facts that Mum has at her disposal!) that he is very widely known but because I have an aversion to TV, radio and newspapers, I am the sort of person who mostly finds out about music when I am introduced to it. I love music but tend to have strong favourites.

Tonight is our little stamping threesome get together (which will be a foursome tonight now that Mum is here) and I was lying in bed earlier wondering what I would take to work on, given that I mostly talk at these meetings! That made me remember that I haven't put a photo on here of the lovely coffee mug fabric cuff that my friend Annie Laing made for me a few weeks ago. It is really cool.and is based on the Cloth Paper Scissors template I think. The other photo is one of the pages I did in a "Midnight" Journal a while back. The long skinny shape was a really nice change to work with. (sorry about the layout issues this morning!)

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...

Feeling very productive...

I had such a lovely day yesterday - I had a lie-in, breakfast in bed (Joseph is exceedingly thoughtful!) and then spent a large portion of the day "making stuff'! I did manage to get several loads of washing done but that was about it on the domestic front. Needless to say the rest is about to be attacked when I finish this post.

I finished my Arch Shape Book cover (this has been a work in progress for quite a while because of all the layers involved) and also a page for the book. I can now post it off tomorrow so it can travel to the six other artists who will work in it before it gets back to me around Christmas!

The book cover is based on a texture paste layer on mat board that I cut into an arch shape. It has been painted with Lumiere paints and rubbed with black ink. I then glued in and sealed a photocopied image. I sanded it back a bit and then sprayed and rubbed the whole cover with Butterscotch Adirondak Color Wash to give a golden glow. When that was dry I coated the whole cover with a thick layer of the base coat of a Crackle Finish (Helmar's) and heated it with a heat gun until the underlying paint layers were bubbling (adds to the antique look). I applied the top coat of the Crackle Finish and when that was dry, I rubbed dark brown oil paint in the cracks. To finish I lightly swiped a few bits of Sunset Gold Lumiere Paint over the raised areas. I was going to use some Gold Leafing but decided it might look to bright so I used the paint instead. I was trying to get an old religious shrine type look and I am pleased with how it has worked out.

I also completed my Frida page - it is a bit dark in the scan but is quite bright in real life. I partially stitched a transparency to a piece of silk fusion paper that has some gold angelina in it. This was then attached to a piece of background paper that I stamped several swirls (from my new "Pollen Dust" stamps) and a few words on in a few colours of ink. The whole lot was then stitched to some lovely Fabriano paper. The large daisies are punched from fabric paper (a la Beryl Taylor) that I also made a while back. They were very very bright pink so I sprayed them on the back side (which is thin muslin) with Wild Plum Adirondak Colour Wash (can you tell I love these washes?) to tone them down a bit and then patted out a lot of the colour until I was happy with them.

Last night I decided to start my first set of Blue Fabric Inchies so after perusing a few sites to make sure I was on the right track, I layered fusible webbing to a bright blue piece of fabric and backed it with black felt. I then added a fine layer of angelina (mixed colours in blue shades and pink) and machine stitched a rough grid over the whole thing using gold thread. It is very pretty but a lot of the iridescence is lost in the scan below. Once it is cut up into inchies I'm planning on doing some seed beading on this set. I can't decide what to do about the backing or the edges as it is likely the black felt will show too much if I leave them unfinished, but I am thinking they might be too hard to machine stitch once they are beaded. I suppose I could hand stitch them.

I also worked on the beading and quilting of another item but it isn't finished so no photo of that yet! So now I am off to do some house-work (and I am practising the gratitude approach by repeating the following mantra " I am very lucky to have a house to clean"...).

So Glad to be Home!

Well I am home again and so happy be here. It was fun though to be in Perth for a few days and to catch up on some shopping Friday night after work (especially books but also a nice handbag and lots of printed tissue paper to incorporate in an exchange that I have joined that is based around tissue paper). It also gave me the opportunity to catch with a friend and with my son and his girlfriend Saturday morning. We had a delicious breakfast at the King St Cafe (a big favourite of mine in the heart of the city). The photos were taken late afternoon (above) and early afternoon outside the Matilda Bay Restaurant in Crawley. This is where we had a workshop on Wednesday and for someone like me that has lived inland on the edge of the desert for the last 13 plus years, it was just bliss to be so close to the beautiful Swan River! You can see the Perth skyline in the background.

This is just a really quick post because I am trying to maximise creative time today after 4 days without any. I have come home to my darling new Fancy Pants stamps (flourish, swirl and twirl heaven!!) which arrived from A Creative Place on Friday - great service as always. I've bought the Bella Brush and Pollen Dust plates as they have a great range of images and sizes. Today I am working on finishing my "Arch" shape book covers and page (for a shape based book round robin) and my Paint Metal and Fabric "item" for a one-on-one challenge. Hopefully I will be able to share photos tomorrow.

Tomorrow we have a public holiday in Western Australia so I am planning on getting the housework done first thing and then I have a whole pile of other stuff to start including this week's Wednesday Stamper, some cards for Stamping & Papercraft, several fabric postcards for various commitments, a set of six tissue based collages and 63 fabric "inchies" in blue. These are one inch decorated fabric squares and I have to make 7 sets of 9. These are all the rage at the moment but this is my first go at these. They are not terribly different in concept from some I have made before for various journal exchanges as shown in these photos but these ones will have batting and backing to allow various options for their use or mounting. So lots of lovely stuff to do and I had better get on with it!!