My Birthday Bash & Faux Leather atc's

My birthday party on Saturday night went really well with everyone having a hoot of a time! So yep, now I'm 50 I'm authentic "vintage"! Considering how crappy the weather was, possibility of thunderstorms forecast (ie...power blackouts!!!) and heavy rain as well, we did remarkably well with only a couple of showers. I had a great time with most of my rellies turning up and a good smattering of friends as well. The highlight of the night was a surprise "entertainer" appearing to give us a couple of numbers....singing numbers, not the other sort! lol The most surprising thing about this was that my hubby had organised it through my brother weeks ago and I never knew about it! "Gemeena" was a hit with everyone.....though I think my Uncle Pete's 18 year old nephew, who was visiting from England, was a tad taken aback and we made sure that "she" played up sufficiently to him to embarrass him .....as all good Aussies should do! hahahaha Here's Matthew & Gemeena...

Here I am with Gemeena about to "blow" out my candles....yes there was a funny bit here, hence all the hilarity in the faces.

Gemeena once again with my Mum and her 4 sisters....lovingly called by their 4 brothers... "The five ugly sisters". How untrue!!! From the left, Ev, my Mum, Lily, Elayne & Rosalie with Gemeena at the back...obviously!

The Scraptivate girls, sorry you were sick and couldn't come Natalie... :-(

From the left, Mel, Emma (open your eyes girl!), me, Jenny and little Megan....sorry Megan, couldn't resist!

Okay...enough frivolity, back to some art! This fortnight's classes are on the Faux Leather Technique. This uses masking tape as the background and is another great use for all those paints we all hoard....I mean HAVE!

"Solitary"... (Tim Holtz Staples stamp and Paperartsy Woman stamp)

"The first rule"...

"A year from now"... (Tim Holtz Scratches stamp). This is an atc attached to a smaller piece up the top by cord and has a magnet on the back of the top piece so it's actually a fridge magnet.

"Nocturnal"... (Cherry Pie Bats in flight stamp - thanks girls for that!!!, and Zetti cemetary stamp). This one's my favourite!!!

More faux leather to come when I do the raffle atc's for the 4 classes.

Faux Tin Type ATC & Final Credit Card Technique ATC

I belong to several Yahoo groups online and my favourite one would have to be the Paperarts Group! The girls come up with an amazing array of swaps each month, both atc's and mixed media though because of my work commitments I don't get much of a chance to participate. But I'm always interested in what the other girls are doing and like to support this group when I can. June's ATC swap is the Poe inspired "The Raven" and I couldn't pass this one up! So here is my Faux Tin Type technique ATC based on The Raven poem by Edgar Allen Poe.


"Nevermore"... This is a shocking scan but Faux Tin Type does not photograph or scan well, it's a must-see-in-the-flesh type of technique. I'm hoping the girls that receive these will be impressed by how much better it can look irl!

My next set of ATC classes is based on the Faux Leather technique using masking tape. I have yet to work up the samples for this class so they'll be in my next post, but here is the final Credit Card Technique atc from the last class on Thursday. This was won by a new lady attending my classes....I want to say "Deb" is her name and I'm hoping I have it right?

"Extremes"... (Non Sequitur circular stamp, CCT colours used were Burnt Umber, Fawn & Opal - all Jo Sonja paints)

I've added a link up the top right of my blog to the Creative Soul Retreat 2010 that I'm teaching a class at. So if you're interested in checking out what should be an awesome 4 days of classes, just click on the Vintage Technique Twinchie picture that will be part of my class and it'll take you to the CSR2010 website.

Tonight is the big party for my equally as big birthday! Turning 50 is no biggie, just another number and I'm really looking forward to my 80+ guests having a great time tonight.....even though we are forecast to have increasing rain and the possibility of a thunderstorm by this evening! The only thing I don't want to happen is to have a power failure....have I jinxed it by mentioning this??? lol I've even made name tags for everyone as I have such a large family that I'd like my friends and workmates to know WHO they are talking to.....like "Kellie - Kelsey's Cousin", "Brady - Kelsey's Brother", or "Michael - Kelsey's Boss's Fiance"...thought it might help to break the ice a bit. ;-) Photo's to follow.....

New News!!!! CSR2010

Now I can let the cat out of the bag about my "news" I had hinted at in the last couple of posts. Bevlea has posted to the Creative Soul Retreat website and blog that I'll be teaching an all day class at CSR 2010!!! What a surprise that first email was from Bevlea asking if I'd be interested! Colour me shocked, but very pleased as well! I'll be teaching a Technique Twinchie which will incorporate 5 of my favourite techniques.....Sheer Heaven Transfers, Faux Metal, Tissue Paper Background, Faux Tin Type and Foil Tape. There are 2 styles, either Gothic - black, silver and crimson or Vintage - cream, brown and gold. Twinchies, for the uninitiated are two inch squares - basically double inchies. It gives you a little more room to work on as inchies would be too small to handle Sheer Heaven (and give it the respect it deserves) or Faux Metal as well!


Here's some pics of the samples...and the link to my class


"Gothic"...

"Vintage"...

To say I'm excited and quietly chuffed would be an understatement....of course, this is assuming anyone wants to actually DO this class.....hahahaha. I'm really looking forward to attending CSR2010 to not only do the classes I've booked in for as a student, but to catch up with the great girls once again who I'd only previously met on the "box" prior to March this year at CSR2009!


I'm personally slightly laid up at the moment...having had a minor laparoscopic procedure to sever some adhesions that had been making a nuisance of themselves in my gut region for oh, say, 10+ years!!! I was thrilled the Dr even gave me colour pictures of my insides with the adhesions still in tact! Cool!!! (I feel an atc coming on....) They wanted to keep me in hospital for an extra day or so as they were worried about my low blood pressure. I tried explaining it's always low, but no, they had to keep checking (and commenting!) about it. I was talking to one of my students on Saturday (hi Lisa) about it and I laughed because I was explaining to her that my breathing is even much slower than my husband's when we're going to sleep at night......all of a sudden I put 2 and 2 together....my death-pose that I adopt for my sleeping position, my low blood pressure, why I'm drawn to the spooky/gothicy/weird, my ~relatively~ youthful look for my (old) age......hmmmm.....could this mean I could get a spot in the next Twilight movie??? Is there something about my past I don't know about??? hahahahahahaaa.......

Credit Card Background Technique

This fortnight's technique for my atc classes is an old favourite...Credit Card Technique! It's one of a very few techniques that when demonstrated, draws ooohs and aaaahs from those seeing it for the first time (Soot technique is another responsible for this phenomenon!). If you haven't tried this technique before, grab some paper, some paint, a little water spritz bottle and an old credit card and give it a go! It's one quick way of turning out some awesome backgrounds for use at a later date....or now, as the case may be! For instructions scroll down to my "labels" section on the right hand side and click on "credit card" and all will be explained. No, not you girls...(my students!) you have to wait until the class.....I'll KNOW if you read it!!! lol

"668" (LOVE this quote!!! Background stamp is Stampers Anonymous gate, face is by Zetti, little flourish surrounding the face on the shrink plastic is by "I can't remember". ;-).... )



"Portrait" (The colours used for this background are Jo Sonja Aqua and Plaid Folk Art Metallic Antique Copper - amazing colour!!! Ironworks stamp is another one I'm not sure of...sorry, but I did use my Copper Dreams mix of embossing powder - for the recipe click in "labels" on embossing powder recipes and you'll get about 6 of my recipes for my own embossing powder mixes.)


"Darkness" (Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous tree stamp with Antique Pewter embossing powder mix)

"The Raven" (Bird, branch and wire stamp are all from Michelle Ward's clear stamp set Bird Sanctuary. Yes, that's texture paste around Mr Poe!)

"Sleep"(Angel wing stamp and drippy stamp up the top, both from Michelle Ward's In Vogue set, click here. Quote by Edgar Allen Poe)

In my last post I hinted at some exciting (for me anyway!!!) news....this weekend I'll be able to reveal all!

Shrink Plastic & Steampunk!

This morning is the final Shrink Plastic atc class at Scraptivate that I'll be teaching in this fortnight's series of classes. So here are the last few SP atc's....for a little while at least. Though SP will show up in future atc's as it's such a great little embellishment for atc's as well as cards!

Here's the raffle atc that was won by Karen Beazley on Tuesday night.

"Double"... (stamp by Teesha Moore - Zettiology - same stamp I used on a previous SP atc)

These next 2 are earlier atc's featuring SP. The first one is stamped onto almond coloured SP, which I find wonderful for any face stamps as the colour is perfect for a light skin tone.

"Love Hate"... (yes, I know the "E" is backwards, first time it was a mistake on the Love but to make you all think I did it on purpose, I just repeated the mistake on Hate! Face stamp from Beeswax)

"Breathe"... (the main image on this piece of SP is not a stamp. I ran the sheet of white SP through my inkjet printer! The ink will never dry though, so you have to very carefully cut it out, then shrink it without getting your fingerprints anywhere near the image and when it's shrunk, the ink is set! Cool huh!!! Make sure the image you print though is extremely light as we all know how much colours intensify on SP!)

Finally, my Steampunk atc on Tissue Paper Background from a previous technique, also including black texture paste (natch!) and some wonderful little metal cogs. There ya go Julie!!! lol

"Steampunk"...

I'm working on something really, REALLY exciting but my lips are sealed for the moment....no, it's not the book. ;-) Stay tuned...