The Three Muses - Nature's Creatures

Ah! Love among the fishies.  The fish were painted by me digitally using ArtRage software (metallic painting).  I use a mouse to paint and this one took me a whole morning to complete.  There are no short cuts in digital painting!  The background, plants and bubbles are by Lorie Davison of Scrapbookgraphics.  I copied templates (ink line drawings of fish) from a colouring book.

Take a Word #11 - Beauty

Hold on to your hats everyone.  I actually altered the dancer without resorting to digital.  I chose two black and white images from e-Vint collage sheets, taking the head from one  and the body from another.  I used Prima Colors, Copic pens and a Uniball white pen.  The Prima Colors and Copic pens don't cover darker shades so if anyone has advice on what to use  I would be grateful for it. 

Background and letters from Tangie Baxter at SBG.

Sunday Postcard Art - Hobbies and Pastimes

A body suit is worn at all times.

This is a true story and anyone who knows me knows that I don't tell fibs!

This is a difficult tale to tell.  For many years MY FAVOURITE HOBBY WAS PART TIME MODELLING, mainly for magazines.  I was lucky to find a niche in the "mature woman" market and was often called on to pose for covers and catalogues.  This is one of my best covers, circa 1984.  Fortunately, the newly established Photoshop software allowed 5 ft nothing, stocky, dark haired women to aspire to be slender, tall, blonde  sirens!

I am now waiting for a niche in the "more mature woman" market for seniors.   Hopefully I will be able to take up my hobby again although if it takes much longer I will be waiting for a niche in the "Ancient Treasures" category.

The image is a Flickr-free-to-use from Mrs Inman.  (Coloured from black and white).  The background and overlay is by Lauren Bavin.

The Three Muses Challenge - OLD FASHIONED

I found this great photo in an e-Vint collage sheet.  To me it appears that the gals are looking for insects in their under garments and a story formed from there.  The newspaper clipping has a headline "Defiant students protest and stir up a political ant nest" (hence the ants).
I have altered the photo somewhat by adding colour.  Two papers were used in the background - one from Maya and one from Berna Datema, both of Scrapbookgraphics.

Take a Word Challenge #10 - Zetti

I decided to try a Zetti flavoured piece with a mail art theme.  The poor young lady seems to have been waiting for a very long time for her mail to arrive.
The face (altered) is from Art-e-zine.  The cat is by Irene Alexeeva.  The lady is made from paper cutouts and some painting.  The outer frame is by Lorie Davison.

Sunday Postcard - Celestial

  Apologies to Mary Poppins who obviously had much better fashion sense.

The face is a Suzee Que Flickr-free-to-use image.  The rest painted by me.

Theme Thursday - Patterns

Thanks to Kelly for a great challenge.  I made this background some time ago when I obviously had nothing better to do.  It is just a series of semi-transparent coloured shapes overlapping each other.  The humming bird digital stamp is by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals.

The Three Muses Challenge - Books

Thanks to Bev for a great challenge.  The reader is an image from my vast stash.  I have had her on file for many moons and I am afraid I don't know from whence it came.  Other scrumptious bits and pieces are from Lorie Davison at Scrapbookgraphics.

Take a Word #9 - Music

The quote for this picture is by Thomas Carlyle.  The background is by Lauren Bavin (with added brushes) and the angel is by me (using image from Flickr-free-to-use and wings by Irene Alexeeva).

The Three Muses - Tidings of Comfort and Joy

It's difficult for the average Aussie to get his or her head around being all rugged up against the cold at this time of year so forgive me for throwing in a peek at what people are wearing down here in the southern hemisphere.  Santa was painted by me.  Credits for bits and pieces in the first picture go to Gypsy at Scrapbookgraphics.

Here is my Christmas story:

A Christmas Caper or “Seasonal Secrets”


This is a true story. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Christmas for my family means a lot of undercover operations, cloak and dagger work, great secrecy and subterfuge, much feverish plotting and even meddling with the calendar. It is dangerous but exhilarating. You may ask me WHY? Well, at least two members of my family fall into the bah humbug category at Christmas. They cast a gloomy spell and a pall over our celebrations. One who shall be called  Ebenezer T. Stooge has no excuse other than he is a surly piece of work or, as we Australians might say, a miserable git. The other has a bipolarized brain which leads to bizarre behaviour and streams of less than acceptable language in front of the children. The solution? We celebrate Christmas Day at lunchtime on Christmas Eve. We prepare the feast in secret. We organize ourselves with military precision. We invent alibis. We congregate at a neutral venue, hoping that there will be no unpleasant surprises. So far, so good. At last we can relax and have a great time. We open our gifts and enjoy watching the children open theirs. We eat our Christmas feast. On Christmas Day we have our happy memories of the day before. Hopefully, the unwelcome would-be guests are so self-absorbed they haven’t even noticed that we managed to have a good time in spite of them and practically under their noses.

Take a Word #8 - Celebrate

Let's hope the celebrations cheer her up a little bit!!  The face is from an ACF freebie of long ago (much altered).  I used a Lisa's altered art collage image for the body which has been overpainted by me.  Other bits and pieces (crown, wings, Zetti swirls and background) by Irene Alexeeva at Scraporchard.

The Three Muses - Odd Couples

All my own work except for Googled vegetables.  Painted digitally in ArtRage software.

Take a Word #7 - Childhood

The two little girls are from Flickr-free-to-use images (coloured and altered).  Digital stamp is by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals.

Theme Thursday - Wings

Face (altered) from Suzee Que at Flickr.  Cat (also altered) by Irene Alexeeva.  The rest by me.

The Three Muses Challenge - Flowers

A Christmas card made from bits and pieces.  The image is from Wikimedia Commons (altered), the wings were Googled, flowers and background by Lorie Davison at Scrapbookgraphics.

Take a Word Challenge #6 - MAIL

Decorating envelopes is great fun.  Why not surprise a friend by sending a message of cheer in an interesting/whimsical/funny/beautiful envelope?  Mine measures 4 x 6. 

The image used is a Flickr freebie.  Patchy background from bits and pieces, mainly from Createwing Designs.  Stamp Googled.

The Three Muses Challenge - The World of Movies

I couldn't go past Charlie Chaplin whose genius helped open a world of movies to generations of fans.  The quote is by Charlie Chaplin, the image was Googled, coloured and altered, the background and old film strip is by Irene Alexeeva and the ticket, film reel and camera are by Kubivet (freebies).

Take a Word #5 - Home

Here's my picture for this week's word HOME.  The lady is from Art-e-zine, the backgrounds, books and inks by Lorie Davison at Scrapbookgraphics and overlays by Berna Datema at SBG and Vera Lim.

Three Muses Challenge - Shoes

Sometimes I use images from my family albums in my artwork.  The person who has featured most is my Uncle(by marriage) Paul.  He looks so arrogant and self-satisfied that he needs to be taken down a peg or two.  (The couple on the left are my parents, the bride is my aunt and my (real) uncle is to the right).
I hope BOOTS qualify as SHOES.  They were Googled as was the skyscape.  The balloons were painted in artrage, the rope comes from one of my software programs and the hat and bow tie are by Robyn England.

Take a Word #4 - MEN!

First of all, apologies to all those men who are not full of hot air.  We have a saying in Australia, when talking about a man who is arrogant and who has too much to say, that "he is full of hot air".  This provided a seed for my fertile mind and, all of a sudden, I had thought of the balloon approach.
Background by Createwing Designs.  Two larger males are Terri Kahrs freebies, altered and re-dressed.  The image on the right is a Flickr free-to-use (head only).  Balloons were made in one of my software programs.