Friday 15 April 2011

Nature ATCs

 

3 ATCs I made for a Nature themed swap.

2011-04-Nature32011-04-Nature 12011-04-Nature 2

Wednesday 13 April 2011

ATCs using beads

 

Another swap I’ve participated in needed me to make ATCs, using beads.

                         Bead embellished3

 

This was made using a Margaret Beale technique of fusing and burning organza’s.  You pile up bits and pieces of organza, about 5/6 layers deep, and use a piece of fine gauge garden metal as a grid, which you cut around using a fine soldering iron.

I cut the piece to size, and added stitching and beads ti create a pattern.

 

                             Bead embellished 1

 

This was made using  2 colours of sari silk stitched onto pelment vilene. The silk cords were couched on and beads added to embellish. The polymer clay embellishments were already in my stash.

 

                               Bead embellished 2

 

This one is a silk piece on which I did a rubbing from a rubber stamp. I then hand-stitched around the pattern and added beads. The background is a piece of hand printed fabric, covered with organza and distressed slightly with the heat gun. The sequins and beads were added to finish.

Oiled Paper

 

I signed up for a mystery swap that Adrienne was organising and this is what we had to produce. Three sheets of oiled paper and 3 ATC’s using it.

I used baby oil, and copy paper (I did try others, but the copy paper worked best in my opinion).

                 Oiled Paper 1

For this piece I stamped , using black Stazon before I painted. It was then given a couple of  thin coats of  acrylic paint, with a gold acrylic dry brushed to give it a bit of a gleam. After drying it was oiled , crumpled a lot and again left to dry.The background was used in 2 different ways, one to make a background for the ATC, and the other to cut out the stamped circles, which were slightly darkened and then randomly stitched. The piece of friendly plastic stamped with the same stamp was already in my stash.

 

                       Oiled Paper 2

 

This piece was painted with a thin layer of acrylic, and whilst wet stamped with an un-inked stamp, and another light layer of acrylic added. It was left to dry , oiled , crumpled and left to dry again. It was then used as the background for the Spring ATC.

 

                               Oiled Paper 3

 

The third piece was painted in the same way and then oiled, crumpled and left to dry. The flower on the ATC was made with the background paper with the addition of a touch of sparkle.

Hope Pauline will like these.

Metal Inchie Canvas

 

Several months ago I was involved in a metal inchies swap. I have finally done something with the lovely inchies I received.

                     012

 

I mounted them onto a 6in x 6 in box canvas which was covered with a rough layer of moulding paste, into which the inchies were placed. It was then given a couple of coats of acrylic paints, and highlighted with Treasure Gold.

Saturday 2 April 2011

Basic Sewing Kit Holder

 

I had great enjoyment from making this, so many thanks to Angie Hughes

I firstly painted some Bondaweb with Luminaire Halo Paints (beautiful shimmering colours) and left to dry.I cut a piece of felt to make the holder, approx. 91/2 ins by 8ins, which made a pocket around 6 x 8. Several lines of straight stitching(31/2ins) were done, to hold various bits and pieces. How you do this depends on which individual bits you want to keep in the holder. I then zig-zagged around the bottom of the piece, folded it up and stitched down the sides. 

                     003 (2)

 

I used a piece of black velvet cut to the correct size , backed with Vilene. Strips of the painted Bondaweb were cut and using a fairly hot iron and baking parchment, attached to the velvet.  I had had silk strips of just the right colour, so these were cut to size and Bondaweb ironed onto the back . Once I had attached the silk to the velvet I realised that I had not made a great job of cutting the Bondaweb, lots of little sticky patches. Ah yes, Angie uses a lot of foils, so I searched out some transfer foil and added it to cover the mess I’d made. The whole piece was then covered with Organza, stitched with cotton thread, and given a blast with my heat gun . Once that was done I added more stitching.

                   003

 

This was then attached to the felt pocket, and a ribbon added for a tie. My basic sewing kit, all in one place, ready to pick up and go!

               004