love is all you need...purple...

Well...I didn't think I would make my purple piece but just this minute I finished sticking my crystals onto the flowers in her hair...I forced myself to do this as I couldn't NOT do it...


Thankyou to you all who asked after my health this week...seriously, I have been and still am the sickest I have been since I had pneumonia ten years ago...and it's only the flu!!!with asthma thrown in I have had minimal sleep, but on the brighter note I have had it for so long it's got to get better soon...my only hope is that Jacob does not get it....

OK...enough about me..lol...and onto my art...I have to tell you I tried to make balloons on a gift bag, and because the gift bag was brown it looked blah!!!!!

So, luckily that only took me about half an hour to do and it was when I didn't reach my pinnacle of illness, so today I just went for it...drew up my hippie with flowers in her hair, I used water soluable wax crayons and acrylics and some water colour pencils, I used a paper doily and a punched butterfly and some gorgeous kaisercraft rhinestones....

at first I was going to write on it ...let us live like hippies and live on love...but Jacob thought it sounded too ewww!!!...lol...!!! and husband suggested why don't you write ...love is all you need...going with the whole beatles theme suited me to a tee...

so...there you have it...
my hippie girl living on love...oh...if only life were that  simple...

guess what...tomorrow is my birthday...won't tell you how old I am but off my sisters I get money...lol...guess what that is buying...some art supplies, amongst other things...yay me...life is good...hee hee hee

until next time
lots of it
Mandy
xxx

ps...i will be sending out the things from my cushion cover giveaway and the random act of kindness...will be asking you guys to give me your address very soon....

its amazing what you can do in ten minutes...RED...

Well...I had such high hopes for my red pieces this week in the summer of colour challenge...I had planned a skirt to wear over black tights and a modern piece of art...feeling a bit under the weather with flu left me uninspired and no motivation to do anything...

So, knowing that I was taking the kids to see Harry Potter at the movies today I thought I have no other chance to do my red piece so I whiopped out this $7 white frame, sized the paper inside, tore a very thin and not great piece from one of the kids cheap journals and began to draw....

Out came a very small vase filled wioth flowers, I spent about one minute drawing that, then began to spray a few colours around using my water colour wax crayons....I remembered I had a cheap set of oil paints in my cupboard so a few splashes of that around and there you have it...i think I'll call it love, because red roses symbolise love, and of course my beloved turquoise...lol...

its only small...I am guessing 5 by 5 inches, but I actually am happy with it, I have never used oils before nor have I ever painted anything like this...as I said, for ten minutes work, I actuallu am happy with it and will put it on my wall of art when I get to paintng the room!!!

Thanks agin to Kristin for the wonderful inspiration and to all who visit me, I certainly don't say this lightly but I greatly appreciate every visit and it certainly lifts the spirit.

Now I can't wait to visit every one's red pieces.
Until next time
lots of it
andy
xxx

brown beatnik...

So...this weeks colour over at twinkle twinkle with the ever gorgeous kristin hosting the summer of colour is brown...brown you say....yes brown we all chorus back...you know when i was young brown was the colour of my school uniform and seriously I never bought any clothes in brown, and to this day am very reluctant to as well...brown reminds me of nature and I was contemplating doing an out back of australia style painting..but this hip beatnik idea singong and playing her guitar in a cafe of the 60's...one of those ones where poetry was read an origiunal songs were played...well...this is she....brown in the end was a guitar...i own 2 of them, in the colour of brown, and i love them...i have had my pretty classical one for   28 years and it hardly has a scratch on it...and then a few years ago i got a new acoustic from my man...i love her too...so...is she me...well...maybe, as i would have loved to live through these years and been drinking strong coffee and listening to the latest offerings of the poets of the world...dream dream...

she is on a canvas 15 by 12 inches and i used my water colour wax crayons and a bit of acrylics, paintbrushes and brayer and pencil....the splash of bright colour is turquoise...my fav colour to look at at the moment...hope you like my beatnik....

I am really loving this adventure and i am constantly inspired by all of you...THANKYOU...also the overwheling support from you all is fabulous....

Until next time
lots of it
Mandy
xxx

and they were all yellow....

Thankyou all so much for your wonderfully encouraging words yet again...it's amazing what a few words of kindness and encouragement does to make a girl feel happy and up...and now I look forward to visiting each of you to see what wonderful pieces you all create...

Thanks again Kristin...you have helped to create a wonderful network of people, kindred spirits...it is a wonderful experience...thankyou...

... It's yellow week at summer of colour...and really,,,yellow...it's not my best colour to use, in fact, I can honestly say that I have only ever done one other thing in yellow....my scrapbook page...it did get published which is always wonderful, but yellow is not me at all...so IT WAS A CHALLENGE...having a bad week with a funeral, my mum unwell and my son having a bit of trouble at his workplace, well...life hasn't been peachy sweet at all for me, so getting a bit of art in was a therapy I desperately needed....

So...YELLOW...with metalic...the metalic for me was a no brainer, I have had gold leaf there for about a year, waiting to use it....


BELIEVE...


I needed this as a message to myself...lol...especially this week...

The photos are not great as it's quite dark here at the moment...so I this is mixed media, acrylics, water colour wax crayons, patterned paper, pencils, gold leaf and rhinestones....

Here is my scrappy page  I was talking about...

very bad photo...i'll fix it up tomorrow I guess...it was published in scrapbook creations issue 80...

Well...

until next time

lots of it

Mandy

xxx

Pink Snow...summer of colour

Her is where she sits in my house, with very bad lighting and my dodgy phone camera...lol...

So...far removed from what I usually do, well from what I have been doing for the summer of colour, but I must admit I did enjoy doing this...Yes, I could point out to you all the imperfections, but that is what makes it mine..lol...

The wax that I used was a pupleish birthday candle...I went around the outside edge of herand highlighted some spots...the highlighted spots are the quite deep puple ones...hard tpo see over the top of so much texture...she is on an inch and a half thick, 15 by 15 inch canvas.....

Thanks Kristin...I am not a pink painter but I did enjoy splashing texture paste and other bits and pieces all over her...

thanks for all the wonderful comments you have been giving me..it keeps a girl going...and I am certainly looking forward to seeing all your wonderful work again IN PINK!!!

until next time
lots of it
Mandy
xxx

It's not easy being green

Or so Kermit the frog sang many years ago...But I disagree....I LOVE green...green is my colour of choice when its comes to decorating...I have had all manner of greens in my house, now in my back room there is a very pale green on my lower walls...I occassionly  splash out and try different colours, well blue...(like when we were building our house 12 years ago and I went blue for all the wet area tiles!!!!!that was pregnancy brain decision!!!!)I like to wear it too...though I generally have black and denim...lol...for this weeks colour assignment over at twinkle twinkle in the summer of colour I have been inspired to create 3 items....
1. My little chair cover...it looks like a skirt don't you think...I have had these amy butler fabfics for years now, and I only had a very small amount of them, so I am going to make 4 of these covers with different colours as inspiration...as I have stated before, I am certainly not the best sewer in the world and just invent as I go along, thus, a creation...I am pretty happy with it...

2. All we are saying is give peace a chance...I am a huge beatles fan and always have been....I wanted to show my love in a simple piece that will go into my back room...these frames from ikea are fabulous...they make anything look good...these are all individually diecut on my cuttlebug and stuck down...it took me forever...the turquoise butterfly as opposed to the green shows that one person can make a difference...well that's what  i wanted to say in this piece...lol...

3. My journal page...i wanted to express something that has been really getting to me lately...with all the beautiful blogs out there, art blogs, home decor blogs etc...it is so easy to feel inadequate, not good enough, hopeless, jealous...this page was to remind myself that what I have is very good indeed...to try and appreciate what I have and be happy...

it says the grass is greener...so they say ...but...be thankful for what you have what you can do...list...family friends love life playing being able to create listeniung to music parenting etc...

This page is from the blue week...i forgot to post...i am sorta new to the whole journaling thing and get a bit anxious putting pages out there...''ok...looking forward to seeing what everyone else posts...don't forget too if you want my little cat cushion let me know...i have 3 to give and only one person said they want it...otherwise I'll just throw them out...

until next time

lots of it

Mandy

xxx

Tea Towel Tote Plus Giveaway

How's that for alliteration!!!

As promised here is a very simple tutorial on how to make a shopping tote/bag out of a tea towel and a small piece of fabric or two...I am really not a sewer as you will see...lol...

you'll need
a tea towel
another piece of fabric 14cm wide x width of fabric
a piece of fabric the same size as the tea towel
scissors
sewing machine
iron

1.Take your t towel(tt) and your piece of fabric and cut the fabric the same size as the tt.

2.Cut a piece of fabric the whole width of a piece of the fabric 14 cm..I just tore mine...makes life easier...

3. Fold onto itself and stitch down the length of the strip using a 1cm seam.

4. Turn inside out and iron. Then cut in half...this creates the 2 handles.

5. Fold the tt in half good side facing in and then sew down the 2 sides...I just stitched at the edge of the tt seam...
6. Around 7cm up from the bottom corneryou need to fold the seem over onto itself and about 7 cms up sew across the corner...best l;ooking at the photo..its hard to describe it...lol...

7. Do the exact same for the lining.

8. Join the two bags together folding down a 1cm(or so) hem and pin together lining uip both seams and placing the handles in as shown.

9. Sew around the top about half a cm from the top.
10. Give it a shake and there you have it. I am probably going to sew the handles in a bit more actually, although it has been holding my shopping all week with no problems so far...



Would love to hear if you make one of these.

Ok...A quick giveaway too. Yesterday whilst out shopping for a book Target was having a flurry of pallets of bits and bbs on sale...Needless to say the mention of sale drew my attention as I was passing by a whole heap of women so I hung around and got a couple of bargains..I picked up a dozen cushions for 87 cents each!!!!!Seriously some were beautiful and some not quite my style but I still grabbed them for the inserts... A couple were like this, cats not being one of my fav thing on a cushion, but when they rung them through at the checkput the sales assistant goes...OHHHH!!!AREN"T THESE LOVELY...so...I know many of you love cats out there...I thought maybe some of you girls might like one...just the cover though ...just let me know and I am happy to post anywhere...I have 3...if more than 3 of you want them I'll just draw out of a hat...

Ok...

Well

until next time

lots of it

Mandy

xxx