KnitYoga

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Monday, June 20, 2011

Boredom


Here's one side of a little treasure pocket I made recently.


And here's what it looks like from the other side.


I haven't decided which is the front and which is the back or even if it needs a front or a back. I made it as practice for a swap I was thinking of joining in on. I made it as practice because I wasn't sure how well I would do as I'm not that confident with my sewing skills and, when I'd decided it was probably okay, the swap sign up deadline had gone by.

I've also been trying painted lace cuffs. Here's one of them.


A few more ATCS. These three are embroidery on paper.






This set is captured flowers.


This is more embroidery on paper in the form of a birthday card. The dragon is quite appropriate as the person it is going to lives in Wales.


This is some of what I have been doing. For the last few days I've been in a state of such complete and utter tedium and haven't found anything to inspire me whatsoever. In short, I am BORED RIGID! :-(

Thursday, June 09, 2011

ATCs


A bunch of us have been doing ATCs lately and we're having a swap in which we have to make twelve each so that we can send two to each person in the swap. I started to make them and now I don't know where to stop! I keep thinking of techniques I've wanted to try for a while and even made one or two up along the way. The beauty is that, with the small size of the ATC, they're so quick to do and nothing much is lost in the way of time or money if you mess up so you can afford to experiment a bit.

I have, of course, experimented a bit with ATCs in the past but haven't made many. I made a couple using Crazy Quilting for a swap. These can be seen here and here. I also made one using a paper background, a Norman Rockwell image of Cinderella and some Beads and Flowersoft here and, lastly, one with Angelina and Stitching here. That was about it until now!

So, with my latest ones, the first set I did I used Collage.

Then I had my first try at Needlefelting and made a felted cupcake ATC and a cross between an elephant and a lamb.

After my altered bottle class with Carol Murphy in which I learnt quite a few techniques involving texture and also after watching some videos on YouTube, I experimented with Colour and Texture and made three or four ATCs by basically embedding lace, torn up scraps of muslin, sequins, etc, into mod podge and then painting it. An example of one of these backgrounds is here. With a couple of them I added a butterfly made from angelina fusible film with white angelina fused on top. I made a sheet of this and then stuck butterfly peel offs on top, cut around and then coloured the angelina with pens.

Next I made backgrounds using one of Beryl Taylor's techniques, Foiled Brown Paper. This involves crumpling up a brown paper bag, colouring and foiling it. I then adapted it somewhat by including some embossing in the form of one of Tim Holtz' Texture Fades and I added some decorative stitching to the finished ATCs. Afterwards, I played around with the paper placement. For instance, with one of them (top right in the pic below), I cut the paper into strips and wove it.


The next one incorporates some Napkin Art with a bird cutout on top and I used some glossy accents in the centre of the flower to add dimension and added beads the same colour as the centre before it dried.


Then I tried an experiment with some paper flowers and a sheet of acetate which I suppose I could call Capturing Objects.


This is what I did. I trapped the flowers behind the acetate and added some sparkle mod podge to make the flowers look shimmery. I suppose this is a bit like the captured fresh flowers that I've done in the past except here acetate is used instead of organza and mod podge fixes the whole thing together instead of Bondaweb and an iron! I can see myself trying this with fresh flowers that are flat enough to be trapped and that will hold their colour well and autumn leaves would be nice aswell. It works with skeleton leaves, too.


Basically, I think it will work with anything that is flat and thin enough to be trapped without causing any bulging beneath the acetate.

Then I got in the mood for a bit of recycling/repurposing and made the following two ATCs using Dryer Sheets as backgrounds.




Since I started my interest in mixed media, I've become a bit like a baglady. I don't throw anything away that I can see a use for and so, still in recycling mode, I used up some of my pretty Chewing Gum Wrappers for a background for this cherub ATC.


I used a mould for the cherub and some Flexplast which is a kind of very light modelling paste that is air-drying. When it was dry, I painted it with halo pink gold Lumiere paint. The decorative corners are rub-ons.

I had plans for an ATC using Flowersoft as I have that in several colours and this, coupled with my experiments with acetate, got me thinking that I could make a 3D ATC by using the acetate as a window and make a scene where the observer was looking through a window and seeing a vase of flowers on the window sill.


I drew the window on the acetate with a peel off pen. The acetate window is raised up from the background with 3D double sided tape but I'm pleased to say, despite the fact that it's raised, it still fits into an ATC pocket which can only be a good thing.

What can I say? I just can't stop! I have tons more ideas! The last time I got like this was with the Dorset buttons and, as some of you who have been reading my blog for a good while will know, those buttons even turned into turkeys, penny farthing bicycles and goodness what else!

Friday, June 03, 2011

Silly Mood


I felt in quite a silly mood today and so decided to have another go at needlefelting to make a comical character. May I present to you Dumbo Lambykins!

The Winner!


Okay, the name that came out of the hat was Georgina. Congratulations!

For the prize, I decided that I would purchase a £25 gift voucher from an online store of the winner's choice to be sent to the winner. So, please, Georgina, get in touch with me and let me know the store of your choice and your address details. As you are a Ravelry member, you can get in touch with me via pm on Ravelry. Thanks! :-)

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Update on Competition


Thanks so much to everyone who has suggested a new name for my blog. I seem to be in extreme indecisive mode at the moment not just about my blog name but about life in general! Hopefully, this will change in the next couple of weeks as this blog definitely needs a makeover.

Anyway, you all came up with such great suggestions, I can't decide on which one I like best so I thought the best way around it would be to pick a name out of the hat only I'm going to get DH to do that this evening. So, sorry for the slight delay in announcing the winner and keep your eyes peeled for the results this evening or tomorrow! Thanks again!

Arianwen, concerning your comment about needing to change my provider if I change the blog name, my understanding is that I can change my blog name but would not be able to change the URL.

I'll leave you all with a pic of one of the ATCs I've been creating recently with colour and texture in mind . . .


. . . and another on which I had a go at needlefelting a cupcake. This is my first attempt at needlefelting.