Happy Christmas

Wishing one & all a very happy & peace filled Christmas.

I hope that 2012 will prove to be a fabulous year.

These are some of the images that have been reflected onto St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, 

 for the last week or so.

I went in last night and it was fantastic!

Fabulous Faces

Hi all, have been doing an online course called Fabulous Faces at www.willowing.ning.com. These are my first efforts. So far I have not attended to the backgrounds, but am trying to concentrate on the faces. Full front, 3/4 & profile.

Life Book 2012

As I mentioned previously I have been a little involved in a course at Willowing and I have bitten the bullet & signed up for a 12 month course call Life Book 2012, it is rather exciting cause I will be doing stuff I haven't done before, and if I have it has been without any guidance whatsoever, so fingers crossed. Included the package is also a Fabulous Faces workshop, I just love the largest face on the Willowing banner, she is so sweet. So am hoping I will be achieve a little confidence in the sketching department. So........depending on how I go I may or may not share my achievements!!!

Mandalas, doodling & stuff

I have been sitting around not twiddling my thumbs, but doing a bit of doodling!!!!
I signed up for a free online course at Willowing designing, colouring & doodling them, run by Guada who you will find here. I found it quite relaxing & extremely enjoyable. The sharing of each other's work was fabulous, so many different ideas. As I am not a natural "colourer" nor "doodler" it was fabulously enlightening and led me to other possibilities which I will tell you about in my next post. In the meantime here are a couple of my Mandalas, some complete, others not.

Flooded Canvas

I have finally completed my Flooded Canvas. To my knowledge Linda Baldock is the creator of this amazing piece of art work. You can see hers here http://atclindab.blogspot.com/2010/10/brag-im-artist.html and also Artist's Palette No 90. Which is where I followed her guidelines, to a point. I guess I was thinking about family ancestry, hence the cameo, which were very much in vogue when my Mum & Nanna were around, the gears & cogs from male ancestors, dress form, hearts, flowers. Anzac commemorative badges, keys etc. The colours range from deep purple to red, gold and mauve. I gessoed the base and frame and used a stencil to gain some texture. Many of the objects are found, it is a great feeling to be able to use a found item. After all the pieces were in place I poured resin in it. Once it had dried I made up some more resin, popped in a few more objects and did one more pour. I love the depth of the resin, giving it a greater 3D affect.
Thanks for your inspiration Linda.

City Meets Country Stamp Camp

Another wonderful weekend was had by all at our most recent Stamp Camp. We were honoured to have Julie Van Oosten over from the West and Jenny Caesar down from Brisbane to join us.

The above projects were from Julie. Love the vintage & french look!

The group of ladies are a select group who were at camp. There were 51 participants, including one male! Good on ya Ron!

The falling down shed has caught my eye each time I drive to Quorrobolong but this time I remembered to stop for a photo shoot!



Jigsaw Swap

I have joined in another fun jigsaw swap. These are 8 of the 13 pieces I have had to decorate. I foolishly sent one off without taking a photo & am in the process of creating the others. I cannot wait to get all of mine back!

Bits n pieces

I have participated in a Collaborative book swap this year, the title being "Audrey". We are all eagerly awaiting our pages. There were 13 players but it seems only 10 fulfilled their commitment. This is mine, I wanted to highlight her humanitarian side. Audrey was very ill when this photo was taken but it did not stop her from doing what she felt she needed to do. I'm not sure if the covers have been done so I may need to put my thinking cap on again once they arrive.

I am also hosting a Collaborative Colour book swap, will post my effort after the books have been sent home, hopefully early September.

There is a jigsaw swap in progress and I have plans for an ATC swap in September.

I have been very slack in the cardmaking area this year, but life has been rather jumbled and I thought it would get better!!!!!! Who was I kidding?

Looking forward to Stamp Camp also early September!

Wiseman's Ferry

DH & I had a couple of days, well, it was really overnight at Wiseman's. It a beautiful spot, but not a lot to do unless you are a boatie, fish, swim, play golf or tennis. Unfortunately being the boring people we are we do not do any of those things, well, I swim but not in the middle of winter. It was still nice to get away. As you can see the weather was gorgeous.

It was funny seeing the old car....it is the same make, model & colour of my very first car.....I wonder if it was mine????

Magnificent Flowers

It has been a very sad week and also the end of a very traumatic 12 months.
We buried our beautiful George yesterday. George is my 58 year old brother in law, my husband’s brother. He was diagnosed with cancer 13 months ago and it finally got the better of him. It broke my heart to see their 93 year old mother trying to cope with the loss, she just does not understand, none of us do.
We had a knock on the door tonight....and this magnificent arrangement of flowers arrived. They are absolutely stunning. They come from the staff at the College where we both work. We are blessed to be working with such wonderful people.

WOYWW

A mess as usual!!!!

There are some finished cards using a great technique from Kate Palmer http://www.youtube.com/CraftyKatePalmer Will try & make more today using different stamps.

The latest Technique Junkie Newsletter and just other bits & pieces.

25th Wedding Anniversary

Just thought I would pop in & share my beautiful roses! What makes them extra special is that they are in the vase that my Mother was given for her 25th Wedding Anniversary in 1967.

WOYWW

What's on your workbench Wednesday? Not much......which means I have a bit of space in which to work......will see what I can do!!!!

Elegant Cards

Two elegant cards. The black & white one was a challenge from Dorothy, she gave us all some DP and we had to create something with it. I used Carolyn's die of the lady's head.

Heather made the cream one at camp & I loved it. She got the idea from Technique Junkies Newsletter Feb/March 2011. Jackie created the original for the Newsletter.

Cards

These are a some of the cards I made at camp. The scans do not do justice to the colours. They all need to be finished but I had a lovely time with Alcohol Inks, Distress Inks & some beautiful images.