Allium

I'm not going to say much about this apart from I made another A3 size collage picture for our bedroom.  This time in blues and greens inspired by the lovely paper I got from PaperChase in London last week.  Not much stamping but quite a bit of paint, loads of stitching. gorgeous fabric and of course one of my photo's suitably distressed with sandpaper and some Peacock Blue Distress Stain swiped over it.  

Hugs

jo

xx

Hot stuff!!

It's been a while I know since a) I made anything and b) since I posted. Let's just say all work and no play makes Jo a bit of a grumpy girl!

Anyway I have finally managed to make something and yes it's a bit bright and a bit out of my comfort zone colour wise -  I must be craving some sunshine and heat (aren't we all, I can't believe I'm still wearing opaque tights and boots in May and the shops are full of summer clothes, they must be begging the sun gods to shine so that they can sell stuff!).

I am very very VERY pleased with this (don't mean to sound big headed but ...) as I've managed to crack a design issue I've been having for a while - how do I use the all the wooden IKEA frames I've got as a base for my fabric creations without them sagging in the recess?????

I've tried making them into mini canvases or sticking on to card, but they never really sat well or looked lumpy (bit like me really when I think about it) So what was the brainwave eureka moment?  Use the acrylic front piece as the base for the fabric which gives it rigidity and stick that to the front of the frame. Oooh it did make me a happy girl!

So painted the frame in Butternut and Haystack Fresco Finish paints, sanded it back a bit, rubbed a candle over it and then dry brushed a mixture of Claret, Paprika and London Bus over the top.

Took some calico and sponged on Butternut and Haystack and then stencilled Pumpkin Soup through a flower stencil. Sewed on some hot pink and orange strips of fabric with lots of "bad" stitching!

The tag was painted in Claret, London Bus and Pumpkin Soup and stamped in Cherry Stazon using a Wendy Vecchi flower stamp, edges distressed and inked with Fired Brick Distress Ink.

The photo is one of mine, just printed on photographic paper at home. I sanded it carefully to remove some of the ink and add some distressing (love the "spots", it makes it look like an old sun weathered photo from the 70's). A thin layer of PaperArtsy satin glaze with a tiny amount of Dolly Mix Fresco Paint over the top.

A scrap of pink felt underneath and two Prima flowers that had been hanging out on my desk left over from a previous project to complete.

Right, I'm off to work on one of my big pictures with the lovely papers I bought in PaperChase in big ole London last week and some teal / turquoise fabric I bought on Saturday - I only went in for a couple of fat quarters and came out with about twelve!

hugs

jo
xx

Why?

I have many crafting items including wool. It's fair to say I have a lot of wool, boxes and bags of it and all I can knit is scarves, oh and crochet granny squares. I have so much wool that at Easter I sorted through it and decided to donate some of the more lurid acrylic I'd purchased honks ago.

So why dear blogger friends did I purchase this a couple of days ago? I have wool in this colour range in the stash, I have knitted scarves in this colour way already, so why?

Project in mind? Yes to make a wrap for a fawn strapless dress I'm wearing to a function at the end of the month. So why did I buy this colour way rather than a nice soft neutral cream?

Impulse buy, obviously.

I sense another scarf, or possible I'll be daring and knit a snood!

Hugs

Jo

xx

 

In the red

Time, there are apparently 24 hours in a day and 7 days a week, so thats lots of hours, right? Lots of hours supposedly to do everything we need to do (work, sleep, eat) and want to do  (craft, relax, blog).  So why doesn't it seem it this last fortnight?  

The needs, mostly work, the stress around it and the sleep needed to recover from the stress and intense working have taken over leaving very little time for the wants that in truth actually help with coping with the needs - caught!  But yes before you all start tutting and shaking your heads, I know (and I am) I should be grateful that I have a job, and that it is a good job but sometimes it's hard work and I get annoyed with it.

I had intended to be determined this week and get my contribution to Hels Sunday Stamper Challenge in on time. But due to the above time was running out and I thought I'm gonna miss it again. But then I thought, you know what it doesn't matter, you have to work to deadlines at work, crafting is your hobby, your downtime, your creative release, the only decisions you have to make is where to place something.  

In my craftroom I am my own boss and I don't have to respond to others or lead / manage others - it's just me and sometimes the cats.

So here is my take on last weeks challenge which was red.

Got all my red Distress Stains and Inks out and the lovely vibrant London Bus Fresco Finish and set to work. 

Started with my usual 8x8 card.  On top of that I inked some patterened paper stamped with some text stamp (very hidden now but it is there) and sewed on the card after distressing the edges.  

Added some layers of spotty fabric which I'd purchased on Saturday after a quick jaunt out to Bramble Patch in Weedon with my Ma (3 errands in an hour that day: deliver a large lamp to my mums friend for painting in a barge style, buy jam jars for rhubarb chutney making and look at fabric to back her latest quilt. All three just off the A5 either at Weedon or 2 miles up the road - my kind of shopping!) 

A spare bit of the red card (I'd cut a 12x12 down to 8x8 and that leaves enough card to make tags) was painted in some Limelight Fresco Finish, some crackly glaze on top and then some London Bus. Rubbed it back quite hard to reveal some of the LimeLight and then stamped Photograph in Black Archival and some reverse text in Cherry Stazon. Some felt and red ric rac added on the bottom of that and one of my distressed photos that had  a swipe of worn lipstick over it was stapled on.

The flowers are of course Wendy Vecchi.  Some scrap red patterned paper was stamped with as many flowers as I coud get on it in Black Archival then some cherry spray ink and Pefrfect Pearls sprayed over. Cut them all out and added them on trying not to obscure the fabric or the photo!

Ok well it's a bank holiday in the UK today, it isn't raining at the moment but who knows whether the taps will turn on later.  

Today I have some lemon curd to make and need to do something with the rhubarb I cut yesterday and didn't use for the chutney, which is absolutely delish I have to tell you and it will be hard work waiting for a month for it to mature! 

hugs

jo

xx