Leap with Gingersnaps

As it is a leap year and today is the leap day, Feb 29th, the idea is to use this as the challenge over on Gingersnaps. Rather fun in my opinion.

I have used these wonderful stamps from The Stampsmith called Life is a Balancing Act that have been designed by the artist Jack Sherman. I just love it when I have the opportunity to use them. There are some great tips and tutorials on the site as well.

So come a join the fun and jump for joy with us over on Gingersnaps!

Stamped Background with Rogue Redhead Designs

The current challenge at Rogue Redheads is to use a background stamp. I have used the background stamp from Beach Babes and paired it up with an image from Just Sayin'. This was then coloured with watercolours and mounted onto some backing papers and a grungy edge added. The challenge is on going until March 4th. So why not join in?

2 Colours with Gingersnaps

There is a fab challenge over on Gingersnaps which is to use 2 colours. I love colour challenges so it was right up my street. I have chosen to use Coffee and Wine. A fine combination both as colours and taste. And who better to show them off but one of the elegant stamps from Rogue Redhead Designs from the Milliner Misses plate. Simple, uncluttered and to the point.

Which 2 colours will you use. Rogue Redhead Designs are the sponsors this month at Gingersnaps so there may be a chance of a win from them?

Faux Water Colour with Gingersnaps

At Gingers this week the challenge is to use a faux technique. I decided to use a faux water colour technique. I have found a wonderful very smooth water colour paper which is ideal for stamping on.
First I wetted the paper. The paper needs to be damp but not too wet. The first image I stamped was too wet and gave a very runny blurred image. I rather liked it but thought for the challenge should try a slightly clearer image. So paper damp but not too wet. I then coloured the stamp with water soluble pens, huffed on them and then stamped. I did the same for the border, which is one stamp repeated around the image. Added some more colour with water soluble crayons to give a bit more colour.


The stamps used are Carnival dreams by Rogue Redhead Designs. 
Lots of lovely stamps for just $6

Stampotique CASE a designer

Stampotique's challenge this time is to CASE (copy and steal everything)  one of their design team.

I have decided to CASE  Willy with  her Black and White and a hint of colour creation. You can see hers below.

I had great fun doing this, hence the "Giggle" and "Laugh" words. It was a bit like a craft holiday.

This is one of the items I made for the Masking Tape challenge currently running over on Gingersnaps, but I decided to post a different one. This is now being shown over on the Rogue Redhead blog.

The two stamps used are from the Floriculture plate.

First I adhered Tim Holtz tape onto the tag and then swiped the tag with gesso. Once dried I added some pan pastels which coloured differently where the gesso was underneath. I then decided to take some of the masking tape off as you can see. I inked the stamp with versamark embossing pad and stamped. Then added a darker shade of pan pastel over the stamped image. Then the same stamp was re inked with Black Archival and over stamped. "Le Jardin" was stamped onto masking tape and adhered to the tag. The edges were darkened and ribbon attached.

Masking Tape with Gingers

I have a roll of masking tape that is about 6 inches wide which I put to use for this challenge. 

First I punched a circle from the roll and used it as a mask for applying ink through for the sun. Used the sun stamp from the Floricultural set from Rogue Redhead Designs to over stamp.

Then I ripped and edge of the bottom of the masking tape and applied chalk onto the visible white card. 

I continued doing this up the page in different shades of yellow and ochre to create the sand. I then over stamped with Distress Ink Tea Stain using the texture stamp from Beach Babes. I also used the wonderful little sailor boy stamp and the flying birds again from Beach Babes. Finishing with the beached Starfish from the same plate.

All the stamps I used are from Rogue Redhead Designs who are the generous sponsors of this months challenges over on Gingersnaps.

Natural Dyed Fabric Book

Here are some photos of a book I made. The first half records the dyes I used and the results they gave. The second half is being playful with them.

Hope you enjoy!

                       

 

Another Piece of Fabric Art

A fabric, paper and leaf collage. Strips of mainly natural dyed fabric have been free machined onto a backing fabric. I love all the rough edges and the softness they give to the background. The building is an antique piece of sewing/thread packaging that I also added to the dye bath. i really like what happened to it, so I have used it as a focal point. An old barn sitting in the landscape. I used some Moonshine Inks to lift it visually and added some dried leafs to the foreground which have been strengthened with  a special solution.

Peace: Exhibition piece.

The Peace Quilt

This is my main exhibit for the show. Unfortunately my camera battery died so as yet have not got photos of the other pieces.

There is writing around the inner border of the quilt which says 

" Only without anger can you know peace" 

This writing was stamped with a glorious alphabet stamp that I searched for and eventually found on Ebay in America. The seller would not ship to UK so fortunately my friend Ali agreed to be the go between. Thank you Ali and now you can see the results of your troubles.

These words are quite a mantra for me and I was in some ways fortunate to learn this lesson when I was quite a young teenager. Yes I did have anger and I did come to realize that the main person who suffered from the anger was myself. My parents had separated waiting for a divorce and I can remember torturous times during this period. I used to take myself into my bedroom and try to ponder my feelings, which resulted in me realizing that my anger was causing me great grief and if I could manage to let go of it I would feel better.

Nearly all the fabrics are natural dyes with wonderful names like Logwood, Brazil Wood, English Madder, Iranian Madder, Safflower, Onion Skins, Golden Rod and rust. There is one chemical dye which is the Robin's Egg colour but was then over dyed with rust. A number of the fabrics have been over dyed with different or stronger solutions. Rust dyeing is amazing to do and very unpredictable.

I will blog some more of my exhibits when I get the camera going again and am at the venue. In the meantime I may well blog items that were in my previous exhibition.

Blog Holiday

I have just given myself a blog holiday and a creating holiday too! My exhibition launch was last friday and it left me feeling good but needing to be lazy for a while. I haven't really created anything since then. I have been trying to sort my workroom but even that seems to lack momentum. However I will now blog my last contribution for Stampotique which I created a while back.

Icarus Descending

A little time ago I created a similar piece which I called Fallen Angel, which sparked a thought in my mind that a similar piece would be perfect for Icarus. So here it is. 

I made a mould from some Tim Holtz wings so I could then fill them with wax. And as you all know Icarus descended to earth when his wax feathered wings melted when he flew to close to the sun. Heat gun to the ready I started to melt his wings and of course I added the sun as otherwise it would  not quite make sense.

I used 2 sticks but only one of them. This is just a brilliant stamp to have. So very useful. I do love it's simplicity. There is also a hint of Swirl Stalks another useful stamp.

I will blog again soon, I hope, and give you a look at some of the items in my show. Not stamping, more sewing. Well,  there is a tiny bit of stamping.