HEART AND HOME

Hi and welcome. It's a lovely, sunny winter's day here in our little patch, with just enough crispness for some extra layers.
This month at the ARTastic challenge has been distressing!! and my DT piece for this has certainly been distressed.

My piece started off as inside packaging from a box. The corrugated cardboard was already framed and recessed, making the perfect surface to work the distressing on.
The frame was torn to various depths to show underneath layers. Some bits were rolled and others left partially raised to give an old wood/peeling paint effect.

The whole surface was sprayed with Baseboard and Chalkboard mists with additional layers of colours from Distress Stains and Inks. Gesso was used for the stencilled leaves while the undersurface was still damp.. love the effect that this gives!

 

 

 

 

 

  

The photo I used was from an oil painting given to me by my mum. This was by an artist / teacher, Ken Harris. Mum took up painting classes with him when she was 70 and really enjoyed her new hobby until ill health prevented her from continuing when in her 80's.

 

 

This was mounted on a gelli plate print done with acrylic paints. This was still too bright for the effect I wanted, so it was also smooshed with Distress Inks.

 

 

 

Edges were torn, rolled and inked, with pieces of old manuscript music tucked into some of the gaps,

before attaching.

The original background I'd prepared didn't look right, so I used a piece of brown cardstock, dampened it with water and scrunched it up. When dry, it was inked and edges were torn for a more rustic look

 

 

 

 

 

More torn and inked music manuscript was placed around the frame

To this I added acetate leaves coloured with Vintaj and glass effect gels, die cut leaves, heavily scrunched and then shaped, and real gumnuts.
I really enjoyed this challenge and if you are tempted to join in, have a peep at our inspirational guide artwork at   http://artasticchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/  and while you're there have a look at the fabulous creations done by the rest of the team.

Thankyou for stopping by. Catch you soon.
Cheers, Di                                                                                          .

THOSE HATS!!!

Hi and welcome. This month, Pixels and Papers have a delightful inspirational photo of more formal times, to share with you.

Pop on over to: http://pixelsandpaperchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/  to also see what the rest of the team members have done to also inspire you.
I decided to combine the Easter theme with the show theme (Sydney's Royal Easter Show is such a major event on the show calendar).

 

The photo I've used shows myself (on the left) and two sisters, granddaughters of my mum's best friend.  My mum and I used to go for morning teas to either their Nana's house or to their mum's house once a week.This was a ritual which lasted for many, many years. Since I didn't have a grandmother, I adopted theirs and she became Nana to me as well, and that's what I always called her.
While we weren't dressed in our Sunday best, we certainly were dressed in the height of fashion for the show. What were our mum's thinking of!... those hats. I remember them being made of straw with very bright raffia flowers. At least they kept the sun off our faces.
Easter meant going to church services, meeting up with friends and family and of course... the eggs.  Mostly these were candy eggs, with their pastel colours. Occasionally I had the luxury of a chocolate egg with gorgeous rich, foiled paper on the outside.

I've replicated the feel of these by using a pastel-coloured background. The photo is popping out of an opened egg. This started off with a gelli plate print using metallic acrylics and glimmer  mist sprays. For the creased foil look I added gesso through a stencil. The doily was sprayed with glimmer mist and crinkle foil placed under it.
To complete the layout I scribbled around the letters of the title as well as the edges of the page. I quilled flowers to make them look like the raffia flowers on the hats and added some lace. Journalling has been done on tags. Some sticker strips I've had for years were finally used on this piece as well.

I hope you will come and play with us.We'd love to see your art creations.
Thank you for visiting and for leaving your comments.
Cheers, Di.

FARM IDYLL

Pixels and Paper Challenge for November.
The challenge at Pixels and Paper this month is about chickens, inspired by this picture.

 

 

Of course your page doesn't have to be about chickens at all - perhaps you see the wider picture of a farmyard and would like to tell the story of a trip to the countryside or visit to a working farm. Maybe your child has visited a farm as part of a school trip or raised chicks as a classroom project. You might even like to think laterally on this one and explain your love of egg based dishes! Bacon and eggs anyone?

Pop on over to: http://pixelsandpaperchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/ to see what the Design Team have come up with for this challenge.

My take on this was based on a photo taken of my husband and our first car way back in '74 / '75. At this time we were renting an old farmhouse. Although we didn't have any form of poultry at this location, we did have paddocks around us where hereford cattle were mainly kept by our landlord. The house paddock often had the cows about to give birth in them and my husband sometimes had to assist the farmer with the deliveries or let him know when the new born calves had arrived. The car shed was very old and ramshackle. We didn't use it very often, particularly when we discovered that it was the residence of a red-bellied black snake... and that's a whole other story !!

 

The background papers were cut, inked and painted (combinations of distress inks, stains and archival inks). Stencilling was used for the tree, and freehand dabs of various stains added for foliage. The roof of the die cut shed was made from corrugated cardboard packaging which was smooshed with Rusty Hinge distress ink. The pond was an experimentation with a gellipad and the rooster cut from Graphic 45 papers. The photos of the ducks were also cut out. On the page I've also used dried grass for reeds and a Dusty Attic chipboard barbed wire fence.

I hope you are inspired to join us for the challenge. We'd love to see your work.

Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments.

Cheers, Di.

  

 

 

 

 

PEGGED

Hi and welcome! There has been a succession of glorious, sunny autumn days here, meaning lots of gardening, very much needed! Camellias and the first of my jonquils are flowering, although I don't know why the jonquils are out so early. With the nights now quite cool, I would have thought that they'd be still in their autumn state. Crafting time has been mainly relegated to evenings for the time being, so that I can take full advantage of the weather.
I've been looking for large wooden pegs for some time, but had not been able to find any until recently, when I came across a jumbo craft peg (15cm x 3cm) in a local store; bigger than what I had been wanting, but fitting the bill perfectly for the use it will now have.
It's had quite a transformation with the addition of wire, beads, spraying with Colour Wash,and adding flowers.

The flowers were made from card stock which had been prepared on a gelli pad, using combinations of Splash Inks, Lumieres and  Glimmer mists. Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers, and Tattered Flower Garland dies were then used. Some of the constructed flowers were given a thick coat of Glossy Accents, to give a faux porcelain look (hasn't shown up on the photo). Added to the die cut flowers, are ones made from hessian. These were cream or grey. The cream ones were sprayed with cranberry or sailboat blue Colour Wash. Alcohol ink, again cranberry, was tipped onto a metal silver butterfly.

Very over-the -top, but still very functional. I've used a sticky pad note book here. With a magnet on the back, my peg is now ready for use.

The challenge I'm entering this into is ABAC Challenge 19, using a colour palette with 2 or more of the colours to be used. See what the design team and other entrants have come up with here:
http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/

Thank you very much for visiting. I appreciate your comments and look forward to seeing what you are doing as well.
Cheers, Di