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

Life, Live, Love, Learn.

Hey blogging buddies,
I know I've been a very slack blogging buddy lately.
Life is just whooshing by with lots of hiccups and not much ART happening.

My dear friend of forty years finally gave up her fight last Saturday after twenty long months of terminal cancer. She was way too young to pass away at the age of 61yrs. May she rest in peace.

Then just a couple of days later my Best friend lost her Mum.  We have her funeral to attend tomorrow.
With all this sadness around it tends to zap the creative side of me.
I've had some really angry moments and its definitely helped to journal about it all however most of it's scribbled words about my feelings.

I've also had an x-ray and Ultrasound of my arm and to my surprise I have Tennis elbow and Golfers elbow.
Hm, no wonder my arm is very sore. Some times worse than others and even flushing the toilet gives me pain that radiates from my elbow.
Anyway I'm not in a hurry to have that injection so I'll continue with the other holistic medications for the time being.

Opps, sorry to complain~I intend to get my back into the swing of things real soon and pop on by.
Creative hugs,
Anna

Just me

Hello friends,
Life is just rolling along here for me.
I don't know whats happened to my time management skills, they flew out the window some time ago.
Not much time to CREATE, make ART or blogging these days.

I have a dear friend of 40 years in her final days of life.  She has been strongly battling terminal cancer for 20 months, trying all the treatments without success.
Such very sad times for her dear hubby, family and friends.
It's very hard to function normally with my friend constantly on my mind from the time my eyes open until sleep comes at night.

I've also had a niggly, painful left elbow (yes, I'm a lefty) for a few months.
I decided I'd better see the Dr about three weeks ago who diagnosed 'Medial Epicondylitis' (Golfers Elbow)
No, I don't play golf~ha ha, It's a bit like Tennis elbow but on the inside of your arm.
The Dr suggested rest and to come back in six weeks for an injection of Anesthetic and Cortisone. Hm, That's scary. He told me of the dangers if the injection is inserted in the wrong place.
Well the rest is a bit hard when I live in a house full of men and my stupid elbow is getting worse.
Small things like wiping the bench, cutting vegetables and using the mouse on my computer gives me pain.
I've tried TENS machine and physio exercises with not much help.  Next week I'm seeing a remedial masseur and trying essentials oils.  Any suggestions please let me know...

Take care and let the ones you love know how deeply you love them and what they mean to you!
Hugs,
Anna