NOT DOING MUCH ARTING, but....?

I'm afraid I have been neglecting my blog for some time now but life has been hectic around me for a few months. 
However, I have managed to enter a couple of our  paperarts group's ATC swaps and am working on making some other swap items.

         This first ATC is from December last year. 

         The theme of the swap was "Steampunk Women".

At the time of this swap, I was still unable to use scissors as I      
   had had an operation on my hand so this one is a digitally
     compilation with rusty cogs and other findings added. 

 This month,January 2013, our theme was black and white only
   "Zentangles", which was a bit of a challenge to us all. 
    But it certainly took us out of our comfort zone of
                    "cut and paste" ATCs.
I apologise for such a long way to scroll but I used to be able to upload pics and display them side by side but for some reason known only to blog-land, they will now only load one below the other. 

                  

At first glance, each of the same design may appear to look the same as it's corresponding ATC but I found it difficult to make them EXACTLY the same so I decided to pop them all up here so the
                     differences can be seen.

BEEN PLAYING AGAIN!

Amongst all the busyness of my life at present, I have been able to find a few minutes of an evening to release my "mo-jo" and finish off the excess "Vintage Children" ATCs that were our last PaperArts  ATC swap.
I ran some of my rusted paper through the Cuttlebug to emboss them then distressed them a little more with Ranger  Distress Ink.

The old photo images were printed out on an adhesive backed transparency sheet, then I attached them to adhesive backed foil tape, which then gives the appearance of them being somewhat like the old "tin-type" photos.
I used slide folders on two of them, edged with copper tape and the third one is a tiny photo frame. I added a tassel to that one and vintage cotton lace to them all.


This next lot of ATCs were born from images and stash that has been even more cluttering up my work desk! However, anal retentive as I am, I couldn't stop until I had used all of my tiny frames that I have been hoarding FOR-EVA!!!

  

I cut up an old calendar to use for the backgrounds and used my new Bic texta type pens to add colour.

The Key to The Past

Our Paperarts Yahoo Group's bi-monthly Mixed Media swap for June was Hanging Houses.

We made one for each participant and one for ourselves.

This is my offering.

It is approximately 7 inches tall...a WEE bit bigger than required so I hope I am forgiven for that. 

I used part of a COLLECTIONS die cut CHIPBOARD for the house and corrugated silver cardboard for the roof which I distressed with Alcohol Inks.

I printed vintage images onto transparency sheets, backed them with silver tape and adhered them to the back of the cut-out shapes.

I added copper wire for the hanger and a key charm.

There is a little image in the "washer" window frame which is hard to see here. 

It is entitled

"The Key To The Past"

                                 
   

Body In A Cage Returns

These are the wonderful ATCs I received from Marion Bockelmann's Annual Swap.

Ingeborg Miko    Marion Bockelmann    Ulrike Kauffmann

Thanx once again for this great swap Marion, I look forward to next year's event.

I AM DOING WELL!

I would like to thank all of those that left kind Cawments not only about my arty attempts but also about my accident. I thought I should post this photo of me, taken last week, to show you that I AM in one piece now...but still limping and have more procedures ahead of me.

I am truly blessed to be alive and able to (hopefully) spend many more years with my loved ones and wonderful friends!

LITTLE BLOO BIRD

I started playing around with this little darling before I had my accident . She was so patient waiting for my return without a whinge or whine, that I decided that she needed to be finished and given flight....vbg.

                                               


I made her wings out of Coca Cola cans, ran them through the Cuttlebug then alcohol inked them. The cage was bought as a Christmas decoration and the arms and head are genuine, dug-out-of-the-ground German china doll parts. The arms are wired on and the head is glued on with Selley's ALL FIX....strong enough to stick anything to anything!


When I was a child, about 10 years old, my mother bought my sister and I a little twin blue-bird brooch each. The birds on each brooch were individual brooches but were joined together by a chain. Somewhere, somehow, these brooches disappeared so I was delighted to find one of them in an op shop not long ago. (Aaah...memories of long ago are still with me but my short term memory is SHOT TO PIECES!!!...LOL)
I attached one of the blue birdies by wire inside the cage and saved the other for another future project. I adhered a "mushroom" birdie to a nest of blue eggs ( redleadpaperworks ) and adhered it to the bottom of the "cage".  She wears a paper flower collar, decorated with rhinestones...and of course, a feather in her musical cap, which I made by covering a Christmas/New Year streamer popper casing! (I can usually find a use for nearly EVERYTHING!!)

PLAYING AGAIN

I must be recovering very well....probably due to the wonderful care I have received from my dear sister AND assorted TAC health workers, because I have REEEELLLLYYY been wanting to create. I have lots of arty stuff forming in my head but unfortunately, it has only been ATCs that I could do here, which is perfectly OK with me as I do love creating these small pieces of art...if my style can be called art! I love taking images and mixing them up to create odd, sometimes satirical ATCs.
     
                                                       So, here are my latest attempts.
                             They are all of one theme about one of my favourite things....shoes!!

                             
                              Hope you enjoy the eye candy! Love for you to leave a CAWMENT!

MORE ATCs

At one stage of my stay in hospital, I did manage to get some ATCs made.
Some have already been sent some out to winners of our monthly lottery but these are the ones I decided to keep for myself.

The top 4 were made by cutting out ad images and letters from magazines. The bottom left one is the only existing one left made  before my accident, as the rest of them of that theme were destroyed in my car.It has a black tissue paper with gold swirls background, which I added the white dots to. To make matters worse, the other 11 were all different images and words!
The one on the bottom right was also made in hospital using paper background and images given to me by my dear friend Bevlea. It is the only one with my trade-mark 3D technique with the wings and her head being raised by using mounting tape.

HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN???????

Since I have had something to blog about????
Finally, after almost four months, I am ALMOST back to normal and finding time to play at making ATCs.
Only a couple of small procedures to go and I should be heading home in a week or two...just gotta keep all digits ...and eyes...crossed...LOL.

          Anyhoo...Here are my three entries for Marion Bockelmann's International annual ATC swap.
                                              The theme of which is "MY BODY IS A CAGE.

                           I am so looking forward to having some great returns in the mail late in June.

Progress Report

Popped into visit Barb today for an hour or two with Lucy... we took her a container of papers, scissors, glues, atc blanks, images etc., as she is getting cabin fever/itchy fingers to get creating again.. we are setting a record here, its the 4th time we have been into see her and the 5th time we've seen her since Feb 1 (usually due to distance we only get together annually LOL)

She is much better each time we visit, has had the initial plaster off the leg and arm for re-xrays and a new lot of plaster back on.. they are due to come off permanently in a couple of weeks.  She will then be staying at her sisters for a further six weeks for on going physio therapy.

She still doesn't know the fate of her artwork we made that weekend.. .though they have finally tracked down where the car was taken to, so hopefully they can get her stuff out of it soon.  In case its gone forever.. this is what her art looked like from that weekend...

Barb - Broken and Unbowed

I am doing a 'guest' spot here to update Barb's friends and followers to  her status after her car accident last week.

Barb, along with myself, Glenda and Lucy spent a lovely three days up at Tocumwal on the Murray arting and enjoying each others company.. Monday morning Glenda, Lucy and I headed to Melbourne and home, and Barb headed off to Bendigo to spend some time with her parents

Glenda, Barb, Lucy, Bevlea

About half an hour out of Bendigo Barb had a horrific head on with a fully laden B-Double (semi towing another load).  Her Rav 4 is a complete write off, but luckily all the angels and side airbags were on her side, and she has survived to tell the tale.

photo courtesy Bendigo News

She was airlifted to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne suffering from a broken leg, wrist, sternum, shoulder blade and large gash on stomach.  She now has a plate in her leg and has been transferred this week to Epworth Rehabilitation.  Today is her birthday, so thanks to the girls on PaperArts, Lucy and I went in to visit her with some goodies that I purchased from the collection that was taken up.

Opening the gift with Lucy

We took in 12 helium balloons - one from each person who contibuted, a beautiful hat box filled with shampoo, conditioner, deoderant, tissues, bath sponge, perfume (So Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker), a nice new nightie and a bigggggg box of choccies

at least she still has her sense of humour!

A LITTLE CREATIVE SOUL MUSE-IC

My dear little grand-daughter, now 11, created this fantastic assemblage at a school holiday play day yesterday. She mainly used old broken toys and a hot glue gun ( for the first time). It sits on a toy tambourine which is 31 yrs old.....same age as her mother!....a bit of serendipity as well as creativity!!

 I think it's FABULOUS  (I'm not at all BIASED...vbg) and I hope you all find it that also....and be sweet enuff to leave a cawment on it...she would be thrilled!

Dr. Music

PLAY TIME CREATIONS

My sister and I have had such a great time together these past six weeks but sadly, the time has come for her to go home...tomorrow!
I am going to miss her so much...it will be some time before I shall adjust to being alone again.
However, I have been able to actually get some more play-time and here are the ATCs that I got done.

A few Weird Ones

                                       A bit on the cute side from my norm.
                This one was last month's WTA and is going to a new home.

 I used an off-cut from a cog die-cut 

on an embossed back-ground for this one.

These are for our PaperArts Group's January swap. 

The theme is "Altered People".Can you figure out who they are?

This shows who's under the lion's head ATC.

Do you need more clues as to who it is? 

This next lot are more of my sister's creations. She has really had a great time but is pleased that the stash/mess won't be at her place.....LOL.

What I have done recently...

It's not much, but I have managed to fit in making some ATCs for our Paperarts monthly swaps.
This time of the year, altho' supposed to be peaceful and joyous,  has it's down moments for me....seems if anything's gunna go wrong, it will now!
Added to which, during the hotter months, my mostly calm nature tends to explode into fiery mode! (no snickering allowed here by my friends!)

To top off all health issues around me, I have been waiting for parts for my NEW stove-top (gas burners) since OCTOBER!!!....yes...I did say NEW stove-top!
Seems we have VERY BAD POSTAL SERVICE between HERE and SYDNEY as I have been told THREE times that the parts were posted out. apparently they have FINALLY arrived and am now waiting on the appliance man to come but still not sure if they will fix the problem.


Oh, why couldn't they have just replaced the stove-top in the first place!!??


However, I HAVE managed to make some beetroot relish, chili jam and mango relish on the ONE jet that DOES work!


Anyhoo....here are the two different ATCs I made at least five of each of...hope you like them.
I have a spare of each if anyone would like to trade. Just email  me if you are interested.

The left one's theme was "Mother's Sage Advice" and the other's
 theme was "Anatomical with a Twist".

Playing with my Sister!

My sister is here with us at present recovering from an operation on her feet, so to keep her mind off the associated pain, I introduced her to ATCs. She was not sure how she'd go at first, but by golly...she has been bitten by the bug and sometimes doesn't even wait for me to sit with her but gets into my stash of images and produces little works of art on her own!

                 I shall display some of them here and hope that you will be kind      
                     enough to cawment on them. I know it will make her day!

                                   
                The last image shown is an articulated paper doll...her very first!
                      The lady beetle card opens to show the sunflower inside.

Finally...New Stuff!

My apologies to those of you that have stuck  to me, I've been having a very full-on time over the past couple of months, which is still an on-going situation for a while yet!


However, I have been able to find a few smidgens of time in-between life's tasks to make a few ATCs which I thought you might like to see. I  have been trying to use up some of my gazillion images that I have been saving...so that has been a bit of a challenge as well.


So, here they are...don't forget to click on the image to enlarge.

  
The top three I made when visiting my dear friend Bevlea in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago.     
I would appreciate some complimentary comments as all I have been getting lately have been SPAM...even tho' I have an anti-spam message  on my blog....grrrr!

IS IT A BIRD?

Had another play day with Marci yesterday. Once again, we didn't get much done other than working out how to use her Cricut and Marci making the hard decision as to which of my virgin stamps she wants to add to her stash....eventually!

However, I have discovered that just having a like-minded friend around, my MUSE comes back and demands to play.
Before it was time for Marci to leave, I did begin to make an ATC out of scraps on my desk....using the piece of toilet paper that I cleaned the alcohol ink off my brush after painting the half doll the other day...which resulted in a yummy variation of one of my fave colours...orange.
There  was enough of the paper to back two ATCs so before it was time to put the dinner on I actually got two finished, and because my muse was not satisfied for me to sit back and rest on my laurels after dinner (so to speak...it was actually my butt I was sitting on...vbg), I sauntered back to my den and made up another ATC before my eyes told me it was time to sleep.

I often have nights of insomnia, and last night proved to be one of those...along with a semi-serious case of heart-burn (signs of old age), so after tossing and turning for an hour, I eventually got up and had a goodly dose of Bi-Carb soda which caused several relieving burps! By this time I was wide awake so I made a cuppa (Chai) and was forced (muse pushed me) back into my den, where I not only made another ATC, but went thru' a box of scrap images that has been accumulating for-EVA, and threw....yes!...threw some out! By 3 am I was ready for bed.....again!

All that being said...I guess it's time to show you the end result of my day's...and night's creativity!

This is the first of two that are the same that I made in the afternoon.
The wings are 3D mounted.
Lurv that orange paper!

The ATC on the left began life as a  medieval woman transferred onto the music sheet. I gave her a new face, head and a handful of eggs. The fish are 3D mounted.
The other one was also of a medieval woman image transferred to old newspaper but had the same image printed on transparency as an overlay.
The nest and birdie are 3D mounted.
This face image is one of my favourite images.It is a Teesha Moore collage sheet image
but I added the glasses in Photoshop.

ANOTHER TYPE OF BIRD

On Tuesday, my new play-mate, Marcia Smith, came to play with me. Actually, there's more chatting done than playing but we both managed to do a wee bit of arting.
Marci managed to make a mountain of paper-clay doll heads and body parts and I began toying around with a half-doll and a wire tea-light candle holder in the shape of a Christmas tree.

Today, I actually got it finished, and she is nothing like I started out to do.
To begin with, she had PINK clothes which clashed with the coppery coloured fabric that I made her "gown" from, so she got a doing over with some alcohol ink. What magic stuff that is!

I was originally going to use a purchased bird nest and sit it into the tea-light candle holder but it didn't look right sitting on top of it, so I wove a nest of copper wire around the holder, glued it in place and then added some shredded paper and feathers before gluing the little mushroom bird on top of it all.

I had the meshy strips in my stash but as they were white, I gave them a dose of alcohol too...ink that is...vbg. Then it still looked like it needed more oomph but I had to think about what to add to her...until I saw the feathers that I had used in the nest were still on my desk...and the light went on!

Of course, she had to have a feather head-dress too. I found some narrow braid to cover the feather ends around her waist but as it was too white, it got a dose of the  ink as well. A blingy flower on the head-dress finished her off just in time to get her photo taken before the sun went down.

More Crowing!

                Due to a small number of participants in our Felt ATC swap,
                             we are now to make two different ATCs each.

                   I decided to keep to the one theme so here is the first one's mate.
                                            Once again I padded the wing
                              but unfortunately it doesn't show up in the scan.

Crowing Again!

               This month our ATCs are to be of FELT and done in a naive style.

This is my effort.
I have added little black seed beads for the sunflower's seed and the crow's eye.
 It doesn't show up well here but his wing is stuffed so it has a raised effect.