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)

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!