Road trip to Wagga Wagga January 2013

In the first week of January, Bevlea, Lucy and I went up to Wagga Wagga to visit our other BFF Barb T. Such a long time since we had got together to play.

Originally we had been planning a weekend away with all four of us together - but Barb's family and  health issues, along with Lucy's recent auto accident which has left her with a badly injured leg, put paid to that and it was cancelled. Bevlea, Lucy and I decided to rent a unit in Wagga for a few days, drive up and surprise her.

To ensure that it all went smoothly we secretly co-ordinated it with her hubby. We should have known better... never involve a man in planning says Bevlea LOL....... Barb had a day procedure scheduled for day two of our three day visit - and with the first day taken up largely by traveling our time together was briefer than we would have liked - but that made our time together all the more important. The weather was very kind to us, sunny and warm without being too hot.

 We headed up on the Monday morning - stopped off in Culcairn and had a light lunch at the fabulous bakery there that Bevlea and Lucy had partaken of on a previous visit.   Photo courtesy of Bevlea's blog...

 

While Barb was having her surgery on Tuesday we took a side trip up to Gundagai, I had never been there, but can now say I have visited and seen the Tucker Box. Bevlea took a pic of the three of us there...

We had morning tea in Gundagai itself before this pic and also Bevlea and I took some photos of the old bridges there.

The  heritage railway station is a fantastic place for pics, really old fashioned, just imagine the years of passengers that has come and go here..

 Might do this in Black and white like Bevlea has as it sure looks great, go and have a look at her Rusty Ramblers Blog.

While I was away My DH did some renovations to our kitchen as we are moving to a new job, with a house provided in the country. It is Managing a Christian Camp in Cheshunt, so altho it is a less stressful job than we have had it will keep us busy with lots of renovtions etc, as its quite old fashioned looking and needs an update.

Here is the bench he upgraded with a paint product that makes your bench look like formica etc. Very good and very easy. He also put new vinyl tiles on the floor too. He is a good man :-) A keeper......

I am going to miss my kitchen as the house we are going to has a "very small" kitchen/dining /lounge area, oh dear, Us in our 60s and 3 little children, hmmmmmmmmm might need some renovations methinks....

Anyway. I better go pack some more.

Oh BTW, we finally got custody of the other grandchild Aroha, Toria and I went to NZ and bought her back last week, she is a real cutie, but has some routine issues she needs to learn...... 

Morning hair look :-)

First morning back, and Paul was keen to help her with breakfast, he is so pleased to have her here at long last, as is Toria and Geoff and I too.......... Jared and Pauline are thrilled too, as it was what they wanted all along, until they can get themselves together properly.
anyway, MUST get and pack another box or two.

Luscious Sprays

Yesterday, I went over to Bevlea,s, one of the 4BFFs, Lucy was there too and we had a great day, just chilling, chinwagging over lunch, its been a while since we all got together.
While together, Lucy used the Big shot to cut and emboss some of my dies and embossing folders. Bevlea and I mixed up some sprays using my pigment powders and a mix of hers and my distress reinkers to make the most luscious sprays to use.
Bevlea took a pic of the completed bottles.

Luminarte Pigment Sprays

Aren't they delicious?. Bevlea tested them out last night and I started the first page of the journal I made at Jan Harris class. I am going to use it like Bevlea is using hers to have as an art journal to just jot things try things etc.
Bevlea also updated my external hard-drive with a few things to transfer to desktop and laptop, Mostly images that we have bought but she had hers sorted into a great filing system so now mine are the same :-)
Hope to get together with them again real soon.

I joined in with Denis Phillips from Birdnuts Mixed Media ATC swap again, with Hidden Vintage Studios kit called Teacup Tricksters. They are winging their way across the ocean to her home in Canada to join the swap. I am not into Halloween in any way, but the images are quite gorgeous, so here are mine.

See you again soon.

BTW, Geoff has been over in Israel as a bus captain on a large tour, he was looking after a busload of people from USA and Canada. He said he overheard them telling another bus lot that he was a Kiwi and was quaint ROFLMHO.... He is home tomorrow night thank goodness, I am not very good at being a solo mum :-)  

Art Queens Tip In 2

It's time again for a Tip-in page. This one is for Kyla DeRuiter. Sort of a bit Zetti, but not too much. It has to have a quote on each one, this one says "A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words"
Strayed into different colors, background started out as Pink/Teal and Silver., then added some white stamping with a wooden stamp, then a mask with "frayed burlap" distress ink. Added some "peacock feather" distress ink through some sequin waste. Pic is from CrowaboutStudios . Also put a piece of Washi tape along near the bottom so the girl is not floating in the air.

I hope Kyla likes it.  I love doing this style. 

I am also doing some ATCs for a swap with Denise Phillips and Nancy Baumiller  from CrowaboutStudioB, using an image from Nancy,the ATCs are Tryptich playing card ATC's. They have to be in Denise's hands by mid July so I need to get onto them this weekend :-) I will show you when I have done them. I need to make two sets as one set gets swapped with another artist and the other is for Denise and she will send a set back done by her, yipee.................. So off to work I go......

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.

Marion's Mona and Friends ATC swap.

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.

Art Times and Swaps

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.

Friday's Play Day

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. 

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 :-)

UPDATE ON JOURNAL

    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....

Beginnings of an Art Journal

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.................

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

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.

December Play Days

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....

Spooky Book

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.

New Zetti and Play times and news

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

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.

FAIRY DRESS and City Scape

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..