Art of a different kind--Culinary Art that is.

Now let me say from the beginning that I am not the worlds greatest cook --I cook because we have to eat and that's it.
But every now and then I even surprise myself and make something new.
I know that all my Blogger friends in England will be laughing their heads off when they see this but it is a first for me.
Stephen and I were watching pay TV this afternoon and believe it or not we were watching one of those many English shows that are to do with buying or selling houses or Escape to the Country etc.--you know the ones that I am talking about.
Anyway this bloke and his girlfriend were making Toad in a Hole and Stephen said "now that looks great--I reckon I would like that"---"do you think you could make it"
(Stephen cannot eat onions as he is allergic to them so we eat normal meat and Vegs meals)
Could I make it--I didn't know so I hopped on the internet and Googled Toad in a Hole and Bingo there was the recipe---and another bingo later --Voila--Toad in a Hole".
I got carried away with how much I made (because there is only the two of us)-so I hope it reheats well or that it is nice to eat cold cold-but I made it and it was damn nice even if I do say so myself (and Stephen loved it ).





And here is my dinner ready to eat---smothered in gravy----mmmmm




So now if any of you English ladies come visit me I can always cook you Toad in a Hole for your meal :-))

Rusty Stuff

Part of the Ratty Tatty Papers workshop was about rusting papers with Ferrous Sulphate and a Caustic soda solution.
I also had these instructions from the workshops that I did with Carol and Linda in their Fibre in Form workshop.
I didn't like the idea of using these chemicals although they all assured me it was safe to do so.
Knowing what I am like I thought I would do myself some harm and my husband felt the same as well.
Then I remembered that someone years ago had told me about using steel wool and water and vinegar so I decided to use this method instead.
In the first photo the rust is very crusty and has a wonderful texture.




This photo is of the last piece of paper that I put in the sludge that was left--it turned out very even in the colour.
I bet if I tried to get the same effect again I wouldn't be able to.





In this piece I turned the paper around and also over so that I got a very nice variation in colour.

In this one you can see the strips from the roll of steel wool that I used.

I also added a couple of pieces of cotton fabric just for fun.

All in all I am quite pleased with the results.

A Few Changes

I have been fiddling around for several hours changing backgrounds and headers ---it took me ages because I didn't have a clue what I was doing but I finally came up with something that I like---what do you think?
I found the background tag on Janet's blog so I took a look at what was on offer and I chose this one and then Blogger had a header that matched it.
How lucky is that?

Stuff for Me

I received these wonderful papers in the mail a few days ago from Hilary who knew that I was doing the Ratty Tatty Papers course and thought that they may come in handy.
Will they? I reckon they will---there are pages from old magazines and old music sheets--some old doctors prescriptions dating back to 1922(doctors wrote just as bad back then also) pages from a Japanese book and a French book as well as old dictionary pages and also catalogue pages.
Who would think anyone could get so excited over old paper.




I also recieved my Starburst Sprays that I ordered from The Thread Studio---whoo-hoo lots of fun ahead for me.

More Ratty Tatty

I'm a bit late in showing this lot of my Ratty Tatty Papers workshop with Dale but what can I say---I just forgot.
The first photo is a piece of the painted tissue paper that I had done earlier and I attached it to black felt with vliesofix.
Where the tissue had holes in it and the vliesofix showed through I added some rust foil.
I love the look of this piece.






The next one is another piece of painted tissue attached to felt as above and I machine stitched on some strips of painted paper and appliqued them to the tissue base.
I then gave it a coat of Acrylic wax.

The last one has a base of silk cocoon strippings stitched to black felt and I then added some one inch tiles made from a left over from the above piece.

I love this piece.

A few trades

I recently traded a hand made card with Pam Kellog who is better known for her Crazy Patchwork but she also makes the most beautiful glitter cards .
This is the card that she sent me and I love the way that she has added glitter to the edges.





Here is the card that I sent her which has layered papers with added embellishments on it.
It is interesting to see the different styles that we both do.

These are the ATC's that I received in the Cyber Fyber ATC international swap------

The one on the left is from Maggie Hannigan---the middle one is from Michelle Goldsmith and the one on the right is from Cheryl Gebhart.

Postcard from Pippa

Today I received my Calendar Girls February Postcard from Pippa.
Pippa has interpreted the calendar page in a very interesting way which I think is very clever.
The background represents the balloons in the original picture and the gold pieces represent the unicorn's horns (see the original picture in previous post)
I love it Pippa.



Pippa also included some wonderful doodads for Ebony I think they are made from Fimo but I am not sure --Ebony will love them when she comes out on Wednesday.
(I peaked in the onvelope --naughty Nanny)

Calendar Girls February Postcard

This year each months calendar page is selected by a different member of the group.
This month it was Sandy's turn and the page she has selected is shown in the bottom picture.
I wanted to do something different this month although I kept thinking "embellisher" until I found that I had a stamp of a unicorn that I could use.
I know he is facing the wrong way but what the heck it is still a unicorn .
I painted layers of different acrylic paints onto tyvek until I got the effect that I was looking for -then I added some Jo Sonja's interference paint to give it a bit of zing.
Next I used the heat gun to get the textured look that I was after and finally added some "Goldfinger" to the raised sections.
The unicorn was stamped onto black card using a Versamark stamp pad and some gold and green embossing powders were added and then heated with the heat gun.
I cut the card into a circle and stitched it to the Tyvek.
I hope Carol Likes it.






Here is the calendar page that we are working from this month.






This years challenge is very interesting with such a variety of calendar pages--if you want to see how the other girls have interpreted this page take a look here.

The Bushfires

Just a short post to say thank you to everyone who has contacted me enquiring as to my safety.
I can assure everyone that I am not anywhere near these horrific fires and my heart goes out to the families who are affected by this most tragic event.
The death toll has almost reached 200 and the people in charge are saying it could reach 300.
They are still searching through the rubble trying to account for the missing people.
One wonders at the devestation to the wildlife and the farm animals--my mind cannot envisage the total loss--how will the ones that survived cope with the loss of their food supplies.
The Australian people and businesses have donated over 31 million dollars to the bushfire relief fund and I would like to ask anyone who reads my blog if you are able to donate any money no matter how small or large please go to the web site of the Australian Red Cross and give generously.
Thanks again for being concerned for my safety and please remember the communities who have lost everything in your prayers.

January Stitch Explorer 2009

This year Sharon Boggan has another stitch challenge which is called " Stitch Explorer"-- if you go here you can find all the details regarding the challenge.
The first stitch pattern that we had to do was Chicken Scratch and I must admit it is one of my favourites.
The piece on the left was done several years ago and I decided to use it again because I wanted to show how it would look using the same design but with a different coloured thread and also working on the opposite squares.

The one on the left side has the base layer of cross stitches worked on the dark green squares using white threads.

Then the white thread was laced around and through the crosses to form the pattern.

The one on the right side has a base layer of green cross stitches which were worked on the white squares and have been laced with white thread.

The one on the left looks like it has a narrow white ribbon running below the stitches where as the right one looks like it has a green ribbon running through it.

I could work this pattern many more times using these two coloured threads in different places and it would look totally different again.

This is the third of Sharon's challenges that I have participated in and if is half as good as the previous ones I will be more than happy.

Silk Paper

As part of the Ratty Tatty Papers online workshop that Dale at The Thread Studio is running I have been making silk paper.
The first one is made from 2 layers of a silk cap.
This silk fiber is very thin and sticks to your fingers especially if you have any loose skin on them.





The next two are made using dyed silk tussar fibers.
These colours are no longer available but I have had them for at least 5 years and I still have plenty left.




They are all made using Textile Medium

I am not a great lover of making silk paper--I don't know why-maybe it's because I can never get the same even flat paper that everyone else does.

I wouldn't mind if I were trying to get a textured look but I'm not .