More Perfect Pearls

There are so many different ways of using Perfect Pearls and I've been playing with them for several days now, so I have a few more to show.


I also made a card using the overspray background that I was spraying the Perfect Pearls, Distress Re-inker & water combo onto the card stock....can't let anything go to waste!!! It's a pity that the Perfect Pearls are not done justice by the flatness of the computer screens, the shimmer when you tilt them to catch the light is unbelievable! First up, more samples of atc's.


"Showy"... (Lost Coast Designs stamp. Cuttlebug "Ironworks" chipboard shape)

"Preoccupied"... (Green Pepper Press stamp from the Curvature plate)

"Twilight"... (Cherry Pie stamp - moon & clouds, Green Pepper Press building stamp from Printed Matter plate)

"Aim for the moon"... (Same stamps as above but a different portion of the building stamp, the whole stamp is about 10 inches long!)

"Go confidently"... (This is the card, quote stamp and flourish stamp from one of Tim Holtz range from Stampers Anonymous. Embossed section up the top is one of the new Cuttlebug embossing range of 5 borders in 1 pack)

I still have another couple to post but they can wait until my next post.

On another note, it's been one year today since my Dad passed away. I really don't like the term "passed away"....it's too soft for the sharp impact of the actuality of the event. Died is much more blunt, real and to the point. Though I think Dad would've preferred "shuffled off this mortal coil"!!! That's the Monty Python humour he always had, right to the end! Remember this photo? It still makes me laugh....yes, that's the sick bag on his head while he was in ICU (it was empty!). That's my friend Joan with him, 2-1/2 short months later she was gone too. I'm not as sad as I was, as they say...time heals, and it does. ;-)

Mosaic Embossing atc's & was it you???

Saturday's atc class is mosaic embossing. A cool little technique that I first read about in the Altered Houses book.....oh so simple but really effective!

Fragment... (you can't see the mica on this piece but there is a broken piece up the top and another down the bottom - these are the slightly darker areas)

Ill-fated queen... (a stamped image on white gloss card, coloured with twinkling h2o's)

Fragile...

Tuesday morning, while getting ready to go to work, the doorbell rang and I opened it to find a courier with a package for me. Being the impatient soul that I am I couldn't wait until I'd finished getting my make-up on before opening it. Inside was an absolutely stunning piece of art that is a tribute piece to my Dad.......I'm SO glad I didn't already have my mascara on as the tears started flowing again. I composed myself and inspected every little nook and cranny of this piece, little doors to open with wonderful sentiments that touched me deeply.

So now......'fess up.....I've checked with the girls that I thought may have done it as the sneaky (fabulous) person didn't sign it, no note was enclosed so I have no idea who it was from. Please, let me know who you are so I can thank you....if you choose not to, then know that I am very moved by this thoughtful gift. I showed it to my Mum and one of my brothers and they both thought it was absolutely wonderful too.... they are both artistic in different ways and can fully appreciate the time and effort that something like this takes and when it's from the heart.....well, it just shows!!! Here's the pictures of it....

How wonderful is that!!! I'll be taking in into the shop (Scraptivate) so if you want to see it, stop by and have a look.

Bleach atc's, a canvas and Birds....and to close

I sat at my computer for several minutes wondering how to start this post. Do I just jump right in showing my next atc technique for my class, maybe show the canvas that I made while Dad was in hospital that a friend thought was a reflection of my mind-set at the time? No......I finish off the chapter of these previous few posts by saying what a (insert - sitting at my computer again staring at the screen)....I want to say "wonderful" but it sounds funny....... funny strange not funny haha, funeral we had for my Dad. So many people from early days in his life as well as many, many friends he and Mum made over the years as well as our large family. Over 300 people attended and about half of these came back to my house for the celebration of his life. A few tears but mainly very funny stories of times spent with Eric.

"Thankyou" doesn't seem to be a big enough word to convey how much I appreciate those of you who have left comments and sent personal emails (& cards) expressing their feelings and warm thoughts to myself and my family. Each day is a new one and I'm sure that one day I'll be able to remember my Dad with something other than the tears that still well up in my eyes. Okay, enough now...... Dad would NOT see the funny side of a keyboard getting soaked with tears and making little splish splash noises......he did love his technology!

I'll let you in on a little secret that I've discovered - art is therapeutic!!! I'm sure no-one else has worked this out but now it's out there.....spread the word!!!!! lol My next class on Saturday is Bleach atc's. I know there is the normal way, stamp into bleach that has been soaked in paper towels on a little plate then stamping onto your card stock. I'm going to be doing the other method - painting in bleach. Mainly because I don't have many (read - any!!!) large open-type, simple design stamps. Here are the samples - note, not all card stock will bleach! Trial and error is the key to this technique.

"a dress form" - tan coloured card stock, image bleached out and re-coloured with Twinkling H2O's. "collector" - bleach painted onto tan card stock, image stamped then re-coloured with chalks.

"vision" - red card stock, stamped then parts bleached out and recoloured with Twinkling H2O's. (Not my favourite colours but I wanted to show that you could do something bright if you like!)

"insectology" - black card stock, parts of the stamped image bleached out and recoloured with Twinkling H2O's.


"flighty" - black card stock, stamped image bleached out and no other colour added - this is always a surprise as to what colour the card stock will turn with the bleach!

In March next year I'm attending a retreat in Melbourne, Creative Soul Retreat (you can click here to go to the book challenge). An event I'm REALLY looking forward to, I'm booked to have classes with Bernie Berlin and DJ Pettit and I'll get to meet up with some of the girls I've gotten to know through this little box on my table. Gotta say, I love the Internet!!! Some of us are taking part in a monthly challenge, you are given a theme and then you make a page for a book that you'll put together yourself. It's not for swapping, it's for keeping!!! Bonus!!! We take the book along to the retreat so we can drool all over everyone else's creations one night, between sips of wine and bites of cheese of course! Here's my page, "every year".

I used white paper that had been sprayed with Glimmer Mists in Turquoise and Graphite, then sprayed with some black webbing spray. Stamps are from Michelle Ward's clear stamp sheet called Bird Sanctuary and have been stamped with Stazon. The blue/green bird in the front has been stamped onto a piece of white gloss paper that was first coloured with Pine Needles Distress Ink, then cut out and mounted on mounting foam for dimension. The white in the feathers were added with a white gel pen, black german scrap down the bottom with some Patina Rub'n'buff and finally a quote printed on vellum and attached to a bit of the same Pine Needles coloured gloss card stock. 3 brads up the top right complete the piece.

Several weeks ago I was given the RIP cuttlebug die & folder as part of my design team project at Scraptivate. The timing was not intentional (with Dad ill), it was just that it was a fairly new release and I'm the first person that Natalie thought of to do something with this, I'm SOOOO not the person to give anything flowery to from the shop! Here's the canvas which is soon to be a class at Scraptivate in December (if you're in Perth and you're interested!).

Dad

My Dad died at 8.30am yesterday (Thursday 18th September). It was a shock to lose him like that, especially as the surgery had gone so well and he'd escaped the stroke & death possibility, that the surgery held. He spent 5 weeks in ICU at Royal Perth Hospital and had nothing but praise for all the doctors and very dedicated nurses who looked after him.

They had shifted him to the coronary care ward on Wednesday as he was having such difficulty getting any sleep in ICU with all the lights and noise that it requires for that place to operate. He'd had his trach tube taken out on Tuesday of this week and was in good spirits and so happy again to be able to talk to his many visitors that went to see him on Tuesday evening. Everyone was so positive about how he was going and how well he was looking and sounding.

Mum called me at 5.38am yesterday morning and said the hospital had called to say he'd deteriorated and we'd better come in. When we arrived the Doctor's said they had done tests and he had developed a lung infection that he was really struggling with. They decided to put him on antibiotics to see if it would shift but when we walked into the room we were shocked to see how he was struggling to breathe. His oxygen saturation was supposed to be around 92-96, it was down to 60 and his heartrate was around 138 beats per minute. He couldn't talk but we could see that he was in great distress trying to hang on.

Ultimately, he just couldn't battle on any longer and his heart that the surgeons had repaired so wonderfully just couldn't take it any more. So we go on, with wonderful memories of a great man who touched so many lives.

As you can see in the photo above, his love of funny moments (& silly hats) started early in his life, that's my Dad in the right with the man who would become my Godfather on the left. This photo was just before he met my Mum and he died just 2 months short of their 50th wedding anniversary. Luckily we have a huge family and there is so much love and support for us(particularly Mum as she has 4 sisters and 4 brothers). We plan on a happy, celebratory funeral for him next Thursday, as was his wish.

Technique Book #2, some trip pics.....and my Dad

Next Saturday I have a full class of girls who are going to do my Technique Book #2. This is a marathon effort learning 5 techniques in 4 hours and putting the book together that displays it all as well. Technique Book #1 went really well and is here if you'd like to take a look. As in the Technique Book #1, I've included full instructions for each technique. This time I've gone for beautiful brown, rust, cream and little big of moss green for the colour theme of this book. The girls know I'll never do a bright, primary colour scheme...just not me!

Before I show you the pictures, big news!!!!!!!!........I've finally worked out how to make EVERY picture clickable in my blog. Apparently when you upload an image in your Posting page and then move it down to where it belongs in the writing, not all of the code gets transferred. So now I have to upload the picture in "Compose", go to "Edit Html", "cut" the code string by right-clicking, then "paste" it where it belongs amongst the wording. This way all the code stays put and each picture will be clickable. Just takes another few minutes to do to every picture...bit of a drag but at least it works!

Cover of Technique Book #2

Foil Tape...

Embossing...

Peeled Paint...(I made sure I credited Claudine Hellmuth's Collage Discovery Workshop book for this technique....love it!!! Though I always make sure I write my own descriptions and not copy others words.)
Soot...

Smoosh & Masking...

I did several pages for the Smoosh technique and added them to the book so the girls will be able to add their favourite colour combinations, remembering of course to write the colours on the back of each page so they can replicate it if they want.

Contents Page...
Back cover....(don't you love that Cosmo Cricket faux wood paper!!!)

Time to continue some of my mega-trip pictures. Ketchikan was our next port of call, a lovely little place though a little brisk for my liking! Joan and I visited one of the museums there and saw some wonderful old totems as well as fantastic displays of native Indian life set out in full size displays. This is where I bought my fabulous mask!!! They also had the most amazing Russian Dolls for sale in several stores, yes....we bought some of those too!

Creek Street is a wonderful boardwalk that winds it's way along the Creek in the centre of town. Lovely little period shops line both sides and it's a truly picturesque place.

Heritage Totem Museum...

Russian Dolls in shop window...

Pretty, mountainous and cold!!!...

Masks from the Totem Heritage Museum...


Now for news on my Dad (I have some family members overseas who visit this blog to see how he's doing so I like to include a picture so they don't forget what he looks like!). He had his tracheotomy tube taken out yesterday lunchtime and Grant and I went up to see him at around 3pm and he was SOOOOO grateful to the nurse who took it out. He lovingly called it "that mongrel thing" when referring to the tube and it was really good to hear his voice again. Then I got a phone call from my Mum this morning saying Dad had a really rough night trying to breathe without the ventilator so they made the decision to insert the trach tube again at 7am today. I'm sure he's really pissed off at having that thing in there again but given a choice of breathing and not.......well, I know what he'd opt for!

Just to show you that he definitely still has his funny genes still working, here's a picture of Joan and Dad last Sunday when we went in for a visit. Yes, that's his "sick bag" on his head and no, it didn't have anything in it!!!

So unfortunately it looks like he'll be spending more time in ICU as one of the only patients actually awake in there he keeps his nurses on their toes. His first sips of water after they took the trach tube out was to be at 5.30pm last night but he asked his nurse if he could forgo that and wait until the party at 11pm when the beer would be arriving!!! lol

Tomorrow is Father's Day and we're going for a visit with him first thing, but I have to wait in the waiting room as I have developed a cold and definitely don't want to pass it onto him. So I'll be making him a card tomorrow morning for my husband and son to take into him (along with the new Jeffrey Deaver book)......I have a PERFECT picture of him to use for the card and I'll post a picture of it when I next blog. Think he'll get a kick out of it!

Faux Metal, Design Team project.....and my Dad

I'll start with the raffle atc that I made for Tuesday night's Faux Metal class at Scraptivate which was won by Svetlana. Love this particular technique though it doesn't make for the flattest of atc's so I usually attach a bit of magnet strip at the back of these so they can go onto a fridge or filing cabinet.

A close-up so you can see the dimension of this piece.


The wording on this atc was made by covering a piece of chipboard with silver adhesive foil tape, then a tracing wheel (from a sewing store) was used to make the little marks along each long edge. I then covered the piece with black paint so it would get into the little holes made by the tracing wheel, then immediately wiped off, then my clear words were added last. Makes for a great grungey-style word embellishment.


At Scraptivate, the girls who work there are all given different products to work on design team projects. I'm a little bit difficult in this department as I'm not into all the flowery, pretty products that arrive in store constantly so I think they were pretty happy to find something from the new Cuttlebug range that would suit me this month.

Here is a little peek at what I've done, can't show the whole thing yet as it has to go into the newsletter that comes out in the middle of the month. It's a 5" x 7" canvas and I used texture paste, glimmer mists, silver foil tape, hand-made paper, stamping, swarovski crystals, paints and you'll have to wait to see the rest of it. My girlfriend saw me making it and thought I was being a bit macabre, she said she realised my Dad was really sick but did I have to do something like that? After I explained it was Design Team work I think she was a little relieved.

I can joke about that sort of thing now though because my Dad is doing SO MUCH BETTER!!!!! He has that breathing tube out of his throat now but is slightly frustrated as he can't talk because of the tracheotomy tube. Between lip-reading and a chart we made up with all the alphabet on it we sort of communicate, albeit VERY slowly. He doesn't have fine motor control of his hands yet so he can't write yet and we have to rely on these other 2 methods. His sense of humour was certainly not excised during the operation.

The first full sentence we got out of him, after about 30 minutes of combined lip-reading and the alpha chart was "Did I look like Hannibal Lecter???" (think he meant "creepy"). So once again, there he was making fun of himself and making us all laugh along with him. He also said he didn't like the flavour of the food they were feeding him - you know, one of those feeding tubes down his nose into his stomach that he can't even taste! I told him that I'd said to the nurse he would only like steak with pepper sauce flavour, followed up by apple pie and ice cream flavour for dessert. He laughed at that!

So here's a picture of myself, Dad and one of his wonderful nurses. He was particularly impressed with this nurse, he told us that she told the Doctors to "bugger off" as they all traipsed in while she was giving him a wash in the morning and didn't they realise that patients have to have their dignity! lol

A HUGE thankyou to all the people who left comments and to the girls who sent personal emails to me wishing my Dad and family the best, it really means a lot to know that others are out there pulling for you. I'm sure that all that "get-well mojo" helped in his recovery. Still a ways to go, more time to be spent in ICU, then on a ward, then off to a rehab hospital to get his muscles working again but we are heading in the right direction. Those nurses don't know what there in for now he's operational again!!!! lol

Some art, an award....and my Dad

I managed to get another 4" x 4" canvas done with some inchies on them - actually, they are 1-1/4" square as the inchies were a little small - nice to have a little more room to work on too! This time the colours are black/silver/white. I particularly love doing these in fairly monochromatic tones, think my next one might be frosty blue, silver and off-white....but maybe red, black and white.....oh the choices!!!! Onto some pics...

...some close-ups...

Thankyou to Debbi Baker, Elizabeth Golden and Sarah Schwerin for bestowing this award on me. Gratitude flowing your way girls, it's nice to know I get SOME things right!!! lol

I'm not going to nominate people for this award, but I am going to recommend you visit the various blogs I have listed in my favourite blogs list down on the right. They all have something wonderful to offer, whether it's great inspiration, an insight into their observations of this arty world or fantastic techniques and awesome pictures.

These are a couple of atc's I've done for the previous 2 atc classes I've taught at Scraptivate.

Firstly, Fun Foam - and a little clay face added for good measure!

"Soul" was won by Karen in the watercolour techniques class, an easy watercolour (crayons) method and a more difficult watercolour (tube paints) method was taught in this class. Very difficult to describe so I'm not even going to try, suffice to say it takes a little practice to get this technique so YOU like what you've done! I'm sure the girls think I lie when I say I like their work, but it's easy for them to be overly-critical, I try to explain you are here to learn the technique, THEN go home and practice it....don't try to produce perfect atc's on a first-go!

I'd like to thank all the wonderful girls who've left me comments and emailed me privately about my Dad offering their kind words and support at this time of uncertainty. It's been 7 days since his operation and he is still in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit at RPH. He is still on life support and tomorrow they will be performing a tracheostomy so they can remove the breathing tube down his throat and attach it to the front instead. It breaks my heart to see him struggle with this tube and he coughs constantly trying to dislodge the foreign object that is causing his gag reflex to kick in.

The nurses are wonderful, constantly monitoring, adjusting his medication and talking him through everything they do to him. He just wants to be left alone to recuperate....that's my theory anyway. We are just playing the waiting game, it's oh so hard to do but we hope each day is going to be better than the last and if wishing could make him better, he'll be well on the way to recovery soon. A nurse told me today that good things happen slowly in the ICU and baby steps is the way to go for him.

A blog that I visit often is Seth's, The Altered Page. He's just recently done a third round of The Pulse, a wonderfully inspiring line-up of all sorts of artists. I was blown away when Seth emailed and asked if I would like to take part. Check it out, there's bound to be some people you haven't heard of but will be glad to know! The link above takes you to the particular page with the list of artists, this link takes you to his latest postings.