Mini book and Mad for Colours Swap.

As you will all know by now I've been particiapting in LaWendula's monthly paper swaps. This month I was lucky enough to be paired up to swap with our host! Here's what I've sent to her...

The stenciled words say...

Life

evolution

breathe in

feel

embrace the miricle

live

(Oh no! I spelt miracle wrong and  I've just noticed now...what a bummer)

The theme was mad for colours so I put together so hand coloured papers togther with nature themed magazine pages. The binding down one side means my partner can cut the page away to use it.

Below are some other colourful paper's I put in with her book...

I particiapted in last months mini book swap and this is the fabulous book I got from my partner Amelia Critchlow. I love the handmade recyled-ness!

Book cover above and inside front cover and first page below:

Below are a few of my favorite pages..

The card in the pocket says the stamped word 'Love.'

What a great book!

A little while ago I also won a blog draw...here's what I won!

This fabulous postcard from Mary over at Joyfulploys. Thanks Mary, I love it!

Coming soon: Looking up trees- It's Autumn!

Dots and Circles- thanks to those who've shared there links or have said they will soon, I will be posting some of them here soon.

International Collage Exchange- My collages will be here soon! Wahoo!

Final posting for Alicia's book "The museum of forgotten things."

And the winner is.....

CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS!!

PENNY from the blog "With My Boots and Sketchbook"  is the lucky winner of my ICE Celebration giveaway! I used the old fashioned lucky dip from a bucket method to draw the winner.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to comment on my collage series "chain reaction" and to all those who liked my art enough to want to enter the giveaway! MWAH!

In case you missed it last time here's what Penny has won.

 While on the subject of the International Collage Exchange here's a preview of the official postcard that Dale has put together. It serves as an invitation to the exhibition's opening as well as a momento of the exchange. Each participating artist will recieve atleast one in their package of fantastic collages.

Cheer's Dale!

Very soon I will be able to link it up to the online exhibition going live on April 1st.

Another exciting thing happening in blogland, although completely unrelated to ICE is Seth Apter's
 BOOK GUILD.
This is an event happening on his blog each Sunday now that 18 amazing Secret Sunday's have gone by and that project has finished. Thanks Seth!

Knowing the quality of Seth's posts (not to mention his art!) and can be fairly certain that this is something you don't want to miss so click on over to his blog and sign yourself up!

Oh, and don't forget to grab yourself this snazzy little thumbnail for your blog and enter his giveaway while your there!

Postcards and Placemats

The first two postcards were made for a mail art swap. The lady I made the top one for said her favorite colour was Orange. I don't have a lot of orange in my stash but luckily the power company put out the (orange) pamphlet and I was able to use it for my background...wheew!
The postcard below was made for someone who likes blue, purple and teal....and I didn't really need much of an excuse to use that nest image! Or the teasel:) This one's printed onto tracing paper, which I quite like the look of. The blue weave is the inside of an envelope and I thought the weave completed the nest to well not to use!

The 3rd postcard is my 5th postcard for the postcard book I mentioned a while back. I've got a bit of a 'thing' for pears at the moment...but there will be more about that later all going well!

This is not any ordinary placemat! This is a currently-being-altered placemat! I scored 6 this size for $1.00 at the second hand shop (op shop, thrift shop, charity shop...same thing) and I nearly left them in the shop. I actually went back to them 3 times before deciding that I did actually 'need' them and it wasn't just because I might use them! I've taken over more than my fair share of space in the garage as it is! I thought I would use them as bases for collage..but as I type they are drying in a nice painted shade of "pohutakawa". Tomorrow I hope to paint pears on them. I havn't painted in a very long time. I put so much pressure on myself for every painting to be great that I ended up being totally uninspired and dried up. (Much like the brushes!) I hope to put an end to that tomorrow...and I think even I can cope with pears! I just need to take a deep breath and do it. Tomorrow.

Drum Rollllll Please! Dis-Co Winners Revealed!

A very big thankyou to everyone who came and commented on my DIS-CO postcards. I really appreciate your kindness! As you know I decided to play a game of LUCKY DIP and as promised I will be sending these postcards to the 4 winners! They are of course... The Green Stone Woman (postcard 1) Shari (who signed as anonymous...if you know Shari please let me know! (Postcard 2) Annie from Ink Haven (Postcard 3) and lucky last is Wayne Pitchko! Must have been that smile Wayne! Thanks for playing everyone! If you missed one and would like to swap mail art with me you can find my postal address on my side bar. Speaking of which.. you may remember my post showing what I received from Debrina...well she's been busy and has updated her blog with her most recent goodies, including what I sent her so please drop by and take a look! Last but not least, a little while back my blogging friend Mick added a new piece of art to his Birdhouse series and GUESS WHAT?? He dedicated it to me! I am still smiling:) Please follow the link to see this great series!

Be well!

Lisa:)

PS: Special thanks to my youngest for coming in from her game outside to do the draw for me! She even did a drum roll! The postcards were allocated in the same Lucky Dip fashion as the name draw.

Dis-Co!! The final reveal...who wants to play?

It's Dis-Co day! This journey started by Seth has been a wonderful one. It's been more than I expected and led me up paths I hadn't yet realised I wanted to follow. Thanks for that Seth! In brief the story goes something like this... I gathered up a bundle of bits, mostly paper, and bound them in wool and hung them out to enter part one of the collaboration with nature. Part 2 involved unwrapping it and discovering what happened during the months it was weathered outside. The results of that were then further disintegrated when I ripped it up into thousands of pieces to make my first sheets of paper. Part 3 saw the sheets of paper bound up again and given a second weathering...and part 4 is this one. The last step in this journey is nearly complete. I used my collection of paper and string to make postcards...I've shown them here in the order that I made them.


Postcard 1: Pandora's box. The text says 'Yet from the bottom of the box flew out a shining bird and as it flew around Pandora's head it twittered sweetly " I am Hope; as I stole into the box so will I also steal into human hearts.." I've used thread and the paper made from my bundle as well as a teasel lino cut and a digitally altered photo from my ICE 2009 image collection.

Postcard 2: The Crow. As luck would have it the words "The crow" survived two weathering's and a dunk in the paper making vat! It also worked out beautifully that I had recently added some vintage cigarette cards to my stash and one of these had a crow and nest on it! Perfect! Also included in this is a recycled book image, thread and a leaf ink print.

Postcard 3: Kakapo. The Kakapo is NZ native mountain parrot and I think this recycled book image aptly shows the cheeky nature of the bird. I also used my "part 2" paper, thread and a piece un-weathered cardinal brand playing card. Weathered bits are found in the paper.

Postcard 4: Gypsy. The vintage cigarette card with a Chaffinch and nest complimented the colours of the weathered paper and cardinal playing card to well not to use. I also used thread and a piece of material rescued from a book cover (it was the outside layer covering the books heavy cover...) dictionary definitions and a leaf print make up the background and the goldy-mustard coloured paper that appears in all of these is hand painted with a plastic credit type card.

Wheew! This has been fun! A postcard however, isn't a real postcard until it's actually been posted so that's where I thought it would be nice to play a little game of LUCKY DIP! If you would like to be the recipient of one of these cards then please let me know in your comment and I will put all the names on a hat (so to speak) and draw out one name for each card. Which one you get will also be lucky dip:) I will post the winners names on the 7th.

Thanks for Seth for organising and to you all for visting...I am on my way to see you now!

Hand Made postcards and Altered Bread Tag, Tags!

Altered Bread Tag, Mini Tags. Bread tags, recycled card, gifted embellishments, beads, wool.





"Tree" theme. Recycled greeting cards, sewing pattern paper, magazine image (for back ground) arcylic paint (I used the end of a felt tip to make the ring marks.)

"Pockets and Tags" theme. Recycled greeting cards, magazine images, sticker backing from a book of stamps (you know the stuff left behind when you peel off the stamps and you're left with little 'windows'...even they have a use! lol.)

A group called "Decorative Envies" that I belong to also does monthly postcard swaps. Last months theme (which I just made yesterday! opps!) was "Trees" and Pockets and Tags.

I recently hosted an 'altered bread tag' swap on my yahoo group "alternative artists" and we had to use a bread tag as an embellishement. The idea is not original, a friend of mine sent me some she had altered and I thought it was such a great idea that we should do it on the group (with her permisson!) If the card board looks similar to those on the postcards it's because I used the scrap from the postcards! The original card was found at a 2nd hand shop for 20c! How's that for good milage? lol.

Thanks Andrea for leaving me Sweet Irene's address. I am waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind on my tour of the globe!

I'm back!

Made for the international recycled art swap. Poem recycled from old book (re-written below) recycled magazine images, recycled bread tags, recycled plastic box tag (used to wire in the toy originally) and a recycled birthday candle- the base for the collage is a recycled Christmas card.


Victorian Love themed Tip in for a swap on Alternative Artists.
Op-Shop lace, Magazine images, paper doilies, paint, thread, recycled poem from an old book (words below)


This has probably been the longest time between posts I have had! Rest assured though that amongst school trips and birthdays I have been getting as much done as I have been able too. Admittedly there's been more thinking than action though. It is soooo good to be getting my hands dirty again! Since my last post I have made another CD page for a altered CD book as well as altered 2 postcards...somebody forgot to take photos though! I am in desperate need of more magazines to draw inspiration from at the moment in order to complete the remaining 6 collages for the international collage exchange. I am sticking with my 'society is a nest' theme and apparently none of 3 million magazine I already have, have any suitable images. Atleast none that are calling my name loud enough for me to hear! So until I get more I am working on some other projects.


Photo 1 shows my 1 of the 5 postcards I am doing for the 'International Recycled Swap' The poem says:

The flight of the arrow.

The life of man
is and arrow's flight
Out of darkness and into the light
And out of light,
into darkness again
Perhaps to pleasure
Perhaps to pain!
There must be Something
Above or below
Somewhere unseen
A mighty bow.
A hand that tires not.
A sleepless eye
That sees the arrows
Fly and fly
One who know's
why we live- and die.

Richard Henry Stoddard. 1825-1903

Photo 2 is of the Victorian Love themed page I did for a Tip in Swap on Althernative Artists, currently there's a Marie Antoinette page drying on the bench! I found this theme hard because I don't usually work with these colours but I am confident that the new owner will enjoy this.
The poem here reads:

The Unfading Beauty

He that loves a rosy cheek,
or coral lip admires,
or from star like eyes doth seek
fuel to maintain his fires:
As old Time makes these decay
so his flames must waste away.

But a smooth and steadfast mind,
gentle thoughts and calm desires,
hearts with equal love combined
Kindling never dying fires.
Where these are not I despise
Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes

Thomas Carew

Time to fly, swimming lesson's for my eldest in half an hour and I still have to collect her from school....