Who's Crackers?

I made some fabric crackers for when my arty friends came for lunch, I thought they would be good to use as tree decorations. I say crackers but they won't actually crack. I hand painted and stamped the fabric and stitched on some trim at either end. I used a card roll from wrapping paper to wrap/stick the fabric on and then decorated with ribbons, mini fir cones etc. But that is not all - I put small treats inside too as the crackers can be opened up one end, treats removed and refastened.

Sorry about the bad photos, it was fairly dark and I took them in my messy studio.

Inside there was a peg snowman. I painted an old fashioned dolly peg with white paint, made a hat from some packing [foamy] material, used pens to add features and a scrap of fabric for a scarf.

Also a small roll of hand painted washi paper, I used a recycled mini thread reel to wrap it on. A hand made glittery card button, stamp and circle shaped cut outs [from old Christmas cards], stars on a rope [from a string Christmas decoration], a sweet, Christmas themed gold shapes and a reindeer stick on.

Crazy English Language

I received this email which I thought I would share with you about the peculiarities of the English language. "You think English is easy?? I think a retired teacher was bored...THIS IS GREAT! Read all the way to the end................. This took a lot of work to put together! 1) The bandage was wound around the wound.2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had torefuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture.. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..7) Since there is no time like the present,                                                           he thought it was time to present the present.8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object.11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.12) There was a row among the oarsmen                                                           about how to row. 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise                                                           guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ? You lovers of the English language might enjoy this . There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top                                                           of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and cleanUP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't giveUP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,for now my time is UP, so.......it is time to shut UP!Now it's UP to you what you do with this                                                           email."

Orange Flower

I used the mirror tool in sketchbook pro again [draw one side and the other side mirrors what you draw]

One Glass or Two?

Created on a Samsung Galaxy Note with sketchbook pro. The background is a paler version of one of my fabric designs.

IF - Spirit

'If only I had arms'

The Illustration Friday challenge this week is 'spirit' which has many definitions but I thought I would go with the alcoholic kind.

Birds in a Tree

Holiday Colours

The sketchbook challenge this month is 'Holiday Colors' and I've chosen the colours one usually associates with Christmas - red, green and gold. 

Five Wheeled Bicycle, Bags of Tree

I went to Beamish again yesterday and saw this five wheeled bike with baskets, like a penny farthing with four stabilisers. It was probably ridden by a woman wearing long skirts. It looks great but must have been really hard work and the brakes did not look too effective.

Today I went to Durham. I have never seen a Christmas tree like this before, have you? It was made from recycled plastic carry bags. It looked like a heap of rubbish but I have since seen pictures of it lit up and it looked very effective.

I also came across this sculpture called 'The Journey' by Fenwick Lawson

It is a tribute to the story of St.Cuthbert's coffin which went on a long journey from Lindisfarne to Durham in the 10th century.

Santa Deer

I used a lovely vintage image from the Graphics Fairy to dress.

Fancy Pants

tablet/digital art - I've used some of my patterns and art work for clothes and background.

Flowers to Onesie

For the petals I used one of the 'inktense' designs shown last week [here]

I layered the flower heads over and over to make this pattern, then used it for the girls clothes. [baggy onesie]

Orange Flowers

I drew the flowers above on my tablet with sketchbook pro and then altered it with photoshop touch, shown below.

Art Deco Flower Cushion

A cushion made with one of my fabric designs - art deco flowers, a request by my daughter.

Fabric available at Spoonflower

Paper Snowflakes

Last week when my friend Helen came round she was making paper snowflakes, so I thought I would have a go too. I was trying different ways of doing them [instructions can be found on the web] but I got it wrong on the bottom two as you can see - half snowflakes. I stuck them to a window and waited while it was dark before taking the photos so they would show up, but they don't look very white.

Days Out

My daughter has been to stay for a few days so we have been to Beamish [the living museum] to see the pigs

and the bull???

and the rocking horse in the school

we also went for a walk around Chopwell Woods

lovely views and wooden sculptures

lovely trees

and a quick visit to the Metro Centre where we saw the giant reindeer and tree

Look at more photos of Beamish on my other blog which were done for a photo challenge

Inktensified and the Monk's New Clothes

My original fabric [shown at the bottom of this post] was painted with inktense blocks.

I've been playing with the image on my Galaxy Note tablet with photoshop touch.

Do you have a favourite?

I used the new 'fabric' for the monk's clothes [sketchbook pro]

the original fabric

Last 3 Fabric Swatches

I used embroidery as the inspiration for the swatch above, and have drawn on faux stitching.

The swatch below was inspired by games which I designed a few years back, but changed the colours recently.

This one was developed from a photograph of woven strips of art work and painted papers.

Fabrics available at Spoonflower

Floral Fabrics

Three stylized floral fabrics. These are from my imagination rather than any particular flowers but the red ones do remind me of crown imperials. The pink ones are my favourite.

Spoonflower shop

More New Fabrics

From this bunch, I like the tribal looking pattern below the most.

Can be purchased from Spoonflower

New Fabrics

More of my 8" fabric swatches from Spoonflower. In the past I have used postcards and vintage papers for collage and I thought it would be nice to have them on fabric for applique. Use bondaweb or wonder under, cut them out and iron them where required. They could be written on or stitched on. Since getting the swatch I have altered it, I'd designed it for a 8" swatch but I decided it would be more economical as a fat quarter so the lined and squared papers are wider than shown above.

I love how this blue swatch has printed, the colours in it look really nice. The starting point for this one was a brown faux snakeskin bag.

This one was a collage in a sketchbook.

Click on the images for a closer look and if you wish to purchase fabric it is available at Spoonflower.