Quilting
Quilt No 024: Modern Background

Posted on 14th January 2019 by Neil

I have a chair in our hall that seems to have been designed specifically for the dogs to sleep on, clamber onto to see out of the hall window, and otherwise act as a dumping point for bags as one comes through the door. Thus, apparently, it needed a contemporary cover that looked smarter than the throw that routinely covers it. The suggested colour scheme matched some fabric I bought some time ago, and after a quick planning session, I set to with a quilted pattern of my own making…

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Art Journal
Art Journal Page: 2016?

Posted on 5th January 2019 by Neil

On Monday night I have my art journal session in The Studio, and we’re using the prompt ‘New Year’. This layout developed from a teaching session I did with a new Studio guest a few weeks ago, showing the difference and similarities between Distress Oxides (left-hand side) and Distress Inks (t’other side). A quick layer of acrylic paint forms the background to the white text. The purple text is a combination of stamped and handwritten, using Distress Oxides and Posca pen respectively.

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Art Journal
Bible Journaling: When it all goes wrong…

Posted on 4th January 2019 by Neil

As with everything internet, I tend to only post things I am happy with. It’s the same with quality control in The Studio – it only goes out of the door if either my guest is happy, or I’m happy (and hopefully both) with the result of hard work. Today I’m going to share the process that led to this illustration:

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Quilting
Sewing: Miranda Day Bag

Posted on 2nd January 2019 by Neil

Over the last two days, I’ve had a sewing project on the go… a quilted day bag. The pattern is from our trip to Canda and is available from Lazy Girl Designs. It’s not the first bag I’ve made, but even so, it took some effort to follow the instructions properly (operator errors, the instructions were actually pretty clear…). The pattern calls for quilting cotton fabrics – I chose a heavier weight printed canvas for longevity. I’ve also learnt from previous experience and on finishing it, liberally sprayed it with Scotch Gard fabric protector. It will be washable though. Fabrics from Thimbles Fabrics & Crafts. Finished size: 12″ x 6″ x 10″. Total make time approx. 8 hrs, materials £40.

Art Journal
Bible Journaling: New Year

Posted on 31st December 2018 by Neil

Happy New Year to all my loyal readers and Studio guests! A new year is a great time to resolve to start something new – it just so happens I’m starting a new teaching session each month looking at Bible journaling. It’ll be on the third Monday evening, starting in January. For the first session, we’ll look at materials and media, as well as embarking on our first journaling.

In the meantime, I’ve done some more journaling that I thought I would share. First up, a verse for the new year in both my NIV and NLT journaling Bibles:

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Art Journal
Bible Journaling: Stencils

Posted on 20th December 2018 by Neil

I recently took up bullet journaling as a means of recording what I intended to do each week alongside what I actually did (or didn’t). I thought it would be helpful to have some visual prompts for my pages, so invested in a set of stencils designed for bullet journalers. Well, the bullet journaling lasted about 8 months, but the stencils hung around and I started using them in my Bible journaling instead. There was just one problem – they were too big to use in the margins of my journaling Bible. So, this week, I created my own to fit!

Here are some journal entries demonstrating my stencils in use:

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Art Journal
Bible Journaling: Christmas 2018

Posted on 15th December 2018 by Neil

The weather outside is frightful – the risk of freezing rain didn’t amount to much, but it’s cold, dark, blustery with heavy rain. As a result, I am in a toasty warm studio with pencils and pens out and doing some Bible journaling. I thought I’d take some of the less familiar scripture verses that are relevant to the Christmas story and develop some graphics to capture them in my margins.

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Tangle Patterns
Tangle Pattern: Abacus

Posted on 3rd December 2018 by Neil

This is a relatively simple tangle pattern, which could probably be drawn in a couple of different ways for speed. That said, it’ll work well as a space filler or, indeed, as a border pattern:

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Lasered
Tangle Pattern: Balls Squared

Posted on 29th November 2018 by Neil

This is the next instalment in a short series of new tangle patterns. I like the geometry of this one, with the curves interplaying with the curves. The negative space is quite pleasing as well, with a cross appearing as the pattern is tiled. Below are a sample card and two 3D versions of the pattern etched into wood.

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Art Journal
Bible Journaling: Another November release

Posted on 26th November 2018 by Neil

I’m not exactly busy in The Studio at the moment – I’m no longer doing TV prep and I’m not on any design teams, so I’m left to my own devices. I have plenty of time, as a result, to do my own thing. At the moment, it’s developing tangle patterns and Bible journaling – and prepping for my craft stall on Friday and Saturday (Lutterworth Town Hall, F: 5-9pm, S:10am – 4pm if you’re interested).

For this release of Bible journaled verses, I kept to my general style, but I have added a couple of sketches (one thanks to free-to-use Armour of God from ChristianityCove.com). I also added a motivational phrase to illustrate the verse – this is the first time I have used text other than the verse itself. As is now normal, I have used coloured pencils and fine tip pigment pens to avoid bleed-through.

Now seems to be a good opportunity for a plug… Starting on the third Monday in January, I will be hosting a Bible Journaling Session here at The Studio from 7:30-10pm, £5. We’ll look at materials and methods and then have themes for the evenings such as lettering, colouring techniques and using different media to decorate our Bibles.

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