Mixed Media Monday - Wings

I can't believe this week went so fast - I didn't get anywhere near enough creative or blog time!!

This week's theme at Mixed Media Monday is "wings" so I thought this little canvas would be appropriate, especially given that it is so close to Christmas.

The little angel is a paper napkin (well crumpled), the music sheet background is coloured with Adirondack Color Wash in Butterscotch and there is black fibrous "paper" added as well to create some texture on the left side. The word stamps are all by Oxford Impressions and are stamped on torn tissue. The gold sprinkled in the sealing coat (diluted PVA) is Schmincke Tro-col.

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!).

Gothic Arch - Chocolate

Just a quick post to add my "Chocolate" Gothic Arch before the changeover of theme tomorrow. This is a very simple arch based on a small version of a gorgeous reproduction poster my Mum brought home for me from one of her trips to Europe. I've added some text stamping (Oxford Impressions), walnut ink and gold german scrap as it makes me think of chocolate boxes for some reason. This was actually about the third attempt at this arch so I decided not to fuss as that was how I messed up the first two!

I'm about half way through the third book in the trilogy I am reading and it is taking up any spare time I have at the moment (plus some of my sleeping time as well) but I should be finished it tomorrow and things will get back to normal blog-wise!

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!

Inspiration

This is a picture of the fabric inspiration pack I bought yesterday in Esperance - beautiful fabrics, lemon angelina (the colour is a lot more intense than the photo shows), threads, silk ribbons, prima flowers, orange gutta, braid, sequins, fibre etc - just stunning vibrant colours that call to me (deeply!) You can't really see it in the photo but the top and bottom fabrics are just beautiful in terms of the embellishment on them.

This is a photo of some of the extras I bought - some more paper of course (necessity didn't enter into the equation) and these gorgeous puffy heart and star trims!


And this is the photo side of my "Stamping & Papercraft" article on using the Oxford Impressions Birds Nest stamps as unconventional Christmas stamps. I am really thrilled with the way the cards were photographed together. My long distance friend Sue Smith also has a great article in the same issue (actually she is in virtually every issue!!) - her Christmas card article is just stunning - stamping with paper patchwork, stitching , bead trimming, velvet ribbons...

And now I am off to dinner for a work colleague who is moving across to the other side (Canberra!). We'll eat out on the balcony of a historic goldfields pub enjoying a lovely warm dusk/evening...

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 - 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.

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.

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!

A Gel Medium Transfer

I couldn't get on the computer last night as Zach was researching stuff for a history assignment. What he thought would take an hour or so, took a lot longer! So I had a computer-free night ( a bit like an alcohol free night I guess - might not be a lot of fun, but probably good for you!).

Anyway I started looking for a particular something in my stamping room (old coins) and I lost so much of the evening when I couldn't find them. The stuff I did find though! Wow, now I have lots more ideas to pursue ...

One of the yahoo groups I belong to has announced that a commitment to participation is going to be a requirement of continued membership. I always have good intentions regarding participation but I am usually so far behind reading digests on these groups that it becomes a bit pointless to try and contribute to the discussions. Anyway this is a great little group so I am going to make an effort to stay in it! The current topic is transfers and I have a real addiction to trying every sort of transfer I can find, so today I loaded this scan of a gel medium transfer I did a while back. It is of my maternal grandparents (Ethel and Harold) and it is a favourite image of mine. The text is an Oxford Impressions image and the whole transfer is covered with bridal tulle and I have used gesso to soften the overall look.

(Mum - if you are reading this, I hope you like it!)

Tonight & Artwords (Botanical)

I've just got home from a night of stamping (a bit) and chatting (a lot) with my stamping friends Annie and Narelle. I was playing with the latest Oxford Impressions stamps (Bird's Nest), Annie was making a cute little purse notebook a la Cloth Paper Scissors (Issue 9) and Narelle was making lots of cards (she can stamp and talk at the same time, a skill that was not shared by the rest of the table!). It was fun and we talked about lots of products and techniques and things we are all going to try. Next week we are going to do a little canvas art workshop together so I can be sure I'll have something to show at the end of the evening.

Last night I finished my first paper fabric quilt (other than working out what I am going to use to hang it up) so I'll photograph it tomorrow and share it. I am pleased with it considering it was a learning experience. I certainly have a list of things I would do differently next time but it isn't too bad for a first effort. After seeing the article in the latest Cloth Paper Scissors, I now want to try that sort as well - much more like a real quilt in appearance.

The photo at the top is of a page is my entry for Artwords this week - the theme is Botanical. This is a stamped card that I painted with those delicious little pots of Radiant Pearls. This is my first go at participating in Artwords and although I didn't make this card especially for this topic prompt, my plan is to use the theme each week to try something different in future - or at least some weeks!

A much more productive day

Today I re-established my bookmark favourites and of course, discovered some new ones! I haven't been able to "find" all of my old ones but I guess most of them will show up as links elsewhere over time. This morning I also finally finished a canvas for Natalie. She has been very patient seeing as I thought I would be posting it more than a week ago. I kept changing my mind about what I was doing, which is one of the wonderful things about working with beeswax! I had better email Nat and let her know not to look if she wants a surprise. (I need to clean my scanner too I think, judging by all the extra little white bits!) All the stamped images are Oxford Impressions. My picture editing is a bit of a dodgy on this one and the canvas doesn't look that great on a black background unfortunately but I was trying to make sure the white wire hanger showed up.

This afternoon I have been working on my alphabet tags which I think I have mentioned before. It is an international exchange and while it is based around the usual idea of each artist producing 26 tags based around one letter of the alphabet (I have "U"), it is also a background technique exchange and must include a heart somewhere on the tag. The tags are to have pockets on the back with notes about the techniques used.

This makes it all quite fiddly and I have been experimenting with creating a pocket that doesn't impact at all on the front of the tag. I have done all my backgrounds and I'm at the stage of stamping up all the little bits that have to be cut out or punched out and layered and stuck on. Of course the circle punch that is the right size jammed* and I had to go and buy a new one. It is actually marginally bigger and is better suited to the round alphabet stamp that I am punching out. While I was in the shop I had to buy a beautiful colour of Brilliance inkpad that I didn't even know I was missing until I saw Annie's on Wednesday evening - "Pearlescent Olive". Yummy!

* Really really jammed - even my usual unjamming technique of throwing it hard on the floor (carpeted concrete) several times didn't work!!

And guess what this means...yep, soccer season has started here. We'll see a lot of yellow (gold) and black on the clothes line over the next several months!

Where did the weekend go?

So, here we are and it is late Sunday afternoon! I knew the weekend would go fast preparing for and having the garage sale but wow, it has gone even faster than I expected. The sale went well and was worth doing - the proceeds will cover a new set of drawers for my son Zach and a large bookcase for myself as I have decided I am sick and tired of not having enough book cases in this house. We are all readers and of course I want to keep a lot of my stamping and quilting magazines as well as books, so the solution is simple - buy more! And I have created enough space by selling old sets of drawers and a dressing table. I even have cupboard space now - what bliss...

I have done NOTHING creative yet so tonight I am not going to read blogs so I can go and finish some things that need to be mailed tomorrow. I am taking a couple of days recreation leave later this week between the Anzac Day Public Holiday on Wednesday and the weekend so I will have 5 whole days in which to be creative (and to clean the house of course, seeing as it only got a vacuum yesterday!) Can't wait, I am going to immerse myself - I need to work on my alphabet tags, my paper fabric quilt, my one on one canvas swap, my new shape book round robin, my Oxford Impressions Bird's Nest samples etc etc. I'll make a tray of yummy brownies to keep Joseph and Zach happy - stomachs seem to be the biggest issue around here a lot of the time.

In this house Joseph and I share the cooking and last night Joseph made a delicious Italian fish dish accompanied by a wonderful vegetable risotto and for tonight he has made another Italian dish - a beef and spinach "pie" - layers of macaroni, the meat sauce with capers, olives and tomatoes, topped by a spinach, ricotta, sour cream and mozzarella layer. Looks fantastic and is making me feel hungry already and it is only 5pm! It will go great with a lovely glass of soft red wine and some crusty Italian bread.

I have uploaded scans of my pages in the Pink Colour Journal Exchange I participated in with a bunch of great Australian paper artists - I don't do much pink but I am getting more and more comfortable with it, especially after reading the delectable blog by Posy! Have a read - her house and pursuits are so pretty (and so far removed from my red dusty living /mining environment here in Kalgoorlie)!

I love mail!

And yesterday I had a great mail day - the latest beautiful Oxford Impressions plate of unmounted stamps (I love bird images and this plate has a great range of bird associated images as you would expect given the title "The Bird's Nest"!), three stitching/fabric books I bought very cheaply on ebay, 100 plus metres of thin silk ribbon, also from ebay, and my canvas piece back from Somerset Studio. I know it sounds silly but I always like getting magazine pieces back- it is like a surprise gift as there is usually such a gap between sending them and getting them back that I can barely remember them until I see them again!

So, I have had a quick flick through my new books (lots of ideas there I'll be trying) and cut up my new stamps ready to try tonight. I bought the white silk ribbon in a couple of widths as I want to experiment dyeing some for inclusion on my art quilts and fabric postcards.

Last night I caught up with a couple of lovely Kalgoorlie stamping friends and we "played" with serviette/napkin art. It is one of my major loves so I wanted them to try it too. A lovely relaxing evening creating and chatting.

For a bit of variety I have uploaded a photo of a faux metal page I did in a colour journal exchange some time ago - I have been trolling through my photos to remind myself of past work and to encourage me to go back to some of my favourite techniques that I have been overlooking of late! I love the Green Pepper Press stamps that I used for the background - I really must dig them out too as I have been ignoring them a bit of late and they are just so versatile. I think they would look great on a fabric postcard. Ciao for now...

Some Cowgirl Cards

We had a lovely day yesterday - we broke out of our work day patterns seeing it was Joseph's birthday and met for a very nice lunch at the Tower Hotel (how it gets to be called a tower when it is only a single storey building is beyond me, but this is Kalgoorlie and I think the tallest building, which is a hotel, is only 5 stories). I also had a lovely little phone chat with my sister Kathryn and that always makes me happy :)

Last night I worked on some Oxford Impressions Cowgirl Blues pieces. The images are quite different from anything I normally work with but are proving to be a lot of fun. It is nice to be working with lots of colour. It is good to break patterns, n'est-ce pas? (Having only some schoolgirl French from some decades back I was going to just guess this phrase - as c'est na pas? - but then I got nervous and checked it on a translation site which was just as well!)

Now I'm off to collect Zach from soccer training and then I plan to do some more stamping. Funny to think it is Friday tomorrow - a four day work week really goes fast!