Fotochallenge Week 13 Spring Blooms

Week 13 on the Fotochallenge is Spring Blooms.
Mind you I dont know why I bother actually as nobody leaves me any comments to say its good, its bad etc etc, or let me know they've even looked.  Remind me again why we started this challenge!!!!

Anyway...... Here is pic taken in Wangaratta during the week of some lovely Flowering Gums. They were the only ones on the tree.

Flowering Gum

We are off to the beach this week for 7 nights to a time share on the Great Ocean Road. Will be lovely as I love the coast, can't wait to smell the sea air again. When we first moved inland to Australia from NZ, our noses were so dry from dry air instead of lovely coastal air.

Hope there's lots of photo opportunities and that I get the hang of the camera I have upgraded to. Its a Canon 7D. I still have to get a good zoom for it though. One of our next challenges is Beaches so I will go exploring I hope. Also we have never been on the Great Ocean Road so lets hope it lives up to the lovely Ocean Roads in NZ.

Week 12 FotoChallenge TRANSPORT

Week 12 FotoChallenge TRANSPORT.
This is a bit hard for me living in the boonies to get some good transport pics. But as we were in Melbourne this week I tried to capture the busyness of the freeways etc.

So here we go..........

Transport Melbourne Freeway.

The cars in front and to the side of us on our side of the freeway.  A busy day for us is about 10 cars the whole day LOL..............  But thank goodness for Transport, that we can get about this beautiful country we live in and for great roads that can take the amount of transport that Melbourne generates..

Week 11 Portrait in our FotoChallenge

Week 11  in our FotoChallenge Bevlea and Jan  and others on our Face-Book FotoChallenge page is Portrait.

Portrait of Toria and friends at school end of term 3.

 This was taken at Paul & Torias end of term day. They were in favourite sports team colors.
Obviously the teacher had said something, the other kids were looking there, not Toria as usual, looking at everything else.  Sorry about the alien bits on kids, also could'nt figure out how to put a better cover on the faces,  but I have not asked parents if it's ok to post their kids on my blog etc.

You can see the tiredness in all the kids at end of term3.  I would love to have been able to get out and about and take better portraits of people, but time this week as usual has escaped me.  BUT! I do like the composition of 4 looking one way and 1 the opposite.

Nest weeks theme is: Transport. Come join us.................Hoping to find some old transport round this district..............

FOTOCHALLENGE week 6 ANIMALS

This weeks FotoChallenge prompt with Bevlea and Jan was Animals.   Come along and join us. you dont need a blog as Bevlea will start a facebook page that we can share our artistic photos on, and if you have a blog then they can be put there as well.

I missed last weeks which was Shallow DOF (Depth of Focus) I had great difficulty getting the background of my pictures to be blurry with my camera, despite heaps of advice from Bevlea. loads of try out photos  and several tutorials online, I think it may be my camera as I have done it before. So I missed that one, but will persevere with it over the next week or so.

Anyway......... for those who haven't met Georgie, he is our 8 month old beautiful Ragdoll Cat. I have always loved the ragdolls as my wonderful Sister in law Maureen had a couple over a number of years, so my decison many years ago now, just before we left NZ was that if we ever got another cat it was going to be a ragdoll.

So meet Georgie. (Named for Georgie Porgie Puddnin Pie, kissed the girls and made them cry :-) )

He loves to roam the camp, he thinks he owns it,  and follows us down to the river, may be a problem come wriggly season. So last week after a big walk we took, with Aroha as well, he had climbed or raced up a tree  and I managed to capture his front as he turned around. He is a delight and loves being out and about with us. He stalks the ducks, stalks the kids, and loves to play and jump on Zaccy..............  Ok, cute story over.

I have been keeping busy at night with some knitting needles :-) A long time since I played with them for no real reason. But  below is what it looked like first off.

 Next with some stuffing etc, this is what Henny looks like now. LOL.. Still got to find the eyes in my stash somewhere to finish it off.
Well , it is an animal LOL....

Week 2 of our FotoChallenge Black and White

Well here it is nearly Sunday night over and I am just starting to do something about my FotoChallenge for the Week.
This weeks is BLACK AND WHITE  I have been having a bit of trouble with my Photoshop so for now am going to just post the pic as it is.

Easy enough. Black and white, Yep, it snowed here during the week, so took some photos of the fun round here.

Across to camp from house

I am going to get to the lesson regarding last weeks pic of the lemons and yummy lemon butter during the week. I am going to remove the handles off the cupboard to make it a better looking picture.  Also Bevlea has given me some other tips as well to take some good photos.

So til during the week, have a good one.. Please join us in this challenge and link your efforts in our comments.

THE WHITE KING, Earthquakes, floods and things

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

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.

ALICE PAGE

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

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 :-)

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!!!!

Helgas Challenge #2 Artchix

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.

Wowser!!!

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.....

Barb's Challenge to Marion

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.

Altered Jigsaw piece

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

2cre8art challenge

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.....