Lucky Me

A small token of appreciation from Gail for driving her to Teresa's - the "hands" of Jen , the same one's Ro used at Altered Book Night, Gail remembering Sarah's eyes popping out of her head last Thursday, thought of me AND put the thing together so I could use it straight away - very thoughtful! Now I can solder when Sarah is at school instead of having to call her to hold stuff for me. I love my new gadget!

Vintage White

Latest creations posted off today. A bit of a collaborative effort, thanks to Greta for the embossed wallpaper background (Gail used it in her ATC's as well), Gail provided the images (I didn't take any to Teresa's) and Liz had an input somewhere along the line as well!

Play Day

Thanks Teresa for a great get together, where the Arty Oz girls modelled their new aprons....

Clever Gail

As a follow on to the wonderful Michael MeMeng workshops earlier this month Gail had the brilliant idea of producing souvenir aprons for participants.

The results are stunning, even if I do say so myself! With Michael's permission Gail has recreated his logo and colours and with help from Shelly we screen printed a dozen aprons ( and a couple of T-Shirts for practice).

It was quite a process, trial and error and only Gail knows how long it took to do the logo and perfect the screen for printing. And the cost of the bulbs and paint. But they all turned out perfectly!

*Thank you Gail*

Sunday Craft Day

It is usually the only chance I get to do my own stuff. Today Sarah wanted to make some ATC's for the next Hann Made class. She learnt the "credit card" background technique from Marilyn(and kept Marilyn's card) and I love what she came up with today.

**Happy Valentine's Day**

I am hoping this week will be a bit less "social". I was out for three breakfasts this week. On Monday it was at Doyle's with Emma, no reason other that just to catch up! She works, I work, she goes out, I go to bed....

On Thursday it was Valentine's Day breakfast at Truly Scrumptious. And I got the most beautiful pink roses, I can't remember when my husband last bought me flowers....

Friday was Kathy's birthday, another excuse to all get together, breakfast at Java before everyone goes off to work or whatever. I made her this pink card using a new Kaisercraft paper. I liked it to much I made another for Raylene's birthday.

Another Huge weekend

My brother owns a bus - a big one - and in what is beginning to look like an annual event, our family gets together for an adventure. This year is was to Reservoir! Apologies to those who live Northside but I didn't even know where Reservoir was until Sunday! My baby sister and her husband live there and wanted everyone to get together as that didn't happen at Christmas time. Kathryn has 6 kids and Mark 2, and all the cousins love to get together, Adam was the only one not there (working KFC as usual). It's just the best way to travel, with everyone together and Mum on board as well. The bus has satellite TV on board but all the kids were too busy to watch. It was a beautiful day, we travelled with the windows open which made for some very messy hair!

DeMengeFever!

It is catching and some of us have it bad!!! After a sleepless night (what to bring/is it packed? etc etc) , Gail and I were off to an early start - no traffic on a Sunday morning, Julian was ready to be picked up and we were in Brunswick before 8.30a.m.

Michael began by explaining the transparency process and techniques, the various glues as well as tips and tricks and it was up to us to plan our piece. Then we had a power tools session, again Michael explaining the ins and outs. Power Tool Queen Jenny provided the best tools! Thanks Jen.

Time to work again until the Painting techniques were demonstrated and explained. Michael is a fabulous teacher making it all look so easy. Later again we were shown metallic/interference paints, so much to take in!

If at any time you needed a bit of help, Michael was there to help you through the processes.

Most of the class got their piece(s) finished and then it was time to assess everyones work. Again Michael was so generous with his time and appraisal of our efforts. I wish I had taken more photos of everyone's work. There was so much diversity with what people started with and how they chose the paints to decorate their work. A truly amazing workshop.

My cigar box is a work in progress, my maternal great grandmother is the subject of my transparency and I want to finish it with some personal pieces rather than the "junk" that has been so treasured and discussed over the weekend.

These workshops have been a long time in the planning stage but the time today just flew! With thanks to Michael of course, Caro (Ancient Echoes) , Marg and Kathy for organising, Gail for transport and to Teresa for putting up with me. Her bum is not big.

Big Weekend

It's a big weekend in Melbourne with Michael de Meng classes at Ancient Echoes. Heaps of the Victorian Arty Oz crew will be doing classes either Saturday, Sunday or both. I copied Greta and packed my bags early, but I keep adding "things"... because we are doing a collage/assembly piece I have no idea what I will need/use.

And Gail suggested I rust my bottletops at the last minute so they are "cooking" at the moment!

I am catching up with Teresa who is hosting the Fleur de Lys swap so I got them organised today too. I have said it before and I will say it again , I love the look of the 9 identical ATC's in their pockets together. The background is painted onto water colour paper, 3 stamped images and a huge gold embossed Fleur, all mounted on Gold cardstock.

Must have an early night as Sunday is going to be a very big day!