Another update on fleece trials and canvasses

Hello there

It's interesting, as the other day when I first started cutting the fleece fabric up, Chris said "why are you continuing to do something which you clearly aren't enjoying?" It's easy. I have to. You can't let all challenges beat you. I put making this dressing gown on my Crafty Plan for 2012, so I have to give it my best shot. I'm achieving too as it's now got a collar, front facing and sleeves as modelled delightfully by my daughter below:

I have to tell you that she'd just had a shower - her hair is wet, not greasy :-)

It's hard to see much from this as I haven't sewn the inside seam of the sleeves, so they're just a flap of material at the moment.


Maggie has also been very productive tonight as she's done some black lined sketch drawings on her canvas. All that needs to be done now is cover it with pva. There's some stitching still to be done on the board she's created but she'll do that tomorrow in class; varnishing tomorrow night, then hand it in on Friday. I do hope that the teacher appreciated the amount of extra work she's done by completing the canvas. The teacher knows nothing about the canvas yet, so the element of surprise will be there too. I'll have to get a wriggle on and try to finish mine too.

Take care out there

Update on our African creatures and my dressing gown

Hello there

We've been at it again. We've been wafting a brush around. Yes, that's right my daughter and I have done some more work on our Eric Tournaire inspired projects.

I'm not sure if I should've coated the canvas with something first as I found that I had to re-do the border sections on my canvas as the paint wasn't 'sticking' so to speak. Thankfully the creatures didn't get affected by the pva glue we used to adhere them to the canvasses.
We just need to do some basic pen markings on them tomorrow and then coat them, either with pva or with Claudine Hellmuth's matt medium. I might have a little practise run during the day to check that it doesn't affect the paint; I doubt it will but I'd rather be sure in my mind.

I also managed to get something done on the dressing gown I'm making. I really didn't enjoy doing the pockets as I found the material too light and the nap gets in the way of the machine's needle sometimes and the pile... well, that gets everywhere! I was not a happy bunny so I looked online for any hints and tips... I know, I know, I should've done that before starting but I wasn't expecting it to be so awkward. Maeri from The Makeando Studio in Stockton Heath answered my plea for help on her Facebook page and she suggested the Coats and Clark website and I also found very similiar advice on Burda's website. It's all fairly straightforward advice but it boils down to me having to go slowly and have patience. Mmmm, if I must! Anyway, I got the pockets attached and the back piece is now attached to the front, so it's taking shape. I'm going to the Make and Do Studio's open night on Thursday February 2nd, so I'm sure Maeri will ask how it's going, so I'd better get it done!

Take care out there
p.s since writing this post, I've learnt that painting Gesso over the canvas before painting is a good idea to help the acrylic paint sit better on the canvas

I HATE this fabric!!

Hello there

Grrrrr! I've only just started on the sewing of my dressing gown and my blood pressure is up to, well, whatever high is on the blood pressure scale! Thankfully I've never had much to do medically with high blood pressure, so I don't know the proper terms. It's some kind of fleecy material. I didn't like it when I was cutting it up into the pieces but now that I'm trying to sew it, I CANNOT STAND IT!

I've come to the laptop to try to regain composure and relax, breathe and possibly look for some words of wisdom on the subject of sewing with whatever it is. I got it as it's the same material as my daughter's gown, which is so cuddly and nice to touch.

Look at me!

Blinkin' bits of fluff are everywhere!

When I sew, the material stretches so much it's hard to keep in a straight line and it's so light that the seams you make are very difficult to keep in place.

It's at times like these I wish I had tonnes of followers who would be able to give me advice on how to treat this fabric; other than throw it out of the window of course. I'll have to suffice with a Google search instead.
Here's a wonky pocket to show you what I mean:

Right, I'm off to fight some more with this stuff - if you have any flashes of inspiration, please do share :-)

Take care out there

What? Me? Painting?!!

Hello there
Whoa! Breathe Diane! I have just spent some time this morning painting something other than walls and doors; which I have plenty of experience at.

Imagine the scene; dining table covered with colourful plastic cover, small canvasses at the ready, new Claudine Hellmuth 'proper' brushes laid out, acrylic paints in their gorgeous little tubes still in the box and lids un-popped open ( I love opening new tubes with the pokey end of the lid). Then in comes one rather intrepid Diane, who just puts some paint straight onto a larger brush and yes.... it's going to happen...onto the .....CANVAS!!! And then she's off.. the world doesn't collapse as we know it; explosions don't happen; the canvas doesn't collapse under the weight of the paint; the canvas just changes colour.

Maggie watches from the sidelines at first and then seeing the smile on Diane's face, gets her canvas and chooses a different colour and does the same thing. With the same result; her canvas changes colour.

This was the project half way through

My weird animal thing with some snakes

I know I'm making a joke of it but I've never painted on canvas before, so was excited and nervous to do it (as previously mentioned in a post), as I'm well aware of my rather large limitations as a artist. I'm going to have to use paints and canvasses on the BPC class I'm doing with May Flaum, starting next month, so I've used my daughter's art project as an excuse to practise beforehand and hopefully to inspire her as she's not confident either and nervous about showing it to her class. She doesn't have to do the canvas but I'm encouraging her to go beyond basic requirements and exceed expectations.

Maggie's brilliant creature with a snake

The project uses Eric Tournaire's art as inspiration; hence the mythological type characters with strong colours. As you can see we painted our creatures onto paper as a safe option, so that if we weren't happy at all with what we painted, we could just screw it up, throw it away and start again. We'll cut them out and glue them onto the canvas another day.

I've got to dash anyway as she's now pushing my boundaries by getting me to watch War Horse with her.

Take care out there

p.s. I've been to see the movie now - quite emotional and I couldn't watch half of it due to the extreme conditions both men and horses had to endure in the First World War.

Scrapping the house, again.

Hello there
Shock! Horror! I actually remembered to finish the first scrap page about the house.

I had to finish it on my own too as my friend and I had other things to discuss last night, so I've just finished it tonight before Chris gets back from London. I think I said in my previous post but I have been really surprised at what little inspiration I've been able to lay my hands on in relation to house/home projects. I know of various stamp sets which have houses on them but they're usually oldy worldy houses not modern day ones. I just thought that more people would've done layouts for the building of their new home or just about their home. Maybe this world is so sad, that nobody will put photos of their home online incase somebody comes to burgle them but burglars could pass your home on a daily basis- how the internet changes that is beyond me.... sorry I'm getting off the point here.

The brick affect could be achieved by a CraftArtist kit called 'Planet Pop' but since that's nearly £4, I didn't bother as the brick wall background was the only reason I wanted it. There are also masks with the brick wall effect but I don't own one of them either. In the end I got the brick pictures from a Google search for images. I edited it slightly so it wasn't so bold and bright.

It's not great by any stretch of the imagination and I will need to think about some other possibilities for house related papers and embellishments as I have many more house photos to scrap. I did it though; another scrap page is complete! I think my last one was January 16th, so it hasn't been weekly yet as my Crafty Plan aims for but it's another one done and it's alot more than I've ever done before, so I am achieving. So I am happy.

Scrapping the house

Hello again

Yes, I'm starting to do scrap pages about the house; I can't believe that we've almost been in it a year. There's still loads to do, even such things as light fittings but hey, ho, we're fine going along at a calm pace and not getting ourselves into financial difficulty as a result.

I'm using two photos from October 15th 2010. I took so many photos of the house when it was being built and they're all over the place; some on facebook, some on my old computer, some on Chris's various camera memory cards; probably some on my old digital camera; Maggie has some on her computer etc. Almost every technological thing can take photos these days, which I find, makes it hard to keep track of them all. It's the same with the dogs; the photos are all over the place.
Tonight I've cut out some images from the Heritage cartridge; font size 3/4" (with corresponding 'font shadow' function); house 1 and 2 cut at 3", lamp1 cut at 1.5" and house5 charm function cut at 4". I looked online for inspiration with layouts for houses but there was nothing that I liked.I also had a look at CraftArtist but there was very little indeed on there which I found rather unusual. I saw a great idea on dailyCraft using templates but none of them were for houses unfortunately. I suppose I could've just used a basic layout but I didn't want that.

The photo shows what I basically intend to do with it  (the title will go along the top) but it needs something to make it a bit more complete/interesting/layered. I'm going to a friend's house for a little while tomorrow night to do some crafting, so I'll see if she can inspire me with her artiness. I'll put the small amount of journalling I want onto that tag type thing on the bottom left; I thought it looked a bit like a fancy door.

If I remember, I'll post you the finished outcome.

Take care out there

I'm much happier with colour

Hello there

I've just made two more of the 3D balls I made this morning. I've used some 'My Mind's Eye' Totally Girl paper. I forgot to mention in my previous post that these are so great as well because you don't use any  adhesive at all; you just slot them all together. The cutting out is made easier when you layer two or three together, so they can be made in next to no time.

I've attached them through some holes in my desk (it's an Ikea one - the holes are meant to be there -it's fate!). I had to use some jewellery wire to thread the ribbon through - KNEW that would be useful one day. They now adorn my desk - adorn is such a lovely word.

What a lovely way to spend time on a completely horrible weather day.

Take care out there