Another Baby Boy

Yay woke up to some wonderful news this morning, that my very good friend from Margaret River (where I used to live) has had a baby boy. Funny I rang her yesterday, cause I had a feeling she was either in the process of having him or had had him. No she said on Monday I'm being induced. Sure enough she went to bed last night and woke at 1am feeling ordinary and by 4am she'd had him. His name is Daniel Charles Mottershead and I know he will be just beautiful. It's number 3 for my friend and she already has a girl and boy. So it's more baby news and I must admit to feeling rather clucky myself. Anyway will get to have a cuddle and a hold of him next weekend, as we're making a trip down to Margs to stay for 2 days. I'm very excited about catching up with them all when we get there.

On another note to do with stamping/craft related, I cannot seem to find any silver star eyelets (as can be seen on this page attached - right hand side). I have looked and looked and looked. Are there certain products that are going out of fashion???? Shame as I use these eyelets a lot. If any one sees them and can grab them for me, it would be much appreciated!! Big hugs to all Natxx

ATC's

Once upon a time I could not get enough of making ATC's. I went through that phase for about a year. I loved the challenge of working on a small canvas and most importantly loved swapping them with others. But it seems that I have moved on from that and am keen to start working on larger items - eg Altered Books, canvas's, and so I haven't done an ATC for about 2 months now. These 2 ATC's attached were some of the last one's I've worked on and I must say that I love this stamp. Charlie was in actual fact a lot lighter in the 'flesh' but I have to admit to not being very clever with my scanner and so they have both come out looking rather dark. I am sure that one day in the near future, I'll go back to ATC's, but for now (once the fat book covers are finished) I am keen to start on bigger projects.

Wishing everyone a fantastic weekend.

The Cute Factor

Ahhh that age old question amongst us stampers.... what do we classify as arty and what do we classify as cute?

I dont think of myself as a person who works in the "cute" zone normally, but then I look at this pic and think well she is just so cute!

Does it really matter anyway? Probably not... but I love this pic.

Wet and Wild Weather

Finally winter seems to be here. I know it sounds strange to be welcoming the colder/wetter weather, but if we didn't receive rain soon, the poor farmers in this state would be in major trouble. As an ex farmer, I know how important rain is....

I dont mind the odd bit of rain myself anyway, good time to snuggle up and stay inside to create some art.

Went to the ABC club meeting last night at Kelsey's and handed over my blue fat book pages. Got some gorgeous ones in return. Next colour is Indigo. Now that's a challenge in itself. A combination of blue and purple....hmmm some food for thought.
Meanwhile, still working on fat books. So attached is an ATC I made recently for the theme Green.

Have a great day

Children's Art

The scan attached is an ATC my daughter (6yrs) made for a swap on a junior group recently. The theme was ocean, hence the mermaid..... Dont you just love the freedom kids have when they do art. There's no restrictions on them and they just use colour however they see fit. No worrying about whether this goes with that or is this in the right place etc etc.... Emma has always been interested in art and has enjoyed being able to have access to mummy's unlimited supplies of stamps/paper/pens/scissors/punches and the list goes on. Sometimes I feel guilty when I look at all of my art supplies and how much I have, especially paper and stamps, then when I see one of my children totally engrossed in making something using one of these things, the guilt somewhat subsides and I feel joy and happiness at how fortunate we all are....
Hoping you are all having a great weekend.

Slow Times

It seems that everyone I know, either has the flu, or is just getting over it. My boy is now sick with it and has been for 2 days, so this whole week I have been housebound.

Thankfully DH comes home tomorrow, so that will give me a bit of a break and hopefully some time to do some more Metal Fat Book covers.

I have added the last of the colour themed fat book pages I have been working on for the ABC Group that I'm a member of. This one is themed red, but unfortunately didn't scan up to well, because of the clay face. My scanner doesn't like 3d or maybe it's the person operating the scanner I'm not sure.....

It's a boy

Well I kind of had a feeling it would be, call it gut instinct..... Yet to be named, but a healthy round bundle of joy! So to go with the colour we tend to think of when it's a boy, I've loaded my blue fat book page.

Thanks to everyone who has put lovely comments on my blog.

Have a great day
nat

New Beginnings

As I write this, my sister in law is in labour at hospital and soon we will have a new addition to our family. Will advise soon whether bub is a boy or a girl.

So with new beginnings happening in our family, I felt like the colour green represented that feeling. Hence why I've attached a pic of a fat book page I've done recently with the theme of green.

I also received a gorgeous ATC from the very talented Sulea Lee today, which just blew me away. This girl is talented! I wish I could draw, but alas not to be, so that is why I love stamping so much! I can get so much more detail, than I ever could from attempting to draw something.... please see a pic of Sulea's ATC attached.

Hoping everyone is having a great day.

Another Quiet One

My girl was still sick today, so another quiet one at home. Not that I do all that much during the week anyway (other than work and look after kids), but creative juices dont seem to want to flow. Anyway even if I did have something to give, I'm still progressing along slowly with the fat book covers and can't do anything else really until those are finished.

But I love the way that I can express myself in art. And as my husband so eloquently puts it - "It's what blows my hair back!". Sometimes I might feel under pressure to finish a swap, but truthfully, I love it and all that it involves. I love receiving others work and I love creating for others.

I've added another fat book page that I've worked on recently, the theme for this one is orange.

A Quiet Weekend

My little girl has been sick this weekend, so it's been a very socially quiet one. It's that time of year where everyone seems to have picked up a bug at some stage or another.

Still working on the fat book covers. I will get there eventually, but in the mean time, here is a fat book page I worked on with the theme of yellow.

This little girl looks like my daughter feels. very glum. But there is something appealing about her, that called out to me to use her on this page.

Hoping everyone else is having a great weekend.

What a great day

Today was a great day as I caught up with a creative friend of mine - Carmel Trigwell and our boys played and had some fun together, while we managed to scoff down some food and have a cuppa and chat about art and life. Carmel is a great gal, whom I admire greatly. Then tonight I joined some more arty/creative friends at Evelyn Watt's house. We have just recently started this group and have called ourselves Crazy Diva's! We have decided to meet on the 3rd Friday of every month. At the moment we are working on the small Collections tiles for whoever the host is. She picks a colour and or a theme and we each make 2 small tiles for her and then put together those tiles to make a lovely piece of artwork to hang on walls etc. I didn't take any scans of what I made tonight, but the end product looks something like the photo attached.

This was a gift I made for a friend Dot Christian, which I stuck a rather large magnet on the back of, so that she could stick it on her fridge (or not).

Workshop with Tim Holtz

Wouldn't you think with modern technology such as digital cameras, that we could not have the squinty eye thing happening when a picture is taken! Never mind, it was a great day and a few of my "arty" friends made the comment that I was giving Tim my bedroom eyes!

Tim was not only an amazingly talented and generous teacher, but also very comfortable around women and treated us all as equals. I was most impressed!

Getting the hang of it slowly

Still working on the covers for the fat book that I am hosting. It's a long slow process, but I hope that all of the work that has gone into making them, will be appreciated by the other ladies. I'm always my harshest critict and to me, every page that I have received so far, has been an absolute work of art! I would have to say that there is not one page that I dont like.

So I wont be doing any other art until this is finished. My aim is to get them back to everyone by the end of the month, so I wont be posting any recent art work until that is done. But I thought I would post some other pictures along the way...

This is an ATC done recently for a swap that I hosted called "Pointy Hat Party". Background is done using texture paste through sequin waste and left to dry. Then painted over the top with brown paint and some of it rubbed away with a nappy wipe. Once dry, I then put gold glitter glue over the top. I think the rest is pretty self explanatory.

Collage on Canvas

This canvas was made a week ago and I was very pleased with the way it turned out. It is only my second attempt at collage on a canvas. I've titled her the Queen of Butterflies. Technique used for the background is "Misty Mawn's" way of layering paint/paper etc.

This is a picture of my 2 children and I at a wildlife park taken recently. My husband was away at the time, so unfortunately he's not in the photo. I love love love this photo. It really reflects what a special day it was. I love Koala's.

My first attempt

Hi all

This is my first attempt at a blog and to be honest, I'm not sure if anyone will even want to read my stuff. But here goes......

Today I'm recovering from the flu, so my creativity has been sapped. Up until today, I was working on covers for a fat book that I am hosting. Titled Mostly Metal Fat Book and 30 people joined! Wow is this book ever gonna be fat. The work I've received so far is gorgeous and I hope that my covers can live up to the work that I've received so far. It's going to be a challenge to bind these pages, but when I'm all done, I will post some pics.