Blow me down (and my trumpet)

I was visiting Nat's blog the other day and followed her advice and went and had a look at a blog called How Dare You, they had a challenge called From the Garden (dare no. 31) you had to incorporate something from nature in your work, ie leaves/shells/sticks etc. I liked what I saw so I sent an email and attached the pic of the card I made recently (at the craft fair) which I thought fit the bill. And guess what......I won a prize! woohoo, I'm a little stunned to say the least but thrilled they picked my piece and I'm looking forward to receiving a pack of goodies from CherryArte . So you could push me over with a feather but it's a very nice pick-me-up after the usual week of kids/school/work.
I'm working this weekend and therefore miss out on the ATC Continumn and only get an hour at the school fair so bummer but a little play money is OK and I just might have to treat myself to something nice LOL. Have a lovely weekend, hugs, Carmel xxxx

WS Fish etc

Wednesday Stamper seems to come around real quick LOL this weeks theme is Fish. I like fish both to watch and eat and I'm trying to remember to take my fish oil liquid supposedly flavoured with vanilla, no flavour will detract from the oily texture shudder! My little piece is on black velvet using the painted embossing technique. I did a workshop last year at the Perth Craft & Quilt Fair with Jacinta Leishman and the technique was recently published in Cloth Paper Scissors. I'm involved in a tech book, hosted by the lovely Kylie and about 29 other women! I need to make said amount of ATC's using this tech!! should be a wonderful piece to behold. So the paint is Twinking H20's, the stamps are polymer - red rubber will not work as well as the paint doesn't come off properly. And I added some micro beads and a little metal fish embellishment.
I tried to scan/photograph this piece and it's not a great result. This type of embossing 'imprints' the images into the velvet, so it's sunken as opposed to normal embossing where the image is pushed out on top (did I make sense LOL). Hope you are all having a great week. Cheers, Carmel xx

WS Tryptich

Well, I am very flattered indeed that Wednesday Stamper (AKA Belinda) choose my ATC tryptich for their challange this week. When I made it at camp I had a trio of frames and we were making framed ATC's with transpariency. I did them all at once and thought I just wouldn't bother cutting them and ended up with said tryptich, a whimsy! Here is another one but not ATC size. I have had this on the go since my brother/sister-in-law celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary back on the 7th Aug (yes, I'm late) and as 25yrs is silver I went for black/white/silver but felt it needed some bit of colour. It hasn't scanned all that well as the pics on the top layer are on thick foam tape. I might frame it to make a more stylish present. I used the cuttlebug for the lettering and it was fun trying to heat the silver embossing powder LOL. Anyway 'here tis', hope you like it. Cheers, Carmel xxx

Mulberry Paper Wed Stamper

opps, didn't get anything made with mulberry paper this week for Wednesday Stamper, even though I bought some but I ran out of time....but....I did take some pics of the silkworms eating mulberry leaves at my sons kindy! they are getting pretty big and some are spinning cocoons.














It was Father's Day recently (here in Oz) and this is the tie that Lorcan made for Daddy at kindy - you can see it is anatomically correct LOL - gave the teachers a good giggle. Tim had to wear it to work and provide a pic.