Marions Postage People and more

OMG OMG, its been 13months since I have been on here, and noticed that the header is changed LOL Don't know when my GF Bevlea did that for me LOL.............. Shes a treasure.

Anyway, lots happened over the year. We are flat out here at camp and that keeps me very busy and not a lot of time for arting etc. I am so over Facebook that I think I will resurrect my time on Blogger and start doing this a bit more, even if its just family updates etc.  On that note the kids have grown so much, Paul is now 8 years old. Toria will be 7 on 26th July and Aroha will turn 4 in September.  They are little treasures (mostly)

Anyway, wont bore you any more on this post as I know Marion is "waiting patiently" for the pics of my ATCS.
So here goes......  They were fun to make.

Bride to Be

Belle Jardiniere

HMS Block 27 Warden

Madam Lilou

I hope the recipients like them...........
This one is one of two that I made also. One for me and one for Bevlea who was doing the swap but had to pull out :-)  

Mr Hobbit

The last month or so

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.

MORE ATCS and A JIGSAW SWAP

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 for Paperarts July Swap

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.

Twinchies and things

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.

New ATC

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!!!!

My latest ATC and some other stuff

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