Blue Eyed Girl

Re-working Old Pieces

2012-01-17T16:17:00.000Z

I've decided to enter a few of my pieces of art into a local exhibition in February; I've never done this before so I'm not totally sure what I'm doing or whether my stuff is good enough!
I've chosen three of the paintings I did a while ago with Suzi Blu (I did two of her workshops). This one was part of the 'Piety and Passion' class (Tudor/Elizabethan influences). I spent yesterday making a few changes as I was never keen on her hair (see below).

I also changed her skin colour and dress...I'm happier with her now. I love her skinny neck and long face :-) This is a mixed media piece really, as all the embellishments are real.

Before

Then I spent some time improving Maria's nose and lips.....

...I always thought she looked a bit snarly.

Before

Finally I worked on Luana - my alter-ego ;-) I tried to improve her nose as well, as it looked rather like an onion before.

Before

I couldn't do anything about her over-sized eyes....but I'm happier with her now.

I'm also going to enter my Gritty Jane doll, the Stef Francis piece and one of my fabric weavings. Fingers crossed they're accepted......

Latest Cloth....and Tales of a Bad Boy

2012-01-13T21:33:00.000Z

Just thought I'd show my latest Spirit Cloth.....I can't seem to stop making these.

Maggi took me to Quiltessential in Cromford yesterday, and all I could think of whilst I was looking at all the beautiful fabrics, was ooooh, that would be lovely ripped up...... ;-)

Forgot to tell you in my last post...I went on an all-day jewellery making workshop last month in Nottingham; it was excellent (a Groupon deal). I made necklaces, earrings and bracelets

.... since then I've been researching other skills on YouTube and found out how to do knotted bracelets (if you're interested, see here). I'm particularly pleased with my sliding square knot closure! (see here)

I also made tiaras for all the girls to wear during Christmas dinner.....here's Liz wearing hers.

Now for the Bad Boy.......

Here he is looking all innocent ........ having just washed his tum (and fallen asleep on the job) after his dinner on Christmas Day .......aaaaah, you may say. (Does anyone else's cat sit in a chair like a human?)

Well, he is ......I'm sorry to have to tell you this........a mouse killer. See, you've all gone off him now, haven't you?

I have just cleaned up his 5th dead mouse off my hall floor :-(

Two weeks ago he brought a live one in and proceeded to chase it round the lounge, throw it in the air and cause mayhem, whilst Liz and I screamed and chased after them. It was like Keystone cops.

My Mum says they are presents for me because he loves me. Mmmmmm.... hasn't he heard of flowers?

Good job I love him........

Update

2012-01-11T22:31:00.002Z

Hopefully the Strathmore link is correct now if you need it!

Making Resolutions.....

2012-01-10T19:25:00.002Z

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2012 is a wonderful year for you all.
Well, you might be able to guess what one of my resolutions is, now lets see if I can keep to it ;-)
Here goes.....

Maggi sent me a link for the new Strathmore Online workshop with Traci Bautista (its free!) so I decided to take part. Its all about painting, collaging and doodling. Above are some close-ups of my efforts and below you can see the 'before doodling' and 'after doodling' stages.

Great fun to do!
I've ordered some Uni Posca poster paint markers (can't seem to find the Sharpie ones over here) to help with the doodling. I've also ordered some Adirondack Color Washes in bright colours so I can copy Maggi's idea and do some of these on fabric - great for adding stitching and beads later.
Of course I could stitch on these paper ones I suppose.......maybe I'll try that too.

Maggi also told me about TAST (Take A Stitch Tuesday) on Sharon B's blog Pintangle. Each week there's a challenge to perfect and use a different embroidery stitch.The first week was fly stitch - which is one of my favourites. I made a piece of felt and just enjoyed stitching onto it for the past couple of evenings...... I can recommend it!

Just one more mention for Maggi ;-)......I wanted to show you the fantastic box she made me for Christmas. Its so beautiful and neat - I am in awe! Sorry the photo doesn't fully show how the threads shimmer.
(There was a beautiful set of hand-made glass coasters I'd admired at The Beetroot Tree inside....so very thoughtful :-)

Can't go without showing you the progress Peachy is making in yoga. Following his amazing spinal twist in my last post, I can now show you his versions of......

....extended Child's Pose

.......and Savasana (Corpse Pose). Bless him.......

Now lets see how that resolution goes.......

Quitting the Quilting.....

2011-11-08T15:33:00.008Z

In my last blog post I said I'd show you how I was getting on with my little strip quilt....well it has transformed into a fabric weaving! :-) I think I'll leave the quilting to Maggi and all you other brilliant people out there and admit defeat.

I am not a quilter.

On the other hand I do love tearing strips of fabric and stitching onto them. The one below is a work in progress....I was intrigued to find the colours perfectly matched the dried honesty that Maggi gave to me.

(Not Photoshopped...honesty!)

Most of those lovely fabrics were sent to me as second prize in a give-away from Plum Quilts. You can see the gorgeous piece she made with them here.

I've got lots left and have started another weaving (with the strips unpicked from my failed quilting attempt ;-)

That's 4 I have on the go now.......

Just over a week ago Maggi and I visited Staunton Harold Craft Centre in Leicestershire. We wanted to see the work of Michelle Homes (who had her work displayed in a recent exhibition at The Beetroot Tree). She shares a workshop and gallery with another artist, Carol Saunderson...its called the Archangel Studio. Michelle's work was on the front cover of Embroidery Magazine last month - you can see it here.

We spent a lovely half hour in the gallery chatting to the talented ladies and I bought one of Michelle's little machine-stitched ladies. As you can see, Carol's whippet likes to keep warm in the workshop!
After that it was lunch in the craft centre.......

....everywhere looked so beautiful it was hard to believe it was the last week of October!

I spent most of yesterday crocheting....I want to make a blanket but first I thought I'd experiment with different yarns and patterns....

...some are wool, some are cotton but still haven't quite decided yet. I'm going to Yarn in Beeston tomorrow with Mum, to get some advice and buy more supplies! I really like the African flower hexagons (pattern here ) but I think I'll probably go to go for the square top right (pattern here ).

And finally..... a Peachy pic (of course).
I do yoga most days and I think the Boy has been watching. His spinal twist is amazing!!

(This is his favourite hiding spot on the landing)

And definitely finally..... have you discovered Pinterest yet? Sharon and I have - its amazing!!!!!
http://pinterest.com/ (My boards are here)
I can lose whole days there!!!

Has it really been 7 weeks?

2011-10-24T21:03:00.003+01:00

Oh gosh, that's my worst break yet.......but I have been very busy, honestly :-)

So what have I got to show for all that time away?

Well......a couple of weeks ago DH and I decided to visit Mum's cousin Irene in Devon. We've never met before, so it was quite an emotional moment for us both and we spent a happy 3 hours together, chatting about the family and looking around her studio. Irene is currently painting for two exhibitions and there were pieces everywhere....I was totally in awe. I wanted to buy one but they were all needed for the exhibition, but I was stunned when she presented me with one of her original paintings that she did a few years back...and I absolutely love it! I reminds me a little of my mum when she was younger....

A treasured reminder of a special day......

(Update: For those of you who asked, you can see more of Irene's work here )

After that we spent two days in Padstow and Port Isaac.....

( I had a good look at Doc Martin's house, of course).

Then spent 2 days in St Ives ....where I fell in love with an amazing view

...and where I was ambushed by 2 of these and they took my WHOLE ice cream cornet!!!

Bad, bad gulls :-(

We also visited The Lost Gardens of Heligan

and The Eden Project (climbed up to the new viewing platform at the top of the rainforest biome)

and finally ended up in Mevagissey, where we stayed an amazing b&b. It was the cheapest of all and the best ......owned by the most delightful couple. It was a bit too nippy to use the pool...but maybe next time ;-)

Trennicks Guest House

We've also been to 2 weddings over the last fortnight and visited Knaresborough for the 3rd time this year. Plus I organised a workshop at my house for 6 lovely ladies last week.

So you see....I have been busy :-)

I finally completed the Stef Francis piece....its going in a frame.

I also completed a scrapbook of my photos from Cornwall...... this is page 2 out of 20.

Peachy helped of course...he loved watching the Cricut machine cutting out letters....

.......but then he got bored and fell asleep in my card drawer.

I've been photographing wildlife in the garden ....

...he'd just wrapped up a wasp for lunch.

And I've become rather obsessed with hydrangea flower skeletons......

....so very pretty.

Well I think that's about it..... I'll show you the quilt I'm attempting to make in my next post. Which will be very soon... ;-)
Now I need to start blog-visiting......

Making Progress.....

2011-08-31T15:28:00.002+01:00

I've been working on my Stef Francis project this week.....above are a few details showing how far I've got. There's still lots to do......

This is how it started....

.....with a bit of help from Peachy :-)

Then it involved some maths...... :-/

...lots of cutting and bonding......

.......and choosing of threads and beads.

The final stage is hand-stitching and beading.....which I'm loving doing.

And there are enough pieces left over to make another 3 or 4!

I've decided to join in with Jude Hill's Magic Feather Project (see link in side bar).... if you visit her blog you'll see she's kindly giving free tutorials and lots of information regarding the project.
My first attempt was a bit too large and clumsy (I'm not good with satin stitch :-/ )

So I had another go and maybe this one will be sent to Jude...along with a couple of others hopefully.
She's aiming for 1000!! If you visit her blog you'll see the 143 she's already received. I think there's a Flickr group too (and Facebook).

And finally.......a lesson in how to relax from The Grand Master. He has it off to a fine art.......

Just wish I had his gift :-)

FOQ Part 2

2011-08-23T16:14:00.002+01:00

As promised here are some more photos from the Festival of Quilts. Sorry there are no full sized ones....I prefer to record details. If you'd like to see some full-sized quilts, Julie has some fantastic photos and information on her blog and Maggi has some great slide shows and photos ...I recommend you visit both!

These are just a small selection pf my photos (thank you Maggi for the loan of your camera on the day - can you believe I forgot mine!!!!!)

Thank goodness I remembered my purse.......... :-)

Beautiful, textured felt from C21st Yarns........

A luscious kit from Stef Frances that I can't wait to start on.....

A wonderful book from Ineke Berlyn.....

And another from Maggie Grey......so many great ideas!

Fat quarters......

And mulberry bark.
I think that's about it :-) Apart from loads of postcards, greetings cards and pretty business cards.
Roll on the Knitting and Stitching Show!!!! (Remind me to take my camera Maggi)

Last week we went to Knaresborough again for the arts festival.......that will have to wait for the next post. But before I go......a couple more photos. When I collected Peachy from the cattery at the end of our holiday......

.......the owner took me to see one of the other 'guests' who had surprised her by giving birth to 6 kittens half way through her 2 week stay!!!! The owners didn't say anything about her being pregnant so they'll have a surprise when they get home :-) Wonder if they'll get charged extra!

Click on photo for full ahhhhh-factor :-)

Festival of Quilts

2011-08-12T22:41:00.004+01:00

Had a fabulous day at the Festival of Quilts today with Maggi. Met up with the lovely Julie , drooled over the most amazing artwork, attended a brilliant lecture by Maggie Grey and spent quite a bit of money (more pics to come tomorrow). I'm off to bed now...... :-)

A sample of some of the delights on display.......

Macro Magic.....

2011-08-06T21:19:00.002+01:00

Since discovering the macro setting on my camera I've become a little bit obsessed with the centres of flowers...

...and other things.....

Not forgetting the cordyline bark ;-) (This section is actually about 1cm in size).

Scary!!!!

Now I need to do something with them........

Please click on photos for more detail!!

Birthday Weekend

2011-08-01T14:40:00.003+01:00

Just had a wonderful birthday weekend......spent Saturday with Maggi at a Living Threads workshop creating pictures on our embellishing machines (see above). They aren't finished yet; I intend doing some hand-stitching and beading.
Then on Sunday I got lots of lovely presents and went to a fab restaurant for Sunday dinner with my husband, son, daughter and mum. Happy days!!

Peachy sent me a card - of course ;-)

Yesterday afternoon whilst playing with my new(ish) Panasonic Lumix camera I discovered a macro setting and had fun playing with that for an hour. Results aren't great yet...but I'll keep practising! (DH keeps saying 'read the instruction manual!' but I'd rather find out by playing and fiddling. Anyone else like me? ( I HATE manuals)

Cone flowers, fuchsia, clematis, cosmos........

Before I forget..... a blogging friend of mine has three wonderful places to visit if you have a spare moment. Lots of interesting stuff and inspiration to be found! I can definitely recommend.......

http://morna.tumblr.com
http://mornacrites-moore.blogspot.com
http://www.mornacrites-moore.com

Torn Strips....

2011-07-22T20:26:00.002+01:00

My poor scissors are feeling redundant and unwanted.....I realised today that I've been tearing paper and fabric for most of my recent projects. I love my collection of torn strips (the edges from the handmade papers I tear for my altered books). I fancied playing with them today so I did some paper weaving for a change....

Added some machine and hand stitching, sequins, pressed flowers, beads etc. These are my happy colours :-)

Last week I went on a mini-holiday to stay with my friend Rosie (the Journalling Queen).

We had a lovely time together........visited Lytham St Annes, played in her art room, ate gorgeous food cooked by her talented DH..... and if that wasn't enough we had a visit from Jackie (Dog Daisy Chains) who lives not too far away. We've never met before so it was a real treat...especially as she brought a boxful of her gorgeous artwork to show us (my request :-) We had a wonderful afternoon!

I'm besotted with my coneflowers (echinacea, rudbekia) at the moment and couldn't resist taking these photos .......I love seeing their progress from bud to full flower.

Also loving the eryngiums......the blue is so surprising, especially on the stems!

Maggi brought me some of her honesty seeds last time she visited and I spent a happy hour making patterns with them (at one time I would have done something like this with a class of children.....but sadly I was on my own this time ;-)

And finally......a few people have messaged me regarding my art wall after seeing a partial view (with Peachy) in my 'Memories' post below. I've been asked to show a full photo........

....so here it is. Not a deliberately 'arty' display; just something that has grown over the past couple of years. The ATCs are attached (with blu-tac) to two wooden rails, screwed to the wall and painted turquoise. If you click on it you might even see your work there!!

Back From Skiathos

2011-07-05T12:09:00.003+01:00

Just got back a couple of days ago from our annual trip to Skiathos - one of our favourite Greek islands. Why do we love it so much? Well it's quite small, we can fly from East Midlands airport (a 10 min drive), the beaches are wonderful, the town is very pretty and full of great bars and restaurants, its not too crowded and there are no night clubs or discos (that we are aware of!)
Here are a few of our holiday memories.....

We spotted a wedding party in the town one day and Brian took this lovely shot of the bride.
Iced coffee in the beach bar was a favourite before starting sunbathing!

Some of the huge variety of plant life including flowers from the sea, a heart shrub and cactus trees.

A swallows nest in the beach bar was a big attraction. They looked like puppets ...so cute!! (Click for a closer view)

Peachy was so glad to see us when we got back; nine days of being kept in a cage at the cattery must have been hard for him to bear! After giving us loads of fuss he spent half an hour tearing up and down the stairs through the lounge and conservatory, round the garden then back in and up the stairs again (he was just a blur) - then he finally collapsed and had a nap.

Nine days without him - how did I bear it..... :-)

Memories

2011-06-18T17:10:00.005+01:00

I made a little memory box yesterday......for two reasons. Alysn at The Beetroot Tree asked me to make one for a forthcoming exhibition at her gallery on the theme of Memory.

"Memory | Sat 30 July 2011 - Sun 11 September 2011
In support of the Alzheimer's Society we will be inviting you to purchase a memory box pack online to create you own work for display alongside the exhibition."
I decided to make it for my Dad, who died last year after suffering from dementia for approx 3 years. Inside the box are a selection of small photos plus a copy of my 'letter to Dad' which I read out at his funeral.

As its Fathers Day on Sunday it felt especially appropriate that I should make this in memory of him :-)
If you'd like to join in, you can read more about the challenge here and also on Alysn's blog here. There's a £3 charge to help raise funds for the Alzheimers Society.

I made quite a few things yesterday.....

...bread (in my brilliant Panasonic bread-maker)

......fairy cakes

....and my special Lavender and Peppermint cream. I need to work on some more attractive labels I think :-)

Peachy kept his eye on me for most of the morning.....

....until he fell asleep :-)

My Colours....

2011-06-09T13:10:00.006+01:00

I've been happily working with my favourite colours over the past two weeks. Maggi and I spent a great day together at her house just over a week ago. She showed me how to do nuno felting in her fab garage/workshop.......

Maggi at work

First attempt below; front and back. I worked on a piece of dyed silk and laid wool and silk fibres on top before wetting, soaping and rolling. The final step involved whacking and bashing - great fun :-) Hopefully if you click on it you can see that the silk puckers and creates a lovely effect.

Second piece; front and back.......my fav one. Looking forward especially to sewing on this. Not sure which side to use though!

Maggi kindly gave me a piece of blue cotton velvet to use for my Spirit Cloth cushion.

I extended the stitching out onto the velvet.....

......et voila!

I now want to find something to stitch around the edge........maybe :-/

Peachy has been helping me choose fibres and fabrics for my latest sewing project.....

...he doesn't damage them. Honestly. He just goes a little crazy sometimes.....
I can empathise with that.... ;-)

The elegant Nectaroscordum has almost finished. It's now making me think of fairy castles.........

........so sweet.

And finally.....DH and I decided to make the most of the glorious weather and went to Monsal Head in Derbyshire last weekend. We haven't been there for years and had forgotten how stunning it is.
(Click on the photos)

The viaduct used to be for trains...but now its cyclists and walkers only.

If ever you get a chance....go there :-)

Back to the drawing board.....

2011-05-23T17:48:00.000+01:00

I decided to go back to drawing and painting last week....here's my first attempt before I started using the paints and crayons. I also want to quirkify her in some way (still pondering :-)

I've had major problems with my computer which my clever son has done his best to rectify but we aren't out of the woods yet. This was one of the problems......

.........its a 'mother board' :-) It makes my brain hurt just to look at it....to think someone actually understands all that.

I still need a new operating system though - there goes another £88 :-(

A couple of posts ago I said I was playing around with this image from my garden, with the idea of altering it for mixed media projects.

Up to now I've cut out the flower in Photoshop and altered it with different backgrounds and textures.

Still a work in progress.......

Next step - drawing/painting/printing.

Back soon :-)

Sitting Stitching.......

2011-05-09T21:41:00.007+01:00

I've been playing with my embellishing machine over the past few days...mainly to provide something for me to stitch onto :-) This started life as a flower corsage which went completely wrong so I chopped it up and felted it onto a (wet felted) background. Now it looks like a cocoon :-(

But this definitely isn't a landscape.......... ;-)

My favourite flower of the moment (now the bluebells have gone) is my Nectaroscordum.
I believe it belongs to the allium family. I love this one's bendy stem.

I'm taking photos of it at various stages of growth and have started doing some sketches and digital art with the intention of creating designs for a new project I have in mind. More later.....

Whilst I was in the garden today I spotted this brown blob on the hydrangea.......

.......got in a little closer......

...and touched it.......eeek!!!!!

Photo isn't brilliant but you can click on it for a better view.

One of the big garden debates this spring has been what to do with the dead cordylines....they are in gardens everywhere! Ours is over 5' tall.
I took off all the dead leaves.......

....and now Peachy uses it as a climbing frame! :-)
Fortunately its not on full view as its at the side of the house.

Apparently they can still sprout......but I'm not convinced.
I took a photo of the bark today; how many faces can you see???

I think I can see an owl too....... :-)

BTW...this is how it looked last summer (if you click on the photo please excuse blue bin and bag of compost) .

Maytime, Playtime........

2011-05-03T15:56:00.003+01:00

I really must try harder to blog more than once a month..... but April wasn't really a time for sitting at the computer; it was much more suited for walking, cycling, gardening, sunbathing and barbecues :-)
But I did manage to make another Spirit Cloth...a tiny one this time (my wrinkly hand is there to show size :-) ) It's going to be the centre panel for a cushion - when I can get hold of some dark blue velvet.

Last week The Living Threads group of textile artists held an exhibition very close to where I live. I managed two visits! Had a lovely day with Maggi and then went again with my friend Lynne. I used to belong to this group when it first started in 1982 but had to give it up because of my job. Fingers crossed....I'm hoping to join again, so maybe I'll be involved at the next exhibition in two years time.

Unfortunately no photos were allowed at the exhibition - but I can show you a felting kit I bought there! Hoping to have a go at this tomorrow....

We've been out and about over the last few weeks...went to Calke Abbey to see the wonderful gardens and the fabulous display of auriculas.

Calke has not been over-restored; which is why I like it so much. The orangery still has beautiful peeling paint on the walls (great for textures!). I took this photo in the corner; the damaged wall almost looks like a church window. I haven't altered the image - just added a worn edge.

Lots of people have photos of bluebells on their blogs at the moment...its been a great year for them. We went to Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire and walked amongst them in the sunshine. The smell was as beautiful as the sight of them...what bliss.

The next photo is for Patty...we always have a debate at this time of year about how her American bluebells are different from ours :-)

Another day...another walk; this time to Dale Abbey about 5 miles from where we live. It has one of the smallest churches in the country, a hermits cave in the hillside, the remains of a 13thC abbey and a great pub!

The bit at the end on the left is the church......the rest is a farmhouse!

Peachy News
He's been enjoying the sun, as you can see.......and watching the plants grow ;-)
And....he now has his own door!
He loves it and uses it so much, I just hope he doesn't wear it out.....

It's operated by the microchip in his neck....how clever is that!!!

Right, I'm off to sit here and read my Country Living magazine.
I'll be back soon .....hopefully before June ;-)

My Favourite Month......

2011-04-04T14:02:00.004+01:00

I love April.......so many exciting changes taking place in the garden. We have a sea of muscari at the moment so couldn't resist altering one of my photos using Kim Klassen textures..

Whilst out in the garden I found a hydrangea skeleton....so pretty and delicate.

What an amazing flower.....it even looks beautiful when its lost its life and colour. I altered one of the images in Photoshop.....

......then boosted the colour and tried a new transfer technique on fabric. I'm really pleased with this - first you iron a piece of Bondaweb (transfer adhesive) onto fabric, peel off the backing paper, then iron your print onto the adhesive. Next you spray water on the back of the paper, leave it to soak a minute then just rub the paper off. I've found this method works better than using gel medium (for me, anyway).

Maggi and I had another great day out last week; we met in Nottingham and had lunch in The Pitcher and Piano bar which is in a deconsecrated church in the Lace Market area. All the stained glass windows have been kept and restored........

This huge, amazing arch is dedicated to one of the ministers of the church. If you click on the pictures you'll see the inspiring words.

The big wheel is in the market square again...I think this is its 3rd visit. Sadly Maggi and I didn't have time to try it out ;-) but we did find time to visit the Victoria Market and buy lots of gorgeous fabrics :-)

Oooh I almost forgot; I've made another Spirit Cloth......I'm becoming addicted!

Happy April....... :-)

Return of the Old Crock :-)

2011-03-22T14:08:00.001Z

Well I think 'old crock' just about sums me up over the last couple of months; first the operation..... then just as I was getting over that I pulled a muscle in my back and had to avoid sitting at my computer. I think I'm almost back to normal; I have one more physio session this afternoon then hopefully I can put all that behind me. Spring is definitely here today and I'm feeling a bit more frisky!!! (But best not tell DH that :-) )

I've managed to do a bit of art.......

I cut up my turquoise and orange Spirit Cloth and made it into cards and journal covers.

I made an Anniversary card for DH......he bought me these flowers a couple of days beforehand so I photographed one rose on my garden seat and altered it in Photoshop. Used some of the words from a Beatles song (inspired by Kim Klassen).

I used the felted piece which I made on my embellishing machine for a journal cover.....just added some handstitching. I think it needs some decoration around the edge (but its too late because I've sent it to a friend!)

I made another 'thing' on my embellishing machine...

....not sure what it is yet but Peachy LOVES it!!! I think he's adding his own bit of felting :-)

I subscribed to Laura and Linda Kemshall's DMTV and have begun altering a couple of old books - more to come next time. I love handstitching pages together....... :-)

Last week we visited our friends again in beautiful Knaresborough. They took us to Harlow Carr Gardens...I wasn't expecting too much because of the time of year, but it was fabulous.....

And to top it off they have a Betty's Tea Room where we had tea and cakes (couldn't resist a simnel cake for Easter and a rhubarb cake for DH).

Sorry this is a long post but I wanted to tell you about a couple of artists I've recently discovered. Last year I tracked down my Mum's cousin (who she hasn't seen for over 60 years)...her name is Irene Jones and she paints amazing pictures. We've exchanged letters and photos and last week she sent me these lovely prints of her work.....

She has an exhibition coming up at this gallery and if you click on the link you'll see lots more of her paintings. I'm so proud to be related to her and we're hoping to go to Devon to visit her very soon.

Whilst in Knaresborough we visited the Mill Gallery and I discovered the work of Kate Lycett - and I am hooked. You can see her artwork on her website here. She was trained in textile design which is very evident from the patterns which can be seen in her paintings. We treated ourselves to one of her (huge) prints called 'Valley Gardens'...it's extra-special because she has added gold machine stitching to the washing lines and walls and has applied gold leaf to some areas. She lives in Hebden Bridge and this painting is her view down to the valley..... another place I want to visit.

Well that's about it - but I can't go without a Peachy photo (or two :-) !

He had me crying with laughing a few days ago as he tried to fit inside one of the boxes on my workdesk. A few months ago, of course, he fitted in it quite easily........

Thanks for staying to the end!

Spirit Cloth 3

2011-02-15T16:05:00.002Z

I'm so grateful for all the lovely comments I've had regarding my latest sewing project. Quite a few people have emailed and asked for details of the class (Jude Hill's 'Cloth to Cloth')....I hope you're now enjoying it as much as I am.
I decided to use ironed sari ribbons for my third Spirit Cloth...these are the colours from a skein I bought from The Threshing Barn in Staffordshire. It's a work in progress; I'm adding some tiny pieces of hand-made felt and there'll be lots more stitching.

The sari ribbon before ironing......

..and after.

I then discovered I could alter the ribbon by putting it through my embellishing machine...it ruches up like seersucker. I used a few of these mixed with the flat ironed ones.

I then tried it on other fabrics.
This is the effect on organza....

...and silk dupion. Saving these for future projects!

And finally....

I made this little landscape on my embellishing machine yesterday...I'm off now to do some hand-stitching on it.
BTW - if you're interested in embellishing machines, here's a link to see the Janome FM 725 in action. I found this on Lynn's excellent Squidoo page which is all about needle felting.
(She has a lovely give-away on her blog as well....definitely worth a visit.)
And absolutely finally....I can't go without a Peachy pic. He's currently kipping on his new mat (and yes...its a bath mat :-)

Happiness is.......

2011-02-08T21:03:00.005Z

...........stitching my 'Spirit Cloth' in a sunny conservatory.

( still not quite finished)

............playing with Peachy outside in the garden. (He likes 'hide and seek').

.........looking for signs of Spring. (Chives, camelia and hydrangea)

.........receiving lots of emails, messages and gifts from thoughtful friends. (Thank you all VERY much.)

.........playing on my new Janome embellishing machine which I treated myself to last week.

front.....................and back (which I've chosen to work on)

.........doing a bit of Photoshop editing.

.........and chilling out in my art room at the end of the day with him.

Hope you all had a lovely day today....... :-)

Goodbye January......

2011-01-28T21:05:00.009Z

I have to confess I'm glad January is almost over. It wasn't the best of months for me :-(

Mum was in hospital for 4 weeks in total.....the surgeons didn't operate on her fractured femur for 2 and a half weeks (lots of emergencies plus swine flu cases in the theatres).

By then the whole hip replacement had to be re-done as well.....big surgery for an 81 year old. Since she's been home my sister and I have done our best to look after her and, thankfully, she's doing really well now.

Just to make matters worse I had an operation almost 3 weeks ago (a not-very-pleasant one!!) and I'm just begining to recover now. The surgeon didn't give me too much post-op detail....probably just as well or I wouldn't have bothered ! :-)

To make me feel better I decided to do Jude Hill's Spirit Cloth Workshop.....it was so soothing just to sit and stitch. My first piece is at the top - I decided to use muted shades for a change. I'm going to make it into a cushion. Not sure why I got so engrossed in stitching leaves....

....my embroidery skills leave a lot to be desired but this was just a practice piece ;-)

The next one is going to be brighter..........lots more to do yet!

My Graze box arrived today.....have any of you tried them? Its a great idea.....you get a box that just fits through your letterbox every week with 4 little trays of healthy snacks. You state your prefences on the website but the contents are always a surprise. Last week I had olives in basil and garlic, savoury toasted seeds, almonds/cranberries/cherry infused raisins and mini garlic/rosemary/pesto focaccia breads. If you click on the photo you'll see what I got today...

The 'Apricot Torte' is so pretty.....green raisins, choc coated apricot pieces and jumbo raisins.

...even the box has pretty pictures inside! Everything is environmentally friendly, additive-free and healthy. And its not expensive either....... www.graze.com (They aren't paying me to tell you ;-)

Finally I wanted to show you the beautiful felted heart Maggi made me for Christmas...I love it.

So, unfortunately, does Peachy; he keeps stealing it from my room. I caught him in action one evening when I just happened to have my camera handy....

He is obsessed with it and quickly learns all the hiding places I have for it. He does like Maggi; maybe he knows its from her.
Here he is searching for it in my room......

He's such a bad boy ;-)........but I love him.

Happy New Year

2010-12-30T15:28:00.000Z

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.
Things didn't quite go according to plan for us because Mum had a bad fall 4 days before Christmas Day and fractured her femur (close to the hip replacement she had done last Christmas.....eeek!) And no - the snow and ice weren't to blame - she was just trying to get to the toilet at 6.00 in the morning and stumbled outside her bedroom door.
So as you might expect, I've been rather busy and apologise if I haven't managed to visit your blog over Christmas. I know you'll understand and I promise I'll be with you in the New Year.

Peachy is sad that the snow has gone....he absolutely loved playing in it and we had difficulty getting him back in the house. He looked so funny chasing snowflakes and jumping in the air....

....but Christmas tired him out, poor thing :-)

Hope you're not too tired after all the festivities and you still have some energy left to celebrate the start of the New Year.

I shall do my best...... ;-)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-17T11:17:00.002Z

Had you given up on me? I've had a computer-free fortnight whilst I caught up with some jobs and made some Christmas gifts. Of course during that time the snow and frost provided great photo opportunities in my garden....

...and apparently its not done with us yet :-(

I used some of my photos for digital art. The one at the very top shows the view from my window. That, and the ones below, have textures from Kim Klassen and DJ Pettitt.

Here are some of the gifts I've been making - felted brooches, purses, washcloths (knitted and crocheted).......

...the pink and green cloths are tied up with rhubarb and custard scented soap!

I'm quite proud of my flowers as I've only just taught myself to crochet.

I met my friend Clare for lunch yesterday and she gave me this wonderful gift...... a little cat decoration which she had hand-stitched herself. The snowflake stitches and the fish bones are so tiny!! Truly something to treasure...I love it!

I'm off to the shops now to find some dancing shoes for a party I'm going to this evening with my sister. Its all go.... :-)

I hope you all have a truly joyful Christmas.......

Love from Linda xx

Something Fishy.....

2010-11-19T11:04:00.007Z

I knitted Peachy a fish yesterday and filled it with polyester wadding and catnip. He's crazy for the stuff. He was so keen to play with it he was trying to grab it out of my hand whilst I was stitching the eyes and mouth on. I found the free pattern on Ravelry (brilliant website).
It kept him quiet for ages......

......until it was time for a wash. It takes a lot of effort to keep that fur sparkling white :-)

I've been adding transfer foil to the pieces I made with Maggi last week; she kindly gave me some to take home (now I need to find a supplier :-) I've never used this before and was amazed to find you can apply it with Bondaweb, Misty Fuse, FuseFX or glue. All give different effects.... I love it!

Yet more on the theme of Autumn - this is a piece I did for Kim Klassen's Test Kitchen. Kim gave us the original photo and a tutorial on how to alter it. I did a number of versions and for this particular one I also used a mask/texture free from Jerry (Shadowhouse Creations).

"Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains,

a torch flung to the trees".

Faith Baldwin

Autumnal Art...... and A Day With Maggi

2010-11-16T09:21:00.003Z

In my quest to 'embrace Autumn' I've been taking lots of photos......the digital pieces above are of a leaf from my garden. Textures and mask are from DJ Pettitt.

The photograph below is of a hydrangea growing against our garden wall. I think it's more interesting this time of year than in summer.

For my first digital version I used various textures from Kim Klassen plus a Katie Pertiet mask from Designer Digitals....

...and here's another version; textures this time from Shadowhouse Creations.

Last Friday I had a wonderful day with Maggi (To Dream to Stitch) at her house. She showed me a paper lamination technique using torn papers, matte medium, stencils and organza (which Maggi had beautifully dyed). Here's my piece before I soaked it to remove the papers....

I cut it into three and kept one section with the papers still attached as I rather liked the effect. For the other two pieces I did the technique properly and soaked the papers off the back, leaving behind the parts where matte medium had been applied through a stencil.

I've already begun stitching on one of these....more photos another day :-)

After a delicious lunch (eaten whilst whilst watching the amazing collection of wild birds in the garden) I got the chance to use Maggi's embellishing machine. Oooh it's like watching magic happen......I couldn't believe how all the fabrics and fibres bonded together. I used wool fibres, chiffon, scrim, rayon threads and a thin strip of green velvet (dyed by Maggi).
Here's my attempt....unfinished of course. I will continue with my trusty hand felting needle and add some more wool fibres and sari silks. Then possibly some machine and hand stitching.
A work in progress!

I've also been doing a bit of hand-stitching over the past couple of weeks......its not brilliant, but I enjoyed doing it....

And finally, an update on Peachy. He now lives with us!!!! I think he feels at home here.....he loves my art room :-)
We've been to the vets a few times over the past couple of weeks.....ear drops for mites, two sets of vaccinations, a microchip and castration. DH cringed when the vet called out 'Peachy Vincent' when it was our turn to go in. He laughed at our expressions and said don't worry, we've heard worse ......... :-)

Accept.....

2010-11-05T15:23:00.001Z

I'm struggling a bit with the prospect of Autumn and Winter this year. I've never been a fan, but for some reason I'm dreading the next few months even more than usual. I'm trying to be positive though, hence the digital piece above is for me.

The next three are my tributes to Autumn.......I do love the colours of the leaves and berries; I'm just not so keen on the dark evenings, rain and howling wind.

Images are my own, textures are from Kim Klassen and Shadowhouse Creations.

Masks and brushes are from Designer Digitals.

Here are my originals.......apart from the rose which is a free photo from WikiCommons.

Last week we went for a walk around Elvaston Castle Country Park, just a 10 minute drive away from us. I thought I'd take some photos of the Autumn colours, but what I found was some rather gorgeous purple.

The berries are from a bush called Callicarpa americana .....more commonly known as 'Beauty Berries'. I've never seen them before and couldn't quite believe the amazing vivid colour.

Finally.......I've been having a play with Kim Klassen's PSE mosaic tutorial ('The Test Kitchen' - see side bar). I love the colours, but I still think I could do better....... (well its fun trying :-)

A Little Teacup Challenge

2010-10-15T10:02:00.002+01:00

Lynn and I have been 'talking teacups' this week. It all started when I saw the lovely Bridal Invitation card in her Zazzle shop (you can find the link on her blog). So we decided to have another of our own little challenges this week.....if you would like to join in just link back to us in the comments box and we'll come to see you!

Above you can see my first version.....and to the left is the original photo. This is one of my favourite cups; it isn't very old - on the back it says 1996 "Florence" by Royal Doulton.
I picked the rose from my garden yesterday...it was the very last one left on the bush. So I called my digital piece "The Last Rose of Summer".

My second version has a clematis flower; we have a 'late' purple clematis climbing over an arch in the garden..... I can't believe it's still producing flowers.
I love 'text textures' ;-) this one is free from Boccacino (Flickr).

All the other textures and layers I've used are from Kim Klassen, Shadowhouse Creations and Playing With Brushes.

Whilst watching Frances Pickering at Ally Pally last Saturday I spotted her embroidery threads all neatly organised on rings and thought I can do that!!!

Mine were in a real mess....

so I bought some of these.....

...and now they look like this! (Mmmm...not sure why there are so many pink ones - mum must have given me those ;-)

Fun at Ally Pally!

2010-10-11T13:19:00.002+01:00

Maggi and I had such a great day at the Knitting and Stitching Show on Saturday, despite getting lost a few times on the London North Circular Road! Poor Maggi, she kept her patience very well and eventually we began to see signs for Alexandra Palace (they were in short supply!) We were there almost seven hours, but still only saw about 3/4 of the exhibits....... my head was spinning round in all directions; so hard to know where to start! Anyway, above you can see my purchases (spot the theme going on there?)
Below are all my favourite bits.....

I bought Frances Pickering's book 'Page After Page' which she signed for me and we watched her painting and drawing on fabric for a while. The book is an absolute delight ......

I did a class with Gwen Hedley called 'Take 100 Lines'; it involved cutting and piecing rectangles of fabric and attaching them with a variety of materials and stitches. It was lovely to meet a fellow blogger there from vintagebunty.blogspot.com (her piece is on her blog). I did a bit more this morning - this is probably the only time you'll see this colour-scheme on my blog :-)

And here we are at the end of the day...tired but happy! (Rosie - please note the gorgeous bag I took with me. Your stitching must be very strong - there was a lot in there!)

The Pear Challenge

2010-10-08T15:15:00.002+01:00

Lovely Lynn (Her Creative Spirit) and I decided to have our own little challenge this week. We are both taking part in Kim Klassen's 'Test Kitchen' and we've been discussing subjects for digital altering. I sent Lynn some photos of my pears (we have loads ripening in our conservatory at the moment) and she sent me one of hers.

This is one of my photos which I altered using a colourful texture (one of my acrylic paint and ink backgrounds), some text and a few of Kim's textures.

This is my version of Lynn's photo....I tried to make it look like a journal page using a texture from Jerry at Shadowhouse Creations. The leaves and flourishes are a brush from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. I also used other textures from Kim Klassen and Jerry.

Go and see Lynn's beautiful creations; she makes lovely soft digital pieces. Make sure you scroll down and see her fabulous pumpkin post. We both have our own individual styles, which is what makes it interesting.

Thanks Lynn......we must do this again! :-)

I'm very excited about tomorrow....Maggi (To Dream to Stitch) and I are going to Alexandra Palace in London for the Knitting and Stitching Show - billed as 'the best textile exhibition in Europe'! I've never been to one of these events before so its a real treat. Maggi says I need comfy shoes, a largish bag and my debit card ;-) I'm doing a workshop with Gwen Hedley called 'Take 100 Lines' (creative hand-stitching)......can't wait! If you're going there tomorrow, please look out for us!
I'll tell you more on Monday....

Its a wonderful day.....

2010-10-06T15:29:00.002+01:00

We're having some wonderful weather in England at the moment....I can't believe how warm it is! Hope you're managing to make the most of it..... :-)
I'm awaiting news from Kim Klassen; I joined her 'Test Kitchen' and the digital fun starts today.
Whilst I'm waiting I'm playing with PSE...the above piece is from a photo I took at Hidcote Manor Gardens. I used various textures, some free ones from the very generous Jerry at Shadowhouse Creations plus PSE filters and a clipping mask from Kim.
Here's the original....

Do you think Kim's up yet...... ?

Two Versions.....

2010-09-27T14:52:00.102+01:00

I spent a happy hour this morning playing with some new bits and pieces from Paper Whimsy.

This my digital collage..........

These are the elements I used ........

And this is a version I made from paper, card, metal studs and a pressed flower.

******************************************************

So did you watch Downton Abbey last night? I'm not normally a fan of period dramas but I was so enthralled by the trailer, I couldn't wait to see it.

(Is it because I have a 3-column blog that video clips aren't complete? Can anyone help me with this? Ah well - you can see the proper version here at YouTube.)

Update...thank you Kit and Kaboodle. I've reduced it down to 300 by 193......much better!

BTW the brilliant choir is called Scala and you can hear the full version here.

***********************************************

A while back I took a photo of a friend's daughter who was a bridesmaid at a wedding. I made a scrapbook page at the time but last week decided to do something digital with it. The clipping mask is one of my favourites; its by Anna Aspnes at Designer Digitals .

The text is from a kit by Natali at Scrapbookgraphics. I also used various brushes and textures, plus a free background from Oscraps.

OK.....time to drag myself away from the computer and do some ironing I think :-(

Catching Up.....

2010-09-23T17:44:00.003+01:00

We've been making the most of the last days of summer this year and decided to visit some more National Trust properties. First stop was Hidcote Manor Gardens in Gloucestershire......designed and created by the horticulturist Lawrence Johnston in the Arts & Crafts style, it is made up of exquisite garden rooms, each one possessing its own special character.

We stayed overnight at a wonderful B&B called The Kissing Gate in the nearby village of Ebrington. It's one of the cleanest, most beautifully decorated places I've ever stayed in. (If you're interested you can read my review on Trip Advisor). The house is fairly new but Ebrington is a traditional Cotswold village with many beautiful thatched cottages. We had dinner at the Ebrington Arms...gorgeous place!

The next day we visited Chipping Campden and Broadway.......

and finally Snowshill Manor....my favourite place of all. You can read about it here.

I haven't forgotten about 'the mystery photo' from my last post :-)

Heather was absolutely right when she guessed waterlily seed pod.

We spotted these little green 'bottles' bobbing around on our local canal ......

I found a picture of the flower on Wikimedia Commons....you can see the seed pod starting to grow in the centre.

So there you go...well done Heather!

I taught a mixed-media collage class last week at the Beetroot Tree and met a new blogging friend there called Donna. We've 'known' each other for a while through the Suzi Blu classes, but only recently became aware that we lived fairly near to each other. You can see the scrummy collage she created on her blog here.

I showed some of my examples on this blog post...here's another I did for the class; this one is mounted onto wood so is actually finished!

The others are waiting patiently for DH to get his special electric saw out and cut up some more wood......

And FINALLY (are you still here?) .......a Peachy update. He stayed with us last weekend -

and he's growing too quickly......

"I'm sure I fitted into this box last time I stayed here......."

I Love Photoshop

2010-09-11T21:33:00.009+01:00

I did a bit of Photoshop fiddling with my 'Born to Reign' painting (see sidebar left), using the photograph I took when it was half done.......

.....then I changed it again.....

....and then I realised it reminded me of something I'd seen on a friend's blog recently.

The lovely Jo at Tanglefrost (who is talented with words as well as her hands) makes fantastic creations with leather and beads. She has made leaf brooches and pins for a while now but has just recently begun making flower crowns. I would LOVE one of these ......how wonderful to look as beautiful as Jo's daughter.

They are so original and would be perfect for weddings and special parties...have a look at the gorgeous photos in her etsy shop.

Speaking of friends.....Corrine at Dosfishes did a postcard swap with me and this is the great piece of art I received from her.....

Her blog is full of interesting photos, great collages, digi-art and recycled art....another recommended visit!

Back to Photoshop - I love using it for creative stuff but also appreciate its value when it comes to repairing old photos. My mum recently gave me a picture of her and dad on honeymoon; it was badly damaged but it means a great deal to her so I had a go at repairing it. This is something I need to perfect my skills at, but mum was really pleased with my attempts. Here's the before and after......

(Please click on photos)

Then I had a go at a photo of my grandma (mum's mum) when she was a young woman (she's in the centre). I have a feeling the photo was cut up many years ago when they had a family dispute!!

That clone stamp and plaster...such amazing tools :-)

Have you guessed? I love Photoshop!!

Ooooh I nearly forgot - I went for a walk with DH (the Brown-Eyed-Boy) this afternoon and found these...

...any guesses what they are? They are 7cm long. (The place where I found them is a big clue.....but I won't give that away just yet :-)

Peachy and Bess......

2010-09-08T20:23:00.003+01:00

This is one of a series of mixed-media collages I've been making over the last couple of weeks in preparation for my class at the Beetroot Tree on Monday. I've used images transferred onto fabric, lace, text, organza, dyed silk, pressed flowers, background papers, beads, silk paper, sari silks, machine and hand-stitching.

I'm looking forward to this class; it should be fun......

I've also been scanning all my inky backgrounds into my PC so that I can use them as layers in Photoshop. Here are just a few......I've got dozens! The great thing is you can enhance the colours and improve the look of them in PSE.
I used this one.......

with this photo I took in the gardens at Hardwick Hall....

to created this.......

I think I'm going to print it onto silk fabric.

We visited the beautiful Hardwick Hall last weekend.....it's about 25 miles north of us near Chesterfield. The house was built for Elizabeth Shrewsbury (hence the ES on the roof) but she was better known as 'Bess of Hardwick' - quite a formidable lady and the richest woman in England in the 1500s after Queen Elizabeth. She had 4 husbands and her wealth increased with each marriage. She left behind the legacy of a 400 year-old collection, known as the Hardwick Hall textiles; the largest collection of tapestry, embroidery, canvaswork and other textiles to have been preserved by a single private family. I did a special study of these for my A-levels many years ago.
There are some fabulous paintings in the house; I love this one of Bess.......

Here's her wonderful Elizabethan house.... (she also owned Chatsworth)

and the typically English pub at the edge of the estate where we had our lunch.

We looked after Peachy whilst my daughter was in Zante last week. He was quite a handful and LOVED rummaging around in my studio. He soon found the felt bird I'd made (and pretended it was real :-) and after causing mayhem fell asleep in my box of silk papers every day........

Liz collected him on Monday; its very quiet here..........

Digital Trickery and Videos for Dot

2010-08-25T15:42:00.000+01:00

A bit of digital trickery.......beads, stitching and flowers all done by Photoshop! What a cheat. (The silk paper is real though :-)

Not content with that....here are some other colourways!

Here's the original.......I've been making silk paper for a mixed-media collage class coming up soon. I like this piece so much I may actually use it for a (real) stitched landscape.

A few more pieces......

I'll try to get a collage completed in the next couple of days to show what I aim to do with them.

I promised my friend Dot some video clips of Peachy and as I can't send them by email I will post them here.

Here he is trying to wreck the bead curtain in our conservatory .....

and in this one he's fighting with his toy cat. See what he does in the last couple of seconds! He's a cheeky boy........

And finally.......showing off his pink accessories.

Ah well, after a visit to the vets in a few weeks time I don't suppose it will really matter......

Nature's Artistry

2010-08-11T17:43:00.001+01:00

I found these poppy seed heads in my garden yesterday and photographed them on some of my inky-splattered paper. They are so sculptural - like little minarets.

Couldn't resist altering the colours in Photoshop......

..........and fiddling with some layers.

Now they're making me think of strange writing implements!
Hoping to use these as inspiration for a fabric collage/embroidery.

I'm a little obsessed with hydrangeas at the moment and bought another one today to add to my collection.

Such gorgeous colour variations all on the same plant - and each separate flower is different; ranging from 3 to 5 petals. These are being pressed for future fabric and paper collages.

And finally..... I'm rather impressed by the way a branch of our clematis has decided to attach itself to the back of the garden seat. Nature's artistry eh?

(click for a closer view)

Garden Journal Update

2010-08-06T14:09:00.004+01:00

I've been making lots of little bits and pieces to go in my garden journal. Here are a few pics.......

As you can probably see I've used fabric, lace, paper, threads, machine and hand-stitching, pressed flowers, buttons, sari ribbons and dyed scrim.
The words on the last picture are from The Flower Duet (Delibes). This is one of my favourite pieces of music. Here's a great version with Katherine Jenkins and Kiri Te Kanawa........enjoy.
Two posts today.....hope you can stay to the end and have a look at my birthday treats below!

Gifts

2010-08-06T14:08:00.002+01:00

It was my birthday at the weeekend - not one of my best as I didn't feel too well - but I had some lovely presents.......

My husband bought me a Pandora leather bracelet with a gold and silver crown charm and I had two more from mum and Rob. Liz bought me the same charm as Rob (how incredible is that when there are dozens to choose from?) and is swapping it today.

Amongst other treats, my DH also bought me this gorgeous safety helmet for when we go cycling. As you can see from my face I am absolutely thrilled with it and can't wait to wear it out in public. It will no doubt do wonders for my hairdo and street cred. (Please DON'T click on it and view my 58 year old wrinkles!)

Dot and I did a swap and I couldn't believe the treasures she sent me..... just in time for my birthday as well. This glorious piece is mounted on canvas board and ready to hang on my wall. Dot is famous for her fabulous felted and beaded creations and I feel privileged to own one. She also included two lovely ATCs and a load of silk ribbons, felt pebbles and nubbles, wool, beads and sequins. How lucky am I :-)........thank you Dot, you're a sweetheart xx

My lovely friend Lynn also sent me birthday treats. I was absolutely thrilled to receive one of her precious birds nest charms in a beautiful box

.....plus a lovely card, bookmark and other treats. Lynn is creating some wonderful pieces using pressed flowers; go see her blog.

Last but not least my fab friend Rosie, who makes the most fantastic cards, sent me this beauty.....

......plus two ATCs, a microscope slide collage and a BOOK!!!!!

Thanks also to Jaqi and Sandie who sent me gorgeous cards (great colours girls!)

I am a lucky (old) lady, aren't I?!!!

Garden Journal

2010-07-27T16:00:00.003+01:00

Over the past few days I've stitched my journal together and completed the first page. I used a variety of layers including an image from my garden transferred onto fabric, dyed scrim, a page of text, silk paper, organza, polyester habotai and a felted/beaded fabric flower. I used an old dictionary for the cover (below) which will be later covered in fabric and collage....which seems a bit of a shame.....so I may find a way to leave some parts of it showing, especially those leafy columns.

My next page will be this digitally altered clematis. I put the original (below) into Photoshop and dragged the texture on top. I then played with the layer effects until I found one I liked (I think it was hard light) and reduced the intensity. Next I stamped it with a script brush and finally altered the colours using hue/saturation.

The original photo plus my texture from Calke Abbey.

For the final piece I dragged another layer on top (a yellowy digital scrapbook layer from Katie Pertiet) and altered the layer effect and saturation.
I'm currently in the process of printing this image onto fabric. My favourite method is to coat the cotton fabric with white matte inkAID then iron it onto freezer paper before putting through the printer. The inkAID creates a surface which gives the strongest colour reproduction that I've found.

And finally......yesterday I taught a class at The Beetroot Tree. We altered mint tins (from M&S and Aldi) using alcohol inks and a variety of embellishments including metal, Angelina fibres, grungepaper, flowers, shrink plastic, felt and collage sheets.
Here are my three examples......

.......and the girls at work......

The gallery has a great new exhibition starting this weekend ...its called Fresh. It promises to be an exciting and eclectic exhibition of new craft and design talent with work for sale.

Wish you could all come........ :-)

A Few Things I Forgot......

2010-07-24T15:29:00.002+01:00

For those of you who do digital art, here are some free textures for you to download. They are photographs I took at a local National Trust property - Calke Abbey in Derbyshire. Everyone else was taking photos of the house and the furniture whilst I was getting excited about the plaster walls. Got a few funny looks.......

Just click on the image, then save as....

I forgot to mention in my last post that the lovely Diane at My Art Journal is having a give away.....go see her lovely paintings. She is such a prolific artist...I don't know how she does it!

I adore this Garden Girl.

I also meant to show the Lotus Flower books done by two of my blogging friends; Lorraine at Love of Collage ....

.....and Jill at Third Age Musings. Its so nice to see other peoples' versions of these little books. Thank you girls for having a go....your books are lovely!

Digital Collages and Sari Ribbons

2010-07-23T11:54:00.003+01:00

I felt in the mood for some digital scrapbooking this morning and used photos from my garden. This is a new plant this year called Francoa Sonchifolia - more commonly known as 'Bridal Wreath'. Very pretty and delicate....

The Echinacea (or Rudbekia Purpurea) is settling in nicely and has produced loads of new flowers....

And the Alliums (or 'Black Garlic') were great this year.....so sculptural.....
(All digital bits and pieces are from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals.)

This week I've been fiddling with the sari silk ribbons and threads. I stitched them onto my ink splattered papers which I first bonded onto tea bag paper (from Jackie - she sells it in her etsy shop). Above are a few close-ups.
Its a work in progress.....still need to add some french knots, beads and hand-stitching.
Now I really must get on with my journal ....have a lovely weekend!

Oh No.....She's a Boy!!!!

2010-07-18T20:27:00.003+01:00

Update on the princess......she's a prince! My daughter brought the kitten round today so my mum could see it for the first time. We were all sitting round the table after dinner and Peachy was lying on my lap when my son glanced at 'her' and said thats definitely not a girl! Then my husband agreed and I must admit I began to have my doublts. Poor DD was told by the person she bought it from that it was female so she bought a pink fluffy bed, pink dish, pink poo tray etc...........oooops, well she can't swap them now! For the rest of the afternoon we all struggled to say he instead of she..........don't think DD saw the funny side :-)
Who's a pretty boy then.........

Had a wonderful time on Friday; spent the day with my new friend Maggi (To Dream to Stitch) and she took me to The Threshing Barn near Leek in Staffordshire. It was a lovely journey; beautiful countryside almost all the way. When we got inside I didn't know where to look first; the rainbow display of sari silk threads and ribbons, the shelves of wool and silk fibres in every imaginable colour, hand-made items, books, beads, buttons, kits, tools, dyes..... I didn't want to leave! We even got to see the new piglets in one of the farm buildings. We followed that with lunch in 'Fresh Basil' ...then I was lucky enough to see Maggi's amazing studio.
Did I buy anything.....what do you think!!!

Sari ribbons, sari silks, buttons and beads.....

......plus a bag of mixed wool fibres.

Here's the skein of sari ribbon shaken free of its plait....my fav colours!

Maggi kindly gave me some silk and curly wool (Wensleydale?) that she's dyed herself. Clever girl.
Now I need to get felting and sewing.......

Thank you for a lovely day Maggi :-)

Oh I nearly forgot......I have been making something over the past few days.
I've been stitching cords on the sewing machine.......great fun!

Princess Peaches

2010-07-11T22:27:00.003+01:00

Just wanted to show you the gorgeous Princess Peaches....my daughter's new kitten. She brought her to show me yesterday and had great difficulty getting her out of my clutches to take her home! DH is being very ~~boring~~ sensible and pointing out all the reasons why we can't have another cat. Boooo.......
Looks like I'll be visiting DD a lot :-)

We've been making the most of the glorious weather recently by using our National Trust card. Last week we went to Calke Abbey in Derbyshire (more of that in another post.....DH took the photos on his camera phone and has mislaid the download cable. There are some amazing wall textures on it for digital collage which I'll share! )
Today we went to the lovely Belton House near Grantham and enjoyed the sunshine, gardens, interior, home-made soup, ice cream, tea and biscuits (but not all at once :-)
The house was built late 17th century....'a fine example of Restoration architecture' and was used in the TV adaption of Pride and Prejudice. Just think, Colin Firth may have stood on those lawns......but you'll have to make do with me.

I'm always fascinated by the amazing beds in these places...my favourite is the blue bed at Calke Abbey which has a brilliant story to it (next time :-) but this was the best one at Belton......in the Chinese room where the walls are covered in hand-painted silk wallpaper.

But this is my favourite photo of all. We bought a very tall echinacea at the plant stall and DH kindly carried it back to the car. He wondered why I wanted to stop and take a photo of him on the way..........

And finally.......I decided to join KiwiCaroles journal workshop last week, click here for link.

I love all the vintage stuff thats being done but I'm not so good at that so I'm being a bit of a rebel.
Here are my hand-made papers ready to be embellished (they are grouped into signatures.....I've learned something already!) My book is going to be about my garden.......

I had great fun splattering ink and salt on watercolour paper.......

More next time!

Magnolia/Tulip Tree

2010-07-02T22:20:00.005+01:00

Update.........it appears we are all correct.
The tree is known as a magnolia tree and a tulip tree...see here.
There are lots of different varieties...I think this is an evergreen.
In England most magnolia trees are pinky/white and they flower before the leaves appear and you tend not to get the two together.

Thanks for all your comments....we learn something every day!!! :-)

Collage....And More Of Thassos

2010-07-02T14:35:00.006+01:00

Had a day to myself yesterday so indulged in my favourite pastime......playing with ink and bits of paper!

Made a couple of tags and some backgrounds for mini-pictures which will be mounted on wood when they are finished.
(I was inspired to make tags by these lovely people....Sue at Heloise and Lorraine at Love of Collage.)

Just a few more photos of Thassos......

We had to travel by ferry to the island from the greek mainland....a 40 min journey.

Spotted this sculpture in the ferry port (Keramoti).

The entrance to the apartments where we stayed....the gardens were so peaceful.

There was a fabulous tree in the garden; can anyone help me out here.......is it a 'tulip tree'?

This wonderful old olive tree was close by....it could be over 1,000 years old. (Click to see a close up of the trunk.)

We saw this tree by the beach and wondered what it was. Then I saw Patty had written about one exactly the same on her blog. Apparently its a Mimosa tree.Thank you Patty! You can see her post here.

And finally...I photographed some sea holly (top right) and had a play with it in Photoshop. I've printed the turquoise one onto fabric and have started a quilted picture. If it turns out ok I'll show you!

Thats it! Thanks for sticking with me and getting to the end..... ;-)

Thassos

2010-06-29T15:45:00.000+01:00

We arrived back late on Sunday.....my husband drove from Birmingham airport with the England match on the radio. I wouldn't say it was the best he's ever driven .... and I was relieved to get home. Have you ever listened to a football commentry on the radio? The commentators get over-excited when the ball goes near the goal and start shouting and their voices get higher and higher! Not a calming experience....
Anyway, we had a great time in Thassos and all my wishes were granted:

a Mythos lager at a beach taverna

swimming in a turquoise sea

photo opportunities (our resort in the distance)

Greek salad, wine

and interesting wildlife!

This insect was around 5" long (with antennae even longer!) ...I think the 'false eye' on its side is meant to warn off predators. If you click on it you may see its real eye.

In the mountain village nearby I found a heart tree...

......and this was our village bus stop! Very sensible.....

Final photo for today; we stayed in a resort called Golden beach (or Scala Panagia) and this is the tiny village church.

Back in a couple of days with some artwork and more photos.

Time for tzatziki, souvlaki and Mythos......

2010-06-18T12:30:00.002+01:00

I know you're used to me going missing every now and then ;-) but I have a good excuse this time! I'm off to a lovely Greek island this weekend..... its time for a 'fix' of my favourite things; Greek salad, tzatziki, souvlaki, sunshine, beaches, Greek wine, Mythos beer........

This is a photograph I took last time we were there.....I like the way they use catering cans for plant pots.

I've used clipping masks on both pictures (Lynn Grieveson at Designer Digitals) - love them!

Back in a couple of weeks.......when I'll enjoy catching up on all your wonderful artwork.

Flowers and Books

2010-06-16T10:55:00.007+01:00

I bought some EcoArtboard from here last week.....its actually for a project I'm doing for the Suzi Blu Piety and Passion class (but more of that another time). Anyway, its lovely stuff; I like using thick card for inchies, twinchies and ATCs and this is REALLY THICK! (Its like wood.)
You can buy them in packs of different sizes - this is an ATC size....

Above is my Paper Whimsy flower (downloadable sheet). I've added fabric, hand-made papers and machine-stitching.
In Greek, anemone means 'daughter of the wind'.

More digital art....

I know you can't improve on the beauty of a flower, so I'm just presenting these (from my garden) in a different way. I've done loads of these but I won't bore you with them all in one go :-)

I've also been making lots of Lotus Flower Books this week as I think I may have an outlet for selling them.

(Update: forgot to mention......the trees and the Madonna are stamps on Shrink Plastic.)

It was great to see some different examples of these books on Sue's blog see here. Her fabric version is very special .......

And finally........

Sharne at Sharne's Bits 'n' Bobs is having a great give-away........ such a pretty journal with a wonderful embellished cover. Don't go and enter because I want to win it...... :-)

How to make Lotus Flower Books

2010-06-09T12:25:00.008+01:00

Quite a few of you have asked if I would show a tutorial on making Lotus Flower Books. I'm not up to making videos yet so I hope step-by-step instructions are ok for you. (Thanks to Alysn at the Beetroot Tree for giving me the 'ok' to do this.)

You will need:   4 squares of paper 10cms x 10cms
2 squares of thick card 5.25cms x 5.25cms
                        2 squares of paper (for covers) 7cms x 7cms
                        fibre or ribbon, glue

1. Make a horizontal, vertical and one diagonal fold on each of the 4 larger squares of paper.

2. Push the diagonal folds in so that the paper folds into a smaller square.

3. With the folded corners in the same orientation, glue 2 squares together.

4. Continue with the remaining squares.

5. Cover each piece of thick card with the 7 cm square cover papers. Trim the corners.

6. Glue one cover onto the top of the folded papers.

7. Place the ribbon or fibre over the inside of the second cover, tape it down, then glue to the back of the folded pages.
This can be as long as you like, depending upon how many times you want to wrap it round the book!

Decorate your cover and tie the ribbon (or fibre).

I hope that explains it ok for you! If there are any parts that are confusing, please let me know so I can do some editing.

Please link back to me if you decide to have a go.....and show me what you come up with.
Of course you can adapt the sizes if you wish; I have made them in all different sizes but the one above is the cutest!

I hate days like this........

2010-06-08T13:39:00.006+01:00

Well I'm sitting in my studio looking out at a depressing scene today....sorry, but I'm not one of those positive people who can look at rain and see beauty. I love bright, sunny days - they make me happy!!

But it does remind me of a fantastic performance by Mika on a recent TV show....see the end of this post.

I had a great day yesterday teaching at the Beetroot Tree but forgot my camera so unfortunately have no pictures! I'm still making Lotus Flower books though and hopefully tomorrow I will put a tutorial on my blog showing how to make them. (Thank you to all those people who have emailed me and asked - I will do my best!)

Here are two more postcards...the first was made for Emma and her 50 swap.....

.......and this has one of my digi-collages transferred onto fabric. Both flowers are from Paper Whimsy digital downloads. Click for more detail.

I was lucky enough to win a give-away on Sue's blog (Heloise) last week. She makes wonderful fabric creations.......like this gorgeous pendant......and these funky earrings (which I have already worn twice!) Love the tag as well...thank you Sue :-)

Now for the song....enjoy!! (If it doesn't play well - here's the link instead)

Using my digital art....

2010-05-28T15:27:00.008+01:00

Just playing with my digital art today...have made a few mixed-media collages. This is the only one that's finished.....more to come! The background is waxed paper (kitchen towel and inks), the pink strip is made up of fabric, threads and Mistyfuse, the flowers are metal (cut with a punch) and I have sewn beads in the centre of my digital picture. Pink flower free, courtesy of Wiki Commons.

Still making Lotus Flower Books....this the 8th and its 2" square. I drew on a piece of metal (inside of tomato puree tube) for the embellishment, added alcohol ink and rubbed on treasure wax. The tiny word is from a Tim Holtz Distressables strip. Underneath is a layer of Angelina.Just made a few more papers for the class I'm taking! (I really must stop now - I don't think there's that many people attending :-)

Hope you're having a lovely day.....its gorgeous and sunny here in Derbyshire!

And There's More.....

2010-05-25T14:40:00.008+01:00

Here are two digital collages I created from a photo of a delightful shop in Belper, Derbyshire. I asked permission to show them because the original is of course protected under copyright but it can be seen on the front of their new website Lavender Grey. I recommend a visit if you're ever in the area.......

As everyone knows, we've had a spell of wonderful weather recently in England......and this is where I've spent a lot of my time. Well, you have to make the most of it whilst its here!

This is one of my favourite flowers......

......digitally altered by me.
Another new blogging friend of mine....the lovely Emma at A Little Bit of Everything is doing a very special postcard swap for her 50th birthday. She wants to find 50 people to swap with (I hope she has plenty of stamps ready!)
Here's the gorgeous collage she sent me.....now I must get mine completed (you'll get it next week, I promise Emma!)
If you'd like to join in I'm sure she'd love to hear from you - go and visit her blog.

And finally...... I decided to treat myself to something from the talented Claire Barone's Etsy shop (she has some wonderful things for sale) and chose this delightful piece called 'Searching'. I love it.

Go and see her beautiful blog header....

Lotus Flower Books

2010-05-25T13:26:00.011+01:00

I'm teaching another class at The Beetroot Tree very soon....this time making Lotus Flower Books. I've been practising for the past week - they are rather sweet and open out in different ways.

I've had great fun making loads of papers to take along with me and have stamped them with my own hand-carved rubber stamps.

I was inspired a lot by my lovely new friend Maggi at To Dream To Stitch.
We arranged to meet each other last week (a blind date!) and we spent the day visiting Peartree Yard craft centre, Cachepot (coffee in the garden and beautiful shop) and Andersons (yet more coffee). She brought lots of gorgeous little books to show me and kindly gave me this one......

....its quite tiny and sits neatly in the palm of my hand. It has beautiful hand-made papers inside.
I hope we'll get to meet again very soon.; despite talking for 6 hours, I don't think we covered everything.........

Another Version

2010-05-11T21:02:00.003+01:00

I played around with my painting using Photoshop........I think it might be an improvement :-)

Born to Reign

2010-05-11T18:09:00.006+01:00

Well I think she's finished.......but its hard to be sure. Anyway, this is lesson one and its loosely based on Princess Elizabeth. I can see now that the eyes are too dark and the hairline is a bit odd.........maybe I'll have to fiddle some more :-)

Some Kind of Progress......

2010-05-07T12:06:00.007+01:00

Just thought I'd show you how she's coming along.....still lots to do. I need to make some shabby embellishments for the lower part.

Another sketch (waiting for wood...I keep reminding DH :-)
And whilst I'm on the subject of drawings.....have you seen the new 50p bags in Sainsbury's; rather lovely don't you think? Very strong too, they should last a long time.

And finally, just playing with Photoshop......aaaarrrggghhhh!!!!!

Whats on my workdesk..........

2010-05-05T16:27:00.004+01:00

I've just been over to Rosie's blog to see what she's been doing today (great scrapbook pages!) and thought I'd copy her idea and show whats on my workdesk. The link is WOYWW (Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday). There are 95 other workdesks to see, if you have a spare minute or two!
Anyway.......on my rather scruffy desk you can see I've started some sketches for a new online class which I've subscribed to...... Suziblu's 'Piety and Passion' . We are learning to paint 3/4 faces (not easy!) and Suzi is using paintings from the Tudor period to inspire us.
After drawing a starter face, we tear out the image and attach it to wood with matte medium. Then the fun starts - gesso, paint, crayons, crackle glaze, distress inks, fabric, jewels, flowers, beeswax........ I'll let you know how I get on :-)

Another Felting Class...and More Flowers!

2010-04-27T10:13:00.009+01:00

Yesterday I taught another felting class at The Beetroot Tree Gallery
....... this time we made felt beads and bracelets. We rolled the wool fibres with warm water and soap to make balls, let them dry, stitched beads onto them, then strung them onto shirring elastic with glass and silver beads in between.

I also paid homage to Jean (you can see her felt and silk flower tutorial here) and we made flowers to add to the beacelets. Instead of using coloured silk flowers though, I bought some very cheap white blossoms on a stem (from Wilko) and took them to pieces.....
......sprayed them with inks.......

..........and then felted them together and stitched beads in the centres.

The ladies were all delighted with their results........

What to do with Digi-art?

2010-04-27T09:50:00.007+01:00

When you create digital art a lot of people ask what will you do with it? A very good question!
Well I am trying to think of different ways of using mine and up to now I have printed some pieces onto fabric and made collages, I have had some images made into postcards and greetings cards and this week I have been attempting to put some onto woodblocks. I'm not sure this one is finished yet; I may add some lace or other embellishment.
If you have any other ideas I would love to hear from you!

Time Away........

2010-04-22T17:06:00.012+01:00

I won't apologise for having been AWOL for the past few weeks.......I know you understand :-)

DH and I went away for a few days - more on that later - plus I've been spending some time reading, visiting friends and gardening. I'm sorry I haven't done any blog-visiting for a while ; I've spent very little time on my PC because of a problem with my neck. Anyway....following a visit to the physio earlier this week I'm feeling a little better.

A couple of weeks ago we visited my lovely friend Rosie and her DH, who looked after us extremely well. We spent a happy afternoon sitting in their garden in the sunshine, watching the blue tits in the trees around us, then Rosie and I played in her art room for a while whilst the men cooked us a fantastic dinner. Can life get any better? :-)

Over the next few days we moved on to the Malvern Hills, Great Malvern, Ironbridge and finally Wightwick Manor. This gorgeous house was furnished under the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement and has original William Morris wallpapers and fabrics....plus Pre-Raphaelite works of art. At the top of this post you can see the digital collage I created from the photograph below. This is only the side view of the house.........the full view is further down.
23/4...thought I should explain that the face is William Morris and the quote is his most famous one: "Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or beautiful".

Two more Wightwick digi-collages, with the originals below......

........and here's the whole house. More detailed photos to come in my next post.
Remember that house shaped box I showed you? Well some of you guessed correctly; it's for my father's ashes. We weren't sure where to put them and tried to think of all his favourite places. Whilst we were pondering over various possibilities Mum jokingly said 'His absolute favourite place was sitting in your conservatory Linda!' Over the next week the idea grew on me ...... and gradually people have begun to accept it.
So what's left of Dad is now in a sunny corner of our conservatory....I think he would approve :-)

And finally, I wanted to show you this rather gorgeous photo stand I bought recently; it's perfect for displaying my digi-art..........

Paper Whimsy Ladies

2010-03-26T23:34:00.010Z

Four digital collages I created for the new Paper Whimsy group which I belong to (scroll down to see link on left hand side). All done with PW downloadable images for digital art....... see here .

Other bits and pieces are mainly from Designer Digitals.
I painted the wings myself.
(Please click on images for a better view.)

Life........

2010-03-24T10:29:00.006Z

Digital collage - photo from Wikimedia Commons (free), clipping mask from Lynn Grieveson at Designer Digitals plus various layers and textures.

I love this photograph of my MIL when she was a girl in the early 1920s (with her mother and siblings); she is the one on the left. Its a delightful composition - although a litttle precarious I suspect! She would have been 89 next month but sadly she died yesterday from heart and kidney failure - she had been in hospital for over 6 weeks.
So once again, in the space of only 2 months, my DH and I are grieving the loss of a parent and organising another funeral. But at the same time we are aware of how lucky we are that our parents both lived long and happy lives.

At the weekend we made this box between us (DH cut up the MDF and I glued it together). Today I am going to gesso it ready for decoration. It has a very special purpose.....I wonder if you can guess what its for. Maybe you need a clue?
Mmmmmm....... its not very conventional........and you might possibly be a little shocked when I tell you. Or maybe not? :-)

As you can see, its over 12" tall.
What do you think...........?

More Digital Collage

2010-03-19T15:37:00.006Z

Flower from Wikimedia Commons, clipping mask from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals, quote from Marcee Dugger at Digital Scrapbook Place.......plus a few coloured layers and filters.

Cow parsley photo from my sweet friend Jo (Tanglefrost), scratched layer from Night-fate-stock at deviantART, grunge border from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals plus some of my own layers.

Fairy Queen

2010-03-16T22:08:00.009Z

I decided to do a challenge today and chose 'Art Creations Friday' - I love the image they gave for this week........ 'Ophelia' by John William Waterhouse. This is my digital collage version.......You can see the original here.

Friends, Flowers......and More Felting

2010-03-15T14:53:00.009Z

Felting has got me hooked this week! I'm having a go at making hand-felted pictures; this is one of my attempts (a copy of one of my digital pieces see further down the post).

One of my blogging friends, Jean, has posted a delightful video tutorial on felting silk flowers...hers are absolutely gorgeous. Click on her name and go and have a look. Here's mine.........I must go out and buy some prettier silk flowers, all my best ones are made of paper (I tried it with them and it doesn't work!!)I had 2 lovely surprises in the post recently......some gorgeous postcards (of her beautiful digital art) from my lovely friend Lynn along with some vintage buttons and lace........

......and a beautiful paper-collaged card (which you may have already seen on her blog). Lucky me!! Thank you so much Lynn.

Another wonderful surprise came from Lazy Kay (see her blog 'Bean Sidhe') She made a 'scrapbook in a tin' for a talk at her local art group and decided to make it for someone in particular...me! How kind and thoughtful is that? Its a memory scrapbook for my dad and she put loads of wonderful quotes in it. It was half-finished when I received it and she suggested I finish it off myself with photos of dad etc. There are loads of pages and they all concertina inside the tin - such a clever idea, I have done about half of them up to now.
Here are some of them........
Finally...I've been experimenting with printing my digital art onto fabric. The following two were printed onto fabric which I had previously coated with InkAID. The colours are much brighter...success! I'm still going to try out some other methods though.......

Needle-Felting Workshop

2010-03-08T15:36:00.009Z

Before I start I just want to say a huge 'thank you' to everyone who responded to my last post. I appreciate all your very interesting comments and I will let you know the results of my research into printing on fabric very soon.
Today I have been teaching a needle-felting class at The Beetroot Tree and I want to thank all of the 14 lovely ladies who came along. They showed such great enthusiasm and produced fabulous results! Above you can see the pre-felted pieces I made for them to work on (we cut them up into pieces) - we also used other starting points such as plain bought felt and wool top just on its own.

Not many of them had tried needle-felting before and they all produced beautiful pieces......either a brooch or a picture for a small frame or greetings card.

The Beetroot Tree has a fabulous shop and it didn't take me long to spend my wages.......

These are my latest attempts at making brooches ........ 'etsy maybes'.

Nature Does Not Hurry.......

2010-03-03T16:28:00.010Z

Mixed-media piece using the digital collage image from my last post.

I'm still struggling to get a really good reproduction into fabric. I've tried a few different ways and spent a fair bit of money!! Has anyone got any suggestions? This one isn't too bad.....its from Crafty Computer Paper and its on cotton lawn (you put it straight through the printer).

The circles are pieces of my needle-felting I cut up. The lace is from an old cotton tablecloth my mum gave me.......I ripped it into loads of pieces and dyed them all differently.

I'm not sure whether its finished or not - I think it needs more stitching.

More playing with Photoshop.....

I can see blue sky........

2010-02-27T16:23:00.012Z

(click on image)

At last.......today has a promise of Spring in the air.
I can see big patches of blue sky and this is the forecast for tomorrow........I'm excited!!!

Above you can see my latest digital collage; I used these two images from Flickr Creative Commons and Wikimedia Commons.....

I also used some grunge layers and a clipping mask. I've printed it onto cotton lawn and have chosen some bits of fabric and lace to go with it. Now I just neeed to get sticking, painting and sewing. About time too!!!!

Nature does not hurry......
.......yet everything is accomplished.
Lao Tzu

A Prayer.....

2010-02-26T11:24:00.008Z

Today I am praying for Renee. I've been following her blog for a long time and last year we exchanged gifts of friendship. She has sufferered with Inflammatory Breast Cancer for quite some time and now she is very ill in hospital. Renee is an incredibly special lady and has hundreds of friends who are all praying for her (as you will see if you visit her blog).
If you visit Lynn's blog and click on the video clip you can read more about this terrible disease known as IBC. Everyone should know about it.

Thank you Patty for sharing the lovely angel image which I have used in my digital collage.