Happy New Year

Well this has been a great year for me.....flown by way too quickly tho, with things I said I'd do still  not done. 

This is a little video of Instagram images taken last year of where I live. 

The video goes a little  too fast, a bit like the way this year has gone.

Thanks to all of you who come by regularly and hugs and kisses to those beautiful people who leave comments for me.

I hope 2013 has been kind to you and that the beginning of a new year has you full of hope and inspiration.

Happy New Year !

'All Is Calm' at Mixed Media Place

Mixed Media Place, a wonderful, one stop shop where you can buy everything you could ever need for mixed media projects, as well as all the beautiful products designed by Finnabair, has invited you to take part in a challenge.

They have started a new monthly project and challenge, and it is all about emotions..........and being women, we all experience plenty of them ! 

This month we want you to express "calm". Yes, at the craziest time of the year we want you to find your 'zen' place and think "calm"

If you visit Mixed Media Place HERE you can see how the DT have used the emotion of calm to create with. All the details on how to enter the challenge are also there.

Calm Is An Empty Head

For me, personally I need to have a clear or 'empty" head to feel calm. I try to let everything go....to push all thoughts from my mind. All the bits and pieces of life, the thoughts, plans, worries, emotions, demands, responsibilities that race around in my brain. I want and need to push them out and away, so I imagine them spewing out of my head and falling in a jumbled mess around me, leaving my head space clear, calm and empty. Of course it's not that easy to do.....beach walks and yoga work for me:- sometimes. I have to confess tho that the whole time I was working on this page ( and I had so much fun doing it ) the song, "Zombie" by the Irish rock band The Cranberries, kept going round and round in my brain, making me then think that there is probably a fine line between being totally clear headed and calm and being a bit like a Zombie. Ahhh, stop thinking !

A lot of the detail is lost in the main photo so here are a few close-ups.

A product list of what I have used can be found HERE at Mixed Media Place.

Cotton mesh, tulle, wire and Finnabair Mechanicals

Embossed Sunrise Sunset stamp and wires

Tissue flower & gesso detail

Amongst all the Christmas activity I hope you can find some time to create and express what "calm" is to you. Wishing you all a very happy week and a joyous Christmas.

Page Drafts Christmas Sketch Release

Well it's getting closer. Christmas is nearly here and this week to celebrate this joyous time of the year, Emma Stafrace has put together the most fabulous package of sketch templates for Christmas, and today they are released for everyone to see, download and create with.

Not only that, but she has invited some of her clever, creative friends to work with these sketches ( lucky me got invited along too ) so there is lots of inspiration to get you motivated.

So, go have yourself a jolly old time over at Page Drafts. You will find all the details HERE.

This is the fun sketch I used.

I know I have used this photo before, sorry to bring it out again...it's my daughter marvelling at snow falling when we had Christmas in Prague last year ( and sadly you can't even see the snow ) but it's the closest she had ever been to snow falling, seeing as how we come from the dryest state in the dryest continent in the world.

Lots of papers, washi tape, stamping and of course water colours.

Thanks for visiting me today. May your week ahead be full of organised chaos and lots of fun.

Christmas Tags

I so admire people who can create beautiful cards.......inventive, detailed and oh so pretty. That's not me. I have a real problem with cards. Tags however, for some strange reason, I feel more comfortable with. I think because I view them as a sort of mini journal page. 

These I made for the  Mixed Media Place using lots of their beautiful products. There's a list at the bottom.

Distress Stains, stamping, texture paste, tissue and watercolour.

Sunrise Sunset Stamp which has been embossed, Prima Mechanicals, and water colours. 

Prima Elementals "Halftone" Stencil used with texture paste and Prima Vintage Vanity Clear stamp "Fishnet".

Texture paste and Dylusions Let It Snow Stencil, along with Sunrise Sunset Stamp.

Products from the Mixed Media Place.

Sunrise Sunset Papers:  Ranger "Glue & Seal":  Tim Holtz Distress Stains and Distress Inks:   StazOn Ink:   Prima Cling Stamp Sunrise Sunset:  Prima Vintage Trinkets:  Prima Mechanicals:  Prima Elementals "Halftone" Stencil.

December ! So much to do ! I hope this mad month is not getting away from you! Thanks for taking the time to visit me today.

Scrap Around The World December Challenge #8

Here is the beautiful soft, graceful and very feminine December mood board at 

Scrap Around The World.

Visit the Scrap Around The World challenge blog HERE to find all the details on how to join in and be inspired by the other DT girls. You do not have to use the sketch provided and this month as well as LO's you can also do TAGS, ATC's, CANVASES and ART JOURNAL pages !

It is pretty obvious what inspired me. Firstly the soft pinks and greens, next those beautiful textural frames and lastly the worn, aged shabby appearance of the books and of course the pretty pink flower. 

This page started out as a piece of 12x12 chipboard.

Followed by many layers of paper, tissue, inks, embossing, stamping, frames, fussy-cut flowers and water colours.

Just look at the prizes for this December challenge !! Who would NOT like to win 3 complete collections from 7 Dots Studio !! Amazing.

So amongst all the Christmas chaos, lock yourself away for a while, get your "creative on" and good luck.

1st prize - 3 complete collections from 7 Dots Studio!!

Hopefully, Domestic Goddess & Messy Head {Collection kits}

2nd prize - 2 Crafty Chipboard valued at $30!

3rd prize - Scrapmatts Chipboard valued at $25!

4th prize -YOUR CHOICE of Purple Pumpkin products, to the value of $15.

5th prize -Assorted Prima Christmas goodies donated by DT member Eila Sandberg.

Random Prize - Donated by Leonie Neal-Dawson
Kaisercraft paper pad, collectibles, flowers, Maya Road canvas album & trinkets.

The first week in December ! Can it be true ? May your weeks ahead be full of fun, family and friends.....and some peaceful moments too.

Turn a Negative into a Positive......Paperdvizhnik Challenge

The new challenge at paperDVIZHNIK is a brain cruncher. High light negative space and combine two images in one.

Negative space , in art, is the space around and between the subject (s) of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally USED to artistic effect as the "Real" subject of an Image. ( wiki )

Visit paperDVIZHNIK and see the amazing and varied pages created by the other DT girls....I hope you will be inspired to 'stretch' your creativity and play with us this month.

I found this challenge really difficult. Not so much the making of my page, although that was pretty time consuming, but the 'design' element.......making an 'identifiable' negative shape or space out of a positive shape or space. I did not succeed in doing this :(    I focussed only on "the space around and between the subjects of an image" . I overlapped the two moving figures and created positive/negative spaces within the figures and around the figures. To high light the difference I've kept the figures simple, just watercolour but the background detailed.

Layers of paper, tissue, embossing, stamping and watercolour.

A negative space created in the positive space where body parts overlap. New spaces or 'shapes' created by the wire. The wording...my new favourite mantra.

Rubons and metal gears connected with wire.

Background layers of paper, tissue, washi, stamping and embossing.

Please join us this month. Put your imagination, your design eye and creativity to the test. So looking forward to see what you come up with.
Thanks for visiting....may your days be charged with positivity.

Mixed Media Place Design Team

I don't really have enough of the right words to say how happy, excited and honoured I am to be a part of this Design Team. Thank you Ania for having faith in me. To be in the mix with this talent, for me, is amazing, and also a little daunting. But fear holds us back so I'm just going to enjoy the ride.