PLAYING WITH FRIENDS

Yesterday, I joined in by proxy with my dear friend Bevlea,Lucy, Glenda and Elizabeth..all at Bevlea's, to experiment with one of Kelly Rae Roberts projects from her book "Taking Flight" ( Wagga Wagga is 6 hours away from Bevlea's house...too far for a day trip...even for a crow..vbg)

I struck a disastrous hiccup though when I burnt my clay pieces, so I thought I was going to have to get some more clay today to re-do them.(TIP: never get engrossed in other things when cooking polymer clay!)

However, I saw them in a different light today and decided that I could resurrect them by painting them over.

I had planned on using a canvas board as the base and infact, had one ready to go, but I found a piece of old pine, almost the correct, size out amongst my "treasures" in the back shed, and decided to use it instead, as Kelly herself had used a piece of wood.

It's a little off square but I think that adds to it's character,and I like the way it stands without support.

I am not very good at "copying", so my finished project is well and truly tainted with my own style, altho' you should be able to see Kelly's ideas as the base of the work.

Four Calling Birds

I made this "bauble" for a "Twelve Days Of Christmas" swap run by my friend Linda B.
There were 12 of us in the swap, with only 3 of us being Aussies, the rest from the UK.
I used more of my CC technique paper,run thru' the Cuttlebug,gold embossed and then dotted it with Kindy Glitz.
Added a bird's head,German Scrap Wings and a piece of border as a crown.
Feathers,and a glass heart bead finish it off. The number 4, which I cut from a Cuttlebug die,is attached with a fishing swivel.It is embossed using craft glue as the adherent to give a chunky finish.
Gold paper covers the back, with images of 4 birds calling Santa on the phone.I added coiled red wire for the phone cord.

My Sanity

Mixed Media Wall Hanger

This is something else I made whilst in hospital recently.

I used a quarter of a fabric table napkin as the background, and added an image of Lina (again..vbg) that I printed onto Calico, stitching it in place by adding other forms of embellishments, which I have described in the close-up info under this.

I wandered out into the beautiful hospital grounds to search for, and found, the right twig to use as the hanger, which I anchored to another twig, hidden in a pocket at the top, with copper wire, and finished that off with wire coils,made by winding the wire around a darning needle.

I added feathers and three glass flower beads on coiled copper wires to the bottom of the hanger.

Click on images to enlarge.

This is a close-up that shows the embellishments I used. Grape vine tendrils from my last summer's vine. Little fabric flowers that were on a vintage bridal head garland,which I rusted,along with the old lace at the top.

I also used a piece of white paper doily,a strip of music sheet and a piece of paper that I made using the credit card technique. I stitched these on rustically with gold metallic thread.

Feathers,pearl spray,gold grape vine trim (on left,over pearl spray) and a paper image of a little bird finished her off.

Big Girl Panties !

Not only did I do the series of bird ATCs called "Freedom" whilst languishing in my "pent-house suite" for two weeks, I also made eleven other ATCs , just for fun...and because I could...vbg.

I pondered as to whether I should risk boring everyone (those of you who are reading this) by uploading all of them, but, as this is my "learning curve" period, I decided to take that risk in the attempt to learn more about blogging...so....please bear with me while I struggle thru' this stage...vbg.

My dear friend and tutor of all things cyber that I don't understand, has done her darndest to see that I "get it" so I am obligated to pass this test!

So dear "Mary"...I have my "big girl panties on" and here goes!!..vbg

SPYING EYE

Rusted paper,fabric paper and copper border sticker strips surround a square image of Lina on a hand dyed watercolour paper back-ground,with added rusted cog and dragonfly embellishments.

I love the rusty metal doo-dads...especially when used on sepia toned images.

It is easy to rust paper and metal doo-dads...all you need is one of the old "Willow" brand tin Swiss roll baking trays,which has seen better days and has already begun to rust.If it hasn't, just get stuck into it with a sharp instrument and give it a good going over! I suggest you rust the tray up first to get better results with the paper.
Mix 2 parts brown vinegar to 1 of water,lay the paper (or metal doo-dads) into the tray and just cover with the mixture. You can also add a little bleach and salt to hasten the procedure but it won't take long anyway.It also helps to add objects that are already rusty,like nails,screws,washers etc.
This MUST be done outdoors and be left out to rust.

Hang the papers to dry and either brush off excess rust powder or seal with a clear spray.

CHEEKY DREAMS

At first glance, these two appear very similar; which they ARE, in lay-out.

But isn't it interesting how the two faces give a different feel to them individually? Is there no end to the variations that can be found of beautiful Lina's face??? These two are images of Fornasetti plates....worth looking up on Google.

Not much of the background can be seen, but I used rusty coloured hand dyed paper then added strips of assorted designs, including a strip of my hand dyed Reflex paper, which is over-sprayed with Shadow Mist that unfortunately doesn't show up in scans.If anyone ever invents a scanner that does ,not only will she/he become very wealthy but I will be one of the first to get one!

The harlequin patterned paper is one I scanned from some wrapping paper and printed out....love the effect of that pattern...it's always handy to have in the paper box.

FUN TIME

These two make me smile....especially "FAMILY"...those little fellas sure have happy faces...vbg.


They are 3D mounted onto a painted background, sprayed with black webbing, which I think looks like they are in a deep, dark, mossy forest where only the best "red-caps" grow...some even to a point, as in the case of THEIRS!...LOL



"FUN" is just that!...here's Lina AGAIN....she was created from bits of this and that,her dress being a scrap of hand marbled paper,her shoes are punched hearts,her wings German Scrap and she has a rusted cog over one eye, which makes her look as if she has flown into a door knob...vbg ....and of course, a hand dyed background.

CUTIEPIE and FLY

I don't do many landscape ATCs because they don't display as easily as the portrait ones do... it hurts one's neck screwing it to the side to view them in the album...vbg... but these images couldn't be used any other way.

I am not sure where the "CUTIEPIE" image came from originally, but the flowers are from an envelope that had a get well card in it from a friend.

The background (hand-dyed) is stamped using a swirl stamp, the brand of which escapes me at present, and her wings are 3D mounted.

I just love the bright background in "FLY"..it sets off the 3 D mounted front bird's chest beautifully, and the scrap of music sheet breaks the harshness of it.

PRECIOUS and DELIGHTFUL

More hand dyed backgrounds...AND printed Dymo labels...which I luckily had a sheet of in my envelope of images.

"PRECIOUS" has an image from http://www.altered-diva.com/ which I altered the position of the hand to suit, and has a strip of hand dyed paper on one side and Silver Krylon pen stenciling thru' sequin waste at the top left.

Her little blue wings are 3D mounted.


"DELIGHTFUL" uses a transparency image I copied and printed from the Dover book of Women. (Lina Cavaleri , once again!)


She has 3D transparency wings and I used a piece of silver paper doily, some little glass gems and silver Krylon Pen to embellish it.

You no doubt have noticed by now that I am fond of 3D mounted images...I think they would have to be my "trade-mark"...vbg.

Theraputic Play

These two are made using hand-dyed paper backgrounds and images from a downloadable collage sheet, available from http://www.digitalcollagesheets.com/

They are a little more on the "cutsie" side than I normally do.


"ADVENTURER" is split mounted onto the bird and has 3D mounted wings, which are not the original ones that are on him on the collage sheet. I added white stripes and buttons to his out-fit using a gel pen.


"CHARMING" has her original wings split from her body and 3D mounted.

I added stripes to her socks, flowers, buttons and a collar to her dress and dots on her bow using a permanent marker and Gel pens.

The flowers in her hand and the leaf, are 3D mounted, and were cut from the envelope that contained the get well card from my friend Sonja.

Creative Therapy

"FREEDOM"

This is one of a series I did recently that was for a monthly swap on our Aussie PaperArts Yahoo Group whilst in hospital for a two week's stay ....I would have gone completely ga-ga if not for being able to do this!
After one week's stay,I was permitted to go home for a few hours one Sunday afternoon to collect some stash and the required tools and toys to play with, I spent the next week creating ATCs with what ever I had on hand, altho' I had taken the specific requirements for that month's swap,"Birds".

I was in a private room so caused no problems with my mess making, altho' the hoover lady was always looking forward every morning to see what I had "created" the day before!...vbg.

For the bird ATCs, I used hand dyed backgrounds (I have a stack of them on hand at all times....makes life easier when I've got to make a bunch of ATCs in a hurry), Scrapbooking paper for the eggs,and a little scrap of music paper. The green trim is velour and the bird is 3D applied,feather added.

My ATC Art

Somethingz About Me

Hi... my name is Barb

I am an Aussie living in a rural city, the name of which means "place of many crows"

Like so many of my friends who now have blogs, I thought that I could never be bothered about having one.....I can't even make a shopping list..let alone keep a diary or journal....but how things change eh?.....LOL

So, here I am, finally having given in to the cajoling of my arty friends .....I can only hope I can keep posting regular and interesting tid-bits about my creative self.
My muse takes me to several areas of the arty playing field but my passion is in ATCs and mixed media Art Dolls, and my humour is of the whacky type..as you will no doubt discover as time passes....vbg.

Here's an altered shipping tag I made for a swap earlier this year. I used Ranger Distress Ink on the background, added a strip of torn magazine paper,treated with BriteShine,a strip of sheet music, Kaiser Rub-ons and a crow image.

Thank you for finding time to spend here and I hope you enjoy travelling this learning curve with me.....