Pixels and Paperie

What's been happening...

On Sunday 25/10/09....

I got accepted onto the Weeds & Wildflowers Site Creative Team ! What a privilege this is! They had a call for a couple of new CT members about a week ago and they sent me a reply last night. So excited as it means I get all their products for free now! Yay!!! Can't wait to get started. I'm hoping this will force me to scrapbook more now.

I have printed out some of my digi layouts and put them in an album. They look really great and it has inspired me to persevere. I also want to do the occasional hybrid or paper layout - so here's hoping I get my act into gear in amongst all my painting too.

Speaking of painting, I am still finishing off the 'girl with the guitar' for Shannon. It's looking lovely, but taking ages to dry- must be too much humidity in the Summer air at the moment. I also learnt all about Beeswax art last week- what fun!
It really is a fabulous medium. Your only limit is your imagination. This art form started with the Egyptians B.C. - also called Encaustic Art.
I had painted 3 small paintings in oil of indigenous birds and wasn't totally crazy about them- I found them a little boring. So I decided to throw caution to the wind and use beeswax! First I added small random blocks of scrapbook paper to the canvas, not covering the birds, but it did overlap here and there onto the birds.
I then covered the entire surface of the painted canvas with beeswax, then scratched the surface of the wax with a sharp piercing tool to create patterns as well as scratch over the outlines of the bird.
I then used Burnt Sienna oil paint and rubbed it over the surface, removing excess with a cloth. It settled beautifully into the scratches, enhancing the bird and the patterns, but giving an aged, almost fantasy-like look.
At art class yesterday, Johan said I should add some oil paint on top to give it depth- by lightening the background and making it more painterly. That has just finished it off perfectly! I want to finish off the remaining 2 bird paintings and perhaps take them to the house in Olifants.

On Monday 26/10/09...

Bad news- my car decided to pack up again yesterday!! I hate that car!! It seems the electric steering wheel lock is faulty so the car simply won't start. I'm waiting for BMW on call to send a tow truck out to fetch it. I feel like telling them to keep the darn thing!! Did I mention I hate the car? Well Leon says as my motorplan is up next year and as we've had nothing but trouble with the #%&***&^%$!!!*$!!! car, I can look at getting something new - so there's some good news after the bad!! This time I don't want a sedan- I want a small 4x4 - I'm tired of the low car. Good news now is I get to drive the Range Rover for a while!!! Yay!

BMW just phoned now while I was typing this to find out if I can get the car out of 'park' - but it's an Automatic so now goodness knows what time they'll get here as they need a technician to come out with the tow truck as the tech needs to first do something about getting the car to move first! What fun!

Oh well that's my 2 cents worth for Monday.

I re-discovered this amazing site again yesterday- I say "re-discovered" as I had loads of their wonderful handwriting fonts on my old desktop PC – and remembered yesterday that I haven’t downloaded them for my new laptop. So I popped in again and I was amazed at all the amazing new fonts plus they have the most awesome tips for personalizing your blog. So I definitely think I’m going to zshoosh up my blog too now. I just need to discover how to find more time in a day!!Check it out here: Kevin and Amanda.

Wednesday 27/10/09.....

Still now word on my car. No surprise as the repair shop at the BMW dealership is absolutely useless. I have never had any joy with them! So I guess I'll have to chase up on that today.

I'm off this morning to help my Dad look for fabric for their dining room chairs and for a little ottoman type storage thingy. Thye've had the dining suite sanded down and painted off-white. I think it'll make ahuge difference in the house as the house is very dark.

Mom & dad are off to Ian & Nikki for this weekend as it is Ian's birthday on Saturday (31 Oct). Lucky them to be able to get away! I am having withdrawals here as we haven't been to Olifants for so long and with school exams and other commitments, I guess it'll be December before we get there again.

Speaking of this weekend, I've finally got around to organising a Halloween party at home. We kind of miss living in Silver Lakes for the annual Trick or Treating! No-one does ot here as the houses are too far apart (& in my opinion the place has far too many uphills!!!).
so I sent out a cute invitation which I created with Gina Marie Huff's All Hallows' Eve digi kit (at Weeds and Wildflowers). What a cute kit- part of their new Sweet and Simple range.

I tried to add an image now of the invitation, but for some reason Blogger doesn't want to connect - so I'll try later.

Gotta get Shannon studying later for her exams as well as learn some of her words for her end-of-year singing concert. She is singing 5 songs. They're doing a "Cinemagic" theme this year so everything is done in the form of medleys in various movie categories. I think that'll be fun.

So that's me for today. Gotta get moving - sure Dad will be calling me shortly!

Vxx