Bunny be brave

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I did the artwork I actually planned to do instead of getting sidetracked?? This morning I had thought I'd like to do a bit of a Spring thing given that green shoots and buds are in rather short supply here at the moment, we still have snow, mutter mutter... I discovered some German Easter scrap I picked up last year in the local supermarket and that's when the distraction began

I dusted off the Zutter cutter which was in the corner whinging about it's lack of hole-punching opportunties and set to work

I bought these plastic eggs in the local DIY store, yes Herr Deck you CAN cut them in half if you really put your mind to it. They could do with a bit of a sand and some paint but I'll leave these particular ones alone, promise!

Surprisingly I had enough scrabble tiles to spell the word Easter and now I have a piece of work finished well ahead of time, unlike Valentine's Day which kind of passed me by.

Life is

whatever you want it to be...

This one is rather outside my colour comfort zone but in the same way the yellow ochre gloss tones it all down a bit so too does the wax.

I used the fabric squares again but this time on the sewn paper background

Breakfast anyone?

Now about that cereal box, cut the sides off and place them in a shallow dish and cover with warm water. After about 15 mins take them out and begin peeling the layers off, lay them flat to dry. It's a great job to do on a warm summer's day!

You might be surprised what lies within, here it's a bit similar to handmade paper, really grainy and great texture.

Courage

Both my kids were born in water, the first one quite unintentionally as the decision was made at the last moment when asked if I'd like to get out of the pool, my reply was roughly translated into 'are you having a larf? I'm not going anywhere' At some stage during the delivery I remember the Midwife saying 'put your feet down flat and have courage' I've never forgotten this and I don't know whether it's because they were some of the few words spoken to me in English or her use of the word 'courage'.

When I watch my heart go wandering (or stomping) off down the road in the shape of my son I wonder who needs it most, him or me?

On an artistic note, I'm very pleased with the finished 'canvas' I'm continually fascinated how a few pieces of old paper and card can take on a whole new life with a bit of paint and inspiration. In the top right there should have been a butterfly but in the absence of embossing powder I tried a touch of flocking. I remembered it doesn't need to be heated at the exact moment the surrounding wax suddenly woke up and went on it's merry way into the wings of the butterfly. I now have a one-winged butterfly which is somehow fitting to the piece, all in good time, all in good time...

Stitch-tastic

So glad to hear Nickelback meets with general approval, certainly did wonders for me yesterday! I got up this morning with a spring in my step and did a bit of spontaneous art. This is the type of work I enjoy the most as I often find if I spend too long thinking about an idea I've invariably gone off it by the time I've finished it (not sure what that says about me??!) I sewed a few papers together, old and new, then attached them to some recycled card from an old cereal box.

I layered on some Gesso then got busy with my watercolour crayons

This piece of art was with my son in mind and I wanted to use the words 'all in good time'. I've used this text before and felt in need of a gentle reminder...

I'll post Part 2 tomorrow when hopefully the light will be better. I've finished the piece with wax which of course is now nigh on impossible to photograph, quite a shine it's got going.

Crank up the volume

The kids have gone back to school today and just in the nick of time, I'm feeling rather exhausted in my role as Home Entertainment Manager, my back hurts and my pants are too tight. I started the day with a new diet (pants) went to the physio (back) then came home and played Nickelback really loudly (mental health) I spent the rest of the morning drinking coffee and wondering how you get a 'gravelly' voice like the lead singer, truly fabulous but surely it can't be natural?? Anyway, I digress... I did manage to get a bit done on my twirly wirly wire project that I started last week. I set myself the colour blue as a theme but somehow along the way it all went wrong and of course I wandered fairly far off track, so much so that I made a totally brown page with the word blue on it (written in brown scrabble blocks!!) . I haven't photograhed that one as it's just plain silly, not that I think art should have a reason and hate those 'why' or 'what does it mean' questions but even I have to admit to being completely puzzled by my latest effort.

Destination unknown, yep pretty much sums it up

Assorted threads

Three identical eggs, well why not?

A letter to my love

This is one of my Artcards dated June 08. Somehow it seems more appropriate for this time of year with Valentines Day coming up. I copied the image from a photo I picked up at the market. I always wonder what's in the letter she's holding?

The background is a combination of papers and acrylic paint

I used a sticker from Cavallini and the postmark is a stamp I picked up in London from http://www.bladerubberstamps.co.uk/site/techniques.php They have agreat range of 'postal' stamps

This is one of my favourite stamps combinded with some little jewels and antique ink.

Hole-tastic

Now I know I've been a tad quiet in the past few days and unfortunately it's not because I've been busily crafting, alas no... I have however been shopping AGAIN and have bought myself a wee gadget I can ill afford but simply couldn't resist! We'll be eating spaghetti for the duration of the month but will you just look at this thing?? now I can punch holes in everything, I can bind EBooks for DH, I can make notebooks for the kids, I can make themed chunky spiral bound books of happiness for all my friends and and... I've decided to cut my losses and concentrate all my guilt on the fact that I have to bribe my children with Smarties to get dressed so we can leave the house, far better this way than to have any kind of remorse cramping my creativity!

After I recovered from my initial excitement I did a couple of trial runs to get the covers up the right way and the cut-off wires facing the back and not the front! The accompanying DVD told me it was easy but there's definately a knack to it.

As I said it really does go through everything, I can feel a bit of a recycled flower theme coming on and I promise to get this one assembled, really I do, it just needs a splash of paint first.

And to end the week I recieved post from the lovely Carole over at http://kiwicarole.blogspot.com/ This little packet of fabulousness had a bit of a sleepover at my mum's in NZ and has finally made it's way here. Carole has also given me instructions on how to attach the award badges I've recieved over the past few months and have had no idea what to do with, watch this spot, I'm on it...

Emergency measures

Yesterday was siren testing day in Kanton Zürich. Every town has several of these installed on the top of buildings which are designed to alert the community at large of a civil emergency or other impending doom. Depending on where you live they can be incredibly loud (one right next to our house!) and plenty of warning is given before they are tested.

So the kids went off to Omama for the afternoon forewarned and resolving not to divulge their 'secret' allowing them to collapse in fits of laughter when Omama fell off her chair in fright! ah my children, sigh...

While all this was going out I hotfooted it off to my fav shop to exchange a stamp I bought recently but somehow I came home with all this other stuff, how on earth did that happen?? However, if you look closely there are coasters with holes in them and curly wurly bits of wire to make into little books, how exciting is that?!!

Tag your arch

'Tag Your Arch' is the challenge at http://gothicarches.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tag-your-arch#comments this week.

A bit of a mix

I couldn't quite decide what to do with this canvas and it's ended up with rather a lot of layers, paint, paper, fabric, gel and more! I also added some wax although the photo doesn't really do it justice, the colours are a lot deeper than shown

I stitched around the canvas print from http://artcreationsfriday.blogspot.com/ and attached it with gel medium. This also has a layer of wax and it now looks more like paper than fabric.

I covered the back with a sheet of music, a splash of acrylic and wax

Holidays AGAIN

The sport holidays have started now and I feel like I've ground to a complete halt, although saying that I'm not sure I've really got started this year. Anyway, I'm doing a bit more layering onto a canvas this time, see I just knew I could stick those bits of fabric down and gesso them, ha! I managed to sucessfully transfer last week's image from http://artcreationsfriday.blogspot.com/ onto a piece of fabric using gel medium. I've never had any luck with this technique before and it just goes to show what working with the correct materials can produce! As yet I haven't completed anything and Friday has been and gone but the intent was there

I went to the secondhand shop having waited a whole week for it to reopen after seeing a Lexicon dated 1890 that I should have bought the first time round. Basically it's a pile of papers but ahhh... what a pile!

Tucked away in the middle are these beauties, superb!