Saturday 31 August 2013

Crocodile Rock

Hi again, today! Couldn't help myself... had a burst of inspiration after a 3-hour session of solid gardening, and just had to do this card for the Lollipop Ladies: http://thelollipopladies.blogspot.com.au/  where the challenge inspiration is lolly crocodiles with the addition of washi tape. What fun! Crocodile Rock immediately came to mind, and this is  what my card is based on.


The image is a Clip art one, downloaded in colour, but I've gone over it using Lyra pens, to intensify the colour. I use Publisher a lot when doing Word Art, so this is how I was able too make the circles around the image. The Lyras were also used to colour the background beneath the words. For some of the 'Rock and Roll' glitter I've painted the background around the croc with 3D stamping paint.  The words 'You Rock' were written with a permanent fine point. The washi tape has been used around the outside of the circle, and has been randomly pleated.
I had a lot of fun doing this. It was relatively quick, once I had found the suitable image.
Thank you for visiting.
Cheers, Di

Old Schoolhouse

Hi! Welcome on a lovely sunny morning. I've been having heaps of fun, popping around to many challenge sites and seeing what is happening. There have been some stunningly, awesome arts of work created using techniques and combinations of techniques that I'm itching to try myself.  I love changing it up and trying new things so my forays into different challenges have been rewarding for me. Today I'm showing you my layout for Archiscraps: http://archiscraps.blogspot.com.au/ where the beautiful inspirational image was of a delightful stone brick house with window boxes full of flowers. The additional element was to be flowers.
I've chosen to  some of the colours from the image, mainly soft browns, pinks and mauves.

 
The photograph is of the old schoolhouse in Richmond, Tasmania. This was built in 1835. It is a lovely old building, surrounded by trees and gardens with annuals and perennials. At the time of our visit, there were only a few plants flowering. It would be lovely to revisit the garden when flowers were in bloom as I suspect that there was a wisteria in there which would have made a beautiful show in spring.
The background cardstock is from Coredinations Whitewash Collection. This was lightly sanded then smooshed with Distress Inks (Antique Linen and Weathered Wood). Stamping  of agapanthus flowers (I always think of  them as being a feature in cottage gardens) was done in archival. Because of the corrugated texture of the background card stock, these didn't print as cleanly, but I really liked the shadowy effect. Tattered Florals die was used for the flowers. The brown-toned large flower was made from squishing flowers and leaves, sandwiched between watercolour paper, through the cuttlebug and leaving to dry. This technique gives a beautiful paper that can be used for backgrounds as well as for die cuts. The remainder of the flowers were cut from a fairly fussy floral paper, that I've had for some time and hadn't found a use for (until now).
At a play day at my good friend Julie's: http://timetocreate-handmadetreasure.blogspot.com.au/  where we were shown how to use a melt pot and then had a fabulous time using it with different techniqes, we were introduced to the delights of free form melting. I absolutely fell in love with this. I loved the randomness and the extra 'unexpecteds' when you dropped in additional colours of embossing powders and stamped into the hot  piece. One of my free form pieces looked like a trellis scattered with flowers... just perfect for this layout.
 
 
 
I had fun doing this and hope to join in this challenge again.
 
Thank you for dropping by. Thank you once again for your lovely comments. Catch you again soon. Cheers, Di.
 
 


Friday 30 August 2013

Fairy Door Hanger


Hi and thanks for stopping by. This challenge piece for ABAC at http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/  is about fairies. The photo of the fairy was taken of a gorgeous metal woodland fairy I bought a couple of years ago. her wings are made from loosely woven twigs, so of course she had to have  woodland setting.



The door hanger is a piece of plywood which was painted with a thick layer of gesso and then sprayed with blue and red dylusions sprays. The large mushrooms, leaves and the snail (hand carved from rubber) were stamped onto some background papers which had been smooshed with Distress Inks, and then cut out. The wooden mushies and small leaves, were  plywood embellies from Prima....  love this range! I've also added a gum leaf chippie, real gumnuts and flowers diecut from glassine paper. All of the ply and chipboard embellies were painted with 3D stamping paint. A piece of seam binding helped to secure the gumnuts in place. My fairy door hangr is ready for use.

Thank you for stopping by and for leaving your encouraging comments.
Cheers, Di

Thursday 29 August 2013

Sea Surge

Hi again! Another quick  post. This time, it's for The Studio Challenge Blog: http://thestudio.amandajonesdesigns.com/ where the challenge was to use 3 or more photos.I've kept the page fairly simple to accommodate the photos used.

 
The paper under the photos was a piece of handmade paper done by a local artist. She had small rolls for sale at a local craft show and I fell in love with this piece, as I could see I would have many uses for it. (Lots of water photos waiting to be scrapped!)
The chipboard flourishes were inked and stamped and finished with glossy accents. Cork starfish have been glittered with Kindy Glitz. The photos were taken in the Port MacDonnell area, South Australia.
Thank you for visiting. Cheers, Di
 

Wednesday 28 August 2013

Purity

Hi! I'll be putting up a couple of very quick posts today as I've decided to have a go at some different challenges. The first one is for 1,2,3 Get Scrappy: http://123getscrappy.blogspot.co.nz/ where they are using a tic, tac, toe board, choose three in a row for use on a project.
I have gone with: butterfly, free (pearls and bling) and lace.


The flowers are gardenias from my garden. The butterflies have been  cut from a piece of acetate and have been heat embossed on (a piece from my stash bought some years ago). The title was written with liquid pearls.

Thanks for stopping by. Catch you again soon.
Cheers, Di

Monday 26 August 2013

Watercolour

Hi and welcome.
Watercolour has been the inspiration for this month's challenge at ARTastic:
http://artasticchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/    This has been an interesting idea to play with. I have dabbled with watercolour paintings over the past years (self-taught) and decided to use one of my earlier attempts as part of my layout.
The background was an embossed cardstock, washed with a very wet wash of blues, reds and yellow watercolour paints. The watercolour painting looked too harsh against the background, so I tore the edges to soften the appearance.




 Aquarells were added to the background to extend both the  painting and the photograph, so that it melded together more. Some stamping ( Darkroom Door 'Foliage') completed the layout.




 
The photo is part of the beautiful Japanese Garden at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden in Hobart. This is a beautiful garden, a place of tranquil beauty. The ducks were cut from another photo taken in the  grounds of a motel on the Derwent River at Rosetta, near Hobart.  The white duck is a resident but is often joined by other ducks and seagulls. It was a very inquisitive duck and wandered around the property, popping its head through open doorways as if to say 'Hello. What are you up to?'  It gave us quite a laugh when we were photographing it, as it had the most pronounced waddle we'd ever seen. We are keen to go back to Tassie to  explore more.
Thank you for visiting and for leaving your comments. I look forward to reading them.
Cheers, Di
 


Saturday 17 August 2013

Sun Fun

Hi and welcome. Today's layout is showing photos of  2 of my nieces and self (aged 4 years). These 2 are the closest to me in age, being 11 months and about 2 years younger (yes I was an aunty at 11months). I didn't know these photos existed until the day of my sister's funeral, when I was given 2 small photos (blown up for this layout). There was no information about where these were taken, but the when was probably after Christmas in 1955 or early 1956, because the doll I'm carrying was a Christmas present that year.
I'm glad the photos came into my possession although in sad circumstances, as they brought back many fond memories I had of spending time with my sister and her family. I know I often spent time with them especially after they moved to the tiny seaside village of Hastings Point on the far north coast of NSW. I knew that my foot was bandaged and it wasn't until tonight, that I remembered having trodden on a nail, and having to have my foot wrapped.... no such things as stretchy bandages then. It would have been made from cut / torn old sheet, and boiled in the copper to sterilise it. I really enjoyed my visits, as my nieces were more like younger sisters, my own siblings having all grown up and working, at this time.


I've gone with the bright colours of summer, with the backgroud papers and flowers. Some of these were commercial,  the rest were handmade, diecut from experiments using the gelli pad and gesso, acrylics and sprays.

 


Acrylics were used on the chipboard flourish and butterfly. These were then finished with glossy accents. The same product was also used on the lettering for the title.  The butterfly was also glued onto organza ribbon, trimmed and   completed with bits of bling. I found a tiny doll in the stash and dressed her in a folded flower.  

 


I am entering this layout into the ABAC Challenge, Summer  Fun inspired at:
http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/

Thank you for visiting. i  hope  you come again.
Cheers, Di
             

Thursday 15 August 2013

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head!

Hi and welcome. The challenge at Lets Get Shabby :  http://letsgetshabby.blogspot.com.au/
is about green and foliage.
For some years now, during the summer months, we are visited by Tawny Frogmouths, which spend a good part of their daylight hours sleeping. When they are awake through the day, they can be seen stretching and sometimes changing branches to get more comfortable. On wet days, they can be seen snuggling up to each other trying to keep warm. We have a Giant Strelitzia in the garden, and when it rains, the tawnies are usually under the shelter of its large leaves and fairly dry... very clever of them!


With this layout, I have used several green-toned papers, torn them. distressed the edges and inked. I've added hand-painted leaves (gessoed cardstock, sprayed, added acrylics and distress stains) and a chipboard tree. Hidden journalling has been held in place with a brad.
Thank you for visiting and for your encouraging comments.
Cheers, Di

Saturday 10 August 2013

A Sweet Challenge

Hi and welcome. I've been popping around different challenge sites and came across this interesting one, where inspiration comes from lollies / sweets! Pop over to: http://thelollipopladies.blogspot.com.au/ to have a look.

 I couldn't resist the temptation and put a card together using white cardstock misted with Perfect Pearls 'Kiwi" Mist (just love this colour). 




The colours and shape of the lollies in the inspiration image are reflected in my Iris Folding. Thickers painted with 3D Stamping Paint, star-shaped buttons and bling have completed the card.
Thank you for visiting,
Cheers Di

Thursday 8 August 2013

Crafty Colleagues and a Blogging Anniversary!

Hi and welcome. Today is the anniversary of my first year of blogging, and what a journey it has been! It's been a marvellous opportunity for me to discover so many wonderfully talented artists who share similar interests and passions. Blogging has opened up a whole new world of exploration and the chance to extend myself in directions I never thought I would.
Thank you to all who have visited my blog and left comments this past year. This has let me glimpse your world, something I truly enjoy doing.
Today I'd like to share with you the inspiration image and my DT piece for Pixels and Paper Challenge blog.


 
Inspiration image of our second challenge.
 
 

 
My take on the challenge
 
The background is second generation stencilling. This I do by using gesso and spraying with Dylusion inks and while wet, lifting off and flipping the stencil over onto a new piece of card stock. Sometimes I add a further layer of gesso and sprays. I love this method of stencilling, because you never know what you'll end up with.I'm building up quite a store of my 'what if' experiments.
This particlar background went perfectly with the colours the lovely ladies were wearing. I decided, that since I had absolutely no photos of bathing belles, that I would concentrate on the eyes. This inspired my layout, with the photograph forming the 'pupil'. To tie in further with the sea theme and colours, I outlined the eye shape with buttons, braid and fibre (eyelashes) and used the same fibre for a seaweed effect.
The photo is of  a group of my former workmates and self, at a craft weekend, Lennox Head; a beautiful beachside spot near Ballina, NSW.
Thank you for visiting and if you are interested pop over to the Pixels and Paper blog page at:
http://pixelsandpaperchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/ and see what the rest of the DT have done for this challenge. Maybe you'd like to join us. We'd love to see your work.
Catch you later. Cheers, Di
 

Friday 2 August 2013

Christmas in July

Hi! Oops! I almost forgot about this one! Well.. it has been one of those weeks! However, son is recovering quite well from his knee op. and is now navigating without crutches.
Christmas in July is something I don't normally do, but I have been very interested in seeing what the DT and other crafters have been up to for this challenge at:http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/




I started with some heavily textured cream paper cut into a tag and painted 3D stamping paint over it (red and copper). This was put onto a red card stock background. I added some pieces of leftover papers from previous Christmas projects, and started layering. Stars were die cut from card stock, vellum and mirror board which had been alcohol inked. Metal stars, sequins, snowflakes and washi tape were added. Affirmations and image have come from Darkroom Door Filmstrips and Wordstrips.  
This is a very short post. Will catch up with you again soon.
Thanks for stopping by, and thank you for your positive comments and words of encouragement.
Cheers, Di