last challenges for "Days of Christmas"

I wish I had more time to devote to my Digital Whisper "Days of Christmas challenge" I totally ran out of time! Thoroughly enjoyed it tho and hopefully this means I'll be more inclined to DO some challenges from now on. Hope everyone has had a wonderful relaxing Christmas!

I know it's been ages

I vow to be a better blogger honest!

Digital Whisper has a 12 Days of Christmas Challenge happening and thus far we're up to the 5th day.

In each challenge we are given an image and some direction of some method or technique to be included. Check out Digital Whisper and see if it's something you'd like to participate in.

I've completed the 5 so far and they are following

Will add more as I complete the tasks!

Soartfull Challenge for the week - Paris!

I so love the challenges each week at Soartful Challenge and this weeks theme was much current LOVE of Paris! I'm in love with all that is French Provincial and I think you can see that in my entry!

Woohoo I Completed a Challenge!

So I've been off to have my operation, no fun and will spare you the gory details. All went well and after a few days in hospital am now home recuperating. Thankfully this has given me every opportunity to get stuck into some challenges and hopefully finish off my digital scrap packs which I have deliberated over for months.

So here is my first "back into it" challenge for Soartful Challenges with the theme of goddess!

And again thankyou to all you sweet people who sent me wishes on my recovery!

Inspiration Avenue Challenge

To encourage me to think of anything BUT surgery next week, I participated in a challenge! For Inspiration Avenue I completed this weeks challenge around my favourite beverage of coffee!

ergh!

I'm  here to apologise again LOL - I've been completely sick irritable and listless for weeks and not even remotely in the mood for creative pursuits. Utterly neglected my blog, my art and my followers - hopefully that will all change soon as I am  off next week to hospital to have my gall bladder removed.

I shouldn't com,plain too much, it first started giving me grief in about 1995 so I've managed to prolong the inevitable for 15 years! So all going well, a few days of  rest and recuperation and then back into some creativeness. Thanks for following and be back to my best soon, promise! xo

So Finally

I get around to creating a challenge entry!

Ok this one is for a challenge so dear to me ( mostly because I won a couple earlier in the year and I can be SO competitive!)

For Mind Wide Open this month the theme is Bliss!

Where have I been!?

I SO MUCH needed a break - time off to relax, reflect and do some arty stuff.

Decided to have some time off work, weeks.. heaps of time to myself.

A DAY after I begin my leave I rupture a disc in my back. ahhh ya hafta laugh!   So I've been recuperating and not spending much time at the puter. The wanting that I had to be creative has been very frustrating but I finally feel ok enough this week to get back into it. So much am I OK I went and bought myself an arty present comprising a new Canon SLR camera which I am itching to use!

So watch this space, keep me on your bookmarked blogs list and I will be back to my regular updates in the next few days!

Something Completely Different challenge - butterflies

I realised doing this challenge that I really have way too many butterfliy images to choose from!

So this week at Something Completely Different we had a theme of "butterfly" and direction for a twinchie. I'm assuming a twinchie is 2x2 inches? LOL so well I do all mine in 12x12.. so just  imagine it shrunk to a 2x2 ok!

Soartful Challenge - fragrance

The challenge this week from Soartful Challenges was the word fragrance, along with the perfume bottle below, must admit to not feeling very inspried by the theme - I'm not a very girly girl maybe thats why!

Inspiration Avenue Challenge

A very unique theme this week at Inspiration Avenue - Architecture! I quite like this pic - I need to now come up with a way to use it!

Mind Wide Open

One of my favourite challenges each month is now up running and ready for voting. Mind wide Open and the theme for this  month was Courage - here's my entry.

Blog Giveaway

Well it's my own fault, my week got busy and I really didn't do very much to promote my giveaway, lesson learned. On the plus side though, I decided that both the lovely people who left comments on my giveaway blog can have the prize.

Kimmy and Galit - I am giving you both a personalised custom collage. All I ask each of you to do is email me here supply me with a couple of pics, some words, colour preferences - and I will do a FREE custom digital collage for you both.
kate xox

Blog Prize Giveaway

In celebration of my return to Etsy I have decided to have a blog giveaway!

Nothing complicated - all I ask you to do is check out the Etsy link above to my shop, leave a comment / critique / suggestion with this blog post and go into the random number generator draw to win a custom collage valued at $39.00!

Winner drawn Monday 10th May 2010 and once announced all you need to do is supply me with a couple of pics, some words, colour preferences - and I will do a FREE custom digital collage for you.

Sharing the love

Now I know I'm personally relatively new to Blogging but I have been an avid follower, bookmarker and devourer of many fantastic blogs for quite a while, and this morning it dawned on me (as I was doing my usual morning look through my fave blogs) that I should really share some with you.

The thought being that nearly all of these fave blogs of mine, I have found through somebody elses recommendation or link on another blog.

The Feathered Nest - Awesome home decor ideas and inspriation, a regular blogger - always something new and interesting!

Blooming Ideas - some fabulous craft and decor ideas - always has superb links to other blogs.

Creative Home Expressions - LOTS of thrifty decor ideas, beautifully done.

Just Something I Made - The ultimate decor/craft/art/insprational blog - I don't know HOW she crams as much creative work into her week as she does. Totally a MUST BOOKMARK!

Trash2Treasure - I want everything in every picture on this blog. Great if you want some motivation to go paint something!

Soartful Challenges

Soartful Challenges had a pretty broad theme to this weeks challenge of Bouquet. Luckily I have a gazillion flowery bouquet-ish images and came up with this piece. I am in love with this colour combination and the frame will probably get used again like this.

Something Completely Different

Appears this is the last letter challenge for "Something Completely Different" X is it and I went with kisses!

Custom Collage - just what is it?

Well I'm glad you asked! I've begun work on doing some custom collages which have so far been thrilling to do and my clients have been very happy with the end results. As a very visual way of showing just what can be done, here are two I have worked on over the last few days.

This gorgeous little man above (oh yeah and his Mum and Dad) is the newest addition to my family and is my adorable second cousin, Harrison. His Grandma has become totally enamoured with this little boy and wanted something a bit different to show of his adorable-ness! (I'm almost sure this collage will be a screensaver, wall poster, t-shirt print, scrapbook cover.. you get the idea!) Very happy with the look of this and think the colours go really nicely with the wedding family image.

If you are interested in a custom digital collage, please email me or feel free to visit my Etsy store.

Theme Thursday - Weekly Challenge

Now this challenge at Theme Thursday was great - not done a Black & white challenge before and have had a couple of monotone items I thought perfect, for this week.

Collage Obsession - Weekly Challenge

As usual the girls at Collage Obsession came up with an interesting image for this weeks challenge.

that being said, it didn't really inspire me at ALL!!! LOL but... after beginning I am very pleased with the finished submission - as usual very graphic design-y looking but I like it. looking forward to next weeks challenge!

Custom Collages on Etsy

So I've started up my Etsy shop again, with some teeny teeny steps at offering my collage and graphic design work to the masses!

I've got a few projects in the works for custom digital collages, and for those new to the idea - I ask my clients to supply me with photographs, wording if you would like it included, colour preferences and theme preferences. This allows me to produce digital artworks that are utterly personal and individual.

The 300 dpi pieces can be printed and framed for your own use, gifted for special occasions, printed out as features for your scrapbooks, re-sized and used on Invitations or Thankyou cards. Take along to the local print shop and have the image printed onto a T-shirt or coffee mug!

The ones I have done so far, using family photos old and new, I have printed out and gifted as individual artworks, made into birthday cards, printed out and put into my scrapbooks.

An old image from 1947 of my Mother, her own Mother and Father and her Brother. Retouched, recoloured the image and wanted to give it an Australian feel, and feature the year in which the pic was taken. From a tiny cruddy photo that really was showing its age, I've salvaged it and given my Mum a gift!

My favourite colour, a seaside theme and a cute little girl combined to help bring this digital collage here together. I keep thinking this would make a really cute style of invitation!

A bit of retouching and recolouring and a flat old Black and white image comes to life!

An image doesn't have to be perfect for me to make it into a great collage. Spots and damage can be fixed and touched up, images can be recoloured, backgrounds can be removed!

Ah it's good to be back

So i finally got around to getting back onto Etsy. There's not a lot there and I suppose it's a literal "dipping my toe in the water" but since I started this blog and began doing these digital collages I've been kinda amazed at how well they've been received! So I'm hoping I can get some custom collage work through Etsy.

Click the link here and feedback welcome!

Art Creations Friday - weekly challenge

Art Creations Friday who always seem to come up with very pretty images for their challenges gave us a gorgeous little girl as our challenge - and I gave her an angelic beachy look!

Something Completely Different - Weekly Challenge

Provided with the letter "H" at Something Completely Different, I pondered, and came up with a tribute to one of my fave actresses Audrey Hepburn. A Timeless Beauty!

Freebie background image

Well I thought it time to give you all another Freebie background image! Made by me and available for free!

In jpeg format and you can resize to suit your needs.

Simply left click on the image to open in its own window, right click and "save as" directly to your computer.

My freebie images are for personal use only, you may use them in your art, collage, card making, jewellery making - you may not sell them or add them to any collage sheets for sale.

If you do click I would love a link to your work or blog!

Inspiration Avenue - Weekly Challenge

Sometimes, I can look at a chellenge and look some more and just think - I have nothing for this. No inspiration, thoughts or ideas. I looked at the Inspiration Avenue Challenge this week, with the topic of "Bloom" and instantly knew what I was doing for it.

May you all "Bloom and Shine"

Art Creations Friday - challenge

So this week at Art Creations Friday our pic was a very pretty veiled young girl and I came up with this piece. I thought she looked quite "Senorita-ish"!

Soartful Challenges - Shy Beauty

This weeks challenge at Soartful Challenges was to use the following image, and the theme of "Shy Beauty"

and my submission came up like this, did I mention that I love purple!

Brag Monday

Woohoooo, I'm featured this week at Graphics Fairy for Brag Monday!

I was very happy with the outcome of my B is for Bicycle collage, using primarily a great freebie bike from Karen at Graphics Fairy. If you do digital collage, scrapbooking, craft, art, sewing, cardmaking, interior stuff, oh lets FACE IT anything crafty you must stop by her blog. I have Graphics Fairy bookmarked and visit every day of the week.

Mind Wide Open Challenge - winner announced

Ah the months are zipping by and this months Mind Wide Open challenge has been run and won!

My cutesy contribution managed a runner-up prize!

Congrats must go to Pam who won, her entry is fab, please check out Gails blog and see some of the great submissions!

Collage Obsession - Beach Challenge

Now these girls at Collage Obsession always come up with great pics and fun themes, this week it's "Beach"

I had a lot of fun with this and am very happy with the outcome of the colour combo!

Inspiration Avenue's Latest Challenge - Metamorphosis

Well I actually didn't get around to participating in this challenge, but loved the theme and the results here are awesome. My favourite is the cloche by Peggy's Paperwhimsy (at the top).

Over the coming weeks I plan to do some blogging about cloche's and show you the one I've done, if I can actually manage to photograph it properly!

Join in one of their weekly challenges here

Theme Thursday - Hats or Crowns Challenge

Now I'm not a very girly girl so sometimes find the images conjured in my mind of what these challenges are about well.. sometimes i really do have to sit and have an incredibly long think about how I am going to put a collage together and this weeks Theme Thursday challenge was no exception.

With the theme of "Hats or Crowns" I came up with this. I adore this image and have been wanting to use her for ages.

Gothic Arches Challenge

With Easter a distant memory I thought the "egg" Challnge this week at Gothic Arches was kinda odd, but I guess that Spring is anew in the Northern Hemisphere and the Egg challenge is justified!

My contribution to the egg challenge is below, and as usual I can't help myself but make my arches into tags.. I am going to try much harder for the next challenge to not be so predictable, maybe even use a different arch shape. i just SO ran out of time to think too much about any of my creations this week!

Something Completely Different Blog Challenge

As soon as I saw the challenge I knew exactly what elements I was going to use... Does anyone else find themselves mentally doing collages while they're driving or doing the washing???? Anyway this weeks theme was the letter D - I have been stinging to use a dragonfly in one of my pieces and well... it begins with "D"!!

Something Completely Different - visit and see all the entries for this week.

Soartful Challenges - Bamboo

I looked at this challenge a few days ago at Soartful Challenges I downloaded the image and looked at it, and to be honest - felt nothing...then I started playing around with the image. Combining it with a few other digital freebies and I have come up with this piece, very happy with the end result.

Gothic Arches Challenge this week

Gothic Arches Challenge this week was to complete a mini Gothic Arch tag.

I've used my fave angels again and had a go at using a lovely shade of violet, with my theme being "Hope"

Check out the other entries through the Gothic Arches blog here

Art Creations Friday - Digital challenge for the week

Art Creations Friday - the theme this week was to use this very pretty little girl below

and I came up with this submission below - she's titled "Sweet Sabrina"

Challenge for Something Completely Different

I'm really into these challenges, and the ones that are currently running with "Something Completely Different" using different letters of the alphabet each week are really enjoyable.

The letter this week is B and my entry is below. I was very happy with the outcome of using my fave turquiose colourings and that stark yellow strip. Definately will be printing this one out and framing I think!

The beautiful bicycle image is from Graphics Fairy's blog here