Angel,Hope and Grace

When I was small I believed in Fairies.They lived in my garden and were responsible for the holes in the spider webs as I imagined they took them to make shimmery throws over their gowns.The fallen feathers of birds adorned their head and Flowers made up their gowns.Mum was forever loosing her ear-rings and complaining she only had one left and I just knew the Fairies found them and used them for treasures to adorn their homes.When I was older I made up fantasy garden stories with the Fairies of my youth as the leading characters, for my children.
When I made the Vintage child Opals transfers using my alternative method a few months back they reminded of those Fairies.So here are the transfers made into a tea light candle votive.On the sides I have strung trinkets,old photos and Vintage bits and pieces.Amongst these lie some of my left over ear-rings where I too have lost one.So come meet Angel,Hope and Grace

In the next photos I have shone a light thru them so you can see how they glow with the candle lit inside.

These last photos are the views of the trinkets from the sides

So there is my last art for 2008 and as it is now 11.45pm and the New Year is less then 15mins away I am off to charge my glass with pink champagne

The Last Rays Of Christmas-Madonna and Child

The last days of 2008 are upon us.On Christmas day in the quiet of the evening,I drew the simple Madonna and Child ink drawing below.I have copied and printed it 40 times onto 300gms smooth water colour paper so I can colour them over the year to hopefully have them all done by late November, to send out for my Christmas cards for 2009 for my family.

Today as the last rays of Christmas shine from the tree and our hearts and the year draws to end, I made a start and used my new Caran D'Ache Neocolor ll watercolour crayons to colour the first one.These are much more creamier then my Crayola Portfolio series ones.The colour is intense when you add water to blend them in.Wet on wet seems to make the blending easier for me.I smudged a few bits but they can be easily fixed with further layers of colour.I'm sure by the time I get to the 40th one my use of these new crayons will be perfected allot more so forgive my first clumsy attempts.


HHHmmm my love of turquoise,purple and green is showing again!

Fusible Film Fun

AAAggghhhh I was supposed to be finishing a project I started in October/November today and got side tracked again when I went to move the Cuttlebug.For ages I wanted to try to run my Fiskars rubbing plates thru the Cuttlebug and stopped to give it a go.It worked a treat on black card so then I wondered how it would look all shimmery.Over at After Midnight Art Stamps Yahoo group some of the other folks have taken my ironing Opals embossing enamels to make Opals paper to arty depths.Jeni Calkins started making Fantasy Film stained glass looking Opals papers...the same way I did for my butterfly dancer wings that I posted in Oct 2007 except she uses small left over pieces not one piece
My Fantasy Film stash is nearly zilch at the moment but I had a heap of Angelina Fusible Iridescent Film that I got from The Thread Studio so I used that.I covered black card stock with Stewart Superior Black Palette stamp and stick glue pad.Heat activated the adhesive with the heat gun,tore the fusible film into bits and lay them onto the sticky surface.Then I ironed it to fuse it to the card stock,sprinkled on the Opals Franklin and ironed it again.After that I hit it with the heat gun to make it shiny.When it was cool I ran it thru the Cuttlebug using a Fiskars swirly rubbing plate.Oh La La it looked so gorgeous.
I decided to make it into a card.The Vintage image I used was an inkjet water transfer onto satin that had been treated with Inkjet set first...also from The Thread Studio.Of course I could have just printed the image straight onto the fabric treated with the Inkjet set but it was an image I had printed on cheap gloss card ages ago and my printer is out of ink at the moment.I stuck the image down with gel medium and then highlighted it with my NEW Caran D'Ache watersoluble Neocolor ll crayons in green and blue.Kaiser self adhesive pearls were stuck around her head and gold foil tape to the edges.Lastly I added my current fav quote "it starts when you sink into his arms and ends with your arms in his sink".

The hand made beads at the bottom are made with clear shrink plastic coloured with Shiva paint sticks and rolled into beads using the My Stamps Tweesta tool.I wish I could take a better photo of this as it is really shimmery and the colours change at different angles under the light.It reflects too much using the flash and it is night time now so these are taken with no flash under house lighting.I'll try to take one in daylight tomorrow and see how that looks.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get to the other project LOL

HoHoHo...I'm So Excited

Merry Christmas.How excited am I with this awesome Christmas present from Grant.He saw me looking at these last month and knew I would not spend allot of money on myself to get them.I only bought six individual colours then.Anyway he bookmarked the site and got them for me for Christmas.I don't know how to use them yet and other then look at the gorgeous spread of colours I'm a bit nervous to try.I was the same about my Golden paints and now I use them all the time.Maybe I can use them on my new drawing...

We have had a lovely Christmas day together here(though HOT and humid) and I hope all you out in blog land have as well.

Merry Christmas One and All

Oh wow.It's three weeks since I have been on line.I had to get away from the computer and make 90 odd handmade Christmas cards.I made them all using five fairly simple Christmas themed cards I made at camp so I had the prototypes done.Every spare second I had I worked on them.I got them all in the post over the last week...PHEW.I have even had time today between the Christmas cooking(for cold meats for tomorrow)to draw a simple drawing that I may use as next years Christmas cards.

The first one is a textured cuttlebug card using and After Midnight Art Stamps image and coloured with Polished Pigments

Next was an Opals paper bg that I ran thru the Cuttlebug in several different directions,an inkjet water transfer of a vintage Angel image,stamped Christmas words on tissue and printed a Christmas quote.

Cuttlebug bg done on gold paper,vintage Santa printed on bleached calico treated with Inkjet Set solution and some Vintage trim behind the image.I added some Dymo Label Christmas words at the top and the bottom after I took this photo to finish it off

Cuttlebug embossed Holly on white card,painted with Twinkling H2O's,random stamping around the edge of the central image using Adirondack Butterscotch ink.Base card sanded to distress it

Lastly is a huge card made using another After Midnight Art Stamps image.Love this reindeer image.I coloured it with Twinkling H2O's and sanded the base card again

As it is Christmas eve here in Oz I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas for 2008 and hope 2009 brings you all Creativity,love and laughter

hugs

Annette In Oz xxxx

UUUMMM I am Suppossed To Be Making Christmas cards

But I got side tracked when I was looking in my pre made backgrounds draw and ended up making six collage cards using the nappy liner rubbings I had made earlier in the year.It does not show well in my photos but the background has a textural effect from the nappy liner rubbings.I then added stamped areas using pearlescent white paint by Plaid.Over the stamped parts I rubbed on Shiva iridescent colours similar to the background colours.
I also used the negative left over from cutting a piece of card stock with the Cuttlebug floral scroll die cut and pressed some texture paste thru that onto an the edge on the bg (ala Kelsey).Once dry this was then dry brushed over with Jo Sonja pale gold paint and then gold foil ironed onto parts.The vintage images are printed onto Lazertran water slide decal paper,trimmed to size and then the backing is soaked off and they are stuck where needed

The quote on the ones below was used by a friend Rhonda in her page in the recent Collab book swap post from last month...I love it.Original source unknown

here is view from bottom so you can see the texture

In this one you can see the rubbings better as it was ironed onto the gloss coloured bg part using Vliesofix and stuck better then the ones above

On the next few I also added coloured gauze and bits of text printed scrap papers

Oh my I now HAVE to get back to making Chrissy cards and then I shall play with some things from Pipedream ink and The Thread Studio!!!

Cards Recieved For My Birthday

Time just escapes me at this time of the year more than at any other time.My own Birthday was on the 14th and the next two days I was at stamp camp.Then I have lots of Christmas cards and November birthdays to make cards for friends...hhhmmm wonder what my parents and theirs did on Valentines day nine months before *grin*.After camp I got sick again with another viral illness sheesh,,,NO MORE!.It's back to work this week but this evening I finally got dh off the computer to photograph the gorgeous hand made cards that folks sent me for my birthday.
This first one was a beautiful green and gold/brown microscope card made by Louise Magetti.

Barb Porritt made me this large very pretty callander page in blue,tan and black.Gosh I love the crowned birdie on this.

Irena Kozakiewicz made an intricate woven card for me.Love the string bits

Linda Aldred sent me this pretty Asian themed acetate window card in soft purples.

My dear Mum who is 76 made me this floral creation.She thought it wasn't done well but I love it

Rikki Showell made me a pretty sewn and beaded card.

Veronica Hodges made this textural "tree of life" delight when we were at stamp camp.She used Jo Sonja texture paste and paints,I really need to pick this ladies brain next camp :o)

Sue Gregory made me a lovely sunny lemon,red and orange floral card.It was the first card that came in the mail for me and it is just so elegant I think

THANK YOU everyone for the cards and wishes.I'm looking forward to my days off next Mon-Wednesday.I hope to finish a few half done projects on my desk and get some more Christmas cards made.

hugs

Annette

Drawings Made into Simple Cards

I'm off to stampcamp in the morning and had two family birthdays to make cards for today before I left.As I had already put most of my supplies in the car I decided to turn some of my recent drawings into cards.They are plain and simple yet I felt really odd sending folks my own art work LOL.This lady is called whimsy and I made her for my niece Caitlyn who is turning 16.She has shimmery twinkling H2O's on her wings

and this one you saw before but is a boat I drew using the number 4 as the base.It is for my brother in law Steve

I'm taking my sketch book with me to camp so who knows what I'll draw next :o)

Be back on Monday folks

The Way It Was

Thru my basic on line drawing class that is almost wrapped up now, I have started to draw again.It will take a long time to be able to draw as I used too but that small child who drew for pleasure in my Simple Pleasure post is still with me some place.Hopefully I will draw well again one day and with my new skills I hope I will draw the right way this time.I dug out my old sketches from well over 20yrs ago and for the first time ever I am showing them to others.They were done in pen,ink or charcoal by me with limited knowledge of the correct way to draw or the correct implements to use.As such I used cheap sketch books and inks that have not stood up well to time and bad storage probably too...hence there is allot of marks on them and the ink drawings are faded.
Now folks be kind here I had no formal art training when I did these.The technical aspects will be wrong and things like perspective etc will not be right either.All are larger then A4 in size...close to A3 I think and if I remember correctly all are done form newspaper clips,magazine images or real photos.I can't believe I am sharing these but here goes.The man below is a pencil sketch from a magazine image and some blue acrylic paint wash added around it.

Mother and Child is another pencil sketch from a magazine image...got the Mum and child's feet wrong here for sure LOL

Three Wise Guys was a pencil and ink drawing from a newspaper clip...man that ink has faded over time

This next one is my nephew Chris and was a pencil sketch done from a photo my sister sent me.He is 25 now and is the man in the music video who looses his lover to the lead singer for Something With Numbers song "Stay With Me Bright Eye's".The Video clip is here on my blog .I think he was a cute child

Wind swept Child was a pencil sketch from a newspaper I think....the nose is wrong and I remember trying to fix it for many hours and then just gave up LOL

The floral trio was done in charcoal...I had no idea how to preserve a charcoal drawing back then and sprayed it with hair spray!!

Baby below was another pencil drawing....sorry if it offends anyone.I went thru a stage of drawing babies..curled up sleeping,feeding and bathing etc

So there you go...a glimpse of me the shy young woman from 20 yrs ago who grew up from that small child who loved to draw all those many many years ago *Grin*

Collaborative book swap pages part two

Here are the remaining pages from the Arty-Oz "Woman" themed Collaborative book swap.
Sarah Faucett made the vintage looking "Lady Of The House" page at top and Niki Glover the blue and brown window lady at the bottom.The window opens to a picture of Niki's Nana aged 19yrs old

Micky Tandiono Choo made the Cuttlebug embossed metal window one at top and Rachel Greig the lovely brown and black butterfly lady at the bottom.Love that gorgeous brown lace at the side

Teresa Abajo made the vintage nurses "sisterhood" page at top and Nikki Blowers the red,gold and purple vintage bather by the sea page below it

Joanne Hughes did the 3D shoe page at top and Jane Norrish the green and pink toned butterfly lady page below it...ooohh yummy more tiny black German scrap trim on that one...I adore that stuff :o)

Lorri Lennox did the unique and a bit scary "Raven" page at top and Kathy Thompson the vintage nude in flowers page at bottom.The nude is elevated and flowers placed under and over her for a 3D look

Sue Gore made the inspiring artist Frida Khalo page at top and Sue Thiel the inchies page below it

Phillipa Barr made the tag and vellum lady page with lots of little sewn areas at the top and Kylie Mell the "beauty is not in the face" page below it

Debbie Larcombe made the glowing textured bg with reclining vintage lady page at the top and Kaeren Sutherland the textural "bathing beauties" page at the bottom

Every time I look in this book I see and feel more things I missed the other times.It is a true treasure and I shall take it to stamp camp next week with me to proudly show off to one and all.On a side note I dug out my old drawings today that I spoke of in my Simple Pleasure post recently.They have not fared too good and have lots of foxing(brown age spots) but I will take some photos and upload them soon.