A Christmas Themed ATC

Thank you so much to everyone who has welcomed me back to blogging!  I had forgotten what a thrill it was to "connect" and to read those lovely comments.  Next on my list is to catch up with some blog reading!

And to make sure that I don't fall off the cart with my new found blogging intentions, I thought I would share a Christmas themed ATC that I recently made for a one-on-one trade with my long term trading partner Anne  Lugherini over there in beautiful France.  The card is made with fabric paper (a la Beryl Taylor with a bit of adaptation) - using a stamped image on tissue paper, watercolour paints and lightweight fabric. 

Yesterday's polymer clay "tile" making session was a success so today I think I may just make some more - a very soothing activity!  But I also want to play with my "Creative Versa-Tool" ..(so thrilled that The Thread Studio ended up stocking these with the Australian voltage as I have been wanting one ever since buying - and loving - Rebekah Meier's book "Fabric Art Collage"). 

So many choices - it certainly isn't hard to practice abundance thinking.

A Fresh Start...

It seems that the longer I took to get back to blogging, the harder it became!  So 2010 has been and gone and what a wonderful year it was, even if I didn't do much on the arty / crafty side of things. And really that is probably the main reason I wasn't motivated to blog - the purpose of this blog is mostly to share what I am doing in that department.

So to get me started again I thought I would share some of the little creative efforts I did make in 2010!

A Canvas Board Wall Hanging for Kasha

Surface Design Zodiac ATC Swap

Zodiac Swap - we actually made 12 each

An ATC made for a one-on-one trade

 

A Canvas Wall Hanging for Tegan

One of a set of five waxed ATCs made for an exchange

I only made a few Christmas Cards - two variations

The other Christmas Card variation

A Collage Card

Another Collage Card

Another Collage Card

A Sympathy Card

And one of the contributing reasons I am not doing as much arty stuff as before - too busy enjoying being near the beach after sixteen years in the goldfields on the edge of the desert!  And this is just our local beach - there are lots of other swimming type beaches close by.

Bye for now...today I am going to play with clay to make some little tiles a la Laurie Mika.

Back to the real world!

Hi everyone! 

I may have thought that my blogging break would only be until I moved into my new house and had the internet reconnected but I completely under-estimated just what was involved in the move.  So a quick update - Zach and I "camped" in the house for the first month until Joseph and the furniture arrived.  I started work straight away as my employer was incredibly helpful and gave me an immediate transfer. (I have since started another job but again with the same department - I have been incredibly lucky and I am so happy!)

I think the reason I didn't blog once we got the internet organised was that I wasn't doing any arting or crafting and that really is the focus of this blog.  Anyway once the 120 cartons of "stuff" and the furniture arrived, unpacking was the priority!  I had forgotten just how exhausting that process can be and of course I want everything to look lovely straight away (which is an impossibility when you have way too much "stuff"). 

When I still had the 40+ cartons of art and craft stuff to unpack it was time to go to the Creative Soul Retreat over in Melbourne - something that was planned a year ago when a move to Perth wasn't even on the radar.  While the actual retreat was four days I had booked for a fortnight away so that I could have some time with one of my sisters who lives there and then with Joseph who arrived midway.

The Retreat was wonderful and just the rejuvenation I needed - I am really looking forward to get back into some creative stuff now.  I did a couple of workshops with Jan Harris (who stood in for Judy Wise as she has health issues that forced her to withdraw) and a couple with Laurie Mika.  They were all terrific but I absolutely adored working with the polymer clay and can't wait to do more mosaic style pieces a la Laurie.  Melbourne was fantastic fun- Joseph and I had our first holiday alone for about a decade and we are already planning the next one!  Shopping, eating, looking and walking - did we cover some territory!

After getting back from Melbourne I had a final week of my holidays to finish the unpacking and to get the house looking reasonable and it was fun (although at times I wondered whether I was just walking around in circles moving stuff!).  I have set up a craft room this time from scratch - in the past I have used all the bits and pieces of furniture that were excess to other rooms/needs.  I am now a walking talking IKEA advertisement in fact - I love their white bookcases, tables and drawers and I have used them exclusively (it is a very small room so it didn't need a lot).  Big thanks to my son Zach for having the patience to put all the units together (my role was limited pretty much to the "needs two persons" pieces).  I recovered the window pelmet one night and had to compromise when I found that I had misplaced (lost) my sewing machine power cord somehow in the move - thank goodness for fusible webbing! So glad that there is a Janome shop  close-by now - nice not to have to think about long distance purchases, postage etc. I'll take some pictures soon to share but in the meantime I just keep having a peek in there to make sure it is real!  Can't wait to actually get creative in there...this is a photo of my new desk area a few weeks ago (I have already made some changes of course!).

My sewing room, on the other hand, is a bit of a disaster and I am planning to really change my layout and storage there as soon as higher priority items are attended to (like a range hood and new oven, a new dining table, new blinds ... etc etc). 

So this post is not without some arty content here is the mosaic personal shrine (still without the middle "shrine" bit) that I made in one of Laurie Mika's Creative Soul Retreat workshops and a very blurry picture of one of the personal reliquaries that I made in the other workshop I took with Laurie.  This one was for my sister Marrijane in Melbourne.  So much fun!  I've bought a toaster oven (I didn't even look for a secondhand one when I found out how reasonable new ones are these days!) so expect to see more clay/mosaic work soon.

I'll be back soon (promise)!

About my Unscheduled Blogging Break...

Just popping in to say that my life has taken an unexpected but very exciting turn which means that I don't have any time for blogging. We are moving back to Perth early in 2010 so we are using every spare moment to de-clutter and prepare our house of the last ten years for sale. Joseph has a job transfer and Zach is starting uni in February so it is suddenly up to me to find a job in Perth too! I am really hopeful that I will be able to arrange something (quickly!) with my current employer but I am of course looking at all the options. What we are discovering is that you suddenly "see" your home differently when you know it is going to be seen by a potential buyer's eyes - we have a lovely home but suddenly the backlog of maintenance seems so obvious!

So you can guess how I have spent the last couple of weeks - firstly packing up my art/craft rooms so that I can get in there to re-paint and then of course the actual painting. I had forgotten how much it hurts my neck to paint above my head height and guess what else - I had forgotten just how much "stuff" I have accumulated and how it very quickly translates to an enormous number of cartons!! If I had more time I would try and thin it out but unfortunately I am going to have to try and do most of that at the other end. The whole exercise of packing it all up has made me really want to streamline and to establish some focus in my art - it is crazy to want to try everything and to buy supplies for every style and technique that appeals to me! I need to face facts - I would need another five lifetimes, at least, to do justice to my acquisitions to date and I certainly would need to give up my day job and that is not going to happen in the short term!

So exciting times ahead - I am so looking forward to living in Perth after our 16 years plus in Kalgoorlie - to be close to friends and family (and the coast!!) again but of course there are also moments when I think of what we will miss here - this place has been good to us and for us!

I'll pop in occasionally to provide updates but there won't be any art to share for a little while (but can you imagine just how hungry I will be to get my new space set-up and functioning!!) The only blog I am reading at the moment is this one!!

Happy 2010 to you all!!

December Calendar Girl Postcard

This month the image we are using for the Calendar Girl Postcard inspiration is a fractal chosen by Neki - see below. For some reason I just couldn't get inspired by it - all I could think to do was try and reproduce the effect using my embellisher but several of the other participants had already done that (and done it really well) so I decided to go for a very "loose" interpretation.

I've concentrated on the blue, black and red colours and not worried about getting a result that looked anything like a fractal! But I am really happy with it - I hand needle-felted some silky fibres onto black commercial felt and then machine stitched the rays in black and then metallic blue thread. The little square sequins are iridescent blue and I've added a scattering of tiny clear sparkly seed beads as well. It is very glittery and pretty in real life although as usual it doesn't really show up that well in the scanning! My postcard goes to Sandy this month.

This week I received this gorgeous fabric ATC "Strata" in a trade with Sally Westcott. My ATC for Sally was the one in my last blog post.

I've really slowed down with my blogging (and my creating!) as I am away from home so much these days but I noticed today that I am slowly getting closer to my 500th blog post so I guess I should do something to celebrate that milestone...my thinking cap is on and I'll let you know what I decide! Bye for now...

Rusted Fabric ATC

Just a quick little post to share an Artist Trading Card (ATC) that I've made recently for a trade with Sally in Tasmania.

I've used some of the fabric I had previously rusted (heavily rusted actually!) and added some hand stitching, a bit of stamping, a strip of dyed muslin and some seed beads. I've used more of the fabric as a background when I scanned the ATC.

On a more general note, I just can't believe Christmas is SO close - I think all the travel I am doing with my job means that "normal" weekday life doesn't happen so weekends become a little over-crammed with activity and so I have the sense of time passing extremely quickly!! For a range of reasons we are not going to Perth and Margaret River for Christmas/New Year this year and it feels really strange as it will be the first Christmas we have had at "home" in Kalgoorlie for the 16 years we have lived here.

Anyway after being in Wiluna last week, tomorrow I am off to Esperance first (the coast!) and then to Laverton, and will be back Thursday afternoon. Lots of driving involved - four hours down to Esperance and then seven and a half to eight hours up to Laverton before the drive back to Kalgoorlie but at least I get to see the ocean if briefly. Even if it is blowing a gale, I am going to walk on the beach before heading back to the dusty inland scrub!!

I love arty mail!

Look at the wondrousness (makes me want to add some more nesses, just saying that word) that has recently blessed my letter box -

These sweet ATCs from Jenxo (above and below)

These extra goodies from Jen (thanks!)

A Calendar Girl Postcard for October from Jenny -

and this Calendar Girl Postcard for November from Neki -

There is more but I need time to take photos!! Off to Wiluna again tomorrow
(for work, of course) - be back by the weekend.