The Wanderer Returns

I can't believe its over 3 weeks since I last posted......so much has happened in that time; we've had some difficult and upsetting things to deal with in the family and I haven't felt like making anything. But hopefully after this week we can start and get back to normal.

The 6" x 6"fabric collage is my piece for our dragonfly challenge at http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com/ . The background is purple silk and on top I used organza, stamped and printed fabric, rusty leaves from Retro Cafe (which I coloured with Lumiere paint), torn text, gems and Angelina for the dragonfly. The stamp is from Crafty Originals.

I stretched the whole thing around piece of wood with wadding between as you can see here.....

I discovered a new material last week which I'm quite excited about! Its called Mistyfuse - I'm sure many of you have heard of it before, but it's new to me. I dyed some pieces of silk then put threads, sequins, gilding flakes etc on top...... placed the Mistyfuse over and ironed with baking parchment between to protect the iron. All the bits and pieces then become attached to the background. Here are my practice pieces. Next I will hand and machine stitch over the top to make absolutely sure everything is attached.

You'll find a much better explanation of this technique here: http://twocreativestudios.com/free.htm under 'Fabric Charms'.

This is where I've been spending the recent glorious sunny days! We have a small walled garden with lots of little sitting areas. We've just added a metal arch and have planted a clematis one side and a pink rose the other - the race is on to see which can reach the top first.

I painted the shed and deck blue......I love the colour but some of our friends think I've gone a bit mad!

This one makes me laugh...a headless DH in the shed!!!

I hope you like my 'new-look' blog. I challenged myself a few days ago to change the html and create 3 columns. It wasn't easy but after a few goes I managed it. You can find instructions on Itkupilli. Next job is a new banner.

Finally I want to thank 2 lovely ladies for recently awarding me these..........

Michelle at http://myjourneytohope.blogspot.com/

and Barbara at http://barbs-spiritsong.blogspot.com/

......so kind.

More Shells....

I experimented with one of my felt pieces to see if the tiny shells could be attached firmly. The most successful thing I found was 'Trim It' glue which is made for bonding accent beads, sequins and rhinestones to fabric. Well now they can add shells to the list - because it worked really well! This is quite a tiny piece....3" x 2.5"......with all my favourite colours.

The following little collages are 2" x 2" - just the right size for my baby shells.
Don't forget to pop along to The Awfully Big Art Adventure ........ and maybe join in with our challenge?

Shells

Rosie has made a gorgeous piece for our shell challenge on http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com/
I will make something over the weekend, but this afternoon I just made a quick 'twinchie' in between jobs. I like this size of art, 2"x2" is great to work with.

I've been a collector of shells for many years and have some lovely ones...but these are my favourites. Many years ago we visited a beach in France that was totally covered in shells - but they were all absolutely tiny.....every single one. There must have been some kind of disaster that caused them all to die so young. I suppose its quite sad really! Even more amazing is the huge variety; there are tiny cowries, wentletraps, scallops, limpets, periwinkles, oysters, tusk shells - to name but a few!

Some aren't much bigger than a grain of rice - and yet the colour and detail are amazing. They will be perfect for using in a piece for the challenge....I just haven't decided what yet!!

Last night DH and I went to see the new Star Trek film (a prequel)...and it was just BRILLIANT!

I wouldn't normally call myself a Trekkie, but I really enjoyed it and was hanging on to my seat for much of the time. The young actors do a fantastic job of impersonating the original cast, especially Spock and McCoy.

.....live long and prosper.......

Photo Challenge at ABAA

Rosie and I have decided to have monthly challenges from now on and this month Jaqi is our guest challenger. She has kindly allowed us to use one of her lovely old family photographs to inspire our artwork. I decided to transfer the image onto a 5"x 5" chunky canvas using gel medium. Unfortunaltely its now the wrong way round and (too late) I realise that I should have reversed it before printing it out!
I'd like to thank Ooglebloops for the lovely netting she sent me as part of a packet of treasures last week. It fitted perfectly with my colour scheme. The pansies are from a beautiful pack of tissues! (Torn and applied with gel medium......see Norah's blog if you want to see this technique done really well!)

I used upholstery tacks to attach the wire and the plastic netting .... and very pretty they are too!

The words Only a bird in a gilded cage are from a very old (rather sad) musical hall song you can find here (you can even listen to the tune!) As soon as I saw the photo I had those few words in my mind...it just took a bit of 'googling' to find the actual song!

Anyway...thanks for the challenge Jaqi - I really enjoyed it!

ABAA New Challenge

Our challenge on http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com/ this week is to alter a piece of cutlery. We have a guest designer/challenger - Patty Szymkowicz - who has made some fabulous pieces for us.
Here are my attempts; I was lucky enough to find some vintage cutlery pieces at The Beetroot Tree Gallery but I also aim to visit some car boot sales and hopefully collect more for future projects.
This is a tiny mustard spoon with wire, gems, a charm and a bird in a nest. I coloured some of the spoon with alcohol inks.
I bent back the prongs of the fork with pliers and added a butterfly, some gems, a charm - and Mona!

Over the past few weeks I've been involved in lots of ATC and bookmark swaps and I want to thank everyone who joined in with me - they are all beautiful.

I did get one rather unusual swap though ........ a little shoe in exchange for a bookmark!!! I love it, thank you Andrea!

If you go here http://talkinghorsesarts.blogspot.com/2009/03/snowy-sundayagain.html

and here

http://talkinghorsesarts.blogspot.com/2009/03/okhere-is-secret-that-i-need-to-tell.html

you'll see some more....

I won't be posting for a just over a week as hopefully I shall be lying in the sun!

I'll be thinking of you all - I promise!

Have a great weekend.....

Linda x

Birdhouses

My challenge this week on our blog Rosie and Linda's Big Art Adventure is to make a birdhouse. It can be flat or 3D...we like lots of variety! I made one from a plain little box 3" tall (thank you Chriss!) I cut into the sides of the lid, in the middle, and bent it to make the roof...easy!! I found the little 1" nest in a craft shop for 30p and I made the eggs myself. From my craft room window I can see the blue tits and coal tits visiting our nesting box on the garage wall. I hope we get permanent residents by Easter - I'll be able to keep watch on their progress.

My second example is VERY lime I'm afraid - but it is my current favourite colour! My DH cut the shape out of wood for me - I'm thinking of asking for some smaller ones now. (Wonder what his answer will be?) Most of the images I have used for these projects are from Vintage Moth - Abbie kindly gives away her pictures for free (and they are lovely).

I love the song 'Make a little birdhouse in your soul' and whilst searching for it on YouTube I found this very funny version with illustrations. The sound quality isn't good but its still worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_9BXx8VzeU&feature=related

Have fun!

Newsprint Challenge - ATCs

On our challenge blog this week Rosie suggested we use newsprint. I started by covering a sheet of it with acrylic paint and stamps......then I cut it up into ATC-sized pieces and free-machined onto them.

If anyone would like to trade .... let me know! I still have more to complete..........

Hearts

Our challenge this week on http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com/ is to create a piece of art with a milagros heart on it.

I needle-felted both of my hearts and made the pink one into a little quilt .



The second one I mounted onto organza then metal. The patterns on the metal were made using tools from Ten Second Studios (bought from LBCrafts.)

Altered Canvas, One World One Heart Event

This is my piece for our Altered Canvas Challenge at http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com/

I'm going to give it away as part of the One World One Heart event.

This is a great event organised every year by the talented Lisa. Its a way of connecting bloggers from all over the world through giving away pieces of art.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post (up until midnight on February 11) and I will select a winner on February 12.

(You need to be an active blogger to take part in this give away.)

The canvas is small and chunky, 4"x6". All the images are from Artchix collage sheets. I used acrylic paint, torn papers, gesso, stencils, lace, a metal charm and gold ink.

I hope you'll take part in the event...the winner will also receive a surprise package !! I recommend you go and take a look at all the other blogs taking part.

Good luck

Love Linda x

Bottletop Challenge

I thought I'd have a go at doing some bottletop ATCs (and a twinchie) today for our challenge on http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com

I also wanted to use some of my Artchix collage sheets.

The colour schemes ended up a bit wierd for me...but I was challenging myself!