Friday 20 June 2008

Treasures

Earlier this month we here in WA had a public holiday long weekend. On the Monday we made the trip from Armadale to Toodyay (about and hour and a half) to see the MIL and her husband. She lives just out of the town on 5 lovely acres. They have recently done some renovations and that is where the treasure comes in. In the bathroom there was quite a bit of pressed aluminium which looked a bit much in such a small room so they removed it. It wasn't till I saw it in the rubbish heap that I found this out of course. Next to all this wonderful metal was the metal strapping from some wood which had rusted wonderfully and a lovely piece of verdigrised copper pipe that I know just what I am going to use it for. I am sure Ed (MILs' husband) thinks I am a complete lune hunting through his junk heap! What is worse is that now when we go my 7 year old son goes looking for treasure not only for me but for him too! DH just sighs, the girls can't wait to find out what I am going to do with what we find and the MIL is envious because I get to take it home and she isn't allowed to keep it! I have bought myself a pair of cheap tin snips and have alraedy set to cutting up the metal into pieces for later altering. I gave one piece a go with Alcohol Inks and it does look nice. I attached it to a piece of thick card board for what I hope will be a journal cover. I will post a pic when it is finished.


The next treasure is Harmony, the dog we are looking after for 5 weeks. She is just lovely. So affectionate and gentle, great with all the kids (13 -3) and likes nothing better than a snuggle in front of the fire. She gets on great with our boofy boy Woosha too which is great for both of them as they are usually 'only dogs'. Here is a pic.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Ky

Friday 13 June 2008

Canvas Niche Swap & Dog Sitting

I finally finished the canvas I was doing for Nikki B, it is already two weeks overdue but she was running late too so that worked for me! The swap was run on Inkredibly RT (which is open for new members BTW! International as well as Australian - great place to do swaps and get inspiration). Here are some pix. It was hard going but I am happy with the end result. I decorated the front and back of the canvas.



I just found these buttons at an opp shop a few days ago and they seem perfect for the canvas.

When WA Salvage was closing down they had some Rub'n'Buff that was going cheap and this is one of the colours - Sapphire - it is done over good old texture paste and has some silver wax rub-on over the top.

At the beginning of the project I ran some silver shim through the Cuttlebug and rubbed the same colour paint as the canvas over the top. It looked quite nice and I really wanted to use it in the piece. It wasn't until the very end though that I found the right way to use it. This is the inside edge of the frame which was looking a little daggy compared to the rest of the canvas.
Just the right place for the remains of the shim. It also appears behind the silver buttons.


As usual with a piece of artwork that is a one off and I have put alot of effort into I will be sad to see it go. The consolation being that I know it is going to a loving and appreciative home.

If you live in the Armadale/Kelmscott area in Perth you will probably know of Cotton Wool, the local craft shop. I had opportunity to go in and have a good look around a couple of weeks ago and unintentionally overheard the owners talking to another customer about the Greyhound As Pets (GAP) program. As we are a dog loving family the conversation peaked my interest. The lady was talking about the fact that there are 20,000 greyhounds a year in Australia, put down because they are no longer race material. What a sad statistic. As we were going to look after a friends greyhound for 5 weeks I was also interested to hear what she said about their nature. They call them the ultimate coach potato. I had always had the impression that they were energetic dogs because they race but that couldn't have been further from the truth. I will post some photos as soon as I have some good ones.

Off to Agility training with Woosha and Jess now.

Have great weekend,

Ky

Tuesday 3 June 2008

Technique Class

My first technique class at Scrap It Faunt It in Armadale went really well. The class was on Alcohol Inks and we made three ATCs to start our Technique Books. The girls all did a really good job. Below is the class set up before the ladies arrived and the next is with the tables occupied. Heaps of space to work and room to move.



The first two ATCs were what the ladies made in the class and the third was one that I had done as a sample.



Next month we have Distress Inks and coming up are classes on Beeswax, Melt Pot (UTEE) and Texture Paste.

Well, have a great week and I will hopefully post an update again soon.

Ky