TALENT TO SHARE

I just wanted to show you what I got in the mail today.



Inside are ATC's from the most amazing, talented bunch of ladies. The theme "wings" was a challenge put together by Sarah (the beautiful packaging was also her idea, you should check out her blog, she does the most gorgeous things.


top row L-R
Sarah Fawcett,Helen Zogopoulos,Mel Nunn,Kim Chapman,Elizabeth,Sharon Thomson.
2nd row L-R
Claire,Tracey Hill,Cherie Theodosiou,Scrapz,Me,Jacqui Pipes.
3rd row L-R
Gayle Liston,Courtney,Janet,Manola Chong,Debbie Lamborn,Maggie Bozinis.
bottom row L-R
Glenda Johns,Glenda Johns,Granmuma,Natasha Dennis,Gloria Froese.

Thanks ladies, I love seeing what talents other people posess. Into my ATC album they go.

HAVIN' SOME FUN

I've just finished 12 of these little beauties for a glitz and glamour challenge. The background is a Tim Holtz technique using ink, water and perfect pearls all mixed and misted over the card. I then painted on the swirls with metallic paints, added the sequins, girl, gems and sewed on some shiny fabrics for the skirt.

......and now some layouts to share from my "album of me". I am right into using old photos ATM no matter how bad they are. This first one is using the new Daisy-D's range with a bit of lace paper. I love it, nice and bright.


Next up, a simple layout using Riley from Love, Elsie and SEI papers. I coloured in a hand-drawn title with a white gel pen.


I know people who won't even consider using old out of focus or poorly lit photos. I say, why not? OK, so they're not the wonderful photoshoped close-ups we all enjoy seeing today, but the memories of these photos are worth so much. So go on, take the challenge and pull out those gorgeous old photos, make a layout and leave me a comment as where to go to view them, I would love to see what you come with.

Have a great weekend.

WELL HELLO

Not a lot of creating going on here ATM. I hope everyone had a very safe and happy Easter. My sister has been visiting from Muswellbrook in NSW and boy we've been having a great catch up. We spent one night at a good friend's house for a girly night, check out the photo below blankets and all, it was freezing, we had such a good time, the next morning we all had sore cheeks from laughing so much.

Well I had better keep going as I am teaching a mini album workshop tomorrow for 6 ladies and still have heaps of preparation ahead of me.

Take Care,
Sue xxxx

WEEKEND SCRAPPING

I have so many old photos, you know the ones, before marriage, mortgages and children. I have to be in the right frame of mind to scrap them, and today was the day to take some old badly taken photos and try and create something from them.

Most of the elements used are from this months Q Tea kit, check them out, they have amazing kits with unusual and vintage pieces in them.

Please forgive the photography on this one, lighting was bad and with such bad photos, I found it hard to get it right.


The journaling reads:
It's been nearly 21 years since this camping trip. Wow! It feels like yesterday.
Rob being a Thunderbird, Scott and his Klinkers and heaps of drinks and laughs. Well before marriage, mortgages and kids.
Who would have thought back then that everyone in this group shot would end up being related down the track.

Just to note; Klinkers were pastel coloured hard lollies shaped sort of like eggs. Date of photos, 5/7/87.

LOOK WHAT THE POSTIE BROUGHT ME TODAY

My beautiful, kind-hearted friend Monique from the Netherlands sent over this amazing parcel for me. All of the gifts are so gorgeous, I love them.

I was going to be taking my Dad and Mum over to the Netherlands in less than 2 months time, but unfortunately things did not go to plan and as my Dad has complications associated with parkinson's disease he couldn't be insured.

My Dad was born and grew up in the Netherlands and has always wanted to go back and see village he grew up in once more. I cannot tell you how upset we have been about not going as we had been planning and saving for this trip for well over a year now.

Which brings me to Monique's gift, I was planning to spend some time with her when we went over, she is the most amazing talented artist, so as we were no longer going over there, she decided to bring a little bit of Holland to us.

How sweet and thoughtful this girl is.

TEXTILES AT TAFE

Boy did I have a great time. There are a couple of friends in the course that have very crafty backgrounds, so I didn't feel too lonely.

We made paper beads and are making our own paper atm.

Beads were fun, I came home and made more using my stash of papers, fibres etc. Plus I got to use my UTEE, perfect pearls and glitter on them.

We have to keep a journal of all we do and any inspirations or other projects we might be working on with samples etc. Right down my alley, so of course I had to make a journal cover for it.

I painted the fabric using Hi Strike paints and as it is light sensitive, put little leaves on the top to dry. Where the leaves are becomes lighter in the sun as opposed to the non-covered areas. I then cut out a tree shape from the painted fabric and put the brown fabric underneath and sewed around the edges. This gives a nice raw look to your work. I attached the leaves using free motion stitching, embellished the tree and grass with the same method and added my handmade paper beads and did some hand stitching. I'm pretty happy with it.

I'll be making some more of these soon to put in in Madeit shop.

FRONT COVER


COVER OPENED OUT

AND SO THE WEEKEND CAME AND WENT

What a HUGE weekend I had! The workshop I attended with Gloria Loughman was amazing. I learnt so much, she was so free with information and I walked away in total awe of this lady.


While my work of art is definately a work in progress, here are some of Gloria's quilts for some eye candy. The photos just don't do them justice, to see all of the surface embellishing up close is so inspiring. I am just itching to try out some of the techniques we learnt, but I have to be patient and wait for the right threads to come.

The above photo is one of my favourite quilts, I was so excited to see it in real life.



So on day 1 we spent most of it learning painting techniques on fabric and designed and painted our own background for a bush setting. We went through colour theory and composition and lots and lots of practical work. No one wanted to stop for breaks and by the end of the day we were all exhausted.

My Mum hard at work.

Day 2 saw us busy with applique (lots and lots of applique!), more painting and finally embellishing with the sewing machine. This was soooo exciting!!!! I learnt so much about different threads and what to use for each application.

I was really concentrating here, wasn't I!

And finally a photo of a piece of my creation. It is showing a small amount of my painted background and some surface embellishment with the tops of the black-boys (for those of you not in Australia, black-boys are the politically incorrect name given to an Australian native plant found in our bush). There is so much work to be done on this piece, the days just flew, but I have learnt enough to continue and finish it off.

I would recommend anyone who is interested in surface embellishment and fabric painting to do a workshop with Gloria if you have the opportunity. I could go on, but I really want to go and paint some more backgrounds.
Thanks for looking
Sue xxxx