Frog Crossing and Fabric Designs

I've been meaning to show you this since last year, a frog crossing. My sister saw this in Suffolk and thought I would like it.

Below are some of my fabrics that are now for sale on Spoonflower [the link is on the right].

This is the eight inch fabric swatch I got from Spoonflower - the pattern was inspired by tiles I saw at the Alhambra, Spain

And this is what it should look like it in repeat [minus the text of course]

another swatch - this one developed from a painting where I had used a handmade rolling stamp

and the repeat

another swatch - this one was to coordinate with my frog fabric which also has spots on a mushroom

and the repeat

another swatch - I altered an old doodle to enter the competition 'stars and stripes'. I had a doodle of striped stars which chopped around a bit.

and the repeat

Snowman

It's been snowing this weekend and I couldn't resist making a snowman. I found a big shell for his nose and marbles for eyes, dead plants for hair and arms.

Embroidery to Printed Fabric?

Do you remember this painted and embroidered piece I did last year?

Well I thought I would have a play around with it digitally to make it into a repeating fabric with a view to having it printed at Spoonflower.

This is the first one I did, single repeat

and this is it as a repeating pattern

Another one using a different part of the original fabric, single repeat

And the repeating pattern

And number three, single pattern

And the repeating pattern

Click on the images for a better look.

I can't make my mind up about them, I quite like them but I don't know that I like them enough to have printed. What do you think?

Update - Recycled Wipe Project

Continuing with the recycled wipes project - I last posted about this on the 4th January. Since then I have stamped on it with handmade stamps which I posted about on the 1st. I also did some hand embroidery, running stitches. I don't think I will do any more on it, I'm still not that keen on it.

Grotesque

I created this one on my Galaxy note. I started with a photo of a grotesque that I took in my friends garden, the original is shown below. I traced around it with the pen, but it is quite tricky to get an accurate line [or I need more practice]. I think I used an oil paint filter on it with extra alterations on top.

Faux Books

I have a book case which has some metal trellis at the sides and the books are difficult to get out [probably not meant to be a book case] so last year I made some faux books out of polystyrene. I covered the front and parts that could be seen with paper. I found some images of books, altered the shape where needed and printed them on the ink jet. Even though they were coloured I painted over them with a thin coat of acrylic. From a distance they look like books, but if you removed them you would find that they are strange shapes! They also help to keep the other books from falling over.

Woman and Bear

I did this digital collage a while ago, I was saving it for something, don't know what.

The image of the woman and bear, yes they were together was from a book I have - Women Archive Pictures. The background was a photo I took of a gravestone and graveyard.

Pages from sketchbook 26

I've had my mum staying this week so I've not got much to show you. These are pages from sketchbook 26,

most will be used as backgrounds. I added faces and buttons to the picture above digitally, I used a biscuit cutter for the body shape to draw around.

Vintage Hats & Ephemera

The ladies with the hats and the spring opening card below are images from the Graphics Fairy. The envelope above from .., and the rose was a photo I took.

Trees and Frogs

These are two drawings I did quite a while ago but I don't think I ever posted pictures of them.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Recycled Wipes and Snake Fabric

 I soaked some washed, used face wipes in some tea, and after they were dried and ironed I layered them and hand stitched them together. I attempted to transfer some bird images but it didn't turn out too well. I used PaperArtsy satin glaze with an inkjet transparency, details here. They say it is a quick method but I'm wondering if I pulled the transparency off too quickly for the fabric I was using or maybe the fabric itself. Actually I have tried it on other fabric and it wasn't too successful there either, so I will have to practice some more but I will use the technique again some other time. Maybe it is my printer inks?

Sample to be continued......

There was some colour left on the transparency which I transferred to a page in a vintage book, that worked great and looks OK too.

The Spoonflower contest this week is Year of the Snake. My fabric was inspired by a snakes and ladders board game. The interwoven pink and green are actually snakes which I made a pattern with.

My New Toy

I was lucky enough to get a 'samsung galaxy note' for Crimble and  love it. I've got photoshop touch on it which I used to create these pictures. 

The floral image above I did from scratch.

 For Molly the dog below I drew over a photo.

I drew the tree with the stylus pen, the background was created the original way with paints etc.

For the relative below, I used a photo as a guide, I won't tell him if you won't. LOL

Gifts for me!

I received some gifts today from a very talented lady in Russia called Masha. She made the beautiful doily and there was some squares of fabric and a large chocolate coin [she was hoping it would get here for Christmas]. I can crochet a little, the simple squares, but I've not been very successful at following a pattern. Masha also does embroidery and patchwork. Patchwork is another thing I'm not too good at either, I don't take enough care I think, but I will have to think of something nice to make with the squares. 

The package has some interesting stamps on it too and I will use them for something or other.

Click here to see Masha's blog and her work.

First art of the year.

Last year I purchased some little wooden embellishments to use in my journals and craft work, I haven't done so yet but I was wondering if they would work as stamps.

I used double sided tape to attach them to some spongy polystyrene, applied acrylic paint with a brush and these are the results.

These are the stamps

On the lower part of the page above is a rolling stamp I made from the roll of a used tape and the left over scraps of fun foam from previous projects.

The picture also shows stamps made from corks. I used fun foam on these, the design was based on some doodles. I'm not very pleased with how these came out, I much prefer the original doodles, below, which are more detailed than the stamps. I'm not very good at cutting small on the foam.