Catch up...

Hi everyone, thought I'd squeeze in a post before the end of the month and share a few things that I've made recently. Some items I've already shared peeks of via social media but I'm starting with some encaustic panels I made months ago but realise I hadn't posted yet. I am now wanting to play with wax again...

Pan pastels and wax, I'm so pleased with how this turned out, some dry brushing of coloured wax is then given a top layer of pan pastel through a stencil.

PVA glue through a stencil and burnt, there is a bit of a story to this one revolving around my cooks blow torch being temperamental and it didn't go quite to plan so I decided to finish off with a shellac burn (for explanation of this technique please see links in side bar to previous wax posts)

Stencilling and scoring into wax before dry brushing.

Next I recently attended a Lin Brown workshop which involved lots of painty fabric play and stitching....as always it was brilliant.

 some detail photos

Lastly I attended a France Papillon workshop last year and one of the creations I made was a 'Grimoire' or an ancient book of spells. It's made of handmade papers, book text and maps and I've not wanted to write in it or use it because I've struggled to find something which I think is suitable for it....until now

A scrap piece of book paper which I'd been using to wipe my paint brush seemed perfect for a little snowflake paint as a base to then stamp on.

Lin Brown's new stamps in sepia, some stitching and fragments of heat embossed skeleton leaves  just fitted in perfectly to me.

Thanks for stopping by x

Rusty Stuff with Lin Brown

Hi everyone, hope you're all well out there in crafty land? I was lucky (so lucky) to attend a Lin Brown workshop a few weeks ago. I know Lin published our projects on her blog here but I hadn't quite finished mine at that stage...well there's a surprise!
I still needed to do some hand stitching and now I've completed it thought I'd share my finished project with you.

 I loved doing this project for so many reasons, the combination of metal embossing and having fun creating our own rusty fabric was equalled by the absolute pleasure I felt in reawakening my love of hand stitching. Gosh it brought so many childhood memories back....Binca...a handmade cushion I embroidered at 12...I won't go on but you can guess I loved doing this!!

A few close ups I hope you'll enjoy...

I have to confess that some of the rusty fabric above isn't mine, we used a combination of fabric we rusted and some of Linda's wonderful results. Although it's great to come out with a finished creation, the lasting joy of a workshop is to inspire you to develop what you've learned along the way.....so I came home and have had rusty hands and workroom that smells of vinegar ever since, but boy I've had fun!!

In fairness to Lin I'm not sharing the details of how we rusted our fabric but there's information out there on the internet and you tube if you want to explore this....or maybe Lin will be doing a similar one sometime in the future. (See her blog for workshop details)

I thought I'd finish by sharing some of the varying results of my attempts.

Mega rusting going on here, may have left it too long!

Quirky result as I used some tea dyed fabric...but I think the tea should have been fresh...not stewed!

Front...lovely

...but I think I like the back even better.

I love this crackled effect

Who would have thought there would be such a variety of rust tones and I've only just started to experiment. Next project will be a set of smaller frames using some of the above fabric.

As always thanks for stopping by. Ruth x

and she's back in the room...

Hi, remember me? Long time no blogging. I didn't mean to be away so long but the sorting out of my lovely new craft room took a lot longer than I thought. I seem to have collected an awful lot of craft stuff some of which I don't remember seeing for years...sound familiar??

So firstly I thought I'd share some photos of my new creative space...I can't believe how excited I get about storage, non crafters just don't understand! It was a spare room/ junk room/ craft room and never decorated since we moved in many years ago. After stripping.

Bookcases/ storage got the Annie Sloan treatment. 

Ikea!

I have already posted this on face book, having 'Annie Sloaned' it, I found my stamps and lightened it with some Lin Brown images. Appropriately lots of lace, threads and ribbons are stored inside.

I am loving my new space, my favourite purchases are the work

table which is at the right height for sitting or standing (serendipity) and this wonderful trolley!

I am very happy and very lucky and appreciate it so much every time I walk in to my room.

So have I made anything yet? Well I think my mojo went into shock and had a long lie down. I have missed being able to craft but went from creating nothing to a recent weekend at AFTH and 4 fabulous France Papillon workshops. She is a fabulous teacher, a lovely person and  I learnt so much. I don't know which is my favourite project out of them all.

I have a few scheduled posts this week so I'm hopefully back in business now. Thanks as always for stopping by, I look forward to your visits and reading your comments. Thank you x

Catch up....

Hi everyone, another quick post from me. I've finally finished my piece from Sue Carrington's inspiring Metal Art workshop last month. Slow but steady! I loved the original colour combination but decided to go a different colour way with the alcohol inks and then came unstuck trying to marry up the background. The finished piece is much less vibrant than the original but as I love shades of brown I'm more than happy with the result!

Thanks so much for stopping by and happy crafting!

Finnabair workshop

Just a quick post from the weekend as promised, to show my finished 'ARTifact'. Of course it was a fabulous workshop, I was in great company and in seventh heaven learning from Finn...again! No info re any products used or how to, can only urge you to attend if you ever get the chance. Thanks for stopping by.

Catch up part 2....

Quick edit...following on from my brief post yesterday about our new challenge blog Stamps and Stencils, it's my turn today along with my lovely teamie Yvonne to be introduced. As the name suggests it's all about using stamps and stencils in your mixed media projects...I'm so proud to be working with these talented ladies again...our first challenge starts on Thursday!

 Hi, part 2....I attended a Sue Carrington workshop a few weeks ago where we created a wonderful canvas panel with lots of lovely techniques but what I especially liked was that we were using beeswax. I haven't used it as often as I'd like to and have to admit I have a desire (even more so now) to dabble in encaustic artwork, layering wax on panels  to create muted shapes of depth a la Donna Downey and France Papillon. Anyway before I get carried away...here's what we created.

I won't give too much away but there is some stamping on tissue and when combined with wax gives a soft quite beautiful finish.

Some lovely paint techniques to age things

And there is some drippage here and there!

I'm lucky that Sue has become a good friend since I've attended some of her workshops and felt really honoured when she made a lovely present that I thought I'd share with you. You may think it looks familiar, she made a similar one here for another crafty friend.  

It has pride of place on my pen draw where I can see it when I 'create'. Thankfully Sue has taken my big hint and her next workshop is a metal work one.....

...can't wait. If you're around the West Hallam area of Derby June 20th you might be interested, you can find all the details on her blog here. 

Whilst on a green theme, I've signed up for Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday workshop and thoroughly enjoying experimenting and just enjoying her videos she has such an enthusiasm for art and never fails to make me laugh. I've made my art journals, although I love fabric, me and sewing machines aren't a match made in heaven, so I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

I said a green theme, well there's a you tube video here of a past Inspiration Weds post from 2013 that I wanted to have a go out. This is my version, it's paint and gesso, UTEE and paper flowers. It's a textural piece...or in my words, touchy, feely.

This is part way through.

If I was doing it again, I wouldn't add as much colour to certain areas, but then that's what experimenting is about.

It really is a glossy dimensional piece. Hope you enjoyed this catch up, exciting times ahead this week. Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Catch up part 1...

Hi everyone, I attended a Finnabair weekend workshop last November and thought it was about time I shared the pictures of what I'd made....if only because I have some pics from a much more recent Sue Carrington one which I'll be sharing in the next post!

I won't be explaining how they were made but hope you enjoy seeing the end results....she has some new workshops for this year and I'm looking forward to going to one of them in May (yes just one this time)....just love her work, I find her so inspirational...and she is such a great teacher.

I've left my favourite till last.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by.