Barefoot Wanderings

This Month's Listening Pleasure

.....is Life in Cartoon Motion by MIKA.
This CD has been getting lots of play time in the car whilst I drive the kids around, we all love it and the songs are quite varied. Any trip with music, singing and joy is a good one.

Our collective favourite song is Happy Ending, with Lollipop coming a close  second. My Son also likes Any Other World, my Daughter likes Billy Brown, and I like My Interpretation.

As both of my kids are learning the piano it is also a great CD to listen to to learn about music...we listen to what instruments are playing, when they come in (such as the bass guitar or violins) and playing Great Big Whole Notes.

We also have a bit of action with playing instruments (just like the horn section when we listen to The Cat Empire) and doing the hand actions tht appear at the end of the video clip for Happy Ending.......

Cut It Out 2

Firstly, to everyone that left me a comment on my stamp carving posts (last month's crusade) I just wanted to say thank you, your words were really great to read, very motivating and encouraging.

I have had a bit of fun with this month's GPP Crusade - Stencil Cutting.

Here is a something I did previously using acetate & a heat cutting tool.   

I found a chinese character for Prosperity, enlarged it on a photocopier and then cut the image out of acetate. The image on the right is a canvas that I used this stencil on.

Sizzix have Alphabars in a Stencil Font that are great for making word stencils. I have marked a line under each letter of the alphabet on the alphabar so it is easier to line up the paper to get the words straight. When marking the line you just need to ensure that the line is the same distance under each letter. It is much easier to do this with the upper case, the lower case alphabet needs tweaking on some letters, such as those with tails (g, y, q etc..) and the letter 'm' is on it's side.

For spray painting, these can be attached to acetate. Simply cut out a window on a sheet of acetate slightly bigger than the word but smaller than the card stock and attach with tape.

As these are cut from card, once they have been used a bit they will be wonderfully coloured and you can use the actual stencil in journals/artwork/etc...

I cut an image of a bird in flight that created both a stencil and a mask. Here is the incomplete page I am working on in my journal using these stencils & mask. (The stencils & mask appear on the left of the image).

 

I have also made a go-with solid stencil for one of the stamps I carved (here)....and I did get a mask from this cutting.
Here is a quick sample of how the stencil & stamp go together.....

My stamping is a little off but I just wanted to quickly try these out together.

I should admit that after the first stamp carving I did, and armed with the knowledge I'd be cutting stencils, I visited my local art shop to find a book with copyright-free designs or patterns that would be good for backgrounds and walked out with THREE! ......I figure I saved money as I put quite a few books back on the shelf....is there such a group as ASA - Art Supplies Annonymous I could join?!

Here is one I am currently working on. it is an image from one of my new books. I made it a bit bigger using a photocopier and then with Black & White pens I transformed the design into a stencil. (If you are not sure how to do this then visit Michelle for some great tips.)
I will enlarged it again to the size (or two) that I want, tape the image to the under side of a piece of glass, tape acetate to the top of the glass and use my heat tool to cut the design.

The heat stencil cutting tools are a BRILLIANT tool to have, especially if you intend to do a lot of cutting. It can take a little practice but once you have it down pat it is soooooo much quicker to use than a blade.

What a day!

Look how fabulous the weather was today. We have had quite a bit of rain these past few weeks so it was really nice today to see the sun in all it's glory. Having spent most of the school holidays indoors we decided to get out of the house and go to the Kirribilli markets (right near the harbour).

It was nice wandering around looking at old and new stuff to buy. We did find some treasures...
my son come home with a Pokemon video,
my Daughter got a fabulous Green bag/case,
I got a beautiful wooden box, some old but in very good condition book binding needles, and the bargain of the day were a load of wonderful brown buttons for $2!
and Hubby, well he was just happy to see the rest of us happy!

...and afterwards was a trip to my fav book shop at McMahons Point. As usual 'we' spent a bit there but I just can't resist books, and Helen just has such a wonderful selection.

Tell Me A Story

The Art Girls are back in the swing of things.
There are three of us (Megan, Lysh & myself) that try meeting up once a fortnight to create art. It got a bit out of whack toward the end of last year and begining of this year but we are now back into the swing of meeting regularly again.

It is good to have something in mind to work on on these nights and so we came up with the idea of doing another round robin altered book but this time with a bit of a twist....to create a story in each book. The next person building on / spring boarding off the previous page. We are creatively cooking the books using these Creative Cooking books! They're great as they are all the same size and thickness.

There is no pressure to create and no deadlines. The idea is only to create in these books on the night and if nothing is coming we move onto other things. If there are others we want to or have to work on then that's what happens. Simple. Fun.

   

Here is the first page in my book that I created over two meetings. We have not done the covers for these books, we decided to leave it to last as we have no idea where these stories will go.

Each of us are both similar and different in our art, ideas and approaches, and that's what makes these eveings interesting. I really do appreciate the supportive and encouraging environment, I'm sure we all do, that's why we keep coming back for more!...that and the laughs!

What a great kick off.....

to the soccer season....

In the first game of the 'competition' last week my daughter got the 'Player of The Week' trophey.

This week she scored her first goal!

It is amazing to watch them play and already in only three weeks you can see how each player is developing.

I have been mad enough to say that I would help one of the dad's coach her team...really, I thought, how hard could it be, they're under six and half the team are preschoolers?!! Well, I can honestly say that whilst I am still on this side of forty my body certainly reminds me that I am not as young as I think I am!

My son is playing soccer again this year and as he is in the under 7A team his games are tougher. He was hanging back a little but is now getting into the thick of it. It is almost heartbreaking the amount of times he just misses on scoring a goal.

Both my monkeys are playing like champs and I am so proud of them both.

Brida

by Paulo Coelho

I loved this book!
It was really easy to read, very flowing. It was another book I read in one afternoon and evening. That day was Sunday and my thoughts are still tumbling in my head.......to me that makes this a brilliant book.

This is a story about a young woman with the opening line..." 'I want to learn about magic' said the girl". The story has a Wicca, a Magus and talks about their Rituals. For some people I think that this would put them off reading this book, I remained open to this story and feel I was rewarded. To me it was deeper than that..... it was about spirituality, faith, the acceptance of things, the journey of ones life and making the most of the gift that has been given to us. Even people who don't believe in God, still have faith......

" 'I learned about the Dark Night', she said to the now silent forest. 'I learned that the search for God is a Dark Night, that Faith is a Dark Night. And that's hardly a surprise really, because for us each day is a dark night. None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, and yet we go forwards. Because we trust. Because we have faith.' "

I found so many things in this book interesting and great food for thought. It gave me a different side of the story to witches, their faith in God, references to the Virgin Mary and Jesus, the goodness, a reason why we look for our Soul Mate.

I will admit that I was hesitant to read another of Paulo Coelho's books after reading The Alchemist, how could anything else compare. After reading this book I can not wait to read more....hmmm where do I start!