The Great Gatsby
May 12th, 2013
There was a competition that I entered this week, to create an artwork inspired by the Great Gatsby. No images or stills from the new movie could be used.
I decided to do a mixed media collage on a canvas. I had a lot of 1920s and vintage images that were suitable, and I printed up some of my favourite quotes in 1920s inspired fonts.
Gatsby – the Well Groomed Man
Size: 16inch x 16 inch mixed media canvas
(acrylic, ink, stencilling, stamping, crochet, with paper and metal embellishments, on canvas) Read the rest of this entry »
Children’s cards
May 8th, 2013
As I mentioned last year, I had some lovely artwork made by the daughters of a friend, which I now have on display on my wall at home.
Recently one of these little girls has been very sick (the 2 year old), and so I decided to make her a card. And to avoid jealousy issues, I made one for the 4 year old too. In the cards I thanked them both for the artwork I made. I told the younger girl that I hoped she was feeling much better now, and the older one that she should make up stories about the adventures of the character on her card. And then I posted them separately because I was told that they both love to receive mail, and check the mailbox for their mother daily. I have held off posting them here until I knew they had received their cards – they arrived on Monday, so I can put them up here now 
Floral owl
Flower fairy
I had a lot of fun making these, I had to think about colours and images and try to use what I have differently. I have used the fairy stamp a few times before, but it is the first time I have used the owl. I thought it worked well for a young child.
Vintage lace wedding
April 22nd, 2013
One of my colleagues is getting married on Wednesday. I made this for our team to give her at an afternoon tea we threw her last week.
Vintage lace wedding card
Given how many wedding cards I seem to do at work, I wanted to do something different. I know the colour the bridesmaids are wearing (it came up in conversation), but although I played around with that colour scheme for a bit I couldn’t get anything to work. In the end I went for more muted colours – sage, cream, antique linen, burgundy.
The heart image was stamped on cream card, punched with a lace edge at the top, the other edges were distressed and then inked, a piece of green lace was wrapped around it and a gem placed in the middle. This was then mounted on to a piece of torn and distressed paper. This in turn was mounted onto sage cardstock that had been run through an embossing folder and then sponged with antique linen and aged mahogony distress inks. Base card was sponged with antique linen, then a piece of distressed and punched paper was layered onto it before the other layers were added.
Victorian gentleman
April 14th, 2013
I made this when I was playing around with vintage photo distress ink before Christmas (when I was waiting for my order of stamps to arrive).
Victorian gentleman
Base white card edged with vintage photo ink, then stamped with script stamp. Gears stamped in top and bottom corners. On a separate piece of card, colour sponged lightly over base. Image of man stamped in the centre, then edged with ink. Layered on gold, then onto striped paper, and then onto base card. Two gears dye cut onto cardstock, stained with vintage photo ink, and then when dry inked with cosmic copper ink (to give a rusted look).
Overall I think the monochrome feel worked well. I think it would be a good male birthday card, or any occasion really.
Floral Steampunk – mixed media class
April 6th, 2013
A few weeks ago I was able to get into a mixed media class – on a cancellation at the very last minute – with visiting Polish artist Finnabair (Anna Dabrowska). It was a 4 hour workshop, and I was able to take the morning off work. However as I was working til late, and then had boot camp the day before, I had very little time to organise myself. I had to get a black & white photo (I have one of myself only), get to the late night print shop and print it up after I left the gym, and then pack all my art supplies so I could be there nice and early.
I thought it was going to be a class with perhaps 15 max – that is the biggest I have ever done previously. But no – there were 40 people there! There was a bit of a fee, but I didn’t mind, as most of the supplies were included, I just had to bring the usual stuff – scissors (left handed for me of course), glue, ruler, paper cutter, heat gun, our own distress inks (with 40 of us there I know why!), and a few other bits and pieces like that.
The class was on how to do feminine, floral steampunk mixed media – full of colour and flowers as well as the usual steampunk motifs. It was fabulous fun, the first class I have done in years (since my canvas art class way back in 2005 I think), and it was hard going to work for the afternoon – not the least because I was covered in ink and paints!
So here is how I got from this:
Mixed media class – starting image
to this:
Floral steampunk – final
in a 4 hour class, with a whole lot of cool materials and a bunch of other people. The items are from the Sunrise / Sunset collection by Prima Marketing, and papers are from Seven Dots Studio. Plus of course distress inks and sprays and so on, most of us have that in our art stashes these days.
Clockwork bird
March 27th, 2013
I made this when I was messing around trying to come up with an alternate design to replace my Christmas cards. I wondered if I could use it as a New Year’s card design, but in the end felt that it didn’t work for me that way.
However I do really like the images and I think overall they work together quite well. I also wanted to use a different palette rather than browns and maroons for this even though there are gears and cogs and clockwork elements on it.
Some of the images didn’t stamp as clearly as I would have liked, and the placements are not quite right, but all in all I am happy with it, and I would use the design or variations of it again (maybe with backing papers instead of a sponged background).
A Clockwork Bird
Base card folded and stamped randomly with crackle stamp in Wild Plum ink. Piece of card sponged heavily with wild plum and eggplant ink, edged with eggplant ink and set aside to dry.
Piece of card sponged lightly with eggplant, and then stamped with quote at the top and row of cogs at the bottom in eggplant. Clockwork bird dabbed with wild plum then eggplant ink then stamped in the centre of the card. Key stamped in position on the bird’s back in wild plum, and top hat on the bird’s head. Edge this piece in both wild plum and eggplant.
Assemble all the layers, then edge side of card with wild plum and eggplant over the top. Inside, stamp row of cogs in eggplant at the bottom and edge on side in wild plum and eggplant
Victorian gentleman
March 25th, 2013
This was for D’s birthday.
Victorian gentleman’s fashion
A piece of Graphic 45 ‘Race for Time’ paper that has been crumped and swiped with distress ink, then flattened again. Edges have been distressed with a distressing tool then swiped with distress ink. Mounted on white textured card which has been distressed with ink.
Sponged aged mahogony distress ink onto white cardstock. Stamped male mannequin, pocket watch, cogs and top hat from Kanban Crafts unmounted clear set Jasper Stamp 9039
in Vintage Photo ink. Stamped card edged in vintage ink, and boarder strip of penny farthings layered on it. Card layered on gold paper, and then onto the Race for Time paper.
Embellishments: Bird cage topper layered on gold paper, edged in vintage photo ink, and layered onto stamped card. Stack of dye cut shapes: medium cog, medium tattered flower, small cog, small tattered flower, edged with vintage photo ink, and topped with a copper gem.
Catching up, Sunflower style
March 21st, 2013
It has been a while since I posted here, my christmas cards didn’t happen.
I had a design all worked out, and then the stamps I ordered to make it didn’t arrive in time. I played around to see if I could modify them as New Years cards but alas I could not. So that all left me a bit dispirited.
However I do have a design for my christmas card this year! and I can work on them gradually so they are ready well in advance! Yay!
In the mean time I have been working on a few bits and pieces which i will start to put up. For now, here is a card I made for a work colleage
Sunflower get well card
Sunflower stamped on a sponged background. Water coloured with twinkling H20s. Layered on a background that has been sponged and then stamped with a text stamp. Mounted onto white cardstock. Edged in green ink on right side. Strip of washi tape added to the bottom.
For long and exceptional service
December 6th, 2012
A very dear family friend, one I considered an honourary aunt while growing up, received a very special honour last week. Valda became the third ever Australian to receive the Papal honour of the Benemerenti Medal.
Originally awarded to military recipients, first issued in 1831 under Pope Pius VI, since 1925 it has also been awarded to civil recipients, both lay and clergy alike. Valda was presented with her medal on Sunday 25 November by the Bishop of Parramatta for long and exceptional service to the Catholic Church, and also for the development of music and music education in Australia.
Valda is a creative, musical, incredibly stylish person. She was my first introduction to art nouveau (through the wall paper she had in her home), and she has collections of figurines and vintage ornaments and all kinds of gorgeous things. So when mum asked me to make a card from the family (about an hour before she was due to go to the church service presentation), I wanted to make something really special.
The card is A5 size, so an A4 piece of cardstock folded in half. The edges of the card have been swiped with Victorian Velvet distress ink and then a piece of ‘Kensington’ paper from the Pink Paislee London Market collection has been layered on top, also edged with Victorian Velvet. I chose this paper specially because of the music theme, and because it has an excerpt from Donizette’s Lucia di Lammermore (an opera) on it. The main image is from a drawing by Mucha, framed and mounted with mounting tape so it stands out from the card. Three white flowers edged in Victorian velvet ink have been attached to the frame and have sticky gems added to the centres.
The art nouveau picture is actually from the Graphic 45 ‘Steampunk Debutante’ collection, but I made sure I did not use an image with any speculative imagery. I thought the colours and balance of this one worked really well with the music background paper, and the flowers I added tied both pieces together.
I don’t have any shots of the inside or envelope as time was really too short to scan either. But they were not too elaborate this time, as I had to ensure my mother would be able to carry it in her handbag without damaging any embellishments that might be on the outside. So just a few flourish stamps and a flower. Hopefully it looks as elegant and artistic as I was trying to make it for Valda – even my dad (who never comments on such things) said how much he liked it and how appropriate he thought it was.
The Automaton
December 3rd, 2012
I made this for B’s birthday, we had a very civilised high tea two weeks ago. Recently B ran a steampunk game set on a zeppelin at a gaming convention, and I used that as inspiration for her birthday card (plus I wanted to play around with some new ideas I had).
The Automaton
I had the idea of dye cutting flowers and gears from different dye sets and layering them together. The gears have been cut on craft cardstock, stained with vintage photo distress ink, and then when that dried swiped with Copper Brilliance Ink for a metallic look. The tatter flowers were cut from the same papers that I was using to layer on the card. The images are from Graphic 45′s Old Curiosity Shop collection (Automaton, butterfly panel, harlequin board, number panel) and the flourish background paper – also used for the flower – is by Kaisercraft. The corner has been stamped with a gear stamp from Kanban stamps, part of a steampunk set, also in Vintage Photo distress ink, which has also been used to swipe the edges of all the papers and cardstock. Sticky backed gems were placed in the centre of the flowers.