Sunken Treasure

Here I've made a last minute effort to enter the dustyattic ATC challenge, which is 'Trinkets and Treasures'.  I thought I'd better support them after my winning effort last month.

 

I started with corrugated card, inked then covered with G45 paper.  I drew the treasure chest (sorry but I'm not much of an artist), then attached all the treasure.  DA product used is mini branches DA0439.  A couple of fish hopefully give it that undersea effect. 

 

Thanks for looking, I hope you have a happy, crafty day.

Southern Girls New DT's

Southern Girls has just announced their new Design Team, and guess who has been selected in 'Team Lou' ????  ME !!!

Who would have thought it?  Just over 2 months ago I barely knew what a blog was, certainly didn't know how to create or maintain one ..... now here I am not only running my own, but contributing to two others also.

Lou and Trace have created 2 teams of 8 very talented crafty ladies (myself included) to run their very successful challenge site southern girls challenge which runs fortnightly challenges for papercrafters.  I have been participating in their challenges for some time now, so thought it was time to repay the girls and offer my craftiness to them from their side of the fence, so to say.

I am thrilled to have been chosen, as its another way to share my work with others as well as continue to learn from all the talent I am amongst.

Here is 'Team Lou' for the next 6 months:

amy

Brenda (thats me)

Carolyn

danice

Julie

Karen

lou

Sharon

 

Thank you for my selection Lou and Trace.  I'm really looking forward to the next 6 months, to hopefully inspire the followers and get to know all you girls, and your talents much better. 

 



Faiths 'F'

Here is a swap I've done with Faith from artistic creationz.  This was a partnered swap to decorate our partners initial.  We had to decorate it in a shabby chic style, which is something I really don't do a lot of, but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

 

I had real fun with this challenge, a great chance to get out all those pretty laces, flowers and things to make a 'girlie' project.  I started by painting the F with gesso, then I covered it with 5 different laces.  Then came the fun bit, all the trims and flowers came out.  I used a handmade lace flower I've had in my stash for a long time, then crochetted more white flowers.  The peacock feathers worked well and gave the colours a bit of a lift.  Little pink mini roses and pearls finished it off.

 

I hope Faith likes this as much as I liked making it.  Now I'm really looking forward to the 'B' she is making for me.  I will be fantastic, as she is a brilliant crafter.  I'll post a photo when I receive it.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a happy crafty day.

Winter Chores

Not very much crafting has been going on this last week, as the weather has been unseasonably fine and warm.  I've made the most of it (and the fact that I've only worked 2 days these last 2 weeks), and have got stuck into cleaning up my vegetable garden, getting it weeded, limed, green crop dug in, and finally mulched with LOVELY cowshed manure and sawdust.  Now it has plenty of time to rest and let the worms work their magic.  Come spring the plants should just take off. 

I am extremely lucky to have lovely volcanic soil, so my garden does grow easily as long as it gets plenty of water and mulch through the summer  (Note the 2 big compost bins in the background).  I try to grow all my vegetables but sadly with the humidity we get through the summer I am now struggling to grow tomatoes and potatoes.  I don't like to spray too much and am now finding it just too hard to get good crops off these without fighting blight.

 

Here it is at the end of summer in all its glory.  And yes I DO use the umbrella in the garden, generally over me when I'm out working in the sun of course.  I really enjoy working in my garden, it is a great stress release for me I find.

Utes in the Paddock

Wow its been a great weekend for crafting, we've been having cold weather so I thought why not do some catching up.  This is my 2nd layout completed for the weekend, so I'm pretty happy on my efforts.

I have used photos from my holiday last year to Australia.  We came across this amazing paddock in the middle of nowhere with not 1 but 15 works-of-art in the form of old holden utes transformed into many a wonderful statement.  The paddock is on private property on the Burrawang West Station, on the outskirts of Ootha, NSW.  Its fantastic, visit it if you can.

I've used Kaisercraft 'Great Southern Land' paper (which I thought was extremely fitting), and have given the whole layout that grungy/rustic feel using lots of corrugated cardboard, walnut stain distress ink, Dusty Attic barb wire (from the Rustic Charm Frame set DA0665) and Branches & Berries DA0720.  I made the flowers trying to match those on the page.  The inspiration for the large one came from Natasha at moments-of-tranquility then I used part of those techniques to create the smaller flowers.

Challenge entered with this is:
artisticcreationz - monthly sketch LO
lets craft & create - fancy edges

I love how this page has turned out as I think its quite different to what I usually do.  I hope you enjoy it as well.  I look forward to your comments.

Orchid Garden

I'ts a very busy time at the moment, with fortnightly challenges just renewed and time to get onto those monthly challenges as well.  Todays layout has been put together after much thought to enable me to again enter several challenges with this one entry.  NZ Paper Chase (on facebook) has their monthly challenge of 'blue and green should not be seen', and Dusty Attic as usual has a monthly layout sketch to follow.

Here I have used G45 French Country paper, TH filmstrip die, Dusty Attic Branch#2 DA0882, Flutterbies DA0389, Flutterbies #3 DA0766, Dusty-in-Bloom Cornsilk DA0806

Firstly I distressed all the edges, then splattered the page in paint.  I also painted some muslim for under the flowers. The film strip was inked then crackle painted (not that you can really see).  The branch was inked, then stamped with texture paste, inked again, then I flocked the leaves.  I spritzed all the flutterbies with water to seperate the wings, then painted, misted and stickled.  Lastly I added my beautiful new flowers.

Challenges entered with this are:
nzpaperchase - 'blue and green' monthly challenge
dustyattic - monthly LO sketch   ********WINNER*******  
southerngirlschallenge - no spoolin

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the visit. 

Shopping at SENZ

SENZ was running in Auckland, NZ this weekend (5-7 July), and of course we had to go.  I went with 2 other ladies and we had a blast.  We finally met a few fellow crafters from Artist Creationz whom we do our swaps/challenges with.  Great to meet you girls.

Anyhow, the MOST important reason for going was to SPEND MONEY and buy all those supplies that you MUST have.  I probably spent the best part of my pay packet ..... oooops.

    
Dusty Attic chipboard was found at the 1st & 3rd stalls we visited.  Both Fiona and I snapped up at least a dozen packs each (per site), as availability in NZ is not great.  Gee talk about a kid in a candy shop

  Next came trinkets galore.  Such a huge selection in many stalls, had to behave myself here.

I can't help myself when it comes to flowers, so had to have a good selection of course.

And of course, I HAD to have these dies.  Wow now I can make those beautiful mini roses perfectly (just after I bought heaps).

All in all it was a great day, I thoroughly enjoyed myself ( its the 1st time I 've actually been to such an event).  We didn't have too much trouble with crowds, as we were there on the 1st day.  Roll on next year.

Toasty Warm Feet

Many years ago, at a craft show, market or somewhere similar,  I came across this fantastic idea for warming up your feet.  I have always suffered from cold feet so just had to have a pair.  I use them nearly every night during winter, while sitting watching TV, or at the computer (basically everywhere while sitting still).  All who have seen them are also very impressed, so I have managed to make up my own pattern and have given them away as gifts. 

   

These are actually wheat bags made into slipper form.  Just heat them in the microwave as you would a wheat bag, and hey presto cosy, warm feet.  You could also chill them in the freezer and use them to cool your hot feet if you wanted. 

I wouldn't be without them.