ATC Birthday Swap

This year I have joined Kates ATC birthday swap which will keep me quite busy.
There are 34 people in the group and the idea is that each month you send an ATC to each person who is having a birthday in that month.
Some months there might be only one person and other months there will be a lot more.
When your birthday comes around you will receive ATC's from each person in the group so I will have to wait until September to receive my lot--all 33 of them.
Now that will get the postal chaps wondering when my turn comes around and all this mail has to get poked into my postal box.
This month there was only one birthday girl -Sheila in the UK and I think she has received nearly all of hers by now.
This is the card that I sent her which was from a piece that I did several years ago which I chopped up to make ATC's with.




In February we have 5 birthday girls and I have already sent two of them off but forgot to take a photo of them.
The three below were sent off yesterday and I did remember to take a scan of them this time.
I am using leftover pieces of work that I have previously done as the backgrounds and then embellishing them.
Two of them have gone to people in Australia and one each to the UK-USA- and the Netherlands.

I think this year will be very interesting.

What is this stuff ?--------------------

---------It's rain.-----------
Last night it rained---for ten minutes----that's all---so I took a photo of it for a record so that I can remember what it looks like.
It was heavy enough just to dampen my Erosion Bundles but not enough to soak them.
We do have it on good authority that it will rain again soon--but I don't believe the Weather Bureau.

I did go outside and stand in it for a few minutes until a big clap of thunder scared me off.

Blog closure --------------

No not mine-------.
After enjoying the friendships that were made in the Calendar Girls group we have decided not to continue on with the group any more and it has been closed down.
We have all grown in what we are doing and are going in different directions but we will always remain great friends no matter what we do.
In the 2 years since the group was formed there were some amazing postcards created by these talented ladies.
To all the other ladies I would like to say a big thank you for their freindship and to wish them all the best in whatever they choose to do.

I'm Back so to Speak---

Just letting you know that I am back online again--at last.
You don't know how important the internet is until you don't have it--but then you also realise how much time you waste trawling around looking at stuff.
I thought that I would get a lot done in the two days we were offline---so-- guess how much I did---nothin-zilch-not a drop.
Now I am just catching up on all the blogs--no time to comment though-just reading.
Be back soon with something to show from before the drama.

Internet Problems

Just a short note to say that I will be off line for a few days as we are having internet problems.
I have turned off the comment moderator for the time being so that comments go straight through to my blog.If I don't get back to you re your comments you will hopefully understand.

More Holey Moley

Here are a couple more samples from the Holey Moley "Layers" workshop.
As I have said previously even though I knew how to do these techniques before it was great to refresh them in my brain.
The first one is chopped up fibres on felt covered with a sheer fabric and stitched in metallic thread.

This one is sheer fabric-vliesofix and foil ironed together and then attacked with the heat gun.

here is a detail after I had added Goldfinger metallic rub.

I will use these small pieces on cards.

Holey Moley Layers

Finally I have gotten around to doing some more of the Holey Moley workshops.
I had fallen behind on a couple of them late last year but I am making sure that I keep up this year.
Lesson 4 is all about layers and even though I have done some of these techniques before it is nice to do them again just to refresh myself on them.
In this one I chopped up pieces of fabrics onto a base fabric--I used silks-synthetics and metallics
in a colour wave of yellow greens and purples which reminds me of summer berries.
Then I covered it with a black synthetic sheer.


Next I machine stitched a grid over it and then attacked it with a soldering iron to distress some of the squares.

And finally I added some Goldfinger metallic rub to add some hilites.

I rather like the way this turned out and it reminded me that I should do more of these backgrounds to have on hand to make ATC's and Postcards for future swaps.

My swap with Joei

Before Christmas Joei and I also had a swap which seemed to get caught up in the Christmas mail as well.
Joei sent me this gorgeous collage.
The background is from hand felted fabric and the collage is hand appliqued.
Joei has named it "From my house to yours with love"
It is approximately six inches square and has the tiniest french knot flowers in the garden that I have ever seen.
It is hard to describe all the work that has gone into this little work of art.

Joei also sent me some of her silks which she had hand dyed with Cochineal (the peach coloured one) Tumeric-(the yellow one) and Lichen (the violet one).

They are so soft and pretty-thanks Joei.

Here is the Postcard that I sent to Joei which was made from one of my samples that I did in the Embellisher workshop with Dale last year.

If you want to see some amazing Nuno Felting please go and visit Joei's blog

Swaps with Anne

Before Christmas Anne from France and I arranged a swap with a Christmas theme and we have both finally received our ATC's.
The top one is the one that I received from her--I am always amazed at these tiny works of art that she does.

And here is the one that I sent her.

The fabric for the background was from one of the pieces that I was given when on holidays in Melbourne and no I didn't do the cross stitched Christmas tree--it was one that I purchased off the recycle table at the Guild.

Thanks again Anne for the swap.

Erosion Bundle Update

After two weeks of hanging out in the weather my bundles finally got some rain and you can see that they have some stain on them from the leaves and branches of the trees.
I thought that they were only going to erode by sunlight and heat but nature came to the party on Saturday and delivered a storm and lots of rain.
This is the one that I had hanging in the Grevillea bush.




And this one is hanging in a creeper that will loose its leaves in March.
I think the pink colour is coming from some paper inside.
Sorry about my thumb at the bottom of the photo but I had to turn the bundle around so that you could see the coloured bit.

And the one below is in the Ornamental Grape and the stain is from the bark of the tree.

I couldn't take a photo of the one that I buried but I have noticed a lot of ant activity in the area--I probably buried it on an ant nest---yuk I hope not.

If you would like to see what other people are up to just click on the Erosion Bundle badge to the right of the page and it will take you to the site.

Have You Missed Me ?

We decided to take Ebony to the beach for 5 days and we came home on Saturday.
Ebony had a great time -surfing and boogy boarding-and making new friends.
Oh and Stephen and I had a ball as well.
Before we went away I sent off my Fibre Fever page to Barbara and now she has received it I can show you.
Barbara's theme is "The sky above us" and seeing as we have all been looking at the New Years Eve fireworks I thought I would make my page about that.
The background fabric has stars and blots of colour splattered all over it.
I machined an exploding firework and added sequins to represent the shower of stars that fall from the sky.

When we arrived home I found the page that was sent by Helina waiting for me.

A lovely Crazy Patchwork block with beautiful stitches and lots of butterflies.

Thank you Helina.

Next month will be our last swap for this group-then I will have to stitch them all together-but first I have to make the cover.

And the Winner is-------------

It is so hot here today and I have been re-arranging my craft room shelves and I almost forgot to draw the winner for my giveaway.
The man of the house did the honours for me again and he picked Anna's name out of the trusty stainless steel mixing bowl.
Congratulations Anna I hope you will enjoy my prize which is a piece of my art that I did several years ago.
It has been tucked away in a folder since I made it and had I not been shifting stuff around today I wouldn't have found it.
I was going to send the winner a parcel of pieces from my stash but I reckon that Anna has enough of her own without adding mine to it.
Anyway Anna needs a bit of cheering up at present so maybe this will help.
I will pop it in the mail on Monday Anna --I still have your address on file.

I Remember When------

Today our daughter took Stephen and I for a drive out to Bungendore and Braidwood.
She had wanted to get in some more driving experience as at the tender age of 47 she has had her drivers licence for less that 2 years.
She never found the need to learn to drive before because everyone else used to take her everywhere.
Anyway back to the story--both of these little country villages have lots of antique stores and places filled with old memorabelia plus quaint little eating places.
When we were in one of the shops I spotted this retro spice set---and I let out a little shriek--not too loud you know but loud enough for Stephen to ask what was wrong.
Now back in the 70's we had a set of these plus the bigger cannisters for flour-sugar-tea and coffee as well.
We also had a set of lime green saucepans--now how trendy was that?
The lady in the shop asked me what had happened to my set---
How would I know they weren't fashionable anymore---oh I do remember--I gave them to a friends two daughters who were setting up house together and they were into retro stuff and they were over the moon to have them.
As far as I know they still use them.



They wanted $33 for the set and Stephen in true Stephen fashion said "You're not going to buy them are you?"
NO way Hose`

Erosion Bundle Project

Earlier this week I saw on Carolyn Saxby's blog LOVE STITCHING RED that she was participating in the Erosion Bundle Project and I thought that this looked interesting so I have decided to have a go.

The idea for this year came from here and if you follow the link you will understand the rules.

First I had to place a mixture of items into a bundle and wrap them in fabric--I have placed a range of different papers, some rusty bottle tops, a piece of gum leaf, some bark and different types of fabrics in each bundle.

I made up 4 bundles.

These were each rolled up and tied with a strip of fabric.

Then three of them were hung outside in the trees and the fourth one was partially buried.

An Australian native tree

This tree will soon lose its leaves

This is an ornamental Grape tree and will also loose its leaves

The photos of the bundles in the trees were taken at dusk because the weather forcast was for rain and I decided to hang them out to help them on the way.

Yeah that was the idea anyway--ten drops of rain later and they are still dry and that was on the third of January.

You can tell by the dirt around the bundle below just how dry the earth is.

Oh well it is all now up to Mother Nature now.

Three years on-----

Today the 5th of January is the third anniversary of when I started my blog.

How time flies.

As you all know I started this blog because I wanted to do Sharon Boggan's TAST challenge in 2007--well three years on and I am about to start on her new TAST challenge--well in March anyway it will be starting.

In 2009 I failed miserably with the challenge that Sharon had set--I just couldn't get interested in the techniques side of it.

I must admit that starting a blog has changed my life as far as my creativity goes.

I have done things that I never dreamed of--mixed media being one of them.

The challenges that I have been involved in are incredible and I have "met" so many wonderful people and made lasting friendships because if it.

I want to thank all the people who read my ramblings and whether you leave a comment or not is not an issue with me-as long as you find it interesting enough to return again and again that's what really counts.

So-- I have decided to have a giveaway to celebrate.

If you want to participate just leave a comment and I will get the man of the house to pick from the hat on Saturday the 9th -Australian time that is.

I will make up a parcel to suit the winner-as some people only work in fabric and fibres others in papers etc.

Thanks for being part of my life.

Swoopy 2010

My neighbour across the road has had lights on his house for Christmas and I finally got to do some swoopy photos last night.
I love the first one and if you click on it and enlarge it you will get a better view of the movement.
I went up and down with the camera and then from side to side.

This one was around and around in circles.

And this one was all over the place which has given an interesting effect.

I can't look at coloured lights anymore and not think of swoopy photos.

You have created a monster Maggie.