Butterflies again

Remember the butterflies I made the other week?

 Well, I decided to make a journal wrap with them.  I saw Laura Kemshall making a felt wrap on Design matters, that she glued onto the book, but I wanted a cover I could remove.

Basically, I just made a piece of felt that wrapped around the book plus a bit more.
I used black felt and embroidered some of the butterflies directly onto it, then burned away the excess organza.  I also just embroidered a few outlines and added some dimensional ones (the ones I made the other day) on top.  I wanted it to look like the butterflies were flying in from the back of the book (to the left).

This is the underside of the cover.  The butterfly on the left is on the closure tab, and you can't see all the embroidery, because I sewed on two rectangles for the cover flaps.

You can see a bit better here, where it is in place on a journal.  The closure has a metal washer sewed in and the front cover has a magnet.  I think I will be making more of these!

No ATC and No inspiration today, as my hubby has used all our downloads and so now it is incredibly slow.  If my posts are a bit short for the next week, we can just blame him.  lol. 

Have a great time creating

OK, Here is my piece for the latest Tangled Textiles challenge
I had lots of ideas for my piece, This is the back.

Well, I had an idea, one that I have had in my mind for over a year now, and so basically, I just made a collage on top of my little quilt.

It's very dimensional (seen here from the side)

And there are lots of different green fabrics ( stiffened with medium or PVA), then beads and buttons and yarn and thread, and a bit of paint and...nail polish

I don't have much green stuff left!

It's a green man.  Which I thought was a Celtic legend, but apparently it is found in most cultures' history.  You can read about it here.

And here he is looking at you!
Don't forget to look at the other work over at the Tangled Textiles Blog

See yoiu Wednesday

More butterflies

No ATC today, although I could have made one as you will see later.
I have been working on my first task for christy tomlinson's Living canvas course.
This is a mixed media journalling course with a difference.  It's about exploring ourselves as well.
As usual, I put out way too much paint, so did a few backgrounds

As you can see, I am partial to green and purple.  I also like this texture, it reminds me of wisteria.
I also did a few tags.

Colour is not good, it was pouring all day and quite dark.  There is no black, it is all purple.

This is the bit of shelf liner I used to make the texture.
I also collected a few butterflies to play with.

First one is a modelling paste butterfly a la christie.  Second are some printouts of vintage butterflies from the Graphics fairy and third are a few different sized of die cut butterflies from papers and some from angelina.

And this is what I came up with.  Parts are out of focus because it is too deep for the scanner with the spine.

So here's a slightly better one of the front cover.  I made a stencil from the cut out  moth and used it to make a moulding paste one, which I put under to give the cut out some depth.  Some of the text is handwritten, and some is stamped and some are stickers.  'Changing' is black embossing.
There are lots of layers and I created a lot of texture with scrunched tissue but  it's hard to see.

So here's a bit of a close up.  You can see the cutout, some doodling, the raised embossing, and at the bottom the handwritten 'you' and stamped 'are'.

Here's the back.  I have written a lot of related words and done a lot of doodling.  The butterfly here is just stencilled modelling paste on the book, which I colured and doodled on.

Here's a close up of that.
I used a lot of gold paint and rub on on the book and it looks very old and distressed.
I am really pleased with it, although it is quiite dark, compared to those of many of my classmates.  It is lovely to look at and to touch.  I am looking forward to working in it.

Not much textile work to show today as this has been my main focus for a few days.
Monday, however is another story.
Sunday US time is the reveal for Tangled Textiles, So it will be Monday for me here.
My piece is nearly finished.

Your digi inspiration for today.

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.

A bit of a vacation, sort of.

I have made a decision to cut back my blogging to 3 days a week.  As a friend recently said, blogging can stop us from doing what we love most - creating, and on reflection, it has been cutting into my art routine.
I intend to continue blogging Mon, Wed and Fri - that's Australian EST.
I am also beginning an online course with christy tomlinson starting in the net few days and have my tangled textiles reveal next weekend.
So I'm busy, but I'll see you on Mon.

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.