A new creative outlet (and passion...)

EYES

I admit it - I'm pretty hooked!  Given my addictive personality, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise, really...  I've just completed my FIRST EVER art journal page and I LOVE IT!

I'm about to embark on a year-long adventure through mixed media and art journalling, called WANDERLUST.  It is an online adventure over 50 weeks in 2016 starting on 1 January.  There will be a new video each week detailing different aspects of this amazing creative outlet, including videos on products and techniques from 2 resident teachers, as well as videos from 24 guest teachers (each one downloadable and with PDF instructions provided).

I can't wait to get started!!

D.xx

The Caring Hearts Card Drive 2016 ~ Wrap-up

Well, the Caring Hearts Card Drive is over for another year!  I've managed to collect a total of 380 cards from local cardmaking friends in Melbourne, and these have been packed up into deliveries to go to five different aged care facilities across the suburbs.  To combine these with the cards sent directly to Linda, that makes a total of 1,100 cards collected and distributed across 13 aged care facilities in Australia for 2016 - such a great effort!

For my own part, I've made roughly 200 cards for this cause, with over 130 of them being utilised in a mini-fundraiser at my children's primary school.  Below is a photo showing some of the beautiful messages written by the primary students:

They're so very colourful!  Here is a quick photo showing a group of different designs I made for the school:

This is such a fantastic initiative, and I hope to be involved again next year!!

Deb.xx

Pixels and Paper ~ December Challenge!

2010

WOW, I blinked and November was gone!!  What a busy month!!  Well, we're definitely on the downhill run now, gathering speed towards the festive season!  And Christmas time is exactly what I thought of when I first saw this month's inspiration photo at Pixels and Paper!

This image is so much fun!  I was firstly drawn to the beautiful bright green and red, and to the chocolate and the gingerbread.  I also wanted to incorporate the overall Christmas theme of the bikkies into my layout!  Here's what I came up with!

On a piece of heavy-weight white cardstock, I splattered some watered down 'Melted Chocolate' Dylusions paint and let it dry.  Next I used the Trees stencil from TCW and 'Cut Grass' Dylusions paint with a stipple brush to stencil the trees randomly on the page.  Again, after this was dry, I used 'Postbox Red' Dylusions paint and a fine-point brush to put red dots on the trees.

Next, I used two adorable little gingerbread people stamps from Imaginisce and stamped and white embossed them onto 'ginger-coloured' cardstock.  I fussy-cut them out and arranged them in pairs on the page.  I used my 'Little Numbers' dies from Stampin' Up! to cut out "2010" from the 'ginger-coloured' cardstock, and added some squiggly lines with my Versamark pen and heat-embossed with white.

I used a piece of candy-cane paper from a Kaisercraft paperstack to go under my photo.  I also distressed up some of the 'ginger-coloured' cardstock and put that under where the photo was going to go.

I matted my photo of my kids' Santa photo (from 2010) onto white cardstock and used the 'Postbox Red' Dylusions paint around the edge.  The photo was then popped up over the layers to give dimension.  I also used a diecut from the Kaisercraft paperstack (it was green [tick!] and had Santa on it [tick!] to journal the details of this Santa photo.

I was relatively happy with the page, but it did seem like it was missing something.  I used a mask of an ornament die by Nini's Things and sponged some 'Real Red' ink by Stampin' Up! over the mask and removed it - I did this randomly on the page and I feel it picked it right up.

I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with this month!!

Cheerio!  Thanks for visiting!!

Deb.xx

Caring Hearts Card Drive 2015 - Mid-November update

To see my original Caring Hearts Card Drive post, click here.

We're getting to the 'pointy end' of the Caring Hearts Card Drive for 2015.  The lovely Linda Langes has provided an update on the Australian-based component of this drive on her blog.

From my end in Melbourne, I have so far received 15 cards from a wonderful crafty friend of mine, with another 10-12 friends providing me with cards at a crafty event next weekend.  I am also hopeful that some other friends of mine on the other side of town will get into the spirit of the CHCD and send me some cards in the not-too-distant future as well.  Any other Victorian crafter who would like to send cards locally for Victorian-based aged care facilities are welcome to send cards to me as follows:

Details now deleted...

I have so far arranged for up to 300 cards to be delivered to five separate aged care facilities across Melbourne. I stopped at that point as I didn't want to promise cards that I wouldn't necessarily be able to deliver (!).  Once I get cards in from local crafters, I can then set about contacting additional facilities on my list across the broader Victorian area.

For my part personally, I am busy creating cards for students at my kids' school, Bundoora Primary School.  We use this drive as a mini-fundraiser for the school.  I donate the cards to the school, the school then sells the cards to the students and families at $2.00 per card ($0.70 for postage costs back to the CHCD and $1.30 profit for the school's fundraising endeavours).  We had orders for 105 cards as at last Monday - I'm hoping for many more by tomorrow.  Here are some samples of cards I have created this year:

I've had a real thing for 'Christmas Trees' this year, hence these three designs...  I always like to put some 'meaning of Christmas' designs together as well...

I've been having fun playing with my Flitterglu and MegaFlakes from Indigoblu, and using masks of ornament dies to create a reverse effect:

I've also had some fun with some cute little Santa Stamps and my Prismacolour Pencils:

The wonderful students at our school will be sitting down in their classes one morning within the next two weeks to write/draw their messages of festive cheer in these cards.  I'll be sure to post some pictures of their gorgeous work once they're done!

I'm off now to create some more designs - I think I'll do some poinsettias next!

Thanks for visiting!
Deb.xx
#caringheartscarddrive

Pixels and Paper - November Challenge!

"live gently upon this earth"

 Welcome back to a new month at Pixels and Paper!  We have a fantastic inspiration photo for you to work from for this month's challenge:

I was immediately drawn to the tree and the sense of the changing seasons.  I decided to create a canvas for my piece this month.

I began by drawing pencil lines to break my landscape canvas (9"x12") into quarters.  Next, I used Gelatos and water to create my background sky and ground.  I moved from the deep blue hot sky of Summer into the overcast coolness of Autumn, to the blustery grey skies of Winter, and into the renewing freshness of Spring.  The grass has been modified to match my impression of these changing seasons as well.  After I'd finished the 'watercolour' phase of this process, I then sealed it all using Tim Holtz' Distress 'Micro Glaze'.  This allowed me to keep building on the base images without damaging them.

Then, using the bare tree image from the 'Sheltering Tree' stamp set by Stampin' Up!, together with Dylusions Paint in 'Melted Chocolate', I stamped out my tree in all four settings.  I mixed Dylusions Paint 'Cut Grass' with some Memento 'Tuxedo Black' reinker to get differing shades of green for my leaves for Summer and Spring, and then mixed it further with some 'Melted Chocolate' for Autumn.  I also added some 'Crushed Curry' SU! Reinker for the Autumn leaves as well, and have then built each tree manually.  I added flowers to Spring by mixing 'White Linen' and 'Postbox Red' Dylusions Paint and dabbing the resulting pink randomly.

For a bit of texture, I've added smatterings of Whipped Spackle into the grey skies of Winter, as well as adding some puffy white clouds to Spring.  I also wanted to add some ribbon flowers along the lines of last month's October Training with Tone-Lill - using some 3mm pink ribbon with white cotton to gather them in.  Each of these ribbon flowers has been finished off with a small yellow rhinestone.  I also added a few other rhinestones to the paint flowers as well.

I used some dark green seaming ribbon (different to seam binding ribbon) to segment off the seasons where the pencil lines had been, and I added the phrase "live gently on this earth" from the Tim Holtz 'Small Talk' sticker book.

I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Thanks for visiting!
Deb.xx

Scrapbook Boutique - October 2015 Challenge

If you would like to check out my original Caring Hearts Card Drive post, click here!

Happy Christmas

Thankfully, I've finally gotten around to creating something to enter this month's Challenge at Scrapbook Boutique (only just!)  Such a wonderful colour combination:

To me, this screams "Christmas"!  [I'm very traditional with my Christmas colours.]  And so, with cards still to design and create for the Caring Hearts Card Drive, I thought I'd use this inspiring colour palette to help me out!

I have used the new 'Perfect Pines' dies and co-ordinating 'Peaceful Pines' stamp set from Stampin' Up! to create my tree.  The diecut of the tree, the star and the pot are all popped up on the card base to add dimension.  I have also threaded some coiled red wire across the tree for tinsel, and added a few Sprinkles for baubles.  My sentiment has been heat embossed with black and popped up, with a few Sprinkles at each end.

This is a really easy design to create, and I am sure I can create a couple more for this year's Card Drive!

Thanks for visiting!
Deb.xx

Kraft+ ~ Inspired by Nature Challenge

To see my post about the Caring Hearts Card Drive, click here!

Maggies

My, my, how quickly October has disappeared!! I almost didn't make it to enter this month's challenge over at Kraft+ ~ Inspired by Nature!

Thankfully I've been able to get myself a bit organised so I could put together a layout to enter!  My topic for this layout is so in tune with the theme of this challenge - Magpies!  I have a delightful group of Maggies nesting near my house, and instead of being swooped by them anytime I go outside, I decided to make them my friends by feeding them.  Now, when I walk out my door and whistle, they come gliding in and virtually eat out of my hand...

I have used a piece of Corrugated Card from Kaisercraft for my background, and dressed it up with some white gesso and black Gelatos.  I love how the gesso sits in the grooves of the corrugations to add it's own 'layer' of interest...

One of my Maggies was kind enough to leave me a feather which I have incorporated into my title by putting it under my chippie letters.

I have added some string under the photos and popped the photos up on cardboard.  I found some chipboard feathers in my stash that I have coloured with Stampin' Up! Craft Ink in Whisper White and Basic Black to replicate the Magpie feather.  I distressed some black paper by scrunching it up, and then lightly inking up the texture with Whisper White craft ink. 

I also dried and pressed a few tea rose flowers from my [one and only] rose bush to incorporate onto the page and add a bit of colour.  I created my own 'grass' by randomly cutting some bits of green cardstock into blades and stuck together.

It's a very simple page, but I love how it came together.  I love my Maggies and I hope they stay around for many years to come!