Faffing About

Pave Sigaut

2012-01-28T13:15:00.000Z

This piece started out with me printing an image onto calico. The image is courtesy of The Graphics Fairy, a wonderful source of free images and I used Lesley Riley's TAP (transfer artist paper) to print the image and then iron on to the fabric. I added bits of fabric, lace and trim, some flowers I'd crocheted, buttons, beads and stitching. But then it sat half finished for a few months because it lacked a focal point and in spite of trialling several solutions nothing seemed to look right. Then for Christmas I had a set of sewing themed stamps from Toodles and Binks which includes a button card image and after stamping that out and adding buttons I had my focal point. I mounted the fabric onto mounting board covered with scrapbook papers. I quite like it now!

Cute owls

2012-01-22T11:05:00.000Z

I shall stop apologising for my poor neglected blog and just say that these are two owl birthday cards destined for young people of my acquaintance, a boy and a girl. I had a set of chipboard owl shapes as part of a pot luck box and they look really cute covered in scrapbook papers and made into a card.
This card is more my usual style:

Noel canvas

2011-10-14T09:57:00.000Z

Mmm... it's been so long since I blogged. I blame my daughter of course, I still don't have a camera so for the last few posts I've borrowed hers but the state of her room means it is not readily available. I'm not prepared to venture in in an attempt to find it myself and when she's home she can't be persuaded to look for it either.
However, my sister-in-law challenged me here to put up a pic of the noel canvas I made recently so I've managed to get a reasonable photo with my camera.

Julia chose nearly the hottest day of the year to run an all day Christmas card class at Tidworth and asked if I'd like to come along and do a spot. So half the ladies chose to make a canvas with me and above is what we made. I used distress stains to cover the canvas super quick and the baubles and little banner underneath are made from grungepaper with the bauble (Elusive Images) stamped onto acetate and mounted over the grungepaper. The twig was kindly donated by my apple tree.
Everyone chose their own colour scheme and each was different and they came up with some combinations I wouldn't have thought of but which looked fabulous. I like to see everyone take my idea as their starting point but come up with their own look.
The day was really enjoyable thanks to all the hard work Julia put in to the preparation and the day, to Amy, my niece, who kept the coffee flowing, and to all the lovely ladies who came along to play and get inky fingers.
Apart from this I haven't been doing too much lately: cards for birthdays etc., ATCs when I just want to play and try out new stamps. I've been reteaching myself crochet, something I used to do years ago but had more or less forgotten so I've been using the very useful book by Jan Eaton, '200 crochet blocks' and just doing samples of each of them to get comfortable doing the stitches and working patterns. Great for doing in the evening while watching tv.
Full of good intentions to be back soon!

Odds and ends

2011-06-05T18:56:00.000Z

Here's a collection of odds and ends of things I've been playing around with over the last few weeks. This is my journal page ready for July.

I altered a mint tin here: coloured with alcohol inks and added a bottle cap and some ideaology bits. There are micro beads filling in the bottle cap and beads on the lid and cord.

I bought this tin of pins because I liked the tin with its polka dots but I decided it needed a little label on the lid so I stamped some calico with a Tim Holtz stamp and the pincushion is a Hero Arts stamp that I stamped and coloured separately on calico and then ironed on with bondaweb.
And finally another apple: I traced round the largest and smallest nestabilities and outlined the shape with stitching. The fabric is some I tie dyed a few years ago!

Apples again

2011-05-15T15:20:00.000Z

I'm still playing about with apples on and off and am making a 6x6 inch square book incorporating different techniques using apples as the motif. I die cut 4 apples and stuck them to the page to make a pattern and then noticed the negative shape in the centre. I remember that this was an exercise when I took a creative sketchbooks class a few years ago and we were doing pattern making but it is not something I have played with since. However this time I traced the shape and cut a stamp from thin foam and stamped with it using Big and Juicy ink pads.

First of all I stamped it all over a page and it became a tessellated image, looking a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.

Then when I stamped it individually I realised it looked like a flower so I added a centre to it.

Then I stamped it in green and it became leaves so I cut them out, gave them a red flower centre and stuck them in a different pattern.

Good fun - must do more often!

June calendar page

2011-05-15T14:58:00.000Z

Here's my June journal page already to go. I used bunting stamps that I ordered from Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press and there are so many different designs in the set - they are great fun to play with. The background is marbled using shaving foam - it smelt lovely for ages!

May calendar page

2011-04-03T15:28:00.000Z

I'm really ahead of myself here and have done May's journal page already even though I've only just started filling in April. Using my favourite colour here and the cute Paper Artsy houses.

Craft Stamper free ezine

2011-04-02T17:39:00.000Z

Craft Stamper magazine is offering a free Best of 2010 e-zine on its website here. I subscribe to the magazine and always find plenty of inspiration inside so it's worth checking it out.

Printer's tray

2011-03-25T11:13:00.000Z

I received a Seven Gypsies printer's tray for Christmas and this week I got round to filling it up. I sprayed the tray with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls (present from Tim at the Artsycrafts day!) and used Basic Grey Scarlet Letter papers for the backing and then I just added lots of bits and pieces I had previously made, stamped, embellished etc. but never found a home for. I made some fresh pieces too to fill up the gaps and I'm really thrilled with the result.

April calendar page

2011-03-13T18:38:00.000Z

I also finished my April calendar page today, in plenty of time and without an apple in sight.

Tulips this month, one of my favourite flowers, and the polka dot stamp over the background - using it on everything at the moment.

Apples

2011-03-13T18:30:00.000Z

I'm a bit obsessed with apples lately since I bought a Nestabilities apple die set. I used them in this month's calendar page here and I zentangled one while listening to The Count of Monte Cristo on the radio:

I scanned the picture and it's come out quite large but in fact is only about 5 inches square.
Then I used the smallest apple in the set to cut a stencil from acetate and stencilled some black fabric with Stewart Gill True Colour paint which covers dark fabric really well. When dry I overstamped polka dots with chestnut metallic paint. This is the finished piece:

I had some paint left over on my palette so found a scrap of calico and stencilled a few more apples to use up the paint. Then I decided to use the scrap piece to try out stitching etc. to see what worked. I also used the nestabilities to actually cut out a couple of apples from the fabric and the Cuttlebug handled that very well. I liked my efforts on the scrap piece so ended up finishing it off as a very mini quilt, about postcard size:

If I'd planned the piece I probably wouldn't have done 2 red apples on the top row, 2 green on the bottom, but that was just the way I did it and I like the overall finished piece. The apples have stem stitch round them and the border has French knots. Now I've just got to get round to doing something similar with the main black piece.

Calendar 2011

2011-03-04T15:01:00.000Z

Last year I saw the fabulous calendar that Kate made over on the Kathryn Wheel and thought I'd like to have a go, but I probably wouldn't have got round to it if I hadn't then seen it in Craft Stamper Magazine. So I have started this year and so far have kept it up - not only making the pages in time for the beginning of the month but actually filling in all the squares! So here are the first 3 months. I tried photographing them both indoors and outdoors, Jan is actually purple but came out blue indoors and pink outdoors, and March doesn't show the true green either. Ah well.

Artsycrafts with Tim Holtz

2011-03-03T19:18:00.000Z

Oh dear, my blog is sadly neglected. Partly because I don't have a camera at the moment (had to borrow my daughter's for this post) and partly because I haven't really been doing anything very productive.

However, I was lucky enough to go to the Artsycrafts event last Friday for a wonderful class with Tim Holtz and another wonderful one with Lin and Leandra. I went with my daughter and we had a lovely, very full day which really lived up to all the anticipation. And here is the Configuration box I made in Tim's class, finished off at home with a few extra bits and pieces added.

It's crammed full of goodies, most of which we got on the day, as well as the box and a pile of papers we had a bag full of embellishments and a selection of Ranger products.
And here's the little house we made with Lin and Leandra, also good fun and much messier than Tim's class (the white paint on my black jumper hasn't come off....):

So sweet! So many people put so much work into making the day go without a hitch and making it something really special which I think everyone there enjoyed.

Cotton Reel

2010-10-31T12:06:00.000Z

A few weeks ago I was able to visit the Stamp Attic and buy a Collections Elements spool kit. Above is what I made with one of the spools - I don't think I meant it to be quite so pretty and the pink is more a raspberry colour in real life but it was dictated by the papers I chose (Creative Imaginations Bliss that I've had quite some time). Here's the back - I decided to use the Bind-it-All to make holes and lace the spool together rather than try to stick it.

A fun project!

Stewart Gill pasifika collection

2010-10-27T16:01:00.000Z

I had a lovely surprise last week and found myself in the vicinity of Rainbow Silks. I've bought from their website before but had long wanted to actually visit the shop so I enjoyed a lovely browse and had to buy a few items to make it worthwhile! I wish I lived closer so I could visit regularly and I would love to attend some of their classes. But the journey up the M3 and the M25 is enough to put anybody off!
I had already purchased the new Stewart Gill pasifika stencils but took the opportunity to buy the Oceania set of True Colours paints (of course now I wish I'd bought the Tribal tapa set as well as they are equally gorgeous).
So this afternoon I had a little play with the stencils and paints on some brown wrapping paper courtesy of Amazon and the result is above. I haven't decided what I will use it for yet but I love the result!

Woven Bowl

2010-10-23T16:24:00.000Z

This little bowl is inspired by this post here. Celia at Cheshire Cheese showed a picture of how she was inspired in turn by Lois Walpole and used a corrugated card cut into petal shapes to weave strips of fabric into a bowl. Well that reminded me that I had 3 of these:

I vaguely remember cutting them using a papercraft template and thought they would be useful for something but they got put to one side and forgotten about until now! I already had a ball of 3 knitting wools wound together so I wound the wool in and out of the petals pulling the wool enough to form the bowl shape. When I finished I just buried the wool ends in amongst the threads. I turned the ends of the petal back and painted them then added some turquoise gold Moonglow embossing powder and heated it to give the lovely gold glints. Of course if I'd been sensible I would have done the painting and embossing first as the heat gun was trying to melt the glitzy bits of wool but I didn't know if the idea would work and was just trying it out. It was so successful I didn't want to unwind it all to do the painting then rewind!

So, thanks Celia for the inspiration!

Ipod holder

2010-09-16T15:40:00.000Z

I decided to make a little felt holder for my ipod so I can find it when it's in my handbag. I used some ordinary felt as a base and needlefelted some wool tops to it to make it a bit more interesting. I stitched some running stitch then added a couple of wrapped washers. The big washer is also beaded but I couldn't get the beads to show up very clearly.

For the lining I used some of that non woven stuff that's not really material that came wrapped round my daughter's laptop when she bought it. It's black and very thin but robust so it made the ideal lining material.

Hopefully I won't have to ferret around in my bag so much from now on!

Artsycrafts tickets

2010-09-15T15:03:00.000Z

I have tickets to the Tim Holtz masterclass! See here if you don't know what I'm talking about! I'm thrilled to have managed to get tickets for my daughter and I, it was quite a scrum getting online and they sold out in 40 mins so anyone who missed out has my sympathies. But I'm not so sympathetic that I'd give up my place! Now all I have to say is that Britain had better not be snowbound come Feb 25th .....

Paintsticks piece

2010-09-01T17:04:00.000Z

I've managed to finish a piece I've been working on off and on for a few months (my usual rate of progress!) A while ago I bought some new colours of Markal paintsticks so I tried them out on some scraps of fabric using Ten Seconds Studio texture moulds. I coloured a couple of the pieces and a background cotton fabric with Adirondack colourwash spray, then cut the pieces up and arranged the interesting bits on the background using Bondaweb to attach them. I've added stitch, beads, sequins and some gold cord to frame the piece. I die-cut 3 flowers from some gold stuff (that's the extent of my knowledge!), toned them down with patina glimmer mist and added them with beads and stitches.
I had to take the picture on my phone as my camera seems to have given up on me so that's yet another excuse for a poor photo. Must finish paying for the work I've had done on my kitchen recently before I think about a new camera.

ATCs

2010-08-15T17:19:00.000Z

Yesterday I finished the samples ready for my next but one class so as a reward I had a little play and made a couple of ATCs.

This one uses Paperbag studio images, the little girl looks very like my daughter when she was small - I do a double take every time I see this image.

This uses PaperArtsy stamps coloured with Promarkers. Both colour schemes aren't my usual choice and I always struggle a bit with green so I'm pleased with the way they turned out.

Today has been spent wrestling my garden into submission - much less relaxing and I now ache all over.

Secret Garden canvas

2010-08-08T16:39:00.000Z

This is a canvas I made for a class last week at Kraft Crazy at Tidworth. As you can see it was heavily influenced by the pieces we did at the Artsy Crafts weekend with Lin and Leandra and the tissue paper flower in particular was something we made there. The background has got rather washed out by the flash but uses the Paper Artsy hot pick stamps. We all got nice and mucky making it and everyone seemed pleased with their efforts.

I've still been playing about with the henna patterns I found at Henna page and here are a couple of pages I made in my sketchbook.

I had some paper that I had sprayed with glimmer mists and I cut it into triangles and then arranged them in patterns on the page and stuck them down. Then I doodled patterns on and around them - great to do in front of the telly! I love the results and could just go on and on!

Cosmic Shimmer UTEE

2010-06-06T14:51:00.000Z

Yesterday I did a class at Kraft Crazy in Tidworth using the Cosmic Shimmer UTEE. It comes in a range of scrummy colours and all with a gorgeous glimmer. We managed to avoid burning ourselves, each other and the shop but the smell got quite strong, with 7 people heating embossing powder at the same time and it was pretty messy as the powder does tend to blow everywhere. All those who didn't drink their coffee quickly found it coated in a layer of powder! These are the cards we made:

We used a chinese coin to make the seal in the second card and one of the ladies managed to get the coin completely submerged in the UTEE. She looked to me to work out how to get it out (not unreasonable!) but I was too busy laughing to be any use at all and eventually she managed it herself. On the last card I rubbed distress stickles over the UTEE arch and it gave a lovely rough finish which looks like stone and I was really pleased with this effect.

Artsy crafts projects

2010-05-31T11:43:00.000Z

Now that the second Artsycrafts weekend has taken place I can show you the fabulous projects we made. First up is the canvas in the Mediterranean mix colourway and it's a lovely sampler of a multitude of techniques and products that we got to try. Although we all started from the same point everybody's was different and as I went round the tables looking at all the others I wanted to try each colour combination, they all looked so great. Notice the rose? I'd seen the instructions for these on various people's blogs but had always thought life was too short. Well, now I've made one, it looks great, but ... life's too short!

This is the tree we made, all the embellishments are made of metal.

And finally this cute birdhouse, again the piece behind the birds is embossed metal. It was a wonderful weekend and I'm thrilled with the pieces I made and gateful to Lin and Leandra for the inspiration.

Hands up!

2010-05-31T09:59:00.000Z

I've used my hand as inspiration for several pieces, mainly because I can't draw but even I can manage to draw round my hand, just like we all used to do when we were kids. This first image is a machine embroidered piece I did quite a while ago as a mini quilt and which I've always been pleased with.

I then decided to use my hand as a shape to fill in with zentangles and this is the result.

And then I looked at this and thought how good it would look embroidered. I dug out a piece (very bright!) of fabric that I tie-dyed ages ago when my daughter and I had a fun session, and this is the result:

I really enjoyed doing this, I made it up as I went along rather than drawing it on paper first and copying, I just used a disappearing marker pen to draw lines as I was about to stitch them.

Then, on Chris Gray's blog herehttp://chris-gray-textile-art.blogspot.com/2010/05/on-roll.html (always inspiring, love what she does) she had a link to the Henna page which is a wonderful resource full of patterns used in henna designs on hands. Like Chris I particularly liked the North African designs and I spent a wonderfully relaxing evening yesterday in front of the tv drawing triangles.

Don't these look great! The patterns are all broken down to their simplest elements then you add more detail each time to get to the more complex designs. Drawing for dummies! So I'm on a roll now and considering how I can stitch these triangles into a band sampler on canvas .... I love it when all these random inspirations come together.

Artsycrafts weekend again

2010-05-12T08:23:00.000Z

Well, I had a smashing weekend at the Artsycrafts event run by Leandra from Paperartsy and Lin from L. B. Crafts. The weekend was very well organised, they had excellent support from Jo, Lynne and Karen and the whole thing was a pleasure from beginning to end. It was very fast paced though, and they worked us hard but it was lovely to have 3 completed projects (all but a few tweaks and final sticking down) to bring home. Another group are going in a couple of weeks time so they have asked us not to show the pieces until after that but they were all crammed with techniques and interesting products that it was great to have a play with.
Lin has some pictures up on her blog Yours Artfully and I am in one of the photos - thankfully she caught me when I was actually working hard!
Now I have to start saving to go again ....

Artsycrafts weekend

2010-05-06T17:56:00.000Z

I'm lucky enough to be going to the Artsycrafts weekend on Saturday organised by Lin from L.B. Crafts and Leandra from Paperartsy. Lin has promised we will get messy and suggested gloves for those who don't like mucky hands but I reckon gloves are for wimps! Coming back with inky fingers will prove I've been! I've also got birthday money to spend in a relatively guilt-free way so that will add to the pleasure. Good fun ahead.

Upcoming classes

2010-04-11T12:24:00.000Z

I have 2 more classes coming up at Kraft Crazy in Tidworth. The first is Sat 1st May 10-12 and we're making cards using the new distress inks with a really bright spring like look. The second class will be on Sat 5th June 10-12 using Cosmic Shimmer UTEE. I haven't had a chance to have a go with that yet so I'm really looking forward to having a play with it and seeing what I can come up with.
All welcome, phone Kraft Crazy on 01980 844010 to book.

Even more exciting news is that my sister in law, Julia, and I will be holding a day long class on Sat 26th June at the Community Centre in Tidworth. The day will run from 9.30-4.30pm and will include lunch and beverages. The cost for the day including all materials is £55. Julia and I haven't finalised the projects yet but we hope to include things we don't usually have time to cover in a two hour session and it will be a mix of our two different styles. So far we have come up with a desk set and a wall hanging but there will be more! It's aimed at those who want to take their crafting beyond the basics and all are welcome. If anyone is interested leave me a comment and I will contact you.

In the meantime I've been playing round with ATCs lately and here's a selection:

Easter cards

2010-03-25T09:04:00.000Z

Two quick and easy Easter cards, Crafty Individual stamp and Brenda Pinnick papers. Very spring like.

Texture paste sample book

2010-03-25T09:00:00.000Z

Last July (that long ago! I thought it was about October!) I played around with texture paste and fabric and made a load of samples - if you click here you can see them covering my dining table. I'd been meaning to put them into some sort of book and finally a week off work has given me the time to get on with it.

I tried out 3 different texture pastes (Dreamweaver, texture gel and gesso) and knew I'd made notes at the time of what I'd used on each piece but of course I couldn't find them. Eventually I found them in the first place I'd looked - it had obviously seemed sensible at the time to use the back page of the notebook. So it's now a more useful record than just leaving them shoved in a plastic bag.

New Distress Inks

2010-03-07T18:24:00.000Z

Like many people in Blogland I knew I had to have all 12 new colours of Distress inks as soon as they appeared and I decided to make a sampler of the colours based on a project I found on the Ranger website here. I applied ink to some old book pages using the applicator tool and stuck the whole piece to a canvas also coloured with ink (stormy sky, rusty hinge and bundled sage - don't you have to have them just for the names?!). The mosaic squares are meant to be stuck on at an angle, the canvas is meant to be straight but as usual my photography skills make everything look lopsided. The really fun bit, of course, was selecting the embellishments. Love all the ink colours - buying them all was definitely the right decision.

The sampler was a welcome relaxation after a traumatic start to the weekend. About 11pm Friday evening water started gushing behind the kitchen sink, the stopcock is outside in the road and guess who couldn't turn it off in the dark! I did eventually find a lever under the sink which I managed to turn to stop the leak but imagine my daughter and I at midnight on our hands and knees in about 3 inches of water mopping up the kitchen floor. The plumber is coming Monday morning.

My class last weekend (see post below) went well apart from the fact that I forgot to take the birdhouse stamp and how can you make a card featuring a birdhouse without a birdhouse stamp? I was so chagrined that I offered to go home and get it (only 50 miles away), but Linda, one of the class, came up with the solution. For some reason I'd put a birdhouse I'd stamped on a scrap of card in the box and everyone used that to draw round and then overstamped with a background stamp.They all looked very good!

Upcoming classes

2010-02-05T14:51:00.000Z

I'm teaching a class tomorrow morning at Kraft Crazy in Tidworth called Inky ideas - some more techniques using distress and alcohol inks. I haven't got the samples here to show but I do have those ready for my class on 27th February which is about memory capsules. Here are the projects we will be making:

The smallest frame is actually a little (2 inch square) accordion book and here is the inside:

And finally back at the beginning of December I went to a class at Rumpelstiltskin in Broadwindsor and Tania gave me a cigar box to decorate. I didn't finish it at the workshop but finally got it done this week (you can tell I've had a week off work!) and here it is:

It's holding my metal moulding tools.

If only I didn't have to go back to work on Monday I might get some more half completed projects done. Ah well.

Goddesses

2010-02-05T14:32:00.001Z

My daughter and I were inspired by Linda's art dolls on her blog Eclectic Visions of an Altered Journey. I've linked to just the latest one but if you scroll further back you will find more. So we decided to produce versions of our own. We used an old Barbie (knew she'd been kept for a reason!) and some Mold n Pour to make a mold of a face and produced it in fimo. The body is chipboard and we've added Stewart Gill paint, stencils, flowers, skeleton leaves and trims. My daughter drew the shaped paper templates and as is fitting her two are tall and slim whereas mine is rather shorter and squatter. Here's mine:

And here are my daughters':

Thanks to Linda for the inspiration!

How lucky am I!

2010-01-27T18:17:00.000Z

I'm thrilled to be the winner of a giveaway from Lesley Riley, a textile artist whose work I have admired for a long time. When I first discovered art quilts and contemporary textiles a few years ago Lesley's was one of the first websites I found and I loved her fragments and dolls. It was a real revelation to see scraps and images used in that way and to realise that pieces of fabric didn’t have to have perfect finished edges and that fraying all added to the character. I still have in my inspiration folder a picture of a Frida doll that she made and that I printed off but I never imagined that I would actually own a piece of her work.
Click here to see what I've been lucky enough to win. I'm the grand prize winner! Thanks so much Lesley!

Christmas cards

2009-12-12T16:57:00.000Z

Here are some of the Christmas cards I've been making this year.

These three cards were ones I made for my last class at Kraft Crazy in Tidworth, each done using the new Elusive Images Christmas stamp sets Damask Reindeer and Harlequin Christmas, 2 gorgeous sets of stamps. And the next 3 are ones I'm giving out this Christmas:

Finally, I wrapped some bars of chocolate to give out as small gifts and I think that's me all Christmassed out!

However, I think I might be coping with Christmas slightly better than some of my fellow bloggers - read this from Ric-Rac and if you scroll back a few posts you can also read her attempts to get her family to change the toilet roll!

Sue Roddis Workshop

2009-12-12T16:32:00.000Z

Last Saturday I was lucky enough to go to the Stamp Attic for a workshop with Sue Roddis. Above is what we made - a lovely little row of houses and here's the back with the picket fence!

Sue was a great teacher and the day was a welcome reminder of just what can be achieved with cardboard, pages torn from an old book, inks and stamps. I also liked having a go with Wendy Vecchi's stamps and also a girl from Stampotique - bought one of those for my daughter for Xmas!

The Stamp Attic is a bit of a trek from Dorset but my fellow crafters also thought it was worth the effort as some had come from Leicester, Essex and Cheltenham. The shop is so brimful of stamps, papers etc. it was well worth the trip and I hope I'll get the opportunity to attend future workshops.

Thanks to both Sue and Wendy for a lovely day.

Burning Issues

2009-11-22T14:19:00.000Z

The other workshop I went on this week was at Stitchncraft at Shaftesbury and was all about using the soldering iron with fabric, run by Margaret Beal. Margaret was also very generous with her techniques showing us lots of different things, many of which can be found in her book Fusing Fabric. I had already bought the soldering iron that she sells (it has a particularly fine tip) but hadn't got round to having a go. Well, it's much easier to do it the first time with the expert there guiding you through it. It really is very easy though and was just like drawing round shapes with a pen except that you didn't then have to cut them out as the cutting was all done at the same time. We each made a sampler using both the motifs we cut out of the organza and the negative strips left behind. Then the second piece was one we did very quickly at the end just using cut up pieces of organza and fusing them to felt. I came home with lots more cut out motifs and plan to have a go at making some cards with them.

P.S. The scale of the photos is quite misleading as the second piece is only about a third the size of the sampler at the top!

Silk Paper

2009-11-22T14:03:00.000Z

I've had a week off work and have had a bit of time to go on a couple of workshops and do some playing. Last weekend I went to a silk paper workshop at Broadwindsor, organised by Tania from Rumpelstiltskin and run by Janet Gibbins. It was good fun and we managed to produce 7 different pieces during the day, all made slightly differently so we were introduced to a good range of techniques. I also had a play one day back at home and these photos are a mix of pieces I made on the day and bits I did here. The ones with inclusions have hydrangea flowers embedded in them. I particularly like the pieces manipulated into folds and holds and can see them with beads and stitches in them.

The leaves were made by pressing fibres directly on to the backs of leaves and felting them in place - we chose ones with nice clear veins and they stand out really well.

Doodle Book

2009-11-21T15:52:00.000Z

I purchased the book Stitching the Textured Surface by Lynda Monk and Carol McFee and the publisher d4daisy is offering online classes to accompany it. The first class was to make a doodle book using painted baby wipes and here is mine.

The baby wipes have a lovely soft feel to them and a lovely sheen. I used Brusho paints to dye them and the colours were very bright at first but dried to a soft pastel shade - I think it was that they made me go uncharacteristically girly and stitch bows to the front! I have a whole pile of painted wipes still to use as once I got going it was very more-ish. Of course I should have worn gloves as it has taken a week for the blue to disappear from around my finger nails.

Christmas & Calendar

2009-11-21T15:40:00.001Z

These cards were ones I did for a class at Kraft Crazy, Tidworth a couple of weeks ago now. My starting point was inspired by vintage - I wanted to try out some of the techniques you see on vintage look cards. Somehow though, they all ended up looking just like more of my cards! However we did do paper pleating and paper pricking, used buttons, tags, an old fashioned image and paper snowflakes. I got a bit carried away with the amount of things included on the cards and the paper pricking one bottom right took ages to make. Everyone was glad to get to the button tree where the most time consuming bit was selecting the buttons! The two cards on the left both used some of the My Mind's Eye Vintage Christmas papers and I thought it was good of me to actually give away some of that yummy paper in a class!

The image in the frame in the bottom right hand card doesn't show very well but it's a paper pricked sprig of holly. It's actually a rubber stamp that I stamped on scrap paper and then pricked round the outline to produce the image on the paper underneath - another way of using stamps which adds to their versatility.

Next week is another class with Christmas as a theme - this time using new Christmas stamps from Elusive Images.

I've also made myself a desk calendar for next year using Cosmo Cricket papers and my Bind it All to put it together.

Mermaids and Fairies

2009-10-17T18:00:00.000Z

Last Saturday my daughter and I went to a class with Tania at Rumpelstiltskin in Broadwindsor and had a go with Paverpol. The whole thing was M's idea as she had seen the samples in the shop and wanted to have a go. I was way outside my comfort zone as I'm no good at doing anything that's supposed to look realistic (in so far as mermaids can be considered to be realistic!). But look what we made! Mine is the mermaid on her rock and M made a fairy sitting on a log - I was amazed that I could produce something like this and it was good fun if very messy. M is so taken with the Paverpol that she has now ordered a litre tub plus bits and pieces to go with it and is impatiently waiting for it to arrive so she can have another go. We started off with wire twisted into a vague shape, wrapped with silver foil and then with strips of t-shirt fabric. Bigger pieces of t-shirt were used to cover the tail and then bits of lace were wrapped round to give texture and pattern. M draped larger pieces on her fairy to create her skirts. The material was all dunked in the Paverpol first as this then acts as a glue and as it dries it hardens completly so that the folds in the drapes stay put.It's a very strange texture and I must admit the best bit was peeling the stuff off my fingers once it had dried!

On Sunday I went back to Tania's, on my own this time, and felt much more comfortable playing with silk rods and cocoons. I did a canvas which is still a work in progress as I feel it needs something else yet, but I did finish this bracelet (modelled here by M).

It's made from split silk rods rolled up and threaded onto ribbon with beads and pieces of sari silk knotted in between. Great fun!

It's back to stamping now as the two new Christmas sets of Elusive Images stamps that I ordered have arrived and I am making the samples for my class at Kraft Crazy at the end of November. One down so far and three to go! The sets I'm using are Damask Reindeer and Harlequin Christmas - both gorgeous.

And tomorrow it's back to Tania's for an altered art club - have to think what to take with me to work on.

Stampbord

2009-10-05T15:53:00.000Z

On Saturday I taught a class at Kraft Crazy in Tidworth using Stampbord and here are the samples:

According to the American blogs Saturday was World Cardmaking Day but as it happens we only made one card (back right), the other projects were a matchbook notebook, a fridge magnet and a key ring. Most of the ladies at the class hadn't actually stamped on Stampbord before and I think they were all impressed by the quality of the surface and the difference it makes to the stamped image. The Pierrot stamp from Elusive Images really showed that up well. It was good fun as usual and it's on to Christmas next time!

Beeswax Canvas

2009-09-20T18:50:00.000Z

Another workshop at Rumpelstiltskin in Broadwindsor, this time using the melting pot. For the first time I had a go with beeswax and we each painted a mini canvas (just two and a half inches square), covered it with beeswax and added a tiny scrapbook paper image. Here's my result with gold rub n'buff added, a metal photo corner, ricrac and a crochet flower and button. Quite cute though I'm not fond of the smell of the beeswax.

Playing with metal

2009-09-12T12:27:00.000Z

A couple of weeks ago I went to a workshop at Rumpelstiltskin in Broadwindsor run by Tanya and we played around decorating metal. I've had the odd go before but not invested in the tools or done anything large but thanks to Tanya this is what I produced!

As always the photo is rubbish but hopefully it gives you an idea. I decided to do a sampler for my mirror and cut the metal into 9 pieces which are each decorated differently using as many of the tools as I could. The top right and bottom left pieces are both done using a moulding mat but the others are all just done with the various tools. The pieces have been coloured with alcohol inks and the whole piece is really bright!

Of course, I now know I need a set of tools for myself but my house has to be rewired the week after next and that is going to cost serious money so I'm trying not to spend money on yet more stuff. After all I could carry on creating for about 20 years just using up what I've already got!

Many thanks to Tanya for another fun workshop. She has a really nice selection of mixed-media workshops between now and Christmas so I have signed up for several more!

Thread holder - inside

2009-07-28T17:50:00.002Z

Doreen asked what the inside of my thread holder looked like so here's a couple of photos to show you:

And here's what the original beige plastic holder looked like!

Alcohol inks again

2009-07-26T15:21:00.007Z

I did another class yesterday at Kraft Crazy in Tidworth using the new colours of alcohol inks. I made the projects bright and summery to really show off the new colours and the sun came out for one day at least in honour of the occasion!

The card below uses a technique I found on Patti Behan's blog where she has a video tutorial showing how you can use alcohol inks to make an animal print - very clever!

I love all the new colours, especially the brights, much more my colour range than the original selection (even though I've used them loads as well). Also love the birdcage stamp from Elusive Images on the middle card.

2nd thread holder

2009-07-26T15:10:00.006Z

I've finished the second folder to hold all my DMC threads. I made it in the same way as the first but with a different colour scheme. Here's the band sampler on canvas I made to go on the front:

And here is the finished folder:

And a picture of the two holders together:

Playing with texture paste

2009-07-10T14:45:00.003Z

I've been reading Stitching the Textured Surface by Lynda Monk and Carol McFee and decided to do some texture paste samples. I didn't have the products used in the book but they said to try different types so I used what I had: Dreamweaver embossing paste and Winsor & Newton coarse texture gel and gesso. I used a variety of materials: calico, hessian, velvet, nappy liner, butter muslin etc. and my dining table is now covered with samples drying. The texture gel and embossing paste are used up so I've had to stop! I'll leave them overnight to dry and then I'll start adding colour and cutting them up. The book is excellent by the way, wonderful clear photos, lots of inspiration and I'm only about a third of the way through so far.

I used Stewart Gill stencils, Tim Holtz masks and Tattered Angel masks (plus my comb but maybe we won't talk about that!)

This is what my dining table looks like at the moment - most of the samples are white on white so don't show up too clearly but wait for the colour!

More fabric painting

2009-07-05T08:38:00.005Z

I've started working on a thread holder to house all my DMC threads. It will be the same as the Anchor one posted earlier but I've used red/orange/yellow this time. Here's the material painted and stencilled with Stewart Gill paints. It's much brighter in real life but useless photography is to blame again! The back of the folder is made up ready but the front is waiting on me stitching the band sampler which I'm doing bit by bit in the evenings watching tv.

I went to Newbury Stamp show yesterday and spent far too much money as always. I bought some Glimmer Mists and screens which I have been coveting for some time so I'm looking forward to having a play with those - much more rewarding than cleaning the bathroom which is what I should be doing!

Mixed Media Canvases

2009-06-21T16:33:00.005Z

Yesterday I went to Rumpelstiltskin at Broadwindsor Craft Centre and did a mixed media class with Tania. Yes, I have nearly all the stuff we used at home already but I rarely sit down for 3 hours to play with it and if I do I'm paralysed by the choices instead of just getting on and making something. Also it means I would have to clear up all the messy stuff myself - much better to have glitter and angelina all over Tania's floor! Here are the pieces finished off at home because I couldn't commit myself in too much of a hurry as to where exactly I wanted to stick each piece!

The green piece is actually half the size of the blue but I scanned them both as my photographs turned out rubbish! We painted small canvases with a variety of paints then stuck down some torn scraps of sari fabric with beading and sequins still on. We painted over the fabric, added tiny beads, glitter and embossing powder and zapped it with a heat gun which made the sari fabric distort. We then heated and painted some tyvek and stuck that on along with moulding mesh and a bit of friendly plastic on the blue canvas. I added some leaf beads to the bottom of the blue piece and a couple of buttons to the green one.

Two other ladies did the class with me, profolly and her friend Jo and profolly has posted one of her pieces on her blog here. I think we all had a fun afternoon.

Thread holder

2009-05-24T12:03:00.004Z

It just goes to show how good a long weekend is for me - I can actually get something started and finished all in one go instead of having it hanging around for days, weeks, months... Though I have to admit that this is something I have had in mind to do for years!

A long time ago I bought 2 LoRan folders to hold all my embroidery threads and I like the way the threads are held on the cards and ready to use but have never cared for the plastic brown cover so I thought I could make a new one. Well, eventually, here it is, so much smarter than the original shown above:

I used the fabric that I painted and stencilled with Stewart Gill paints (see previous post) and the band sampler that I finished stitching a couple of weeks ago. It holds all my Anchor threads so now I just have to make another one for all my DMC threads. Look out for that post in a few years from now!

Fabric Paint Sample Book

2009-05-22T16:45:00.007Z

I have finally finished the Stewart Gill sample book that I started over 18 months ago! It's been sat in pieces in a basket looking at me reproachfully all those months, well over half done but somehow I never seemed to find the time to get back to it. But I finally completed the last few pages, punched holes in all the pages and set eyelets and then made a little booklet to fit in the back pocket detailing (as far as I could remember after all this time) the paints and techniques I used on each page. The top picture shows the cover before I put the book together. The machine stitching and basic sewing leave something to be desired and as usual it was beyond me to produce 18 pages all the same size even though I measured them umpteen times, but never mind it's just supposed to be a record of techniques and I'm chuffed that I've finally completed it.

Below is my next project (as I just may be on a roll at the moment!) I want to make a new holder to hold my embroidery threads so I have spent the afternoon painting some fabric with Stewart Gill paints and then stencilling a design on them. Stewart Gill are having a sale at the moment and the stamps and stencils I ordered arrived just in time this afternoon for me to immediately start using the check and flower stencils. Hope to work on this some more tomorrow.

Band Sampler etc.

2009-05-07T07:54:00.010Z

A couple of months ago I felt the need to stitch something, I was doing a lot of stamping but missed just sitting in front of the telly with a needle in my hand. So I started a random band sampler, using needlepoint canvas sprayed green and a selection of green and blue threads - one of my favourite colour combinations. It was nice to do something completely unplanned, deciding on each row as I got to it by flicking through my stich dictionary for ideas. Not sure what (if anything) I'm going to do with it now. I was thinking maybe it could be on the front of a file folder if I could work out how best to fix it there.

Other than that I've been working on classes for Kraft Crazy at Tidworth. I did a class last Saturday using Tim Holtz masks and I've been making ATCs for my next one. Here are the mask samples.

I've got a week off work this week which is lovely and I've managed to put aside a couple of whole days just to sit and play - bliss. One of the things I've gone back to is a fabric sample book which I started about 18 months ago when I went on a class exploring Stewart Gill paints and we did lots of samples and techniques and were to put them together in a book. I originally blogged about it way back here and posted some of the pages. I have now finally finished all the pages but I still have to punch the holes to add the rings to hold it all together and I'm very nervous that I will ruin the whole thing! I also want to write up a little booklet listing the techniques and paints used so it will still be a while before the thing is finally complete. However, I began to think I'd never get this far so I have a sense of achievement for my week off (and it's more than I ever seem to achieve at work where I also never finish anything!).

Zeggtangles

2009-04-13T09:23:00.002Z

Following on my last post, Kimmie at art in redwagons showed some pebbles that she drew on that look like painted Easter eggs. Mmm - do you think I will be very conspicuous if I take some pebbles into a meeting to draw on....

Zentangles

2009-04-08T19:00:00.003Z

Look at this - the most productive meeting at work I've been to in a long time! The other day whilst reading art in redwagons blog I watched the video Kimmie had included showing Milliande drawing an amazing zentangle in 8 minutes. I've seen these on various blogs but never thought I could do one but watching the video made me realise that none of the actual drawing was beyond me. This morning I was in a very tedious meeting so I thought I'd have a go and above are the results. They are done on cheap writing paper and are only about 2 inches wide plus I smudged 2 of them a bit but it was a definite improvement on my usual practice of either filling in the enclosed areas of letters like o and a on the minutes and agendas or practising writing with my left hand! In fact, when I brought them home and showed my daughter she didn't believe at first that I had drawn them - she knows my drawing skills! So now I'm actually looking forward to more boring meetings so I can practise some more!

One for Me

2009-02-28T18:49:00.005Z

I made another grungeboard notebook, this time for me using one of my favourite colour combinations. It looks a bit brighter from the scan than in real life - stamps are Paper Artsy.

And here's my long-suffering friend's birthday present to go with the card I made for her below. She gave me a mint tin because she knows I like playing about with them and I have now given it back to her.

I coloured a domino with alcohol inks and then stamped a face on it and put it in the tin. The tin is coloured with alcohol inks as well, and I used a cropodile to punch the holes in the sides for the cord and in the lid for the beads. I had fun anyway!

New & Improved

2009-02-23T18:17:00.003Z

This is a birthday card for a friend. She's always on the receiving end of my more experimental stuff and as she's not into crafting herself I think she's often somewhat bemused - but tolerant!

This card took on a life of it's own - it didn't come out as I expected but I like it nonetheless. Although I love all the gorgeous scrapbook papers available I still get a bigger kick from starting with a white sheet of card and making my own background. This one's done by just swooshing the card around in watered down distress inks and then overstamping. The stamps are from the lovely inchies sets by Inkadinkado and the rub on at the bottom is a 7 gypsies one I found when hunting through my stash. The date stamp on the left is from the reduced section of Staples.

Grungeboard Class

2009-02-22T10:10:00.006Z

Yesterday I did a class at Kraft Crazy at Tidworth using grungeboard. We made the notebook and bookmark shown above (crap photos once again - sorry). The class was hectic as mine always seem to be and overambitious as the various stages of the notebook really needed to dry out more thoroughly than we had time for in a two hour class (even when it ended up being 3 hours!) In the end people took the bits home to dry more thoroughly before either using their own Bind it all to put it together or bringing it back to the shop for Tracey to do for them.

The covers on the notebook are made from a plain sheet of grungeboard cut in half and covered with crumpled up tissue paper, then painted with paint dabbers. The creases in the tissue paper give a faux leather look. The flowers are stamped onto grungeboard and coloured with Twinkling H2Os (all of us very sad to hear they're going out of business), and cut out. The hinge and flourish are Sizzix dies.

The bookmark was more straightforward as it is coloured using Brilliance inks and a quick swipe with the heat gun was enough to dry it. The house and background bubble and swirls stamps are Paper Artsy and the hearts are Sizzix dies again. I wanted to make items that showed the extra advantages of grungeboard as opposed to ordinary chipboard. Both a bookmark and a notebook will get lots of handling but shouldn't get nearly as dog-eared as normal chipboard or card. And of course only with grungeboard could you bend a hinge round and use as a fastening in that way.I'm looking forward to the newly-launched grungepaper arriving in the UK as that will give even more opportunities for play!

Thanks to my ladies on the class - hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

And for Julia who was stuck at home decorating - see what you missed!

Elusive Images Butterfly stamps

2009-02-08T15:35:00.002Z

Ok, I take back everything I said in my last post about not being over fond of butterflies. Glenda of Elusive Images has just brought out 2 new butterfly sets which are gorgeous - I love the fact that some of the butterflies are patterned!
Check out Glenda's Elusive Images blog to see the new sets and if you leave a comment you have a chance to win them as well.

Butterflies

2009-02-04T18:43:00.004Z

I took advantage of the special offer in this month's Craft Stamper magazine to order a set of stamps from Paper Artsy called Nature. The sets included 3 images of butterflies - I usually pass those by as I find them a bit pretty for my taste. But when I stamped these out they reminded me of collectors' images so I made a card and an ATC using them. The card uses Diane's daughters papers as the background and for the ATC the butterflies are stamped on some Tim Holtz paper. A different look for me but one I'm pleased with.

My fingers are itching to do some stitching but I haven't got round to getting something started. However today I sprayed a piece of canvas blue and green and hope to get going on a sampler of canvas stitches - one of the make it up as I go along variety!

Gild the Lily

2009-01-28T19:34:00.002Z

My sister in law, Julia, now has her blog Gild the Lily up and running. The first project she's posted is some ATCs made with the masked backgrounds that she did here when playing around with my Tim Holtz masks. They look really lovely (of course I haven't made anything yet out of the ones I did...) Maybe Julia having a blog will help me pay more attention to mine - after all it's a competition now!

Vintage seaside

2009-01-25T19:25:00.003Z

Yesterday my sister in law and I went to the Craft4Crafters show at Exeter and had a good day out and bought plenty. One of my purchases was a lovely set of stamps called Vintage Seaside by TweetyJill and here's an ATC made using several of the stamps.

We spent yesterday evening setting up a blog for Julie - she hasn't had a chance to post to it yet so I won't link to it for the moment. She has also just had her second project published in Quick and Crafty magazine (Jan & Feb editions - Julia Jordan is the name to look for) which is great news.

Next class

2009-01-24T21:27:00.007Z

I've been busy prepping my next class which is another one on alcohol inks. People seem to like the idea of them but once they've got them they are not sure how to use them. In fact they are very simple but you never manage to exactly replicate an effect - all part of the charm. These are 3 of the cards we will be making (the 4th wouldn't scan properly because it was done on mirri card).

A Poor Neglected Blog

2008-12-28T15:15:00.005Z

Oh dear, oh dear, look how long it's been since I paid any attention to this poor blog.

My organisational skills have disintegrated completely over the last couple of months but Christmas is over now and amazingly enough the right people received a present from me, a Christmas dinner appeared on the table and some people even got handmade cards. (Others missed out completely but we won't dwell on that...) So, before I go back to work tomorrow I should give a little thought to this blog.

I have been making a few things since I last blogged and even made some Christmas presents but pictures are sadly lacking. However today I have finished making some desk calendars for friends at work and I took a photo to prove it.

I found a video tutorial on someone's blog with instructions for making this calendar using a Bind It All. Of course I no longer have any idea where I found it so I can't credit the kind person who did it. The original was smaller so I did tinker with it a bit - the cover on mine is four and a half inches square and the pages are four by four and a quarter inches. The calendar in the centre is the prototype and is going to be for me, the other two are for friends.

The week before Christmas I took my Mum to see her sister who now lives in a residential home in Weston super Mare. On our last visit I had taken a photo of the two of them and I made the photo into a mini card concertina as a Christmas present for my aunt. It also included a picture of the 5 siblings as children in 1929 and a photo taken at my aunt's 80th birthday a few years ago. I gave it to my aunt just as we left and a couple of days later my Mum had a phone call to say how pleased she was with it - she hadn't even waited till Christmas day to open it! My Mum said several time she wished she had seen it but she had to wait till Christmas as I'd also made one for her. I didn't take a picture of either of them finished but this is the photo from 1929 - my Mum is bottom right and was 3 at the time. What amazes me is that with 5 young children my grandmother still managed to make them all put hats on!

I'm not really into scrapbooking but I have done a few small minibooks and I love it when it is so special to the person I've made it for.

It feels like months since I did any stitching and as I've got some new stamping classes to prepare for the new year I can't see myself picking up a needle any time soon. However, I will try not to neglect this blog quite so much in 2009.

If I have any readers I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and wish everyone a happy new year.

Alien Vegetable and Felt balls

2008-10-30T13:18:00.005Z

Yesterday I went to a workshop at Stitchncraft in Shaftesbury with Heather Kingsley-Heath doing needlefelting and beading. It was very enjoyable - one or two people made finished pieces but as always I was very slow but made some needlefelted shapes that I will get round to beading sometime. Heather then told us how to make felted balls and I really loved that and came home with a little pile - so quick and easy and they actually come out round! I want to make some more and then actually make a project with them but unfortunately I've been having a lot of problems with my arms and shoulders lately and making the balls was a step too far. I'll have to wait till the pain goes before I risk another go. I also need to let my hand recover - my fingers were nearly shredded from the number of times I stuck the needle in them. We were warned to take care and no one else seemed to be wincing so it must just have been me who's completely ham fisted!

As I walked back to my car I spotted this vegetable in a local greengrocers. Unfortunately I forgot to note the name but I gather from the lady who sold it to me that it's a cross between a cauliflower and broccoli. Isn't it fabulous! I've never seen one before so I had to take a load of photos and my daughter's already planning to get the pictures into every project she does at art college from now on! I'm just slightly worried that I am now sharing the house with some alien life form....

Paper Artsy ATCs

2008-10-30T13:12:00.004Z

I love Paper Artsy stamps so when I got some of their new Squiggly Ink stamps I had to have a play and these are 3 ATCs I made with them. I love the quirky style.

Wild Women

2008-10-12T10:46:00.003Z

Last Sunday I went to a workshop with Tania at Rumpelstiltskin, a fibre crafts shop at Broadwindsor Craft Centre. It's been a while since I've been to one and it was great fun to do a class again. We were making wild women based on Sarah Lawrence's creation. I already had the book but hadn't got round to having a go so a class was just what I needed to make me sit down and do it. We made a piece of felt first using wet felting and my favourite colours, then we cut out 2 shapes each and decorated them with Artgirlz charms and beads. We also did some needle felting to add other fibres and small snips of chiffon etc. I was able to try out the Clover felting mat which is like a brush and the needle tool - the mat is much easier to use than the car sponge I was making do with so of course I had to buy one! I also got to have a go with an embellisher machine and fell in love! Where would I put one? When would I find the time to use it enough to make it worth the investment? What the heck, it's going on my Christmas list....

Overdoing It

2008-09-22T21:30:00.002Z

I've always liked autumn and regarded it as a time to start new things - a hang over from new school years I expect. Well this year I think I've gone a bit overboard and might regret some of the enthusiasm. This time last year I did a few different classes and enjoyed them but for various reasons I didn't sign up for any more this year so I decided to get back into the swing of things. So at the moment I am signed up for 5 classes - just half days and one full day but I'm also running stamping classes on a monthly basis, another 3 between now and Christmas and I'm still struggling with the new job at work which is very busy. Then there is Christmas itself: making my own Christmas cards, shopping etc etc. Most of it looks set to be enjoyable (except work of course...) but I think maybe I should learn to pace myself.
I ran a class on Saturday at Kraft Krazy in Tidworth using Ranger's acrylic paint dabbers. It was good fun but as I only had one dabber in each colour everyone was working on a different piece at a different time and I was running round the table showing people the various steps and passing colours and stamps back and forth! Maybe there's an easier way....

This isn't a whinge, I'm just taking a deep breath!

To Do List

2008-09-14T11:06:00.003Z

This month's Take it Further challenge from Sharon is lists. This is not an artistic response to the challenge but a practical step intended to help me keep my sanity and as I'm not likely to get round to doing a real piece I thought I might as well include this.

I have recently changed jobs at work and am now dealing with loads of stuff new to me that I have very little idea how to do. This week I felt overwhelmed with things and one morning started about 6 different pieces of work and made progress with none of them. I've always been pretty organised and have kept a running to do list for several years but I decided I'd got to ramp up the system if I was going to cope. So instead of just a to do list I now have a folder. I've decorated several of these plain frosted A5 folders lately and in fact my last workshop was about altering one. The to do lists we use at work are turquoise so I decided to colour my folder orange using Pumpkin and Mustard seed Stazon ink and overstamping with Rusty Brown and Midnight Blue. I made file dividers to separate out the different aspects of the job using some orange scrapbook paper by Flavia and overstamping using Prima and Paper Artsy stamps. I think the result is bright enough to ensure I'll never lose the folder however covered my desk gets with papers!

Poppy Heads

2008-09-01T12:26:00.002Z

So this is what I want to be able to do - finally!
I want more time to be able to play about with projects like this, leave them lying around while I decide what to do next, come back to them when I'm ready and really work through ideas. I'm very pleased with this but I expect it will be ages before I produce something else along these lines.
I started off by playing with needlefelting -can't afford/don't have room for an embellisher but it's surprising what results you can get very quickly just using hand needling. I used butter muslin laid over a bit of wadding and then wool roving. After it was done I decided to paint the background! Each stage of this I decided to paint afterwards instead of first as I would have done if I'd had any sense! Also added beads to the flower centres.
Then I wanted to have a go at fabric paper following the instructions in Beryl Taylor's book 'Mixed-Media Explorations'. I have tried this before but the paper came unstuck from the backing fabric after a while. I don't know what I did differently apart from using butter muslin as the backing this time instead of calico and the piece is well and truly stuck. However I stuck the needlefelted piece on at the same time - as I was doing it I knew it was a mistake but I kept going - why? Anyway, I managed with it like this though it would have been easier to attach it later. I used stamped scraps from my scrap drawer (always makes me feel virtuous) and then added more stamping along with drawing inks over the top. The poppy head is a rubber stamp and for the centre piece I stamped it and enlarged it on my copier then traced it onto handmade paper and stitched and beaded it. Then I added the colour! I stitched it onto the background with oversize, uneven cross stitches then added more over the rest of the piece to tie it all together. The photo shows it cropped beautifully to a finished piece but in reality I haven't yet decided how to finish it off - I think it would look nice in a frame painted dark blue - if I ever get round to it.

Stamping on muslin

2008-08-18T20:09:00.005Z

Yesterday I was playing around trying to make some fabric paper and I had a go at stamping on butter muslin. The image didn't look right with the main piece but made a lovely delicate looking ATC. The butter muslin was coloured with green and blue watered down drawing ink, then I stamped a collage image with purple Stazon ink. The purple strip down the side is a piece of paper lace. I stuck wadding to an ATC card then stretched the muslin over it and stuck another card to the back to cover all the bits.
I actually stamped the image twice and the other piece was mounted very simply onto a card with brads.
Still working on the fabric paper....

Take it Further - August

2008-08-17T10:16:00.004Z

As I mentioned in my last post I had abandoned the Take it Further Challenge because I couldn't fit it in round the other things I have to do. I also said how I wasn't finding time to do anything with fabric and stitch and I've been missing that. The class I'm preparing for September is using paint dabbers and I saw on someone's blog (sorry, can't remember who to give them the credit they deserve) how they'd used the dabbers on metal. So I embossed a small piece with a Cuttlebug embossing folder, then painted the background with the dabbers. I was really pleased with the result and felt that I wanted to incorporate it into something fabric based rather than just stick it on a card. So I made it into a fabric postcard. The background is knitting ribbon machined to a cream fabric then lines of hand stitches added - I went back to my TAST samples to decide which ones to use. When I added the metal piece it didn't really stand out enough so at the last moment I coloured the daisy with butterscotch Alcohol ink and that made it look much better. Finally, cleaning the shower this morning (!) it came to me that this piece is actually all about balance which is the theme Sharon set for this month's Take it Further Challenge - I'm trying to find a balance between the things I have to do and the things I want to do, and a balance between the papercrafting which I find easier to pick up if I have limited time, and the stitching which I find more challenging.
So unbeknownst to me I managed to produce a piece for Take if Further after all, and before the end of the month to boot!

Moo Cards

2008-08-10T20:03:00.003Z

I decided to send for some moo cards using some of my ATCs, cards and stitched pieces as the images. I was thrilled when they arrived - above is a selection of them as I used 16 different pictures in all. (Sorry about the line down the side from where I scanned them - too lazy to do it again.) They make me feel so important even if I haven't got anyone to give them out to! I liked the article in the recent Somerset Studio magazine where people used their art to have moo cards printed and then used the moo cards to make further pieces of art.

I've been busy this weekend preparing the samples for the class on Adirondack paint dabbers that I'm going to be doing at Kraft Crazy in Tidworth in September. We're going to be mainly making tags using the dabbers in different ways but I have also decorated a papier mache box using the paints and I'm very pleased with the result - turquoise and red, a favourite colour combination.

In October I'm also going to do a class at the Post Office in Dorchester and I noticed yesterday that my name appears in the class list on the website - very exciting!

I'm enjoying doing the classes and I love paper crafting and stamping in particular but what I really strive to be able to do is textiles/stitching in some shape or form and that is really falling by the wayside at the moment as my spare time is spent on the classes. I've also abandoned the Take it Further challenge which is a pity as I was enjoying doing that and pleased with the pieces I did do. Never mind, I just have to do what I can manage and not stress about what I can't.

Art Stamps show

2008-07-27T11:10:00.002Z

Yesterday I went to the Arts Stamp show at Newbury. My sister in law and I have been going for quite a few years now and have seen it outgrow its original venue at the Corn Exchange and move to Newbury Racecourse. Two years ago it filled both the ground and first floor there, last year it didn't quite fill the first floor, this year it only filled the middle of the first floor with spaces at both ends. And what's missing now is the more arty, quirky, unusual stuff which is a great shame. I managed to spend all my money(!) and am pleased with the things I bought but I wish I'd had the chance to see something a bit different and I hope this isn't going to be the start of a downward spiral for the show.
It was very hot there yesterday and I sympathise with all the traders who are having to stick out the heat for a second day today.

Distress Inks class

2008-07-24T19:41:00.007Z

Last Saturday I took a class at Kraft Crazy at Tidworth on using distress inks. I'd tried to make cards and ATCs which used the inks in a variety of ways to get a variety of looks. I think people often think brown and grungy when they think of distress inks and though the inks are very good for that sort of look, they are so much more versatile. Everyone made 3 cards and 2 ATCs so it was quite a rush but people seemed to enjoy it so I hope they will carry on to use the inks for themselves - they are definitely one of my favourite products. Here's the pics of my samples:

ATCs

2008-07-16T14:05:00.001Z

Two more ATCs made from the distress ink backgrounds I was playing around with last week. Papers all cut to size for my class on Saturday, just a few more bits and pieces to clear up and I can go back to work tomorrow!

Odds & Ends

2008-07-15T19:08:00.007Z

On Thursday I go back to work after a couple of weeks leave but as usual I don't feel either as though I've achieved very much, nor that I've had a rest! I've sorted out drawers and the rest of my craft stuff, I've done quite a few chores, I've crossed lots of items off a to-do list but there still seems a lot left on the list including several biggies that I never got to.

Anyway on Saturday I am taking another class at Kraft Crazy in Tidworth. This one is on distress inks so I have been busy making samples ready and tomorrow I've got to sort out all the papers etc. that I need. I've also prepared the sample for the binder that we're going to decorate in my August class so it's a relief to have that done ready.

My sister in law came and stayed for a couple of days last week and we spent quite a bit of time playing especially with distress inks and with a pack of grungeboard that she kindly brought me. Some of the pieces got turned into a few cards and ATCs so I have something to show after all.

This card is for my brother's birthday at the end of the month but he certainly won't be looking here! And I was especially pleased with this second card.

However, I do wonder when I will ever get back to working with fabric and stitches.....

Drawers again

2008-07-05T21:41:00.003Z

Susan asked in a comment where I got my drawers from. They come from Storage 4 Crafts and the service was excellent. They are called Double Stacker kits and they come in various combinations of drawers. They are well made and though I hate flat packed furniture I actually managed to put these together myself with very little difficulty. I can highly recommend both the drawers and the website.

Posh Drawers!

2008-07-05T08:28:00.005Z

Aren't my new drawers fabulous! My craft room doubles as the dining end of my living room, so when craft stuff threatens to take over my whole living space looks messy. I bought one of these units last September and quickly figured that I could fit 3 of them in where I currently had a low blanket box. It took a while to save for 2 more units but I finally got them last week and have spent most of the past week arranging and rearranging. Everything had a knock on effect so if I moved some stuff into a drawer I ended up having to sort out the cupboard that that stuff had come from. I now have fewer bits of storage all over the place but I doubt that will last long. I just have 2 drawers still empty (and they're the shallow 1 inch ones) and I've bought yet more stuff this week. I'm beginning to think this craft obsession is a life threatening affliction!

And I've been so busy sorting and tidying on top of all the usual work, house, garden chores that I haven't had time to do any actual creating. Fabric and stitching haven't had a look in for what feels like months. The Take it Further challenge has been abandoned I'm ashamed to say and I've only done the odd bit of stamping. I did make this which was quite fun and it's being displayed on top of the posh drawers for the moment:

Alcohol Inks class

2008-06-01T14:30:00.005Z

Last Saturday I took 2 workshops on alcohol inks with my sister in law, one in the morning and one in the afternoon so it was quite a day. Both sessions went well and the shop sold plenty of inks so there was one pleased owner! The ladies attending all seemed to enjoy it, they were all new to the inks and were pleasantly suprised at how easy they are to use and how the results are almost foolproof. We spent half the class playing around with the inks on different surfaces and getting a feel for them then they made a black and white card using a square of glass coloured with the inks to highlight an area of a stamped image and make a focal point. Finally they coloured and decorated a mint tin like this one at the top of this post. I used an image I donwloaded from Cora of Paper Flowers. She very generously provides vintage images to download every Sat and I have used this set of ladies before, they are so stylish.

I have been asked to do another class and I'm going to be working on distress inks next so I'm going to start playing around with those. Before I move on though here is a card I made for my niece's anniversary using alcholol inks stencilled over a heart-shaped cheap earring (I always knew this was its real purpose in life!). I then masked it off so I could stamp flowers in the shape. Also an empty mixed spice jar that I coloured with the inks and then decorated with paper, punches and ribbon. At the rate at which I eat bread and butter pudding it shouldn't be too long before I have a whole row of empty spice jars to decorate!

I love stationery and always have to have the right notebook, pen etc. before I can start anything new. So when I wanted to keep a notebook for my classes I first had to do a bit of decorating! This was a plain white frosted A5 ringbinder from the high street but now it looks much more fun!

Alcholol Inks

2008-05-17T14:24:00.008Z

Next Saturday I have been asked to take two classes on alcohol inks at a local craft shop. My sister-in-law takes regular classes there and was asked to do one on alcohol inks but as they're not really her thing she suggested me. In fact we'll take the class together so it should be fun. The main focus will be trying the inks on various surfaces rather than producing finished products, however we are going to do a card and alter a mint tin. We made the samples for those and attached them to a board which is on display in the shop before I had a chance to take pictures. However I have done some other samples since as ideas for what people can do with the bits and pieces they take home. Here are some cards:

And a couple of ATCs:

And a couple of brooches made from pieces of coloured CDs:

Mother's Day Countdown

2008-05-01T17:39:00.004Z

Once again Lisa Vollrath is offering free images on her website in a countdown from 1st to 11th May for Mother's Day. All she asks is that you post a link before you download. The countdown is here.

Take it Further - April

2008-04-25T16:59:00.005Z

I decided to use the colour palette Sharon gave us for this month's challenge as the theme of change felt a bit too close to home at the moment. The colours aren't ones I would ordinarily choose but then the whole point of the challenge is to push me out of my usual range and subject matter.

These are the colours but when I printed them off they looked completely different so I'm not sure if the colours I chose were exactly those intended. I felt particularly uncomfortable with the burgundy and dark green so the green is just used for an accent and the burgundy is the velvet paper the canvas piece is mounted on.

A while ago I produced several pieces of canvaswork that were completely unplanned and just tried out different stitches and I've been meaning to do more like this especially after reading Jill Carter's book New Canvaswork. Looking through it again I was inspired to try drawn thread work on canvas based on this picture of a book cover by Jill:

I soon realised you can't actually just pull the threads out like you can with evenweave fabric because of the size so I had to cut the apertures and the resulting fabric wasn't terribly stable. Also I didn't want to buy any thread for this challenge so was limited to tapestry wool as it was all I had in the colours. So I didn't try as many variations as I would have liked to but I like the finished piece and it was an interesting technique to try. I covered a notebook with brown parcel paper and then mounted the piece on the front.

Thank You

2008-04-18T06:01:00.002Z

Thanks to everyone who's left a comment on my Coffee Rings book - I'm glad you liked the rather quirky idea! The whole process of the Take it Further challenge and the supporting comments I've had on my pieces has been a real encouragement to me and a real help in developing what I do and 'taking if further'.
Blogging is such a wonderful phenomenon and blogland such a welcoming place.
Thanks!

Take it Further - March

2008-04-14T17:46:00.011Z

At last here is my finished project for March's Take it Further challenge - Coffee Rings. Sharon challenged us to notice the little things and I decided to embrace the little things that annoy me e.g. coffee rings and explore the design possibilities. This picture shows the whole book made of brown parcel paper 5 and a half inches by 5. As an aide memoire I wrote how I did each page on a tag and I mounted the tags on a ring and incorporated it into the stitched binding. The wording is done on the computer and printed onto acetate.

I started off with actual coffee stains on paper and fabric and played around with various ideas and using rings and circles with other media. Techniques include stamping, stitching, beading, reverse applique, air dry clay, markal paint sticks, needle felting and embossing. The pages are just samples of techniques and ideas and any one would need developing further to become a finished project but I feel I have met the challenge by turning my dislike of coffee stains into a positive design.

Progress??

2008-04-08T19:27:00.001Z

Yes, there is progress - very slow progress and nothing to show yet. My coffee ring book for the Take it Further challenge for March is nearly there - 2 more pages to finish and then put the book together. Maybe at the weekend....
All I can say is that I'd better find something quick to do for April or I'll never catch up!

No Progress

2008-03-23T16:17:00.006Z

Oh dear, life does get in the way sometimes!

When Sharon posted the March Take it Further challenge about noticing the little things I had an idea almost immediately and started work on it full of enthusiasm. But though I still like the idea and what I have done so far I don't think I'm going to get it finished before the end of the month.

My immediate reaction was a virtuous 'of course I notice the little things' but when I thought some more I realised that was true but I don't always notice them for the right reasons. I am one of those people who notices dust, things put back in slightly the wrong place, things crumpled at the edges that shouldn't be etc etc. About a week earlier I'd noticed a scrapbook range which incorporated a coffee ring into the design and I knew I couldn't live with that on a piece of my work. However, prompted by Sharon's challenge I have decided to embrace the coffee ring! I spent a happy afternoon dunking my coffee mug in a bowl of strong coffee and plonking it on paper, kitchen towel, fabric etc. I have decided to make a small sample book using brown parcel paper showing different techniques developed on from the coffee ring. I started well but have ground to a halt the last couple of weeks.

I've been telling myself not to worry, I was having Easter week off work so plenty of time to finish it, but then I decided this really was the best time to paint the kitchen - after all I did intend to do it last summer and here we are, spring again. So the ceiling has had 3 coats of paint and still needs one more and then I have to start on the walls.....

Still, the main thing is not to get in a tizz - things will get done or not and none of it is the end of the world and at the moment lying on the settee and having a snooze seems the best idea of all!

In the meantime I did have an afternoon playing a couple of weeks ago and did some ATCs all using scraps from my drawer, something that always makes me feel virtuous!

I Remember Sweets

2008-02-17T11:34:00.004Z

This is my completed piece for the February Take it Further challenge. Sharon challenged us to think about what we are old enough to remember and I thought of all those major world events like the Kennedy assassination, but what I also kept thinking about was sweets! I had 6d a week pocket money (and yes, we're talking old money here for those UK folks old enough to remember) and I particularly loved Black Jacks, little square chews that were 4 for a 1d. I remember I used to spend ages in the shop working out how to spend my 6d and what to buy, but often I didn't get round to eating them, and a few months later would have to throw the sticky mess away.
I asked around at work whether you could still buy Black Jacks and you can (and that got everyone reminiscing about the sort of sweets they remember), and I managed to find them in an old fashioned sweet shop in Lyme Regis. Some things haven't changed: as I was at the counter my daughter asked if I was actually going to eat them, to which I replied 'Oh no, I'm just going to unwrap them'. The shopkeeper's face was a picture and as we turned to leave he said to my daughter 'Who'd buy sweets to eat them?!' I bought Black Jacks and Starbursts and my daughter will eat the Starbursts but yesterday when I finished the piece sure enough, the Black Jacks were consigned to the bin.
I remembered the Black Jacks as having a stripy black and white wrapper with a picture of either a pirate or a skull and crossbones on it. The modern version has black and white swirls and no picture so I searched the Internet and found a wrapper on the site of the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood site. It showed an original wrapper from the 1920's and the picture was of a golliwog, so unfortunately I didn't feel that was appropriate to use. So instead I used the Starbursts because I know I also bought bright citrus colour chews. I scanned in the wrappers, printed them onto cotton, backed them to a firm fusible and stitched them to my background. The Black Jacks are remembered in the striped ticking I used as the background (and ticking also reminds me of my Dad and childhood as he used it for his work), and the plain black squares. The black ribbon behind the squares represents liquorice - another favourite.

Valentine Countdown

2008-02-01T17:45:00.000Z

Lisa Vollrath is offering free Valentine images to download between now and Valentine's Day. Visit her site here to take advantage - all she asks is that you link to her site from your own blog before downloading.

Stewart Gill Sampler book

2008-01-30T18:18:00.000Z

Back in Sept I went on a 6 week course with Becca from Becca's Quilt Emporium. It was all about exploring Stewart Gill products: paints, stencils, stamps etc, and at the end we were to produce a fabric book of samples. Needless to say, at the end of the 6 weeks I had lots of samples but nothing resembling a book! However, I did start work on it and had produced a cover and about 8 pages when preparations for Xmas intervened and I put it to one side. I even took some photos of the completed pages ready to post here but never did. The last couple of weeks I have managed to get back to it and have done another 4 pages (which I haven't photographed yet), so I thought I would put up what I've done so far. I hope to make at least another 4 pages before declaring it finished.

So here is my cover:

Black cotton has been stencilled and then strips and shapes of painted tissue have been ironed on with bondaweb. And the pages:

Take it Further Challenge blog

2008-01-27T16:35:00.000Z

I have just posted my TIF piece for January on the blog Debra has kindly set up specifically for participants to post their finished pieces. Whilst doing so I looked at all the other pieces up so far and the variety and quality of interpretations is really amazing. It's also led me to bookmark yet more blogs to read - whatever did I do with my time before I spent all my spare moments reading the new postings listed on Google Reader?!!

One Year Anniversary

2008-01-26T21:52:00.000Z

I knew I started this blog sometime last January and thought I'd better just check back and see when it was, and lo and behold it was a year ago today! I have enjoyed the experience of blogging and especially receiving encouraging comments so thanks to everyone who has passed by in the past year.

Mizuhiki pendant

2008-01-21T20:13:00.000Z

This little pendant is made using an idea from Tvweekly's Plum & Verdigris channel - a video presentation by Judi of Judikins. It uses Japanese mizuhiki cords laid in a pattern on double sided tape, then cut to the size of a pendant and inserted. A charm was added on top then I covered the whole piece with Judikins Diamond Glaze adhesive which dries to a lovely glass like gloss. My daughter has appropriated it for her keyring.

Tag Book

2008-01-20T14:47:00.001Z

First of all I would like to thank everyone for all their kind comments about my Take it Further piece in the post below. The encouragement is much appreciated.

When I went to the Craft for Crafters show at Exeter last weekend I attended 2 workshops, the Stef Francis brooch (see earlier post) and this book made using the new Bind-It-All machine which inserts wire binders. We were given sheets of double sided 12x12 papers which we folded into pocket pages and then bound into the book, and we had a sheet of embellishments to match the papers, all by Fancy Pants. Yesterday I used the embellishments to decorate the front cover of the book and to make 6 tags to go into the pockets. The set of lovely ladies that I used on the tags are courtesy of Cora of Paper Flowers. Every Saturday she posts some vintage images which she invites her readers to download and use, only asking that we leave a comment on her blog acknowledging the use. She also does lots of lovely stamping herself which is well worth looking at.

Take it Further - January

2008-01-17T18:10:00.001Z

This is my finished piece for Sharon's Take it Further challenge. Sharon challenged us to either use a theme or a colour scheme and I chose the colours. I sprayed a piece of cream fabric and some stitching canvas with Adirondack Colour Wash in Eggplant. It's not colourfast but is fine for a piece like this. I wrapped a couple of chenille pipe cleaners with fancy threads and stitched some Norwich stitches on the canvas. This is one of my favourite canvaswork stitches because it's such a lovely texture and makes a real focal point. The light green stuff that looks a bit like a feather is hand dyed silk carrier waste that I bought from Stef Francis (see previous post). I stitched it down with fly stitch and some beads and then rolled 2 very small pieces up and secured them with a ring of beads. The backing fabric is stapled to a small artist's canvas with the canvas strip stapled over the top. I like doing pieces like this and am pleased with the result.

Sushi brooch

2008-01-13T15:06:00.000Z

I apologise for the quality of the photo, I have just spent an hour struggling with camera and computer and have not been able to come up with anything clearer than this so it will have to do. I think it's going to be hard for a photo to give you a real idea of what this looks like in any case.

Yesterday I went to a crafts exhibition at Exeter and was lucky enough to be able to attend a workshop by Stef Francis at which we made what she calls a sushi brooch using silk rod carriers. The class only cost £2 and was really good value for money - if only to find out that if you insert your nail down the side of the silk rod you can split it into 3 or 4 layers. We used 3 rods, split them into several pieces and then rolled them up to make flower shapes. We stitched through the centres to hold them together, added a few beads and sequins then threaded all 3 on a piece of ribbon and tied them together. Then we stitched a brooch pin to a small piece of felt and stitched that to the bottom of the flowers to make the piece into a brooch.

Stef had many of her stitched pieces on display on her stand and they were very inspiring and she was bedecked with brooches, necklace and bracelets she has made using the rods and also showed us some lovely little bags she has made with them. Very inspiring! Needless to say I had to buy a couple of packs of rods to play with further

TAST - Spanish Feather Stitch

2008-01-06T14:28:00.000Z

Here is my final TAST sample for Spanish Feather Stitch. Ok, it's pretty pathetic, I don't know why Sharon had to give us a difficult stitch for the final week. I had trouble working out how to do it, and then trouble getting it to look even, and when I'd finally more or less got the hang of it, I couldn't be bothered to make much of an effort with it. Still, I have finished the TAST challenge. I have done all the stitches and it's only the 6th Jan so I'm less than a week behind in finishing it off. I haven't pushed the stitches particularly and I've tended to use aida fabric and pearl cotton for all of them, but it is still a useful reference to have and to begin to see the possibilities for each stitch. I have tackled many stitches I'd never heard of and really enjoyed a lot of them. I've even got better at French knots! I now have 2 A4 folders filled with plastic wallets containing the printed out instructions and my samples in alphabetical order (once a librarian, always a librarian!) so it is a very handy reference tool.

This is the first challenge I have participated in so I'm very grateful to Sharon for all her input and hard work. Her new challenge is called Take it Further, and although I'm signed up to it, I'm still pondering this. The challenge for January is two-fold: either someone you admire or a colour scheme of green and purple. I have started considering the colour scheme - not my usual choice of colours, but that is all to the good. I've been pulling some wools and other bits together and currently have purple fingers from spraying some canvas and fabric with purple ink!

TAST - Chained Bar stitch

2008-01-01T14:16:00.000Z

Here is my TAST sample for Chained Bar stitch. Nice and easy and fun! I used the hairy knitting wool again at the top and a contrasting thread colour so the stitches would show up. Just one more to go!

Still Behind

2007-12-30T14:08:00.000Z

Oh yes, still trying to catch up with everything. Just about managed to finish everything required for Christmas in time. I finished my Mum's scrapbook on Christmas morning as predicted but then I did add in one final pic of my daughter for a Xmas 2007 page so that had to wait till the last minute.

Still trying to catch up with TAST, but here's my Berry stitch sample. The top row used the stitch to couch down some fluffy knitting wool so that's why there are stray threads sticking out. The stitch makes lovely flowers with more texture to them than just plain detached chain. And it was nice and simple so I could cope with it in between everything else going on.

2 more stitches still to go - it's extremely unlikely I will get them done before Sharon's new Take it Further challenge starts on the 1st Jan. Never mind, by now I'm used to being behind.

A couple of weeks ago Sharon posted about slow cloth and slow craft - she was talking about the advantages of stitching and making by hand rather than using the machine all the time or products where much of the work is done for you. I identified with what she was saying for slightly different reasons in that I am just slow! I am constantly amazed at the rate of output of many of my fellow bloggers and wonder where on earth they find the time. Some of them may have more time available than I do, but many don't so my only conclusion is that they get on with it much faster! Faffing about describes me in so many ways! So I've been telling myself that it is not a competition, that it doesn't matter how much or how little I produce, it's the pleasure of the process that counts and not to get despondent. Mmm, still a way to go on that.

Behind, behind

2007-12-20T18:40:00.000Z

Yes, I'm behind with everything - TAST, Christmas, shopping, cleaning - you name it, I'm behind with it. It wasn't helped by having to lie down with a migraine most of last weekend whilst my to do list got longer and longer. However, I do have 2 more TAST stitches done, only 3 more to go and then it's the end!

So, here's my Knotted Cable chain sample:

Nothing very exciting - although I liked the stitch I am definitely running out of steam now, so just did the bare minimum.

I managed a bit more with Pistil stitch, in spite of its including the dreaded French knot.

So, on to the last 3 stitches, which Sharon has already posted and then TAST will be over - I can't believe it's been a year. In the meantime I also have to complete a Christmas scrapbook which is to be my mother's main Christmas present and which isn't even half done at the moment! I won't be seeing her till Boxing Day so I might have to spend Christmas Day finishing it off. There's nothing like a bit of pressure!

I hope everyone else is more organised than I am!

Christmas .....

2007-12-07T21:21:00.000Z

I've just finished making my Christmas cards - in the nick of time! Now I've just got to get them all written this weekend - no wonder I'm getting behind again with my TAST samples.