All Present and Correct

These are the lovely handmade gifts I got from my talented arty, crafty friends.

Bags of things from Gillian.

I love the way she has done this button.

An unusual house in a cup pin cushion from Marian.

She's used tweeds and felt for the house and has embellished with hand embroidery.

She also made the lovely cup and hung a verse on a tag from the handle.

Helen made each of us a full book of inspiration, all different.

She has collaged images relevant to our interests and included other bits and bobs like the little bones on the dogs turbans.

And sparkly gems....

and buttons...

and a butterfly envelope complete with butterflies...

and a pocket with vintage postcards, etc....

Vicky has screen printed a pink Christmas tree design on a bag.

She has used this tree on a fabric called 'sugar coated Christmas Tree' on a background of stars, also with coordinating fabrics, which are available at Spoonflower .

She has also made this cute little brooch with the same tree with a laser cutter.

Didn't I do well?

Gifts to Arty Friends

The gifts to my arty friends were all based on a kind of Russian doll, I'll explain more further down.

My gift to Gill was three cards of art buttons. 

I altered Graphics Fairy images for the backing cards.

For Helen I made some earrings, on one side the man and the woman on the other. I printed my artwork on t-shirt transfer paper.

 I gave Marian a hand painted brooch. After painting I stitched around the lines and edges on the sewing machine.

Vicky was given a hanging doll of herself, one one side I drew her features and on the other the original photo. I used t-shirt transfer paper again. This particular type came out quite plasticky but it may have been because I didn't read the instructions fully[doh!], but it worked out OK for the gifts, it may not feel good on a t-shirt though. I have done something else since and it was not quite as plastic like but not quite so shiny.

I also designed some wrapping paper and gift tags which I printed on my inkjet. I also made little boxes for the jewellery and covered them in the paper. Click on the images for a closer look.

The project was/is to do with culture and I chose to concentrate on historical fashion presented on a Russian like doll. These are some pages from my sketchbook, the start of the project and I used some of these pictures for the above gifts and paper.

Embroidered Brooches

B11 - Dyed fabric, hand embroidery.

B7 - Vintage fabrics, mini patchwork, hand embroidery

B8 - Vintage fabrics, mini patchwork, hand embroidery

B9 - Vintage fabrics, mini patchwork, hand embroidery [French Knots]

B12 - textured fabric, hand embroidery

Last day! of

OK, I'll confess, I didn't do the brooches today or even this month, but I was thinking today that I had never done a post about them, so here they are. I have been creating today but I cannot show you as it may spoil the surprise for someone, but all will be revealed later next month.

Faces, Lollypop Lady, Pendant and Brooch

Painted faces - their hats are found images, a crown, a plant pot, a vase and a kitchen pot.

This lollypop lady is made from an image of a real ice lollypop

I can't remember who these are 'supposed' to be! Does anybody recognize anyone?

More items in my misi shop

Art you can wear - A pendant and on either side there is a miniature collage of miniature papers

And an embroidered brooch

House and Tree Brooch, Sketchbook Pages

Another brooch - this one is made from textured fabrics, hand made felted tree and machine stitching. Available on Folksy.

The orange part of the book is textured paper.

I cut the shape of the bird from a coloured page in a magazine

The biscuits were in a magazine, I drew on eyes and mouths to make them look like faces.

The figures were shapes roughly cut from a magazine