What I have done recently...

It's not much, but I have managed to fit in making some ATCs for our Paperarts monthly swaps.
This time of the year, altho' supposed to be peaceful and joyous,  has it's down moments for me....seems if anything's gunna go wrong, it will now!
Added to which, during the hotter months, my mostly calm nature tends to explode into fiery mode! (no snickering allowed here by my friends!)

To top off all health issues around me, I have been waiting for parts for my NEW stove-top (gas burners) since OCTOBER!!!....yes...I did say NEW stove-top!
Seems we have VERY BAD POSTAL SERVICE between HERE and SYDNEY as I have been told THREE times that the parts were posted out. apparently they have FINALLY arrived and am now waiting on the appliance man to come but still not sure if they will fix the problem.


Oh, why couldn't they have just replaced the stove-top in the first place!!??


However, I HAVE managed to make some beetroot relish, chili jam and mango relish on the ONE jet that DOES work!


Anyhoo....here are the two different ATCs I made at least five of each of...hope you like them.
I have a spare of each if anyone would like to trade. Just email  me if you are interested.

The left one's theme was "Mother's Sage Advice" and the other's
 theme was "Anatomical with a Twist".

Playing with my Sister!

My sister is here with us at present recovering from an operation on her feet, so to keep her mind off the associated pain, I introduced her to ATCs. She was not sure how she'd go at first, but by golly...she has been bitten by the bug and sometimes doesn't even wait for me to sit with her but gets into my stash of images and produces little works of art on her own!

                 I shall display some of them here and hope that you will be kind      
                     enough to cawment on them. I know it will make her day!

                                   
                The last image shown is an articulated paper doll...her very first!
                      The lady beetle card opens to show the sunflower inside.

Finally...New Stuff!

My apologies to those of you that have stuck  to me, I've been having a very full-on time over the past couple of months, which is still an on-going situation for a while yet!


However, I have been able to find a few smidgens of time in-between life's tasks to make a few ATCs which I thought you might like to see. I  have been trying to use up some of my gazillion images that I have been saving...so that has been a bit of a challenge as well.


So, here they are...don't forget to click on the image to enlarge.

  
The top three I made when visiting my dear friend Bevlea in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago.     
I would appreciate some complimentary comments as all I have been getting lately have been SPAM...even tho' I have an anti-spam message  on my blog....grrrr!

IS IT A BIRD?

Had another play day with Marci yesterday. Once again, we didn't get much done other than working out how to use her Cricut and Marci making the hard decision as to which of my virgin stamps she wants to add to her stash....eventually!

However, I have discovered that just having a like-minded friend around, my MUSE comes back and demands to play.
Before it was time for Marci to leave, I did begin to make an ATC out of scraps on my desk....using the piece of toilet paper that I cleaned the alcohol ink off my brush after painting the half doll the other day...which resulted in a yummy variation of one of my fave colours...orange.
There  was enough of the paper to back two ATCs so before it was time to put the dinner on I actually got two finished, and because my muse was not satisfied for me to sit back and rest on my laurels after dinner (so to speak...it was actually my butt I was sitting on...vbg), I sauntered back to my den and made up another ATC before my eyes told me it was time to sleep.

I often have nights of insomnia, and last night proved to be one of those...along with a semi-serious case of heart-burn (signs of old age), so after tossing and turning for an hour, I eventually got up and had a goodly dose of Bi-Carb soda which caused several relieving burps! By this time I was wide awake so I made a cuppa (Chai) and was forced (muse pushed me) back into my den, where I not only made another ATC, but went thru' a box of scrap images that has been accumulating for-EVA, and threw....yes!...threw some out! By 3 am I was ready for bed.....again!

All that being said...I guess it's time to show you the end result of my day's...and night's creativity!

This is the first of two that are the same that I made in the afternoon.
The wings are 3D mounted.
Lurv that orange paper!

The ATC on the left began life as a  medieval woman transferred onto the music sheet. I gave her a new face, head and a handful of eggs. The fish are 3D mounted.
The other one was also of a medieval woman image transferred to old newspaper but had the same image printed on transparency as an overlay.
The nest and birdie are 3D mounted.
This face image is one of my favourite images.It is a Teesha Moore collage sheet image
but I added the glasses in Photoshop.

ANOTHER TYPE OF BIRD

On Tuesday, my new play-mate, Marcia Smith, came to play with me. Actually, there's more chatting done than playing but we both managed to do a wee bit of arting.
Marci managed to make a mountain of paper-clay doll heads and body parts and I began toying around with a half-doll and a wire tea-light candle holder in the shape of a Christmas tree.

Today, I actually got it finished, and she is nothing like I started out to do.
To begin with, she had PINK clothes which clashed with the coppery coloured fabric that I made her "gown" from, so she got a doing over with some alcohol ink. What magic stuff that is!

I was originally going to use a purchased bird nest and sit it into the tea-light candle holder but it didn't look right sitting on top of it, so I wove a nest of copper wire around the holder, glued it in place and then added some shredded paper and feathers before gluing the little mushroom bird on top of it all.

I had the meshy strips in my stash but as they were white, I gave them a dose of alcohol too...ink that is...vbg. Then it still looked like it needed more oomph but I had to think about what to add to her...until I saw the feathers that I had used in the nest were still on my desk...and the light went on!

Of course, she had to have a feather head-dress too. I found some narrow braid to cover the feather ends around her waist but as it was too white, it got a dose of the  ink as well. A blingy flower on the head-dress finished her off just in time to get her photo taken before the sun went down.

More Crowing!

                Due to a small number of participants in our Felt ATC swap,
                             we are now to make two different ATCs each.

                   I decided to keep to the one theme so here is the first one's mate.
                                            Once again I padded the wing
                              but unfortunately it doesn't show up in the scan.

Crowing Again!

               This month our ATCs are to be of FELT and done in a naive style.

This is my effort.
I have added little black seed beads for the sunflower's seed and the crow's eye.
 It doesn't show up well here but his wing is stuffed so it has a raised effect.

                                                     

Birdies for Spring & FREE Templates

                      This month  PaperArts Group's Mixed Media Swap was to make a
                                      BIRD HOUSE and BIRDS SWAG.

                            I drew up the templates and we all printed them out.
                    If you would like a copy of  the template , leave a "cawment" on
                              here requesting one, along with your email address,
                                                 and I will email it to you.

                        I found it a lot of fun and wouldn't mind making another.

The orange BG is scrapbook paper. I printed out all the others from images of fabrics and old papers I have filed on my PC. All were distressed with Ranger Ink.
          I tore thin strips of tea dyed B&W gingham and plain soft orange
                             fabrics and tied them onto the strings.
         The back of the bird houses and the birds also have been covered
                             with checked and harlequin papers.

Just a Quicky & a Steampunk ATC

This month our PaperArts group's theme for ATCs was Steampunk....a very popular theme at present.
I was in two minds as to what images I would make up for this so tried out two digital attempts.

I do like this first one..the little girl on the map background, but went with the Old man Time one as I did not have enough "tassel" embellies to make up the required amount for the swap.
Her wings were included in the digital composition then I spliced them out and added mounting tape behind them.









This is another digital composition with
spliced wings  as in the top ATC. I added
watch parts over the digital ones coming
from the tap and a printed clock dial which
is attached with an arrow.
In reality, it is not quite as orange a
background as it looks here.

Altered Magazine Face Images

July's ATC swap in paperarts yahoo group was to alter a face cut from a magazine.


There are  different ways of doing this type of theme; these are my efforts. 


I found it a little bit addictive and after making the required amount for the swap, I did a few extras for my self.


 I have put the original image beside the altered one so you can see the difference.
                               Click on each image to enlarge them.

"Cool Cat"

   "Evil Is As Evil Does"

                                           
                       




               

"Got My Number"

"Happy Jack"

                             

                               

"Mona's New Dentures"

"Hard to Shut His Mouth"

                   
       

"Party Girl" #1

"Party Girl" #2

                         

"Purrfic Fashion"

"Who Am I"

                                     

"Dick Feared Flying"

   


I forgot to scan the original image for "Big Girl's Panties" but I think you will see the added stuff on it.
                                                

RETURN'S from MARION's ANNUAL SWAP

      Ingeborg Miko             Trudi Sissons            Tamara Comerford 
These are the wonderful ATCs I received from Marion's Annual Swap.
This year the theme was Mona and Friends.

I also traded privately with my friend  Glenda Laing ...this is her great "Mona's Friend".

A Digital Dalliance

A couple of days ago, a few of my on-line friends and I were having a bit of fun, bantering back and forth by email about age related woes....me being the oldest in the group, I copped most of the flak!
One of them suggested that we need not fear looking... shall I say, "mature aged" if we have a GOOD HAIRDRESSER!
This got me to thinking that this particular friend must have a GOOD one and asked if it was by any chance known as "The Restoration Centre",  as that would be the place we would have to go to if we were hoping to regain our once youthful appearance!
There we could have all of our gravity affected parts rejuvenated, but at this stage of our lives, it could possibly lead to "things" being lifted too far and we could end up with popping eyes and a goatee....albeit somewhat thinned out!


Soooo...my sense of humour being as it is, I immediately got a picture of the end result in my head and, giggling off into he kitchen to get dinner ready, I decided to put my "head picture" into being...and after spending all afternoon on it...here she is!

Except for the "eyes" and "goatee", which I sourced on-line through Google and compiled them myself in Photoshop, most other images bar the top border, are from Crowabout and the boots are from TumbleFishStudio. The top border is Pixel Music but I apologise for not knowing where I got this collage set from.

An altered Cabinet Card-SteamPunk Style

       This altered Cabinet Card, SteamPunk style, was made for our June Mixed Media swap on Paperarts.

                               There were only four of us in it and we had to use a genuine Cabinet Card.

                            Our ATC theme for June was 1950s Domestic Goddess. This is my entry.
                                       Mona's head on a 1950s Pin-Up girl's body....glasses added.

My Clever Grand Daughter

    My 10 yr old grand daughter loves "arting" with me and has taken to making ATCs using up my left overs.
                                          She actually began doing these when she was 9.
                                                              Click on them to enlarge.

                                                                                                     

Now I am proudly showing them off to the world....and she is very excited that they are on my blog and would love some cawments on them.She uses up my off-cuts very well don't you think?

Another Recycled Jewelry Doll .

"Time to Play"

                                This one is so cute! She is only about 5 inches long and I  
                                          think she would look great as a pendant.

More Arting Attempts!

I cannot believe that ANOTHER month has gone by so fast!...no wonder I am feeling my age...which is all downhill now...LOL.

Altho' it is now JULY, I am only just catching up with adding work done in April!  The ATC swap theme was Bees Waxed Vintage Woman and also one of a Vintage Man. It was a "double-bunger" as there were not many of us in the swap.

           We had to adhere lace to the woman's ATC and a metal object to the man's.

This was my first attempt, which is OK, but NOT ME! Way too prissy!

Using a beeswax candle I adhered tissue paper to a hand dyed background, added the image, some netting and then lace with red "jewels" (which I see now that one is missing) and a gold sticker corner and trim. I gave her a feather and a jewel in her hair but she still didn't look too happy so I put her aside and made the ones below as a "set".

                                   Aaaah!!..now THESE are more me....LOL

We also held a swap of houses of our own theme, using the pattern of Lynn Whipple's, featured in a CPS magazine, Spring 2005.

I chose to make mine in a Zetti theme.

All images have been digitally compilated, using mostly png. images from Crowabout StudioB at DeviantScrap

The birdy in the nest, which is wired to a grape-vine twig, is there to act as a "handle" to lift the roof off the house. The wire goes through the roof and has a plastic egg and feathers added to it for balance. The little "window" flaps either side of the roof have tiny wooden eggs as knobs to raise them. I wired a larger plastic egg to the entrance and made a wire loop on the other side to act as a closure of the walls/doorway.

Some of my latest ATCs

I was once again one of the lucky ones invited to take part in Marion Bockelmann's annual ATC swap.

This year the theme was "Mona and Friends". I am looking forward to getting the returns.

We were asked to use images from the same era as Mona, and alter them....not just use Mona as the main image.

This is my entry

Art with Friends

Back in late January, two of my friends came up from Melbourne to stay with me for a few days.
We had a wonderful time arting and just enjoying each others company in general.

We decided to create a canvas each in the style of a Pam Carriker's workshop, "An Angel's Anthology".

Here are the two of them doing their best to look like they are working hard on their projects....LOL

This is my attempt ...I think it could have been a bit more blue in tone but I like the textures that we incorporated.The crackling was a bonus of using Gesso that was old and dried out....quite a bonus really!

This is a closeup of the crackling...would be good if it happened more often on other work.

This is the cover I made for everyone's PaperArts group "Night Before Christmas" book swap.

Hand made/painted paper background.

A Zetti piece of work

I have been  purchasing and downloading images from "Crowabout" for quite a while so I thought it about time I did something with some of them.

I usually prefer to make up weird images from various other images for my collages, but I gotta admit that using PNG images to make digital art sure saves a lot of time!

Anyway, if nothing else, it makes me smile...vbg.