the art of moodling

Saturday, 5 February 2011

texture junkies

Isn't it great when you enjoy your job so much you get really excited about going to work? I LoVeD prepping for this collage workshop at The Cubby Hole, and teaching it today was even better! [Apologies for my reflection, and the reflection of the light in the photos, hopefully you'll still get a good idea of what we all got up to.]

The focus of this 'Love Collage' was on texture so we spent the morning exploring different ways of creating texture. We used lace, kitchen towels, cuttlebugged cardboard, corrugated card, embossing....

...recording these ideas in a folded paper book.

Despite working on the same theme, and using the same supplies, there was great variety in colour, texture and general yumminess in everyone's collages. They were all FaB :)

Tracey Doorbar

Suzanne

Wendy

Sue

Sue B

Christine

Tracy Evans

Nigel

Little Sue

This talented crew at The Cubby Hole now have their own blog - lots more yumminess over there to drool over! And look at this photo that greeted me as I walked in the shop this morning:

A photo of me I actually like!

Thursday, 3 February 2011

welcoming Ruby as a colour inspirer at The Play Date Cafe!

This week's challenge was described by Andrea as 'Howard and Seddon' colours - remember the architect's office from November?

I've been in crochet mood so spent last Saturday evening crocheting this little cushion. You really need 'feelynet' to truly appreciate it, it's made with cottons so feels really soft and cuddly :) It's equivalent in size to an A5 sheet of paper. I did fancy crocheting a unionjack in these colours but I couldn't work it out in time so went with the seasonal idea of hearts.

If it helps any, think of these wonderful colours chosen by Ruby as three shades of red and a blue. Your blue could be an accent, and your shades of red could be hearts, or flowers, or butterflies. I bet they'd look fantastic on a journal page too. Hmmm, might need to play with them there too! ;)

I started with a simple heart crocheted in pink, following a pattern I found on t'internet, then kept changing yarn colour doing around each subsequent heart; I made some of this up so there is the odd bit of wonkiness but hey, it's handmade, and my first crocheted cushion YAY! :)

I'm now rather tempted with the idea of crocheting a heart garland.....I just need more hours in a day, or more days in a week! Check out Ruby's account of her first experience of choosing a colour story over at The Play Date Cafe and see what our designers made of this week's colours. Have fun, and enjoy the real challenge of getting these colours to work for you - you'll be pleased you did!

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

going BiG!

I was given a very large piece of wood to paint on with gloss paints today. I decided to just 'play', like I do in my journals, to see what happened. First I collected some junk from around The Mustard Tree building, and used some of it to print with in my piece.

I'm still not convinced it's finished, but it was finished for today with the colours I had available. It is going up on the outside of The Mustard Tree building in Ancoats, Manchester with pieces from the other artists who work here. Lots of talented people congregate at The Mustard Tree. Just look at this giant head, still a work in progress, but absolutely amazing!

Sunday, 30 January 2011

I am blessed with a full and busy life..

...but I do wish I had more hours in the week to get things done! This past week I've spent quite a bit of time with friends, which is lovely, and doing paperwork and going to meetings which isn't so lovely! Oh, and Monday was spent at Paddy's doing one of Sylvia Wood's amazing textile workshops, 'Burnt Offerings'

[by the way, Paddy now has an active blog :) find her here http://paddycosgriff1.blogspot.com/]

We burnt, stitched, heated, combined a variety of textiles and came away with a tiny book of gorgeousness...

I gave mine a love theme :) I'm going to add more bits to it, and it has spaces for tags and weenier books.

I love using my sewing machine to draw with, and adding little snippets and fragments to miniature books so it was a blissful day for me :)

I am very lucky to live near to 'Creative Recycling', an art gallery run by a group of artists who use recycled materials as a central part of their work. I introduced a friend to this artistic space on Thursday and we had a fabulous time.

The gallery now has an outdoor space with sculptural pieces made from recycled items.

I've wanted to make metal flowers for my garden for ages but am waiting to learn how to manipulate and combine large sheets of metal. Until then, I can easily use my collection of rusted bottle tops, wire and tin cans to make some smaller flowers like these :)

And I have an area of garden too shaded and dry for much to grow so I'm now saving my coloured glass bottles :) Even better, sherry comes in blue bottles so maybe I'll just have to get some more now it is a paving material lol

This pond is actually made from waste glass from the framing service offered by the gallery. The glass is fused and used in pictures as a collage element, although here it serves as a frozen pond for these fabulous ducks :)

Some people are so talented :)

Friday, 28 January 2011

The StampMan Challenge # 15 Oriental

I love to challenge myself, and this theme did just that! I rarely work to an 'oriental' theme, despite owning a few suitable stamps, but just LoVe the way this card turned out.

I made some red and gold paper using starburst stains and some plain copier paper then made a little folded pocket for the front of the card. I wanted to include some origami in my piece. The tiny book inside doesn't contain a message yet, that will be added when I send the card as this could be for a birthday, get well or just to say hello! My good friend Sue (who swanned off to CHA this week ;) gave me the japanese text a while back so thanks Sue :) And enjoy CHA; I'm looking forward to your blog posts :)

Head on over to The StampMan Challenge blog to see more ideas for this theme, and to join us with this challenge :) Happy Crafting!

I should be in bed but...

I've had this idea in my head for three weeks now and I thought I'd missed the deadline for the Hero Arts monthly challenge but being 8 hours ahead really helps lol. So I'm up late, blogging but happy. I just love Hero Arts' owls. This is the first time I've ever entered one of their challenges so I hope I linked it all correctly over on Flickr!

The challenge was to be inspired by the new 2011 catalogue which has the most beautiful stuffed and sewn flowers on the front. I immediately went on the hunt for an owl image I could use in a similar way! I purchased 'A few more owls' from Two Peas in a Bucket and successfully printed this gorgeously cute creature onto a piece of felt. (I glued a piece of paper to the back of the felt and just ran it through my printer :) ) I put a second piece of felt behind the one with the image on and free machined the owl, using a thick blue thread. I added lace, felt, rusty-ish washers and beads and am really pleased with the result :)

She will be gracing the cover of a fabric journal I intend to make very soon!

Thursday, 27 January 2011

Where on earth did the last week go?!!! I can't believe I've not got to the computer for a whole week...too much work, that's the trouble! It's play date time again and this week it's colour splash time...that seems to have come around quickly too ;)

This lilac rose really caught my eye, and I realised that although I like purple/lilac, it isn't a colour I use very often in my artwork. I also decided to challenge myself to use black lace and stitching against a white background rather than vice versa. This has meant lots of hunting for suitable materials, which ended successfully in the charity shop with a lacy jumper!

I created a tiny flag book [7cmx6cm] in matchbook style, decorating each page with scraps of paper and lace and some 'useful facts' I gleaned from the only white paged book on my bookshelf - most of them are on the creamy, old side!