Inchies - Under the Sea

I love the blogs that have been specifically set up as challenges or prompts to encourage us all to do creative stuff on a regular basis. Of course they are optional on a week by week basis but since I have joined in on the fun with some of them I am finding I am doing more mid-week creating.

The newest one I have joined is Linda Baldock's Inching Artists - I mean how hard is it to make a one inch square of art once a week in your choice of media (paper, fabric, clay, mixed, canvas etc etc)??? If you haven't had a look at this new blog challenge - click on the link and have a look! The more the merrier with these challenges and this is the only the second week.

As I haven't had much spare time I have just made the one solitary inchie for the theme "Under the Sea". It is blue fabric fused to felt with some Angelina fibres added to the top, a tiny piece of fringed fibre to imitate sea plants, some gold stitching and a darling little gold mermaid charm. I think I will have to create a little series of them to accompany her when I have time so that I can use some of huge collection of tiny sea shells. I still have heaps that I collected many moons ago when I was a kid as well as all the ones I have picked up since! I know, it is no wonder I feel cluttered sometimes.

The second little inchie picture is actually an inch square clay tile (what would you call it?). My friend Jude saved for me as she knows I love to recycle "stuff". I think it was originally attached to a store-bought card. I am going to try using it as a mould first with Model Magic and see if I can make little embellishments with it.

I have included another photo of my first Circles Journal page because I took the little flower sequins off and swapped them for old pink-red buttons - I think they go better with the vintage woman image. The sequins were really bothering me as they just didn't look right. I have done the background for the back of this page and hopefully will have the page finished later today. I'm also working on completing the set of six "tissue paper studies" that need to be mailed to my partners in the US & Canada by the end of the month so I am really looking forward to a relaxing creative afternoon! It is a bit cold but the sun is shining, the birds are singing and I have the house to myself for a couple of hours - what more could I ask for?

A Wonderful Tree

I know this will seem a bit out of the blue, but when I was in Perth two weeks ago I took a quick photo of this wonderful tree outside the offices of some people I was meeting with. The texture of the paperbark was just too incredible to ignore. As a result of some of the reading I am doing I am becoming a lot more interested in recognising that surface design inspirations can come from the images in my life and everyday environment. This was not an everyday image for me but it was certainly one I took the time to notice!

Tonight I was going to make the base of some more inchies so that I could bead and embroider them when I am at Annie's tomorrow night, but after dinner (and a wonderful Andre Rieu in Dublin DVD) we decided on the spur of the moment to go through some of Joseph's slides from New Guinea in the period 1966 to 1973. Fascinating pictures and lots of colourful inspiration. To set up the slide projector we of course had to move the metres of no-knit scarf yarns and fibres that are decorating the lounge room at present (and Mum, if you read this tomorrow, I am just teasing!).

Blog posts look so lonely without pretty pictures so tonight's artwork is of some pieces I have previously made. The first is a page I made for a friend's deco - I used a floral print tulle over the page to get the soft effect and then added beading and a hand stitched edge. The second one i s a simple journal cover I made for a young friend. I need to remind myself that I often find a simple "look" very attractive and that I need to do them more!