Finished at last !

Holly in Oil

Its really strange but when i have an oil painting drying i find it hard to get on with other crafting,i cant seem to concentrate on another project when i have one unfinished,hence its been a few weeks since blogging........now i have a commission to paint Ballet shoes in metalic Acyrlic paints (bronze ,copper and gold) on a block canvas ! thats going to be a challenge,but i know i will enjoy it hopefully.Really must get that done quickly,cant wait to get back to my Fabric Art ,such a lot of ideas going around in my head !

Naughty but nice

Mixed Media Fabric Postcards 4"x6"
Loveee making these,the brown one is a little bit naughty,but as its a postcard i thought it worked lol.

The background is needlefelted then free stitched on my machine,the flower is sort of shabby, done with diecuts and the image is fabric transfered with freezer paper through my printer.

The pink and green one is much the same but i used rubbers stamps onto fabric which is hand dye'd...."Tempus Fugit "means Time Flees,I had to look it up lol,
This one is for a swap in my UK group,the theme being "Time " The backing is thick white Vilene.

If anyone is interested in doing a one to one swap please let me know,i just love making these in fabric though,would like to start a collection !

Drying time

I lost my Mojo for awhile,life seems to get in the way,like dentists,doctors,and physio appointments,my Grand daughters asked me to do her wedding invites,but she is helping...........all this was going on then my son had to have Holly his dog put down she was so ill bless her, we all miss her so much,so now i,m attempting to capture her in oil while the memory of her is fresh in my mind,this is the first layer,just waiting for it to dry then i can concentrate on her fur,hopefully finish it in the next couple of weeks.

Then back to my Fabric Art or whatever takes my fancy.......I did do a couple of fabric postcards for my swap groups before all this happened ,below,Mixed media.

Tattered Floral Notepad

Tattered Floral Notepad

My Tim Holtz Tattered Floral diecut came today,been wanting this for ages,yesterday I bought on impulse lol,couldnt believe it arrived so quickly !
Using
Dye'd felt
Scrim and cotton
Card for backing
Brad and Buttons

I wanted to see how it cut with fabric,I know its brilliant with paper,after experimenting with very thin fabrics this is the result,i think thicker closer weave fabrics would be better,but this is materials i had dyed and ready to hand,when i get an idea in my head i cant wait to try it :)

The front cover and inside cover are needlefelted,would look amazing with card and paper,proberly better,I have to try that next ! I have so many projects on the go at the moment,but i,m living the moment lol.

Tag Book,Next step !

Inside Pages......
I didnt quite know how to go about this,but Annie in my group made me a lovely ATC holder,I am learning how to do the pages from this for my Tag Book......quite pleased with these,the back ground is spray dye'd Vilene,then stamped with a daisy stamp,then i used the same fabric as the cover for the the pockets and hearts onto this,with little fabric covered buttons,now toying with the idea of more pages,then the tags to create !I also added a bit more embellishment to the cover,will blog the completed book soon i hope !

Fabric Tag Book,First Chapter.......

Front Cover...size 8"x8"



Inside



First Chapter because this is the beginning covers,I now have to make the inside pages,I bought this pretty Batik fabric from Ebay,its been looking at me for weeks,just couldnt makeup my mind what to create with it,then thought a tag book would be nice as it could keep me busy for weeks !

I now have to dye some fabric up to make some pages to match,then sew in pockets on each page like the two you see here which is on the inside back cover,then comes more fun making the tags with some sort of theme (havent madeup my mind yet)
The fabric pages will be cut the width of this then sewn into the middle piece,wish i could explain better,but my next blog should reveal all lol......
The cover is mixed media,squares are needlefelted,padded heart with a dye'd cloth button,strips of torn watercolour paper,painted etc.These pics are not very good i need lessons in photography lol,looks much better in person !

I spent the morning clearing out stuff in my craft room,i need to get organised,i spend half my life looking for things,I made some felt flowers a while back,cant find !thought they would go nice on this project but not to be :

Needlefelted Clutch Purse

Recycled silk scarf,needlefelted with my embellisher machine,this machine amazes me how it makes a smooth fabric so textured ,dont know whether you can see in this picture, the flower i made with the same scarf,not needlefelted just a running stitch along the edge and drawn together to make a ruffle for the flower then beaded,looks entirely different from the rest other than the colours.

The fabric beaded edging is a necklace i picked up at an antique market,it looks so easy to make these fabric beads.........if you have time lol.
Well this purse has been hanging about in my lace basket for ages,at last its completed ! I get side tracked onto other stuff,like today I had a book i ordered arrive called "Fabric Art Collage" 40+ mixed media techniques by Rebekah Meier.....its soooooo inspiring,i need to study some of these tech's to try.A lovely book if you want to incorporate fabric with paper etc......

I know i keep flitting from one media to another,it will soon be cardmaking time with all the family birthdays coming up,my sons in April,i always like to do something different,heads buzzing with ideas maybe something in metal,cards for men can be a challenge lol.

Taking Shape !

Nearly finished,just waiting for it to dry before the last coat goes on, a bit of tweeking here and there then should be finished...... enjoyed painting for a change from sewing and crafting,love to paint in oils,you get a chance to keep going back at it,redoing sections that dont look right,but have to know when to stop !where as Watercolour is 90% thinking about it and 10% actually doing it,you dont get a second chance :)

I,m looking at this Poppy field now and thinking about the background needs toning down ,maybe a bit more work there, and more to do on the leaves and buds in the foreground.........here we go lol

A bit of light relief !

In between painting my Poppies,I,m waiting for it to dry now,so rearranged my craft room so i could get on with a bit of crafting........

I picked up some more silk scarfs from the charity shop,also had some dyed scrim and that sort of braid with ribbons tied in, that all matched perfectly,so made this little business card holder on my embellisher machine, my leather ones falling to bits.The little flowers are silk my friend gave me, so beaded them on,its Saturday,soooo bored,have some lunch then maybe clearup the mess in here lol.

A Change of direction !

Yes,I,m painting in oil once again ! only because i took a class last week,the subject was poppies in oil, my lady wanted to paint a large poppy picture,I really got into it with her,I got my hand slapped for taking over haha...thought i better start my own,which may help her too.

This is as far as i got today the lights bad now at 4pm,so its in its rough stages,looks a bit cartoony,cant have that lol,it must be painterly(is there such a word)so i will plod on tomorrow and promise to show you the finished painting it could take months.........god hope not haha.There is one at the bottom of this page i painted years ago,sold in our local library.

The sewing machine has taken a back seat for this week anyway !

ATC Fabric Holders

ATC Holders
One of the swap challenges for my group hereis to create an ATC fabric mixed media holder,certainly was a challenge as there are numerious ways of tackling this one,I didnt think i would end up making 3 though !

The first i made was the little Vintage girl one,easy to just wrap around an A4 size,all made from scratch,dying the fabrics,embossing the diecut butterflies made with grunge paper ,silk flowers and some beads.

The second attempt was to have a practice on my embellisher machine,I purchased a silk scarf for 50p in a charity shop,I love the result ,inspired me to use my embellisher more ! this wallet was made from A4 size again,just folding and stitching in the 3 pockets,using some rovings on the flap.Pictures below.

The third attempt was more complecated an actual book !
I found some board covers in The Range,ideal size,although inside the pages just hold 2 ATC,s each ... I used the plastic wallets holders,cut up for these.
This one will hold lots of ATC's and you can add more pages ! I have given my partner the option of using hinged rings or ribbons to hold it all together.

Certainly an interesting project,kept me busy all week lol.



Using the embellisher machine





The ATC Book to the left,the hearts on the right side of it, are clay.

Marie Antoinette Mixed Media

I needed lots to do this past week to keep my mind occupied,had my steroid injection in shoulder....ouch..yes it hurt !That was last Monday,Tuesday was agony,couldnt lift my arm,bad day doing nothing.

Wednesday loads better it was working already doc said about a week to feel the benefit,so really happy and decided to think of something to keep busy before my Physio starts again(dreading that!)

So here it is a Marie Antoinette mixed media book (mostly fabric) two sewing machines and both giving me problems,think i should clean and oil ughhh..........
Some of these pages i like and some i dont,the hinged rings holding it together i,m not happy with, may change to ribbons,I,m at a loss what to do,I,m open to suggestions :)


So heres the inside pages ..........with a story of Marie on each opposite page.







SOLD in my Etsy shop May 2nd 2011