AN ANGEL CANVAS

This is a textural canvas I made last week at a class at the LSS, Scrapawhile.
Great class thanks Amanda, I love the theme.

ARTISTIC JOURNEY DOLL SWAP

Here is the lovely doll that I received for this wonderful swap from Nic Hohn. Thanks so much Nic, I love her. This swap has been so well run by the very talented "Linda Grungy Baldock", thanks so much Linda for a great outcome.

A COUPLE OF NEW CARDS

These are a couple of cards that I made on the weekend. They are off in the mail today to friends..........I love stamping and making cards in case you haven't guessed.

ARTISTIC JOURNEY DOLL SWAP

Introducing LLADORA
"With nimble fingers, she twists silver threads, beads and gemstones into beautiful jewellery . She dreams of the “yet to be” with a deep contentment that all will be well. She is a collector of dreams, she weaves them on to a silver thread and wears them close to her heart"


I am taking part in the "Artistic Journey" doll swap which is being run by Linda Baldock with 80 participants from around the world. Lladora is the doll that I have made for the swap. Her head hands and feet are hand made in Polymer clay, her body is a poseable wrapped wire armature. She is looking forward to leaving on her long journey from the valley of dreams to her new home in the United States, where I hope that she will be as much loved as she is here.

A LOVELY CLASS IN HAND MADE BOOKS

The cover of this book is made from White Mulberry paper which was painted and primped to achieve this look. I need to get some more of this gorgeous paper. The spine of this book is a soft spine which just rolls around the pages as opposed to a hard spine which would be re-enforced with stiff cardboard. I LOVE soft spines .....they seem synonymous with hand made books.



This cover of this little notebook is made with handmade paper in Black with a gold fleck and thread, which the camera doesn't pick up. Both of these books could do with some embellishment, I'll give it some thought and attend to them later.

I did a class yesterday with the lovely Gillian Hand from the Blue Mountains (NSW), who makes many and varied styles of gorgeous hand made books. The class was held at the old Pilot House, right on Pilot Beach at the entrance to the Camden Haven which has been restored and being used for Art Classes. I had a lovely day and made two books with which I'm very happy. Gillian is the "Artist in Residence" for May and is doing more classes between now and the end of May. Unfortunately because of other commitments, I don't think that I'll be able to attend any more of the classes, but really did enjoy yesterday.

WALL HANGER CLASS

These are the pics of my next class at Scrapawhile. It is a wall hanger which can be sent as a special card for any occasion like Birthdays, New Baby, Bon Voyage, Thankyou etc. I really enjoyed creating it and will be interested to see where the very talented girls in the class take this. I love this about a class, everyone interprets the topic so differently and it's great to see what they all come up with.

MONTHLY STAMPING GROUP.

For the last two months, I've attended a one day a month, Stamping Group which is very well organised and a most enjoyable social day as well. Michelle and Nicola are the two Stampin' Up distributors who run this group. I managed to make 8 cards last Saturday which will add to my stash of cards very nicely. Thanks girls, I'll be back next month.

FABULOUS FOLDS

I have spent today making up these three cards for my class next week. I think that the girls are going to love these folds, they do offer a whole new look to presenting a lovely card for friends and family.

TREASURED BOOKS

I've had some old book covers for quite a long time and have been planning to use them to make some art. Inspired by some lovely photos which Cuchy from Spain has put up to inspire people, I made up this little piece of book cover art. Gracias Cuchy

A LITTLE COLLAGE

I had some small pieces of crochet doilies left from making my bag (previous post) so I decided to make up this little collage just to hang in my studio. I've had such a lovely week to myself with lots of time to play.

A NEW BAG FROM OLD LACE DOILIES

I have been collecting lovely old crocheted doilies for some time to use in various projects. I have lots that were my grandmother's and mothers' which I can't bring myself to cut up, but I have been buying them from Garage Sales and Charity stores and am more easily able to disect them to use in projects. I made this bag for myself and took it out for the first time yesterday and I've already had a couple of people wanting me to make them one. I don't like having to have a list of orders to make, it takes away the enjoyment and spontenaiety,so I will get around to it when I feel so inclined. It is really light and easy to use, I'm really happy with it.

Memo Board from Picture Frames

The next project that I worked on was these Memo Boards for my Studio. At Christmas I made memo boards from old frames with glass in them, on which you could write with a Whiteboard Markers. I was so happy with them and have been wanting to make them for our house and my studio, so I came across these old Certificate frames at a Garage Sale, they were black and have the glass fixed with screws to the front. So I got to working on them, firstly I tried painting a background behind the glass but wasn't happy with my efforts, so I decided instead to use the absolutely gorgeous paper that I had in my stash, I figure if it love it so much, why not have it adorn my studio. I added some lovely images and quotes, and Voila!! here they are ready to hang side by side in my studio.

Distress Inks Shelves

My DH has been away for a week, so I've had the whole week to myself and decided to get on to some of the projects that I have had on the back burner. I've had some things that I've collected from Garage sales that I saw a new purpose for.

The first one is the old spice shelf unit which looked just right for my Distress Inks, which I need to have right beside me at all times while I'm creating, so here is the result, I'm really happy with it and it works beautifully on my desk.

ONE WORLD ONE HEART WINNERS.

I've now done the draw for the winner of OWOH for 2011.
The winner of the first prize of my flag book was Becky from San Diego, USA
and the second prize winner of my collage was Rein from Germany. I have notified both winners by email and will wait now to hear back their details so that I can send their prizes on to them. I chose the winners with the random number generator, but couldn't figure out how to put the result up on the screen....maybe I'll have it figured by next time.

Thanks again to all of the wonderful 425 comments that I received on my blog during this event, unfortunately I haven't been able to get around to all of the blogs before it had to close, but I will definitely be following up and visiting lots more of the gorgeous blogs in the months ahead.

Thanks also to Lisa Swifka for her great expertise and generosity in running this event for the past 5 years, it has been such a joy to be a part of it and I'm now looking forward to the new event that she has planned for 2012 and hoping I see you all there.

Love and hugs,

Rob

TWO NEW FLAG BOOKS

SHABBY SHUTTERS AND DUSTY CONCORD DISTRESS INK BACKGROUNDS







BROKEN CHINA AND WILD HONEY DISTRESS INK BACKGROUNDS

On Thursday this week, I am teaching "Flag Books" to a class and so I've been very busily making an extra couple of quite different samples to inspire the girls in the class. I have also made small Flag Books in the past, but this size would be perfect as a gift for a friend, a special birthday or a wedding, it is 6" x 8". It was shown to me by Janice Keene in Brisbane at the Stamping Marathon a couple of years ago. I am using one as my gift on the One World One Heart post, pictures of this one are a couple of posts down. In case you can't already guess, I LOVE those Distress Ink backgrounds.