Altered Paintbrush and some Cage Dolls

Hi again folks.

As you know, I haven't been doing much "arting" up in my new studio these past two years, but I thought I should show you what I HAVE been able to get done.

Not having much time to play has not been of my own choice....family dramas and life in general has played a large part of my lack of "Mo-jo", but here we go with a few things I do have to show you.

Our PaperArts Group has had an Altered Paintbrush swap for the Mixed Media theme this month. I have used a paper-clay molded face but added magazine images for her eyes and mouth.

This is a close-up of her face.....I am finding it hard to send of to her new owner.....but mainly because I have had to work out how to make her stand. 

I may have to concede that she doesn't want to and add a hanger to the back of her head.

While on the subject of dolls...which I guess this paint-brush character would fall under the heading of such, I also have been smitten (always!!) by Santos Cage Doll.com but am not in the position to buy one as they are not only expensive but the postage cost is the killer!

So, my next images are of some that I bought in kit form from RetroCafeArt.com
I have managed to finish a couple of them but still have one waiting on my desk to be completed.

This one's cage is covered with harlequin paper, which I printed, backed with a medieval styled patterned paper and spotted paper for sleeves, crown and neck trim,which I also printed. I added  lovely vintage cotton lace for cuffs, puff sleeves, waist trim, behind her "crown" and along the hem of her dress. She has a paper face, which is one of my faves from Deviant Scrap  but I am afraid I can't recall from which designer.  My apologies to whom it may be. She has a little paper flower trim on her waist. Her arms are articulated at both shoulders and elbows.

Close-up of her face and the lace I used.

This next image is of  a shrine cage doll that I began to assemble whilst at my friend Bevlea's  place a couple of months ago. I painted her "cage skirt" cream and distressed it with a sanding block, then covered the rest of her with some beautiful blue tissue paper that Bevlea had coloured and stamped and gifted it to me for this doll. Bevlea also just happened to have the right coloured trim for her waist-line too...thanks heaps my dear friend, you helped to make her beautiful!

As birds are my favourite winged animals, I used her shrine for a nest. I adhered some music paper into the shrine then added a plastic egg, (thanx again Bevlea)which I painted blue and then Bevlea helped again by supplying a sweet little crystal to hang from the end of the egg. Unfortunately, this doesn't show up well in the photo. I found a little blue bird in my stash (much to Bevlea's disgust,I NEVER throw away ANYTHING as one never knows when it will be needed...vbg).

I used a molded paper-clay face (I have a box of them I made yonks back Bevlea...vbg) and tried to make it look a bit like a Santos Doll's....not too convincing I'm afraid but I am happy with her, and that's what counts.

I love the little blue birdie ...keeping his eye on the nest.

This is a close-up of her face...I shall have to try harder next time. Her crown is wooden and came in the kit.

And last but not least, here is a close-up of the shrine and the nest. I made the nest out of fine wood shavings. Pity you can't see the crystal.

I have been attempting to art again!

Oh my!!! Will wonders never cease??!! I finally have something to add to my blog. I am taking part in Marion Bocklmann's Annual ATC swap again this year, unfortunately having missed the last two years due to my accident injuries in 2012.

I have also made a few other things as well, and will try to get pics up of these after I add my entries for Marion's swap. This year's theme was "Bird People", which birds just happen to be one of my favourite themes to work with, so I hope these meet with approval. This is the Drake family, and as usual, there is always one little black duck in every family. 

Please note that Mrs Drake has had a "special do" just for this family portrait,  but I do think father could have taken more care with the razor!

 

Here we have Heron-aldo and his partner Flamingko participating the world championship Flaminko dancing. Such a handsome couple! I do believe they are worthy of winning the Gold Cup, don't you?

 

Ms Pea-henny is always careful to keep her future offspring close at hand. Too many times eggs are eaten by the two-legged, wingless creatures that roam the bushland for such culinary delights.

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.