Mica

I bought some mica yesterday, really interesting material to use and I'm looking forward to trying out a few paint effects on it. It's layered and you can keep peeling it until you have a wafer thin piece that's still stable enough to attach to your work.

orange

This weeks' challenge over at http://dansmamaisonilya.blogspot.com/ is orange, mine's only a small work owing to sick children and plans to craft all day day going horribly wrong. Anyway, in German they say 'klein aber fein', small but beautiful! that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

Stairway to Heaven

The first time I went to this shop I nearly passed out as it's at the top of a stonking great hill and secondly because inside it's a scrapbookers/stampers haven, the likes of which you simply don't see in this country. An amazing selection of stuff and the freedom to browse, and the best bit is that the lovely Frau Sieger keeps on buying more stuff so there's always something new to see. How fitting it should be called Rainbow, a real pot of gold!

pastel chalk

No time to craft today sadly! these are the results of yesterday, quite pale colours for me, kind of like the kids' chalk box!

prep

With the family around at the weekend time to create is kind of limited, but I did manage to do a bit of prep for various projects I'm working on, a few more canvases, glued and painted the business cards in readiness for the Skylines and Skyscraper challenge although I still don't know what I want to do with my little town. I also followed an interesting link http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com/ via a comment by Connie on my blog. I've always wanted to do an altered book or journal but even after reading a lot about making them was still unsure how to get started. On Sarah's blog she gives a series of daily prompts to help you create your own soul journal, the group has just finished but I'm keen to have a go and will work through them myself.

house challenge

I thought I would have my first try at the house challenge over on http://dansmamaisonilya.blogspot.com/ a site I have admired for quite some time, this is me with my guiding star. I wanted to do a watercolour background but then discovered I don't actually own any watercolours, which is very odd as I'm sure I must have had a box at some stage, anyway I scribbled over the page with various Neocolor crayons and wet them instead. As I was deciding which pics to put on I caught myself sticking my tongue out just as in the photo (Carole:)) nothing much changes...

on a roll

Last night I decided it would be quite cool to display the canvases together on some kind of hanging arrangement. I found a bit of wood in the garden that's been there for yonks and had a go at chopping it up, then I sloshed a bit of paint on it, sanded it and attached a bit of twine. An object of true beauty it isn't and if you breathe too hard in the near vicinity all the canvases fall off!! but at least it's a starting point. Will have to pay a visit to the lovely Herr Deck in the DIY store and try and explain in my best German that I need some bendy hooks! I can imagine three canvases in similar colours or a theme.

a fine price to pay

Regarding the re-mortgage the house to buy a canvas comment, well, each one of these little beauties costs 3.50 francs about USD 3.00 which when you think it's only 2x2" it's quite a price! understandably I was very excited to find a pack of 4 priced at 6.80CHF. Unfortunately, I managed to break one of them when I tried to hammer one of the tacks in, I didn't realise there were 4 metal corners set into the frame until I flipped it over. After looking a bit closer I realised the cheaper ones don't have the metal bits, double result!!

My Mum

I'm not sure how old my mother was when this pic was taken, will have to check with her! I got to use my lovely embossing tool with interesting results, I ended up inhaling half the powder after blowing rather than tapping it off the canvas! ah the things you learn not to do

oh no!

I finished my weekly art card and as I went to put it in the box I realised I'm actually up to date, which is a good thing but what's a little worrying is that I have absolutely no recollection of what I've made over the 5 week holiday period, maybe I'm turning into my mum afterall!

hidden joy

I finished another canvas last night and used Susie's idea of putting a flower in the back, a cute surprise, I think!

iced cakes

As I said, a very cool format, I've now started to coat them with a bit of structure gel and am very pleased with the results. I also found a shop here that sells packs of four canvases for a price less than the mortgage on the house, result!

mini mania

I'm not sure what's happened to the children after the trip, they're refusing to leave the house and walk anywhere other than to the car. They've have been content to stay home and play, quite a shock to the system really! consequently I've found myself with a few spare minutes. I've been experimenting with some more minis and am really enjoying this format, I've been trying to make them the weight of a stone with various layers of paint, gesso, paper and more paint.

Cousin Susan

Will you look at that, my canvas (the one I had so many problems with) appears on the 'In This House' homepage this month, somehow that makes it all worthwhile!

Book bliss

What I found in Dublin!

Ireland

We spent the last week in Ireland, flying into Dublin then travelling down the East coast to Newcastle. Beautiful place and incredibly friendly people, a wonderful rugged coastline that could have been anywhere at home. I've now revised my plans to retire in NZ, a little cottage in the Irish countryside will do me just fine...