From 2011 to 2012

Hello to my Family and Friends,
What a year 2011 has been with many ups and downs, Happiness and sadness. 
I've met, made and kept some wonderful friends through blogging and I appreciate you all!

My Mum was here for a few months getting her health back into gear!
The past few weeks have been very hectic here with gift making and presents to buy and give.
My Dad falling and breaking a few ribs the week leading up to Christmas then this week we lost a friend to a massive heart attack.  He was only 47 years old without any medical condition or complaints of pain. 
I'm feeling very emotional at the moment because myself, family and friends are very close to that age and he was such a caring, genuine, family orientated bloke! My sympathy goes out to Kellie and their four children.
Rest in Peace Adam

Roll on 2012!
My oldest son is turning 21 years old.
We are having a small party on 21.1.2012
He says 'small party' Yeah right-He's list has blown out to 120 guests.

I'm also the lucky winner of Vikki's gorgeous vintage stocking. http://www.sewusefuldesigns.com/2011/12/simply-christmas-guest-post-and.html
Click on the link to check it out.
Thank you Vikki!

I wish all my friends love, happiness, health, fun filled, creative year in 2012
Big hugs,
Anna

Christmas Gifts

Hello, thank you stopping by!  I've been busy making Christmas Gifts for family and friends.

I've made a new centre piece for our table this year using Air Dry clay.  I rolled out the clay, cut out heart shapes and stamped Joy, Peace, Love & Hope in Red and Green.  While the clay pieces were drying, I picked a branch of a small tree and painted it gold.

I set the branch in the pot with Plaster of Paris and sprinkled the top with Gold glitter.

If you pop on over to Kerryanne's blogspot she has a tutorial on clay tags. I'll be linking to Shabby Art Boutique link party.

Every year I make my guys a personalized gift tag.  This year I've decided to add pictures of their cars.

Yes, they are mad about their cars!

My son's girlfriend has been around for nearly two years, so I thought she deserves one as well.

These are the back of the tags which I used Opals embossing enamel and pressed the stamp into the last coat to emboss the tags.

These are some other tags I've also made up for Christmas.

WARNING~If you are family or a friend, you may want to turn it off now or you won't be getting any surprises.

This is for a male friend of ours.  Do you know how hard Men are to buy for? well as I'm trying to make a lot of gifts this year my task is even harder.

This is what I've come up with!  Using Lesley Riley's Transfer Artist Paper and a new cushion

This is his truck that I sneaked down and took a photo of, printed it onto TAP and ironed it onto the new cushion cover.

My sister and brother in law have just moved into a new house and they're going to have a french theme in their lounge. 
 Graphics Fairy kindly gives a lot of  fabulous designs each day and I copied these pictures from Karen's blogspot.  Thank you Karen for being so generous!

This is for another sister and her hubby for their Christmas gift.  It's 90 x 60 cm Canvas.  I used all Jo Sonja paints and Texture paste for this design. 

I also made a Journal for my niece, however I forgot to take photo's and I probably wouldn't show you anyway because that sister is a snoop. lol

Yesterday, I caught up with a couple of good mates for brunch.  My clever friend Lee made us a gorgeous, creatively, painted bag.  Pop on over to Lee's blogspot and have a look at the photos!

Lee also gave me a new Papermania stamp set called Urban Stamps and made me a lovely handmade card.

 Thank you Lee, Much appreciated.

 We must do it again Soon!

I'm still working in my studio making gifts, so I hope to be back soon to show you more.

Are you making any Christmas gifts?  I'd love to hear about them.

Creative hugs, Anna

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Hi blogging friends, Thank you for stopping by and visiting me.
Are you getting into the Christmas Spirit?
Do you like making gifts and cards?
I like to make gifts and this year I'm starting early!

I have a very easy step by step tutorial on a Christmas card design to show you.

Here are the basic materials.  Heavy cotton or linen fabric and a plain 210gsm card.I'll show and explain the other materials as I go along.

 I pulled some threads out of the edges of the fabric because I like the frayed look.

I basecoated the card in All Purpose Sealer.

Then using a large flat basecoating brush I applied a couple of coats of Soft White or Warm White acrylic paint.

I used a stiff hog hair brush and painted the fabric with Napthol Crimson.  The hog hair is easier to push paint into the weave of the fabric.

 When the Soft White was dry I applied a thick coat of Decor Crackle Medium using a hog hair brush.

When the fabric dried, I used a Kaisercraft Christmas Stamp and patted into the VersaMark stamp pad.
While the stamp is still wet, I gently shook White Embossing Powder over the top.  Shook off the excess powder and heated the stamped area with a heat gun until I had the shiny, embossed look. 

When the Decor Crackle Medium dried I used a dry sea sponge and heavily sponged Pine Green paint all over the card. 

Using a dry sea sponge loaded heavily with paint, will give you larger more defined cracks.  Make sure your sponge is loaded with paint and start in one corner and work your way across the card.  Try not to go over wet paint as this will lift paint off rather than make it heavier.

To add a bit of lust, I used Rich Gold and a dry brush technique over the crackled green surface.

 I sewed the fabric to the card using a swirly pattern with a mixture of gold through a coloured cotton.

 This is a close up photo of the finished card.  I hope you have fun making your Christmas gifts.

All the paints and mediums used were
Chroma, Jo Sonja brand I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding these paints or mediums.

Please feel free to share this tutorial with your friends.

I'm linking this blogpost to Kerryanne's 'Simply Christmas' at Shabby Art Boutique.

Creative Hugs, Anna

Giveaway at Lynn's place

Lynn at Trash to Treasure  
http://trashtotreasureart.blogspot.com/ is having a giveaway with some gorgeous, creative pieces on offer as well as BONUS stamps!

This is just one of the gorgeous pieces on offer!

I've been a follower of Trash to Treasure for some years now and Lynn always amazes me with her artistic talent.  Pop on over and check out Lynn's blogspot.

Creative hugs,

Anna

Commision Painting, Simply Christmas

Hey blogging friends, Hope you are well and Thank you for popping in to visit.

This is a commissioned piece I've just finished. 

It's a 45 x 45 cm Canvas painted using Jo Sonja acrylic paints. 

I'm waiting for the humid weather to disappear so I can Varnish the Canvas. 

Have you ever varnished on a humid day? 

The design gets a cloudy look and that cloudy look never disappears. 

Here is a close up photo of the butterfly.

Have you been to visit Kerryanne at Shabby Art Boutique?

Kerryanne is having 'Simply Christmas' with lots of Christmas gift ideas to make like the one in the picture above.  It's a Gift Card Holder that I had to whip up as soon as I saw it. 

Thank you for the tutorial Kerryanne.

It's getting harder to buy for all my nephews and nieces and I give Gift Vouchers from stores they like~this just makes it a touch  more special.

Take care, Creative Hugs,

Anna

Craft & Stitches Show

Hello blogging friends, Please excuse the quality of these photos. They were taken on my phone as I forgot to take my camera.

I had a wonderful time at the Craft & Stitches show held at the Caulfield Race Course this year.

I was on the Society of Folk & Decorative Artists stand with a bunch of other happy painters!

 It was great to see and hear the wonderful comments about being at the show with a lot of interest in our stall. The amount of people coming through was amazing. We have a lot of very talented Artists in our Society and they got to show off their great talents.

 We sold Paints, brushes, Woodwork, painted items that our members had painted and held three workshops a day that were full with ladies and children interested in learning Painting. 

 Some of our wares for sale. I couldn't take photos of our members display because "no photos were allowed".

These Christmas decorations were a big seller.  We sold around 50 per day and all the money will be donated to Alzheimer's Australia and Royal District Nursing Service. The ladies could hardly keep up with the demand and I think some left our stall still wet.
Creative hugs,
Anna

Craft & Sewing Show, New technique in my Journal

Hello friends, Thanks for stopping by and visiting. 
I appreciate all visitors and comments.
I have a couple of things to talk about and show you today.
Are you going to the 'Craft & Sewing Show' at Caulfield racecourse this weekend.  I'll be on the Society of Folk & Decorative Artists stand, demonstrating. 
Please stop by, I'd love to meet you face to face.

Here are some of the decorations I'll be painting and demonstrating on.  I've base coated these in Island Sand and created a faux marble look using Rich Gold.

 I've then got out my Christmas stamps and stamped on some designs using Staz On stamp pad. I know the ink will stay on when I use paint and water on them.

 How cute are some of these Papermania designs?

 Here is a new technique I've been playing with in my journal. I applied two coats of Gesso.
Then painted a wash of Brilliant Magenta, while wet I sprayed a fine mist of Glass & Tile Medium Primer (Part A) over the top.

 I dried this and thought to myself, I'd like bigger drops and a deeper colour.  I made three different puddles of watery Green. Jade, Green Light and Pine Green.  Sponged these on my page then sprayed again with Glass & Tile Medium Primer.  Oh yuk, that looked terrible I forgot to take a photo.  I was looking at my paints and wondering which colour will fix this.

 I then painted a wash of Pthalo Green over the top and dropped big droplets of Glass & Tile Medium on the paint.

 Taa Dah, I was much happier with this effect.

 I decided this would make a great background and used The Crafters Workshop stencil called 'Birds of a Feather' and Texture Paste over the top.  I like how the birds stand out in white.

 I then used my Versa Mark pad and embossing powders over the top to add a bit of colour.

The colours in this photo do not really do justice to the embossing powders.

 Here I've played with different colours for the background, The Crafters Workshop stencil called 'Flower Frenzy' and embossed over the top in Silver.

I'm not sure if I'll do anything over this, maybe some doodling as the page is quite heavy with the Texture Paste. 
What do you think?
I hope you've enjoyed this play session as much as I did creating it.
Creative hugs,
Anna

I'm a lucky Winner, Simply Christmas

Hello and Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blogspot.

I appreciate all my visitors and comments.

I'm the lucky winner of Kerryanne's giveaway.

My giveaway was wrapped in this pretty fabric-(I'll have to think of way to use it in my journal) wrapped in a pink satin ribbon with some Cath Kidston, Rose hand cream and matching nail file.

Kerryanne also made a feminine lavender bag~that's going straight into my knickers draw.

I also received this cute little purse pad in my parcel of goodies.  Gosh, I laughed when I read the cover.

Kerryanne is having another 'Simply Christmas' big event this year.

I joined in last year and had heaps of fun and gifts made before Christmas. 

Kerryanne and other creative special guests put on a great show for bloggers and it's all about Christmas.

Please mark this in your diaries to start on 1st November.

Creative hugs,

Anna

The Creative Mumpreneur

Hello friends,
I want to share with you some knowledge about a dear friend of mine~Kerryanne from http://www.shabbyartboutique.blogspot.com/ who has just published a book on how to start up a business from our hobbies.
Kerryanne is celebrating twenty years of running a creative business so has heaps of fabulous idea, and knows all the lurks and perks of being in business with this new e-book.

I can vouch for Kerryanne who I've known on a professional and personal level for about twelve years.

Kerryanne covers everything in this book from business ideas to setting up and running a business as well as coping with running a household and still look after our children & Hubby's.

You can also check out Kerryanne's website at http://woodberrydesigns.com.au/ for other patterns and gorgeous gifts that she makes.

Please take the time to pop on over and say G'day~you won't be dissapointed.

Take care,

Creative hugs,

Anna

I'm back with some journaling pages

Hi blogging buddies,

I'm back to show you some journal pages I've been working on.

I've had lots going on in my life at the moment and journaling has helped heal the pain and pressure of life at the moment.

I've tried to bring lots of colour into my life with bright pages.

                                             And some Positives

Take care, Creative hugs,
Anna