Learning experience ...

I've been experimenting with making bookmarks, and after deciding my beaded ones were too bulky, I made some out of card.  I painted them with acrylic paint and stamped birds and other stamps on them with stamp pad ink.  After a few days they were still inclined to stick together, so I coated with with a coat of Mod Podge sealer - Oh!!! the ink from the stamps smeared and spoiled them.  I journalled about it and this is my journal page, in which I come to terms with it as "just something small".
Also, my web site is back to normal.

Pied Cormorant

I snapped this Pied Cormorant drying his wings after diving.  I was watching him floating on the wetlands, then he dips his head and sinks from view, only to reappear some time later in a different spot altogether, just like a Grebe does.

My website is temporarily unavailable - will be rectified soon.

Flying Ducks

When I go birdwatching down at Linear Park in Adelaide, I point my camera at any bird that looks about to fly - I love the freedom symbolised in their flight.  This week I was lucky enough to snap two ducks in flight; it is now an automatic reflex to press the button as soon as a bird takes off in the hope of catching a great shot.  I did!  Notice that beautiful irridesence on the wings.

Experimenting with heat gun

Using my new toy the heat gun, I picked out several layers of plastic bags from my overflowing plastic stash bags, fused them with the iron and then heat gunned them to distress; then I looked at the holes and realised it needed another colour behind to show them up, so I ironed a blue bag on the back.  I don't actually like it but it gives me some experience in this technique and I can see the potential when I start including sythetic textiles in with the plastic - the next step.  The layers then will look quite interesting.  It's going to be really hot all week in Adelaide (33 degrees to 36 all week) so don't know when I will feel like heating up the room again.

Experimenting - Altered Books - Money grows on trees pages.

Another thing I have been experimenting with is Altered Books.  Altered Books are any old book that you take and - yes - alter it, as you like.  For instance, paint pages, collage onto them, sew into them.  Obviously you don't do it to a book that is valuable to you or that you think someone else would like; but there are many books in charity shops, or you may have some at home, that aren't of much interest or may be outdated information or that are simply falling apart - these are ideal to use because you don't feel like you're destroying something useful.  I picked up a child's board book for 50 cents in a charity shop and because I thought an advertisement's text was so funny, I used that for my first experiment in an Altered Book page.  First I painted the page with a pale blue over the Christmas scene, then added the cut out headlines which I altered slightly with pen and some receipts to tie in the theme, adding a couple of cuttings of leaves and plants and drawing the tree branch. 

Experimenting with Tyvek

My latest experimenting is with bead making - I love making beads from fabric, and now I have bought a heat gun I can have even more fun.  I started with some leftover sheer fabrics, synthetic organza and so on, and this is the result.  The heat gun shrivels up the synthetic fabric creating interesting effects.

Then I bought some Tyvek, which is a strange synthetic solid type of fabric, painted it both sides and used that to make beads.  The heat gun again gave some great looks, even better than the last lot.  Some beads I made with just Tyvek and some I combined Tyvek with synthetics.

More experimental textiles

This is painted Vliesofix (Bondaweb) adhered to crumpled brown paper.  It has a great texture and I want to use it but not sure quite what to do with it.  Could just be part of a page with fibres added on top ... the great thing about experimenting is that you can do what you feel like.
For art journal ideas try http://www.tracibunkers.com/