Next Generation Stampers "B" Art Lottery Stash

We had a huge amount of mail on our return home after four weeks away and in amongst that was some gorgeous stuff from the Next Generation Stampers "B" themed June art lottery.Participants made a piece of art using the letter "B"as the theme and then Trish randomly picked one person as the winner.I was dump struck and delighted to find out I had won just before we left on the BIG TRIP.So imagine my wide eyes and ohs and ahs as I opened all the sent items when I got home LOL
Firstly is a gorgeous blue themed textured ATC from Autumn Labbe-Renault


This colourful quirky "B" was a Butcher ATC was made by Sue Curtis.I just love the textured crayon in the bg here too.

Rosie Rowe sent me this lovely textured cuttlebug free standing card that she made after being inspired by my textured bug creationas and as a thankyou for something I sent her.It came with her art lottery piece which is the blue scalloped tag below.



Ria Vaneman made me a"beauty queen"card...love the white pen work she used here...I'm still in search of one that works well in the heat here.I have 11 now and all have stopped working after a short time

Rena Sawatski sent this colourful and gorgeous buddah card.The bg colour is so lush as she has applied the colour to water colour paper

Priscilla Hill's entry was this pretty pastel swirly birthday card.Love the birdy with his hat

Pam Brown(Queen Pam) made and sent this lovely stencil looking "beautiful day" card

Kim Smith's ATC "discover the beach" has pretty vintage beach images on it.

Julie Bowman's triptych "brother and sister" ATC is just gorgeous and opens to this

Jenny Croft made and sent this colourful blue/green butterfly card

Fiona Davis used vibrant blue colour in this gorgeous blue themed "blooms" ATC

Carol Sweeney made the pretty gold and blue "beauty ATC at left and Lorraine Revalee the wonderful "blackbird" ATC at right

Thankyou so much everyone for your entries and of course the unstoppable creative muse Trish for holding the art lottery

Home Again...non creative post to some warning :o)

Oh my time has flown.We ended up being away nearly four weeks rather than three.Once we got home I got quite ill for over a week after I caught some awful viral flu......it even had me in bed asleep a few days which is something I never normally do even when I am not well.I also had a book swap I had to finish off before the 31st.Got them finished and posted in the nick of time and feel well now at last.I'll get the holiday snaps up today and then share the arty stuff in the next few days as I had some gorgeous arty mail from others awaiting me when I got home :o)
It took four days and three nights to drive to Queensland(QLD) with stops to sleep overnight.The kangaroo's are thick crossing the roads from dusk and can easily wreck the car if you hit one so night driving is not a good option.On the way back we left from Port Macquarie in New South Wales(NSW) so that took five days and four nights to get back.One of the places we love to stop at on the long drive over and back is Lubra's Lookout which is a few kilometers past Renner Springs roadhouse(approx 785km South from Darwin).It's a small flat top mountain and we know when we get to it we are close to the Three Ways road house where we turn off to go to the East to QLD or only a days drive from home on the way back.It's also the sort of rock that seems to glow with rich red to oranges depending on where the sun is and it's the only thing of any height as we approach the desert and table land country.

It's quite easy to climb as well for a lovely view too.This is from the top looking North up the Stuart Highway that goes to Darwin.That's our XTrail car mid right

We stayed at the Three Ways overnight and then headed across the 440 odd km stretch of the Barkly Highway to QLD.It's a long drive with only one petrol station across the whole length.Allot of people think this is a boring lifeless area as there does not seem much to look at beside desert and cream tufts of grass/spinifex as they speed past.Being married to a reptile enthusiast means lots of stops when on trips to check behind bark and rocks for lizards,snakes and geckos etc.You soon realize that there is life everywhere out there on that long drive and the desert is far from lifeless.
A non marked dirt track off to the right about three quarters of the way across the Barkly leads you to Barry's cave.When the highway was built a road worker called Barry wandered off and lost his way back to the road.Unfortunately he was not found in time and he died in the cave from dehydration.Grant loves coming here as swallows build nests from mud on the cool roof of the cave.When they vacate the nests some then become homes for black headed monitors.My daughter found this one you can see still asleep in the old bird nest just as we entered the cave

Here is the same monitor after Grant took him out and placed him on a rock.We of course put him back after his photo shoot :o)

On another section we stopped at Grant found this little Panther Skink

We made good time and as soon as we got to my Mum's in QLD(3400kms and several days later) all the kids wanted to do was go to theme parks and attractions...we have none at home.The first one we went to was Australia Zoo.It is still mind boggling to us the Steve Irwin has passed away and we will never see him there again.The zoo is huge now to when we were last there in 1999 chatting to Steve.I'm a sucker for Aussie furry animals so we had to get the usual pictures of them while we were there.Here is a sleepy Koala in a tree.

a cute rock wallaby

and of course the kids had to feed the kangaroo's no matter how old they are(the kids that is LOL ...Carlia is 18 and Tim 12)

It's Dry season at home and there we have long warm days and cooler nights but in QLD it's winter so we felt the cold heaps.Poor Tim looks like he has been swallowed in the sleeping bag as he watched TV at mum's while trying to stay warm.

On another day we went to Sea World and I could have watched the polar bears for hours.My sister in laws brother is head keeper of them and we had an awesome behind the scenes tour with him.Amazing creatures and man they are BIG.This female seemed to look straight at me

We also went to Dream World and although I didn't go on many rides I did go on this one.It's called the Big Drop and after you are pulled up on the outside of this pole(see the people with legs hanging at top)they drop you and you feel like you are free falling.Once was enough LOL

We stayed one night in a hotel on the Gold Coast across the road from Surfer's Paradise beach.This is the view from the balcony in the morning

After a family reunion BBQ and three weeks we headed to Port Maquarie in NSW where Grant's Mum and Dad live for a few days.They have beautiful beaches there too.Tim and Melissa couldn't resist even though the water was freezing to us.At least there were no crocodiles or box jelly fish here like there are at home

It seemed like no time before we were on our way back home.Again we stopped at several spots.This long stretch of road had the kids amused as they felt they didn't know which way we were going after we stopped to have a break.First view is looking forward

and looking back

We stopped several times again as we crossed the Barkly Highway.At this spot you can see delicate tracks from a small lizard...there are his feet prints and tail print...sorry about my big ugly feet there

There are not only reptiles to look at across the desert areas if you stop but at this time of the year there are wild flowers.I took some photos of some of them.I have no idea what they are called sorry.Lets call this one "the purple fluff" grin

and here is a green vine making an awesome pattern as it hugged a tree

This yellow one felt like velvet

Our last night we stayed at Renner Springs and got there as the sun started to set so we raced up to Lubra's lookout to see the sun set from the top.Here is Melissa(aged 16...she turned 17 today) and Tim gazing across the land

The beautiful sky just minutes later

That night was full moon and as if to give us one final shot of beauty to end our holidays on the moon seemed to dart in and out of silver lined clouds.What a lovely end to a much needed holiday and probably the last that all the kids will want to come on with us.Much of the way we had no radio coverage and we had some very funny conversations...I will treasure them for along time :o).

Ill be away for three weeks folks

G'day everyone....we are off on a holiday in the morning to see my Mum interstate.I'll be gone for three weeks.Three to four days drive with an 18yr old,16yr old and a 12yr old...OMG what was I thinking....need ears phones asap.When I get back I have something else to share when I am back as I worked out how to use one of my fav substrates and put it thru the Cuttlebug several times to get the effect of the textured Cuttlebug cards I have been making BUT no tearing and gluing...only one piece used.Hint it involves Opals embossing enamels of course LOL.As I am married to a reptile freak(zoo keeper/reptile specialist)there may even be few Ozzie photos to add with Opals LOL....oh Opaled Lizards...now that would be nice.Get inky while I am gone and show me what you make Ok *grin*
hugs
Annette in Oz

Textured Cuttlebug Cards How too

Okies here we go on how to make these....Firstly Celeste asked me to tell people that she was shown how to do this by Gaye Todd with some input by Kasha Rolley....got to give credit were it is due please folks and do not claim this as your own.ALSO I am not sure if it is exactly how Celeste and the others do it as I did not ask and just guessed...Celeste was telling me how she adds the stamped tissue to texture and sent me a sample with a base to try and I got very intrigued by the base and gave that a go myself.So here is the general explanation for what I do.The pictures will show about five different bg papers used in the frames as I wanted to make a sequence of photos to do a video with and wanted to cut down time so pay no attention to what bg you see

STEP ONE:Using gel medium glue a pale background paper to a heavy card base.My bases are the sturdy backings from old writing pads.Think thick and strong

STEP TWO:Make your Cuttlebug embossed card bits.They can be any colour but a uniform colours is good if you want to add bright colours on top.If I want to use white gesso on top I usually use white card and if I want to use black gesso I use black card.Tear three to four of the Cuttlebug embossed pieces ROUGHLY so they make a rough frame ie;tear them so they have two straight sides and two will look roughly like an "L"shape that has the centre torn out and the other two a reverse "L" shape.(see the blue "L" shape on the white card below and the white "L" shape on the blue card below).TRIAL them on the base card so you have a framed edge with a central window but don't glue in place yet.Tear more of the centre out if needed.

STEP THREE:Glue the torn Cuttlebug bits in place.I used the blue pieces here so you can see it better

STEP FOUR:Paint over the whole piece using gesso.I have used white gesso below on a white Cuttlebug embossed pieces.Paint the frame and the centre.If the centre bg paper is really pale and you loose it a bit here just wipe off the excess so you can still see bits here and there thru the gesso.The image has only half the card painted so you can see how the gesso blends the torn Cuttlebug pieces and that is what makes the rough feathery edges look seamless.Let it dry or use a heat gun to dry it off and then paint on another layer of gesso.Dry again.

STEP FIVE:Stamp the image you want to use on white tissue with Brilliance Graphite black ink.Heat set the ink with the heat gun.Tear bits of words from an old dictionary,bg words sheet,old music papers or whatever you like to use.Also tear strips of the white tissue and crumble them then loosely straighten them back out

STEP SIX:This part you can do now or after you apply colour but I will do it now for you.Use the watered down PVA glue(white glue that dries clear...if you have Elmer's glue that will do) to glue the words down.Apply the watered down glue under and over the words and use the paint brush to gently push the words into the textured areas.Let it dry.Roughly tear around the stamped image and glue in place using the watered down PVA glue under and over the image.Be gentle here as the tissue may tear.If you do not like where you placed it just peel it up and try again.If it tears just take it off and do it again.Again gently push the tissue into the textured areas.Leave to dry thoroughly.The tissue will become see thru as it dries and that lets some of the bg peer thru.

Now glue the scrunched bits of white tissue down using watered down PVA glue.These bits proved texture to the end piece.Of course this part can be done before painting with gesso,now or after adding colour so don't panic if you forget or you don't want to do this step at all.On the sample below I have only glued the top left scrunched bit in place so far.Once these bits dry paint over them with more gesso to blend them in as I did with the top left piece

STEP SEVEN:now the fun starts.Add paints,inks,chalks or whatever you want to use to add colour to the frame.In the sample below I have left white part uncoloured so I can show what I did in the video.For this one I used a Versamark watermark ink pad and applied a wet coating all over the frame avoiding the words.Next I sprinkled on Artee adhesive powder and activated the adhesive by applying heat from the heat gun.Then I dusted on Pearl-ex powder.Blend the colours so you don't have defined edges.I'm finding if I apply the colours beyond where the edges of the torn Cuttlebug embossed pieces meet and just slightly into the frames area that this too helps the end result look more seamless.Rub a small amount over the words with your finger

On the one below I left a black section uncoloured to use in the video.This time I used black gesso over the Cuttlebug frame.Then I applied a wet coat of Stewart Superior black Palette stamp and stick glue pad.Hit it with the heat gun to activate the adhesive and then dust on LumiArte Polished Pigments Primary Elements.I coloured the Lion with LuminArte Twinkling H2O's.(I need to temper the yellow more on this with some white)These two products used together give a highly pigmented all over shimmery effect

On the next sample I used Daler-Rowney liquid Pearlescent acrylics on the frame.I was aiming for shimmery pale dream like colours.I've fully coloured the frame here and the little horse was stamped on shrink plastic and coloured with the water colour pencils and Twinkling H2O's before shrinking.That bit isn't stuck down as I still need to colour the horse on the stamped tissue part and may not use the shrink horse yet.Also after I painted over the bg paper centre part with white gesso I then painted over that again with Pearlescent white before I glued the stamped tissue image in place.When I use paint I apply a small watered down bit to the words and dab excess off if I need too.

STEP EIGHT:Now to highlight the texture more if you want dry brush on metallic gold paint(I used Jo Sonja pale gold below),rub on coloured rubbing waxes or swipe a dark coloured ink pad over the piece.Of course you can leave that part out if you like but it again seems to tie all the elements together.On the last sample below I did a wash(painted on watered down paint) of Golden Quinacridone Nikle Azo Gold acrylic paint over the white gesso painted frame and around the stamped image.When dry I then did a wash of Golden Dioxazine Purple acrylic paint.The edges were darkened using Adirondack Espresso ink.I think I shall leave him uncoloured and just spray on a little walnut ink or do a gold paint wash to finish it off

STEP NINE: Lastly add embellishments of choice such as keys,page pebbles,words or whatever takes your fancy.Layer it all onto card stock and you are done.No images for that as there are finished samples in previous posts.These would look great as canvas art.I'm thinking of doing some vintage transfers in the frames rather the stamped images as well...or even using family photos for Christmas cards would work too

One More Textured Cuttlebug Card

Hi everyone....well I have about five more textured Cuttlebug cards done and then I think I have them out of my system LOL...well maybe.You see I have used stamped images here as I want to send these to a stamp company owner but you could easily change the centre image to a transfer of a family photo or vintage image etc.Hence (and with Celeste's and her friends Ok) I shall shortly share how I make these.Anyway till I get the time to put that up here is another stamped one.It's an After Midnight art stamp fairy image that I have used.This first photo shows the fairy with her wings flat.Luminarte Polished Pigments used on the Cuttlebug texture so it has super saturated shimmery colour all over.Shrink plastic After Midnight art stamps butterflies and Collections words

Next photo shows the fairy with her wings open...got to love cold laminate for wings

This is the view from the bottom up below....LLLllllove the texture

Next is the view from top left

and lastly from top right...you can see the colour under the wings here.I painted the fairy with Daler Rowney liquid Pearlescent acrylics

I have the how too still photos ready to load but I will also do a short video if I can get a few hours alone to upload as well...stay tuned.