I have been busy since my last post - I just haven't many photos to show for it.

Along with Linda and Judith from Beeston in Bloom we have been making xmas cards we hope to sell to raise funds towards next years plants. We have spent about 45 woman hours [although a few of those were spent eating] making cards but we haven't managed to get our productivity too high [partly because it takes a while to decide what to use as between us we have accumulated quite a lot of stash and partly because of the eating and talking!].

We have another session the week after next and then we have to try to sell them.

I also joined a beading group in Headingley, who meet once a month. They seem really friendly but again I wasn't too productive as I hadn't had my beads out for ages and I couldn't decide what to do.

Sara

Art Journalling

I went to the regular art journalling class on Saturday for a play. We had to think of words that described us at the moment, and then words we thought suited other journallers, then we were given a colour we had to use plus a tag and let loose to create.

I loved some tags Dyan had made so I shamelessly copied them as I'm currently loving the layered look. I also still have a thing about altered books so I made an apperture in my page. I had to use yellow but it seems to have been swamped by the lime and blue I put with it - oops.

There are also a couple of filler photos from previous pages as I didn't take enough of my new page to fill a collage.

Sara

Craft Artist

I got bored with the football [I usually like watching Brazil but they are supposed to win!] so I played with craft artist for a while.

I've been trying to replicate some images I saw in a magazine where the page was quite bare but there was a huge swathe of flowers decorating one corner of the main image.

I think it might have worked better with a plain background though.

This morning I went in to town on the bus [I don't go often as I'm not keen on waiting for buses but I refuse to pay the extortionate parking charges so I usually go to Morley where parking is free.

There was a little craft market on in the road above WH Smiths and, although I'd just gone in for book tokens and face cream, I managed to buy a felt pot holder, chunky charm bracelet, heart hanger, 3 coasters and a born in yorkshire bag at the stalls. Oops no - the bag was from Waterstones where I got the book tokens.

Well Mexico have won, despite a late Brazilian goal [they should have played Ronaldo like GB should have played Beckham], so I'm going to see what sports they might have on now. I think we managed another gold and a bronze in the canoeing this morning so fingers crossed for Tom Daley tonight.

Sara

Sara

Eventually

I got round to blogging the little crafting I've done whilst the olympics has been on. I do enjoy the olympics normally but I have never watched so much of it before. Well done Yorkshire - I'm hoping there will be a mix up [or possibly someone bribed] and the Yorkshire Flag will get raised and 'On Ilkley Moor Bar T' 'at' will get played by accident. I was exhilarated by the opening ceremony [apart from McCartney - please somebody retire him] and I know people have moaned about the Queen looking fed up but wouldn't you be, leaving the house with James Bond but arriving with Prince Phillip?

Anyway back to crafting. Apart from making a couple of cards I have only really been to art journalling at Art from the Heart last Saturday.

As you can see I've discovered the collage option on picassa so I don't have to import lots of individual photos or choose just one or two.

We played with dylusion inks, faux bleaching and T!m's new stamps - I knew I wanted the mini halloween set before I went but found I also needed some of the blueprint stamps after I had played with them [I ended up with 3 sets, the leaves, the halloween and the minis, oops].

I've also ordered the whole set of Dyans new release - very excited about that but unfortunately I'm not back in harrogate to collect them until the next art journalling class which is in September.

Sara

Catch up

I have been busy in the last two weeks, honest - but I haven't much to show for it really

I made a larger fabric panel [like the ones for the fabric book] and added it to the front of a bought canvas shopping bag. I like the effect but I wish I had used a bag with long handles as I would get more use out of it. Also the layered chains and charms at the top left keep getting tangled so, although I like the movement when they are not tangled, I might have to add a few catching stitches.

I also decorated a cardboard box for my daughters friend, Debbie, who has just had a baby girl. Harriet arrived over ten weeks early so she isn't home yet but I'm looking forward to a cuddle once she is - well done Debbie.

I also had a go at frantageing [don't think it's a real word so it probably doesn't matter how it's spelt] some chipboard baubles as demonstrated by Sue from The Stampman at the Leeds Grammar School Craft Show last sunday. It is a lovely show, maybe 30 stands [so I have a greater chance of remembering why I bought what I did and also what I've seen demonstrated] and quite a variety of craft good on offer. I did mean to go back to a couple of the stalls, for heavier items I didn't want to carry round for too long, but I ran out of time [which was good for my purse I suppose] as I was due at my mums for sunday lunch.

I was talking to Kay from Indigo-blu as well and she said the best way to do ute casting is to use the melt pot as it keeps the molten ute more fluid than using a pie tray and heat gun. I have a melt pot so I'll have to actually open the packaging and try it out [I've had it years but for some reason I've never got round to using it - may have something to do with not wanting to tackle cleaning it out!]. My moulding compound arrived from Germany [no customs charges hurray] so I'll have to mix some smaller amounts and get mould making. Maybe I can salvage a few that I already made by adding bases to them.

I also finally joined the create and craft club [I couldn't resist the docrafts fairy dvd - I was obbsessed with the images when they came out last year], so I bought the felting machine Jenny Rayment was demonstrating. I obviously wasn't watching properly because I broke 4 of the needles straight away as I was feeding my material between the foot and the needles and it all bunched up in the finger guard. I was getting very annoyed with the machine and muttering rude words until I realised the material was suppoised to go under the foot - I felt [no pun intended] so stupid!. I'll have to have another go when I have got some wool fabrics to try - it might be best to get the hang of it with the correct materials before I go off piste.

Sara x

Other bits

When I was taking photos of the casts for the last post I found some other bits that I took photos of, as I don't think I got round to putting them on here before.

Backgrounds made in Art Journalling at Art from the Heart:

Using Dinah Wakely stamps

and Dyans ghosted leaves or faux bleaching technique [I can't remember which sorry].

Some more pages in my altered book - that I'm still sporadically playing with.

It is more than half done - but the other book that I started when I repeated the weekend [because I was so enthralled the first time] has been totally neglected.

I did take more but they are portrait not landscape and although I used picassa to rotate them blogger seems to pull them in with the original orientation [I haven't worked out how to sort it yet so I un-uploaded them].

And finally I tried making a card using the frantage technique that is so popular at the moment.

I quite like it but it needs more shade to make it pop a bit better.

Sara x

Moulds

We did some plaster moulding at the Artsy Craft event and Andrea [being much more organised than me] kindly sent me some buttons she made after she got home.

They are beautiful, really delicate, detailed and thin - so I was inspired to try and make some myself. I wandered round the house looking for things that might make a good cast and in the end I had about 30 objects to try. Then I couldn't find my moulding compound anywhere [I was sure I had a pack somewhere] so eventually I gave in and bought some more in Hobbycraft. Being a greedy sort of person I bought the 300g pack which was a big mistake. I was only going to mix part of the pack but I decided I couldn't estimate half acurately so I kneaded all of it together. I'm not sure if I mixed it for too long or what but before I got more than a third of it used up it went off. Another part of the problem was that I was taking too long to make each mould as I was being stingy with the compound [which is ironic given how much I wasted anyway] so a lot of the moulds I did make are not very good, they either won't stand up because I didn't leave enough material at the base or they leak.

I mixed up some plaster [too much again as it turned out] and poured it into the better moulds. Then the phone rang and by the time I finished talking to my mum the rest had set solid in the mixing jug I was using [it did come out eventually].

Fortunately I also had some purchased moulds of faces otherwise I would have wasted even more plaster.

I also had a go at filling the moulds with molten ute. This is much harder to get runny so most of my moulds are somewhat thick. My heat gun got so hot whilst I was trying to get the ute runnier that it started to melt itself!

These are my favourites - the mould was made from a small face pendant I bought at the Mind Body & Spirit show at Elland Road last Sunday.

I decided to buy some more of the moulding compound and the best deal I could find was on Amazon for 1000g. Turns out it has to come from Germany - hope I don't get stung for customs charges.

And of course after ordering the stuff I was looking for something else and found not one but two packs of moulding compound!

Sara x

Rusty Relic

The final class at Artsy Crafts was the rusty relic - a frame with wire mesh and lots of embellishments. There were lots of techniques to try and I had a fantastic time playing.



This is the finished project [please forgive the background but I was using a blanket to try and keep it from sliding under it's own weight]. I had to make more bottles when I got home because the ones I made in the class were too bright.



I loved the colours of these but they just didn't work with the rest of the embellishments once everything was assembled.



I think these are much more in keeping with the rusty relic theme. The wire mesh was snipped into and textured with tissue and puff paint before we painted it.



On the right side is a 'rusted' wooden bird embellishment, some clay layered with metal leaf that was stretched for a crackle effect, an inset mini canvas and lots of brass charms.

The left has more rusted wood and frames etc but blogger is not playing and won't let me upload anymore photos.

Sara

The Sewing Box

The Saturday class was called the sewing box but there wasn't much sewing involved. We painted two frames, hinged them together and added embellishments.



The front cover has an embossed image on a metal/card sandwich, painted and coloured with mica paste that we made from mica powder and glaze.



There is a painted quilted and beaded [so a bit of sewing] panel hung from eye hooks with jump rings, sewing themed brass charms and little bottles of beads.



The cotton reels are cast from plaster using moulds and the picture frame is filled with glossy accents.

Again it was a technique packed class, from dry brushing to making plaster embellishments, I had a great time again - there are still a few bits I want to add [if I can find them].

Sara

Fabric Book

These are the pages of my fabric book. We made enough panels to do 4 pages [including a blank back] but Linda's book had 5 pages and I liked the balance of it so I made a further two pages when I got home.



This is my front cover - I added a beaded tassel to my illegal flower. The images were stamped on white cotton material and coloured with diluted fresco paints.



Inside front cover - a stamped scrunched dragonfly on crunchy paper with a printed chiffon pocket [it still needs a tag for the pocket].



Extra page made at home - with another stamped coloured panel and scrunched flowers - that drops down to reveal





the facing page - the bird is stamped on acetate and coloured on the reverse, with a layered tulle & crunchy flower and Tim Holtz book plate



another page done at home - using my favourite quote stamp, some stamped & coloured Dyan vines and a die cut flower from a recycled babywipe that had cleaned up dylusion inks - that folds out to reveal



my art nouveau page - including the charm I made before I went from graphic 45 paper and glossy accents, a stamped & coloured image layered with chiffon that was randomly stitched on and then randon areas were burnt away with a "soldering iron"



and another page - with a padded heart on painted interfacing and a stamped image under a mica tile - that drops down to reveal



the penultimate page - a gothic window that was transferred to fabric and a lady panel



and the final page - another transfer but this time I also added what remained of the image after I had transferred it



the whole thing folds up like origami - but you had to be careful to attach some of the back panels upside down so that they are the right way when unfolded in the correct order [it was panic stations when I folded it wrong! I though I was going to have to do a load more unpicking, and I'd already had to do quite a bit of that].

As you can see I went a bit frayed edge mad - some of them should probably have been left straight for contrast. I thought Linda & Leandra did an amazing job of letting us play but keeping us on track. Every book I saw was very individual - however I was so involved in my own book that I didn't see enough of everyone elses work.

Sara

Artsy Crafts

I was fortunate enough to be on what turned out to be the last Artsy Crafts workshop weekend in Warrington on 08/06/12 to 10/06/12. The descriptions of the workshops really appealed to me and I have to say that they didn't disappoint.



I sat with some great ladies over the weekend, for the fabric book I was sat with Thelma [not in the photo] and Nicky, on the Saturday for the sewing box I was sat with Nicky, Ruth and Andrea [who seems to be distracted by something] and on the final day Andrea was on the next table as another lady joined Nicky, Ruth and myself [and I can't remember her name - sorry]



This was Linda's sample for the fabric book. The workshop started at 9am and, with breaks for lunch, buns and tea, continued until 10:30 [or that's when I called it a draw, some people were still there when I went to bed]. I don't know how Linda and Leandra kept going as they had the following days class to prep.

I finally finished my book after a week at home [including some late nights/mornings - 2:30 on Friday/Saturday]. I am going to put the photos of mine into a separate blog as I took a photo of each page.



And these are Linda's samples for the sewing box. It is two frames, painted and hinged together with sewing related embellishments.



The other side of the box. This class was shorter but not by much - we actually finished at 9pm and my box was just about complete [although I think I still want to make a few tweaks to it].



And the Rusty Relic was the final class. It was a shorter class as everything had to be packed up by 6:30, it was brilliant though. I learnt how to do so many new things over the weekend it's sad that it was the last one.



We did a collection and [someone] got flowers, wine, chocolates and a union jack rubber duck for each of them. Having seen the amount of work that went into the event I'm not surprised that they need a rest from it.

Sara

Not achieving a lot

I bought craft artist when it was on offer recently so I have been trying to be digitally creative. I'm not getting very far but I did manage to create some notebook covers that I am quite pleased with. I did realise that my computer is getting on a bit and after advice invested in a new laptop this week. Hopefully that will have more memory and allow me to work faster - when I manage to get it to work. It is wifi enabled and I don't have a wifi network so I'm currently working on my old machine while I find someone technical to advise me. Sara

Ooops

Well I started this blog with the intention of entering challenges. I never seemed to have any time to get any stamping done before the challenge had changed and then I managed to lose the time I spent blogging. I'm going to have a sort out and then try again. The only problem at the moment is that I have started to do a blog for Beeston in Bloom and any changes to the photo for that seem to affect this blog - I think I need some training, do they do blogging for dummies?

Sara