Gifts

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?!!!

Precious Things.......

I have a few things to show you...so I hope you'll bear with me! First of all....we've only just dared to open up our bird box and have a look inside. We knew that the blue tits had deserted the nest in May because a black cat kept upsetting them....but we wanted to be absolutely sure. Inside; 10 perfect eggs in a cosy nest; so beautiful ..... but so sad. My son says they look exactly like Cadburys Mini Eggs - and they are the same size too. Yuk.....doesn't bear thinking about!!!!


I decided to have my own set of 'Mini Moos' having admired the ones friends have sent in packages recently. It was great fun choosing which pictures of my work to have on them.....and I'm thrilled with the results!!
Just look at this array of gorgeousness! I ordered these collage papers from Ro Bruhn's etsy shop....I love her work. I'm going to use them on some mixed-media pages in a journal. I want to play with combining paper, stitching and fabric.
And lucky me! I won the give-away on Corinne Phillips blog....six wonderful fairy postcards of her work. They will probably appear on my journal pages too. I especially love the Little Black Dress fairy......
My printed tapes arrived from lillalotta.....looking forward to using them.
And finally.......I've been making ATCs using copies of my own paintings. I printed out sections then added extra paint and embellishments. These two will be winging their way to a new friend, Gini, who I have recently met through ABAA. She's a lovely lady who has a great sense of humour! I recommend a visit to her blog.

Catching Up.....

A few months ago I subscribed to Quilting Arts magazine digitally; it saves a lot of bother and is cheaper that way! The June/July edition is full of gorgeous things including an article from the very talented Jackie whose blog I love to visit plus a very inspiring little 'workshop' from Jill A. Kennedy (whose glorious work you can see here).
I tried out some of her techniques involving using wax crayons and inks on thickish hand-made paper which you then screw up and iron until it becomes almost like fabric. I then played around with it......cutting it up, piecing bits back together, machining over, adding fibres, cutting out flower shapes etc.

Its quite small ......4" x 5". I was going to neaten up all the ends but I rather like them tatty.

Another of my favourite blogs is Michelle Ward's and last week she gave a link to a wonderful website called Villainess. They sell gorgeous products like perfumed oils, scrubs, soaps and body creams....which are just that bit different. The way the products are described is brilliant; I recommend you go and have a read. I even like the names.......Decadence, Byzantium, Silk and Cyanide, Scintillating, Paradise Misplaced. I treated myself to a few items (well, it is my birthday soon!) The black envelopes contain small soap samples which you can buy for $1 (you also get two free) - the labels are rather lovely and may be seen on future ATCs etc! (Pictures shown with permission from Brooke, who runs the company)

This week I have been making things for Liz with her 'Marie Antoinette' photos on.

A 5" x 5" chunky canvas .......... (I printed her photo onto tissue paper so the text underneath shows through)

an ATC.....

and a mixed media collage....

I hope she likes them........ (haven't seen much of her for the past few days as she's been with the new boyfriend)

More Prizes, ATCs and a Fabric Book

I received my other two OWOH prizes this week.......
a gorgeous dragonfly charm made by Keron Lee (who is currently organising hearts and dolls for the victims of the Australian bushfires)http://www.thecolourguru.typepad.com/ and http://loveitforward.ning.com/


.......plus some great items for altering from Moira Sutton at http://www.happy-daze.net/epages/es112899.sf . I can't wait to have a go at that box!


Moira's shop is definitely worth a visit. There are all sorts of items for altering including cute bird boxes!





I made another fabric heart yesterday for a special blogging friend I met recently.
Plus 2 ATCs today - just because I felt like it!

And finally, something I've been working on all week and I LOVED doing.........the cover for a fabric book on the theme of angels. (More on this at a later date.) I am now debating how to make a fabric border for it.
I made the background fabric myself. After reading Judy Scott's blog and seeing her gorgeous nuno felting, I thought I would have a go. Well, I can't say it was a resounding success - but I managed to salvage it!
This was how it looked at first...but I then hand needle-felted sari silk fibres on top. You can see them here in the picture below....

After machine-stitching the picture on (transferred to fabric using JetFX) I spent a happy few hours adding beads, running stitches and french knots.
Now I'm going to make the back cover using the remains of the nuno felting......

Stuff

I haven't got a new project to show you at the moment - hopefully that will come later in the week. So I thought I'd show you some other things....

This is the gorgeous new wallpaper we have in our bedroom! Its totally different from the rest of the house and not 'typically me' at all. But I like it......

The embroidery on the skirt of a fabulous 'cocktail' dress I bought last week. It was reduced in a sale from £100 to £25 - ooooh I do like a bargain! Now I'm all ready for the Christmas parties....

A page in my journal ready for pictures and words. I got the technique from Jean at http://bluebirdslivinginthemeadow.blogspot.com/ It was lovely, messy fun, thank you Jean.
An ATC I made a while ago for a swap at Chriss's (http://chriss-rollins.blogspot.com/ ) I used alcohol inks on part glossy wrapping paper, a picture from Piddix (etsy) and angelina fibres. Close ups of the can I altered for our challenge on http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com/
I used gesso, tissue paper, stamps, acrylic paints, stencils and embellishments.

The quote says adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.

An excellent book I'm reading at the moment.
Some letter doodling I did after reading this http://artinredwagons.blogspot.com/2008/08/lettering-technique-i-had-to-try.htmlThe rest of Kimmie's blog is well worth looking at, too, she makes fabulous artwork. Have you seen her altered can yet? Its amazing!

This was my altered envelope in Chriss's competition last week. I may actually use it! The bouquet was cut from a magazine, the other flowers were torn from paper napkins and applied with gel medium.

And finally.......a sneak preview of something I'm making for the next challenge at http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com/ The wobbly machine stitching is deliberate. Honestly. Hopefully see you there on Friday!!

Love Linda x

ATC

I finally got round to making an ATC!!

I drew the face on fabric, coloured it with crayons then machine stitched on top.

Believe in Miracles

Did this ATC a few days ago - in my favourite colours. Most of the flowers and swirls are paper napkins again........ with a bit of torn text and an image from Nancy Dooren.
Words are my own.

Created By Hand Challenge

I made this ATC for the 'Created By Hand' challenge blog.

I used torn text, gesso, patterned paper napkins, an Artchix image, Zetti stamp, lace and patterned paper. I wrote the quote Dreams are free, so free your dreams, which is by Astrid Alauda.

Have you discovered the joys of patterned paper napkins yet?

If you tear off the bits you want and glue them down the outline doesn't show. You can also layer them.

Ro Bruhn and Sharon Tomlinson use them to great effect in their artwork.

ATCs

Yesterday I discovered some wonderful Paper Whimsy background papers in a new digital download section on their website, so I treated myself to a couple of sheets. This little girl is from Lisa's Altered Art. The word stamp is by Invoke Arts.

Another Paper Whimsy background, the same image of a girl as above ..... and I made the frame myself.

ATC swap - houses and numbers

I made these house ATCs for a numbers swap for Chriss's Artists Trading Club. As she has shown them on her blog, I think its ok for me to put them on mine now.

I used bubble wrap to print the backgrounds, lots of different scrapbook pages, collage pictures from Artchix, tree stamp from Paper Artsy, bird and wings from Invoke Arts and finished them off with some clear embossing powder.