One UFO bites the dust

Today's ATC is a by product of the journalling I've been doing lately.  I have been putting ATC sized cards on my table around what I've een working on and seeing what the overspray and splats give me.  This bird came from a suggestion of a tail and some white space.  He could have been a pidgeon, but somehow, I thought he might be a snowy kestrel so I gave him a little hooked beak.

Now to my UFO.  I have been working on a double wedding ring on and off for about four years.  And today I finally finshed piecing the top.  (don't look too closely, it has not been pressed and has spent long periods of time screwed up and shoved down the bottom of the cupboard)

This is about two thirds of it.  The bottom of it is off the bottom of the bed. 

And here's a closer look at the fabrics.  It was the main fabric that I started with, then I chose the crimson and blue (there is some blue in the floral) to make the rings.
I must say, I'm glad it's done and I love it, but four years is a long time to spend on a quilt.  And now I will be spending the winter quilting it  (I am going to hand quilt it. :-o)

Have a great weekend

butterflies on my mind

Yes, Butterflies and what they represent are on my mind.  Mostly because I am doing Your living canvas, with Christy Tomlinson, which is about exploring change in your life with your art.
And since I was making free motion butterflies for my journal, I thought I might as well make an ATC as well.  I hummed and hahed about painting or adding to it, but you know, when you are working on change, you need to keep it simple, lol.

Here are a few of the butterflies I made.

Last one first, lol. I like this one best so far.

And a couple more.  Basically I put organza very tightly in a little hoop, then drew them freehand with free motion.  I cut them out with the soldering iron so that the edges are sealed.  The pictures do not do them justice, They are absolutely gorgeous, if I do say so myself.
I experimented with other colours of organza, but I haven't cut them out yet.  As you can see, I forgot the antennae on some, but hey they are still cute.
I have finished my swap page and will post it when it is recieved by the person it's sent to and I am just embellishing my tangled textiles 'green' piece prior to reveal day in four days, I think.

And here is my digi inspiration, in keeping with my theme today.

wow, 300, then frames and some journal pages

Wow, my 300th post, a bit of a milestone!  Thank you to all the people I have met and talked to over the last 300 posts,  You have all given me the impetus to keep creating when I didn't much feel like anything.  You have all helped me to grow and develop into a working artist.  Thanks.

This ATC is from a variety of collaged fabrics, including some fabric paper and lace, overlaid with painted fusible.  The two frames are little metal bits I collected from resourcerescue, a while ago.
I have all sorts of strange bits, don't I?
After having the weekend off, I haven't much to show, although I have almost finished two projects.  One is a swap for the fabric book group at stitchin fingers, and the other is my piece for Tangled textiles.  The TT piece is due next weekend and the theme was 'green'.
The stitchin fingers swap should have been posted a week ago, but I just kept fiddling with it and it will probably go out on wed now.  Naughty me.  At least it is an australian person, so it will get there reasonably quick.

Anyhow, I thought I'd show you a couple of journal pages

I actually like this one, although I am still humming and hahing about redoing the writing.  I used stamps I made from puffy foam using the art studio's cuttlebug and some tim holtz dies.

I just mounted the foam on bits of perspex scrap with rubber cement, and voila'  some new stamps.  In the spread above, I used a range of inks, and the white flowers I stamped with versamark clear, them embossed with clear.  The green wash was added after and is resisted by the embossing.

This page had a few experiments in it.  The background was  red acrylic paint, sprayed with water then blotted, which gave a distressed sort of look.  The flowers on the left were done with modelling paste and a stencil, then when dry, I added pastel with a brush and sponge.  I started the flower with just a red and green marker, just lines, but didn't like it, then I used crayola slicks and a damp brush to shade them in.  The writing was a uniball broad white.

My digi inspiration for today is below.

Have a good few days.  See you Wednesday.

foil and leather and some mail

 Thanks for the comments about the drawing, guys.  I should be good, I've been practicing for a bout forty years. lol.  but thanks.

This ATC uses velvet, polyester, leather, painted face wipes and textured synthetic,  layered with painted fusible and foil, then a bit of leather strip to top it off.

I thought I would share someone else's work with you today, a couple of items I got in the mail this week.

This absolutely gorgeous and colourful piece of blackwork embroidery is from a very talented friend in Spain.

and this beautiful fabric page, interpreting my theme of leaves is from a friend in Queensland.  notice the three large leaves made from wire and green stocking.  Love it!  I am really missing my embellisher since the rabbit chewed the cord :-(

sketching

This ATC was a little sketch with pitt pens, then I free motioned over it in black thread.

I have actually been doing a fair bit of sketching lately.
Here are a few pages from my sketchbook.

Not sure if I have posted this one before.  Gerberas at the market.  An experiment with water soluble pencils.

a quick pencil sketch of a dandelion.

A sketch of the beach, down in Melbourne.

And three face sketches, inspired by 29 faces in may (I know I won't be doing 29!) These are from reference photos on wet canvas.

So that's it for today.  Have a great one!

lace and a journal quilt

This ATC is simply made from a piece of lace freemotioned onto a mini sandwich (background, batting and backing, with the word also free motioned.

I did say, the other day that I would have to use up the lutradur scraps that were left after making die cut flowers, here.  Well, this is the result.  I used one of the sheets I had cut out of then free motioned the edges down (sort of like reverse applique, only, it wasn't reverse, lol).  I decided it needed another flower as a focus, so I grabbed another flower and free motioned it down.  I could see this as a larger piece, with beading and lots of yummy fabrics underneath.

Here's today's digi inspiration.

a bit of ribbon and an owlly cup of tea

This ATC is made simply from a piece of ribbon I love.  I free machined it to a yellow background, then free machined circles and squares to fill in the top and bottom, then free machined the edging.

Also today, I have finished a tea cosy for a display of tea cosies at the singing Gardens in Toolangi, a nearby town.

I thought you might like a look.

It's pretty cute, if I do say so myself!  You can enlarge if you want to by clicking on the pictures.

Having a lot of trouble with the internet tonight, nearly couldn't upload an inspiration.

Serves me right for not getting my blog done at a respectable time of day, instead of the witching hour.

weeds and more embellishing

This ATC is just a little sketch of a weed in the garden, using my pitt pens.  The background is a piece of mattboard, which I scribbled and smudged on using crayola slicks and a tiny bit of water.  The word is just made with my ancient Letraset (rub-ons) sheets and the bit of paper lace tape was a last little thought.

When I was cutting flowers the other day, I also embossed (with the same machine) using a clock embossing folder.

This is the folder, It also has a little lacy flourish.

This one is on heavy foil - can't wait to use this one!

Handmade paper.

Tracing paper.  I love how it makes white lines on the transparent paper.

A piece of plastic packaging.  Ditto the white lines.

A piece of light rainbow spun/lutradur

And finally, A painted face wipe

i really love this design.  I think I am going to have to design a mixed media piece to use all of these lovelies.
I did other bits and pieces of embossing, but that is enough eye candy for today, I think.

bird on a wire

Just a quick blog tonight, The internet is very slow as it seems to be in bad weather.
This ATC is one I did after playing with some different coloured wires.  The little metal rectangle is an old feed dog cover and has a hole in the centre for a needle.  I poked my wires through that hole and arranged them.  Originally, I wanted to leave the hole to be seen, but the little bird wanted to sit there and who am I to argue.  He is just free cut out of felt.  The background is fabric paper made using inkjet prints which bled and pattern tissue.

poppies and other flowers

I did say the other day that I liked my dragonfly stamp on a blob of paint here and thought it looked like a poppy.  So, I made another stamp for the poppy centres and used it here on some lutradur circles sewn down with a french knot.  I thought the background fabric sort of suggested stems (artistic license)
After I had done this, though about what it would look like with some clear embossing powder over the top.  Of course I would have to use cotton for those poppies, or even paper!

Yesterday, I made a lot more flowers!

I borrowed the die cutter from out art studio.  This one is a big one.  I have only a teeny weeny one.
I recently bought a new die to use in the big cutter that I thought would come in very handy.

This is what it cuts.  It's a Tim holtz die.
I cut lots of paper ones

And I cut lots of lutradur/rainbow spun ones

I also tried out some fabric, too.  I found that with fabric, it is best to have paper top and bottom of the fabric whilst cutting (even lutradur), so I made even more paper flowers out of scrap paper at the same time.
When fabrics such as organza have been stiffened (I use dilute PVA, just like making fabric paper, but without the paper), they work extremely well, and some work even without stiffening, but sometimes some threads are not cut - one or two and when you remove the flower, the thread pulls. 
anyway, I think I will be making a big batch of stiffened satin and organza very soon. 

I even cut some thin foam and ended up with a stencil and some stamps!

The only probelem in using dies, is the waste.  but you know me, I will be recycling the paper bits into my journals and artbooks and the fabric ones.....  Well I have a few ideas in store for them.

But now I have flowers to last until.....at least next week!