A bit of an Update and some Unruly ATC's

Hi Everyone!  I know, I don't post for a fortnight and then you get two posts in one day!  What can I say.....I've been busy with life and this week I will be kept busy with posting some of my latest Design Team Projects.

Like this month at Unruly PaperArts where our theme is 'Stamp it Out'.  We are being sponsored by Darkroom Door which are one of my favorite stamp companies and my goto stamps when I am thinking about making ATC's.

And this month over at Altered Pages we are cross promoting with IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko and were sent some of their wonderful products to play with.

So for my Unruly Post today I combined both my Darkroom Door Stamps and inks from IMAGINE Crafts to create some quick ATC's.

To see my finished ATCs you will have to pop over to the Unruly PaperArts Blog and while there be sure to check out this month's Reader Art Quest Challenge - one lucky winner will win a fabulous prize from Darkroom Door valued at over $75.

So here's a bit of what I have been up to!

Rod's still not good, he is back to the doctor on Friday and off to see the specialist in August.  The swelling in his parotid gland has still not gone down fully and he is in constant pain (painkillers not working) especially when eating anything too hard - four lots of antibiotics haven't brought it under control.    Rod's mum had a fall which had us at the Emergency Department once more, and meant an overnight hospital stay for her.  My mum had an assessment from ACAT (Aged Care Assessment Team).  This assessment was to determine whether she/we qualify for some in home help and respite care which will be a great help to us all in coping with her as her Dementia progresses.  We also had 10 year old Miss H for some respite foster care over the weekend.

In our local town of Casino it was Beef Week which is a bit more than a week long celebration of the main primary industry our town is famous for Beef Cattle.........Miss H had never been so we ventured out for the main days events which included wood chop and whip cracking events, flower and orchid shows, art and photography exhibitions, craft fair and street stalls, bush poets, carnival rides for the kids, a baby animal nursery and a street parade.

Here's a couple of photos for you

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I hope you have a great week!

Create Art - A Quick Canvas Make

Today I am wanting to share with you a quick canvas make which was my first play with one of the beautiful new collage stamps from Darkroom Door.  It's called Create Art.

My canvas is a 5 x 7 inch canvas board.  I chose to do a simple background using my Dylusion Spray Inks and some Stencils.

I started with 3 colors sprayed randomly to color my entire background.  I moved the canvas around allowing it to drip and run and pool.  After a little time to soak in I ran over the ink with a paper towel which lightened the colors somewhat and then dried with my heat gun.

Next I added some stenciled detail using a 4th color of Dylusions Ink and some gesso and after drying this I then stamped my image with Black Archival Ink and embossed with Black Embossing Powder.

To give my canvas more of a framed look around my image and to make the colors pop more I then took my black Dylusions and sprayed using my Mini Circle Explosions Stencil from The Crafter's Workshop. After allowing a few minutes for the ink to soak in I rolled with a paper towel to lighten and dried with my heat gun.

My final two steps were to add some further color to my image with my Inktense Watercolor Pencils and add a couple of Dew Drops from the Robin's Nest for a bit of interest.

My Canvas today is going to take pride and place in my craft room and will be a reminder and a bit of a personal mantra as Creating Art really has been a wonderful sanity keeper and therapy for me over the past few years.

Nature's Gifts - Unruly PaperArts Reader Art Quest

The Creative Prompt for the March Reader Art Quest over at Unruly PaperArts this month is Nature's Gifts.

I have also used inspiration from this months Mood Board to create my Card, using stamps from Darkroom Door.

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Our Columnists Julie and Clare also have two wonderful takes on this months challenge for your inspiration so be sure to pop over to the Unruly Blog to check these out and we'd love for you to play along too.  You have until the 25th of March to link up your entries.

Cards in Envy Red, Pink and/or White Challenge

Hi Everyone!  Hasn't February just flown, I can't believe we are already half way through the month.  I just don't know where the days have gone.   Its been oppressively humid here the past few days, and we are holding out for promised rain which hopefully will cool things down a little.....the weather everywhere around the globe is a bit out of whack isn't it?  I think somewhere on every side of the globe is experiencing flooding, while extreme winter weather, bush-fires and heat have been a feature too.   Let's hope everything settles down soon and people effected can get back to some kind of normal.

It's once again time for a new challenge over at Cards in Envy.

This fortnight we want to see you use the colors of Red and Pink with a touch of White Thrown in too.

My card is using up some paper scraps in from my stash and part of a clear stamp set with is overflowing with beautiful cherry blossoms.  The piece my image is layered on is a piece of an Oriental Collage Background from Altered Pages and the Sentiment is from one of my Darkroom Door Sets.

For more fabulous Red and Pink Inspiration be sure to pop over to the Cards In Envy Blog.

Australia Day and my first Stamp it Out Sunday!

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend so far.  We've had a bit of wet weather the past few days so I have had a chance for a bit of play........and as one of my goals for 2014 is to ink up any of the stamps I own that I haven't used, I've decided I will do at least a weekly post doing just that.  Welcome to Stamp it Out Sunday!

Today here in Australia it is Australia Day and because it is I thought I would start by using a couple of my newer sets from Darkroom Door which is an Australian Owned Company that I haven't used.  I am teaming them up with some Green and Gold to stay in theme too.

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The stamps I have used are from the Carved Birds Volume 1 and Bold Blossoms Sets.  I have used a Gelli Print I had on hand which was done using some Green and Gold Paint and I have added a further touch of yellow with my Gelatos. I have embossed my birds and masked them before stamping my blossoms.  I have added a touch of red with a Big Brush Stamper to the centre of these and used a Yellow Big Brush Marker to highlight some of the features on the birds.  Don't you just love these whimsical birds all piled up on one another?  They are so cute and another stamp I am wanting to use from the Carved Birds Set is one that reminds me of a funky chicken.

Happy Australia Day to all my Aussie Friends!

Day 2 - Five Days of Flashbacks

Welcome back to Day 2 of Five Days of Flashbacks showcasing my crafting throughout 2013.

In March I used up some of my Gelli Prints that I had been madly printing throughout February to make ATC's playing along with the Postage Stamp-Athon early in the month and an Art-Athon over the St Patricks Day Weekend.at ATC's for All.

It would appear March was the month for ATC Making.  This one was using some of my new Australian Animal Stamps from Darkroom Door.

Cards were more in favor in April and I kick started the month with a fun male oriented card for the sketch at Cards in Envy

I used a canvas backwards to create a fun shadow box with my French Country Papers from Graphic 45 for my rooster mad sister whilst playing along with the Altered Pages Challenge.

I hopped as part of the team for the Robin's Nest with my Daisy Days Card.

  

In May I was back to making lots of ATC's participating in a number of ATC Swaps including one called Down by the Sea and a Bee themed one!

I made a Shoe themed banner for the Shoe Challenge at Altered Pages.

And I had a go at carving my own stamps while at a Class at Time to Create and over on the Design Memory Craft Blog I learned a great technique for using Vellum with Gelatos.  This had me almost falling back in love with Vellum.

These flashbacks certainly confirm that my style varies a lot doesn't it?  Thanks so much for stopping by today.

If you would like to see more of my assortment of art throughout 2013, pop back tomorrow for Day 3 of my Five Days of Flashbacks where I will be showcasing some of my work from June, July and August.

Cards in Envy - In the Spotlight Challenge

Hasn't October been flying past at lightening speed, it's already time for another challenge at Cards in Envy. This fortnight we want to see your creation using the spotlight technique.  There is a explanation of this technique and some fabulous inspiration over on the blog so be sure to pop over and take a look.

Here's my card using this technique.

Both image and sentiment stamps are from a the fabulously fun Dark Room Door Set Just my Style. Background Paper is a leftover and I have colored the panel behind my image and sentiment with Distress Stain and Ink.  My Spotlight is colored with Watercolor Pencils.

This is a fun technique and if you haven't given it a go before now's your chance. Come on and join the fun at Cards In Envy.

A little bit green!

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  We had another wet one here, with extreme weather conditions predicted to hang around for the next few days.......not good news when it's the school holidays.  'A' has a camp coming up at the end of the week so we are all praying for fine weather, two planned camps have already been cancelled for him this year so it will be very disappointing for him if yet another one doesn't go ahead.

Today I am sharing with you a couple of creations for swaps happening at AFA  which I have been working on in between lying down and having treatments for my back which has been totally causing havoc for the past week as I can't sit or stand for any length of time.

Playing along with these swaps is purely for the enjoyment and freedom of creating which I love.

The first ATC swap is an Altered Mouse Swap where you are provided with an image of a mouse and you have to alter it in some way.

This is my first card entitled Runaway Bride!  My background is a combination of Gelatos and Stamping, whilst my bride is wearing a beautiful lace ground made from doilies.

The second Swap is a Green themed Chunky Page Swap.  I haven't participated in one of these before.  Here are my four chunkies, but my pictures don't show all the dangles.

This first one is lots of green layers on one of my Gelli Print Backgrounds.

This page is a Watercolor Wash Background and Stamped Foreground using my Gelatos.

An Aussie Themed Page using my Darkroom Door Stamps

A combination of Gelli Prints and Doodling with further embellishment!

Aussie Animal ATC's

Good Afternoon Everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  Today I am sharing a couple of ATC's with you which have allowed me to play with my new stamps that I brought on the weekend whilst attending a wonderful Graphic 45 Projects, class at Time to Create and visiting with all my nearby crafty friends.

The stamps I purchased are some of the latest releases by Darkroom Door, who are one of my favorite stamping companies and they are Australian.  The Set is called Australian Animals Vol 2.

The first one is created using the small kangaroo and joey stamp and I have created this and nine other similar cards for the Yellow, Red and Orange Themed March Swap being hosted by Darkroom Door.

My outback sunrise background has been created simply by smearing and blending my Faber Castell Gelatos in the three colors mentioned above.  The desert plants are actually coral stamps from one of the Darkroom Door Seaside Collections.

My second ATC is using the Koala Stamp, and a various Distress Inks and the Gum Leaves Stamps from another Darkroom Door Set.  This one I have created with an overseas friend who is currently very ill in mind.

31 Day Card Challenge - Days 4 - 8

Hi Everyone!  Because of everything going on both here on my blog and elsewhere over the weekend I didn't post my cards for days 4 - 7  so as promised I am back now to share with you the cards I have made over the past few days playing along with the 31 Day Card Challenge.

Day 5 - Color Aqua

I only had one piece of Aqua paper in my stash so this is what I came up with playing along also with the latest Sketch Challenge at Sketches by Carly.

The Butterflies Stamp is from the Dream Big Itty Bitty Stamp by Unity.  I have stamped in Tempting Turquoise Ink and used a similar color in my Gelato Pens to ink/smooch around the edges.

Day 6 - Technique - Paper Piecing

For this Card I am also playing along with the latest Color Combination Challenge of Tangerine Tango and Old Olive from Dynamic Duos and the Sketchbook Saturday Sketch.

For this card I am using up some of my old Stampin' Up! Papers in the two required colors.  The Pear Stamp and Sentiment are both from one of my Unity Stamp Company KOTM's.  A polka dot flower and some gem stones to finish.

Day 7 - Technique - Embossing

For this Card I started with Sketch #69 from the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and decided to have a bit more of a play with my new Gelatos.

I clear embossed my butterfly and colored over it with a selection of Gelatos.  These same Gelatos were then used to create the dry embossed watercolor look background which my cut out butterfly was mounted to.  I mounted this on my card following the sketch and adding some rhinestones and dew drops to finish.

I am also entering this card into the Stamp Man October Butterflies, Birds and Bees Challenge.

Day 8 - Technique - Spotlight

This is one technique I haven't tried before, I have seen it around, so it was fun to try this one.  I have used one of the ladies from the Darkroom Door Stamp Set Just My Style and colored the spotlight in with my Tria Markers.  I have used an Echo Park Paper and SU Cardstock and Ribbon.

I will be back tomorrow with Day 9 and 10's Cards, until then happy stamping!

Playing Catch Up!

Good Morning Everyone!  We are having about our fifth day of the Sun Shining, (a glorious winter's day) so I am about to go and make the most of it and do some washing but I thought I would do a quick post first.  This past week I have been busy playing catch up with some of my swaps for one of the Swap Groups I belong to.  One of the swaps was to make 2 ATC's using postage stamps in all it took only a few minutes to for this one to come together as the background was already done.

The watercolor background was one I received as part of a Background Swap over at ATC's for All from Margoartist.  To this I then stamped the butterflies (Unity Stamps) and words (Dark Room Door) in black, added a Butterfly Image from my Crafty Individuals and a Butterfly Postage Stamp.  I really love how this came together as I do love bright colors especially using them in Winter and of course I love butterflies.

Tomorrow I will be back with the new Summer Image and Cutting File releases from Platypus Creek and the my DT Project for the next challenge at My Heart Digital Pieces.

I hope you all have a fabulous day!