Catch Up Friday 8 10 21

 Sewing and Upcycling

I made this dress for my 2 year old Granddaughter out of old jeans and buttons. For the lining I used a new sheet left over from a past project.

Digital Art

I was messing about on my tablet using the Corel App for these.

Quiet Book WIP

I've started a new project of a quiet book for my other Granddaughter. Hope to have it done before Christmas. The first page I have started is all about colours. I used t-shirt transfer paper for this. One set of pencils needs cutting out and I need to add some sort of fastening and was thinking of velcro but I'm not sure where I would put it without it spoiling the look.

I've almost finished the cup book project but don't have photos yet.

Happy Paint Party Friday

Envelope Pamphlet Book

Another handmade pamphlet book - the pages are like pockets and the whole book is made from recycled envelopes apart from the thread.

I've made a pocket on the front cover out of a plastic window from an envelope.

TAST 32, Bowl and Olympics

Take a stitch Tuesday - the stitch this week is cast on stitch. I've not done this one before in embroidery but I have used a similar stitch in knitting. It was not listed in my stitch book and I did it from memory after looking at Sharon's instructions so I hope I have done it right.

It is just a small sample as you can see, a flower but I have used other stitches too on the bowl [vase?receptacle?container?vessel?] which I made. 

I made the bowl from recycled face wipes. My face wipes look pretty clean after I have used them as I don't wear make up so I thought I would experiment with them. After rinsing and drying I tore them into strips. I covered an empty bottle with cling film so that the bowl would be easier to remove when dry. I glued the strips over the cling film with PVA glue, overlapping them a few times. After drying I removed it from the support bottle and painted it - on the inside I used acrylics and on the outside I used emulsion paint for no particular reason except they were handy. But I did think that the acrylic paint would be harder to sew through. I trimmed the top with scissors then stitched around it. I added a few bits of lace, fabric and embroidery. If you want to make a bowl but don't use or want to use wipes, lutradur or evolon may be a good alternative.

it looks a bit untidy on the inside, but that could be lined.

I

I drew this picture with the Olympics in mind. Pen and promarkers. The paper was white but it looks very blue.

Sock Bunny

As you can probably tell from the title this bunny is made from a sock. In fact he was made with all recycled or upcycled bits apart from the stuffing. The bow was from a card or chocolates, the collar was a leftover ribbon from another project. His face and ears are also from something old, but can you guess what?

I will confess though, he is not the best made bunny in the world. All hand sewn very quickly.

Tick Tock, Altered Clock

Not everything always goes to plan and one example of that which I have decided to share with you, is this clock which was originally a plain white plastic clock which I wanted to alter. My plan was to to decorate the sides with crackle paint, but I found that the bottle had dried up. So instead I used acrylic paints and cling film. I tend to use cling film over and over again for altered books as I think anything extra it picks up adds to the texture. However I didn't want it on the clock, I just wanted it white - too bad, I got extra colours. I sanded it too to make it look distressed and one side now looks OK. For the face I combined two pictures, a clock face and another lovely picture, both from The Graphics Fairy. I placed it onto the clock and replaced the hands but found that the paper moved so I decided to glue it in place. Bad move - it crinkled up and looked awful so I had to remove it. I then thought I would print onto a transparency, just a pretty picture and use the existing clock face on the actual clock. This I painted but it came out a lot pinker than I was expecting, I was going for an aged looking brown. After printing the transparency looked strange, it appears that the black ink did not work so I just got the coloured part, which I accidentally smudged when it was still wet. After sorting out the printer I did another different picture on top of the last one just to see if it worked and it did. I re-assembled the clock and guess what - it still works- amazing! I could re-do the clock but it is just hanging in my work room so I am not sure I can be bothered. But it is possible to alter a clock, so if you have a boring old clock that needs a spruce up - go for it. If you need some lovely images The Graphics Fairy blog can be found here.

TAST 11 and Tiger Cushion

The stitch this week for Take a Stitch Tuesday is 'whipped wheel' which I know as 'spider's web' but it is also known as 'ribbed wheel' and there are other names too. I could barely fit two names on the label.

 [click on images to enlarge]

I have used scraps, leftovers from a previous work which are two small appliques of vintage fabrics with machine and hand embroidery. I've stitched them onto the velvet [upcycled curtains] background with running stitch and further embellished with beads. I have stitched the wheels in various sizes and it appears I worked them a little differently too. My version mainly has eight spikes, some worked as one cross stitch over another and some like the beaded one below which has eight individual spikes. For that one I threaded the beads onto each spoke, not the same number on each spike though which made the web quite difficult to stitch and looks untidy after the whipping had been done. [the beads did look more orangey in the bottle, they look quite pinky on the fabric]

For the beaded wheel below I stitched the centre bead before I started whipping, but stitched on the rest after the whipping.

Another knitted motif from my old stash. This one was going to be a jumper but it never got finished. Rather than include it in one of the blankets I decided to make a cushion with it. The back of the cushion is the same fabric I used on the TAST challenge above [upcycled curtain]. Some of the blankets can be seen in past posts here or on flickr here

Money Tree

Money Tree - mixed media on canvas - this is a textured piece, the texture was built up on the tree with spaghetti, the dry kind of course, with molding paste then paper. I used acrylic paints, interference paints, metallic paints, iridescent paints and metallic pastels and real coins.

There was some fabric on the landscape part of the canvas from a previous life, this canvas has now been up-cycled twice. First it was a picture with the Angel of the North, then it became my first attempt at the money tree. [see pictures below] The first money tree picture was for sale on Art Gallery co.uk and it had been placed in a shopping basket 27 times but was never actually sold. I was never happy with it so I decided to change it, and I do like it now.

I recycled the angel too, cut up & used on other projects. Most of the green landscape is still on the new money tree canvas to add to the texture. There are more coins on the new version because there is one coin on top of another, although you cannot tell.