Cards I made

I spent a day recently making cards and when I had finished there was not one of them that had a stamped image on it.
Can anyone tell me why I have hundreds of dollars worth of stamps in my collection of "stuff."
At our last Paper Arts group one of the ladies brought along her new toy I think it's called a Cuttlebug -it is a die cutter and an embossing machine.
Well was I impressed -in one word yes- and luckily for me I had some card stock that I could use to test it out.
The paper used for no's 2-4 and 6 was a parchment paper left over from my daughters' wedding invitations 20 years ago (now I ask you is that what is called being a hoarder).
In the first one I rubbed gently over the top of the embossing with chalks.



The flowers in the second one are punched out from the card stock I used to make the card.




I think someone gave me the paper in the 3rd card -it looks like twin needled fabric.

The printed piece of paper in this one was something that I downloaded from the internet and tea dyed.

The background paper on this card is made from used tea bags and the little buckles are made with a punch -how cute are they?

And this is my favourite it is so soft and old worldy(is that a word) looking

Postcards and ATC's

I haven't posted for a week because I have been a bit unwell-but I'm better now and ready to go.
Today I received from Lynda 2 postcards and they are amazing.
They arrived naked and in perfect condition--I am truly amazed that they can travel half way around the world and arrive undamaged.
My photo does not do them justice as I kept taking a photo until I couldn't see the reflection from the flash but believe me the colours and the texture are unreal.
I have not finished my postcards for Lynda yet but I will put them up here when I do--sorry Lynda. These 2 ATC's arrived several weeks ago from Nadia from The Netherlands(who doesn't have a blog) and I forgot to post them but better late than never.
The one on the left is a Paper art and is titled "Moonlight" and the other one is fiber and is titled "Autumn Berries"
Thank you Nadia and I must apologise for not posting them here before this.

These are the two ATC's that I sent to Nadia.

TAST week 27 Bullion Knot

Bullion stitch- I have to admit is not my favourite stitch but in saying that I must admit that I managed to do my sample without too many hitches.
I have not ventured away from doing flowers as I wanted to get this over and done with- without to much pain.
I have used cream wool blanketing as my fabric and and Perle cotton for the Lavender flowers and the Rose and Perle Crown Rayon thread for the stems and leaves.
I used Broder Cotton thread for the yellow flower.





I should be able to approach the rest of the challenge without any problems because the two stitches that I like the least are finished .....and I am early getting this week's stitch done so now I am free to start playing again.

Another Challenge

Recently I accepted a challenge from Anna Nowicki regarding some paper clip washers.
She had posted on her blog the message below and I have always been one to take on a challenge.
"Does anyone fancy a small challenge? Whilst training our office junior the other day I came across some paper fasterners with washers. The only problem is we have a largish box of just the washers. Rather than throw them out - being a recycling bunny I decided to bring them home. How can they be used in some form of textile art? If anyone wants to have a go at the small challenge... email me your snail mail address before June and I'll sent you 20 -30 of them. Then you can do something exciting with them and email me photos by the beginning of July and I will post them here on my -blog. If I can think of one I may even come up with a prize for the most inventive idea! So who wants to play"
I asked Anna for 40 discs as I had something in that I wanted to do with them--and trust me it wasn't what I came up with.
Sorry about the blue background on the photo because I had white paper behind it when I took the photo and every time I took a new photo the same thing happened.
I have taken a photo at each stage as I went along so you can see what I did.
The tassel head is copper mesh -for some reason the Tassel photo won't enlarge when you click on it but the rest do..



The discs were silver when I received them and I painted them with a spray copper paint.

I then used 24 guage copper wire...............

And added it to the discs.........................

I then got some brown beads..........................

And added them to the wire and discs and made these charms..........

Then I threaded the charms onto several strands of yarn.....................

And then stitched them onto brown ribbon for support- to form the skirt.

I varied the length of the loops that held the charms to give them an uneven skirt.

Here is a close up of the skirt--I hope Anna likes it.

TAST Week 26 Half Chevron stitch

Week 26 already and we are half way through the TAST challenge.
This week we were doing Half Chevron stitch--another new one--- well half new anyway.
I found that this stitch was easy to do and I enjoyed it as well.
I have used an Aida cloth and a variegated Valdani perle 8 thread that I purchased at the Craft show this week. I think I will have to buy a new folder to put the rest of my samples in as the one that I am using at present is bulging at the seams already.

The good the bad and the ugly

The Good------Well yesterday I went to the big craft show in Sydney.
I caught the bus up and back--3 and a half hours each way.
I brought lots of wonderful things--mostly from Dale at the Thread Studio.
The Bad------well I spent lots of money on things that I know I just couldn't live without.
This is some silk organza and silk threads..... Then there are the embroidery threads to work on my TAST samples and also to use with my Embellisher.
Had to have them.

And how could I pass up this beautiful hand dyed lace.........

Or these hand dyed wools and a little bag of Sari silks......

And these beautiful roses on a band --just what I need to put on some tassel heads.......

And I needed more stamps...I really did....not from Dale though........

And I had to get a bag of goodies for Ebony-- how could I leave her out.......(you'll have to turn your head because I forgot to rotate the photo)

The Ugly.............Well look at what happened to my purse.......

It's a good thing I had a return ticket .

So--- don't go and ask me what I am going to do with all of it ---you all should know by now that you put it in the cupboard and it multiplies when the lights are out.

Truly --doesn't that happen in your house?

Tha Artists Muse Challenge 3

The challenge for this month in the Artists Muse was to create a piece of art symbolising a book from our childhood.
To be honest I couldn't remember that far back---seriously though I was never a big reader as a child but one story that I did remember was The Wizard of Oz.
I never read it but I do remember seeing the movie and I know the movie came from the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L Frank Baum---so that is what I have chosen.
I have named this piece" Follow the Yellow Brick Road".
I could see the trees in the top left hand corner and the yellow road in the foreground so I just went for it and I am quite pleased with how it has turned out.
This is the fabric that I have used as the inspiration for my work.
It was part of a piece that was sent to me by Val last week and as soon as I saw it I knew that it was the piece that I wanted for my background.
Thanks Val we do think alike don't we.

TAST Week 25 Long and Short Stitch

Whew I have just made it!
Week 25 has seen us doing Long and Short stitch and I have come to the conclusion that I don't like doing any form of Satin stitch.
I don't know why but I just seem to do more reverse stitching when I do this type of stitch than with any other stitch that I have done in the previous weeks.
I don't like using a hoop and probably the only stitch that I have used a hoop with is the French Knots and that is one time when I find it is absolutely necessary-but in saying that Satin stitch is another that is also necessary to prevent puckering.
Well that is what I think anyway and I have always managed an even tension on all the other stitches so far.
Enough with the ramblings and onto Long and Short stitch.
I have used a piece of wool blanketing and DMC fine wool (I forget what it is called) and DMC floss to interpret my tiny freeform butterflies flitting around.

What I sent to Joanna

These are the cards that I sent to Joanna in our card swaps.
I couldn't show them before- but she has received them so it is ok to show you now.
The first one has a background of webbing spray.



This one has a stamp done on acetate as the feature.

The third one is a little book/card made from a leather look card stock with rusted paper on the front.

This is what it looks like opened--it has a concertina fold and the little pockets hold tags.

The paper used is a Basic Grey design.

And lastly this is the tassel that I made for Joanna and it is long overdue---I received Joannas 2 months ago.
No excuses ---I just kept putting it off and once again I am sorry for being so tardy Joanna.

The tassel is made from torn up strips of flimsy fabrics and fancy wools.

Art in the Mail

Yesterday I received this lovely postcard from Val and also in the package was----- this beautiful piece of fabric that Val had hand dyed herself in a jar.
She had also included on a note that she "hoped that I found it inspiring and could use it for something fantastic".
Little did she know that it is just the piece of fabric that I wanted to do a project that I have in mind.

Today I also received from Joanna these lovely cards and gifts.
Joanna and I are both keen on card making and decided that we would do a regular card swap.
She also included some wonderful gifts for me--ribbons -stamps-brads- and some blank cards.
How do a manage to have such generous blogger friends?

The Tooth Fairy came again.

Look what the Tooth Fairy brought me ----a Huskystar Embellisher --Woo Hoo who's a happy girl...and I didn't feel a thing. After it took me a half an hour to get the thing out of the box I had to take a photo to show everyone and now I am off now to play....
Fish and chips for dinner ..no time to cook..just have to play.
See you all soon.

Mail I have received in the last week

I have received some lovely mail in the last week.
I received this lovely art piece from Dot.
It has a needle felted background with flowers and an adorable bird-note the diamond necklace-Now there's a bird with style. Then there were these ATC's and a Dotee doll for Ebony--she will be thrilled to get these on Wednesday when I next see her.

I also did a swap with Jacqueline and received these wonderful ATC's and a tag and a mini pack of the cards that she used in the red ATC.

And this is the ATC that I sent to Jacqueline-I think this was a lopsided swap somehow-must do something about that.

Lastly an ATC from Dianne and a postcard from Carol C.

Thanks to all the ladies-I am a lucky girl (and Ebony too) and they are all so beautiful.

The Tooth Fairy needs a Bank Loan

More excitement on Sunday night........another tooth is missing....the Tooth Fairy is broke....
and Ebony can't stop smiling.

And I'm Jealous because Ebony has more money than I do.

TAST Week 24 French Knots

This week in TAST we have been doing French Knots and am I in heaven.
French Knots are my most favourite stitch of all the embroidery stitches.
If I need to fill in a gap in my embroideries then I choose the ever reliable French Knot.
I have used a hand dyed Linen in soft mauve/pink shades but it hasn't shown up very well in the photo.
The threads I used are plain and Variegated silks and cotton .

I have included some French Knot embroidered pictures that I did about 10 years ago.
The first one is an old English cottage that had been photo transfered onto cream fabric.
I purchased the print at a local craft show and my intention was to only embroider the roses on the cottage wall.
But as you can see I got carried away and did the lot and I am glad that I did.
I had this framed and it is in my lounge room.
The embroidery itself measures 10 cm by 12 cm.

The next one is another framed French Knot embroidery that I had worked off a photo which I took at Floriade.
Floriade is held annually in Canberra in the Spring (late September early October).
It is a huge display of flowers beds and the display is truly amazing-it takes weeks to set it up as the thousands of plants are grown in a nearby nursery and then taken to Commonwealth park where they are arranged to create fabulous designs within the park.
The festival runs for four weeks and the flowers are planted so as there is a continual display during the whole period.
Here is my interpretation of one of those beds of flowers.
The embroidery is all French Knots and the very dark purple ones are pansies.
I was unable to get a thread that was dark enough so I used one strand of the darkest purple I could find and then added a strand of black.
The size of the embroidery in this is 8 cm by 4 cm and is all done with DMC embroidery floss.


And here is the photo that I took at Floriade- the colours in the embroidery are the true colours
-the photo is mounted behind the embroidery for reference-for some reason it hasn't come out in the true colours that I took to show you here.

I love French Knots ------

TAST Week 23 Wheatear stitch

Week 23 was Wheatear stitch which was another new stitch to me.
I liked this stitch and found it quite easy to do as well.
I don't know how I got behind again but I did -no excuses. I have used a lovely even weave linen fabric and the photo has come out true to the colour.
I decided to do the stitch mainly in white thread and then added a few stalks in a variegated perle 8 thread.