Paper quilts made from scraps

I have recently been very inspired by the work of Gillian Hamilton who does wonderful work and lots of stitching in her designs. On the weekend I started playing with scraps of backgrounds I made and other papers I just pulled out from my scrap box. Below are the results which I scanned in sets of 4. On some cards I used acetate while on others some ribbon or ric rac.

Paper rusting day

On Saturday I spend the whole day with my friend Marilena (pictured with me below) at the Queensland Spinners, Weavers and Fibre Artists making rusted papers. It was so much fun and a wonderful communal event with an opportunity to meet so many talented artists who so generously shared their knowledge and skills with others.This is the recipe for the rusted paper (it will enlarge if you double click on it). We only used 3 ingredients omitting Indian Ink. It is good to experiment with different papers including thick cardboard. If you scrunch the paper you get an interesting effect of rust getting into the grooves. It is also fun to use different coloured papers and if you use a blue one, you will get a patina effect.This is me having fun.
Below are the papers drying in the sun. I am told it is good to iron the dry paper but I am yet to do this with my collection I manage to create on the day.

Cards for Mum and Dad

I have recently done two separate cards for my parents, 23 June is Father's Day in Poland (on the same day each year) and my Mum celebrates her name day on 27 June (yes, in Poland we celebrate name days which is pretty cool as you get presents twice - for your name day and your birthday!).

The photo I used for this card is of my Dad when he was a little boy, he was very cute with blonde curly hair and he tells me that many people thought he was a girl. He doesn't have such a problem any more, I guess when you are nearly bold it would be hard to think you are woman (lol). For the background I used the gorgeous exercise books with ink pen writing which I bought in Melbourne.

The following card was made for my Mum and I used my parents' wedding photo. Again, I used a page from the exercise book and the new and beautiful Collections papers.

Melbourne Art Retreat

Welcome to my new blog, I gave in and created one! And what a good time to start, right after the Artistic Journey's Art Retreat I attended in May in Melbourne. It was just amazing time with great friends, full of fun, shopping, eating and arting - what else would you want?

I travelled to Melbourne with Jo Wholohan and Gaye Todd and we were joined by Debbi Baker from WA.

From left: Debbi, Gaye, me and Jo

We were very lucky girls as we got to stay with the very generous Keron Lee who put us all up in her house and took us around shopping to many great Melbourne places - thank you Keron.

Keron with her gorgeous granddaughter Ellie

Keron took us to many great places - galleries, art supply shops, old bookstores, stationery and bead places. We had a ball and so did our credit cards (lol). Below are five of us exploring one of these wonderful places we visited.

Before the retreat started, Keron organised an Arty Farty Party and we were able to meet some of her arty friends and some we knew only through email groups.

Front row from left: Jo, Jacky and Shirley, back row from left: Gaye, Keron and me

On Friday we started our classes and the first one was with the wonderful Misty Mawn. This is what I created in her class but I must add that Misty completely has done the face, I just couldn't get it. She was a wonderful teacher and helped me a lot with the composition of this creation. I wish I had more time with Misty, she is so talented and there is so much to learn from her.

I was also a very lucky and happy purchaser of this wonderful piece of artwork by Misty. There are many jealous people who wish this piece belonged to them (lol). I will have to frame it soon and hang it in an honours place.

On Saturday I did the class with the very talented Nina Bagley and we did the little book of questions. Nina was so much fun, I loved her stories, her jokes and comments she made. I also managed to con her to write a little story throughout my book and to sign it at the end - how lucky am I? Here are a couple of photos of the book.

The last day I did the class with Traci Bautisa and again had a ball. Learnt so much and created these two paper quilts. The Melbourne art retreat was great, I am looking to the next one next year ...