Secret Garden canvas

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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: