Clay Projects

I painted a piece of corrugated in green patina eco friendly paint.  Attached a piece of fabric to the top half, singed a piece of green organza and stapled it to the corrugated.  I wrapped the clay pieces around a kebab stick, stamped into the clay and made some holes to enable me to sew them down.  Before baking I covered the clay pieces with micaceous iron oxide to enable me to add perfect pearls after baking. I painted the kebab stick and added a bead to each end.

The clay piece on the left was made as above, the other piece was laid flat and stamped into.  Strips of fabric have been sewn onto the scrunched paper background which has been coloured with brusho.  The thick piece of wool fibre has been couched onto the piece.  The green jute was machine sewn and a piece cut out to house the clay piece.  Singed organza was used to house the second clay piece which was sewn on with embroidery threads.  Finally I added a pre dyed silk cocoon which I got from Harrogate and placed some mohair inside it.  I just need to decide what to mount it on.

I machine sewed various fibres to the scrunched paper background, again coloured with brusho.  Singed three pieces of rose coloured organza and inlaid each piece of stamped clay sewing down using the pre made holes.  I machine sewed the piece of green jute.  I covered the whole thing with a piece of chocolate coloured tulle, machine sewed around the edges, cut diagonally across the middle and then cut those pieces in half again.  Using the heat tool I singed the tulle away from the middle and it attached back on itself on the outside pieces. I sewed on three wooden beads to finish.



Stamping into Friendly Plastic

I machine stitched a piece of purple velvet onto a piece of corrugated, trimmed it off.  Singed a piece of purple organza and assembled my stamped friendly plastic piece to it with silicone glue.

Piecework Brooch & Key Ring

I used three colours of friendly plastic to create these pieces.  The tag shape was created using a cookie cutter and the brooch by lying the warmed plastic over a bamboo stick to create the kink.

Fridge Magnets

These fridge magnets were made using offcuts of friendly plastic and fun wire for the neck and hair.  They are matted onto black card for stability and magnets have been added to the back.

Clay Tags - Faux Leather

I made these clay tags using my new mini oven - another of my christmas presents.  I made the colour by mixing light brown, white and black clays together.  Stamped into the clay but didn't really know how much pressure to put on which is why some impressions are better than others.  Using some of my metal tools I made marks in the clay to give the impression of stitches.  I made the hole using a straw.  Once baked I added black acrylic paint and wiped most of it off.  I applied different colours of metal paint and rub n buff to some of the tags.  Added string to finish.

Dragonflies

These dragonflies were made from offcuts of friendly plastic and fun wire.  I shaped the wire into the wing shapes.  Pressed the wire into the heated plastic and once cooled cut around the wire.  I added the black and silver piece for the body and placed a small square piece over the middle to secure it all together.  I added a bead for decoration.

Friendly Plastic Bracelet




This bracelet is made from two colours of friendly plastic melted together and sliced into five pieces and joined together with brass jump rings.  Inspiration for this piece was from one of my new christmas books - Friendly Plastic 101



I couldn't actually believe how comfy it is to wear!!!

Notebooks

All these notebooks were made from friendly plastic.  The top one incorporates the ooze technique and angelina fibres.  Gems and an image have been set in the plastic.

The one on the right is an off cut of a piece of a bracelet with a small circle cut out and replaced with an image.  A cutter was used to make the heart shape and the background is made with a piece of mesh from an orange bag.  Beads were added to both.

The piece on the right was made by fusing different coloured triangles together and using the needle tool to marble and swirl the colours.  The piece on the right is made with 4 stacked triangles fused together and finished off with a large clear stone placed on a piece of chocolate coloured singed organza.  The base is corrugated.  The holes and wires were created with the bind it all machine.

Atc Swap - Beads

On one of the yahoo groups that I am a member of we are having a bead atc swap.  The left one is a piece of clay wrapped with wire and beads.  The middle one is a piece of friendly plastic with glass beads arranged in the spaces.  Unfortunately I couldn't sew them on as I haven't got a needle thin enough to go through the holes.  The right one has a string of beads down each side along with one in the middle and one at the top of the oozed piece of friendly plastic sat on a piece of singed organza.  The base for them all is corrugated cardboard painted in various colours of acrylic dabber or eco friendly paint.

Boxing Day - Bradley Woods

Hope you all had a great time yesterday and Santa was good to you.  I got a mini oven so now I can bake some clay pieces without fear of poisoning us with the fumes that lurk in the oven afterwards, along with some clay, some friendly plastic and some craft books.  Also got lots of sweets and chocolates.

We took Fraz to Bradley Woods about an hour ago and as you can see, we are still white over!!  Fraz had a ball though.

Please Read

Kate, my blogging buddy is promoting cyber bullying.  You'd be surprised how much this goes on and believe me, I know from personal experience.  For a more comprehensive insight into what happens and how to avoid fueling the bullies visit her blog here


Please feel free to take the image and add it to your side bar with a link back to either mine or Kate's blog


Thanks for your support

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas

Afternoon all.  No crafting for me this week, been too busy, story of my life at the moment.


Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has followed my blog, left comments, sent RAK's, birthday cards and presents, christmas cards and goodies.


I must apologise this year for not sending any presents with the cards but as I say I just haven't had the time.


May I take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you -


A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and all the best for 2011.

Three's

This months UKStampers ATC theme is 'three of a kind'.  The idea is to use three identical things on each ATC.  Left I have three purple diamonds with a square bead embedded in each.  Centre, I have three pink hearts and right I have three purple beads embedded into the squares of friendly plastic.

Friendly Plastic

Finally got to do some crafting again today, after shovelling snow yesterday!!!

I was experimenting with my friendly plastic after getting my bend it, shape it dvd by Liz Welch which you can buy from her shop along with any other accessories you might need.  Visit her blog for some more fab ideas or watch Create and Craft at 9am in the morning, she has an hour show.

The piece on the left is angelina fibres oozing through a piece of wire mesh.  The middle one is three small teardrops melted onto a strip and feathered down the middle.  I pressed an 's' shaped hook into the edges.  For the one on the right I melted three squares into the strip and used the end of an embossing tool to make the dimple pattern.  Each purple square is housing a purple bead.

I then got a little more adventerous.  Using mosaic techniques I made a necklace and a keyring.

Lastly I collected all my left overs and melted them together.  I think I could have made them into a small bowl if I'd of shaped them but as it is, I can add them to a piece of farbic and sew into them.

Fraz in the snow and sun!!

Running on the field

Looking in anticipation!!!

Not happy to be coming back home!!!!!

More Snow!!!!

This is what we woke up to this morning!!

Just look at the washing line!!!

And the garden furniture!!!!

Oh, and the dog!!!!

Fraser in the Snow

Fraz loves the snow!!!!!  Here's 30 seconds of him having a play before we went for a walk.

Out on the field

And back in the garden after a roll!!!!!

Friendly Plastic

Thanks to the extreme weather conditions, it gave me a chance to have a play with one of my purchases from Friday.  Please don't be too harsh as I had no idea what I was doing apart from the fact that there was a lady demo-ing it at the show.  But unfortunately her expertise was very limited as she had no facilities to have any hot or cold water.  She was talking through most things, so two days later, it's hard to remember what she said and she wouldn't let anyone take any photos either!!!

As you can see I decided to try and make something with one of the above samples.  I tried to incorporate some of the items I got on Friday.  I used some hand dyed scrim, hand dyed jute, hand dyed bamboo fibres.  I peeled off a layer of one of the silk rods, added some copper shavings and a couple of skeleton leaves from my stash.  Everything is attached to a piece of green mountboard.  I did try a piece of background with a pattern but it was too busy.


Unfortunately due to the weather, I had to have the light on to take the photo and the grid looks really shiny but it is quite a matt finish.

Snow!!!

This was taken about 10.30am this morning after the first shower of snow.

This was taken about 12pm, it didn't stop for about 2 hours!!!!

I'm so pleased we went to Harrogate on Friday!!!

Knit & Stitch Show - Harrogate

Well we braved the weather and went to the Knit and Stitch show at Harrogate yesterday.  As you can see from the above goodies, we had a good day.  Have to say though, some of the things I bought I have no idea what to do with - yet!!!!

These are some of the wonderful exhibits on display.

Some incorporate materials that I have no idea how to use, so the photos are for inspiration.

Unfortunately there were lots of stalls that did not allow photography.

(above) This is a bag made from silk rods and was on the Stef Francis stand.

(below) This was one of the fab display boards on the Oliver Twist stand.

                     

These pieces were made from fused plastics and were being exhitibited in the main hall.

This is a second piece by the same person.  It has been stitched into (the word invisible at the top and the letters earth have been cut away). 

It was absolutely stunning in the flesh and it was my favourite piece.

Christmas Tags

Haven't had much time for crafting lately, but managed to make these three tags late yesterday, but had to wait until today for everything to properly dry and try to get a decent photo, but just for a change it's dull and raining!!!

The background colours were created with distress inks, old paper (left and right) and milled lavender (middle).  The december 25 is gold embossed.  The trees were stamped in a light green and then again in brown, string was added to finish.  The snowman was black embossed and coloured with purple eco-line ink.  Snowflakes where clear embossed onto the tag and also stamped in milled lavender.  The merry christmas was stamped in stazon royal purple.  The snowflakes were cut using the die in the big shot on grungeboard and coloured with purple twilight and pearl dabbers.  The trees were stamped in hydranger blue stazon.  The believe was stamped in black stazon onto purple and gold spritzed card.  The letters were diamond glazed.

The blue trees were spruced up with clear stickles.

The tag was sprayed with gold glitter spray.

Postcard Canvas

Carrying on the clay theme, I made a postcard, but I decided to mount it onto a deep 4 x 6 canvas.  I've entered a postcard swap on one of the yahoo groups I belong to, I'm just waiting to hear if this will be acceptable or not, due to the depth.  Unfortunately the colours on the photo haven't come out as it looks IRL.  They are much brighter and you can see the stamping.

This is a snippet of one of the side pieces.  I painted it with various shades of blues and purples.  I outlined the edges of the canvas with black paint to frame it.




******Edited***** The sun is shining this morning so I've been able to capture the colours better.

More Clay Pieces

As my clay atc's were so successful, I decided to make some 4 x 4's and added the clay pieces as the focal point.  I created the backgrounds in exactly the same way as the others.  Top left is mounted on a piece of mica.  Top right is a mould whereas the other three pieces have been stamped into, so it's raised.  On the bottom two I've added wire mesh, wire and gems.

*****Edited***** The sun is shining this morning so I've been able to get a better photo to show the real colours.