Faces class results

Well I have been doing the Paulette Insall class, all about faces....talk about scary and out of my zone! What a blast though lol. It is okay sketching the face but then the scary bit.....painting. But first before the painting it is the mixing of the skin tones...wowza!!! anyway this is my canvas so far, more work required and I am hoping that with practice I will get better - so this is my 1st attempt at painting a face. I like the lips, don't ask me why I just do. The eyes,not happy with them but this piece will act as a guide so I can see if I can improve.
So I have shared the 1st piece of art I have done on holiday, let me know what you think. peace xxx

Catching up

Me on my birthday, Stuart bought me this dress cos he knows I love these colors

Take a look at these shoes aren't they just gorgeous, pity the nail varnish chipped on my big toe!!!

Jazz wanted his photo taken with mummy!

and China couldn't be left out...
Well so much has happened since my last post. I had my 47th Birthday; went out for a lovely Indian meal at the Calcutta Club in Polhill with Stuart, Jazz, China and Marcus and Debbie. Food was gorgeous and company great.
I received lovely pressies of Lorraine, Sam and Natalie - when I get back to England I will edit this post and put up pictures of my gifts and cards. Marcy from Paper Whimsy sent me a card as did Jo (again pictures will follow) I wanted to pack all my pressies and cards and take them to Spain with me but space would not allow it. THANK YOU to all of you for making my birthday special.
On the Monday after my birthday by door bell rang and it was the flower delivery girl with a beautiful plant and chocolates for me of my lovely son Dwain - that made my day!!!


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On Monday Jazz took his driving test and passed so now he is able to take himself off to wherever he fancies and I won't have so many taxi services to run lol.
Tuesday 22nd we left at 4 a.m. to drive to Spain.
Got to the Eurotunnel early so had to wait for train, arrived in France at 7.30 a.m. and hit the road for the long drive down
It normally takes us 17 hours door to door but this trip it took 30 hours, worried that we might not make it when we got to Valencia as the gear box wouldn't find 5th gear so we just took it nice and slow; the trailer on the back with the quad also contributed to the longer journey time....any way it doesn't matter cos at least we got here safely.
I have just been and picked the kids up, they have been out with mates, 1.30 in the morning here so I am going to go to bed - I will post about my 1st few days here tomorrow...take care everyone, hugs Dawn

Birds and bees...the real thing!

Some eye candy for you to look at. The birds are still packed into their home, not exactly a des res but mummy and daddy look after them well. They will be ready to fly from the nest soon - amazing how quick they grow!
Some flowers from Sam's bouquet, aren't they gorgeous...and who can spot the flower with the bee?

That's it for my blogging today, Thanks for dropping by...xxx

What have I been doing today?

Well apart from trying to decide what to take with me to Spain I decided I needed a little me time.... I made some Row Houses and some Jewellery pieces for my daughter and her friend.
China and her friends love these pendants so I decided to make China a new one, and she has nagged me to take one for her friend Jess (bet you can't work out which one belongs to Jess lol)

This 1st Row House has a PW image on it, grungeboard, musical peel offs and prima flowers. I also used my Rangers White Inkssential pen which I absolutely love.

This second image has an Artchix girl on it, grungeboard and a few embellishments.


The final 2 pics have the word Friends embossed with Cosmic shimmer powders, Inka images and tibetan charms as embellishments.
Now I really,really should get back to sorting and packing....what to take, what to leave - this is a total nightmare. What would you HAVE to take with you if you were going to be away for 6 weeks? Any help gratefully received xxxx

Birds are growing

 

Well the blackbird babies are nearly a week old now. Mummy and daddy are busy looking after their babies, back and forth to the nest. Amazing how 4 babies can fit in this little pot and then to have mummy sitting on them too....what a squeeze.
I shall show more pics as they grow....watch this space!


This 2nd picture was taken this evening, mummy is back sitting on the nest...can you see the little baby beak at the front of the pot? There are 3 other babies in here apart from this one, told you it was a tight fit.... mummy is really calm and doesn't mind her photo being taken, you could say she is a model bird...

Mermaid crosses the sea

 

You may recall if you visit my blog often that I was part of a Mermaid in a Box Swap over on Paper Whimsy. I am delighted to say that this is the gorgeous Mermaid I received -she is called LoraLee and she came to me from Paula Dion
Don't you just love her rinky-dinky bag and hat; look closely at the glass pebbles in the bottom of the shadow box, see too the seaweed made from fibres....she has been put together beautifully. THANK YOU PAULA!!!!

The World - Lin's RR ALtered Book theme

 

 

Here is the next book that I have worked on for the I.C.E. ALTERED BOOK GROUP.
This book belongs to Lin Collette and her theme was "The World" how we see it.
So mine spread is for the song Black and White....hope she likes it xxx

I am busy doing some Row Houses at the moment and working in a couple of decos, I will photograph and post pictures later.

Expectant mum

 

 

Thought I would share these delightful pictures with you...my friend Sam saw this bird nesting right outside her patio doors of her kitchen. The mum has laid her eggs here and is content to sit and incubate them with the family going about their daily rituals. She stayed there as I took these photos and I hope that I am around when the eggs hatch to take photos of the babies...
Happy 4th July to all my American friends.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON

This gorgeous man is my eldest son Dwain, today is his birthday and he is 26!!
Sadly Dwain and I have been estranged for over a year now but as a mum he is in my thoughts EVERY DAY.
Imagine my surprise and TOTAL JOY!!!! when I picked up the phone as it rang and it was his voice on the other end. I have walked around in a joyful stupor for most of the day I am so HAPPY that we are talking again. I do love him dearly, things have been tough but he is a fantastic man and has such a wonderful network of friends that he has done really well.
This post has to be my HAPPIEST post ever and I want to shout from the rooftops about my happiness...HAPPY BIRTHDAY DWAIN I LOVE YOU....

Football and all it's Magic

Boys in the team

Jazz gets his trophy with dad looking on...

So football has played a big part in my weekend.
On Friday it was the Croydon Juniors Presentation evening. Our boys collected their league winners trophys and in addition to that they received the "Team of the Year" award....fantastic.
Stuart received a totally wonderful surprise, he received the Manager's Manager of the Year award and was totally blown away by it....unbelievable.
So to all the boys, the manager and Marcus the coach CONGRATULATIONS
And then just when you think it can't get any better it does....Spain won the Euro 2008 Championships.
I am so amazed that a team I backed from the start did it with such style and wonderful football. Fantastico!!! Germany were shown how to play passing football and the BEST team throughout the whole tournament won....Yipee!!!!

CCSWAPS Yahoo Group - The Written Word

 

Over on CCSWAPS we had to make 9 for 10 ATC'S with the theme "The Written Word" Being a scaredy cat when it comes to stamping I jumped in and created these ATC's. I mad 5 of the blue theme and 5 of the Red theme all identical. I used Tim Holtz distress inks and then an Eiffel Tower stamp and the words come into the ATC's via the French dictionary pieces I tore and stuck on the background.
I used cosmic shimmer embossing powders on both sets of ATC's.
The red ones are embellished with prima flowers and the blue with ribbon and bling... Thanks for looking xxx

Paper Whimsy House

So the football has reached an hiatus, I have had a little time to create and decided today to try something new...
How much fun did I have? the most! Okay it was a fiddly job and it had a few trial and errors but I got there in the end, made this litte house for China to try and let her see that PW images are not scary! She sees the images and thinks of "The Others" they tend to freak her out. But, and I mean but...she loved it, even the images so we have a first!!!!
I used lots of different embellishments on this rusty keys, stamps, rub ons, flowers etc. A lot of the stuff was actually from my PW stash, they do other bits apart from images so I thought I would create with mainly their gorgeous stuff (for want of a better word!)

 

 

 

 

China's Prom

So the day of the prom arrives fake tan applied, nails done, hair done and then the magical moment, seeing my baby all grown up in her dress...I can't believe she is only 15 and looking so mature!

 

China was so giggly in the garden having photos taken with her bf Jess...love her in this it is so China...

 

China and her brother Jazz who turned up to witness his sister all done up; he actually didn't like the dress when it was on the hanger but he loved his little sister in it, thought she looked "hench"...

 

China and her gf's Jess, Bianca and Charlie...don't they all look so beautiful? And the picture below is of China and her beautiful friend Danielle.....

 

Paulette Insall 2nd Canvas

This was my second canvas, after all the layering this is my finished result. I confess that I feel proud that I have achieved an end result with these canvases, I learnt a lot and feel sure that I will use what I have learnt in future art.
I can't wait to do Paulette's next class which is a "Faces" class starting on the
30th June....watch this space lol.
Click on title for a link to Paulette's blog. Thanks for dropping by