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.

Let it Snow Wall Hanging

I had a fun day yesterday with friends when we went to Fat Quarters to make a Christmas surprise. The surprise was this quilted hanging 'let it snow'.

I finished it off today with a few differences - I put 'snow' on the gaps on the tree and used a machined star to quilt with. I made a dogs dinner of the edging but I'm going to leave it because I can [am lazy]. I will be using it as a large coaster on a table rather than a hanging.