from-the-rooftops

Birdie Swap

2011-06-10T17:04:00.005+10:00

These are the birdies I created for a recent swap I participated in.... so much fun to sew these little guys and my returns from the swap are just fantastic. I will try over the weekend to photograph all my returns to share here on my blog.

Finally..... and hopefully I will not leave it too long till the next post....

2011-05-04T19:07:00.006+10:00

Some photos I took of a very obliging dragonfly... :)

Some encaustic pieces I have made recently....

A mixed media wooden block....

....this and that....

2011-05-04T19:02:00.001+10:00

A mixed media heart I made for a swap.....

A tag I made to go with a birthday gift....

Some journalling.....

2011-05-04T17:14:00.003+10:00

While away in Melbourne, Jacky inspired me to try my hand at Art Journalling..... it's such fun, but a whole new concept for me to make art for myself to keep.... anyway here are few pages I have created... mostly I have used photos as my starting point!

Some random photos and treasures from my Melbourne trip in January....

2011-05-04T17:02:00.004+10:00

Had such a wonderful visit to Melbourne in January.... Jacky spoilt me by driving me all around and showing me her favourite haunts.... we even discovered some new ones... Met up with Jen Crossley as well and managed to find an antique fair out in the middle of nowhere!

Catching up.....

2011-05-04T16:58:00.002+10:00

Some art that I created back in January for Kasha...

Christmas art....

2011-01-15T16:53:00.002+10:00

This year I only managed one piece of Christmas art..... this was made for the lovely Celeste as part of our Paper Princess group exchange. I was very inspired by Roben Marie when I created this piece as I had just been working on her latest online class - Sewing Paper Gift Bags Workshop.

What I have been up too......

2010-12-11T18:27:00.006+10:00

Still playing with the file folders and the spray paint. Having so much fun, but making a huge mess!!

Some November art....

2010-11-16T18:06:00.007+10:00

Oh this poor blog is very neglected..... here is some of the latest art I have created!! This artwork is on a solid block for a swap - I have taken some photos of the block from different angles so you can see the artwork on the other sides. Just love creating on wooden blocks.

I have been doing an online class with Roben Marie called Mixed Media Mayhem - what a lot of fun it has been and what a mess I have made with all the spray inks and finger painting!! This mail-art folder is what I packaged the above artwork in to gift it to Ness. The other side is similar but has the address block on it.

I am alive!

2010-09-14T15:06:00.004+10:00

Can't believe how long it's been since an update.... of course there has been a bit of art in the last 5 months but I have decided to start with the most recent creation and work my way back to April as time permits.

This is a journal I have made for a one-on-one Monthly swap - I took at class a little while back on the coptic binding method and this book was created using that method of binding. I have also handpainted all the pages (some pages are watercolour paper, and others are tags, recycled music and book pages). The gal I created this for likes purple and since it's also one of my favourite colours decided to create the book in this colour.

Happy Easter...

2010-04-04T09:18:00.008+10:00

Happy Easter to everyone.... thought it was about time that I did another post! The above image is a piece I created for a small swap I am in. Same group as last year where we worked on a house shape. This year we are creating 6" x 4" pages and using different stamp companies and embellishments. The first month our guidelines were Paperbag Studios stamps and the use of a die cut number/alphabet tile. I love all the Paperbag Studios stamp, so had no trouble at all with this challenge!
This second photo shows you what else I have been up to lately..... silversmithing! Last year I joined a local Silversmith group and did a basic Silversmithing course. In the basic course we made a bracelet, russian wedding rings and earrings. Since then I have made several more rings - and this is my most recent piece - I made it for a friend for her birthday. I am still amazed at the end product - especially when I started out with a single piece of sterling silver wire.

I have also been taking a lot of photos lately.... WAY back when I was around 18 I was involved with a Photography Club and was working mostly with Black & White Film and even printing my own photos. Amazing how some 20+ years and three children later I can't really remember much at all about aperture/shutter speed etc. I guess things have changed a lot as well with Digital Cameras. Anyway yesterday I went day tripping in the country to visit a small Church near Beaudesert, which has a little Cemetery out back where my Grandparents and Great Grandparents are buried - such a beautiful part of the world. Here are some photos I took.....

I was totally surprised that this photo turned out okay... that little moth was very patient with me while i tried to photograph it - the perfect model really!!

This was my other model for the day - my daughter Holly - who was also very patient with me while I was clicking away!!

Many thanks to all for the lovely comments and condolences from my last post - I do try to email you personally, but sometimes I don't have the email addresses.

Is it really March already???

2010-03-05T17:12:00.003+10:00

Well I haven't had the best start to 2010 having lost my brother on New Year's Day, but I am finally starting to feel ok and have been doing a little bit of art journalling and silversmithing - I will have to photograph some of it to share next post.

Meanwhile I thought I would post a pic of this artwork that I have just made for the very talented Julie. When I was home at Christmas time I raided my Mum's stash of old buttons and very much enjoyed going through them all to add some (with original threads and material still attached) to this piece for Julie. I currently have them in a fancy glass vase on my dining room table!

Shock, Horror... another October post?!

2009-10-27T09:00:00.003+10:00

Some more of my house pages to share - the above one was the theme "Count the Birds" and below was the very first page I created for the House Swap and the theme was "Magical Trees". Only one more page to go in this fun swap.... next theme is 'open' so will enjoy seeing where my muse will take me.

Some October Art...

2009-10-17T17:29:00.004+10:00

Some more pages I created for a small House Book Swap I am part of. The theme here was "correspondence" and I had fun trying to use just about every mail art stamp I own. Felt really good to use my stamps again as sometimes I think I depend on Collage Images way too much. The top photo shows the piece with all the tags out of the little pocket, and the one below you can see I have put all the tags away in the pocket.
This is another page I created for the House Book swap. This one from an earlier month and the theme was "seaside".

Some ATC's...

2009-09-16T21:46:00.007+10:00

I have finally started sorting out some older photos and looking for some art to share. Today I thought I would upload a few ATC's. Have not worked on ATC's for awhile and must admit I had forgotten how much I love them.

September 2009

2009-09-08T15:09:00.002+10:00

Well life is plodding along as usual for me, not a lot of time for art, but finally a moment to share another recent piece i have made. This was made for a swap on a Yahoo Group I am part of. The pendant was made of Polymer Clay - my wire work still needs practice - so hard to find the time for all the different types of art I enjoy!!

Sunday 23rd August

2009-08-23T14:42:00.003+10:00

Can't believe i am actually posting something and it's still August.... life has been a bit crazy with my family lately, no light at the end of the tunnel yet, but thought i should post something so my few readers will know i am still in the land of the living.

This piece of art i created for a small private swap I am a part of. We are using a house shape and this piece i created for the theme "Italian Inflence". I have called my page "learning italian" as i have used paper from a book called "A Progressive Italian Grammar". I will try to upload a few more pages from the swap.

June art posted in July... :O)

2009-07-22T12:00:00.000+10:00

I created this artwork for Marlene for her 50th Birthday.... I have been doing online classes with Julie and this is very heavily influenced by her style which I love. The classes are fantastic and would strongly recommend them to anyone who love to play with paint!

A nice early May post...

2009-05-04T17:53:00.003+10:00

This is the tag I made for Paper Princess Margaret for her birthday. Her wish for Art this year was for us to decorate a tag and a metal bird in colours of soft pink and green. Don't you just love the natural green of the twig i used? It looks like i painted it to match, but that is it - straight from the garden!!
Here is a photo as promised of the artwork on my wall. I cannot tell you the pleasure it brings me to walk past this several times a day (when i am home of course). A huge thank you to the Paper Princesses (there is a picture of us on Celeste's Blog if you would like a peek).

Thought I better get an April post in!

2009-04-22T20:33:00.003+10:00

Well as you can see I am still slightly 'bird' obsessed... yet another piece of artwork featuring a birdie! This piece is actually for my very own wall - i have a gorgeous collection of nature themed canvasses on my wall (created for me by the Paper Princesses) and I decided to add to it with some of my own art. I must take a photo of the complete collection to share with you.

I am on a roll....

2009-03-27T09:57:00.003+10:00

I just finished this piece yesterday as part of a swap - I have tried out new skills learnt in class with DJ Pettitt. I think I might have missed something as it sure didn't flow as easily as it did in class, or maybe it was more the fact that I had DJ right there to lend a helping hand. This bird image I have used is one drawn by DJ that she so kindly let us trace in class.

Yes! Another post this month!

2009-03-26T20:06:00.007+10:00

Here are the little houses - all 50 of them - that I created to swap at the recent Creative Soul Retreat. What a great swap, although I must admit getting towards the end I was a bit over working on such a small canvas!

OK I am on a roll....

2009-03-25T15:27:00.004+10:00

Here I am with the lady who deserves to share the crown with DJ for BEST teacher. Stephanie Lee was an amazing teacher as well, very patient with us all as we tried to master those butane torches. I was lucky enough to take two classes with Stephanie and both were equally brilliant. So many new skills I am now attempting to master.... I wish I could have taken Stephanie's third class as well.

At the very top of this post is my finished piece - I must say a big thank you to the gorgeous Jacky for letting me use the mold she made of the little tree, didn't it turn out beautifully? I have just visited the hardware shop today to purchase flux and bits of copper so I can fine tune my new skills.

My only regret is that I didn't manage to do a class with Bernie Berlin. I did get to share a few meals with Bernie and she is also such a beautiful lady - and from all reports a fantastic teacher as well. Here is hoping that Bernie will come back to Australia in 2011 to teach again.

Finally... a March post!

2009-03-25T15:10:00.003+10:00

Here I am with DJ Pettitt...
I think I have finally come down to earth after the fantastic Creative Soul Retreat. What a great time I had at this retreat that seemed to run like clockwork. Below is the piece that I finished in DJ's Class. What can I say about DJ that hasn't already been said on blogs all around Australia? DJ was just the BEST teacher. So patient and all knowing, it was such a pleasure to take a class with DJ.

Ok will try for at least once a month posting.... argh!

2009-02-01T14:13:00.004+10:00

I had a fantastic time making this ATC Block.... I first saw this done on one of my favourite blogs - Small Creations - by Audrey Hernandez. What a brilliant idea! So much fun being able to hammer things on rather than use glue. Big thank you to Judy's brilliant husband Kurt who kindly cut the blocks, i can't wait to play more with this idea.

I have also received one for my birthday made by the talented Marlene that i will share as soon as I photograph it!!

So much for my plan to try and post more frequently.... i forgot that once the kids went back to school and i went back to work that life would get hectic again!

Some Christmas Art....

2009-01-04T10:42:00.002+10:00

Probably for the last few years I have struggled to make Christmas Art... not sure why.... but anyway here are the few pieces that i did make. This first one I made for the lovely Linda as a little thank you for a special Art Day she organised.
This card was made for Kasha - our little group the "Paper Princesses" always just draw one name from a hat and this year I got to make some art for Kasha.

This card was made for another swap.... bit blurry so still need to work on the photography! Maybe that should be my new year's resolution rather than blog posting!!

Happy Birthday to Me... :o)

2009-01-03T13:11:00.003+10:00

I thought today that i should maybe give you all a break from the birdie art and share something i made a little while back. This art was created last year as part of a book that our little group made for the wonderful Celeste. I can't even remember now what the guidelines were... i think shades of blue with maybe butterflies?? Or maybe i just made that up as that is obviously what i did!! LOL...

It has turned slightly cooler here today so a perfect day for losing myself in my art space (it's part of my garage, so I haven't felt very inspired of late as it's been way too hot). Thanks for the lovely comments! See you tomorrow...

I did it... I caught up!

2009-01-02T12:42:00.003+10:00

This is the first page of a two page spread I did for the wonderful Judy Timmins for her birthday. This year our little group decided to do a book for Judy with all of us creating a few pages. Those of you who know Judy know that she loves a good laugh, so we tried to make our pages for her a little bit funny....

This second page has acetate over the image, so didn't photograph particularly well. If you have any tips on taking photos that include acetate I would love to hear them! Enjoy and I will try to post again tomorrow! Stay tuned...

second catch up post...

2009-01-02T12:25:00.003+10:00

This is the finished piece of artwork that Marilena unwrapped for her Birthday... it was a very special birthday - her 50th - and it is safe to say that Marilena completely loved the artwork we created for her. If you would like a closer look at the pieces that Kasha created you can see them here.... and for Celeste's piece you can find them here and here... :o)

....not doing so well, but will try to catch up!

2009-01-02T12:17:00.002+10:00

This is my third and final piece for Marilena. I have managed to pretty much stick with the theme and colours with this piece. I am sure i have a photo somewhere of the finished artwork and will upload that for you all to see. It was truly amazing to see it all come together at the end.

So far so good...

2008-12-30T15:41:00.003+10:00

Day two and so far I am keeping to my goal of a post a day until I share all the art from the past several months. This is another piece I made for Marilena - I forgot to mention last post that we were also to incorporate some fabric into our art if possible. Now those who know me, know that as much as I love fabric, we don't really get along all that well together, paper is more my thing! Anyway I managed to incorporate some fabric and stitching into this piece.

How long has it been???

2008-12-29T19:07:00.003+10:00

I can't believe how long it's been since i have posted to my blog. I hope that everyone has had a fabulous Christmas. Hopefully I will be more consistent with my blogging in 2009. I do have plenty of art to share, so will start with this piece I made as part of a group effort for Marilena's Birthday this year. We had a colour theme of soft green, ink and sepia - we were also to incorporate a birdie and heart into the piece. Such a challenge.... :o)

I have set myself a little goal of posting every day until i have shared all the recent art. So stay tuned!!

One to Eight

2008-10-01T17:05:00.003+10:00

Well here is my first attempt at a 'face' - without the help of a magazine picture. I have obviously been totally inspired by Kelly Rae Roberts and tried to follow her instructions to a 'T'. I did enjoy creating this and want to play a bit more and see if i can develop my own style. Stay tuned... :o)

I also had a fun time creating these hearts using another technique from Kelly's book - this technique from the book was in-conjunction with Stephanie Lee. My friend Kasha came over to my place and we both got our hands covered in plaster! Will definitely be experimenting with this technique some more as well.

Hold still....

2008-09-28T15:57:00.003+10:00

Oh dear I am not so good with the 'regularly' posting to my blog. Anyway here is another piece of art that i have recently finished for the beautiful Ruth, for a monthly project. I am trying very hard to stretch myself a little and to that end I have started using white gel pens in my art. I have also used a most gorgeous piece of maybe (?) wallpaper in the top right of this piece. Some of the gals who went to Melbourne with me in May might be able to clarify this as I brought it back from Melbourne after attending the art retreat - and I have no idea who gave it to me.

I also wanted to share this photo I took yesterday. I am calling it the "funky flower" so if anyone out there in blogland knows it's real name I would love to hear from you. For the past few weeks every morning when i have been looking out my kitchen window i have seen these buds forming on my vine (it seems the neighbours vine has grown over the fence to join my vine, as I know I did not plant this). Anyway.... i have been waiting very patiently for the buds to open and reveal to me the flower. So as you can imagine it is a nice surprise having quite a few of these flowers (or are they weeds???) smiling at me each morning when I look out the window.

Finally....

2008-09-10T16:47:00.001+10:00

.... I have managed to create a piece for Mixed Media Monday. I have been wanting to participate in these challenges for so long and never seem to get some art created in time. So here is my art with the theme "stars". I have created this as a surprise for a friend and it's off in today's mail!

Whisper it.....

2008-09-02T15:28:00.002+10:00

Well here is my most recent piece of art to share... I created this piece for Kasha for a monthly project. It was so much fun creating with no guidelines whatsoever... should be more of it! I love to look at the blogs with all the weekly challenges and each week challenge myself to join in... but then i go to my art space, see the huge mess there and promptly walk right back out. So this week my challenge will be to tidy up the art space and then hopefully join one of those art challenges.

BSHS Rowing Project

2008-09-02T14:59:00.002+10:00

Well finally a chance to post! Not much time for art lately for myself, but i have been helping Melissa (Natalie's best buddy and my cousins daughter) complete a scrapbook project to give as a gift for her rowing team. As the Captain of the Brisbane State High Girls Rowing she wanted to make the girls something to commemorate their time at State High Rowing. After many visits to the scrapbooking shop we came up with a mini book which features 6 photos and some inspirational words. Here the pages are layed out on my table ready to be bound.

This next photo shows some of the completed books (42 in all). A huge thanks to Marlene who bailed us out by loaning me her binding machine to finish the project after we managed to kill mine!!!

Kasha's finished artwork

2008-08-16T16:15:00.003+10:00

This is the finished piece of artwork that was presented to Kasha for her birthday this year. As you can see it is a collaborative effort - artists include Judy Timmins, Celeste Santin, Marilena Stanton, Margaret Cullen-Erikson, Marlene Lyne-Truman and myself. We had some guidelines on colours to use and the theme was of course birdies. I always find it so amazing how we can all create away from each other and at the end the colours always blend so beautifully. The top of the house was created by myself and Celeste.

More Bird Art :o)

2008-08-16T16:04:00.002+10:00

Finally I am able to share my most recently created artwork, these pieces are for my friend Kasha. These two pieces of art form just a small part of a bigger picture which I will also share with you. Just need to do some quick editing on the photos...!

The above piece takes all it's inspiration from the wonderfully talented Nina Bagley - I was incredibly lucky to take a class with Nina recently and we learnt this fabulous technique for making niches. My photography definitely needs work as you may not even be able to tell that this niche is in fact about 1.5cm deep and contains part of a real egg shell.

Art for a Friend

2008-07-22T17:17:00.002+10:00

Finally got this piece finished and in yesterday's mail. Had fun making this art, I wanted to incorporate some sewing and try some different colour combinations which I think worked?! I love the effect with sewing but often forget to use the machine.

Natalie's Art Work

2008-07-20T11:22:00.002+10:00

Today I wanted to share some Art Work recently done by my daughter Natalie. Nat is currently in Grade 12 and about to make some major decisions about Uni Courses. At the moment she is alternating between doing either an Art History Degree or a Fine Arts Degree. I know she needs to make her own decisions about these things, but oh how I would have loved the opportunity to do an Fine Arts Degree! This work is something totally different for Nat - she normally does most of her work with pen in a journal - inspired mostly by Misty Mawn and Teesha and Tracy Moore.

CD Covers

2008-07-03T18:14:00.002+10:00

I wanted to share this art that I made a few months back for my friend Margaret. A group of us got together and we all made CD Covers for Margaret for her birthday. She collects them for in her Art Room and has a fantastic collection. The theme was of course 'birdies' and colours were blue, sepia and gold. This image was my first play with the 'tree' stencil that i had recently purchased. My daughters both managed to grab it before me and had created some great 'art' with it - so the challenge was on!

In this CD cover i have added some stitching and even some stencilling. I really want to try new things and have to make myself be a bit more adventurous. I continue to love using the cuttlebug embossing folders in my backgrounds... so happy was I the day i discovered this technique.

Recent Artwork

2008-06-29T14:19:00.001+10:00

This is a little hanging piece of art that I made for my friend Celeste. I decided to share this with you to kick start my blog.