Gothic Arch - Vacation / Place

This week's theme for the Gothic Arch challenge is "Vacation/Place" and, as some of my favourite holidays have been spent in various Asian destinations, I have chosen Asia.

The background started off as a greenish and red Basic Grey paper and I covered it with Asian stamp images - primarily Bento Box stamps from Lazar Studiowerx and also some postmarks etc. I decided to add some extra colour with Moon Shadow Starburst Stains in orange and teal and then stamped a large text image repeatedly with turquoise Neopaque paint - such a wonderful colour! All of this means the original stamped background is barely visible but my son Zach reckons it adds depth so I guess it was worth it. The arch/doorway (can't think what the proper name is unfortunately) is a Non Sequitur stamp which I have cut out with a craft knife. I have "framed" the arch with a black tape and red bamboo stickers and then added some focal embellishments from Chinese speciality shops.

And on a totally different subject - last night when I was desperately trying to finish my fabric postcards which were supposed to be mailed last week, my trusty old sewing machine stopped working properly and no amount of cleaning or fiddling would fix it. So this morning I had to make an unbudgeted sewing machine purchase - I didn't go overboard at all but judging from my play this afternoon I am going to be very happy with my new little Janome. It is has a lot more stitches than my old basic model but I must admit the old machine has given me excellent service over the years!! So expect to see more fabric art coming from me now...

The Monday that was...

Problem: Yesterday morning I decided that I hadn't got around to a whole pile of things (including several "life" type things as opposed to "creative" type things) on the weekend that really needed doing. Solution: Create a list. Downside: I can now clearly see how little I got done from the list in the last 24 hours! Upside: I feel more organised about what is not getting done.

So, while I should have been making travel bookings for my August trip to Perth, organising and filing paperwork, doing some of the gargantuan ironing pile etc etc, I had fun making some Adirondack Color Wash backgrounds for a beeswax ATC exchange that I need to get mailed in about a week. I love the way you can blend these colours! The theme is "Roma" so I have stamped one of my favourite Lazar Studiowerx collage stamps (Roman) on lemon tissue paper and I think the background will show through the tissue paper nicely once it has been adhered with the beeswax. I plan to do some more on these tonight.

I started this post this morning before rushing off to work and now it is lunch time. It is a very cold grey winter's day here so I have come home to check the mail and to make a nicely decadent toasted cheese and ham sandwich. I've got the heater on and a nice cup of tea as well so it is going to take a lot of will power to go back to work in a little while!

But the best part of coming home was that Lynda's stunning textural fabric postcard was sitting in the letterbox waiting for me - it is just beautiful and it is the first "naked" fabric postcard I have received. And it has travelled half way round the world and arrived in pristine condition! I add too many lumpy beads and things to risk it I think but it is much more postcardy this way!! Thanks so much Lynda - it will be on my inspiration wall tonight - I love it!

5 Days of Bliss

In Australia we have a public holiday tomorrow for ANZAC Day and as it is mid-week I am taking the opportunity to have a five day break by having a couple of recreation leave days on Thursday and Friday. I have come home from work and I'm sitting here at my computer with a glass of champagne. I feel light hearted and filled with the promise of five whole days!

I'm about to move to the kitchen to make the tray of brownies that I mentioned in a previous post, then I am going to watch "Painting Australia" on TV (a rare event for me - watching TV!) I was watching this show when it first started, but missed the last two weeks as I am so inattentive to TV programs and forgot all about it. It is a really interesting show and fills me with even more respect for artists, so I really must try and remember it every Tuesday evening for however long it runs.

Tomorrow I am getting up early (promise to myself) and putting together, hopefully with the able and willing assistance of 16 year old Zach, the new bookcases that I bought during my lunch break today. I will also be getting all my domestic stuff out of the way so that I have most of the other four days for creative stuff! I am hoping Zach will also teach me how to use the Dremel I have owned for three years...

I am a bit accident prone (usually from trying to do too much in too short a space of time) and last night I burnt myself doing a waxed canvas for a lovely blog/stamping friend (who must be wondering where the promised mail is!!) so I need to be very careful with the Dremel as I can imagine that the potential injuries are a little more inconvenient than a blistered finger!

As I didn't finish anything last night I am uploading another scan of one of my "ochre" journal exchange pages. This one was waxed and probably involved a burn too. I loved doing these pages and got to use some of my favourite stamps - I love the tassels from Lazar Studiowerx and the calligraphy from Alphabetique.