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!

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.

WOYWW #235

I've missed the past few weeks so I thought I would make an effort today to drop in on all the WOYWW fun as I probably won't get a chance to in the coming weeks as we head towards Christmas.

Don't have a clue what I am on about head here to Julia our WOYWW hosts blog.

My Christmas Spirit is yet to arrive, so I'm desperately trying to get some last minute cards made, and have managed to make a couple using my gelli prints or papers that aren't traditional Christmas papers teamed with some beautiful vintage collage images from Altered Pages.

On my desk are stamps from two of my newest stamp set purchases (Darkroom Door and Unity) along with an unfinished Canvas (you can see the bottom half at the back of my desk).  All that I have done so far with it is the background which is lots of layers of color, stenciling, stamping, misting and torn paper and washi tape.  You may also notice a couple of new Art Stamps to the right of my craft mat which Altered Pages has just released (the clock and basket weave texture stamp)  These were sent to me along with a few others recently to try.  There is also some Left over Angels from one of the collage sheets and speaking of angels there are a couple of art doll shapes which I recently gesso'd  towards the back resting against my Gelatos.  I am planning on using this doll shape to make more angels like this.

As I type this post, I have inky fingers due to my morning play at making my own papers and using them with some stamping for colorful one layer card designs.  The photo below unfortunately doesn't show the shimmer of the marbled foil which is randomly scattered across the page.

Coming back to my workspace in general, last week I managed to get some more reorganizing done, as I purchased 50 DVD Cases to store my Cling Mounted Rubber Stamp Sets in.  I rearranged my larger sets too which are housed in A4 document cases to another shelf to make room and tidy up a bit.  I still have the job of labeling each set so I know at a glance what is inside each case.  And probably need about another 50 DVD cases to finish the job as I still have a few rubber sets and a tonne of clear sets to re-home.  My weakness is stamps and even though I had a big cull a while back (mostly of my wood mounted stamps) I own way to many......lol.  I think I may have to make it my creative goal next year to use every stamp set at least once.

Happy Mail arrived last week too, as seen here on my other work-desk.

There was 2 x '40 for 40' Birthday Cards from Claire (a fellow WOYWWer) and some ATC returns for a couple of recent swaps over at AFA I was in.

Anyhow that's about it for me today!  If you pop over to Altered Pages a bit later today (Wednesday) you will see a Christmas ATC I made using another pair of angels from the beautiful Vintage Collage Sheet shown above which totally captured my heart.  

I hope you all have a wonderful week and a Happy WOYWW!

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!