Wednesday Stamper - Hats

This weeks theme at Wednesday Stamper is hats. Thanks to Tina S for picking another great theme, which happens to be something I love adding to my art (pointy hats especially!).

So here's my entry....... Stamps used are Paperartsy and I have to admit to having had this plate for a while and this is my first time using it :-)

7 Random Things

In response to Debbi B's tag from today, I need to list 7 random things about me. I thought I'd add piece of my art, just to brighten up this post. I picked this piece randomly from my hard drive and it was made yonks ago using one of my fav OI plates.

Ok so here goes -

1) I love to get messy with paints (love it on my hands, up my finger nails, everywhere), but I really don't like a messy house/car etc. Although I have to admit I have gotten better since having children.

2) My mum loves to sew and tried to encourage my sister and I when we were younger to take it up. Neither of us did!! However I am now becoming interested in sewing purely for the look and texture it gives on my art!!

3) I wish I didn't need as much sleep as I do, as I would love to have more time to create art. My dream would be to be able to sit all day and night and just create whenever I want!! Ahhhhh we can have dreams...

4) I really am not that fond of moving house, yet I've moved so many times, I have lost count!!

5) I used to love coffee and the smell of bread cooking (we had a bread maker), until I fell pregnant with my son (4 yrs ago) and couldn't stand the smell/taste of either of them, yet could go out into the dairy (we used to milk cows) and the effluent smell was quite refreshing.

6) I really dont like the heat, yet here we are living in a place that gets up to 47 degree days in the summer......day after day after day.

7) I love bright colours, but seem to always choose black and blue clothes for myself to wear.

This has been harder than I thought!!!

Ok so my turn to tag - Dawn T, Kelsey, Sulea, Eve, Jaimie, France, Belinda

Wednesday Stamper - Eggs

This weeks theme at Wednesday Stamper is Eggs. Here's my entry which has stamping in the background, although it might be a little hard to see in this pic. I got a little heavy handed with the black embossing powder in the background, so it has turned out a little darker than what I intended.... do you think it's missing anything?? I kept looking at it over and over last night, thinking it's missing something, but not wanting to get too heavy handed with it and I guess my philosophy is less is more :-) Stamps used are Collections - Dream word and Michelle Wards - GPP - splodges. Background then painted in yellow, then yellow/orange over the top of that. Circles randomly stamped in different colours, then black distress ink over the top of some webbing, which melted into the background. Clipart from the net. Seed beads used around the edge of the arch. Hope everyone is having a great day.

I (heart) Sulea........

not only because she's a wonderful friend and not only because she's a UBER talented artist and not only because she's giving and loving and generous, but also because she is such a gentle and kind soul. I love you Sulea!!

Check out what she sent me today - Sulea is actually wearing the apron in this pic - isn't she gorgeous!

Sulea I wish so much that I had just an smidge (is that even a word) of your talent, your kindness and generosity.

I'm so forever grateful that you consider me your friend :-) :-)

Wednesday Stamper - Polka Dots

I just love the weekly challenges that the girls at Wednesday Stamper come up with.

Here is my entry for the Polka Dots challenge for this week. It is an arch shaped page for a swap that I'm in.

GPP Street Team - Crusade No. 9 - What's that smell?

The lastest challenge of Michelle Ward's Street Team is titled - "What's that smell". Our challenge is to list what scent we use to get into the 'zone'. The creative zone that is.

I love to burn essential oils. My favourite combination is Lavender and Orange. It is such a sweet and relaxing smell. A perfect combination for creating!! IMO anyway.

In the pic above, I have put my burner on top of my craft desk, but normally it sits on top of my filing cabinet next to my desk. I didn't think it'd be a very exciting pic if I included my boring old metal filing cabinet, so instead I included a pic of my messy old craft desk. LOL. At least you can see the desk at the moment. Sort of cleaned it up for this pic.

Wednesday Stamper - Flowers

I couldn't manage to make anything for last weeks WS, so thought I'd share a couple of extra pieces of work for this weeks theme - flowers. I love using flowers in my art, so I have bundles and bundles of work that I could share, but here are just a few.



and this



And this



And like I say I could show so much more, but finally I wanted to share what I made tonight, specifically for this challenge.....



Lots of different stamps used on this background and then a peeling paint technique used over the top of the stamps. Then I have smooshed with different inks to darken the peeling paint colours down a little bit. Main image is PBS and I just love this image so much.

Thanks for looking :-)

Fat Book Page - Forensics

Here is my page for the upcoming theme Forensics with the ABC group.

GPP Street Team - Crusade No. 8 - Cheap Tricks

The theme on Michelle Wards GPP Street Team is Cheap Tricks. This is my first time entering, so not really 100% sure what I should be writing about, but here goes anyway.

My first cheap trick is to pick up FREE oriental newspapers that are normally sitting outside (well here in Perth anyway) Oriental grocery stores. I love them and use them all the time as backgrounds. You can paint over them, stamp directly on to them, they just give the 'best' funky look.

Here is an example of something I've made using an oriental newspaper -



Next one is to keep the elastic that often comes when you purchase a new pair of shoes (often sneakers). It's that thin white stretchy elastic, that can also be coloured. I have used permanent marker and stazon to colour. This tip I was actually given by a fellow blooger friend France Chevalier, so I can't take all the credit for this clever cheap trick.

Here is something I've made using the elastic, coloured in black with permanent texta -



Back to newspapers, I also use the free local newspapers as backgrounds. Telphone books are another resource for great backgrounds, but I'm pretty sure most artists would know about these 'cheap tricks'.

Op shops again as most would know, are another great resource for cheap goodies for art.

Husbands sheds (LOL) have lots of cheap goodies hiding in there (bits of wire, nuts, bolts, tape and anything else he doesn't know of or didn't know he had!!)

And last but not least, rusty old bottle caps that are often left lying around (ie in car parks etc) and are beautifully flattened and rusted already.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers
Natalie Briney

Wednesday Stamper - Games

This weeks theme for Wednesday Stamper is Games. The above card is my interpretation of that theme. The little girl is standing in front of a hoola hoop that is leaning against a wall. I know it's very hard to see that in my stamped image, but I kind of liked the way the OI stamp, came out a little dark. By her feet are some kittens and a toy elephant. Very cute image and it's the first time I've used it.

Fat Book Page - Nudes

The next theme for the ABC group's fat book pages is Nudes. So here is the front above and the back below

I've been tagged......

by Miss Dawn P..... As part of the tag we have to share a pic of our craft desk/space. Many would probably not believe, that I actually did a bit of a tidy up last night before I went to bed, as I wanted to lay out the current fat book pages I'm working on to dry, without them getting all squished/ruined. So this is a 'clean' version of my desk. Normally it's covered in bits of paper, glue, pens, just general rubbish.... but oh so important rubbish!!

So here it is -




Now I think I have to tag 4 other people, so join in the fun Jaimie, Dotee, Kelsey and last but not least France. Looking forward to seeing your creative spaces.

More Soccer Photo's to Share

Here's my 4 yr old boy, looking very professional before his game today. But have to admit, he's more interested in talking to his mates and pretending to be Ninja Turtle, than the game. *big giggle* but gosh they are cute at this age!!




Emma was goalie today and did a fantastic job. Shame but they only had 4 players on their team today, so it was quite tiring for the team who weren't able to come off at any time during the game. They did really well, but lost to the other team.

So that's been our Sunday so far. John and I play this arvo, although I have a cold, so I dont know if I'll end up playing. We're becoming a weenie, teenie, bit addicted to Soccer!! Watched the FA cup last night with a group of friends and it was so much fun. Lots of shouting at the tv going on, but Manchester United (who we were barricking for, simply because that's my hubby's grandfathers team) lost.

Have a great weekend all.

Wednesday Stamper - Fleur De Lis

This weeks theme at Wednesday Stamper is Fleur De Lis. I have only a couple of FDL stamps, so for this canvas I used a GPP large FDL. Other stamps used are 2 lots of Hero arts stamps.

Ok so while making this I was having a stern talking to myself about my use of wings/crowns/butterflies/houses in just about everything I do lately. I started making this on Wednesday night and it took me two days of trying 'not' to use these things and finally I gave up last night and went with what I love using and haven't quite got 'out of my system' yet (if ever). So this is the end result, maybe a little bit busy for me, but I do like using the red and orange paint combination, which I haven't done before.

It's also great to see so many new people joining WS, so much eye candy to view each week. Normally they get up to 80 odd entries per week, which just blows me away. LOVE participating in these challenges whenever I can.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Happy Mothers Day and

Just a bit of a giggle for you all.

Wednesday Stamper - Turquoise

This weeks theme for Wednesday Stamper is the colour Turquoise. I dont actually have that colour paint, so I mixed Aqua with some dark green. Hopefully I got the mix pretty close to Turquoise, although there are lots of varied depths to this colour. It will be interesting to see the different work that comes from this colour. What I've seen already on WS, is stunning!!

There is some stamping (in white so very faint) on the arch background and I made this is a card for a friend.

An Amazing Gift that took my breath away!

I wish that I was more poetic with my writing, as I feel as if words fail me so often, especially when describing something beautiful. Today is one of those days. I received this absolutely amazing gift from my friend Julie Hetherington and feel at a loss to describe it's beauty. The love Julie has put into making this is obvious from the picture, but in the 'flesh' it is so intricately put together and all my favourite elements are included, it is just beautiful. And like I say, I wish I could describe it more poetically (sorry Julie) but believe me when I say, that this piece of amazing jewellery, has just blown me away!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!! Please visit Julie's blog if you haven't before, as her work is outstanding and so varied and I must admit that I wish I was able to turn my hand to as many art forms as Julie is able to. THANK YOU so much Julie for thinking of me and sending me this wonderful gift because you knew I was sad about not being able to go to camp. :-) Big hugs to you..... Natxx

First Game of Soccer - Warning Proud Soccer Mum

Soccer is very big up here in Tom Price and my kids both decided they wanted to jump on board that wagon. Their first training was last week and their first 'official' game was today. Unfort I didn't get a pic of Luc in his uniform as we forgot to take camera this morning and we gave back his shirt to his coach. So next week I'll take a photo and put it up here.

Emma for some reason was able to take her uniform home, so we took this photo just now when we got home. My girl kicked the only 2 goals for her team today!! Whopeeeeeeee, proud soccer MUM here...

Have a great sunday.

Nat

It's a Zetti Kind of Egypt

This is my entry for this weeks Wednesday Stamper
theme - Egypt. I went for a Zetti kind of look. Bit crazy, but I dont have many Egyptian images. It's a bit hard to see in the background, but I did an image transfer with some hieroglyphics.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and creative weekend.

Beautiful Canvas from Debbi Baker

This stunning piece of art is from the very talented Debbi Baker. Debbi does the most amazing work and is featured in US publications regularly and is on the Oxford Impressions Design Team. Her work blows me away (and always has) and I have been a big fan for a long time (since I first started stamping 2 and a bit years ago). Recently she started a blog and I was over the moon, as now I can drool over her work more regularly.

I love love love beeswax (although dont play with it often enough) and Debbi has coated the top of this lovely collage with it. Love the smell, love the texture, just love it all Deb!! Thanks so much.