Just a little reminder to those that haven’t entered yet, I’m giving away this mug and fancy saucer set hand-decorated with my own tangle designs. Entry is by commenting anywhere on my blog between now and midnight GMT on my birthday, Friday 10th February. I’ll draw the winner on Saturday 11th February and announce it here on my blog. Good luck! [If you’ve already entered, you’re welcome to make more comments, but you’ll only be entered into the draw once.]
I’m doing a 3D module at college at the moment, and we have to design something with one moving part, to be made out of wood/acrylic. Of course I had ambitious ideas, and decided to mock up my proposal out of 5mm foam board to check that it worked. So here is my 3D, working, foam board wave machine, starring a kebab stick!
I’d love to post a video of it in action… but I haven’t quite got the right facilities to do that just yet 🙂
This took about 90 minutes to make, with no templating or pattern. The base is A5 size, the discs the diameter of a 10 pence piece secured with a bit of glue. It was really exciting to give the kebab stick it’s first turn and see the wave pattern go across!
In readiness for my next Wow! Embossing Powders project, I’ve added a new section to my blog to hold a library of templates that I have used over the years. The first to appear are a self-closing box and base that I designed to be made from a sheet of A4 in acetate, though it would work well enough in card too. Please have a peek, using the link on the toolbar under the blog title, and let me know if I need to add any assembly instructions!
Well I’ve finally done it, and created my third unique giveaway. This one is in honour of 50,000 blog views, and I’ve just passed 55,000! It is a one of a kind, never to be reproduced, ceramic mug and fancy saucer with my own tangle patterns hand drawn onto it. It is dishwasher safe, and the mug is a perfect size for a double espresso (but not a decent mug of tea!). I’ve signed and dated both pieces – you never know, they might be worth something in a few years time 😉
All you have to do to have a chance to win this unique giveaway is to leave a comment anywhere on my blog between now and midnight on Friday 10th February. I’ll draw the winner on Saturday 11th February. Best of luck 🙂
Please note: I don’t like spam, and I wouldn’t want any of you to be getting loads of emails you don’t want. So, please, don’t put your email address into the main text of your comment where everyone will be able to see it! (Unless that’s what you want…) If you have signed in properly, I can see your email address in the private admin area of the blog. If you’ve already added your email to a comment, you’ll note I have edited them away.
I’ve been inspired by Tim Holtz’s Twelve Tags of Christmas, and decided I’d give some creative thought towards my own ‘Twelve Tags for 2012’. This has the added bonus of giving me some projects for this year at The Manic Stamper Craft Club! The muse developed to a design, and the design has developed into a prototype and that then developed into my final version of the tag for January. Please let me know what you think 🙂
I’m chuffed with the snowdrops, since I didn’t have any inspiration other than a photo of a real one – and it all starts as a daisy! If you want to know how to do your own, the instructions are over at the Manic Stamper blog.
It’s a week to the end of term one, and tonight is the ‘friends and family’ exhibition. I’m going to be at a concert, so wont be there 🙁
Here’s my bit:
I’ve got the sewing bug sooo bad! But that’s ok as it justifies getting the new sewing machine 😉
This afternoon I decided to make myself a stained glass window bag to carry all my quilting paraphernalia to and from future workshops. I didn’t have a pattern to follow, and worked it out as I went – there was only one minor glitch along the way fixing the handles, but got that sorted without too much unpicking. I’ve somehow made it reversible, but who’d want to hide the colour side? After three hours ironing, sewing and cogitating, here’s the results:
And I thought I’d made it big enough – but no, it’s an inch too small (16 inches square) after all the folds and seams were a smidge imprecise. The next one should be quicker 🙂
I don’t know what’s come over me – it seems my bah humbugness has cracked a little and a bit of festive creativity has crept out. Technically these are not tangle patterns nor zentangles as they resemble real objects (one of the zentangle rule no-nos), but they’re close enough for me 🙂
The Holly and The Ivy
Snowflakes
I’ve just noticed that I missed out the result of my print module in my blog updates – so here it is:
These items were screen printed with black acrylic ink. I arranged my own drawings into a collage which was then transferred to the screen for printing. There were a number of other experimental prints with different colour combinations, but these were the ones I liked the best.
I’ve finished another module, and this time it’s graphics and illustration. We were set the brief to draw natural forms and then collage the observational drawings before selecting areas for simplification, stylisation and ultimately producing artwork based on the illustrations. My drawings were mainly based on hedgerow seed heads, as you’ll see. The theme was also 1950’s prints, such as those by Lucienne Day, hence some of the colour schemes and styles. Finally, we had to put our artwork onto various items to see how they worked in different sizes.
To get the images on the mugs, I used Letraset’s Safmat inkjet sticky back transparencies, and to get the image onto the candle, I printed onto tissue paper stuck to a paper carrier page and then melted it into the wax with a heat tool.
