Monday 28 October 2013

Dorset Buttons

Hi

Last week I went to the Ashcroft Arts Centre in Fareham and learnt how to make Dorset buttons. This was a fun evening and another string added to my crafting bow.

You need a ring such as a curtain ring it can be metal or plastic, embroidery thread or wool and a needle.

First you blanket stitch around the ring. I use a needle as I find that easier and quicker than threading by hand.


Then you turn the stitches inwards. This will make the edges neater. You then add spokes. Sorry I forgot  take a picture of this bit, so I pinched one from google images.


Then weave making sure you around each spoke so you get this pattern.

Finally you can decorate with wool, thread, sequins and beads. You can do all sorts of sizes and make them into brooches, embellishment for knitted scarves and hats and of course they can be used in scrap booking and mixed media projects.




Sunday 20 October 2013

Nursery Rhymes

Last weekend I went with Vicky to Mevagissey for a journalling weekend with Linda Knight from Just Scrap booking. What a wonderful couple of days that was. There were 8 of us including a man (with his wife) and a lovely lady from Norway who was given this weekend by her family as a birthday gift. Can you imagine the craft expenditure when husband AND wife craft. No need to hide receipts and smuggle in stuff there. We were fed lovely home cooked food around a big farm table thank you Tim and Sally. I also have to say I rescued a sheep that was stuck on her back on an early morning walk to the bay. Bless her she was stuck at the fence slightly down hill on her back and expecting triplets. No wonder the poor girl couldn't get up.. I was a beached whale expecting one! On the way home Vicky and I went to the Lost Gardens of Heligan to say hello to the Mud Maid.

The focus on the weekend was journalling and we used a mixture of water colour, acrylics and pastels, we were also banned from the use of stamps.. hard I know. We had to draw and create. I chose my children's favourite nursery rhymes as my theme. I am sure they all thought I had completely cracked as I sung different ditties though out the weekend.

The Title page:

 This was made by sticking on pages from the Ladybird book of nursery rhymes and going over with a wash. Some splatting of ink, pastels and drawing it was done. I love the way you can see the cat peering through.
These are my babies. They probably will not forgive me for this one!
Too Market Too Market is one of Will's favourites. I drew on random lines with a bendy ruler (it probably has a technical name) and painted in between the line with water colour, then went over with pen. 
Heathers favourite Humpty Dumpty was done in the same way. I felt that the lines gave an impression of wall.
Jumping Joan... Becca's favourite was a transferred image from the book and then acrylic paint was added with my co-op card. (thought would be better than my visa card!) strips of paper, writing and pastels plus a bit of ink and it is finished. I still need to do a title for this though.

I found I am more at home with acrylic and a credit card. I think it was is the randomness of it all and my ability to use a credit card that helps. The man on the Moon involved face templates on patterned paper plus some people masks and lots of pastels. Linda Made up the rainy one as we went along during the weekend.. what a clever lady. I immediately thought of Dr Foster and his shower of rain.

Dip Dip Dip my blue ship, a favourite book for the bath. A photo printed on water colour paper and waves added with print. Washes of water colour and highlights with white pastel. The writing is in texture paste..I think or was it thick gesso.. cant remember! lovely result though.
                                    

And here is buzzy bee a favourite tickling game. We used masking fluid to draw the images and then painted. This was about my 5th attempt at a flower! I do not draw...Pleased with the result though and will continue to play with masking fluid.

This last one is not a rhyme but a quote by the Dali Lhama. I cut out the hands from a world map and managed to include a bit from all continents. Gold spray through a star mask added bling to the sky. I may well make a frame for this.


It was a truly wonderful weekend with wonderful people and have booked again for next year.















Wednesday 9 October 2013

Christmas is a coming...

Good morning. Well it is October which can only mean one thing Christmas is a coming. I have a number of projects I want to do whether I achieve them all is a different matter. If only work and family life did not get in the way...

So the first thing is an advent calender. I went to Jendenink last week and put together and decorated a Kaisecraft  advent tree. We used lovely papers that were made to go with this. A bit of inca gold around the edges and a few embellishments and the finished tree is quite effective. I am going to take this to work so we can count down to Christmas.