A bit of Crackle and a bit of Grunge!!

Hello my dear friends, so pleased you've dropped by.
I do hope you've all enjoyed a wonderful and happy Easter.  Mine was spent with family and friends and it was absolutely fabulous!! Am feeling especially Blessed at the moment!!  Life is good!!  Busy, but so good!!

 

I'd like to share another card with you today.  Another masculine card.  Seems I make more of those than I do the feminine sort.  Not because I enjoy them more, although I do enjoy them, but simply because I seem to have more male rellies and friends than female.  Lucky me??!!

When I make male cards, regardless of anything else I may put on them, I always like to add some crackle and lots of distressing and grunge.  I like them to look a bit messed up.  Not everyone will agree I know, but this works for me.

The base is brown cardstock and the papers are from Kaisercraft. 

Added some random spots of crackle to the papers, although it's a little hard to see here.  The chippies are, of course, from 2Crafty Chipboard.  They have some amazing designs and I really love working with them.  Most of the pieces I've used here have been coloured with acrylic paint and then swiped with a gold VersaColor pad.

The Happy Birthday chippie I've left mainly raw.  I just swiped it lightly with the gold VersaColor pad and dabbed it with a bit of gesso.

Here you can see the crackle on the paper and on the chippies.  Can you see why I love it??  Fabulous texture!!  I adore that look!!

The inside with more of the papers, some stamping and some washi tape.  I created a pocket and a tag to write my private message on.

When everything was assembled and dry I dabbed a bit of gesso in random spots ... another look I love!!

Happy to say, this card was well received.  I made it for my Darling Husband's 70th Birthday, and he loved it!!  He was quite pleased that I hadn't actually added the 70  anywhere on the front.  Said he didn't want to be reminded every time he looked at it!!  LOL!!  I did write it on the inside though, as part of my private message.

Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you all enjoy the rest of the week

Take care, stay safe and God Bless.

Some Shots of Broken Hill

 Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  So pleased you dropped by for a visit.
  

I've been absent from  Blog land for a while because my dear Hubby and I and a couple of our friends went on a short holiday to Broken Hill.   For those of you who have never heard of it, Broken Hill is a mining town just across the South Australian border in New South Wales.  It is the place where BHP was born.  I have to say it is a fabulous place to visit.  Chock-a-block full of history and so very much to see.  I thought I would share a few of the photos we took while we were there.

  This is a shot from the train.  Have no idea exactly where we were when I took it except that it was somewhere between Peterborough and Broken Hill.

 This was taken in the main street of Broken Hill.

The only piece left of BHP's original office is this chimney.

The Miner's Memorial.
Approximately 8oo men have died in the mines since they were opened in the 1880's, the youngest was only 12 years old.

The plaques show their names, their ages and the way in which they died.

As you can imagine, we were all very subdued while walking through.  Although there are no remains here, it is a very haunting place.

The Memorial stands on the top of the Line of Lode which runs through the middle of Broken Hill so,  no matter where you are in the Town, it can still be seen.

This is one of the abandoned mines.  There are still two mines operating  here which is great for local employment but both these mines are owned by overseas Companies so neither the money nor the product stays here.
 

 No idea what these tanks were used for, just thought they looked interesting.

The two cages on the right is what took the men below ground and also brought the ore to the surface.  Luckily, conditions have changed a great deal over the last 100 hundred or so years and it is a lot more comfortable and a lot safer to work in the mines now.   

This is Broken Hill looking down from the Line of Lode.

As I said at the beginning of this post, Broken Hill is a fantastic place to visit.  We went on a Bus Tour nearly every day of our 9 day stay and we still missed quite a bit.  The people are so friendly and helpful and there are lots of little specialty shops and Art Galleries to look in.  Lots of eating places too and the food was absolutely delightful.

These are just a few of the photos we took around the town, there are heaps more from the bus trips we did.  We went to White Cliffs and Silverton and we did the Sunset tour of the Big Sculptures and we also went to Menindee Lake and Kinchega  National Park, so there are a lot more photos.  If there is enough interest I'll show some more in the next few weeks.

Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.

2Crafty March Projects #2

 Hello everyone and welcome.  So glad you stopped by for a visit.
I'm here to share the second part of my March projects for 2Crafty Chipboard.

  "CONCERTINA CARD"

    This is the card I created for my Grandson's 18th Birthday.  Being such a special Birthday, it had to be a special card and so I created a concertina card with some pieces from 2Crafty Chipboard's latest release.  

  The front of this card looks fairly busy but I just couldn't stop myself from adding all those lovely little chipboard pieces.
2Crafty Chipboard product used

Bubble Clumps

Card Word Circles - Happy Birthday

Dotty Bits

Fast Forward Arrows

Mini Tags

 

The papers used here are from Kaisercraft's 'Hello Today' small Paper Pad.  The small 'Bubble Clump' was coloured with acrylic paints using a dabber.  I love the mottled look you get when using this method.
 

    The 'Dotty Bits' tucked in the paper layers at the side were coloured the same as the Bubble Clump but the 'Mini Tag' was inked with Distress Inks and then lightly edged with gold VersaColor.  The chain is from my stash and the charms are from Megs Garden.  

  The 'Card Word Circle' was also painted with acrylics and the 'Fast Forward Arrow' was simply inked.     

    Love those 'Fast Forward Arrows' and used quite a few of them on the inside of the card.  

  This one was painted with acrylic paint ...
 

  ... as was this one.  It was also lightly inked with gold.

    The outer edge of this arrow was inked with VersaColor gold and the actual arrow itself was coloured with Black Soot Distress Ink.  

 

   Love that crackle!!                This arrow was also inked with Distress Inks and edged with the VersaColor gold.               The inside of the card when fully opened.  As you can see it actually holds 4 tags.  

  The backs of the tags can be used for photos or personal messages.  I won't show the fourth tag as that has my personal message on it.

  

    Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you have found some inspiration here.  I urge you to take a look at the fantastic array of chipboard pieces that 2Crafty Chipboard produces, you are bound to find something that you simply have to have!  LOL!!   HERE is the link. Why not also take a look at the awesome creations made by the rest of the Team.   You can find the 2Crafty Blog HERE.     and remember, to find a 2Crafty Stockist near you simply send an email to salesat2crafty@optusnet.com   Take care and God Bless.  

 

2Crafty March Projects #1

Hello everyone and welcome to my Blog.  Hope you are having a great day and I'm so glad you popped in for a visit. It is my turn again over at the 2Crafty Blog and I have two Art Journal pages to share with you.    
"DOUBLE ART JOURNAL PAGE FOR SATW"   During March, 2Crafty is a major sponsor for Scrap Around the World and the Team from 2Crafty are Guest Designers.  I was so thrilled  to be a part of this Guest Team and, as the post went live yesterday, I am able to show the details of my contribution.     This is my double page ...  

... and this is the mood board.  I basically just went with the colours, although the Square Collage panel is sort of reflective of the tech drawn robot.

2Crafty Chipboard product used

 Square Collage Panel

 6" Clock Frames

Mini Hearts and Stars

To create the background I lightly coated the pages with some watered down gesso and then glued some strips of paper through the middle.  Once it was dry, I sprayed over it  with 'Peacock Feathers' Distress Spray Stain and created some texture with paste and a stencil.  

Added some stamping and used a strip of gauze, which was coloured with some watered down acrylic paint, as a base for the Square Collage Panel.  This was randomly coloured with Black Soot Distress Ink. 

Coloured the Clock Frame in the same manner and used it as a frame for the little quote, which was found on the net.

  The stars are from the Mini Hearts and Stars and they were coloured with acrylic paint.       'DOUBLE ART JOURNAL PAGE FOR CSI'    2Crafty was also a major sponsor over at CSI in February and I was happy that I was able to be a part of the GDT for Case #156.  This is the double Art Journal page I created.    

 

  I actually shared this on my blog when the GDT went live at CSI and, rather than go through it all again here, if you would like to take a closer look, HERE is the link to that post.      Thank you so much for taking a look at my little creations and I hope you have found some inspiration here.  I urge you to take a look at the fantastic array of chipboard pieces that 2Crafty Chipboard produces, you are bound to find something that you simply cannot live without!  LOL!!  HERE is the link.   For more inspiration on how to use your fabulous 2Crafty chipboard, simply visit the 2Crafty Blog HERE.     and remember, to find a 2Crafty Stockist near you simply send an email to salesat2crafty@optusnet.com   Thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day. Take care and God Bless. oxox