blue flowers and some stamps

 I have been working quite hard in my studio, if the mess is anything to go by, but most of it is things that I can't post until certain dates.  Hopefully, I will get to some postable stuff tomorrow.

ATC is made from blue paper scrapbooking flowers free machined as a collage to heavy interfacing.

And now to some stamps, which I made a while ago but forgot to post.  They are all made from fun foam, cut and glued to perspex with rubber cement.
Here are the stamps I made.

Two harlequin stamps, which I have been going to make for ages, one with 45 degree angles and the other 30/60 (the longer skinny diamonds), and below a wonky checker board.

My yin yang leaf symbol, which I have already used in an ATC here, and the little comma or paisley I cut out of it.
And here are a few samples.

The one on the left is in my notebook, and the one on the right is in a gessoed journal.

But wait, there's more!
I also made these.

Two different sized trees, just made from slivers of the foam, and two little tiny leaf stamps to go with them.
And here are a few of my samples.

I like how stamping a few times with each leaf gives different values of leaf colour.

I did this one with liquid shoe polish!  I also happened to make a couple more of these stamps today, but I think this is enough for one day!

a heart and some plastic

 Oops, I forgot to post yesterday.   I am working very hard on a ton of things to get back into my routine and I am quite excited about some of the new ideas popping up.  My journal is getting quite full!

ATC is made with foil fused on fusible web on cotton fabric.  Free machine scribbling.

And another journal quilt.  This time made from the  plastic bags fused to cellofoil I made here.

I used red pearl cotton in the bobbin and sewed the spiral from the back (Bobbin drawing)

scraps and a journal page

 Ok, so I didn't finish my quilt at my workshop.  I must 'fess up, but it was a very full timetable and we did so many things that my head is still spinning.  My workshop was with Kay Haerland and it was really worthwhile.  Although perhaps there wasn't much that was new to me, there was a lot of ways to use techniques and materials that I hadn't thought of.  I think my journal quilts for the next six months are already mapped out!  She also offers other workshops, so have a look at her website (above) and especially the gallery.
The quilt convention, as well as being a hectic four days, was also very busy.

 The Exhibition Building, which is huge is T shaped and this is the trunk of the T.  Unfortunately it was the only picture of the goings on I remembered to take, although I did have time to spend my hubby's money (priorities!)
Hopefully, as I have now tidied up and unpacked, I can finally get some work done.

This ATC is made from a few scraps off my work table, on painted watercolour paper. A piece of lurex fabric, frayed, a pink paint chip, a piece of blue netting, some die cut letters and some adhesive jewels (notice even the die cuts are scraps, since I didn't have an A and had to use a V upside down!).

Sometimes when I journal, I just randomly pick a word from whatever page I open in my old dictionary.
On this day, the word was Heirloom, and I thought about what might be an heirloom.  My eye glaced over the box where all my lace is stored and this page, or really background, as it is not finished, was the result.

I stamped the word, then used one of the circular motifs from a doily to stamp on the page.  I added another real doily piece above the word.  Since I took this photo, I have actually drawn in a few more repeats in white pen.  I think it captures the idea of the type of heirlooms which are handed down in my family.  The doily I used was NOT one of them, it was quite new.

Butterflies and flags

 Well, I am finally back from AQC and I had a great time, but I am totally exhausted and haven't finished unpacking,  so more later.

This ATC is made from painted watercolour paper, layered with a butterfly stamped on tissue, a few strands of lurex and a charm with a resin half globe.  I love how the tissue paper becomes transparent when glued down with medium(or PVA).


Today I will show you the flag book I have made to hold my Journal quilts, which are all 5 in.

I used some thick pastel paper, which is secured with a ribbon.

I left lots of extra width on the pastel paper, so that the book can expand.  At the moment, the paper wraps around the bundle a few times.

And this is how the quilts look when the flag fold is open.  I showed another flag book here.

Patty Cake and butterflies

I have had these tiny little patty cake papers for ages and wanted to use them, so I finally made an ATC with them.  I think they're pretty cute.

About a week ago, I made these butterflies.

The one on the left is stamped on angelina and the one on the right is on lutradur.  I actually used several layers of lutradur and ironed them onto the inked stamp, which fused the layers together.  I also ironed the angelina, but it wasn't really needed.  The angelina butterfly has undergone a metamorphosis and look at it now.

It has become a journal quilt.  I free machined around it and cut away the excess, then quilted some lines, which did not fight with it as the focus.  Isn't it amazing how the background colour affects the angelina?

glitter stickers and a collage

I missed a post yesterday.  Our internet was paying up no end and today it was slow as well. 

This ATC was made using some scraps left over from making glittery stickers.  This is a scrapbooking technique I have seen used on you tube.  The sun is the finished product.  The rest are scraps!
To make the stickers, I took some yucky round kid's stickers, and laid them back to front on double sided tape.  I peeled of the sticker backing to reveal the stitcky backs of the stickers and covered them with glitter.

Here you can see I put two strips on the double sided tape.
Then I peeled away the bits surrounding the circles (vis the scraps in the atc)

This picture shows me almost finished.  It's fiddly, and I could perhaps streamline the process a bit, but the stickers will be handy.

Here is another collage I am working on which has the modelling paste added.

This one said grapes to me.  Perhaps because it is autumn here.

I will be away at the Australasian Quilt Convention from wed evening to sunday, doing a four day workshop on landscapes with kay Haerland.  I'm sure it will be fun.
I will endeavour to post regularly, but it might be problematic on my mobile, so forgive me if things go awry.

polymer clay and paper

I used a polymer clay leaf for this atc.  Many years ago, I was a cake decorator, and, those leaf and flower cutters and molds I used work fine with polymer clay.  I painted/coloured the clay with a texta/marker, then wrote the word leaf.  The letters are covered with those little clear things you put under coasters and ornaments and you get them at the hardware.  I finished off with a few more scribbled leaves on the card.

This leaf is cast from toilet tissue and water (no PVA this time).  I made the mold from a big dangly leaf earring.  In fact, I made a batch of molds today and burned them (by accident).  They are pretty black, but they still work fine.  Just annoying.

I have been playing a lot with paper and painting lately.
Some of you might have noticed I have started using my own papers for the digital quotes at the end of my blog.  In many ways, it's just another artistic outlet.

This is a journal spread background I did recently, but am cogitating about.  I coated the page with gesso, then laid tissue over whilst it was still wet and moved it around to get lots of creases, then added a light watercolour wash and let it seep into the creases.  I like this one because it looks to me like a view into a forest with big tree trunks to either side, so now I am thinking about how best to bring those trees out.

This is the cover of a small altered book, using pink tissue and with a light layer of gesso again over the top.  The texture is lovely.

This is a piece of watercolour paper I sprayed with green watercolour and a pinky coloured metallic spray (which had mica in it)  I laid glad  wrap or saran wrap on top and wrinkled it.  As it dried, the shiny mica tended to move to the creases.  This is gorgeous.

This one is copier paper, which I sprayed with the same paints, then scrunched up and then opened. When I took this photo, it was still damp, but when it was dry, I ironed it a bit and the mica has distributed itself in another way, but still lovely, on some of the flat places and not others.

Hope everyone has a great Easter tomorrow,  don't forget to collect all those pieces of foil!

Sorry about the covered up word - lit!