Beamish

Last week I didn't post much as I had visitors and one of the places we visited was Beamish - the living Museum of the North. I have been many times before as it's not far away, and I have lots of photos and now I have even more. They will be the last ones from this camera though as it broke while I was there. More to follow tomorrow - click on the images to enlarge.

Altered Elephant

I uploaded a photo of the original embroidered elephant onto my tablet and altered it using photoshop touch.

The original embroidery can be seen here

Swatch Quilt

At long last I have made a small quilt with some of my fabric swatches from Spoonflower.

It's not brilliantly made but I'm pleased I actually made it.

All the fabrics are my own designs and are available to buy from Spoonflower.

Now the question is - do I make more small quilts with some more of the swatches?

And perhaps join the quilts together to make a bigger one?

Or a different quilt where the swatches are joined together without the plain fabric between?

Beach Bicycle

The photograph was taken at a local beach. 

The lovely image of the girl on her bicycle was from the Graphics Fairy.

Mail Art

I started with a vintage envelope above and just layered with a vintage image from the Naturalist Library of entomology. It was nice to start with, so I didn't want to overdo it with too much decoration.

Below is a vintage postcard and I've layered with lace and handmade art buttons.

Letter Madness

A friend gave me some old letraset sheets so as you can see I've been messing about with them. The letters are a bit temperamental and don't transfer sometimes and never on some surfaces. They worked better in this book than in the other sketchbook I'm also working in.

Cat on Canvas

I painted this with acrylic paints on a canvas. The background was created with various stamps, mainly hand made and I used some found items as stamps.

Primitive Doll

When I got together with a friend the other week we decided we needed a new project  and decided on the theme 'stuffed'. I had an old cardigan waiting to be used for something and decided on making this 'primitive doll with it. I was inspired by the work seen inside the Prims magazine - art inspired by a bygone era. My little chap was hand stitched together with some dyed thread I'd had hanging around for ages too. He's more for looking at than for touching as he is quite delicate - because of my stitching and the frayed edges of knitting.

Pink

It has been a while since I did something for the 'Take a Word' challenge, but I couldn't resist the word for next week - PINK. A few years ago I went through a spell of really not liking the colour much at all, but I'm back to liking it again. The flowers were drawn on a tablet and I used some of my art for the background.

I recently completed a whole mixed media book in pink and if you missed it the whole book can be seen here.

China and Dolls

Two pages from my tall sketchbook.

Above, collage -a torn page from a book about China, and a found image. I used brusho inks, metallic and other pastels.

Below, another drawing from the 'culture' project. I used 2 card cut outs of 'Russian dolls' and used them both for each figure, one inside the other. Pen liner and aquamarkers.

Leaves and Honesty

The sketchbook challenge - Into the woods.

Background paper - oil pastels, wax crayons, metallic crayons, caran d'ache water soluble crayons, brusho inks.

Layered envelopes with real plants [painted] trapped under the envelope window, stitching.

I have some honesty plants in my garden and I thought this particular specimen looked more colourful than normal, the seed pods are tinged with pink.

TAST 73 and Fly Stitch

Take a stitch Tuesday - Portuguese stem stitch - this is the green line on the right, looks a bit messy. I used it to stitch the lace to the background fabric along with  running stitch and French knots. The background fabric is gingham and the lace was part of a net curtain which I dyed and cut out.

The embroidery below is not for TAST but we have done this stitch on a previous occasion. After stitching the same stitch  in lots of different shades and thickness of threads I sewed on lots of different kinds of beads. A close up is below and you can also click on the image to see even more. The splatter background fabric was made using transfer paper.

Digital Photos and the Birds

The other day I blogged about a mixed media picture I had done for the sketchbook challenge - Into the woods. I uploaded it to my galaxy note tablet and changed the colours and also put on a flock of birds. The bird was created on the tablet a while ago.

I have also been messing about with a photo that I took through the car window of an interesting sky, although it didn't look so interesting on the photo. I used the pixlr-o-matic app for the effects.