365 Journal and stuff

It's that time again - time to show our journals.  Pop over to Kate's to see more, or if you're new to this, find out more :-D  I only noticed when cropping May's that I'd missed the bottom portion of the page :-/

A friend asked me to make another Wood Nymph and a doll's chair for her granddaughter.  The second picture shows the doll better I think.

 

My grandson was allowed to look after these 2 cuties for a couple of weeks - they've gone back to the farm (mostly hens) where he helps out now.   They're Indian Runner Ducks.




He's only 11 but when he went with his dad to buy some chicks some months ago he said he'd like to work there so his mum got him to ring up himself to ask :-)  This is him at the farm; looking like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth - don't be fooled haha.  And then him winning bronze at a National Karate Championship in February.

365 Journal and Easter Eggs

March completed

Not much to say about these.  If you want to join in or see more pop over to Kate's

My daughter asked me if I wanted a large Lindt egg or some small bits like a bag of mini eggs and a bag of mini creme eggs, I said I'd have the small ones.  This is what she bought:

haha.  I have to say I've only eaten a creme egg (which I ate before I took this), one layer of the M&S chocs and 1 layer of the M&S 'Operetta' chocs [and as you can see they're not huge boxes :-)] - these are like Ferrero Rocher only taste much better; they are yummy whereas FR are the most boring chocs I've ever tasted!

I've been using my phone to take photos for months as my camera broke.  I wasn't going to bother getting a new one as I felt the phone was sufficient for my needs but there have been occasions when I've wanted to zoom in on something which I can't do with my phone - you can zoom into the pic once you've taken it.  Anyway I discovered Asda had a sale on and decided to buy this.  It was only £42.14 plus postage - bargain!  This is the Powershot A2300 my previous one was Powershot SD1000 and cost just under £100 I think (can't remember exactly).

Snow, snow, thick thick snow

We've had a lot of snow here - it may not seem a lot compared with other countries or even other parts of the UK but it's a lot for us.  It started last Thursday night, continued all day Friday and part of Saturday.  We ended up with about 6".  It did stop for a few days but we had a bit yesterday and it's snowing now.  I hope it doesn't carry on as I go line dancing Wednesday evenings but if it snows too heavily I won't be going in case I can't get out of the car park :-/

The picture on the left was taken Friday evening, the one on the right taken Saturday morning (don't take notice of the snow on the chair as it has a cushion on so looks more).

I made this vase from a liquid detergent bottle :-D  I roughed the surface up then glued on crumpled tissue paper and a bit of scrim using Mod Podge gloss (I just found the gloss first, but matte would work as well).  This was then coloured with paint and rubbed over with Metallic Rub-Ons.  The little squares are done using gel medium through a stencil, I added a little bit of metallic paint to some of the squares.  I added more Mod Podge over the whole surface to seal it.  The vase measures 7.5"x5".

I'm trying to clear some items waiting for repair/completion.  This cardi had a large ladder next to the seam on the sleeve, there was no way to just sew it up as the ladder was quite wide but I didn't want to throw the cardi out.  I bought some lace to cover it but had to over-stitch the ladder by putting a piece of thin wool (from another cardigan I bought from a charity shop to felt) underneath and stitching over, then added the lace.  I've added some lace to the other sleeve to tie it in. Sorry the pic's a bit blurred.

I also completed a skirt I started a few years ago for one of my granddaughters but it got stuck in a box and forgotten about - out of sight out of mind describes me very well haha.  It only needed the top turning over and some elastic putting in.  Of course it won't fit my either of my youngest granddaughters now so I've passed it on to another family member.

A pair of collared doves that have been visiting my garden for a couple of years at least.  This was taken through the kitchen window.  I do have a couple of hanging bird feeders but rigged this up so I can watch the birds from the kitchen.  It's a plant pot with an ice-cream tub, with holes in the bottom, wedged in.

365 Journal and More

March was ready a week ago but I just didn't get round to photographing it.  The intention was to put some daffodils on March's page and I may yet do that.  Pop over to Kate's if you've not visited her before for more 365 Journals and also to see some of Kate's fantastic work.  February's colour looks very different from the pic I posted last month :-/  This is more true to life.

Some weeks ago Pat and I went to the Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts show at Event City Manchester.   We met up with Christine; who we first met at a show in the GMEX, Manchester a couple of years ago (now Manchester Central but I'm stubbornly sticking to GMEX), we just got chatting to her, as you do ;-) and Jo who I'd also met before.  Jo was there with her lovely friendly hubby and she got him to take a few pics.  The other lady in the pic is another Ann who is a friend of Jo's.  Left to right is Jo, Christine, Pat and me, with the other Ann behind Pat.

At the doll group (though we actually do much more than make dolls) we are doing some art journalling, one of our members who is very much into art journalling and steampunk art is doing a workshop with us.  Here's a page out of mine. 

 We all have a theme, mine's quotes which I need to start collecting!  To see more pop over to http://craftydollybirds.blogspot.co.uk/.

365 Journal and stuff

Not much to say about my journal pages.  I'm using an A3 Pink Pig book this year.  Check out Kate's blog for more info and inspiration.

I had a little play yesterday with transfer inks.  They work on polyester fabrics, also on a polyester mix but less well - it absorbs less of the ink.  It works so well on Evolon (a woven polyester fabric) which is the heart labelled number 2.  I also used the Evolon with the plant material.

Basically you paint the inks onto copy paper then iron it onto fabric so you can paint solid colour or paint a design onto the paper or cut shapes out of the painted paper.  With the plant material you place it onto the fabric, put the painted paper on top then iron over it.  Also transferred some of the ink to organza ribbon shown at the bottom here.

I've also made some organza flowers, one made using a tea-light to shrivel the edges of the organza and the other 2 using a heatgun.

Polyfilla.

I was filling a few holes in the craftroom wall with Polyfilla and decided to use some on a canvas.  I used a Stewart Gill butterfly stencil which I've had for many years and the edge of a stencil along the bottom of the canvas.  The canvas measures 5"x7".  The paints are watered down Daler Rowney, with mica powders over the top. The parts of a page is a butterfly description from a dictionary.

This other canvas measures just under 8" square and is a box canvas.  I used gel medium on this one, not Polyfilla ;-)  The inspiration for this was taken from Creative JumpStart run by Nathalie.  It's not complete but I thought I'd show what I'd done so far.  I'm thinking of printing off a bird tuse; do I need a dark; possibly black; image or light?  What do you think?


Also getting a 'jumpstart' from Nathalie's blog I did an image transfer.  I didn't have the transfer medium shown in the video so used gel medium.  My intention is to use the image on something such as a purse, phone case or such.   The dragonfly measures 3.5" x 2" Quite often I'll try out a technique, for paper or fabric, or just have a play if it's something I've done before but not actually make something out of the end result.  I want to try to make more things in future when I've had a little play.  I decided not to trim the dragonfly before transferring it to the fabric, but if I'd wanted a neater finish I would have done.

If you sign up to the Creative JumpStart 2013 you get regular 'JumpStarts' from such people as Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Claudine Hellmuth, Dina Wakly, Nathalie herself and many more.

EDITED 365 Journal and Happy New Year ;-D

Happy New Year to all.  Hope 2013 is good to you.
Something's amiss with Blogger since I was last here :-/ the font is really tiny and I can't figure out how to upload photos from my computer!  It only gives the options to upload from:
This blog; Picasa Web Albums; Phone; Webcam or URL.  HELP!
EDITED 6th Dec
I've installed Google Chrome now and hey presto when I want to upload pics from my computer I get the option to 'Choose Files' which wasn't there before.  Previously it gave the option to 'Browse' but this had disappeared since 'they' have made changes to Blogger.  I know it's an ongoing thing; when changes are made they work ok for some but not others - the changes will be compatible with some browsers and not others and also may be battling against other 'stuff' on your computer.  I'm just glad I didn't have to resort to downloading Picasa as I'd used it briefly once before but wasn't really happy with it.  The other alternative was to upload pictures from my phone but though I could crop pictures before uploading I may want to edit them in some other way which I wouldn't be able to do. Kate is still hosting the '365 Journal' so pop over if you haven't already done so :-D

I made my sister a bracelet for Christmas but remembered she can't wear metal next to her skin (the fastener) so had to make a quick bracelet using stretch cord; I didn't photograph that but here's the original.

I used Chinese crystals - not as good as Swarovski - the bicones are Swarovski however.  I realise now I should have made sure all the crystals were facing the same way as they are coated on one side so don't gleam so much on that side. (I may yet redo it)  It is quite simple to do and if you'd like to have a go check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFbOyFaD9wk&playnext=1&list=PLC29345357827E2E2&feature=results_main [:-/ having another look at this it's so much neater than mine, still it is a first attempt ;-)]

I need to change the fastening as this one is difficult to fasten on your own.

I also made my son a paracord bracelet if you fancy having a go you'll find lots of tutorials on YouTube.



At the doll group I belong to our last project was based on 'I know an old lady who swallowed a fly' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tojKdGW7TBA those taking part had to make a head for the character they chose (mine was a 'cute troll') this was then passed on to another person to make the body, the next person made the fly and spider, the next the bird and cat, then dog and goat; after that when it was passed on we just made one animal.  We never got our 'head' back at all so had no idea what our finished project ' would look like.  There was a stipulation that we had to follow whatever theme the first creatures, for example if they were knitted we had to knit the next creature etc. Some didn't have a specific or obvious  theme (for example after the spider and fly in one collection the next person took colour as the theme) (At the same time there was another project on the go which was to make a house and embellish internally and externally and also make a figure to live in the house.  Unfortunately there aren't any photos of those on the blog).  Pop over to have a look http://craftydollybirds.blogspot.co.uk/

Yoohoo is there anybody there? 365 Journal

Long time no blog.  I was late starting November pages as I got mixed up with the actual pages in my journal - I had to paste a blank sheet on the inside cover and found it too much effort (lazy slob!)  At least that's what I thought at the time.  In actual fact I'd started to prepare Nov pages long before and it was for Dec that I needed to add a sheet to inside back cover, so I didn't have to start on a new journal; doh!  Also I was having problems with my camera; first it died then came back to life but has died again; I think it's finally kaput.  My old phone wasn't much good for pics, well they weren't too bad but couldn't take many; I now have a new phone.
I'm not happy with the colours for Nov but as it took me till about halfway through the month to do the daily squares and start writing I decided to just leave it.

Grandkids dog and one of their hens :-D

366 Journal

Still in it and up-to-date!  If  you want to know more about this challenge pop over to Kate's blog.  Not much to say.  After colouring Oct pages; I can't remember what with as I did them some time ago; I added white paint through 2 stencils and used up an old sheet of 12x12 paper for the daily squares.

I was asked to make another of the Woodland Nymph dolls with a pink/cream colour scheme.  I've promised my youngest granddaughter one for her birthday, which is this month, too and I think I'll have had enough of making them!!

NOT DUE TO FLOODS read below

I went to see '42nd Street' at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford with a couple of other ladies from the tap dance class, it was a fantastic production - lots of tap dancing; if you don't know the show.  It was the Curry Festival that weekend so I took a pic.  The fountains were on (are they fountains if they are spurts of water coming out of holes in the ground)?  There's a dip in the ground to contain the water but no wall round.  There were quite a few kids having great fun getting wet.  You can see some of the stalls in the background where you could buy curry dishes.  Bradford was crowned the Curry Capital of Great Britain in 2011.

366 Journal, doll and cakes

Firstly my completed pages for August.  If you're new to the 365 Journal (366 for this leap year) challenge pop over to Kate's to see more.

Next up my prepared pages for September - a little blurred.  I had to take all these pics with my Nokia phone as my camera isn't working.  For some reason the Sept pages have turned out blurred, I did take the picture twice and both times it was blurred so I'm leaving it as is.



It was my birthday in July and I went for lunch with a couple of friends, this is the huge meringue I had for dessert - it measured approx 6" high; now that's what I call a dessert :-D

Then we have some cupcakes I made for my granddaughter's birthday, the butter icing's a bit wonky on some but they all go down the same hehe.  Some have glittery pink sugar on which doesn't show up very well.

It was another of my granddaughter's birthday in August and I made her this Wood Nymph - pattern by Julie McCullough.  Her face isn't brilliant but is actually better IRL than it looks here.
In case you're wondering why the writing on my table cover is back to front it's because the colours are reversed on this side and I like to have a change.   My son bought this for me when he lived in California for some years.  Not sure what it's purpose actually is but I like to see it so use it on my table.  The design; of cats; is by Laurel Burch for those who may be interested.

366 Journal - August

Nice and early with my 366 Journal.  Not much to say about the pages for August.  I used Koh-I-Noor water based dyes (' 'Dense vibrant colours, for sketchbook and design work. Exciting results when bleached'') which I also used to colour some copy paper for the triangles.

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.