Here is the canvas Sylwia sent me!!
Thanks again, it such a happy piece!
I haven’t been in a swap for ages, but Aideen of Aideen’s Swaps had a Valentine exchange in which you could make anything you liked, so I signed up.
I was paired with Sylwia who is the artist behind Tandiart. I had seen her work pop up on Facebook occasionally and thought it lovely so I was delighted to be swapping with her 🙂
I decided to make an altered canvas and funnily enough, so did she!
Here is my canvas:
( I swear that looked straight when I was taking the photo….)
I used scraps of paper, lots of vintage colours, hessian, lace, fabric, buttons, pearls and embellishments.
Sylwia’s work is very colourful so I was a bit worried that she wouldn’t like it… but she did!!
I will post a picture of the canvas she sent me – it is colourful and happy and I love it!
Thank you Aideen for organizing the swap and Sylwia for my beautiful gift!!
It has been a very long time since my last post……. so happy new year and I hope you all had a nice Christmas!
My crafting mojo took the whole month of December off, but now, thankfully it seems to be back 🙂
So, I have one or two projects to show you. The first is a folio style album, I hope to do this class in Bunmahon, Co. Waterford but the date isn’t settled yet (It will be posted on the “upcoming classes” page as soon as I know)
It has hand decorated pages for notes or journaling, a wallet style pocket for keeping things safe and two folio style pockets for keeping important papers. It has stitching detail and measures 8×5″
The second project is for a class in Cork city on Sunday February 8th. It is held in Mardyke House and runs from 11-4pm, the cost is €35. It is a mixed media canvas class – it is meant as an introduction to this medium, but anyone with any experience is also very welcome. There will be several techniques used to create this and I hope people will want to make more intricate pieces with each class – mixed media is addictive once you start!!
Please feel free to contact me (details on the “contact” page) or through facebook and I hope to see you in Cork!!
This years Knit & Stitch show starts next Thursday in the RDS, Dublin. It runs for four days and an awful lot of people will pass through in that time.
Kate of Create with Kate was so popular last year that she has taken a much bigger stand this time, which means I get to go and play help.
She has a huge selection of Sizzix dies in lots of new designs ( I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek!) and also new this year is Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements fabric……. all I can say is if you love Tim then you will want to get some of this! It comes by the metre, in fat quarters, fat eights and jelly rolls. I made a quilt from the jelly rolls but didn’t take a photo of the finished thing (how silly!) so if you want to see that you’ll just have to come to Dublin!
To show the fabrics I dollied up this mannequin (it will be covered in fabric for the show, this is the naked version)….. the flowers are all cut from the Tim Holtz Jumbo Tattered Floral die and the necklace is made from some old chain I had at home and lots of Idea-ology bits and pieces.
I used spray starch to give them a little stiffness and sewed layers together – they would be great for jazzing up a winter coat or imagine a bridal bouquet made of these?!
The leaves are cut from a Coke can using the Tattered Floral die and then coloured with Alcohol Inks & I added scraps of fabric to some Fragments with Mod podge. I love the word bars, they add a statement to the necklace (literally!)
If you’re coming to the show come and say hello, we will be on stand H50.
This post is a bit out of the ordinary, but hay-ho.
I am a very optimistic, glass half full, things happen for a reason kind of person. It is truly rare for me to have a bad day. Don’t get me wrong, I am not sweetness and light all the time but I do enjoy my life.
So, last Friday was truly crap, and looking back on it, it was just three things that went wrong. They could all be fixed easy enough (though not immediately) but whatever frame of mind I was in, I went from murderous to blubbering wreck in about ten seconds.
But then last Sunday was a great day. All my kids were home, the weather was wet and windy so we lit the fire and threw ourselves down to watch TV, it was just cosy, no one was fighting and it was a very simple thing that made me very happy.
Why am I rambling on with this? because despite having a Pinterest board full of positive life quotes, and knowing that giving in to worry will only make it worse, there times when I feel completely rubbish and if by chance you are having a rubbish day too, then here is a hug for you and remember that it will pass.
xoxoxoxo
We were recently invited to the wedding were the Bride owns a designer shoe shop and the Groom is a sound engineer. I was going to make a card but as we all know, that is not my strong point!
Last weekend when I was at the Create with Kate party I was looking at stamps and dies to see if inspiration might strike. I came across the Brenda Walton dies and remembered that she had a shoe die….. but it wasn’t there.
It is called the ‘Ballroom Slipper ‘ die in case you’re wondering.
I asked a few of the Ladies if anyone had it and my friend Veronica did. She very kindly cut out and sent me the pieces in the perfect pearlescent white card. THANK YOU VERONICA!!!!!!!
I like how it turned out –
I used some scraps of Tim Holtz fabric for the shoe lining – it brings in music to incorporate both their interests. ( I used Mod Podge to stick it on which prevents the edges fraying)
The ‘Something Blue’ paper line from Prima was perfect for covering the box.
I went around the edges with Perfect Pearls then added lace, flowers, bling and a little bow. Although the shoe is only about 5″ long it takes a while to decorate…. but that might just have been because it was fun and kept adding stuff!
I hope the Bride and Groom like it and don’t think its the strangest gift they received! (there is a gift card inside the box, we aren’t just giving them a paper shoe!)
Have a lovely day!! xx
Way back in August I was resisting the temptation to show you my Halloween house for this year….. then something happened to September ( it just disappeared into thin air!) and now all of sudden its October.
So, since we are officially into the spooky month I can show you!
The lovely ladies in Athlone did the class last weekend and the lovely Killarney Ladies did it last night, and I didn’t take one photo! They were all so different when they were finished. The structure is already made so its just a case of decorating it – which we all know is the fun bit!
The kit for this house will be available on my Etsy shop in the next day or two – (send me a message if you’re interested)
I hope everyone is well and getting back into their crafting after the summer. xxx
This month I did an online art course. This is the fourth one I have done, the second one I have finished!
I like them because by the magic of internet, the world becomes a very small place. It means I can be part of courses that are being held in America or Tazmania or anywhere else you care to think of.
The two online courses that I signed up for and never finished were ones that you could do any time. You download everything in one go and work away with no contact from the artist.
This one was slightly different in that it was a day to day class for four weeks. Monday to Friday each week there were new posts. They arrived to me at 1 pm each day and I couldn’t wait to open them!!
Jenni Horne has been one of my favourite artists for years. I love her blog, she is very open and happy to tell her story. She paints very sweet, whimsical paintings that just make me happy to look at. So, when she announced (finally, I’ve been hoping for ages that she would do this) that she was ready to do an online course I was probably her first recruit!!
And now i’m totally addicted!! Jenni is very generous with her information and technique – in the beginning I was worried that I would only paint rip-offs of her art, everything I did looked like hers (not as good obviously!) but she encourages you to keep going and find your own thread and eventually I did!
Here are two little birds, I also have paintings of flowers (that don’t really look like flowers) bikes, armchairs, cars and houses….. I’m like, “what else can I paint a picture of??”
Now, the next thing I need is a framing course!
When we went to France last month we went down to a little town called Ax-la-Therme.
It is very quaint, lots of narrow streets with these lovely tall, thin houses with shutters.
There was very little English spoken there so we had to practise our best French – I must say all the restaurant staff were very patient!
Ax-la-Therme
has a natural hot spring and there is a stone built pool in the town centre. Each evening you see people sitting with their feet in it, the water is quite hot
and seems to be a very social thing to do!
Then we headed back to Carcassone…… I love this place, I have been twice before but this time my Mum and Zac flew in to join us. It was my Mum’s birthday, here she is making the most of the retail therapy! (Apparently I only have one leg?!)
It was 34 degrees while we were there…… seriously hot, but lovely dry heat, not a bit humid so I loved it.
So that was France – nice weather, nice food, nice wine, lovely company!!
F x
Well, it was the 1st August when I started this post but now it is 12.30 am so its the 2nd but nevermind.
Ok, if you look back at this blog you will see that every summer things go quiet. The sun comes out and I go outside and nothing much gets created to blog about.
This year has been mostly the same, except we have been working away slowly on Mums house (when I say “slowly” it means there is no such thing as a small job and everything is taking ages to complete.)
We also changed our internet provider which proved nothing like as easy as promised…….. but I think its sorted now and we have something slightly faster than dial – up! It used to be that we had internet yesterday but not today, maybe it’ll be back tomorrow?
Since today is officially the start of Autumn I thought it was time to get back to it, so, here is a quick list of what this summer has included….
1. Celebrating Molly’s 20th birthday.
2. We went to France and had weather that ranged from snow to 34 degrees!
3. Had lots of classes around the country, which aren’t work at all, they are just like big gatherings of women I like spending time with!
Bunmahon – Altered configuration boxes.
Castlebar – Polly Dolly bunting.
Killarney – ATC tag books.
4. I did an online art class with one of my favourite artists….. still learning to paint with my left hand!
5. Read loads of books, one made my ‘worst books i’ve ever read’ list but now I’m reading Silk worm by Robert Galbraith ( who we all know isn’t Robert Galbraith at all!) it is not for the weak stomached, but is un-put-downable!!
We have had a lovely summer and since Zac isn’t going back to school at the end of August it feels like we have loads of time left (even if it is Autumn now).
I also made my Halloween and Christmas projects….. I know right?, super organized! Here is a snippet of Halloween……
So, thats it – Summer of 2014 in a nutshell!
The weather is much cooler today, so maybe it is Autumn after all….
Bye xx
