Arts in Worship: Crosses

Posted on 22nd March 2023 by perfectly4med

I’ve had a few problems with my laser cutter over the last six weeks or so… One of the cables was causing intermittent faults. The presumption was that after four years of use, it was gradually fracturing. I managed to keep the machine limping on until I replaced the cable this week. As a result, I’ve had to feed projects into the machine through a slot so that the lid was barely lifted – an interesting exercise.

It would have been fine if I had not been asked to do several projects in those weeks. A small group craft session for church folk, the ‘Be Still’ evening and a large group craft session for my church’s retired men’s group. All of these needed kitting out with laser-cut items.

The projects

Here are the projects I designed and crafted for the small group and the men’s group. They feature crosses for the Easter season. Both are available as workshops at the Studio for groups of up to eight people. To book, just get in contact with me.

Easter crosses laser-cut from eucalyptus plywood

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Arts in Worship: Be Still

Posted on 15th March 2023 by perfectly4med

I was asked to run a craft table at a recent ‘Be Still’ community event at my church. The aim of the evening was to take the chance for attendees to have some ‘me’ time with massages, facials, mindfulness sessions as well as the craft table. I looked for all sorts of inspiration and didn’t really find any. I then stumbled on some photos of retro signage and decided to go with the theme. I created six different laser-cut wood signs, each with a typical self-affirming phrase often linked to mindfulness sessions. For each, I spent a long time finding a relevant Bible verse or passage to move it from self-centred to God-centred.

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AAA Cards DT: Along the edge ink blending

Posted on 5th March 2023 by perfectly4med

‘Along the edge’ is one of the AAA Cards‘ regular clean and simple card challenges. This week, it has the optional extra bit of work to incorporate ink blending into your card design. Here’s my sample as part of the design team:

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AAA Cards DT: Small and few ± baked goods #229

Posted on 27th November 2022 by perfectly4med

I’ve been using polyurethane casting resin for a long while now, batch-making every mould I have when it’s out. Consequently, I now have containers full of paintable mouldings. Do I use them up? Infrequently! The latest challenge over at AAA Cards is to add small and few elements to a clean and simple card with the optional extra of ‘baked goods’. This immediately put in mind some of these cupcake mouldings languishing in my stash. A quick lick of paint later and the choice of a large card to make them look small, I came up with this:

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LIM DT: Sparkle

Posted on 4th September 2021 by perfectly4med

Ok, so this latest challenge from Less is More is going to cause all sorts of consternation as it is notoriously difficult to photograph glittery things. I’ve tried multiple light sources, but still haven’t managed to avoid shadows or overexposure. So, it’s left up to you to imagine the sparkle in these two cards!

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LIM DT: Monogram OLC

Posted on 26th June 2021 by perfectly4med

Oh, this one is a real toughie! I don’t think it’s a secret that the design team were all scratching their heads with the latest challenge over at the clean and simple card challenge site, Less is More. We could think of several ways of making a monogram, but most weren’t only one layer. That ruled out die cuts, cutouts and all sorts of other clever stuff.

Anyhoo, I scratched my head successfully and came up with three designs. The first, the N, technically didn’t fulfil the definition of a monogram, being a single initial. Then the stencilled and embellished A didn’t fulfil the definition either and turned out not to be a favourite. Finally, the graffiti monogram meets the definition, but might not be considered a traditional monogram.

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LIM DT: My Favourite Technique

Posted on 29th May 2021 by perfectly4med

One of the joys (and tribulations) of being a mixed media artist is that you have a great deal of choice when coming to the question of a favourite technique. The fact that the latest challenge at Less is More is conventionally a card craft project helpful narrows down the choice. I found it hard to pick a favourite, so here are two cards based on the effects I most like the results of.

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Art Journal Page: Quiet Spirit

Posted on 22nd October 2020 by perfectly4med

I recently took delivery of the latest Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous mini-stencils, along with a Crafter’s Workshop 6×6″ stencil. Along with those came some DecoArt Americana acrylic paints. I decided that I would have a play since I haven’t done much art journaling during COVID lockdown. The text was an image transfer, put together in Adobe Illustrator before printing in reverse ready for sticking down. The woman’s head mask is by That’s Crafty!.

Commission: Mixed Media painting

Posted on 13th March 2020 by perfectly4med

So you know that I’ll be redecorating my lounge and that I have already completed this artwork for one of the walls. It was inevitable that I would be commissioned to do a second piece for another wall in the room, so here’s what I created…

Though I tried for a random background, swiping the paint on with a palette knife, it ended up almost as a mirror image along the horizon line. I think it resembles a cityscape, complete with a Ferris wheel!

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Altered Art commission: Love Cherish Care

Posted on 11th March 2020 by perfectly4med

We’re about to redecorate our lounge in shades of grey-blue, so I was commissioned to create another altered art canvas similar to this one, but with a matching blue as the main colour. It’s taken a day to do and has laser-cut, 3D printed, buttons, wood and polyurethane-cast elements as well as a few embellishments from my collection.

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