Spread your Wings

Last weekend I headed off to do a class with Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door.  I had done a class with her last year at the Penrith Papercraft Show which I had really enjoyed, and this class was something I'd not tried before - a canvas.

We started off by covering the top (not the middle because that would be covered up) and sides of an 8" x 8" canvas with 'steel' Ferro, which is a metallic texture paste.  While it was still wet we pressed different background stamps into the Ferro for even more texture and then put it aside to dry.

We stamped our butterfly in Archival 'black' and then coloured the image with Distress Inks before fussy cutting it out.  A background stamp was added to white board and blended to give an aged look before attaching to a larger board with brads, sandwiching a piece of muslin between the layers.

Once the Ferro was dry, we added Viva 'precious metal colour' to highlight the texture.  The butterfly board was adhered with foam tape.

This class was lots of fun and I will definitely be making some more along similar lines.  Thanks, Rachel!!!

Happy crafting!
 

Time Warp

Now that I know my ATC arrived safely to its destination, I thought I'd better blog about it.  The theme for March was "Time Warp", so I decided I'd try to imitate the black and red colours on the cover of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" album.

Originally I was trying to drip both red and black inks on white card, but that just looked awful, and then it occurred to me to use a red piece of card for the ATC and drip black Dylusions ink which looked much better, with a little bit of spattering added.   In browsing a scrapbooking store I came across a chipboard 'film strip and camera' which was the right size and would be in keeping with the Rocky Horror movie.  I carefully went around the film strip with a black Sharpie pen, sponged the camera with Archival 'watering can' ink, and the surrounding circle with a silver pen.  I adhered acetate behind the film strip.

I stamped "Gooseneck" onto white card with 'watering can' and cut to shape matching the film strip.  I added the words 'Time Warp' with Kaisercraft adhesive letters and finished with a black mat (which is actually the correct ATC size).

For a little extra something for my recipient, I made an easel card using the same colours.  I couldn't help but think that Gooseneck reminds me a little of Susan Sarandon as 'Janet', what do you think?

The background stamp on both the ATC and the card is a Tim Holtz stamp 'time' from his Components Collection.

Happy crafting!

Laneways of Melbourne

My apologies for being off the radar but computers are wonderful until they decide to roll over with their legs in the air, i.e. they die!  So I'm back again although I'm not too sure about the photos bit, hmmm ..... I'm sure I'll get it sorted.

So, the weekend before last, I flew to Melbourne with my Mother's Group, a fabulous group of girls that first met at the Early Childhood Centre when our first borns were only a few months old.  We've been having a weekend away for a number of years now, however as this year will be our 25th year together, we decided to splurge and headed to Melbourne for 3 days.  Melbourne is quite a different city from Sydney with it's myriad of laneways to explore, trams running up and down streets and lots to look at along the way.

Our flight was uneventful and after checking into our hotel, we headed to South Bank to explore and have some lunch, followed by more exploring.  For dinner on Friday night, we headed down Hardware Lane which is full of restaurants with spruikers!  Wow, talk about competition, all wanting to give you a better deal then the previous one.  We finally settled on one which gave us a two course dinner plus a bottle of wine for $30 per head.  It was quite yummy too and for an extra $4 we finished with coffee.

On Saturday morning we hopped on the City Tram, a freebie which takes around 45 minutes round trip, with a bit of a commentary as well.  You can hop on and off as often as you want along the way and is a great way of seeing a little bit of the city.  We were heading to Docklands, but two of us decided on the spur of the moment, to explore Fitzroy instead, a suburb on the edge of the city with lots of interesting shops and old buildings.   By the time we returned to the hotel it was around 3pm and our feet were tired from all the walking.

After putting my feet up and refreshed with a cup of tea, I headed out again by myself to explore a bit more. The other girls had gone on guided walking tours which started after lunch and much as I would have liked to have joined them, our Fitzroy walk had taken longer then I anticipated.  I had a lovely walk up and down lanes, past a couple of weddings and finally thought it time to head back to the hotel again.  So down another lane I headed, this time largely deserted, and much to my surprise there was a hotel half way down the lane which I thought was an odd place for a hotel.  I few steps further on, I found myself falling off the kerb into the lane!!!  A couple coming out of the hotel kindly helped pick me up and hoping I hadn't done too much damage I slowly walked two blocks back to the hotel.  All was well until I went to go up the steps into the foyer when my knee started complaining.  Feeling just a wee bit shaken, when I got back to my room, I sat down with another cup of tea until my room-mate came back from her walk.

By the time we went out to dinner, I was definitely feeling stiff and sore, but nothing like Sunday morning when I could hardly get my knee to move without shooting pain - OUCH!!!  My immediate thought was "how was I going to get through today with more walking when I could barely hobble across the room?"  Very slowly was the answer and as I got moving my knee started to feel a bit better and the shooting pain ceased, thankfully!!!  We caught a tram to St Kilda Beach where we had breakfast and then browsed the craft markets which were really nice and where I bought a new handbag.

So, almost two weeks on, the bruises have faded except for the one on my knee.  My knee is still sore and doesn't like steps but is getting better.  If it still isn't right by another week I guess I will probably need some physio.  All in all though, we had a fabulous weekend in Melbourne!!!

After getting home on Sunday evening, I went to check my emails, facebook etc but the computer wasn't at all interested in turning on, oh dear!  A friend came to have a look at the problem and it was decided fairly quickly that it had died.  So a new computer is up and running but not everything has been loaded, always a few wrinkles to iron out !

I must be off now though, as son #2 is off today on his USA adventure and we'll be heading to the airport shortly.  Son #1 will be following on Tuesday and they will meet up in LA to begin their tour.

I will be back soon with more crafty stuff, so thanks for listening to my ramblings about my weekend away with the girls.

Happy crafting!

Leprechaun Monster

This weekend just gone, I spent a lovely Saturday at my second Craftanoon which was just as much fun as the first one (except my friend wasn't with me as she was unwell - hope she's feeling heaps better soon).  As it's a distance away from home and I was just a tad concerned I'd get lost, my DH very kindly drove me there, and then spent the day Geocaching.  Unfortunately later in the afternoon there was a tremendous thunder storm which blew up very quickly with torrential rain which he got caught in and was rather sodden.  Luckily he had a change of clothes with him (but no socks)!  We crafters, on the other hand, were happily undercover in a community hall although we had to shut the doors as the rain was blowing in.  I haven't seen rain like it in quite a while!

So, what am I showing you today?  As today is Saint Patrick's Day, something GREEN I think!

Feathery Monster has decided he would like to be a Leprechaun although he's not going to be very lucky as he only has a 3 leaf clover (oops).  Never mind, he looks quite happy donning his top hat (hee hee).

The background is a blend of 'peeled paint' and 'peacock feathers' Distress Ink.  Feathery Monster is coloured with 'peeled paint' and a water brush, his top hat with 'peacock feathers' lightly sponged to build up the colour.  The 3 leaf clover is a heart punch (SU) and also coloured with 'peeled paint'.  A piece of washi tape for him to stand on and some googly eyes and he's all finished!

I'm entering the challenges at Stampotique Designers Challenge
                                             Wicked Wednesday ATC

Hopefully I'll be back again later in the week to show you what I was working on at Craftanoon.

On Friday I'm flying to Melbourne with "the Girls" from my Mother's Group for the weekend.  We are celebrating (although just a wee bit early) 25 years together this coming October, but trying to tee up 7 families with dates that don't clash means an early celebration.   I'm really looking forward to spending the whole weekend with these fabulous friends - eat, shop, chat, eat, chat, sightsee, eat, chat ........ get the idea? LOL !


Happy crafting!

Outside the Box with the Travelling Monsters!

Phew!!!  Those two rascally little monsters decided to take a sight-seeing tour between here and their final destination of Canada.  I'm sure they will have lots of tales about their adventures, but honestly, 4 WEEKS? Didn't I tell them to go straight there?  Oh well, I'm very relieved to know they have arrived safely!

So, Key Keeper monster is now in charge of his very own garden and isn't he chuffed about that?  And this is how it all came about.

For the second month of the Stampotique Swap, the theme was "Outside the Box" and with this in mind I set to work.

First up, I blended 'stormy sky' fading into 'peeled paint' Distress Inks, then spritzed it with water to give it a bit more age.  I then stamped some leaves to add a garden.  When I cut the ATC I left little tabs on both sides to attach the gates which are a length of fence cut twice and glued together for added strength.  I coloured the gate with Archival 'watering can' ink.

Key Keeper is coloured with water colour pencils, blending the colours together.  I gave him googly eyes and his key is gold Liquid Pearls.

To finish off, I wanted to attach a padlock to the outside of the gate, but although I looked I didn't have one.  Then my friend Jenni found one in her bits 'n' bobs which was just the right size and so the gates could keep this little monster in his garden!

The other little monster who was Key Keeper's travelling companion was Feathery Monster, who was most excited about his overseas adventure.

So, although they detoured on their way to Canada, now that they are there, hopefully they will behave themselves and enjoy their time on the other side of the world!

Happy crafting!
 

Mela and her Kitty

I was trying to combine two challenges again with this tag, Stampotique's challenge is 'Monochromatic' and Tagalong's challenge is 'cat'.  After looking at a few of the entries and thinking how well the variations of gray work with Stampotique's theme, I then had a rethink.    Since it is a colour I've never really done and I wasn't too sure where to start, I had a look through my tags that already had backgrounds but for whatever reason  I hadn't used, and found this yellow one which had been my demo tag at a recent Mixed Media class.  Hmmm ...... this will work perfectly.

The background was done using Distress Inks  'mustard seed', 'peeled paint' and a teeny bit of 'spiced marmalade', with another layer of 'mustard seed' to tie them all together.  A touch of stencilling and a teensy bit of stamped chicken wire, followed by a few drops of water (mopped) completed the background.

Mela and Kitty were stamped onto scrap ivory cardstock and using 'mustard seed' were gently coloured yellow.  To pick up a little more colour, Kitty and Mela's dress were dabbed with the Distress Ink tool in 'spiced marmalade' without any extra ink added.

A small piece of washi tape gives Kitty something to stand on while gently rubbing around Mela's legs.  They are both popped onto dimensionals.  A piece of SU ribbon finishes off the tag.

I'm entering this tag in this weeks Stampotique Designers challenge and Tagalong challenge.

Happy crafting!

March Calendar Journal

My apologies for not coming back yesterday, but since today is the 1st of March, it's a more appropriate date to show you my page, so here 'tis:

I chose the colours because I wanted a more autumn(y) feel to the page.  I must say I was pretty happy with how it turned out, especially after February's BLAH page.  I'm going to have to fix it because between January's 'summer' and now March's 'autumn',  poor February looks even worse then BLAH!

I started with spritzing water over the whole page, followed by  Dylusion Inks 'fresh lime', 'lemon zest' and 'cherry pie'.  The pages were then shmooshed together which gives a lovely blending of the colours and then dried off with the heat tool.

Next, using Distress Ink 'tea dye' and a stencil, I added portions of writing across both pages.

On the bottom corner using 'jet black' Archival Ink, I stamped "Relaxin' " and "Kitty", and in the top corner "Owl Tree", all Stampotique stamps.

The owls were given the eye treatment with little dots of gold Liquid Pearls as did kitty.  The days were punched using SU square 1 1/4" punch, and all letters and numbers stamped using stamps from my stash.

Thanks for visiting and hope you are having a lovely day wherever you happen to be.  Today's weather in Sydney is cool and damp, perfect for the first day of autumn. 

Happy crafting!