BACK TO BASICS MIXED MEDIA COLLAGE

I finally finished my large collage which is part of the set of 9 that I have made in this series. The others were A4 and 12" x 12".
This one measures 92cm x 61cm. The photos on this one are ones that I took from my farm on NSW Central Coast, which is situated in the beautiful Yarramalong Valley. I get such a sense of pleasure when I complete a project and hang it on the wall. I am not sure if my family enjoy them as much as I do. Anyone relate to this?

MIXED MEDIA COLLAGE ON CANVAS

After spending a wonderful weekend recently in Lemon Tree Passage, NSW with the talented Joy Bathie. See blog post below.
I learned that one should just go ahead and follow your creative heart and create. This is exactly what I did. I combined some of my photos I have taken with nature quotes that I have collected. It took a while to get it right and finish them. DH hung them on the wall in our hall yesterday for all to admire. I am now working on another one to compliment these 8. (Sizes are 12x12 and A4).

SPOOKY ALBUM COVERS

I have finally finished my covers for the Paper Arts Spooky Album swap. I cant wait until Barb (hostess) sends all the pages out and then we can all bind them. Bevlea, I hope you will give us all instructions on how to bind them etc.



Front Cover
.
Inside front cover

Inside back cover.

Back cover.

GROUP PRESSURE MADE ME DO IT!

This month's challenge swap in the Paper Arts group that I belong to was to make a page for a SPOOKY ALBUM.
We had to use a page from the Itkupilli Collection. Having a member of ones family that no one wants to talk about was advantageous for this project.... My very weird Aunt Morticia was happy to play victim for my page! The page measures 6"x4". As it happened there are 13 members in this swap..... I am looking forward to receiving all the other 12 pages. I hope that all the 13 delightful members will have a grand time once they are bound together for eternity!
There is a fundamental spooky difference between my page and the other 12, which was not my doing, but Aunt Morticia did it (she is like that)!
For the receipients of my pages, the first one to spot the difference, and leave a comment on my blog, will receive a gift!
Barb, I am not sure if you can enter this one, being the hostess you will get all 12 of my pages long before the others.

Metal Etched Neclaces

These three little Etched Pendants now have their necklaces attached.
I am very proud of them considering I hadn't done any for sometime.

My Metal Etching

These 5 little pendants and one rectangle are my efforts after a day of etching.
I had limited supplies, as it is always hard to know what one will need when one goes away from their home stash.
I was very proud and impressed with my work. Now all I have to do is make the chains to hang them and work out what I will do with the floral rectangle. Etching is so much fun and an amazing process.
A bit toxic using the Ferric Chloride, but with extreme care, it can be done without too much mess.

Christine's Etching

These 5 gorgeous pendants were made by Christine.
We ran out of time to finish them off with a chain.
The one on the left Christine stamped into the top with metal alphabet punches "ITHACA", which is the name of my farm.
Christine you did well. I hope you get to finish them and will wear them with pride!

A day of Etching.

A creative week for me at my farm in Yarramalong on NSW Central Coast.
Christine Treleaven (from Newcastle) dropped by to have a coffee after doing some errands in Tuggerah.
What started off a chat and catching up ended up as a long two days of metal Etching and making a fabric bird and birdcage.
We worked late into the night last Wednesday 9th. It became too late for Christine to drive home to Newcastle, so she stayed over and we continued the next day. We etched a few pendants. Learning sewing techniques from a Master Dollmaker was great.

PAINTED BACKGROUNDS WITH JOY BATHIE

A weekend in picturesque Lemon Tree Passage NSW, with 12 lovely mixed media artists and one amazing Tutor....
this is how I spent my weekend on 15th and 16th August.
Rob Keogh organised an amazing weeknd of fun, laughter, great company, beautiful venue and above all Joy Bathie to teach us wonderful techniques on how to make painted backgrounds.
This is my example of how I applied my interpretation of Joy's instruction. We were given ideas and the techniques but the rest was up to us on how we chose our colours, mediums, images, words etc.
I am looking forward to the next exciting workshop with Joy.

RAVEN ATC

This is my ATC that I have created following techniques that Barb Thomas
and Bevlea Ross from 2cre8art provide for the enjoyment of all their followers to learn new techniques and keep in touch with other creative ladies.

MIXED MEDIA COLLAGE

On June long weekend Jenny Crossley came to Sydney to teach a few of us girls AKA "The Etching Wenches".
We all stayed on my farm in Yarramalong Valley, NSW Central Coast. As a thank you gift from the ladies, they all make me a mini mixed media collage, based on the ideas in the latest Stampington Apprentice Magazine. I was so surpised and grateful for their kind gestures. Each one of them is a work of art. I has taken me a few weeks to work out how best to display/frame them, as I wanted to do justice to them all. I thought I would do a photo tranfer of us all in the centre of the wooden frame which I painted with gesso, on the wooden frame and on the glass centre. Then arranged each little canvas around the outside.
I thank each and everyone of you ladies for your time you put into making them.

THE ETCHING WENCHES

Here we all are proudly showing off our etched necklace that we learned how to make with Jenny Crossley. This was a GOLDEN GEL MEDIUM transfer. I had the frame which had a sealed glass centre with a photo that I didnt like (bought eons ago when I only wanted the frame). I could not get the picture out, so I painted two coats of Gesso over the glass. Once that was dry I did my tranfer onto the gesso, not expecting it to adhere or work! I was pleasantly surprised how well it turned out.

Christina McQueen

Annette Curtis

Kirsty Campion

Christine Treleaven

Debbi Weiss

Judy Lee

Julian Buttenshaw

Ruth Spitzer

Pam Hicks

Rob Keogh

Jenny Crossley

VINTAGE FINDS

I was so lucky to find these wonderful vintage metal items on Ebay! They just arrived in my post box!
I could not believe it only cost me $20 for the lot! Not sure what I will do with them yet, but at the moment I am enjoying looking at them.
p.s. The silver tray did not come with them!

MY AMAZING TECHNICOLOUR DREAMBOOK

Front cover of my tag book.

INSIDE FRONT COVER

INSIDE BACK COVER

BACK COVER

My back cover.
I think I might have to go back as add something else to it! What do you think? Any suggestions?

Chunky Tag Book Tags

Being invited for the first time to join a Chunky Book Tag Swap by the lovely Rob Keogh was very exciting indeed. I was a bit nervous as I didnt want to disappoint the other 17 talented ladies in the group.

Above are 7 of the tags I have so far, with 11 more to come. It is so exciting to go to the mailbox and find a beautiful work of art tag in there!