Angelic Skinny Swap

I am signed up for several swaps...as always, nothing new right?....well actually this is the first "skinny book" swap I have ever done, so I thought "gee I may as well sign up for four"....or something like that lol
Anyway the theme is "Angelic" but it is in groups of 12 artists per book, so if the same artist signs up for all 6 of the groups then they should make a different page for each group...and so I did, I have done texture (of course you have...yeah I can hear you all say), differently for the four groups I signed up for.
I decided against using an image but created my own stencil and used it with impasto, gel medium (yes Danielle GM!!! I loooove it so), and stamping and embossing, some looked good with the single winge while the others looked best with double wings, I thought it sort of looked as though it was wings wrapped around somebody.
My fave is the rust with gold and silver EP...marbled nicely to make platinum :)

Altered Coaster

I went to a stampers luncheon again and we were all asked to get in on altering a little 4x4 coaster each, so I got out some very old pages from a book that I got on one of my foraging trips, the pages are so delicate and some are crumbled but I like the colour, so I thought I would use it...I love it...it turned out great, I am soooo into the colours at the moment, so sorry to all if I settle into doing alot of the same thing for a little while

Brigitte's brilliant idea :)

Brigitte Grant is compiling a personal collection of her fave artist blogs and I was lucky enough to be invited to submit to her brilliant idea, it was hard trying to list those who inspire me and it seriously would have taken over the whole page, so I have opted for those who have really shaken the art tree and made people go "how the heck did you do that?"....people....women!!!, Women who are not afraid to try different things and who are more than happy to share their work and their ideas....yup my list could use sooooo many more names but I could only select a few to fit my work, this is in no way saying that those listed aren't as good...there are dozens and dozens that leave my art looking like kindy scrawl but my name is there because I need to take pride in my efforts.
So after all my rambling I just want to say to every artist who has ever been...YOU INSPIRE ME :)


*quick note...yes I used canvas paper to print the images...I sooooo love my new printer HP Photosmart C7280 All-in-One

All About Me ATC...APC offline swap

I had my name down for the now defunct offline APC swap and the last theme was "About Me"....what a hard theme, I wanted to come across confidant but not cocky, so simplicity worked well I believe.

Don't underestimate chicken wire

I love clever ideas and am more than happy to have a play and put my own spin on things that impress or intrigue me, I was surfing various altered art blogs and on my journey I came across an image of a crown made from chicken wire, it was quite clever, so I decided to google "chicken wire crowns" and came across a few different images by other clever artists, I even saw that there is a book that covers the subject. Anyway I had a small roll of wire from my foraging with Barb T. in Wagga a couple of weeks back, so really there was nothing holding me back from having a play, I fashioned the crown to fit my head but JD was more than happy to model for me once the piece was finished...that photo is blurry because he was jumping up and down as I took the shot....ahhhh super models! Such difficult creatures to work with :)

visit the links attached to see some more crowns by other artists

http://rosespetitemaison.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicken-wire-can-be-pretty.html
http://vintageflair.typepad.com/vintage_flair/2008/01/chicken-wire-cr.html
http://junquedrawerchick.blogspot.com/2008/04/one-about-scrapes-burns-and-bruises-and.html

Beats like wings

I found a large moth, laying on our front door mat and touched it to see if it was alive, it didn't move, I have long been amazed by the wings of butterflies and moths and have often thought of using critter wings in my art...was this creature offering itself to me as an embellishment?....surely not....my 4 year old wanted to touch it and asked why it didn't fly away, I told him that it was because it was very cold outside and that it was not able to find somewhere warm, so it had slept on our mat, waiting for somebody to bring it in to be warm.
JD decided that he would do that and asked for a little bed to be made, we found a container and lined it with tissues, the lifeless moth was gently placed in it and covered with another tissue. Days went by and JD was disappointed to see the moth was not ready to fly around and so I had to explain "Moth Heaven" to him, he cried and told the moth who he had affectionately named JD-Fly, that he loved him.

We placed the moth on the window sill in the kitchen where it stayed for weeks...that was until JD decided he would play with it...picture a large dried up moth sitting on a toy train, chugging along the tracks.

After a day or too of the train rides my darling son decided that as JD-Fly was no longer in need of his wings that he would remove them....and so I got to salvage them for my art and JD-Fly got to have a proper burial.

RIP JD-Fly...I dedicate this art to you ;)


yes that is embossing on the wings

Texture texture who has the texture

I have most likely said this before and if I haven't...then slap me around with the non bitey end of a fish...Texture is cool and I love it sooooooo, I use it as often as possible...yes I can just hear all my students agreeing...lol

My friend Sue popped in today and she asked me one of my all time fave questions...apart from "do you want some chocolate?", which she did lol, she asked if I wanted to show her how to do some textured backgrounds using a variety of mediums....and so I got out embossing powders, pva glue, lumiere paints, assorted acrylics, gel medium, light modelling paste, texture paste, tissue paper, rub n' buff, etc and created a 12x12 sheet of textured appearance, I went for greens and blues and Sue did pinks.

Here is mine, chopped into ATC sized pieces...

Spell Page swap

I was asked to take part in a collaborated book, the theme is "Book of Shadows", each person had to make 15 pages, 17cm x 17cm, they had to include a spell.
This is my contribution ~ shellac, fusible film, liquid nails, alch. inks, stamping, embossing, distressing, painting, rub n' buff were used to create my pages.

New shoe project

I love the style of this shoe, I found them for $2 in a second hand store in Wagga Wagga on my break, I wish they were a size bigger because I would wear them! No they aren't done yet....just something else to add to my UFO (UnFinished Object) box lol

and yes the images are a bit dark...I wanted them that way because when they are finished I'll put them in the light and it will be soooooo much more dramatic.

Working shoes

I have been asked by a few people what I wear on my feet while I teach....as I rarely get to sit...I love my comfy faux-crocks ($7 at Target) but they were a bit boring, so I spruced them up a bit :)

Now they are comfy and glam!!!

Zetti House swap

This is my Zetti house piece I did as a last minute favour on a yahoo group I have now happily left

rest and forage

here I am back from 7 relaxing days with Barb Thomas (one of my all time fave artist and muse), we had a great time foraging for rusty stuff at a scrap metal yard, where we were even dressed in suitable fluro safety wear and had a guide to keep an eye on us. We also went to a salvage yard and bought dozens of old books and some other bits and bobs, and we went to a "sorted" tip and found even more stuff...very cheap foraging that cost a total of $15 for all that we got from our two day "scavenging" lol. The back of my little Rav4 was full.

Of course I got to get creative and did this....just a simple little piece as a thank you for my wonderful hostess.