Wednesday Stamper

This week's Wednesday Stamper challenge is 'coloured' how you like to use colour. I like alcohol inks very much as there is no 'right way' just go with the flow. This ATC was done with blended alcohol inks on gloss paper and if it looks dark that is because the soot technique was also applied. This tech was demonstrated by our wonderful Kelsey as SAJ some time ago. After applying the ink you hold the paper over a candle to 'soot' it up and then stamp into it. The stamp removes the soot and you are left with a 'resist image'. Lots of fun to do but you must seal it with a fixative or it will smudge. The chain is one I picked up via the Op shop and broke up. Yes, Dawnine this is the ATC you wanted and I've just added a few bits as you can see. On it's way to you shortly. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. And best wishes to PJ and John who are getting married 'in the morning'. Love, Carmel xx

Playdate with Sulea

Had a lovely afternoon yesterday - went for a painting playdate with Sulea. The peace and quiet was surreal as there was no 'mum mum where are you, I want' etc etc. Love my kids but I do remember TBK ahhhhh. Sulea and I talked painting and how we feel about it and I got to see her recent work in the flesh which is totally amazing, her expression blows me away. Another plus was the pumpkin/pecan cake BTW I need the receipe! so you can guess how much I wanted to come home to the end of the day routine LOL but when your child puts his little arms around your neck and says 'I love you Mummy'....and the bigger one to... well I suppose I'll keep them he he.


Anyway here is what I played with yesterday and last night and just a little bit this morning! it's called Heartfelt Release and I will be sending it to Ireland to a friend who visited last year. Margaret is a special needs teacher who chooses to work in a school in a poorer area as they need her help the most.

I was also thrilled yesterday when Sulea gave me one of her paintings. It's called 'The Loving Space' and words fail me to express how honoured I feel to have a piece of Sulea's work. Check out Sulea's blog shortly to see her what she was working on yesterday, be prepared to be amazed! So I think you will agree that I had a pretty good Sunday. Hope you all have a lovely week. Hugs, Carmel xxxxx

Diamond Eyes for Wed Stamper

This is a piece I did a while ago but I wanted to have a play on Wednesday Stamper it's called Diamond Eyes - a booklet made out of coreboard and covered with tissue/tape/guaze/alcohol inks/paints/stamped transpariency and a working printed circuit board when you pull the tape it flashes. Anyway it was a fun piece to make, the background was inspired by Trish Bayley's 'textured alcohol ink'.

Cheers, Carmel x

More Yummy Post

I just wanted to share another beautiful piece art which I received the other day. It's from my Mystery Muser, which I can now reveal as the lovely Julie H - a gorgeous hard cover journal. Julie lives in a beautiful place way down south called Albany, it had dramatic coastline which reminds me a lot of Ireland and it's hilly, rugged and a bit wild. The cover reminds me of birds on the beach foraging for food and each page inside had a stamped bird on it. I love it Julie, thank you for making it just for me. I love the Mystery Muser as you get to make something for someone each month and it's lovely to think about the person and make them something you know they will love or challenge them with something outside their interests. Hope you all have a lovely day - would someone please tell Perth that Summer is officially over! way tired of hot weather - sorry Nat I know it's hotter up your way lol. Cheers, Carmel xxx

I Love my Postie

Have you seen those Australia Post adverts about each day of the week and what usually happens on that day? quite clever - well Thursdays are my 'at home' day. Chuck on a bit of washing so we're not up to our eyes on the weekend and maybe even a little ironing, just a little lol - well this Thursday was pretty much following it's atypical pattern when there was a very masculine knock at the door and lo and behold there he was.....the new postie! I have to say it's a new younger model in his 'fitted' postal uniform lol and there I was with unwashed hair, daggy shorts and tee-shirt but I didn't give him a second to be able to recognise me in a line up as I grabbed the parcel and shut the door. A parcel usually can only mean one thing to me - ART GOODIES and oh yeah I was not to be disappointed! drum roll please.....see above the beautiful work of art which I received today. What a talented lady Ms Natalie B is!! this is Nat's 'Portrait of a Lady' canvas, it's got texture paste and the wax gives it a velvety feel and the overall composition if a serene lady in thoughtful repose. I also got Natty's 'Paris Night's' card which is also a stunning piece of work. So you see why I love my new Postie? and why I desire his return he he. Thank you Nat for this beautiful gift, fabulous work girlie.

Hugs to everyone I'm so happy.

Carmel xx

I was inspired...

At the last SAJ's I was watching the lovely Julie van O making some glass pendants with soldered edges. Got me thinking I have a soldering iron from when I indulged in a little lead lighting some years back. And so I decided to have a go as I wanted to give the teachers who looked after Taidgh when he as injured on school camp. All was going good except when I had to do some travelling to get the right solder! Byford to Cannington to Dick Smiths where I got silver solder (4%) and whilst there managed to pick up some of those glass fuses - 6 in a little box for $1.98! this was good as Bunnings wanted $5 for 2! Thanks Julie I did manage to get the fuses open by heating the top - only broke 2 but when I wanted to solder the jump rings on I realised I needed some liquid flux to make a 'key' for the solder to work even though the silver solder had a core of flux it was not enough to bind - another car trip into Armadale. So what started off as yeah, I'll have a go at that turned into a 80km trip just to get the stuff together - also thanks to Elaine who got me the ball chain which saved me driving on into Vic Park LOL phew - all for a little thank you present but now I have the gear and can keep making stuff. It's all good fun really and it feels so much better when you have made something as a present instead of buying. Wishing you all a happy week. Hugs, Carmel xx

Another day on the blog

Had a really good time catching up with girlies last night down in Freo (Fremantle). A number of the girls are attending the Art Retreat over the weekend so we had a dinner catch up notably Julie and Sally who have come from down South. More catching up tonight with girls at Stamping at Jan's so a really good finish to the week. Making the most of it as hubby is going to a two day tournament on Sun/Mon so it's me and the kids. Sitting here and the house is completely silent as Lorcan is at kindy for the whole day, it's weird not hearing 'mum'. I didn't have this experience with Taidgh as I was working fulltime back then.

Anyway here is another canvas, yes it's a bit similar to the other but this was started first. I liked the background to I did the birthday in the same vein so I didn't have to extend my brain re the colour combos. I took Nat's left/right brain quiz and it said I was 15% left brain and 85% right brain - now it's nice to be told you have creative tendencies but whoa what it really shows is that I can't walk in a straight line and why I'm tuned out alot lol and why I intend to plan but it doesn't happen (much) - I'm truly the 'last minute wonder' - oh well now I know.

Where does the time go

Phew, another couple of weeks gone by, quite frankly I don't know what I am doing with my time. Taidgh went off to school camp in Albany (400km from home) and I got that call on the first night - your son has had an accident and is currently being stitched at the hospital. We rang the hospital to see how he was and was told he was 'anxious' whilst being administered local anaesthetic, Taidgh's version was 'Mum, I screamed my head off'. Oh well so would you if you needed 7 stitches on your kneecap if it was split to the bone! it all ended well in that he stayed at camp and made the best of it, he still had a great time and spent all his money on presents for us (and a little something for himself).

We also had a wedding to go to on the weekend, a very good friend Becky who got hitched for the second time - had an appropriate song during the service, 'this time there will be love'. It was wonderful and it was the groom who was teary not the bride! Steve is a lovely man and they looked like love sick kittens! I also had to get Lorcan to a birthday party on the same day, a fairy/wizard do and he had a great time dressing up and playing games. The only art I achieved this week was a canvas for the birthday girl who turned five. This was done in 45 minutes and was barely dry upon handing it over. Feeling under the pump now as the past few kids cards I have done included photos and a few have been kept and framed which is a nice compliment but now everyone wants a photo/layout to keep for their child - what have I started? Hope you are all having a great week. Hugs, Carmel xxx

Art Post this time

Well, I've been told to post some art! well here tis but it's not exactly new lol. Ok, the canvas was/is for Sharynne for Mystery Muse - don't worry she has already seen it but left it with me so I could scan - mind you the scan isn't great due to it being lumpy and a photo was hard as it had shiny bits and with a flash was a disaster and without, too dark. Now that nice staining on the guys face was done very artistically and don't know if I should share said technique, but as you are friends, here goes!! pour dimensional magic on and when you come back to see if it's dry - voila - staining LOL - just bled through to the ink underneath - but I like it!!

Few weeks ago Nic and I played with Kelsey's soot tech - seeing that it was accompanied by drinkies we did AOK! here are a few samples - we tried different types of paper. Gloss was the best of course but cheap photographic paper was pretty good and I had a matt coated paper and this turned out pretty good too, obviously matt but had a very soft look/feel to it.

So, there you go, a little bit of art - have done and posted my canvas for the altered canvas round robin but we can't share them at this stage. And actually have a couple of things lined up to do! Hope you are all having a good week. We now have sniffles at our house, both boys. I am hoping that Taidgh will be right for camp next week in Albany - look out Julie the Byford boys are coming to town LOL. Cheers, Carmel xx

It's been a while or what LOL

Yes, it's been a while since I tapped on the keys - have I had anything to say??? not sure, the last few weeks have been a blur. Holidays, well the days drifted one into the other and towards the end hubby took some time off so we did house stuff like buying furniture for the study and moving the family room around. In this reorganisation I gained the filing cabinets in my room as they are metal and the study is now all 'wood' - still not sure how I got conned but there you are! anyway my room is once more a tip and desk space is at an all time low and getting creative has been very difficult. Never stop thinking about stuff but getting it down is a problem. Also the back to school thing has been huge this year as no. 1 son entered Year 7 (last yr. of primary) and no. 2 son started Kindy. Major excitement indeed! one wearing the uniform for the last year and one putting it on for the first time. We also managed to start swimming lessons for Lorcan which were a huge success as he passed stage 1. Lorcan used to have the grip of death on you in the water but now is keen to swim lengths, dive under and as of yesterday was floating without an aid and making good progress in using his arms to do the strokes - so it's an incredible turnaround and I'm still in awe that he has done so much in such a short time. Taidgh is very excited to be Yr. 7 and will be off to camp in a weeks time. He is also going to start keyboard lessons in the near future, is this wise I hear you ask, well at least it's not the trumpet! Anyway here a few pics of our new year start.

More bits

I have just finished making/sending charms for a charm swap and this spurred me on to make something else lol - the necklace, well I saw something similar in a shop for bigs dollars and thought 'yeah I can do that' (well hopefully) some of the buttons belonged to Tim's Mum and are 40 years old and some came from a friends Mum - both Mum's have passed away so it's nice that they are no longer sitting in a tin. They are quite comfortable to wear and lots of people have commented on them, I added some vintage pics to make them different from the ones in the shop - they used 'new' buttons all the same colour but I like my variety and you can wear it with different colour tops. They earings well had two bits left over so it had to be a pair of eargings - I'm glad I am picking up my new reading glasses tomorrow as it was so hard to thread the needle - the closer stuff is the more blurry it is lol. Might make some more, a friend tells me she has two huges jars of buttons so we might have a buttone necklace day, bring it on. Hugs, Carmel xx

Yummy mail

Check out this yummy mail - top left is a post-it-note holder from my Mystery Muser - will find out who made this at the end of the month. The other three are ATC's from a Winner Takes All draw that I won on a group based in the states, Altered Art Obsession - top right is a polymer clay beauty from Pearl Moon and the bottom two beauties are from Julie Hetherington down South - others coming from the States in due course - I'm feeling sooooo lucky as this is the second WTA that I have 'won' other one is from a group here in WA, Callingallstampers - must post those for you to see. Also starting to get Christmas post from Ireland - I have sent my 40 or so cards already so now I'm on the receiving end. Friends relatives and my mum's friends including my primary school cookery teacher, Sr. Pius who is now 86 years old but we still exchange cards. Whilst it's hard getting it all together I do love getting all the cards from Ireland. Carmel xx

1" collage has arrived

Wow - 1" collage is back - thanks to Dotee for hosting and mounting them all, what a huge task. I love this as it is unique and can't wait to see them all on Dot's blog. It was a lot of fun and it's amazing to see what other people do with 1"square of card lol. Thanks to all the participants, I'm thrilled with my piece and I hope you are too. Carmel xx

1" squares are finished woo hoo

I know this image looks a bit funny - took the pic upside down to avoid shadows and having to move them - rotated it on the computer and it gave this very odd view - hope noone gets vertigo looking at it. So, I am glad that I have finished another swap. This was fun and whilst it sometimes seemed that I wouldn't get to the end when they are all layed together it's not as 'big' as it seemed. Can't wait to get back the mounted version with a sample of everyone's work - we are all different personalities so it will be something to see what thoughts we have in our heads and have put on card lol. Ok Dotee, in the post very shortly - will just recheck what I have to send you. Love to all, Carmel xx

Calendar swap

I'm in a calendar swap and as you can see I'm doing the month of May. This seems to have taken ages to get going. I had specific thoghts of what I wanted - mystical May, lots of pagan rituals associated with May - fertility, Goddess worship, maypole dancing, queen of May and it's also my birth month and my grandmothers and great aunt. Actually all three of us were born on the same date, Nana and Hannie a few years apart and me two generations later. I have some celtic style stamps but couldn't seem to get the composition right, as in it looked flat and I wanted depth or it took me soo long to do one I was happy with and could not see being able to do that another eleven times lol. Anyway in the end I put time into creating a background and I loved this image of the girl with blue hues - pagan colour - Bealtaine is the old gaelic word for May and the celebrations surrounding it. I think I'm done but not sure - can't have bulky bellies as there are another eleven months and it's not a 'fat calendar'. It will be hung on the wall/door so it can't stick out too much. Ok two more swaps to complete! deadlines fast approaching and I'm also doing the christmas decoration for the kids at playgroup ahhhhgggg help! Have a lovely day. Love, Carmel xx

What a list!

HAVE YOU:
taken a picture completely naked? no
danced in front of a mirror naked? no
had feelings for someone who didn’t have them back? yes
been arrested? no
seen someone die? yes
kissed a picture? yes
slept in until 5pm? yes
had sex at work? yes, with my husband!
fallen asleep at work? yes
held a snake? yes
ran a red light? no - was that red or organge, actually I recently turned right on a red arrow - nothing coming (obviously)
been suspended from school? no
pole danced? no
been fired from a job? no
sang karaoke? yes
done something you told yourself you wouldn’t? yes
laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? yes
laughed until you peed? yes
caught a snowflake on your tongue? yes
kissed in the rain? yes
had sex in the rain? no
sang in the shower? yes - all the time
gave your private parts a nickname? no
ever gone to work without underwear? no
sat on a rooftop? yes
played chicken? yes
broken a bone? no
flashed someone? no
mooned someone? no
skinny dipped? yes
shaved your head? yes
slept naked? yes
blacked out from drinking? yes
played a prank on someone? yes
had a gym membership? yes
felt like killing someone? no/yes/no/yes/no/oh maybe
truly hated someone? as above lol
felt like smacking someone in the face? yes - only did it once (at school)
cried over someone you were in love with? yes
had Mexican jumping beans as pets? no - ditto what are they?
been in a band? no
shot a gun? yesshot a bow and arrow? yes
played strip poker? yes
donated blood? yes
ever jump out of an airplane? no
been to more than 10 countries? no - but have flown over them to get here lol

Opheila

This is my Opheila - quite by accident! a combination of acrylics and oil pastel on watercolour paper applied with the old credit card, everything is scraped on (mostly) and that good old finger lol. Once I had some sky and what looked like water to me it had to have Opheila. She was so tragic, driven mad by a man who couldn't committ! have a nice print of her getting ready for the river in my bathroom (can't remember the artist). I was trying to focus on my calendar swap but it just went this way instead - note to self 'focus'. Having a quiet day at home, Tim had a day off work and has taken the boys 'out'. I have just finished watching Memoirs of a Geisha wrapped in a blanket with coffee and 1 (only 1) TimTam! it's a lovely movie and I really enjoyed the book (obviously more detail in the book) now I feel I should 'do' something and it's not ironing lol - shower, wash my hair and oh yes the calendar swap. Hope you are having a lovely day as well. Love, Carmel xx

Another great painting day

As you may have read on Nat's blog we had another day at Sulea's painting! Nat, Ann and Giles joined in and there was many a laugh and quite a few oh ahhs and would you ever stick that on!!! lol Sulea is all organised and had been thinking what she would paint over the previous days - the rest of us were making up as we go along - believe me it's good to have your thought processed worked out! as you will see if you visit Sulea's blog - link on the side.
Anyway here are my efforts: The first one is 'I am a free woman' I like strong women who soar above the trees. And the second, well mmmm the images are from Jan van Eyck's The Arnolfini Marriage but I decided by the look on his face he dumped her! and is gone off to seek other fish. I've updated the conversation with 'Yo Babe, gotta fly, can't stay here, don't know why, don't burn that candle I ain't worth it - are you sure the kid is mine'? One day I may have the process worked out but for now....going with the flow.

Cute or what?

We've had the flu like symptons going round our house for the past month. First Taidgh came down over a weekend and had one day off school - his first in about 3 yrs! then little Lorcan came down for a week - hardly ate and I couldn't believe how the weight fell off him, he is the skinny one in our family....then DH Tim was next to fall and had two days off work, I only had little feelings of being unwell - Tim reckons I am the carrier! Anyway we were free for a few days when poor old Taidgh came down again over the weekend, temps of nearly 40c and by Sunday morning Lorcan was coughing again! now I was all ready to head of to Sulea's for painting session so I dolled out the meds and said see ya honey! when I got home I found them to be aok but Lorcan had had a 2.5hr sleep in the morning and of course DH couldn't resist getting a photo and here it is - doesn't he look sweet even if he's a little under the weather. Since then Taidhg is still coughing and may have to stay home tomorrow but Lorcan is up and running..and eating so he must be ok!

Lost In The Vortex Of My Dreams

OK - don't even ask - just playing around with a bit more collage - maybe my dream is to have legs like this! - went to The Waterwheel Gallery for lunch today with a couple of friends and had a very quick peek as Lorcan was with me and that is not a good idea in a gallery lol anyway saw the work of a visual artist named Carole Ayres and went WOW (and that wasn't just the prices lol) here is her website www.ayresart.com but I have to say the scans really don't show how amazing her work is - the texture is wonderful and the papers she uses are yum! I was mega impressed and thought yes this is what I would like to do...