MMM – My Country

This week’s challenge at Mixed Media Monday is most apt as this week we are celebrating Australia Day! And the challenge is to create something that represents our country.

I spent my Australia Day on the water, sailing my fathers 32′ yacht, up Port Phillip Bay with the tall ships. The weather was perfect, the breeze just right and my boys did really well and weren’t too bored! So my piece that represents my country is all about the sea – we are a large island, after all! “Girt by sea” as our anthem states and while we don’t have a lot of people here, most live around the coast and always doing things in and around the water. Swimming lessons are considered mandatory for all children (even as young as six months old). We are always on it or in it or flying over it, if we want to go anywhere else!

The Sea

The spread background is scrapbook paper, covered with Gesso to tone down the brightness, with some wave-like bruch strokes. Shell stamp by PSX. Triange stamp by me! Beach images from Collage Image group. Hand writing by me. Plus a Grungeboard heart.

Sorry about the short description – it is over 40 degrees C in Melbourne today and I think we are about to loose our electricity!

x Michelle

Mixed Media Monday – Primary Colours

My first Mixed Media Monday foray for the year is into Primary and Secondary Colours. I decided to stick to the primary ones.

I’m not really confident with colour mixing – I can tell when it’s not right, but I can’t always pull it together. I’m hoping, with practice and experience, it’s something that can be learnt. I am always in awe of those who can throw colour together, seemingly without effort, just as a good cook knows just what is needed to made a dish sing, or a wonderful singer who can throw in a harmony that is so beuatiful, it almost makes you weep. My intuition lies elsewhere; with numbers, reading and interpreting information, with an in-built sense of direction and exceptional time-keeping. So, I will continue to play with colours, learning as I go.

Here is my trio of primary coloured ATCs.

Primary Colours

Border stamp by Collections. Images by Rachel Greig (I think).

Smiles,
Michelle

MMM Paint and MIM Red

It is not often that I combine themes for different challenge sites, but when Mixed Media Monday set the theme as “Paint” and Make It Mondays was looking at “Red”, I just couldn’t separate the two in my head.  There are not many projects that I don’t include paint in these days. My inclusion of paint started after attending one of Joy Bathie’s classes, hosted by Ancient Echoes, last August. The technique Joy taught was used for the background  in this piece.

Background paints are all water colours from a variety of brands. Stamps by Collections and Buzz and Bloom. Red wire swirls made by me! Heart made by me. Buttons from my Grandma.

When I started looking through my stashes for red things I was quite dismayed at the collection I’d found – I think I actually have more PINK things than Red things (and I’m definetely NOT a pink girl!). I also wanted to stay away from the typical piece I tend to make at present with an image of a person and some words. I wanted to keep the background fairly clear.

And joy of joys, when I saw my Grandma today for Mothers’ Day, she handed me a very large container of buttons. My 3yo and I had lots of fun sorting them into colours and the red one added the highlights I was looking for.

Hope your creations are bringing you joy.

Happy Mothers’ Day!

Michelle

MIM – Quotes

I just LOVE quotes! So when Make It Mondays challenge was for a piece with quotes in it, all other projects were pushed aside. This project started as a series of ATCs, but as I’ve done a few of those lately, I decided to join the ATCs together to make a concertina book. Here are the pages.

The quotes are “Well-behaved women rarely make history” by Laurie Thatcher Ulrich and “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all” by Helen Keller.

Brown border and medallion stamps by Collections. Images from Digital Collage Images – their free pages! Quotes stamps from Studio Astarte. “Muse” stamp from Eclectic Images.

I am so pleased with these pages. I’ll turn it into a book when over the weekend. I like the sparse pages as they help to bring the main two images forward.

Michelle

MIM – Cartoons

Cartoons is the theme for this weeks Make-It-Monday. I don’t usually do a lot of drawing, except with my two boys. But this week I was inspired by a picture story book we had borrowed from the library; “It came with the Couch” by David Slonim. This book has us in hysterics and it was very comic-like, in that the pictures told more of the story than the words did. It opens with “We needed a new couch”. . . . What the pictures showed was the dog ripping it up and then the couch coming out of the window, with a trail of flames behind it. So the family finds a couch with this character on it; they tried to removed him but he was stuck, and he soon becomes part of the family.

Our family spent the next few days referring to the book; Did he come with the television? Did he come with the bed? The three-year-old was particularly taken with the idea of this blue guy becoming part of our family.

So here is my tribute to David Slonim’s “He came with the Couch”.

Michelle

MIM – Music

I’ve managed to get my Make It Monday challenge piece finished by Friday – hoorah for me! This week’s theme is Music.  For those who haven’t yet had a look around the Go Make Something site, it’s definitely worth a visit.  There isn’t much you won’t find there!

Background made using the credit card paint technique, with two shades of blue and copper paint. Musique tissue by 7gypsies. Stamped images by Limited Edition (left & centre) and PSX (right) and stamped with Adirondack Denim. Words made with an old fashion alphabet set that gets pressed into a wooden, grooved mount. Highlights with Krylon copper leafing pen.

I think I’ve done all my challenges for the week. I’ve even started my Mothers’ Day cards.

Michelle

Paris – MMM & MIM

By some bazaar coincidence, both Mixed Media Monday and Make It Monday (Go Make Something) have the same theme of Paris, only a week apart. I had lots of fun making this piece.

The background is made from credit card technique, with three colours and gold. I added the black card border to cover up the rough edges. Images on LHS from unknown source. Image on RHS from Flickr. Words added rub-ons with gold stickers. Swirls from Grungeboard and painted gold.

Michelle