A Blue Day

Hey ladies.... hope ya'll had a great weekend and some fun in the sun. I had a lazy day today just playing with some canvas, gesso, acrylics and dyes and a few ferns that I picked from my "Valley of Ferns.... Denise... remember the big valley of ferns in my front yard? Well since I am working on your journal now I thought I would try and bring something of nature from my yard to your pages.

I bought a bolt (10 yards) of this weird stuff that I thought was muslin. I got it home but found that it is really stiff and a lot thicker than I thought - I had bought it thinking I'd never run out of backing for CQ foundations but I can't use it for that. Anyway, didn't want to feel like I just blew $18 on something I wouldn't use so I decided to experiment.

First I painted all the cut up pieces of canvas with the gesso... blending in a little bit of deep turquoise dye as I went along. Let it dry then picked some ferns... painted them and added a touch of gold glitter to the mixture of paint and then gently patted the leaves to leave an imprint on top of the gesso.... let dry and then ironed. I love each one of them and can't wait to start working on them with some threads and other goodies..... It was so much fun experimenting.. even used a piece of butterfly lace for an imprint.

See the pieces that look sorta white? Well they actually look just like the sky -

nickis book

Done & mailed on Wednesday:) This was another fun one to do, The 1st page is just a simple zipper pocket done with some polka dot fabric I've been saving for just the right use. The 2nd page is CQ because Nicki is CQ crazy;) I used 2 "new to me" techniques/products - gel medium on the piece of paper on page 2 to give it some strength. And, the transfer artist paper for my photo transfer.

This stuff is amazing, photos can be transferred to any surface with this. it's an iron on paper, but not limited to fabric (although I did use fabric for Nicki's page). You could put a photo on a hunk of wood, a tile, tin, paper, heck even your walls if you were so inclined. Here's a link to Lesley Riley's website (she created this stuff)

lesleyriley.com/store.php?cat=4

Gel medium is also a wonder product - with this stuff you can also transfer images. This would have worked really well with my photo transfer to polymer clay. With this you use an inkjet transparency film with your image printed on it - paint gel medium on the surface of the thing you want to transfer to, let dry, place transparency on gel and rub - the image will adhere (this is not washable though

Denise's FABULOUS book is here!

Ok... I'm going to try posting this for the tenth time in the last few days... hopefully this time it takes. I seem to be having problems posting on a few blogs as well as leaving comments lately.

Denise, I received you INCREDIBLE, FABULOUS, INSANELY GORGEOUS book a few days ago from Kathi. She did a beautiful job on her entry - boy, I've got some heavy duty thinking on my part to come close to adding something as special to your journal. I love how you put your book together - a beautiful job all around.

This is my front page for Jody's Journal. Jody's Journal is to reflect "Inspiration" I choose to use the word "COLOR" as my inspiration. I used dyes on 100% pure silk along with gold resist. I doodled free hand with the gold resist and then let a plethora of colored dyes flow. As you can see I actually used yellow! Not one of my favorite colors but I figured if I was going to try something new I'd try incorporate a different color for me. You can't see to well but it is somehwat quilted & beaded along with a few silver metal tags sewn in.... Dream, Love, Journey & Faith... Ohh... and AFF!

Here is the back side.... this piece I didn't use any resist and just let the colors blend together and then outlined the various colors with tiny stitches. The pocket was made using another piece of gold resist playings.... just big enough to stuff with one of Jody's tags and the name of my inpsiration person. I will be putting Jody's book in the mail to Axel tomorrow.

working on Kathi's book

Hi friends! I know you have all been busy with life and creating...just how it goes! Anyway, looks like a couple of you are about ready to mail again...impressive!

Jody...you made me smile when you tried this new technique and weren't just totally pleased with the outcome...it made me hope that you were enjoying the process...something new...learning how to conquer it! I have to be honest, I bought someof that Solvy stuff myself last year in Des Moines at the quilt show and really want to try it but haven't yet! You are kind of inspiring me to get it out! I will hope to learn from your example on how to do it!

I have started working on my pages for Kathi's book...kind of picked colors that are not my norm...we will see!

Happy stitching AFFs!

Comment issue?

I have tried repeatedly for days to post comments.
Nothing goes.
Maybe someone who is savvy can check it out?

Denise, inquiring minds want to know what that artist transfer paper is??

nearing completion

I thought I would have finished Nicki's pages a few weeks ago, but now I can say I am almost done. I changed my mind a few times & am happy with the results so far. I'm waiting on an order of transfer artist paper to complete it. Have you guys seen this stuff? it is so cool - you can transfer a photo or any print to any surface - this would have been ideal for my transfer to polymer clay. While at Market last month we saw a lot of fun new techniques & I'm dying to try some of them out!
Anywho, I should be mailing on Friday if all goes well:)

Tried something new

After much obsessing I finally started working on my pages for Colleen's book. "Who am I?" much harder question than I thought it would be. Reading through fabric art collage by Rebekah Meier and a trip to JoAnn's I tried making a background of pieces. Cut up a bunch of pieces of fabric and sprinkled them on a piece of Solvy, than put another piece of Solvy on top of it to make a sandwich. Then stitched all over it to hold the bits of fabric together. When I thought all the pieces were attached rinsed the solvy away. Results:

Learned that I need to get a "walking foot" for my sewing machine and should have put more pieces in the sandwich, things shifted and fell out before I could get everything stitched. I will try this again, because it was fun and makes an interesting element.

Hope to make more progress on my pages this week. Kathi, I know you are ready for Colleen's book.

Mailed Denise's Book

....to Nicki today. FYI