Fabric Inchies

Here are my finished blue inchies, all mounted (temporarily!) on black cardstock, ready for their travels. Unfortunately I have managed to get a lot of glare and reflection in my photo - so many shiny things on these inchies - angelina fibres, beads, sequins, metallic threads! The picture below is a scan and while the colours are a bit darker than in real life at least the glare is reduced! Can't wait for the next round...

I also had a lot of fun experimenting yesterday with backgrounds for fabric postcards and ATCs. Nothing is finished yet but I'll upload some photos when they are.

I went to the local monthly Trash N' Treasure this morning but the cool grey weather meant there weren't too many sellers. I picked up a great pair of elaborate earrings that will be useful once dis-assembled and also a packet of colourful herbal tea for some paper dye experiments I have planned (well now I do!).

Zach's soccer has been cancelled (the pitch was under water yesterday and couldn't be marked - a very unusual situation here where our annual rainfall is so pitiful it hardly counts!!) and Joseph is heading off into the desert for the week for work purposes so I have a very self-indulgent creative day planned!!

Wednesday Stamper - Hats

This week's Wednesday Stamper theme is hats. This is my submission, created last night in between trips to the soccer field to drop off and pick up Zach.

I love this "Paper Artsy" stamp and thought it would be nice to do a more masculine style for a change. I do have a lot of trouble with this stamp though in terms of getting good ink coverage on the solid parts but this was my third go so I "settled" for a less than perfect image! I also used a great stamp by "andstamps" (Australian Nadine Andersen's great range) for the border.

Just for a change (I'm kidding of course) I used some Adirondack Color Wash (this time it was the Denim one) as well as walnut ink to add a bit more colour to the background paper.

I have also finally finished my 63+ Blue Fabric inchies so I just have to work out a way of nicely packaging each set and filling a goodie bag and they can go in the mail. I will even be mailing them with some time to spare! I will post a photo before they are mailed as they look good en masse. I really enjoyed these so I hope there is interest in another round, hopefully green.

Now I am off to hang another load of washing on the line and then I am going to do some fusing experiments.

Think Pink, 7 Random Things & 7 Tags

Seeing as I seem to be on a pink kick, here is a page I did in a Pink Journal a couple of years back - I love this magazine photo and I thought adding the feather to her hair really added something! I also love leather eyelet trims - I must have a look and see if I have any left.

Well in response to Sarah's tag of yesterday, here are seven random things about me:

1. I lived in one house from birth to 17 when I left to go to university.

2. I have lived in 17 houses since (not including a residential uni college).

3. I have a degree in Anthropology but didn't ever get the urge to work in that field even though I love the subject!

4. I hardly ever watch television but I really enjoy a good movie and I do lots of reading.

5. I am never bored and think I will need at least another 7 lives to do all the art and craft things I want to do (and to use up all my supplies)!

6. I know that I limit myself by wanting to be good at things as soon as I try them and that this means I sometimes / often don't try things that I would probably really enjoy (this is a trait that is well represented in my family so perhaps it has a genetic basis!!)

7. I love self-development and personal growth/inspirational books. My all time favourite is Sarah ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance which I re-read at least every second year but I have heaps of other favourites including anything by Stephanie Dowrick.

And now to tag seven others who I sincerely hope don't mind me doing this and who of course have the option of "skipping it":

Jacqueline in the Netherlands

Natalie in Western Australia

Jo in Queensland

Marie in the Australian Capital Territory

Jen in Victoria

Sephi in New South Wales

Diane in Canada

Artwords - Fabric

The theme this week at Artwords is "Fabric". This should be easy for me but all of the things I am working on are "in progress" so I am uploading a photo of a canvas I did for the Somerset Studio "Retro" theme some time ago. Colorwise it is quite consistent with yesterday's post!!

This piece uses fabric I have hoarded for a VERY long time. The first piece on the left is from a fabric sample that Nana Wilkes (my maternal grandmother who would have been a 100 this year) gave me in the 1960s to use for dolls clothes. The other two pieces are from fabrics I used to make clothes while I was at uni in the 70s - a hot pink caftan (the groans are audible!) and a psychedelic shirred top (even more audible!). I loved both of them at the time, needless to say.

This theme has had me reflecting on the part fabric and sewing has played in my life and then today I received in the mail a piece of needlerun lace from my Mum's 27 June 1953 wedding dress (how is that for timing!). I had asked for a piece so that I can create a special memento but to have it arrive on the 27th of June was special. This of course has led me to reflect on the young woman that wore that dress and who only dreamed of the lives (three) she would create and of the ongoing circle of family and love that has flowed from her life and love.

PS And before I get totally sentimental I should mention that I have been tagged for the first time as a blogger (by Sarah) and I am to list seven random things about myself and tag seven more bloggers. This requires some thinking and will need to wait until tomorrow!

Something completely different!

These two pictures are of my two pages in Fiona's Heart Shaped book. It is part of a small round robin based on shaped books (mine was the arch). Other than using the heart shape for our pages, Fiona's only other requirement was that we include something we love at the moment. I am in love with the pink and orange colour combination and have been for quite a while although I don't actually do that much art in this colourway so my pages celebrate this love! The background to the scans is silk fusion paper which I have also made in these colours but I didn't end up using any on the actual pages.

The first page is based on a piece of very pink fabric paper that I made some time ago (a la Beryl Taylor). I have toned it down with gesso and then added some stamping, the picture, beading, the orange flower trim etc and a final dusting of Micropearl Pearl-Ex which is a product I have had for several years and hardly used.

The second page is based on striped scrapbook paper which had been stamped several times in different colours (white gesso, Orchid Chalk Ink, Brilliance Orange) with flourishes/swirls (Fancy Pants and Rhonna Farrar), text (Oxford Impressions) and a small heart. The picture, embellishments and trims are then added along with some dots of dimensional paint and gel pen. The flower in the little girl's hair looks too big but it only just covers the enormous bow she was actually wearing in the photo! The ric rac doesn't go all around the heart as Fiona is binding the book on the bottom left side and that part needs to be relatively flat.

A Small Quilted Wall Hanging Finally Finished!

This is my piece for Fiona in response to a small group challenge to incorporate paint, metal and fabric in an item for an allocated partner. I am running late with mine but this is the link back to the beautiful piece Jo made for me.

My quilt is based on a stamped image from the Oxford Impressions Bird's Nest plate on beautiful smooth Fabriano printmaking paper. For some reason (no doubt the photographer!) the photo is a bit blurry. Anyway I coloured it with Adirondak Color Washes and then sprayed it with my favourite Gossamer Gold Moon Shadow Mist. This piece is stitched to three layers - a piece of Lutrador that I painted with green acrylics and Glazing Medium, a piece of music themed fabric and then a piece of felt.

The lutrador has been melted around the edges with a wood burning tool which I also used to make all the little holes to get a polka dot effect. Lots of little yellow seed beads were stitched on to anchor the frame part of the Lutrador and then the quilt was free motioned stitched with gold thread. It then was beaded with little brown seed beads.

The key and other metal piece were glued/stitched on. I bound the quilt with tarnished copper mesh tissue which was lovely and easy to sew through and the backing is the same music themed fabric as the front. The hanger is tarnished copper wire with a few sweet little rusted diamond shapes (that I have been saving for years for a special project!).

I'm quite happy with it although I would do a few things differently if I did it again - such as use a more rigid backing given the type of hanger I wanted to use. It wouldn't have mattered if it was hung on a rod/sleeve arrangement but I wanted to use the wire and I think small quilts look better with hangers a lot of the time.

Wednesday Stamper - Eggs

I have been stamping a lot recently with the latest Oxford Impressions plate (The Bird's Nest) and had a whole pile of bits and pieces left over so I have used them to create a wall hanging collage called "New Beginnings" for this week's Wednesday Stamper theme of Eggs. All of the colour is via Adirondak Color Washes in Bottle Green and Butterscotch (which I need to buy bulk I think, it is such a versatile colour!) with a bit of walnut ink and a lot of water. The collage is made up of several layers - a tag, heavily textured watercolour paper and heavily scrunched (and then ironed) photocopy paper all stitched to a backing layer of lutrador for strength.

And as an addendum to this morning's post, Natalie has asked about the background technique: Paint a piece of heavily textured watercolour paper (the cheap stuff!) with two shades of blue acrylic paint. Mist the paper so that it is wet enough to manipulate the edges. Lightly tear strips from the top layer to create white streaks through the shades of blue. Apply light washes of blue paint to parts of the background to tone down the white and to add variation.