fishy business and more mess

This card backgound was one I made in a crackle experiment.  This particular card did not turn out as expected, so I played a bit with it.  The background was yellow and white over green.  I happened to see a fish stencil just lying there, so I used it to make the fish.  I used a failed batch of gold wax (like rubnbuff) and it caught up around the edges of the fish, making a raised outline, with a little bit of gold in the centre.  Next, I dribbled a bit of blue watercolour over the top.  I finished up with a few bubbles I stamped using white acrylic and the end of a straw.

I have started working on a project I was supposed to start on the 15th, but as you all know, I was ill, and then very busy.
So, today, I started getting out things I might use for this project.  It is a fabric page for a swap.  The theme is vintage.

Here is a selection of elements I might use.  I find sometimes, it is easier to start with these than the background.  So what have I got here?

A vintage piece of eyelet tape.

A variety of ribbon tape laces.  Anyone who knows me knows I have lots of ribbons!

A few narrow laces.  I have more, but we must draw the line somewhere, lol.

'Silk' flower parts.  It is actually quite east to make  these flowers, using polyester satin and watered down PVA, some small plastic containers and templates which you can either get by tracing a real one, or by looking for flower templates on google.

Commercial lace motofs and appliques.

A variety of doilies and linens, some old, some new.

Small crochet and needle lace motifs which i made my ownty downty self.

Lots of fine bobbin lace samples, from when I was learning years ago.

and finally a few vintage notions.

And this is only the embellishments.  I need to decide on a focus picture and some luxurious backround fabrics next, won't that be fun?

Being creative doesn't neccesarily mean creating something in a moment of inspiration.  Sometimes it takes a while and involves thinking, playing or drawing or most times all three.

Valentine 2 and some fabric

This heart ATC is made from a painted petal in a piece of lace, layered over red felt, outlined with running stitch, white blanket stitch edge and a few pearls.

As I said yesterday, I came up with quite a lot of ideas when I thought about hearts, which, like you, Linda, I generally avoid.  I wonder if I could be as successful with other symbolic shapes like stars, the moon, circles, or a simple flower.  mmmm.

As you can see there are a lot of little ideas on this page.  I could have kept going, but decided this was enough!

As I just came home yesterday, I haven't much to show, but today a friend gave me some yummy fabrics which I can't wait to use.

This is the most goegeous lurex and chiffon mix fabric.  I can see it as sand, pebbles, and lots of other landscape bit and pieces.  and of course it would go really well in a heat distressed piece.

This heavier fabric is a mixture of stripes and paisley in some bright colours with a great satin weave texture.

This is very hard to show in a photograph taken after dark in my studio, but is a dark blue burnout velvet with roses and leaves.

This one came out much better, it is also a burnout velvet, but this time green with leaves - my favourite!

hope you liked the bit of eye candy!
More hearts tomorrow!