Cardamom Ink

Exciting things are happening! Here's a sneak peek.......

Testing 123

Just a test

Typography Altered Booklet

I've started making myself cut up all the gorgeous Graphic 45 paper I've been hoarding- life is tooshort not to use it ! First project: Typography. I found this

Old booklet @  one of my fAvourite haunts here in Adelaide & it's the perfect size to play in without launching into a massive WIP (work in progress) that always stays a WIP!

I'm just starting on the cover & we'll see how far I get before the next interruption! 

Test on my workspace

New Website!!!

Finally, I have launched my new website, where I will have my blog, information about my CRAFT-ITT classes and a gallery of what I have made up for your perusal and very welcome comments!

Please visit here: www.belindaachatz.com  and redirect your reader/feed to this site from now on!!
Thankyou very much

2 Little Girlies & all things girly!

I made this last weekend, before the Flying Lessons e-course began. I had the tissue embossed with fleur-de-lys for a while, not knowing what I'd do with it. I then made a paper- casting type of backround by ruffling the layers, painting with pink & dry- brushed silver, added mica flakes, a few sequins here & there, some muslin (I think sometimes it's called cheesecloth?) some die cut butterflies & a black embroidered one I have had for ages. Quite like the delicate pink with the black. I am not normally a pink person. At. All. Bit I like dusty pink :)
The little girls with huge bows (!) are from an ephemera sheet of images by Collections Elements.
The whole thing is mounted on board
I think it needs something else but for now it is sitting on top of my vintage typewriter in the hallway!

A few of my recent things.......

Include playing around with alcohol inks & acetate - love these colours with the gold mixative added
A small collage (for want of a better word) trying to focus on 2 or 3 colours only. I was inspired here by the beautiful work of Becky Shander, Jenny Doh, et al who have ltd color palettes & a gorgeous simple style. I find this hard!!!
And lastly, a layout using October Afternoon's gorgeous Woodland Park papers amongst other things such as tags, book text, stenciled images (I have a thing 4 peacocks ) & using distress reinkers as sprays thru' a mini- mister: a new thing for me & a whole new palette of spraycolours!
Yay!! All good.

Apologies if the photos/ post is difficult tofollow as it's the 1 st time I've used blogger 4 iPhone: If it's ok, it is going to be a huge timesaver for me!! - & it will mean more frequent blogging for sure x

A very big welcome to any visitors from Flying Lessonsxx

Add caption

Brainstorming about goals, wildest dreams

Jumping in without a parachute:

Feel part of a connected face-to- face community to share/work on our projects with

Have my work published in Somerset magazines

Work part-time wholly on my art, possibly in a studio once kids r older

Explore the painting process

Align my home with my creative interests

Facilitate creative groups with other orgs eg Sophia, community groups eg Mitcham

Work out how the helI I can focus &/ or
develop the myriad of interests I have-- maybe combine everything onto 1 project?

Share with other creatives/ people I admire eg Stephanie Dowrick, my mum & her poetry

Accumulate a body of work for display/exhibit at a quirky cafe or similar

Earn a regular stream of income: enough to buy the art materials & tools I want

Re-explore some of the themes I used to take a great interest in : comparative mythology & work of Joseph Campbell, study artists in more detail: Frida Kahlo , Australian women painters, current textile artists

Draw on my vast travel experiences
I had as a young child - overseas & within Australia: revisit those & bring some of that symbolism into my work

Go on an art retreat in a beautiful place.

Ruminate over things less: i go to sleep everynight thinking about a name for my business, like it's the most important thing ever: as blaacraft sounds blah! Blaa= my initials. Maybe the ruminating is telling me something?!

Take my dreams seriously (ie night ones) I have always dreamed on colours & often dream in French as well as English, I have repetitive dreams sometimes the context, sometimes the people, sometimes both. I remember some of these from when I was quite young.

That's it 4 now....lunch is calling !

Flying Lessons!

I am so very excited that Kelly-Rae Roberts' course "Flying Lessons" has begun. WE have all been busy getting to know each other and chatting away on Facebook, but I am going to make myself think through the themes for week 1: Inspiration, PAssion, Commitment & Goals - yep - scary no-beating-around-the-bush serious stuff......
but before any of that I am stoked that there are 2 other people from South Aust participating, and others from as far spread as the US, CAnada, Great Britain, France, Switzerland and I am pretty sure also from Indonesia, Burma (!)

Some common themes I can relate to have emerged already from reading & joining in the conversation with other flyers:

FOCUS: - I love exploring new techniques and crafts - I have scrapbooked, made cards, mixed media, felting both wet & needle felting, jewellery making and a looong time ago crosstitch/sewing. I feel like I have become a Jack of all trades & a master of none.
I liken it to almost an ADD of creativity! I can never work on something long enough to really explore that particular method/medium, not because of boredom or frustration, but because something else catches my eye & my heart & I just have to have a go at it!
along with that comes FINISHING......to get to a point where I can use so many of my trial & error artwork & make it a finished product....

Other stuff I need to focus on for my goals & reasons I'm doing this course with prompts from Kelly-Rae below:
not over-thinking things - when I am creating, like many others I believe, I like my work the best when I have just gone ahead and put stuff on a page without thinking too much. The same can also apply about my critic
al voice - not giving it much of a say and quietening the voice that saya' you can't do that, it's not real work, it's'just that craft thing', you're not as good as.......blah blah...
even it can be appplied in terms of organising - I began feeding everypone's blogs into my reader when the roll call opened (took ages) & then there was a list on the fb group - easy!!!

Back soon with some photos of recent stuff i've made whilst my goals are brewing n my brain...

CSI # 34 - 2 in a row!!

Here is my layout for this weeks challenge over at CSI:Colour, Stories, Inspiration
"Typical You"

Very pastel tones were the order for the week - I used some distress inks sprayed from mini misters , letting them dribble  down over the stencilled gesso. The stencils were a small Prima clock and the leftovers from chipboard circles - actually the birdies used in the layout from SEI - very old stash!! The patterned papers were from October Afternoon Cakewalk, plus some Crate paper, some ruffled crepe paper, journalling strips layered over a thick wide ribbon - and a dash of stickes or 2....or 3. I also used a graphite pencil to outline some of the dimensional elements . Old Maya Rd clock plastic ribbon

and some closeups.....















Thanks for looking!

3rd child, 2nd princess!

An A4 layout that I made for the afterschool classes I run on Tuesdays. This came together really quickly - I used a paint dabber (Juniper) for the background and used the TIm Holtz technique 'shattered stain' to colour the 3 chipboard piece. The papers are the gorgeous 'Cakewalk' line from October Afternoon.The soft soft colours appeal to my girly pretty shabby chic side ;)

The Color Room - #124 - a little late!

Better late than never I say.....here is my layout I made for the Colour Room challenge, using, vanilla, a sage green, pale blue & a copper brown.
I made this with scraps of paper I had on hand/on my messy scrap surface aka kitchen bench!! Also used Tim Holt masks with some coffee & Patina glimmer mist, a grungeboard arrow covered partly in twine and glimmer glam, and some embossed, inked fabric scraps.

Thanks for looking!

CSI Challenge # 33

 I have only recently discovered this scrapbook challenge site and have been intrigued  - go here to have a look!csi: colorstoriesinspiration
A friend that I recently met irl, Belinda Spencer plays along and is currently a 'Special Investigator' throughout August  - her work is gorgeous!!

I finally got around to making a quick layout, for what its worth, for the current challenge over there, #33. It is an A4 layout, which I quite enjoy making when I don't have a lot of time!

The criteria for the challenge were to: : 
1. use the colours Maritime Red, Nautical Gray, Salty Sand , Beacon Blue, Deep Blue Sea - based on a photo of a lighthouse/beach scene
I used Distress inks over white cardstock, splattered with water, & used white crayon as a resist for the frame & title. The colours also featured in this oldy-but-a-goody Basic Grey 'Boxer' paper featured in the flags/bunting

For the 'evidence' I chose to use the liquid medium (water!!); glitter/sand-like - distress stickles;  triangles  - the flags/pennants; and nautical elements - well I used a sailors knot made from thick twine

For the 'testimony' I used journalling strips

Alexander looks so little here!!

Apologies for the awful photos - on a rainy overcast day the only way I could not use a flash was to stick them on a piece of shed in our yard which distorted the shape of the layout!
Thanks for looking.

I look forward to the next challenge over at CSI at the end of the week!

Colouring with Alcohol Inks

I was looking through the new-ish Tim Holtz book "Compendium of Curiousities II" a few weeks ago and was intrigued with his new palette that he uses to store the alcohol inks. I went to his website and saw a great video using the alcohol ink pen filled with blending solution to 'colour-in' stamped images with alcohol inks on vellum.

I am not much of a colouring-in stamper in the style of the Magnolia cutesy cutesy stamps - anything cutesy is NOT my style....just sayin...
but this style did look like fun......and thus I used a new B-Line Designs stamp and a seahorse stamp (?manufacturer) and made these cards after colouring in the images!

Bit of vintage - the vellum is mounted on some very old German biblical script I found  in one of my fave antique shops

I love the watery effect on the background of the vellum I also used some muslin/cheesecloth and stamped the seahorse on my kraft cardstock

I will definitely be usaing this teechnique because I liked the ethereal effect of the vellum & alcohol inks  

Layout for Handmade by Suzanne sketch challenge

A layout I created last week for the August sketch challenge over at Handmade by Suzanne. I used Simple Stories "Summer Fresh" papers which I love - the colours, the variety of paterns - many different uses for these. It came together very quickly as I was cooking dinner.....lol....one of the few benenfits of having my scrapping stuff spread over one of my kitchen benches!

These photos seem like from so long ago back when I ad a bubba before she turned into a monster toddler - equal parts delightful & horrid well - only her squealing- & yes she does have a curl in the middle of her forehead........

Love you Maddy mooxxx

Freebie!!!! Butterfly Tags Canvas

Go here to get some gorgeous eye-candy for free!!! Handcrafted Inspiration magazine, published by one of my fave companies has released this & it is chock full of inspiration! I LOVE these publications, and given that most of these normally cost between $14 & $25, I LOVe the fact it is FREE! 

I also love the fact that a great Aussie artist, Louise Nelson has some work featured on pages 136.

I was also inspired to create some stencilled, messy tags similar to those of Dina Wakley, found on page 170.

work in progress via instagram

the finished tags mounted on a drippy inky canvas. I really enjoyed playing with gesso as a background & love the different effects that you get when you add ink  & stencils- the inks I used here were Adirondack colour wash in Stream (my all-time FAVE Adirondack colour!) and the Dylusions Ink spray in 'Cut Grass' a vibrant spring fresh green. For the background I also used Glimmer Mist in Vanilla & Sunflower. I think it is a little too brown & flat for my liking....I used my favourite Crafters Workshop stencils in 6" size - peacock feathers & lotus flower.

closeup showing my latest 'cheat' at machine stitching. I had some webbing type ribbon which I decided to cut into tiny strips and thought it kinda looked like messy stitching - but much quicker!

Kelly-Rae Roberts' "Flying Lessons" e-course!!!

I am super-duper excited to have taken the plunge & invested in this e- course by one of the most inpirational artists I have ever followed. This is the last time Kelly-Rae Roberts will be providing this in e-course format & from what I have heard, it is amazingly motivational, inspirational & completely worth doing, not only for the content and guts of what she shares but also for the community of participants that develops over the course.
And we can all do with a bit of community, no? Especially us like-minded creatives who are amongst the nay-sayers and those who don't 'get'it' or who do get it but who 'don't have the time '  - hello - we all have the same 24 hours as everyone else!

To find out more about the course, go here

And if you don't know about Kelly-Rae, go & visit her beautiful site here: www.kellyraeroberts.com

Speaking of her art, I stumbled upon a delightful altered globe of hers in a local papershop at Malvern: I have seen she has licensed her art for some gorgeous looking homewares and jewellery by Demdaco (USA), but was not aware that these would be available in Oz - let alone lil' ol' Adelaide.
Unfortunately, I was not so delighted by the price which I think was a result of the location of the papershop.

I would love to know if anyone else local (well, Australian) has seen her stuff for sale........

Dragonfly Fabric Art & a sort-of Sunset!

For a long long time, I have been interested in fabric art/collage/mixed media using fabric. But it has been one of the few crafts I have procrastinted about actually doing - -having a go. I don't really know why. Maybe because I do NOT see myself as a quilter or a sewer, even though I love art quilts and sewn pieces. Maybe because my great-aunt Phoebe's trusty Bernina is not in an entirely accessible go-to place........

I am hoping to conquer this and be completely inspired by some books I have coming in the mail, including this one, Fabric Art Collage, reviewed recently at Julie Balzer's blog. It is without doubt that I will be inspired, but I will make a commitment to playing & having fun in the name of fabric & feeling brave enough to share here!

Here is a glimpse of one of my new-to-me techniques for using watercolour/dye-based ink and perfect pearls & stamping. Thanks to Jennifer McGuire for the original tutorial on her blog here
Watercolours would have to be one of my bring- me-instant-joy techniques. I LOVE that you can never predict what will happen with them - for me they are magic.
Combining them with embossed stamping to have great texture & it is bliss - I could make soooo many cards this way.

What about you - do you like playing with watercolours........or do you include fabric in your creations often?

More birthday! "Hip way hip way"

yup, she has trul got the whole idea of birthdays - it is amazing to see the development in the year between 12 months and today. Without a sleep, full of cheesecake 'cake', 'hip way' can be heard all over the house, and she insisted on putting her candles in her spag bol for dinner!
A few shots from my phone today - Dean took more but cant load them up at the moment:

and here is the card I made for her!

and a close-up showing the glittery stars & dyed seam binding.
I used the Jenni Bowlin silhouette stamp embossed on vellum, and some of the gorgeous Cakewalk October Afternoon papers on embossed Kraftcore cardstock.


Thanks for looking!

My Curly Girl turns 2!

and believes it is her right to be the cheekiest, adorable, sweetest caring bundle of energy in the family - especially when her older brother & sister have been bedridden all weekend with high temps , aches & pains! Oh well, it won't be a huge celebration....maybe later. As long as she gets cake, candles & a present or 2 I think she'll be happy.....hehe

Madeleine aka the boss or boomer -- big thinks come in smallish packages! Look out world...

More photos to come soon!

Artful Flight

busy times during school holidays....& these ones have been quite enjoyable despite the wintry weather.
Firstly, I must recap the fabulous opportunity I had at the end of June to attend one of Tim Holtz's classes presented by Stamp It, Melbourne. Unfortunately, I was only there for less than 24 hours (!) but even that time was bliss.....kid-free....& a chance to indulge my passion.
Here are some photos......

the kit before we started, including a Ranger apron (yay) to replace my yucky lurid purple one

Mr Holtz in action - charming, funny and a portable encyclopaedia of crafty tips & techniques! - sorry about the poor photo

the project - not quite complete

the obligatory photo-with-Tim after the class

the project complete on grungy shed door - it was really really fun to make - not completely my style, but making it was a fab way to learn how to use the bits & bobs and techniques & apply them to my own projects

July School Holiday Workshops

Belinda  will be running two  2- hour morning workshops in the first week of the school holidays for 8-11 year olds who are  interested in scrapbooking &/or card-making and will include collage/mixed-media techniques for the more adventurous ! 

All materials will be provided .

Other projects suitable for  workshops, birthday parties and after-school classes will be on display. Papercraft kits & handcrafted cards will also be available for  sale.

Seahorse Canvas:  3/7/12 & 5/7/12**

Make this gorgeous seahorse canvas & enjoy trying  out mixed media techniques. Techniques include the use of : texture paste, stencils, watercolour, dry embossing, & beading/wire-work.  **Please note: this project will require attendance at  both workshop sessions.

Scrapbook Page: 5/7/12

Whether you are new to the wonderful world of scrapbooking or you have made a few pages before, come and create a page all about you!!! You will make a 12” x12” scrapbook page, similar to that shown below, using high quality acid-free  cardstock, patterned papers and embellishments., with plenty of room to write your story!

Please note: you will need to bring one  6x4 photo of yourself  (landscape or portrait acceptable)

Greeting Card/s: 3/7 & 5/7/12

There will be examples of handcrafted greeting cards and other simple papercraft items that can be made  for those who finish the main projects eg, paper-piecing, origami, tags, cards.

IMPORTANT: Places for these workshops are limited. In order to guarantee a place, payment needs to be received prior to the workshop. Acceptable payment methods are cash or bank deposit. In the event of illness, an alternative arrangement can be made made directly with Belinda, eg—a place at a future holiday workshop. 

Glorious Autumn Morning!

but ffrreezing! I love this time in late autumn when the full splendour of the trees are apparent down nearly every  street.
A few instagram shots of our  garden:)

oh......and a photo of our curly-haired youngest fan of autumn leaves.........

gorgeous girl of 9 who has an attitude of a 15 year old....sometimes......(& here, looks about 15!)

And Mr Football himself - his one great passion.....with his mouthguard in situ.....