ATC making...

Its been busy a week but so nice to have a long weekend for Anzac Day. I felt so sorry for those diggers [and the driver] who got mowed down by the runaway jeep at one of the ceremonies. Ironic that you survive being in a war and but nearly get killed marching in remembrance for your lost mates.

I've been fiddling around making Atc's. One of my groups posted a challenge to make faux metal, so here are mine.... lots of fun this and lots of experimentation.Its very hard to get decent pics , they are very shiny and look very metally in real life.
Basically i used silver card and turned over and embossed with a biro, just going over and over like this....



Then i applied black stazon and sanded back with wet and dry. I applied different colors of alcohol inks[sunburst orange is great rusty color] and some distress ink which takes bit to dry.


i am leaving this one as is, don't think it needs anything...i know pink sunflowers...artistic licence ]]]


With this tree one , i was drawing my my tree with card on the base of of one of those plastic black liners that come out of the green bags. It had a checky pattern and the tree and leaves came up dotty which really suited it...
the lovely images come from Suzie Que. I was really saddened to hear she died recently , I didnt know her personally but she was very generous with her freebie images.

And these are some others , using this painted technique i found in Bernie Berlins book[finally ordered myself a copy after drooling over a friends copy.]
i just love doing this...you gessoe lightly a magazine image and then outline in waterproof marker, then paint, texta, color in with pencils...i used water color pencils

Freddy, Ursula and Nero = FUN

Cat image from land of nod.
borders from Astrid McLean.


Ruby Red Shoes.... 2/2



p.s. tell me if this fonts too hard to read and i'll change it...

March Dress up ........ a leeettle late!

March sort of go away on me and even though i started this dress at the start of march , here it is half way through April and no idea what to do for April !!
so guess what,that may be late too!lol

Lucy made me the birdcage for this dress, shes so good with twisting wire into wonderful quirky things! i gessoed it, then painted it with brown and orange paint and sprinkled on cinnamon, most of which came off in the attaching.
We spent an afternoon making birds too from masking tape but the birds that i had in my head came out on the cover of CPS. i couldn't believe it!
anyhow, then i decided on a print out and some dangly beads.... see the meshy stuff underneath, luey wrecked one of those bathroomn fluffy scrubber things , its got heaps of fabric in it and was perfect for this.
The lovely leafy tissue paper is from Blue Bazaar.

I have been really enjoying visiting all the dressups, i love seeing everybody's interpretations and some of the materials used.


We had some drama just after Easter. First day back to work hubby was moving some metal furniture and it slipped and gashed his forearm. A tourniquet, ambulance and lots of stitches later, he was a bit sore and sorry for himself. Hes been a good patient up until now and is driving us nuts ;(( of course it should be healed after two weeks and everything working properly [doesn't have full use of his little finger] and no pain! they put 6 stitches into the muscles so i think it might take a while, he was lucky he only scraped the tendons. I cant look at it, never could be a nurse so lucy has done a fine job cleaning it.


And lastly but not least look at this fabulous Loot that i won when Tina had a giveaway in honor of grandmother recently. I couldn't believe it when it arrived this week, i just kept pulling it out and covered the kitchen table with it. All sorts of papers , stickers images,ticket stubs, you name it was in there!! THANK YOU Tina , you are very generous!!

Happy Easter everyone...

I hope you all having a wonderful Easter break...Its been so nice not to go to work and sleep in most days, having four days off is such a luxury. I decided i needed a project and started sanding the kitchen table . I bought the paint on Saturday and have it all undercoated. Of course there have been lots suggestions on how to paint it but i have a plan :)


It was given to us as a housewarming pressie 20 years ago and had the top redone, so it was a lighter pine than the legs. Over the years it has accumulated a lot of dints, paint, glue [i throw a table cloth over it when we have guests!!] and even a little carving.

Luce did this when she was five ...

I was very cross at first but secretly thought how clever she was to carve her name out so well. lol. I found it again buried under layers of paint. I could've sanded it off but its a been a part of this table for so long, it brings back happy childhood memories of all the things we used to make on this table. still do!!

Bendigo has its usual celebrations going on over Easter and there are people and cars everywhere. For the first time in forever we didn't have an Easter egg hunt this year, and neither did Charlie. The locusts would've eaten them anyway !! We have a huge locust plague here at the moment, it looks like snow flakes floating down the street. Added to that there is invasion of fruit bats that have moved into the Park in town. Now if the fruit bats ate the locusts.......

I have to say that one thing that has really made me mad over Easter is the stupid chinese tanker that decided to take a shortcut through the Great Barrier Reef, not only running aground on a rare coral reef but dispersing several tonnes of oil, and looks like much more to follow. What is it with these people, they didnt even have a pilot on board and did not have permission to be there in the first place. IDIOTS!
Our reef is a national park and a migratory path for the whales and dolphins. They say they will fined up to a million dollars, thats not a penalty, thats a slap on the wrist........makes me mad that something that could be so easily avoided will do so much damage to the already vulnerable reef and tourist industry.

Something i wanted to share too was when i went into work on Thursday, Fayzie had a little basket of the abvove goodies and was handing them out to everyone. Something so simple brought a smile to everyones faces especially as it was 9 till 9 sale day, certainly put me in a good frame of mind. Faye always does realy neat stuff like that, her desserts are to die for!