Monochromatic

Some weeks ago I decided I'd get some fabric and stuff out and make something without having a clear idea of what.  I couldn't decide what to use as a base but I bought some cheap cleaning cloths made from recycled materials, not for this project but ended up using one for the base.  They were soft and a reasonable thickness but had stitching all over.  I decided to take all the stitching out, as they were that type of 'chain' stitch that undoes easily it didn't take long.  However that was when I discovered the reason for the stitching - the cloth was very much like cotton wool with a gossamer thin fabric enclosing it; the stitching basically held it together :-/  So decided to felt it on my much underused Embellisher (needle-felting machine) and add bits and pieces using the embellisher - organza, tulle, angelina, shimmery polyester fabric, lace and some handmade paper.  I did some random, free motion machine stitching all over then added beads, hearts made with angelina fibres and sequin type butterflies and leaves.  The fabric still isn't very robust but I intend to use Bondaweb to fuse some fabric on the back.

I had another little play with fabric and paints, this time using transfer paints.  These are great, you paint them onto copy paper then iron onto fabric.  You can paint a design or picture onto the paper then iron that onto fabric or do as I did just painted randomly onto paper.  Then I got some leaves, placed them onto the fabric and put the painted paper over the top and ironed over it.  This left the leaf design on the fabric.  On another piece I cut out some paper shapes and placed them on top of the fabric before placing the painted paper on top and ironing.  Transfer paints are meant to be used with polyester fabric for best results but I've used cotton fabric with the leaves, the other with cutout paper shapes is polyester.  The plan is to add some machine stitching to these and do something with them.






This shows the painted paper and the cutout shapes after ironing - (the paint having been transferred onto the paper shapes)  The paint is darker on the copy paper than when it's ironed onto fabric.

A Splendid Little Chap

At the doll group (or rather Craftydollybirds group) last Sunday some of us started to make a bird out of a lightbulb!  This was a project by Christine Lehto in 'Cloth Paper Scissors' - March/April 2012.  Who would look at a lightbulb and think 'that would make a fabulous body for a bird'? - well obviously Christine did and I'm so glad she did as I love my little chap.  Christine used paperclay to cover the lightbulb after attaching wings and tail; I've used an airdrying clay called DAS as  you can see in one pic.  I bought mine at 'The Works' (but I seem to remember from reading comments somewhere in Blogland that this isn't a countrywide company).  The project suggests using acrylic paints for the bird but I decided to decoupage mine - the papers are from Decopatch.  I keep thinking you could use paper napkins as Decopatch papers are a little expensive but I've never seen some of the lovely designs they do in napkins plus the printed side of the papers is coated which I think gives a little bit of strength when wet.  He's 53/4"

I asked for and received a lovely 'dumfling' from Jo so thought I'd make her one of my birds as a thank you.

I belong to a small but select craft group, hehe, that meets once a month in Brighouse, West Yorkshire.  We sometimes have challenges and for this month it was to make something 'red, white and blue' because of the queen's Jubilee.  I made a little felt bird.

I've been productive

When I met up with my friend and fellow Scouser Ann at the recent show in Liverpool she gave me a set of Dyan's house stamps that she'd hardly used but no longer wanted, so I said I'd make her something as a thank you.  I made this bird for her and she's delighted with it.














I'd been wanting to make a 'Wood Nymph' (pattern by Julie McCullough) for some time.  As I'd previously borrowed the pattern from someone I had scanned it onto the computer but the some of the pages were missing so I didn't have the pieces for the body, thighs or wings.  I used the top arm to do the thighs just enlarging it then estimated the body size (I had a picture of the shape of the body to go by) the consequence of this was she ended up with a fat neck lol.  Actually I don't know why I said that because of course Wood Nymph's always have fat necks - but you knew that right? haha  I did in fact discover that I had previously cut out all the pattern pieces (apart from the wings) so wanted to make one for myself with the correct pattern so gave this one to my granddaughter who loves it, fat neck and all ;-) The fabric for the lower legs is some I'd previously dyed.

Also while at the show in Liverpool I bought a kit which included fabric, design to transfer and instructions.  This isn't something I normally do as I have enough fabric to do things like this and think 'I could do that'.  The problem is then I don't get round to doing it.  Also I want to follow more of other people's projects through from beginning to end for the purpose of learning how to do them properly and use them as inspiration for my own projects.  This is the 'Doorway Stitch Project' by Wendy Dolan.  I just need to do another 'scroll' on the lower part of the door then it's complete.  The blue is actually more turquoise IRL and the other main colour is a little darker.  The overall piece is 9"x8".

I've had a little book on Crewelwork embroidery for years intending to have a go, well I've finally got roung to it.  I've only done a little bit so far but thought I'd share it.  I've not done a lot of embroidery apart from cross-stitch; my stitching isn't very neat so don't look too closely :-D For reference the hoop is 7".

366 Journal, other stuff and £100 refund ;-)

Firstly apologies to those who left comments on my last post.  I haven't tried to leave comments in the last couple of weeks but you may remember I couldn't on most blogs.  I'm hoping I can now if not I'm going to try installing Firefox to see if it makes a difference.
Onto the 366 Journal.  I wasn't really happy with the borders I did on January's but didn't get round to trying to take them off and do something different.  February's pages were ready on time but I only photograped them  couple of days ago.  To see more pop over to Kate's.

For the doll group - now the craftydollybirds - we had a challenge to do a Bridal Panel use any theme we liked.  I chose Gothic.  If you want to see the rest pop over to our blog

I made myself a Kindle cover, thought I'd show the inside as well.  I did consider just doing a kind of bag to just slip it in.  If you want to see how this fabric started out look here :-0 May 2009!!!

Lastly; I purchased a laptop from Dell before Christmas.  I'd phoned up as I was having problems with the DVD drive onmy Dell PC and ended up buying a new laptop.  I had been considering it as my PC was about 5 years old and getting very slow plus the problem with the DVD drive.  I was told I was getting a good deal as Dell were doing an offer for Christmas.  I was happy with the price but wondered what price it was on the website.  I couldn't find the same one but found one I thought had a better spec and was cheaper.  Anyway to cut a long story short I wanted Dell to compare the 2 and explain to me the difference.  I emailed them 3 times in all starting 6th January each time receiving an email to say someone would contact me.  I also phoned but think I was talking to someone in India and he didn't have access to the emails I asked if he couldn't get access somehow.  He got frustrated when I insisted that he should be able to as it was all customer services and I didn't want to be put through to someone else as I was paying for the phone call and he put the phone down on me!  Disgraceful behaviour from Customer Services.  After the last email someone did phone and when I explained the situation but said I didn't now have the detailsof the laptop I compared mine to but that I'd put it in the first email.  The outcome was he offered me £100 refund, yahoo!  I think that was mainly 'cos I'd sent 3 emails and phoned without any success.  Anyway good for me in the end :-)
Edited as I'd left the 2nd pick of the Kindle cover out and didn't do the link to the fabric correctly

366 Journal oh yes and Happy New Year

Hi, I'm still in the real world but bought a new laptop just before Christmas and have only just got round to uploading pics from my camera.  Was going to install the camera software but thought I'd see how I got on without it.  But also for one reason or another I've just spent sooooo much time online and none of it for crafty reasons.
Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year.  The main thing I got was a Kindle :-) I'm very pleased with it.  I've read 2 books already and have started War And Peace.  I know! but it's my Everest hahaha.
On to the main reason for this post the 366 Journal.  Not totally happy with January's but faffed about enough with it, and it looks better than it did.  As I didn't keep up to date in December I couldn't remember what I'd done on many of the days as you can see.  Pop over to Kate's if you want to see more or find out more about this challenge.

Have also made a Kindle cover for my youngest sis and am going to make one for myself.

My niece asked me to make a doll for her daughter for Christmas, both dellighted with it.

NB Am having problems trying to leave comments on some blogs.  Can only think it's 'cos my new laptop runs on Windows 7 and the old PC was Windows XP.  I will Google it to see if I can fix it but if anyone knows of a fix please let me know.  (My browser is IE9)

365 Journal and other stuff

I tried to be early with my posting but for some reason I couldn't upload the pics from my camera on Thursday.  Luckily it worked ok today.  November's completed.  December's pages are a bit messy looking but I like them.  Check out Kate's blog for more info.

I made a fabric house a couple of weeks ago; I used mountboard as the base.  I added some wadding under the fabric, and the inside is lined with felt.

The birds aren't finished yet, they won't be having legs, but I'll most likely put ribbon on to hang them up.  The threads you can see on the face mark the position for the eyes (had to put some masking tape underneath to help them stand.

Yesterday was our monthly playday in Sheffield.  Most of us made a wreath and they all turned out really well thanks to Jill's tutoring (no blog for Jill).  Mine's changed slightly as it had a red raffia bow on yesterday but DD didn't like it so I made one out of hessian.  I've had to hang it on the wall as I don't see any easy way to hang it on a UPVC door. 

Here's a link to the rest of them Ann

Bags, Kate's Workshop plus 365 Journal

I've made to craft bags recently.  The first out of 2 pairs of jeans - I decided just to use the legs which is why it took 2 pairs.  I used the waistband for the handle, I didn't neaten the edges just cut close to the seam.  I've left raw edges all round and had intended to wash it before use to fray the edges more but used it before I had time to wash it.  The 2nd one I used upholstery fabric, I just loved the fabric when I saw it and liked it right up to completing the bag, now I'm not sure.  I like the style though.


A week ago yesterday (is that good grammar?) I attended one of Kate's workshops at Art From The Heart with Pat, there were a couple of other 'Ladies Who Lunch' there too (we meet once a month in Sheffield for a playday).  These are the pages I did there and the workshop was thoroughly enjoyable, Kate is such a good teacher.

Just realised it's now August so hurriedly took a pic of my 365 Journal pages.  The colour of the August pages are more kind of mellow than they look here.

What I've been up to

I've hardly blogged in the last couple of months, just don't seem to have time - it's not the blogging itself as such, it's just that once you enter Blogland and start visiting you get caught up with so many interesting blogs and get sidetracked following links.
I have painted the spare bedroom and am going to move my craft stuff back upstairs from the kitchen, that will probably take a year to complete haha.  I've also painted the bathroom. So I've not been idle.  I hate painting ceilings and hate the cutting in!  But on to more interesting stuff, I've made canvas postcards (the grain of the canvas seems to have affected the clarity of the picture here) and a mug rug at the doll group in recent months; decorated a torso with the 'Ladies Who Lunch' we've have also made a hanging thing but I have yet to attach the means by which it will hang; made myself a car seatbelt thing too (just so you know, the white strip is one side of Velcro for fastening).  I dont know if it's just short people who suffer with the seatbelt chafing the side of the neck.  The mug rug is rectangular rather that square to allow you to put your biccies on too - due to the name 'mug rug' I'm assuming these originated in America.  The chicken hangy thing was a project in Craft Stamper by Helen (sorry can't remember her surname)



Long time no see!

Hi folks, in case you're interested I haven't really had the inclination to upload and sort my photos for a while.  I've been online on and off, but no blog-hopping.
First up are my 365 Journal pages for May and June.

Next are some fairy shoes we made at the doll group in May - well started in May completed at home.  The intention is to make a doll at some point to fit the shoes!

Lastly a pic of my thumb after I tried to chop the end off with the guillotine!  Luckily the blades on those are quite thick so didn't do a s much damage as it would otherwise.  I really must learn to keep my thumb well in, as I did just catch it once before!  See that dry skin!  It's not so bad now :-)

365Journal, Sunday Stampers, Sneak Peek

I'm happy that my Feb pages are complete for this as I wasn't happy with the colours.  For March I've used Brusho to colour the pages and I'm much happier with the colours this month but they look a little dull here.  I've been really wanting to use different coloured daily squares after seeing others use them to great effect but always bottled out thinking they wouldn't work for me, so I've taken the plunge this month.  I've used Dylusions spray with my 'argyle' stencil and DIs with the picket fence (bottome of page) and flourish.  For info about the 365 journal pop over to Kate's.




Last minute again with my Sunday Stampers entry; the theme this week was Paris.  I've done a collage of different stamps and made a few organza flowers for embellishment.

Last sneak peek for PIF (Pay It Forward), though you're meant to make something for the first 5 comments regarding PIF on your blog one lady who left a comment isn't actually taking part herself and another only had one comment on her blog so I've asked her if she would like to do a swap instead but have yet to hear.  This little peek is about 11/2" square.
Overcast here today, though we have had some lovely sunny days recently.