Starting 2016 with something different

To try and help get my mojo back after so many months of crafty inactivity I joined Wanderlust 2016 classes and also a facebook challenge group called pick a stick.  Below is the first piece of journaling I did this year.   It was for the pick a stick challenge and the instructions are to do each piece on the page in order that the 10 sticks with the actions are drawn from the cup.  This can be quite challenging, especially if you are like me and do not read/think ahead but charge in blind, literally following the directions in order.  The one thing I did do was start with some colour on the page as it was a mop up from another activity, this was in a way restricting but it also forced me to focus on my options.  If I did this page again one thing I would change is the direction of the journaling, I feel it should be horizontal or vertical but not written diagonally.  This is all good, I learned something!  I also learned that when I run out of texture paste I can use good old fashioned decorators filler, the sort that comes in a plastic tube!

what I have been doing for the last year.

I cannot believe I haven't posted for almost a year.  A lot has happened.  As everyone who reads this will probably know, I broke my ankle in two places whilst on holiday last june.  The resulting hospitalisation, surgery and immobilisation set me back a lot.  The quilt I was planning in March 2015 is only just underway.

A community craft group I planned with the local voluntary service was delayed for three months.  Happily it has gone so well they have twice extended it from the original three months. Below are just a few of the projects completed by myself and some of the ladies who have attended.

pop up box

gift card wallet

Crackled paint using pva, decoupaged with paper napkin

Stamping with distress, using ink to make mats and layers

gift card wallet, stamping with distress paints

more gift card wallets

ATC, using die cuts and the waste as a stencil.

using die cuts and waste to stencil with distress inks.

Some quilt ideas - I am looking for ideas for a new quilt, I thought it might help if I gathered together pictures of ones I have made so here are a few I have made in the past.

Simple childs quilt

Childs patchwork with quilted tree design

stained glass childs quilt

Kyle

simple young childs patchwork

Flower Fairy Quilt 

                                                                                                                                                                          

Log cabin deliberately designed to look 3 dimensional

A blue and white patchwork made from blocks
exchanged with other quilters, still incomplete

Quilt made for my nephew with Amish style fabrics

Christmas table runner

a different way to use log cabin blocks

Eclectic Elements Blog Hop

When Nicki suggested a blog hop I thought yikes!   I've never done one before but I do love my Eclectic Elements fabrics designed by Tim Holtz and one of my promises for 2015 was that I would actually use more of them instead of take them out of the drawer, stroke them then put them back, the blog hop was a way of forcing my hand!

I have begun cutting some simple blocks to make a patchwork and there are lots of scraps falling into the bin.  I don't want to waste a single piece of this yumminess so stopped the cutting and got out my felting/embellishing machine and a piece of felt.  For those of you who have never seen one of these it looks a bit like a sewing machine but there are far less moving parts, it has no thread just several barbed needles which bonds or felts layers of  fibres and fabric together.  It works best when one of the layers is felt or batting as the fibres are looser and blend better with the other fabrics.

I layered scraps of fabric over the felt and ran it under the machine, you could do this with a single felting needle but it would take ages, my machine has 10 needles so only took half an hour to make a completely new piece of fabric out of scraps, a fabric collage.  I machined around some of the pieces,  cut out a couple of die cuts to simulate hinges and added some hitch fasteners.

I folded the fabric into three and blanket stitched around the edges using a machine and quite thick thread to create a useful purse.

 I have also made a Fabric tote with Eclectic Elements, some bracelets and a roman blind but please don't forget to continue the hop the discover what other delights have been created using this fantastic fabric once you have finished here.  

Thanks for visiting.

Wendy 

Tracee 

Jassy – you are here

Lisa 

Jen 

Katie 

Amy 

Nicki 

Butterfly frenzy

One of last years purchases was a butterfly frenzy die by Tim Holtz.  I cut it out using some scraps of card that I had been using to experiment with brusho paints.  I stamped Sheena's little bit sketchy oak tree onto some watercolour cardstock and heat embossed it.  Adhered the butterflies and popped the picture into a little IKEA frame.  This is my inspirational piece for the challenge over at Emmas hints tips and crafty inspiration on facebook.   (see the banner to the right)

Some recent makes

I've made a few cards recently whilst playing with some new brusho paints, sweet poppy stencils, splodgeaway masks and various stamps.

This was a brusho experiment, keeping the colours very distinct and unmuddied, also using the spritz and flick technique to get the paint to move more on the paper. I placed some splodgeaway masks on the painted background using a temporary adhesive and painted over the whole thing with black gesso.

A card made for a purple and green challenge.  I put a very small amount of brusho paints through this sweet poppy stencil and spritzed and blotted until I liked the effect.  I then dried the paint before drawing through the stencil with black ink.

My first brusho experiments with Sheena Douglass and Creative Expressions stamps.

This background was done using distress ink on a Tim Holtz layering stencil.  I then drew through a sweet poppy stencil with black ink.

Wedding card using distress embossing tinsel through a sweet poppy stencil.

There has been a foodie trend for the past few years to present something cooked in three different ways on the same plate, here is a sweet poppy stencil presented three ways in one image.  First the stencil was inked from behind, the paper spritzed and stencil pressed down.  I blotted quickly to prevent too much bleeding of the ink.  I then dried the image before replacing the stencil and inking through.  Finally I drew around the stencil with a micron pen.

Painted industrial tin covers

I set out this morning to make some fabric vase covers but then happened to go over to Linda Ledbetters Compendium of curiosities site, I suppose I was procrastinating, and as often happens I changed my mind.

 I decided to make covers for a random selection of old tins and boxes that hold all those brushes and pens and other paraphernalia I like to keep close to hand in my craft room.  The Challenge this fortnight is to use Tim's Painted industrial technique on page 46 of Compendium of Curiosities book 3.  the challenge is generously sponsored by The Inspiration Emporium

The covers are pretty simple, cut to the height of the tins and wide enough to overlap decorate using the painted industrial technique and fasten with Hitch Fasteners.  They just slip over the tins.