Surfaces and sand

Here is a surface I have been playing with today. I went for a look see over at FAT (Fibreart traders) and they are having a techniques week. They are making the pendant from QA embellishments. So this surface is a paper towel with painted misty fuse. I had previously painted this towel but after the misty fuse I added some blue ink and some extra acrylic. I will be following this up as the week goes on, the lovely Michelle Mrs 007 herself is leading the tutes.
Next I have finished stamping on my apron. What a face! Only a mother would love!!!

And as promised Sand! We went to Llangenith here again. Here is Ellie drawing her mummy, Note the boobs! Nice to see my best assets are on the forfront of her mind!
Ellietook this one of her parents. Rather artistic don't you think? Or it would be if I didn't know it was just Ellie not being able to see the screen because of the flare. A top lovely day!

Canvas start and happy bunnies

I started on the SIL's canvas. I did the brown first. I added some bronze acrylic glazy type stuff I got in the B&Q sale and this has given a lovely shine.

I decided to use the brush strokes in the larger spaces. I bought some Royal sot grips from Ario and they are fab. I always thought a brush was a brush but these have a lovely smoothness.
I made Lyn's arch for the year long arch trade on Textile challenges, my group today. She wanted an ocean theme, and I had made my glue gun fish for the tutorial. So here it is. I used sequins and copper beads on the fish to give a shiny scales idea to it. I printed the bubbles with the end of one of Ellie's felt tip pens.
Lastly here is one hapy bunny! Ellie may with her bunny. She was sent this great kit by lovely Jan, and she stitched up a storm and made this all by herself in ess than an hour. She overstitched through the holes you can see. Great ha!

I haven't been idle - honest!

Just for you not to think I have been sitting on my bum, idly eating Ellie's easter eggs (wink!) Here'swhat i have been up to:
I have long since had a battle with apron's. I wear mine all day every day in school and most aprons do NOT tke into account anyone over a C cup or a size 20., but after seeing that Helen Cowans had found a good one, i was straight online and found the pattern and bought it from here. I was a little disappointed to find it was scaled for an American size 4, UK 8 - Ha! Never going to happen my friend! So set about sizing it up for a big girl! But despite that I love it, it properly covers the ample bust and is lovely and fitted, so feels flattering (even though the pic is not so! How many chins!!!). This was just a test run, in any nonsense fabric I have now i want to dye up some cotton to make one for workshops, I think I am going to do pink and turquoise and get all those purple's going in between. I haven't got any turquoise here though so it wi have to wait til I go to school. In the mean time I think I might stamp and stencil this one so it is not to plain and then take this one in to school.
Now lovely Margaret nominated me as an inspirational blogger, man what a compliment to this incoherent bunch of ramblings! I have to nominate 10 more people. Now my blog roll is getting ever longer so this is a hard choice, but here we go:
Lynda
Jan
Margaret
Arlee
Anna
Jacqueline
Frieda
Siani - my sis
Carol
Helen

Now i am not going to go to each of you lovelies and let you know as I don't want you to have to do it. I hope you happen by here se it and it gives you a smile to know that i think your great and the stuff you do spurs me on to be better. Love carol T

Postcards and other things.

Here are the cards I have been working on. The beading has taken ages, but is worth it I think.
The bottom one is off to Pamela Rice, he left me comment suggesting a trade so off it goes. I recieved my card from her already, but haven't photographed it yet, but i will post that tomorrow with something else I have to photograph. It is lovely.
These ATC's were made from the bits. They are available for trade so just leave me a comment with your email.
Next comes a sketch for a work to be started soon. My siter in law has just moved in with her fella and on a recent visit bought a canvas and asked me to paint it for her new bedroom, so this is the initial sketch. I am just waiting to see if she likes it.
The next 2 pictures are arches i have recieved in the Textile challenges group arch page swap. I run this group and the talent of the ladies astounds me. The first is from Cathy and I know she was nervous with this, but with no good reason as it is gorgeous, so neatly made and with lovely colour combinations. I love it. She also generously sent me a load of fabric, that had all sorts of ymmy lovelyness, and sent loads of bits for Ellie who devoured them like a rabid dog!!! This one was made by Gillian and is so thoughful. She really thought that I would be getting this in the first week of march, just in time for St. David's day. I love it.
Wel I am on a roll, I have lots to do as I have an arch to do for my swap partner and I really want to move with my cuffs during this holiday. I wil post again tomorrow as I have recieved more goodies and have them to show too. Have a great Easter weekend.

Glue gun tutorial and other things.

I have taken some step by step photos to show how I used the glue gun to make my embellishments for my ast set of postcards, so here we go. It is really really easy. I make mine onto baking parchment as this is a lovely surface to work on and then is easy to get back off. Firstly I have drawn my fish shapes in pencil as a guide.


Then I used the glue gun to draw out the shapes. Now do not take these off the baking parchment, if you do when we go onto the next step the glue can distort and be a paint to work with, and that will become clear why in a minute. Now if you wanted to paint this at this point you could, with acrylic or even rub over with metalic rub-on's like treasure gold. I am going to show you what I did though.
I used embossing powders. I re-heated the glue with a heat gun, and that is why it is important not to remove the glue from the parchment. If you break the seal wth the parment when you use the heat tool the glue melts and moves around. When it is hot pour on embossing powders and shake off exces onto a piece of paper to put back into the jar.


Notice in the photo the bottom fish's tail has distorted as it came loose from the parchment when I carried it to the kitchen. Wa-la, nice shiny copper fish! They will be used in a further project later in the week.
This is a piece I have been playing with in the same way. It is my card for Calendar Girls this month. The backgroud is painted kitchen towel that has been stamped and printed using the end of a felt tip lid. The flower was made in the same way as I showed above but before couching down, I thought the petals didn't stand out enough so I glued it with PVA to a piece of white tissue.
This photo shows how raised the glue is. I couched the glue down then. I have to admit to being very pleased with this card.
I wanted to show you what i am working on for my resolved piece for design. I decided to use the idea of the pegs being wrapped based on the idea of a welsh shawl, which was a traditional way to wrap a baby and be hands free. I wrapped a piece of welsh wool around the pegs and then wired it and a strip of fabric paper around the peg and in place. I love them but I now don't know how to display them? Do I peg them to something, and if so what? Do I have them hanging, which is my preferred choice, but if so how, from what? Is putting them in a line too twee? Lots to contemplate.

and in the words of the news, and finally!
I got this little ray of sunhine through the post today. Lovely Lynda (Purplemissus) did me a great favour today, she knows i have been down and she did me a kindness and along with it came this ovely card, which I could look at all day! Thanks lynda, you are a diamond!

Glue gun and Credlyn

As usal I am trying to multi task and so I hve been making some cards for the Cerdlyn project and using them as my glue gun challenge. I have made the metal paper a while ago, If you remember I painted textured wall paper with turquoise and then with copper and rubbed back. Last night I made some glue gun shapes, including this dribbly one. I couched this down and beaded it.
For this one I used a sequin waste heart that I had used to print with a while ago and stitched it down. I then added a glue gun checked piece, and beaded.
This last one doesn't have glue gun but was to go to the owner o the gallery to say thanks for all his hard work. (Sorry about the pants picture!)
If you remember the Cerdlyn project is an auction of postcards to raise funds to keep open Plas Glyn y Weddw in Pwlleli, North Wales. If you have any cards then get them to the gallery by the end of the month to help this well deserving gallery stay open. Leave a comment if you would like the address to help out with this.

Ario workshop

Had a great day today. If you ever get the chane to do a workshop with the Ario girls, Fiona and Karen, then grab it with both hands. They are local to me, just up the road, but you will see them at many of the shows. We were looking at Stewart Gill pain today and what they can do. i only did one piece really that I will use in my work and that was this one. Using the galactica through a stencil.
We did the excercise from the Stewart Gill book.
Galactica through a stencil on velvet.
Metamica through a stencil which can be blown up with the heat gun, kind like a shiny puff paint.
Galactica with a torn masking tape resist on velvet.
Using the flakes and chips, embelishments

My tests were mounted into a book I made from left over prints from school.
There is cotton rag paper here and air drying clay and blending with a stylus, I bought one!

Here is the front cover of my book. I button hole stitched the book together.
A great and productive day, I really think I know what these paints do and so now I can take them on into my work. Didn't feel like I was especilly creative today but I am quite sure I know how I can use them now in my creative work.

New things

Hia all, firstly thank you all for your kind and generous words. You have been so kind to me the ast few days and i apologise for venting, when I get down it gets me right down. All you lovely messages have helped pull me up.


Anyway neew things to make me feel better. For my City and Guilds this term is based on "Homes". I decided to not do my own home as it is a relatively new buildand of course is stuffed full with Ellie may's things. So I started about Home for me, which is the Welsh Valleys and the mining community. I started to think abou the things my Gran had told me about being a housewife in the valleys, and the wife of a miner. My Gran's mum was taken from the family when my Gran was young (she always told us she had died, but my Dad has since found out she was institutionalised and my Gran was too ashamed to say) So I have been as you know drawing objects from the home, like pegs, and flat irons and alsorts of other. Last weeks task was to make something 3D. Many of the others were working in wire but I wanted to use the pegs. I decided to weave words realated to the jobs of the housewife around the pegs. I also Used an old tea towel to give it some colour. I am really pleased how it turned out.
Love the close up!
I also made some paper a few weeks back and decided to weave these with some of the words I was using for the pegs. I really like these pieces especially the bottom one.

Hi all

I all I thought I woud drop in and say hello, I am not dead! I am in a pit of my usual downer, not coping well with day to day at the mo. I don't want an answer but why sometimes is life so hard. Everyone seems to bumble along ok, but there always seems to be some disaster lurking around the corner for us at the mo. IPerhaps behind closed doors things are different.Nothing particuar but anyway I am so trying to hold it together that bing creative is the ast thing on the adgenda at the mo. Hope yu guy are all good and I will be back soon as I am going on a workshop on Sat and so at leat that should get me out of the dark hole! Love carol T

Advice please!

I wondered if any of you lovelies coud tell me if it is worth selling on Etsy or somewhere like that? Do you sell much and does the commission cost much? I would like to earn a little extra cash but don't want to start it if it isn't worth it? Thanks all.

Bit of fun - TIF

I was thinking about TIF and my Wonderwoman thing. I wanted to do something fitting of my age now as god help i couldn't get away with the outfit now, and was thinking about my preoccupation with cuffs of late. Well I decided that this probably began with Wonderwoman's cuffs. So I decided to use some of my fabric to make a wonderwoman cuff. I also used it as a toille for the others I am going to make in my industry unit, as i wanted to see if the closure I was thinking of using would work. and YEY! it does.
I used 2 1inch curtain rings, and it works a treat, and greater news I can put it on myself, rather than having to nag DH.
I used some of my foil painted in turquoise and copper.
and wa la!

Page for Helen - INDIA

I have gotten my page for Helen done on time, for a change! I have been really trying to clear my commitments at the mo! I have just been reading Anna's blog where she was talking about being a true Gemini and having a thousand projects on the go at once. Well I am a true list making Virgo, never happier than when ticking something off my list! Well here is my piece for Helen, her chosen theme was India and remembering that I had traded with Sara from Kuwait a favour for some embellished ribbons I went in search! This was the most Indian of them with lovely saffron colours and paisleys. I harvested some of the metal work from the bits I cut off and used up some of my painted cotton, in saffron colours. I also Kantha'd the piece too, as it is an Indian technique.
I am sweetly aware of sending the worlds worst binding to Helen, of all people! Well I did my best! I am not up to par at the mo as I have a horrible case of Flu.
I also included an acrylic scraped tag with more paisleys.

Not my usual colours, but lovely to work with. I had fun!

Can I also put out a reminder about the Cerdlyn card art fund raising appeal. It is to raise money to keep Plas glyn y weddw gallery open and I blogged about it a milion years ago. It asks or either A5 or postcard size art works in any media to be auctioned at the gallery. Well they are due in at the end of March. A CV (short artist statement) should accompany the work as well as contact details. The back of the work should be signed and dated, and have a title.

If you would like to take part leave me a comment and I will email you the address, as I wouldn't like to put out Elfryn's address here!!! If you remember me saying about this please try to take part as this fab galery will close without some help! Thanks so much.

Arch and pin

I have been trying to get some of my commitments done early this month for a change! The first is my arch for swap on my group Textiles challenges, and it is for Alis. She suggested a great many things including pink and mermaids, so I wet with this. I made a mermaid Dottie doll complete with scales! and a sea background.
She sits in a wave pocket.
The background is a bit of mop up cloth from a painting day. and below is a piece of silk that I dyed. This is the back of it. I painted some foil and stitched hearts on the back.
This lead me to the pin I need to make for a swap on Alis' group Unlimited textiles. I embellished the background with some thread that had broken free from a spool, I put this between two pieces of Lynda's dyed scrim and embellished it. I then added a piece of the painted foil ad beaded it. I added a brooch back and wa - la!!!! The theme was passion.

Faf page from Helen.

I recieved the most amazing page to finish off my page swap for FAF today. It was from Helen and you can se it here. I didn't get back from parents evening till late so no light to photograph it, but Helen has lovely photos so pop over and see it. I can't tell you how fantastic this page is in real life, the precision of the smocking and the yo-yos and beading. The rusting is just smashing. Thanks so much Helen.

Cuff!

A quick link for you, my little sister Sian has started a blog to record her knitting and crochet. She has caught the bug!!! She has been making loads of hats, and you have the added bonus of seeing what I would look like if I was thin! Go check her out and leave her some comments, I am sure she will be chuffed!
Now on to me! Today I have been having a total play. I am making cuffs or C+G but I wanted to play with the embellisher today, just for fun, so I made 2 cuffs, one for Sianabanana! and one for me.

I used a card frame to wrap the yarn around and then I embellished it and cut it off when joined. I felted the yarn in to make the tie. I am pleased with how it turned out, it relies totally on the gorgeousness of the rowan yarn I bought, but then it is just the start of a bit of play. Plese excuse my knarly scar, that's where I had surgery after the dog bit me a few years ago, a lasting reminder.