Mixed Media Sewing Canvas

I had the whole day in my cabin today, my plans were to make my ink pad shelving units, you know the pre cut, slot together kind,

and then the rest of the day to play....... how long should it take to make them, only a few minutes, unless you read the line " if you want it painted we suggest you paint it before putting together"......WRONG....NO...DONT DO IT, 4 hours later and having to literally force it together shaving off bits here and there as I went !! its not good!! second one and no paint 5 minutes.....

 

any way after all that I wanted to make a sewing themed mixed media canvas, wanted it to be delicate colours, I think I managed it.

 

 

using modelling paste and stencil, die cut leaves, lace, die cut manikin, flowers, metal embellishments, buttons, miniature scissors, glass beads and glass glitter, lots of gesso, paint , ink and wax.

Mixed Media Spell Canvas

I played with paint and glue again last night, 

happy with how it turned out apart from the skeleton....i keep looking at him and thinking mmmm not sure, if i find a replacement then i possibly will....maybe!

I had great fun sloshing paint and ink about, getting completely covered in it, 

that's all part of the fun !

i made my little spell book, alcohol inked my jars and made little labels for them then filled them with bits and pieces to represent their contents lol

had great fun with the skulls and bones and then splattering blood about.

                                               

so my papers are from the Tim Holtz 2018 Halloween range, my skeleton ,skulls and spider are my cheep shop finds, i raided the cutlery draw for the spoon and distressed it with wax and alcohol inks, the little jars are from the works, the bandage i stole from our first aid kit, and other bits and pieces i found in my stash, pretty happy with my evenings work.

Halloween .... Mixed Media Canvas.

I love Halloween, and love to make halloweeny things lol

after searching all over the place online for things to play with, i was particularly looking for skulls, skeleton's that sort of thing ! ....and not finding them i turned to the trusted and neglected  high street and low and behold there they were and at a fraction of the price, 

i am happy to pay for the items i am wanting and very happy to support the independent trader (and had tried them first without success) i even tried the big guys HC without success there either, 

but i did find what i was looking for .... as in some glow in the dark plastic skeletons that are meant to make a bunting....not any more and a skull and bones necklace, now taken apart....

they are just perfect.

 the glow skeleton has been painted, he just needs some shading to make him fit the part, the skulls are just perfect as they are, so last night was prep night with paste and stencils and gathering other supplies....like bandages, "oh what have you done" , nothing just want it for a project he he!!

so watch this space to see what i can  turn them into tonight.

Mixed media Autumn hanger

Well I am in love with this, 
not at all what I had in my mind, seem to be doing that a lot lately, it has a ton of paint on it, I am not patient when crafting, I just can't wait for things to dry lol so I end up dragging other colours out because it is still wet underneath!

What did I do?

Well I have die cut leaves, a layer of 2 on each on the back ground I also have paste, 
all gesso'd , 

I then....well the night before I made some clay leaves, flowers, acorns and a heart, left to dry overnight, 
then I arranged a bit of birds nest then all my leaves and flowers etc, glued them all down and painted it all with a gorgeous bronze/gold, just love the colour, 
I then added some twirly bits and pieces and  used some mica misters but painted with them rather than sprayed to pick up some colours on my leaves, flowers and acorns, 
when dry I went in with some bronze wax and stazon for the shading round the edge and on the background leaves and butterflies.

Well that was the short version, what really happened was ......I painted, changed my mind, painted again, changed my mind again, scratched my chin and then did it again lol

i just love the metallic feel it has but still has the colours of autumn.

the clay worked really well, something i always forget about but actually is a very good medium to play with and easy these days with air drying clay

the birdy was a shall i or not.....i think he goes well.

 

 just adding a bit of shading really does make the leaves pop 

so what do you think? love it or hate in?

please leave a thumbs up or comment.

Beach Life.....

This was going to be with patterned paper but as i moved paper around, took it off ....put it back on again, it just wasn't right so i took it off all together and just played with paste and ink,

 paste to represent the beach along the bottom with some added ink, 

then blue sky and then splattered a bit, all over the paper all over me and the table....well you have to get it every where lol

added some real shells and a hand made tag/title, 

a bit of thread from a roll of hessian, just trying to add a bit of texture

then i had fun with some glass bead gel, 

which is fab and dries clear to leave these lovely little beads, this also adds o bit of texture and sort of pulls the shells together, it softens the edges of the photo as i didn't want to mount the photo i jyst don't think that would have worked

so from not being happy at all with how it was going, no where near what i had in my head i am very happy with the result and not a bit of patterned paper in sight.

Crafty Weekend

It was our twice yearly crafty weekend, we get together in the local village hall to craft for two days, some coming from a bit further away so stopping with us a bit closer, we are just a group of friends brought together by the crafting and have forged life long friendships.

love this crazy gang.

 a couple missing from the photo, would have liked to get everyone in, next time.

we had a show and tell, to display some of our makes, great to see all these finished projects, some have won prizes in local shows and some are still to enter, what a talented lot we are.

Messy Play

This Week i have been having messy play and wonder when i get funny looks at my hands and finger nails, with paint all over them, do i care, NAAH......

i love messy play, i even sneak in just to put another coat on before work so it will be dry when i get home to play some more....i suppose work does have its uses lol, gives my projects time to dry, 

cause if i am there all day i just cant wait and start messing before things are dry and ready for the next step lol

a couple of notebooks i made this week..

loved how the colours changed as i was working on it and at first oi was thinking nooo what have i done but then was like oh i like how this is going !!

we had been picking shells off the beach when we were away last week,but i gave all mine away, so i had to buy some to do this lol, love how it turned out.......

then i made my art journal, had no idea where i was going with this but just carries on regardless, i am going to add a bit of doodling too, think it will a bit of a work in progress on the cover as well as on the inside, love it so far.

been playing with modelling paste , gesso, acrylic paints lindys spritz, heidi swapp spritz, rubber stamps a bottle top to stamp my circles, die cut borders, pearl beads, seed beads and guilding wax.

Dear Jane.....

look what i got out last night......

i started this a couple of years ago, planned it, sorted it into a folder, sorted all the fabrics, started a few blocks then it ended up being put to one side while i ......... and then got forgotten, but now i have my sewing room up and running again and the evenings are closing in its time to re visit it and do some more.

as autumn approaches i seem to be longing for the dark evening when i can be shut in and have nothing else to do but play, no gardening, no watering, which we have had to do a lot of this year especially now we have the allotment and having the garden with living flowers in (could never do this with chickens, but we don't have them any more) so plants it is lol 

i have loved my summer in the garden and look forward to next year when i can enjoy it again but with less of the back breaking work like i did this year, moving a ton of gravel on my own on the hottest day is no joke lol!!

any way back to Dear jane......

i have a few projects that i feel guilty about putting aside and 

this is the biggest one lol 

the blocks are finished at about 5" each one and with something like 265 in the quilt and me only completing about 10 lol i have a fair way to go but its not happening just sat in a bag so i would like to do lets say 1 evening a week, and say 3/4 blocks an evening , is that doable do you think?

yeeaahh course it is, 

still a long time to finish but it will happen.

Just go with the flow.....

I am a bit of a bitty crafter, i start something and i am so eager to start the next thing that sometimes i just don't get the first thing finished, 

i try not to do this as it annoys me but i have found something that i did just that with, i cant remember what i moved onto but this is unfinished......i just love it though, a great example of just playing and seeing where it takes you, i had some leftovers of a FQ bundle i think it was ,

 cut it into strips and just went with it adding some ribbon, ric rac, and pom poms etc even when i had tiny bits from the end of a strip i was able to fit them in somewhere.

 playing with the in built stitches in my machine and this is the result, no rules just go with the flow and see where you end up.

think its about time i finished it, it was intended to be a cushion and i think i will carry on and do that.

mmm now to find some backing fabric!!

phew....and breath.

Wow what a busy few weeks, the run up to Dalby Day is manic, this is our village fete but when i say village fete people think a cake stall and a tombola, teas in the village hall.....but no, when we do a village fete we do it in style......80+ stalls, 150+ car show, main arena events with smaller arena's around the village, the roads are closed to allow us to have a fab day, its a fab day but takes a lot of work and months to arrange.

but its over for another year another great success.

i put a couple of items in the produce/craft show and got first with my cushion......and no where with my doll...which really surprised me, a couple of people said they probably thought it was a bought doll, errr no i made that sucker!! 

any way i came first with my cushion. we also put lots of produce in, onions, melons, pumpkins,honey, runner beans and lots more and got a few placements, first seconds and thirds.

going to be more organised next year (i have said that before) and get lots more entered.

it also meant i spent the weekend with the mad one, it also meant i learnt how to do the splits...in the middle of a supermarket .....with the aid of a banana on the floor....long story.....and it still hurts!!

then it was time to recover and spend a long weekend at the seaside, 

i love to get my feet in the sand, the weather was perfect but it was over all too quickly and now back to work and normal life has been resumed.

but that also means i can find time to play, the cabin is open for business, i have started on a couple of altered art/mixed media notebook covers with other things to follow, 

call back to see very soon.