Shrines...

Not long now till I fly to NZ for Jessie's retreat AND I get the meet the amazing Annette Husband! I have known this talented lady for years, have been fortunate enough to be in various swaps with her and now we get to meet - how awesome is that!

So the theme is Shrines - I have always wanted to have a play and bought some ages ago from Natalie at Scraptivate - finally made some! On this one there are some Scrapware wings which have been fantasy film'd and beads! Love beads! The shrine is 2.5 x 2" - very much in my comfort zone - the one we are doing is huge like 12" high!! Now that will be daunting for me!

And another...

I am so glad I have had a 'play' with my shrines - even though they are tiny in comparison to the ones we are doing at retreat, they are still a lot of fun!

I cannot wait till I get there and see all my Kiwi friends

Steam Punk inspired bracelet...

Steam Punk - my new favourite at the moment! Did a swap last year and up until then never heard of it - then went to Ironfest at Lithgow and the theme was Steam Punk - hooked ever since! I made this piece with chain maille in mind - clever old me :)

July - Elizabeth

The theme for this swap was 'Elizabeth' - first of 6 months with some very interesting themes - on this one I have used my Cuttlebug embossing folder Queen of hearts on a background I made using Starburts stains from Lindys Stamp Gang, then sanded the embossed background. Stamped Liz onto some textured white card and spritzed her with some glimmermist - made the flower from newspaper using Tim Holtz dies and did a Jane Clark technique with spritz sprays, heatgun and scrunching (lol) added some Collection scrabble alphas for the name - German Scrap (of course) highlighted with antique gold gilding wax and the small coin used in the centre of the flower which was also rubbed with gilding wax and some Stazon was one of 6 items which we received and have to use one on each project for the next 6 months - so off to NZ it goes and looking forward to receiving lots of yummy art in return...

Mystery swap

We received this cut out shape and had to decorate to our hearts content - UTEE, micro beads, wing, german scrap, just some of my favourite things - didn't really want to part with it, but I reckon it went to a very loving home :)

Blog revamp

hmmm seems like I have been neglecting my blog - well a little make-over should cure that! Life has been 'interesting' lately and right now I am thoroughly enjoying the ride! My mojo may be on vacation but my craft purchasing has not - thinking a good clean up of the craft room and actually unpacking all those bags of crafty goodness on the floor will quickly rectify my lack of creativity and the fact that Jess has signed me up for more swaps is sure to get me into gear! I am attending a mega huge retreat in a few weeks at HV and also organising one for next year with Vickie which has blown out of proportion, so just a bit excited about that!!

Borders, Butterflies, Flowers, Glitter and Pink...

I don't like pink, never have! I think my mother used to dress me in a lot of it when I was young and I just never got over it - LOL....
Anyway using Scrapware I painted the pieces with acrylic ink and heated them. Also painted the German Scrap too.  Glitter and gem stones were added to the pieces and some glossy accents to the butterfly. I carefully put some holes in the top to thread some wire through to make a hanger - think this one will make its home at my Grandmothers place :)

Steam Punk Time

I have been playing with cogs from Scrapware and distress EP by Tim Holtz and loving the rusty look you get. With just a bit of Jo Sonja's Aqua acrylic paint sponged on and some copper gilding wax added here and there. The Alphas and Clock Hands were painted with the Aqua acrylic paint and highlighted with the gilding wax too. I added some wire and made a hanger for this piece. The corrugated card on the outside of the 6 x 6 memory box was given to me at a camp and I highlighted it with various paints and gilding waxes to this this finish. I also had these large studs in my stash which looked really cool.

NZ Collective Artitude

I was fortunate enough to be asked By Jessie to teach at an art retreat in NZ - how cool for me!! I had the most wonderful time getting to know these ladies and was blown away by their generosity and kindness. There was some amazing talent there and so many new friendships were made. It was really sad to leave and more so saying goodbye to Jessie and Jinny my new best friend.

Jinny was kind enough to accommodate us and ferry us around Wellington - we had the best time and did all the girlie stuff, shopping, eating, shopping - you get my drift!! I love NZ went there with the family NYE 2009 and squeezed in a day of sightseeing with Jessie back then it was great. This time we did all the junk shops and 2nd hand shops and art shops - something that none of our husbands would have enjoyed - it was the best!!

I have uploaded the classes I taught over the weekend and Jessie also showed us how to made gorgeous canvas paper and Katherine shared her skill with the Wire jig and also made everyone a charm with their initials on it. The goodie bags were the most AMAZING I have ever seen and everyone was so excited - well done Jessie, Jinny, Yvonne and Carole - you all did a fabulous job with putting this camp together - give yourselves a pat on the back!!

One thing I found amusing in NZ was how everyone thought our accent was funny and wanted to know where we were from - They all knew Sydney but not the Blue Mountains. We met one lady in an art shop at Greytown near Paua World who has a brother that owns a shop in Leura - what a small world we live in.

So all in all a great time was had and I am missing my new Kiwi friends already....

Wall Hanging

With this piece the girls used lots of UTEE, Scrapware, German Scrap and Fantasy film to create this wall hanging. The whole thing only measured 13cm x 5cm.

Decorated Wooden Box

Jessie asked me to decorate this wooden box and that it was going to be auctioned off on the weekend. I was blown away by everyones response - It is now sitting pretty in Yvonne's shop in Levin NZ Hare to Stamp N Scrap! I have used tonnes of Scrapware on it, click on the pic to see close up

Paper mache box

Using Scrapware's ATC frame and fantasy film the girls made this as well which incorporated German Scrap, mini micro glass beads and some radiant rain - makes for a lovely gift box for someone special.

Chandelier Canvas

The final class I taught in NZ using Scrapware's Chandelier that has been painted and highlighted with gold and a layer of UTEE was added for the glossy look. UTEE was also incorporated around the edges. It was amazing to see all the different finished artworks created by these lovely ladies - well done girls....

Scrapware Memory Boxes

So here is my first DT contribution for Scrapware. These memory boxes are great, you get satisfaction out of making it as well as decorating it. I also love how they are so lightweight and you can hang them anywhere. You can check out what I used and also see some other great ideas on the Scrapware blog.

Scrapware Design Team

I am really excited to be a part of the the DT for Scrapware! I have always loved chipboard and now I have another good reason to keep using it! Thanks to Ange for giving me the chance to be a part of a great team. I have been checking out some of the other DT members and they all do amazing work.  On the team also is Linda Baldock and Gilly Lester who I know personally so I am super excited about working with these two! I have added a list of all the DT Members so that you can check out their work too! They are all amazing and I am looking forward to getting to know them better through the Scrapware community. Oh, and some of these girls including Ange are going to Camp Mojo next year, so we get to meet for real - woohoo....

Mini Memory for Chris

The theme Chris chose was purple and wings - so I made this piece for her - I love the intense colour from the fantasy film. Hopefully I will be able to catch up with her soon after a few failed attempts of delivering it to her - not long now Chris....

Heart Swap

This is my contribution for the Heart Swap that I am in - I love how the Scrapware chandelier fit perfectly on the wooden heart that I had in my stash - it only needed minimal trimming (Sorry Angela) hope my swap partner likes it....

Mini Memory for Mel

Melissa's mini memory was any theme using blue and aqua. This one came together well because they are colours I like to use. The butterflies are actually wrapping paper and I layered them on top of some Scrapware

Trizzy

Believe

My good friend Linda made the flower while I was visiting her the other day and I thought it would look good on a mini canvas. This one is 2 x 3". I have used the back of the canvas to frame the artwork.


Trizzy

Mini Memory for Rhonda

Rhonda's theme was 'Children - cream, gold & white' - I love using UTEE and with the right stamps you can get an amazing depth. These are not colours I am confident using so again I struggled with starting this one. I was quite pleased with the end result and even got to use some mini-micro glass beads on the image - hope Rhonda likes it...

Trizzy