A Piece of Sky

52 Week Card Challenge Week 2

Our theme for week 2's challenge was "Birds" ....

Fairly apt since I have recently started an avairy and breeding Cockatiels and taming a rainbow lorikeet ..... I love birds.  I love what they represent and hence tend to use bird images a lot in my art.

So here is my little birdie card ...

 

 

 
 Ok so I couldn't stop there .... I made a couple of matching ones too ...

 

 

These cards all all created using two of my newest Cricut Cartridges "Sophisticated" and "Ornamental Iron 2".  The papers are Echo Park - I am LOVING this paper company.  Love I say!!!

Alyssa sat with me tonight while we made these cards, she is enthralled by the Cricut Machine.  I love to inspire Alyssa to make things of her own.  She's my budding little artist.

Right.  I should be off to sleep.  I have more to share though so will be back soon!

Natalie x

Be brave

My last post I shared with you a Handmade Book I recently made using a Scrapware chipboard door.  I spoke of my love of doors and the metaphorical meaning they hold ....

Sometimes we just have to be brave, open the door, see what's on the other side ..... right?

This art journal page was also based on that concept.

 

 

The backgrounds are creating using Golden Paints Nickel Azo Gold and Cobalt Turquois with gesso and my good old fingers ...... then lots of stamping with both paints and inks.  I taught these pages in my last AJ class and the girls had heaps of fun getting their fingers messy.  There is something terribly liberating about getting your fingers covered in paint and gesso!

The images on these pages are actually printed on silk.  It's a special paper backed silk (available at Scraptivate) that you put through a normal inkjet printer.  The images look amazing when they are printed on the silk.  I attached the silk to the canvas paper background with hand stitching and a bit of beading. 

Thinking I would love to make a handbag with silk images .... mmmm, the possibilities!

Natalie

x

 

Behind the Door .....

A brand new product soon to be available for Scrapware is chipboard doors.  For some reason I have always been attracted to using doors on my artwork.  In fact I have always been intrigued by doors.  I remember when I went to Italy in 2001 one of the best attractions for me was the beautiful old doors on the buildings.  I just love doors lol!

And isn't always intriguing to know what's going on behind the doors?  What's inside?  I felt it was the perfect concept to build a little book around ..... ready to house some special memories, photos, thoughts ....

 
 
So I will be teaching this handmade book at Scraptivate this month and would love you to join me!

 

Hope to see you there!
Natalie x

Hello ....

Oh dear ....

A whole month since my last post!  Life seems to just whiz me by, lately at a seemingly faster pace.

Anyway just a quick post tonight but I wanted to share with you all about a challenge I have embarked on with my fellow Scraptivate DT member and dear friend Naomi Cox.  The challenge was Naomi's idea .... based on the fact that she wanted to send out a card a week for 52 weeks.  I love the idea.  I love the idea of sending a random card to someone who perhaps will least expect it.  Someone who perhaps you've lost contact with, or it's just "been a while" since you have seen them.  To remind someone that you love them.  Or just because.

So I was pretty keen to jump on board with Naomi with this 52 week card challenge.  We will be sharing our weekly cards over on the Scraptivate blog, and for our followers who get involved and make a card based on our weekly theme, there are even some prizes.  More importantly it's just a way to get creativity flowing, and sending out some random pieces of love along the way.

Week 1's challenge was "Hello", apt for the first week don't you think?  And with Spring in the air I went somewhat floral ....

 

 

Our theme for week 2 is "Birds ....".  I'll post up my cards for Week 2 next Friday .... I hope you will join me for the challenge!

I'll be back soon!
Natalie x

Caran D'ache goodness ....

Mmmmm ..... I am in love with my Caran D'ache Watersoluble crayons - it's true.  I love to use these to create backgrounds for my art journal pages and other pieces of art, they are truly beautiful to work with!  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm ...

So here is a recent Art Journal class I taught ....

The background is created by blending gesso with my watersolubles and then splattering acrylic paints over the top.  

We also experimented with a variety of ways to make some arty handmade flowers from vintage music papers, organza, calico, linen, muslin and patterned papers.  Oh and the Collections Tissue Papers, which has to be one of the BEST Collection's products ever, don't you think?

The top rosette is created using the Tim Holtz Rosette Die - an awesome die and many uses for this rosette piece.  I also used the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die with the vintage music paper.  Mmmmmmmm ....

For full instructions and a kit to complete this page plus one more, email me at [email protected].  

I'm off to do some more!

Natalie
xxxx 

Make it bright and cheery .....

I taught a gorgeous group of girls yesterday a card class using Echo Park papers and Scrapware embellishments, along with the Cricut and one of my older cartridges "Celebrations".  This is a cartridge I often go back to as it has some really good basic birthday type shapes on there.  Some of the girls in this class hadn't seen a Cricut in action before and to this day I love getting the "ooohhhs and aaahhhhs" and seeing their reactions.  So rewarding as a teacher to know you have inspired someone - one lovely customer was so inspired she even bought one lol.

So here is what we created in yesterday's class:

 

Hmmmm .... now I can't seem to find the rest of the photos I took on my computer .... so will have to continue this post ....

To be continued, lol!

Natalie x 

Little artists live here .....

I have had some fun over the past couple of weeks creating a little set of birdhouses with a new Scrapware product. 

 

 

So I will be teaching this project at Scraptivate on Saturday 13th August.  See below for full details and call the shop on 9444 6626 if you would like to book in!

 

Happy creating xxxx 

Cardmaking for Girls!

How girly are these cards!

You can create them with this awesome sheet from Scrapware ...

 

which is available here from Scraptivate ...

or you could do my card class this Saturday and create all three cards!

Hope to see you there!
Natalie
xx 

 

 

HOME Display Board

This is a piece I recently created for SCRAPWARE with their brand new Display Board:

I combined the Display Board with my love of fabrics and fibres, vintage music paper and loads of SCRAPWARE chipboard goodness .....

This piece is actually available HERE as a kit complete with full instructions with step by step pictures.  So if you can't attend one of my classes ... why not purchase a kit!

Keep creative!
Natalie

xx 

 

Soft Pastels

I recently got my Conte Soft Pastels out created this art journal page ...

It's actually a pocket page with a tag that pulls out ...

I will be teaching this class next fortnight .... see below for more details and call Scraptivate on 9444 6626 if you would like to join in!

Happy creating everyone ..
Natalie
xx