OUR ROCK OF GIBRALTAR
My dear friend Laura is leaving Gibraltar and I wanted her to take back to her country a reminder of what she now considers to be her home too. A place where she and her family have made so many friends. My family and I are so privilleged to have met them and to be part of their circle of friends . I painted this picturesque view of the Rock in acrylics. Laura was over the moon when I gave it to her and I was beaming to say the least! So happy to have made such special friends and to have made them happy in return.
Inspirations
Though what I have always loved is drawing and painting, the tools to achieve this is not readily accesible to me. It is difficult to sit in the middle of the living room with an easel, palette, paints etc. when this room belongs to everyone in the family to enjoy. No spare room or extra space is available to me. No worries I like diversity and that is exactly why I don't regret not having gained the experience as a painter. Well just a little bit of regret, but if God meant me to paint in a big way, then he would have provided me with an extra room, with plenty of ligthing, just for me!
My Greeting cards are made with whatever bits and pieces come my way and that is my contribution to recycling for the planet. I do have a basis from which to start and in this last card I made I just had to have a teapot, cup and saucer, the rest just followed. I used air-dry clay and acrylic paints. I knew that I didn't want a 'flying' pot so I made a table (hardly visible) cut out from a red shoebox and a lovely scrap of polka dot material for a tablecloth hiding most of the cardboard. My mum, bless her, keeps loads of scrap material for me. The apron was an added bonus, for the person this card was meant for, is an avid cook and this was a way of saying that it was personally made for her (just love that personal touch). Oh by the way, the lovely pearls were from an old dress that definitely needed recycling. I love poetry but in this case I was concentrating more on making the card. Though the poem did require some work. I chose bits and pieces from a few free suggestions I found through the internet and then pieced them together. Knowing the person the card is meant for helps tremendously, if this is not the case, then asking a lot of questions about the receiver of the card, if you want to go into all this work, also helps.
I have a friend Najade, whose facebook link you will find at top called 'Naj Creations', has been making cards for some years now. I have been inspired by her work, by her personal touch.
Last January as I had to go into hospital for an op, I decided to buy a magazine to keep me entertained. I found the Craft Magazine and later the Papercraft Magazine, thank God! I loved them and was completely inspired to get cracking! Now I can't stop and I hope everyone who comes here will enjoy my Blog as much I have enjoyed making it.
Sweet Dreams Sara
This Garden Guardian is missing her wings and it's just that she looked lovely without the twigs. I made her special for my dear sister's birthday and will most probably hang on her kitchen. The watering can made out of clay and painted silver to look like a tin one, is personalised with her name carved on top. Happy Birthday Gina xxx
Dad's Elegant Christmas Table Display
This was made by my Dad so it's clear from whom I get my artistic flair . Although my sewing abilities must also stem from my mum's side.
The decorations were collected at one of our picnics to the nearby countryside in Spain at Pinar del Rey. Love it dad! xxx
Happy Birthday Mum and Dad
Their birthday's on the same day and it is next month. So they haven't seen it yet! I suppose I could have chosen another theme like their hobbies for example. But I really liked this idea. I used a milk top and card to make the hat which was them covered with material and decorated with bits and pieces I could find. The shirt made out of clay is a great idea because you can use a matching colour of paint. The fan was somthing I added later, I got the idea when I browsed through Papercraft magazine. I now wished I had waited and I wouldn't have stuck them so in line (they would have looked nicer if they had formed a trio instead)
The Seaside
When I did this small cross stitch design, I spent months looking for the exact frame and could not find it anywhere. The frame had to be square and I was already dreaming of a boxed frame where I could incorporate a lighthouse. Then when I was not looking, we had a family trip to Ikea just before Christmas and hooray! I found the perfect one. Following you can see the result which is now hanging with pride and joy on my little girls bedroom wall.
Tilly's Doll
I got a lovely quaint sewing machine for my birthday. I had already seen a pattern from the Craft Magazine and was ready to try out my new sewing machine. After my first attempt, my mum-in-law who loves rag dolls, asked me to make her one. I gave her this one and the first one I did I gave to my mum, both on mother's day.
Happy Birthday Tilly
I really enjoyed making the handbag and shoe. I found a mobile sticker with loads of lovely pink and clear diamonds which you can cut and stick. I found it at a large Chinese warehouse and was quite cheap and I still have loads of them left to use.
This card was especially made for my mum-in-law. She loves her shoes and bags! She was so pleased she asked me to do one for her sister (that's the teapot with cup and saucer)
Happy Birthday (Casino Card)
When I got down to doing this special card for my son, who is a croupier. I already knew how and what I would be incorporating. Though I never realised it would come out looking so effective with the tiny decoupage playing cards and the roulette!
St. Therese
I was requested to undertake this painting of St. Therese by the then parish priest of the church of St Theresa. I very much enjoyed carrying this out, although I felt I had a daunting task ahead of me when I first started I was more than pleasantly surprised to feel truly inspired, it was amazing to feel such love. I wish though, I had been given the true likeness of St. Therese and not a poster picture to copy from. I have added an authentic portrait taken of her. She died at 24 loving Jesus all her life.
Painting titled Mother's Love - April 1999
I was admiring some photographs taken from the Philippines when one of a mother holding her baby caught my eye and I kept going back to it. I was inspired to undertake this painting from that photograph. Although the painting has many alterations and doesn't look like the photograph itself, the similarities to the central figures of mother and child only alter in that the mother's hair is longer and I have lovingly placed a flower in her hair wanting to enhance her exotic beauty. As well as the shawl, which at first I hesitated to add but now I am glad I did as I loved that she would have something to enlight and show off the beauty of her motherhood.
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