Friday 21 December 2012

Seasonal Greetings.

Hello Everyone,

Hope you are all enjoying the run up to Christmas. I just wanted to share with you this weeks offering for Tag Tuesday. This weeks theme was Decorating a Christmas Ornament.

This is a Christmas Bauble that I made in a Christmas Felt Making Workshop.


The wool tops were hand felted around a polystyrene ball and sequins were then attached by inserting pins with seed beads on the end.

The last couple of days I have been working on a mixed media picture which I have  framed for a Christmas gift. The photos came out a bit dark and this one is the best one of the bunch although not at the finished stage.



This is a pic of the finished piece.



Materials I used were Brusho Sprays (which I used for the first time), acrylic paint, Lumiere paint, oil pastels, rubber stamps, Distress ink in Vintage Photo for stamping and black calligraphy ink.

This will be my last post until all the festivities are over with so I would like to wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and see you in the New Year.

Bye for now x

Wednesday 5 December 2012

More Tags.

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to share with you a couple of tags I did for ' Tag Tuesday'.

Winter Landscape

Music  

I am hoping to post another Journal/Sketchbook page soon for SKETCHBOOK FRIENDS. It's a good thing that there is no time constraint on them because I have let things slip on that front due to Christmas preparations such as sorting and putting up decorations and Christmas shopping.

I did have time to go to the Knitting and Stitch Show in Harrogate. There was so much to see and to BUY (got lots of goodies) but I haven't had chance to have a play yet,will share them with you soon.

Hope everyone is enjoying the run up to Christmas.

Bye for now x

Saturday 17 November 2012

Tag Tuesday Catch up

Hi Everyone,
Here is an update on the tags I have done over the past few weeks for Tag Tuesday starting with the most recent.

Brown/Sepia      


  
Celestial   

Halloween 

Here are a couple of mixed media pictures I have done over the past couple of months when I was unable to post pictures, for the reasons given in a previous post.




It is easy to see why have chosen the theme Hearts and Flowers for my SKETCHBOOK FRIENDS Group isn't it? lol.

I would love to hear your comments they are always very much appreciated.

Thanks for dropping by.
Carol x

Sunday 11 November 2012

A Sketchbook Challenge

Hi Everyone,

I'm so glad that I am all up and running again and able to share with you some of the things I have been doing since I was last able to post pictures on my blog.

Since I last posted here I have joined  a new group run by Lynn Holland called 'Sketchbook Friends'. If your interested in sketchbooks or making art journals pop over and take a look. It is open to anyone who would like to take part.You can choose a theme listed on the blog or one of your own and I have chosen Hearts and Flowers.

I have made my own book based on  Teesha Moore's video on youtube on how to make a sixteen page journal and this is front and back cover.

Front

Back
I wanted to post the one picture of the front and the back together but for some reason blogger kept turning it the wrong way around.

The cover has been created using Brusho, Pan pastels and water-soluble colour pencils. The black and white edging is done using a black Sharpie pen and white acrylic paint.

I am really looking forward to this challenge as I have been wanting  to make  my first art journal for a while and this has given me the incentive to make a start.

Please feel free to leave your comments.  I would be very interested to hear what you think.

Bye for now,
Carol x








Tuesday 16 October 2012

Hello everyone,

I just stopped by to say a big thankyou to those of you who have stopped by and left a comment sending me your best wishes they are very much appreciated.

I think today is my last day at the phisio as last week she suggested that I  may have to rely on painkillers as and when required. As a result, when doing my art work, I am still limited to doing a little at a time. Which is very frustrating.

Although I have been unable to join my textile class this term my tutor has kindly still let me show a couple of textile pieces in another exhibition of  her students work to be held this coming weekend. So I have been gradually working in them over the past few weeks.

One of them was a piece I started at one of her classes. I was not really happy with the overall piece but I isolated part of it and did some further embellishing and came up with something that  once it was framed I was happy with.

The second piece was a new one that is, in fact,  mixed media,  incorperating fabric, paper,acrylic paint and Pan Pastel. I am sorry that I can't post any pictures of them at the moment. I mentioned in my last post that my main computor wa son the blink.  It is fixed now but I took the opportunity to clear out my work room and get my hubby to decorat it. So once every thing is back up and running I will post some pic's then.

Bye for now x


Tuesday 18 September 2012

Hi Everyone,

Just stopped by after a long break to say that I am still here and still creating  but in a small way at the moment.

The reason being I am suffering with a bad neck and my Phisiotherapist has told me that the blogging and making my art is adding to my problem so I have had to cut back on the time I spend on both until my condition improves. That coupled with the fact that my main computer is not working at the moment means that I am unable to post any pic's because my laptop is not set up for me to download pic's from my camera at the moment but I will get that sorted shortly.

Since I was last here I have been on my hols to Cornwall and had a lovely time and once I sort my laptop out I will post some pic's.

For those of you who take part or follow  Tag Tuesday  I have not taken part for quite a few weeks but have been looking in on what everyone has been doing and I hope to back joining  in soon.

Wel l, I'm going to phisio to tonight and having my second dose of acupuncture so I better finish off now as I have been on the computer for more than the 5 minutes that I am allowed.

Bye for now. x


Monday 6 August 2012

Playing with Pan Pastels

Hello Everyone,

There has not been to much time spent in my work room this week what with one thing and another and the other is, of course,  the Olympics. The television  has been on in our house 'morning till night'. There have been so many great moments for Team GB, so far, but the highlight for me was seeing Andy Murray win gold at Wimbledon. I am even writing this in between watching the gymnastics.

I have taken some time out, though, to have a little play with my new Pan Pastels. I first came across them whilst watching Donna  Downey's Inspiration Wednesday videos over on her blog and have wanted to try them out. So here is my first attempt.







This is actually done on a used cereal box. I  primed it with gesso first then applied the pastel. I used sequin waste as a stencil to create the dots and then I used  a flower stencil. The top picture is a true representation  of the colours. I took a few photos and either the lighting or the camera setting must have been different on the second one.
 
For those of you who are a follower of Tag Tuesday, unfortunately I have not done a tag this week. The theme is 'Mermaids and Water babies' and there are some lovely tags on show there if you want to pop over and take a look.

Well I'm off to watch some more of the Olympics, be back soon! x

Friday 27 July 2012

Tag Tuesday Catch -up

Hi  Everyone.

I have just posted my tag over at Tag Tuesday. This weeks theme is 'Rock Pools and Beach Finds.

As my total collection of beach finds are a couple of pebbles from Cornwall I struggled some what to come up with an idea for this weeks tag. In the end I went for quite a simple one using black and white images of shells that I found  thanks to The Graphic Fairy.


The tag was painted first with gesso and then white acrylic paint. The images were adhered to the tag using Gel Medium. I then finished off  around the edges and the shells with black oil pastel. After posting the tag and looking at it again I think I should have used more shell images and overlapped them. But to be honest I'm just glad to have got it done.

Here is last weeks tag which I didn't get around to posting here. The theme was 'Sea Birds'.



I started buy colouring the tag with Broken China Distress Ink and did a gel medium transfer of an image of a seagull which I took myself and stamped the words 'echo's of a sea bird' to compliment the faded image of the bird. I then added a layer of gesso to give it a weathered look.

Those of you who remember  my post about the textile picture entitled 'Flowers' will know that I put it in a small exhibition of work from a textile class I go to. Last year I was lucky enough to sell a piece of work but I was not so fortunate this year and my little picture has now come home safe and sound.

I want to say thanks  for the lovely comments I have had, they mean a lot.

Bye for now x

Monday 23 July 2012

Little Flowers all in a Row.

Hi Everyone,

I promised I would be back to show you the completed textile piece I was working on since my last post and here it is.








As I mentioned previously, this is a request from a friend who wanted it as a gift for a friend of hers and I know she will be having a peek at this post so,  'I hope you like it'.

The techniques I used are detailed in a  previous post entitled  'Flowers' .except that the flowers here are made up of my gorgeous gold crinkly metallic fabric (which I am in love with and only have a little bit left ) sandwiched between two layers of  organza ,one red and one pink, and the stems are not green but stamped with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

My gorgeous gold metallic fabric (did I mention I was in love with it) was a small piece that I bought from a stall at The Knitting and Stitch Show in Harrogate. I have no idea what it's called so I can't replace it. So I  have decided that I am going to keep it all to myself  and make something with it to hang on my wall.

I have just bought a book on the works of Gustav Klimt because I was fascinated by the colours and patterns in his art work. So perhaps I can use his work as inspiration for a piece of textile art using my crinkly gold fabric.

Thank you so much to those of you out there who have been kind enough to leave comments. They are much appreciated.

Bye for now. x



Friday 20 July 2012

Sneak Previews

Hi Everyone,
I thought I would stop by today with a couple of sneak previews of a couple of things I've got going on in the pipeline at the moment.

But first I want to say a big thank you  to Shoshi  over at Shoshiplatypus.blogspot.co.uk for nominating me for  The Versatile Blogger Award .Unfortunately I felt that I could not take part because to qualify for the nomination you have to nominate 15 blogs and as I am relatively new to blogging, and only have a small number of people who regularly comment on my blog , I  couldn't think of 15 bloggers that I would feel comfortable  nominating as most of the people I would choose have already been nominated. One thing I can do though is post a link to Shoshi's blog (above) and ask that anyone who has not already visited her lovely blog to please do so as she is a very talented artist.

Now, for those sneak previews  I mentioned. Firstly, I thought I would share with you a pic of  a work in progress for a friend that I mentioned in a previous post.


This is a re-working of a textile picture I did recently for an exhibition. You can see the beginnings of the piece which was painted with Lumiere paints and stamped with text in Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The words are stamped with my letters stamps and sewn to the base. You can see the little circles of fabric cut out ready to form the flowers. I will post again to show you the finished piece.

The second thing I thought I would show you is where I am up to on the little sketchbook I started at a workshop that I did a couple of weeks ago. I still have to do some freehand machine embroidery and add some embellishments to the cover then bind it all together.




The cover is made from heavy-weight interfacing and painted the design onto paper with Transfer Dye and ironed the design onto the cover. You then adhere the painted paper to the inside of the cover using Bondaweb (which I still have to do). The holes are done with a soldering iron.


The pages are made from heavy-weight lining paper (yes, the decorating kind). They are torn and painted with blue and green Brusho and layered at angles on top of each other and left to dry to make those patterns you can see in the above picture.

I am hoping to get it finished after I have completed the textile picture as I am making it with the intention of taking it away with me when I go on my much awaited holiday in Cornwall in a few weeks time.

I also plan on testing different mediums out on the  the lining paper to see if it would be a cheaper (£10.00 a roll) alternative paper to use for a mixed media journal. The only problem is it is off white. The gesso I have is only a cheap make and does not cover very well so I am going to invest in some Golden  which I expect will cover much better. I am slowly acquiring decent quality products along the way.  I wish you could just rush out and get everything at once. But there are so many products out there to tempt you. Dylusions Ink Sprays are the next big thing on my list . After, of course, more Pan Pastels. See told you. My list is endless.

Well,  thanks for stopping by. See you soon with another update.

Bye for now. x




Monday 16 July 2012

Swimming

Hi everyone,

This weeks theme for Tag Tuesday is " Swimming".  I decided to use an old photo of my sister from our childhood in a snazzy swimsuit..It was taken on-board the ship the Canberra as we sailed home to England from Australia where we emigrated to in the sixties. For the background I used a  page from an atlas showing  Australia which I painted with gesso and pale blue acrylic paint and sponged it back off again to reveal the image underneath.


I used a harlequin stamp from Indigo Blu to reflect the pattern on the swimsuit and the fish is an image from The Graphic Fairy.

There are lots of lovely tags over on the Tag Tuesday blog. If you haven't seen them yet just click on the link above and take a look.

My friend stopped by today to pick up the textile picture that I featured in my last post. I am glad to say that she was pleased with it and has asked me to do another for a friend, based on the one that is currently on show in the exhibition  that  I  mentioned in a previous post.  So I will post a picture of it when it  is completed.

There are so many things going around in my head that I want to do. I still haven't had chance to have a good play with my new Pan Pastels, I still have to finish off my little sketch book that I started at a workshop the other week and I am STILL wanting to make an Art Journal to do some Mixed Media work  If anyone who reads this can tell me what surface is best to work on in a mixed media journal I would be very grateful if you could let me know. I contacted one of my favourite mixed media artists Donna Downey and she told me she uses a certain make of card stock but I couldn't seem to find a supplier in the uk.

As you may have seen in one of my previous posts my blog was unavailable for a short time but the problem was sorted out for me by blogger . But I feel that because of that I may have lost some of you who used to stop by to take a look at what I have been doing.  If you have visited I would love it if you left a comment to let me know.

Till the next time,

Bye for now x

 

Saturday 14 July 2012

Quick post.

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to show you the textile picture I  have just completed for a friend . It's not photographed very well but  this one was taken before I put it in the frame.


It is entitled  'Home is Where the Heart is'.

In my last post I told you that I was going to an Indigo Blu demo day . It was a good opportunity for me to stock up on a few things and here is what I treated myself to.


I have been wanting to try pan pastels so I can't wait to experiment with them.  The Harlequin stamp I bought for an idea I had in mind for my latest tag for Tag Tuesday but it is getting a bit late so I'm not sure if I will get it done in time for this weeks dead line but we'll see.

Bye for now x

Saturday 7 July 2012

Catch up

Hi everyone,

Just thought I would have a catch up and post this weeks tag for this weeks Tag Tuesday challenge along with the tags from the weeks that my blog was unavailable.

This weeks theme was the "Seaside".  I decided to do a watercolour painting ,something I haven't done since I was a teenager. Therefore I was a bit nervous as to how it would turn out. Half way through I nearly gave it up as a bad job but I persevered and here it is.


It was based on a photo I downloaded  for the purpose of doing this tag but I looked at so many images that I can't remember which site I got it from.

Here are two more tags which I was unable to post due to the reasons already mentioned, hope you like them. I would love to hear your comments.

" Riverbank"




"Green"





For those of you who saw my last post about my the textile picture "Flowers" that I did for an exhibition. The private viewing was on Thursday. The art work there was amazing , both paintings and textiles. My picture was only quite small in size and it looked a bit insignificant next to all the others on show so I don't hold out much hope for a sale this year. But you never know, I will keep my fingers crossed.

Yesterday I went to a workshop to make a Handmade Sketchbook.  I have still got some finishing off to do so I will post some pic's soon.

I have got a ticket to a demonstration by Indigo Blu this Sunday, so looking forward to that and hoping to pick up some new goodies. I will tell you all about that next time.

Bye for now x





Monday 2 July 2012

Flowers

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to pop buy to share with you my latest project which is now ready and waiting to go on show in a local exhibition.

I take textile classes and each year  there is an exhibition held at a local cafe which shows and sells  local artists work. Last year I actually sold my first piece of textile art. I was shocked to say the least. This is this years offering.


I know the picture is taken a little far away to see the actual piece but I wanted to show it complete with the frame. Here is a couple of other pic's taken before it was put in the frame.



The background was painted with Lumiere paint in Halo Pink-Gold and stamped with a text stamp in Vintage photo Distress Ink. The stem was painted in Lumiere paint and the flower heads are made up of circles of silk,organza and a beautiful crinkly gold metallic fabric which I bought at a Textile Fair. I finished off with the word 'Flower's' which I distressed with a little Vintage Photo.

The private viewing is this coming Thursday so I'm looking forward to seeing  it up on show.

I am starting work on another textile picture for a friend so I will post some pics when it is finished.

Please feel free to leave a comment as it is always nice to get feedback.

Bye for now x

Saturday 30 June 2012

Back in Blogland

Hi Everyone,

I am so pleased to say that my blog is back.

Those of you who have tried to visit me over the past few weeks will know that my blog was unavailable. But whatever the problem was Blogger has sorted it out and Fuzzie Fingers is up and running again.

I want to thank my blog friend Shoshi for her words of encouragement over the past few weeks and Carolyn for inviting me to join the 'Tag Team' over at Tag Tuesday so that I could continue to post my weekly tags.

I hope you will all come back and visit me again as I will be back soon with a post on a couple of projects I am working on at the moment.

It's great to be back. x

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Tea Bag Update

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would just give you an update on how I got on with my first attempt at working  with a tea bag.

Those of you that saw my last post will know that I left the fruit tea bag to dry out overnight. When it was dry I removed the staple and emptied out the tea and carefully opened out the tea bag.



There it was all ready to be worked on and the tea looked good to. I'm sure you could  use that in some way too. But for now I was just concentrating on the bag itself.

Not ever having used a tea bags before (apart from making a cup of tea of course) I thought I would hold back on making pages for my little book until I was a bit more familiar with them. So I sat there looking at the flattened out tea bag  and wondered where to start. I got out my stamps and ink pad and stamped a couple of images onto the tea bag. I know, from reading artists blogs that you can use gel medium to seal them and to adhere them onto paper and fabric, but as I am just starting out working in mixed media, gel medium is one of the many things on my shopping list. So I used what I had to hand which was pva glue.

Well it turned out to be a mistake as it turned the lovely pink colour  into GREEN. Well you learn by your mistakes. I'm not sure whether it would effect the colour if it had been brown tea but needless to say gel medium has now gone to the top of my shopping list.

I was going  to post  a pic to show you how it turned out but the camera wouldn't pick up the green. So that's were I am with that at the moment but I'm going to steep a few more bags and have a little more practice. When I get something worth sharing I will let you know.

Anyway it wasn't all bad the highlight of my day, today, was a little robin in my front garden.






I love robins, they remind me of my Mum.

Bye for now x


Saturday 9 June 2012

Time for Tea

Hi Everyone,

I can't believe I'm back again so soon. That's what becomes of being a football widow. I thought I would stop by and let you know what I've got on the boil ( pardon the pun).

Whilst checking out fellow bloggers art work I have learned that you can use tea bags (minus the tea) in mixed media and textile art. I have come across a very talented artist Kim Henkel who produces some beautiful  art work using tea bags. You can see her work if you visit  her blog Letting  in the Light.

The tea bags  that I use do not have tags and are shaped like pyramids and are not made from the same paper as the 'posh ones' lol. So I went out to get a box especially and today I steeped my first tea bag for the sole purpose of  experimenting with something new. Whilst brown tea gives  lovely sepia coloured patterns I thought I would try some fruit teas.


And there it is in all it's pink loveliness. It's now hanging in my airing cupboard to dry out and tomorrow I will open it up. I have to say that I'm really excited to see how it turns out. I'm not sure yet, what I'm going to put on it ,but I was thinking of making a little book using the tea bag paper for the pages. I have the cover already.  It is a piece of fabric paper which I stamped some text on.  I folded it in half and thought it would make a nice cover for a little book and it has been sitting on my work desk waiting to be worked on.


Well I will be back soon to let you know how I'm getting along with it.

Bye for now x









Friday 8 June 2012

Diamond Jubilee - Tag Tuesday

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone has been enjoying the Diamond Jubilee celebrations over the long weekend. Pity about the weather. I'm afraid I chickened out and stayed inside and watched all the celebrations on the T.V. Very nice they were too. The river pageant was amazing and the Queen proved she was made of stern stuff standing all that time on the royal barge and I  felt so sorry for the soggy singers in the Royal College of Music Chamber Choir. I read in the paper the next day  that they  were checked over afterwards for hypothermia. Congratulations to them for still putting on a good show.

The Queens Diamond Jubilee concert was a triumph too. I thought it was so funny when Alfie Boe performed his rendition of  Elvis'  'It's now or Never'. I rolled about with laughter. Lastly, was the service at St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was great to see the crowds come out to celebrate.

This weeks tag for Tag Tuesday is to commemorate The Queens Diamond Jubilee.


The union flag was made up of organza and muslin and attached to heavy interfacing with bondaweb. I then aged the tag with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and attached a crown from a pack of card making embellishments. The dates were printed onto cotton fabric with photo transfer paper and aged with Distress Ink. I then punched a hole and set an eyelet with my trusty crop-a-dile.

Hope you like this weeks tag. Just to let you know , I won't be joining in next week's theme for Tag Tuesday which is 'Camping'  because I have some other projects I want to work on but I plan to be back with the next weeks challenge which,  if my memory serves me right, is 'Green'.

Bye for now x



Saturday 2 June 2012

Bunting and Flags

Hi Everyone,

As mentioned in my post yesterday I was hoping to post my tag for Tag Tuesday but I just didn't like how it turned out so I went back to my original idea and her it is.


This is Millie my little Yorkshire Terrier all tangled up in the bunting.

I started by printing out a picture of Millie on card and cutting it out. I then  used some card and an image of the flag to make the tag. I attached Millie to the tag with foam pads and added the crown which was from a pack of card embellishments I bought from a local shop.

I made the bunting from  black heavy duty cotton thread and organza and threaded it around Millie and glued it to the tag. I finished off by blending some blue oil pastel around the edges.

I chose Millie for the tag as she is much more photogenic than my other beautiful girl Rosey. ( That is how you spell her name, not Rosie). She is so black that she doesn't show up very well on photos. Here is a photo taken just recently on our a trip to Astley  Hall in Chorley.



Rosey is a cross between a Yorkshire Terrier and a Jack Russell She has such a beautiful soft thick coat. Out of the litter we got her from there was one pup with mid length hair and all the rest were short haired. Rosey was the only long haired pup and as soon as I saw her she came and laid down on my knee and I just had to have her. Two years later we got Millie and they get on great and I love them both dearly.

We often take a trip to Astley Hall they have lovely grounds and it makes for a lovely day out .The grounds are beautifully kept and there are facilities for playing tennis, a putting green and bowls. The house is open to the public at certain times and is free entry. There is also a nice little place to have a coffee and some food, their lemon drizzle cake is a must.







I was going to post some more pics but for some reason they won't download onto my post. Perhaps I'll be able to  post them  next time.

Bye for now. x




Friday 1 June 2012

The Olympic Flame

Hi Everyone,

Today my hubby and I went to see the Olympic Torch as it made it's way through our neck of the woods. With the crowds lining the route it was difficult to catch a glimpse of the torch as it went whizzing by. I took my trusty camera with me hoping to get a few pics but it proved very difficult but I held the camera aloft and just hoped for the best and this was the shot I got.



A bit blurry but at least I captured the main star of the show which is of course  the flame itself.

With all the talk of Jubilee celebrations this weekend it gets you a little bit nostalgic, which I may add is not usually me at all. But I thought I would have a search amongst my old photos and dig out a couple I had of the Silver Jubilee street party we had back in 1977. The first one is of myself  ( I can't believe I'm posting this ) and the second is of my sister.





There is a Jubilee party going on at the weekend in our local village. There is going to be face painting, stilt walkers,circus entertainers and even gladiators believe it or not. If the weather's nice and I get any good pics I will post them.

I was hoping to post my tag for this week the theme is 'Bunting and Flags' but I don't like how it turned out so I'm going back to my original idea and starting over again so I hope to post it tomorrow.

Well bye for now. x

Sunday 27 May 2012

Found Objects. Theme for 'Tag Tuesday'

Hi Everyone,

As you may know I am one of the many people who 'play along' with Tag Tuesday and as the blog is so popular there is a long waiting list to join the 'Tag Team' . However, I was so pleased last week because Carolyn posted my 'Gardening' tag on the Tag Tuesday Blog and as a result I received lots of  lovely comments. So if any of you who left comments and have  popped  over to visit me here I would like to take this chance to thank you and also to everyone who commented here on my blog as well.

This weeks theme is 'Found Objects' and this gave me an opportunity to use some stamps from an old Stamp Album I had as a child which I found in a box in the garage.

The stamps are still fixed into the album but are quite fragile and some of them will just come away  if you touch them so these three were easy to remove.

For the background I scanned the first couple of pages in the book and printed them out. They were already coloured with age but I enhanced the vintage look with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, gesso and a black oil pastel.I then attached the stamps and touched them up with the same ink, gesso and pastel. I finished it off with a copper coloured eylet and hemp twine.




I photographed a few of the stamps and I thought I would share this one with you as I thought it was a lovely stamp.
The weather has been beautiful here and I had some photos from a day out to Astley Hall I wanted to post today but I'll have to pop back and do it another time because the weather is to nice today to spend it at the computer.

Bye for now. x

Friday 18 May 2012

Gardening - theme for 'Tag Tuesday'

Hi Everyone,

This week I experimented with a new technique for this weeks tag.  I have been looking at different techniques for image transfer and was surprised to find out that it was possible to transfer images using white acrylic paint.

I saw some plant seeds for an unusual looking flower called Nigella and I had the idea of  incorporating the seeds in this weeks tag. I scanned and printed out an image of  the flower on my ink-jet printer and painted the image with white acrylic paint and layed it face down on the tag. I then burnished the back of the image with the back of a spoon for about a minute then I carefully peeled back the paper. After a couple of failed attempts I ended up with a fairly good transfer. Some of the image peeled away with the paper but I think it looks better that way.






I then made a little organza bag for the seeds and stitched it onto the tag. I stamped the words with my trusty little stamp machine,(which I will have to post a picture of next time I use it) and I used a black oil pastel to shade around the edges and  lightly over the rest of the tag.

While we are on the subject of gardening I thought  it was a good opportunity to post a lovely picture of some bluebells that I picked from my garden.

Well I hope you like this weeks tag and I  would love it if you would like to leave a comment.

I am a follower on some very talented artists blogs and some of you have visited my blog and been kind enough to leave a comment .There are so many techniques in textiles and mixed media art that I hope to pick up now that I am a fellow blogger and if anyone out there woud like to give me any hints and tips along the way I would be very happy to hear them.
  

Bye for now x


Saturday 12 May 2012

What's New

Hi Everyone,

I want to start by saying sorry to anyone who has come to see this weeks tag for Tag Tuesday cos I'm afraid I have'nt made one this week. The theme was  'Baking'  which failed to inspire me,  I'm sorry to say. So instead I thought I would have a go at somethiong new. (Well, to me anyway).

I thought I would try my hand at making some Inchies. They are little works of art that can me made out of anything really as long as they are an inch in size. For those people who find it hard to work to an inch there are  also Inchie +  or Betwinchies (1.5" x 1.5") and  Twinchies (2" x 2").

















 I really enjoyed doing these.

The top and the bottom inchie were made from Fabric Paper and glued onto heavy card The  pieces of torn text are panted with lumiere paints and are embelished with little pastel coloured hearts.

If you look closely at the middle one you will see a number in the middle. That is because it was a piece from a page which was previously painted and I just liked the pattern in that particular place on the page so I used it. Some silk tops represent the land and the sea and I used a stamp of tiny birds in the top corner.

I hope you can follow my discriptions okay. I know there must be a better way of labelling these photo's but. as I'm new to this blogging I have not yet mastered the layout techniques.

I also tried my hand at something else that was new to me. I had a try at dyeing some fabric with red onion skins. I thought that the result would be pink or pale purple but after boiling the onion skins for about five minutes I could see that it would probably be brown .

I put a piece of cotton fabric and  some cotton scrim in a jar with the cold onoin water and left it for three days and this was the result :-






I am happy with the result.

I have had some difficulty posting my pictures  today. They seem to want to turn around the wrong way for some reason, if anyone knows why that would be happening I would be grateful for any tips.

Bye for now xx