Stampersquest E-Zine Guest Artist Is...

ME and I was so delighted they asked....the full instructions for the canvas I made them are here at Stampersquest e-zine.Bea had some trouble when she loaded the pictures to the e-zine at her end and the contrast looks a bit wonky in some plus they wont open in a new window at the zine.So with her permission I have put them here so you can open them in a separate window if you like.To know what they are about you have to read the article though by clicking on the highlighted red link above that says "stampersquest" :o)
I actually made the canvas in early January before Bea asked me so I had to remake it and take step by step photos for the zine and now I have two canvas's the same.
On some photos I have the thing being photographed on white backgrounds and then repeated the photo on black.The colour shimmers more on black and makes it harder to take a photo without reflecting so that is why there are two front images here as well.

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Ancient Kakadu,Frogs,Flowers and A sketch

We live just 3hours drive from the World Heritage Listed ancient Kakadu National Park.There are some really gorgeous spots out there and we try to get out there at least once a year.We just did a quick overnight stay to go frog spotting with a reptile/frog enthusiast from down south.We stayed in Jabiru at the Crocodile Hotel...it is shaped like a crocodile with a large pool in the centre/stomach.In the day time we visited Nourlangie to have a look at some Aboriginal rock art and go on a bush walk...at Nourlangie there are really old Aboriginal rock art works done in ochre on the rock faces .

At night we went spotting to Nawalndja which is the next mountain and it has a steep inclined rock face that has numerous worn away spots were the Wet season rains have eroded the surface over a hundreds of years.As it is Wet season now it is the perfect time to frog/reptile spot.The next two photos are of a gorgeous cave gecko that has yellow blotches

The proper name for it is Oedura Gemmata

and here is a little frog in a Pandanas tree.Grant tells me his proper name is Litoria Personata

This is a larger type of frog known as the Carpenter frog as his call sounds like someone hammering in a nail.

We saw another one called Litoria Coplandi but the photo of him didn't turn out so good.We drove home again the next day.Behind our block is a Lagoon full of frogs,birds and at this time of the year probably a croc too.Grant took this lovely photo of a cute frog down there known as Litoria Bicolour

On the creative side I did another practice sketch in my A4 sketch book.I have gone over this in black ink so that I can trace it and transfer it easily to a canvas.I'm not good at drawing or painting but I do hope to keep practicing and get better.

At the bottom of the sketch I wrote "put wax print flowers on canvas here".I want it to look like she is burying her hand in flowers.I have allot of those real flower looking stamps and love using my Crayola Portfolio water soluble crayons to stamp them onto canvas and card backgrounds.I do this by rubbing the colour directly on the stamp and then I hit the coloured stamp surface with the heat gun(you can see the colour go from mat to wet looking as the heat liquefies the waxy crayon colour).Straight away I stamp onto the receiving surface repeatedly moving slightly each time forward and then back to graduate the colour and give the piece more depth.You can usually stamp up to three times before you need to apply more colour.The stamp is easily washed with warm soapy water afterward.

This card was made last night very quickly using the wax stamped flowers idea on a an acrylic painted background.I then added some dragonfly brads,painted dressing gauze,printed "Journey" ribbon,some flourish rub ons and a bit of silver gel ink to make a dragonfly trail.It took just ten minutes to make.I don't know why I thought to even try this way of colouring,heating and stamping the images but I love the effect it gives.Of course you don't have to use flowers...any stamp will do but not detailed photo stamps etc.
Before I race of(I'm in my BUSY work week...8 evening shifts in ten days...then three days off next week yeha)I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who saw my last post and sent me e-mails/comments.I do appreciate it,I do feel OK now about it and yes I am over it now.Quite sad its happened to so many others though.

hugs

Annette In Oz

The Tumbling Tide of Time

The end of January is nearly here.Kids will be back at school next week,Christmas and New Years are fading memories and Easter and Valentines draw ever closer....life tumbles on and so do I.About two weeks ago I got an e-mail from Stamper Quest e-zine to be their featured artist for February.I love this e-zine and was surprised and delighted to be asked and said yes.They need me to write a little blurb on me and me to do a project for them with instructions.Their theme for Feb is all things hearts and the colour red.I had been working on a "simple"project when they asked and decided to complete it as my project for them.Some how the simple part ended up being not so simple and it has taken several weeks to get it made.

I can't show you the completed item so will just show you some glimpses.It is a 20cmx25cm canvas that has lots of Angelina fusible iridescent film on it,Opals paper,vintage image,Cuttlebug texture and hand beading.I used the fusible film and Opals to make a large 12cmx14.5cm artificial stained glass window and an After Midnight art stamp double heart image as it's central feature.See below....you can glimpse the vintage image and some words underneath.

Here is the top section

a close up of the sewn on leaves,roses and texture paste bricks

It costs nothing to join the Stampers Quest e-zine mail list and receive the monthly e-zine so if you want to see my article and the completed project plus have access to other projects and info join on up :o).Or skip me and join up anyway LOL

Besides the project keeping me on the go the family have kept me tumbling along with time as well.Tim who is 13 has always wanted a motorbike but the conflict here is that we have a 5acres of natural bush so Grant(alias Mr conservation) was equally hesitant fearing bush destruction.Of course the cost was another draw back.Anyway just after Christmas Tim's friend offered to sell us a 90cc Thumpstar dirt bike for just $150 and it was an offer too good to pass up so we got it for Tim...next was the run around town for helmet,gloves,petrol,making tracks in the bush etc etc.Tim is having a ball though and goes for a ride several times a day.I'm happy he is happy and low and below Grant is OK about it all.Below is Tim on his bike

and the bike on its own

Aaahhh and then in amongst all this I have started painting my Madonna and child drawings for this years Christmas target.I'm onto the seventh one so far.I paint them in my tea break at work which causes some odd comments LOL but I do not mind.Here are the five so far done and sealed ...34 or so to go.

The tumbling tide of time is relentless and I just hope it scoops me up and tumbles me in with some ink and paint :o)

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