Opus Gluei 87 "Key to my heart"

Where has January gone?  I was all set to make a scene for the 86th challenge, and the days went, the challenge changed.........I'm behind already and its only week 4 of the year.  Ah well, I can only improve.

So instead of the little scene I had planned, no not a tantrum (I gave those up just recently), here's my offering featuring hearts rather than keys.  I was going to have layers and frothy bits and glitter and bling, but I used pink instead.  I think I'm failing the glue test, either that or I'm still so relaxed and in holiday mode that two colours are all I can manage.

Next time............

...keeping out of mischief...

Usually on holidays I spend long hours reading, or countless hours playing patience or solving sudoku, but THIS year I've been breaking tiles and making mosaics instead.  Liz and I have been very busy recycling old stormwater terracotta pipes into little masterpieces to hide in the garden.  We think they'll be ideal to support citronella torches, or rest a candle on (in a terracotta saucer), or maybe a plant in a pot.........  Here's what the pipes look like in the raw.....

We've made six, and I've added a photo of a finished one in situ.  The garden behind it is a mixture of dietes and violets (and a weed or two) so the mosaic has some stylised dietes on it.  When I was weeding I found a ceramic ear from a broken dolls head, or maybe a quirky tea set (?? who knows?  I'm not the original gardener) so its hiding amongst the dietes petals, but you have to look hard to see it.  Liz says its like a signature, something that makes the finished product mine alone.  Certainly no-one else is jumping up to take the credit, so mine it is!! 

This has been over a week of the most enjoyable time I've spent in ages..... quiet mutterings when two pairs of hands hunt for the perfect shape, sighing over having to wield the hammer to break up more tiles into handy pieces, taking it in turns to make restorative coffee.....  Celebrating the work of kindred spirits.

More grouting to be done and then I'll have to find those torches that are hidden in the garage and see if it was a good idea after all. 

New Year again

......and there were Christmas cards I should have sent, WOULD have sent, if only I had spent less time cooking and more time in the busy room.  In a rare fit of tidying, I also made a start on culling the many bits and pieces I put aside "to look at" and kept because there's a picture or a colour that caught my eye.  I loved the textures and patterns in some of the paintings in the brochures from the National Gallery, so before finally putting them in the recycling bin, I pulled out just a few and used them here.  Black, of course, and my favourite image of this time of the year - the peaceful dove - combined in layers and a wee bit of ribbon.  Found another use for the big punch that gives me a luggage tag shape, and only just remembered that there are several hundred REAL tags in a box of other really useful things....... 

Hope this qualifies for the "year" bit Poobahs, now to make something else a bit more "happy" or maybe something related to "baby".  Could also show you the "new" thing I'm in the middle of but its still a mess 'cos its a mosaic piece for the garden and they never look any good til the grout goes on.  If I get it finished in the next few days, weather permitting, I'll post a picture of it, I promise.

Special destinations

I've been lucky enough to have made several friends across the world through the simplicity of paper and the entries of this blog, and every now and then comes a chance to send something across the ocean in thanks.  I like to think of these other women always in good spirits and smiling at their world, but of course like me, they have great times and grumpy ones, smiling happy days and dark miserable ones too.  We never know what mood our readers are in, just as they never know what lies behind the posts or the comments we make.  

I love to open my browser to find notification that a comment has been left on one of my posts, but I never open that email because I want to read the comment where it was added - thus many a time online begins with "I'll just check my email and then I'll start dinner..." - and ends much later while I follow threads of conversations and comments from my distant friends.  It got me thinking about the importance of keeping in touch, and how small things can make a difference. 

The cards in this posts today were made for people I've never met in person, yet.  There's a lot of meaning in that one tiny word........who knows what lies ahead?

Special destination 1:  This card used a piece from the La Creme stack which came in the post many many months ago.  I was aiming for something elegant and rich, but as always I am seduced by the paper and probably don't add enough elements.  Paper designers go to so much trouble and I often cant bear to show only a tiny piece, but maybe this was bit too much?  Its felt-textured too, so I continued the richness with silver gilt paper and ribbon.  Even the rik-rak is velvet.....

Then I got a bit carried away when another of the TE kits arrived in the post and I ventured back out into the rainbow.  

Special destination 2:  This card is still a celebration of the fabulous floral paper, but I did allow a bit of room for some restrained greens.........  More ribbon (you should see how much lies spooling in the corners of this space) and a butterfly of sorts, just because.....

The two greens came from the 2010 August and September kits, and the floral DP has a lovely linen texture and is from a collection called "Restoration" which also came with the September kit.   This is one paper that I'm hoarding every last scrap to use.

...and then there's this

I freely admit to being inspired by those artists out here on the web who use a variety of ephemera to create tiny masterpieces.....  Electra, this means you for one.......!!

My cousin Sue is a talented folk artist and possesses more than her fair share of ability at anything she turns her hand to, which makes gift-giving more than unusually fraught with difficulty: something store-bought just doesn't seem right.  I bought these wooden buttons from Aussie Woodcraft at the Healesville market and had something crafty in mind, but what?  After an evening blurfing (see Electra, there's that word again) I decided to combine the concept of an ATC with a collection of papers, and then frame the result.  Let me say that the frame was the easy bit.  I hunted through the big box of wooden things under the desk - and there was the perfect frame, all it needed was some sanding to neaten up the edges, and a bit of inspiration for the artwork in the centre.  The finished work has no glass because the picture is in 3D.

I've used a piece of handmade paper with a lovely textured edge for the hills; the fields are a combination of SU designer paper overlaid with green gauze ribbon, and the sky is the reverse of a lovely SU paper that matches their Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set.  The patterned ribbon at the bottom of the picture is a tiny piece from one of the TE kits. 

Merry Christmas Sue.

Made it!! (OG # 83)

Make it..... make it........ Who has time to make anything more than the bed?  Ah, but then the holidays were upon me and once I caught up with the bits of housekeeping I had conveniently overlooked, and wrapped some Christmas presents, suddenly there was time to play.  So Poobahs, here's my offering........

 My friend Kim and I started school together (more years ago than either of us are prepared to admit) and her birthday heralds the beginning of holidays for us because it was always the day after Speech Night (which at our school was on the last day of the school year). She and I share a love for silver jewellery so it was only a short stretch of the imagination to make this necklace for her.  I've used red coral, silver scallop shells and beads and a couple of tiny hematite (ironstone) balls as well.

And of course there had to be a card.  I used lots of TE goodies here, and some cream card stock that seemed like a good idea at the time, but never seems to look as crisp as black or white........FINALLY, thanks to TE pushing me outside my monotone comfort zone, I have the papers with which to grace colours other than white!

Post Dinner Swoon

.........oh have I had a meal.  Anyone familiar with Chapel Street in Windsor should go and explore the menu at Dino's.  We shared some interesting tapas (grilled asparagus with parmesan shavings, black heirloom tomatoes, cured ocean trout with beetroot strings) then roasted duck, wagyu sirloin and veal, followed by strawberry pannacotta and chocolate tart.  Not to mention a soft pinot grigio and some great coffee.  My Dad has found yet another good place (and I'm betting he and Mum were the oldest in the place by at least the 25 years that separates us!!)  The prospect of breakfast, or ANY meal, in the next 24 hours is completely superfluous.  

Add to the food: eccentric and casual diners, staff from all corners of the globe, attentive and amusing service, quirky artwork and retro leadlights.  I had forgotten how much I miss the cosmopolitan side of my town when I'm hiding here in my safe and rather boring suburb (*** identity concealed ***)!!

Manly Men

Here's Dad's card.... just time to upload before falling into the shower and getting ready for his big birthday bash, well, okay, the dinner booked in an upbeat bistro Dad's found.  It makes a change from the usual sailing-themed ones I usually make for him, and it fits the bill for the latest Opus Gluei challenge too.  Lots of layers, some leaves and a brad from a TE kit  or two, ribbon from the Busy Room boxes, and an assortment of DP from Spotlight and La Creme (thanks Lisa, that's a gift that keeps on giving!!)

Can't wait..... have to run.

 Happy 80th Birthday Dad!!

Lost time

How can it be three weeks since I even opened the page?  Where does the time go?  Ah yes, writing reports, travelling to Canberra, writing more reports, Christmas shopping.......  well, roll on December.

ooooo, sudden thought..... can make a card for the Poobahs AND have something special for my Dad in the same breath.  Its not every year he turns 80!  Cant wait to see the restaurant he's found for dinner this year - in Chapel Street no less, so its not going to be boring!!  What a great thing to be still looking for things outside the square........ 

Find the artist of the image above here.  Love the work of Mike Barr because its the Chapel Street I know from my childhood, captured as I remember it.

Messages for friends

I love it when I can make a card with someone particular in mind....in principle.......but when it comes to actually sitting up to the desk and choosing colours, papers, ribbons etc, I can't make up my mind.  Here are two cards I made recently - both for good friends of mine.  The first is for a lovely lady going through some sad times.  She makes beautiful things for other people, and is one of those empathetic people who know just when to post you a little present when you need a lift.  My favourite is a box of chocolate frogs she sent me, along with an apology from her sons who had to taste test a couple to check that the packet wasn't past its "Use By" date........  Boys.

I think the two pieces of DP are from Stampin' Up and are a perfect match for the Kaiser flowers.  The brads are from a multi-coloured pack I found at Spotlight, and the ribbon could be from anywhere.  This Busy Room is getting more overloaded than ever before.

This next card had to match a truly exotic beach bag my friend chose from a stall at the Healesville Market last month.  She wandered past and exclaimed over it so much that I had to go back and buy it for her BIG SPECIAL UMENTIONABLE birthday which was last week.  We went out today to celebrate at a local winery where they served us a great lunch with some good wines.  Despite the low clouds we enjoyed the magic views across the vineyards.  Three tables of friends and family made for a lovely l-o-n-g day. 

Everything I've used, except the big green brad, is from one or other of the magical TE Key Ingredients kits I've been gathering over the last few months.  Don't know what I'd have done with out these little packets of surprises which wing their way over every month.  The hardest part was sticking on the tiny sequin stars......I need better glasses, and smaller fingers!!