MMM - Believe

Here is my latest canvas which is a 10' x 12'.... the theme at MMM is Believe.... very appropriate, as I never 'believed' i could draw and this is my very first attempt at hand drawing a face. Ok it's not the best and it needs lots of improvement, but it shows that nothing has to be perfect. I always thought that art had to be perfect, but I'm just too messy for that and i'm so glad that i found the Mixed Media art world, where perfect doesn't really exist.... it's all about originality. hope that makes sense.

oh and also, we should always believe that "we are never too old to play!"

This canvas is for sale here at my etsy shop.

thanks for looking

Flower of Joy

Latest Canvas titled Flower of Joy - size is 14' x 18'.

Black Birds

Not only is it hard to come up with a blog title every time I write, but it's also very hard to come up with a title for a canvas.

So simply, I've titled my latest canvas, black birds. They're not quite Magpie's and I'm not even sure they're crows, but they're my best attempt at drawing a bird :-)

Please leave a message in my comments section if you can come up with a better name :-)



I am currently working on a frame for this, as it is on canvas board.

MMM - Bright Colours

This weeks theme over at MMM is Bright Colours. Such a great theme, so if you get a chance and a spare few moments, pop on over to MMM and check out all the fab work.

Here is my submission which is a 12' x 16' canvas:-




Titled Flower of Love and something that I finished off today.

Thanks for looking :-)


Edit************ I forgot to add that the flower petals are Collections Chipboard petals (mix of JVO's large and small ones) and I have coloured them with Oil Pastels along with my background etc.

Blowing my own trumpet :-)

Wow what an awesome day!!! Hope everyone had a great Easter, we've basically been having carb overload in our house.... what with Hot Cross Buns, chocolate, bread and more bread....

Just a wee bit of news from todays craft fair in town. After much encouragement from Jaimie, I finally bit the bullet and took some of my paintings to the fair to sell. Now this is really the first time I've ever put myself 'out' there, so i was a little nervous.

The craft fair didn't really get many people through, which was a little disappointing, but hopefully next year, they will advertise it a little better. However I sold 5 paintings and a lady asked me to make a similar one to this:-



I was totally blown away... and I mean totally blown away!!

Then after slowly coming down from that, the owner of the art shop in town (who also has a gallery) asked me to submit some work to her shop, to put up and sell. She said that she gets a lot of tourists through her shop and they would love some of my pieces to sell.........................





AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Another Canvas

Made this one over the last few days and finished it off last night.

Titled Red Flowers in Grey Skies :-)

Latest Canvas

Tom night I start my art course at the local TAFE here in Tom Price. I'm soooooooooo looking forward to it and hoping that I can learn some new skills (drawing mainly) and how to get more texture/depth into my paintings. Course goes for 10 weeks and then I think there is an art exhibition at the end of it.

Anyway here is a very simple canvas made tonight :-



Very simply titled Cherry Blossoms

MMM - Men

Here is my entry for this weeks MMM - Men :-)

First Fabric Page for RR Hidden Treasures Book

My first book to work in for the Round Robin Fabric Hidden Treasures Book Swap I'm in, is Dotee's. Although Dot said she doesn't really have a theme for her book, I loved the way she used houses and people on her cover/back page and inside page, so I decided to go with a house theme for my first page. I think for my second page (we all have to do 2 pages in each book) I'm going to go with a person.

So here is the front of the page -




and with the door open -

MMM - Purple & Gold

This weeks theme over at MMM is Purple & Gold. I've gone with an asian themed card -

Dawn Thomas - what an awesome chicky!!!!

check this awesome birthday gift out from the vvvvvvv talented Dawn Thomas HOW LUCKY AM I to have such a sensationally talented friend :-)

My latest Canvas

Below is my latest canvas, now hanging up on my kitchen wall. I really enjoyed working with such a large canvas and just doodling and squiggling to see what came out. Almost child like painting, but i had loads of fun and think i will make another but maybe with some slightly different colours.




Thanks for looking

MMM - Music

This weeks theme over at MMM is Music.

Here is my piece (which is a bday card for a special friend):-

A Family of Birdies

This canvas has been a bit of a work in progress. Rusted the frame first, as wanted to see what wood would look like rusted. Then couldn't decide what I wanted to do for the frame inside.

Perhaps I should have gone for a more heritage looking canvas, but have to get the birdie thing out of my system first.

Have Been Quiet

But that's because i've been working on more fabric pages for my 6" x 6" progessive book.

Here is the front of the page -



And the back of this page -

6" x 6" Fabric Book Cover

I'm participating in a Fabric Book Swap. The details are that we make up a book of our choice, as long as it's no bigger than 6" x 6", and I've gone with a standard square shape. There are 10 players all up and each of us has to make 2 pages for each player in their particular book, with whatever theme they have chosen.

My theme is Nature's Hidden Treasures and here is my front cover:-



Oh I forgot to mention that our pages must all contain some pockets. My pockets are made from organza and are behind the embellishments (ie the shell, the button) and have little nik naks in them like rocks or a tag or paper.

From what I've seen of the other players pages, this is going to be an AWESOME swap.

I'm not a sewer by any means, so this has been a huge challenge for me.

Here is the back of the front page:-

MMM - Texture

This weeks theme over at MMM is texture.

So here's a canvas i've made using a very textured background and one of the Collection's owls that has loads of beads on top to give it texture also....



Thanks for looking.

Home Sweet Home in a frame

Home sweet home in a frame.

WS - Valentine

This weeks theme over at WS is Valentine. Since in our house, this is a whole family celebration (ie our 2 children, plus hubby and myself), I had decided to make a canvas embracing the way we celebrate Valentine's Day. We have a special dinner and after that write a sentence about each person, saying what we love about that person. I make love hearts out of red cardstock, stamp each person's name on the front and on the back, we write our notes.

So here is my canvas, the stamping is on the houses (Collections) and the background is made with water soluble pastel crayons, along with the colouring in of the birdie.



I'm working on a frame for this canvas board and will post another piccy when it's in the frame.

thanks for looking :-)

MMM - Love & Romance

This weeks theme over at MMM is Love & Romance.

I just finished making this canvas last night, so it fits pefectly with this weeks theme as it's titled Tree of Love.



Ok, so not the best pic in the world, but my handsome photographer (read DH), is not available to take a piccy for me at the mo. I have bought a stand for my camera to hopefully stop the shakes that I seem to get while taking photo's, but I have no idea where DH has put it :-) So this piccy will have to do for now.

The picture in the tree is of my Daughter when she was 18 months old. Background is a mash of papers & paint and the tree is drawn freehand....

Thanks for looking.

PIF Gift for Me.....

Another gorgeous gift as part of the PIF gift giving/sharing that happened a few months back. This gift is a gorgeous book for me to record all of my 'arty' ideas/inspirations and is from the lovely Dawn in the UK.

Thanks so much Dawn,,,,, truly an awesome gift :-)

WS - Asia

One of my fav themes (yeah i know I say that a lot) has been picked for this weeks theme at WS... and it is asia.

So in an effort to catch up on Birthday Cards, I chose this theme to make my next Birthday card (yes there are a lot of birthdays in our family at this time of year). So here it is.....



I chose one of my fav stamps from PSX and my fav colours from the H2O's range and one of my fav colours from Timmy Holtz's crackle paint range (yes lots of favs here, but thought it was time to go all out with some of my favs) on a few puzzle pieces and some of my fav washi papers and here is the end result.

thanks for looking and please do stop by WS and have a look at some of the scrummy work there.

Another hand drawn attempt on canvas

Hi all

For those that take the time to visit my blog I just want to thank you so much. I know there are like a gazillion blogs out there nowadays and loads and loads of art and collage to look at. It's hard to keep up with them all, so I really do THANK you for choosing my blog to drop by and visit.

Ok, I made this lot of canvas's just before we left on our trip. I didn't want to 'show' them until I had them framed. We bought this really cheap frame from the Red Dot Shop (gotta love that store) and hopefully it set's off the 4 canvas boards ok and doesn't make them appear too dark.



Again this is my first 'attempt' at hand drawing flowers for a canvas. Sure I've doodled on paper before, but never on canvas.

MMM - Swirls/Flourishes

A quick bday card for my BIL (brother in law) who's bday is next week. Very fitting for this weeks theme at Mixed Media Monday which is swirls/flourishes.

We're back!

And what a great and relaxing holiday we had. It feels like we've been away forever.

Just going to share some special pics of all of the fam taken at Fantasea in Phuket. This was such a good night and the kids were buzzing about being able to cuddle a tiger cub and feed and get up close and personal with elephants. If anyone is going to Phuket and taking children, this show is a must see.



Ok so this is us lot with some of the performers at Fantasea. Aren't the girls gorgeous!! Oh and yes, i have died my hair black, so that is me in the middle :-)



and with two of the baby elephants...



and overjoyed to be feeding a cub :-) sheer bliss on their faces says it all.

ok hopefully by the end of the week I'll catch up on emails and get back to doing what's really important (making art :-))

A PIF Gift for Me :-)

check this gorgeousness out below, from the very talented Jo Wholohan who recently took part in Pay It Forward (see this article here - for more info). HOW LUCKY AM I!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday Stamper - Keys

This weeks theme over at Wednesday Stamper is keys. Another theme I love to play with, so here is my skinny book page entry for this week.



The key on the house is actually a clay mould, which if anyone is interested, they can find it located at Krafty Lady. If you have the time, have a look around that site anyway, there's heaps of yummy things there :-)

Mixed Media Monday & my first attempt at drawing on canvas

This week over at MMM the theme is Time.

Here is my entry for this week, which is an ATC -



Also on another note, I did my first ever canvas where I actually drew everything on it myself.... I have a confession, for those that might not know me well, I cannot draw to save my life!!! That is why I took up stamping originally and then moved on to using collage, so that I could still make art, only I would not have to actually draw anything. So maybe this is another form of TIME for me, as it's about TIME I actually did move out of my comfort zone and attempt to draw..... ok so I havne't had any form of training and I'm not very good at achieving depth or movement or anything like that, but I am pretty proud of my first attempt :-)

Ok, so enough rambling here it is -



I've tried to make the background look like it's almost on fire and these two beautiful trees are managing to survive the heat.... hehe you can tell i'm not an artist, as I can't come up with a vivid story to go with my painting....

thanks for reading this far :-)

Having fun in the mud!

Last night we had a wild storm up this way, with plenty of thunder, lightening and rain. It was still very warm outside, so the kids decided that as they could no longer swim in the pool because if the ligtening, that they would instead play in the mud. Hubby and I sat outside and had a few drinkies, while watching our two frolic in the brown mud. They had a ball and haven't done this sort of thing since being on the farm. It was messy, but fantastic to watch them having such a fun time, with so little. While I'm typing this, the thunder has once again started, so the children have yelled - MUDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDdddd........ hmmmm, me thinks I wont have any luck talking them out of doing it again.

This happy snap is of my No.1 Son. I haven't included the one of my daughter, as she has no clothes on....

Have to go and turn computer off now, dont want it to get fried with the lightening that I'm sure will come soon.

Wednesday Stamper - Gothic Arch

This weeks theme at WS is Gothic Arch. I have used one of the new Collections Owls (see Julie Van Oosten's blog for some more great ideas on what to make with these owls) and was a little impatient and haven't waited for all teh dimensional magic to dry before I took the photo :-) ME IMPATIENT!! NEVER....

The stamping is on the star at the top...

Thanks for looking

Luc @ 5

A LO created today :-)



Wishing everyone a wonderful NYE and that 2008 is a creative and happy one.

MMM - Let's Celebrate!

This week over at MMM the theme is Let's Celebrate.

I've gone with something a little different and have decided to Celebrate Colour....

here is my canvas made last night using Oil Pastel Crayons for the colour (love the vibrancy of these colours).



Thanks for looking and Happy New Year to one and all. May 2008 be a happy and creative one.

A little birdie told me

It's official!! I am addicted to these backgrounds :-)

Here's a canvas made today, using Julie Van O's new Owls.

MMM - Christmas, WS - Open Theme

This weeks theme at MMM is very appropriate as it's Christmas. And luckily this week at Wednesday Stamper is an open theme, so I'm using this card for both sites.

So here is my contribution, using a technique featured on Tim Holtz's website recently with his 12 days of Christmas Giveaway.



Merry Xmas one and all :-)

Merry Xmas and a LO

Merry Christmas to one and all!! Wishing you a very ho ho ho happy day tomorrow and may you all have a fantastic and creative 2008.

Thanks to those that have stopped by my blog during the year and I hope to be 'more' productive in 2008... wont say it's my NY resolution, as last years resolutions didn't really happen :-) but I really do hope to make more time each and every day to do some form of art. Tis good for my soul.

Last night I made this LO of my No.1 DD. Photo was taken at the end of year concert. just love those eyes!!

WS - Light

This weeks theme at WS is light. Here is my take on the theme and maybe we're going a little 'outside' the square here with my canvas -




Ok so I made this canvas last night for our toilet or throne room or whatever you like to call it. I think in the US they call it the bathroom??? Anyway I have made "light" of the situation (being the toilet) and have also used a "light" background..... cheeky I know.... The stamping is on the chipboard letters and on one of the houses. The houses are Collections and the background (which I just can't get enough of at the moment) is a technique learned from Viv Bonder.

Thanks for looking :-)

MMM - Backgrounds

This week I am the guest host at MMM and for the theme I chose backgrounds. I love to make a variety of backgrounds and made a couple of cards using one of my fav techniques - alcohol inks...



and



thanks for looking :-)

PIF Gift No.2

A PIF gift

Here is a canvas I made recently using the background technique again from Viv Bonders.



This will be a RAK going out to somebody special soon.

Thanks for looking

MMM - Words

This weeks theme at MMM is words.

Here is my contribution...



A tag inspired by Tim Holtz's 12 days of Christmas. There's lots of techniques on this blog that he is kindly sharing, i just wish I had more of a chance to have a play. Oh well there's always the New Year :-) The big letter D is the new TH grungeboard.

Thanks for looking

WS - Toys

This weeks theme at Wednesday Stamper is toys.

here is my entry -



which has been heavily influenced by Tim Holtz. His latest entry at his blog, is to do with Alcohol Inks. Check it out for some super inspiration.

It might be hard to see in this scan, but the 'toys' are the swings (stamp) which is a Paperbag Studio Stamp from the Quasi plate.

Thanks for looking

GPP Street Team - Crusade No. 15 - where in the world!

Michelle's new crusade is to make an entry on our blogs about where we live and where we have lived..... ok so here goes -

Born in Fremantle Western Australia
Raised most of my childhood in Kardinya Western Australia.
Teenage years as above.
Early 20's moved to Bendigo, in the Eastern States of Australia (Victoria to be precise).
Moved from there to Melbourne for a short time with work.
Moved back to Western Australia after 18 months away, as my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Married my DH in mid 20's
Moved to Margaret River in the South West of Western Australia (dairy farmers).
Born 1999, my DD - Emma
Born 2002, my DS - Luc
2005 family finished Dairy Farming.
2006, moved family back to Bibra Lake, Western Australia (city of Perth)
DH started working on the mines in the north west of Western Australia.
2007, moved to Tom Price (NW of West Australia).

Ok so that's where I've been and where I'm at at the moment. I dont have a journal page to share, but I do have a pic of the view from my front door. Tom Price is a mining town for iron ore. So hence why there's loads of red dust.

WS - Words No.2 + MMM - WIngs

Here is my second attempt for the latest WS challenge words... it also doubles as my 4'x 4' page for the ABC group, which has the theme of chairs...........and is my entry for this weeks MMM - Wings.... I love wings and use them A LOT in my work.



Stamp used is Paperbag Studio (hopefully you can see the stamp/chairs in the scan).

Pay It Forward

Belinda, Jo, Janine and a number of other talented ladies have posted this on their site recently. Now it is my turn!

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF (Pay it forward) exchange.

I'm not sure what that gift will be, so if you have any preferences, let me know.

The only thing you have to do in return is to pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

So basically, if you’re one of the first 3 comments, I’ll send you something crafty that I’ll make!

Once you sign up, copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog, and three other lucky people will be recipients of your handmade work.

Pay it Forward!