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

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).

TGIF (tomorrow)

(Stamped Canvas Board with Decorator Napkin & Dimensional Paint)

I don't think of myself as a TGIF person ("Thank God It's Friday") but I am so glad tomorrow is the end of the working week!! I think I could sleep all weekend if it was available for that purpose but of course it isn't as we are packing up our son Josh to move back to Perth for the start of the university year. It has been wonderful having him home for the last almost few months but I must admit my blogging and art routines have been seriously affected!! I've done a lot more cooking than usual as he is so appreciative of home cooked food!!

So, to share some art - at the top of this post is a piece I made using decorator napkins (serviettes) as the main element and below is the final result for my CyberFyber postcard trade with Susan Lenz. The only difference from the last post is the two lines of beading that I have added. I have toyed with other additions but my style is relatively simple so decided the postcard is finished. I still have my ATC to make for this trade. Below are the wonderful trades which arrived this week from Susan Lenz. She still has postcards and ATCs available for trade so swing over here if you do fibre arts! It is a great opportunity to participate.

PS See you tomorrow!!

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!).

Mixed Media Monday - Buttons

In between art commitments today I have managed to do a little canvas for the Mixed Media Monday theme of "Buttons" (which I have just discovered has closed today already!). The canvas was painted with a beautiful green-gold (Goldens) and then dry-brushed with gesso. I have used a bigger version of the little girl image I used on my "house ATC" a couple of days ago. She is surrounded her with torn edge lace paper and a whole pile of white buttons (and a single green paper flower for a bit of colour!)

I have had a lovely day - it was extremely hot again (41 degrees) but apart from trips to the clothes line and some late afternoon re-potting of a couple of palms, I have pretty well stayed inside in the cool all day, mostly in my craft and sewing rooms. Such bliss - I got to work on lots of different projects, most of which are not finished yet.

Mixed Media Monday - Numbers (& Some ATCs)

I didn't end up doing a piece for last week's Mixed Media Monday challenge (crowns) so for this week's theme of "Numbers" I thought I would post a couple of pieces I made some time ago. They were both published in Somerset Studio for the Lingerie theme. I might still get a piece specially made before the theme changes next Monday but I am playing safe this week just in case.

The first piece is a large canvas board, painted and stamped with Oxford Impressions text images. The female shape is cut from paper. The whole board is covered with a spotty netting and the lingerie is of course lace. The large numbers are from those DIY clock sets.

This is a much smaller piece, again on a canvas board that has been painted with a pink glaze and partially stamped with a favourite checkerboard image. The tape measure is a cheap plastic one - I liked the red numbers.

And these two ATCs are the ones I have made as trades for Nadia. The Buddha one is decorator napkin glued to walnut ink-sprayed cream felt. The flowery one is purple felt that has been layered with synthetic organza fabrics, randomly stitched, burnt back, painted with Twinkling H20s and Starburst Stains and put through the embellisher a little. It is nice and textural.

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 - Turquoise

Being pretty new to blogging I haven't previously participated in the Wednesday Stamper challenge, but I noticed yesterday whilst visiting Belinda's blog that the theme this week is a colour - turquoise. I don't actually use this colour that much but I think it is beautiful so this weekend I have experimented a bit to come up with a stamped and painted canvas for the challenge.

This is the result and in the end I don't have that much turquoise happening but it is there! I used my new flourish stamps rather indiscriminately or perhaps a more generous way of putting it would be to say I used them lavishly! The paint washed off the clear stamps so easily afterwards too. I think the canvas needs something else but I am leaving as it is until I figure out what!

The three scans below are all pages that Megan Shields did in my Cream Journal - they are just divine...