Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Sketchbook challenge and more


This is a collage I did for the Sketchbook challenge - Cabinet of curiosities. For the background I used watercolours and all the images were found in magazines. 

I was going to add to this watercolour but I think I will use it as a background on a future digital arrangement.
The background is watercolour and wax crayon. The butterfly was drawn with a pen and coloured with promarkers, then collaged onto the background.

Crowns with umbrellas

These two are not my best efforts. 
The head was a found image of a planet and I used water soluble crayons for the quickly sketched face below.



Monday, 15 October 2012

Blue Hydrangea Fabric


I've been working on my blue journal and I thought it would be nice to design a blue fabric. I used a lovely blue hydrangea image from the Graphics Fairy and arranged it on a background I made from a photo of skeleton leaves.
I've put the fabric on Spoonflower although it is not for sale at the moment.

Sunday, 14 October 2012

SC, TAST 41, Dirty Dog

The sketchbook challenge - cabinet of curiosities. I've done a collection of river creatures, some of them look quite strange like I could have made them up, but I didn't, they are real creatures. Watercolours and pen.
Take a stitch Tuesday - the stitch is knotted loop stitch. It is on the left and I have done the stitch in different lengths and meandered around a bit. I stitched the beads on afterwards. This will be one of the pages for my WIP blue journal. Also on the page there are three painted and stamped papers, vintage fabric [background and the floral], dyed lace, ribbon and fern stitch.
Click on images to enlarge.

We also did this stitch in 2010, this is the old sample [think I prefer it to the new]


Spoonflower fabric design contest - Creepy Crawlies.
If you would like to vote for it or see the other entries click here


We took my son's dog out for a walk and she ended up like this - dirty dog. She just can't keep away from those muddy puddles.


Friday, 12 October 2012

The end of the old and start of the new.

This is the last page from sketchbook 19 and the start of sketchbook 24 below. If you are wondering why it goes from 19 to 24 it is because I number all my books now and the ones from 20 -24 include the pamphlet book and the red journal which I've already posted about. Book 24 is A4 size which is bigger than sketchbook 19 but the paper in it is appalling, so I will be pleased when it is finished....the only trouble is I bought two of them at the same time... they were cheap. The promarker pens seem to work on them ok, the ink bleeds thru the paper and sometimes the back is better than the front. Most of my brush pens have dried up and I think this paper has sucked all the juice out of them. [hope the promarkers don't dry up too] I find it difficult to get a nice result with watercolours as well, the paper is too thin for washes but I have continued to use them in a scruffy un-neat way.



a whirl wind of leaves


Tuesday, 9 October 2012

Pages from Sketchbook 19

Pages from sketchbook 19 - mixed media
above - paint, pen, collage [found image]

above - paint, pen, collage [found image]

paint and pen

paint and pen

paint and pen

paint and found label

Thursday, 4 October 2012

Recycled Printed Wipes

The other day I spent some time experimenting with some recycled face wipes I'd been saving. After washing them I put them in a bath of tea, but they just looked a bit drab so I thought I would print on them. I used some old screen printing paints, some heavy bodied A>2 chroma acrylics, and ordinary acrylics. The pattern was made on the top four by laying the wipe on a wallpaper texture plate. [textured wallpaper stuck to a thick card/wood base]. If it didn't look to good I went over it with another colour.




The leaf designs below were made with a shop bought plastic texture plate.

and the squiggles too


the bottom two - the lines were made using corrugated card then a flower stamp on top. The wavy lines below - this was a hand made stamp from fun foam stuck to polystyrene.

Now what shall I do with them?

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

TAST 40

Take a stitch Tuesday - Beaded Hedebo Edge
A small sample on aida fabric above and an even smaller sample on the vintage fabric patchwork below. It came out a bit neater on the aida as the holes keep the stitches even. It is a bonded patchwork rather than stitched and it is a bit scruffy in places with loose threads and patches slightly not big enough. The samples will be going in my new blue journal that I have started.


I thought there was something familiar about the stitch - I did a sample in 2010

Monday, 1 October 2012

Red Art Journal, Mixed Media Book

Red fabric journal - all the pages are made from the same fabric, a narrow cord. On the front there is a fabric flower with paper, sequins, string and a leaf; the letters 'red' with screen printed fabric and threads wrapped around them; red twine with sequins and beads. There are also tassels made from handmade paper beads with red sand on their ends.
Click on the images to enlarge.

I've used art, found papers, printed papers, fabrics both found and printed, recycled items and bits and bobs from my stash and all to do with the colour red. All the edges have been oversewn on the machine and the front and back are padded and stiffened with card.
The book is available to purchase on Misi

On the inside cover I have a transfer print of images [label, bird, butterflies] from the Graphics Fairy on one of my digitally created backgrounds. On page two there are some hand painted/stamped papers stitched [machine and hand] on the background fabric, an inkjet print of my frog design, number charms, cat charm and a bead on a chain. There is also some lined paper to add some additional text or name.

Page 3 - some hand printed/painted fabric has been stitched on. Decorative machine stitching and some strawberries add to the decoration.
Page 4 - is Christmas themed with recycled parts of cards, ribbon, papers and stick on topper.

Page 5 - a patchwork of fabrics both vintage and new, decorative machine stitches, bead necklace, apple button, decorated tags.
Page 6 - hand painted /stamped house, stitching, key game cards, beaded doll, plastic dog.

Page 7 - hand dyed laces, papers stitching, cord, hearts on a string, heart on a chain
Page 8 - fabrics, found paper, printed/painted paper, metal bird charm. The birds were digitally printed on fabric, hand stitched, frayed.


Page 9 - stamped/painted papers, inkjet printed fabric, decorative machine stitching, fancy sequins, glitter.
Page 10 - inkjet prints, decorative machine stitching, dyed flower, dyed lace.
Page 11 - the flower is a digital print on fabric, machine stitched edges. Hand decorated paper, hand embroidery, decorative machine stitching.
Page 12 - art work, 2 found covered buttons, 1 button I covered. The laced part is printed/painted vilene with rivets.

Page 13 - art work, painted doiley, stamped patterned fabric which was cut and stitched, decorative machine stitching.
Page 14 - art work, dyed lace, dyed fabric flowers, red gems, decorative stitching.

Page 15 - games inspired. Recycled cards and game parts, metal moon, recycled fridge magnet boy, art work, digitally printed fabrics, machine stitching.
Page 16 - handmade card houses, inkjet print fabric house, inkjet print paper houses, stitching, ribbon, metal charm, found face images.


Page 17 - inkjet print, fabric, ribbon, dyed flower, decorative stitching, beads and charms on chain.
Page 18 - found paper, digitally printed fabric, found fabric flowers, art work, ribbons, dyed lace, decorative stitching.

Page 19, 20 - patchwork of fabrics, felt teddy bear with google eyes, check bow with flower, metal earring, apple button, rabbit charm, decorative stitching.

Page 21 - artwork, ribbon, beads, coin, gem on recycled earring.
Page 22 - New York - artwork screen printed on pvc fabric and yellow fabric [taxi], metal racket charm.

Page 23 - mono print artwork - gouache, ribbon, bell, beads, earring, chopstick bag.
Page 24 - Checked fabrics and ribbons, heart and striped ribbons, buttons and brads.

Page 25 - dyed fabric, the letters red are under the fabric held in by stitching, ribbon, hand decorated art buttons.
Page 26 end cover - whoopee cushion, google eyes, gem, sequin, ribbon


The pages were bound together with stitches and a tape measure