The Earth is not flat.....

No, the earth is not flat and I haven't fallen off the edge of it! I've had several friendly "nudges" to post what we got up to at the retreat in Melbourne and I have a couple of spare hours this Sunday morning so..... post I will! It's not because I haven't wanted to attend to my blog, time has been very short this last week. I arrived home utterly exhausted from a wonderful week in Melbourne. Three days spent at the most fabulous retreat that I've ever been to, two days spent in Ballarat with the lovely Jenny Crossley, then another couple of days shopping & sight-seeing back in Melbourne with Julie from Albany & also Jenny Crossley. We also managed to catch a show - Billy Elliott...excellent show, thoroughly loved it!


The retreat was just so well run, organisation was top-notch, accommodation was perfectly fine but oh those tutors!!!! Talk about uber-talent!!! I spent two days doing classes with the most delightful DJ Pettit. The first was a journal class where we painted the covers, wrapped the signatures, created the spine then joined it all together with a book-binding stitch to create a journal to work in. Sunday was another class with DJ, a face painting class....a rather daunting project for more than a few of us! After walking around the class late in the day it was apparent how superb DJ was as a teacher, everyone's faces were simply wonderful and our fears were certainly unfounded! If you check out her blog you'll see how great a job we all did, alas I am one of the 4 that didn't get a photo done for her blog...not sure how I missed that one? But the photo is included below.

The face from DJ's face painting class - done on a 6" x 6" canvas board...

Cover of DJ's journal class. This still needs some work, I need to smudge my charcoal around the dead man and attach beads etc to the strings hanging from the stitching and also add more to the signature wrappings. As you may or may not know, I'm not a flowery type of person so I wasn't going to do butterflies, flowers, hearts, birds etc on my journal...not that I'm against these, they just aren't my style. My journal is called "Road kill" so you have the obligatory "flat man", the blood splatter on the right, the running man stencilled up the top and on the back cover it says "Time Runs Out". How true!!! Remember, hug your girlfriends, tell your parents how much they mean to you, it lasts such a short time!

Front cover...

Front and back cover..

Inside of book with first signature wrapping. Dj was generous enough to hand out small pictures of her faces so we could stitch them in with our signatures. What a lovely person she is!

Bernie, DJ & Stephanie...
View from Amberley back verandah...

The final day was spent doing a wonderful technique based class with the effervescent and very talented Bernie Berlin, the author of Artist Trading Card Workshop - an absolute must for a techique junkie like me!!! Bernie's blog is not about her art, it's about her shelter than she runs for animals where she and her team rescue dogs from puppy mills and other high-risk situations to save their lives. What a wonderful woman she is, so very generous, friendly, talented but the devotion and her love of animals is what makes Bernie absolutely radiate! I think there should be a Saint named after her, Saint Bernie, patron saint of dogs....okay, I already know there is a patron saint of dogs (Saint Roch) but I think there's room for one more! Her class was wonderful and I learnt a new way of doing a background technique and another way to plough through my gel medium faster than ever!!! Below are the results from Bernie's class.

#1...

#2...close-up of #2...

#3 (my favourite!!!)...

close-up of #3...

...and another....

For those of you who are interested in attending the 2010 Creative Soul Retreat, here is the link with all the info about the classes etc. General registrations open on the 17th of April. I'll see you there!!!

Last week was my father-in-law's 90th birthday! As both my husband and myself were away at the time, we celebrated his birthday yesterday by taking both him and my MIL to Rottnest, along with my brother-in-law, his girlfriend and my nephew. We met up with a family friend over there who was staying on Rotto for a couple of weeks holiday where he bought us a tray of freshly caught crayfish so we could enjoy them for lunch with a fresh crusty loaf from the bakery. The way they all devoured the crays I could tell they were excellent! Can't speak from experience as I don't eat them...or prawns, oysters or anything else like that. Fish I do, other stuff from the ocean I don't...unless they come on a surfboard!!! (Who am I kidding, in my younger days yes, now.....nope! Though one can dream...... lol)

So here's a picture of Geordie Bay where we ate lunch under a beach shelter...


A little Island local, a baby quokka. These are very tame and everywhere on the island though I wouldn't try picking one up, they do have little teeth and are probably very germy! Cute though!

Tomorrow is my Mum's 70th birthday so today is a birthday celebration for her.....birthday's galore around here!!! Next time I post I'll have pics of the Mica class that is coming up next.

Clear embossing & Rub'n'buff

I have only 2 more sleeps to go before leaving for the Creative Soul Retreat in Melbourne!!! I am really, REALLY, looking forward to catching up with some old friends, meeting new ones for the first time and schmoozing with the wonderful tutors....fingers crossed some of their creative genius will rub off and I can learn some new stuff and have it not actually FEEL like I'm learning! It'll be really nice to be a "student" for a change. ;-)


I won't be missing any of the atc classes while I'm away, serendipitously it worked out that the retreat fell in an in-between week of my teaching so that's great! Though I have had to be super organised and do all the prep work for the next class....which is "Clear Embossing & Rub'n'buff"! Here are the samples for the class, they came up better than I thought they would.


"Life is an Island"...(stamp from Rough Draft plate by Green Pepper Press....~waving~ Hi Michelle!!!)

"Fortune, Fame, Love"... (I have had this huge circular stamp for ages and it's the first time I've used it, sorry... I don't know who it's by? The photo corners are from Julie's 'Collections' range - available at Scraptivate, and I've embossed them with the cuttlebug folder "Textile")

"Rouge"...(the wonderful Svetlana gave this stamp to me and the stamp company name escapes me...Svetlana, please leave me a comment and say which company it's from in case someone MUST have it.)

"Science"... (Leonardo's Vitruvian Man stamp by Cherry Pie)

"Melancholy Moments... (Paris Moments stamp by Hampton Arts. There's that black texture paste again!!! lol)

"Gastric"... (Beautiful fine script stamp from Delish in the background on this one and I used one of Julie's 'Collections' houses to highlight the image - from Scraptivate again. The house was run through the cuttlebug with the Textured Branches folder ....love that embossing folder!)

"Wild Life"... (Tim Holtz Nature's Moments plate from Stampers Anonymous)

I won't be blogging while I'm away as I'm leaving my laptop at home (on purpose) but I expect I'll have some great pics to show when I get back. The main thing to remember when stepping out of your comfort zone for some wonderful arty time is "must take pictures"!!!!! I'm only gone for a week so I'm sure the time will just zip by.

More Brushless Watercolour

I had such a great time with this technique I just kept on playing with it, so I have some more samples to show you. But firstly, there is yet one more Alcohol Ink & Transparency atc from the last class, this was the raffle one for the Thursday class.

"Apathy"...

Onto the Brushless Watercolour atc's.

"Ornate"... (stamp by Lost Coast Designs)

"Chaos"... (head stamp by Lost Coast Designs & a few watch parts, background stamp by Green Pepper Press - Rough Draft plate)

"Indulge"... (stamp by Zetti, plus the ubiquitous Black Texture Paste!!!)

"In the Moment"... (stamps from Tim Holtz Nature's Moments plate). For this one I did the Brushless Watercolour stamping on the underneath white card, then stamped the quote onto a piece of Vellum, stitched the vellum to the coloured card and added some Swarovski crystals to the left. This would make a nice card technique!

These are the raffle atc's, they are 2 separate atc's made with the one large stamp 'Dragonfly Legend' by Stampers Anonymous (page #5).

"Dragonfly" set 1... (I've used Antique Linen Distress Stickles on the wing on the left card and also on the body on the right card - very subtle glass-like shimmer and great texture!)

"Dragonfly" set 2... (I've used Gold micro beads on the left card and the right card below - click for a close-up!)


So that's it until I post my next ones for the Clear embossing & rub'n'buff class. These are notoriously difficult to scan or photograph so I don't know how we'll go with that. Until then, either stay warm if you are in the States with all that snow, or stay cool if you are over East of Australia with the bushfires & heat!

Brushless Watercolour Technique & a Card

Last Thursday night was my niece's 18th birthday so as a non-cardmaker, I decided to make her a card. My being a non-cardmaker is not like me being a non-scrapbooker...I've made 1 scrapbook page and will not do another one - too large a format for me! But as a non-cardmaker, I've made quite a few but still don't like to call myself a cardmaker - it's just a mental thing.....if you deny something often enough you can actually start to believe it! lol Not that there's anything wrong with cardmaking!!! Heaven forbid, atc's make great card fronts and if you make them so they can come off the front and attach to the fridge as a magnet - double bonus! So once again I've used a couple of the girls from the Stampotique range, the one on the front is called Prom Queen and the one inside is Girl with a Lunchbox. Just ignore the handwriting inside, s'pose I should've scanned it BEFORE I wrote in it. Duh!

On the front I used the Textured Branches embossing plate from the Cuttlebug range on some silver foil tape adhered to a chipboard frame, then rubbed with black acrylic paint and wiped it off leaving only a small amount in the crevices. Down the bottom I stamped with the metal letter punch stamps "Hayley is 18". Being an 18 year old girl I knew she'd get the "so what" attitude it exudes! lol

Inside...

I forgot to include this atc that I made for the alcohol Ink & Transparency (acetate) class that I taught last week. I love this stamp so much, it's another of Lina Cavalieri immortalised by Fornasetti. If anyone has a spare one of this stamp they'd be willing to sell, please contact me on my email addy above right - I have a friend who would probably sell her first-born for it...if she HAD a first-born that is!

My next atc class is called Brushless Watercolour and I've made these atc's using either Lyra watercolour crayons and Ranger Distress Inks. The Lyra's are like the Golden paints of the watercolour crayon world. Beautiful rich pigments, wonderful array of colours and so soft and easy to use. I know I've shown these atc's before as this was to be the class I was to teach before my Joan died on December 1st last year - consequently the class was cancelled and put on the back-burner.

It's strange, it feels like years since Joan's death, not the short 2 months, 3-1/2 weeks it has been. The word "passing" is too soft a word for me yet, "death" is much more hard, blunt and factual and this is what it is. In time it will soften, mellow and fade to a gentle ochre colour, right now it's still hard, in-your-face RED! I wonder how many other people think of emotions/thoughts/words as colours? I do it a lot, it's a subconscious thing, before I know it I'm thinking "what you're saying is making me feel a cool blue"! Okay, I admit it, I'm feeling a little "wordy" today.....no apologies though, your eyes can skim and I can still type what I want. Back to the atc's....

A diptych..."Dragonfly 1 & 2"... ("Odonata" stamp from Stampers Anonymous")

"Reseda Odorata"... (stamps from the wonderful "Nature's Moment's" set by Tim Holtz!!!)

"Polite"... (stamp from A Stamp In The Hand called "Girl with a Purse" - discontinued though)

"Heal"... (Judikins stamp - not sure of the name, it's a stone angel statue)

and my personal favourite, "Beyond the City Gates"... (stamps from Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press plate called "Rough Draft")


Only 2 short weeks to go until Creative Soul Retreat in Melbourne!!! Woo-bloody-hoo!!! Bring on the learning/fun/frivolity/bonding/shopping/gawking!

Alchol Inks & Transparency atc's

When I heard that Ranger were releasing 24 new colours of alcohol inks I was absolutely thrilled! I love my alcohol inks and am really looking forward to the new selection of "lights & brights"...particularly the lights! If you want to check out the new colours that are coming, as well as the already released 24, click here. Gorgeous or what!

So my next set of atc classes that I'm teaching at Scraptivate is called Alcohol Inks and Transparency, or more correctly - acetate. I've found that I don't need blending solution as much if I'm using the alcohol inks on acetate to colour it when compared to using the alcohol inks on gloss card. Of course, if it's just way too bright then blending solution is just perfect for lightening it or blending colours if you've just gone overboard and it looks like someone has thrown up a technicolour feast!


I also like to use the alcohol ink to colour gold or silver German Scrap for added cohesiveness. Don't you just love thesaurus.com when you're stuck for a word! German Scrap is available at Scraptivate, look on the left for German Scrap in the list of items for sale. Of course, it works perfectly on all of your metal and plastic embellishments, shrink plastic, glass ...keep up.... I'm talking about alcohol inks, not thesaurus.com. lol


I've also set myself a little challenge...when I make my sample atc's showing each new technique, I MUST use black texture paste somewhere on at least one of them each fortnight. Not a problem she says...I simply LOVE that stuff!!! If you have a look back through the atc's in my previous posts on coloured gloss, embossing, and the original texture paste class, you'll see at least one of the atc's will have black texture paste on it, generally with rub'n'buff over the top. You can also get this at Scraptivate too, though it's not on the website but you can email us contact@scraptivate.com.au with "black texture paste" in the subject line, or ring us on (08)9444 6626 and ask us all about it!


"Conjurer"... (with black texture paste along the bottom)

"Embrace the unusual"...

"Rubies"...

"Visionary"...

"Contemplate"...

All of the above atc's were made by using stamps on gloss card (Stazon of course!) and then alcohol inked acetate over the top. You can also use images instead of stamping if you like, as shown in the following samples.

"Anatomy"...

"Inner-beauty"... (with black texture paste down the sides)

"Bachelors"...

One more class before I go away to Melbourne - brushless watercolour - coming soon!

Haunted Houses and chunky pages completed!!!

I have finally finished all that I need to do art-wise for the much anticipated event, Creative Soul Retreat 2009. It's only 4 short weeks away now and the excitement level is certainly building! The retreat is to be held in Melbourne which is on the other side of Australia from me and it's the state that is suffering those dreadful fires at the moment.



My thoughts drift often to the many thousands of people affected by the devastating fires that are still raging in Victoria. The death toll is expected to rise from the current 181 to possibly 300 and the wildlife numbers of deaths they surmise will be around 1 million. So hard to fathom those sorts of numbers in both human cost, infrastructure, livelihoods, homes and those poor animals. Australia's worst natural disaster has bought out the best in many people though with around $77 million raised through the red cross disaster appeal so far, an amazing amount in less than a week! Australians rock!!!


As a little arty extra for the retreat, most of us decided to take part in a swap. So I was sent some little chipboard houses, 1" x 3", and I'm happy to say they are now complete! What a wonderful feeling to put the last bits on the final one. I decided to do them all the same in a production line style as there were so many. I first used Glimmer Mist in Graphite, then Black Webbing spray, some Baroque German Scrap in black with some silver Rub'n'buff. I also did a shrink plastic piece for the front using a Zetti stamp on white shrink plastic then finally, on silver foil tape I used my metal letter stamping set and stamped BOO, then applied black acrylic paint and wiped it off so it settled just in the letters. Here's 5 of the houses....there were 50, yes...50 in total!!!

Some of us are also taking part in the book challenge for the Creative Soul Retreat, you can see other pages here. Debbi Baker was chosen to pick the theme for January and I was lucky enough to get to choose the theme for February. Debbi's choice was "Words". I'd recently read the new James Patterson book and there were some lines from a poem in there that struck a chord with me. I searched online for the full poem, it's entitled "Dirge Without Music" by Edna St Vincent Millay.

"Dirge Without Music"

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.

Crowned with lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.

A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.

The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled

Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.

More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave.
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.

I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

I used the last verse for my "Words" page, it resonated strongly with me as it describes how I felt about losing my Dad and my best friend in the space of 3 months late last year. We move on, but we still don't like it! The background is Rinse Aid Resist on canvas paper and the image is a transparency over paper that was painted with Lumiere paints - nice and shimmery.

"Words"...

Here is my "Birds" page again. I'd posted it before but decided after I made it that I wanted to make the pages bigger. My first thoughts were to do a chunky book 4" x 4" in size but eventually found that the book I wanted to use to make the book from is 6" x 6", so I had to fill it out a little more.

"Birds"...

My choice of theme for February was "Inspired By Song". I chose a song by another great Finnish band, The Rasmus (thanks Kathy for putting me on to them!). I did a gel medium/transparency transfer over the words to one of their songs "Not Like the Other Girls" and yes, I found it on youtube.

"Not Like the Other Girls"...

...and here's the song by The Rasmus, a beautifully haunting melody and wonderful lyrics.

Finally, here are the front and back covers. The front cover is texture paste with Golden Paints for colour and the back cover is a piece of scrapbook paper in colours that I loved so I tried to replicate it closely for the front cover with the paints. They match pretty closely in real life, not so much here. ;-(

Front cover...

Back cover...

I'd like to thank Mary Schweitzer for this award too! Mary does some amazing things with bits & bones and skulls....a woman after my own heart! (Probably quite literally!!!! just joking Mary....hahahahaha).