I’ve combined two challenges again for this morning’s experimentation… ‘Less is More’ this week set ‘How Charming’ and asked us to include a charm on our project, while over at ‘Passion for Promarkers’ we were told to ‘cut it out’ using our die cutting skills. So here’s my combined entry:
I’m having problems with my broadband again… if you’re reading this, it means I’ve caught it on a good day and managed to upload the post. One upshot of having less time online is more crafting time – although I don’t recommend knocking over a cup of tea as soon as you get to your craft space… Great for tidying up and washing the floor, but not so good for several bits of kit!
This week over at the ‘Less is More’ challenge blog, we were set the task of doodling. Hmmm – I wonder how tricky that was going to be for me given my zentangling experience? Actually, keeping it simple and a single motif was as difficult as selecting the sentiments! All the cards are completely hand doodled, and coloured using the distress reinker watercolour technique which I learnt during the Creative Chemistry 101 course.
What do you get the man who has most things for his Christmas and birthday presents? Turns out that two quilting workshops are a very good idea! The first I went to was over six weeks in Jan-Feb 2012 at Quorn Country Crafts, where the lovely Margaret supervised the ladies and I in making a ‘Lilac Time’ quilt. The fabrics were chosen to fit into the spare room – which now needs redecorating… It’s amazing how much the costs mount – including all materials, wadding and backing as well as the workshop costs, this double bed sized quilt cost £200 before my time was taken into consideration! Don’t ever underestimate the cost of a hand crafted quilt! This one isn’t for sale though… The petal quilting in the feature fabric is to my own design and the rest is stitch-in-ditch quilted.
I’ve spent all afternoon on my still life homework for the holidays… an exercise in two point perspective. An hour of reading, a couple of outline sketches and some more research led to a couple of hours doing all the construction with vanishing points at the zenith and nadir rather than on the horizon line – but I kinda like the effect. It then took another hour or so to enlarge, trace and shade the image, and here it is. Those that know, feel free to critique!
If you remember, I had a giveaway at the beginning of March in honour of this ‘ere blog’s first birthday. The first prize was for the person giving the most comments and is featured here. The second giveaway was to the longest active subscriber to the blog at the 12 month point – and that was/is Shirley at 11 months and three weeks. I asked her what she would like as her commissioned artwork and this was her reply: “I have been looking through your blog and saw the ‘largest ZIA to date‘. I used to do a lot of counted cross stitch (until my eyes rebelled). Samplers was one of my favourite things. Would I be asking too much to have that as my prize?”.
Of course I couldn’t give that particular example away again as it was a unique piece for that particular giveaway. So I’ve created this one instead, including some of my new Faberge patterns and using my first attempt at a Celtic Knot. It’s a biggie again, being A3 sized, and took almost 6 hours to complete. Well done Shirley, I hope you like it!
Here’s the final Faberge inspired tangle pattern in my Easter special. As you can see from my mistake in step 3, missing the diagonals makes for interesting contours starting to be formed! Great pattern for colouring and making your own background papers for your card crafting or scrapbooking projects.
This is the third of four tangle patterns based on Faberge patterns, drawn for your Easter tangles. The top section will work well as a border pattern, whilst the bottom section is a simple space filler. Tomorrow’s final instalment in this series is ‘Roses’.
It’s ‘Less is More’ challenge time again – and this week I’m a little earlier than I have been for the last couple of times! The first week of the month theme is colour, and they’ve set the task of creating a clean and simple card with three shades of green. I used the Hero Arts ferns set of stamps, and Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Forest Moss Distress Inks. A spritz of water, punched flowers and a few drops of liquid pearls and here’s my entry:
Quite a busy pattern based on the fretwork on a miniature Faberge chair. Should work well as a border pattern too with just one row of the repeat. This is the second of four Easter tangle patterns. Tomorrow, ‘Egg Shell’.
Inspired by Faberge, this is the first of four new tangle patterns I’ve put together for Easter. Tomorrow, ‘Imperial Chair’. As always, new tangle patterns will be added to my Tangle Pattern Gallery.