Evening all, just a quickie tonight to share the weekend project.
Saturday and Sunday saw me giving my sewing machine a real good workout creating this. I've said it before and I'll say it again fabric is my true first crafting love and it was great to get all my fibres and fabrics out and just well - play frankly.
I knew I wanted to start with felt oblongs to act as a base and then start using lots of merino wool, silk throwers waste, sari silk, metallic thread and variegated thread to make lots of layers. It was really fun just layers down bits and bobs and sewing backwards and forwards to secure it all on the felt. There is also a bit of stencilling and spraying with Glimmer Mists.
On Sunday I raided the "small" fabric stash to look for co-ordinated fabric to make some flowers. I painted the back of the fabric with PVA to stiffen it slightly, let that dry and then cranked out some flower shapes (there was a lot of cranking to get through the fabric).
Right off to sort tea out and flick through a lovely new quilt book that arrived this morning - perhaps I'll use some of the stash making a quilt!
hugs
jo
Firstly on the patient front, we seem to have turned a corner yesterday, my cheeky fun loving husband made an appearance yesterday afternoon which was great. But then we did have a fainting episode whilst watching the local news (laughing too much at the presenters playing James Bond in an Aston Martin). My brother who'd come round to watch the rugby found it highly amusing to see me slapping John shouting at him to wake up. On the whole though, I think we are through the worse.
Whilst rummaging yesterday in my copious quantities of stash (purchased, looked at and not used - we've all got it haven't we) I spied a packet of 3 wooden trees and thought ooh ooh Scandinavian look. to be honest I had just been in NEXT mooching around their home wares section whilst waiting for my prescription looking at the Christmas deccies, so it may not have been a real original thought.
I started off with a tag cut from mountboard. Firstly I put a couple of coats of Hyde Park on it, swiped a candle down it to act as a resit and then put Chocolate Pudding over it. Rubbed it back with some sandpaper to reveal the green and then added Mocha Mousse, and Irish Cream Fresco Finish paints to lighten it up and add depths of distress!. Then using a real old manky wide brush (I never clean it as I want the bristles really hard) I dry brushed some Nougat on the top. I wanted a sort of weathered wood look. Added some swirls of Baltic Blue through a stencil and stamped some text in Aquamarine Archival. Finally some White Fire Treasure Gold and Walnut Ink around the edges.
The tree was painted in French Roast and Then Nougat lightly added on top. Some gentle sanding to reveal the French Roast. Well I say gentle sanding I did manage to break one of the branches at the top hence the button! This was stuck onto a piece of rough linen again stitched onto felt.
The cardboard back was from PaperArtsy, loads of layers of Chocolate pudding, Mocha Mousse, Irish Cream. Some text stamping in Aquamarine. French Roast stencilling and finally White Fire Treasure Gold and Walnut Ink around the edges.
Well I'm off to put away all the paints and inks and get out my fabric and fibres, I feel the need for some grungy stitching this morning followed by some delicate sewing this afternoon whilst watching various rugby matches on the telly.
hugs
jo
xx
Brrr, it's getting mighty chilly here in the Shires - have you got the heating on yet 'cos we certainly have (although I am enjoying settling down under one of the many blankets purchased or crocheted by moi in the evenings and the cats quite enjoy it as well)
I've not been at work this week, haven't been away just acting as nursemaid for my quite frankly very poorly husband - who'd have thought adults could get whooping cough and did you know how noisy it is and how it can make you faint and be sick? Hum no nor did I but it does, hence nursemaid role (not a natural role for me and I'm having to employ all my actor skills to do the role justice)
Anyway in between nurse duties I've been working on this.
I made a card for my niece a little while back that used oranges,browns, golds and reds in a bit of Klimt style, I really liked it and thought I'd use the same colour scheme and make something for me. It didn't quite turn out the same but I like it!
The frame was painted in nearly all the oranges and yellows in the PaperArtsy Fresco range with some Inca Gold on top and stamped with a crackle stamp in Archival Monarch Orange.
The background card was painted with numerous layers of the same oranges, yellows and red from PaperArtsy. Some Gold embossing powder was sprinkled on in places before the paint dried and that gives the lovely raised texture in places. The harlequin stencil was used with with London Bus and Cinnamon and some of the Sapphire Treasure Gold (believe the hype ladies and gentleman it really is fab). One of my new ATC sized text stamps from PaperArtsy was stamped in the Monarch Orange and finally more Sapphire and Topaz Treasure Gold in places, edges distressed and some trusty Walnut Ink to add age. Some fabric and stitching to add a bit more texture and colour.
The smaller tag was painted in a mixture of London Bus and Cinnamon and then Butternut Squash over the top. edges rubbed back to reveal the base coat. The same text stamp was used but this time in Sienna and then some Glimmer Mist in Turquoise, Suede and Tiger Lily. The Tiger Lily is the big copper splodges, the nozzle was blocked so I just took the dropper out of the bottle and pumped what was in the pipe. It falls out of the bottom in big splodges and when I dried it a bit too close it bubbled up a bit. Happy accident but I love it!
The red dahlia print is an image transfer of my one of my photographs using the Satin Glaze technique from PaperArtsy. I've sewn it on some felt to give it a bit more stability.
The flowers were a scrap of paper cut using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Strip Die, inked with Barn Door, sprayed with the same Glimmer Mists and Perfect Pearls in Heirloom Gold and a brad in the middle.
So it's taken me nearly all week to finish, but it has been nice to do something, go away to be nurse and come back do a bit more. I like how it's sort of organically grown into this thing of beauty!
Right off to check the patient!
hugs
jo
xx
I blame sport, the sheer quantity of inspiring, stunning, awesome, fantastic sport that was London 2012. I enjoyed watching every minute both on TV and in person. To see two gold medals won at paralympic events, to stand up and cheer athletics home, to scream so loud it hurt your ears, to cry as you stood together with so many people and sang the national anthem will stay with me for a very long time.
Also I just didn't want to craft. I've still been making stuff like huge quantities of jam and chutney, but I just didn't feel like getting inky.
So what made me get all the stuff out? Well going and buying new stuff last weekend at Colemans Demo Day and catching up with good friends (you know who you are xx).
The frame has been made for a little while (French Roast base coat, crackle glaze and Nougat top coat) and sat on my desk. I was going to use one of my photo's of a mussel shell I took whilst in Southwold, but the size of the photo and the frame just weren't working. I've realised that the photo needs to be incorporated into a bigger piece (next project or the one after).
So pondering on it for a bit I knew I wanted to keep it simple, the frame is gorgeous and I didn't want to overpower it, so a heart simply framed would work I figured.
I started off adding strips of ribbon, lace, fabric and fibres to a felt background. Some watered down fresco paints in Pansy and Hyde Park were added in places to give a worn shabby look.
On top of this I painted some PaperArtsy metal card with Pansy and Hyde Park and ran it through an nice new sewing tape embossing folder. Rubbed it back to reveal some silver and added walnut stain Distress Ink in places to further do the shabby thing. Stapled that to the fabric background.
After purchasing some new Stampendous mica fragments, glass glitter, embossing powder I knew I wanted to test them out and the heart seemed a good place to start! Cut out a cardboard heart using a PaperArtsy die. Painted it in Nougat, then added some walnut stain and then covered it all up with layers of gold embossing powder mixed with Vintage Photo distress embossing powder, various bits of glitter and mica sprinkled here and there. Added some eyelets which were brown but when sanded went purple (!!!!!) and edged in Walnut stain.
Then I started sewing!
Started off with some flowers and buttons and then gave it a light misting with Cinnamon Glimmer Mist Finnabair style. After this had dried I started adding various beads and pearls to give event more texture.
Finally stuck the felt to the acetate that comes with the frame and stuck that to the frame.
It was really nice to get back into things from a textile / paper perspective rather than a sugar and fruit perspective (still doing that though.lots of plums on the tree and a big sack of jars that need filling - anyone got any good plum chutney recipes?).
Right need to make a birthday card for my most gorgeous grown up niece who is eighteen today - where did that time go, but more importantly all that time in front of her to continue experiencing life.
Hugs
jo
xx
