Stamping on muslin

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

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

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.