London Bridge Tag

This week the challenge at the Paperartsy Blog is to use Paperartsy stamps, and Fresco Paints together with metal. A great opportunity to try out the translucent paints that I ordered and received this week.

I coloured a tag with London Bus, then coated it with Crackle Glaze. Once that was dry, I put a thick layer of Baltic Blue on it. It immediately started to crackle, and some large cracks appeared. Wonderful! I love the bright red colour of the cracks.

In the bottom left corner, I played with Zesty Zing and Beach Hut. It created a nice opaque green colour, not exactly what I intended, but not too bad for a first time... The man is from the Hot Pick 1110 sheet. I first applied some Snowflake so that his face would not be too green...

The London Bridge is a stamp from Crafty Individuals, that I stamped with Stazon on metal. I then coloured the picture with Chocolate Pudding, Beach Hut, and South Pacific. I created some depth by puffing the bridge from the back.

Down under

In November and December, we went on a vacation to Australia and New Zealand. We had a wonderful time! This blog post about our trip is for our English speaking friends.

We started in Sydney, and walked along all the city highlights such as the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, the Rocks and Darling Harbour.

We also went to the Blue Mountains. We went to Melbourne by night train, and from there we went to Tasmania. On Tasmania we rented a car and drove around this very beautiful island. We walked in Cradle Mountain NP and had a very sunny day in Strahan on the Gordon River.

After Tasmania, we went back to Melbourne and did a day trip along the Great Ocean Road and Shipwreck Coast. Again we had beautiful weather and made lots of photos!

The next week we stayed in the Red Centre, where is was quite hot (40-45°C). We started in Alice Springs, went to King´s Canyon, and of cource to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). The distances and emptiness were very impressive!

Our last week in Australia we joined a cruise on the Great Barrier Reef with the Coral Princess. Three days of snorkeling in marvellous reefs. We have seen a lot of fish and very beautiful coral.

Then we headed to Christchurch, New Zealand by Air New Zealand. On the plane, every passenger was watching the safety announcements, done by crew members dressed as elfs, dwarfs and hobbits from Middle Earth!

We stayed a day in Christchurch. The CBD is still fenced off, we could see the damage done by the 2011 earthquake. A corridor is made to Cathedral Square, so we could see the damage done to the cathedral. It is a pity... Everywhere buildings are being demolished. We had a pizza on the Mall where containers are used for shops.

We rented a car and left for a three week's drive through the South and North Island. We went to Mount Cook, and Dunedin. We drove around Otago Peninsula, where we visited the Albatross Centre. There we saw a lot of big birds. From Dunedin we drove to Te Anau. We had very good weather in the Milford Sound, which is rather exceptional.

We stayed a day in Queenstown, and then continued to the West Coast. We walked to Franz Josef Glacier.

The next day it rained, so we did not see very much on our route to Westport. We only stopped here at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks.

In Motueka we had a day off before leaving to Picton. We were lucky to catch the morning ferry to Wellington, so we had the afternoon to walk around Wellington and visit the Te Papa museum.

The next day we headed to Tongariro NP, with the three volcanoes. From there we drove along lake Taupo to Rotorua. This is the area with the hot pools and thermal valleys. We made several stops, also at Wai-O-Tapu. Geothermal Wonderland.

We enjoyed the Coromandel where we stayed in Whitianga. Here we went to Hot Water Beach and walked to Cathedral Cove. Again we had beautiful weather.

Next we went to Northland via Takapuna and Paihia. In Paihia we went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and enjoyed a Maori Cultural performance.

We ended our trip in Auckland, we we stayed four days. We had a lovely time down under. Although the weather was too cold and wet for the kiwis, for us it was warm enough with an average of 20-25°C to walk in shorts and T-shirts every day!

There are still parts of NZ we have not visited, so we might go back in the future.

Mechanical Man

I am a big fan of Paperartsy. I have lots of their stamps and some 30 bottles of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics. Therefore, I am very excited about everything that currently goes on on their blog.

On this card I managed to get a nice crackled background. Believe it or not, this was the first time it worked out so good! Thanks to a tutorial on the Paperartsy Youtube channel.

The mechanical man is stamped on acetate and coloured the back with Pansy so that it shows up against the background. A nice tip given by Helen Chilton last week!

The cogs are from a metal sheet. I coloured them with French Roast and Claret, which gives a rusty look.

Take a Word - Clockwork

I created this card for this week's challenge at Take a Word which is CLOCKWORK. The face is a stamp from Lost Coast Designs that I stamped with Stazon ink. Then I coloured the card with Fresco Finish paint. The swirls around her face, her legs and shoes are coloured with Stream Adirondack ink. The clock is stamped on a piece of felt.

The text in the background is a Paperartsy stamp: Time is a dressmaker specialising in alterations. I stamped it with Hey Pesto, one of the new translucent Fresco Finish paints. When it dried, a shadow effect appeared around the text, which I like very much!

Three Muses - Black and White

This week the Three Muses challenged us to create something in BLACK AND WHITE WITH A DASH OF ... a colour of our choice.

This ATC is my creation. The background is stamped with Stazon Jet Black on a glossy card. The dots and the branches are stamps from Stampers Anonymous. The car is from PaperArtsy.

Take a Word - Tattered

This week's challenge at Take a Word is TATTERED. I cheated a little, the only thing tattered in this ATC is the colour that I used for the face and the label: Tattered Rose.

For this ATC I tried to use distress inks on a glossy card. It works really well, and gives a nice colour.

Take a Word - Wings

This week's theme at Take a Word is WINGS. Searching my stash for anything with wings, I found a piece of BasicGrey paper with a bird. I used it as the background. The globe in the background is a stamp from Stampers Anonymous.

The lady is a chess piece stamp from Lost Coast Designs with additional dragon wings. The word "Wings" is made from metal and coloured with Paperartsy Fresco Finish paints. These paints gave a matte finish, so I sanded it a little to let the metal shine through.