Wendy's Art and Craft Journey

Last of the fabric tags, I think

2012-01-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

Here are the last three colours. I struggled with the yellow one, as I have very little in that colour, the red was fun, and the purple a bit more difficult to find purple bits. The yellow looks more orange, as my camera seems to not like yellow either. I painted the pelmet vilene first, and then machine stitched the scraps of fabric, yarns etc on with a free machine stitch.
I might try to do a black one, not sure if I would have enough bits.

Fabric tags

2012-01-06T04:59:00.000-08:00

Here are the next set of colours, white which was quite difficult, as I had very little in white, and blue and turquoise, which poised no problem at all. Yellow, and purple might prove to be impossible for the next ones. Please don't hold your breath on those two. Red I think I can manage, so will do that one first.

Time ATCs

2012-01-04T07:10:00.000-08:00

Back onto the ATCs for a change, and as time fitted in with two swaps I made a lot of them. I also made some other art for another swap ( odd shaped art) Some of the backgrounds are embossed with folders and some with embossing powder, some inked and stamped. There are clock and cog embellishments on all of them. These were cut out on my big shot, and coloured or embossed. I really enjoyed doing these, and they are well ahead of the swap deadline.

Fabric tags

2011-12-30T11:51:00.000-08:00

After making a fabric texture tag for a swap, I couldn't stop making them. I thought I would make one in every colour. Here are the first of them. They are on painted pelmet vilene, with bits and pieces sewn on with the machine. The bits consist of fabric, yarns, net, organza, glittery fibres and fabrics, anything that fits the colour and can be sewn down. I embellished with beads at the end, and added cords made on the machine. I also cut out some lutrador shapes on the die cutter, and painted them to match. I put eyelets in some of them.
The next ones ready to be sewn are white, blue and turquoise.

12 days of Christmas swap.

2011-12-27T04:52:00.000-08:00

For the last three years I have been in a swap where we make 12 presents ( all the same) for the other participants. We each receive 12 different ones in return. It's very interesting to see what the others make. This year all the work was brilliant, and there are some really useful things. I made glasses cases, which can also be used as a scissor case.
I felted a piece of calico with wool tops, placed some yarn bits, and shiny fibres, and then covered the whole thing with organza. I then machined over the top with straight and fancy stitches. I zapped the whole thing with the heat gun, and cut it into the required shape. I lined the front and back which is made from patterned fabric, and assembled the whole case.

Tim Holtz style Christmas tags Days 11 & 12

2011-12-19T11:28:00.000-08:00

Finished at last, but with having a terrible cold caught from my grandson, and then being away for the weekend, I didn't get them on the blog. Not very keen on day 11, but quite enjoyed the shrink plastic, shrunk in the UTEE technique. Mind you, mine are so sharp you could cut yourself on them, and they do look like glass.. Much more fun with day 12, but didn't like Tim's fracture doll, so found an angel to put on instead. In fact all I had for this one, was the dwellings die. The rest was all substituted. Quite pleased with the result on this one, though my tissue flkower has seen better days, I think the moths must have got to it while we were away.

Tim Holtz style Christmas tags Day 10

2011-12-11T06:35:00.000-08:00

Again a lot of improvisation on this one, but I did manage to do the fragments. Image transfer on these is not my forte, so I was quite pleased with the results. I used Crafty Individuals images. I substituted Tim's letters with small scrabble pieces and covered them with glossy accents, having inked around the edges with a red ink. I used my real pine cones for the decoration at the bottom. I now need to find a small pine cone bearing pine tree.

Tim Holtz Style Christmas tags Day 9

2011-12-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

I didn't have anything for this one, so decided to use the hanging sign die, I was quite pleased with how it turned out, even though it is too big for the tag.

Tim Holtz style Christmas tags Day 8

2011-12-10T04:27:00.000-08:00

This is my favourite so far, as I love steampunk. I did have the stamps for this, so it came together quite quickly. Apart from cutting the weathered clock which ruined the last of my grungboard. It didn't want to cut anything, so grungepaper was my best bet. Note to self, must buy myself some grungboard for Xmas. I like the technique of stamping with acrylic paint in white, and then distress inking over the top. I had to use sticker numbers instead of Tim's proper ones, which I have never posessed.

Tim Holtz style Christmas tags Day 6 and 7

2011-12-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

I did have the embossing folder for day 6, but didn't really like the colours Tim used. I made two of these, thinking another one would convince me to like it. No it didn't work, but I suppose if it works for some people, then it's OK. I don't think the old coloured metal look is very Christmassy.
Day 7 was much more to my liking, even though I had nothing that Tim used. I like the crumpled glassine paper, but had to cut the leaves by hand. I couldn't rip lace like Tim did either.

Tim Holtz style Christmas tags Day 4 and 5

2011-12-10T03:47:00.000-08:00

The technique of using alcohol ink on acetate, and then using archival ink on it and blotting it off, doesn't really work well with me, I had several goes, and this was the best I could do, the rest I had to improvise as I had nothing else. The snowman in the middle is a piece of ribbon. The one with the deer on I did enjoy doing, even though Tim used a snowman. The good old reindeer die came out again, and was covered with crackle paint, then inked over with distress inks. I must buy some sticky backed canvas as it kept coming away from the card background. As I didn't do the same as Tim, I had to improvise once again. All the more challenging I think.

Tim Holtz style Christmas tags Day 2 and 3

2011-12-10T03:31:00.000-08:00

Here are day 2 and 3, where the only thing I had was the reindeer die. I did struggle a bit with the canvas not sticking to the card. Perhaps I should buy some of Claudines sticky backed one. Day three I don't like very much, as I didn't have a big enough stamp to cover the tag, and had to make it up with several. I feel it's a bit plain. The technique of making your own stamp pad with the distress reinkers is brilliant. I had to hand cut the holly leaves, as I don't have any of the winter foliage dies.

Tim Holtz style Christmas tags

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

I followed Tim's tags last year, and as they made such a great decoration in the dining room, I am doing them again this year. Once again, i don't have all the dies and stamps, but it's good to be able to find your own way with all his techniques. Here is Day 1, where it was all made without one of his dies.

Deco pages

2011-11-09T07:35:00.000-08:00

I was so behind with the last two deco book swaps I joined, that a weekend without the men around, I gritted my teeth and got them done. One was for Owls and crows, the other was Autumn. They were both for my own books, everyone else had sent theirs to me ages ago. They are now complete, and on the shelf with all my other lovely altered and chunky books. I need a bigger room, well two big rooms would do, one for sewing, and one for everything else.

Mixed media postcards

2011-11-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

For a swap for mixed media Autumn colour postcards, I made two. One all fabric, and one on a fabric paper background. I did some felting, and cut the leaves out of the felt and some fabric, with my Tim Holtz mini tattered leaves die. I applied these with a tiny bit of glue, and then used the sewing machine to do the veins etc. I finished them off with some machine embroidery.

A few ATCs for a change

2011-11-09T07:17:00.000-08:00

I don't make very many ATCs now, as I have a vast collection of them. One day I will make some fabric covers for the files, but don't hold your breath.
These are for a vintage lady swap, and I can't resist vintage.
I coloured the backgrounds with distress inks, and then stamped and embellished over the top.

Felted and embroidered fabric

2011-10-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

I thought it was time my embellisher came out of hiding, so set about making some fabric to make things with later. I felted onto pre felt , and then placed layers of organza on top. I then used machine embroidery, and straight stitching to hold it all together. I then heated it with a heat gun to distress the fabric. So far I have made a phone case for a friend, and will make a book cover with the larger piece.

Yet another page

2011-10-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

Page 9 was 'Pressed flowers', which didn't really inspire me much. Luckily I had two clay green men pieces, which I worked round. The flowers are real, but the oak leaves are die cuts. The background was made using a Tim Holtz embossing folder. Not one of my best pages.

Page No 8 Polka dots

2011-09-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

This page was a bit of a challenge, as dots are not my thing, I'm dotty enough already.
I thought the easiest way out of this one was to dress up an paper art doll with some dotty fabric. I had some dot backgrounds for the front and back, so decided to make it fairly simple.
The face is clay, but the rest is card. The limbs are moveable.

Another page for the Interpretations book

2011-08-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

This time the title is 'ripped', and having found a suitable picture, I knew what I wanted to do. First of all I ripped up some paper for the front and back backgrounds. I stuck the main photograph on, and them ripped the man's photo in half. The caption says ' As soon as I knew, I just ripped his photograph in two'
I made some flowers out of organza, and added some lace at the bottom

Fabric postcards Trees

2011-08-08T14:23:00.000-07:00

These are some fabric postcards for a swap I am hosting. The backgrounds are painted pelmet vilene, and the tree trunks cut out with the Tim Holtz tree die on black felt. I free machine embroidered on the black felt. The leaves on the green one are bits of silk cut up and sewn down with free embroidery. The orange one is made up of bits of cut up yarns, again with machine embroidery on top.

The next page--Stained for life

2011-07-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

For this topic I chose stained glass windows. The front window was made from some acrylic packaging, I drew a window with pearl pens, which give a raised line.. Inside these lines I used alcohol inks for the coloured glass.. This window swings to the side, and underneath there is an explanation of stained glass.
On the back of this page is a fabric pocket with tags with examples of stained glass windows. I also stamped a window on inked paper, and embossed it. It is now on it's way to Canada.

Chunky elephant book

2011-07-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

I love elephants, my mother collected them, and as I inherited them, they are now all over the house. Stone, pottery, metal, alabaster from Italy, volcanic ash ( I bought that one from Etna), glass, crystal,, and loads of wooden ones. I am now adding to them by making books with them in. (no not the ornaments)
These are for a swap for a chunky book. As I have already done an altered book, I thought this would be a doddle. I have lost my way a bit, and found them a chore. It will be interesting to see what I get back. They are a mixture of collage, stamping, friendly plastic, and fibres.

Mixed media birds

2011-07-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

Not quite back into the swing of things, but did manage to do a few swaps recently that took a bit of time. The template for these was a Stampington one, and I hope I have managed to do the right size. They flew off across the Atlantic yesterday, so I will find out soon enough.
They are a mixture of collage and stamping.

Another journal page--Photogaraphs

2011-06-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

I am being a very bad blogger, and am struggling to do anything else other than these pages, which have to be done. The odd swap sneaks in as well, but then I don't have time to blog everything.
May's subject was photographs, I put some lace, beads and buttons on the background, made some friendly plastic frames, cut up an old wedding photo of folks I didn't recognise, and the job was done. I also made a photo album with some leather, but found it difficult to write on it without it coming off. Anybody any ideas on that problem ?

The next journal page 'On the fly'

2011-05-07T02:57:00.000-07:00

The title for last month was 'On the fly', which some of us struggled with. Luckily for me, a friend had some appropriate house mouse stamps. The mice have been chased up a tree by the neighbours fat overfed cat, and having eaten all the acorns on the tree they needed to get down for some more. They took advantage of the falling leaves for a quick decent. They did it 'on the fly'
The leaves are a mixture of metal and card, and the bottom is textured and painted. On the reverse side are some tags, with the tale of the hungry mice, and some large acorns in case they run out.

Gothic arches -- Birds

2011-04-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

I am being a very bad blogger at the moment, it's the weather's fault. As well as putting the bungalow up for sale, I am trying to de-clutter, what a hopeless task.
Off that depressing subject, and onto some gothic arches I made for a swap, all in one of my favourite subjects, birds.
They are all a mixture of inking, stamping and collage.

Printed fabric brush roll

2011-04-03T10:36:00.000-07:00

For a recent swap, we had to print our own fabric, then make our partner something with it. Knowing my partner was an extremely good artist, I thought a watercolour brush holder would be useful. I printed the fabric with a foam stamp that I had made on an Angie Hughes course. I used lumiere paints in two colours. I then put in some thin wadding and machined over it first of all with a variegated orange thread, and then criss crossed it with a metallic one.
I made a backing with the openings for the brushes, and sewed the whole thing together.
Pattie was really pleased with it.

Journal page 3

2011-04-03T10:03:00.000-07:00

This months journal heading for PDA was roses. Not the easiest of subjects as far as I'm concerned, but roses it is. I covered the page with lace which had roses on, made and embossed a door, and put grungboard hinges and lock on it. Behind the door I covered a piece of card with a rose napkin, and found this French looking guy with a bunch of roses in his hand. I then put roses round the door, with a big metal one at the top, I think John likes it !!!!

AWOL

2011-04-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

I could use my grandson Max as an excuse for not doing anything on here for well over a month. I can only blame him for 10 days when we looked after him when Claire and Jonathon went for a much needed break. After 10 days, I needed one myself.
Here are a few photos of him, the bottom one, he is learning to clap when you say 'good boy'. The top one, he is looking a lot more innocent than he is.

Journal page -- Mended

2011-02-22T07:29:00.000-08:00

The theme this month is mended. My first thought of course was sewing, so the first thing I did was to cut my mountboard into two pieces, cover them with paper and then mend them. I made holes, and then cross stitched them together. I added some stamped images, a shrink plastic sewing machine and scissors, and some thread wrapped around some prints of old sewing card.
I made a small needle case, a selection of thread, and a little bottle of buttons and beads. Wiring the bottle on nearly drove me to doing something I might later have regretted. It is now on it's way to America, so I hope it gets there in one piece, and that Lee likes it.

Fabric wedding book

2011-02-21T16:27:00.000-08:00

My daughter Karen is getting married in June, and I went with her for one of her outfit fittings. I was a bit cheeky while we were there and asked the lady if she would save me some small bits of lace that she would otherwise have thrown away. I am going again this Saturday, and hope she will have remembered.
I thought it might be a nice gesture to make her a fabric wedding book, so that she can see what I wanted the lace for. I have just finished it, in the nick of time.

Indian fabric house book

2011-02-04T05:14:00.000-08:00

The Indian book is a mixture of Indian fabrics, printed tissue and printed fabric done on Angie's course, plus some image transfers, sari ribbon and bits and pieces. I have made it concertina style by putting four eyelets in each house. If I had room it could also stand up, as I put a layer of pelmet vilene in each house.

Angie Hughes course--Fabric tags and block printing

2011-02-01T08:40:00.000-08:00

On Angie's course we learnt how to use the printer to transfer backgrounds onto fabric, and words onto tape, which we could then use on our tags.
The first day we tackled fabric tags, and I started two. One was a conventional shape and the other a house shape. The finished ones above are the conventional ones. The house shaped Indian ones will be on a later post. I decided to do vintage (no surprise there) as I had plenty of images I had printed onto fabric, and enough lace to make it worthwhile. The ones that are landscape measure 7" x 4", and the smaller portrait ones 6" x 3" I am waiting for some large eyelets to come before I can put the larger one together.
I will blog the printed fabric in with the Indian tags.

The next page of the journal

2011-01-27T05:54:00.000-08:00

I have already blogged the front pages for this jounal, and this is the first page. We were given the title of Handwriting, and had to interpret this in our own way. I based mine on letters to and from menfolk serving away in foreign countries. The main theme, is a greeting sent by my Grandfather during the campaign in Gallipoli during World War 1. It was sent at Christmas 1915. and is at the top of the page.

Journal page

2011-01-23T08:38:00.001-08:00

This time I have found a page that isn't blue. I had drawn the face in a sketch book, so cut her out to put on here. I didn't think an orange face would look very good. She looked a bit regal, or nun like so I didn't bother with hair, but gave her a sort of whimple. The butterfly had been hanging around on my desk for ages, so stuck it on to get it out of the way. It should have gone in the butterfly file.

Another journal page

2011-01-22T08:14:00.000-08:00

I am finding this a real struggle, and will no doubt at some point give up. If in the meantime my faces improve that will be a bonus. I have sent for a book which might help (I hope) but in the meantime I will struggle on.

A new journal

2011-01-04T05:31:00.000-08:00

I have joined a group whose aim is to do a bit in a journal every day for a year. It need only be 10 minutes, or a whole page. I doubt I will achieve something every day, but will make an effort. I never know where to start, and have several journals with painted pages ready to do. They have sat there for a year, so here goes.
First of all I wrote 2011 on the already painted page, and then thought about what I wanted to achieve. I decided wanting to draw faces that didn't need plastic surgery might be a good start, so that's what I did. Doesn't she look miserable. Perhaps by the end of the book I might draw one I like.
When I have run out of painted pages, I might try to ween myself off blue and green, and try pink, well maybe not.

Covers for a new altered book

2011-01-03T09:45:00.000-08:00

I have joined a group commitment to do covers and pages for an altered book called Interpretations. Each month we do a page for our partner, and a page for ourselves. Each month we have a different partner, so it means that you end up with two books, one of your own, and another with all the other artists work.
The December challenge was to do the front and back covers, and mine is now on it's way to California. The project ends in December 2011, but as we have all the themes, you can get on with them in advance, if you are organised that is. So don't hold your breath.
These are my covers: I used Viva Terra paint on the front, and stamped into it for texture, sprayed it with Glimmer mists, and then added shrink plastic bits. The letters are grungeboard, which I used on the reverse as a mask. I hand wrote a few thoughts about the book, and added my favourite TH bird cage, with the bird released from it's cage.
The back cover was covered with sprayed tissue paper, with various bits added. The reverse of the back has a canvas pocket, with a shrink plastic clock inside. I was a bit nervous about doing this, not knowing if my interpretation would be OK. It seems to haave gone down well so far.

Shrink plastic hanging

2011-01-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

I made this for a swap which had to include shrink plastic. I love using it, so went for a leaf theme. I used Crafty Individual images to put in the frames, and painted the wooden surrounds with Viva crackle paint. The leaves were stamped with various different coloured inks, and then cut out and shrunk.

Vintage fabric book

2011-01-02T04:27:00.000-08:00

A while ago, I made some 4" x 4" vintage squares for a small hanging quilt. As I have now run out of wall space, I decided to make it into a fabric book. ( Like I have shelf space, Not)
The top picture is the cover, and all I have to do now is figure out how to attach the cover to the rest of it. No paper was used in the making of this book.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags

2010-12-12T05:53:00.001-08:00

The last day, and losts of new techniques learnt, and hopefully a few new friends made.
I didn't have anything for this one, so first of all cut out the bauble from grungepaper, as my hands can't cope with grungboard. I did have the distress inks and crackle paint. I then used the only Christmas backing paper that I had, and it's very dull, so put a few extra things on. I used one of Tims paper stack Decembers, and reduced it in size. I took the foliage and cones from a Christmas decoration. I have put the wrong coloured green ribbon on the bauble, but it's stuck, so it stays.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 11

2010-12-11T07:14:00.000-08:00

Nearly there, the penultimate tag. I did have the pine tree die today, but that was all. The rest I had to improvise, but hey, that's all the more fun. Just think of all the h...........k I would have felt compelled to do if the tags had only taken me a short time, if I had had all the right bits. Not very chuffed with this one

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 10

2010-12-10T06:18:00.000-08:00

Although I only had the snowflake embossing folder (confession, it only came yesterday, I must have had a premonition) todays tag wasn't too complicated. I cut out the snowman by hand on card, having enlarged an image of it from the embossing folder. Put it all together, embossed the top acrylic layer, and fastened it with snowflake brads. I gave the snowman some snow to sit in, as he seemed to be floating.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 9

2010-12-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

Once again I had none of the required bits, so mine isn't like Tim's. First of all I photocopied some carol music, stuck it to my tag and inked it up ith my prefered colours. I cut out some letters with one of my alphabet dies and stuck them on, and put glossy accents on as instructed. I used a flower that had been kicking around my workroom for ages and put a heart in the middle, didn't like the crown as well. I used some old buttons to decorate the side. hung some bits at the top, and that was it finished. That's the quickest one so far. Didn't start it until 8 pm-ish.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 8

2010-12-08T09:30:00.000-08:00

Oh, didn't like this one at all. I had to draw and make my own mask, and in paper is was very difficult to ink it up properly. The whole thing ended up with a halo round it. Good technique, but only with the right stuff. I used a Crafty Individuals flourish stamp, and cut out some houses on card. Inked them up, and painted some puff paint on the top for snow. I didn't like the clock or photo corners so left them out, and put on a wooden Christmas tree instead. Not my favourite tag.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 7

2010-12-07T11:01:00.000-08:00

All I had today were the alphabets for the Joyful bit at the bottom. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder for the background, but had to use it twice as my tag is too big. The join is hidden under the flower. I glued some canvas to the grungepaper with great difficulty, the only glue that worked was UHU. The flower I cut out with a sizzix flower die, which seemed to work. I didn't have the rock candy stickles, so used diamond instead. Not as good as it has gold in it. I had a grungeboard flourish,which I painted silver. I used a coin with a ring on the top, and used 3D glaze over the top.
It has taken me ages with frequent interuptions from the men folk who were trying to defrost the pipes in the roof, and that's with leaving the heating on all night.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 6

2010-12-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

I just knew that flipping reindeer would appear before too long. Not a good start, I didn't have anything, so had to be devious. I used the fir tree die ( only bought it last week) for the trees on the left, and one of my flourish collection to stamp the background Used a ribbon at the bottom, and made a greetings thingy. Now comes the devious bit. I scanned in the reindeer from the picture on the sale packet and enlarged it. Cut it out of grungepaper and embossed with a circle embossing folder, only because I couldn't find my scroll one. I found it after I had finished. I had to mix a blue paint for the deer, and am not very pleased with the result. The embossing folder wasn't as deep as Tim's so it is not as effective.. I don't have any metal word things either so hung some bells on instead.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 5

2010-12-05T07:43:00.000-08:00

The only thing I had this time was a styled label that I had cut from a friends die. I do have the ATC size of the Santa stamp plus background, so I just cut the edge and postcard script off it. Oh, I did have all the right colour distress inks, but that's because I have all of them. I had to draw the holly at the top. My numbers are grungeboard. Why do these take me all day to do, I have done nothing else all day.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags Day 4

2010-12-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't have any of the things Tim used, so really had a struggle with this one, especially as I don't really do bling. I covered the tag with some wintery looking trees, and with the lack of facets, tried his technique on some acrylic tags. It worked, so off I went. I alcohol inked around some round acrylic tags as well, and stuck on two angel pictures. These were instead of the Santa picture on Tim's. I inked up a largish glass drop (thank you Sherry),
I hung the tag and glass thingy at the top, and stuck on the two angel tags. I blinged up the bottom of the tag with some gems and a wire Christmas.
I must now clean the house and prepare dinner for our friends

Altered board book

2010-12-03T14:24:00.000-08:00

I stripped all the plastic coating from the pages and painted them with gesso. I then covered them with various papers. The cover is sprayed with Glimmer mists, and I ripped up some corrugated card, which I also sprayed. I stamped some script and clocks on the flat bits.
Every set of pages has a different theme: Vintage , vintage children, black and white, clocks, and not forgetting silly bird. Some of the pages have shrink plastic clocks on, some purchased ones, and some of Tim's cogs. I really enjoyed doing this, and am now going to do an altered book on time, so that I can include a few ATCs that I have collected from various crafting friends.

Tim Holtz 12 Christmas tags Day 2 & 3

2010-12-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

Can anybody tell me why I made my tags so big, the second day one took some filling. Day 2 I had not a thing that was used by Tim, but day 3, wow I had the bird cutter. I found the second one quite difficult, as I have very few Christmas stamps. Pine trees yes, but no other useful ones. The bird is a wooden one that I have made into a robin, and as the top right hand corner looked bare I made a tissue flower .
The third one I enjoyed making as I love birds, and I could use my fav branch stamp. The lichen fell off a tree in the garden, and it was in and dried. No digging under the snow to find some. I didn't have tissue tape, so used stamped repair tissue, and an old button. The greetings thingy is stamped with two stamps, and attached with a paper clip, as I don't have any of the funny pin things Tim used.
I suppose I had better go and feed the men, they will be getting fed up with me being in here all day, making tags.. Tomorrow we have friends here for dinner, so I will make the next one on Sunday.

Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags

2010-12-03T04:57:00.000-08:00

I've never attempted these before, but thought the challenge would do me good. Like I needed something else to do. I don't have that many of Tim's fabulous dies or stamps, but will try to make do with what I have. I might even use up some of my stash.
For the first one I had a house die, but not his. I cut offf the spooky bits, and used grungboard, with a different embossing folder (distressed lines) Cut it up as instructed and there was my house. I put a heap of white acrylic paint at the bottom and on the roof and fence for snow, sprinkled glitter on it and waited for it to dry. I actually had some mica that I had been too mean to use, so in the windows that went. I made a ticket and stamped the only stamp I had that fitted on it.
I would like his fence edge die, well I would actually like all of them. I hope Santa is listening. My tags I cut out, so I have no idea what size his are (tags that is)
The garland I made with great difficulty by gluing together tiny holly leaves ( I have a tiny holly leaf punch) The easy bit was putting the ink on the background.
Watch this space for day 2, I have no stamps for this, so brain working overtime.

Margaret Beal course

2010-12-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

Leaving the house with a soldering iron, and a load of flimsy fabrics, had my menfolk wondering what on earth I would do next. I spent a fabulous weekend on a Margaret Beal course. She is a brilliant teacher, and we all learnt a lot. I haven't finished anything yet, but they are on the list of things to do on cold winter evenings. Here are some of my samples. some with machine stitching, but the rest still in their early stages. Only the two at the bottom have any stitching on at all, the others are held together by the soldering iron fusing the organza togther. All the cutting is done with the soldering iron as well, it's great fun.

Chunky alphabet G H I

2010-11-09T04:05:00.000-08:00

The next stage of the chunky book, G H & I. As this is my second alphabet book, I now make two of each letter, so that I have one of my own work. It's surprising how quickly you forget what you did, and looking at the scan on the computer is never the same. I am doing a black and white one in the New Year, so that should be a challenge, as I like to work in bright colours.

Row houses

2010-10-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

Once again, I don't seem to be able to make just the required number of things for a swap, and went a bit over the top with the row house swap. I love making house shaped cards, so really enjoyed doing these.

Art qulits

2010-10-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

For a swap using fabric paper, I decided to make an art quilt. While I was at it I thought I might as well make three. One of my daughters went off with one, which left me with the two turquoise ones. The backgrounds are made from baby wipes which I had used to clean my stamps. They went nowhere near my new grandson, honest. The fabric paper birds and squares were then sewn on with my sewing machine, or attached with beads. Some beads were also added to the finished quilt.

Alice board bag

2010-10-08T14:18:00.000-07:00

A caravan weekend in the Cotswolds with Jan and Maureen, not only produced a lot of laughter, but some crafting as well. Maureen had bought some board bags, and I decide to make mine an Alice in Wonderland one. I collaged a napkin on as the main background, and then added images of Alice and chums on top of that. There are some shrink plastic images as well. This is my forth Alice project, so I might have got it out of my system now.
The photographs are not very good.

Heat it up ATC's

2010-10-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

I've been having fun painting, and heating up various fabrics to make some ATCs. They are all backed with pelmet vilene, which I painted. Then fabrics like tyvek, lutrador, organza, and nappy liners were all painted, and added to the vilene, machine embroidered, and heated with the heat gun, until they either melted, warped or holed. Some of them have silk and angellina fibres under the organza to give a bit of sparkle.

Large tag

2010-09-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

This is a large tag measuring 8 1/2" x 4" for a swap. I love time so used that as my main subject. I sprayed the tag with glimmer sprays and stamped the images. The bird is made from metal, his tiny wings from German scrap.

Another Chunky alphabet book

2010-09-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

Here are my first six pages for yet another chunky alphabet book. I can't seem to let these swaps pass me by, and have a great urge to own lots of chunky books. I suppose I might grow out of it some day. Already onto fabric books, so goodnness knows what I'll latch onto next. These are all 4" x 4", have to have stamping on, and the letter of the alphabet on them, and the word they represent on the back.

Angie Hughes Course

2010-09-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went on a course on Thermofax screen printing, which was a completely new venture for me. Angie's friend Jeannette demonstrated the screen printing, and we then did our own thing. We had previously dyed our fabrics, and had a wonderful time getting inky.
Angie then showed us how to add other fabrics, foil, and machine embroider on top of the printing.
I have started some hand and machine embroidery on the pink and blue one at the bottom.

Small fabric book covers

2010-08-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of small book covers made for a swap. The background is painted vilene, with painted and heat distressed lutrador sewn on top with free embroidery stitching done on the sewing machine. I have added a couple of pieces of muslin. fabric paper and some French knots and beads, to embellish them.

Seahorse embroidery

2010-08-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

Finished, I think. As the online course finished ages ago, this has taken a lot of will power to finish, and many hours of work. It is well travelled, and has been to Dorset, London, Swindon, Yorkshire, Devon, Stratford upon Avon, Hull, and last week to Silverstone. Is it finished though, do you think the seahorse needs more orange ?

Vilene emery board holder

2010-08-01T06:14:00.000-07:00

For a swap that had to have buttons on, I made this emery board holder with pelmet vilene.
I put some texture paste at the bottom, made it textured, and when dry painted the whole thing with Viva metallic paints. I then did some machine stitching, added some buttons, then machined around the edge.
It's a lot brighter in real life, the scanner has dulled the colours.

Fabric heart

2010-07-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

This fabric heart is for a decorated heart swap, so I decided to do it in fabric rather than card. I know the person it's going to likes vintage, so hope she likes it. The background fabric is sort of old fashioned, the image is on fine cotton, with lace and flowers added.

Metal fronted key cupboard

2010-07-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

Where has the last month gone, it seems like the year is going too fast.
As we have a little time at home for a change, I decide to tackle the key cupboard that has been on my to do list for a year. It has been sitting in it's bare wood state for ages, and the one we were using wouldn't close.
I painted the wood with a weak-ish solution of Precious metal paint, and put some Croco crackling paint in platinum on the front surround, and when dry rubbed in a small amount of Treasure gold.
I used a green metal for the front, and did some free hand work, and used some of my metal embossing moulds. I then lightly sanded the top to take some of the colour off, and touched some bits of it with lettuce alcohol ink. I then got all gluey by sticking it down with UHU glue.

Artsycrafts weekend

2010-06-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

These are the projects from a very enjoyable weekend last month. All bird themed which suited me. The pink one, was right out of my comfort zone, I don't often work with just pinks. The large tag was inked with distress inks, sprayed with Crafty notions spray, and stamped, and the tree treated with Terra, through a stencil and spray inked. The flower was stamped tissue paper, crumpled up, and stuck on with metal leaves underneath. All the birds, bird houses and leaves are metal, stamped or embossed.
The bird sampler has nine squares of various materials, metal, fine canvas and card. All are mounted onto a wooden canvas base, which was painted and stenciled. Some are just heavily textured, some are metal, stamped or embossed, and some are fine canvas embossed, or spray inked through a stencil.
The wooden bird house was painted, has a metal roof, and front, with the birds stamped onto card.

Playing with Lutrador

2010-05-31T13:36:00.000-07:00

I have been playing with some Lutrador, and various fibres this weekend, and have managed to make three needle cases with the piece. First of all I painted the lutrador with Jacquard textile paint, and heated it with a heat gun to distress it. I ironed on a few Angelina fibres, and some foil. I then added some dyed muslin, painted and heated Tyvek, and did some free machine embroidery on top, with some pelmet vilene underneath to stiffen it. The individual cases have beads sewn onto them, and some fancy yarn.

Collaborative quilt

2010-05-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

We are making a quilt in one of the groups I belong to. We have each chosen a subject, and we have made two 4" squares for each person. We will then put the quilt together when we have all the squares. My subject was vintage, as was one of the others. the others chose, faces, flowers, nature, and owls. Here are my efforts.

Finished at last

2010-05-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

This is a set of drawers that I started ages ago, and just made myself finish.
The drawers are covered in metal, most of which have been embossed, sanded, painted or alcohol inked. The drawer knobs are a mixture of beads,, with a few of the original wooden ones painted to match the metal

Crafty Individuals course

2010-05-16T15:30:00.000-07:00

Spent a great two days in Yarm on the Crafty Individuals weekend course, and made the two pieces of work above. I just love working with houses, so this suited me very well. We used house and tree blanks and either covered them with backing paper, or collaged them. Images were then inserted in the windows, and embellished with charms, flowers etc. One set were placed into a wooden box, and the others into a row. They are both very 3D

Chunky book----I, J, K, L.

2010-04-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

These are the next 4 letters for the chunky book swap. They are all collaged, with various embellishments added.

Next stage -- Using colours

2010-04-19T03:33:00.000-07:00

The next part of the Sumptuous surfaces lesson is using colour. The designs above are postcard size, and I haven't made up my mind which one to work on. It will develop as I go, I hope.
I have used orange as the seahorse colour, as it is opposite on the colour wheel, and the colour that complements blue. I have loads of blue and turquoise threads and beads, and have been wanting to use them for ages, hence the sea theme.
The top picture is showing the beginnings of the stitching

Finished again !!!!!!

2010-04-04T04:05:00.000-07:00

I had to redo this as it had altered the background colour, it was all white and horrible !!

Finished

2010-04-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

Here is my finished piece, with all the textured stitching done.

Flat stitching finished

2010-03-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

At last the flat stitching on my tree is finished, and waiting for the texture bit. We are off to Devon in a minute, so I will attempt to do it down there, inbetween sorting mum's bungalow out. Not looking forward to it. Where am I going to put it all.

Sumptuous surfaces course

2010-03-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

I am doing an online course called sumptuous surfaces. This is my first online course, and so far I seem to going into it headlong. That means, I have made my design too complicated, even though the tutor said it should work. My hands hurt, I need a magnifying thingy to see the holes, and have decided that I am too impatient to do things properly. I want to get onto the textured bit without all the initial bits. It's only the size of a postcard, but feels like the Forth road bridge.
The ouline is in Portugese stem stitch, whipped stem stitch , and stem stitch. The pulled stitches are satin, and whole or part buttonhole wheels. I think I shall being stitching a lot tomorrow, as the next lesson is on Thursday.
The empty bit under the tree will be the textural bit.

Another chunky book

2010-03-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

This time the topic of the book is travel, and these are the ones I have done so far. They are a mixture of collage and stamping, with some shrink plastic embellishments, and some tags.

Chunky Beeswax

2010-03-12T03:15:00.000-08:00

I foolishly let myself in for a chunky beeswax book that a lady in Australia is hosting. There is now wax everywhere. My melt pot was on overtime, because as usual I made some extras to keep.
I collaged the main page with backing papers, napkins and images, and then on some added flowers etc I then added some extra wax and stamped into it to give some texture, and brushed Perfect pearls on various parts, especially the textured bits.

Felted fabric postcard

2010-02-19T08:18:00.001-08:00

This is my first ever attempt at a fabric postcard. I felted a background, added a fabric vintage image transfer, and then added some textured yarns. Now I must try one in fabric.

Bees wax and UTEE

2010-02-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

Indian bees wax collage
The one above is a mix of collage, foil and UTEE
The one above has a faux solder around it of UTEE

I treated myself to a day workshop with Suze Weinberg. Although I had to drive all the way to Burnley in Lancashire it was well worth it. The first thing we made was the bees wax collage, which I loved doing, especially as there was a lovely picture of an Indian that I used. It measures 12" x 5 3/4"
After that we went through various ways of using UTEE. Some I liked, some I didn't, the results are on the green card.

Art quilts

2010-02-19T07:05:00.000-08:00

I am in an art quilt swap, and as this was my first attempt at art quilts, I have gone overload and made several. There are several more in the making. The green one was the first one, so I try to keep my first attempts. The turquoise one is for Jean in the swap, and the orange one for a friends birthday which was yesterday
I made them on pelmet vilene, with the backgrounds made from baby wipes, not used on a baby, but to clean my ink pads. The other bits are made from various pieces of fabric paper that I had great fun making. My workroom has under floor heating, so the fabric paper dries very quickly spread out all over the floor.

Nature Paper bag book

2010-02-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

These are the two pages for a paper-bag swap I am in. The theme is Nature, so I did one in my favourite birds, and the other with butterflies. The butterfly wings are stamped on vellum, and there are two wings, one under the other to give it some dimension.

More tags

2010-02-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

A few more tags for a swap I am in. Two are fabric, the other a mix of stamping, embossing, with fabric flowers. My sewing machine refuses to sew with metallic threads, which is very annoying. There are quite a few glittery fabrics on both the fabric ones.

Alphabet journal B

2010-01-29T09:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't been in the mood to do the journal for ages, and had started this one months ago. I am in a 'must finish this first' mode, so settled down to do it. I really want to do some sewing, but am determined to get all the unfinished projects done first.
This one is for the letter B, so blue, and birds came to my brain first, brain begins with B but I can't draw one of those.

Altered crow

2010-01-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

This is a decoy crow that I altered, I don't thing even his parents would recognise him now. I painted him with metallic acrylic paints, then cut out some metal leaves with the Sizzix. These were then attached to a dry crow. I haven't had another crow in my workroom since, so it must work.
I have nearly finished a pidgeon, he's pink and purple, maybe it's a she in those colours, will post that later.

Metal squares

2010-01-19T12:24:00.000-08:00

These metal squares are for a forum swap, where we will receive six different squares from the other members. We then make an article with those squares.

Chunky alphabet book E, F, G, H

2010-01-06T12:37:00.000-08:00

These are the next four pages for the chunky alphabet book. They are mainly collage and stamping.

Mixed Media Tag Book

2010-01-05T16:12:00.000-08:00

I love making tags, and these are for a swap of mixed media ones. So far I have only made one fabric one, the others are inked, stamped and collaged. The fabric one has gold fabric on, and is quite bright, the scan has deadened the colours.

Inch Row houses

2010-01-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

These are my attempts for a swap on Paper Digital Art & Imagesbykim. Each house is an inch wide, and upto four inches tall. I was only going to do five, but got carried away, and even made some extra ones for myself. They are a mixture of collage, stamping, and metal

Christmas tags. The last post of 2009

2009-12-31T15:55:00.001-08:00

The first four are finished tags with friendly plastic embellishments

These are the tag backgrounds that I made for Calendar tags for friends for Christmas.. They are made on watercolour paper, using Distress inks. I then stamped them with flourish stamps.

Nature book No 2

2009-12-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

I am doing another Nature book with some friends near me, well 1 hour away to be precise.
These are the backs and fronts of the seahorse and tree pages. The backgrounds are inked or digital with stamped images, brads, and sizzix die cuts. There are small shells on the seahorse one. The tall tree images are Crafty individuals.

Chunky alphabet book

2009-11-29T07:57:00.000-08:00

I am doing a chunky alphabet swap on one of my forum sites, and these are the first 4 letters.
The cards are covered with background papers, some of them my own marbled ones. The letters are sizzix cut outs which I have painted with metalic paints, some are crackled.
The elements are collaged, with embellishments of shrink and friendly plastic.

4" x 4" pages

2009-11-28T16:32:00.000-08:00

I have a 4 x 4 obsession at the moment, and have been doing quite a few chunky books for swaps. These are for a private swap, and as my friend loves vintage, that's the main theme of these three. They are collaged, with bits of lace,bows and flowers added.

6" x 6" canvas board book covers.

2009-11-28T16:13:00.000-08:00

These are two 6" x 6" canvases that I am going to use as book covers for a journal. The backgrounds are inked with distress inks and stamped. The slightly stronger images are stamped on to tissue paper then applied to the canvas. The key is made from friendly plastic.
I have two more to do, but Xmas cards call. The next two have a seaside theme.

Artsy weekend

2009-11-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

I had a fabulous time on the Artsy weekend with Lin and Leandra. The subject was Time, and we each made a clock, a box, a little book, and a thingy to put on a box or book cover. Lots of different techniques and textures, with lovely colour schemes. The colours on the clock are a lot richer than the photo shows.

Chunky house tags

2009-11-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

These are for a house tag swap, and measure 4" x 2 1/2". They were to have the shape of a house on, and some sort of 'chunk', ribbon, embellishments etc. All the images are stamped, with inked or collages backgrounds.

Altered matchbox and scrabble tile

2009-09-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

This altered matchbox and scrabble tile was made for a swap on Altered domino and game pieces.
Again I chose a vintage theme, and included a handbag charm, some words, and a posy of flowers. Luckily it arrived in America in one piece.

Another beer mat book

2009-09-06T10:57:00.001-07:00

I couldn't resist doing another one, this is on Vintage sewing, and for another friends birthday.