Sweet!

'Pink and Orange' is the theme for this month's ATC exchange over at Darkroom Door.  It's always a thrill to receive the exchanged ATC's and see how others have explored the theme! If you'd like to play along with us, then pop over here for the details.

I've combined two of my favourite images from Darkroom Door's Tropical Fruit stamp set, as well as their Torn Text background stamp which is hiding away there in the background!

Darkroom Door supplies:

Tropical Fruit Stamp Set

Torn Text Background Stamp

Distress Paint - Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon and Cracked Pistachio

Shelley Beach

Shelley Beach is a favoured place.  

My beloved and I should frequent it more often, but when we do, we reveal in walking gently in search of treasure - he with a camera lens and I with a pocket to collect.

Joel captured this lovely shot of shells immersed in water and when I received Darkroom Door's 'Shells' background stamp a while back,  I wondered if they might combine together.  

Yesterday I had time to play...

needless to say, we've made a date!

We're off to Shelley beach!

Hooray!

Darkroom Door supplies:

Shells Background Stamp

Seaside Vol. 1 Stamp Set

Strings of Hope

February's ATC swap theme over at Darkroom Door in February was 'Tied Up With Strings'.

I had a wonderful time playing with DRD's 'Carved Pods' and their 'Coffee Stain' eclectic stamp, along with ink, paint and textiles to create this ATC.  The canvas was given to me by my dear friend Jhodi, who had buried it in her backyard for a while to 'age' it.  It was just perfect for this project and I feel pretty inspired to buy some canvas and bury it too!

Planting Happiness

Darkroom Door's Gardening Vol. 2 surprisingly lead me to painting and embroidering upon canvas.

The basic technique was as follows:

1.  Layer Gesso onto a small panel of torn canvas.  

2.  Stamp image (i.e. watering can) onto canvas.

3.  Paint image using acrylic paint.

4.  Re-stamp image over the paint and heat set.  I'd recommend using a stamp-positioner if you have one.  I didn't and it was a bit tricky.

4.  Embroider stems and flowers.  I used lovely variegated threads by DMC.

5.  Stamp sentiment, affix to card and embellish with lace.

Don't be too worried when you don't end up with a perfectly crisp image.  Stamping on canvas can lead to a more painterly effect.

I used simple straight stitches and colonial knots to create the pot full of flowers.

Random dabs of green helped fill out the second flower pot and I added some dashes of green onto the pots to balance the work.

Simply Stitch

Darkroom Door's Stitch Word Block stamp is FABULOUS!!!  This is the first time I've worked with a word block stamp and it was so much fun!

I stamped the image onto a vintage dressmaking pattern with a navy ink and used this as the centre point for the card.  All the papers are from the same dressmaking pattern and have been layered and hand stitched together.

I used the sentiment from Darkroom Door's stamp set 'Stamper' and altered it to say 'buttons' instead of stamps!  The word buttons along with the letter 's' were used from the word block stamp.

I have a huge collection of buttons, so it was wonderful to put some of them to use to embellish my work.

Here's a mini quilt I created.  First I stamped the word block stamp onto dressmaking tissue paper and added the Singer sewing machine from Darkroom Door's Dressmaker stamp set.  I then layered the stamped panel onto fabrics and embellished it with hand stitching and lace.

Grown With Love

Darkroom Door released their lovely Essentials 18 Collection towards the end of last year.  Here's a mini quilt I've created using some of the fabulous images from the Gardening Vol 1 stamp set.

It's a lovely set to use when making cards or gifts for friends or family blessed with a green thumb!

I enjoyed playing around with some Sculpey clay to create some flower pot buttons and embellishments.  They were pretty easy to make.

I used VersaMagic Jumbo Java to stamp the flowerpot image.  I then very gently heat set the ink before cutting around the image with sharp pointed scissors and then baked the button following the manufactor's instructions.

I enjoyed adding some hand stitching as I often use a sewing machine, but the texture of the canvas seemed to draw me towards simple embroidery stitching and who was I to argue!

Eiffel Tower - Darkroom Door

I've had a wonderful time playing around with another new Darkroom Door photo stamp - Eiffel Tower.  I've used Lesley Riley's Transfer Artist Paper (TAP) to transfer the Eiffel Tower image onto fabric and then stamped the remaining images from Darkroom Door's Tour Eiffel stamp set directly onto fabric.  I embellished the floral Eiffel Tower fabric with scraps of lace, ribbon, silk, a button and a paper flower.  

This work was then incorporated into a bag that I stitch from a lovely piece of silk.  

My romantic dream of visiting Paris one day continues to grow stronger!  But for now I'll enjoy the pleasure of working with this wonderful image!

Bloom - PDCC106

'Bloom' - a pink silk cuff

I've been happily at play this morning, experimenting with more free motion sewing... I still find it a real challenge to get my hands and machine in sync, but there is only one way to improve my skills, so I continue to practice when I have the oportunity and time.  I've been wanting to work with this gorgeous soft pink silk since I've purchased it and felt like doing a bit of beading today too!  The latest Play Date Colour Challenge #106 gave me a little more direction (adding yellow & grey), it grew like topsy and I taught myself how to make these sweet yellow flowers along the way! 

Published - Copper Poppies

As seen in Cardmaking Stamping & Papercraft Vol 14 No11

A number of years ago, I was able to go to an Artistic Journey Retreat with my friend Jhodi in Fremantle and it was there that I met and made a new wonderful friend, Debbi.  All three of us shared a hotel room together at the retreat and had a fabulous creative time with some great classes and amazing tutors.  Jhodi, Debbi and I are having a little retreat of our own this weekend and we're making it an extra long weekend.  I'm so excited to be able to spend time with these two very talented, encouraging and generous women.  I think we're in for a fantastic and fun-filled time!

  At the Artistic Journey retreat in Fremantle, I was able to participate in a jewellery making class taught by Nina Bagley.  She is a fabulous tutor from the US and if you're ever able to do one of her classes I would highly recommend her!  Nina taught us some fabulous techniques, including a number of ways to make use of 'copper mesh'.  In our enthusiam to want to play further with copper mesh, Jhodi, Debbi and I all bought more!  Well mine sat around for quite a while until one day I thought about stitching and stamping on it!  That's how this project started... I even made a little handbag for this project!  And I've used it on the odd occasion too! 

Frolicked

'Frolicked' by Sue Smith

A postcard for Jenny - will be in the post on Tuesday :)
February's theme for our postcard swap group was 'Marine'.

Most stamped images are by Oxford Impressions (The Deep, Dress Forms and Corsetry, Marie Antoinette) as well as some Character Constructions arms!

Tweet, Tweet...

'Birdies For Gaye'

Yesterday I completed this Art of the Month piece for Gaye. When I was in Melbourne last month I enjoyed meeting Gaye and many of the other wonderful ladies that are involved in an Art of the Month swap group I'm participating in. Gaye loves birdies and these ones find themselves nesting in a rather textural background.

'Memories'

Not the best picture, not enough daylight here today! This is the piece I had published in a gallery section of Sew Somerset Summer 2008. It's called 'Memories' and was made for my brother and SIL's 2nd wedding anniversay. I was so excited when I found out it was going to be published! I still can't quite believe it's in there.

Last Minute Journey

Ohhhh, it's sooooo nice to make it to the weekend - and it's a looooonnnnngggg weekend at that! I've worked quite a bit the last few weekends, and I haven't been able to find much creative time at all - except for making things for school. I've had a creatively productive Saturday so far and have made my ORANGE ATC's to swap with my friends Melinda and Robyn. I've titled mine 'Last Minute Journey' because my ATC's are late (only by one day mind you), so I've also dated them 30th February just to be a bit cheeky! The butterfly is ARTchix Studio, Collections word cirlce along with fabric and ribbon.

'ORANGE' ATC's by Melinda Goad, Robyn Bumbak and myself

I've also managed to make two additional cards that will go with a set I made a while back for Take Ten. They contacted me recently to see if I could possibly make another two cards to go with the ones they already have - now I just hope they reach the US in time!

Some other very exciting news... it looks like I have a piece going into the gallery section of the next issue of Sew Somerset. I am sew excited about that!

'Oh, Baby!' Fabric Postcards

I've recently started swapping fabric postcards with two terrifically talented and wonderful friends Debbi Baker and Jhodi Bennett. I got to chose the first theme and as my nephew Sean Alexander was filling my world with cuddles (and some dirty nappies), I came up with 'Oh, Baby!' So guess who's photo I've used in the above postcard! It was my first ever attempt at printing onto fabric. I had a few hiccups... have a lot to learn, but was quite happy with it in the end. Especially for a first attempt.


by Debbi Baker
I love the vintage image Debbi has used in her piece. She's embellished her postcard so beautifully. The pink varigated thread Debbi used for some machine embroidery is exquisite!


By Jhodi Bennett
Jhodi's postcard also has a very vintage look. The image is so sweet and I love the combination of fabrics and embellishments she's used. The blue and cream trim is divine!

It's so exciting to receive such lovely art work in the mail. I started working on the next postcard for our swap on the weekend. I haven't quite got it just right yet. I love the theme we are doing now, I've found it a little challenging than I expected and I can't wait to see what Debbi and Jhodi do with theirs.


Susie

Maureen's Birthday

Okay, well I think it's time to put some artwork on the blog. Not the greatest photo ever, but nevertheless...

I made this card a few weeks ago for an old school friend's Mum. Maureen loves all things vintage, especially sewing machines and dolls! So here's to turning 60 Maureen! May you enjoy the next...60!

As you can see I've used a number of buttons, all hand stitched on. I've finally used some muslin that's been stashed away for a few years and gorgeous Daisy D's paper. It's been whizzed through the sewing machine and has a dash of lace and velvet ribbon to finish it off.