Long time no blog!....Summertime Sun

Oh my goodness, I can't believe it's the middle of March already and I'm only now doing my first blog post for the year, bad Karen lol. Well, better late than never, right??!! I thought I should firstly bring my blog background out of Christmas mode, (I really loved that Christmas background I must say), I came across one that I thought was really nice & perfect, hope you like it too.

We've come to the end of 'Summer' here and Autumn has begun, although it's a gorgeous day today, 31 degrees. I love Summertime, I love the warmth of the sun, I love being able to get in a pool or go to the beach, I love wearing my thongs everyday...I got myself a new pair of Havaianas with some bling, they are too cute & so comfy. I also love it because it's Christmas season and in the New Year it's our chance to get away for a week and go to Bundalong (near Yarrawonga, VIC), we are very lucky to be able to stay at a relatives onsite caravan and totally chill out and RELAX!! We jump in the pool everyday, most days it's up around 40 degrees, so the pool is the best place lol.

goofy pic of me up at Bundalong, Jan 2012 :)


This year we also took the kids to the beach a few times, they LOVED it! We usually go to Carrum Downs Beach. I like that beach, it's the closest to us and has gorgeous sand and is pretty clean and as I suffer from psoriasis the salt water is really good for my skin.

lazing on the Beach Feb 2012 :)

Rachel enjoying the water Feb 2012 :)

I can't leave this post without mentioning of course any Artsy goodness, I have been Arting up a storm, I've participated in a couple of online courses, one was free! I joined in a Arty card swap, I've been experimenting with lots of new techniques (new to me) and generally just been playing....heaps! I'll leave you with a sneak pic of one of the projects, this was a free online class I took. It is at the start of my second stage into one of the projects. I'll post more pics & the info to that & more soon :)

Thanks for looking:)
Live.Love.Breathe.ART

2 new Mixed Media Canvases

Hi Everyone,

Wow, Christmas is just around the corner, gosh feels like it's come up too fast!  My son is very excited at this time each year as he celebrates his birthday on the 23rd December!!!  Tomorrow he turns '10', double figures!  He is soooo excited it's unbearable he reckons, LOL!!

Well, I wanted to share a couple of smallish canvases I had done recently.  My daughter finished her Kinder year on Monday, she had an awesome time this year, totally loved Kindy and enjoyed every minute of it.  I wanted to get a little pressie for her teacher so I decided to make a canvas for her...it was a little nervewracking watching her open it, first time I have given something I have actually made!!  She loved it, wanted to know how I did it and everything!  Rachel helped me with some of it and made it's own gift bag!  She stuck some sequins and glitter onto a brown paper bag, then we spritzed some glimmermist (pink of course!) all over the front, it turned out really good.....although yeah I forgot to take a pic of the bag...d'oh!

Anyway, here's the canvas I made for Rhonda :)

The next canvas is a Christmas tree, I wanted a dimensional tree for this.  I brought some Christmas Holly Leaves Garland from The Reject Shop ($2) and cut it in lengths to suit and hot glue gunned it down, I love it, I've put it on a table next to my front door with a couple of Chrissy decos.

My new fave sprays are Perfect Pearls Mists in Heirloom Gold and Biscotti, they leave an awesome color and shimmer, love them.

I have lots to get organised, wrapping birthday and Christmas pressies, baking for both and the usual preparations that come with this time of year!!  It really is a wonderful time of the year, I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and lots of good tidings and cheer!!!  Enjoy and thanks for looking :)

Live.Love.Breathe.ART

Mixed Media Christmas Canvas & Tutorial

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share with you a canvas piece with a brief tutorial of how I made it, that I finished this week.  The actual canvas is one I started a few months ago, I had covered the canvas with some scraps of vintage paper & paint, however then I was stuck!  I wasn't overly happy with it and wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it so I left it aside.

For the past few months I have taken various online workshops from the lovely Christy Tomlinson.  She is a Mixed Media Artist who is very talented and a real down to earth lovely person.  This is a pic showing all the workshops I have taken so far, they are fantastic, absolutely jam packed full of information, techniques, how to's, creating the art, pdf's and heaps more!

Her latest workshop, just in time for Christmas is this one

Christy has gathered some amazing artists such as Alisa Burke, Donna Downey & more and each of them show how to make a Christmas ornament.  Check out Christy's BLOG

Anyway, I know I diverted a little from my canvas lol, but there is a reason!  I wanted to show you these because my canvas was inspired by one of Christy's workshops, She Art 2.  Christy does these gorgeous She Art girls on canvas etc & there was one she did which was Christmas inspired.  With my canvas I wanted to do a Christmas theme and style, I went back & recovered the original starting point with some old Vintage dress patterns & a light brown paint and went from there!

After applying the sewing patterns and paint I randomly stamped some snowflake images in some different colored inks all over the background and the sides.  Then I added some vintage lace and some Martha Stewart fine gold glitter, love that stuff.  For the wreath design I just teared off some smaller pieces of sewing patterns, scrunched them up and adhered them to the canvas with some decoupage and sprinkled some glitter flakes on top. 

 
 I purchased a couple of cheap Christmas ornament 'sticks' and cut them up, that is what I used for the greenery and the 'wings' and leaves, these were glittered up a bit too with some Stickles and glitter!  I glued on a pear from one of the decos and added some red 'berries', I got a pack of these in Riot I think, they are just some covered wire with a red 'berry' on each end!   Finally I cut, from a piece of Christmas fabric in my stash, the words 'Happy Holidays' and glued it in the middle and went around the edges with my Permaball pen.

I really enjoyed making this canvas and it is displayed in our lounge room near our Christmas tree :)

Thanks for letting me share & thanks for looking!

Live.Love.Breathe.ART

Tutorial - Tim Holtz Gilded Kraft Glassine

Hi Everyone,

I came across this awesome tutorial earlier and thought it'd be awesome to share with you all.  It is a cool technique from the master, Tim Holtz!!  TH is one of my faves/inspirations in the scrapping/altered art world.  His stuff is amazing and the products he designs are incredible and fun to use!!  If you haven't checked out his blog, you should LOL!!!  Seriously it is a MUST see :)

I'm going to definitely have a go at this, I don't have the die cut shape but there are lots of other possibilities, check out the tutorial at Tim's blog HERE

Thanks for looking!

Live.Love.Breathe.ART