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.

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.

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.

Dip Dip Dip My Blue Ship..

I was thrown down a challenge by Ruth of http://brightshinysparklycrafting.blogspot.co.uk to create something out of bits and pieces found in my kitchen junk draw. You know the one.. where you throw all allen keys, screws, bits from flat packs and other bits and bobs - there was even a bearing from a skate board wheel. For a while I wanted to have a go at a boat picture I had seen in Cloth, Paper, Scissors and I thought the round bits and bobs could be the sea.

I stuck on the bits and bobs with silicone glue, sealed and then put gesso on. Next I covered the sky with blue tissue paper and wrapped multicoloured tissue paper around the stuck on objects. I then got creative with Stuart Gill paints, stamps, dylusions ink and guilding stuff. Finally I added a boat that was cut from a scrap of gelli plate printing a while ago. (see, never throw anything out you never know when you need it!) I am quite new to this especially doing it on my own  and I am really quite pleased with result.

I have had a busy couple of weeks so only just had time to catch up. Craft wise I have been on a cricut course with Heather and a Saturday crop both at Jendinks. I made some lovely cards but cant show them as they are for up and coming birthdays. At the crop I scrapped my craft room transformation using project life. It was a quick and easy way to scrap day to day events that do not require an elaborate page, it is also good for showing lots of photos on one page. The challenge though is making each page unique and not too much depth.

I had to go to Cardiff to support my daughter through a difficult exam. So, while she was working away I had a day to explore. I found (thanks Helen!) a wonderful shop called Claire Grove Buttons, it was small but packed full of buttons of all shapes, sizes and materials. I spent a small fortune but don't tell the husband!
Here as some pictures.

Second post of the day. This was inspired by a picture of butterflies in flight I have seen at Hillier gardens and of course I cant find the picture I took of it. Anyway, I decided to use paint techniques I learnt with Andy Skinner at the Craft Barn and stick on butterflies from from cut up napkins I have learnt with Jenny French from Jendink. It has not turned out quite how I expected it to as the butterflies blended in with the background once the glue dried so I had to edge them. Oh well, that means need more courses which is such a hardship....

So this weekend I have put ink to canvas. I have never done this before and saw an article in craft stamper and thought yes I must give that a go. I have added a photo and some flowers and stuff to put my own stamp on it so to speak. The photo was taken at the secret garden at Highclere aka as Downtown Abbey. There were loads of butterflies and so beautiful I got carried away with taking pictures.

I started by adding butterfly tape and then put gesso randomly over it.

I added the photo early on as I wanted it to blend in with the canvas. That worked well as it got splattered with the inks as I went a long. I used gesso between each layer making sure everything was dry. I did panic when the shapes of the stencils smudged a bit but realised that was what is meant to happen.

The finished product. I added flowers and butterflies. I really enjoyed the freedom and randomness of this. It was very liberating and great fun! As a first attempt I am really pleased.

I used dylusions ink sprays, distress paint, cosmic shimmer and archival ink pads. I used various stencils and stamps. The paper at the top is the secret garden by graphic 45. Dont you just love graphic 45!!!