A Piece of Sky

My bargain find ...

I love browsing gift stores and homeware shops - I always find inspiration in there for my own artwork  and love to drool over all the yummy things I could buy if I had oodles of dollars!!  A couple of weeks ago I was doing just that in a beautiful gift shop in Mount Hawthorn called Lavendar Blues ... if you haven't been in there it really is worth a look, such a beautiful shop.  Anyway, I came across a dress form candle holder which I knew instantly what I would do with.  It was even sitting on the clearance table, marked down to half price.  What's a girl to do?

Yes, it came home with me!!!

Here is what I did with it ..

 

I am so happy with this piece, it came out exactly as what I had in mind!!! You can read more about how I did it in Scraptivate's latest newsletter - available to download here ...

Speaking of Scraptivate, we are having a Kaiser sale at the moment ... 15% off all Kaiser in store and online until Sunday.   If you are on Facebook, look out for our Facebook advertisment - this gives you a code to get 20% off Kaiser when purchased online! 

What else?

I am off to see the Phantom of the Opera tonight.  Actually I have to be honest and say this will be my 5th time.  I saw it the first time in Brisbane a few years ago, and have also seen it in Sydney and twice last time it was in Perth.  This time I wasn't going to go, but I admit to LOVING the music from the Phantom so much and the whole experience I had to go again.  The Music of the Night gives me tingles down my spine every time I listen to it - which is quite often.  I have it on my Ipod - it is a version sung by Michael Crawford and Barbra Streisand.  It is the BEST version in my opinion, but then I am probably biased.  Those of you that know me well will also know that I am a HUGE Barbra Streisand fan.  Yes, Robbie Williams and Barbra Streisand - go figure.

I was going to show you a sneak peak of something else I am working on, but going to make you wait until my next post!

Oh, please leave a comment - LOVE it when I get a comment or two!!

xx

Tiles tiles and more tiles

Last fortnight I started teach a Tile Collage class at Scraptivate.  Each fortnight we do about 20 tiles, based on a different technique each class.  Many of the girls are doing all of the 8 classes, which will give them about 160 finished tiles in total.  These tiles will be mounted on an 18" x 18" canvas.

Some of the girls are only doing a few of the classes and will have the option of mounting their completed tiles on a smaller canvas of their choice.

Last fortnight the technique was Texture Paste.  If you have never used this product before I urge you to give it a go - it is so much fun to play with and you can achieve beautiful results which look a lot more complicated than they actually are.  All you need is Jo Sonja Texture Paste (or Golden Molding Paste), some various acrylic paint colours and Rub n Buff (or metallic wax finish) for the extra touch.  Here are the sample tiles I taught in the last class:

 

Texture paste is used in some way on every single tile shown above.  

This Saturday we are doing Crackle Techniques .... here's a sneak peak

   

I am off now to write some instructions up for the class.

Two blog posts in two days - I am on a roll (does anyone actually read my blog??)

xx

Lots to share!

I wish I could get it together and blog more often!!!

I have been a bundle of creativity lately, it has been oozing out and I find the more I do the more creative I get.  I even lose sleep some nights because I can't switch it off, lying in bed thinking up ideas of things I could do. 

So here is my first thing to share tonight - I actually started this in Kelsey's last ATC class on Alcohol Inks and Transparencies.  I had used this technique before, and I do really like the effect.  I have to say that I don't tend to use Alcohol Inks a great deal, but this technique and a couple of others I have seen lately have got me falling in love with these inks all over again (plus there is the 24 new colours coming ... who wouldn't be excited about that!!).  Anyway, instead of finishing it as an ATC, I actually mounted the small card onto a canvas that I had coloured using the same combination of alcohol inks I used on the transparency.  The look of the alcohol inks on the canvas (something I hadn't done before) is quite different to the look of paint, and I like it so will certainly be doing it again!

 

I have started doing some teaching again at the shop - I always use the excuse that I am too busy with the office work to teach, but the truth is I have been loving the teaching so am going to keep doing it.  Here are two cards I recently taught, with painted backgrounds using the Golden Fluid Acrylics ...

  

The photo is somewhat overexposed - the cards look much nicer in real life!  The Green card is done using a wash of Green Gold over green toned patterned paper then once dry, I lightly dry brushed Jenkins Green, Phthalo Green (Blue Shade), Iridescent Copper and Micaceous Iron Oxide.   The butterfly card is a wash of Quinacridone Magenta using the Acrylic Glaze, then dry brushed with Titanium White and Iridescent Pearl - and for the final effect a coat of the Jo Sonja Opal Dust .... mmmm love that stuff!!!  It dries completely matt, so the only thing you see is the beautiful pearlescent glitter flakes.

My next Card class isn't until the 25th of March and is Mini Tile Collage cards.  Here's a sneak peak:

  

  

So what else?

Well I am working on doing up an old rocking chair but I don't have any photos of that to share with you just yet ....

And then there is this, not finished so just a sneak peek ...

oops, turns out I don't have photos of that either!!!

Be back soon!
Natalie

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