a late Christmas present for my sister-in-law

Fortunately, we're both of the age where late Christmas presents are exciting!  A late treat after the fuss of Christmas is over :)  Not that I intended this gift to be late, it was just that 24 hours was not enough hours in the day leading up to Christmas!

I bought some mugs with cupcakes on for my SiL and wanted to make a fabric picture of a cupcake to accompany them.

Starting with a cheap tablecloth I followed the damask pattern on my sewing machine, backing my piece with felt.  I used some William Morris print fabric for the cupcake case and added snippets of lace and fabric.  

Then for the cupcake topping I used a spotty cotton fabric as the base and added lace flowers, and sections for a tray cloth I purchased in a charity shop.

Layers of lace, both old and new, embellished with buttons, edge the picture.  I really didn't want to give it away I have to say!!!  It needs framing but Laura is very happy with it :)

time for artistic endeavours, appreciation of nature...

This was shared on Milliande's Art Journal facebook page.  It made me cry!  It is so, so true.

PDCC63 I suffer from Attention Deficit Oooooh Shiny!

"In England's* green and pleasant land" [Blake 1804] coming across waterfalls or tiny streams is one of my very favourite things whilst out walking.  I love the movement of the water as it falls, the fresh greenery surrounding it, and best of all, the wonderful sound it makes. 

This photograph brought all this to mind for me, and also suggested the unusual colour combination of gold and silver, which I NeVeR put together. 

But I have to say, I just LoVe how it turned out on my journal page!  In fact, when I'd finished it, it evoked an almost audible "ooooooooooo".

I will explain.  You may have noticed that when you are with friends and admire another's work or see something gorgeous in a shop (especially if you are in a stamp shop when the owner opens a recently arrived box of goodies) you will all, simultaneously, say "oooooooooooooo" in wonderment.  This always, always, always makes me think of the aliens in toy story...

Not that I am in any way suggesting we are all aliens lol!

I decided to do a journal page for this week's challenge as I've never used metallics on a journal page, and I'm not sure it would ever have occurred to me to use embossing powder on my pages!  I'd already decided I'd tackle the silver/gold combo by using silver and white in the background and adding a 'something' in green and gold.  I like green and gold.  I like silver and white.  I do not usually like silver and gold together.

I do now though!!!  I had great fun playing with my metallics Mica Watercolour Palette and my embossing powders.  I also incorporated some paper I'd made at The StampMan using Starburst Stains.  In fact, I'm dedicating this to my crafty, StampMan DT colleague Vixykins as she invited me to be part of the facebook group 

I suffer from A.D.O.S - Attention Deficit Oooooh Shiny

There are lots more shiny projects to be inspired by over at The Play Date Cafe, so don't forget to check out what our other designers made :)

WOYWW - gems, zebra and a bit of research

Here are the results of waking up at 1.30am yesterday morning and not being able to get back to sleep as I had to be up at 4am for my train to London.  It's my lino and eraser carving for my day 3 zebra journal page . The result of this lack of sleep followed by a long train journey, a busy morning training teachers, a busy afternoon looking at gorgeous illustrations (including some Oliver Jeffers' ones which was a fabulous surprise)

... and mooching around Piccadilly in London was that I fell asleep on the train home (despite your good wishes and hopes Helen!)  To the extent that the train got in at 10.50pm, and I was woken by some very kind lads at 11.10pm who tapped me on my shoulder and just said 'Manchester Piccadilly'!  How sweet were they!  I heard them haring down the train, very noisily, then one of them say "shall we wake her up?" I'm so glad they did!!!

My workdesk also features the contents of my pocket after a trip to a restoration yard which I emptied onto my table before travelling to London!!!

And finally, this is my printed out research for this month's Sketchbook Challenge.  Jill Berry set this month's theme of 'HiGHLY PRiZeD' and referred to the work of Sister Corita Kent who I had never heard of so immediately looked up!  These images will go into my sketchbook as part of the challenge, I've just not cut them up yet!

I do like WOYWW.  It's a bit diary like, but in a format that works for me ;)  If you'd like to see what other people are up to, head on over to The Stamping Ground where you will find many other people who happily share their workspaces each Wednesday :)  Mine's a late entry as I slept looooooooooooooooong today I am very happy to say :)

zebra, zebra, zebra

Day two's prompt from Milliande was to doodle a zebra mandala, the cut it up and stick it into your journal.  Zendoodling is very relaxing, but very time consuming so I didn't finish mine until this morning.

Milliande has a template on her website of the outlines of the zebra inside the circle.  We than had to print out the image in three different sizes.  I chose to use my largest printout for the zebra images, which fill the page nicely.

Placing three heads on a page isn't something I feel comfortable doing, but this is a challenge so I went ahead, and like the result!  Milliande printed her background with watercolour paint on an old cd.  I used watercolour paint through some sequin waste instead, taking the colour off a black aquatone pencil.  I loved the marks the wet pencil made so used it to add stripes to the background too.

Additional stripes were added by cutting strips from the other print outs before adding the zebra heads and then some colour, again from my aquatone pencils.  

I'm working in London today, and hoping to catch the Quentin Blake exhibition after work - can't wait ;)  Just hope I can stay awake, my train leaves Manchester at 5am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

art calendar 2011 365 challenge

Kate Crane started art calendar 365 challenge last year after seeing Jill Taylor's calendar journal and they're both throwing down the gauntlet again this year.  I'm really not a diary keeper so wasn't sure how far I'd get; last year I made it to the end of January, which is amazing for me, so this year I aim to carry on longer than that!

Rather than work in a book, which is wasted if I don't finish the year (last year I made one especially for the challenge), I decided to decorate a file folder and include individual pieces of card for each month.  I've been dying to decorate a file folder for months!!!

I used my new Martha Stewart punch on the right hand corner of the file folder, then stencilled white paint through some sequin waste.

After stamping some circular patterns from a Stampendous stamp, I free machined over the top of them before adding layers of torn paper, lace and beads in the corner, along with some punched MS hydrangea flowers.

I also decorated the inside of the file folder, on the back page.  I've started adding a bit more to this, including some snowflakes and punched hydrangea flowers.  It is still a work in progress.

I just LoVe the effect these oversized numbers give to the page.  They are stamped in grey so my writing will still be visible.  My file folder feels great in my hands so here's hoping I can manage to get a few months in there!!!

Milliande Art Journal January 2011

Each January Milliande produces a video prompt a day for your art journal and this year I decided to join in.  I LoVe the first theme - starting at the end of the alphabet, and working on 'Z for Zebra' until Milliande feels she has exhausted the theme.

day one

I adore using black and white so this theme is right up my street!  I watched Milliande's video then had a hunt on the internet for some zebra images.  My zebra is a blind-ish contour drawing, a great idea from Carla Sonheim's Drawing Lab ABC for Mixed Media Artists.  

I am a bit of a perfectionist so have learnt a number of tricks to stop myself being so judgemental about my work.  I found the key really to be a kind of 'controlled randomness'!  A blind contour drawing won't be perfect because you're not looking at your paper, but it does turn out like the object to a certain degree - I love the quirkiness of it!

My 7 gypsies Paddington papers caught my eye as I gathered my supplies for this page, so I decided to use torn strips from the 'Blackfriars' sheet instead of painting stripes...just LoViN' those numerals!!!

Thanks for a great prompt Milliande, I know I'm just going to really enjoy this theme.  Day two's videos will be up shortly, and I'm also joining in with The Sketchbook Challenge so I've got some busy playtime ahead - woo hoo!!!