My Home Is My Castle Swap

With faith in my sudden return of mojo I signed up for Marion Bokelmans annual world wide swap on Friday.. completed the ATCs by saturday and will be posting them to her monday.

The theme was to make 3 ATCs where the person either wears a building as part of their attire, or their hat.  I used images from Itkupilli 'Spiritus Mortis' , Kaisercraft background papers, Mica, Collections tissues and German Scrap.  The words are a quote by the Dalai Lama

Apologies for quality of images...the mica makes the image look soft in the photographs

Arty Days

Since the makeover of my new studio I quite look forward to going in there.. and have been more productive lately than I have in months...(which isnt hard as I was in a real slump before and not creating anything lol)

I am in a Tip In swap with ArtQueens... we are making one page a month and working through the list to post it.. at the end of the swap we will all have one page from each person.

Its an open theme.. but a quote must be added to each page....which I completely forgot about - but fortunately the words I added sort of qualify (I hope)

I gesso'd watercolour paper, added paints, dylusions sprays, Kaisercraft and Dylusions stamps.. white strip is white correction tape.. the large wings I have had forever.. they were 'too good' to use lol.. they were made by a friend of a friend and printed on acetate.. page has gone to Glenda Laing.. hope she likes it.

I have also made a set of letters for a new great-nephew at nieces request... 

and received a gorgeous card from the talented Annette Husband as a thankyou for helping her with some digital imagery on her blog, love it!.. thankyou so much Annette :)

Playing with Textures

Some time ago I signed up for a Collaborative swap on the Yahoo group ArtyOz.  Our  brief was to make pages in the style of Seth Apter, that will be bound into one of Tim Holtz's new book covers.  As we had 13 players I had to make 13 pages.... all are mostly the same.. being that they were never going to be identical due to the proces lol.

I started with watercolour paper and gesso'd both sides... then painted them with a mix of blue and green.
When dry, I painted some Anaglypta wallpaper I have here with gesso and lightly pressed it onto my pages (thats the streaky white markings).  I then made the criss/cross lines in paynes grey with the side of a peice of box board (also called chipboard by scrappers but its not wood). Added some coffee cup circles in gesso

I painted the surface with matte medium and then added the newspaper and music paper, then another coat of matt medium over the top.  Next up I added some stamped images using Archival Dk Brown and Black inks.  Sprayed with Dylusions Dirty Martini, sealed with spray sealer then added the words and edged with charcoal pencil and finished off with a few scrawls in a fine line black marker and white posco pen.
 ++
Had a lot of fun making them... as Finnebair said in a recent class... 'turn your brain off and your hands on'.

New House.... New Studio

We moved house in mid-April... still within the same suburb... but downsized from a big two storey mcmansion to a single level four bedroom.  Its early days yet... but I feel I can say it was the best decision we ever made.

The move means I finally get a private little studio back after a gap of about 4yrs.. with a door so I can close out the world and create.. or just contemplate the silence.... hate open plan which is what I had in the mcmansion.. now I know how goldfish feel! lol

As the walls were a hideous yellow and bright blue a repaint was definitely in order.

Getting ready to paint -
true colour is more like what you see in the alcove

Before the repaint

  I have always loved shabby chic and was inspired by a room I saw on Pinterest that was turquoise.  As its about by most fav colour next to purple, and I wanted a room that was calming and restful that was the colour I chose as my theme.. Turquoise and white with touches of black.  Its a small room, only about 9ft x 8ft so space was a premium, however one end wall was built in robes so will be able to utilise that for storage of the boring/messy stuff.

I started with the walls, painted two coats on them on the first day

Paint job done - Walpamur Crystal Creek

colour is all the same - just looks different due to the light

Next day I started putting everything in there....I mounted the two small cube units on the walls to free up a bit of shelf space, but it kept things handy.  The left side is paperarts side so its buttons etc., right side is jewelry so thats all beads with tools in the fabric boxes

Love, love, love my desk unit that I ordered before I bought the table, serendipitously it turned out to be an almost exact fit for the desk unit!  It holds loads of stuff I use a lot and keeps them handy and accessible on the table, but neat and pretty.

Another stroke of the creative studio gods smiling on me....the table came as is, already painted up shabby as did the chairs.  I had made the turntable a while ago as a project with Lucy and as I already knew I was going to be getting a new room I made it in cream and white because at that stage wasn't sure which colour scheme I was going to do.
We spray painted the turntable white as well as a collection of tins, added papers, buttons, twine etc., and it now sits/spins on the desk holding other handy at reach stuff.  Lucy's can be seen on her blog Here

Paint rack is also by Colcraft and attached to back of door and holds 36 tubes of paint.

I have zoned the room in half and put all the papercraft stuff on one side of the desk and the jewelery stuff on the other.. so I will just sit at whatever side suits what I am making

Once I started putting things in there it all came together really well.. didn't realise how much white and turquoise stuff I had LOL.  As you can see the room is small.. but I dont have a lot of art stuff.. have downsized massively over the last couple of years to where I only have what I use...  the cubes are great for maximising space.. the baskets hold a lot and have meant I can do away with the stacked piles of plastic boxes I used to have.. Chandelier was an ebay find...

Paint:  Walpamur Low Sheen Crystal Creek - 4lt  $52

Paint Rack and desk storage unit came from Colcraft $150

Masters:
              Cubes at foot of table $39
              Cubes in wardrobe $44
              Fabric Baskets $10ea
              Sml Wall cube units $19ea
              Sml wall fabric baskets, $10 pack of 2

Reject Shop:
              Sml bookcases - $30 ea
              Shabby Chic Birdcage $10 (marked down to $6, dont know why its perfectly good)
              Lavender bucket/waste paper bin $7
           

Party Shop:
            Glass Apothecary Jars: Lg $2.50, Med $2, Sml $1.50

Ebay:
          Table $51
          Chairs $10ea
          Chandelier light fitting $5 (I kid you not!)
          Curtains $12.50
          Words (Magic Happens $8ea)
          Desk Lamp $16
          Friends Blocks $15
          Live, Laugh Love words $17
          Bird cage and branches wall decal $4.55

Little drawer units, small door unit and desk unit  are by Kaisercraft - they came raw and are covered in Kaisercraft papers.

Usually I have my computer in the art room and play my creative music on that while I work (Enya, Secret Garden etc) but due to the space, puter is in another room so I dragged out a stereo I have had for ages and it fits nice on the shelf

Other knicknacks are gifts from friends .... button frame and art doll in window by Barb Thomas large B tile with crown by Lucy Leatham

love my new space and look forward to hiding creating in there... would love some feedback.. please feel free to leave a comment :)


       

Finnabair Saturday

Scrappy Hollow setup for first class

Last weekend came our long awaited Finnebair class at Scrappy Hollow.

It started at 9am so Lucy and I were out of bed before the birds for the drive to the other side of the world and we met Glenda there. (She who is lucky enough to live just down the road from it)

Finn imparting wisdom

Morning class was a lot of fun and we all had our layout done by lunchtime.  There was a one hour break between classes so we headed off to McDonalds for lunch and a debrief on the morning.

We all struggled with the concept in the afternoon class....there was so much to learn and only four hours for each one - there was no lagging behind.  I have promised myself I will redo the afternoon class at my leisure - when I have more time to 'play' and not have to rush... that being said  both classes were fabulous and I am very glad I took them.


Scrappy Hollow.. what can I say.. are there enough superlatives?  The staff were welcoming, friendly and attended to every tiny detail.  We had fabulous goodie bags on our place seating in the morning  and a kit that was very generous.  After coming back from lunch we found ANOTHER goodie bag and kit for the afternoon class (kit doesnt describe how big and full of gorgeous loot it was).  This is the second workshop class I have taken with Scrappy Hollow (the other one being at Paperific last year) and that kit was fabulous too.

My morning canvas

Coupled with the ample refreshments, cakes and bikkies (bottled water on our table for both classes) we certainly got a moneys worth... very refreshing to do a class and not go home annoyed about the waste of money.

Myself, Lucy and Glenda with Finn

Scrappy Hollow... YOU HAVE A FAN!

A Weekend In The Country

Several times  year I head off to the hills or the coast for three days of arting and fun with Lucy.. and last weekend our Ballarat trip fell due. We weren't actually 'in' Ballarat but about 15kms past it in Smythesdale.  Lucy booked a lovely little two bedroom cabin and we packed our art supplies and headed off.

Our little house on the hill

My Birdhouse

Friday afternoon we got stuck into the Twiddlybitz kits we bought at the last Paperific.  I made mine in shades of cream with a touch of mauve and pink ... Lucy's was in Turquoise.  I added a trim of the Tim Holtz  washi tape, white German scrap, some pearls and buttons etc.  Great little kit and quick to do.

Saturday we went off to the Ballarat Wildlife Park - very nice day... patted a koala and hand fed and patted a Kangaroo :-)



Sunday was raining pretty non stop so we decided to stay in and get some more art done.. I finished off another two months of the Vintage Fat Book for Paperarts swap and almost finished a third.

Arty Times

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way"

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The first weekend of February, I journeyed up to Tocumwal on the Murray for a fun ' BFF' weekend with Barb, Lucy and Glenda.. 

I made a name plate for my sister, Barb and Glenda made one each for themselves (I had made my own on a previous trip), and Lucy, whose muse had deserted her entertained us with chatter and wit :-)

desk name plate.. thankyou Mr Lucy for cutting the mdf houses and boards for us :-)

We had a fab time making art, eating, drinking and taking the mickey out of each other... it was a wonderful fun filled, supportive weekend with good friends that I'll treasure.. we enjoyed ourselves not knowing how close we all were to our lives changing forever.

Last morning, all ready to head back to our regular lives...... blissfully unaware

On the Monday we all headed home, Barb towards Bendigo to spend time with her parents and Lucy, Glenda and myself back to Melbourne.  Barb didn't quite make it - having a major car accident just outside of Bendigo, but she survived and is on the road to recovery.  (full story on the accident on  Barb's Blog)


Treasure each moment and take none for granted.. and yes, tell your significant other and friends how much they mean to you.  You really never do know what's around the corner.