Glenda's Artscapes

I AM SO EXCITED...

2012-01-28T04:28:00.000-08:00

this time next week, The FFL or the Rusty Ramblers and two more will be well and truly relaxed on our weekend away on the NSW border with Vic... Some laughs will have been had, some wine and food and a relaxing massage for some of us and some Arting on its way.. We are away from Friday am til Monday sometime
So watch this space for some updates on artwork. I know that Lucy's wonderful husband has made some more of the wooden houses for Barb and I to make ours too............ Yay!!! Check out Bevlea and Lucy's completed ones.

Sooooooooooo talk to you soon and hope to have lots of photos to put in here

Kelseys Book

2011-12-31T20:18:00.000-08:00

Is available for purchase direct from her. You can email her to order yours. It's A4 sized with 40 techniques in it, colour pics on each technique page....all for $35. (Postage in a tuff bag within Australia is $4,
I have bought one and its well worth it.

The last month or so

2011-11-23T03:40:00.000-08:00

Has gone by in a blur. Had a fabulous day with Bevlea and Lucy when we went to Healseville to do a PMC (Precious Metal Clay) class. It was great and very easy (if you have the basic craft skills) Not something I need to buy tools for LOL, just the PMC3, but as its very expensive I won't be buying it often.

Has taken a while to post as my lovely printer decided to die and had to go to Printer hospital but its now back and in good working order again.........................Here is my earrings and pendant I made............

I have made various ATC's for Paperarts and NZ Stampers for monthly swaps.
This one is a Gothic house that had to be able to be opened for Paperarts.

The image I used is one from Itkupilli.

The next is the Gothic Microscope Slide swap which we did one for one.
Mine went to Peta, I hope she liked it.The microscope slide holder actually broke in the process, so I had to put it together with wire and added some beads.
The one on the left is the front and back cover, the one above is the inside. The two ladies on the right want to know "who is she" on the left. : These were fun and the microscope slides can be bought from Scraptivate over in WA.

Last Friday the 11th, Bevlea and Lucy made their way over to my place and we had a fabulous play day, lots of fun, food and laughter. We worked on our fabric cuffs some more. Pics still to come when I finish the clasp, But just to say they haven't joined the ranks of the many UFOs that fill my craft room. One day I will retire and finish them all that is if I can then remember what they were mean't to be ROFLMAO

We also spent a bit of time brainstorming the swaps for mixed media to help the lovely Lucy decide what to do for the Paperarts swaps for next year. They are going to be good ones, so if you belong to Paperarts check out the database.

Jan Harris Workshop

2011-10-07T07:48:00.000-07:00

last weekend was fantastic. I loved it and Jan was so lovely and gracious. Had time for everybody, repeated stuff for latecomers and was very generous with the kits provided, plus some other bits for me. Thank you Jan.
Saturday saw us preparing our pewter piece for the Repousse

Jan started off by showing us how to do it, Above.......................
then we made ours ....... Right....

Completed Book...................

Then Sunday was Waxy Layers.....................................

At first I did not like this at all, but as the day went on and the layers built, so did my enthusiasm, then when we added Shellac (below) WOW................... I was hooked, well we shall see if I spend $$$ on wax and pancake pastels etc etc.....and all the things required to go with it....................

First off we built layers of wax that has been mixed with Resin, then added collage pics etc, then when finished we added Shellac and set fire to it, well Jan did LOL................. The one on the right has been done with different colours of wax in stripes and then added a transfer of the the owl and a piece of stamped tissue then added more layers of wax etc through stencils etc. Yes I do like it................THANK YOU JAN.

Another House of History page

2011-09-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

this time for Shirley. Her title was Narnia. Took me a while to do this one, mainly doing the kids stuff and work in the way.

I hope she likes it.

On the left is the front and the right is the back...

I used texture paste to raise the surface on the front added the pics and tree and painted over bits etc, It still didn't seem quite right so I added John Wayne texture (LOL ask Bevlea) and more paint and it looked better..
This weekend I am joining with a few other lovely ladies and we are attending a Jan Harris workshop organised by Bevlea and Eva. The two days are Saturday Bookbinding called "Not your Mothers book" and Sunday we are doing "Lets get Waxy"
So I hope to be able to post some good stuff here next week of what we did.

On Saturday we went to the Healesville heritage show and then after lunch we went on the Badgers weir.
Its a great place to take kids and visitors.
Here is a pic of the kids and myself.feeding the birds. At first Paul was very wary, but Toria loved it and was chasing around trying to get the birds to feed off her hand, took a while to quieten her down enough to get the birds on her hand.

See you soon. G

My little helper

2011-09-18T02:59:00.000-07:00

Took a photo of Paul today helping clear up the table from lunch. He had helped Papa to make some Muffins for lunch and then while I was stacking the dishwasher he came and got the cloth and went and wiped down the table on the deck where we had enjoyed lunch in the warmth,

He's a good little boy and I love him to bits....

The next photo on the right I took a few weeks ago. not a very good photo but we have a budding Planker LOL... She is very good at swinging etc and will probably make a very good gymnast.

Anyway I will come back later and put in some pics of recent artwork.

MORE ATCS and A JIGSAW SWAP

2011-08-31T07:53:00.000-07:00

I bought a new collage sheet from ARTchix Studio as a download a couple of days ago and so made these ATCs with parts of them. One is a for the WTA in Paperarts and the other just a spare to swap or whatever . I love Owls and have done since I was a child. My mum had a lovely ceramic owl, but when she died and I went to clear her house out I couldn't find it sadly.

The one on the left is for the WTA (Winner Takes All)
The one on the right is a spare to swap etc.

The months swap for Paperarts was Steampunk with moving parts.
I made a cog background and found a pic of Charlie Chaplin which I sat on a Alterations Tim Holtz Gears die that I cut out with some silver card and added a screw type brad. Charlie does swing from side to side , hence the title ........... "Charlie Really Swings"

I also have been making some jigsaw pieces for a group swap in New Zealand.
Each person had a colour theme that we had to do it in. Otherwise it was a free theme. Sorry they are in centre :-) I couldn't get them to go 3 to a row

Black and White

Green & Brown

Black and Gold

Purple and Silver

Torquoise and Gold

White and Gold

Green and Brown

Blue/Green and Silver

.When the recipients have received them I will add the names of who they are for. Lets see if they can guess.
I enjoyed this swap. Mine is not made yet as I want to wait and see what I get back. My colours are Raspberry, Lime green and White....

ATCs received

2011-07-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

I have received my swaps in the Mona and Friends swap hosted by Marion which she hosts each year and sends an invite to join in.

Mine came from Left Fiona Randall, Centre Wendy Erman and right from Sabine Busch

They are all great. Thanks again Marion for a wonderful swap each year.

I also swapped privately with my friend Barb and this is hers for me. Isn't she great....

DAMAGED BY SEA WATER
I also received this week this fabulous ATC from Kelsey as the loser in one of Paperarts WTA swaps. I love it Kelsey and am always thrilled to have a piece of her work in my ATC collection.
It was one from Kelsey's Watercolour Stamping with crayons ( Lyra or Caran d'Ache ) but she says that Distress inks work too. Fab as usual Kelsey.

ATCs for Paperarts July Swap

2011-07-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

The title for July is Magazine faces altered.

Here are mine, I couldn't get any faces the same. Mostly they are ads from House and Garden.
I have sort of Zetti'd them, by gessoing the original of which I forgot to scan before I changed them, then blending Distress inks around the figure, some I drew the body and some are images I have from Teesha Moore etc.

I think I will keep the bottom one for myself with the saying "Love who you are". Hope the recipients like them.

Some artwork done in recent weeks

2011-07-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

Hi all
I haven't done too much the last few weeks. We didn't get to have our play day a the beginning of the month it has been postponed until next week. I am so looking forward to catching up with Bevlea, Lucy and Caro. We are going to complete our fabric cuffs and Caro and I will be starting the journal that Bev and Lucy have already done

Anyway I have done a couple of Houses of History pages for Paperarts swap. I forgot to scan the one for Jane, but here is the one I did for Roslyn "Art Deco 1950s"

The pics are from an old Art Deco address book that I have here.

Above is the front page,to the right is the back.

I am glad that Roslyn likes them and also the colors, different for me LOL.

I have also done the July ATC for NZ Stampers.

Title was "Elizabeth"

I used a part of Lyn Perella's 8x8 page that I got from Stampington.com
We got sent different 6 articles,(enough for each person in the swap) and we have to use at least one each month. This time it was the little gold coin with a head on it that I have put on the hat..

Now I am preparing the ATC bases for Paperarts. We have to use magazine images and alter them. But the face has to be seen.
A challenge.............................................in the making...

Altered Cabinet Card

2011-07-01T05:17:00.000-07:00

The bi-monthly swap for Paperarts was to Alter a Cabinet Card in Steampunk style. I am not too good at the Steampunk stuff, but here's my entry.
Don't know who it has to go too yet, but hope that person likes it. She's waiting for one of the steampunk style Taxis to pick her up.........

I was a bit slow this past week as I have had sick kids, and then I got the dreaded lurgy too. I forgot what it's like to be sick and have kids over it. Ahhhhhh............................. Anyway, hope to be over it shortly and back on top of things, fingers xxxxx.......

My entry for the Paperarts ATC swap is a bit late too..

Here is the pic of it if your interested. The title is Domestic Goddesses 1950's

Marion's Mona and Friends ATC swap.

2011-06-22T05:02:00.000-07:00

Marion Bockelmann from Germany hosts a swap of three ATC's every year and I was invited again to join in. Marion chose the theme to include any Renaissance women to alter. She said "Let´s face the word "Re-naissance" and give these ladies a new birth by altering them and their surroundings!"

So my altered ATC Is named "Beauty School Drop-out"
I cut out some Lynne Perella paper I had for the dress, wrapped some scrappers floss around the dress and then the Mad Hatters hat made a lovely addition to her ensemble.The background is one of Itkupilli's lovely creations altered with stamps and paint.

The original was "A portrait of a Nude Woman -Fornarina 1518 Renaissance Master by Raphael.
I love the pre Rapaelite paintings.

They are now on the way to Marion's in Germany to be swapped out among her international players.

Bracelet update.........................
On my birthday and my bingle day (accident) Bevlea, Lucy and Caro and I started to make the Fabric Cuffs.
I have done some more to one of mine by adding some lace, ribbon etc and the lovely brass butterfly Bevlea gave me to go with the Cameo that I think came out of my mother-in-laws jewellery box at some stage, not the antique I would like but still a treasure and I am pleased to be able to put it on something I will wear.

We still have to make the metal ends for it and add the cream buttons that I have sewn onto a piece of crotcheted (sp) cotton that Bev and Lucy made for us. I am hanging out to have our next play day on 1st July so we can finish them......... Then I can add the others here too.

Birthday Bash/Bang

2011-06-04T03:00:00.000-07:00

Well my day yesterday started off with a bang, literally. After dropping children at Kinder I headed into Caro's for our monthly play day with Bevlea, Lucy and Caro, but on the way there, ran into the back of a car. Sounds bad, but not my fault. Was coming to major set of lights that were still green and turned orange as I and car in front got to them, She, after going past the white line to go round the corner suddenly changed her mind and slammed on her brakes, I slammed on mine and slid into the back of her as it was pouring with rain. She and I could have got through, and she should never have stopped like that. Only damage to my car was a loose number plate, but hers is munted in the back, she was in a small Mazda 2.. She then tells me at the site that its the third time that has happened to her and when talking on the phone last night she said its the 5th time, so hullo, who is the common denominator in those accidents.
Anyway we were both able to drive away, me on my way to Caro's, her home to organise getting hers fixed, which I will have to pay for through insurance as I ran into the back of her, sad, but never mind that's the law.

Anyway, arrived ok at destination and Bevlea, Lucy and Caro had goodies for me for birthday. I was so spoilt.

Gifts together

Birthday cake from Caro. Coasters & pencil case from Lucy,
Necklace from Bevlea

Necklace by Bevlea

Left is necklace by itself. Its really lovely and I thank all three of you for a fabulous day.

We also started making a lovely bracelet cuff with metal and fabric etc.
I took along my sewing machine and we all use it to sew bits of fabric, lace etc to start the cuff. Unfortunately we couldn't get the dremel through the fabric and the metal so will finish them next time we get together. They will have bits and bobs on them, but photo shows them started.

Lucy at machine reminiscing on dolly days

If you would like to see a better pic of the friendship canvas I received from the 3FLs go back a couple of posts and it will be there better now. See you there Lucy...

Art Times and Swaps

2011-05-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

First off, this lovely canvas was made for me by the lovely Lucy. It was our Spooky Canvas theme for a Paperarts swap last November , but so far my partner has not sent me mine so Lucy made me this one. It is fabulous and has pride of place in my Studio.
It is absolutely more than fabulous. The bumpy bits around the sides is Micaceous Iron Oxide paint and I think some Garnet Gel (correct me Lucy if its wrong). You are a dear friend to do this for me..

Next up is a fabulous gift to me from the "other" 3FL, Barb, Lucy and Bevlea
Bevlea and Lucy had gone up to Wagga Wagga for the weekend to visit and play at Barbs, I couldn't go (full time Grand-Babies curb this FL's travel etc) They had all made one for themselves based on the style of Pam Carrikers workshop " An Angels Anthology" They each did a bit of it, while waiting for parts of their own to dry etc. It was a little while until we got together again and they presented me with it. I got quite emotional. ""Thank you Girl Friends" I love it.

I will be back later in the day to add some more work. And fix this pic, camera didnt do it justice late at night.....I promise :-)

4/6/11...................................... I changed the pic, hope this one is better.

Two Reasons why I don't post very much!

2011-05-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

The slide show is just a peek at what happens round our household these days. Very busy times and the biggest reason I find it hard to post what I have been up to art wise. Those reasons Our darling Paul and Toria. Will post some of what I have done shortly..

The first of these pics depict Geoff's and my weekend away while our Nephew and his wife looked after kids, we went down the coast, was too cold for swimming for us, but I dipped my toe in the Ocean, have not done that for so long.

The rest are when we went fishing, both of them caught a mountain trout, Excitement was at a high level. Then Paul's 4th birthday, where he was so excited as his favourite Uncle Wayne ( our boss) gave him his bike. We were going to get him one, but Wayne and AK said they had that one for him, so we bought him a large remote control tractor instead. He had two parties, one on Saturday as Uncle Rhys and Aunty Ruth couldn't come on Sunday so they put on one for him at their place with some mutual kiwi friends, and Vegod and Ali who Geoff and I had met when we went to Florida, we then introduced them to Rhys and Ruth, 2 yrs ago.. Then at Easter we took them to the Zoo, It was a nice day, but I think even with the Kruger national park in South Africa in our memories that Auckland Zoo is a lot better.

See you soon with some art work.

A long time since previous post

2011-02-19T07:01:00.000-08:00

Wowee, time flies when you're busy. With work and the children I now don't find much time to post here. I still try and visit others blogs to see what you have been up to and see some fantastic work been done.

Family is well............... We had our daughter over for Christmas, was lovely as we had not seen her for 18months, spent a weekend down the Mornington Peninsular at McCrae which was lovely, went to Sorrento and showed the kids the ferry etc.

Christmas came and went, a busy time, Tanya went home to NZ on the 11th Jan and we all miss her. We are all back at work and altho I have only worked three days a week and looked after children the other two not much has been done art wise. I have done some commitments for a couple of groups and the ATCs for Paperarts and NZ Stampers that I enjoy doing.
Here is a couple. I will load more next post or put in a slide show of some I have made over the last 6 months or so..

Monochromatic ( The White House) Angels

Also on Paperarts we are doing a Houses of History book throughout the year.

Here is my pages for Debbie W. Her chosen title was Circus in Paris and wanted hers done in Zetti Style. Off course that is my favourite style. I love doing it.

Left is the front.............
Right is the back. Debbie wanted to have people that included ourselves as well. I quite like the back............................................

Ciao for now. Will be back tomorrow hopefully.

Home kit

2010-10-06T04:41:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Here is the finished HOME that Bevlea, Lucy, Caro and I bought at Paperific from Scrapware
We were going to make them at our last play day together but decided to just talk and laugh after a fab lunch after making the Angels from Collections.

Anyway, I finally got mine done and its hanging in my lounge. I quite like it actually.

Hinged Canvas for Paperarts and family stuff.

2010-09-25T06:07:00.000-07:00

The October swap for Paperarts was a Hinged Reversed Halloween Canvas, it was supposed to be 5x7 but I couldn't find that size so did it 6x8. Hope that's ok Barb :-)
I did mine more in the Spooky line with images from Itkupilli as I am not a fan of Halloween at all, very American. At first I was not even going to do this swap, but after seeing Bevlea's fabulous canvas I changed my mind and decided to the same type of theme as hers.

I hope that whoever gets my canvas will like it and isn't expecting pumpkins with candles in it :-)

I have painted the outer edge of the canvas with Golden burnt umber and over painted it with Light umber then a coat of micaceaous iron oxide , then on went some trusty black texture paste as well over the staples on the canvas and then more micaceaous iron oxide. I even branched out a bit and put some mica on the windows.

Family Stuff.
Well, the children's mother decided she could not hack it here in Australia any-more as she wanted to be with our son, her partner back in New Zealand. So she lost the plot last Sunday night and threw a hissy fit and we booked her a ticket home. She left the children with us on Tuesday morning (voluntary, abandoning them) Haven't heard from her since. Quite frankly after talking with the neighbours here who were home during the day when we were at work, hearing what was happening, (wish they had told us), the children are better off with us even though it is going to mean a huge upheaval for us all and childcare at least 3-4 days a week etc for them. Victoria is blossoming in just the few days the mum has been gone. Some (family) may never understand why we insisted on having them here in the first place instead of leaving them back in Kerikeri with other family members on Geoff's side of our family as they all wanted, but the past history with their mother has proved correct, she is incapable of looking after them . Anyway, they are two precious little souls that need a loving stable environment to blossom in. And with help from our work colleagues and our friends here we will get by.

COLLECTIONS ANGEL

2010-09-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

Bevlea and Lucy and I got together last week for our regular play day. Caroline had family commitments and was unable to be with us.

All four of us had bought the Angel Wings project from Collections at the recent Paperific... while it didnt go as smooth as we liked they were all done by lunchtime, we had fun just the same (As Bevlea said maybe it's just us but the instructions were a bit confusing lol).
We had finished it by lunch time and enjoyed a beautiful lunch provided by Lucy. We talked and laughed and talked some more, and laughed a bit more, we then decided to leave our next project a House frame we bought from Scrapware to do at home by ourselves and then have show and tell next time we get together. Both Bevlea and Lucy have done theirs, ho hum, I work too much. But it will be done by show time.

At the moment I am completing some ATC's for our New Zealand Stampers monthly ATC swap, this months theme is Angels and then I need to do the Paperarts ones (Cemetery Art) before Barb heads off overseas on a well deserved holiday.

9 Years ago

2010-09-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

Who could ever forget. Thank you Sarah for the reminder among our art friends. The picture is from (www.freerepublic.com)
9 Years ago today Geoff and I landed at Sydney airport on our way home to New Zealand from Mozambique. What a scary, scary thing to come down too as originally our plans were to go home via USA etc, so we would have been flying into probably New York at that time. I remember being glued to the TV screen all day at our friends place in horror. Travel changed for ever that day. Instead of relaxed travel between countries we now have the rigid rules, no sharp objects in your carry-on luggage so no chance of knitting, embroidery, artwork or something to while away the boring hours on flights. And as Sarah says no chance of children ever being able to go to the cockpit for a visit with the flight captain etc .
Changed forever.
"In sympathy we mourn with those lost,
In gratitude we embrace those around us,
In sympathy we reach out to those who still grieve,
Be strong and pull together to help each other
no matter race, creed or color.

THE WHITE KING, Earthquakes, floods and things

2010-09-05T07:44:00.000-07:00

Wowee, how about that, Bevlea announced the Challenge for this month on Friday night the 3rd, its now the 5th and I have done it already, what a feat. LOL...
I loved it and a special thanks to my friend Barb for a suggestion, Oh my she's quick that lady.hehehehe..............................

Anyway, here is my Zetti White King......
For those non Aussies White King is a bleach in a bottle.
The background is a scrapbook paper which I distressed a bit with inks, stamped with white the circles and added some pen lines etc I also used a bit of star burst stains on it too. Gave him a mop head of hair and crowned him with a crown.
The story is that Alice in the first chapter of "Through the Looking glass" The White Queen had rushed past the King and knocked him over among the cinders, where he got covered from head to foot in ashes. Alice gently picked him up and dusted him off a little before she put him back on the table.
This challenge for the book of Alice is such fun. Now I need to backtrack and do the two from earlier in the year that I didn't find time to do.

Anyway, to my Christchurch friends in New Zealand, I hope the severe earthquakes have not done too much damage if any to your homes. I am still waiting to hear from two families there. To our friends in Shepparton and surrounds also Jen Crossley in Ballarat, I hope the water recedes with no damage to your homes....................................

Also there has been severe unrest in Maputo in Mozambique, which is where we would have been had we gone over there on our first missions 3yr terms. I was meant to be going in November for a short term trip, but having the children here has stopped that for a time. I heard from Steve and Roz (team leaders) that there has been severe rioting , tyres burnt, cars overturned etc etc outside the compound and apart from stinging eyes from tear gas from the military trying to stop the unrest they are all ok.

Scary sight, Steve said all the missionaries, the kitchen staff and the children are all ok, but most workers are unable to get to work as its not safe to be out on the roads. It has arisen because the cost of living has gone up so high. On 1st September the cost of bread rose 30%, the cost of a sack of rice doubled which is a huge amount for the people in one of the most poorest nations in the world where only 14% are employed and the money they earn is not very high either, when we were over there we gave a beggar 10,000 meticals and then realise it was only about $1.50 our money, but for him it was a weeks wages or more. Sad but true......................

Another Alice Book Page

2010-08-31T07:47:00.000-07:00

This months challenge that Bevlea set for Paperarts book Challenge was "The Gentleman Dressed in White Paper" quite a challenge actually until Barb sent me a link and a clip or two of men in hats etc. Anyway, here is my silly whimsical page. I used the credit card technique for the background with three colours, added some distress inks and also put a mask over it and put some green ink over that. And as the story goes........
The man dressed in white paper, who Alice meets when she travels by train through the 3rd square, is a political joke; Tenniel's illustration shows a cartoon of Benjamin Disraeli, who was Prime Minister when Carroll lived. Carroll and Tenniel may have had in mind the ‘white papers’ (official documents) with which such statesmen are surrounded. Before he illustrated the Alice books, Tenniel had once portrayed Disraeli in a Government White Paper suit.

One of Tenniel's illustrations in Through the Looking-Glass depicts the character referred to as the "Man in White Paper" (whom Alice meets as a fellow passenger riding on the train with her), as a caricature of Disraeli, wearing a paper hat.

'So young a child,' said the gentleman sitting opposite to her (he was dressed in white paper), 'ought to know which way she's going, even if she doesn't know her own name!' are the words that I have written along the top, and being whimsey, zetti it just had to have Thomas the tank engine as the train LOL.

Now, altho I am up to date with the current month, I actually have two more to catch up with, being Mad Hatter and Knave of Hearts, so keep looking back they will be here soon.

An aside to Arting,

Zaccy is ok, he had the drain removed tonight and has his stitches out in ten days time, but he is still not himself, hides in our bedroom most of the day. And has lost a bit of weight which he could not really afford to lose. Thanks to those of you who have left good wishes and kisses for him.

My Poor Boy

2010-08-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, I got a phone call from Pauline today to say Zaccy was bleeding from his head and she couldn't stop it. I came home and although the blood flow had stopped a little, the wound looked bad, we had no idea what had happened.
Anyway, $400 later, he has several stitches and a drain in his shaved head and an Elizabethan collar round his neck. The vet said it was worse than we thought and we still don't know how it happened. the penetrate and exit is quite wide apart. Its almost like he has been shot in the head with a pellet or something, we don't have nails or anything dangerous around our section(block) because of the little ones, so who knows???

Anyway, here is my poor boy, laying on our bed tonight, a little worse for wear. I have a closer pic of his head but I don't want to gross everybody out too much :-)

Anyway............ I am off to Paperific tomorrow morning, meeting up with Bevlea, Lucy and Caro, so should be a good day, but looks like I won't have much to spend now eh!!! But I am sure I will find a few $$ somehow hehehe..........................

Friday's Play Day

2010-08-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous time at Lucy's on Friday. We welcomed along Caro this time as she has completed her Art School and can now come and play................
We started of with some etching of metal, yummy play that is............. Ive got to get a LARGE bottle of the chloride to play some more at home.
Anyway, we made some cuffs, which we I am still to finish, got to get into the Ice Resin and put it in the bezels that Geoff painstakingly cut for me, with a new pipe cutter I just had to have, don't you just love Bunning's....I will put in a pic or some watch part that our fabulous Bevlea pulled apart for Caro and me, one was my G watch that died about 6 months ago and the other was my Mums watch, that one I will use the face plate as a bezel for something special.

Bevlea is a fab photographer and she took some pics of our day...........

About to Patina my pieces with Lucy and her precious little mate Otis looking on

Ready to Patina

Bevlea, Lucy,Otis (who can't be seen easily because of my black top) me and Caro smile you're on Bevlea's Camera..........

We had a fabulous day, its great what we can achieve together, sharing our supplies etc.

Now to finish the pieces. I have bent them into a cuff that still needs the Bezels etc put onto them, tomorrow hopefully. I have never used the Ice Resin yet, so that will be a treat, looks easy on Jens site, but only time will tell. It only has a shelf life of 12 months so I need to get on and use it..... Time for another trip to Bunning's I think and buy a long piece of plumbers copper to get DH to cut up for me, so I can make lots of bezels.

ALICE PAGE

2010-08-04T04:41:00.000-07:00

Well, how good is this to do two pages in one week for the Alice Challenge book. This time it is Alice, she has taken the drink of the potion and is rather tall and not able to fit through the door that White Rabbit is trying to get her to go through.
Again Zetti style, sort of, hmmmmmmmm might need to add a bit of night circus colors.

A couple of people have said they can't get their head round the Zetti, but Bevlea explained it to me as day time Zetti is bright colors and night circus is blues reds etc and make anything you like using pics from magazine bits etc, change bodies around, have fun...............

Thanks to those who have visited my blog and left me a comment. It is truly appreciated.

Oh well onward I go, only have to do The Mad Hatter and Knave of Hearts to be caught up on the challenge. Also need to do some more of our affirmation journal pages that Lucy, Bevlea and I started on our play days.
Ciao for now..................

ANOTHER ALICE PAGE

2010-08-02T05:57:00.000-07:00

Well I am way behind in the Alice Challenge book for Paperarts, the joys of having children and D.I.L in the house, but I caught up all last months swaps and so decided to do another page for the book.
So Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee it was. Its quite a challenge to me to do the

pages that are set for each month in the Zetti style, this one probably does not have enough background stuff, but then I may add to it as the mood takes me.
It has been done with some scrapbook paper and then grunged a bit with Distress inks etc, then a few stamped images which I have added white pen to. The body of the boys are images are from Itkupilli which I have, the heads and big bird from elsewhere, as Barb says they look "cute and arty" LOL.
Anyway, I have my Alice page started to so will load that one here soon too...........

Paperarts ATC swap this month just gone was Steam-punk, well that was a challenge to my not so steam-punk brain LOL, The image had to have moving parts, so my wheels on the house-plane actually do move round like wheels should.
Probably could have had more cogs and things for this but hey............................ he would have been able to go "up this way" if they did...

PLAY DAY for the Art Queens is coming up again this week on Friday and we are going to Lucy's, being joined this time by the lovely Caro. Will be good to catch up with her again. I haven't seen Caro since retreat 2009. Our project this time involves metal, etching, metal charms, embossing folders, ice resin (yeah!! haven't used it yet) and a few other bits and pieces. I will leave you with that teaser and hope to see you back here early next week to see what we created :-)

Another Play Day

2010-07-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Today dawned early....... groannnnnnnnnnnnnn The kids woke early but hey, great because I was off to the other side of Melbourne to have a great play day with two great friends Bevlea and Lucy Bevlea sent the email that we were doing a page from Stephanie Lees "Semi Precious Salvage" Panic I couldn't find my book, Oh dear had I left it somewhere, then the light went on aha, I had carefully put it with another Metalwork book and DVD I have, panic over, by this time its midnight or later, gotta get packed to take with me but what??? Book now found, find bits to take, all packed...............................Off to bed for some sleep.....
Breakfast done, emails checked, bed made etc etc... And off I went to Bevlea's, where Lucy had arrived too from her part of the city.
We had a great time and made a necklace. It really did turn into a shared piece of jewelry as I gave Bevlea one of my antique dolls arms, she shared some beads with Lucy and myself and the tiny heart charm on the dolls arm Lucy shared with us. The etched metal we had done on a previous play day. We had finished the necklace by lunch time so decided to make some earrings a new "thing" for all of us, they took a little longer to work out, but all of them turned out great. Bevlea and I don't usually wear dangly's but they do look good.
After a long drive home as it takes about 50 mins to get over there and usually longer coming home because its getting close to peak traffic, I made it "just" but had to crash for a Nana-nap........Late to bed and early rising and don't make for a very good energetic day.................
Poor Bevlea had a mishap before we arrived too, she had fallen in the bathroom and hit her head quite badly and had rather a large egg on the back of her head. I hope by the morning she will be rested and the egg reduced in size considerably.
Thank you both for a fabulous day................................................. Here's to the next one!!! Hopefully our friend (Diva) from Wagga Wagga can join us next time. miss ya GF.

AND THE WINNER IS

2010-07-11T06:43:00.000-07:00

Sue M
Marilyn Rock
Barb T
Loes
Hermine
Svetlana
Jen C
Margaret W

Timestamp: 2010-07-11 13:28:14 UTC

I used Random.org to choose the winner

So congratulations to Sue Maher. I am sure I have your address Sue, so watch the post box. When I have sent the gift and it is received I will post on here what it was :-)

Ohhhhhhh this if fun, I must do it again..................

60 years plus 1 month GIVEAWAY

2010-06-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

and this is my 61st post, how about that. hmmmmm might just have to find something to giveaway.

So please leave me a comment about the lovely birthday gift I received from the Lovely Lucy , she gave it to me yesterday at Evas. If you want to know how she made it please visit her blog. The top has the words. "THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING" I love it... Thanks too for Pic Lucy

I felt a bit neglected for my 60th because we live over here in Australia now, altho the family here in Melbourne put on a surprise dinner at home for me. We should have gone to NZ to a family wedding but too many things needed to be bought and replaced etc etc at the same time... never mind, next decade, maybe I will jump from a plane tandem or something next time. LOL.....

Anyway, as well as receiving this lovely gift from Lucy we got together at Evas and learnt to do enamelling from a friend of Evas. Pic of Lucy and I absolutely LURVING EACH OTHER LOL..... heeheehe...

Here are my samples at left, probably won't do to much of this as it requires either a kiln or a big gas torch, larger than the one I have got.

It was good fun though. The two discs were done by first preparing the copper disc, then putting the enamel on it and firing it, then adding a paper template and adding a different color of enamel and firing again. The S one was putting a color on the prepared copper disc firing, then another color and drawing in it with a toothpick and then firing it. The third was a different technique called swirling, which we put three or more colors on the brass and then melted it over the torch and then when it was a honey consistency I drew in it with a metal pick, (with a glove on, off course)

The picture of the kiln, I stole LOL...............

Anyway, look forward to your comments and I will choose a winner random.org style and send of a little something to the lovely winner.

Please Leave me a Comment

2010-06-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have had to moderate my posts as there were some very unsavoury links on a few comments posted lately.
So please do leave me a comment. I love receiving them and will always try and get back to you to say thanks for visiting me.
Regards
Glenda

Another Alice Page

2010-06-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

for Paperarts 2010 challenge book.
There has been a lot of talk on the group about how behind most of us are with our pages, that it inspired me to do a page to try and catch up. I think the fabulous Lucy is the only one who is up to date.

Anyway, here is THE WHITE RABBIT...
I am mostly doing Zetti style for my book, but this one is a bit dark as I used a fairly dark background, possibly will add a bit more color as I get more dissatisfied with it. LOL.....

Next I wll do Alice and then Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. As I sit here typing this my daughter in law is out in dining room actually watching a copy of Alice on my laptop that a friend gave me. If you didnt see the movie try and get to it as it was great. I went to a 3D viewing on the Gold Coast with Carol when we had finished our work conference we were up there for.

UPDATE ON JOURNAL

2010-06-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

COMMITTMENT...........

As previously posted Bevlea, Lucy and I are having fabulous play days, we are doing a journal of affirmations.

My card chosen from Bevlea's little box was Committment.

I did a face painting of which I am not very good at, at all.. LOL and I pasted it to the page. My committment is to practice to do better faces among other things... To learn and Grow in that area.
The page is dictionary paper that had committment on it and I then painted, glitzed and textured the page, then added the face I did on scrap paper :-) and blended it in with rub-ons etc, then stamped a foam stamp with Lumiere. Did a bit of jornalling which is mostly the words from the affirmation card. I guess as we work at them I might add more to this page too........ I enjoyed it very much because it is just for me....

WOWEE WOWEE

2010-06-05T05:07:00.000-07:00

Check this out..
""GIVEAWAY
Thanks to everybody who entered their name into my double book giveaway from the last meeting of The Book Guild. There were 94 entries and 2 winners. JeriAnn from Commuter's Journal won a copy of Digital Expressions. Glenda from Glenda's Artscapes won a copy of The Journal Junkies Workshop. Congratulations to you both! Please contact me via email with your mailing address. And keep visiting on Sundays for The Book Guild as there are many more giveaways to come! ""

Seth, thank you so much and to find it came so close to my birthday too.
I am so looking forward to it arriving, as you can see from a previous post "The Art Queens" namely Bevlea, Lucy and I have just embarked on a journalling journey, so this will come in handy. Again thanks so much and I will be back......

Now , I received two lovely cards from some lovely people too..

From Eva and Lucy. Both cards open out as a stand up canvas. Fabulous and thank you so much to both of you. Bevlea sent me a lovely spiel about the 3/6 1950. Great too, I had no idea about all those things that happened etc on that day.

Linda Baldocks Give Away

2010-05-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

Linda is giving away a piece of art. Go check it out. And good luck to all who leave her a comment.
I know I would love to win it. Its fabulous.

Beginnings of an Art Journal

2010-05-29T05:25:00.000-07:00

Last week Bevlea, Lucy and I "The Art Queens" got together to start a Journal each. We have wanted to do journalling for quite a while and so we decided to make our pages first. We all just slapped around, torn paper, paint, stamps, moon glows, stencils etc etc... to form the backgrounds. Bevlea is using an old "boring as she calls it" book. Lucy and I are making ours on chipboard and will bind them later. Bevlea is bringing along some wisdom words that her daughter Fiona gave her some time ago and we choose one each time to use on our page. We will decoreat the page to show the quote and at the end will have a lovely Inspiration Book.

This is a sample of some of the pages that I have prepared, with torn scrapbook papers and dictionary pages etc. they still have to be stencilled, glitzed, painted etc etc.
We had a lovely interesting natter about all sorts of things and loads of laughs while we were together.................

Back to OZ and more

2010-05-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

Well time flies when you are having fun, or are so busy because 2 children and the mum came back here with us to live with us. So we are a pretty busy household with a 22mth old and a 3yr old here to care for and teach Mum to be a Mum and house keeper etc.

I am glad to be back........................ Even though its winter I love this SUNBURN'T country. I found NZ green trees to be very bland and couldnt wait to get back to the differnt colors of the gum trees etc. Yeah I know Sad eh!!! But true.

Marions Beatle Swap has landed at my house and I want to thank from Left to Right

Marion Rock, Charlotte Fern and Katrin Pieschel

for the fabulous ATC's received. Thank you again to Marion for inviting me to join in again this year.

Freindly Plastic
On Saturday I had Jessie from New Zealand call in and have a play here and she introduced me to the delights of Freindly Plastic, whcih I must order from Petra in Christchurch NZ as I have no idea where to get it in Aussie.

More tomorrow night I hope see you there............

Family

2010-05-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to the previous post about family.
The Family Group Conference is cancelled and the children and the mother are coming to Australia to live with us. They come here on the 9th May. We are leaving early am , like in about 4 hours time for the airport and the flight to NZ. Will be good to catch up with some very good friends before we head up north to pick up our family.

I am feeling a bit better about it all, but disappointed that it came down to our Kerikeri family trying to keep them. I talked with the mother's sister and she is keen for them to be with us as is our son and the rest of the family who have been involved all along.
Thought I would celebrate by putting a picture of pansies here, my favourite flowers...............

Marions Beatle Swap

2010-05-01T06:03:00.000-07:00

Every year Marion Bockleman from Germany hosts an ATC swap. She tells you the title and you send her three ATC's in that theme. And you get three back.
This year she chose either Beatles or Rolling Stones songs. Both my era OK.............. So I chose "Babys in Black" by the Beatles. The chorus goes.
Baby's in black, and I'm feeling blue. Tell me oh what can I do. She thinks of him so she dresses in Black.
Mine is a black scrapbook paper torn in half and placed over some stamped words on white. Then I made a seat of black with the words Baby's in Black on it and seated the little girl that I have from Lisas. I changed the color in Photoshop of the dress and boots from brown to black. Down the side I have melted save-a-stitch with some sparkle embossing powder.
I so enjoyed her swap last year and the ATC's that were returned were fabulous
I need to put a link on Marions blog now, so go and visit her and follow some links to some fabulous blogs

Art

2010-05-01T05:15:00.000-07:00

Iv'e done this week includes the page for Paperarts Morphed Ancestors. Mine is "Great Uncle Arthur is very one eyed about life. We used Jen Crossleys packs of chipboard frames. I painted the background, used bubble wrap as a mask and the cog is a new stencil I have that Lucy got for me from http://stencilgirlproducts.blogspot.com/ I used a thin layer of texture paste and then went over it with distress ink and then added Distress Crackle Paint "Rock Candy" I then added bit of green to natch his eyeball and then the words, actually I also put a line of black texture paste around the oval frame too and rubbed it with golds rub-ons too. The man is part of something I found a few years ago, I added the eyeball in photoshop.

Also for Paperarts we did the Seven Deadly sins.. Mine was to do "Sloth". I used some scrapbook paper as the background, cut out a found image of the lady, mounted the 7 as we had to use the number of our Sin on the ATC, added some black texture paste and rubbed with gold rubons. Then the words "I am Sloth. I have little desire for activity. I will avoid anything that requires exertion"

See you again shortly....

STRUGGLING along

2010-04-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

Really where does the time go. Since my last post and my trip to the Gold Coast for a work conference which was great, things on the NZ home front have developed to " I don't know what is happening really" our NZ family look like they want to keep our grandchildren who have been taken from the parents. This has caused me and Geoff undue stress and upset as we never thought that our family would do this. They were to look after them until passports were arranged and I could go over after the Gold Coast trip and bring them back here. So now we have to go to New Zealand for a Family Group Conference and have to see what the family who have never been involved in any of the previous FGC's decide.
Really the children should be with us as the Grandparents. It is our sons wish that we take them for the time it needs for the parents to get themselves together or what ever they decide to do with thier lives.
So life has been a bit up and down for me, but the Children are worth it all, it will be a huge life-style change for us.

This photo of Paul and Toria was taken on Paul's 3rd birthday last weekend. I am sure they will enjoy places like Werribee zoo, Melbourne zoo, Luna park etc that we can take them too over here.

We are going to NZ on the 1st May as FGC is 4th May, but we have to travel up to Kaikohe.

ARTwise not a lot. see next post.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

2010-03-27T19:50:00.000-07:00

Paperarts Yahoo group is doing a year long book monthly, but for ourselves. We are doing Alice in Wonderland and I have chosen to do mine in Zetti Style, I still really like it. (Zetti) The actual size is 7x7. I eventually will put the pages in as a slide show but for now I will load pages done. January was The Red King.
I first credit card techniqued the background with Golden paints, then added a bit of Distress ink, the Red King image I found somewhere and changed him by adding a head from image sheets from Teesha Moore and then a crown I have among my images. The same with the pic of Alice, I have given her legs from one of Teeshas sheets. I am thinking I will use that image throughout the book.

Next for February was The Red Queen, same again, I did the credit card technique with Goldens and Jo Sonja paints and Distress Inks, found all the images and changed them with my Zetti stamps and Teesha's image sheets.

This months is The White Rabbit, hes still running round my head at this stage, but will try and get him done before the end of the month so I am not too ""Late"" for the monthly date.

While I was up on the Gold Coast, Carol and I went to see the 3D Alice In Wonderland, it was fabulous and now I have loads of ideas etc for the rest of this book.

Twinchies and things

2010-03-14T05:43:00.000-07:00

Well CSR is only 3 sleeps away and I can't go as I am only 2 sleeps away from going to the Gold Coast QLD for work. But I stayed in the Leonardo Twinchie swap as it was for all members who are on the Creative Soul Yahoo group.

Here is my effort..... We had to do them in Da Vinci colors and use his work. I like this pic and actually enjoyed making them even though we had to do about 25 of them. Black Testure Paste Kelsey (who is the Queen of Black texure paste and I think I come a close second to her LOL..) I love that stuff. I have been using it since my shop days in Wanganui. Now to be able to get them to the lovely Lucy before Wednesday. I might have to drop by Elizas house or Evas and hope they remember to give them to her for me. Ohhhhhh Evas, shes got one of the lovely tutors staying with her, might just have to get a peek visit seeings as I can't go hehehehe..............

I also in this week made some ATC's for a NZ group swap, the African one and also did one for WTA (winner takes all) on ATCMixed media group. Gosh I wish I could work out how to put these pics in the right place. I start out with them correct then they move to a place of their own doing. Well to make them look ok I moved the Arican one to the left as well and I will rabbit on here to fill the gap.

For Paperarts group we are doing Alice In Wonderland, the First month being The Red King, then The Red Queen then this months is the White Rabbitt. I have decided to do mine in Zetti style as I still love that style of doing art.

I have only done the Red King so far, have my Red queen started and the White Rabbitt is running round my head still. So I will attempt to load that one here too.

Wow it went it where it was meant to go. The words on the page say "The Red King normally was snoring, but he realized he was putting on too much weight. He put on so much weight his rolls dropped from chest to feet."

Anyway, I better sign of and stop rambling here.

Visitors from New Zealand

2010-03-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

Kristi and family arrived from NZ on the 1st March. They spent the first week with us here in Melbourne and then went to Ballarat to see Kristis brother. While there she met up with the lovely Jen Crossley

who we had done a make and take with at Paperific on the Friday, how cool was that. She arrived in time to get to a paperific show.

They arrived back here in Melbourne yesterday afternoon and today amidst shopping a bit more for yummy ScrapFX houses etc and last night a quick trip to Heaven Scent to pick up a BigShot, lucky her :-) we headed up to Sassafras, stopped in at the Sky viewing and sat in the big chair.

Whoops thats the GIANTS CHAIR

We have had a great time together and the time is too short. They leave early tomorrow morning. Safe travelling Kristi Ross and Zac, see you ASAP.

ATC from Christy Laudig

2010-03-14T04:47:00.000-07:00

Well I promised you a pic from Christy Laudigs ATC that I won from her blog, link previous post, so here it is. Isnt it lovely. Brrrrrrrrr from a very warm Melbourne.

So again Thank you to Christy for sharing her artwork. She says the image is of her father and his brother circa 1940's, plus Artchix images.

A long month and half has passed. (Grab a Cuppa)

2010-02-01T05:33:00.000-08:00

Well, where did that time go since my last post. I recieved the prize from Christy , lovely it is too in the flesh. I will put it here soon, just have to scan it.
In the same time frame I had to cancel my attendance at the CSR retreat, because of work committments. I was so upset, took me a while to get round to telling Bevlea that I had to pull out. But I have to go to the Gold Coast for a conference, good thing is its with Roland and Heidi Baker from Mozambique who would be mine and Geoffs CEO sort of if we ever get out onto the field on a permanent basis. Anybody else and I might have refused, walked the plank as such LOL, not a lot comes between me and art, hehehehe...........

Anyway... a few days later and we are into the build up to Christmas, pressies posted to NZ, pressies received here from NZ.. This is our Chrissy tree, a live one we bought and intended to keep it growing for years to come, well the darn thing has turned up it's toes, sad, but never mind, I always did like the chase of going and finding a lovely real tree and a large one floor to ceiling if possible and decorating it up, so next year if over here will have to do that. First will be taking along the spider spray. Ohhhh all them nasties that might be lurking in the branches. Talking of spiders, I have a fierce dislike of them, well one Huntsman decided to visit inside the house this morning, big mistake, well Geoff decided to come to its rescue and herded it out the door, It went over the side of the deck headed for goodness knows where. Less than 5 mins later I took the rubbish out to the bin and there it was perched on the side of the wheelie bin. Tough luck spider . A large board was beside bin, so Spider is no more.....................

We had family here from the Gold Coast ( Rhys and Ruth) for Christmas through to New Year and a Kiwi friend from here in Melbourne Tracey came over for lunch, so that was good. Yeah, I worked out the camera to take a delayed pic, thanks Bevlea...........

Unfortunatley Geoff had to go back to NZ in that time as an Aunty passed away. So a busy time was had driving backwards and forwards to Tullamarine 4 times...

Anyway, one pressie I got was a goodie and it sits beside me in the studio, it was from my good friend Kristi, She gave it to me to remind me I am still a Kiwi at heart. She does not want me to give up my Kiwi heritage. No such luck girl, it speaks out me mouth all the time according to my Ozzie friends.

Christmas over and work was on the horizon again. We only had a few days off anyway, so were back to work on the 5th.

Artwise, I have been doing a few things, I need to catch my posts up with that. Maybe tomorrow night. I can show you the jewellery I made at our play day in December and then another last week, plus some other art pieces. But for now, I must get some shuteye or I will be useless or more useless at work tomorrow LOL.

Ohhhhhh

2009-12-19T06:26:00.000-08:00

I won a gift of Christy Laudig's Blog How about that. She had a competition to leave a post on her blog to celebrate her 50th post and I won.......How cool is that. She has asked for my snail mail address, so I will be watching the mail box with anticipation to see what one she is sending me.

I must count up my posts and do something similar. Well I can do something even if people don't want my art stuff LOL, but I am making more of this jewellery so that might be what I could do, we shall see!!

December Play Days

2009-12-19T06:09:00.000-08:00

Well, where did that month go. A few days after moving into our new abode, we, the 3FL+1 got together at my place and we put together our Spooky books, using Itkupilli Images, we were joined online by Margaret Weiss, poor Margaret it was a bit hard going for her. The slide show is the book that I put together. I love my cover and found the neat little house in a local scrapbook shop.

The next play day was at Lucys where we made a start on Stephanie Lees book Semiprecious Salvage and made a couple of things , One being the Scroll brooch/necklace , and the other was a small wire nest with Pearl beads that Lucy showed us how to make. Pic below. They are easy to make and I will be making a few more for different projects.

Then we had another play day on the 18th, what fun, we are now the 4 FL, I got relegated to a FL instead of +1 as I must be showing the effects of sitting in an office and too much choccy :-).

Anyway we made some more stuff from Stephanie Lees book, The button pendant and the Pages pendant. I think for now I am over bending metal, heheehehe, til next time....

The words on this pendant are great.

AH! WHAT TALENT "YES" Well done I thought as it was just a page out of an old book and I didn't even choose the page to be the front. The page pendant was a bit fiddly with the tiny bolts, but made me go on another excursion with Eliza to Bunnings Tool shop, her favourite toy shop to get a small spanner for my tool kit. Oh and I managed to get a few other bits a well.

We had etched the metal on one of our other play days, more needed now. Cut a piece of the etched metal about 1 x1 1/2, cut up strips of old books and made a book block, then bent the metal over to make a spine along the top, put in a wire and some beads and then put the tiniest screws and bolts in.

Now, heres a couple of pics that should be labeled.

AS RINDERCELLA SAID "IT FIDN DID"

How cute are these LOL..... See told you we had a fabulous time..

We also exchanged Chrissy presents, and heres a couple of pics of mine from Bevlea and Lucy. Thank you to you both. Mery Christmas

This was the last play day at Bevleas abode as she is on the move on the 29th Dec, sounds like we will have a fabulous play area, and get a cook for our lunches etc, as Bevleas sister Caryl and her hubby will be sharing the large house. They must be saints as I would probably kill my sister if we lived together LOL..

Oh well, better get off here and get on with other things I need to do.

Have a very Blessed Christmas everyone. REMEMBER THE REASON FOR THE SEASON....

New ATC

2009-11-30T04:47:00.000-08:00

I made this ATC for Paperarts Winner Takes All tonight, by the skin of my chinny chin chin, LOL or something like that.........

I saw Kelseys post on the Magic Stamp and thought aha!! I have one of those and haven't used it for years, so out it came and I did the said technique, "smooshed" the background and then stamped on a cuttlebug folder with the warm foam and them put distress ink on the foam and stamped over the smooshed background. The smooshing looked yuk, but the finished article looks much better.
Thanks Kelsey..............

Now for the winner to be drawn by Bevlea who won last month's....... Pick me, pick me!!!!

Spooky Book

2009-11-27T05:06:00.000-08:00

Well I finally did it, got the Slide show going of the fabulous work in the Spooky book from Paperarts. Bevlea, Lucy and Eliza came to my place a few weeks ago, amidst the chaos of my moving house and we made our covers and put our books together. You can read about the fun day in a previous post.

Helgas Challenge #2 Artchix

2009-10-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to upload a pic to the yahoo group and it just will not do what its meant to, so I will put it here and write a message on the group. Helga is doing this challenge weekly and as my previous post shows you can be a chosen winner by her kitties.

Here is this weeks challenge. Magazine pages etc, which had to incorporate part of last weeks circles and dots and then add circles etc in this one. Well I hope that Bruno can feel the love from down under and chooses me again this week. Yep I am greedy....LOL
I hope Marion gets chosen too and all the other wonderful entries as well.... I am not really that greedy you know Best of luck everyone.

Revealed

2009-10-25T05:06:00.000-07:00

Glenda +1 Lucy, Bevlea and Eliza 3FL

We took this pic at Elizas on Friday and Bevlea has edited it beautifully.......

We had a great day, Eliza provided wonderful food and great coffee for those who drink the smelly stuff and an awesome box of various teas to choose from. I have yet to finish my pages which are now bound with fabric etc and I will take photos of them and put up a show for you to see very soon.

Wowser!!!

2009-10-22T02:43:00.000-07:00

as Barb would say............
I won I won, well one of three, but the Kitty, Bruno chose me first.

Here is the pics of the cats choosing the winners for Helgas challenge. So how cool is that........She put each cat up to take a treat and each persons name was attached to a treat.
I intend to do the next part of the challenge too, yeah I'm greedy that lovely kitty might choose me again.....

Helgas Artchix yahoo group challenge

2009-10-21T06:25:00.000-07:00

this week was to make a piece of art just making it with circles and dots. Not to think about it just do..

Here is my effort. I used my Caran Dache watercolor crayons for some of the backgrounds, the first was a bottle top painted and stamped randomly over the crayon. I added the clock with a trusty gel pen. Next was painted and then a Hero Arts dot stamp, 3rd top was watercolor crayons again and flowers drawn as circles and dots for stamens. hmmmmm base leaves not so good. Next row was a peice of scrapbook paper, then three rows of circle masks which I wiped over with Ancient Page ink and then drew in the black ones. Next was watercolor crayons again and drew various color circles with different permanent markers. Third row was painted and then two different circle stamps I have, that I love for zetti work, next was paint again and my large scroll stamp that I drew the scrolls out to make circles, added some gold rings with pen, the last one is just straight black paint on bubble wrap and pressed directly onto the watercolor paper. You can see more of the entries here. or at least see what it was all about.

While I was playing with this I made an ATC from scraps on my desk for Paperarts group for the Winner Takes All. Here she is.

She's made of bits left over from the Spooky book pages. I had skulls and skeletons etc lying around. Hey, my motto "I'm creative you can't expect me to be neat too!!" so the song "Dem bones dem bones dem dry bones now hear da Word of the Lord " was ringing in my ears and an ATC was born....

I have been home from work for over a week, pity I have not been in a good space to do more artwork, but....... its not good being unwell and home, doesn't make for good playing time. But I am off to Elizas on Friday for our belated play day where we hope to finish our frame books that we got from Jen C. I know Bevlea is finished hers and made a slide of it. Hers looks fabulous and I cant wait to see it.
Today I unpacked a box of photos and stuff I had just re packed to find photos of Geoffs mum etc to scan to finish my frame book. Hmmm, loads of photos in that box that I need to do something with apart from carting them round the world in a box..........Oh well another day. But was good to see photos of my own rugrats etc, gosh were they that little...........

Final Page for PaperQueens

2009-10-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

At long last I have finished my page for Joy Welsh. It was part of the Fabric book on Paperqueens group that Bevlea has now deleted.
Joy's page was Nature and I had a serious mental/art block with this one. I had the background page done for ages but kept putting it aside. Anyway HRH came over for a play day and she is good at prompting my slow brain into a great page, well I hope Joy likes it.

Also the day with Eliza was great, probably the last in this craft room, before the move across the suburb to the next ridge, I will miss our complete view of Yarra Valley, but good things to look forward to. At this stage we are going to build a new craft room and 2 car garage in the front of the house, so something really good to look forward to. But loads of hard work ahead.

So now for the draft drawings of the buliding, apply for permits etc and on we go. Will be good though as I can get what storage I need planned at the same time etc...

Spooky Ancestors

2009-10-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Paperarts group is doing a Spooky Ancestors book swap. There are 13 of us in the swap. :-)
My page is a Spooky Toy house. The two cousins. Millicent and Baby Amy are escaping from the house as they got scared when Aunt Dorothea with another cousin Tabitha appeared after finishing the Merry go round ride. I think it was really the presence of the resident bat that they were so frightened of.

This has been fun to do. I am sure the finished book, which will have the Metal Etched cover on it will be absolutely stunning and a tribute to Itkipulli images that we have all had to use.

New Zetti and Play times and news

2009-10-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

I have been rather busy the last few weeks. But I found some time to do my Zetti swaps for ATC Taranaki a New Zealand group I moderate. Gosh work is a drain on play time isnt it.
Anyway the image I used was from Teesha Moores sheet#c106, the head was from sheet #C60. The wings a butterfly image I have. The second was from sheet C105 and the legs from another.
I have put the sheet numbers here because of the copywright issue of a previous post, to show that I have the sheets in question as well, but have used a different head this time.

I have some work to do this week on my book for our play day that is on Friday.
Here is one of the pages front and back.
1: Mum Laing as a baby. 2: Mum Laings wedding

Now, the reason we all go to work is because we owe, we owe, we have joined the ranks of homeowners in Australia. We have just purchased a house in Chirnside Park and settlement is on the 6 November.
Craft room, hmmmmmmmmmm not sure yet what's going to happen there. We will need to add on probably, but in the mean time I am sure I will find a space even if its on the massive closed in deck..........

Might be a bit hot in the height of summer, but I am sure I will sort it out won't we Elizabeth :-)

Metal Etching

2009-09-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

wow, I loved this new play. Last Monday I went over to Bevlea's and joined Barb, Lucy and Eliza along with Bevlea and we had a play with metal etching, what cool fun, apart from the very smelly Liver of Sulphur, phew, havent smelt anything that bad since I was in Rotorua last February. I was bought up among that same smell, but you sure forget it in a hurry. Don't think I will use that stuff again, might make me homesick for NZ lol. It wasn't good stuff for Lucy either.

It took awhile to get the solution off our hands and fingernails, poor Bevlea's was the worst as she's a doll and did most of the clean-up for us.
Heres my efforts.

I'm not sure what I will do with them yet, but we did a large piece as well and you will have to wait to see that one, its got a specific purpose.

Now I really need to get on and finish my zetti city scape. The other ladies from the 3FL+1 (you need to visit Bevlea's blog to see what that means) are well and truly ahead of me on that one, the cityscape I mean hehehehe.
I have done one side, but need to concentrate on the night side and then bind it and put up a slide show of it. This week hopefully. Gosh work does get in the way doesn't it.

Then I need to get onto our second project, that one needs family photos and is taking some time to clean up in Photoshop the old photos of Geoff's grandparents etc. I am making it a tribute to my Mother-in-law who I adored. She was the best. I hope I can be as good a mother-in-law as her.

Marions Zetti Swap has flown in

2009-08-27T06:36:00.001-07:00

Todays mail bought a yummy envelope from Germany. In it was my swaps from Marions annual blog swap.
It was great fun and truly pushed me into using bright colors.
Thank you to all participants and to those whose
ATC's I am now the proud owner of.

Arent they yummy From L to R top is from Marion, Chris Bockel, Ilka, and bottom L to R is Johanna, Angelika and Birgit.
Again thank you ladies. I will look forward to the next swap.

FAIRY DRESS and City Scape

2009-08-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

I saw a lovely Fairy Dress when I was over in New Zealand in May in a shop.
It's taken me this long to make one of my own, but here is a pic, if not a very good pic of what I made. But I hope you can get the idea. I enjoyed doing something that was not paper and paint for a change.

On Friday I met with Eliza and we headed over to Lucy's where Bevlea had already arrived and we had our next play day. We had show and tell with our last play which is the City scape. Everyone's looks great. Go over to their blogs and have a look at what they have been doing.

Here is a couple of mine. Still not totally completed, but this is the day side except the one with the car, that is the first night side.

I am really enjoying this style and thank Teesha Moore for sharing her passion with others. Most of the background's started out as bright scrapbook paper's and then I added some paint and swiped a bit of distress ink over them, added a few quirky but simple stamps, then added images from some image sheets I have as well as made up ones, ie cut a bit from here, a bit more from there and put them together with some quirky arms and legs.

So this week, I will be attempting to finish these both sides, do a recipe card swap for NZ and do some of the Book we started on Friday. This one I will probably do as a tribute to my husbands mum, as I loved her very much. It has pages that have transperancies in the windows, then we will add some images to the sides etc. We made our covers and the box for the trinkets to go in. OK......... are you intrigued, well you will have keep coming back for a browse and see what I did. See you next time..

More Zetti

2009-08-12T06:46:00.001-07:00

I just did another Zetti for a group swap, Eliza has coveted what I did previously for a swap LOL and it's now hers either way, if she makes one or not. I am sure enjoying this Zetti style at the moment, I must be coming out :-)LOL Now, I give credit to Jade Adams of Michigan USA and Teesha Moore for the parts of the image used.
For copyright reasons I have removed the image...........

I still have to finish my cityscape to take to our play day with Bevlea, Lucy and Eliza on Monday as we have to show and tell.....Oh dear another late night tomorrow to get it finished or near enough to finished.

Barb's Challenge to Marion

2009-08-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

I just went to visit Marions blog and noticed that Barb had challenged her to show what was in her fourth album and the fourth picture, so I am following on and here is mine.

It was a page for Marg in the Bookmarms tipin page swap I did last year. Her title was 1970's.
Thanks for the challenge Marion. I quite liked that page back then.
So for any that follow on in the challenge, post a comment here and I will come and look at your creativity.

Oh, and off I go to visit Lucys blog to see her next finished pages in our City Scape and see she has challenged me to do the same and I have to choose four other bloggers, so I choose

Margaret W : http://margaretweiss.blogspot.com
Martina H http://artymarty62.blogspot.com
Kelsey O: http://ko-ok.blogspot.com
Marilyn: http://wwwmarilyninmyroom.blogspot.com/

So girls I will look forward to seeing what you have as your fourth picture in your fourth album.

Zetti Tryptich

2009-08-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

I just completed this Tryptich for a group I am in. It was this months swap. I quite enjoyed it, so different from my normal style, as you will notice it's crept in to my art a bit lately. Must be the craze huh!!!

The first side is the Zetti by day

and the second side Zetti by night.

I sure hope the recipient likes it as it will be quite hard to give away.

I am looking forward to the ATC's from Marion's swap coming back too, that is a Zetti ATC swap that she has on her blog.
Anyway Ciao for now.

And Two days later...........

2009-07-26T05:02:00.001-07:00

Geoff and I, decided to go for a drive today in the bush. It was such a nice day. We headed for Mt Donna Buang and didnt quite get there. We went to another area instead. We stopped on the way and there was all these beautiful birds. I managed to get one on my hand by offering it some cake we had with us. Well it was fruit cake home made off course so very healthy for a Female Ecclectus.
Here it is. Its so beautiful I am happy for you to take this picture and use it. Its not copyright :-)..............

I am just finishing my Number ATC's too so will load it shortly.

HALF MASKS

2009-07-24T04:57:00.000-07:00

A New Zealand group I belong to has had a half mask swap going. Every two weeks we do a half mask to a specific theme.
The first two were Shades of Peacock or Cirque de Reinvente and Golden Girl or Tacky.
Here is mine, that I chose to do, that are on their way to new owners. They do look so much better in the flesh. So Doreen and Kelly if you want to be surprised don't peek.
They were fun to do and a change from ATC's etc.....

The next theme is Asian or Spring, havent decided yet which way I will go.

I am about to make my ATC's for Paperarts group entitled "Numbers". All going well I might be able to add the pic tonight as well. So look back later.

Creative Mondays and more

2009-07-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

Once a month three friends get together and have a play time, this last Monday Bevlea, Lucy and Eliza came to visit my place and we started a 7Gypsies CityScape Board Book. Lucy chose Vintage, Bevlea Gothic and Eliza and I are doing Zetti, We must have needed some practise LOL.
Here is a sneak peek at a couple of pages started last Monday.
I had not done much Zetti at all and finally understand the way it should be. Bevlea explained to me that Zetti can be done two ways. Zetti by day, bright colors and Zetti by night, old Circus colors. So my plan is to do one side daytime and the reverse will be Night time.

I also have joined a Zetti ATC swap run by Marion Bocklemann The challenge was to make three Zetti style ATC's to send to Germany and swap with other International artists. I have done two lots of three.
I had fun doing these as they are much brighter etc than what I normally do.

Marion they are postal tomorrow.

I also need to learn how to put the pics in a good spot. HELP!!!! LOL

AND THE WINNER IS

2009-07-05T03:34:00.000-07:00

ME, ME, ME, I entered into the discussion on Barbs blog where she had put a challenge on for people to comment about why some people don't comment on some blogs that they visit. Barb had been on a blog JESSICA WESOLEK and she had an article about GIVING BACK, it made very interesting reading, and we all had to comment on it to go in the lottery to win this
ATC from Barb. I had coveted it anyway, so am very pleased that it was MY turn to win something. Thank you Eliza
for the heads up to go look and see who comment number three was.

FINDINGS
Today during our walk with the dog (Zaccy) I came across this tree that had gorgeous bark on it and I couldnt resist bringing some home to scan and use as backgrounds.

So, for my Kiwi friends you might see it on a background (paper) as it would be confiscated at customs, the Aussies probably think I'm loopy, but hey I liked it. I think its paperbark???

The ATCMixed Media Yahoo group run by Eliza and Lucy had a Tryptich Arch swap for last month and I offered to fill the gap and do two. Here is one of them that has been posted and Sandra can peek or not :-)
The second one I will load when it is finished and posted, probably tomorrow.

A couple of swaps.

2009-06-26T04:59:00.000-07:00

I have made these items for a swap on paperarts
The "Ravens" was about Edgar Allen Poe, the background painted black and then put Jo Sonjas crackle then painted cream and it didnt work boohoo..........

So next was cover the lot with credit card technique and black and silver paint and spritz with a little water and then wipe some off...... Ok, then onto adding images etc........ I hope the recipients will like it........

Also for the same group was a microscope slide pendant. I had done some soldering at Evas a few months ago and we did microscope slides. So I did similar this time and made two. Now which one will I send eh Barb

anyway I enjoyed making them and had also shown HRH very quickly how do do it too.

I am also starting a swap for an NZ group ATC Taranaki, we are doing half masks.
I will take photos as I go, bit hard to scan masks. This first one is Shades of the Peacock or Cirque Reinvente. So stay tuned for further developments

Sunday night

2009-06-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

Well less than a week has passed and here is a new post. My my.........Yesterday Eliza came for a visit and we played all day. Well she showed me how to do a journal in fabric etc and I did the work sort of........ While she played with my blog backgrounds. I fell in love soempics I found so we put this new background and the header on my blog. I love it, but might get a bit sick of the brightness of it. Who knows, so check back and see occasionally.
So........we started off by masking some watercolor paper with gel medium and then leaving it to dry. Then came some fun. Sewing which I have not done since leaving NZ. I will do a series of uploads of pics to show you the stages of the journal.

these are the covers for the book. I think that the signature covers may hang out a bit much but I will see when I put it together. I need to go find some upholstery type scraps somehwere and some other bits. I have heaps in NZ but Eliza shared hers with me for this journal.
Here is some of the signatures and the covers.............

We started the day about 10ish. At lunch time, Geoff called us to come and get a cuppa and he had made us yummy bacon and cheese scones for lunch. He's a good man.
Well off he went to do the job he had to for work and we continued to play, no scones for afternoon tea, just a drink and on we went playing and sewing and talking. Geoff came home and he watched TV we thought, but just as I started to show Eliza how to solder microscope slides he called us to come for dinner, hey Eliza was going home LOL, but he had cooked a stew of beef and veges for us. What a man......... and hes all mine .....So, now....... I need to continue the process of finishing the journal by making the signature pages and then putting it all together with a book-binding technique. I did a course for two years in NZ with Yoka Van Dyke in Wanganui. She is a very capable and accomplished Bookbinding expert and taught at the Wanganui Arts College.
Hey Yoka, thanks for the patient teaching. Wish I could do more with you. One day!!

So as I do more to it I will load the pics for all to view.

I went and bought a Scrapbook Creations magazine today. Ahhhhhhhhhh you all say, but nope inside was a lovely canvas done by none other than the lovely Kelsey , a canvas about her grandparents wedding. Well done Kelsey, its fantastic and love the texture paste use..... Was it black LOL.............. I am going to do a bit of scrapbooking this year as I have loads of photos that my poor kids would have no idea who, what where etc if I should conk out of this world LOL...........

See you all in a few days.

2 Months have gone by

2009-06-08T04:52:00.000-07:00

since I last posted here. What did happen to my new years resolution to blog at least weekly and to do some challenges. Well the year has bought some bad health issues for me, but not life threatening. I'm OK, just extrmely tired and combine that with working full time and I dont seem to find a lot of time for any art work or blogging.

In March I attended CSR and had a ball. I was so tired (part of my not being well) that weekend I dont know how I managed to do anything. Hey HRH next year will be a different story, you won't be up by yourself at 3am LOL, you can keep your bottle to yourself though, I stick to my EB tea............. I did have a fantastic time and attended Bernie Berlins class Saturday, DJ Pettit on Sunday and did face painting which I found very daunting but DJ is an awesome tutor.
Here is my face I did.

Then Monday I did Stephanie Lee's Elements Handbook, made with plaster gauze and the cover was soldered over rose brass. ohhhhhhhhh that was scary and it took me forever along with a few wonderful helpful ladies to get my "pro-torch" working. It just did not want to work, so I got way behind and didnt finsih it totally, and its still not done. I will put a picture in here when I have finished it. Now thats a promise.
The day after the retreat weekend our daughter Tanya returned home to NZ, she had been with us since the day after Victoria's Black Saturday.
Then Easter arrived and Geoff's sister and a friend came for a few days. Loved having them all, then it was count down to our visit home for family and to do a conference for work.

We went over on 9th May and returned here on 23rd. We enjoyed catching up with family, grandchildren who are so adorable and friends etc. Time was too short.

Anyway............I will be back in the ncest day or so to add more retreat pics and also some art work etc.
Cheers

My First Blog Award

2009-04-05T02:43:00.000-07:00

I was awarded a few days ago by my lovely Wagga friend Barb a Friendship award.
Apparently I have to pass it on and am supposed to award this onto 5 other deserving people,so I shall do my best to do so, but note that all I have certainly classed as friends someone beat me to it, not that the following are second best I might add :-)

For those of you that receive the award,these are the guidelines that came with the badge:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these kind writers."

The following ladies are friends, mostly new from from the retreat, all talented artists..all ladies that I count myself lucky to have come across on my road of life....

I present this award to you lovely people.

Margaret Weiss
Liz Mackie
Dawn Thomas
Keron Lee
Kirsty Campion

It was lovely to meet you all at the retreat and hope we meet again at 2010's

Altered Jigsaw piece

2009-03-31T04:44:00.000-07:00

My goodness me..........
A whole month has passed since I posted anything.
I had an awesome time at the retreat. I will post pics etc soon. Been busy workwise etc too since then. hence the no posts for a while.
But, tonight I made an Altered Jigsaw piece challenged from 2cre8art, a challenge from Bevlea. Gosh its a bit dark, bad scanning on my part but I will scan it again, just need to get it loaded by tonight LOL, so look back some time for the impoved version.

The piece was a childs jigsaw cardboard, I have painted it with Lumieres Halo Blue Gold and Burgundy along with a little amount of Guatemalan Green and Autumn Skies Polished Pigments, allowed it to dry and then coated with Dimensional magic. I then put a metal corner on it, put some silver glass beads and then wrapped some wire and threaded it with beads and a nice black & silver button. Placed a Faith bar on it and added some more beads as a dangly. Wallah, al la Bevleas instructions a nice jigsaw pin........
Talk more soon

Ohh la la and wow wow wow...

2009-02-24T03:58:00.000-08:00

I received this gorgeous piece of art work from the very talented Linda Baldock . Linda made it for me for a small favour I did for her. The artwork more than covers what I did :-)
Here is what she made for me. Lucky lucky me...
The wings are made from Fusible Fibre, I must give it a try, I have heaps of FF that Linda inspired me to buy and as usual its not had much use. LOL, but!!!! now I can see a great use for it.

We have our daughter Tanya here with us at the moment, that is really great, shes a bit concerned about the fires around us, but is coping ok. We went for a drive to look at a property in Healesville on Sunday with the people we work with and saw how close the fires came to the town of Healesville, scary stuff, the Real Estate agent was still carrying all her treasured possesions in the boot of her car.

Only 3 more weeks to go until the Creative Soul Retreat, Ive been making my little houses for the swap. . I have been starting to collect up all the things I need for the classes. Bevlea has got loads for me to pick up at the retreat, well not too much really.
I am so looking forward to the classes. I am doing on Saturday, Layers with Bernie Berlin, Sunday is Face Painting on Canvas with DJ Pettit and Monday is an Elements Fat Book with Stephane Lee. I cant wait to put faces to all the names on groups that are coming as well. See some of you at Tullamarine at 11.45am. Its going to be fun fun fun...............

2cre8art challenge

2009-01-26T04:23:00.000-08:00

Well the end of the month is nearly here. I had planned to do the January challenge from Barb and Bevleas new technique tutorial blog earlier in the month, but as usual time went no where.

We got home from the coast ( Woodside Beach) tonight, Australia Day and I thought I better have a play. I found this image of Sophia Andersons via another blog The Color Guru last week and really liked it so searched for one that I could use. It will show up on the retreat houses too :-)

Anyway, thanks again to Bevlea and Barb for creating the blog for challenges. You girls rock.....

New ATC done

2009-01-23T03:35:00.000-08:00

This is an ATC that I did for the January Paperarts Free title. I had done a "No Paper" one for a NZ group and so decided to do a very similar one for the Paperarts group, but used a paper image for this one.

The background is some nice fabric that is old french writing, then creditcard technique washed some "green" paint over it, then added some netting that I had sort of dyed with some paints along the side, I stamped a flourish with versamark and gold embossed it, it did get more gold on the bits of wet netting :-) but I think it looks OK. Then after I added the image I put some "faux eggshell" (a technique I got from one of the Cloth Paper Scissors Magazines) bits on her head and added a bird image to that.I added some scrummy Black Mica Flakes to the bottom too.

Now........... Last Monday I went to Bevleas again and we did some more of Kelly Rae Roberts book. I just need to finish the two pictures we worked on and I will then add some pics here.
Til then, have a fantastic Australia Day weekend won't you.

My latest ATC and some other stuff

2009-01-04T05:03:00.000-08:00

that was done for Paperarts last swap, Weird Chairs. I do like that pic of Marilyn. Thought she might like to take a trip on a Ship and waited for it on the tower bridge. Oh well, it is the New Year and had a couple of swigs so forgive me won't you.

This year I like a couple of others have decided my resolution will be to do the Challenges I have set myself, refer an earlier post. But I am joining Bevlea, Lucy, Eliza and Barb (from afar)to do some techniques from some of the art books we all own.

I am looking forward to the retreat only 10 weeks to go. Will be a busy time for me, as I have to go to the Gold Coast the week after for work.

Anyway, this past year has been busy for us, Went back to NZ in February for a wedding, had our kids over in March for about 12 weeks, went to Lakeland Florida
in June to buy some Golden paints LOL, hey the $$ was good, nah, went to a Conference, Thats Vegud, Alley, Geoff, myself and an American lady that we gave a lift home too. cant remember her name, bad me.....

also my job came to and end. Then when we got back just over 5 weeks later our second grandchild was born so home I went for a visit, while I was there the guy I was doing volunteer work for rang Geoff and asked us to move to Melbourne to work full time with them.

So end of September saw us move from Shepparton to Chirnside Park, so here we are. Before the move I went to Wagga Wagga to spend a few days with Barb . The end of the year has been good, some art time spent with Eliza and then some instruction days etc at Eva's. way to go girl, thoroughly enjoyed the soldering day. Then joined Bevlea and Lucy's play day along with Eliza which has now become a regular play day. So thanks to you all for making me welcome to Melbourne, a bit different to Shepparton. From art starvation to a wonderful feast of playtimes. Hey who has time to go to work.

See you soon

Happy New Year

2009-01-04T04:49:00.000-08:00

Well, the New Year is in and dusted. My girlfriend came over from NZ and we had a great time, well I did anyway. We went to New Brighton beach, My friend dont like her picture took LOL............
Chadstone shopping centre, well spent about 2hours there, not enough even to do one corner, but I can now say I have been there, we went to Belgrave and came home via the Dandenongs and Sassafras (sp) spent a good time wondering the shops there. Ohh theres one I would love to replicate back in NZ eh!!Sandy.... Sandy spent her holiday pocket money on some nice things for her kitchen, hope you had no trouble at baggage Sands.
We also went on the Puffing Billy, would have been more enjoyable if the weather hadnt been so darn cold. We took Sands bush too. Now that was fun, apart from the leeches that decide they liked my legs oh yukkk..... we dont know how well off we are in NZ with no nasties like that.
anyway........... She went home on the 3rd. Will miss her. See ya in May Sands.

Play Day finished

2008-12-18T04:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I have added my affirmations to my canvas made at Bevleas on Monday.
I am quite proud of it. Am I allowed to be LOL.
My DH said that knowledge made my neck grow and that Pinocchio was my boyfriend. LOL He is a shocker isn't he.

The technique was from Kelly Rae Roberts that was published in Cloth Paper Scissors issue 17. Bevlea is so clever and shared her wealth of knowledge on face painting, will I be able to do it again.hmmmmmmmmmmmm more lessons probably. Gosh, bubble wraps good stuff isn't it.... It sure make a good background.

Any comments on it will be gratefully received. :-)
Good, bad or indifferent LOL............

We are rushing up to Christmas time. We are having the week between Christmas and New Year off work. But looking after the business while the owners are away with family that are over from Germany. We have no family over so we will be Ma & Pa by ourselves. But my girlfriend Sandy is coming over on the 27th so we will celebrate a bit then. It really is quite hard to be here without family, especially the babies. They grow so fast.

Anyway, Hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year. Check back soon, you won't know what I might get up to over the break.

Playing with Friends

2008-12-16T03:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went over to Bevleas to have a play day. Took a day off work......... Well it happened to be an enforced day anyway as I have been a bit unwell for a few days, so it was great to go and play. It was a great day. We played with some techniques from Kelly Rae Roberts Taking Flight book. Attendees were Bevlea, Lucy , Elizabeth and Barb from long distance.
Barb has hers on her blog already. Shes a clever GF.

Here is the first one of mine that we did. Almost identical to the book, but it was a practise run. I will do another soon with the stamps that I originally was going to use, but unanimous decision we decided to do the same as the book.

We then did another technique from CPS that I haven't quite finished yet. I will load it here when its done. But just to say that Bevlea is a fantastic tutor and I learnt heaps about doing faces :-)) Will I remember it for another time, probably not. But hey an email away or a phone call away and help is there.

2 IN ONE WEEK WOW.

2008-12-10T04:52:00.000-08:00

Well here we are only 4 days after my previous post.
Not a lot happened at all. Have done a few more things artwise.
Sent a pennant series to a guy in New Zealand and it got lost in the post.
Heres the pics, sorry Denis. Will make you some more.

I enjoyed making them. I will do some more and hope that the firts lot turns up too, then he can arrange them across is new craft room wall.

I am going to visit Bevlea on Monday and we are going to do a page in a book that a few of us have. I am looking forward to it. We will be using Sculpy etc. Never done any baking clay seriously before, so a learning curve for me.
Ciow for now........... I will return :-)

2008-12-06T05:06:00.000-08:00

Well I havent done so well yet in posting on this have I LOL.

My thanks to Bevlea for designing my Blog header. Shes good isn't she.

I will now upload a couple of things I have done in the last couple of weeks.
Ive been doing some house pages for a group I am in. The first one is Glass house for Nikki, the Architectural house for Lucy, next is Vintage house for Gail and along side is French house for Sarah. I cant wait fo my turn. My title is "My Mothers House" I have another one ( Greta's) in my camera to upload and another in progress on my desk. They are great to make..

Anyway. I am going to do my challenges, starting today, so will upload it ASAP, first I have to go into the challenge site and see what I am supposed to be doing.

WATCH THIS SPACE

2008-11-21T04:11:00.000-08:00

??????????
Ive been reading the book Artful Blogger and at first I thought the book was a bit blah, but on reading again I realise its time for me to do some serious stuff on here.

I like Michelle Wards Green Pepper Press Street Team idea from her pages(pages 24 and 25 in the book) and so I will try and do her Challenges so as to keep this blog more up-to-date. Its not a design team, so no tryouts, its about having fun and sharing your work. The challenges are called Crusades and are posted monthly. So.......... an updated look is on its way. When its done I will link to some very talented people.

I'm also going to Creative Soul Retreat organised by Bevlea Ross, being held in March 2009. I am so looking forward to it. Meeting lots of new faces to names and also some faces that I havent seen for a while. When I learn how I will link these things for you to follow and have a look at some awesome eyecandy.

Cheers
Glenda

Unto us a child is born.

2008-11-21T03:40:00.000-08:00

Hey, people, I forgot to let you know that Victoria Rangi was born in Wanganui in New Zealand on July 26th, she is absolutely gorgeous and her parents and grandparents are very proud. I went over and stayed for two weeks. It was a precious time and I found it hard to leave the family behind. It was just wonderful to see the parents and also my number one grandson, mind you it was Papa he was looking for, but he certainly is a Nan-nans boy.

Anyway. It was so good to see Paul as they had stayed with us in Shepparton from early March to mid May. See his picture with his Dad, hasnt he grown. I Will update more later.

Tryptich

2008-03-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

Hie everyone..............

This is a Triptych done for Paperarts March swap.This is the inside, the technique I used was from Bernie Berlins book and is the resist with paint, and an iron. Who said ironing wasnt good fun!! I need to learn to scan better. LOL I do like the color scheme. Unusual for me, who doesnt deviate too much from purple and more purple.

This is the outside of the tryptich, it folds into itself.

On the family side of life, we have the family Jared and Pauline here from New Zealand, so have our gorgeous grandson living with us for a time. The weather for the first week was unbearable for them, the power bill will be horrendous...... Not much art time at the moment. too busy having cuddles.

January 23rd

2008-01-23T05:03:00.000-08:00

Well, we've had Christmas and New Year, quiet for us and a first to not have any family about.

But excitement, we are off to NZ on Saturday to visit the family and to attend a long awaited wedding. Congratulations Lulu (Rochelle) number 1 niece....We are so looking forward to that day......

This week a friend from NZ had my grandson visit, so she took

some up to date pictures of him. here is Paul at 9months, Isn't he in one word ""gorgeous""I cant wait to cuddle and spoil him. His Dad says hes even more gorgeous and cuddly in the flesh.

I have been busy in the craft room too and finally finished the canvas that I have been wanting to do for ages, Now it adorns the title space on this blog. I really must get into Photoshop and edit out the ironing board behind the pic, but thought you would like to see it anyway.

The pic was taken a couple of days before we left Maziotela in Northern Mozambique to return to NZ in 2001 and it is pics of the grandmother Amelia and the baby Nelia that I looked after while out there. She was crying because Geoff was taking the photo and she didn't like white men as they hurt her. She had to go to the clinic for treatment for her bad burns and Terry the Australian male nurse used to treat her. She had got used to me by this stage. We returned her and Amelia to the bush village the next day.

Anyway. I am going to enjoy my visit to NZ, catching up with a couple of friends and hopefully get a bit of craft work done too.......

See ya in February.

2nd December 2007

2007-12-02T03:39:00.000-08:00

Wow, where does the time go...........Since last post Ive been down to Melbourne for the Melbourne Paperific Expo. I had a great time and again thank Joan McA for the bed and laughs amidst the car breaking down at an intersection on a dark wet Friday night, Thanks to her hubby Geoff for coming out to the rescue with the RACV rescue, and a lot of $$ later, now don't do what I did, the application to join Roadside Assist came a few days before the weekend and it was sitting on my desk waiting to log on and pay the join up, sure costs more when you have to join up whilst sitting in your car thats died totally at the traffic lights. Saturday saw us at the MPE again, I had met up with a few ladies for lunch on the Friday, Bevlea, Barb and Lucy and a few others, Saturday I met up with Lynette from NZStampers, great to put a face to the name....

We wandered the show together and then I booked into a few make n takes, for me and Joan, especially the Collections ones................Saturday night was the Stamphappy dinner, enjoyable and oh did those girls rag on, there was a Male belly dancer and he was very entertaining, beat the girl hands down. HE WAS GOOD...................shake rattle roll...................

Sunday I went off to Bevleas for a technique day with her and Barb T as tutors, what a great day. LOVED it................ I will load pic here, these are the techniques we did. Using, sheer heaven transfers, watercolour papers, gel medium transfers, gelmedium and pearlex bacground and that fantastic product Brite Shine, you know that stuff that is for polishing your cars and stuff.... It has taken on a new life...... Oh and we did beeswax too.
1: Beeswax, 2: GelMedium 3: Sheer Heaven and watercolor 4: Briteshine 4: Sheer Heaven and watercolor 5: Gel medium background with lumieres and pearlex.

Bevlea had invited me to stay the night, so we played again til quite late. Thank you Barb for being our cook........shes good, rustled up some scrumptious seafood for a very late dinner while we made our Alcohol Inks ATC's for Paperarts..........
Headed home on the Monday after a very lazy start to the day.

Since that weekend, Ive played a bit more with those techniques. Ive been making a few Skinny Book pages for a swap from New Zealand too.....size is 4 1/2inches by 8inches.

These are just two of the pics
Vintage Nature Under the Sea

I have enjoyed doing them. The other thing Ive been doing is getting into some bead making. I made some spiders, hoping it may cure my fear of them, no such luck, so sorry spiders your still destined to be sprayed, hit, squashed........Made lots of charms for a NZ Tartistry swap, will load some pics when they are back...........
And on the family side of things. The little fellow in the picture above is going to have a brother or sister next July........hey J&P, thats too soon you know...........
We are off home on 26th January for a wedding on the 2nd February, eldest niece is getting married. So looking forward to it. At long last Lulu (Rochelle) has found the right bloke.
It will be great to get home and visit with family and friends and to see that little fellow again who is growing up, he now is 8months old. boohoo......He's growing up without knowing his Nanny and Pa............ It will be great to see our daughter again too and J&P, parents of the little one...........When I get some uptodate pics of him I will put one here, no-one sends me any......
We have friends coming from New Zealand next week. I am so looking forward to that.

Oh well, must go, lets hope that posts are not as long between dates again , well pigs fly too don't they. LOL

28th August 2007

2007-08-28T05:09:00.000-07:00

Well a month has passed nearly since last post.

I have just been to an ancientechoes workshop www.ancientechoesaustralia.com Masters Backgrounds tutored by the fabulous Joy Bathie. The workshop was fantastic and I learnt heaps, hopefully now will not just splash a couple of colors of paint on my work, but will try to obtain the depth that is shown in the two pics I have put in here.

Green above is done on prepared book pages

the Red is done on a Canvas.

I am looking forward to the next workshop that will be run by Ancient echoes and have put me hand up to be in already :-) I had a fabulous time and again many thanks to Joan McA for the bed and the laughs........

30th July 2007

2007-07-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

Goodness me, time sure flies when youre having fun.. The past month has gone really fast. Im not sure where it went, but Ive done lots of art work which Ive enjoyed, I will put some pics in honestly, I will LOL...........Ok heres a couple.

The canvas on the right is one I did for paperarts July 1-4-1 swap titled "Wares Sold Fortunes Told" the ATC on the left also for July in Paperarts and its tiltled "Metallica Metal Works" Im looking forward to doing the Joy Bathie Masters Backgrounds at the end of August. That should be fun and challenging.

Today I went to Melbourne and met up with one of the creative ladies from Paperarts group. Thanks for a lovely time HRH Eliza. Anyway, lets see if I get back to this site sooner rather than later with more stuff.

15th June 2007

2007-06-17T01:47:00.000-07:00

Gosh where does time go?? Since setting up this blog and not getting back to it, weve become grandparents to a fine wee boy born 10th April to Jared and Pauline in New Zealand.
We have been back to NZ to visit and have a few cuddles. His name is Paul Evan, after his parents and Geoffs brother who died last year. We have had a visit from Helen & Sid and JJ at Easter and then Maureen & Jim came the week we returned from NZ.
I have done lots of art work, but not got round to putting any in here yet. Will attempt something tonight :-)
Anyway off to try that. keep checking back, you never know what I might have got in here. LOL
G

Welcome to Glendas Gazette

2007-01-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

28th January 2007

Well this is a new thing. Hope I can keep you updated with whats happening in my Art World.
Yesterday 27th I went to Melbourne to do a Photoshop 101 with Caro and Bevlea. Wow, Wow, Wow.........Enjoyed the day so much and learnt a heap.
Will post some ATC' pics when have a play.