It must be jelly 'cos jam don't ...

So the other week I went to Hope and Elvis (run by the lovely Louise) on the Wellbeck Estate near Workshop.  Oh I love going to workshops at Hope and Elvis, they are havens of peace and tranquillity, full of lovely like minded fun, artistic and creative people. Louise and the artists who run workshops are so generous with providing materials for you to play with, its always fun rummaging through paper bits, fabric bits, lace bits, threads and buttons ....

 I'm renowned for getting my head down, completely in the zone, only surfacing for the delicious lunch created by Maggie. Intense days but so inspiring.

So the latest workshop was on mono printing with Gelli plates with the gorgeous Letitia known as Mrs Bertimus.  Now I've used Gelli plates before, but always taken the fabric or the paper to the plate.  This time we took the plate to the fabric or paper and used like a stamp. Letitia showed us how to add paint to the Gelli plate, how to square of the paint with a rag, add marks to the paint that would be transferred, using stuff to act as resist on the which ever surface you were using and much more.

So I worked on some fabric and a strip of lining paper that I'd glued various bits of paper ephemera on (still haven't quite worked out how I want to use this) .  I decided on a colour palette (greys, browns and white and a touch of olive green) ) and got stuck in creating a master board of colour in a 50's Festival of Britain style.

I didn't really do a lot of mark making preferring to use the small 5x3" Gelli plate as a print block (using a small roller to spread the paint on the block) and randomly placing and overlaying colour to create depth. I also used some stencils with the Gelli plate (stencil on plate and rolling paint over, removing stencil and printing) to get more layers.

Once I was happy with it (always a hard call, when do you stop?) I had to have a think what to do with it.  Very early on in the morning I'd drawn a flower shape on some paper as a potential stamp, so decided to use some kids craft foam to make a stamp.  Collaged some paper and fabric bits on the lower half stamped, my flower, waited for it to all dry and bit and then added some free motion embroidery to emphasise the flower and added the stalk.

By this time I was mentally knackered and as I had a 2 hour drive home , decided to call it a day.

The next day (I'd sensibly booked the day off)  I added some more hand stitching and buttons to complete the picture.

I really love this way of using the Gelli plate to create subtle layers of colour and I learnt how to do free motion embroidery, so it was a win win day all round!

So this picture is for sale in my Etsy shop (theshabbydandelion)  £45.00 plus pnp.

Hugs

Jo

shabby wrist wrap #2

If you seen tonight's post on the PaperArtsy blog tonight on my take on wearable art then you might like to see the second wrist wrap I made using the spare strips.

I joined them together in the same way and did lots of zigzag stitching using pink variegated thread on my machine.  I then added lace trim to one side.

Disaster (not really in the worldwide scheme of things, but ...) I'd run out of this trim!   Plus the length of the wrap was a big long. So I cut it in half and sewed one layer on top of the other so I had lace trim on both sides and a much thicker wrap.

Attached a press stud to join and roughly over sewed the ends of the wrap in pink embroidery thread.

I love the roughness of the stitching with the softness of the fabric and lace and the stamping just peeping through!

Hugs
Jo
xx

Ideas and inspiration

Get a cup of your favourite tipple, this is a long post with lots of links!

so where do ideas and inspiration come from? Is it images, is it techniques, is it other artists, emotions, the need to say "something" themes or challenges?  

What ever it is there is plenty out there and sometimes there is none to be found and no matter how much "stuff"  (paper, fabric, yarn, paint, stamps ...) you have, they stay unused or whatever you do make you don't like and it gets discarded.

Two events have sparked my creative machine recently.  A workshop at Hope and Elvis and meeting other mixed media artists and a visit to the Festival of Quilts (FoQ) on Friday.  

I really could have done with two days at FoQ, the amount of shopping opportunities, the quilts, the art exhibitions and the artists themselves is impossible to do properly in one day.  

Whilst I like looking at the quilts, I prefer looking at the modern art exhibitions, talking to the artists and the students who have the opportunity to have a small stand to show their degree and City and Guilds work (see you can't take the encouraging librarian put of me event at a quilt show).

So what inspired me  at FoQ? Well here's a list and links so you can have a look at their work:

• Deborah O'Hare and her amazing hares, you can also see here work here 
• Annette Morgan and her image transfers 
• Caroline Bell
• Linda Onions
• Mary McIntosh
• Susan Chapman and Granary Studios,  works with Linda Onions
• Val Hughes and her gorgeous textured white felting
• Janet Clare
• Christine Chester and paper lamination's about her father 
• QuiltArt
• The Fine Art Quilt Masters exhibitions especially Gravitational Force by Susie Koren
• Kate Crossley
• Through our Hands collaborative 
• Els van Baarle
• Luke Haynes, just love the tonal backgrounds of log cabin

All of these artists use texture and colour in a contemporary way and gave me loads of ideas.

I didn't buy any ready made items apart from this oh so gorgeous red velvet tag from Linda and Susan's space.

How could you not buy something so tactile and delicious!

 If you want to see some visuals of the quilts I'd recommend going on Instagram and use the hashtag #festivalofquilts to see what everyone else has posted.

And of course I bought fabric, a lot of fabric and I'm not exaggerating. I washed most of it yesterday and my dining room table looks like a jumble sale table as you can see!

 

In terms of the shops I purchased from,here's a list:

• The Village Haberdashery (chambrays and modern prints)
• Simply Solids (modern prints)
• Sunflower Fabrics (great colour combination packs and Liberty Tana Lawn)
• Mulberry Silks for silk thread
• The most gorgeous Swedish flax threads from Linladan
• Lealu for the French print chambray

And whilst I love the modern contemporary art look most of this fabric will be used to make quilt tops, the back pile has some great prints of cats of mice and birds to make a fun scrappy quilt and the front pile is chambray's that I'll use to make a raggy quilt (look it up on Google to see examples).

Shame I've got to go back to work on Monday and not play with all this stuff!

Hugs

Jo

xx

An away day to recharge the batteries.

Its been a long time for me to have difficulty sleeping because you've got so many craft ideas racing round my brain (work issues do keep me awake, thank goodness for Iplayer, it took me 10 attempts to listen to Benedict Cumberpatch in Rumpole the other week) but last night loads of what ifs and oh would that work?

Why, well I had a fantastic day at Hope & Elvis near Worksop run by Louise on a Liz Cooksey workshop.  I spotted the workshop ages ago and Liz's use of metal and grid arrangements with mixed media elements really spoke to me.

After a horrendous journey up the M1 I made the 10.00am start - just!  Liz explained her methods and design principles and she made loads of metal elements for us to use if we didn't want to have ago ourselves. Although all materials were available Id taken a load of stuff as I'd decided I wanted to work with a neutral colour scheme.

First thing I did was nick some used teabags and dyed some cotton scraps I had and the A4 Kraft card, left them out in the courtyard to dry.

I then stated to have a play with the metal elements thinking about what I wanted to "do" Started doing some crochet with linen thread (bit of a faff, think I needed a bigger hook) and sticking. 

Once my A4 was dry I added some book pages and then layered the cotton and some silk strips on the swankiest sewing machine I ever seen, I felt like I was driving an Aston Martin, so many buttons and oh so quiet. I felt really naughty sewing on paper with such a majestic beast.

Metal and shaping and bashing, oh how I enjoyed that, all afternoon you could hear the rhythmic ringing of metal on metal out in the courtyard.

The flower on the left is one I made, I love how hitting the metal wire with a hammer of a metal block stretches the metal, flattens its and changes the colour The wire Liz supplied was malleable enough to twist and make shapes and the tendril on the flower on right was done this way.

The stems had more wire twisted round and hammered flat and were attached with some of the line thread. 

The day ended at 4.00pm and that was good because I was knackered, all that thinking and pondering had taken its toll!  I knew the piece wasn't quite finished for me as I wanted to add some pencil marks and little bit of highlight colour.  So once home got the water colour pencils out and added in the brown, purple and red. 




I did start making a more Liz inspired grid arrangement, but this one just sort of demanded to be worked on. Ive got some ideas for the grid that will form a companion to this.

It was a great day, working with all my favourite materials in a beautiful space created by Louise and talking to other like minded people creating and chatting, lovely, lovely, lovely.

Hugs
Jo
xx

Aiming to Create (ATC)

The miniature theme over at PaperArtsy sure makes you think.  Before Id even thought about doing a really mini book (Hidden Words) I wanted to work on a ATC (artist trading cards)  and I wanted to do it in fabric with a shrink plastic heart button.  Id got the idea all mapped out and even made the ATC by Bondawebbing (I now its not a word, but you know what I mean) some cotton to some felt and cut the ATC out.  And then that mini book idea hit and had to be done there and then.

So this morning I returned to the ATC.

 

I stitched round the edge and stamped and embossed in Primary Bark WOW powder the two alphabets.  I added some stencilled dots of Tinned Peas and smudged some Nougat over the text with my finger.

The brown tag was cut to fit the ATC, scrunched up to get creases and then those creased sanded to reveal the core. I used a white ink pad to stamp one of the alphabets on the tag as well.

The heart was black shrink plastic that I cut with the PaperArtsy full heart die.  Punched two holes (so that  could sew the heart to the tag) and then shrank with my heat tool.  I then painted it in Brown Shed and sprinkled some Distress Embossing powder in Barn Red  to give a rusty look. 

On the ATC I sewed some scraps of sari silk that had some red dots on it with embroidery cotton..  Sewed the button to the tag and then sewed the tag to the ATC.

I think I;ll add this to my small poetry art journal that I use to mop up spare paint, its getting quite full now with painted pages, I need to start adding other "stuff" like this ATC to complete the pages.

Hugs

Jo

xx

Have faith

Sometimes you have to trust yourself.

I very nearly painted over this last night to start again.  I felt it had got too "muddy" and that Id over worked it.

 

I couldn't really see it properly as there was no natural light.  So instead of painting over it,I put it aside and looked at it this morning.

It was ok, it wasn't too muddy, the contrast was there, the depth and texture were there. So I finished it off by adding the fabric panel, clock face and photograph elements all made yesterday.

I started off with an old canvas that had already had stuff on it. gessoed over and then added some ripped Tim Holtz tissue paper in places

On top of this, some scraped on sand texture paste and then some Grunge Paste through the Mini Harlequin stencil.  where I wasn't happy with some of the stencilling I just smooth it over. 

Texture down I started to add colour.  Well I say colour, I only used four paint colours on this: French Roast, Slate, Chocolate Pudding and Snowflake and some of you might say they aren't colours! As my mother said on the phone this morning - Joanna you tend to favour a certain "shade of browns" (you know what I'm saying- slops, slurry, cowpats).

There is some stamping, there is more stencilling with the beautiful mini Rosetta stencil, glimmer mist spraying, dry brushing and Distress Inks and paint splatters. 

The focal point is made up of scraps of fabric, organza and lace stitched together using the gorgeous delicious silks from Patricia Wood at Mulberry Silks. The colour combination Patricia puts together for the mini topics, well they are hard to resist I have to say. The photograph is one of mind I have added filters too, distressed the edges and stapled to a scrap of embossed and inked card. 

For me the creative process is just that, a process, not necessarily the end result, the finished item.  Its the journey through the stages, the complete and utter absorbtion and submersion into thinking about the colour, the texture, the design, the composition.

But I really must try some "colour"

Hugs

Jo

Linen and Tweed

This has been on my "to do " list for some time.  I love making these fabric wreaths from old wire coat hangers and ripped strips of cloth. It's a bit time consuming but really simple.

I cut the hook of the coat hanger (well John did if I'm honest) formed it into a circle and joined the ends with sellotape.  I then wound tissue tape all over the circle. 

 I cut a load of 5 inches by half an inch strips and just started knotting them on the coat hanger.  This was an old piece of course linen I had,  but I often use old duvet or table cloths from the charity shop. Its usually faded, soft and cheap!

The heart was made from some of the most gorgeous Donegal Tweed fabric from Fabric Affair that I got from the Festival of Quilts. The company is run by a lovely mother and daughter.  I spied then very early on when I arrived at the show but was determined not to spend any money (that didn't last long I can tell you).  I was admiring the gorgeous colours and the texture of the tweed (and linen) and I joked about what a good daughter I was taking my mother out for the day!  Anyway at the end of the day I'd still got some pennies left so I thought blow it and went back minus my mother who was having a sit down.  The lovely owner remembered me and asked what I'd done with my mother. she laughed when I said she gone to have a sit down as I'd exhausted her!

So I bought a bundle of lovely earthy toned tweeds. They are so thick and soft and absolutely gorgeous. They are going to be at the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching Show and I might have to save my pennies again. 

I stitched the heart with embroidery thread, not too neatly (it's ages since I've done embroidery, I need to practise).  Added a bow of some fine threads of hessian and a button.  The heart is attached with a length of suede ribbon.

All in all a complete texture overload, all in my favourite earthy neutrals!

Hugs

Jo

xx

  

Faded rose

Texture, mixed media, tactile, monotone, these words when combined with art make me happy and when I can create art that uses all these elements it makes me really happy.

Yet again this is another one of my photos of one of the roses in my garden, it was taken last autumn and I couldn't believe the faded almost papery orange colour on the rose as it slowly died. I've used it before and I will continue to use it in my art as it is one of my most favourite images. 

For the image I took some card and painted it in soft creams and stamped some text in Watering Can Archival. I then image transferred it eh rose using PaperArtsy Satin Glaze.  One I'd rubbed off the backing paper, I put one coat of glaze on, dried it and then scrunched up the card and then added more layers of glaze.  Finally some Vintage Photo Distress Stain around the edges.  

Words cannot describe how pleased I was with this, the bits of image missing the hole on the side, the creases. It looks like an old photo that has been lying in the bottom of the box or drawer, lost and forgotten. Contented sigh.

I really wanted to make something with a lot of fabric so stuck some linen to felt using bondaweb and then hessian on top of the linen. I also used strips of different fabric to make the central fabric panel as well. 

The large panel had Grunge Paste scraped on and then through a stencil around the edges as I knew everything else would be be in the middle of the fabric so no point in stencilling there!.

I wanted to keep most of the canvas quite neutral but pick up some of the colours in the image transfer to tie it altogether.  Toffee and Irish Cream Fresco paint were added in places and a little bit of  London Bus watered down plus some Hey Pesto.

The book panel at the back used twinkling H2Os (another old collection lurking in the back of the cupboard) they gave a fantastic colour wash that I then sprayed over with watered down nougat to soften and a little bit of watered down Hey Pesto. 

Lots of stitching (once I got mum to sort my machine out, thanks mum) alcohol inked staples, eyelets, flowers, tags. tissue paperleather, felt and string (lots of texture!).

At the moment this is clipped to a large A4 clipboard, it might stay like that or I might (probably should) stick to a canvas in order to add the stairs gallery. 

I can see myself using this image quite a lot, I have three more of these cracked and distress transfers, perhaps I should make some smaller canvases and start and Etsy shop???

Hugs

jo

xx

Yellow ...well sort of

Well I brashly announced on Twitter this week that I was going to use yellow, it isn't in my top ten favourite colours list and I knew I had a lot (and I mean a LOT) of yellow Prima flowers in the hoard. So in the quest to use up stuff to justify buying new stuff (flawed logic I know, but it justifies the buying new, doesn't it???) plus a photo of the primroses in my garden that were yellow,  I set to looking for stash.

Yellow paint, as I'd expected not a lot. No Yellow Submarine from PaperArtsy, only Zesty Zing, Chartreuse, Cheesecake and Vanilla.  Bit more of a root around found some old Glimmer Mists in Lemon Meringue and Sunflower and ooh look a contrasting lemony lime green.

Paper, umm hard again. No bright yellows but some muted soft buttery yellows, plus some contrasting greeny blues. 

Years, years and years ago I dabbled in scrapbooking but came to a monumental halt as having no children I got stuck on what to scrapbook (if anyone is interested I have some old simple scrapbooking books waiting to go to a good home) and stopped.  

Recently though the world of scrapbooking appears to have moved on and is very much more about home decor as well as story telling an event or reflecting on an emotion, what makes you happy and content using a more shabby single photo style layout. 

Much more my style and the concept of capturing and recording what makes me happy appealed, as sometimes we get way too bogged down in the muddy quagmire drudge of life (I was going to insert a single swear word here but figured not everyone wants to read that single descriptive word, it works for me but I appreciate and understand it might not work for you) and we need reminding that on the whole we should be grateful and thankful for the experiences in life that make us smile, be happy and content.

I also figured that social media (Facebook ands Twitter) are sort of virtual scrapbooking tools, a photograph, a description and I use those a lot to connect with friends and family.  The photos I take and share on twitter and Facebook are going to form the backbone of my physical scrapbooking.

So I started with a sheet of 12x12" and cut it down to 11x11"to fit into my new Kraft scrapbooking album (its a justified purchase, had to buy in order to start didn't I?). Added some Chartreuse with a brayer (thank you Ellen Vargo) and then some Zesty Zing. Added some Grunge Paste to give some texture and stamping using one of the new Hotpicks from PaperArtsy (love those collage big text stamps) in Archival Monarch.  Sprayed some of the Glimmer Mists (I'd forgotten how sparkly they are) to get a "yellowish" base layer.

And then the rest of the layout is pretty much "me" style, ripped and distressed, felt (cut with one of the new Tim Holtz dies), fabric, stitching and some stamping using those lovely PaerArtsy Sarah Naumann stamps which I think I will be using a lot in this album.

I just need to add a title and I think the title of this post will work and I might do a second similar layout with the same paper and paint and add the journalling in as to why this photo makes me happy.

Happy Easter everyone.

Hugs

Jo

xx

Shabby Jubilee

Well better late than never I suppose!  

To be honest the jubilee weekend sort of passed us by, we didn't watch the Thames flotilla (I couldn't get it to be honest just watching boats go by, it sort of reminded me of golf - fine if you are playing but is it really a spectator sport???), couldn't face watching ageing queens and pop stars trying to sing on a roundabout and completely forgot about the service at St Paul's until it was half way through!

I bought a Union Jack embossing folder ages ago from that well know retail park crafting emporium in the UK and thought it was about time I actually used it.  So embossed a scrap of Tim  Holtz paper, added Festive Berries and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink over the top with a bit of Chipped Sapphire as well.  It then sat on my desk for a couple of weeks (you know, just sort of lying there you occasionally pick it up, waft it about a bit, put a bit more Distress Ink on it, say you like it and put it down again).

Finally this weekend I decided to do something else with it.

Now I really enjoy working in an 8x8" format but recently I've felt the need to go bigger (now now all you smutty devils - keep it to yourself).  So went for a 12x12" sheet of green ledger old patterned paper I had knocking around (knocking around, who am I kidding, I've got piles of 12x12. I reckon I've got a tower of paper that might just make that Shard thing they are building in London look like, well a small thing).  

I put a layer of gesso over the top and then started adding colour.  Glimmer Mist in greens and blues, the same Distress Inks as I used on the flag with loads of water droplets to give that shabby look. Once that was dry I stencilled over the top in Pansy for the text and Hyde Park for the circles. Some sanding all over and Walnut Stain Distress Ink round the edges.  Finally the stamping was in Grey Stazon using Tim Holtz wings and crown.

Over this base layer are various elements. I used a Tim Holtz ATC stamp that had crowns and lions on it (tres regal)  on three ATC sized card pieces. They all had Guacamole and Mermaid Fresco Finish as a base layer. Perfect Pearls powder in blue was put over the stamping, I distressed edges and added Festive Berries round the edges.

The file folder was inked with Tumbled Glass and Festive Berries dry embossed in a folder and Walnut Stain added to highlight the embossing.  

Added my usual strips of fabric (the red horizontal strip really pops and ties in with the flag, so glad I was brave and added it in) and loads of Prima flowers to complete.

I am dead chuffed with this and might have to have a trip to IKEA to get a frame to display it in rather than popping it in a 12x12scrapbooking album. Just need to find some wall space to hang it!

hugs

jo

xx

Rum and Raisin

Well it feels like ages since I popped here and left a post (it probably is, but I'm not going to look at dates and anyway how do you quantify ages, um?).  

It's been a busy week as well what with a funeral, always emotional but sometimes more so when the person you are saying goodbye to and celebrating their life is not that much older than you (ones own mortality really gets smacked in the teeth by Dr Death). 

This was followed by an overnight trip to Leeds for the HEIST Education Marketing awards. Big hotel, posh frocks everywhere and the little ole library came second in its category, we were well chuffed.  Of course I managed to get my heel stuck in the staging when we went up to collect our award and had to have my leg yanked out forcibly in front of nearly 300 people and it was all being videoed and photographed  - only me, mind you didn't stop me bopping afterwards (bopping?  BOPPING- it could be worse I could have said boogieing!).

Anyway enough of my hectic life and back to art!

I love this, I've had it finished for well over a week and I keep smiling every time I look at it, I love the colours, I love the textures, I love the composition -  I am one proud mama to have produced this!

It's essentially made up of three components: the frame, the fabric layer at the bottom and finally the tag.

I started off with an IKEA frame and painted it in Fresco Finish in Chocolate Pudding, over the top with some crackle glaze and then a layer of Nougat with a spot of Chocolate pudding.  The brush I used had some red left on it (obviously didn't clean that brush) hence the slight hint of pink in the top layer. An oblong of calico that was painted in nougat and stamped in Coffee Archival with a large text stamp from PaperArtsy. A strip of hessian and a scrap of corrugated cardboard stitched onto that.

The second component was the fabric scraps at the bottom.  I started off with some cream coloured felt, cut the edge with the Tim Holtz scallop die and the added layers of scraps of fabric, lace and ribbon.  The felt gives a really strong but soft  base layer for all the flimsy fabric.

Finally the tag, the spots were added through a mask with Chocolate Pudding again and then Picket Fence Distress Stain over the top just to tone it down a bit.  The large PaperArtsy numbers stamp was added over the top in Coffee Archival.  

A little bit of sanding and distressed the edge and added Walnut Stain Distress Ink around the edges.  A couple of bits of fabric and the most gorgeous pink spotted grosgrain ribbon (I've been hoarding this reel of ribbon for ages and finally plucked up the courage to CUT IT!) stitched on the bottom. You'll recognise the rose photo from previous work and again it has been sanded and had some Rock Candy over the top.  A bit of string, a Prima flowers and button centre to finish.

It's the last day of our loooong Jubilee weekend here in the UK, the weather is suitably bank holidayish - rubbish (see so typically British talking about the Royal Family ad the weather), so I'm off to have a play in my craft room!

hugs

jo

xx

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

Shabby Wreath

Sometimes a stayvacation (not going away) is really good.  This week I've pottered around at home finishing of projects in my craft room, tidying it up and throwing stuff away that I know I'm never going to use. It was quite therapeutic.

I really do hate clutter, seeing it, surrounded by it clutters my brain and weighs me down and I have difficulty doing anything as I attempt to wade physically and mentally through piles of stuff. Don't get me wrong the house doesn't have to be super neat (house work really is a chore and is endured for the minimum amount of time, there are much better ways to spend my free time), lived in is fine as long as once you've finished with it put it away.

So this was once of those projects that had been half started and then left lying in my craft room since Christmas and yesterday it got finished.

I tool a wire coat hanger and wrapped some quilt batting around it and then covered in strips of calico.  to be honest the quilt batting isn't necessary but I had some odd bits hanging around (see use it up or throw it away).

Next I took some old fabric in this case some pillow cases from a charity shop purchase and ripped them into strips (I love the sound of ripping fabric such a sharp purposeful noise), then cut these into approx 4" strips.  Each strip was tied in a knot around the wrapped coat hanger until it was full. 

A bit of fluffing and ruffling to make sure the ends weren't all in straight lines and a shabby wreath is created!  I might add in some wisps of ribbon here and there to break up the white a bit but I ain't rushing to do that, I 'll just look at it for a couple of days and see whether it really needs it.

It's hanging on the craft room door facing onto the landing, so far husband either hasn't seen it or has decided not to comment! 

These pictures were taken half an hour ago outside in the damp sunshine in amongst the plum blossom and now the fog is rolling in - Spring eh!

Right I'm venturing out today to see the lovely Gabrielle for cake, coffee and a good ole chat!

hugs

jo
xx

50's retro

My husband won't be a happy bunny this week as he's at work and I'm off (we have different leave years so I'm using up some of my allocation) and of course at this precise moment in time it is sunny after a particularly wet (good) and cold (bad) Easter weekend. 

Yesterday in our house was a sewing / sowing day, husband in the green house (it's very The Good Life in our house sometimes, not quite sure I have Felicity Kendall's bottom though) sowing  seeds for the veg garden and me in the craft room sewing random bits of fabric to paper.

I like my 8x8 pages but sometimes I just want to go BIG and create something on a larger scale that I can put in a large frame.  I have a lot of wall space in my bedroom and I'm slowly filling it with art like this. 

 

The previous evening I'd been playing with some of my photographs adding finishes, textures and changing the colour, saturation etc.  I printed this one of a very faded red rose we had in the garden last year.  

I attacked it with some sandpaper to remove some of the colour, reveal some of the other colours used in printing and generally roughed it up a bit. I loved how it really made the colours change and it started to look like a hand tinted photo from the 50's that had aged and cracked a bit.  I then added a thickish layer of Rock Candy Crackle and left it to dry overnight.  

Monday morning in the rainy gloom, I  splodged some Rose Fresco Finish paint over an A3 piece of paper, using a sponge and a wet wipe.  I then stamped a large damask stamp with Maroon Archival randomly over the page to look like old faded wallpaper. 

Pulled out some scraps of fabric and started sewing them on, layering up here and there with loads of very wonky stitching!  Took some Hyde Park Fresco Finish and put a tiny amount in a mister bottle and added some water.  Shook it up to mix and they spritzed it randomly over the page especially round the edges.  Once that was dry I gessoed over the top with a roller to tone it all down.

Whilst that was drying I turned to the photo, it was looking good with that crackle on top.  Added some Fresco Finish in Beach Hut (I know it sounds weird, but it just needed some blue in amongst that green and red)  and sewed it onto some rough calico.

I started to add more layers to the background A3, first some paper strips vertically and then some corrugated card horizontally.  Finally a strip of fabric with orange, red and green in it with a riped strand of green cotton attached with some pearlised peacock blue thread (lots of stitching).  The photo was added on top. 

This A3 was then scuffed up at the edges, some walnut stain added and put on top a bigger piece of cream card that had some gesso on it and Old Paper Distress Ink added (straight to paper technique).

And this is it in all it's finished glory - just need to hang it on the wall now!

 

 hugs

jo

xx

This is the happy house

Wow, WOYWW certainly got quite a few people coming to look at little old me and my creations - thank you everyone who commented.

So what was on my work desk was this, yet another mixed media creation inspired by a fabric house Gabrielle and I saw last Saturday in a lovely quirky coffee shop.  I hadn't used this plate much from PaperArtsy yet and as it has a house on it, decision made!

I've had these scraps of fabric lying on the sofa in my craft room for ages (off cuts from the strippy quilt that still hasn't been sewn up - sigh) and I knew I wanted to use them randomly sewn on a background.

The canvas is one I've had knocking around for ages, it's had so many layers of paint and stuff on it a few more wouldn't hurt! Gessoed it and then added some sand acrylic and Victorian Velvet Distress Stain in  a shabby splodgy way.

 

The calico layer had some sand acrylic paint as well and then I stamped some text in coffee Archival, used the holes stencil from Crafters Workshop with some Antique Linen Distress Stain.  stamped the butterfly in Pale Ochre Archival and added some Cosmic Shimmer powders (green and pink) in places to make the background.

The fabric offcuts (all in pale pink, off white) were sewn on using pink variegated thread and then I rolled some gesso over the top just to flatten out the different pattern, rubbed some of the gesso back to let bits of the fabric show through. Overstamped this with the chines script stamp from the plate in maroon Archival.

The house was stamped on some thick paper and coloured with oil pastels.  Some White Picket Fence Distress Stain was put over the top just tone it down, the edges were scuffed up and then it was stuck onto some other rougher calico that was sewed onto some white felt to give a bit of padding, some weight and height but still keep the "fabricness" of the piece.

To finish off odd bits of fabric sewn on, a chipboard border from Artist Trading Post which had a little bit of Picket Fence Distress Stain on it and a fabric flower from PaperArtsy with some Victorian Velvet and Picket Fence Distress Stain added. 

It took me ages to finally finish off this piece in terms of the embellishments, I was really happy with the chipboard but it needed something else. I tried loads of buttons scattered about, no not quite right. The flower in it's white state, um sort of but it detracted from the house.  It lay on my desk for a couple of night and then this morning - yes of course the flower works it just needs toning down! 


It's a lovely sunny morning here in the Shires so i was able to take some photo's OUTSIDE, I know how fantastic!


hugs


jo
xx