CAWlling in again !

I have recently been away from home for just over a week in a warmer climate only to step out of the plane into a cold, bleak, rainy day, and, after finally catching up with what I was behind with...(the story of my life!!!...vbg), I finally found time to create this little fella.
It will probably be my month's (August) technique on our http://2cre8art.blogspot.com so I will refrain from giving the details here until I decide on that.
Cawments invited and appreciatively received...vbg


Oh...in case you think my house must have been soooo messy that it took the 20 days between posting to clean it up, I thought I'd better let you know that I have made a series of ATCs for our group swap themed
"NUMBERS".
Unless you have a silly imagination like mine, he probably won't make sense standing alone as my dear friend Bevlea Ross and I got our heads together and decided to each make a "side-by-side" complementing pair...only saying I was to make the male one and she the female...which I have yet to see, but she tells me we both used the same Cuttlebug Embossing card and both chose rust coloured background papers. Mine is actually some of the rusted paper I made myself, then rubbed over with Ranger's Spiced Marigold Distress Ink. I used a scrap of my self-printed harlequin paper and a rusted cog over his eye.
I shall add Bevlea's ATC pic here when I receive it so he should make sense then..vbg.
HERE is BEVLEA'S "Numbers" ATC...does it make sense now?...vbg

And, a friend of mine loves Sea Horses and the colour purple, so I made this Mermaid ATC into a little wall hanger for her birthday gift. Needless to say she was thrilled!

SWIMMING WITH MERMAIDS!

More fishy-tailed little ladies came swimming in yesterday...I think I am going into...or perhaps am now going out of... a "BLING" stage in my creativity...vbg.
This time, all but two have clear transparency wings which I heated with my trusty old heat gun (der!) to curl them up, which makes them appear to be 'floating".
They all have 3D elements, either at the fluke of their tail's, or the fish in their hands. The shell hats are also 3D mounted.
I have used up all my watery looking back-grounds, so for now, mermaid themed ATCs will be put to rest.

SOLDERING ON!

June's Mixed Media theme for a group swap on our PaperArts group was Microscope Slide Pendants. We only had to make one but I, as usual, got carried away and made four...a couple of which are for some special people....but not telling here 'cos it will spoil the surprise! One was for the swap and the fourth for me, and I intend to make a couple more for my daughters.
The two three inch ones were constructed the copper foil way, using the wavy edged tape and soldered over. I used scrapbooking papers for backgrounds, snippets of lace and small pieces of gold paper doilies. The images are from a Paper Whimsy Collage sheet. I added tiny German Scrap stars to the women's heads and drew veins on the wings with a gold gel pen. Also added the gold gel pen to the children's images.
I added metal/brass corners to the tops and charms to the bottom of each, which I coated with the soldering patina solution to darken.


With the square ones, I used Ranger's two inch square Memory Frames.
The masculine one is covered with plain copper foil tape and soldered. I used scrap booking papers for BGs and added my own text. The male images are from found sources, altered to suit, using party hats from an Artchix Collage sheet, reduced in size, and then drew on the clown face with gel pens.The clown face side is the front. Again, I added metal/brass charms etc. and coated them with the patina solution.
For the feminine one, I used the wavy edge copper foil tape, and added metal/brass charms to the top. It has a found image of Theda Bara on the front and the child image on the back is from a Tuscan Rose Collage sheet. I used Derwent watercolour pencils around the images to give depth and a little dab of pink went onto their cheeks. I used scrapping papers and lace with these also, but as the lace was on both sides, it made the insert too thick to fit into the frames with the two pieces of glass so, after trying to force it in or bend the frame open more...to no avail, the "light" came on and I used a piece of clear acrylic of the back (the child's image side). The only drawback with that was that I had to be SUPER careful with the soldering iron....it would melt if even slightly touched by it, and as it turned out, it also swells a little, which you may be able to see in the photo, but I feel all in all, it turned out OK and it was a good solution to the problem.

AND THE WINNER IS.......!!

Thanks to all who took the time to look at my blog and leave comments. It made for interesting reading....both the good, and the bad about leaving comments on people's blogs.
I understand that those on dial-up are handicapped by time and that there are those of us that don't have enough time in a day as it is, even with broadband service. I have been "trapped" into reading blogs for hours because one leads to another...LOL.
I am also of the opinion that if the blog that I go to to view does not have anything of my liking on it, I may not leave a comment, but mostly I do try to find something there to comment on....even if it sounds trite, at least I have shown a form of encouragement to the blogger.
I am not really interested in "personal journey" type blogs nor will I bore readers of mine with anything too personal...if I want to put THAT out there I should put it in book form and (try to) make money out of it!!!...LOL.
I also want to thank the folk that commented on my "art" work....you all brightened my days and made me feel loved...LOL
I wish I could give you ALL an ATC but then it wouldn't be a Lottery, would it?...vbg.

So, that being said, it is time to announce the winner....no..it's NOT Diana O'C....it is none other than.....

Number three on the list....

And.......you will all have to go to the comments list under the MERMAID ATC to find out who that is...and will the winner then contact me with her details please.

This is such good fun that I am thinking I shall have to have another Lottery ...down the track..where the crow flies..LOL

MY FIRST GIVE AWAY

In the light of the interest shown in my last lot of Mermaid ATCs, (scroll down to see them) and the fact that some viewers would like to have one or another in their hot little hands, I have decided to have a LOTTERY for THIS latest ATC, shown HERE on the right. However, there is a WEE LITTLE catch to it...which I shall explain after giving you a description of the ATC....vbg.
She is another of Artchix Collage Sheet Mermaids which I modified by removing her original wings and adding mine, which are actually...wait for it...3D...LOL...and again "Blinging" her tail, and ample bosom, up with red Kindy Glitz.
She is reclining on the sandy bed of the ocean, watching the local population go by. The "sand-bed" is actually made up of those little silica beads that we find in packets in items that we buy. The BG paper has Stazon and embossed swirl stamping and the right edge is finished off with some German Scrap that I rubbed over with some Alcohol ink. Then an edge of Green Kindy Glitz finished this little lady off.
Now...on to the LOTTERY part of this exercise!...LOL.
Remember I said there will be conditions????
Well...here they are!

This afternoon I added to my blog a commentary about the general public leaving...or the lack of leaving...comments on people's blogs.

To be eligible to be in the LOTTERY, I would like you to read these words of Jessica Wesolek's and leave a comment THERE under her commentary BELOW THIS post, about YOUR thoughts on this matter AND THEN to leave one here under the MERMAID ATC.

I will draw a winner via RANDOM ORG on SATURDAY 4th JULY so please leave your email address along with your comments so I know where to post the MERMAID ATC to.

REMEMBER...you MUST leave a COMMENT AT both POSTINGS!
That is...one AT THIS post and one at the post BELOW here.
If you want to be in the lottery draw you will need to leave your contact information .
GOOD LUCK!!

WHY DON'T WE LEAVE COMMENTS?

GIVING BACK- BY JESSICA WESOLEK

This is a post on Jessica's blog which I found really interesting and worthwhile, so with her permission, I am posting it here. Go and have a look at her really interesting art and everyday life messages here:
http://web.me.com/jwesolek/cre8it/Blog/Blog.html

"Giving Back . . .
Communication fascinates me and always has. I really think it makes the world go around. So, it has always interested me that only 1 or 2 percent of readers ever leave Comments on a blog post, or have anything to say in a Yahoo Group.

It interested me enough that I have been asking friends why that is. Yes, I have a lot of lurker friends to ask. The answers were really interesting because they went something like this: I’m shy, nothing I say would be interesting to anybody, I’m probably the only one who hasn’t already thought of this, I’m too busy.

Do you pick up a theme there? Pretty one-sided, right? But what if leaving comments wasn’t all about you?

I have an interesting lesson to share. I used to have a very hard time accepting compliments, and like many of us do, I would pretty much throw the compliment back in the complimentor’s face, thinking I was practicing modesty instead of insult. They would say “you’re so good” and I would say “no I’m not”. Those are paraphrases, but you know what I mean. “What a pretty dress!” “Oh, this old thing?”

So one day, my brother asked me if I realized that I was insulting the other person. Whether I realized the complimenting process wasn’t only about me, but rather, a social interaction. What? Something that’s not only about me? How could that be?

But he was right. By arguing with a compliment, I was telling the other person they were wrong, and maybe their opinion didn’t matter much to me.
That was a big lesson, and ever after, I just say “Thank you”

There are lots of things that aren’t just about us, and the amazing plethora of treasure that is internet content is one - a gift that didn’t just get stuck in your computer with the hard drive. It is created and given by hardworking and generous-to-a-fault people just like you (blogs, Yahoo Groups, online zines, tutorials, product reviews, etc. - all free).

If someone brought all this in a box to your door, would you say “Thank you”? Of course you would. If someone at a party told you an amazing thing you never heard of before, or told you about a wonderful new store or book, or restaurant, would you stand there and stare at them silently like you didn’t hear them? Of course you wouldn’t.

Well, the web is not different than the world we live in anymore. It is a social place, and we must all take some social responsibility. I get a kick out of articles that talk about “Netiquette” and Web Etiquette. They mention not flaming somebody into ash, and not TYPING IN ALL CAPS because it means you are yelling.

But they don’t say: speak up and add your voice and your energy to this fantastic exchange so it can keep on rolling and become even better. So the folks who are giving all this don’t run out of gas and stall altogether. They should say that.

And just in case you are thinking this is all about me (Jessica), I think we do better here (cre8it blog) than most with Comments (especially when something free is being given away ;-), and I get so much gratitude in emails that it gives me lots of practice on my compliment Thank You’s! But it breaks my heart to see really good Yahoo Groups fade away because only three people are willing to keep talking, or wonderful blogs go away because the author feels she is hearing the sound of one hand clapping or worse, talking to herself in public.

I know lots of bloggers will say they are doing it “for themselves” and it doesn’t matter if anybody responds with a Comment, but a part of that is just bravado. If they were only doing it for themselves, they would do it in a closet - not on the internet.

So let these wonderful folks know you visited, and if you liked their tutorial, or if their technique gave you a valuable answer you’ve been searching for. Or just say “thanks for all you do,” like many of my wonderful readers do. It’s little but it goes a long way.

Give back - and it will only get better for everyone."

Placed here with permission from Jessica Wesolek.

WEEKEND PLAY

I don't know how it happened that I found time to "play" this weekend as I have a "patient" in the house...my hubby...with a cold!
How many men do you know that aren't sicker than the rest of us??? Why is this so? Can there be an answer for this? EVER!??
But...I digress... thanx to a friend in the Newcastle area,I was experimenting with a sheet of foiled card-stock, sold as temporary splash-backs for greasy areas, in one of our $2/el-cheapo shops for $2 a sheet, measuring 54cms by 75cms, so if it does what I want it to, it will be MORE than a bargain!
I ran a piece thru' the Cuttlebug to emboss it, then coloured it with Alcohol inks.
As I have said before, I always have "stuff" on my desk, so I made up a couple of ATCs using the inked foil as the background, using some of the "stuff".
The first one has gold Rub-ons, Gold German Scrap border, rubbed with Treasure Gold and I cut a gold, metal filigree embellishment in half for the halo. I used Kindy Glitz for the dots above the points.

The other inked foil BG made me think of water so, after adding some white (gesso) circles using a pen lid as a "stamp", I added an Artchix Collage Sheet mermaid and a fish images to it, then some wired plastic leaf trim, a piece of Gold German Scrap for her "crown", Kindy Glitz on her tail and bust, and for the stars on the wings, I used a white Gel pen.I went around the image shape with a metalic gold pen and used Gold Kindy Glitz around the edges of the ATC.

This third one came into being because I not only had another mermaid and a fish image handy, but I also had the BG with the fish on the right already on it, and some stamping done as well.
I Kindy Glitzed her tail and bosom and some of the stamped dots, then added a silver washer to the fish's eye.
The words for all came from a sheet of words,also at the ready .
And...I just realised that none of them have a 3D effect!!!... How unusual for me...amazing!LOL

More Postage People ATCs

I surprised myself in finding time to finish these ATCs over the weekend...something nearly always crops up that seems to put pay to my weekend arting, but other than the usual washing, ironing and cooking(some yummy egg and bacon pies for Sunday lunch)and playing wall tennis with my grand-daughter later in the afternoon, time was my own!


Oh....did I mention the 5 dozen scones I made for morning tea on Saturday for my hubby's staff member's ??.... they had a sale on so I thought I'd encourage them to sell more vehicles if they had something yummy in their tummies....I hope it worked!
Of course, it helped that we went to my daughter's for dinner Sunday night...saved me having to decide on what to get for it myself!
These Postage People ATs are such fun to make.


The first, and hardest part, is finding the stamps. Here in Australia, we don't have many "faces" stamps, although there has been a few of Movie Stars come out lately, but I was fortunate to have had a small number of them sent to me by a fellow swapper from over-seas last year.
Once I have the stamps sorted out, finding images is almost a full day's task for me....I have sooooo many images on my PC that I almost need a packed lunch and a thermos of green tea to get thru' them....LOL.
It also helps to have a stack of back-grounds at the ready...really handy for quick creating!


Finding the right embellishments is the next hard task...I like to try to use up stuff laying around on my desk-top...and there's ALWAYS heaps of THAT there...vbg.
Then I spend an hour or so going thru' the fonts in Publisher looking for the most suitable for each ATC....and sometimes do a search for better ones.
Scanning and editing the finished products take another stretch of time but it is soooo satisfactory to see them all eventually done and up for all to see.

TREE of LIFE

I have finally gotten around to up-dating here... where does the time go??? Monday comes around and before we know it, Friday has arrived!!
Of course, it doesn't help when your PC is not co-operating either!
I changed my Anti-virus application and it fouled up my modem, but eventually my nice providers helped me with it and we are back in action! When things like that happen it makes one realise just how much one relies on this monster!

This is an altered Papier Mache torso that I did for a swap. I used twigs from my Jacaranda tree for the "wings" and Sphagnum Moss for the nest. I applied Golden's Texture Paste for the grass, and the leaves are a type of satinny ( is there such a word..vbg)ribbon that I bought on-line somewhere....and wish I could remember where! I shaved the twigs ends to sit flat on the torso, then applied them with Golden's Heavy Gel. It is finished off with some copper coloured Rub-ons, which I outlined with dots, and then finally, a coat of Royal Coat Decoupage Sealer.

ANOTHER FABRIC BOOK PAGE

This page's theme was "Jeweled House".
Several years ago, I hand painted and stamped some calico and have had it sitting around waiting for a good reason to use it...and this is the reason!
For the houses I used Collection's chipboard house frames,covered in "Textiva" (fusible film). The two larger rooves are cut from cardboard. The front one is covered with dot stickers and the back page one is done with re-enforcing rings,then I coated them with Bronze Lumiere and rubbed over with Walnut Distress Ink, and the small one has gold star stickers, treated the same way, as I ran out of the dots and rings.
I then added the diamantes to them all.
I used various images of children,two of which are from "Collections", and added a piece of mica to the large front and back houses and wire mesh to the smaller one.Then a squiggle of green Kindy Glitz on the sides of the houses and more diamantes embedded into them with some larger flower embellishments to finish them off.
Then I added the Kaiser Rub-ons to the sides of the front houses to balance the layout.
The image in the house on the back is of a little girl with her dolly's pram and a bit of "serendipity" happened here... I didn't realise until after I finished the page entirely and was checking it out for faults (which I am sure to have made) that the application of the gold painted scrolls and flourishes actually make the dolly's pram look 3D!
I left the threads long and dangling when I ran some machine stitching around the edges and threaded some beads onto them to add more texture to the whole page.

MIXED MEDIA MARIE

I finally managed to find some time to finish this project yesterday.
The frame is a 4 x 7 inch stretched canvas,reversed.
After gessoing the canvas, where I built some up at the top left and bottom right corners for texture, I used a wash of Golden's Light Magenta,then stencilled some Phthalo Green thru' some sequin waste, which, when dry, I re-stencilled over that with White.
When all was dry, I sponged on some Quinacridone Magenta sparingly and painted the inside edges of the wooden frame with it as well.Then I gave it all a thin coat of Golden's Fluid Interference Oxide Red.
I adhered some flocked burgundy and gold embossed, wire edged ribbon to the background.
I painted the porcelain half doll white, only colouring her cheeks and the rose, as I felt that would accentuate the "lavishness" of the character's "encoutrements" more.
I added the German Scrap Border and lightly distressed it with brown Stazon ink.

Marie's "Gown" is made from wire-edged ribbon,trimmed with embroidered roses.
Her crown is plastic and once lived on a hair pin....which my grand-daughter is yet to miss...vbg.
She has a "diamonte" necklace and also some on the gown trim.

The vintage flowers are off a 1950-60s hat, found at an op-shop yonks ago, with gold painted die-cut swirls added.
The glass bead fringing was taken from the bottom of a cheap cotton hand-bag also found at an op-shop.

MIXED MEDIA TIP-IN PAGES

I am in a Mixed Media book page swap in one of the groups I belong to, where we make up a page in the recipient's theme using fabric as the base.
This is the one I have done for Bevlea. Bevlea's theme is Bird Houses. As you can see I have done two totally different styles with these pages. I am not normally a "flowery" person but the bird houses demanded that I put them there...LOL.

ANOTHER TIP-IN

This one is for my friend Lucy who chose Vintage Paris as her theme.
The page with the word PARIS on it is the front .

A KIND KREATIV BLOGGER AWARD

Well folks,for the life of me I can't figure out how I deserve this lovely award from the very talented, "many hats-wearing" Susie Jefferson but I am very happy to grab it with both hands and "wear" it with pride on my blog!
Thanx Susie...I now have to try harder to learn about Blogging to be truly worthy of it....LOL

I also have to follow the rules of this award and select 7 wonderfully clever people to award it to....so...let's see who they will be....Ummmm....

1. First up is easy....my dear friend Bevlea without whom I would never be sitting here in front of a glaring monitor and typing this up,let alone accepting an award for it!!
Bevlea is also responsible for me accumulating...nay.. amassing HUGE amounts of papers, stamps, inks, ephemera, tools....big and small, and all the rest of the stash that we paper nuts end up with, just so I can make a few little cards called ATCs!
Thank you Bevlea for being my rock.

2. Another good friend, Linda, deserves this award also...she is one talented chick, but I don't know if she will accept it. Sigh!...one can only try...vbg

3. My friend Kelsey from the wild west of this country, probably doesn't need introducing...I am sure her talents have reached around the world...eleventeen times!!!...LOL

4. Kathy,is another very talented new cyber friend, whom I would love to meet personally one day, and maybe I will if our plans to go to the States come to fruition next year.

5. Diana's blog, is so worth the trip to; she has wonderful eye candy there to keep you there for a while.

6. Here's another lovely lady who does beautiful art. Martina has been to visit me personally in the past and I have admired her work for ages.

7. Sanna does some of the most incredible art in all sorts of medias. She has been known to be hard to beat when it comes to getting in first for a trade or two...vbg



The Rules:

List 7 things that you LOVE
Link to the person who has tagged you
Choose 7 more bloggers to give the Kreativ Blogger Award to
Comment on those 7 blogs to let the recipients know you chose them


7 THINGS THAT I LOVE


1. Knowing I have "friends" all over the world.
2. Being computer savvy enuff to be able to communicate with them.
3. My family...even tho' they give me the "willies" at times!
4. Enjoying a yummy roast pork dinner ..preferably with family or friends.
5. Making and baking cookies with my 8-going-on-30 yr old grand-daughter.
6. Being thin, Now...when WAS that!!!...probably before the roast pork dinners and baking cookies days!!!....LOL.
7. Last but not least....at the end of the day, a hot shower, a good book and a cosy bed to curl under the doona in...of course, this is only during winter...forget the hot shower and the doona in those sweltering months of summer!...vbg

PLAY TIME!

Once again I have been a bit slack keeping up my blog.
The Easter holiday period has been a blur of comings and goings...us going to visit my folks over the Easter period and my grand-daughter coming to stay for a few days, leaving just in time for a BIL to arrive, who in turn, left before some friends arrived for a quick over night stay on their way home from their Easter holiday!
It was lovely to see them and we not only had a yummy Chinese dinner out, but we girls had an hour or so play before bed-time while the boys exchanged their veiws on the world!
My friend had never played with beeswax, so I set about changing that. We quickly went thru' my box of scraps and spare images and both made an ATC...here is mine.I used scraps of two paper napkins as the background,a Zettiology Collage image of Mona,some of my printed harlequin paper and butterfly wings and the gold paper border is part of the negative left overs from using a crown punch.
It is entitled "Mona Tries Collagen".
Unfortunately I didn't get to scan my friend's ATC.

See what happens when you eat too much cake!

This is my latest ATC, made for our monthly PaperArts group swap, the theme being "Marie Antoinette".

I used images of a period gown and one of Character Constructions Stamps of Marie and Photoshopped them to size.

The background is hand dyed canvas sprayed with Moon Shadow Mist, and has a Silver Krylon Pen resist.












I made a slash in the neck line of the gown image and put Marie's extended neck through it so that when you pull the crown up, the head comes up with it.

Heart-felt Healing Doll

After the Victorian fires which occurred in February, at the instigation of Keron Lee,http://thecolourguru.typepad.com/
a group of people volunteered to make Healing Dolls to be handed out at random to some of the victims in the hope that they would find some solice in knowing that there are many people caring about them.

This is one of several that I made.

The faces were printed onto an old cotton pillow case that I applied to some freezer paper before cutting to A4 size to be able to go thru' the printer.

The central heart is cut from some hand made felt and I tea-dyed the heart fabric to age it.

A BEESWAX COLLAGE

This is my latest tute on Bevlea's and my Techniques blog......
http://2cre8art.blogspot.com
It is done on a canvas board, first layer being torn magazine images covered with white tissue paper that has a pattern of gold cherubs over it.

The white tissue paper "dissolves" into the BG but the gold cherubs form a resist and show up quite well, altho' that is hard to see in this image.

All embellishments are adhered with beeswax, no other form of adherant was used.

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER

Back in January when Bevlea was here on her annual holiday, we both used the same ATC background with this image of a woman on it as a challenge to make an ATC for each other.
There was a little difference in the colour of the BG but they were both cut from the same sheet of hand dyed paper.
Mine is on the left,Bevlea's on the right.
Mrs Percy has a 3D mounted fan and the ship is off a paper napkin.

TWEAKED QUILTIE

With a different orientation and
a few different embellishments,
this is a slightly smaller version
of my previous quiltie.

This one was made as a "book page"
for a group swap.

It has a cardboard backing,which is
covered with a credit card techniqe
painted paper, and then
Cuttlebug embossed.

The wings are silver German Scrap and
the little metal, glitter covered crown
was originally on the end of a hair pin.

I printed the text onto silver Laser paper.

My apologies for the poor quality of
the image but the silver paper,beads
pearls and glitter are not favoured by
the scanner.