IPad Painting No 1

Rose Vignette

Well I have a new toy which is rather smart and very clever and I'm a lucky girl!

This was painted with my finger using ArtRage. I like the fact that is has the palette and tools on the page.


What a lovely day it's been here in Suffolk. It's a shame I've spent most of it unblocking my kitchen sink drains!

So Near and Yet So Far!

Fearless!

This little cat was indeed so near and yet the magpie was just teasing him. There were two magpies at first but one flew away before I could grab my camera. They hopped about squawking and taunting him as he climbed fearlessly higher and higher until the remaining magpie got bored and flew off to find his friend!

I have been rather preoccupied with  The Treasure Tree . This is our animated primary resources site. I wanted to get 'The Easter Story' finished, ready for teachers to use this term. Thankfully I did, though it was a challenge to do bearing in mind the crucifixion and all.

Blackberries. Yum!

This seems ages ago now. It's a cushion I made for a friend for Christmas as she belongs to a wildlife group that focuses on the dormouse and its habitat. It was my first bit of proper free-motioning and can you believe I forgot to put it in a hoop and it all puckered up. It wasn't too bad after I'd washed it and stretched it and ironed it!

Spring in a Teacup

I finished this last week. It's only about 8" square, appliqued and embroidered onto tea-dyed calico with hand dyed silk velvet, Liberty print and vintage laces. I'm quite pleased with it.

I'm planning another one using the willow pattern (public domain) which I printed out today on and old piece of damask treated with Digital Ground (Golden). There's just something about blue and white china and I think a lot of us ladies rather like it.

It's nice to be back. Happy Spring!

Heat Distressed Fabric Flower Decoration (Tutorial)

Winter Decoration

Well here I am and I should be shopping of course. I just keep telling myself it'll be all right, everything will be bought and ready by the time Christmas comes!

So I decided to get creative in a festive kind of way.

You will need:-

White, pale blue or silver polyester organza, (it has to melt)

White panne velvet, (quite cheap and melts)
sparkly tree/package decoration or angelina fibres
cotton buds,
acrylic paint or ink,
heat gun,
fine wire,
bradawl (or something to make a hole),
common sense (safety).

 1/
Cut  in half 3 cotton buds (will make six centres) and paint the ends in a nice deep yellow or orange (I dipped mine in pearlised acrylic ink) and set them to dry.



2/

Cut up the velvet and organza into very rough 4" squares. You only need one velvet square per flower. If you don't have velvet just use organza. They are just as pretty!

To make a square make a cut and fold it diagonally to see where the other cuts should be. Organza easy to tear.




  3/
Now find a little vase or egg cup. Something that won't melt when you blast it with heat!






4/
Arrange the velvet and organza together with right sides facing up. Put a pinch of sparklies on top.






5/

Place the squares face down over the pot and blast all around the edges and a bit in the middle. (Sorry about the blurry pic). TAKE CARE and leave it a few seconds to cool down when it's done.

 6/
Make hole through all the layers and stick the cotton bud through the centre. Trim off the excess stem and give it a bit of a blast on the back. As you can see the cotton bud plastic has folded back on itself a bit. Leave to cool.










7/
All that's left to do is wrap some wire round for a hook.

Paint some twigs with white emulsion or acrylic and place in a vase.

You can try different colours too of course. This red velvet was a different type and did burn underneath. Experiment!

Happy Christmas to all you lovely, inspiring, bloggy  people! x

Meet the Girls!

Well I haven't been doing a lot of textiles lately as I've had an animated Advent calendar to get on with for our animated primary resources site www.thetreasuretree.co.uk as December is fast approaching. It's done now so I'll introduce you to the dolls I made a few weeks ago.

This is Miranda

and this is Ella

I wanted to make their faces a little different to the norm so I've used charcoal, pastel pencil and dot of white acrylic for the highlight in the eyes and then varnished it to protect it. They are made of calico, stuffed with polyester stuffing and the hair is made from banana yarn which is beautifully soft. The clothes are a bit tattered and textiley with various fabrics, buttons, beads and lace. They are about 27" long. I rather like them and goodness knows I have enough fabric to make many more!

How to Make a Bubble-Wrap Bangle

Hello again, so soon!

 painted

Well after trying the to connect to blogger from Word 2007 and failing I'm back here again having another go with the image moving thing.



Remember I was in a fusing things mood? Well I found a piece of bubble-wrap painted it (both sides) with watery acrylics, drizzled one side with Lumiere metallic paints, which I smudged about with my fingers, and dried it with the hairdryer,  which is a permanent fixture in the studio. Yes, actually I do dry my hair in there too!

 Rolled around METAL knitting needle

Slit and heated. 

Next I rolled it up around a METAL knitting needle with the metallic paint on the outside and pinned it in 4 places. This I blasted with a heat gun briefly (BE CAREFUL!) until it was fused together slightly. Then I used scissors (not dressmaking ones) to make slits along the length of it, making sure I didn't cut all the way through. Blast it again and the slits open up and fuse together.






If you notice I'm still not getting the image positioning right!

Bubble-wrap Bangle

Let it cool, take it off the needle and thread some recycled sari ribbon through with a large safety pin to make a bangle.

Of course it does look a bit like scrunched up sweet papers but with a bit more thought on colours and a little less metallic paint it makes a cheap, handy substitute for Tyvek when you either haven't got any or can't remember where you put it! There must be more ways to incorporate it into your textile pieces too as it's also soft enough to stitch.

Textiles and Collage

I honestly don't know how all you ladies manage to blog and twitter, flickr and fb, Etsy, Folksy and create at the rate you do! I am in awe of you all!

Anyway I've finally got round to a post. I have to admit we're having the bathroom refitted so there are men and tools and noise and I've shut myself away in the office -can't even have a cup of tea at the minute as no water!

Secure  10"x 8" textile

Speak Life 6"x8" stitch, fabric, text, glass on paper.
I did this 'cause I don't think we realise how our words can either  promote bad or good, life or death in our lives and the lives of others!

                                                                         White Swan 16"x20" Mixed media


One thing tends to lead another I find and having decorated the lounge I needed some new pictures to put on
the walls. All of the above are now on the walls.

Then I had an odd moment after looking at Carolyn Saxby's beads which she sells on Etsy and fancying a bit of fusing myself I looked around the studio wondering what I could blast with a hot air gun. My eyes settled on the cover I keep over my wet acrylic palette- bubble-wrap! Well blogger is driving me mad now 'cause I can't move the photos where I want them! Agghh! Fortunately the water is back on now - tea. Will tell you later about bubble- wrap. : )

A Little bit of Whimsy

Roses Red (mixed media on canvas 5"x7")

I don't know what came over me but I produced this little painting yesterday. No I hadn't received any roses although he does sometimes bring me some home from Waitrose! I think I just let myself go and be playful rather than intense about the whole art thing.

There's not another dolly yet but I think there's one in my head and I definitely don't lack materials. In fact fabric and threads, yarns, ribbons, etc I find difficult to resist these days - old or new.

Today has been grey and windy so here are some photos from the sunnier days of May.

My cherub with a little bit of Photoshopping.

A lovely variegated rose.

Young Lycidus

Papaver Orientale

Pat Austin and Johnson's Blue Geranium (lovely complimentary colours)

And finally

Allium (can't remember what. All I know is I can't pronounce it!)

I've been decorating the lounge too. The reproduction furniture now is very nice shabby chic distressed lead white! Oh and I bought a Dremel tool! Who knows what fun I'll have with that?!