WWM and Black and White patterns

World Watercolour Month - I've not been following many of the prompts this month, nothing has to come to mind for most of them, so I've been doing my own thing. I've not done as much painting this month either because I've been sewing, gardening or reading. The bad painting above is my version of a painting by Berthe Morisot.

This was drawn from a photo I took

And this one I just made up, I did the lines of colours and decided to make it into a person.

I had quite a lot of black and white mandala patterns which I did on my android tablet so I put them all together. I designed them to be cut on my Zing digital cutter but I've not used them...yet.

Also in black and white

I made this one into a repeating pattern which I may put on Spoonflower.

Black and White Patterns

All drawn on my tablet

The final Ten Fabric Swatches

Clockwork [TAW], Art Buttons, Pendant

Take a Word - Clockwork

The clock, hands, clock hands and woman on the clock are images from The Graphics Fairy.

The background is an old one, but my own work, which was inspired by board games.

Click on image to enlarge.

I've put another couple of items in my Folksy shop, but I'm wondering if I should put the rest in Etsy or Misi as I'm finding Folksy so s...l...o.....w, does anyone else have a problem with it?

I have put in some Art Buttons, these are some of the actual buttons that were featured in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. The card was another image from Graphics Fairy which I altered especially for the buttons.

Also another mini pendant with a hand embroidered flower, mainly French knots

and on the other side is a miniature stitch sampler

Black Bag with Fringe

I've been using some of the fabrics from my stash again. The fringe came back from a student trip to a factory so I've had it a while. It was not a fringe really just a piece of frayed fabric and it has purple metallic threads running through it. The purple band is ribbon which I hand stitched on with running stitch. I gave the bag to my sister and she is using it to keep her knitting in.

I like eating these......

More Art Buttons

I had a session of making more art buttons, and used some of the clear buttons I received from Sherry which I mentioned yesterday. I have an article in the present issue of Cloth Paper Scissors on how to make/alter buttons like these. They are offering free trial issues if you have never seen the magazine before. 

For the buttons above I used a clear button and a laser print, some old designs I had on the computer.

The pink and green ones below are artwork [prints with scored foam and ink pad], also clear buttons.

These were an ink jet print, a square labyrinth I also had on the computer and I used clear buttons.

The spotted one was a cardboard domino [from a cracker maybe?], the other a laser print, both with clear buttons.

The sheep are an inkjet print on clear buttons - part of a design for fabric

These below were made a little differently to the above. They are also made with a laser print but the white paper is removed just leaving the black toner ink. These were not covered in the article so I will explain here. Use buttons that are pale or clear as the ink will not show up on dark buttons. Glue the right side of the art work and the flat side of the button and press together firmly. Let it dry completely. To remove the paper, place the button on a cutting mat and score around the button with a bradawl. I find it works best if the bradawl is dipped in water first, just to dampen it, but not soaking. Tear off the excess paper. Lightly dampen the paper all over the button with your finger and gently rub off with a thumb. The paper should come off but leave the toner ink on the button. If you rub too hard the ink will come off too, so be gentle. Let the button dry and repeat the process if it looks like the paper as reappeared. Use an emery board to smooth any loose bits of paper around the edge. Use the bradawl on a cutting mat to poke through the stitching holes, both sides. You could apply a top coat or two of acrylic wax to the surface if the ink is on the top of the button but I have not done this on the clear ones below as the ink is on the underside of the button. 

I used coloured buttons for the ones below and the inside of recycled envelopes [these particular ones were from a blogging friend Doreen in Australia] There is a slight fault on the green one - this is because I didn't put the glue on properly.

Mail Art [TM], Silent [IF]

Above for Three Muses - Mail Art

drawings, vintage postcard, recycled postage stamp - arranged digitally

Check out my Mythical Mail book for more mail art, as you can see I love doing it - link at the side

Below for Illustration Friday - Silent [at the moment!] 

liner pen, brush pens

Machine Embroidery Book[2] and IF[Stripes]

Above - my entry for the Illustration Friday challenge - stripes

Below - more images of the C&G Machine Embroidery Book

The embroideries below were stitched on hot water soluble fabric

Black and White

Take a word challenge - Black & White

all my own bits & bobs put together this week

Jollies and Black & White Doodle

On our jollies we also went to Bath [above]

and Bristol [SS Great Britain] below

and Kenilworth Castle - Elizabethan Gardens [below]

and this is a doodle from a sketchbook