Making up ground

Hi all,

well with a HIDEOUS week of work travel looming this week (Brisbane and Sydney for 4 days) I am trying to get back on top of my swap commitments this weekend. I have finished my artist trading pins for ArtyOz, and they are winging their way to Ness Henry in QLD as I type. Here's a sneak peak of the finished products....


and a close-up of my pin....


yes, it is MORE houses.... and the house theme has not played out completely as I still have one more house swap to go! Although this next one will be a little more elaborate in 2D. But there is 1 other project to complete before then - one which has had me tearing my hair out because of its restrictive rules.

Some of you may remember my cathartic blog post about the nature themed collaborative book that I am in. Well this is the tearing my hair out, painful, difficult project I am referring to. But this weekend the procrastination is over - I have committed something to paper.... a background!!!! (woo-hoo I hear you all cry). And this is a pretty good background if I do say so myself - lots of impasto with gauze in it, and a couple of greenish, purplish, yellowish washes and colours added. Voila!


Now for the struggle with images, but a structure is forming in my mind... and I think I am close to a title; either "where the sea meets the sky" or "in the horizon".... Stay tuned, and I will post some more as the page develops further. Fortunately I still have some time as they are not due until 31 July, but I do want to get them done and out of my hair as I have 1 very large collab book set to be done for September (30 pages - my god what do I get myself into).

Before I (b) log off for tonight, I wanted to share one more thing. You know those free advertorial postcards you get in cafes? Look at this one for a FREE exhibition currently running at the State Library of Victoria... I managed to clear out my local coffee shop of 13 the other day. They are just fantastic! Grab some if you can - I am certainly on the hunt for some more....


Have fun all - I am off to the Scrappy Hollow birthday sale tomorrow (more shopping), and then to a friends house for the MASSIVE Eurovision final tomorrow night. Can't wait - I am a super sucker for Eurovision, and the cheesier the better!

catch you all soon

Liz

I'm Baaack (part 2, the delayed telecast)

Woops...

It has now been 3 weeks since may last blog entry so lets's call this post the long awaited delayed telecast of Part 2. (So much for blogging next day.)

Anyhoo, on to the weightloss stats from the last 2 weeks (valid to last Monday the 12th April)

Weekly Name and Shame: +2kg

damn.... brushing that aside lets get on to other stuff...

Stamp Camp (or as Monika calls it, scramp camp)

It seems like the camp was ages ago now.. so long in fact that I can't remember all the details and I want another one!!!!

New locale this year at Bacchus Marsh - all I can say is GORGEOUS... a bit more upmarket than the guide camp, and the views were stunning. Made having a ciggie outside a very zen experience.

The class I ran seemed to go fairly well, everyone had a good time and made some great little transparency books. (I blogged this one before in march if you want to view the sample). So much for my estimate of 3 hours to make the book - it was more like 5! I must learn how to judge these things a little better....

The card class with Joan was good too - the cards were fairly complex, ones that we had worked on for quite a few hours on the 2007 camp, so it was good to see them recycled as a class. Joan also won the Friday night challenge (be-atch), and got an unmounted plate as a prize.''

I was not as prolific this year as I have been in previous years in getting "stuff" done. All I really managed to do outside classes & challenges was a Gothica ATC swap, and to get impasto onto pages for the nature book swap that is due in July..... and now I am running well behind, but more on current projects later.

ANZAC Day

In part 1 I mentioned that I was off to a play date at Greta's house, and it was just great fun. I received a farily substantial Collections order that day that Gret's had organised. The result of this is a new-found love of little houses....

I realise that these little houses have been trendy amongst the "papercrafting" community for a little while now, but I am not known for being on the "cutting edge" of fashion - just ask anyone who has met me!

So, instead of doing things I was meant to do, I did lots of little houses with the girls. Here is a pic of them sitting on my tv in the back (craft) room....


cute huh! I would also like to mention that the fabulous Jen Crossley (arbiter of papercrafting fashion that she is) is being published with some great houses she has made in the upcoming (or just arrived) Somerset Gallery. Woohoo Jen - big round of applause!!!

I also caught up with Kath Thompson at Grata's house and paid for my spot in an upcoming Rho Bruhn workshop (13th July). I have never done a class with this talented artist, and am looking forward to it very much. Here is a link to her blog to check out her great work.

General & Other Stuff

In the intervening 2 weeks since Anzac Day (Ok, maybe more, but don't remind me of my blogging tardiness please) I have been SHOPPING! PtP was run weekend before last, and I managed to get this great new bag
Isn't it gorgeous! (My crafting luggage is almost as good as my normal luggage now). I also picked up STACKS of supplies - my credit card has an extra stretchmark on it. Most of it was ongoing stuff, but in addition to the bag I did get some new stamps and some great mags/books to get the creative juices flowing ....

now how to find time to play????

I am off to bake some cakes, and am hoping to get a little bit of time this evening to work on artist trading pin swap due at the end of this month... After I get this swap finished I am focussing on things due in July - a LOT of things due in July!

speak to you all soon.

Liz