RIBBON FLOWERS

I've been playing around with my ribbon stash again, setting up a supply of embellishments- I love making flowers- in beads, fabric, paper... whatever I need at the time... These are very quick and easy, won't fray, and look great in a single colour or a mix.

You will need 20-30" of ribbon, matching thread and a button. The wider the ribbon the longer the lengths should be, but it's best to play with them to see which look you prefer.

I have put the whole tutorial in the crafts section but here are a few pics to inspire...

These can be made any size, the longer the petals the more you can add... creating a wide daisy. The smallest of these is 1 1/2inches across.

Pop over to the tutorial grab some materials and have a go- once you've made one you'll be making more- the hardest thing will be deciding where to use them all!

15 A /15 J/ 15 M Round Robin Journal

Well, it's been so long since I worked in an actual journal, but in the meantime I've done a page for Rhelda as she didn't make her journal and we're creating loose pages instead...

Art and Soul- one of my website titles, and so me... art from the heart... such a cliche, lol!! Oh well, can't be helped- I am what I am!

I used a similar technique to those I've been playing with recently, but I didn't use gesso, so no heating and bubbling, I didn't think paper would be strong enough to cope.

I used several of my lino cuts to emboss cards and built them up with layers of colour. I also used acrylics, texture gel, sequins,tape, cut-outs, several types of pen/ marker and both oil and soft pastels. I really need to improve my text though, I still seem to mess a page up with bad writing...alot of it is because i struggle to find a pen that will write nicely over pastels... anyone got any suggestions?

Hope Rhelda likes it... I've also added it to the ongoing diary section which has all my pages in other journals, and others work in my journal... it's coming on now... nearly halfway though!

ART DOLL FUN...

My word, I can't believe I haven't posted for so long... I should have posted last Saturday but it was a nice day and with Father's Day on the Sunday and my parents being away for my birthday later, we went out for a special meal. A very nice time was had by all and the weather stayed remarkably sunny too- a blessing considering our recent wet trend.

I spent a couple of days last week getting on with one of the Elements dolls I'm creating for a Doll Challenge on Stitchin Fingers . We are only supposed to do one, but if you are doing one element, you should really make the set- I think, anyway! If you have followed my previous posts you will have seen I spent some time cutting fabric and designing/ painting symbols on the body pieces last month.

I've been hung up on finding suitable fabrics for the rest of the bodies in the set, but I found some rather nice pieces eventually so I've had to continue with the "Earth" doll.

Here she is complete... I'm not entirely happy with her face, and I plan on making a clay mask that I can paint up for each doll.

She has little suede pixie boots and bag, her own elder wand, and funky earthy dreads. As I said earlier, I want to create a mask for her and at the same time I still want to make a mold for clay hands, which can be smaller and more detailed. So I'm not too displeased with her, all in all. 

She'll be perfect once I make the adjustments.... and then on to another element, with my new sewing machine that should be arriving within the hour... goodbye to my 20 year old Toyota, and hello to my QE404. I'm so nervous it's killing me- I hope it's a good one, it does everything I want but I don't know the make... but for my budget it looked the best- so we'll see. I shall keep my Toyota as backup, no computer bits to go wrong there- it just doesn't do what I need nowadays. I'll be posting some textile work soon I expect- wish me luck!!!

Book covers in 3D

That's my weekend finished with bubbled gesso projects. I was determined to do  couple that could be used as book covers so while using the same technique I chose different accents... 

here they are-

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I shall find some nice papers now and bind them into books for sale. I might even get them onto Etsy- I've been planning putting work on for sooooo long, but just not looking forward to writing all the texts.

I've also taken lots of pics through the stages, and have posted a tutorial in the Craft section.

And more butterflies and flowers...

I really have a bug with this one... I've just completed a set of 4 small canvases using the same technique as earlier...

I was going to use them as book covers, but I quite like the idea of keeping them together so I may mount them like this... and make some more for book covers tomorrow.
I also had an oval going spare so I created this one too...

I'm going to border this with beads and/or ribbon... I'll have to search my stash and see what beckons... what a productive day it's been...
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Butterflies are definately in this month...

A few days earlier I posted my heart for June's prompt... the material featured this month is gesso, highlighting "fossilised" shapes and textures. The heart turned out really well, and I enjoyed creating it so much I decided to do some more...

Here's the first one... on a spare piece of mountboard. I don't often use green but I thought it would work well for this. I shall probably frame this one, but I decided to create a set and have them proud of the frame so I'm collaging onto 6 x 4" canvas boards. It will be a set of four, one for each season... I'll post once they're done.

Beautiful beetle...

I'm taking part in my usual stitchinfingers monthly FPC swap. June's theme ended up being Egypt. I love working with angelina and I couldn't think of anything more deserving or appropriate than a jewelled scarab beetle, so here she is...

I laid a base of fibres for the wings and embroidered feathers with silks. The body was a piece of thicker angelina tacked over a wad of quilting filling. I then added beads as a border, to define the wings and create legs. This is a traditional Egyptian design, I've just used it in a contemporary fashion with new materials. I hope the recipient likes it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Twinchie books- so sweet!

My good friend Sonja is hosting her first swap for these cute little two inch booklets... I've never made books this tiny so had to give it a go... especially as I had spent last Tuesday marbling cotton and some papers to stock up.

I wasn't going to make three, I only needed two for the swap, but they turned out so cute I made a spare for me to keep, and I shall be making some more to give to friends.

They were simple to create, make rectangle covers slightly bigger than the 1.5 x 2" pages, decorate and add ribbon. Sew the pages in place adding beads on the outside. Sew in end pages and then glue them to the fabric covers. Press for a while so they dry flat... and enjoy! These don't have anything in them, but I may add some text and images before I send them off. 

If you fancy receiving one of these why not join Sonja's swap and have some fun making your own too!

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June Heart Journal

Well, I've been waiting forever for Lillibule and Thealie's June prompt to arrive because I completed May's very early and I wasn't very happy with it, it just didn't go right and one problem led on to another. Still- it's all learning!

Having said that, as soon as I got the prompt for June I collected some of my stash together and started with vigour! Here it is all finished... and I'm really happy with this one. June is my birthday month so I thought I'd reflect that...

 

I used sequins, paper cutouts, lettering,wooden shapes, stickers, gesso and various acrylic paints, wire and beads.

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