More skinny pages!

The temperature outside was minus 10 this morning and my mood was set at about the same low level. One of the less entertaining aspects of being a quilt artist is that quilts need to wing their way to exhibitions and back, but sadly they don't actually have wings so that it is necessary to employ courier companies, sometimes not of my own choosing. Take my advice and don't use UPS!! To say they drove me mad is a severe understatement. In fact if you're looking for a recommendation, when transporting quilts within the U.K. I select to use the Special Delivery service from Royal Mail. It means that your own postie will deliver it and he knows the way! Also non-delivery on the due date and time means you get your money refunded and that's an added incentive for the Royal Mail to deliver on schedule. The quilt finally made it to my door today but I had been chasing UPS online and by phone since yesterday morning, taking up my phone line for most of the day in one way or another as well as keeping me chained to the house for the duration.

I decided to make a virtue out of this by making the last set of skinny pages for the exchange. Again theSE are not due till next month, but finishing any project early produces such a good and satisfied feeling and I so needed that. Lisa left the choice of subject to every individual artist but I know she loves angel, Madonna and cemetary imagery (check out her marvelous collage sheets on these subject at Collage Stuff) so I went with that as I also like these. As December is also just over that got thrown into the mix as well. The first page (seen above) features a fabric - paper collage mounted onto fabric, and beaded around the edges.

The other page featured another detail of the same fabric - paper collage but this time scanned into the computer and printed out onto watercolour paper. The transparencies are from Artchix Studio.

After the quilt was delivered life felt a lot brighter again. I admit I'm rather frantic about quilt deliveries since Blue Waves was stolen in 2006. If it can happen once, it can happen again!

But the day ended a lot better when I managed to capture the photo (also my blip today) seen as the top. Brush, the cat, had sneaked onto the beanbag normally occupied by Troi, the greyhound. She was sitting in his chair so that was only fair. When Troi returned to "her" beanbag she knew better than to disturb him, so instead she draped herself around him, gave him a few licks for good measure and they both settled down for a long snooze. Perhaps I should follow suit!

More French Frolics

After completing the Vintage French ATCs I knew there was another French themed item I needed to make and eventually discovered it was Linda's skinny pages. They are not due to her till March but as I was surrounded by French ephemera and had just made a French fabric paper collage it seemed convenient to just get on and make them. Linda's theme is summer and she is a true Francophile so I made that into Paris in the summer with all it's many cafe terrasses and bars, with a bit of cancan girl thrown in for good measure.

The fabric-paper collages form the background to both pages and the fabric images are from Alpha Stamps. The text on the top page reads: I can resist anything, but temptation, which goes well with the lady in question. On the bottom page I also added a Cavallini label and the text: Paris is the cafe of Europe. The pages were put together and surrounded by yellow zigzag stitching.

The last day

Another year almost at an end! What will next year bring? Probably better not to know but take it a day at a time. The weather remains dark, brooding and misty. As the ground is so much colder than the surrounding air (we've made it above zero degrees for the first time in almost a month) a fine white fog seems to rise up from the ground which I found fascinating but which proved hard to capture in a picture. Above is the best one I took today and thus it also became my last blip for 2010.

I hardly ever make New Year's resolutions (just as well as I never manage to stick to them anyway) but for 2011 I'm fairly determined to blip every day! It should not prove too difficult as I was taking pictures almost every day even before I started blipping.

I'm also feeling particularly virtuous (which is good on the last day of a year almost gone) as I made Debby's skinny pages. I was due to make these in January so to have them finished already means one less item on the To Do list which will be transferred to the new diary tomorrow. The skinny pages came about because I had left everything I used to make the notecards for Lenna's swap on the table and occasionally my sloppy habits come in handy as all those vintage fabrics brought Debby to mind. She loves vintage and especially vintage images of children. The skinny pages were made very much like the top for the notecards.

I used fabric images and a transparency from Paperwhimsy and added vintage buttons as well as beading around the images with size 11 seed beads.

White outside and in

It remains cold and white outside and we even had some more flutterings of snow. Now that we have so much already, another inch or so hardly makes a difference! I beavered away in my studio today (apart from taking my blip for today by going outside our gate, crossing the lane and pointing my camera when the sun appeared briefly) and even in my studio white was the order of the day.

I made skinny pages (4 x 8") for Leslie who had requested a mainly white theme and as she also listed French vintage as one of her favourite things so I combined the two. First I made a white background by ironing white fabrics, lace and yarn onto Fast2Fuse. These were machine embroidered and then the foreground was added, also by machine. On the first page, seen above I added a fragment of a vintage map of Paris (printed out onto fabric) as well as a vintage postcard of the same city, again on fabric. The text reads: "Good Americans, when they die, go to Paris".

On the other page I added a transparency of a Napoleonic soldier (image from a vintage French book published in 1793) which was surrounded with another bit of the vintage Paris map as well as part of the description about Napoleon from a vintage French encyclopaedia. The final touch was a self-adhesive embellishment looking like a postage stamp. Both pages also have sparkly silver fabric but alas, this gets lost in the scanning.

All Hallows' Eve

The name of this post was the original one for the day we now know as Halloween. Originally it was the day before All Hallows' or All Saints! Day.

But this particular day goes back much further in time as in pagan times it was called Samhainn here in Scotland which roughly translates as "summer's end". It was a day to protect yourself before the onslaught of winter, against evil spirits such as witches, hobgoblins and the like. For that purpose there were bonfires on this day, people hang sprigs of rowan over doorways and sprinkled salt on thresholds. And these pagan rituals were carried forward into the christian equivalent.

In the words of Sir Walter Scott:

On Hallowmas Eve, e'er ye boune to rest,

Ever beware that your couch be blest;

Sign it with cross and sian

it with bead.

Sing the Ave and the Creed

I have to admit I find the old Gaelic name for this day a lot more attractive and today, as well as according to the weather forecast tomorrow, are living up to their summer's end name as the sun was shining brightly in the sky, but with a cold wind.

By one of those wonderful examples of serendipity I am meant to make skinny pages for Betsy in November. She had chosen as her theme Halloweenand what could be better than make these pages in time for the actual day! She wanted her Halloween pages to be fun so not the really dark side, that would have been my own preference. As you can see I used one of my paper - fabric collages on top of green fabric for both pages. This collage uses Alpha Stamps Halloween stamps in the background. I added images from an Artchix Studio Halloween collage sheet to the mix, a Boo ribbon as well as a fierce orange pumpkin embellishment.

Have a scary but fun Halloween!

Mermaid pages for Cat

We're still exchanging skinny pages (sized 4 x 8") on the OhMyGothic Yahoo group and will continue to do so till March next year. Every month one artist makes a page for my album (which is dedicated entirely to all things Venetian) and I make a page for another fellow artist. This month that was Cat and her album is filled with watery images and mermaids.

On the first page (see above) I have incorporated a gothic arch shape into the skinny page in honour of our original swap of gothic arches that inspired the name of the group. It's ages ago since I last made one and the urge to do so struck! I liked the idea of having gothic arches at the bottom of the ocean. The mermaid comes from a commercial fabric and has been embellished with beads. She is partially caught in a net and I've added a shell trim to the bottom (available from Alpha Stamps)

On the second page I've added pieces of a water themed fabric paper collage to a background of fabric featuring fishes. The mermaid image is also fabric and available from Alpha Stamps.

Skinny Pages for Rande

Time was still very much on my mind today and it shows in the pages I made for Rande. Every month we exchange so called skinny pages (sized 4 x 8") with another artist on a Yahoo group. We get to set our own theme for the pages and Rande had chosed Grunge and Rusty.

Although the background on the pages might look a bit rusty, the papers were in reality made by painting the paper black and then using bleach to take some of the colour out again. The results are unpredictable but look like rust!

On the first page I added a photograph of the outside of a lighted window in Rosslyn Chapel (now of Dan Brown fame), a music fabric coloured with coffee, a fabric image of a gypsy lady stringing her guitar, a transparent heart and the text: "Mistakes are portals of discovery"

For the other side of the page I used a scanned in fabric image of a vintage postcard, 2 photographs of the stonework inside Rosslyn Chapel, the same transparent stamped heart and a vintage lady from one of my own vintage postcards. Almost everything has been sewn on and the edges of the pages were darkened with a Distress Inkpad. The inside photographs of Rosslyn Chapel were taken at a time when you were allowed to take pictures there. Since about 2 years or so it's no longer an option as indoor photography there has been banned. Fortunately this was announced in our local paper so John and I went just before this came into force and I shot an entire card full.

I will go back before too long to also take photographs of the outside of the Chapel again because for the first time in about 13 years there will be no scaffolding. It came down about a fortnight ago after work to maintain this beautiful and amazing place for posterity was done. This is definitely a place that has been damaged by time but at the same time (pun definitely intended!) gives you a glimpse of eternity.

Skinny Pages for Trinka

As I had made the paper-collage background for the Artchix Butterfly ATCs of the previous post I put it to some more use making one side of my skinny pages for Trinka. The skinny pages are sized 4 x 8" and we exchange them every month with another artist of the OhMyGothic Yahoo Group. Trinka had no specific theme for her pages but one of her likes are women's faces and because I like these too I went with them for the two sides of my page for her.

The faces I used come from Renaissance paintings and at the top is the first one with the butterfly background. I added an additional butterfly as well as the vintage text that reads: Of beauty is thy earthly dower.

The other side of the page features another left-over fabric-paper collage and again I have added two butterflies as well as a vintage velvet flower (from Lost Art Creations). A little crown charm was also glued on as well as the vintage text: Beauty is truth, truth beauty.

Mardi page for Vintage Glue Book Class

The first lesson for the Vintage Gluebook class has been posted and of course I wanted to get on with it. I did manage to make my first page today, all glue and no sewing, but it was very difficult not to retreat behind my sewing machine. When I was finished I really felt the page would look better with a stitched line around the outside edge at least. I might add it later!

My page is sized 4 x 8" so that I could use it for the Skinny Pages swap. So you might see it again. The challenge is also to actually use some of my vintage supplies. I'm just such a hoarder and I had to convince myself that even if I started using vintage treasures now there would still be plenty of vintage material left in this house, to last me till I'm well into my dotage and probably far beyond!!

The background is a piece of vintage music that I glued onto a piece of watercolour paper. Rather than tearing it I cut it with fancy scissors giving a ripple effect (these scissors could do with some use as well!). I added a vintage postcard with Good Luck as well as flowers, and then added the paper image of the girl with flower basket. The Mardi comes from a vintage French calendar and the final touch were the green postage stamps. All glued!! It's ended up a bit sweet for my liking but I love the colours!

Skinny Pages for Lenna

We're still swapping skinny pages on the closed OhMyGothic Yahoo group and this month I'm producing pages for my very good friend Lenna Andrews. I find it so much easier to make art for friends that I know really well. Her likes and dislikes are very familar to me as we have been swapping our art for many years now and as a fellow and incurable romantic I simply adore her choice of theme which is: LOVE

As we all know it makes the world go around and it also made my creative juices flow. Yesterday morning while waiting for our visitors to arrive I started looking for suitable backgrounds for Lenna's pages and I found 2 different fabric-paper collages that were just the thing. It had been my intention to just do that but somehow I then went on to find images to go with the pages, started sewing them on and before I knew what was happening the pages were finished this morning!

On the first page (shown above) I used a very summery and flowery collage background to which I added an image from Alpha Stamps Lovers collage sheet, I added a self-adhesive stickers with the word l'amore (love in Italian and doesn't it sound so much more romantic in that language?). I added the quotation which is from Robert Browning and reads as follows:

"If thou must love me, let it be for naught, except for love's sake only". Beads were also stitched on to this side.

For the other side I used a fabric paper collaged background that I made for a celebration and this time I used it to celebrate L'amore! The fabric image is from Alpha Stamps True Romance collage sheet. The quotation came from a sticker sheet and reads: "Some people come into our lives, leave footprints in our hearts, and we are never ever the same". This is applicable both to the romantic image I used for the page but also to how I myself feel about meeting Lenna online all those years ago!

The pages were put together with yellow satin stitching around all the edges.

Skinny Pages for Trudi

This month for our regular exchange on the closed OhMyGothic Yahoo Group,I'm making skinny pages (4 x 8") for Trudi who left the choice of subject up to every individual artist so I felt free to play with abandon on her pages. Somehow I seem to have come up with a gypsy theme myself!

For one side I used a purple/green fabric-paper collage made some time ago and those purple flowers on the collage put me in mind of can-can dancers (don't ask me why?). So I started looking through my images and added a transparency from Alpha Stamps Iris sheet by stitching, positioning the dancer so that her flower hat ran into one of my flowers. I also added more flowers in the shape of transparent, self-adhesive flowers as well as gold self-adhesive embellishments.

I found the text printed out from some previous project where I had decided it was too large but it fitted perfectly on this page and reads: We're born Gypsies.

On the reverse page I also used a fabric-paper collage but this time one that I had scanned in to my computer and that I printed out on canvas. I stitched around the major outlines and added a fabric image in the bottom right corner. It came from Alpha Stamps Ophelia#2. The text came from the same source as the text on the other side and it was stitched on. Again I added self-adhesive embellishments including a transparent butterfly as shown.

Both pages were layered up with stabilizer (Timtex in this case) and were glued together and I also added zig-zag stitching around all the edges in matching colours on both sides.

Women who dare

As promised here over the coming few blog posts, comes all the art I have been making after finishing another quilt. The very first thing I tackled were the skinny pages for Heather. We are making these pages (sized 4 x 8") for another artist every month on the closed Yahoo group OhMyGothic (we started 3 years ago with Gothic Arches, hence the name).

Heather was the artist I had to make the pages for this month and she had chosed Women Who Dare for her theme. I had been thinking about the pages for most of this month and suddenly had a bright idea (in the middle of the night, as per usual!) and here are the results.

One side of the skinny page is dedicated to the women who "dare to say no". The background is one of my fabric-paper collages in a pinkish hue and incorporating a detail of Botticelli's painting. I crowned Venus with a charm crown which reads: Be Bold. I stitched on a transparency of an image from a vintage French book (I love this one, it has gorgeous etchings) where the lady is definitely saying no and also added a flower brad as shown. At the bottom is a lovely ribbon (from Create and Craft). I added the words with my Dymo writer and sewed them on.

On the other side there is a woman who "dares to say yes" (perhaps even more risky than saying no!) and this time the background is again one of the fabric-paper collages but this time I have scanned it into my computer and then printed it out onto self-adhesive cotton sheet (from Crafty Computer Paper). I added a fabric image from the Alpha Stamps True Romance collage sheet and the lamp at the top is also from an Alpha Stamps sheet, this time a sticker one, and called Round Things.

Venice Skinny Page

Following on from the previous post I'm also receiving skinny pages in exchange and I've requested that those pages are all dedicated to Venice! And I then decided to make a page for the resulting album myself as the cover of what will hopefully become an inspirational book about La Serenissima. This page was also inspired by the gorgeous Venetian themed collage sheets which have just been added to the Alphastamps website.

For the base I used a commercial cotton fabric (in fact you can barely see it anymore) with musical instruments and lots of gold. This was stitched onto Fast2Fuse and machine quilted with gold thread. To this the image of the Venetian palace (embedded into a fabric-paper collage) from Alphastamps Windows of Venice collage sheet was also stitched with a gold zig-zag. The gorgeous transparency with my favourite of all the Alphastamps new images from the Gondolas collage sheet was stitched on. You can just see hints of the musical instruments fabric through this.

At the top you can see 3 masks featured on a fan (from Alphastamps Paper Doll Fans sticker sheet) and the word Venezia stitched on as well as a mask charm.

At the bottom of the skinny page there is gold metallic gimp and red bells ( both also from Alphastamps) and around the other 3 edges is a very dimensional red/gold cording (Alphastamps). In order to stitch this on it was necessary to remove my machine foot, drop my feeddogs, and use free-machining. Probably better not to try this at home!! Sometimes I actually feel sorry for what I put my sewing machine through. It's very long suffering!

Skinny Pages for Caryl

At the moment I'm thinking hard about another quilt design and while I'm letting my subconscious brain struggle with the different trains of thought my conscious one is getting to grips with other tasks that need doing such as making another set of Skinny Pages. We make these for another participating artist every month and Caryl is my partner for February. She is also a member of our Colour Groupies so I know her tastes quite well by now. She chose the theme of dreams for her Skinny Pages, requested a vertical orientation and dream-like colours. Just the thing for a day lost in low, grey cloud and mists!

I discovered a piece of silk that I had painted many moons ago using Javana metallic paints, in pink, purple and silver and used that for the background of both pages. I ironed these onto Fast2Fuse and then started leaving through my Alpha Stamps collage sheets to see what I could come up with for the dream theme.

On page 1 (at the top of this blogpost) I have added a dream-like fabric image from Alpha Stamps Cinderally & The Birds sheet, and I stitched it on with a silver thread and zig-zag stitching. I added a left-over strip of gold fabric and added a purple transparent ribbon as well as 3 silver self-adhesive rhinestones. To the right-hand edge I added a piece of painted transparent fabric. At the top the bird comes from the Alpha Stamps Cinderella Borders sticker sheet and a self-adhesive butterfly in just the right colour was also added. Finally the vintage text:"A dream itself is but a shadow" was glued on and a blue button was sewn on at the bottom.

On the other side I added another dream-like image, this time from Alphastamps Over the Garden Wall fabric collage sheet, and added the roses (torn into 2 pieces) from the Alpha Stamps Roses#2 sticker sheet. The words came from a bought transparency and I simply cut them out and sewed them on. A self-adhesive butterfly was the finishing touch and this as well as the fabric silk background unites the 2 pages. They were sewn together around all the edges using silver thread and a zig-zag stitch.

Skinny Pages for Karen

In the closed Yahoo Group OhMyGothic we have decided to swap skinny pages this year (in fact for the next 15th months) after starting with Gothic Arches (hence the name of the group) in 2008 and then swapping little houses last year. Our skinny pages are sized 4 x 8" and we are making them for a different artist every month. This, our first, month I made the front and the back of the page for Karen. I actually made these some time ago but totally forgot I had done so. When I was moving some stuff around my studio I re-discovered the pages and they will now be mailed to Karen asap.

I knew Karen liked blue, birds and vintage architecture so all those elements found their way into her page and of course my own inclination led me to mount it all on fabric. I used Fast2Fuse as the lining for the pages.

The fabric images are from the Alpha Stamps Bouguereau #4 collage sheet and the transparency on one side of the stairway is from Alpha Stamps Blue Stairways collage sheet.

The black swallows are Dresden scrap, and also available from Alpha Stamps. I used a transparent sparkling ribbon to edge the page with but have to say that it gave me more trouble than both pages combined so I'll probably give that a miss next time! I like the look of it, though!