drawing with scissors PDCC147

 How have I not cottoned on to this idea before?  I get too precise and 'tight' when I'm drawing with conventional materials which is one of the reasons I love drawing with my sewing machine!  To add that dimension to this page though meant doing it on separate paper then adding it to the page so I just thought, "why not cut out shapes and add black ink around the edges instead?!"  Voila!

This journal page, and a tag, emerged from this week's colour combo over at the Play Date Cafe.  It's an unusual colour combo that I know I'd never have discovered myself, which is why I love these challenges!

And isn't that bird stunning?! (although my daughter says he looks like a pigeon - an artistic one though!)

 That 'evergreen' varies depending on which screen I'm using to view the image but I stuck with the labelled colours of evergreen, olive, smoke (grey) and cherry blossom.  Having happily unearthed my Dylusion sprays I started with my favourite ink of all time, the grey one!

 ...followed by some olive green watercolour straight from the tube.  I added some water and let it run then squidged it with a piece of paper over the top which produced a lovely secondary piece!

 A bit of stencilling next with the pink (an acrylic dabber) through some card cut with Tim Holtz' typeset die but what to do for a main image?

I was going to add some large letters so had a little nosy along the bookshelf for some inspiration.  I came across my Lotta Jansdotter book (LoVe her designs!)

... and spotted some nice shapes that I could cut out.  I didn't draw them first, just went straight in with the scissors before spraying them pink, and creating another nice effect on separate paper!

I added some stamped text and am very happy with the result!  Can't believe I'm finally feeling like I'm back in the 'flow' as it were, only to go back to work next week!

Finally (sorry, long post!), I made a tag with some of the background paper created during the making of this page!

And here it is alongside the inspiration image.  I added a couple more stamens as it made me think of lilies, a flower I LoVe.

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit!

another PDCC colour challenge, this time it's needle felting!

I did start a journal page with this week's PDCC colours but some extra colours crept in when a blue butterfly wanted to take part!

Then, following a bit of blog hopping this morning, I decided to get out my needle felting after seeing Jackie's wonderful pieces over at Dog Daisy Chains.  Jackie's base fabric is wet felted but I don't often have the patience for that and got out a few scraps of wool and fabric and my trusty embellisher.

The images were inspired by some patterns in my V&A fifties patterns book...

Jackie's work had really made me think of Angie Lewin's prints, jam packed full of imagery and texture.

Virago have recently republished some modern classics and as one was in an Angie Lewin print I had to read it!  I enjoyed it actually.  It was written in the 1920s and it turns out I own a book by this author - it's in my nice second hand books to recycle pile, or it was, I'm now intending to read it lol!

So, a happy hour 'dumpfing', as Twiglet would say :)  I'm not sure yet what this piece will become part of yet, but that's ok, it's purpose will appear at some point!

PDCC journal time

We've been home from our camping trip in Mid Wales for a few days now and I've been itching to get back to my journal instead of spring cleaning (a little late, but hey!) my craft room.  The play date cafe colours proved a perfect starting point.

This page is in a little A6 moleskine and after starting it very late last night I made a mess of one side of the page so tore it out, tore it into strips then glued them down this morning into a new starting point.

Rummaging around for some inspiration for what to do next I came across this word stamp.  I didn't want to put a heart on the page for some reason but a felted flower was lying around on my table and when I put this against the page it all clicked so I made a paper version to glue in.

It's back to rain here in the UK so these warm, summery colours are perfect to cheer up the day!

PDCC 74

After a chat with Sarah C at Paddy's last week I thought I'd give 'clean and simple' or 'less is more' journalling a go ...

... although I am beginning to wonder if that's a contradiction in terms!

This week's wonderful colour combo was chosen by Ruby (aren't those pots fabulous on that wall!), and we're sponsored this week by Lizzie Ann designs who sent the DT some gorgeous rubberstamps each:

I decided to start with a textured white page in my journal - a successful 'less is more' start - to which I then added flowers stamped in blue and lilac/purple - at which point I got carried away lol

Ah well, I'll persevere!  These are gorgeous stamps to use, and come brilliantly packaged in a cd case.  Lizzie Ann designs have supplied an equally brilliant prize this week valued at approx £25

So why not check out this week's DT members pieces for inspiration, then get crafting (and remember, anything goes as long as it's created in blue, purple and white) and enter your piece over at The Play Date Cafe ~ have fun!

Fiona Schultz

Jaclyn Miller

Jinny Newlin

Libby Hickson

Michele Gross

TRacey Kuzniak

Colleen Dietrich 

Julie Ranae 

Savannah O'Gwynn 

Ruby2Shoes 

Andrea Ewen

and this week's guest designer

Taylor Usry

PDCC 69 Inspired by ...Dina Wakley :)

I adore Dina Wakley's free exploration of colour and texture in her journals, and have even had the honour of 'stroking' one and exclaiming over it's beauty IRL!!!  So whilst on a hunt for some great colour stories for The Play Date Cafe Challenge I stopped by her blog and Dina very kindly let me use a section of one of her journal pages as inspiration.

I had to borrow Malc's camera to take the pics last night and the colours aren't as true in these images but I hope you get the idea!  I decided to take some blue and pink wool tops and wet felt them together.

Once this was dry I laid it onto some yellowy orange fabric and some text paper.  I added stitch and also stitched on some yarn...all very therapeutic, and touchy feely :)

Over at The Play Date Cafe there is a fantastic array of inspiration from our wonderful design team

Andrea Ewen

Fiona Schultz

Jaclyn Miller

Jinny Newlin

Libby Hickson

Michele Gross

TRacey Kuzniak

Colleen Dietrich 

Julie Ranae 

Savannah O'Gwynn 

Ruby2Shoes 

and also from our guest designer this week - Julie Day :)  We are sponsored this week by Wilson Designs so head on over to the cafe for a good mooch.

PDCC55

Sorry everyone, normal service will resume shortly but technical issues and illness have disrupted my day!  Sorry!!!

This architect's office has always attracted my attention, it is so brightly painted!  It is just around the corner from me and as I walked past it the other week I noticed it had had a fresh coat of paint.  Earlier in the week I'd seen a card on a blog that was tremendously brightly coloured so I thought we could give these colours a go in our colour challenge.

This week we are sponsored by Innovative Stamp Creations who are providing this fab $18 prize:

Fortunately the rest of the play date design team haven't been plagued with the same issues so you can visit the Play Date Cafe for some wonderful inspiration with these colours :)  

It's Party Time in the Play Date Cafe - We're One Year Old Today :)

We're celebrating a WHoLe YeaR of challenges over at The Play Date Cafe today so I'd like to thank eVeRYoNe who plays, has played, or intends to play but never manages it, for your support.   There's tonnes of inspiration for you in the cafe this week as everyone who was on our first design team is joining us, including our first private blend designer Mona Pendleton.

But you can't have a celebration without CaKe :)  The Play Date Cafe Colour Challenge accepts all creative submissions, as long as the chosen colours are the main colours of your piece, so here's my contribution to the party - fairy cakes (like mini cupcakes) !

My husband did ask me how cakes worked for a blog party; well, you look at them in a photograph, and I eat them in your honour ;)   Actually, I'm not too keen on orange flavouring (which is in the buttercream - icing sugar and butter - which is yellow IRL) so I think I'll just eat the whole tube of pink smarties :)

We'd love to have you play along this week.  Julie is doing a full week of inspiration over in the cafe, and we have two fabulous sponsors which means some great prizes :)

These great chipboard letters are from Cosmo Cricket, and Unity have sent a pile of Itty Bitty stamps from their Ippity range [Ippity stamps are available in the UK via an Ippity girl, of which there are a few but our very own Ruby is one so contact her if you are interested in any you see, the rubber is amazing and the images  fab!!]

Our guest designer this week is AJ Otto, Unity's design team co-ordinator.   To see all the work from our designers, please visit the cafe and PaRTY!!!  :)  My Itty Bitty stamp is still winging it's way to me over the ocean but when it arrives I will be making a piece with it and posting it here so watch this space :)

a steampunk wedding at the Play Date Cafe

This week we've been sponsored by Creative Cuts, who sent the whole team a collection of wedding themed die cuts.  And it's a colour splash week, which was great for a wedding theme.  Just look at the colours Julie chose:

This week you get to choose your 'splash' colour from pink, copper or gold.  I was going to turn my cake box into something with legs etc but then discovered that Steampunk Weddings are happening out in the wedding world (and there are some cool ideas out there, just google 'steampunk wedding' for some fab images!) so decided to go with that as a useable theme.

The cake boxes fit together (if you have enough of them!) to make a whole cake so I co-ordinated them to work in this way.  I cuttlebugged the boxes and added zips, lace, cuttlebugged copper and stamped clocks and butterflies.

The butterfly is by Memory Box, and the clocks by The Artistic Stamper.

The wedding card came as a blank white card with the die cut edge and dress shaped aperture.  I put the cuttlebugged copper sheet behind the aperture, and added the pearls, then sewed lace and zip along the fold.  The 7 gypsies paper inside and the snap fasteners are elements I only added because the colour challenge is 'black and white with a splash of ...', but I'm glad I did.  That's the great thing about challenges, sometimes you end up doing things you wouldn't otherwise do!

Although our design team are using Creative Cuts pieces,  you can enter with anything that is

black and white with a splash of

pink/gold/copper

Check out the design team's pieces over at the Play Date Cafe, or individually here:

 Julie Ranae

Suzanne Czosek

Andrea Ewen
Savannah O'Gwynn

Lisa Somerville
Ruby 2 Shoes

 

Have fun with these colours :)