Still a Little Dotty.......

At Unstampabelles, the challenge is to GO NATIVE, and I have been playing with the art of the original inhabitants of Australia, and their method of dot painting - while I am a native Australian, my ancestors are from Europe, and so this is a new technique for me and one I have greatly enjoyed using in my work. I discovered it is not easy to do, and that there is a language involved in the paintings - just google aboriginal art symbols - and see what I mean. Here is one example

It depends on the artist and the area, and the clan of course.

Then there is the amazing rock art, some of which goes back 28,000 years old and predates known European known rock art. Amazing huh!

This photo comes from the Northern Territory, and shows work in the region of the Katherine Gorge (Nitmilik National Park)

I have been lucky enough to see some rock art work in situ in America as well, in Colorado, and that too is awe inspiring, to see the work of an artist from so far back in time. I have been to some sites in the Northern part of Australia as well, and just been so blown away by the work. 

This is a photo I took at Uluru in 2004 

So, using all this information and my interest in the art work I made this

The background is drawn by me, the image is from Google images 

and after I had coloured him up with Copic marker, using the dot painting technique 

I fussy cut the kangaroo out and put him to one side

Then I did the background

On a sheet of Whisper White, I masked off a space and using post-it-notes to create layers of TH Distress inks in sort-of hill shapes. When I was happy with these, I took the masks away, and started to draw on them with a fine black pen.

I really enjoyed that part

Then I added the kangaroo to the white sheet with dimentionals. I used my Copic marker to outline the edges of the sheet, and then mounted this on black and then SU Peekaboo Peach card on a white blank. The sentiment is a rub-on and I was tempted to colour in the letters, but resisted.

The recipient loved it!

It was fun to make

So, Unstampabelles current challenge runs for another two weeks

It will be interesting to see what you create

Just me and a Geko.....

This is referring to the card I made for the current Challenge #59 at Unstampabelles

Go Native!

I decided to make a dot painting - not because I am trying to copy the fabulous work of the Traditional People's dot painting, but because I really like and admire the work of the new rash of modern young Aboriginal painters and wanted to try my hand at it. You can find amazing work just by Googling dot painting as well. 

I suggest you look up some of their work - it is stunning

Mine is very primary school by comparison but I enjoyed doing it and would consider doing it again. I started by finding a photo of a geko and drawing him up into a piece of watercolour paper - I then ran my embossing pen around him and embossed it with black EP. It wasn't as crisp as I would have liked but OK. I then pencilled in all the circles around the image so I would have the circles looking like circles. 

I coloured in the geko with Dylusions paint straight onto the paper - I used a minimum of water to keep the brush working so the paint was thick and rich. I used the end of my brush to create the dots - the light green was done with a larger brush end - and again used Dylusions paint. The texture this created was amazing. The white dots were added last after the blue had mostly dried. I hand drew in the circles then, with a fine line pen.

My biggest problem was the twist - a square card - as my Watercolour paper was rectanglar in shape. I added a die cut scalloped circle piece top and bottom as it looked empty without something there, and it then just looked strange so I drew on the top one and covered up the bottom one with the sentiment - a rub-on.  Still looks a bit awkward but OK. The background card has been dry embossed using a new SU folder - love it!

Anyhoo......that's it! Mounted on a commercial cream blank

So, my geko is my attempt to 'Go Native' and do a dot painting.......

Harder than it looks folks!

Summer Fun! Yep, that's our challenge for Crafting with Dragonflies!

That is, if you can remember what summer was like last year? I think we were in the grip of a drought, running out of water and wondering when it would rain. What a difference six months makes, eh!

Hilde has asked each of us at Crafting with Dragonflies to nominate a theme, and so Wynn, who lives in sunny Corfu, immediately thought "July, that's summertime!" Hence the theme........trouble is for those of us who live south of the equator, it's mid-winter!!

I had trouble getting my head around sun, and sand and heat - but then I thought, what do you do when it's too hot outside? Visit the Aquarium, of course! So, my card was born........

I used the very popular Sea Breeze kit to put this together, plus I will admit to purchasing some more bits from this series to add to the mix. The kit came as a magazine with lots of 'free' pieces and papers, but the purchased bits included dies and more stamps and stuff.......including the die for this little sea horse, which coincidentally, lives just off the shore of this island.....in fact there is a Seahorse Aquarium tourist attraction in the North of the State.

There are always lots of seagulls and Pacific gulls standing around, waiting there opportunity....

Lots of shells and star fish on the beaches and in aquariums.....

My Aquarium window - stamped some more images inside before making the window and adding the sequins (which came with the pack).

So did the embossing folder - very nice

All card is SU card.

The pale blue is embossed with the new SU Embossing Folder to give the impression of the sea or water flow or whatever......

Hope you like it - I love going to an Aquarium, especially in summer!

I know, I cheated a bit........but it is seasideish......

Now, a previous post referred to the Echidna, and I was asked if it was real!!!

By Wynn, in fact, who had never heard of it I presume

Well, they belong to the same family as the Platypus - monotremes - and are the only mammals like this in the world, where they lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young but produce milk and lactate for their young. They have hair like other mammals too.

Some hair follicles turn to spikes as a defense mechanism, and if frightened they roll into a ball (they are like a large football), and their spikes protrude. They will often dig into a bank or log, and present the dog or animal or human with a bunch of prickly spikes.  One day when I was quite a small child my Dad picked one up by it's back legs to show it to us, but he got it around the wrong way, belly in rather than belly out, and it peed all over him. My cousins, siblings and I laughed so hard as a consequence, that we peed ourselves I think! I have always remembered it and the day: a lovely blue summer's day with the sound of children's laughter pealing in the air - it shines in my mind.

They also walk with a funny wobbly walk and so make you laugh just looking at them.

What summer memories do you have and what sort of Summer Fun card can you make to share with us at Crafting with Dragonflies?

You have two weeks to show us your stuff!

Unstampabelles new July Card Challenge: Go Native with a twist of Be Square

Hello Peeps!

It's July! Over at Unstampabelles, we have a new challenge for a new month

Go Native 

with a 

TWIST "It's hip to be square"

(Make a square card)

There is a prize as per usual

and DT Favorite will be chosen

Do you know anything about echidnas?

Pronounced EE-KID-NUH

THIS SITE has lots of information 

(Fact Number 3 truly freaked me out!)

Fact Number 4 says

4. Echidnas form mating trains. 

A strange process marks the start of echidna breeding season. Males line up nose to tail behind a single female, forming a train of up to a dozen individuals.  Trains can last more than a month, with males dropping out and rejoining. When the female is finally ready to mate, the males dig a trench in the ground around her. The males compete for mating honors by pushing each other out of the trench. The last one remaining gets to mate with the female.

My card is based on this fact

A photograph of a real-life echidna, sort of fussycut ; three die cut echidna's and a grass tree plant. The sentiment (pun) has been printed off on the computer and added.

It was the best I could come up with - better than "eats roots and leaves............"

Go on - go native yourself and enter the challenge

You have a month to enter 

Unstampabelles!

Time for a new Eclectic Ellapu Purple Team Challenge

"Life's a beach" 

(holidays, day trips, sand, umbrellas, cocktails, beach games)

 My current time of the year is mid-winter, so a beach is not necessarily a pleasant place to be - sitting under an umbrella sipping Pina Colada's and splashing on lashings of sun screen to protect you from the sun belongs to a different time of the year. 

Sitting on a beach while the angry cold sea surges in and the sky is a grey colour with a weak sun peering through the clouds could be something you would want to do, especially if you had that someone special to snuggle up to  -  pity my husband hates sand and beaches; he prefers to be on the sea, not next to it!

Therefore, when I decided to make a journal page - my second one ever - I went for a more moveable sea and an overcast sky. 

I cannot decide if the couple are on a cliff above the sea or on a beach right next to it!

The sand is texture paste and the sea is also texture paste but it has microbeads in it to make it shimmer and shine. Stencils also help the idea of movement.

A splash perhaps?

The sun is struggling to shine through

 Stencil work around the outside edges; die cut shells attached here and there, and lots of sprays and Dylusional paints and TH inks and the couple are a stamp set that comes from SU's 2009 collection!

There is also more texture paste on the outside edges of the pages at the top to give an idea of clouds....

I was going to add some more die cuts but after I stencilled in the words, I left it  - didn't want to over think it!

Hope it tickles (as Claire would say).........

You will find Eclectic Ellapu HERE 

and there are lots of other cards reflecting summer days at the beach if that is your fancy.......

Last week of June and last week for the challenge #59 at Unstampabelles

That time again - only a week to go for you to enter the current challenge #59 at Unstampabelles.

#58: Pocket Books/Letters or Gift Card Holders 

TWIST include a crown

Here's mine!

Yep, this is a challenge to do something different -

• not just a card; 
• not just a box; 
• not just a tag; 
• not just an album; 
• not just a scrap page

So, what do we want? 

Basically anything that has a pocket into which you can put photos, tags, images, presents, gift cards.......

This is the prize

I used a D'Lish kit to create a Joy Fold card, and this one as a pocket inside

It is our son's birthday this month, so this is his card

He did spend some time in the US of A so will appreciate the colours!

The wooden objects have been painted and sprayed and painted again to match the colour scheme

The crown didn't arrive until the day it was due to be posted, so was added late. These photo's without it give you some idea of how it was put together

The button holds the edge of the smaller card so it is closed, thus closing the whole card

Inside the card front flap, is a pocket!

Inside the pocket is a gift card

(my membership card is being used here to show size)

Under the red flap of the smaller card, is a place for sentiment and personal comments

The left folds over and then the smaller right ref flap folds over that and slips under the button to effect a close and secure the gift voucher. Perhaps that is why it is called a Joy card!

I could have created my pocket under the red card and made the left flap a place for a sentiment to change it around a little. 

So, another way to incorporate pockets into a project.

You stil lhave until midnight on Friday 1st July to enter this challenge

Go HERE and scroll down to the link.

Sentiment as main focus

....... is what Crafting with Dragonflies is asking for this fortnight.

With that in mind, I went through all my stamps (sorting out into my five full-to-cramming folder's of stamp images cataloged by manufacturer - yes,slightly obsessive) and found lot's I could use until one sang out to me "pick me, pick me!" This happened to be an early one by Claire Brennan of Waltzing Mouse stamps - now closed (sigh) and so I started with this. I think it was because there is so much of a brouhaha happening on social media about men not being nice to other's lately, and this resonated with me. Also  Donald Trump is beginning to really push my buttons with his lack of respect for women in general and anyone who isn't like him in particular, and this message is so pertinent to him.

Then I had a look at a monthly kit I had received from D'Lish lately, and thought I wanted to use those colours, and so it came together. Hope you like it.

I dry embossed some aqua card; used some ribbon from a Llint Chocolate Easter Bunny; embossed the sentiment using my new bronze EP from Stampin' Up; stamped an image of the small boy using an old SU set; and generally threw it onto the card front to see how it went,and then glued it all down.

Card is 15 x 15 cm

All card is SU except the two DP pieces - scraps. 

As I said, the kit stuff is from D'Lish

You can find the Crafting with Dragonflies challenge 

HERE

Project Life page for Unstampabelle's current challenge: #59

Challenge #59

The theme is 

#58: Pocket Books/Letters or Gift Card Holders 

TWIST include a crown

You can find more information HERE

This is the prize

I decided my pockets this week were going to be plastic ones and so I dug out a Project Life page - took me a while to remember where I had put them though! I originally liked the idea of these but went off them a bit when they arrived and so didn't use them apart from one page.

Now I quite like the effect and if you didn't want to do too much embellishment, they would be very quick to put an album together. Especially if they were about babies and children, I fancy.

This one is based on a holiday we had in Western Australia ten years ago.

A page like this for me would be a starter - the title page if you will

The pockets allow the cards (already supplied with the PL kit) to slip in easily

All I had to do was decorate to choice and add photo's and writing

Die cuts and such - the anchor is wooden

The bowsprit of the ship is pocking out the side of its pocket

This is cardboard and was already die cut when I purchased it

I painted it with Gesso and then sprayed and painted it with turquoise and yellow inks/paints but it didn't look right so I added some Brusho's and a spray of water - WHAM!

I had laid it onto some computer paper in the pizza box to do this and when I lifted it off this was left behind - think I will try and use it as it looks so retro!

Can you see my crown included here (look upward to the photo above this one) for the Twist?

It is a proper naval crown, found and printed off onto paper and fussy cut out.

This is the back of the page - no photo's in there yet but there is room for up to eight and/or space to journal as well on the back of the cards.

 So, off you go and create your own projects using pockets!

Don't forget the Twist either!

Unstampabelles