ATC DAY #4 2007

It's on again! another huge day of 13 hours of creating!
SAME PLACE, SAME TIME, SAME FUN!

SATURDAY 22nd SEPTEMBER 2007

You're Invited to come an enjoy a day of ATC making & swapping or do and make anything you like. The day will include free demos, Door Prize and Collections ATC items will be available to purchase along with some "Limited Edition" products.

This time we will be having a lovely demo by Kelsey, something with pizazz and texture. Kelsey is a brilliant teacher and demo artist with the most amazing style.

I will be offering 2 mini workshops, one in the morning about 11.30am, and in the afternoon about 4.30pm (they will be the same and run for approx 1 hour) and it's an additonal $15 for the workshop and it will include a kit, but you will need to bring your own pva glue, scapel, scissors, sepia or frayed burlap stamp pad. Payments must be made before you come to reserve a spot in the workshop. For bookings call me on 9302 6499.

Coffee,Tea, Milo & snacks will be provided during the day & night.

Lunch/Supper, please bring a small plate to share.
If you need other supplies there is a deli around the corner which is open till 7pm.

Date: Saturday 22th September 2007
Time: 9.30am - 10.30pm
Lunch/Supper: Please bring a small plate (savoury only please)
(just a suggestion from previous shows, bring a lil' cushion for your bum, the plastic chairs are a wee bit hard sitting on them for hours!)

Venue: Community Hall Grasstree Bend, Banksia Grove
Entry : $15.00, includes free mini kit with registration & you
must register to get the free kit, via email to: collections@westnet.com.au
or call Julie on 9302 6499. Places are limited, so book early.
Payments can be made at the door on the day. Stay as long as you like.
BYO: ATC trades, ATC making supplies (glue, scissors, stamps, paper etc.) Your binders full of your artwork to show if you like.
This time we are going to have a display board for ATC's so please bring one finished ATC (optional) to put up on the artboard, & bring your camera!
ENQUIRES: Julie van Oosten 9302 6499. Places are limited so please contact me as soon as possible.

Tonight at Scrapbook Central

If you are going to Scrap Central tonight you are getting a VIP mini class. Hope to see you there, enjoy your project.......JVO!!

Little Houses..........

It's been a really busy time for me over the last month and that's why I haven't been a good blogger. Yesterday I have a few minutes to make something up with the "Tiny Houses". I had a lot of fun with some of 7Gypsies tape and lots of little embellishments so here is a little pic to go with it.Last month I did a little demo at Scrapbooks from the Heart. The girls were very sweet and gave me a BIG tin of Milo! I think my Milo reputation is preceding me! We did a couple of hours making all sorts of things with chipboard and it was lovely to get a group inspired! One of the lucky girls won a little bucket filled with Collections chipboard.... It's always a pleasure going out to the store in Canning Vale, it's got a HUGE range of product....

Friday night I had a little rev up at club with quite a few girls playing around with the Tiny Houses. It was to my amazement that they made a large selection - see photo, thanks to Robyn! As you can see we put them in a row on a metal cabinet that was handy in the clubroom. It reminded me of the tile days where everyone came over to check the progress of the group. Wonderful to see that dynamics again...

Tonight I am off to Scraptivate to do another demo night. Lots of good things happening at Natalie's store as it's so inspirational and I love the diversity of styles shown in the amazing array of artwork that is at one of Perth's newest and cool stores.

Thanks for looking, Julie . . . . . . .

Trade Classes next week

Just to let you know I am popping over to Brissy to Bumble Bee Crafts to do my trade classes and I shall be away until Monday week (18th June). I will be teaching 4 lovely projects using the latest elements from Collections. Some of the new product has turned out really nice and I am really happy with the results -some products already created a bit of a spin off! Well the houses have bred little miniature ones! LOL! They are so small they fit onto an ATC. You should be able to get some of the new product soon as there are quite a few stores buying on Tues & Wed next week. Good luck to Crozza teaching the crew up in Brissy! Well Ness you got your best girl to go and I love what Crozza is doing, too bad I am not there otherwise I'd be joining in!

Oh and those birdies, well they are alive!

And the WINNERS are......

Lucky girls are.....
1.


Barbara said...
Hi Julie,I would be jumping up and down just to know that my name had been selected for receiving the awesome little box holding the sampling of your new products!I too place my orders through Cecile and have never been disappointed when my "goodies" arrive.Thank you not only for your wonderful line of products but for your creativity as well.

Barbara in Texas
5:56 AM

2.


---MARILYN DAMSCHEN--- said...
Ooooh, I love those! So nice to see something coming out that's not vintage or that looks like everything else out there. Brave to originality!
6:59 AM

3.

triumphgirl said...
Can't wait to play with the new items. When/Where will they be released?? Fingers crossed they will be out in June/July when I am back in Oz ... if not just pack up AliceMcK's suitcase in August when she comes to visit me in Singapore!

Faye
9:10 AM

Girls Email me and I will mail your prize asap!!! (collections@westnet.com.au)
Thanks again for all your cool comments and ideas!
Thanks for looking,

Julie

The Prize of 10 new Products!

Okay ladies here is the prize that 3 of you are going to win...... good luck and I will draw it out in about two hours time, 1.30pm Western Australian time...

You will get, the new Flash Cards, numbers and words (2 kinds) there are 8 kinds available, and you can get the flash card mounts to go with these and one pack is in the prize. The new box kits, new narrow frames, new scrolls in both sizes, unique arrows, and those cute/arty keyholes!

And when Debbie draws out the winners, send me your mailing address to:

collections@westnet.com.au

Best

JVO

PS hope you like the new products, available soon at a store near you (I hope!)

The design process. . . .

As simple as it may be, designs have to start somewhere. I often just jot down a really simple drawing (and I mean simple) on scraps of paper, or when I am really good I draw in my design book ideas of new things and suggestions for products. I do this so I don't forget as I have a short memory for ideas, well there is so many just floating around. It is not unusual to have scrap of paper knocking around the keyboard of my computer to jog my memory for a few weeks before I put it to work to become a real product. BTW any bit of paper is fair game for a drawing!

Here is the process of the "Birdie" and I know ya'll are gonna laugh, but here it is in 4 steps. Now my dear arty friends my scrappy friends have asked me to make these birdies so no laughing cos I might find out you have done these on your latest ATC's or something. Now they are not made yet, maybe in the next 2 weeks, but please getting things manufactured sometimes has it's pitfalls and I may not get these back for a month......oh and they are coming in two sizes......wings are separate as well. best, JVO

"Holy Cow"

I have just been checking my blog and "holy cow" there are 87 comments!!! Some lovely comments as well. Hey you guys thanks for your support, it means a lot to me. After all I am just wanting to make new stuff so I can play with it myself. I do make things I want as well and a lot is from suggestions or should I say nagging! LOL.

Well because you are all so faithful I would like to offer the same prize 3 times so that gives you a one in 30 chance of winning instead of one in 87, so tomorrow Deb will pick a winner....

Good luck to you all and I am noting Jen and Kelsey's pre-decline (LOL!), and I nearly forgot, Wendy C from NZ you are in the draw ( I know you had trouble posting!).

thanks, JVO

Win something New from Collections

I know you guys have been looking at my blog, so as a reward for “someone” I thought it would be nice if I gave away a sampling of Collections new products. Available really soon at some store near you........
I made up this little “Art Box” and filled it with some of the new chipboard pieces that were manufactured this week. There are still a heap more products to come - all will be revealed soon.....
So, post your name on the comments and I will get Debbie (she is the wonder girl who packs my stuff and whistles, “one power ball and I’m outer here!” LOL)to draw out a name. They will win a pack of lovely little new bits, some of what is shown here!(not the sample tho) I have been working hard the last few weeks getting new products designed and made and I really hope you like them. There is something for all, papercrafters and scrapbookers alike. I will draw the winner out sometime next week..... you only need to enter once, good luck.
PS, the little box is part of the new.........but you have to make it up yourself!

Twins head to Nirvana

Lauren was reading some of the comments posted recently and wanted to share more of the pics altered that day and has sent some more of these fantasy shots altered in Photoshop 8 CS. Above & below Danielle in angel pose, and their beloved horses! I love the wings, bird wings rather than butterfly wings. They did a lot of coloured ones so here they are to enjoy. PS and Lauren and Danielle thank you for all those wonderful comments, it's alway great to hear them!

thanks for looking JVO....... back to work now!

Lil' ole Update

Just an update on things here in Perth..... Firstly it would have been my mums 75th birthday tomorrow if she was still here on earth, and I will always remember her for that special day. Actually on the 20th of April 1987, it was the day she passed away (and don't worry I am not sad!), it's been 20 years now, I find that amazing. My mum was one of those girls that would give you the shirt off her back & and love to feed you!, a very caring loving lady and so loved.

On another note, I have been a busy bee, and designing some new products for Collections. Hopefully ready in a few weeks time and I will be launching it all at Bumble Bee Crafts in Brissy in early June sometime, for the trade only. Remember those little sanders everyone wants and has asked me to make on mass, well finally they will be a regular item, so look out for those in the stores shortly. I have mostly made product for off the page, some nice bits for us 'arty' girls, and a bunch of chipboard items. Don't worry I will keep you posted on everything as soon as I get it all together and packaged.

see ya, JVO

Photoshop Fantasies

The girls had a little play the other day with a camera and photoshop 8 CS. They downloaded some wings and things from the museum archives, skipped across the road to the park, snapped some photos and spent hours putting wings on themselves, so artfully I think. They also placed colourful wings on their horses - perhaps they want to fly away!! The top photos is Danielle sunning herself on a park bench, and the other is Lauren contemplating the view from far away places. LOL. So when we are creating those ATC's and putting on a wing or two, we are not the only ones wanting to add wings to art. . . . . I do have to ask tho, are the girls thinking of crowns?

Thanks for looking, JVO.

THESE GIRLS ROCK!!!

A few weeks ago three lovely girls Maddy, Nicky, & Amy (who have never painted chipboard before) created these wonderful little tags for bags etc. The delightful and beautiful ladies, 11, 9 & 8 are the daughters of my childhood friend Dennis. We spent a few hours playing around with tags and ball chain and look at what these crafty girls made.

Sister - Sister - Sister - amy - maddy - nicky . . . . . . cute as!

Steph's Scrapbooking

Earlier this week I popped down to Steph's Scrapbooking to do a little demo. Steph's little shop (in house) is about 80km south in Rockingham. About 20 ladies turned up to learn more about the collections range of products. I packed up my car with as many samples as I could carry (there was boxes of them!) It was so nice to meet lots of new faces and a couple of girls from club. Everyone was very sweet and welcoming. At the end of the night everyone received a little frame kit as a thank you. Here is a pic of the little frame and instructions for same. Hope you all got the chance to make yours to suit.

Open Frame by Collections
Glue the two identical frames together, paint, sand the edges
Cover the other frame in paper and sand edges
Cover the large daisy with paper

Paint the other 3 flowers and sand the edges and
add a nice prima flower to the front.
While you are painting, paint the 2 chipboard reinforcements
Using the word accessories cut and mount the chosen words

onto scrap chipboard to raise them up, cut out.
Glue the finished frames together with the smaller on offset to the larger frame, glue on the flowers and printed words, clip on the letter clip (add ribbon first).
Glue on the reinforcements. Punch a small hole through the reinforcement and through the frame with an awl so you can attach the ball chain for the hanger.

Flatten ONE end of the joiner so it won't slip through the reinforcement, repeat with the other joiner, feed the chain through and attach the joiners.
Tie ribbon to the edge of the frame and the ball chain.

Don't forget to add some photos to the frame. Tip: If the photos are not large enough for the frame, add some card to the back and slot in a few smaller pics!

Fish To Fry

On the weekend my darling daughter Danielle, created this gorgeous bowl of fresh water fish. She chose a ceramic pot, filled it with small pebbles and a lilac water lilly, a hiding hole (jug), added the fish (after the water was conditioned overnight). Now the fish look so pretty in this bowl which sits under the bali hut.

*Update... now there are two bowls of fish and some have now had babies (which are in a small breeder which floats in the bowl.) Apparently if you don't whip the fry out soon after they are born, someones going to eat them !! They are so relaxing to watch and if your put you hand in the bowl they like to nibble your fingers... cute!

My Sweet Peas!

Loz and Dan, my two sweet peas, well they did come together in a pod! This photo taken a couple of days ago when they looked very similar...

Lauren on the left just bought her first horse, Condor a Thoroughbred gelding. Now both girls can go riding together, Danielle bought her horse, Mercedes a few months ago.

They still both work in hospitality and at the same place LOL.

I just wanted to post this lovely pic of them so some of my friends and family can see how they have grown, BTW they are a lot taller than I. Cuties!....

Inspired by Sally Jean - Soldering

The other night I had the pleasure to solder with a couple of lovely girls, eat Thai food and be inspired by a book that I brought back from the USA. The book, "Pretty Little Things" by Sally Jean Alexander. Every page is so adorable and inspiring to say the least. I love jewellery, soldering and little trinkets and stuff!! Love all things small really. (who doesn't?) So Jen Jones, Kelsey, Jackie and I got down and dirty and made some soldered items. I really wanted to make this wire dress form but got carried away with my first project, making a really deep 3D charm.

I was inspired by these wonderful metal objects, that have v cut in them that I was sent recently (hot metal type), not the actual hot metal type themselves but the brass masters that create the type. I have a dear friend send me some of the tiny brass pieces, which I am so grateful. Actually it was Jenny Crossley from the Ratty who first recommend these little gems, thanks Jen! I have always loved type whether it be fonts, metal or anything to do with type really. The shapes and forms are really interesting and love the letter"A"/"a". I did use on these charms, solder that contains a tin 98 percent tin and silver 2 percent mix, which is similar to the one Sally recommends in her book, although we can't get the one she suggests in the book here in Australia this one is from Bunnings in the soldering section and is for jewellery (lead free). Try to practice on the regular solder first because the jewellery one costs a little more than regular solder.

After playing around with the charms I had some fuses to open and put in messages, solder on a jump ring so it can be hung from chain. Opening the fuses can be tricky, first time I did it I drilled the top off, but that was too hard so I heated one end gently and then using small pliers pulled the top (cap) off the heated end. Be careful not to pull to hard or the glass will smash. Take out the fuse with small pointy pliers, even if you can't get it out, don't worry, just add your text in the tube and you won't see it. I add a jump ring to the top before gluing on the end with metal glue. Love little messages in little bottles or tubes they are so cute to hang with other bits and pieces.

The little aluminum squares my lovely daughter banged out (Sunday morning early to every one's amusement!) as she was making some metal tags for her new horse "Condor". She likes to make the tags so she can identify her bridals and horsey equipment. After hammering in the type she had used a permanent marker to enhance the type so it's easy to read - Thanks Loz....

Jenny made a wonderful cross, took her ages as there were 5 sections to complete the cross. I think Jen needs to get a blog and share her wonderful creations with us. whadda think girls?? So thanks Jen for having us over and giving us some beautiful charms and things and sharing your tape, polish and wiping nappies! LOL.

OH, and the info on the "brazillian" was so helpful Jen, LOL. I have made a mental note!

Love, JVO!!!

CHA show in Anahiem, California.

I thought I would share a few photos from my recent trip to the US. It started out at the CHA show, and as you know it’s the main craft trade show for the year. Amazingly they fit in 3,600 exhibitors into this venue, with 3 main halls all connected together and the lower floor housing the newest exhibitors. I don’t believe I saw all of the show, even though you get 3 days to view it, it is impossible to see everything. I always try to look closely at the new exhibitors and then concentrate on all the favourite booths after that.
I am probably not the best person to ask about the show since I don’t actually buy product from the show, as you may know I do not have a store. Usually I like to look at the trends get ideas for new product and generally see how the industry is going. I did call in and see lots of friends including my good friend Suze Weinberg, http://www.schmoozewithsuze.com/ who is one talented babe and a lot of fun to be with! Check out her site, she has a lot of cool product and a neat DVD out. I also managed to catch up with Stampington & Co who make a range of my stamps out of clear polymer. Also I had a short visit with our Em from Perth, who currently is living in LA with her family and is apparently coming back to Perth soon for a visit and teaching. http://www.embers.typepad.com/ check out her blog, it’s really lovely.

Suze, JVO, Emily

Catching up with Sally Wilson, designer of Delish Designs, who I had chatted on the phone with, its always lovely to put a face to a name. Her booth was stunning and classic, and there is a pic of us with the work of Maxine Hazebroek’s in the photo – good one Max!
http://maxinehazebroek.typepad.com/my_meanderings/

Julie & Sally

Jenny Sutherland from New Zealand, who I shared a room with introduced me to Leandra from Paper Artsy, and I know a lot of girls right here in Perth just love her stamp range. In the photo she is holding up some ATC’s sent from some of the Aussie girls, isn’t that nice she had them on display at her booth!

Jenny, Leandra & Moi.

My last day in LA before going to the mountains I had a side trip to Tijuana, which was amazing and such a colourful place, so here are a few more photos from that trip down to TJ.



S loads of chillis!!!

In my last posting I mentioned that I went up a hill in the mountains near my friend’s house, Sharilyn Miller http://www.sharilynmiller.com/ here is a pic of where I climbed up to before I got scared, well I am a bit afraid of heights!!! See the little red arrow that’s where I got to before it got too steep.

Sharilyn had the cutest cats, Rosie and Sparkle, not sure who this cat is but they both remind me of “Garfield” ! I bought a laser light and had them both running a race track around the house and up and down the stairs, it was really funny to watch, if you have a cat, get one you won’t be disappointed!


If you do go to Sharilyn’s site she had out an amazing DVD on how to make jewellery in her wonderful style. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get her to make the 15hr flight to come to teach in Melbourne or Perth? Any interested parties should email her!

BTW I did see chipmonks before I left the mountains on the last day and they were so cute. Naturally they came out of the woodpile near the house and when they got frightened they went straight back, talk about move and really skittish! The pine trees were full of birds and bluejays are so lovely to see flying past, bit of a neon blue flash! I gotta admit I really like the mountain life and one day I will go back up for a visit.

Do you remember "All the Rivers Run"?

On my return to Oz I had the good fortune to camp out at the Southern 80 in Echuca on the Murray River. I’ve never been before or heard of the race, http://www.southern80.com.au/ but it was amazing and fast. Can you imagine skiing down the Murray behind a speedboat at 160km per hour? The 80km race which the gurus complete in 32mins! These guys and there were kids as well must have a lot of guts! I also had my first real camp experience, like not having a shower for days! (did have a bucket of river water tho!) It was quite warm and dusty, not what I was used to, but it was one of the best trips I have ever done. Mind you there were these really big ants, I think they were at least 2.5cm long! And they were biters, only got nipped on the toe once, and that was because I was near a nest and we were stirring them up to see the soldier ants come out. The entry to the nest was at least 3 meters in diameter (no bull, excuse the pun!).

The camp fire seemed to bring out the pyromaniac in me, I always liked burning things when I was a child, so I was allowed to teardown any wood in the vicinity of the camp (a 1km radius) and burn it! LOL, and I did, burned wood the whole time. I also was hanging out with some bad camp dudes who gave me alcohol and cigarettes even though I don’t drink a lot or smoke. Well I did smell a lot of smoke hanging out at the camp fire. Each morning was so lovely on the river, birds singing, fire crackling, bacon and eggs cooking on the camp fire, only to be broken up by the speed boats racing down the river. If you get a chance to go to the Southern 80 GO it’s so amazing to watch, and you can dip yourself in the river to cool off if it gets too hot or you get too dusty. (just watch out for the little river shrimp they bite ya on the bum!).

While I was in Vic I caught up with Jenny Crossley, and her lovely kids, Nic and Matt and Mark, Jenny’s hubby.http://amarkintime.blogspot.com/ and I finally managed to meet “Audrey” in person and the crew (fleur de la muffin and Peggy). Audrey took to my chest straight away and asked nicely for something from the crisper in the fridge! Incase you didn’t know Audrey is JC’s guinea pig! LOL. Jenny makes the most beautiful art pieces and she has a style all of her own, so go to her blog and see her latest creations……

While I was in the “ratty” we went to this amazingly yummy restaurant called Thai Fusion, if you are in town go its so nice…..

See ya, JVO . . . . . .

On the Road

Last week I wanted to go to Mexico so I booked a trip while I was at home to go to Tijuana just after going to CHA.
I waited for the bus at 8.30am to be told it was cancelled. So later that day I found out how to get there on my own, against all my US friends saying don't go it's dangerous. Well I set off from the Santa Ana bus station and caught a bus which took 2.5hrs all the way down and which took you over the border into TJ (Tijuana). I caught a taxi into the main town and did some sightseeing and took lots of photos. I know that TJ isn't your typical Mexican town, but it was still an experience I had to have. I did Google Earth the place before I left so I really wanted to go. There were a lot of tourist shops, so I didn't buy any of the souviners, but I just wanted lots of photos and I also took some videos. I ate real Mexican food, the corn chips are to die for! and hung out at this cute little restaurant. I have to admit there were not a lot of tourists there, I guess being winter time and all. At the end of the day I went back to the bus station only to find out the bus had broken down, well it was a Mexican bus Co.! I waited around about an hour and a half and then we went on out way to the US border. The border was jam packed and we waited ages to go through. Apparently you get off the bus go through immigration and customs, go out the building and run up the street a little to where the bus will take you back to Santa Anna. Well I didnt know this cos I was the only english speaking person on the bus with all the mexicans (LOL). But I followed everyone and found my way. But was told that the bus would be an hour befor we left. Sooo I was freezing cold and needed a hot drink, so I took off down the road to get a hot beverage... well got back 10 mins later and there was the bus going off down the freeway!!! LOL so had to wait at least another hour and finally got on the bus back to the station. Well here is a pic of what its like over the "border".

At the moment I am in Idyllwild at my friends Sharilyn Miller (previous ed of Somerset Studio Mag) http://www.sharilynmiller.com/ and we are up 6,000ft in her mountain home. And guess what? There is snow up here!!! The scenery is to die for and it was a long (scary) windy road up here and took about 3 hours from Anaheim (where CHA and disneyland is). The squirrels are as big as cats (sorry almost!) and there are chipmonks here but I haven't seen any of those.
Earlier today I walked up the hill right beside the house, well I almost got to the top and got scared (it was a really long way to fall down, really!!) so I took some photos and climbed down..not the pic shown here (thats the peak) but it's so quiet and just what you would imagine a mountain town to be like. Sharilyns house is on 3 levels and I am sleeping in the loft bedroom uptop and it's just like something out of an Austrian village.. The weather has been so lovely here, at night it's a bit cold about zero to about 22c today but there are some spots with snow on the ground.
Thanks for looking....Julie

More and More ATCs and Industria

Some really great gals gave me these fantastic ATC's at club last week. And I want to thank each one of you for thinking of me.. "THANK YOU!"
Thanks to Elaine B, Julie H, Debbie B, Julie Q, France C, Jenny G, Paper Pixie,Christina B, Michelle J, Natalie B, and for France for hosting the swap and organising the trades to moi!
The ATC on the left is by Elaine B, and Elaine did some road testing with industria for me at MPE in October. Love this girls work.


This ATC below is a really interesting colour using industria, slightly gold tones but really rich and unique, great style Natalie B! Adding the extra colour brings it to life...















I had this sample at MPE to show you what the gold tones look like with the industria style, not everyones choice but you can see the effect is really nice.






















The wire ATC below is Jenny C's take on the open ATC using metal flywire and original antique carpenters rule. Jenny has embossed the arrow with a hand embosser. (if you're lucky you can pick and old one up from a swap meet!)

Just a quick note about the ball chain, I finally have it in my hands and will get it packaged next week. Geez did that stuff take forever to get. It's going to come packaged in 2 meter lots with about 12 joiners and will come in the following types:

Brass (the real brass not plated)
2mm
1.5mm (really fine one that you all love)

Nickel Plated
2mm
1.5mm

Steel (the real steel not plated and you add water to rust!)
2mm
1.5mm
the joiners in the steel are Brass ones only as they don't come in steel.

I will be selling joiners as well on their own if you need them.
The ball chain will be in stores very soon.

On another note have you checked out Jenny Crossley's blog http://amarkintime.blogspot.com/ and also Kelsey's Blog.....http://ko-ok.blogspot.com/ great talented works here. Jenny's work is created from a lot of metal pieces *Metal Girl* and the mum of those little "gins"! LOL and Kelsey has the most amazing sense of humor and is a cool *Techniques Girl* Please go check out their blogs, they are fantasic!
Been a bit of a bad blogger this past month... oops off playing hookie! Sorry....Julie