And finally for a big update day - some more ATCs

Here is some ATC's I've done over the last 12 months or so and some I have received.

The first photo are all mine. The 2nd photo top row are mine and the bottom row are ones I have received. If you see one you have sent me and would rather not have it up here, just let me know

Beautiful Chipboard.

I have a great new supplier of beautiful high quality chipboard.

Here are just a few of the items available. There is a stack. These are some of the more arty sets of chipboard shapes and a few of the scrapbooking titles. I love them. I've painted them, inked them, alcohol inked them, distressed them!

Contact me if you wish to order some! The shapes are $3 packet and titles $2 each. Cheap as chips I reckon. I also have quite a few different ones listed on ebay at the moment as well as brand new stamps! The link is:

http://search.ebay.com.au/_W0QQsassZdebmuraus

Goth ATC

Here is the ATC I did for the Gothic ATC swap on Arty-oz. I really love the gothic style and can see myself getting more into the style. The darkness and swirls etc appeal to me. It would be more what I call "pretty goth" rather than ugly and extreme goth that people expect though.

Tag Books

Here are some scans of recently done tag books pages in the Arty-Oz swap. The first 2 are in Ness' book. I always wanted to have a go at beeswax and Ness gave us permission to try something new in her book. I had only has the beeswax for 2 or 3 years!

The 2nd lot of pictures are for Kylie's book on women. Sorry for the blurred scans towards the middle of the books

Art Club

Well for the last 3 Fridays I have been going to the local Art Club and trying my hand at painting canvasses. With the mixed media sort of stuff I have been doing through Arty-oz and other groups I am finding it not to bad. My first painting is of a Lion from a photo I took in Sth Africa 4 years ago. I will try and show you when I am finished - but only if it is good enough to be hung up somewhere in the house other than the toilet!

Emerald Floods

Would you like to see some of the photos I took at the Emerald floods here in January. It stopped the town for a week. No-one was working, except for essentials and flood related services. It was scary as they knocked on our door the first night at 11pm to tell us to be ready to evacuate by 6am the next morning. So we spent the next few hours moving our furniture up a level in our split level. Anyway, as it turns out the water didn't even get into our streets at the height of the flood 4 days later.

Ebay & Paypal

So what do you all think about Ebay forcing everyone onto Paypal? I have no problem with Paypal being an option, but the fees are making selling small stamping & scrapping items uneconomical. I'm thinking about heading over to Oztion. Where are you heading or are you going to stay with Ebay? Would love to hear your comments

The Gift Hall

One of my friends here in Emerald has started a new venture. The items are absolutely beautiful and it is definitely worth checking out. It is a registered mail order gift online store that the sends the item straight to your loved one, even with a card . The price even includes the postage! Please have a look

http://www.thegifthall.com.au/

TARSBC Book Club

Well I've found a little bit of time for creating lately. I feel so out of practice and am finding it hard to think of putting things together. I am sure when you create on a regular basis things just go together easily. I don't know if it is 'cause you remember things in your stash or you just have kept the creative juices flowing.



Anyway here is a couple of book club pages I have done recently

Fleur De Lis Swap - "Prince of France" ATC

I joined another great swap on the Arty Oz group. The swaps in this group amaze me and even though some of got theirs and I haven't as yet (mail takes a while to the middle of Qld) I know I will be getting some great returns.

I love the Fleur de Lis and often use it in various forms in my artwork. I looked up the history of the Fleur de Lis for this swap and found it very interesting - here is some of it and what I based my ATC on. Thanks to Wikipedia for the info and here is the link for the full history that is well worth a read - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur_de_lis.

It is an enduring symbol of France, but, being regarded most notably as the emblem of the monarchy, was not adopted officially by any of the French republics. On the contrary, as Spain is a constitutional monarchy, the fleur-de-lis symbol is associated with the Spanish King Juan Carlos I (of French dynasty origin) and the Kingdom of Spain.

In the reign of King Louis IX (St. Louis) of France the three petals of the flower were said to represent faith, wisdom and chivalry, and to be a sign of divine favour bestowed on France.[14] During the next century, the 14th, the tradition of Trinity symbolism was established in France, and then spread elsewhere.

More Creating Time!

Now that swimming season is over, and the kids are only doing some training - instead of bulk training, carnivals and club nights - my creating life is starting to appear from behind the fog.

Isn't it weird how you get out of the habit of creating, and then find it a struggle to make whatever you are working on to go together in a nice composition or finding that right element. I'm sure I've forgotten half of the things I own in the craft room!

Anyway these pictures are my attempt in Gail's Chipboard Tag Book. Her theme is "Birds" and I found it a real challenge. I had to buy images online and other elements to make it work. You would think with a room full of stuff I would be able to do this theme. The image I ended up using was from an old fashioned paper I bought at Susannah House, in The Rocks in Sydney at the end of last year. If you ever get a chance to visit this historic building - do it - it was fantastic.

Great blog

I came across this great blog this evening. Beautiful work.

http://creativeswaps.blogspot.com/

Chipboard Tag Book Swap

I have finally finished my opening page for the round robin Chipboard Tag Book swap that is being run through the arty-oz group. I had in mind that I wanted it grey scale only. I often do colour based things and find it hard to introduce a totally different colour. This time I kept finding embellishment that were prominently black and white but had a little bit of colour. I had to keep turfing them aside. The book is now winging (ha! the theme is angels) it's way to Teresa

So of you may know, others may not. I have a little home based stamp & accessories retail business.

I have uploaded a stack of new stuff to my webshots

If you are intereste have a look at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/debmuraus

There is also quite a few years worth of cards, atcs, altered books, etc for inspiration.

Thank you Bev for a great banner

Thank you to the wonderful Bev Ross who designed my new heading. She just did it out of the goodness of her heart.

But what has got me stumped, is how in the h*ll did she know exactly what I was trying to create?

Architectural Door & Window Photos

Here are a couple of architectural photos I have taken. I am waiting for the right project to use them in.

Well here it is! What am I ever going to write or put on a blog? I am boring! Well let's hope I get to create more this year than last year. And maybe then, I will have something to write about.