Happy Birthday Katie

It doesn't seem like 12 months since I made the last card for Katie, but it must be.  My son asked me to make something for his friend, and its a pleasure.  Katie has been a good friend to Simon for a long time, and calls herself  "an honorary boy" because she's the only girl in the group which regularly drops in for pizza..... so much for my Friday nights home alone, not that I'm complaining very loudly.

.All the elements on this card are courtesy of a kit from Taylored Expressions, the extra one that came at the end of my 6 month subscription to her Key Ingredients sets.  I started with my usual black CS (cant move too far out of the zone) but the other lovely papers and flowers and leaves are from the kit.  I love the retro colours and psychedelic pattern of the DP.  This is going to be a kit I'll be using a lot and soon it will all be gone!!

Opus Gluei #65 Fun with Ephemera

Can I just upload my house?  This ephemera challenge might just help me make space somwhere....

I've been doing a bit of my own de-cluttering lately, going through the many folders of paper images I cut for decoupage, so I was really in the mood for a bit more.  Then I took a good look at a few other places around the place, such as a corner of the kitchen bench beside the phone, and the pinboard behind my desk which is supposed to be inspirational but which instead is a jumble of heaven only knows what..........

So here's an ATC with a medical theme: a printout from the Medicare (Govt health care rebate system)office sometime in 2008, a band-aid that's seen better days (no NOT USED, but a bit dusty from being in the corner of a drawer), some droplets that might be body fluids, but aren't, and some likely text that came from a brochure I was throwing out.  That's one little space cleaned out......

....and then I tripped over a cat food dish which inspired the second.  The little white card came from a packet of something cute and was prised off the pinboard (the other sign there says "Dogs have masters, cats have staff" but was too long to fit on anything other than the pinboard so its staying put), then I hunted about for the rest.  The blue thing is Mr P's plastic registration tag for last year, the C is for cat.  What else?  And of course then there are four little pieces of cat food.....I had to seal them (must be the oddest use for Jo Sonja's sealer ever) so that the cats didn't eat them for a midnight snack.  The fish is, well, another thing to eat?

What's cookin'........

You can tell I'm home on leave.... two challenges in a week!!
 

This week's Opus Gluei challenge is to do something related to food..... and I was thinking, eat it, cook it, prepare it, shop for it, dine out etc etc etc but I've become obsessed with ATCs lately because they satisfy the creative bit of me that wants to make something using papers and bits and pieces.  Having said that, there are almost NO bits OR pieces on either of these.  So out with the cookbooks and in with the scissors.  Who needs to eat anyway?

Both these cut-outs are from decoupage paper that always has so many images on it that there are hundreds to go round.  I went off on a fruit theme for a year or two and every piece of paper made me hungry just to look at it.  Have to find the big platter I made once, covered with cherries and several dozen coats of varnish.  A story for another time.... 

I fixed both shapes to black paper and re-cut each image with a small border, then fixed them to their backgrounds with felt pads so they have a second shadow.  The grapes have had their bloom emphasised by SU Crystal Effects, and they're mounted on a roughly torn piece of handmade blue paper and a black ATC.  The apple and cherries have a triangle cut from a scrap of La Creme added to their black card.

Anyone for chocolate?

Now I have to say that brown is not a colour I use very much, but I do like its vintage look, and its softness.  And of course it reminds me of one of my favourite foods.... no I DO NOT mean burnt toast, or even vegemite.  I might be fifth generation Australian, but there are other things I'd rather have on my toast than vegemite.....like maybe crunchy peanut butter, or quince jelly.

 Back to the point....  I was reading Lisa's post yesterday about the lastest Pink Elephant Challenge which she'd entered as a member of their design team (where does she find the time??) and thought it was about time I branched out a little.  This is what I made for their TPE 76 Color Challenge "Brown". 

I finally found a use for this interesting piece of brown on brown faded DP but it needed a layer of cream underneath to separate it from the black CS base.  I gathered up a variety of flowers, including an embossed SU Eastern Bloom, and layered them on along with some plain and spotted ribbon and some black and white brads.  Its my sort of birthday card.

Make me smile

I think I'm becoming hooked on ATCs because they're small.  I freely admit that I don't use them as they're intended.... no real artist lives here, but I like the size and the lack of opportunity to add too many frills.  Don't come to me for cute.

Oooo I do sound pernickety today......  small break for soothing cup of tea......

Return!  

This week's OG challenge was to make them smile and I got so sidetracked in my picture folders that I kept on trying.  So here's what I did: two deceptively nice gun-toting children coming home for tea, a hopeful suitor, dinner with intent, and a catty ballerina.  I think some of the smiles might be ironic, assuming I succeed in making anyone smile at all.

All the images are from my decoupage folders in a vain attempt to minimise some small part of my busy room.  Likewise all the little pieces of coloured CS are from that big mountain of bits that always needs to be in a bigger box than the one its in.  I wrote the text because my printer is having one of those "I dont print on THAT" days, and here and there I sneaked in little bits of bling.

Far Out Brussel Sprout

I guess there are some times you just have to be Australian.  The other book in this series is Unreal Banana Peel, and they're collections of childrens rhymes and chants, best heard in the playground.  I know it doesn't make sense, but that's where my mind wandered......

...which has absolutely NOTHING to do with this weeks challenge at Opus Gluei, except in name, because the challenge is FAR OUT.  They were thinking aliens, Martians, stars, not vegetables.  It wasn't until I went to a fabulous Tim Burton exhibition this week that inspiration for an ATC finally struck.  There were just a few of his drawings in pastel on black paper, intricate multi-coloured planets and the odd shooting star, and I had a light-bulb moment.  Black and white = infinity with a few twinkling things thrown in = easy peasy.

So here's my rocket blasting off back to Earth (that's the big blue sparkling thingy in the corner) from some place very inhospitable and rocky looking.  Now I wish I'd made it a Tardis instead, but then it would have had to have had daleks and maybe a cyberman.  Tricky.  Too hard on such a tiny little piece of CS but I'll hold the thought...........

I'm very proud of the orange flame because its a piece of ribbon that I attacked with a pin to fray..... sometimes I scare myself.  Details?  Heavens, its not big enough to have any, except that the DP is still more from the La Creme stack which is always perfect no matter what the topic.  There are black dots and some twinkling stars as well as the Earth (which just proves that 5 years ago when I bought the blue bling I must have known it would be useful....eventually).

Tim's birthday

Where did those 21 years go?  Tim is the middle son of a good friend, so I've known him since before he was born.  He barracks for the Mighty Bombers, also known as Essendon to those quieter more sedate people, and their colours are red and black.  

Being a quiet and unassuming Bombers supporter myself .........it was easy to find the right mix for his birthday card, given that most of the paper in my room is black.  I uncovered the cuttlebug (see the next post below... its there on the edge of the bench) and used the squares folder.  There are silver brads, and a wee piece of La Creme that was lurking in the corner of a box.  The 21 is from a set of acrylic stamps that I've nearly worn out because they're so useful.

What's going on?

They're wicked over there at Opus Gluei.... usually nobody, and I mean NOBODY sees the space I call my Busy Room, mainly because its a place only the owner could love.  I followed the rules (I nearly wrote "guidelines" but who am I kidding, these are RULES) and didn't move a thing, just turned around from my computer and snapped some pictures.  Then I looked , really looked, at them and there's hardly a bit of paper to be seen.  I really do make cards here.  Somewhere. 

The best thing about my desk is that its high (I use a drafting stool to sit at it), and about 8 feet long, and 30 inches wide.... and the remaining workspace is about a foot square.  It has a lovely big pinboard at the back and lots of shelves above.  Ideal.....and full.  The rest of the room is best left to your imagination.

Opus Gluei #59 Ice cream

Have you ANY idea how cold it is here?  Ice-cream?  You've got to be joking.  Today we had winds of 100+ km/h and hailstones (it was just as the classes were walking down to the bottom of the oval to see the mobile farm)(thank heavens for the big dryer in the laundry)......  but last night it was a little milder and I suddenly had the urge to break out the cuttlebug because it occurred to me that the spider web folder was just what I needed for waffle cones.  I should have been asleep, but these OG challenges eat away at the little grey cells.....

So here is my ice-cream, but I couldn't resist a little mis-hap to keep the whole idea from being too cute.  Shame about that choc-honeycomb chip one hitting the ground, but life does indeed have its moments.  I had a bit of fun with the cuttlebug, a couple of circle punches and SU Crystal Effects which I keep forgetting about.  The sentiment is from an acrylic set I found at Spotlight, and the DP is another piece from the wonderful La Creme stack.

Happy Birthday Alexandra

Some girls are very pink, and that means I'm getting even further outside the zone than usual..... The only white thing about this card is the envelope, and there's not a speck of black to be seen.  Never mind, she'll grow up soon and then, provided my fingers and brain still work together to make cards at all, I'll be able to charm her with something black and white.

In the meantime:  this uses almost the last of my dragonflies, along with a little card cut out that came in a bundle from the Poobahs one day.  The Francheville Tangerine Flowers DP was lurking in the busy room (probably wondering if it would ever be used!!)and the pink is so old its just a scrap with no name left.  I used a cream card and matched it with some ribbon Lisa sent last year.  

I love how my busy room boxes are full of little things from friends far and near.  Using them on cards for other friends is a bit like paying it forward I think.