Hand Made Cards-made sent and recieved!

Merry Christmas.I hope you all had a great day (if you celebrate it).It's been a mad rush here these last few weeks.I decided I couldn't send store bought cards and spent most of my time pre Christmas making hand made cards.Family got cards with Minty the Jack Russel on the top...she paid to have her photo taken with Santa to support the RSPCA.

I've received some lovely cards from my arty friends this year....thank you to you all.This one was made by Louise Magetti from Queensland.

Alice Mc Kinney in Western Australia made this traditional vintage looking masterpiece.

Barb Porritt from Victoria made this amazing T slider construction card.You pull the tab at the right and the centre panel moves up and to the side to reveal a message underneath.I love it!!

Gail Hart from Tasmania made this lovely angel Christmas card and sent me a BIG surprise too.

Kat Palmer made a lovely embossed Christmas themed card.

Sue Gregory used shades of blue on white to make me this pretty long card.

Linda Aldred made this winter wonderland card...snow...I wish LOL.

and lastly but not least Riki Showell stamped and coloured this cute gum nut Christmas card for me.

Along with the Christmas cards there were some late but highly appreciated birthday cards.The first one is from Celeste who has made a lovely bird themed card...love the nest with eggs at the bottom and those cute bird punched shapes.

and Gail made me this gorgeous butterfly,bird and swirls card.

The next one is one I made for my friend Louise Magetti birthday.The hand carved bird stamp image in the centre was made by Jan Harris whom I did several classes with at the Creative Soul Art Retreat earlier this year.During class I had stamped the bird on tissue and then once home forgot about it till I was looking for an image to use on Louise's card.I've painted the bird with Daler Rowney iridescent inks.Polished pigments and Schmincke are on the bg so the card was very rich in colour and shimmer.I had to photograph it side on as it kept reflecting light in areas.

This is what I made for my arty friends this Christmas...sorry if they are still waiting for them but I didn't post some till boxing day!!!

Outside the weather has been WET WET WET.No as bad as the Eastern States were there has been heaps of flooding.Still its made for more magical happenings in the bush block we live on.There are thousands of these termite tubes that have popped up overnight.They are made of dirt and look like natures sky scrappers.I think they do these high because of the rain in case there is flooding.Its the exit for them after they evolve underground.When the time is right they knock the top off and fly away.I know they are a pest but I find it fascinating to see these dirt tubes everywhere.
Of course more mushrooms are popping up too.These orange ones are almost fluro!!!

What would Christmas be without babies being born? The Northern Blue Tongue has given birth to 9 babies.Grant has a handful of them here.

Sometimes I can't see the Forest for the trees and have only just noticed how to upload more then one photo at a time here LOL.I've been thinking I should get too and upload some pf my photos from our trip to Broome in August so now I know how to do more then one photo at a time I shall try to do that after dinner tonight.Tomorrow and the next day I have slotted to play at my desk.I hope 2011 brings you all love,laughter,good health and happiness.

hugs

Annette In Oz

Wet Season-Snails are Back and Loads of Mushroom's

Wet season is in full swing. Hot humid days and thunder storms on and off are the call of day/night. The trees and plants are all green and there is sssooo much moisture every where. Along with the rains my snails are back and lots of mushrooms. My kids painted some snail backs three years ago. Last year three came back. Only the purple one is here so far but who knows how old the others were or if the paint finally wore off. I have no idea how long these snails live but I get a surprise each Wet season when they turn up again :o).

Then there are the mushrooms popping up everywhere. These nestling in a hole in a tree look like some cosmic planet. I love how nature paints any pallet of colour she chooses...blow the colour wheel...red and green here and I love it.

Red and yellow works for this mushroom too.

Even tiny orange mushrooms on moss green looks awesome....Divine!!!

In the pond Grant built we have some night flowering Lillie's. The saturated pink colour of the flowers is ssssooo gorgeous. I don't know why they bloom at night...maybe to attract a type of moth for cross pollination???. In the daytime the day flowering ones come up. They are purple but every time I take a photo of them they look washed out. I'll get Grant to take a shot of them with his camera as it is much better then mine.

The pond is starting to look more natural as the grass grows over the plastic and the bull rushes have come out. I'm hoping we get to do the waterfall next Dry season.

I'm off to do some back exercises and then it's MORE Christmas card making. When it gets too tedious I stop for 1/2 an hr and play with my jewellery...I just can't resist LOL. I have a partly done leaf form, tiny dancer done...she needs some arms...and a curious head of a man peeping thru a key hole. I'm partial to using some odd images and this one is odd LOL.

I've sold some of my other jewellery again. Tiny Dancer and the Copper Cuff have found new homes in the USA. Miss 6 necklace and her older sister cuff are going to a friends Mum for Christmas...hope she likes them. "Pardon" and "The Time Keeper" have found a new home in QLD. How amazing is that?. I'm still pinching myself that people even like my jewellery attempts and ask to buy them at all.....also amazed to set my inner critic free and accept people's offers to buy them...I have said I am not good enough sssooo many times I think I believed it...now I say a humble yes I will sell it and thank you!!!

hugs

Annette In Oz

Gail Hart Is Having a Give Away

Hi all
My dear kind, magical friend and artist Gail Hart is having a give away at her blog.She will give away one of her gorgeous hand made glass beads...in this case a very beautiful fish.Gail makes amazingly gorgeous lamp work glass beads and sells her work in galleries so you can imagine the quality.I have some of her beads and they are sssooo yummy to look at,touch and wear!!.So go on over and enter and be in awe of her like me :o)
hugs
Annette In Oz

Specimen # 1

When I was small I believed in fairy's that I imagined lived in the garden outside.I would write them notes sprinkled with glitter and try to set traps to capture one.Of course the fairy poem my Mum told me enforced this as a child.Even as an adult I never forgot them and often drew them and made up stories about them for my own children....as well as remembering and telling them the fairy poem of my youth.This little necklace has captured a fairy at last.She fought being caught and I had to sand her back 6 times,till finally she shone out of the resin...caught and caged...a true first specimen of my fairy.


She has gossamer wings and hides behind thin fibres...her gaze melts the human heart.She nests in amongst the tree branches.

I've had a HARD year and choose to believe in fairies again.....just for now.Rare and special just like us all :o)

hugs

Annette In Oz

For The Boys

I've been trying to get into making Christmas cards but all the lovely ice resined bezels on my desk keep side tracking me.Yesterday I couldn't resit them any more LOL and made some "manly" necklaces...or maybe man themed necklaces as I would wear them myself!!!.I had the large used old bullet for ages and used it with an old Police badge plus a resin bezel with a vintage man inside.A brass base,sterling silver wire and a brass spike dangle to finish it off.

A bit closer...I've since moved the center dangle on the bullet to the left as it was too far to the right.

Then I made a simple necklace.The black metal bezel has a gorgeous little key hole in the centre with a vintage man looking out.I used three layers of resin and each time added some tiny little watch parts.It has more depth in real life then I can photograph.I just added a lined black cord with magnetic clasp as the necklace and kept it all simple.

Closer.

Grant was cleaning the verandah this morning and found this gorgeous Merten's water monitor behind a storage cupboard.We see the monitors rarely these days as their numbers have been badly affected by the cane toads, so it was great to have this one turn up.

I really need to get these cards done.....maybe I should hide all the bezels to stop me getting distracted LOL.

hugs

Annette In Oz

The Bird Cage

Thanks everyone for your kind words and encouragement. Here is my latest necklace The Bird Cage. It took me a few days to nut out. I decided to TRY and make a rivet type of bird cage. In error I used a brass tube that was too tiny in the inner diameter for me to flair and use as a proper rivet. So after getting quite frustrated with myself and thinking I would just toss all the tube parts I had cut with my jewellers saw, I adapted the error and used wire to connect the tubes instead. Not as neat as the gorgeous bird cages I have seen made by the clever Jen Crossley's or Christine Atkin's but hey I am still new to all of this :o). I'm hoping Jen and Chris teach this one soon as I love the look of them and I love taking classes with Jen....to get to a class with both is my dream!!.

A bit closer.

It's quite fiddly and hard to make but I still loved the end result....hey and no ice resin in sight this time LOL. The bird inside does swing and heavy dangle at the bottom helps it stay level.

Just need to trim a few wire ends closer with my flush cutter I think.

Hugs

Annette In Oz

Etched Copper Cuff

I etched a design into copper and left it awhile.It has a rich red tone to it.I decided to keep this cuff simple so just used a gently bent Vintaj frame as a bezel and added a lovely blue butterfly image and then filled it with Ice Resin

View from the sides.

I'm so excited to say I've just sold 2 of my necklaces.I've never sold anything before and when I was approached by an admirer of my humble jewellery attempts on line I wasn't sure what to do....but decided to sell them in the end.I am chuffed someone likes my work well enough to ask to buy it and excited to think of others wearing my jewellery...it was made for wearing after all!!.So tomorrow "pardon" and "time keeper" are off to new homes and I have a little money more for supplies...AWESOME!!!!

I need some feed back here......uuuummmm who am I as a jewellery maker and seller....like I'm thinking "rustic CHIC" or "connected in time" as Annette In Oz is the whole me but who am I for making a tag or something for my jewellery.Any help greatly accepted.

HUGE HUGS

Annette In Oz