Journal Pages

A very special friend of mine celebrated a very significant birthday recently and I along with some crafty friends got together to put a journal together for her as a surprise. These are my contributions to the journal. Mary is such an inspiration to any who have met her and we were delighted to be able to do something to mark her day. The album was an 8x6. These pages have distressed ink backgrounds with stamping and embossing, my favourite image transferred onto fabric, an etched angel on nickel silver and soluble paper which I inked and stitched into it. (I used glue to stick it to the page and it started to disolve, so a lesson learned for me lol)

A Pair of Little Shoes

Its my lovely God daughter's first birthday this week and I wanted to make her something special. Even though she is not yet 1yr old she has so many shoes it would make any girl jealous (her mum is the shoe Queen!). I had designed these little shoes for her and made a small rubber stamp with the design, I then enlarged it to make my pattern for the felt shoes. This piece is done on a canvas board which measures 10x12" and there is lots of painting, stamping and distressing in the background. I had made the felt some weeks back in the good weather and it was the perfect colour for the shoes. I was lucky enough to spy a beautiful pair of pink sparkly shoes in London recently which will match this picture perfectly (they will be too big but she wont mind lol) I'll take a piccie of them and the matching card tomorrow. The light is not great in these photos as its brighter irl. Hope she (and her mum) like it. xx

Linocutting

I'm back again after another great workshop, this time at the National Print Museum in Dublin with tutor Caroline Byrne. This workshop was over 2 days and it was well worth it. We designed and cut our own lino and printed with up to 3 colours. Caroline was a very informative teacher and had the patience of a saint too. She was willing to share so much of her knowledge with us all. This was my design - did you ever have a design in mind and be happy with it until you saw what everyone else was doing? I was along with Audrey and Mary and they did the most fabulous work. These are my images, the first is on cotton paper in black, the second using 2 colours was printed onto Japanese paper - I love this paper. Below them are just 2 rubber stamps I made for fun while in 'cutting' mode. The museum has quite a few workshops running and I have spied another couple I think I need to register for.

Gel Transfer

I have completed a challenge - its been so long since I have done any but the challenge was an image transfer so it was hard to not do it. Have a look at Saturday Workout for the challenge.

This is a gallery wrapped canvas which has been painted and collaged and stripped back with rubbing alcohol. The transfer is an acetate transfer with gel medium onto fabric and one of my lovely little cages stitched on top. Hope you like it :0)

Tyvek

Here is a piece of tyvek which I altered by painting, heating, stitching beads and wire, glueing some shells and scrim and some found bits of twigs from the beach. You never know what you are going to get with tyvek - its a great material to work with. TFL.

Metalsmith Workshop

I attended my first metalsmith workshop yesterday at the Marketplace Theatre in Armagh. It was probably the best workshop I have attended so far. We were given a small piece of silver to work with (after drawing out our designs). I went with a design already drawn and I didn't change it all that much. I have only just finished it off as I wanted to use some gorgeous Jasper beads which I got from BDI in Bray. I would definitely recommend this class, I want to go again - now. (Even though when I woke this morning I thought I had no use of my arms!)

Click the picture for a bigger view.

Find Yourself

Well folks, it seems like a while since I've posted anything but its not that long really. I've been busy creating lots of things but not really finishing off anything. Here is a piece I started a month ago and only finsihed it last week. I love this piece, probably because of its distressed look.

Who is the little girl and why is she trying to be invisible? Why doesn't she release herself from that little cage and be free? What or who is she hiding from? Does she hope to free herself in the future?...................

I love making these little cages, they are tricky, I did try to distress the wires over the gas stove but some melted lol. Cant remember if they landed in with the spaghetti lol. (I'm kidding)

A Mother's Love

I made some felt last week while out in the sunshine and today I finished off this piece again in the glorious sunshine. There are many layers to this that I cant seem to capture in the photo, lots of burnt chiffon, dryer sheets and acetate, all layered and stitched onto rusted cotton and more chiffon with an image transfer and some stitched foil, utee and beads. There is a story behind this piece but I will share that with you another day.

Edited to add - the net bag contains a stone symbolising the heavy burden a mother carries, there is also a sharp shell hanging from it - I'll leave that to your imagination. The layers represent the many layers of a mother's love, torn and ripped apart but held together by threads of steel reforming to make them stronger. The image transfer is of a stairs but shows a light at the top so the journey is always worthwhile ;-)

congratulations sis

My sister has finally realised her dream of owning a coffee shop and has recently bought Tiny's Juice Bar in Cairns. I made this to congratulate her. I know she will make it a great success.

Etched Pendant

I was making a pendant for a forum swap and couldn't stop at just one. I have been meaning to make one from some of the metal etchings I have made recently, this is my fav piece as I love how the colours of the brass changed when torched.

I've added another smaller one now which is very similar in style.

Distressed?

Old, used, rusty - and that's just me ha ha. I've made this centre piece out of old bits and pieces lying on my table, the very centre piece is an etched piece that was probably over etched but I like how delicate and old it looks, it is layered onto an old torn leather spine of a book which I love. The background under this is a rust patina over distressed paint and its then layered onto a 10x8 canvas board which started its life as something totally different too. I'm not sure if this is finished yet or just what to do with it. I think I will have to look at it for a while. TFL xx

I'm back - I think

Thank you to all of you who have been posting and viewing over the past few weeks. Life took on a role of its own and creating was just not a possibility. I hope to be back to some sort of normality over the coming days and to get back to my craft room and play some more. I have had some work done this past few weeks which I havn't shown you, they are small journals which are very addictive. I love the leather ones in particular but unfortunately I have run out of my leather samples so I wont be making more of these. This lot will be going to an art fair very soon. I thought I might get a lot more done but some day soon :-).

Here is one I made for Paula for a forum swap.

A Little Birthday Book

This was a little mini book I made for Jo's birthday. I love how it turned out and it is fairly small and dainty. I used a page from a book which is over 80 yrs old and a colour catcher from the washing machine as the cover dyed with tea.

Paper Whimsy Fabric Arch Swap

I'm doing a swap on the Paper whimsy forum and it is to complete a fabric Gothic Arch with a charm - the charm is still in the thinking process but this is the arch which is 1 of 3.

The Paper Whimsy Forum have a bimonthly quote 5x5 challenge running from 30th March. The first quote is: If you cant teach me to fly, teach me to sing. I almost got it right LOL. I have used a distressed and collaged background with an acetate transfer on top, it came out like a gloss finish which I really like. It is then embellished and the paper whimsy image added. TFL.

Arte y Pico Award

Thanks to Jackie and Jo for nominating me for this award.

There are 5 rules attached to this and they are :-1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.4. The Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte Y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.5. To show these rules.These are just five of the the very different Blogs I look in on regularly - all of them fun and full of all sorts of inspiration.

1. Jen Crossley

2. Ruth Rae

3. Viola

4. Nellie

5. Kaz

A Windy Day

I made this piece as Guest Artist for Its a Creative World , if you would like to know more about soot stamping I have a tutorial for the technique on their blog. Its a great site for all crafters - some lovely tutorials too. It also fits very well for this weeks Wednesday Stamper challenge of Trees. TFL.

Metal Etching

This is my first attempt at metal etching - another addictive technique. I recently bought a book called Semiprecious Salvage Its a great resource for making jewellery with found objects and some great techniques too. I havn't been able to put the book down since I got it and headed off to Dublin on Tuesday with a list of items to buy and try.

Here is my first attempt. I have another few in a bowl waiting to be released :-). Hope you like it and are inspired to try the same.

Just for me

Lá Fhéile Pádraig

Happy St Patrick's Day everyone - I hope you all can take time out to enjoy the celebrations.

This week's Gothic Arch Challenge was All Things Celtic and I felt I had to at least try to make something for it. This is a very quick effort, the image is one from the Book of Kells with various celtic stamps used around the edges with some copper foil, mesh and wire.

Enjoy your day.

Mini Journal

I found an article in a book The Art of Fabric Books by Jan Bode Smiley and it had a lovely little journal made of fabric. It is equally adaptable to paper so I have to admit to a small addiction to these journals. You will probably find at least one in every handbag, table, drawer or anywhere I need to make notes. I have a tutorial for the basic design of the journal on Scrapwest this week if you would like to give it a try sometime.

Here is one I did earlier :-) on blotting paper distressed with coffee and a few pages stitched together to make pockets. TFL.

More of my weekend creations

These tiles from Kelly Paper Crafts were created using pigment inks, lots of utee and alcohol inks, I love them and have decided to frame this piece. The black strip is a stirrer from the coffee shop (Audrey stole it!) with some wrapped wire and the lovely red stone was donated by Jackie. I think I could do a lot more of these for my walls.

craftjam weekend

I had a great weekend catching up with some wonderfully talented and creative friends Jackie , Audrey, and Mary (who has no blog unfortunately) on saturday and sunday. I had fun creating some soldered charms, here are my efforts. I managed to get lots more work started playing with utee, alcohol inks and paints, but have no time yet to complete them, hopefully over the next few days I can add some more. We also salvaged a lovely green wine bottle which we cut into several pieces, the label and the wine collar didn't go to waste either (nor did the yummy wine!!) TFL.

You make my Day Award

Thank you to Nellie for sending me this. I have awarded this to you- yes that is YOU reading this post - the fact that so many people visit my blog and leave lovely comments really does make my day and I would like to thank you all. :-)

Make a Moo or Two

Over on Make a Moo or two this is what you will find:

If you see my work more often you might know that I love travel as a theme. You can interpret this theme in so many ways, cities, countries, means of transport etc. Even on a little Moo you can travel around the world. So show us, what’s the destination of your journey this week?

I find working on this size challenging to say the least but I said I would try :-)

Wednesday Stamper - Valentine

This is my valentine card for my hubby and also my entry for Wednesday Stamper.

I also made this for a secret Valentine Swap for Jo

wednesday stamper - asia

This week at Wednesday Stamper the challenge is Asia. Its been a long time since I have made anything oriental and I have been searching my room for all my oriental stash and not having much luck. They are, probably all in a very 'safe' place LOL. TFL.